Today, too, he sat at the table placed in the center of the room. Before him, however, was not his usual reading, but a dozen pieces of paper.
“Hey, Gowther—what is that?” Merlin the witch, the mistress of the hall, poked her head through a crack in the door as she passed by.
“It seems to be a puzzle,” the young man called Gowther answered without turning around.
“Hmph.” Merlin entered the room and peered over the sheets that Gowther had spread over the table.
“The Holy Knights were going wild over it, so I borrowed it.”
“Ah, that’s right, recently it has been popular in the castle town.” Merlin slid her finger over the pieces of paper. They were filled with all kinds of things, from word plays to number patterns, from easy problems that even children could solve to complex masterpieces.
“I don’t understand what is so interesting about this,” Gowther said, tilting his head to the side. There was no expression in the gold irises behind his glasses.
“I imagine you’d think that.” Merlin smiled. “With your calculation abilities, I’m sure you can figure out the answers at a single glance—”
“There was a man who said he couldn’t solve it for the life of him. He looked so troubled, yet when I told him the answer he threw a fit of rage. Why?”
“He wanted to find it for himself,” Merlin said with a laugh. However, it seemed Gowther didn’t understand.
“Why go through the trouble of being bothered? I understand people working hard to realize their goals. But where is the profit in suffering to solve such a thing? I heard there’s some prize, but is that what they want?”
“How should I explain…” Merlin thought for a moment with a faint smile on her lips, but eventually spoke as if she remembered something. “I know, Gowther, if you find them to be so dull and easy, why don’t you try making them?”
“Making them?” Again Gowther tilted his head.
“Yes. Establish a degree of difficulty, come up with a subject, and choose the hints. I think it would be rather interesting,” Merlin said. Right, she muttered. “While you’re at it, maybe I’ll have you hide my research findings in a puzzle.”
1
In the central tower of the royal castle, a small figure scurried up the stairs with frenzied footsteps. With closely cropped strawberry-blond hair, at first glance it looked almost like a boy. Yet the slender neck and thin limbs were unmistakably those of a young girl.
Her name was Veronica.
Having turned eleven a month earlier, she was the Second Princess of the realm.
“Father! I have to tell you something!”
Without even knocking, she burst through the door into the living room of her father, the king.
“What’s wrong, Veronica? So early in the morning…” From inside the room, which was plain for a king’s, emerged Bartra. His ample beard was amusingly disarranged from sleep.
“Father. Is it true that sister is moving to the royal villa in the north?”
“Ahh…” King Bartra’s face clouded over as he nodded. “She said she wanted to go to a quiet place because she has been in poor health recently.”
“It didn’t…it didn’t seem like she was that ill! Besides, if she’s sick she has to see a doctor or a magician!”
“Well, she doesn’t want to do that, either…Anyways, please just be kind. She is at that age. She must have something on her mind.”
“Big sister is going far away?” Suddenly, there came the voice of another young girl.
Both King Bartra and Veronica whirled around. A small shadow stood at the entrance of the room.
“Elizabeth!”
“Ellie!”
It was Veronica’s sister and two years her junior, the Third Princess Elizabeth.
“But it’s almost big sister’s birthday. I’d hate not to celebrate it…” Elizabeth said with teary blue eyes. King Bartra knit his brow in distress.
Veronica pressed as if it was her only chance. “Then at least shouldn’t you assign plenty of knights to guard her? Griamore said Gilthunder isn’t going.”
“That was also Margaret’s own decision. As for her guards, I’m thinking about that as well, so you mustn’t worry.”
“When will big sister be able to return home?” Elizabeth asked, sniffling. King Bartra smiled.
“That too will depend on Margaret herself…For now, simply see her off.”
“I don’t want to. I’m sad. Please, father, I want to go too. Please let me go.” Elizabeth covered her face and broke out in sobs at last.
Veronica spoke as well. “I must go too. I’ll bring Griamore and Gilthunder with me. Why shouldn’t I?”
“I can’t allow that, Veronica,” King Bartra said decisively.
Veronica faltered at the stern face of her father, who was usually so kind.
“You are the Second Princess. While Margaret is gone, you have to carry out the duties of a princess in her place.”
“But, at least Gilthunder—”
“Margaret said she doesn’t need him—so Gilthunder understands.”
“…”
Veronica bit her lip and looked down. Commanded by the king, and not by her father, the girl had no choice but to withdraw.
“Okay…Let’s go, Ellie.”
Pulling the hand of the still sobbing Elizabeth, Veronica left the room.
After watching them leave in silence, King Bartra slowly turned his back on the doorway. He crossed the room and stepped up to the window on the other side. He looked up at the beautifully clear sky and sighed deeply.
“Margaret…I’m sure it’s hard for you right now, but please bear it,” the king murmured in a voice that almost completely disappeared in his mouth. “Someday there will come a time when both you and Gilthunder will be requited…The ‘Golden Demon’ will surely save you both…”
What was it that the king’s eyes and their clairvoyant Vision saw?
Not a single soul knew the answer.
2
“Ahh! Goodness, I’m so angry!”
Veronica suddenly punched Griamore in the back as he walked in front of her.
“Ouch! Please stop, Lady Veronica.” Griamore looked back with a scowl.
Knowing full well that her blow hardly affected Griamore, who was training daily as a Holy Knight’s apprentice, Veronica began to pummel his back even harder.
“Shut up! Oh, father and sister Margaret are so stupid!”
“That hurts—it does hurt.”
“Sister, you’re hurting poor Griamore,” Elizabeth said, furrowing her brow slightly.
Veronica pouted her lips. “But I can’t let it go!”
“I don’t think hitting Griamore is going to help…”
The three of them left the royal castle and began to walk aimlessly through the capital.
If the king forbade it, there was nothing more they could do. The two princesses gave up on traveling with their big sister and instead decided to search for a parting gift.
“Let’s find something perfect together.”
“I know…But today isn’t the best day.” Veronica scratched her head and looked around.
Two days earlier, the Summer Solstice Festival had ended, and now a languorous air floated through the royal city. The ferment of the festival’s final events had still lingered the day before, but today, everyone was resting. Particularly at that moment in the early afternoon, it seemed everyone was napping.
Some stores announced their closure for the day, flower wreaths still on display. Other stores were cluttered with remains from a few days of celebration.
Almost all of the myriad of carts and booths that had been lined up in the central plaza were gone.
“Huh?”
At the northern end of the plaza, a large tent was being dismantled. The roof covering had been removed, exposing the structure. For whatever reason, several knights and soldiers were loitering around it.
They surrounded a small, aging man. It s
eemed he was frantically protesting, but the knights grabbed him and in moments his hands were tied behind his back.
“That man…He’s bad?” murmured Elizabeth.
Ah, Griamore said, clapping his hands. “That’s the owner of the circus that was performing there. He was arrested during that uproar.”
“What do you mean?” asked Veronica, to which Griamore somewhat proudly puffed out his chest.
“On the night of the Summer Solstice Festival, a monster escaped from the circus and attacked some people. It was dreadful. You haven’t heard about it?”
“How scary. That happened? When?” Elizabeth’s eyes widened.
“It was after dark, after you and Lady Veronica returned to the castle.”
“And…why do you seem so happy?”
Prompted by Veronica, Griamore eagerly explained, “In truth, it was Howzer and I who got that monster.”
“Wow!”
As Elizabeth gazed up at him with shining eyes, Griamore got only cockier.
“After I escorted you to the castle, I was wandering down a path—you know, the one close to the magical research hall, when I ran into Howzer. And we talked about having a bite together and started toward the plaza when…”
Apparently, a black shadow suddenly jumped out from a back alley and threw itself upon several women who were walking in front of the pair. Hearing their screams, Griamore instantly protected the ladies with a Wall spell, while Howzer flung the beast away with a Tempest.
“The monster looked like a cross between a black cat, a snake, and things I didn’t even recognize…It must have been some kind of chimera made by a magician.”
“A chimera…I’ve never seen one.” Elizabeth tilted her head.
“You don’t need to! It’s a monster made with demon magic!” scolded Veronica.
“Sister, have you seen one?”
“I haven’t…”
As they spoke of such things, the circus owner, flanked by soldiers on his right and left, was taken away from the plaza. I don’t know, I had nothing to do with it, they could hear him protesting even at that point.
“Well, well, that guy doesn’t give up easy,” someone said right next to them. Veronica and the others turned around to face the man who’d spoken.
“Ah, Sir Dale.” Griamore stood up straight and greeted him. It was one of the Holy Knights who also instructed the apprentices.
“Ho, Griamore. And Your Highnesses, are you shopping?” Dale politely greeted Veronica and Elizabeth. Despite his large frame, the toned one of a Holy Knight, his narrow eyes were smiling and gentle. A young girl about Elizabeth’s age who stood beside him clutching many books against her chest bowed shyly.
“Are you off today, Sir Dale?” Griamore asked.
Dale smiled. “Yes, because yesterday I was tapped for the whole day to apprehend that circus. It’s hard being a low-rung Holy Knight. I’d promised my daughter, and somehow I managed to get today off.” As he spoke, he looked at his daughter, who squirmed in his shadow. Her narrow eyes looked just like her father’s. “It seemed the owner of that circus was trading in illegal goods on the side.”
“Illegal goods?” asked Griamore.
“Drugs, tools that hold evil magic, cursed gems—items generally banned from commerce by the kingdoms of Britannia. Well, most circuses do it. This time as well, they fooled the eyes of the gate guards and smuggled in all sorts of goods.”
“I see. I went to see the performance, but…I don’t know if I saw anything that looked so shady.”
“Aside from their public show, they were offering exhibits in exchange for special fees and making black-market sales. A startling number of sword wolf pelts and fangs were uncovered. They must have taken out an entire pack. In addition, some people reported seeing a fairy clan corpse. If that’s true, it’s a disaster.”
“Fairy corpses!” Elizabeth clung to Veronica in astonishment.
“Please excuse me, Princess,” Dale quickly apologized. “That was unpleasant news for you to hear. When we investigated earlier, we didn’t see anything like that in the show’s cargo, so it could have been a mistake. Of course, we’ll be investigating any purchases that might have been made—but anyways, there’s nothing to worry about now.”
“Father.” Dale’s daughter pulled the hem of his shirt with slight impatience. As she did, the books that she had been holding fluttered to the ground.
“Oh! Are you okay?” Elizabeth knelt down with the young girl and helped her pick up the books.
“Thank you very much,” the girl said bashfully.
Elizabeth smiled as she handed one of the books.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yes. I just had my father buy it for me.” The girl looked up at Dale happily.
He, too, smiled and nodded. “The bookstore over there opened its back storehouse and they’re selling plenty of rare books. Guila likes books so much she just insisted she had to go there today.”
“Father.” The little girl called Guila tugged at her father’s shirt again.
Well then, Dale said his goodbye and left with her.
After watching them go, Elizabeth clapped her hands together and looked up at Veronica. “Sister, I think Margaret also likes books. I’m sure she’ll be bored all alone at the north villa. I wonder if a book would be a good present?”
3
“Veronica, Elizabeth, welcome.”
Elizabeth stood from the sofa where she had been sitting and smiled at Margaret, who opened the door and entered the living room. As for Veronica, she just couldn’t manage to give a proper smile and kept her eyes on the floor.
In her lilac dressing gown, Margaret slowly took a seat on the couch across from them. “I was planning on leaving tomorrow, so I’m glad I got to see you one last time.”
Elizabeth’s face darkened. “What do you mean, ‘last time’?”
Veronica’s eyes shot up. “Sister, please rethink this. Is it true that you’re only bringing three maids with you?”
“Yes, because they all have their own lives here. I’m sure a few of them will go to you and Elizabeth, so please be kind to them.”
“Why…”
Veronica was about to question her again but shut her mouth. She saw clearly that no matter what else she said, Margaret would not change her mind, so firm was the resolve in her eyes.
“Sister, here.” Veronica pulled five or so books from the cloth bag at her feet and brusquely placed them on the oak coffee table. “From Ellie and me. The north villa is in the middle of nowhere. We thought you might be able to pass the time with these.”
“Wow, thank you.” Margaret picked up the first book in the pile and opened it.
Elizabeth leaned forward. “That one! I chose that one! Aren’t the pictures beautiful?”
“Yes, they really are. This is scenery from the mountainous region in the north, isn’t it?”
It was a beautiful book of etchings. Margaret narrowed her eyes and flipped through the pages with her slender fingertips, but stopped and tilted her head.
“Hmm…”
“What’s wrong?” Elizabeth peered in.
“The pages are stuck together here…” Margaret slid in the nail of her index finger and separated them with a light crinkling sound. “Good, I just fixed it…Hm?”
Gently, a sheet folded in half fell from between the pages.
“Huh…I wonder what it could be.” Margaret opened it on the table.
“Is it a…puzzle?”
“So pretty—I thought it was a design for a mosaic.” Elizabeth also widened her eyes.
Just as she said, it looked like some kind of schematic made up of many small squares. But written in them were a host of tiny numerals, and next to the drawing was a header: Hints. Underneath it were a series of closely packed sentences with numbers before each one.
“Does this mean there’s a connection between the numbers in the sketch and these ‘hints’?”
Veronica looked closely as wel
l. “Ah…are you supposed to fill it in with the answers to the hints, with the first letters starting on the numbered squares?”
“What beautiful letters. It’s like a calligraphy manual. I wonder if it was made by the former owner of this book—oh!” Margaret noticed a sentence written in slightly larger lettering at the bottom of the page and read it aloud. “ ‘The one who solves it all shall kiss the witch and gain an invitation to the banquet’…”
“I wonder what it means. Perhaps you understand once you solve it.”
“Look, this hint! It says ‘the King’s three daughters’! Is that us?” Elizabeth said, pointing at one of the sentences.
“ ‘3, 25, 32 are the King’s three daughters’—wow, you’re right.”
“There are nine letters for 3…so perhaps ELIZABETH…25 and 32 are both eight letters, so we don’t know if it’s MARGARET or VERONICA.”
“Oh, but on 26, which is right after 25, it says ‘Large, ferocious wyrm,’ so ‘T’ for Tyrant Dragon. So it’s Margaret, isn’t it?”
“Right—oh, it says 20 is ‘The King’s magical power.’ ”
“Father’s magical power? Um…if I remember correctly…Vision?”
“ ‘Holy Knight Captain’—is that Dreyfus? Or Hendrickson?”
“—It’s Zaratras,” Margaret called out the name nostalgically.
“But I don’t really get the rest. What is ‘Name of lake’? Which lake is it supposed to be? How many lakes do they think there are in Britannia?” Veronica flicked the puzzle with her finger.
Margaret tilted her head. “Hey, Veronica, where did you get this book?”
“At a bookstore on Mimosa Road.”
“Apparently, they’d just gotten it out from the back of the storehouse,” Elizabeth said.
“Then it was probably made over two years ago—I wonder if it was sleeping in the storehouse this entire time.”
Margaret opened the book once again, to where the puzzle had been inserted. A beautiful landscape rendered with the fine touch characteristic of etchings filled an entire page: distant snowcapped mountains were reflected on a shimmering lake, and on a small island on its surface stood a castle.
The Seven Deadly Sins Page 6