That evening, we decided to go visit the village to stay. The villagers were mostly asleep, so we decided to sleep as well.
We placed our camps not too far from the village, at the top of a hill where we could see the entire village. The boys with the boys, and the girls with the girls.
The reason we chose this spot is so that we can see the entire village all at once. It was also distant enough from the village that we got to have our own privacy.
We switched guards every now and then during the night, and we used my pocket watch from Xyphon as the timer. My turn was the second, and I woke up being super sleepy since I haven't even slept for that long.
I stepped outside and sat by the campfire with a really sleepy face, all alone.
My hair is messed up, and I was not wearing my armour. Thanks to the campfire, I am not cold.
I was planning to stay awake while reading a novel, but before I even took the book out, I sensed an incoming.
"Psst! Rize!"
I can hear a whisper calling me from the side. I turned my eyes lazily.
The night was dim, but suddenly it felt like the sun had appeared in front of my eyes. My eyes were opened wide, I got filled with energy and unconsciously stood up when I saw the girl in pajamas in front of me.
Lescia is wearing her pajamas… and her hair is no longer tied.
She is being so casual now…
"P-Princess..."
"Come on, just call me Lescia! I can't sleep, so… want to chat with me?"
"S-Sure, yeah!"
I said slightly excitedly, which got her to chuckle. I felt embarrassed, but it doesn't look like it had any bad effects.
She sat down with me by the campfire, and we continued our talk that was interrupted from the carriage.
She told me a lot more about her life at the castle, like how her mother wants her to study magic, but her father wants her to study sword arts. She ended up only partially learning magic, but she couldn't do sword arts well due to her weak physical condition.
She also told me now that her mother is healed, her father and mother sparred almost every week. But, since the queen had not held a sword in a long time, she can only taste bitter defeat every time.
"If I remember correctly, last week was my mother's 459th defeat… And I think that number is still increasing."
To think… that the queen would be this barbaric…
Challenging the king… the damn king, to a sword fight, when you-yourself has not seen a single practice for many years…
"W-Wow... At least your mother isn't giving up."
The two of us continued talking, and I decided to guard for the whole night. No one else woke up while I talked with Lescia, even though we talked a little too loud sometimes.
"Are you... close with your cousins?"
I asked as I turned towards my tent, where Emily and Fran are still sleeping. She noticed my gaze, and she quickly pondered.
"Hmm? Ah, kind of. It's just that because me and Fran are the same age, that I am closer to her than her older brothers."
"Oh... I see. What about..."
"W-What? What is it?"
She might call me blind for this, but whatever. I want to know.
"Do you have like… a brother? Or sister? Sorry, I didn't exactly follow..."
Hearing my question, she paused a little bit before laughing silently.
The way she laughs, it's because she doesn't want to be loud, she holds it so it doesn't get loud, which ends up with a very cute gag of reflex.
I think I'm in heaven…
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... It's been so long that people don't know stuff about me. No, I don't have any siblings. What about you, Rize?"
She turned the question to me, and I was quite relieved.
"W-Well, I have a sister back home. I haven't seen her in two years."
"R-Really?? What about your parents?"
"The same. I left my home two years ago."
"... And you came to Mazino?"
"... Kind of? I don't know, I lost a little bit of my memories when I travelled."
She suddenly looked at me with a questioning look.
Oh, right... The eyes of truth.
Oops.
"I can see that you are lying. Literally."
"That simply means I don't want to share it."
"Rize, why did you leave your home?"
"I was... having a fight."
She immediately read my words again.
"Not with your parents. Then with who?"
"Eh... Someone..."
She tried to read me, but I said too few words for her to find anything. She kept on searching, and possibly won't stop unless I answer her.
"Lescia, I don't--"
"How has your life been ever since coming to Mazino?"
"I-It's been... Great, I enjoyed it a lot."
"You are both enjoying it and despising it. Why?"
"... I..."
I turned to her once more, and I can see that she is very ready to read me again the next time I open my mouth.
I let out a sigh and lightly moved her face away with my hand.
"Wha--"
"Stop it, please. I have some parts that I want to keep a secret too, you know."
"Hmph! Playing secrets is no fun."
"Really? Then can you even handle my secrets?"
"Try me."
I pondered over what to tell her, and I finally knew what to say.
"I haven't wiped my butt."
"... That's a lie. I can read that."
"It's not a lie. How can you tell? It's a secret."
"I can read it with my eyes?"
"Have your eyes ever been wrong? It might be wrong now."
"It has never been wrong!"
The two of us then continued talking nonsense until the morning came. When the sun got up, the knights who were looking for the princess found her sleeping on my shoulder, while I had my head above her head.
The two of us went to sleep after we got tired from all those random chats last night, and all of the sudden she placed her head on my shoulder and fell asleep. I just placed my above hers and fell asleep too.
We ended up just sleeping right in front of the already down campfire, and this scene looked very intimate for some.
What's funnier, was that she drooled on my clothes.
The knights woke the other adventurers up and asked them about this situation. Fran simply said to leave them like this.
While Fran and the others went to the village and took a bath, I slowly woke up and realized it's already daytime.
I turned to Lescia, still on my shoulder. I can see her drool on my clothes, but I didn't mind.
I was about to wake her up, that's when I felt something was wrong.
DEG!!!!
My senses were very keen… always. I can sense a million things that happened from a million miles away.
And yet… I couldn't sense something that was already right in front of me.
There is something… grim, inside her.
Her chest… her heart. A form of darkness.
I placed my hand on her forehead, and I realized the grim truth behind her smiles.
She may be smiling, but she was hiding something inside. She was able to hide the pain almost perfectly using her smile, but somehow I can see through it.
I've been to many incidents in Xyphon, and learned about that magic for so long. But even after seeing it and combating it, I still didn't sense it when it was right in front of me.
A curse.
A really… powerful and long lasting one.
Using my senses, I found the curse that was placed on her heart. It's not decaying her heart or anything, it's just a continuous form of poisoning that wasn't destructive.
A form of pain… that doesn't kill you. But only there, simply to torture.
She was living her entire life with her heart continuously in pain. And it's not even a weak curse, which means the force of pain she was having… was insanely strong.
This is… torture. At its finest.
What the fuck…
The strength of the curse is no joke… It's at the caliber of a really deadly one.
I checked its abilities, and I noticed what the curse does. It's like being stabbed through your heart multiple times, or being smacked continuously by a strong muscular man right on your chest.
Basically, having your heart destroyed, every certain period of time. The pain that doesn't kill, and is simply there to torture.
Was that why she was so humble…?
Even though she is a princess, she was not spoiled at all. She is tough, and there were plenty of reasons for it.
She is very strong… strong enough to hold such a pain for her entire life…
To live, and survive until the age of 19.
Fortunately, this is the end of the line for the curse.
It might be an extremely powerful one, but it's not unhealable.
Not in the face of an Emperor tier healing magic.
I placed my thumb on her forehead and my magic began flooding in. The curse was placed on her chest, and it is fighting back my magic. I can see she got hurt quite a bit from her slight growl as she sleeps.
VWOOOM!!!
I did it more carefully, and the curse slowly disappeared.
I feel horrible for letting this curse walk away when it was right in front of me… she was with me the entire night yesterday, and she was having this pain with her when she was still talking and laughing with me…
No more. This is the time her pain will be removed.
The moment her life becomes enjoyable.
The best of her life.
"Lescia, wake up. It's already daytime."
Once the curse was gone, I poked her head to wake her up. She slowly opened her eyes, and she looked very beautiful, even when she was half awake.
"Hnn? Oh..."
Lescia lifted her head from my shoulder and wiped her drool. Realizing that she drooled on my clothes, she moved away from me and panicked quickly.
"Ah!! Sorry about-"
"Forget it, I have tons of clothes. I will go to the village and have a bath like the others. Wanna join me?"
I asked her without giving her a chance to say anything, and she nodded awkwardly. We both stood up and headed downhill to the village.
But before she followed me, she stopped for a second.
Lescia placed her hand on her chest, as if feeling that something was wrong. Her face looked really confused, but then she turned to me waiting for her at the edge of the hill.
"What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing!"
She replied happily with a smile and followed me to the village.