Chapter 26

Episode 26 - A Strange Guy and a Good Guy

“Eek!!”

At the unexpected, clear voice, Pale made an unsightly sound and stumbled backward.

The young little duke, who had encountered him around the corner of the hallway, looked at him with wide eyes, seemingly a little surprised instead by Pale’s reaction.

“I, I apologize, Little Duke. I was lost in other thoughts......”

“No, no. I was the one at fault for suddenly speaking to you.”

The child waved his hand at Pale, who kept apologizing, and answered firmly.

“So, is Tollin in the office?”

“Yes. I will go right away and tell him that the Little Duke is looking for him......”

“No. He seems busy.”

The little duke shook his head once again.

“It is nothing important, so you can answer me. Has the construction been delayed again?”

Pale wanted to treat this small child as the future duke, but at the same time, he struggled to find a suitable answer because he did not want to place too many worries on someone so young. After a slight compromise, he said,

“Yes. But it is not something the Little Duke needs to worry about. It was merely delayed a little because something came up with the imperial family.”

At that, the little duke’s face distorted slightly.

However, there had never been children around Pale, and the little duke was sharp for his age and quickly erased it, so Pale did not notice the little duke’s discomfort.

“I see. Then that is a relief. Thank you for your hard work.”

The little duke parted from Pale and slowly moved toward his own room.

He was a smart child.

Smart enough to know that some great change was taking place in the Feedus family, and that Tollin and the other adults were bearing that problem.

At the same time, he was still young enough not to know the answer to why his heart felt heavy despite everyone caring about him so much.

All the people he loved were careful so the little duke would not be sad, and that helped him accept the death of his late father.

But sometimes, there were days when an inexplicable anxiety covered him like this.

The little duke sighed without realizing it and opened the door to his room.

“Caw—”

And he discovered a crow sitting quietly by the window and crying softly.

“Blackie!”

He happily ran over to him.

And with natural hand movements, as if he had known him for quite a long time, he placed him on his shoulder.

“Why has it been so long since you came? When I looked it up, it said some crows leave in winter, so I was worried you might have gone without even saying goodbye.”

The child carefully stroked the glossy crow’s wing.

“Huh? What fur is this?”

The little duke found brown fur near the end of the wing and asked in wonder.

“Did you meet a friend? Did you play with a cat?”

The crow silently groomed his wing without answering.

The little duke had not asked expecting an answer either, so he wiped off the fur stuck to his hand.

Without even imagining that it was the fur of a giant bear that inhabited the imperial forest.

* * *

Inside the warm room, the strange scene of a child talking to a crow unfolded.

“Blackie, so, Tollin has been in a bad mood lately.”

The clever-looking little kid chattered while fiddling with my wing.

“Pale said his nerves are on edge because the construction has been delayed.”

Without giving any particular answer, I listened to him and pretended to peck at a few walnuts he had laid out on the desk.

Perhaps that was good, because the child began to bring out the words he had been keeping inside more actively.

It was a slightly boring time, but not a trivial one.

Children are more honest than adults, and animals are more suitable than people as targets for confessing secrets.

With those two things combined, a situation had unfolded where he began accepting me as something similar to a mute counselor.

The child chattered in front of me about the current situation of the ducal family, Tollin’s condition, and the progress of the construction, not in detail, but roughly as far as he knew.

This smart heir of the Feedus ducal family knew a lot for his age, but it seemed he had found enjoyment in confiding to a beast that could not speak the things he found difficult to tell the adults of the family.

It had not been long since we met, but he also seemed to have grown attached to me.

If someone asked whether I was using an innocent child, I would have nothing to say.

“Blackie? Are you listening to me?”

By the way, that name really is hard to get used to.

Because I am a black bird, Blackie. It was a naming sense that I could not tell whether to call childlike or simple.

The child, who had no way of knowing my feelings, kept fiddling with my wing.

Looking at the clear eyes watching me, I recalled the first day I had become acquainted with the child like this.

* * *

The little duke was the first fellow I discovered on the day I transformed into a crow and looked around the ducal residence not long after Duke Feedus died, or rather, was treated as dead.

“A crow......”

More precisely, my eyes had met his while I was secretly watching him crying buried in his bed.

The child, who came to the window with his eyes swollen from crying, seemed fascinated by the crow that did not run away and stopped crying for a moment before letting me inside.

If I had been an ordinary crow, it would have been a scene that made his guardian or the housekeeper scream, but perhaps because they were being considerate of the child who had lost his father, no other servants were visible.

It was not a bad opportunity to check the inside of the ducal residence, so I did not refuse his goodwill either.

Moreover, on the first day of my possession, I had a record of opening the door for a crow outside that reacted to my words, so I understood him.

In my case, it could be said that the crow had invaded through something close to intimidation and threats.

Thanks to the little duke, I was able to enter the ducal residence in a more gentlemanly way than that punk bird from back then.

“You really have no fear, do you? You should not come this close to people.”

The child resembled his father who had raised him, being meddlesome and clever.

“Today, I said my final farewell to Father in Tollin’s room. We could not hold a funeral, but Tollin said Father must have reached Teritum and is watching over me. But it is strange. I feel like Father is still alive somewhere.”

He was also talkative, and strangely sharp in certain places.

The fellow who named me Blackie told me things that allowed me to infer what was happening inside the ducal family.

The one-sided relationship of trust that formed like that had continued until now.

I quietly looked at the fellow chattering with a smile.

“Tollin tells me not to go, but I want to see the place near that temple where the struggling people gather and live at least once. Soon I will be old enough to enter the academy too.”

The fellow muttered with a somewhat regretful expression.

“Before that, I want to properly look at the affairs of the Feedus family. There are parts Tollin and Pale do not tell me about.”

Looking at the fellow saying such admirable things, I turned my head.

The day his hope comes true will probably be the day someone who is working through sleepless nights right now has his heart collapse.

Judging that I had learned everything I needed to learn today, I stopped pecking at the walnuts and flapped my wings a few times.

“Huh? You are leaving already? Are you not leaving too early today?”

His face showed undisguised disappointment, but I paid no attention and tapped the window.

“Right. You might have family too. Hurry and go.”

The gentle fellow quietly opened the window again.

Even after going outside, I circled the ducal residence a few more times.

The ducal residence without Agony Feedus somehow gave off an atmosphere as if thorns had sprouted all over it.

I took in Tollin clutching his head in the distant office once, Pale walking through the hallway carrying documents once, Jack training the knights once, and finally, the child’s room once, before flying up.

“I want to see the place where the struggling people gather and live at least once.”

When I recalled the fellow muttering that with shining eyes, strength entered my wings.

The day when I had to keep an eye on the little duke was approaching.

In the original work, that small little duke, whose name did not even appear, dies after the hunting festival if things go according to the original.

* * *

“You insect-like bastard! You should at least tell me how long I have to drag this out!”

It was not as much as Tollin, but the First Prince was also growing heated because of the construction that kept being delayed.

Rasia had repeatedly pressed the Seventh Prince, who visited occasionally for treatment, asking if he could not simply send people to the ducal family, but each time, he only repeated that the time was not yet right.

Rasia Abiran frowned as he recalled the expressionless face of the Seventh Prince.

The more he saw him, the stranger that fellow was.

He did not demand money, nor did he seem particularly greedy for power.

Even while holding Rasia’s life in his hands, he did not covet what others desired.

He merely put forward arrogant and irritating conditions, or occasionally made incomprehensible demands.

The problem was that those things restricted the First Prince’s actions.

His attitude of treating him as if he had transcended everything was also irritating.

No, in truth, that fellow’s very existence was irritating.

If not for that damned antidote, he would have cut off his breath long ago.

It was not as if Rasia had never had someone follow him or search his room.

But inside the room, there was nothing that could be called personal property except for those damn books, and on days someone followed him, they said he noticed like a ghost and disappeared.

Frustrated by the fact that someone with no ability worth mentioning was using some unknown method, Rasia could only kick the innocent bed.

“If you do not need treatment, instead of sending people, you can tell me directly.”

And the next day after attaching someone to him, he had to hear the Seventh Prince’s expressionless sarcasm.

Those words once again ignited Rasia’s temper.

“How dare you play with my life.”

Even at Rasia’s eyes filled with anger, that fellow did not flinch.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Was what you did with the lives of innocent knights not playing around?”

The First Prince immediately realized whom he was talking about.

The one who had lost the Seventh Prince after chasing him had to pay for his incompetence with his life.

He did not have a secret antidote that would allow him to avoid Rasia’s anger.

But Rasia thought that and this were entirely different matters.

“Are you comparing me right now to those mere insect bastards?”

The Seventh Prince quietly looked at the First Prince without answering.

The one who could not endure the silence between them was Rasia.

“What? Why are you not saying anything?”

“They cannot be compared, of course.”

The Seventh Prince stared at the First Prince with sunken eyes, then opened his mouth.

“From now on, do not attach anyone to me.”

With those words as the end, the Seventh Prince closed his mouth, and for a while there was no treatment.

For the first few days, there was nothing particularly wrong.

Because of that, Rasia suspected that perhaps his body had actually been completely cured. But after he had a nosebleed not long afterward, he finally stopped attaching people to the Seventh Prince.

“That bastard worse than vermin.”

Why did his body refuse to recover properly?

The First Prince ground his teeth and tore at the innocent desk.

That fellow was definitely hiding something.

Perhaps he had never intended to heal me from the beginning.

He is dragging out time like this, and later his demands will gradually increase.

If I am dragged around by that fellow until I become emperor......

He did not even want to imagine it.

That fellow had warned him not to attach people to him, but he had no intention of obediently following those words.

Somehow, he had to dig up the truth that the vermin bastard was hiding.

The problem was that he had to carry out that work without anyone knowing......

Knock, knock.

The thing that pulled Rasia, who had been working a mind he usually did not use very hard, out of his thoughts was a small knocking sound.

“Your Highness, the Second Prince has come to visit.”

The attendant quietly announced Dito Abiran’s visit.

Rasia felt his anger calm a little and called him inside.

The Second Prince entered the room with his dazzling blonde hair swaying.

“Your Highness the First Prince, has your noble body been healthy?”

“Puhaha, what is with that disgusting way of speaking?”

Dito’s unique cheerful atmosphere and way of speaking calmed Rasia’s anger.

“I tried imitating the way nobles speak. Do I not resemble them quite well?”

At the playful answer, Rasia frowned.

“Do not imitate the way those trash speak. You will pick up filthy habits for no reason.”

Dito made an expression of surprise at the First Prince’s irritable reaction.

“Did the nobles do something irritating again? I heard things went well at the last meeting.”

Dito, who had been tilting his head, soon clapped his palm as if he had realized.

“Did the Feedus family dare to make some strange unreasonable demand? I heard construction has been delayed lately. Documents coming down from the Ministry of Finance have piled up.”

At his words, Rasia clicked his tongue.

When he recalled the work he had deliberately piled up at that Seventh Prince bastard’s request, his anger seemed to rise again.

In reality, this side was the one making unreasonable demands, but Dito did not seem to have noticed that far yet.

Outwardly, the construction was said to be delayed because they had failed to coordinate opinions with the Feedus family.

Rasia quietly looked at Dito’s face, where playfulness and concern still remained.

‘Should I tell Dito?’

If it was him, digging into the Seventh Prince’s background would probably be easy.

But the words did not come out easily.

It was a matter with his future at stake.

Rasia had already once tasted the fear that his entire future might disappear.

The feeling of everything before his eyes going dark, and the unpleasant, humiliating feeling that someone else was clutching his future in their hand.

He did not want to experience that ever again.

Of course, he did not suspect in the slightest that Dito would do the same thing as that vermin bastard.

Because Dito was......

Rasia took his eyes away from the face of his younger brother, who was patiently waiting for his answer, and shook his head.

“No, never mind. I am just busy, that is all.”

When Rasia showed his intent to refuse, Dito made an exaggeratedly disappointed expression.

“That is a shame. It was a rare opportunity to punish the bastards who embarrassed you, Brother.”

At those words, Rasia laughed with a deflating sound.

He was a fellow who could even risk his life for Rasia.

He did not want to show himself being swayed by a mere Seventh Prince in front of such a younger brother.

That would be too humiliating.

Of course, the Seventh Prince had also asked him not to tell anyone.

But since the other party was instead innocently getting angry on his behalf, Rasia felt his mood improve considerably and said,

“Well, that is true. I would also like to begin as soon as possible.”

“Hmm......”

“What is it?”

“Brother, then leave it to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

When Rasia asked as if puzzled, Dito answered confidently.

“The capital’s charity project. If you are that busy, Brother, I can go as your representative and resolve the work to some degree. You know I am capable, do you not?”

“Ah......”

Rasia, who had been speaking comfortably for a moment because he found his younger brother’s eloquence enjoyable, could not help being flustered.

Rasia knew better than anyone that Dito was quick with work.

Until now, there had been many times when he entrusted him with slightly difficult matters among his duties as a prince, and Dito’s opinions had often been helpful.

He knew that if he entrusted this matter to him, Dito would handle it well according to his wishes, but if he entrusted him with work he had been deliberately delaying day after day, it might become difficult to make excuses any longer.

“I….I will think about it. Since this is something I spoke of before His Majesty the Emperor, I want to be cautious this time.”

Rasia conveyed his refusal to the Second Prince in a tone that even he thought sounded awkward.

The First Prince subtly watched him, wondering if the other person would notice that something was strange, but the Second Prince merely nodded shortly after as if he understood.

Rather, he added as if apologetic.

“That could be true. I was too hasty and short-sighted.”

Rasia sighed inwardly and said,

“Yes, I am tired today, so leave now.”

Rasia hurriedly tried to send Dito out, and Dito Abiran seemed to accept this as though there was nothing strange about it either.

“Then…”

Before leaving the room, he smiled brightly one last time and said to Rasia,

“Please stay healthy, Brother.”

Rasia watched Dito disappear through the closing door, looking at his younger brother’s smile, which felt unusually deep today.