Chapter 8
Lilith and the Prince
“Kawahara!”
“Wh—what do we do?!”
The three of them stood frozen, but standing there wouldn’t change anything. The moment they snapped back to their senses, they bolted straight for the janitor’s room.
DADADADADADA!!
SLAM! CRASH! BAM!
“Haah… haah… old man!!”
“What do we do?! Kawahara’s been taken!!”
“Who the hell is this Lilith? You’d better not tell me he’s hurt!”
The three stormed in, faces twisted in fury.
But without saying a word, the old janitor stood up, yanked the jacket off the basket, and scattered the cherry blossoms inside over the unconscious beautiful boy.
The pink petals fluttered through the air.
“Grant your blessing,” the old man murmured — words that didn’t suit his gruff tone at all.
Then the petals began to glow.
The light filled the room until it was almost blinding, before being absorbed — one by one — into the boy’s body.
The three in the entryway could only gape in speechless astonishment.
Zarel — the tall, silent man — leaned over the boy’s face with concern, while the self-proclaimed prince yawned loudly and sipped his juice.
“…Ugh… nnh…”
Slowly, the boy’s long red eyelashes trembled, and his mismatched eyes — one red, one gray — blinked open.
He looked around dazedly, blinked several times, then suddenly gasped and sat up.
“Prince! …ah—!”
His upper body swayed unsteadily, and Zarel quickly caught him by the shoulders.
“You’ve finally come to your senses? What possessed you to push yourself so far? That’s not like you,” the old man asked gently.
“That’s because…” the boy murmured, lowering his eyes. Then, as he glanced around the room, he finally noticed Ai and her friends.
“Ah! You—why are you here?! Don’t tell me—”
“That’s right!” Yoko leapt forward onto the tatami, getting right in his face.
“We got dragged into this mess! Kawahara was kidnapped — mistaken for someone else!”
“Kidnapped?! By who?”
“They said… Lilith? Yeah, that was the name! What are you going to do about it? Is he even alive?!”
The boy’s face turned pale.
Ai didn’t have the heart to scold him, so she turned a sharp glare on the old man instead.
“Hey, old man! You’d better start explaining what’s going on! What the hell does any of this mean? Why did Kawahara have to get taken?!”
“Yeah, we saw it happen right in front of us! Some monster snatched him away, and I couldn’t do anything! Damn it—!”
Tears welled up in Yoshii’s eyes, and he began to cry quietly, his shoulders shaking.
He’d been too shocked to even cry until now.
“Yoshii… there’s nothing we could’ve done… hic hic…”
Ai started crying too, and soon Yoko followed. The three of them finally broke down in helpless sobs.
“Ugh, enough already! Stop that noise! Fine, fine, I’ll tell you!
Prince, explain the situation. They’re already involved, like it or not.”
The old man plugged his ears in annoyance, but the prince just made an even more sour face and turned away.
“Why should I have to explain?
Lilith! This whole mess is because of your lack of training! You tell them!”
“Wait—Lilith?”
The beautiful boy he was scolding timidly raised his head.
“I’m terribly sorry… my name is Lilith.”
“Lilith?! But that’s… a girl’s name—”
Ai clapped a hand over her mouth mid-sentence. Right, Yoshii’s name, too — Haruka — could be read like a girl’s name.
Still, the prince smirked cruelly.
“Hahaha! That’s right, isn’t it? A cursed orphan named after a witch — how fitting!
With that freakish red hair and mismatched eyes, no wonder you were thrown away as a baby! How someone like you became my attendant, I’ll never understand.”
The tension in the room spiked.
Boiling. Fuming.
What. A. Jerk.
“HEY, YOU!!”
STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP!
Ai kicked off her shoes and stormed right up to the prince.
“Listen here! Nobody asked for your life story!
How dare you say things like that and think it’s okay to hurt people’s feelings? You’re the worst kind of idiot!
His hair’s beautiful! Those eyes are gorgeous!
Red hair? People pay money to dye their hair that color nowadays!”
“Wh—wh—wh—how—how dare you—!”
The prince’s mouth flapped soundlessly, eyes wide in shock.
“Don’t just sit there making excuses — apologize to him!
You’re the rude one here! You don’t even know how to talk to people! With that attitude, you’ll never have friends!”
Even the old man was staring wide-eyed now.
Yoko and Yoshii nodded furiously in agreement.
“Heh…”
Someone was laughing softly.
Ai turned, bristling, only to blink in surprise.
“Ahaha… hehehe…”
It was Lilith — the one she’d thought would be devastated — giggling uncontrollably.
“Um…”
“S-sorry,” he said between chuckles. “I just… couldn’t help it.”
He really couldn’t seem to stop laughing.
But while everyone else was frozen in disbelief, there was one person whose pride couldn’t take it — the prince’s face turned red with rage.
“Lilith! Not only did you fail to recover the stone, now you’ve brought these rude commoners here?! You’re dismissed! I’ll summon a higher-ranked sorcerer instead!”
“Oh my, so you’re finally firing him,” the old man chuckled.
Lilith finally stopped laughing. Sitting gracefully upright, he folded his legs beneath him, bowed low until his forehead touched the floor, and addressed the prince respectfully.
