The Prince Is Dead, So Let’s Start Over Everything Again! - Chapter 3.5

“I have magic cast on me.”

As I was on edge, calculating the probability of a new hypothesis being correct, the 3rd Prince suddenly made a shocking statement.

“…Wh-what kind of magic?”

“Magic that dulls the wariness of others. It’s magic my mother devised to protect me. But it doesn’t seem to work very well on you, Miss Lurupel.”

“I-is that so? Haha… Th-that’s interesting…”

“It’s not that interesting. Magic is certainly useful, but it’s not perfect. It doesn’t work well on people who are extremely wary of me, like you, Miss Lurupel.”

“Wh-when did I ever… Hahaha… B-but is it okay to tell me something so important?”

I don’t want to know…

Sweat trickled down the back of my neck.

I had a feeling that something was going terribly wrong.

I just wanted to know what the 3rd Prince was hiding for my own safety. I wasn’t curious about his personal circumstances.

I was the villain.

Getting entangled in the main story is not a good choice!

“I’m telling you because it’s you, Miss Lurupel.”

“Haha… I might seem a bit special, but I’m actually quite an ordinary person…”

So, I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell me things you can’t tell others.

However, unfortunately, it seemed the 3rd Prince didn’t have any magic to read other people’s minds.

“My mother was a witch.”

The 3rd Prince started to unfold his story regardless of my wishes.

I felt like I couldn’t ask for anything more than to be able to cover both my ears tightly.

“A witch… Yes, that’s possible… I like witches too… Yes…”

I blurted out whatever came to mind like a broken radio.

“…Wait, did you say a witch?”

Then I suddenly stood up, surprised by a word that entered my ears.

A witch? A wiitch?

As far as I knew, all descendants of witches were female.

It was because magic flowed in the blood of witches. That’s why only daughters were born from a witch’s womb.

No, then are you really a woman?

“…No.”

“…I haven’t said anything yet?”

“It’s written all over your face, Miss Lurupel. I am indeed a man.”

The 3rd Prince asserted firmly in a clear and distinct voice.

But my suspicion didn’t easily subside.

It was a well-known fact that only girls were born to witches.

The 3rd Prince added an explanation with a long sigh.

“Although it’s very rare, sometimes male children are born to witches. Witches call such children ‘children of misfortune’.”

“…Children of misfortune?”

I found myself asking back with my eyebrows deeply furrowed before I knew it.

Well, the term wasn’t very pleasant.

No, isn’t it too much to call someone unfortunate just because they were born different from others?

Seeing my puzzled face, the 3rd Prince laughed helplessly.

And he explained that children of misfortune are called so because they can’t use magic.

“Witches who believe that special blood flows in them find it shameful that a child unable to use magic could be born from their womb. So they try to hide the existence of children of misfortune.”

“I see…”

“It’s also why the empire’s people misunderstand that only girls are born to witches.”

“I see…”

…Was there such a detailed setting in this third-rate romance novel?

Does the author even know about this setting? Isn’t it something that person doesn’t know?

I nodded slowly, feeling slightly dumbfounded.

The 3rd Prince continued his explanation, undeterred by my reaction.

“All children of misfortune are abandoned as soon as they’re born. But my mother refused to abandon me. So she was expelled from the witches’ society.”

“Oh my… That’s unfortunate…”

“That’s why I’m trying to learn magic.”

“…To return Lady Ramiere to her original life?”

“Exactly.”

The 3rd Prince nodded straightforwardly.

“Yes… I hope it works out well for you…”

I also nodded vigorously in response. I didn’t know what else to say.

I decided to put aside the question of why such a useless setting was included in a third-rate romance novel for now.

Other aspects of the 3rd Prince’s story didn’t add up.

By my common sense, I couldn’t understand at all why a mother and child would be expelled from the witches’ society just because the child couldn’t use magic.

Witches originally lived in places separate from ordinary people’s villages.

If they wanted to hide the child’s existence, wouldn’t it have been safer to hide the child deep in the village?

Wouldn’t expelling the child from the village rather increase the possibility of the secret being revealed?

Despite the risk, the fact that they expelled the 3rd Prince and his mother didn’t make sense no matter how I thought about it.

It seemed less like an attitude towards a shameful existence and more like…

Right.

It’s just like the attitude towards an ominous or fearful existence.

“Well… Um, I’ll be going then… Sorry for disturbing you. Enjoy your reading!”

However, instead of trying to resolve all those questions, I chose to leave.

Once I knew that the 3rd Prince’s secret wasn’t harmful to me, I didn’t need any other information.

Sometimes knowing too much became poison.

I didn’t want to know unnecessarily many things. That was a shortcut to living a tiresome life.

For a commoner like me, it’s enough to know only what’s appropriate for my station.

“Where are you going?”

But the 3rd Prince seemed to think differently from me.

He didn’t look like he was willing to let me go easily.

The 3rd Prince grabbed my wrist firmly.

Wait, didn’t he say it was rude to grab a lady’s hand carelessly…

Is it okay because this is the wrist?

I looked down at him with a sour expression.

“…I’m going to my room. Anna is waiting for me.”

“I see. But shouldn’t we deal with that thing above your head first?”

“That thing above my head?”

Huh? Is there something on my head?

I hurriedly turned my head to look around.

Fortunately, there was a large mirror nearby. I quickly ran towards the mirror.

Above my head in the reflection…

“Oh my god! What is this!”

A pale blue electric spark was crackling and burning.

“Ah! It’s hot!”

I reflexively put my hand on my head and felt a sting.

The moment my finger touched the spark, static electricity crackled.

And it wasn’t just ordinary static electricity, but tremendous static electricity like what you’d get when wearing woolen clothes on a winter day.

“It’s lightning.”

The 3rd Prince informed me of the nature of the static electricity with a very calm face.

“What? Lightning? No, why is there lightning above my head?”

“Perhaps because Miss Lurupel didn’t keep the contract?”

“What? When did I ever!”

“Hmm… Here it is. Article 12, Clause 1. Both parties must respect each other’s privacy. It seems the proof has judged that the contract wasn’t well kept.”

The 3rd Prince smiled as he pulled out the contract from his pocket.

Then he suddenly extended his index finger and started twirling it in the air.

As his finger moved, the lightning above my head grew slightly larger.

“W-wait a moment! This isn’t going to fall, is it?”

“No. Not unless I give the signal.”

In other words, the moment the 3rd Prince sends the signal, lightning will strike my head.