Chapter 90: A Sunny Morning

Day five of the Spiritual Week was the Procession of Saints.

The church would march through the streets of Gilishon with golden banners and polished relics, showing the whole capital exactly how rich and powerful it was. At night, the Holy Sword of Melcius would finally be presented to the public.

But that was an evening commitment.

Right now, Adonis was sleeping in bed with his arms wrapped around Prussia.

Her eyes opened slowly.

"...I know you’re awake."

Adonis smiled without opening his own.

"Hnnn, one more minute..."

Prussia let out a small breath and closed her eyes again, snuggling closer against his hard chest.

’It’s not like I’m actually his fiancée. It’s just a title he uses for political advantage.’

Ever since she became sure of her feelings, that thought had always made her sad. At least, that was how she saw it. But now he had recognized her, just lying here was enough to make her feel content.

Then again, she had never been one to be selfish. Father hadn’t raised her that way.

She smiled happily at the thought.

Then her eyes flew open.

’Wait... what am I going to tell Father?!’

Her face turned red.

Suddenly she didn’t feel like cuddling anymore and turned away to rest on her own.

"...Eh?"

Adonis blinked at the back of her head. He was a tad worried, but then it clicked. She must be shy after everything that she saw and did last night, plus she still hadn’t fully recovered.

’We also went a little wild, ehehehe...’

He decided to leave her be.

He got out of bed and checked on Alpis.

She was still fast asleep.

Then he opened the windows to let in some sunlight and wiped away the dark smudges the oil lamp always left on the wood when it burned through the night.

He looked at Alpis again, then at Prussia.

All he could see was the destruction Shadow Wolf caused and how they poisoned his good deed.

It made him sick.

It would make anyone sick.

"...Tch."

He put on his casual outfit of muted colors and took a carriage back to Rensfell.

The army was gone.

So was Lady Euphemia, she’d probably left to prepare for the Procession of Saints tonight.

So Adonis went looking for Father Rill, to see how everyone was doing, especially the kids.

He was expecting good news, or rather hoping for some.

But, the old priest didn’t know how to shake his head at that hopeful face and tell him the truth.

"Wh-, What’s wrong?"

Father Rill looked away, desperately trying to hide the pain in his expression.

That was what worried Adonis the most. There’s been more than enough tragedies to make up a mountain already. What could possibly have happened to make the old man look like this?

"Come with me, Your Highness."

"...O-, Okay."

They stopped in front of a long tent.

...Hm? Adonis stepped inside, and what he saw made him take a shaky step back.

"No... no..."

His voice crack and shivered despairingly.

A few of the older villagers and most of the kids were bleeding from their ears, some vomited into buckets, some had simply collapsed onto their cots.

Father Rill’s voice was quiet.

"It seems most of the village has lost their hearing. Even some of our nuns. We noticed when the nuns were singing for the kids and nobody responded. At first we thought they were just shaken from what happened, but... as you can see, that’s not the case."

Adonis gasped and clutched his chest.

He badly wanted to hold on to something... anything.

The villagers who had been wounded and received healing were fine. It was the kids, the nuns, and the few others who had come out unharmed who suffered for it. They’d never gotten any medical attention, because the manpower had gone to those with visible wounds.

Father Rill still looked worried, and tried to comfort him.

"Your Highness, I don’t think any of this is your fault. If it wasn’t for that monster from Shadow Wolf, Crazy Wind Boreas, then these children would—"

"Enough."

"B-, But Your Highness!"

"...That’s enough..."

The priest went quiet seeing Adonis’s head hung so low that his bangs covered his eyes.

What else could he do but look at the young man with pity.

"I... I’ll come visit some other time."

He was about to leave when he spotted Litha sitting in the row of deaf kids.

She’d just finished vomiting into her bucket.

If he remembered correctly, she wanted to be a pianist so she could play for the nobles at the Emerald Palace.

After all, who didn’t love and envy the regality of nobles.

When she saw him, her big bright eyes lit up and she waved with a grin so wide it was ridiculous.

The prince couldn’t stay here any longer, not when it hurt his heart this badly.

He hurried off without another word.

Litha tilted her head.

"...Hm?"

The fifth prince took another carriage, and this one took him straight to the Diplomatic District.

He went from brothel to brothel looking for one man. It was early in the morning, which meant Count Vesta would still be around, since he usually stayed the whole night.

Surely, the bastard spent the whole night celebrating making a fool out of the miscreant fifth prince.

Soon enough, he found Vesta stepping out of a brothel with two beauties in his arms.

"Ohhh, if it isn’t the fifth prince, hohoho."

Adonis didn’t answer, there wasn’t even room for the fake smile he usually wore.

He looked absolutely livid. So much so that the two beauties, who had been taken by what they thought were his silent charms a moment ago, grew very uncomfortable and slipped away to give them some privacy.

Count Vesta sighed, routinely adjusting the countless rings on his sausage-sized fingers.

"Alright, alright. What do you want?"

"I’d like to talk. In private."

The count chuckled and looked around for his guards.

"Certainly not without my gua—"

"They won’t be around for a while."

"Huh?"

Vesta suddenly turned cautious and tried to slip back into the brothel, but Adonis grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away, and expectedly the count shouted threats the whole way.

"Gaaah, you bastard prince! How dare you handle a member of the royal court like this, or have you forgotten who I am, boy?! I’m Count Alisaunder Vesta, Head of House Vesta, one of the top noble families in the kingdom!"

Obviously so, Adonis didn’t care.

He dragged him into an alley.

Barely anyone noticed, the district was always busy, especially in the mornings, when nobles took their leave, and at night, when they hunted for the best brothel girl.

...Creatures of habit.

Vesta staggered back several times on his heavy legs until he fell on the ground, then he started screaming.

"Help! Help! The fifth prince wants to kill me!"

Adonis stared down at him with cold, dead eyes.

"I didn’t understand what it meant, when a noble got involved with the innocent people of the church."

Vesta crawled away on his back, panting and sweating, and the prince kept walking closer.

"Sometimes it’s good to make mistakes because you learn from them. When Hershant tricked me, I started making backup plans. When I found out how I played with Prussia’s heart, I became a better man for her."

He let out a dry, dour laugh.

"Mistakes are good when you learn from them. That’s how heroes grow. That’s how authors like to write it, isn’t it?"

Vesta was still shaking on the ground, wondering who was this empty husk, devoid of emotion, pretending to be the vibrant Fifth Prince of Falsbane.

Adonis’s fists tightened.

"But then I remember I’m not a hero. So why should I learn from my mistakes, when I can erase them completely?"

His voice flatlined.

"You tampered with the lives of innocent orphans because you wanted to one-up me. That’s not a mistake. That’s a sin."

He glared down at Vesta with wide, empty eyes.

"From the bottom of whatever’s left of my aching heart... I wish I had killed you the moment our eyes met."

Storm King Spear Indra appeared in his grasp.

"Don’t worry. I’ll learn from that mistake."

Vesta cried till he couldn’t anymore and let out the kind of scream that fuels a child’s nightmares. It was drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the Diplomatic District.

Indeed, it was a sunny morning.