Chapter 2

“Now then, as an act of mercy from me, if there is anyone you wish to see one last time, say so.”

When Princess Kana asked the three men sprawled on the floor, Prince William hesitated for a moment before answering,

“My mother…”

“Very well. You there, bring these men’s mothers here. But if you attempt to deceive me again… you understand what will happen, do you not?”

“Y-yes!”

As Princess Kana watched the man she had ordered hurry from the room, Kaō approached her with something held in his mouth.

It was the hairpin Saki had placed in her hair that morning before they left, so that her long hair would not get in the way during their outing. The cheerful faces of everyone at that moment flashed through the princess’s mind, and her emotions nearly overwhelmed her.

(Not yet. I cannot allow myself to break yet…)

She squeezed her eyes shut and steadied her faltering breath. Then,

“Kaō, you have my thanks.”

She quietly murmured the words of appreciation so that no one around them could hear, then slipped the hairpin into the front of her robe.

After a while, two women rushed into the room, preceded by the pounding sound of hurried footsteps.

One wore a deep green gown. Her only ornaments were a crown adorning her pinned-up hair and finely worked gold jewelry at her ears and neck, yet she carried herself with an unmistakably refined air. The other wore a somewhat painfully bright golden-yellow dress and had cluttered herself with jewelry not only in her copper-red hair and around her neck, but also across her arms and fingers.

Both women appeared shocked upon seeing the king and princes restrained, but their subsequent reactions could not have been more different.

“I told you over and over that I opposed this…”

The woman in deep green murmured those words, then turned toward Princess Kana and bowed deeply.

“My name is Shaila. Saintess, I am deeply sorry that you have been dragged into such a situation. As queen of this kingdom, I offer you my sincerest apologies.”

Judging from her words, she had already grasped the circumstances. Princess Kana found herself thinking that perhaps there was at least one person in this world capable of using her head properly, but—

“Oh, Lady Shaila, there is no need for you to bow your head to someone like this. She may be some so-called Saintess from another world, but in the end she is nothing more than an ignorant little girl.”

The woman in golden yellow stepped forward as though pushing aside the woman who had introduced herself as Shaila, then pointed the fan in her hand toward the princess.

“You! Release His Majesty and the princes this instant! They are the most exalted people in this kingdom. They are not people you can insult like this and expect to be forgiven!”

“Oh? You call this insolence?”

Princess Kana’s magical power stirred in response to the golden-clad woman’s domineering words. The knight commander noticed and hurried to move, but Queen Shaila’s voice rang out before he could.

“Trisha, be silent this instant!”

“But Shai—”

“I said be silent!”

The woman closed her mouth despite her displeased expression. As Princess Kana watched her,

(If this woman says one more thing, I shall crush her flat from the crown of her head downward.)

She was entertaining thoughts of a rather ominous nature when the queen raised a hand as though to forestall precisely that and stepped forward. She bowed even more deeply than before.

“I also offer my apologies on behalf of Consort Trisha for her discourtesy. Furthermore, I believe the Saintess’s anger is entirely justified. However, a parent bears responsibility for a child’s wrongdoing. If you would permit it, I humbly beg that you spare my son William’s life in exchange for my own.”

That was her request. William’s eyes widened in shock, and he raised his voice.

“Mother, no! Please stop! I only wanted to see you one last time. I did not ask for this so that you could—”

“It is all right, William. Until now, I have hardly been much of a mother to you. At least at the end, allow me to do something worthy of one.”

Unable to answer, William bit his lip and continued shaking his head over and over.

The king, however, having listened to the exchange between mother and son, apparently began hoping that someone might offer to take his place as well.

“Surely… for me too… someone…”

He desperately raised himself and looked around, but after what had happened to the knight commander earlier, naturally no one volunteered.

“And what will you do?”

Princess Kana’s gaze was now fixed upon Consort Trisha. Prince Alton also looked pleadingly toward his own mother.

“Mother, please save me!”

With no one attempting to save the king or princes, and with the queen having just offered herself in place of her son, the consort seemed to realize that this turn of events now demanded that she offer her own head for her son as well. Her complexion changed. At the same time, she finally appeared to understand who truly controlled the room.

“I-I…”

Consort Trisha looked back and forth between Alton and the princess but could say nothing. Princess Kana gave an exasperated snort and turned her eyes toward the woman’s pitiful son.

“Hmm. It seems your mother does not possess a head she is willing to offer for her son.”

“No… Mother…”

“Th-that is not true! I never said anything of the sort—”

Ignoring the consort’s hysterical protest, Princess Kana addressed the queen.

“Your son asked me to save this kingdom. What does ‘this kingdom’ mean to you? These men? Or…?”

“All the people who live within this kingdom.”

The queen answered without the slightest hesitation.

“Then give up something as insignificant as the life of one son.”

At the princess’s words, the queen closed her eyes in anguish. At that moment, Consort Trisha seized the opportunity to interrupt.

“But the king and princes are the pillars of the nation! Without them, the kingdom itself could not function!”

Princess Kana showed no mercy toward a woman who refused to answer what she had been asked, yet eagerly inserted herself into matters no one had asked her about.

“Silence!”

The pressure of the princess’s magic surged with the word.

SPLAT!

With that sound, the consort fell face-first to the floor.

“Gweh… gh…”

Her carefully arranged hair was miserably flattened, and only noises resembling those of a crushed frog escaped her mouth.

“I was not speaking to you! You have no head to offer for the sake of that precious pillar of yours, do you? Then be silent! Besides, if the people surrounding him are competent, replacing the head of someone whose only talent is begging the gods for aid should hardly bring the nation to ruin. To begin with, when another country attacks, the first target is the lord’s head. Does bearing a nation upon one’s shoulders not mean accepting that responsibility? Yet I see no such resolve in any of you!”

After saying this, Princess Kana turned toward the queen.

“However, I understand this mother’s feelings well enough. So I shall make you a proposal. Agree to allow me to place a Soul-Binding curse upon your son and make him my piece. If you accept that, then I shall in turn accept your offer to take your son’s place.”

She presented the suggestion with an almost amused air.

“That is…”

“Do not worry. He will not become some mindless puppet. He will simply become incapable of disobeying my commands. Of course, nothing will happen to me should he die, but if I die, he too will die.”

“…Even so, I wish for my child to live.”

Princess Kana nodded in satisfaction at the answer, then turned toward William, who still lay there in stunned silence.

“Your mother has spoken. What will you do?”

William was tormented by indecision. Certainly, he did not want to die yet. But neither did he want to live at the cost of his mother’s life, nor did he have any desire for a future in which he became someone else’s obedient servant. That was what he believed.

And yet his mother’s words—“Even so, I wish for my child to live”—and the wish contained within them pushed forward his own desire not to die, his desire to live. When he looked toward his mother, she wore a faintly lonely smile…

“…I will do as my mother wishes.”

William loathed the words that spilled from his own mouth, yet he could not deny the relief he felt at the fact that he might still be allowed to live. He hated himself for such selfishness. He felt pathetic, furious with himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit down hard on his lip.

The tears gathering in his eyes seemed to expose just how powerless and incapable he truly was.

“Very well. Then—”

Princess Kana nodded and drew a small blade from within her robe before slowly approaching him. William instinctively tensed, but the princess merely crouched before him, made a tiny cut on his forehead, and immediately rose again.

She took the blood from the blade onto one finger and used it to write some kind of characters upon a human-shaped ritual effigy. Once she had finished, she cut the tip of her own finger as well and added further writing in her own blood. Holding the completed talisman,

“Now then, this should suffice. Suō, Kaō, are you prepared?”

“Yes, Princess. All is ready.”

The ones who answered her were no longer two foxes, but two children dressed in strange garments.

The people of this other world had no way of knowing it, but the garments were called suikan. One child wore layered robes of deepening scarlet, reminiscent of flame, over matching gathered trousers, while the other wore garments shaded in pale blue-white, evocative of ice, over trousers of the same style.

Clad in differently colored outfits, with their hair cut evenly above the brows and across the shoulders, the pair had taken the forms of young children, yet possessed an almost supernatural beauty. Even those who had been holding their breath in anticipation of what would happen next found themselves involuntarily captivated by the sight.

(Have the sacred beasts taken human form…?)

William too stared blankly at them, and only when they approached him did he finally realize that his restraints had already been removed. The children helped him to his feet and took positions at either side of him, then produced from seemingly nowhere instruments hung with numerous bells—kagura bells.

After confirming that Princess Kana had affixed the talisman to William’s forehead, the children bowed once and began to shake the bells.

Ring… riiing.

At the sound of the bells, Princess Kana began chanting an incantation.

‘With utmost reverence, I petition Taizan Fukun—accept my blood as offering—and bind these souls—’

As though responding to the princess’s chant, numerous thin cords emerged from the talisman with soft slithering sounds. Like living snakes, they danced around William, and whenever they touched the bells shaken by the two children leaping around him, they gave off a faint glow.

Chime, riiing, chime, riiing…

The bells were shaken in rhythm with Princess Kana’s voice.

‘Let that soul become my shield—and that body become my piece—’

Riiing, chime.

‘Let it obey my will alone—and challenge countless calamities—may this covenant be carved deeper than its very core—I petition with reverence—’

The cords gradually wrapped themselves around William’s body. With every shake of the bells, they grew increasingly transparent.

Chime-rriiing!

The bells rang out with a long, lingering resonance.

Clap!

Princess Kana struck her open hands together once and proclaimed in a ringing voice,

‘Bind!’

At that instant, the cords and talisman were drawn all at once into William’s body.

“Ghk… ngh…”

William’s face twisted in pain as he clutched his chest and collapsed into a crouch.

“The more you resist the spell, the more painful it will become. Well, do as you please. The result will be the same.”