MCDB CH 07

“That’s too much!”

Holding the poisoned bread, Helens trembled.

Was it because she was afraid?

No. Because she was furious.

“If you’re going to poison someone, at least put it in something delicious! At the very least, you could serve freshly baked bread!”

She couldn’t believe an assassination attempt could be this half-hearted.

The dry, rock-hard bread tasted as though it had been made with nothing but flour and water. If they had at least shown some effort by adding plenty of butter to mask the artificial smell, Helens might have been a little less angry.

If Carlisle hadn’t warned her in advance, and if her sense of smell hadn’t been sharper than a human’s, she definitely would have swallowed it.

Come to think of it, Carlisle was constantly targeted by poisonings in the original novel.

That must have been why he had thought Helens might be exposed to the same danger.

“I’m so sorry, Princess. I didn’t know anything…”

Marie, who had brought the poisoned bread, didn’t know what to do with her guilt.

“Don’t cry, Marie. How could you possibly have known that someone had poisoned it?”

Sniffling, Marie asked what she should do from now on.

“First, when you go back, say that you didn’t see whether the princess ate the bread or not. If they ask why, tell them that the princess was upset because of the rumor you spread and refuses to come out even when called.”

“Yes, Princess.”

She could get through today like this.

But she couldn’t be certain there wouldn’t be a next time.

Maybe poisoned bread would appear again tomorrow.

Or perhaps they would threaten Marie and try to trick her into bringing food while claiming it was safe.

“Hmm.”

While Helens was thinking about how to resolve the situation, Marie kept peeking through the bars into the cage and tilting her head in confusion.

“What is it, Marie? Is there a ghost in there?”

“You’re making jokes at a time like this, Princess?”

“Then what are you looking at?”

“That mirror.”

Marie pointed toward the silver mirror Helens had used to test the poison.

“Was that here originally?”

“Yeah. It was sitting in the corner.”

It was certainly an extravagant mirror to put inside an animal cage. Silver roses decorated its frame, making it look more suited to a princess’s bedroom.

…Well, technically, this is a princess’s room.

Just not one belonging to an ordinary princess.

The mirror had probably been placed there so the princess could check her appearance when the room was used as a banquet hall.

Helens had dragged it from the corner to the middle so she could see herself.

“But the mirror looks really clean and new. Oh? The cage also seems brighter than usual.”

Marie stared at Helens in surprise, only to become even more startled.

“Princess, your fur is fluffy too! Is the curse being lifted?”

“…No. I took a bath.”

“Oh.”

Marie nodded in understanding.

Then, a beat later, she suddenly looked shocked.

“H-How?”

“With my tongue.”

Helens pretended to groom her arm with her tongue.

She was joking.

“I see.”

…Why did you believe me?

Helens should have been happy that there was someone willing to believe even the most absurd things she said.

Yet, for some reason, she was irritated.

Anyway, why haven’t those two come back?

Roman, who had said he would return, had been completely silent even after a whole day had passed.

And Axel, who had talked about building a genuine relationship, hadn’t shown even the tip of his nose.

That Axel… Is he out playing somewhere, completely unaware that I’m being poisoned?

Of course, Helens herself hadn’t known she would be poisoned either.

But who had ordered them to poison her?

It was too little evidence to simply assume the duke was responsible just because he was the villain.

On the other hand, she couldn’t think of anyone else who would do something like this.

This never happened in the original novel!

Was it because she had started talking?

Was being able to speak really enough of a reason to kill someone?

Even after Marie left, Helens continued to worry deeply about the situation.

Of course, hunger was right there alongside her worries.

Roman had his own circumstances to deal with.

“Master?”

Galian was deep in thought.

He had been pondering ever since Roman returned from meeting Helens and reported the princess’s condition.

Galian had remained completely still, and Roman couldn’t bring himself to leave while his master was like that.

“I-I don’t mean to disturb your contemplation, Master, but the princess’s situation is rather urgent…”

Roman had only briefly seen the terrible state of the cage.

Anyone who saw that filthy cage and the emaciated beast—

No, the princess—

would feel sorry for her.

“What is troubling you, Master? Is it whether you should intervene in human affairs?”

“No. I’m worried about whether it’s really all right to leave that Axel fellow beside the princess.”

The curse had developed a crack, so there was no way the person who had cast it wouldn’t know.

There was a very high chance that he had already approached the princess.

No.

It was more accurate to assume they had already met.

“There’s a possibility that fellow will use the princess. He may be my disciple, but that boy…”

On the outside, he was a dragon.

On the inside, he was a snake.

It was simply a part of his nature that couldn’t be changed through upbringing.

“I’m worried he might try to take advantage of that poor child.”

“Oh, come on. Surely not. The princess is under the curse Axel cast, isn’t she? Surely Lord Axel wouldn’t try to take advantage of her.”

Galian couldn’t bring himself to answer that.

“I shouldn’t have sent him that book.”

“You mean the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast? Isn’t that just a children’s story?”

“No.”

That book contained hints about Axel’s punishment and a method that could allow him to escape it, even if only temporarily.

“He wouldn’t use that method to bully the poor princess, would he? I wish I could take it back. No. He can’t be that troublesome. Not my disciple.”

After muttering to himself, Galian finally ended his two-day-long deliberation.

“Roman, go and help that poor princess as much as you can. And keep an eye on Axel from time to time to make sure he isn’t mistreating her.”

“Yes, Master.”

And so, after two days, Roman was finally able to go see the princess.

Our poor princess.

Roman wanted to give the princess even the smallest bit of help as soon as possible.

And when he arrived, he witnessed a bizarre scene.

A boy with extraordinarily handsome features, beautiful enough to be mistaken for a sculpture, was brushing the princess’s fur.

And he was doing it from inside the tall iron cage!

The door was closed, so how on earth had he gotten inside?

“Professor Roman?”

Helens called out to the bewildered Roman first.

“Princess, I apologize for being late. I had some circumstances to deal with. But, um… who is that boy?”

“Huh? Professor, you don’t know Axel?”

At that, Axel slowly turned his head and looked at Roman with hollow, exhausted eyes.

“Lord Axel?”

Was this really the young dragon who was said to have such a terrible and difficult personality?

Galian had described Axel as the neatest and cleanest person in the world, but right now, he was…

“You must be Roman. My master’s secretary.”

The last time Helens had called for Roman and he had rushed over, Axel had secretly watched from nearby, so Roman wasn’t a complete stranger to him.

However, Axel saw no reason to mention that he had been spying on Roman.

So he calmly acted as though they were meeting for the first time.

Roman stared blankly at the boy covered in Helens’s fur before quickly bowing.

“I am honored to meet the great Lord Axel.”

“Enough, enough. You don’t have to be so formal. We’ll be seeing each other often from now on, so it would be troublesome if we attracted the attention of the other humans.”

“Yes. I understand that it would be troublesome if your identity were exposed. I will be careful.”

Roman nodded.

Perhaps the punishment really is working.

Axel seemed less difficult than he had expected.

However, Axel was simply pleased that his prediction had been correct—that his master would send Roman to help the princess.

“You came back, so I assume my master has finished making his decision?”

There was a saying that everything should be made certain.

Axel asked about his master’s intentions, and Roman confirmed that Galian had made his decision.

“Please thank Galian for me.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Helens, who had been listening to their conversation, was secretly delighted as well.

Since even Galian had agreed to help her, there was no longer any chance she would be dragged to the Mage Tower and subjected to experiments.

“Then, Professor.”

Roman didn’t know why the princess called him her professor despite never having taught her anything, but for now, he simply nodded.

“Do you happen to have anything to eat?”

“F-Food?”

Of course, there was no reason for him to have food with him.

But the princess was looking at him with such sparkling eyes that Roman unconsciously patted himself down.

“Oh.”

“Do you have something?”

“I don’t.”

Naturally, there was nothing there.

“Then why are you patting yourself down and getting my hopes up?! Are you making fun of me because I’m trapped here?”

Helens growled irritably from hunger.

Roman blinked in surprise before speaking.

“Would you like me to bring you something to eat, Princess?”

“You can do that?”

“Yes. It wouldn’t be difficult.”

Helens happily wagged her tail like a dog and asked him to bring as much food as possible.

Then she turned toward Axel, who was gathering the fur scattered all over the place and rolling it into little balls, and snapped,

“If it’s not difficult, why can’t you do it? You said you’re a dragon!”

Who’s the one bullying whom, Master?

Remembering the saying that half of one’s worries were needless, Roman tore open a teleportation scroll.

A golden glow wrapped around him, and Roman disappeared in an instant.

Helens’s eyes lit up as she watched.

When Axel uses magic, black mist swirls around him. But when Roman uses magic, it’s golden.

Helens finally realized that this was mana.

She also realized that mana seemed to have a different color depending on the person using it.

And finally, she realized that Axel mainly used that pitch-black mana for cleaning.

“Seriously, Professor Roman can bring food this easily, so why can’t you do it?”

Helens was irritable because she was hungry.

She had been happy about making a deal with a dragon, but he couldn’t even bring her something to eat?

“I told you. Summoning a spirit while using another spell at the same time is difficult.”

He had already used another spell while summoning a spirit the previous day, which had left him feeling like he was coming down with an illness.

If he used two types of magic simultaneously again, there was a high chance the magic would malfunction.

And despite all that, instead of being grateful that I came all this way, she’s scolding me for not bringing food.

Axel’s heart ached at the thought of being bullied by a beast.

“If I overdo it, I could literally die.”

Helens looked around the sparkling-clean cage.

The water spirits were currently covering themselves in soap bubbles and scrubbing the floor, removing grime that water alone couldn’t wash away.

“That’s exactly why I’m asking! If it’s so exhausting that you could die, why are you wasting magic on cleaning?!”

“Because it’s dirty. You won’t die from skipping one meal.”

“Then will you die just because something is a little dirty?”

“Yes.”

Axel answered firmly.

“Not you. Me.”

“…Forget it.”

Helens gave up trying to talk to Axel.

An hour earlier, Axel had arrived with dark circles under his eyes and immediately taken Helens back to the lake.

He had thrown the hungry, howling Helens into the lake and scrubbed her fur vigorously with the soap he had brought.

After returning, he summoned the spirits, tossed them the remaining soap, and ordered them to clean.

And as if that weren’t enough, even when he was on the verge of collapsing, he had picked up a brush.

At this point, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say his obsession with cleanliness had reached an extreme level.

“Sit. I haven’t even started on your back yet.”

Seeing Axel holding the brush with an expression that made him look as though he were about to die, Helens finally surrendered to his determination.

While she was getting her fur brushed, Roman suddenly appeared carrying a bundle of food.

“Does the royal palace not even provide you with meals?”

Roman felt sorry for Helens as he watched her devour the food.

“Oh, they do. But they put poison in it.”

“What? Who would do such a thing?”

Roman was shocked, but Helens and Axel remained calm.

Helens had become much more courageous after dying and coming back to life, while Axel simply didn’t have enough energy left to be surprised.

“I don’t know what those Mage Tower people are doing. They should hurry up and take me away so I don’t have to go through things like this.”

Helens grumbled as she tore into the bread.

When Axel saw crumbs sticking to her fur, he looked devastated.

“The bread smelled strange, so I rubbed it against the silver mirror and it changed color. They might poison my food again tomorrow. No, they might keep poisoning it until the day I die.”

“Then shouldn’t you escape right now?”

“No. Escaping has its proper timing, Professor.”

Helens calmed Roman down and looked back and forth between Roman and Axel.

“I’ll make them believe poison doesn’t work on me.”

“How?”

“I’ll eat the poisoned food and then immediately take an antidote. They don’t know that I have an antidote, do they?”

In other words, she intended to prove it by actually eating the poisoned food.

That is an extraordinarily foolish method.

Roman could only click his tongue inwardly.

But the dragon beside him had no skill whatsoever at hiding his thoughts.

“I’ve never seen such a foolish method in my entire life.”