Chapter 41
The Prince Is Dead, So I’m Starting Over from Scratch!
“Whatever made you think that? Did someone say something unpleasant in front of Your Highness? Was it perhaps my parents? Or the servants from the Rouphelle residence?”
I had a rough idea of what was going on, but I played dumb and bombarded him with questions like a curious sparrow.
“It’s not that…… I just feel sorry for Miss Rouphelle…… She nursed me back to health, and I haven’t been able to repay her kindness……”
The Third Prince answered hesitantly.
“Oh, come now, please be honest with me. I’ll give them a good scolding—ahem, I mean, I’ll have a good talk with them.”
I coaxed and cajoled the Third Prince with all my sincerity. However, he just fidgeted nervously without saying a word.
‘Could he really be this upset about not being able to visit me while I was sick?’
Just as that thought crossed my mind, the carriage gradually began to slow down. Beyond the window, a majestic white building came into view.
While the Third Prince and I had exchanged a few words, the horses had been running tirelessly, and we were now entering the temple grounds.
Soon, the carriage came to a complete stop.
The Third Prince, who had alighted from the carriage first, extended his hand to me. I took his hand and stepped out of the carriage.
“Welcome. We sincerely welcome you all to the Temple of the Lord God Ra.”
Several priests stood in pairs at the entrance of the temple.
They bowed respectfully towards us and then proceeded to guide the Third Prince and me to separate locations.
The priest who took the Third Prince away was an elderly man, while the one assigned to guide me was a boy with a very cute appearance.
He was a child with white hair and bright red eyes, giving the impression of a small, precious animal.
‘He seems familiar somehow…’
The boy kept sneaking glances at me.
His eyes were filled with anticipation. It seemed we really had met somewhere before.
‘Who was he again…?’
As I tilted my head in thought, I soon realized the boy’s identity.
He was the scammer who had tried to trick the Third Prince on the night of his welcome party!
“We’ve met before.”
“Yes, yes! You remember me!”
“Of course. Your name was…”
What was it again? It was a name similar to his face…
I hurriedly looked the boy up and down.
White hair, red eyes. That was unmistakably a hamster.
“…Hamstin?”
“…It’s Levin.”
“Ah-ha.”
A rabbit. Well, they’re both rodents, so I was half right.
An awkward silence fell between me and the boy. With a slightly dejected expression, he quickened his pace.
Soon, a door adorned with elaborate carvings came into view.
The boy’s steps halted before it.
“…This door is the starting point,” the priest boy said in a quiet voice.
“The starting point?”
“Yes. You just need to open this door and go inside.”
The priest boy, still holding my wrist, made me grasp the door handle.
His hand was as cool as that of a dead person.
What’s with that? The weather isn’t even that cold.
I hesitated for a moment before pushing the large door open.
Beyond it stood an endless row of pure white statues.
“So many statues,” I remarked.
The space filled with colorless statues had an eerie atmosphere.
I hesitated, stopping in my tracks.
‘…Doesn’t this feel a bit like a cult?’
I couldn’t shake a sense of unease.
I’d never actually seen a cult’s temple before, but for some reason, this place gave off exactly that vibe.
“…It seems they are statues,” the priest boy added, further fueling the gloomy atmosphere.
I wanted to go home.
“…If they aren’t statues, then what are they?”
“I cannot definitively say what they are, as they appear differently to different people.”
“I see……”
The state religion of this country was definitely a cult. I should have realized it when they separated the Third Prince and me.
Divide and conquer? They plan to deal with us separately?
I felt a physiological aversion to cults.
My mother always said it’s best not to get involved with strange people from the get-go.
I subtly shifted my foot backward. Seeing this, the priest boy pushed me inside as if shoving me.
“What are you doing?”
“This way,” he said.
I voiced my complaint, but the priest boy didn’t even pretend to listen.
I looked him up and down.
The priest boy didn’t look particularly strong. He seemed as fragile as a domino that would topple over with a single touch.
‘…If worse comes to worst, I can just step on his foot and run away, or something.’
Finally, I let out a sigh and followed the priest boy.
The moment I took a step, the door slammed shut behind me with a loud bang that made my shoulders jerk involuntarily.
“…I-It’s an automatic door, I see?”
My voice sounded frightened.
But no answer came from the priest boy.
“Deeper inside,” he said, urging me on as he passed several statues of unknown origin.
After passing a procession of bizarre statues whose shapes I couldn’t even discern—were they circles? triangles?—finally, a statue with a recognizable form appeared.
It was a statue in the form of a man.
“Do you know who this is?” the priest boy asked, pointing at it.
“Not really?” I replied, furrowing my brow.
“Think carefully. He is certainly someone you know.”
“Me? I don’t think so?”
“Look at it closely once more.”
“I really don’t know……”
I grumbled but scrutinized the statue thoroughly. The statue depicted a man dressed in what looked like a ragged cloth.
“…Is he from ancient times?” I ventured, judging by the poor quality of the clothing, which suggested someone from a distant past.
“What other impression do you get?”
“That’s all I’ve got?”
“Look at it closely again.”
“I did look closely……”
The priest boy kept pressuring me to contemplate the statue.
Even after looking several more times, I couldn’t get any other impression.
This was torture.
‘By the way, his vibe has felt a bit different since earlier…’
The priest boy was creating an atmosphere as if something would happen if I didn’t answer.
Trying to come up with a response, I said the first thing that came to mind.
“Hmm… He’s tall.”
“Is that all?”
“Hmm… And really handsome.”
“Is that all?”
I was starting to get a little scared.
The priest boy, with his flashing red eyes repeating “Is that all?”, now looked less like a cute hamster and more like a ferocious weasel.
What kind of answer did he even want from me…?
In the end, I blurted out something else at random.
“Hmm… He seems familiar somehow?”
“That’s right. This man is Ru.”
Even though I hadn’t mentioned anything resembling that name, the priest boy subtly steered the conversation that way.
Is he just telling me the answer he wants?
“Who? Who?”
“…It’s Ru.”
“Ah-ha……”
It was a name I was hearing for the first time.
I made a face that clearly showed I had no idea.
However, the priest boy paid no mind to my reaction.
He just continued his explanation in a dry voice.
“As you know, Ru was the first human loved by Ra.”
“Right……”
I didn’t know. But I had a feeling saying I didn’t know would lead to trouble.
“Even now, many citizens of the empire worship him. You can see this from the fact that the names of noble men still often contain ‘Ru’ or ‘R’.”
“Ah-ha……”
“‘Rouphelle’ is also a name that honors his will, is it not?”
“Ah, is that so……?”
The priest boy was forcing this knowledge upon me.
In a half-dazed state, I nodded.
To be honest, I wasn’t really taking in what he was saying.
Why did I need to know about a fictional religion from a novel?
If it were a real religion, that would be one thing, but the religion in this world was clearly an illusion.
It was nothing more than a story within a story.
I’d rather go home as soon as possible than listen to this nonsense.
But I couldn’t.
‘No, just why is he so strong?’
Because the priest boy gripping my wrist was as solid as a rock.
In fact, I had been subtly nudging him with my elbow for a while now, trying to show him how uncomfortable I was.
But the priest boy didn’t bat an eye. Even when I pushed harder, it was the same.
Despite being someone who could take down a group of bandits with a single wooden club, I was no match for this priest before me.
Maybe this isn’t a temple but some kind of acrobat training school…
Having lost the battle of strength with the priest boy, I listened to his story while tapping the floor with the tip of my shoe.
“You know what kind of relationship Ra and Ru had.”
“I don’t, though……”
“What was their relationship?”
I shook my head emphatically, indicating I didn’t know, but the priest boy ignored my response.
It seemed he had a predetermined answer in mind again.
Having no choice, I picked the most plausible option floating in my head.
“Their names are similar… so siblings?”
“Think again.”
“…Mother and son?”
“Think again.”
“…Lovers?”
“Correct. They were lovers.”
Are we playing Twenty Questions?
I had no idea what the point of this was. It would be more productive to talk to a wall.
The priest boy glanced at me as I let out a weary sigh and then strode forward.
“Follow me this way,” he said, stopping before another statue and calling me.
I didn’t want to go, but I felt compelled to.
That was the kind of coercive atmosphere that filled this space.
I approached the priest boy with reluctant steps. Without even turning his head, he asked me.
“Do you know who this is?”
“…Ru?”
The statue he pointed to wasn’t much different from the previous one.
Apart from the different clothes, the expression and posture were identical, as if stamped from a mold. Even the shape of each strand of hair was the same.
“Correct. This is the ‘Twentieth Ru’.”
“The twentieth?”
A strange chill suddenly ran down my spine.
