Chapter 233

Chapter 233 - Ice Statue

The Youngest Son’s mind began operating as urgently as though he had drunk Dark Elixir.

To be exact, two minds began searching for a way out.

[Has that ghost woman lost her mind?!]

―…I agree.

STEP, STEP.

In the meantime, beyond the door, footsteps followed the signs of movement. The steps gradually approaching the door accelerated his thoughts.

[Should you run? No, it is already too late for that. But it is too late to hide too! Faint! Faint right now!]

―Why are you so frantic? It is unlike you.

[Even I know how dangerous it is that you came alone to the Princess late at night and knocked on her door!]

―Right. The Princess does not like me very much.

He had tried to first grow close to the Princess and then aim for the emperor and the Crown Prince as well.

Yet the Princess had slipped out of his grasp, and he had only managed to win the hearts of the emperor and the Crown Prince.

The favorability toward him that he had intended to give to the Princess had all been taken by those two.

Thus, what remained for the Princess was only irritation toward an unpredictable man.

CLACK—

“…I thought it could not possibly be so. But it really was you.”

“Are you calling me ‘you’ now?”

“In a meeting like this, consider yourself fortunate that I only changed how I address you.”

Instead of the abundant clothing she usually wore, the Princess was dressed in a fluttering lace nightgown.

The white sleep dress, as pure as the White Rose that symbolized her, looked soft enough to slip through one’s fingers if touched.

“Why did you come here? Are you trying to test the power of the hair you received from my brother?”

“How could that be?”

“Then what is it? I will give you a chance to make an excuse.”

Perhaps because he was an honored guest who had cured her brother’s illness, the Princess exercised as much patience as she could. The fact that she was doing so was clearly visible in her golden eyes.

That patience was also the reason she had not immediately risen from the banquet table when the emperor brought up the marriage proposal.

Therefore, he searched for the best possible answer while avoiding provoking that side as much as possible.

“I heard that you decorated your room with the Ice Roses I gave you. I wanted to see them so badly that I could not stop my own feet. I apologize.”

“No matter how much you wanted to see them, there are limits. Do you know what time it is?”

The crease between the Princess’s brows softened slightly. Fortunately, it was not a completely wrong answer.

“I apologize once more. Half of me belongs to the Blood Royalty, so such moonlit nights are like broad daylight to me. For a moment, I failed to distinguish the two.”

“Are you saying you wanted to see the roses so much that you could not even distinguish between sunlight and moonlight?”

“Yes.”

Since he had no choice but to agree, he nodded quickly. Worried that this alone might not be enough, he added a needless elaboration.

“The Forest Witch told me that Your Highness’s aesthetic sense was so outstanding that she was impressed several times. I, too, have much interest in aesthetics and wished to broaden my discernment.”

His tongue rolled smoothly, and although he did not rub his hands together, he was no different from a treacherous flatterer.

However, there was a reason flatterers did well and received the affection of those in power.

“…If you were that curious, then since you have already gone to the trouble of coming here, you may stay briefly before leaving.”

The Princess opened the door.

He had expected her to say she understood and tell him to leave, but to think she would actually let him in.

“Then, pardon my intrusion.”

He entered through the open White Rose door.

Although it was the Princess’s room, it was more like a single house with rooms and walls inside the room itself.

A light was on in what seemed to be the bedroom, and another room that immediately looked like a study was also lit.

“Were you studying?”

“That is a needless question. Look only at what you came to see, then leave.”

“Yes.”

With his mouth now completely shut, he followed the Princess to the Flower Garden prepared in one corner of the room.

Just as the Forest Witch had said, the wall that had originally formed a room had been torn down, revealing the interior brightly.

In the empty space created that way, beginning with the Ice Roses, the Forest Witch had decorated the surroundings.

“It is far more beautiful than what I heard in words. This is a work of art too fine to keep only inside this room.”

“Hmph.”

The Princess showed no particular reaction, but this time, she did not say it was a needless remark.

It seemed that the only thing he could say inside this room was praise for the Flower Garden.

That, or perhaps a little trick.

“As an apology for coming so late at night, would it be all right if I placed a few more sculptures like those Ice Flowers here?”

The Princess’s ears perked up.

“For example, an ice statue modeled after Your Highness.”

The Princess’s ears perked up a second time.

“I can also make a rosebush for you.”

The Princess’s ears now began to flutter.

For a brief while, the Princess’s golden eyes looked into the air, and her lips were gently bitten.

He could not know for certain, but she seemed to be undergoing tremendous anguish.

Then the Princess reached an answer.

“…The ice statue. I will choose that.”

“Very well. How large would you like it to be?”

“The same as me.”

It was a demand that revealed her determination to wring out as much as she could before this snake-like man changed his words.

A one-to-one ice statue ordered for the sake of escaping the situation.

“No problem. Where should I make it?”

“Hmm.”

Apparently, she had not thought that far, and the Princess turned her head this way and that.

The room was large enough that a statue could be placed anywhere, but aesthetics were another matter.

However, there was no law saying this had to be placed inside the room.

“What about over there?”

The Youngest Son’s finger pointed outside the window.

That place was the back garden of the Imperial Garden.

The garden was so vast, and only the Imperial Family and their relatives could enter, so few people came and went. The back garden was even more secluded.

There, the flowerbeds were less densely packed than outside, and it had been prepared for more comfortable walking.

“If it is the back garden of the Imperial Garden, it will not be easily exposed to others, and the surroundings are spacious, so it should be good for leisurely appreciation.”

“That is a good idea.”

“Shall we go?”

“I will bring an outer garment.”

“It will not take long. Wear mine.”

He took off the black coat he was wearing and handed it to her as she was about to go to her room.

The Princess seemed reluctant, but she accepted it for now.

“It is large on me.”

“It suits you well.”

“Enough with the flattery. Enough, so follow me.”

She walked toward the door with the coat draped over her shoulders, but the Youngest Son walked toward the window he had pointed at first.

“…Where are you going?”

“This way is faster.”

CREAK—

When he opened the window and stuck his head out, he could see the back garden far below.

It was a refreshingly high place, and the floor was high enough to separate a person’s arms and legs from their body.

“If you want to die that badly, set a date for your execution even now.”

“I have jumped from and pushed someone from a place higher than this, but everyone survived perfectly well.”

“You pushed someone?”

“It is an old story.”

The Youngest Son spoke of the past as though he had lived for ages. Then, as if it were natural, he placed a foot on the windowsill.

“I will go this way. If you are truly frightened, come down by the stairs. I will wait.”

“What did you just—”

WHOOOSH—

His black-purple hair fluttered in the wind and disappeared.

“That little….”

The Princess barely dragged back the curse that had risen to the tip of her lips and shoved it inside.

What came out instead was only a sigh. Who else could she blame?

“It is my fault for giving room to a snake like you.”

Should she have simply driven him away? But the ice statue was too tempting for that.

Moreover, she could not avoid jumping out through that open window.

If she now pretended to be elegant and took the stairs down before opening the door and coming out, it would be the same as admitting she was a coward.

“Who said I was frightened?”

After putting her arms into the coat draped over her shoulders so it would not fall, she jumped without hesitation.

SWIIIIISH—

The wind she had felt on Raymond’s Mothership brushed past her face.

A smile naturally settled on that face.

Jumping out of a window on a moonlit night. It was certainly immoral and not a virtue, but at least her heart felt refreshed.

TAP—

The ground approached at a terrifying speed. Her soft slippers touched the earth gently.

“You came.”

“Are all the blood relatives of Millesdusk as fearless as you?”

“Your Highness also jumped down, did you not?”

“That is not the kind of fear I mean.”

The Youngest Son smiled faintly.

“If you mean that kind of fear, then I have lost quite a lot of it.”

“It is not quite a lot, so reassess yourself objectively.”

The Princess passed him and walked into the back garden. The place the Youngest Son had mentioned was nearby.

The closer she approached that place, the more she could imagine it.

The ice statue that would be erected here, quieter than the main garden, would stand out even more with the back garden as its stage.

In any case, it was not an ice statue meant to be shown to anyone else, so it would be nice to come down occasionally and enjoy it.

“Should I make it now?”

“Yes.”

“Please tell me if there is any particular appearance you want. Clothing, hand gestures, anything is fine.”

“Do as your heart leads you. Did you not say you were greatly interested in aesthetics?”

“…Understood.”

This was why a person had to be careful with words.

No, to begin with, was this not something that had happened because of the Messenger?

He moved his eyes here and there to search for Ransis, but she was nowhere to be seen.

There was no way she had immediately returned, so she was surely hiding somewhere and quietly enjoying this.

‘This is driving me mad.’

The Youngest Son sighed inwardly and stood in one corner of the back garden.

An ice statue would be erected here, and if it was erected, it would certainly be beautiful.

The problem was that he now had to create that beautiful thing.

At present, it was literally a state of nothingness. From this state of nothingness, he had to build a tower all the way to its peak.

Since the mother of creation was imitation, the player searched through his memories.

“Ah.”

He recalled something.

It was a future that could no longer come to pass.

However, depending on the player’s choices, it was a future that could have arrived.

“Are you finished thinking?”

“I will make it now.”

He raised both hands.

What would emerge from his pale fingertips would be the same one-to-one ratio as the Princess, but it would not be the Princess of the present.

It would be a Princess he would likely never see in the future, but through this ice statue, he could see her well enough.

CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE—

First, he made the pedestal on which the statue would stand.

He did not even make that pedestal carelessly. He tried to make it resemble the Imperial Palace’s style as much as possible, so that it would at least reach the middle ground.

The part where he had to exercise creativity was not something like the pedestal.

“They say the present builds up and becomes the future, but that does not mean one can overlook the future.”

“You are becoming increasingly talkative.”

“Is that not how art originally is?”

“So, what about the future?”

A stream of blood rippled around the Youngest Son.

“I will create it while imagining Your Highness’s future form, rather than your present one.”

SWIIIIISH—

The stream of blood left his hands.

The red wave wrapped around the pedestal, formed a whirlpool, and rose like a waterspout.

It climbed higher and higher from the base of the pedestal, and inside it, the carving continued.

He poured his utmost effort into every hem of clothing and every corner of the eyes, drawing out the Princess from his memories.

The Princess in his memories.

Exia Kaiser Rosephilia, who had become empress after the Crown Prince died.

SHWAAAAAAA—

The stream of blood that had served as a curtain withdrew, revealing the completed ice statue.

“This is… me in the future.”

To add to that, it was a form that could have been her future self.

However, for now, there was no need to add anything, and she could accept it as it was.

“I made it by adding my imagination. How is it?”

The Princess could not open her mouth and simply stared at the ice statue.

The version of her that had passed through more years than now was a little taller, and the baby fat had left her face.

Like the current emperor, she had a sharp appearance, eyes like steel, and lips that did not stir. Even though it was an ice statue, it overwhelmed those who looked upon it.

The ice statue standing on the pedestal naturally made one look up at it, and the Princess opened her mouth.

“Do you like it?”

“…Yes. I like it.”

The Princess now held out her hand on her own.

After the familiar transfer process passed, the ice statue became entirely hers.

“I did not expect you to go this far, but I want to thank you.”

The Princess’s hand only brushed over the skin of the ice statue.

“I am glad you like it.”

“There is nothing to criticize. To the point that I wish to grow into the person this statue depicts.”

“I personally do not recommend that.”

“Did you not create this form?”

That was true, but for her to become this, the Princess would have had to kill the Crown Prince.

That was not a desirable route in the current situation.

“Would it not be unrealistic for Your Highness to become too beautiful?”

“Tsk….”

The Princess clicked her tongue and turned her head to look at the statue once more.

“I will return first. Please enjoy it at your leisure.”

“Denied.”

“…Pardon?”

“Stay where you are. If you leave, I would have to return your coat as well, would I not?”

The Princess left only those words and looked at the ice statue for a long while again.

The Youngest Son’s bloodshot eyes saw the Princess’s face reflected in that ice statue.

Was it because the ice statue was red?

For some reason, the Princess’s face looked red as well.