The Second Prince"s Hopes My midnight guest was a small boy.
His dark skin and eyes made it clear he was originally from the village. He grabbed my hand with his face full of tears.
“Please! Come with me! I-It"s my dad-!!”
“!!”
I promptly went back to my room to fetch my bag.
“Lord Johan, I"ll come with you!”
"I"m sorry, but please stay here and tend to the knights.”
I quickly refuted Herman, who had stood up, ready to follow me, and dashed out of the house. The boy"s hand never left mine as we ran.
But I noticed something unusual after a while. When the sun had set, everything became quiet, and there were voices near the centre of the village. It sounded like a fight had broken out.
I stared into the darkness. In the middle of my vision stood a bonfire. I could see some of the villager"s backs.
“You plagued b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
A scream could be heard from within the crowd.
With the situation as dire as it is, there"s still someone looking for a fight? No, that"s probably not what"s happening.
I suppressed the urge to sigh. First things first: let"s get to the boy"s father. I"ll settle the fight later.
Deciding so, we headed straight for the boy"s home.
But the boy"s feet were shuffling towards the centre of the ruckus.
“Hey, that way is-”
“Quickly! My dad is going to be killed!”
“!?”
I was left in shock from the boy"s words. Did you say ‘kill" and not ‘dying"?
In other words, someone was trying to murder the boy"s father. Considering how the boy"s attention was glued to the crowd, the rest of the circ.u.mstances were obvious.
“You stay here.”
I let go of the boy"s hand and pushed my way through the crowd.
There were two men in the centre. The bloodthirsty one was a teenager while the other had dark skin and seemed to be in his thirties. I"m guessing the latter is the boy"s father.
The younger man grabbed the other"s chest and glared daggers at him.
“Give me the medicine and food like I said, and I"ll forgive you!”
“That"s my wife"s portion. I can"t let it go.”
That single snippet of their conversation made me want to click my tongue.
The supplies that we gave out were already a source of discord. The state of this village seemed more disastrous than I thought.
“Do you hear how shameless you sound?! If you hadn"t come out of the forest, none of this would"ve happened! Whether it be my dying mother, or how I"m stuck in this h.e.l.lhole, it"s all your fault!”
“Like h.e.l.l it is!”
The man swatted away the young man"s hand.
“Don"t start spouting bulls.h.i.t! Didn"t you know that the disease only started spreading ever since you all came here!?”
“If you want the real reason, it"s because you lot started cutting down the trees! We didn"t want to haul our a.s.ses into the town either! But you destroyed all of our forests and left us with nothing!”
“You"re saying it"s our fault!?”
“Stop it!”
I forced my way in-between the two who looked like they were about to start another round.
“Please calm down and cool off your heads.”
I kept my voice as gentle as possible to avoid causing further conflict, but that didn"t seem to have much of an effect.
The young man was determined to push me out of the way to reach the old man.
“It"s none of your business! Get lost!”
“I will not leave. Blaming this person would not change the situation you"re in, would it?”
“Then what do I have to do to change it?!”
The young man screamed, letting out his frustrations.
“Every sick family is crammed in a tiny village deep in the forest, abandoned by the country! Can"t you see that this is all their fault!?”
“Y-Yeah, it"s because of the people in this d.a.m.n village."
“If only these guys weren"t here…”
A voice came out from behind me, followed by the surrounding words of the people joining in with the young man.
And before long, everyone was staring at the dark-skinned man with bloodshot eyes, their killing intent clear as day.
This is bad, I muttered in my heart. The buildup of the people"s frustrations, fear, and anxiety had reached the boiling point, and they were directing it all towards the villagers. Nothing was worse than a group of people in stressful situations that were about to crack.
“Get out…”
With that small mutter, a pebble came flying.
Then another one. This time, it was clear he wanted to throw it at full force. The people"s malice quickly grew.
“Get the h.e.l.l away from our faces!”
A small stone hit the dark-skinned man"s lifted arms as he tried to protect himself.
The man wailed in pain, while I stood in front, shielding him.
“Kuh-!”
A stone hit my face.
More precisely, it had gouged out my left eye. After the initial pain, the warmth of the trickling blood sliding down my cheeks was very apparent. The thick liquid had rendered my left eye useless.
With the remaining right eye, I scanned for the person who threw the stone. Everyone seemed so surprised at the sight of my injury that their demonic expressions from before had completely disappeared. It looked like they had simmered down a bit.
“Please calm down.”
I repeated the same words as before.
This time, the words finally arrived. I told them slowly as if I was speaking to children.
“The country has not forsaken you.”
My words shook the populace.
I was sure that, for each of them, the feelings of wanting to believe and the fear of being betrayed again were clashing fiercely.
“The Second Prince, Nacht von Elster, is currently trying his hardest to save all of you.”
“Prince Nacht…?”
“How could I believe such a thing? Since when does the royal family give a d.a.m.n about a city this far from the capital?”
“But, it"s that prince, you know? The one that speaks to ordinary people like us.”
Nacht"s name seemed to have an effect on their hearts.
That fact made me proud in his stead.
“Nacht was with me at the village"s entrance. The food and supplies given to you were because of him. I am quite certain that he would"ve wanted to hand it to you himself, but despite that, he knew that this was only a stopgap solution to your worries. That is why he is returning to the capital in order to bring back doctors and more supplies.”
Many were puzzled.
“And…who might you be?”
“Wah-! Lord Johan! What"s with that injury?!”
One of the knights heard the commotion and came over. He caused a ruckus as soon as he saw my bloodied face and rushed up to me.
“Lord Johan? Don"t tell me… You"re that prince from our neighbouring country…!”
“Speaking of which, I"ve seen him a couple of times with Master Heinz… No way… What have we done…?”
The people began to realise my ident.i.ty.
Confusion appeared over their faces that were white as a sheet.
“The fact that I, Johan von Wervard, am here is proof.”
I wiped my bloodied appearance with the back of my hand before staring at them with both eyes wide open.
“I repeat. The country has not forsaken you. Prince Nacht loves you dearly and, at this very moment, he is doing his best to save all of you as best he can.”
Silence overcame the area. However, the chilling atmosphere from before was no longer present.
“Therefore, please be the orderly citizens that he is proud of, for his sake.”
Their breaths were taken away with my last words.
Their faces were laid down and distorted with regret. If one was able to recognize that they were wrong and repented accordingly, then that"s fine. They can still be forgiven.
People are weak.
And because they are weak, they should be able to understand each other"s pain well.
“It is hard to see your family suffer. Perhaps you are so anxious and worried to the point you can"t sleep at night. But please believe in Nacht. I ask that you wait a little longer. I want you to keep enduring here in this place along with me….”
‘…I beg of you." With my last words, a small, Yes! surfaced from within the crowd.
Looking closely, there were no longer hints of malice or despair left in the faces of the people, who nodded with tears in their eyes.
I turned back towards the dark-skinned man, who gave me a bitter smile.
Thank G.o.d. Thank G.o.d that I could protect what he wanted to protect, and that it isn"t lost in the worst way possible.
As soon as I felt relieved, my body felt light, and my vision shook…
“Lord Johan!?”
The knight caught me when I failed to stand. I was fighting to keep my consciousness awake, but it was difficult to overcome the rush of fatigue and drowsiness.
But remembering I had something to say, I clung onto the last sliver of my mind that I had left as best I could.
"Speaking of which, I caught my foot on a certain tree root before… I"ll leave this matter in your hands."
"Just a second, Lord Johan! What do you mean—please get a hold of yourself!!"
After saying what I wanted to say, I let go of my consciousness.
The last thing I saw was a crying face unbefitting of a knight.
********
I felt the small presence of light from behind my closed eyelids.
The faint rustling of leaves and bird chirpings could be heard.
I only intended to take a little nap, but it looked like I overslept for quite some time. I have to get up. There"s a lot of things to be doing.
But my body refused to move as if it was as heavy as lead. My head was throbbing with so much pain and there was a pulsating feeling like another heart was beating around in my skull. I endured the pain by furrowing my brows closer together.
"…?"
Pat pat.
There was a gentle sensation on my eyelids, perhaps it was someone"s hand.
The warmth was transferred down onto my face as the pain slowly dissipated.
I was once again attacked by the drowsiness that was too comfortable to pa.s.s on.
No! I can"t! My duties are piling up like a mountain! …But alas, I couldn"t resist.
Have you noticed that I"m awake? The soft hand lifted up, away from me. I was immediately filled with regret that I reached out and grabbed onto it.
I could tell the other party was surprised.
"Johan… Have you finally woken up?"
It was a pleasant voice that rang in my ear, like bells chiming from afar.
When I opened my eyes, an angel was in my vision.
Shimmering platinum-blonde hair and clear blue eyes. Even the most renowned genius sculptor or the ablest painter would undoubtedly fail to capture her beauty.
"Sister…?"
When I called out to her, she happily beamed at me. The way her smile resembled a blooming flower confirmed that she was truly my sister.
Oh, so this is a dream.
There was no way my sister would be here of all places. And thus, I concluded it was simply all in my head.
"Good, I see that you can still remember me."
There was not a day that I had ever forgotten you, sister. This dream is certainly proof of that.
I myself didn"t expect to picture her growth in such detail for something that was my own imagination, however. I was no good with art, but it seemed that my creative abilities were not to be scoffed at either when it came to my sister.
"I wanted to talk to you a lot, but it looks like you are still in need of rest. I heard that you fell ill because of an injury?"
"But… I still have many things to do-"
My sister stopped me when I tried to get up and put me back down. Her small hand gently combed through my hair.
"It"s alright now."
"…Eh?"
My voice unintentionally leaked out.
My sister smiled and repeated the same words once again.
"It"s alright now. There are excellent pharmacists here with a silver bullet that"s going to blow away this disease once and for all."
What an optimistic dream I am having.
I wanted to laugh at myself, but I felt suffocated, and my chest scrunched up in pain. My eyes were letting out droplets of liquid when I felt my sister"s warm hand covering them up yet again.
"You"ve worked hard, Johan. I am proud to be your sister."
"…"
I couldn"t bear it any longer. With tears streaming down my face, I let out a resolute sigh.
Even if I had to face h.e.l.l itself once I wake up…
…I felt like I could fight it together with this dream.
TN: Water is wet. Struggling is hard. When your sister is next to you, it is impossible to slip a fart. Yes, I just made a fart joke. You"re welcome.
EN1: Never underestimate the power of siscon, huh…Also, Happy (late) Valentine"s Day, kids!
EN2:
Figure 1: A little snippet from our channel showing how Google Translate can sometimes be incompetent to a fault.