Please Die, Your Highness - Chapter 107

Maeve and Prince Declan returned to the empty house where they had stayed the previous night and shared a conversation. Calling it a conversation was a stretch; since a conclusion had already been reached, there was nothing left to discuss.

“In any case, it means there is no choice,” Maeve said with a heavy air of resignation, her chin propped on her hand. Prince Declan nodded.

“Right. We have no choice but to wait for the water on the back road to drain completely, or wait until the bridge is repaired. Let’s think positively. For now, we get to stay in a place with a ceiling instead of sleeping outdoors.”

Maeve was no longer particularly fed up with the Prince’s tendency to suggest thinking positively at every turn. Whenever a situation worsened, the Prince, far from acting sulky, would become boundlessly calm, like a different person. It was like that immediately after he was betrayed by Craig, immediately after he was nearly kidnapped by Fionechta, and it was the same now.

And seeing him this calm somehow made Maeve’s own mood turn somber in tandem.

“By the way, it’s unexpected.”

“What is?”

“I thought you would persistently insist on that path everyone else was warning against.”

“Yes. But I changed my mind. Since they say people die one after another just by going there, I thought there might be something sinister beyond just the red water that appears there.”

At Maeve’s words, Prince Declan looked out toward the distance with a face lost in thought. Regardless of the village’s restless atmosphere, an elderly person could be seen sitting on the steps in front of a house, knitting. It was the grandmother for whom Prince Declan had meddlesomely offered to fix the stairs yesterday.

Maeve followed his gaze to the house across the way.

“I heard that elderly woman’s son died. In an accident. I heard it while I was breaking down the stairs yesterday.”

“…….”

“She was very composed. The heart of a son who left the world before his aged mother wouldn’t be at peace either. It’s heartbreaking.”

Maeve did not respond to Prince Declan’s murmuring and silently watched the elderly woman. The warm midday sunlight illuminated the woman in a yellow glow. It was a scene that looked very peaceful.

“In any case, that old man—I didn’t see him that way, but he was a more terrible human being than I thought. How can he cast away his own people? I simply cannot understand it.”

The old man Prince Declan was currently pouring out his indignation toward must be Viscount Quill. The nobleman of the Imperial territory who was said to be blinded by money.

The western lands had long been an object of avoidance for people. Considering he was the noble who received such western lands, it meant his standing was not very good to begin with.

Eloa, the land they had escaped from a few days ago, was a land that looked very fertile and peaceful in its own right. The plains that stretched out flatly without even a common mound were a sight to behold. Since a river flowed through the center, it was a land that surely might have become a decent city if it had been touched by human hands.

“I am saying, how can he do that as the one who is the master. They are people for whom it would not be an exaggeration to say they entrusted their lives to him, so how can he cast them away so easily.”

“Perhaps they wanted to cut off their roots in their own way.”

“That fellow, the Lord’s Deputy, likely didn’t see a good end after returning either.”

“I think so too.”

Maeve agreed with Prince Declan’s opinion. That fellow, the Lord’s Deputy, might not have stayed long, but since he periodically stayed in and left this land, it was certain he would have become a target for elimination.

Maeve suddenly turned her head to gaze out the window again. She saw one more house located on a hill slightly higher than the other houses. Even at a glance, it was a house that seemed to have been built with more care.

It was a three-story house. Most likely, that was the residence where the Lord’s Deputy, dispatched directly from the Viscount’s estate, had stayed.

Maeve tapped her finger on the table—tap, tap—staring fixedly at the place on the hill presumed to be the Lord’s Deputy’s house. She was thinking that there must certainly be valuable items there, but she quickly ceased her thoughts at the sound of a knock.

At Prince Declan’s ready reply to come in, the person opened the door and poked their head in first.

It was Billy, the leader of this group of carpenters.

Billy wore a somewhat sheepish expression at Prince Declan’s cheerful greeting, yet he did not refuse and approached a chair placed near the dining table where they were sitting. He spoke as soon as he sat down.

“I’m sorry for shouting this morning.”