Chapter 10

In the meantime, the melodies of "The blue Danube" by Johann Strauss kept playing in my head. And it was not the full-scale version performed by an orchestra, but the cheap version the like of a call center's hold tone.

The scorching sun earlier had burnt my skin had now become milder. Even if I slept out in the open with no sun protection, I wouldn't suffer from a sunburn. By night fall, the temperature dropped rapidly. The cool gentle breeze caressed my skin and brought me back to consciousness.

Vaguely feeling like being rocked back and forth, I woke up to find myself lying on Tricolor's rocking chair. Still sleep-deprived, I carefully forced open my eyelids, stuck as if being glued. My eyes were dry and sore.

"What ..." I mumbled.

The first thing that I could see was thick golden strands shimmering in the moonlight. Before I had time to appreciate this beautiful sight, someone was already yelling at me.

"Why do you always do this?"

"Wolf?"

"What?"

"Wa...Water..."

That didn't seem to be the response he expected. His eyebrows squished together in anger. He grabbed my head and pushed my face into the water basin nearby.

"Drown in it!"

I drank. Water went inside me not only through my mouth but also through my nose and ears.

"Ouch... Stop it! I'm drowning, I'm really drowning here. Please forgive me!"

"Do you know how worried I was about you?"

Angering a bishounen, even if one was not at fault, would result in painful consequences. At the same time, I felt tremendous guilt since it was indeed my own impulsive action that caused trouble to everyone.

"Wolfram, what are you doing here? Where is Conrad? And what about Gwendal!? We must get him out, or he'll be executed!"

"My brother has already managed to break out of prison. Now you kindly answer me. Do you even know how worried I was about you?"

Even though I perfectly knew that we were both guys, being pursued by such a beautiful boy like him still caused my heart to skip a few beats. At times like this, the most effective solution was to avoid looking at his face and keep chanting "He is 82 years old" like a mantra.

I shift my gaze away from Wolfram to the darkening surrounding. I could see neither the women nor their slave-driving guards. Since I had slept the whole time, I could not explain how they had been released, by which miracle. I must have done something horrible and frightened everyone. That was why they looked so pale, wasn't it? I must have scared the hell out of them...

"Yes, yes, I know you've been worried. I was worried myself. I know exactly how you felt."

"You sure can talk the talk! Now sit still, I'll get something for you to eat."

After throwing in my face a cloth that smelled like sun, he stomped off noisily toward the hut that used to be Tricolor's office. Yes, food sounded like a good idea. I could not even remember when I had my last meal. As a punishment, we had not been given any breakfast.

What had become of my poor roommates, who were also punished for my mistake? Where was Norika, the leader, or Martha and her half-dead baby? How long had I slept?

I got up and slowly walked down the steps. Somewhere in the direction of the graves, I saw a small flame flickering. Although cold sweat ran down my back at the thought that it could be a ghost or a walking fire, I was inevitably drawn there. The fluctuating light moved now and then, sometimes lowered down to the ground.

As I got closer, I saw shadows of human beings reflected in the dark. At least that was somebody, not a walking fire. But who would wander in a cemetery at night? There could only be two possibilities: someone visiting a grave or the dead resurrected.

"Hey, you over there! Do you happen to be zombies? If so, no problem! I would not do anything to harm you! Nice to meet you."

"Is it you, Your Majesty?"

A zombie wouldn't be able to ask me that question. Thank God, it was only Conrad, holding a torch in his hand. He lit up the ground for someone who was digging furiously.

"Mrs. Norika, is that you? Why are you digging here in the middle of the night?"

"I'm looking for something."

Conrad shrugged his shoulders and smiled, as if that were the most normal thing in the world. He raised the torch into the air. Now I could see things around us.

"This will the last one," Conrad spoke to Norika.

The mounds of earth, which as I remembered used to be in neat rows, had all been dug up but one. In a different situation, this would have been considered grave desecration, a serious crime.

I squatted down to help the woman who was working like a demon.

"Never mind," Norika stopped me. "It is my child after all. I want to find him myself."

"Your child?"

Norika lifted her face up a little bit and smiled faintly as she looked into my eyes. Damn, where were my contact lenses when I needed them?

"Thank you for saving Martha's baby. And thank you for giving these guys a lesson."

So there! I had apparently struck again. My guardian, who must have witnessed everything, said nothing as usual. His face had the same calm and composed expression, except the corner of his lips lifted a little bit.

"Your real name is not Mabo, is it?" asked Norika.

"No.But weren't you afraid of me? Everyone I've met so far was shocked when they saw my black eyes."

"Why should I be afraid?"

She touched my cheek with her fingers, still covered in sand and dirt. She smiled, lines forming on her tan wheat-colored face around her eyes.

"Let me look at you closely. Would you mind bringing the torch a little closer please? Wow, really, your eyes are of a deep, clear black. I've never seen such beautiful eyes. My husband said he had once seen a beautiful old portrait of the revered Sage in the Royal Castle.He even told me several times that the noble and intellectual Sage had a pair of black eyes, just like yours, and shiny smooth hair of the same color."

"Who was he?"

"He was a demon, same as you two."

A soldier with a familiar face approached to report to Conrad. After receiving a short answer, he returned to his post.

Norika set out to work again, pushing soil aside with bare hands.

"I'll fetch a spade," I said.

"No, it's okay. I want to dig him up with my hands. With these hands I want to find my beloved son whom I have given birth to.They told me he was a stillborn. They didn't even let me see his face. I gave up. Maybe he could still be saved, like Martha's baby. There's nothing I can do about that though, it's been ten years. But I've sworn that if one day I could get out of here, I would not leave without my child, under any circumstances. Even if all that's left of him is a bone, or a strand of hair."

Probably she had fallen in love with a demon, just like Nicola. Unfortunately for her, someone must have found out and she ended up being persecuted and forced to work like a slave in this place. However, the fault actually did not lie with these women, but with those who harbored discrimination and deep-rooted prejudice.

"I wish Yozak had been just as lucky."

Conrad looked up to the sky for a moment.

"Countless women and children have been imprisoned in this place. They all shared the same fate. Some have even laid down to rest here forever. Although they are not related to me, but seeing how they were treated, I wish they would be freed."

"Then, have they all been freed?"

"I would say so. The living, and the dead, too. The problem is that the guards have all fled away, so probably their reinforcements will arrive very soon."

The torch was held such that light fell on Norika's hands but Conrad's face was hidden in the dark.

"Yet you seem to be very happy."

"You can tell that from my voice?"

"No, not your voice."

I did not need to see his face to know its expression.

"I'd like to leave this place tonight to gain some ground on them." Conrad brought us back to reality. "Gwendal and his men are already busy preparing for departure. You should also start getting ready, Your Majesty."

"But what has become of all the women?" I asked.

Norikas fingertips touched something. She cried out softly and continued digging.

"They have gone through terrible things. They were chained together and sent into narrow, hot pits. I do not know how valuable the exorcist's stones are, but these women have been exploited shamefully. Can they still return to their families?"

"We have opened the prison's gates. At least for now, they are free to do as they wish. That's all we can do from our side. Now it is entirely up to them how they want to lead their lives in the future. If they return to their homes, it is possible that they will be captured and enslaved again. Perhaps they can seek help from their families and other sympathetic people and escape the dark fate. Anyway, the decision lies with the women themselves, not with us. However, there is one thing ... "

It was very unusual for Conrad not to come out immediately with what he had to say. After shifting his weight from one foot to another a few times, he put on a serious expression.

Although he already knew my answer, he got a kick out of keeping me hanging in suspense.

"There were about forty women who had been in a relationship with demons. And all of them want to go to their husbands' homeland."

"We'll take them with us of course!" I cried. "After all, we have Madame Cherie and her support for the pursue of free love! I will definitely not allow anyone to mistreat these women, ever. They'll come with us, that's the King's wish!"

"Gunther isn't here, I'll take over his role for a moment, Your Majesty: Sometimes you must first think about your decision. This is what Gunther would say. However, my personal opinion is that in some cases, it is best to follow your instincts."

"Then we'll follow them!"

Wolfram called out to me from a distance. Apparently he had found something for me to eat. When he saw that I was together with Conrad, he immediately started walking over.

Suddenly I heard a muffled sob that scared me stiff. After all, I was standing in a cemetery, who could be weeping here at the middle of the night? It was neither a ghost nor a zombie, but the mother who had been searching for her child, Norika.

"I cannot find him...There was no bones, no hair, absolutely no trace of his existence."

"Ten years is a long time," I said.

I wanted to comfort her, but could only come up with trite things. How many year would it take for a body to return to dust? Through which channel would a soul go to heaven? With no deep knowledge in science, biology or religion, I did not know what to say.

I put my hand into the deep hole that Norika had dug. The heat of the day was gone and the earth felt so cold that I could almost feel a shiver running down my spine. With a click, my fingernails hit something hard.

"What can it be?"

I pulled it out. The object was long and narrow. There were small bumps along its length. For a bone, it felt too smooth.

"I've found it too," Norika said. "But that's not my son. It's just a simple pipe. Probably a part of... "

A pipe ...?!

A part of something?!

"Impossible!" I cried.

Unbelievable! Could it be? Here in this place? Without maze and treasure map?

From my chest pocket, I took out a dark brown pipe slightly thicker than a thump. It was the pipe Nicola had given us. When I was sent to the labor camp, the guards had thoroughly examined my belongings, but no one confiscated it because it did not look like a weapon. The pipe I had with me was about 10 cm long, with three holes on one side and one on the other. The other pipe I just dug up actually consisted of two parts. They were still covered in mud, but one was clearly round and short while the other had a sort of triangular shape.

"This... this beige contrasts with the dark brown..."

I tried a few random combinations, and finally manage to put the three parts together. It was the Magic Flute!

The Magic Flute was the precious treasure of the demon tribe, could it be such an ordinary flute? But even though it looked ordinary, it might produce heavenly sounds. Instruments should not be judged by appearance, and there was only one way to tell. I wiped my dirty hands on my clothes. Then I took a deep breath ...

Tat!

"With all respect, Your Majesty! You hold the instrument in your hands for the first time and you could already elicit a nice tune," Conrad said appreciatively. "Isn't there a Japanese saying that goes 'peaches take three years, persimmons take eight'...?"

In this situation, would that mean I'd get good results after 3 years of practice, and become proficient in eight?

"I have the feeling it's not the first time I play an instrument like this, as if I've seen it before," I said.

"Something like a deja-vu?"

"No, not really."

If this object was truly the Magic Flute, then all the boring music lessons I had taken at school would not be for nothing. That year we had been required to take a music course and participate in a contest. Half of my classmates had thought it was useless since we would not need this skill in the future. But who could have predicted the future? Sorry I didn't take you seriously, music teacher!

"Where did you find the other part?" asked Conrad.

"Nicola gave it to me. Nicola and her boyfriend Gegenhuber found the flute... Ah, I see now!"

The past events flashed through my mind like movie scenes. How we ran through the capital of Suveria. The bride who wanted to marry a man she did not love to save Huber. The bride in snow-white wedding dress entering the chapel. The priest, who caught the bouquet. Okay, no useful details there ...

A bald-headed man, who had introduced himself as a supporter of the demons, and his ten-year-old grandson, who grew too slowly. His mother, after being taken away for violating the marriage laws, had given birth to a child. Ten years ago, a demon who looked exactly like Gwendal had brought a new born baby to the grandfather.

"It was Huber! All threads lead back to Gegenhuber," I cried.

Meanwhile Wolfram was approaching us. When he heard the name of his relative, his mood sank through the floor.

"What about Huber?" He asked.

"He had hidden these parts here! In the fresh grave of a baby! The baby was separated from the mother immediately after birth, but Huber dug him up again!"

The mother, who did not understand half of my statements, absentmindedly ran her fingers through her hair.

"Norika! Your child is still alive! I think we can help you find him!"

"My son is still alive?"

"Yes. What is your father's name?"

Though I already knew her answer.

"Shas."

"I knew it! He is slightly cripple, right?And your father ... he informed on you? "

Norika slowly shook her head and said no with a smile and tears in her eyes.

"It was the owner of a fruit shop who sold me to the authorities. I foolishly trusted her."

Wasn't it wonderful? Now she could return to her family. I would make it happen, I guaranteed!

"But where has Gegenhuber gone after all?" Wolfram changed the topic.

"Well, I'd also like to know," I sighed.

(This translation was originally posted here. Please do not repost elsewhere.)