The Seventh Prince Runs Away from Awkward Situations Chapter 72

I looked up at Seya and Mir with surprised eyes.

“You came back? All the way here again?”

“I guess so. And since we have to go back again, let’s put some strength into your legs!”

As if there was no time to be touched, Seya pulled me again.

“No, wait a minute. I think I can walk on my own feet.”

After being dragged for about six steps, the will to stand up and walk on my own feet surged within me.

Because I thought if I stayed touched any longer, even my perfectly fine heels might be ground down.

“Good. Then where is the idiot who fell on the stairs?”

Seya turned his head looking for the next target.

“No, I can just walk.”

The child who was listening to the sound of me being dragged like a piece of luggage spoke in fear, but unfortunately, it only served to teach Seya his location.

Seya quickly picked the child up and started running.

“I can’t do that for you, so you have to walk on your own.”

With only the two of us remaining, Mir’s voice became even colder, but thinking that it didn’t feel bad, I moved my steps.

Mir, who was walking in silence, opened his mouth.

“Why do you keep saving us?”

It was a voice with a slight edge.

At Mir’s question, I opened my mouth.

“That is…….”

“Aside from it being because of the promise with Seya. Nobles aren’t the type to move for things like that, are they?”

Having been cut off mid-sentence, I stared at the back of his faintly visible head for a moment before offering a slowly, more honest answer.

“It is true that it’s because of the promise. I learned from my father that a promise must be kept. Still, maybe what you said is right, Mir. It might not be just because of the promise.”

Was it because we were in the darkness where I couldn’t even see the other person’s face, or was it because my body was so exhausted I couldn’t think deeply?

I calmly confided my insides as if Mir, who didn’t even look back, was a doll that would swallow secrets.

“There wasn’t much I could do until now. Everyone works hard for me, hides anything for me, and risks danger for me, but there is nothing I can do for them.”

“You seem like a paragon of model nobility, aren’t you being too humble?”

At Mir’s retort, which was ambiguous whether it was sarcasm or a compliment, I smirked.

“Because studying well and coping well as the successor of a Ducal family are different. As a successor, I am terrible. I always ruin things. Everyone just gets hurt. So, that’s why I came.”

In that one word, ‘so’, many clumsy things that the young Little Duke couldn’t express well were implied.

Because I needed proof that it was okay for me to be in that position, because I wanted to be helpful to Tollin and the people of the Ducal family even a little, and because I wanted to save someone like my father.

Mir couldn’t find much to say, so he listened to my words quietly.

Thinking that I, who chose the difficult path over the easy one, seemed a bit stupider than I looked.

But it was obvious that Seya wouldn’t think I was stupid.

Had about ten steps finally remained until the entrance?

Mir turned his body and looked at me in the darkness.

I stopped suddenly and looked at the child as if asking what was wrong as he blocked the front.

Mir was shorter than me, but since he was leading by about two steps, he could roughly meet my eyes.

“Promise me one thing.”

Since I waited as if telling him to speak, Mir continued his words.

“When we get out of here, don’t look for us again.”

“Okay.”

At the answer that came out without a shred of hesitation, Mir frowned without me noticing.

“For someone who followed us tenaciously all the way here, you answer easily.”

“Coming this far was because I thought it was dangerous. And if I disappear, a lot of things change.”

That must be true.

Mir nodded in the darkness.

Since the successor of the Piteos family disappeared, there must be chaos outside.

If the Piteos family was related to this incident, everything would stop, and if they weren’t related, private soldiers and guards would be scouring the capital as if catching a rat.

At the silent agreement, I continued to speak.

“And from now on, I might not even need to bother looking for you. You guys came to find me this time too.”

Perhaps unable to agree with this alone, Mir frowned.

“That’s because we owe you our lives this time. In that room. Have you forgotten already?”

“So it means if I help you first, you will come to find me.”

Mir racked his brain for a moment to say something more strongly sarcastic.

“That’s not much different from making friends.”

However, a remark as stupid and intense as the one I spat out did not come to mind.

“……You really are unlucky.”

Eventually, a childish personal attack popped out this time as well.

“I guess I just have to accept that I’m unlucky regarding this time.”

Fortunately, the opportunity for Mir, who was heated at those words, to say something rude again disappeared completely as the half-open door at the top of the stairs began to come into view.

It was the exit we had searched for so much, but the fact that no one was in front of it now drew Mir’s nerves more.

“It’s strange. He definitely told us to wait when we reached the door.”

Furthermore, if Seya had gone out on his own, the outside couldn’t be this quiet.

The speed of Mir and me climbing the stairs increased.

Creak.

Mir opened the door with a different kind of tension than when he first stood in front of it.

“Ah, I guess you guys are the last.”

Mir prided himself on having thought quite a lot about the dangers that would unfold when he opened the door and came out.

Enemies suddenly pouncing, another prison waiting, or, really a possibility as small as an ant’s booger, being in a completely different country.

But a situation he really hadn’t even dreamed of was waiting for the child.

A man was standing there.

With brilliant platinum blond hair fluttering in the wind.

Along with an intense shock that seemed to hit inside his head directly, Mir lost consciousness.

***

Among the collapsed children, only I remained standing upright without losing consciousness, looking at the man.

I looked around as if I couldn’t believe it.

In the wide space surrounded by stone walls, a neat altar and a small statue were placed.

My gaze slowly moved to the side of the door I came out of.

I gasped and swallowed a breath.

A giant statue of Great Emperor Sierra was looking down at me.

Through the window, the wide capital came into view at a glance.

This place was a tower.

A place that came into view whenever one looked at the sky.

Unable to believe the fact that such a holy place was connected to a place where children were kidnapped and murdered, I turned my eyes back to the beautiful Imperial Family member.

“As expected, it was you, Your Highness.”

“Correct. I thought your aide understood my words well.”

Step, step, approaching me, he looked up at the large stone statue and smiled.

“Seeing that you came all the way here, it seems maybe that wasn’t the case.”

I ended up collapsing as if I had been caught in a trap.

With me unable to continue speaking properly in front of him, Dito Abalan showed a playful smile.

“Ah, you’re finally here.”

Before long, Gude and his subordinates had climbed all the stairs and were coming in over the threshold.

“Gasp! I, I greet the 2nd Prince.”

Gude, who was coming in panting, bowed flat on the ground as soon as he saw Dito.

His subordinates who entered after him did the same.

“To think you couldn’t manage a single child and make them come up all the way here, you guys are truly trash with no use.”

“The children used strange tools…… Kuaaaaaaak!”

At his voice full of laughter, one of the men opened his mouth as if to urgently make an excuse, but the words could not continue to the end because of a scream.

Flames had swallowed his head.

Gude and the subordinates bowed their heads even deeper, unable to even scream.

I turned my head away from the gruesome sight that I couldn’t bear to look at.

Dito’s face, smiling broadly, entered my eyes.

The man’s body, whose scream had stopped before anyone noticed, collapsed.

“Urgh!”

The 2nd Prince was just quietly looking down at me, who started retching at the terrible smell of a human body and hair burning.

I, having barely regained my senses, looked up at him.

“Did you really kill the children, Your Highness?”

“Asking when you already know the answer is something only a fool does. The smart successor of Piteos shouldn’t do that.”

In front of his piercing eyes, I bowed my head, having lost my last refuge.

“Why? Why did you do such a thing?”

“I did even more things than everything you are thinking of. Because it benefits me.”

Does that become a reason for him, who holds all the wealth and glory in the world, to kill children who are barely living day by day?

As if reading every question in my eyes, he slowly approached me.

“These things are like pebbles kicked around on the roadside.”

Step, step, he was getting closer.

I felt like I would suffocate from the pressure.

“Things no different from trash that no one cares about even if they break or disappear.”

Having said that, Dito began to kick the children lying between me and him one by one, moving them aside.

“But, if you find out that there is something different mixed in among the pebbles, you have no choice but to collect them diligently, right?”

Finally, he reached in front of Seya and the small child who collapsed in a tangle.

It was the child who hurt his leg.

His face was already as pale as it could get, but such things didn’t seem to enter Dito’s eyes.

“Stop it!”

At the plea that burst out like a scream along with my breath that had stopped, Dito slowly put down the foot he had lifted and stared at me.

My body trembled meeting his inorganic pupils, but I did not stop speaking.

“He will die if you do that. Please, stop it.”

Dito laughed as if he heard something funny.

“I won’t kill them yet. They are such precious materials.”

As my head started to spin, the word the Prince had mentioned several times properly regained its meaning.

Materials.

Raw materials that go into making something.

“Just what on earth are you making?”

When I asked back, Dito seemed to think for a moment, then opened his mouth lightly.

“Starting from 6 years ago, children experiencing strange phenomena during the Tinas ritual began to appear in the capital. Not many. It was about one or two in a thousand.”

He continued speaking in front of me, who didn’t know what answer to give to the conversation where the topic had shifted.

“When they touch the Cor holy water, unbelievable things happen.”

Dipping hands in Cor holy water is the most important process in the Tinas ritual.

Among them, a very small number were said to emit white light the moment their hands touched the water.

This meant the person in the ritual possessed Manis, and it was said to be a rare case even among the very few high-ranking nobles.

Naturally, it was a phenomenon I had heard of too.

It was something my father had experienced immediately, and he used to tell me about it several times.

“But that is…….”

“Correct, it is an ability that shouldn’t appear in ordinary people. So it must disappear.”

He spoke as if it was no different from killing cockroaches because they were dirty.

“Why? It’s not like they committed a sin. They were just born that way.”

My voice gradually became smaller.

The cold eyes of the 2nd Prince were staring as if to pierce through me.

The cold eyes that stared at me in the drawing room of the Ducal mansion.

He tilted his head and asked.

“Why isn’t it a sin? They possess power that doesn’t fit their station. Daring to have God’s ability.”

“It is strange to be punished just for having it. They are also exactly like us…….”

Human beings.

A premonition that I shouldn’t continue the rest of the sentence sent a warning to me.

Looking at the boy who shut his mouth tight, Dito turned his head as if nothing happened and directed his gaze to the collapsed children.

“It’s just gathering sinners who have to die anyway and using them. Since they are hard to find, they make very good materials.”

I had a thought that he wouldn’t teach me what they became materials for.

I couldn’t know what important thing it was to make, but does he mean he caught countless children just for that?

As the faces of the children who laughed happily even at a single squirrel came to mind, something hot surged up.

“But these children are not pebbles, nor high-quality materials. They are living people.”

At my whisper, Dito’s smile deepened.

“It seems they became precious to you since you were together. You are foolish, resembling your father.”

His playful voice dragged me into the drawing room in my memory.

“You guys seem to think you can save something if you throw away even those trivial lives. In reality, only worse results come out.”

He poked at my insides and if I revealed my insides, he punished me without mercy.

With fear rising along with the memory, I couldn’t open my mouth recklessly.

As if he quite liked that appearance, Dito slowly looked around at the sprawled children.

“All of these guys won’t be able to make it past tonight. Originally, they wouldn’t have been annihilated like this. Who do you think it’s because of?”

When I couldn’t answer rashly, Dito tilted his head to the side.

“If it’s hard to answer, shall I change the question? What is the reason I came to this place personally today?”

I lifted my head which had been bowed.

Reading the shock and despair filling my eyes, Dito opened his mouth again.

“I told you this earlier. It’s all because of you. Because you did something useless, everyone here dies.”

His words were right.

No, maybe I ruined things even more than what he was saying.

The Prince said the children’s days to live were shortened because of me, but I knew.

If it were Seya and Mir, these two, there was a high possibility they would have escaped sufficiently if only the 2nd Prince hadn’t arrived.

If only the 2nd Prince hadn’t come, the children would have already leisurely gone outside and regained their freedom.

I ruined it this time too.

The children could have survived and gone out without my help.

Flinn Piteos bit his lips until his jaw tightened because tears seemed about to fall.

Nevertheless, he had to keep talking.

Because I had to buy time at least until people came to rescue us.

“Guards and private soldiers of the Piteos family will be searching for the missing me all over the capital. Please release all the children even now.”

Dito, who was listening quietly to Flinn’s answer, burst into laughter.

At his attitude as if he heard a funny story, I swallowed dry saliva.

Why is he so relaxed?

He didn’t rush to destroy evidence, nor did he try to run away.

Nothing had changed.

The captured children were still unconscious, and Dito was keeping his seat, fiddling with the pouch Priest Gude had left behind.

Even though it was clear Tollin knew what he did and was coming to the temple now, he was leisurely looking at the capital spread out outside the window.

He, who was tapping the window with his finger, suddenly turned his head.

And he lifted his finger and pointed at Seya.

“Let’s start with that tall guy over there.”

Only then could I realize what the 2nd Prince intended to do.

‘He intends to continue this crazy experiment.’

“Wait a moment! Shouldn’t you run away even now? Soon Tollin and the soldiers will come. You don’t have the leisure to continue the experiment…….”

“Those things dare not catch me.”

Dito cut off my words.

“Then why did you kidnap the children secretly like this? No matter if you are a Prince, if it’s discovered that you committed such a thing, other people won’t stay still.”

He looked into my serious face and laughed as if he heard a funny story.

“Haha, you say interesting things. Why would I fear such things.”

Then what was he afraid of to kidnap children secretly like this?

His words didn’t add up.

At the expression of the child biting his rolled lip, Dito continued.

“It would be faster to show you.”

When the 2nd Prince signaled with his eyes, one of the men poured water on Seya’s face, who was lying beside me.

“Puhak!”

Spitting out the water that filled his nose and mouth with difficulty, Seya opened his eyes wide.

“This damn bastard!”

And he immediately pounced on the man who must have surely thrown water on him.

The sight of the man clutching his struck jaw was honestly refreshing, but if he caused any more commotion, I didn’t know what the 2nd Prince would do.

“Seya, calm down!”

At my shout, Seya hesitated for a moment and relaxed the strength in his mouth that was biting the man’s arm.

“He really is no different from a beast.”

Dito laughed as if he saw a funny spectacle.

At that voice where ridicule was evident, I put strength into my body to prevent Seya from pouncing even on Dito.

However, the thing I was worried about did not happen.

Seya did not get angry, nor did he get scared like when he saw me.

I watched with held breath as tears welled up in Seya’s eyes, which always shone.

Even though no one around held Seya back, the child slowly knelt and buried his head in the floor.

Like a person who couldn’t endure it without performing the best self-abasement he could do.