Herscherik

Having completed his training, Hershelik was convinced about their relationship by Oran's overly desperate clarification.

I just find it unnecessarily suspicious when they deny it too desperately, but I decided to keep it in my mind because I felt sorry for them to say it.

Waiting for Hershelik, who returned to his room, was jelly from a crocheted dessert. The thin green clear jelly contained orange citrus fruit pulp, which, when placed in the mouth, blended with a refreshing mint-like aroma and citrus acidity, seemed to make him forget the heat he had felt until just now.

"Mm-hmm. Yum! Really, Clo, where did you learn this stuff?

With the jelly on his cheeks and a full smile Hershelik, Crowe made him laugh, but said nothing more.

Perhaps this secrecy is also a motel secret for women, Hershelik thinks while wearing jelly.

Having quickly flattened the jelly, Hershelik sees a quiet orang from earlier. He sat in a chair and didn't put his hands on the jelly and tea he had in front of him, staring into the void he was very quiet.

This is what has happened to him sometimes here lately. Precisely from the next day, when there was a commotion in Castle Town in the early summer. Hershelik leaks a sigh into his expression, which I can think of anyway.

(... Actually, I was waiting for Oran to tell me.

But as it is, unforeseen things can happen without my knowledge. I'm more worried about Oran's condition than anything. Hershelik, who so decides, turns his gaze to Cro for a moment. I made sure he snorted, then cut it out.

"Oran, I'll apologize first. Sorry."

"…… Prince?

Oran is surprised by Hershelik, who suddenly apologizes. But Hershelik kept his word.

"I had to look into Oran two years ago.

"Ha!?

Oran unintentionally rises from the chair. The chair collapses and makes a noise on the clap, and the hand hits the cup with zero tea.

Immediately Clo sighed, evacuating the cup and jelly and wiping the table.

But Oran kept staring at Hershelik because he didn't want to be in his sight about Kro.

"Why..."

"Oran, just calm down...... sit down.

"How could you do such a personal thing...!

"……… Oran, sit down.

Hershelik said in a rare, commanding tone. Oran had the power not to say whether or not the words had any effect, and he had to obey them.

Hershelik leaks a deep sigh after making sure he returns his fallen chair and sits down. It was a mine, as I thought, but we already started talking. It is unnatural to end here.

"That's why I apologized first.

To Oran's behavior, which was too predictable, Hershelik continued his words as he leaked a small sigh.

"I checked Oran because his grades were too unnatural. One day my grades were gutted across the border, and my grades and graduations were critical, and it seemed that my predisposition was worse and my teacher's reputation was on the other.

It just seems deliberate, Hershelik felt so uncomfortable. So Hershelik asked Crowe to look into Oran.

And Crowe's report about Oran was heavier than I imagined. I was convinced that Oran had become that way again. For that reason Hershelik was supposed to end up in his heart.

However, the past could have been connected to the current emergency.

From the day after the disturbance in Castle Town, Oran sometimes came up with things in his head.

"You can say what I looked into here, but I'd like to hear from Oran if I can. There's no one around this room right now, so there's nothing to talk about.

Hershelik overlaps words.

"As I see it, I'm a child, so I think some parts of it are unreliable or unbelievable. But I believe in Oran and I want to continue to believe... so many more thoughts like that.

Hershelik remembers last year's bitter memories and bites his umbilicus.

Last year, my nanny left Hershelik's place. There were many causes, but it was because the nanny couldn't believe the king or Hershelik and she had a case. Hershelik knows he still had no choice. But I don't think I can repeat that.

I just wanted to avoid Oran following the same path as my nanny that I came up with.

"…… so."

"Okay.

Oran blocks Hershelik from repeating his words.

That was the frontier of giving up rather than believing Hershelik. And his feelings in trying to prioritize his own will are also true how happy he was.

"... Two years ago, my fiancée died.

What I recall is a bright red road stained in the sunset. And her peaceful death face.

Oran and she were each other's pardons the house decided. There was no trace in her house, and the owner of her house asked her friend, Oran's father, to adopt her son-in-law. At that time, he was just the same age, and his third son, Oran, engaged her on the premise of his son-in-law's adoption.

"At first, well, I rebelled because I was embarrassed..."

They started dating on the premise of marriage from childhood, when they started dating men and women after puberty.

"When I was sixteen, I also officially debuted to the social arena, and I knew around me that I was forgiving each other.

At the time, Oran was in the Chair's seat in the knighthood discipline of the College.

"Mark...... I worked with His Highness Marx on several occasions and had a good rivalry, and at that time it was my goal to become a Kingsguard knight or lead knight, slowly becoming a general, and I was hoping that I could be on His Highness's side like a friend.

Oran's life, which seemed like a smooth sail, turned around on a day when the red sunset was impressive as it burned.

Early horses from my parents came to him, who had been self-training at the college. And they told her she was dead.

"Why would she die......... I didn't know.

I immediately jumped out of the college and headed to her house. I felt Marx spoke to me then, but Oran doesn't really remember.

Running to her fiancée's mansion, she was dead as if she were asleep in peace.

Having been ill for a few days, she had heard that she would be off college for the time being. Don't worry, it's a summer bat, she smiles good. Oran was due to practice on her own that day, so she was going to buy some of her favorite treats to visit her tomorrow.

But never again did she smile or call her own name.

Oran still remembers clearly the despair of that time. He was the fiancée that the house decided to have with each other, and he was still young, but he did love her.

"Her artifact diary said it was hard to be with me.

For the future, and hence for her, I did not fail to train and encouraged her to study. And I did an excellent job at the college. But my future husband, who was too good, said in the diary that it was heavy and hard on her to be mediocre.

"I didn't think she was mediocre or anything..."

She was a compassionate and gentle woman, although she did have some weaknesses. I didn't want to struggle because she was usually clumsy but she trained as a bridesmaid or went to a service in an orphanage, and I made an effort. But in the end, it had become a burden on her.

She was also weak as an aristocratic maid, and she said she had a lot to say about Oran's position as her fiancée over other maids.

(Bullying where it's been in my last life...... women are scared everywhere in the world.

A woman's bully is so insidious than a man would imagine. Oran would have been hard to notice because he would do something soothing that men wouldn't understand. I wouldn't have been able to talk to Oran, let alone my parents, such as my fiancée being bullied again.

In anticipation of that, a guy like that picks a guy and bullies him. Pick the weak and bully. What a coward.

"If that's all, I should have just blamed myself. But there was a continuation in the diary.

One day in the spring, my diary continued to say that I had gotten my hands on the medicine that began to come out behind me to escape the pain.

The medicine made me forget about my distress for a while and made my mind lighter. But when the medicine runs out, the interminable guilt strikes me, and I get my hands on the medicine again. If you run out of medicine, you sneak precious metals into the quality. When you make gold, you buy the medicine, and if you lose it, repeat it again. At the end of the day, I couldn't get out of it, and I fell into the medicine, and the diary said both tear marks.

And when the precious metal was exhausted, a certain nobleman grasped the weakness of such an Oran fiancée and pressed for a relationship.

"She couldn't buy drugs, couldn't talk to anyone, and threatened to splurge on me if I didn't have anything to do with that nobleman. And that day in the summer, she died.

In the morning a servant worried about her pulling into the room came to see how she was and found out that she was dead.

"Because I was obsessed with myself in college..."

If I could have noticed myself somewhere and leaned in, she wouldn't have died. At the time, I only had eyes on my goals.

"She was a debilitating death. Wouldn't it be strange for a nobleman to die of debilitation?

After reading the diary, Oran thought that might be a side effect of the drug.

"Her death is my responsibility. But the medicine is dangerous. So I thought I'd do something about it.

I immediately delivered it to the bureau, but the move was dull, although I said I would investigate. Oran, who boiled the business, appealed to Marx. Marx also tried to move for a friend, but the medication was already gone and the traces could not be traced, and the investigation was closed.

Oran himself managed to find out where the medicine came from, but in vain.

"… Since then, I have been unable to find a reason to become a knight.

I disliked everything about myself for failing to protect those I wanted to protect, the country and royalty for failing to protect the people I was supposed to protect, and the nobles who cornered her.

So I no longer felt the need to maintain the chairman in my college studies, nor did I dislike the royalty who wouldn't move when I wanted help.

Her apparent cause of death was morbidity and death, but there were a number of out-of-school noises because those who had no heart in the college insulted her. I can only think of eight hits now. When I graduated, I was thinking of leaving the country, but I couldn't get my father's forgiveness out, and I kept living unemployed when it drifted away.

"This time, a drug that went out two years ago and disappeared could be out again.

That was the information my father brought me. Though already retired, Roland was once in a key position in the country. A former subordinate and police officer snuck up on Roland.

Until Oran finished talking, neither Hershelik nor Kro pinched their mouths, silently listening.

Silence dominates the indoors, and an awkward atmosphere flows indoors.

Hershelik takes a deep breath. As much as I thought I'd forgotten to breathe before, I concentrated on Oran.

"Oran, thank you for talking to me.

First the words of gratitude leaked out of Hershelik's mouth. And keep your head down.

"I'm sorry that you couldn't do anything because you depended on my brother for the royal family.

I was three years old at the time and had just started studying. There must have been nothing I could have done, but that was just an excuse.

He goes on to say words to Oran, who became silently annoyed.

"I heard from Oran that I was able to corroborate Crowe's investigation.

That's an important clue.

"First of all, the medication is that it has been out for a short period of time.

The medicine went around in a short summer period from two years ago in the spring. Medicines are more profitable to go out for longer than a short period of time. Risks also arise, but the more addicts there are, the more repeaters there are. If there is more demand than supply, the unit price will also rise.

"The next thing you know, there are a lot of drug users in the aristocracy and the wealthy, and the narrow range they went out.

Most of the victims were wealthy, even as far as Crowe looked into them. That would mean that the distribution route was rather narrowed down at that time.

"Besides, there's a chance someone of high standing might have been involved.

This is the case of a noble maid who died in suspicion. It is strange at a time when the investigation is over. In other words, the investigation itself could have been under pressure from somewhere.

To Hershelik's words of clarity, Oran, who was annoyed, looked up and looked at him.

(Really, a five-year-old......?

At the time, what Oran, sixteen years old, could not think of, also Hershelik just listened to him and found a number of points.

Hershelik did not look like a young prince of his age.

"I'm sure the key to the drug is within Oran's fiancée's reach.

Saying so, Hershelik rises.

"Clo, immediately refer to Oran's story to investigate the extent to which she acted at the time. It may be different from the killer at the time, but there must be a connection.

"Okay.

Hershelik nodded at Cro's reply.

"I sneak in to see if there was any material at the time. If I knew what kind of medicine it was, it could be a breakthrough.

Take out Silver Komi's pocket watch and check the watch. I still had time by night.

"Are you going to act alone again?

"The castle is already like my garden.

Even if you meditate on your eyes, you can go wherever you want. To a young lord who laughs in fancy language, Crowe looks sinister.

"……… Why?

Oran's whining leaked.

Two years ago, the country didn't try to move at all because people were dead.

But this time this prince was trying to move quickly.

To Oran's whining, Hershelik leaks a sigh.

"The people lost their lives because of the drugs. The medicine is about to come out again. You want me to keep my mouth shut, even though the people might drive their lives just as crazy again?

It was a tone that embarrassed an ill-defined child. Oran inquired again into Hershelik's words.

"Even though you're a person who has nothing to do with the prince?

"Doesn't matter?

Hershelik asks unwittingly. Now it was just a slightly angry tone.

"I am the prince of this country. I have a duty to protect my people.

"Right..."

Oran couldn't say anything more to Hershelik, who even said so naturally.

Just looking back, I'm about to be overshadowed by the helplessness of what I've been doing for the past two years. But I still thought I'd make it. There's still something I can do to keep people like her out.

"... Is there anything I can do?

"Of course, you're my knight, so I'll get you to work.

Hershelik grinned and nodded at Oran's words.