Wasn’t This a Night Game

What Bullshit is This Now?

“And how is Iomene doing? Saint.”

Princess Almene, face haggard, dark circles stretched long beneath her eyes, asked me this.

Whenever her strength returned, even just a little, she would often call for me and ask about Iomene.

“She is steadily recovering, Your Highness.”

It was true.

Since the torture sessions every Tuesday disappeared, Princess Iomene had been noticeably improving.

Princess Almene smiled, a slight curve of her lips, as if relieved by my words.

She touches the area around her left eye.

Her left eye, where the magic circle glows, is tightly shut, unable to open.

“Horrible sensations and memories sometimes break through the magic, reach me. Those sensations alone leave me so pained, bedridden… I wonder what things Iomene endured.”

“You will get better. I promise you.”

At my words, Princess Almene gives a slight smile.

The secret princess, who has never once shown her face to the public.

If she had, she would have become immensely popular, I think.

She’s that beautiful.

“Me? I’ve been trying to create nothing but happy memories, almost foolishly so. Pretty things, beautiful things, joyful and happy things. I’ve tried to eat only delicious things, and I’ve worked really hard to make enjoyable memories.”

“That’s good, Your Highness.”

“It seems selfish, doesn’t it? While Iomene suffers in the detached palace, I’m the only one hogging all the good stuff.”

I shook my head.

I understood why she did it.

“If Iomene’s pain can break through the magic, then surely Your Highness’s joyful and happy memories and emotions can also break through, don’t you think?”

Princess Almene giggled.

“That’s right. I don’t want Iomene to die, you see. I want her to get better and do lots of fun things with me. When her pain comes to me, I’m actually glad. Of course, it’s very difficult and painful, but it feels like I’m sharing her burden, even if just a little.”

“You are noble.”

Perhaps Almene’s efforts like that played a part in preventing Iomene from completely losing her mind. If negative influence could affect Almene through the magic, then the opposite would also be possible.

“Iomene can definitely get better. The Saint is treating her directly, after all, right?”

I don’t know.

What am I, some grand person to give you words brimming with certainty?

But I nodded anyway.

“Surely, that’s how it will be.”

Princess Almene laughs at my words.

I return her smile.

*

Today is Tuesday.

The grandfather clock chimes, announcing two in the afternoon, once again. Iomene shivers violently, burrowing into my arms, seemingly anxious.

I hold her once more, patting her back.

We go to the bed, lie down together, covering ourselves with the blanket. As I hold her, I can feel the trembling in Iomene slowly lessening.

“Calmed down a bit?”

At first, I used respectful speech, but after three weeks of witnessing her behavior, which resembled a child or even a pet, I’ve completely slipped into talking down to her.

I guess I figured, since the curse is transferring to me, we won’t be seeing each other anyway, so it just ended up this way.

At my words, Iomene lifts her head and looks at me.

“Want a snack?”

No reaction.

Did she just gorge herself and not really want any?

“Want to sleep, then?”

She doesn’t even look tired.

She just stares at me in silence.

Since she couldn’t speak, how was I supposed to know what she was thinking?

“Book? Should I read you a book? A fairytale?”

Her eyes shifted.

So that was it.

A fairytale, then.

I fetched a picture book for young children and opened it in front of her, reading aloud.

Nothing special, a predictable story.

The kind of tale that’s classic and well-worn.

But it was like Iomene was seeing it all for the first time, her eyes sparkling.

I’d read her maybe three picture books.

Then Iomene was clinging to me again.

She looked up at me.

“Why? What is it? What now?”

You just stare, I can’t know what you want.

Her face puckered, just a little.

She raised her arms, waving them awkwardly.

Like she was struggling to express something.

I sat calmly, waiting for her.

“Uhhh… Ah… Uhh.”

Iomene’s mouth opened.

“Call…….. Sing……..”

My eyes widened.

Did she just speak?

She spoke just now, right?

“Sing…….. Call……..”

Iome kneads my lips, her hand resting there.

“Call……Please sing……call for me.”

My jaw dropped.

She spoke!

She spoke a whole sentence!

“You want me to sing a song?”

Iome doesn’t answer my question, just stares at me.

But looking at those glittering eyes, that seems to be the answer.

Embarrassing.

I really sing terribly.

She must remember how I awkwardly sang anime songs or children’s songs whenever she got anxious on Tuesdays.

But so what if I can’t sing well?

It’s the first thing Iome’s clearly asked me for!

“Okay. I’ll sing for you.”

I sang a song for her, just as she requested.

Even to my own ears, it was a disastrous song, the kind that makes your face burn, but Iomene seemed delighted.

I belted out some upbeat anime tune and she just burst into this innocent, childlike laugh.

She climbed down from the bed and started doing this clumsy little dance, so I went to her, took the princess’s hand, and we danced together, just as clumsily.

Iomene was smiling so brightly.

Why was that?

Why did her laughter feel so heartbreaking?

Before I left, I wanted to make her as happy as possible.

So, we danced and played.

Two o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, the time Iomene dreaded the most, was filled with laughter and playful shouts.

We danced and played until it was time for supper, and after a supper of all things sugary, we spent our time playing simple games like tag or hide-and-seek in the detached palace.

Iomene seemed so happy with it all.

In the end, Iomene’s stubbornness won out, and we played until midnight.

Now it was time to sleep.

“I’m glad I could make you smile.”

I led Iomene to the bedroom and laid her on the bed.

“Now, you need to wash up and sleep. It’s late. Okay?”

As I stroked her hair with my hand, Iomene suddenly began nuzzling her face into my hand.

“Goo… Goo-d. Good.”

“What’s so good?”

“Goo, good… Good.”

Iomene grins, repeating the word “good” over and over in a clumsy voice.

Whoever these dogshit b*stards are that cursed her, they’re real fucking scum.

Sixteen years.

Sixteen years of torture, without a single break.

Brought even the perfectly fine Almeine Princess to her knees, and drove the Emperor and Empress into an endless pit of guilt.

What crime did this little princess and her family even commit?

“Before long, you won’t ever have to hurt again. Never hurt again. Understand?”

“Hur…rt?”

“No more treatments, no more pain. No more fear. I’m going to heal you.”

And as the price for that, I’ll disappear from here, forever.

We’ll probably never see each other again.

No need to explain even that.

“You’ll eat delicious things and do fun things. Twice as happy as you were sick and miserable. Your mom and dad are truly incredible people. Anything you ask them for. They’ll buy you anything. You can have anything you want.”

“Every…thing. Everything?”

“Yeah. Everything. As soon as you’re healed, you can be nobler, more loved, and happier than anyone. Iomene. So don’t give up. You have to live hard. You need to be even happier than all you’ve suffered. Got it?”

“Good. Good.”

Iomene laughs like a child.

The huge wings that have sprouted from her back flutter.

It’s getting late.

I should get up and leave.

“I’ll head back for today, Iomene. I’ll come again tomorrow. Be well until then…”

Iomene grabs my arm.

She looks at me with bright, brimming eyes.

“Go… together.”

Together?

Iomene points to the bed.

Like a puppy needing to pee.

“Go… go, together. Together…”

Together what?

Together sleep?

Lying in the bed?

“No. I have to get back. You can sleep alone, right? Isn’t that right?”

“Together. Together.”

She pleads.

But I shook my head.

I have to go back.

No matter if it’s for treatment, sleeping with the Princess… who knows what the Emperor will say to me.

“Sorry. I’ll head back. Sleeping together is… kinda not okay.”

Iomene makes a disgruntled face.

Still, nothing I can do.

What father in this world would fancy a strange man sleeping in the same bed as his daughter?

I smiled at Iome, gently letting my hand fall away.

“How? How? Together? Together? How?”

The clumsy voice questioned me.

How can we sleep together? That’s what she’s asking, right?

“If we marry, we can sleep together, I guess.”

“Marriage. Then marriage!”

Iome grabbed my hand, shaking it hard.

This is troublesome.

It was alright until now, why is she suddenly doing this?

“Night…lonely.”

Just as I was feeling the unease, Iome mumbled, sounding blue.

“Lonely. Gone.”

In the room where she stays, there was no one.

Because of the curse, nobody would approach her.

The only people who did were the priests who poured holy magic on her every Tuesday.

Cleaning?

I heard the magic etched into the detached palace took care of that.

She wouldn’t have had a chance for any human connection.

“Song. Bed. Together. Together.”

“Trouble indeed.

If His Imperial Majesty learns of this, he won’t leave me in peace.

……But then again, aren’t I someone who’s vanishing from this world soon anyway?

Doesn’t that mean I can act as I please?

I won’t actually sleep, though.

I’ll only lie down with her until she falls asleep, that’s all.

“Alright. Let’s lie down together. I’ll stay beside you until you sleep.”

She rejoices at my words like a child.

We climbed into the bed together.

Iomene clung to me like a puppy.

I stroked Iomene’s hair and sang her a song.

She must have been tired from eating and playing with me all day, because she started to nod off before long.

“Tomorrow…….too?”

I, too, played with her all day, so…

I’m getting sleepy.

I yawned and nodded.

“I’ll come again tomorrow. Iomene.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah. I promise…….I will.”

I’m so tired.

A weight, pressing down, hard, on my eyelids.

My head bobbed, nodding, nodding, until, soon enough, I lost the fight to sleep.

Before drifting off.

“Good.”

I heard Iomehne, just as sleep-drunk as me, say it in a hazy voice.

That was the last thing. Consciousness flickered out.

*

Woke to find it was already 6 AM, dawn creeping in.

Slept like a log.

Carefully, I unwound myself from Iomehne, who was still clinging to me, fast asleep.

I slipped out of the detached palace.

Now, there really isn’t much time left.

Tidying up loose ends… if you could even call it that.

Erpa, I’d already left her words to help her keep living, even after I’m gone.

The High Priest Yodel, the Lilia Order… they’ll all remember me as Saint Amael, who nobly sacrificed himself to remove the fragment of the Evil God.

The Saint who saved the Princess and the world from the fragment of the Evil God destined to destroy everything, and then vanished.

Cool, right? Not bad.

I walked through the night streets, the thought that I’d never see this place again giving me a sudden pang.

Have I grown attached, even?

A place with almost no good memories. But leaving, I can’t help but feel… a little strange.

Done.

Fussing and fretting about what?

A filthy pleasure meeting you.

Let’s never cross paths again.

Thinking that, I stepped into the Third Slum District and started back toward the Magic Tower Temple, rising so high it could be seen even from the city outskirts.

And then, sudden.

A feeling so goddamn chilling made me stop dead.

It wasn’t just me, neither.

“What? What the hell was that?”

“A weird feeling!……”

People started spilling out of the Magic Tower Temple, and the streets filled in a blink.

Everyone, slow-like.

Turning their eyes toward the source of that chilling feeling.

The Imperial Palace.

It’s the Imperial Palace direction.

This bizarre sensation, like something scraping at your very soul, felt like it was announcing the arrival of something deeply evil, damn frightening.

And the identity of that frightening thing was being spat out by old man Yodel, who’d rushed from the temple in his pajamas.

“A-a curse! Why is a cursed aura coming from the Imperial Palace!…..”

Hearing those words, I took off running.

Casting Body Enhancement on myself, I shot forward at a crazy speed.

Why??

Shouldn’t my mental state be stabilizing?

The fragment of the Evil God was just about to fall into my hands!

But why suddenly!

What kind of BS is this now!!