Published: March 21, 2026
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The sky was dyed black, and the moon did not show. In Japan the lights were probably still bright as ever, but around the castle the glittering lamps of the castle town didn’t reach. Once the moon was hidden, everything was swallowed by darkness.
The night was my world. Perfect weather for an assassination.
“...The hero should have the demeanor, actions, and words befitting a hero. Let divine punishment fall upon those who stand in that noble one’s path.”
“So that’s how you cursed that hero.”
The princess, her hand hovering over a jet-black crystal, trembled and looked at me. I had my foot on the window frame of the princess’s bedchamber and slipped inside.
“...Are you one of the hero’s party? How shameless to trespass into a maiden’s bedchamber without permission. And you don’t even hide your face — quite the confidence.”
“Maiden, huh. If she were praying for the one she loves to turn toward her, I could understand. But I don’t want a yandere who curses someone to call herself a maiden. And not hiding my face is on purpose. The fact that nobody in the castle recognized me means my presence concealment is working properly. ...Look closely, yeah? This is the face of the man who ruined your plan. I could take your head at any time.”
I grinned and grabbed the dark, murky crystal.
Just touching it sent an intense chill through me, exactly as expected. Should I praise the hero for not going insane while being cursed by this around the clock, or be stunned he didn’t notice sooner?
Everything had gone exactly as Commander Saran predicted.
I kept my gaze fixed on the princess and recalled what happened earlier that day.
“Princess cursed the hero?”
The day after we had crawled through the labyrinth and barely escaped death, I asked Commander Saran about the source of the curse on the hero. We had been standing in the shadow of the fountain in the courtyard where I got my sword, staring absentmindedly at the flowerbeds and the insects swarming the blossoms.
“Yes. ...No one else could have done it, I think.”
“That princess was totally in love with the hero, right? Why would she put a curse on him?”
From the outside, the scheming princess was utterly smitten with the hero — as devoted as the hero worshippers in class.
“I can’t really say what women think, but perhaps it’s love turned inside out?”
“That’s taking it too far. And that curse — it could kill him.”
The hero was constantly struck by a horrible headache, as if two opposing minds were warring inside his head. Ms. Ueno has been continuing to cast curse removal on him. Its effect is weak, but there’s nothing better available.
Some classmates think the hero is suffering because I made him undergo curse removal, but sooner or later he would have ended up like this regardless. The curse was that strong.
“Princess Maria Rose Reytis was raised without knowing what affection was. The queen died shortly after giving birth to her, and the king, who loved the queen deeply, could not accept the daughter he saw as the indirect cause of the queen’s death. He treated the princess as a pawn to preserve the royal line.”
Treated his daughter like a pawn, huh. The atmosphere when I sneaked into the study did feel like that, come to think of it.
“So? She was taught that affection is something you use and are used by. The princess, raised that way, only knew how to ‘use’ others as an expression of love. She cursed the hero to make him into someone who would be useful to her: a hero she could command. Following the king’s orders... is that it?”
“Most likely.”
“I see. And the queen’s death being an indirect result... No wonder the knights fuss over that princess. Normally her actions would be unforgivable, yet the king and princess still remain.”
If she’d run wild like this, discontent would have risen somewhere. A coup wouldn’t have been surprising. The reason it hasn’t happened is probably that the princess’s magic hides evidence of wrongdoing, and the knight order, who know the whole story, are keeping quiet. The knights feel some sort of guilt or obligation toward the king and princess.