NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17
The Case of the Prince’s Curse and the Inn 2
Alexis received that pie to his face in a spectacular fashion, but his body stiffened up afterwards.
I cannot say that the air in the corridor wasn’t cold. Where there had been a cheerful and jubilant cheer of “Surprise!” earlier, there was now just a heavy silence. You could still hear the lively chatter of the dining room downstairs, but even that sounded as if it was coming from some distant place.
The situation is only further exacerbated by how perfectly the pie had attached itself to Alexis’s face, creating an exquisite balance for itself.
When the silence was finally broken, it turned noisy pretty quick because the people who had thrown the pie had noticed their mistake. In an instant, those responsible’s faces turned pale, and they quickly got to work removing the pie from Alexis’s face. The cream was stuck on there quite admirably, so they took out towels and handkerchiefs and wiped it all off apologizing the whole time.
His face remained stoic despite the stubbornly attached cream, and if you look, there was quite a bit messing up his hair as well. Even in such a state, Alexis continued to try and calm the perpetrators down, telling them not to worry about it, and that it was just an accident…….isn’t he a little too friendly?
“Alexis, is this alright?”
“Monette, they had no hidden motives.”
“Prince Alexis, are you alright? Are you injured?”
“Do not worry. It does not hurt anywhere.”
“Alexis, was it delicious?”
“I am glad you asked Monette. I would say that I would have preferred a more moderate sweetness. Having just eaten a meal, it was a little more sweetness than I could bear.”
Alexis replied so while wiping the leftover cream off his face. Under these circumstances, he sure is showing a lot of restraint. If someone were to make a mistake and accidentally pummel my face with a pie while lying in wait in my room, I would like to yell and curse out those responsible.
Is this the size of his vessel, or is he more forgiving because this is a byproduct of his bad luck?¹ Is he just no longer bothered by harassment that is only at this level? I am stubborn……but even I feel a little bit of pity for him as Alexis ushers me into their room.
The inside of the room is not that wide. It is like someone ordered a simple accommodation so the builders created something as simple as possible. There are two beds with a small table in-between them. There seemed to be a bathroom, but it looked like it was just tacked on as an afterthought.
Alexis immediately headed towards that bathroom in order to wash out the cream still stuck to his hair. I can see a little fatigue stuck on his expression. It’s right there next to the fresh cream stuck to his temple. You certainly would want to wash that away quickly. And while I was absentmindedly thinking about such things, Percival had gone ahead and started to inspect the beds.
He pushed down on it in order to see if the legs would break off or if the bottom would give out and turn into a futon. When he was getting ready to take a peek underneath to see if someone was under there as well, Monette couldn’t help but shrug her shoulders and say something from the chair she had taken a seat in.
“Aren’t you a little too worried? People don’t usually hide under random beds.”
“Just to be sure… Ah, were you also supposed to be part of the surprise? Unfortunately, the party is actually next door.”
“Someone’s there!?”
Hyaaa! Monette released a blood-curdling scream when a clown slowly crept out from underneath the bed. That is seriously scary. I don’t know what kind of surprise he was thinking of springing, but something like that would be seriously traumatic.
But that clown was completely apathetic to my complaints, and he left the room with a smile on his face. Then in a matter of seconds, cheers rose once again along with the call of “Surprise!” from the next room over. Apparently it was another failure this time. I’m glad they’re having fun…….even if I can’t fully believe this situation.
As Monette once again realized just how ridiculous Alexis’s bad luck manifested from this curse, the man in question returned after taking a quick bath with a towel wrapped around his shoulders. His hair was still damp and dripping water droplets. Even though he was wrapped up in the cheesy sleepwear that the inn prepares, those pajamas looked like first-class goods just from him having worn them.
While wiping his hair, Alexis tilted his head in curiosity.
“Have you found anything?”
“No, just a clown.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
Percival explained the “little clown” incident, but all Alexis did was shrug his shoulders and give a bitter smile. Apparently they got off pretty easily with just a “little clown”. I didn’t listen in to their talk in too much detail, but even then I could tell that they had gone through some issues in the past when it came to underneath the bed.
After watching the two and listening to them speak for a moment, Monette suddenly stood up. Alexis who had finished bathing did not look too terribly worse off, but he was a little pale and was slightly shivering. Upon inspection, despite how narrow it was it looked like just an ordinary bathroom, and only water came out from the from the spout… I thought that some bad luck had occurred in the bathroom, but maybe I was wrong.
Monette had headed to the bathroom to check it,
“Hm, it really is just water but…”
and came back after a few minutes.
It really was just water. The pipes looked old, but they were solidly built. I thought everything was fine until the freezing water struck me through the gaps in my armor making me feel like I had just stuck my hand in a bucket of ice water. However, when I went to Alexis with this, he just continued to dry his hair and returned,
“Hm? But I only got water?”
He was looking at me like I was the crazy one.
“That…wasn’t the water really cold?”
“It certainly was. What about it?”
Alexis said it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Apparently he had become completely used to such cold baths over the past year. Actually, it seems like he had gone even beyond that and thought that baths were supposed to be had with cold water. Monette did not know how to respond and could only stare blankly at him while thinking that he was truly strong.
I may need to change my way of thinking. Alexis is indeed badly hit by his curse, but in proportion to it, his adaptability is truly frightening. As a result of this trip, most of these events just happening due to Alexis’s own bad luck is just becoming more and more unlikely.
“So Monette, are you satisfied….”
Satisfied? Alexis’s words stopped around here as the moment that he sat down in a chair, the two back legs snapped with a loud *CRACK!* He looked quite pitiful, but he did not scream and dutifully fell on his back. Percival rushed over to help him.
I was about to say something, but before I could, loud cheers rose up again cutting off my thoughts. I glanced in the direction from where the voices were coming from–that being the wall separating us from the next room over. We were right next to a party venue.
It sounded quite exciting. Music followed by more cheering followed the sound of dancing, slap-sticks, boisterous laughing. How fun it seems and not in the least bit inconvenient.
“This will probably last the whole night.”
“I wonder if it will continue until dawn……..we might be lucky and get a full hour of sleep.”
Alexis and Percival both wearily stared at the wall.
I could see the sorrow wafting from their shoulders. I could not help but to sigh and take out a piece of parchment from my pouch. *sara sara*² I will draw a cute kitty-cat for tonight–one that is dreaming about fish. That should be suitable for the night.
As soon as I showed the spell to repel the curse for them, the two looked at me like I was an angel. As soon as I activated my spell next to their bedside, the group in the neighboring room that had been cheering and yelling until now moved their party to the bar as they had run out of sake. The effect of the spell felt astounding as the loud rambunctious noise from before quickly quieted down.
“Monette….”
“A witch’s whim. I cannot promise that it will last all night, and room service will be coming by soon.”
“Thank you Monette. It’s a very cute … … sea slug?”
“A Cute Kitty-Cat!!!”
“Ah, in that case I understand. They’re three cats playing together.”
“There’s one cute kitty-cat!!!”
How rude! And Monette rose up in anger.
She stormed out of the room, but when she reached the doorway, she hesitated for a single second. She turned back around to the two and spat out, “Good night!” before closing the door a little harder than normal.
1. The size of his vessel is a Japanese idiom referring to the depths of one’s kindness. This author really enjoys their idioms.
2. The Japanese have a lot more SFX than we do. This one is the sound of her smoothing out the paper.