CHAPTER 7
I pressed my hands to my stomach and began to moan.
Maxine considered me only fleetingly with an uninterested glance. He didn"t feel the need to feign an ounce of sympathy when the person right next to him had doubled over in pain. The man"s heart was apparently made of stone. But I secretly admired his cool methods just a little bit.
"So, Sir Norman Gilbit, there are only men present here. Take off the mask."
"Sir Maxine, are you only interested in my master"s face, or would you perhaps rather hear what Carolia"s people think about their motherland? Wouldn"t you like to know our opinion on these warmongering plans?"
"Whatever it is I want to know, one thing is for sure!" Maxine"s voice grew louder. "I did not ask the butler!"
His left hand struck out so quickly I didn"t even see it. The bearded butler sailed a few meters through the air, crashed against the wall, and remained lying there, motionless. A maid ran to the gasping victim and lifted his head onto her lap.
"He"s got it good," I sighed. d.a.m.n, why did I always have to have such dirty thoughts?
Even with the loss of the butler who was his only ally, Sir Norman seemed unfazed.
"Perhaps I have made myself clear enough now, my esteemed Gilbit?" Maxine said frostily. With each subsequent word, the level of anger in his voice increased. "Simaron suspects you of treason! In your place, I would throw this mask and your idiotic pride overboard immediately, and start confessing the truth!"
Maxine took up the position where the butler had been standing, grabbed Norman by the chin, and wrenched him from his chair. This could no longer be cla.s.sified as a meeting between the representative of a colonial power and the prince of an autonomous region.
"Your country is under the control of Small Simaron. What have you done behind our backs? Have you dared to make direct contact with Big Simaron"s royal family? Answer me now!"
Maxine loosened the hand on Norman Gilbit"s chin and gripped the mask instead. The delicate, peaceful Gilbit didn"t have a chance against the representative from Small Simaron. And since I was too inconsequential to step between them and be taken seriously, I could only murmur, "Quit it, stop." But Maxine wasn"t remotely interested in doing that.
He began to loosen the leather bands at the back of the mask. Norman tried to hold them together with his thin fingers, but Maxine responded by pressing down on his head. Resistance seemed futile. Next Maxine went for a stranglehold. Norman stuck his arm out. His thin white fingertips reached in my direction. I rose from my chair and touched my fingertips briefly to his. What a brave young man, not allowing himself to be defeated by illness and accidents, and still giving his all as prince. Mutely, since he couldn"t speak, he withstood the torturous treatment from his opponent.
Keeping my face turned forwards, I came around the table. Just by my voice alone, Adalbert wouldn"t be able to recognize me. How would he be able to tell that I"m the Demon King if I keep my hair and eyes hidden?
"Hey, you there, Mr. Maxine! It"s true I"ve kept my mouth shut until now, but don"t you think your methods are a little brutal? Mr. Gilbit was sick and was in an accident. How can you demand that he take his mask off?!"
His eyes, cold as gla.s.s, took me in his sights. "I don"t know you. But I advise you to stay out of this matter. This man is a traitor to his colonial power, Small Simaron. He gave us the runaround in order to cut a deal with Big Simaron. If this betrayal proves to be true, we will be forced to withdraw Carolia"s autonomy and all her other privileges."
His dry voice sounded like the growling of a predatory animal.
"But a confession doesn"t count if it"s forced. First just listen to what he wants to tell you voluntarily. And stop choking him, or he"s going to suffocate."
Without taking his eyes off me, Maxine loosened his hold on Norman Gilbit"s neck.
"Sir, who are you and where have you come from that you dare to criticize Small Simaron"s methods? You don"t seem to be from around here."
"I... I"m Captain Crusoe. My native country is very far away from here."
Suddenly a high, fine voice rung out, and everyone in the room stopped to listen. It was so pretty that you wanted to put your hands over your ears to hold on to it.
"So you really want to see my face that much?"
"Sir Norman, please don"t do it!" the butler pleaded from his lap-pillow. "You can"t reveal your face! Think about the consequences! What will happen to your people and this country?! If you take your mask off now, there won"t be any future for our people!"
"Baker, I simply can"t do this any more."
With his delicate fingers, Norman Gilbit, the masked prince, began to loosen the leather bands at his neck. He was about to remove his mask voluntarily.
"Sir Gilbit! No!" the butler and maid yelled in chorus. Both of them were about to break out in tears.
"It looks like my time has come. I don"t believe I"ll be able to protect my secret any longer."
He pulled his head out of the silver mask. The platinum blond hair that had been tucked inside rolled down his back in waves. His cheeks and chin were a translucent white, which probably stemmed from the fact that they"d seen no sun in years. His sparkling bright green eyes seemed to be sensitive to the light. There were red welts under his eyes and along his ears which were probably caused by wearing the mask such a long time. Yet these small injuries couldn"t impact the overwhelming beauty of this woman. She smiled a tortured smile.
What?! A woman?! It wasn"t a masked prince after all, but rather a masked princess?!
"What is the meaning of this?"
As I heard Maxine"s tight voice, I was seized by a shudder and came back to my senses. This woman"s beauty had taken my breath away for a full twenty seconds.
Drunkenly swaying, the butler came back and gripped the woman"s fist, which still held the mask, with both hands.
"My lady..." the butler said.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you?! Where is the real Sir Gilbit?!" roared Maxine. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot; his light brown eyes burned with anger. He smashed one plate after another on the floor. "I came here to speak with Norman Gilbit! At the command of His Majesty Saralegi, the King of Small Simaron, I"m here to take him to task! And then suddenly it turns out that some random shrew has come along and slipped into his role!"
The butler grabbed Maxine fearlessly by the lapels and shook him. "You dare to call my mistress a random shrew?! All those years my lady stood faithfully by her husband"s side when he was still well!"
"Let it go, my dear Baker. Sir Maxine"s anger is more than justified. We have no alternative but to end all the secrecy and plead for forgiveness from our motherland Simaron."
Murata, Maxine and I stared at the woman.
I was probably the only one frivolously speculating about her age and body size. She was probably a few years older than me. From her looks, she had to be about twenty.
"I, Flynn Gilbit, married my husband Norman Gilbit six years ago in the spring. Because of my husband"s childhood illness, he lived his life under this mask. That never bothered me; Norman had a good heart. As a prince and also as a man, he was respected by all. But three years ago he met his death in the carriage accident."
"What exactly are you trying to say? That for three years, this region has not been ruled by the prince, but by his wife? Am I understanding this correctly?"
Flynn Gilbit couldn"t hold it together any longer; she began to cry. The tears of a beautiful woman didn"t seem like normal tears, in my opinion. I imagined they were filled with a lot of love or loneliness.
"We didn"t have much time for mourning," she said when she found her voice again. "We had to face a terrible fact: Norman and I still didn"t have any children. There was no descendant." She sniffed noisily and continued, "And Simaron"s laws prohibit feminine succession. Without a successor, the feudal territory would be returned to the state, and so the whole region would be absorbed into Simaron. We had to prevent that. And this is the result."
Flynn wrapped her thin white fingers around the mask and twisted it until the material squeaked.
"Luckily, my husband left me his mask. Since his childhood, no one had seen his face. We thought it would work out if I kept my voice a secret. So I decided to live my life as Norman Gilbit."
"How can people be so naive?" we all groaned.
This amateur trick had fooled the entire world for three years.
"It wasn"t exactly easy." Flynn sighed deeply. "It would grow musty under the mask and it would stink of sweat. And in the summer you also get a heat ras.h.!.+"
"Laws have been shamelessly broken here, and you have nothing better to do than complain about heat rash? Who the h.e.l.l cares if you have a fart sitting across from you?"
Well, she hadn"t actually said anything about sitting across from a fart...
"Oh my lady, what a pitiable fate you"ve been forced to suffer! I would never have been able to bear that sweat-soaked mask," the butler lamented.
"How did you get through all the meals?" I wanted to know.
"Did it never occur to anyone to simply wash the thing?" Adalbert groaned.
Flynn Gilbit"s story dragged on for an eternity. We had to suffer through six whole years of her life. But people can demonstrate remarkable staying power when a beautiful woman is making a pa.s.sionate confession.
"The parliament will deal with Norman Gilbit"s death," the representative from Small Simaron eventually said. "But back to my original concern: Norman... no, Flynn Gilbit, is it true that you have spoken out against Small Simaron"s war plans and independently launched an anti-war movement?"
"Absolutely not," was her answer.
I was a little disappointed. d.a.m.n it, was there not a single, solitary pacifist around here?
Maxine wasn"t convinced. "Then how do you explain the rumors about Gilbit?"
"Which rumors?"
Maxine helped himself to my chair, sat down, crossed his long legs and said, "I"m talking about the Wincott Poison."
And so once again here in this foreign country, Julia"s family name became the topic of conversation. When Adalbert -- supposedly her ex-boyfriend -- heard this name, his eyebrows twitched slightly.
"We heard that someone wanted to turn certain people into unwilling marionettes with the aid of this Wincott Poison."
"Well, would you listen to that! And who might that be, if I may ask?"
Despite the heavy accusations, Flynn responded with cold-blooded composure. Her delicate voice was long gone. Now she spoke like a true ruler.
"That is precisely what we wanted to learn from you. The Wincott clan moved to the west long ago and settled in the Demon Empire. But we suspect the original poison is still to be found within these walls. Has it ever left this estate? Was it perhaps even sold?" Maxine demanded.
Flynn tilted her head slightly to the side. The corners of her mouth formed a smile. Her beauty attracted all gazes straight to her.
"But of course the Wincott Poison is stored in our cellars. And for the right price, we are always prepared to hand it over to a third party. Naturally, that includes you, Sir Nigel Weiz Maxine."
Maxine"s lips contorted savagely amid his extravagant facial hair. Apparently, being addressed with his full name by Flynn Gilbit really rubbed him the wrong way. "Then why don"t you tell us who the last purchaser was?" he said.
Meanwhile, Butler Baker sat in his chair again, and the maid who had taken such good care of him served tea.
"I"m sorry. I"m not able to give you the answer to that question," Flynn said.
Without her mask, she gave the impression of being extremely determined. Every sign of insecurity had vanished. She even took on a threatening att.i.tude. In the three years of ruling under the mask, her face had surely looked exactly like it did in this moment.
"You can"t escape me that way, my dear. It is the duty of a va.s.sal state to answer to the colonial power."
"And that is precisely the reason why I must withhold the answer from you."
I had kind of lost track of the conversation. But Murata had both ears p.r.i.c.ked -- probably waiting hopefully to hear the name of some place he recognized. When was he ever going to comprehend that we weren"t on Earth any more?
Nigel Weiz Maxine called the maid over. She wore a bright blue ap.r.o.n, held a full
teapot in her hand, and sported a friendly smile as she went to pour the hot tea into his cup.
Suddenly Maxine swung the girl around, and wrenched her onto his lap. Something silver flashed. In the next moment, she was kneeling on the ground and clutching at her neck with both hands. The teapot fell from her hand and broke on the ground. Hot red liquid sprayed out of it.
"What are you doing?!" I cried.
"Let the girl go immediately."
Flynn"s harsh order pre-empted my impulse to go to the girl"s aid. A strand of what looked like piano wire was wrapped around the girl"s neck. Maxine"s hands held both ends taut.
Adalbert, who had been silent up to this point, said in a stunned voice, "So he still hasn"t overcome his tasteless bad habits."
The girl scratched at her throat like a madwoman in attempt to get her fingernails under the wire. It was probably digging deeper and deeper into her skin. Her head fell further and further into the nape of her neck. It didn"t seem like she had a chance.
"Did you not understand me?!" roared Flynn. "You will let the girl go!"
"No, you seem not to have understood me. To whom did you give the poison?"
Had this guy been bitten by wild apes or something? And Flynn wasn"t much better. Give him his G.o.dd.a.m.n answer, already! The life of a girl as delightful as this was clearly more important than this absurd altercation!
While the two combatants threatened each other with their blank glares, the maid gave a quiet cough. Pink liquid mixed with froth ran down from her mouth in a line.
"d.a.m.n it, that"s blood!" I stumbled forward, stretching out my hand imploringly. "Let the girl go! She"s dying! Let go, I"m telling you!"
As my fingers touched her blue ap.r.o.n, a small electrical shock jerked through my body. "What...? That"s enough, just stop it already!" I tried to grip the wire and break it, but I couldn"t get it. The girl"s clouded eyes pleaded with me. "Stop it already!" I cried and punched Maxine in the chin, the girl jammed between us.
"This is solely Flynn"s decision," Maxine replied in a monotone, his countenance ice-cold.
I turned to the master of the house, but she didn"t look like she was going to so much as make a peep. As I briefly lifted my head, my gaze met Adalbert"s. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He seemed about to say something. His eyes bored into me. His lips formed the words, "It"s you." But at that moment I couldn"t have cared less if my cover was blown.
"Help her! Help the girl!" I pleaded with him.
"Don"t hurt her!" Murata also yelled now, attempting a sleeper hold on Maxine. With just a quick turn of his head and shoulders, Maxine was able to fling him off.
"Murata?!"
In slow motion I saw my friend roll over the ground. He ran the back of his hand over the corner of his mouth, pulling away a stripe of blood. He heaved up his head and one of his contact lenses flew through the air. His now black eye squinted a little. In the middle of that blackness, at a single point as if stabbed by a needle, I noticed a fluctuation that disturbed me.
I couldn"t look there, no way. As soon as I looked at that point, I would become...
In the next moment, the world around me turned snow white.
It felt as though someone had left me all alone in a landscape of dry ice. There was no woman"s voice like I"d always heard before. When I reached my hand out, I touched only white smoke. I could go as far as I liked, but I accomplished nothing.
Feeling around, I moved through the white gloom.
In the distance, heated and energetic words pressed against my ears, as if someone were banging the mallets of a j.a.panese drum against each other. My face relaxed a little. Even if I couldn"t understand what he was saying, I"d really like to have a little of his energy.
"You are beasts that take the form of men. Wolves should quarrel with wolves and foxes with foxes. Driven by greed you seek out human settlements, you shameless fools! This clever girl carries out her duties with a smile. And you dare to harm even a hair on the head of this enchanting creature?!"
Those who were witnessing this display for the first time were speechless with terror.
"With deadly poison, you play your game. And only for the question of its whereabouts was this brave person harmed. Doing nothing to stop this evil -- that is appalling. Should it be that such creatures come away unpunished? No, it should not."
He pointed at the shocked duo of Flynn and Maxine in turn. He stepped forward on his toes and turned his side towards them. This supermodel pose had become second nature to him.
"You are barbarians! Though it is repugnant to me to misuse such a valuable drink that should instead delight the palate, this evil must be detoxified. My wish was not to take lives, yet you leave me no choice. My sword will strike you down!"
Although there was always some drivel about a sword from this guy, he had never made use of one.
The broken teapot"s spilled contents, along with the remnants of tea in the teacups that had dropped to the floor, all flowed together into a large puddle.
"W... what is that?!"
Out of reflex, Flynn lifted her feet off the floor. Still sitting on her chair, she wrapped her arms around her knees like a child.
Maxine, the other target of this punishment, a.s.sessed the situation in a more relaxed manner. What he was seeing for the first time in his life was the so-called "magic." The sight of it might be nauseating, but there were also some exorcists who let themselves be carried away into tasteless acts.
Adalbert had torn the heaving maid out of Maxine"s grip. His attention was focused much less on the pool of tea slowly taking on humanoid form, and much more on the faintly glowing blue demon stone on Yuri"s chest. But that stone belongs to the Wincott family, he thought. Susanna Julia had always worn it, ever since birth. What was it doing hanging around the neck of this lout? Who the h.e.l.l had given him Julia"s demon stone?!
The red liquid, which had by now formed a veritable lake, stilled for a moment, resembling the surface of a calm sea. Everyone breathed out. But even before they could breathe in again, the liquid drew itself up into a human shape that nearly grazed the ceiling. With the four fingers of its hand, it formed a pistol and pointed it directly at Flynn and Maxine.
"W... what? An angry tea-G.o.d?!" exclaimed Murata, the only one standing behind Yuri. He was undecided as to whether it was something to fear or something to laugh at.
Again and again, the tea G.o.d fired red shots out of its fingertips at its targets. Fear was written across the faces of those being fired upon. To a casual observer, the whole thing might have looked like a fun game. Perhaps the Demon King was holding himself back, since there were few true villains in this arena.
"The judgement will be enforced in a small scope!"
Red liquid sprayed forth; both targets were soaked. For Maxine, every drop became a blade, and they saturated his arms and cheeks with cuts. The drops bombarding Flynn were about the dimensions of raindrops. She wouldn"t even get bruises from them. Thus, the Demon King remained ever the gentleman, even in undeserved cases.
Adalbert s.n.a.t.c.hed up a receipt that had fallen from the ap.r.o.n of a servant who had fainted.
Why was it that Yuri was able to use magic on human territory? There really shouldn"t have been any elements in this small town that would obey the demons.
Soap, de-wormer, black tea (from Kakil), he read. Aha! Kakil lay on the border of the Demon Empire. That"s why this black tea obeyed the orders of a demon.
Meanwhile, Shogun Yuri seemed to be missing something. He looked all around searchingly. "Oh well, it doesn"t matter." He gave a resigned sigh, apparently not finding what he"d been looking for.
But it was there! In the middle of the snow white tablecloth, a tea stain had formed the character for "justice."