When they were young, back at the academy, Leopold had often worn a smile like this. Perhaps because Teron had secretly watched him laughing and chatting with his companions, it was almost laughable how faithfully Teron Meyer's delusion had reproduced that very image.
“What on earth are you doing? How long are you going to keep sleeping? Stop scaring me like this, would you?”
Astonishingly, he touched Teron's cheek!
This is absolute nonsense.
Teron mocked himself. How far was this delusion going to stretch? It was so ridiculous he could hardly stand it. And yet Teron simply lay there and accepted the touch. He waited for Leopold's next words.
“Get up. Aren't you going to get up?”
Leopold gave Teron's cheek a couple of light taps. His playful manner was absurdly endearing for a fantasy conjured up by his own brain.
The heavy, muddled pain crowding in on him was gradually fading. And with it, the face of the corpse loitering before his eyes grew a little more whole.
“Why does the doctor keep saying you're fine? What if something goes wrong at this rate? I don't even know what you got yourself into, so I can't just cast a healing spell however I like.”
He kept prattling on. Teron rolled onto his side. And he closed his eyes. It was comfortable.
“So get up, Teron. You really can't hear me? This makes no sense. I've never in my life seen someone sleep for three days straight.”
Unable to bear the unbearable noise, Teron Meyer muttered.
“Leopold, be quiet for a bit...”
“...Teron!”
“You're too loud. It was all my fault, so just be quiet, please. It'll only take a moment.”
“...”
Ah, that's better. The preparations had been perfect, and now all he had to do was fall asleep. He'd put special effort into this particular drug, so it was sure to take effect.
He pressed his eyes shut with satisfaction, and a few seconds later the mad Leopold Deluah was now shaking Teron's shoulder.
Damn it, why is he doing this?
He never acted like this normally, and now all of a sudden he'd turned strange.
It wasn't as if Teron's mood was especially low today, yet the hallucination was thrashing about oddly, as though it had developed a will of its own.
“...Hold still.”
“Open your eyes, Teron Meyer!”
“Damn it, shut up.”
“If you open your eyes, all right?”
Ah, fine, so shut up!
The moment he snapped his eyes open, bright light stabbed into his pupils. In the middle of the light, Leopold was gazing down at Teron with a worried look.
His face wasn't rotting away in the slightest; it was perfectly intact. Had it been a dream?
The light was blinding, so he shut his eyelids again, and Leopold wrapped one arm around Teron and drew him against his own shoulder.
Lying there quietly with his ear pressed to Leopold's shoulder, working his momentarily stalled brain, he sensed something off.
Teron shoved the First Prince away as though seized by a convulsion. Leopold was pushed straight back and coughed once.
Dumbfounded, Teron Meyer ground out in a low voice.
“What do you think you're doing? Have you lost your mind?”
The blond boy, who had been blinking, seemed to come to his senses and opened his mouth. And he gave a curt answer.
“No.”
“Then what is this disgusting behavior? Stop being revolting and get out of my sight.”
“...Wow, this really is something.”
The mad First Prince spouted nonsense. By now Teron's mood had gone past sour into humiliation, and his head burned hot.
“Your Highness, can you not hear me? What must I do for us to communicate? I'd appreciate it if you'd bring me a pen so we can at least write to each other.”
“...No, don't be angry. Calm down. I hear you, so don't worry.”
“Then get lost.”
“No. You don't even know where you are right now.”
Only then did Teron look around. It was definitely the royal palace, but it wasn't the room he'd been staying in. It was lavish and several times larger. Somehow he had an ominous feeling.
Teron gritted his teeth and said,
“Send me back to where I was.”
“All right, but answer my question first, Teron. Are you okay?”
Leopold lowered his head, trying to look at Teron's face. Unable to bear it, Teron turned away and answered.
“I'm fine. Send me back to my room.”
“You didn't wake for three days. I have to call the doctor and check first.”
“...Three days?”
“Yes. Three days. So answer me.”
Leopold curved the corners of his eyes gently. But he asked in a chilly voice, one Teron had rarely heard before.
“Where did you sneak off to?”
In an instant, the memory he'd forgotten came flooding back.
Struck by some strange impulse, he'd tried to handle several tasks at once, moving without a wink of sleep throughout the entire Founding Festival, and then, when he'd secretly returned to the Grand Library, there had been the mad First Prince before his eyes again.
And he remembered collapsing at that moment. From Leopold's point of view, it must have been utterly baffling.
The thought of having to explain himself again made his head throb of its own accord. At the same time, a sense of injustice welled up: why should he have to answer to that man?
Teron clamped his mouth shut, but Leopold was resolute. He looked as though he wouldn't move until he got an answer. With no other choice, Teron spoke.
“I went to my hometown.”
Leopold's eyes grew wider and wider.
“Luden?”
“That's right.”
“...Without even telling me? Why?”
The color kept draining from his face. The First Prince let his anger out in a low voice.
“Of course you should have. You just leave the palace as you please without telling me? That's not proper conduct.”
“I'm terribly sorry for not knowing my manners. It's because I'm a lowly commoner. If you wish to punish me, I'll accept it gladly, so please stop speaking to me.”
Leopold immediately shifted his stance.
“That's not what I meant. Going off alone, so dangerously, why... If you'd told me, I'd have at least sent an escort.”
“I don't need one.”
“Come to think of it, your mother, so... Lady Adeline, I'd like to have her come live in the capital too. Would it be all right if I supported that? No, just take it as done, Teron. I'll handle it myself.”
Dumbfounded, Teron was left speechless. Leopold was being excessively agitated. Even granting that something like concern had grown in him, it wasn't enough to warrant this much of a fuss. So then, why?
“...Do that and see what happens, Leopold.”
When Teron warned him in earnest, Leopold fell silent. It was all so strange that Teron couldn't help but ask.
“Why are you making such a fuss?”
“Now that I think about it, you went all the way there and back in three days? By teleportation magic?”
“That's right. So why the big deal?”
“...You've only just woken, and I'd rather not bring up something heavy on purpose. But wait, you can travel that far by teleportation magic?”
Teron's head throbbed on its own.
“Tell me right now.”
“It's not really news you'd need to know. It's just that there've been a lot of strange things lately. Word's come in that people keep dying out in the provinces. If it's reached even my ears, it's serious, and they say they don't even know who the culprit is.”
“...What did you say?”
“It might be monsters, or maybe it's nothing at all. In any case, they say it's been happening in Luden too, so I was worried about you. So when you go somewhere, tell me. Understood?”
For a moment, Teron Meyer's vision blurred.
Having heard such shocking news not long after waking, his dizziness flared up again.
The cause of what Leopold was describing was exceedingly clear.
The black mages were running rampant in the provinces.
But it couldn't be Luden. As Teron recalled, they hadn't gone to Luden in earnest until next year or the year after. That was precisely why, even after regressing, he'd planned to bring his mother over slowly.
The future has changed again.
Had it always shifted this easily? By now, past confusion, he felt despair. If his luck had been worse, Adeline might have died in this life too.
A sense of crisis gradually closed in.
He could no longer rely on his memories of the past. From first to last, everything had to be checked, thoroughly.
As Teron's expression turned grim, Leopold too replied in a dark voice.
“You made it back safe, so it's fine. But from now on, tell me. Even if you don't want to, that's how it's going to be. Don't go wandering off recklessly.”
His domineering tone was seriously insufferable. But Teron now had something to say as well.
“Will Your Highness be going to the provinces?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your sense of justice has flared up, so I'm asking because it looks like you'll head off to the provinces to look into things yourself.”
“...Are you cursing at me, or worrying about me?”
Leopold muttered, then let out a soft laugh. He propped his chin in his hand in front of Teron and stared at him intently, then beamed.
“Are you worried about me?”
“Just answer, Leopold.”
“I'd like to go if I have the time, though I don't know if I'll be permitted, and the journey alone would take a few weeks, and the only chance I'd have is this coming break... this break should work.”
His eyes suddenly sparkled as if he'd hit upon a good idea. A headache came on, and Teron shook his head.
“Don't do it.”
“Hm?”
“Just stay put.”
At the same time, his vision spun, and he collapsed straight onto the bed. Leopold called out to him in a startled voice.
“Teron?”
“Don't talk to me, ugh-”
