Insects, Lumberjacks, and Pirates [Part 2]
(~In the ~
“T-They ended up in prison j-just because they threw insects?” Emma looked at the Prince as she said that in a panicked, quivering voice.
“Emma, you don’t have to push yourself like that. You don’t need to pass it off as ‘just throwing insects’. I’m sure that the horror Emma experienced at that time was not an insignificant one. Emma is the biggest victim, even among all the young ladies harmed. I was so, so worried about Emma that I just couldn’t help myself.”)
“…”
“…”
‘I-I-I-I-I’m not pushing myself, you know, Your Highness?!!!
I-I was just shaking from joy at that time, though?!?!?!
Eh? Robert-sama… and Bryan-sama… EHH?
Y-You’ll be put into prison just because you threw an insect at a girl?
Eh? Ehh? Ehhh? Ehhhh?
I did think that they did and said a lot of immature things despite their actual age, but… eh?
The people themselves, too, probably only regarded that insect-throwing on the same level as a boy flipping the skirt of a girl he is interested in, no…?
Eh? But jail?
T-This other world… is scary!!!’ Many thoughts crossed through Emma’s mind during that short span when she was speechless.
“E-Excuse me… Your Highness? Those tailless… uhhh cough, cough… Those insects that Robert-sama threw… Are they really that precious?”
George began to have a bad premonition about the insects they had brought home without permission. Those insects looked disgusting no matter how he looked at them, but if they really turned out to be that precious, the Stuarts had to return them, even though that meant he had to steel his heart to persuade the crying Emma.
“…Those are the insects that the Empire was finally willing to give to our Royal Family around 200 years ago. Although I have only seen them in pictures…”
Seeing George put a serious face on uncharacteristically, the Prince was convinced that he, too, had heard the details about the insects from Emma. When George stuttered his question, the Prince thought he wanted to learn more about the hideous-looking insects that had tormented his younger sister while desperately holding back his anger.
The things related to the insects were not considered top-secret, but as 200 years had passed since they had first obtained them, fewer and fewer people were aware of them. The Prince relayed what the King told him last night to George and Emma verbatim.
“Those insects are a cure.”
” “C-Cure…?” “
The brother and sister said at the same time.
The Royal Family kept those insects, not for appreciation or collection purposes, but as a cure.
If they’re related to the life and death of people… then I have no choice but to return them. Haa, even though I finally trained them to do the eight battle formations… Emma thought reluctantly.
“It is the only cure for the disease that was also the cause of death of the Great Magician, Connie Moo. It is a terrible disease that causes subcutaneous bleeding all over the body, old wounds to open, and teeth to rot before dying from madness.”
“Connie Moo… You mean the one in that biography…?”
He was the character in the biography book that Lady Marina brought to House Stuart’s first tea party. He was a famous person who no one in the Kingdom did not know…
“Yes. The biography only described Connie Moo’s life until his return from his adventure to the East. But in reality, he contracted that disease in the middle of his journey. The Royal Family attended his deathbed. It was said that his end was so tragic that the King at that time trembled when he saw it.”
“A-And the cure for that disease is those insects?”
The King had warned the Prince to not say a word about the loss of the insects, the current only known cure for that disease, to others, so as to not cause fear and panic among the citizens, to which the Prince replied with a nod.
“Although that disease was perceived as non-contagious, it was written in the diplomatic records that the exact same symptoms appeared amongst the Imperial people when a large-scale famine broke out in the Empire a few years after Connie’s death. The disease had also made a reappearance during a plant hazard several years after. It always affects many people at the same time. The Royal Family finally concluded that it was only due to luck that Connie’s illness did not spread.”
