You Died – CHAPTER 48.
“Your Holiness.”
When I lifted my head at the voice calling me, Raymond appeared in the center where he hadn’t been visible before.
“Your Highness, the Prince.”
“Are you feeling alright?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“It seems you had a meal with the knights.”
“Oh, yes. Your Highness, have you not eaten yet?”
“I ate earlier. I suppose the Duke hasn’t yet.”
As if what he really wanted to say wasn’t about that, he spoke again.
“I’m sorry.”
I blinked widely at his words and asked,
“Your Highness, why are you apologizing to me?”
“You collapsed because I asked you to do something beyond your limits.”
If it weren’t for Raymond, I would never have had the chance to test my own strength. So there was no reason for him to feel sorry.
“No, not at all. I’m the one who should be grateful.”
“Are you busy at the moment?”
I shook my head as I looked back at Cardin, who had already started eating.
“I’m fine. Please, go ahead.”
“Your Holiness, do you perhaps not know how to use your sacred power properly?”
I hesitated, then spoke honestly to Raymond, who seemed to understand me perfectly.
“Yes. It’s my first time.”
“I’ve been thinking about why you collapsed after using your sacred power.”
I wondered if he was going to say I had overexerted myself.
“…I thought perhaps your sacred power went out of control at that moment.”
“Out of control?”
I had never heard of sacred power going out of control.
“Since the Kingdom of Nicholas once had many wizards, I guessed it might be similar to how magical power behaves.”
I remembered hearing as a child that there used to be a Mage Tower in the kingdom.
“One of the reasons wizards disappeared is said to be magical power overflow.”
I looked at him silently, as if to ask him to continue.
Raymond continued his explanation.
Wizards were people who sought to grow their own power. They would draw out the latent mana within themselves, but if their bodies couldn’t handle it, they would experience an overflow.
It strangely applied to my own situation.
I had thought about it myself.
The power flowing inside me was more than my vessel could handle.
Raymond seemed well-informed about magical overflow. He even explained the burning pain in the heart that those who overflowed experienced.
I had felt the same symptoms.
“…Your Highness, you know a lot about overflow.”
Even though the wizards had disappeared and the Mage Tower likely no longer existed, he knew the details as if he had witnessed it firsthand.
“My older brother died from a magical overflow. Of course, he didn’t die from a single overflow. It happened many times within his body.”
When I widened my eyes, he smiled bitterly.
I had thought wizards no longer existed.
Perhaps sensing my thoughts, Raymond spoke again.
“This is something only I, among the royal family, know. Well, now that the only wizard I knew has died, I suppose there are none left.”
“Then your brother…”
“Yes. He wanted to have immense magical power.”
The desire to have power. I had felt that, and I still did.
“Just in case, Your Holiness, it would be best if you didn’t overexert yourself either.”
He shared something that no one else knew, probably out of guilt for yesterday’s incident.
It was my choice, after all.
If this is like a magical overflow, could I live without pushing myself too hard, following his advice?
I wasn’t afraid of death, but I couldn’t die until I finished what I had to do, so I nodded.
“Yes, thank you.”
Raymond looked at me and smiled bitterly.
“Your Holiness, you have the same expression as my brother did.”
“Excuse me?”
Footsteps came from behind, and Raymond’s gaze shifted over my shoulder.
“You were supposed to go pick flowers with the Duke.”
“Oh, yes.”
He changed the subject and playfully raised his voice.
“Weren’t you supposed to go with me originally?”
Hearing that, I remembered the note I was holding.
If they came today, it might end up being just Cardin and me.
“Then, Your Highness, will you come along as well?”
“Is that alright?”
“I’d be grateful.”
“I don’t think anyone else would be grateful besides Your Holiness.”
I followed Raymond’s gaze and turned sideways. Cardin had quietly approached us.
“Are you ready to go?”
There wasn’t much to prepare, but I nodded.
“Yes.”
“Oh, Duke. Your Holiness asked me to go with you. Is that alright?”
Cardin looked down at me, and I blinked and looked away.
“Yes. I thought it would be better if the Prince came along too.”
“…Very well.”
They were not the three walking across the barren land.
Alec, who had returned from the village, had joined them. I had asked a Ferdián knight to fetch Alec.
Since Alec was a spy for Pavivan, if he hadn’t been by my side when they came, it could have caused a loss of trust.
Fortunately, Alec understood my intentions immediately.
“So, who’s coming?”
“I don’t know that yet.”
He leaned down and whispered to me.
“Priest Philip sent a messenger bird.”
I closed my eyes briefly and opened them. He straightened up.
“Why are they coming now after leaving only Your Holiness because they were scared?”
I smiled faintly and looked ahead.
“Perhaps they heard that the carriage caught fire on the way here.”
Raymond understood quickly.
“Well, if it makes Your Holiness’s return easier, then so be it.”
Unlike yesterday, the wind was calm. There was no scent or presence of monsters now.
It was as if the period when monsters erupted from the ground had ended, like a winter sleep.
I suddenly wondered. They said they came on expeditions twice a year.
“Did those who came to pick flowers only come during the time when monsters appeared?”
Raymond and Cardin, noticing my curiosity, fell silent for a moment.
“Of course, even during times without monsters, people must have come.”
Alec answered my question.
“Did all of them have injuries from monsters?”
“Not all. Some were left with only bones, and some were gravely injured by monsters.”
If the flowers didn’t exist, they might have wandered, starved for days, and died from exhaustion.
They must have thought the same, and I didn’t think much of it either.
We walked on like that. Without even expecting to find anything.
Those walking beside me felt the same.
We passed the spot we had stood yesterday, stepping on the damp earth left by yesterday’s rain.
“It’s better if we split up and search.”
Cardin scanned the wide land at Raymond’s suggestion.
“Agreed.”
“Your Holiness, will you go with me?”
Raymond asked. I looked at Alec and Cardin, then slowly nodded.
“Yes. I will.”
Cardin and Alec seemed somewhat displeased, but I walked ahead with Raymond.
“Your Highness, have you ever heard of the God’s Flower?”
“I only know what Your Holiness knows. The Duke told me as well.”
It sounded as though he hadn’t been interested before.
He said he came here out of duty, to kill monsters and find magical stones.
Even the previous guardian of this place had not told him about it.
“The first person who found a dead body here was the Duke himself.”
“How so?”
“He heard a story from an old woman worried about her son who didn’t return from the village.”
From that single story, he wandered through this vast place alone.
That was the first time.
Every time he came here afterward, he tried to find flowers but never did.
In truth, we had already passed the area where the monsters had erupted.
“Is it not difficult?”
My legs trembled, but I smiled and nodded.
“I’m fine.”
For a moment, Raymond stopped walking.
“Your Highness?”
“Perhaps… am I the only one who can see that flower?”
