Commander Savvis was the first to speak calmly.
"Your Majesty, please pay for the people." (Savvis)
Cerulean suddenly opened his eyes and shifted his gaze to King Laurence, who was staring at him in astonishment.
With just that gesture, King Laurence immediately rose from his chair and left with his entourage and knights in tow.
The knights might have continued guarding outside the room, but the only ones left inside the room were Cerulean, the Chief, Captain Cyril, myself, and the clowns Ron and Dory.
The fact that the so-called aides left the room and the clown remained made me realized that Ron and Dory are the King's closest aides.
After all, these two must be quite talented.
As I was looking at the muscular Ron and the feminine Dolly, thinking that they didn't look like that at all, a sharp voice spoke up.
"...Savvis!" (Cerulean)
When I looked up with a start, I saw an irritated Cerulean calling out the name of the Commander sitting in front of me.
However, the Commander just shrugged his shoulders, acting like he didn't know anything about it.
"I have never interfered with Your Majesty's playtime. I know that doing something like that will cause trouble later on, so I don't think I would mess with it." (Savvis)
"...Cyril!" (Cerulean)
Next, Cerulean called the name of Captain Cyril, who was quietly watching the situation.
"Fia is your direct subordinate! You leaked the details of this interview!?" (Cerulean)
Commander Cyril, who was named by the King, lowered his eyebrows sadly.
"It's sad that you doubt me. Year after year, I never get tired of participating in all the games Your Majesty plays with newcomers one by one. Why do you think the rules were changed just this time?" (Cyril)
"Then why!!" (Cerulean)
Cerulean stared at me with an expression of complete disbelief.
"How did such an intuitive young knight figure out that I was the King!!" (Cerulean)
That seemed like a completely cruel thing to say. Being insulted in front of me.
However, it didn't seem like I was allowed to speak, so I stared at Cerulean in silence.
Then, Cerulean asked a question as if he didn't understand.
"Fia, why on earth did you call me king? If you think about it calmly, the king should be Laurence, who was lying on his back on the glittering chair!?" (Cerulean)
I answered the question, interpreting it as giving me the right to speak because I was asked a direct question.
"Ah, that's right. That name is one of the reasons. If you rearrange Laurence, you'll get Cerulean. At first, I thought you were given your name because of the color of your blue eyes, but I guess it was just a tasteless pseudonym that suggested you were a king, wasn't it?" (Fia)
"What...!!" (Cerulean)
When Cerulean heard my answer, his eyes widened.
However, even if I was surprised, it was the result of Cerulean's prank. It's not my fault.
Thinking so, I continued to explain without showing any mercy.
"And the way you look like that, too." (Fia)
When I said that, I deliberately let my eyes wander from the top of Cerulean's head to the tips of his feet.
He wore a hood with horse ears and full body tights with a flashy blue and white checkered pattern.
"The current sacred guardian beast of our country is the black dragon, but before that it was the white unicorn. And the national flag at that time was blue and white. Your Majesty respected the Rüa language, so the flag is modeled after our country's flag and sacred animals from the time when the Rüa language was at its peak." (Fia)
"………………………………" (Cerulean)
Cerulean opened and closed his mouth, but no sound escaped.
Therefore, I interpreted that I should continue talking and continued my explanation.
"However, if that's the only reason, you just think that a clown before adulthood is playing like a child, and you wouldn't even think that His Majesty and the clown had switched places. It is unthinkable for common sense that His Majesty, the most noble king of our country, would dress up as a clown."
After saying that, I stared at Cerulean's left arm.
"I became convinced because I noticed the curse that was eroding Your Majesty’s left arm. I have never seen such a powerful curse. That’s no wonder, this is… the Spirit King’s curse." (Fia)
I said it with confidence, but in my heart I was very surprised that the Spirit King had cast a curse on him.
In my previous lives, all the saints had contracts with spirits, and the spirits themselves were familiar to them, but even in their previous lives, none of them had ever met a high-ranking being called the Spirit King.
It's surprising that the Spirit King, who was supposed to have nothing to do with people, appeared in front of people, but it's an unbelievable event that he placed a curse on them.
However—only the Spirit King could think of a curse that I had no idea how to remove.
However, there were two things I didn't understand.
The first was why the Spirit King took the trouble to appear in front of Cerulean and place a curse on him, even though the Spirit had long been gone.
Another question was that Cerulean was supposed to be Commander Savvis' older brother, so why did he appear to be more than a year younger than the Commander-in-Chief?
I had no idea, but I wondered if Cerulean knew the answer.
I thought about this and stared at him, but Cerulean didn't seem to be that concerned, and was breathing heavily, as if he had received a great shock.
I could barely squeeze out a voice from my labored breathing.
"S...spirit King, even if I'm cursed by the Spirit King...that doesn't prove that I'm the king..." (Cerulean)
No, it would happen.
I opened my mouth, wondering what I was saying.
"It will be. Spirits can only interact with people within the scope of the contract, so of course they can't curse people. If they could, it would only be with the same spirit. If anyone can receive it, it is only from the royal lineage. As you know, the founder of the current royal family is the child of the Spirit King and a human daughter." (Fia)
And the only royal who would dress up as a clown in this situation would be the King.
I had heard that the only other member of the royal family other than Commander Savvis is the King.
Cerulean's entire body stopped as if time had stopped, and he was breathing heavily.
Then, he choked out his voice in a very distressed manner.
"………………………………………………………………...Savvis, this kid...who is she?" (Cerulean)
Commander Savvis replied with a stiff expression to the king, who could only make a hoarse voice despite his best efforts.
"Well, up until the story about the unicorn, I was able to listen calmly, but... the last part... I just want to know who she is." (Cerulean)
"What!?"
After hearing what Commander Savvis had said, I felt as though I had been cut off by Knight Commander, so I hurriedly ran up to him.
"S-Commander Savvis, please stop trying to cut me down! Of course, I'm a very honest and useful knight that the Commander-in-Chief knows well, and you can find anywhere!!" (Fia)
"…………"
"…………"
"…………"
The king, Commander Savvis, and Captain Cyril the First Knight Captain, who had always been kind to me, all of them, knowing that I was desperately trying to get hold of them, remained silently staring at me and no one replied.
Author's Note
Thank you for always reading!
With about 1,000 more people, the number of bookmarks will reach 100,000. That's amazing.
Really, thank you very much!!