Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

164 – An Elf of the Mist?

Reading is food for the soul.

One of those common, oft-heard sayings.

Some laugh it off, saying who even believes such a thing,

while others wouldn’t give it a second glance, saying to hell with such things,

but Kiana, the Imperial Princess,

happened to quite like those words.

Reading is good.

Quiet, still,

and not a particularly demanding task either.

A text that captured the nuances

of crowd psychology was especially appealing.

The reason she first encountered books wasn’t anything special.

It was because, receiving all sorts of education

for the sake of the successor competition,

that she naturally came to read.

Economics, geography, history, and so on and so forth.

She devoured nearly every book, under the guise of leaderly virtues.

It wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

Just tedious and

indifferent.

Still, she could not simply abandon it all.

Born as a member of the Imperial Family,

she had heard until her ears ached, of the responsibilities

one must rightfully bear.

But she was, at her core,

not a person of great ambition.

If this empire could simply be

governed well,

she did not particularly care if she herself became Queen.

With all her heart, she wished to pass the right of succession to her brother,

but if she were to do so,

how those who had, until now, trusted

and followed her would change, was

clear as watching a fire burn.

‘Your Highness, this here is my son…’

‘Oh my, Her Imperial Highness. These days,

among the young ladies, this style is all the rage─’

As time passed and she grew older,

the number of people

approaching her became countless.

Some, under the pretext of introducing

their son,

others, using the fashionable styles

among the young ladies as an excuse.

Among them, there were those who even

hired people to

keep her under surveillance,

but after her father immediately

made an example of them,

at least such things

no longer happened.

Yes, only “such things.”

‘…Tiring.’

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t exhausted.

She was forced to painstakingly study

subjects she did not desire,

and told that she had to uphold the honor of the Imperial Family,

she was injected with a refinement

and etiquette that felt utterly forced,

and every single day, in society…

An age could be spent

simply responding to the invitations that flew my way,

and even then, I couldn’t dare show any sign of strain.

One never knew what sort of rumour might take flight.

At first, I had desperately

craved something called friendship,

but once I left the Imperial Palace and entered the Academy,

I realized the Academy was no

different from the Palace,

and from then on, I simply

acted as I always had.

Well, truthfully, from a young age,

I had been expecting something like this, and had received

all manner of instruction and guidance on bearing myself accordingly.

I never once resented the fact

that I was of the Imperial line.

As a member of the Imperial family, I had

enjoyed so many things that others could not

so easily acquire, up until now.

Still, on those days when it all felt

too arduous, too exhausting,

she came to this place.

To this place filled with books.

The musty scent of wood that wafted

through the air the moment she opened the door was pleasing,

and turning each slightly faded

page was a simple joy.

At least while reading,

she didn’t have to pay mind to anything else.

The student council was strict in

their overseeing, so

no one dared address

her carelessly,

and without any special treatment

simply because she was of the Imperial bloodline,

it was a place where one could just sit and read the books they desired and then leave.

“Today… wasn’t it definitely volume 3?”

Searching the ancient oak

shelves with a careful eye,

she sought the book she hadn’t quite finished last time.

These days, she found herself

lost in genre novels.

The protagonist, a woman,

navigating all sorts of trials and tribulations,

such a predictable, trite story.

‘…Someone must have borrowed it today?’

She held this novel

in rather high regard.

She was one to rarely touch a book

once it had been read, yet here she was,

carefully opening the pages again,

rereading with devoted care.

Punish the wicked.

The most frequent passage in this novel, and

a message that, from a very young age,

her father, the Emperor,

had urged and urged again.

‘Wicked… wicked…’

Speaking of the wicked,

that man came to mind again.

Born into a noble station,

the son of a Duke, yet a man who refused

to shoulder his responsibilities.

To be frank, she

could have overlooked him.

Truth be told, he wasn’t

a person who directly harmed her.

He, strangely enough,

harassed only one common girl especially,

and his gang, likewise,

concurred with his actions.

Thinking back on it now,

it seemed he hadn’t wished

to implicate others,

but at that time, to her,

his behavior felt terribly malicious.

‘When I offered to help,

I should have noticed the girl’s

lukewarm reaction.’

In the end, it was all for naught.

Even if he was

Even had I kept it hidden,

the action I’d taken was, in the end,

an act utterly devoid of meaning.

‘If only I’d been a bit more careful… ugh…’

A heavy sigh escaped, and

just as I was about to open

another book I’d pulled from the shelf a moment ago,

*creaaak*—

The door to this library, where student traffic was

nearly nonexistent due to the student council’s stringent

stance on rules, began

to slowly open.

*

“…What brings the Princess here?”

“Shouldn’t *I* be the one asking that… considering I was here first?”

“…”

“…Just came to read, that’s all.”

Awkward.

It’s partly because I hadn’t seen her face

since that dinner invitation at the royal palace,

but also because we almost

ended up betrothed, even,

it would be a lie

to say things weren’t strained.

“What… are *you* doing here?”

“I wanted to find a book too.”

However, unless *she* gave some sign first,

I had no intention of doing so either.

She’s clearly trying so hard

not to show it,

the least I can do is not create distance myself.

“What kind of book?”

“A book on spirits… Do you perhaps know anything about it?”

“If that’s the case,

it’s probably in the 200s section.”

“…You know your way around here, thank you.”

“I’ve been here alone

quite a bit, you see.”

Why a princess, of all people,

would come all the way here alone

to read books, I didn’t rightly know,

but I had no intention

of prying into her private affairs,

so I didn’t ask,

and let it pass in silence.

200s, eh? The 200s…

Repeating the numbers

in my mind, I scurried

forward,

until a placard stuck to the top of the bookshelf, reading [200~], came into view.

“This is…”

“But this whole section

is filled with books that require

specialized knowledge, wouldn’t you say?”

“…Why are you following me?”

“Oh? I just happen to

have some business with this shelf as well.”

Saying so, she stuck her tongue out at me, as if to flaunt it.

It seemed like she was trying to be annoying, but…

I had absolutely no inkling

as to why she

was acting that way, and what’s more,

perhaps because of her looks,

it just came across as simple playfulness.

What to call it, the feeling

of an incredibly cute

kitten hissing at you, perhaps?

Though a red-furred cat couldn’t possibly exist.

“But why are you looking

for books about spirits all of a sudden?”

“…I have an experiment to conduct.”

“An experiment? I don’t know

what it is, but this book’s also good.”

“…?”

[A Study of Spiritology and its Foundations]

She pulled it

from the bookshelf

and handed it to me.

It was the book’s title.

The cover was cloaked in

a blue hue of leather,

and even for something purportedly foundational, the sheer bulk seemed immense;

the book’s thickness and weight

departed wildly from that of ordinary books.

A depth that, even at a glance, appeared double the size of most.

What if it only looked good

and the contents were shoddy?

The worry flashed through me,

but the moment I saw

the author’s name emblazoned on the cover,

that doubt vanished like snow in sunshine.

[An Examination of Elemental Studies and Their Fundamentals]

Author: Kartze (El)

That single character, El,

written beside the name

of the person presumed to be the author.

It didn’t indicate their

given name, but rather

their race, their lineage.

“El…elf.”

“That’s right, that book… they say it was written by an elf themselves.”

“It would seem to contain

more accurate information than other books, then.”

Frankly, rather than humans,

more intimately familiar with technology,

elves, who live so closely

alongside nature in all its beauty,

would naturally possess greater knowledge

about the elementals.

As it happened, I’d acquired

a remarkably credible source.

“Of course, and it’s *which* elf

that wrote it.”

“…?”

“…You don’t know?”

“I am, regrettably,

quite ignorant regarding the various races…”

“Even so, still,

How could you not know this person?”

“..Are they famous?”

“..The Mist Elf – have you never heard that name?”

Even within the Empire there are scant stories related to other races, so,

Naturally, the name of the

Mist Elf was also

Completely unheard of to me.

Just hearing it, it sounded more like an alias than a true name…

No matter how much I considered it,

If I had ever heard of

The peculiar name of the Mist Elf,

There was no way I wouldn’t remember.

As I stared at her as if I had

Never heard it at all,

She simply tilted her head

Backwards without a word.

Repeating, over and over, the phrase “Learning about spirits… and you don’t know?”

*

“–In that case, this matter will be dealt with thus… Your Majesty?”

“Hee~hee-hum~”

“Your Majesty, are you listening?”

“Ah, yes~ I’m listening.”

“..Haa, then how should this matter be handled?”

“Ah…for now, let’s just leave it?!”

“Pardon..?”

“For the time being, a matter that

Needs dealing with immediately has arisen~”

“….”

“I don’t have the leisure to

Worry about such things right now?”

“Understood. Then may I entrust this

To someone else?”

“Yes, well, that much is fine, I suppose?”

“As you command.”

“But isn’t it amusing?

That someone took the Black Shard.”

“….”

“Isn’t it?”

“..Indeed, it is.”

“..Find it, search every last corner.”

“Yes.”