Chapter 109

Stopping our attempt to board the carriage at his call, Ciel and I turned to face Elaine for a moment.

True to his role as the prince’s aide, Elaine seemed to be trying his best to maintain his composure, but the anxiety he couldn’t quite conceal was plainly visible in his eyes.

Recalling how he had guarded the Third Prince’s side the entire time with a pained expression, I answered him.

“What is it?”

At that, Elaine’s thin lips trembled slightly before they began to move. The voice that slipped past them was laced with desperate pleading.

“I know this is a shameless request, but please… no, I beg of you, please save His Highness.”

“…Pardon?”

Suppressing my bewilderment, I asked back. It felt as though he were finally pouring out a plea he had barely managed to swallow down and hold back until now.

Elaine’s desperation didn’t look like the simple, duty-bound loyalty of a subordinate serving a master. Rather, it felt like the desperate, reckless affection of someone throwing themselves into the fire to save a dying family member, heedless of the cost.

Elaine looked as though it wouldn’t even be surprising if he dropped to his knees right then and there to beg me.

“I beg of this of you. His Highness’s wound is growing worse by the day.”

“……”

Unable to give him an answer, I bit my lip.

Even if he hadn’t begged me like this, I was already dying to treat the Third Prince.

But what could I do? I had just been given such a firm, unyielding refusal.

Pushing aside my sympathy for Elaine, I delivered a realistic answer.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot grant that request. As long as His Highness refuses my treatment, I cannot simply act on my own accord.”

“I cannot act on my own accord.”

It wasn’t merely a political excuse about not being able to disobey the commands of imperial royalty.

Perhaps sensing that underlying meaning, I felt Ciel’s gaze shift toward the side of my face. He must have thought my answer unexpected. He had undoubtedly assumed I would blindly promise to grant Elaine’s plea without a second thought.

Yet, I had also learned something important from observing the Third Prince.

He was fiercely determined to uphold the convictions he wished to protect, even if it meant risking his death to do so. Though I had no way of knowing what kind of past lay buried deep inside his heart, I felt I had no right to carelessly shatter whatever had driven him to that point, regardless of its cause.

Of course, even before I could try, he would have undoubtedly pushed me away for good anyway… but either way, I wanted to respect whatever it was he was guarding as more precious than his life.

Even though my face-to-face encounter with him had been brief, my gut told me there was a clear, deliberate reason behind the choice he had made.

If I had sensed even a sliver of hesitation in the Third Prince’s resolve to reject me, things might have been different, but his willpower was more unbending than anyone else’s I had ever met.

“……”

At my answer, Elaine wore a look of utter desolation. Then, making one last, desperate grab for any floating straw, he asked.

“Could you not try persuading His Highness? If it is the words of the Goddess, perhaps you might be able to turn his heart.”

“No.”

I slowly shook my head.

“That is actually something I would like to ask you to do. Aren’t you the person His Highness trusts the most?”

“……”

Elaine hesitated, unable to give an immediate answer. It looked as though he were mentally gauging where he truly stood in the grand scheme of things.

“That is how it looks to me. Since he came all the way to this secluded place, where he intended to hide away and cut himself off from the world, and brought you along with him.”

“Does it look that way to you…”

Elaine couldn’t meet my eyes, his gaze drifting aimlessly. The shy, flustered look on his face reminded me of an older brother whose existence had just been acknowledged by his younger sibling, sending a faint, bittersweet ache rippling through my chest.

Even though I had only witnessed them together for a very short while, I could clearly feel that a great deal of history had passed between Elaine and the Third Prince, and that the bond of trust connecting them was profoundly deep.

“Yes. And it is also clear to me that you deeply cherish His Highness the Third Prince. Am I making an overly presumptuous assumption?”

At my question, Elaine offered a sheepish, self-conscious smile.

“No, hearing you say that actually makes me feel rather apologetic for having committed a discourtesy toward the Goddess.”

“I’m fine. If it were me, and someone precious to me were refusing treatment, I would have acted precisely the way you did.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

With a face that looked notably more at ease, Elaine let out a long breath.

“Seeing His Highness refuse even the Goddess’s offer—telling him she would ask for nothing in return, just let her treat him—was driving me out of my mind with worry… Though I had sworn to myself that I would follow His Highness’ will no matter what happened, I simply couldn’t endure it any longer.”

Elaine’s voice carried a weight of suffering I couldn’t fully measure. Though invisible to the eye, his insides must have been scorched black with anxiety.

Carefully, I asked Elaine.

“Do you know the exact reason why His Highness is refusing treatment?”

“That is…”

Elaine trailed off, sinking into thought.

Fearing that my curiosity might be placing an undue burden on him, I gently added.

“If it’s a difficult topic, you don’t have to force yourself to answer.”

It hardly felt proper to pry into such matters after having already flat-out rejected his plea. Besides, it looked dangerously close to demanding he spill secrets about his superior.

However, Elaine shook his head and replied.

“No, it’s quite alright. Because it is abundantly clear to me at least that the Goddess genuinely wishes to help His Highness.”

“……”

“His Highness… is not someone who easily lowers his guard or opens his heart to anyone. Ever since he lost the Imperial Consort when he was young, he has lived his life wearing a defensive shell, hiding himself away.”

Hearing Elaine speak as though he knew even about the Third Prince’s childhood, I realized just how long Elaine had stood by his side, guarding his boundaries.

And his remark about the prince living while hiding himself turned my suspicion that the Third Prince was merely acting frail into absolute certainty.

Having lost the mother meant to protect him within the cold, merciless imperial palace, the Third Prince must have had to master the art of dealing with people who approached him with dark, hidden agendas—whether to exploit his imperial blood or to eliminate him entirely.

Was that why he had adopted the attitude of someone utterly incapable of doing a thing—maintaining a demeanor that practically begged, “I won’t get in the way of your future, so please, just walk on by and ignore me”?

“If one fails to grasp the true intent hidden beneath apparent goodwill, one never knows when they might be destroyed. If he cannot decipher those inner motives, he simply turns his back. That is His Highness’ way.”

Elaine briefly explained the reason why the Third Prince had rejected my help.

Tiltng my head, I let out a wry, bitter smile.

“Did I somehow look like I was hiding something?”

“No, probably… precisely the opposite, which is likely why he acted with such cold detachment.”

“Opposite, you say…?”

“Because true, pure goodwill is virtually an impossibility in His Highness’s world. Since he felt he could neither accept that goodwill nor return it in kind, he had no choice but to refuse.”

I let out a low murmur. The Third Prince turned out to be an even more complicated person than I had initially imagined.

“Even when his very life is hanging on that choice?”

Elaine wore an ambiguous, troubled expression at my question.

“But perhaps, if the Goddess had demanded something else in return, His Highness’s answer might have been different.”

“Why is that? Is there some reason why His Highness absolutely must not become the High Priest?”

I had been wondering about that very thing. Why on earth had he so vehemently dismissed my proposal?

Everything Elaine had shared still left a few missing pieces I couldn’t fully explain.

Yet, this time, Elaine took a step back.

“That is not something I dare speak of casually.”

“…I see.”

“I am truly sorry.”

If it was something Elaine couldn’t bring himself to voice aloud, could it be tied to the Second Prince?

Despite having his very life threatened by the Second Prince, the Third Prince hadn’t shown a shred of anger or resentment.

There was no trace of a vengeful desire to survive just to pay him back. In fact, rather than letting unfavorable rumors about the Second Prince spread, he had gone so far as to hide himself away—abandoning even his own treatment and effectively choosing to give up his life.

What on earth was it that he wanted?

I tried to deduce the nature of their relationship, but an easy answer wouldn’t come.

Because it didn’t look as though the Third Prince was simply running away from the Second Prince out of a cowardly fear of death.

If anything, it almost looked like he was trying to protect him, rather than himself.

“At any rate, while I respect His Highness’s decision, I still want to help him as much as I can—leaving aside anything related to the church. So I will ask you instead. Please, turn His Highness’ heart around.”

“……”

“That is something I cannot do. After all, I am merely an outsider. But you can do it, Elaine.”

Elaine swallowed hard and gave a stiff nod. He seemed plunged into deep doubt over whether he was truly capable of such a feat.

Yet, from where I stood, Elaine was the only person alive who could fix this situation.

He was the one who had remained by the side of the Third Prince, who had grown up in bitter isolation and locked his heart away from the world. If, as I suspected, Elaine was the single solitary person to whom the Third Prince had ever truly opened his borders, the significance of their relationship was beyond measure.

If so, perhaps he really could change the Third Prince’s mind.

“Trust me. You two are family, after all.”

At my words, Elaine’s eyes widened in shock. Flashing him a reassuring smile, I let him know he didn’t need to answer right away.

“I’ll be waiting to hear good news. If you need any help, let me know anytime.”

“…Thank you so very much. I will never forget this grace.”

Bowing deeply at the waist to bid me farewell, Elaine hurriedly turned back, muttering that he had left his post by His Highness’ side for far too long.

Watching his retreating back, I suddenly found my thoughts drifting to the children at the orphanage.

Though we weren’t bound by blood, it reminded me of those days when we thought of each other as true brothers and shared an authentic, family-like affection.

“I didn’t expect you to turn down his request.”

Seeing me staring at the spot where Elaine had departed, Ciel spoke up. Offering him an open, gentle smile, I replied.

“Because I figured Elaine would be the one capable of persuading His Highness in the end. There’s no use in me going back there anyway.”

“…Is that truly the case?”

Ciel asked back in a doubtful, unconvinced tone. He didn’t seem to share my faith that Elaine could actually pull off persuading the Third Prince.

“Yes. I believe he can.”

However, I knew. I knew that Elaine would somehow manage to keep the Third Prince alive.

Moreover, there was a strong possibility that Elaine’s persuasion would trigger a positive ripple effect in an entirely different direction.

If his refusal to become the High Priest was tied to something involving the Second Prince, then forcing my own way to turn his heart might have been utterly impossible.

Because it wasn’t simply a matter of the Third Prince being afraid of a political power struggle with the Second Prince—there were far more intricate, hidden circumstances tangled between them.

To a man like him, even pure, unadulterated goodwill acted as a poison rather than a gift.

But if it was Elaine, his other family…

With the lingering hope that the Third Prince’s unyielding, iron-wall convictions might pivot toward a slightly different path, I turned on my heel and resumed my steps.