I hear the voice of a woman calling me. Where am I?
“Marieta!! Hey, Princess Marieta!! What are you doing? Don’t stop, run!!”
A burning flame. Screaming, yelling, and the sound of something collapsing.
“Marieta!! Hang in there, you idiot!!”
“Waaaaah!!Princess Marieta, Let’s hurry. It’s Already dangerous here. If you don’t hurry, it will burn.”
Looking back at the voice, two women with orange hair are waiting for me.
One is a maid with orange hair and two dumplings on her head, carrying someone on her back. Is that. . . Your Highness Christopher?
Mary, the maid carrying His Highness Christopher on her back, shouted.
“Princess Marieta, this place is no good. Let’s hurry!!”
“But the tower. . .”
I looked back. Me, His Highness Christopher, and the maids ‘Mary’ and ‘Anne’. The ‘tower’ where the four of us lived quietly collapsed and fell. It’s closed, but the modest and graceful happiness, and a white tower filled with a lot of memories is wrapped in flames, shattered, and collapsed. A lot of flowers planted under the tower also burned black in the flames.
Hmm. . . It’s sad, but I can’t do anything about the tower anymore. First of all, it is important to evacuate His Highness Christopher safely. Princess Marieta, you should leave here as soon as possible~”
Another woman, Anne, who had orange hair and two dumplings low on her head, complained with tears.
“That’s right. . . Let’s move from here quickly.”
While bypassing the building of the royal palace swallowed by the sea of fire, I managed to get through and hurried towards the city walls.
“Hmm. . . Why did it catch fire? Bella, did you hear anything from the Commander of the Imperial Guard, Daimon?”
“Hey Anne, how many times do I have to tell you? It’s not Bella, it’s Mary. This is not in the tower. I don’t know who’s listening, so refrain from it.”
“But. . . no one will hear over the fuss in such a situation.”
“It’s okay, Bella, there’s no one around. Besides, we don’t know when it will happen, so Alice wants to not lie to herself.”
“Humph!! You guys are always easy going and you’re not wary, so you’re going to get in trouble.”
“But Bella will protect us, right?”
“Of course. That’s what I’d like to say, but I’m carrying his highness now. I’ll do my best, but don’t neglect to be vigilant of the people around you.”
“Waaaaah. . . .Bella. . . I only have a fork and a knife to use as a weapon.”
Anne (Alice) takes a fork and a knife out of her pocket and shows it to Mary (Bella).
“On the contrary, why do you have a fork and a knife in your pocket? You. . . That’s enough. Give it to me. You won’t be able to treat dishes as weapons. I’m hiding knives on my left and right thighs, so you two have it.”
Alice dived into Bella’s skirt and came out with two big knives. The knife I received from Alice was a large knife with a blade length of about 30 cm, and it had a heavy weight. Did Bella always hide such a big knife in her skirt?
“What should I do, I don’t know how to use such a big knife.”
“Well. . . me too. . .”
“Anne, don’t take a knife out of the scabbard except for an emergency. You’re so clumsy, you’re going to cut off my fingers. If Princess Marieta can get through this place safely, I’ll teach her how to handle a knife. For now, keep it as an amulet until then.”
“Yes, I promise, Bella. If we can overcome this crisis safely, how to handle a knife. . . no. Please tell me how to fight and what I need to support His Highness Christopher and live.”
“That’s right. I’m getting more and more promises with you, but I didn’t have a chance to fulfill it. When we settle down in a safe place, let’s fulfill our promises one by one. If that’s the case, let’s go.”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
“Damn it!! It seems that this gate also melts and deforms and does not open. The Imperial Guard is preparing to destroy the gate now.”
After tearing through the waves of people who gathered to get out of the castle gate, Bella explains the collected information. I sat on the grass and looked at the people gathered in front of the castle gate while supporting Prince Christopher’s upper body.
“Yes, then let’s wait until the gate opens.”
“Bella-chan. . . Did you meet the Commander of the Guards, Daimon?”
Bella lowered her eyes a little at Alice’s words.
“Brother. . . No, the Commander of the Imperial Guard, Daimon, is dead.”
“Now way!! Why?!”
“Waaaah!! Why is that!! When did that happen?!”
“There was a gag order. It seems that he suddenly disappeared with some of his subordinates at work for a few days. There was no record of them coming out of the city walls, so it was searched to see if something had happened, but it seems that they were all found dead the night before yesterday. Did you know that there is a large two-story warehouse covered in ivy on the side of the road leading to the tower?”
“I don’t know. . . There was a warehouse in such a place, what kind of warehouse?”
“The warehouse itself seems to be a warehouse where gardeners put tools, but it seems that it has not been used much for the past 30 years because it is aging and creepy. He was found dead around the stairs of the warehouse.”
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“Why was he in such a place. . .”
“It seems that the stairs leading to the basement were hidden in the stairs. I heard there was a broken barrel in the basement, but I don’t know what it is. It turns out that the barrel was destroyed recently, but it’s contents are a mystery. It seems that the magic division and the pharmacists were investigating the identity of the contents, but in this situation, it will end without being figured out.”
Saying that, Bella bites her lips in frustration and continues in a trembling voice.
“Daimon, the Commander of the Imperial Guard. . . Only Daimon noticed ‘me’ even if I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say that clearly, but it’s true that only my brother himself understood that ‘I’ was his stupid sister. I’m sure that because he’s such an older brother, so he sensed the crisis in the royal palace and moved.”
Her voice was trembling, but Alice hugged Bella, who raised her face tightly and stared straight at the castle that was burning down little by little.
“It’s just a regret that I have to leave here because I can’t figure out the reason why such an older brother lost his life. . . Oh, Princess Marieta. It looks like the gate has opened. Let’s hurry.”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
“Bella!! Bella!! Pull yourself together!! Don’t leave me!! Don’t leave me alone. . .”
In the flames, I hold Bella’s hand and scream. When Bella opened her closed eyelids, she opened her mouth with her hand in my hand.
“. . . I believed in fairy tales, and I came this far, but it didn’t work. If that were true, your highness, Alice, and brother. . . I thought I could get them back.”
“I’m sorry Bella. My magic ran out, so I couldn’t apply any more healing magic. I’ll resume treatment as soon as my magic recovers, so do your best until then. You have to stay conscious somehow, something. . . keep talking about something.”
“. . . Does Marieta believe in fairy tales?”
“Yes. Yes, I believe it. I especially love it if everyone has a happy ending.”
“I see. . . When I was going to this academy with her highness and Alice, there were some strange stories like fairy tales, one of them is a hidden forbidden library.”
“A hidden forbidden library. That’s wonderful, I wonder what kind of books there are.”
“It seems that in the forbidden library, there is a book written about the sealed place of the [King of Lies] Flauros.”
“The [King of Lies] Flauros? Why was he sealed?”
I ask Bella, but she doesn’t answer.
“Bella!! Bella!! Hold on!! Be careful!!”
“. . . Ah. . . it’s Marieta. I’m sorry. I think I fell asleep a little. I wonder what we were talking about. . . Yes, it’s the [King of Lies]. Do you know what is called the Seven Deadly Sins? [Greed], [Envy], [Pride], [Lust], [Wrath], [Gluttony], and [Lies]. It seems that the seven types vary depending on the land.”
“I wonder why it’s the seven deadly sins.”
“I heard that the Holy Knight who used to be there said it, but I don’t really know. The content of the seven deadly sins seems to be disjointed on the land. Let’s get back to the story. . . It seems that a king who bares the sin of [Lies] has been sealed by the subordinates of the Holy Knight somewhere.”
“Why? Because he’s a liar?”
“Making everything a ‘lie’. It is said that he has such an ability. Haha. . . It sounds like a fairy tale.”
“Yes, the past few years since we escaped from the royal palace. . . No. I wish everything after that was a lie. . .”
“I’m sorry, Marieta. I thought if I found him, I would be able to get his highness and Alice back. I believed in the fairy tale and took you to a place like this. . . I’m sorry.”
Overlooking the department building that is burning and crumbling. Bella took me back to this academy from the neighboring country where I was evacuated, but I finally lost here. A lot of encounters started at this academy. The encounters with His Imperial Highness and the ladies who had been replaced. A lot of memories, it burns out.
“It was a life like a storm. . . The fear of the day I switched with a strange girl and ran away with Alice when we were about to be killed. For some reason, his highness believed in our words and protected us and I was relieved. That’s why, that night Alice swore to be loyal to him for the rest of her life and protect him. But I lost both of them. . . I had no choice but to cling to it even if it’s a fairy tale. . .”
“I know, Bella. Me too, I’ll cling to that fairy tale too. So, when you get better, let’s look for the forbidden library together. And we’re going to look for the sealed [King of Lies] together.”
“That’s right. . . Let’s try again. . . This time. . . His Highness, Alice, and the four of us will live a quiet life. . .”
Bella’s hand that was attached to my hand falls.
“Bella? Did you sleep again? Wake up, Bella. Bella!! Wake up!! Wake up, Bella!! We’re going to look for it together, Bella!! Hey, wake up!!”
Ah. . . I remember. I forgot it dozens of times.
This is my ‘first’ Life.
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The author has something to say:
‘Lies’ is taken from the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour (Don’t lie to others.)
My usual rant:
Wow. So that was a depressing chapter. But we did get a few answers related to Marieta. And that explains the sin king being split into 10 pieces. Each country has a different version of the seven deadly sins. So now I just wonder how Isabella is going to end up getting the others. We need them to visit that library and learn more!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!