By Zephyria 
It wasn’t exactly a secret that I had mostly lost my sense of taste, but I had never made a point of showing it, so I was puzzled.
“How did you know?”
“The candy apple you ate earlier was pomegranate flavored, not apple.”
“That red candy?”
I looked at Aska, who was nodding, and asked again, dumbfounded.
“Why would you do that?”
“You told me last time that it was ice when it wasn’t.”
What was he talking about? What ice all of a sudden? Aska said curtly as I tilted my head.
“You lied and said ‘ice’ when it was written ‘tree’.”
“What tree all of a sudden, and what ice?”
“Anyway, you did it too, so it’s even.”
I watched Aska turn his head away with a sulky expression, and I pondered what he meant. Then I suddenly remembered when Aska first started learning to read.
I had lied and said the word ‘tree’ repeatedly written on the paper was ‘ice’. It was to test if Aska really didn’t know the letters.
“You still remember that? And what does that have to do with this? I would have answered if you had just asked.”
“I was going to ask, but then I suddenly remembered that, so I just copied you.”
So why? It was an incomprehensible action, but I just figured that was how it was. I just thought I should be more careful in the future.
It seemed like Aska was imitating me a lot these days, including copying my speech style. Or maybe this was a racial trait? Was he imitating to live with the community?
While I was seriously making such assumptions, Aska asked.
“You can’t taste it?”
“Almost?”
“If you can’t tell the difference between apple and pomegranate, isn’t that not just almost not feeling it, but not tasting anything at all?”
“I guess so.”
Actually, I wasn’t sure either. The tastes I used to know naturally came to mind just by imagining them. Occasionally, I would feel a very faint taste, but I couldn’t tell if it was really a taste or just my imagination.
It had been so long since I lost my sense of taste that there were many tastes I couldn’t remember anymore.
“Why?”
It was a short question, but it would take a long story to answer. It wasn’t a pleasant story to hear, so I didn’t really want to tell him.
“It would be nice if that could be fixed too.”
Aska muttered to himself when I didn’t say anything.
“What does the blue one taste like?”
I threw out a random question to change the subject. Aska looked at the blue candy in one of the two glass jars and said.
“I don’t know. It’s a taste I’m trying for the first time, but it feels cool.”
“Give me one.”
Was it like mint? I reached out my hand, but Aska hugged the glass jar and turned completely to the other side.
“No. It’s mine.”
“There are a lot.”
“I said no. You buy your own.”
“……”
Seriously, it was just one candy, but he was refusing this much? Could it be that he was sulking because I didn’t answer why I couldn’t taste it earlier?
While I was dumbfounded, Aska glanced at me. Then he took out a blue candy, put it in his mouth, and rolled it around.
“It tastes cool and slightly sweet. But it’s not as sweet as the red one. It also tastes a little spicy.”
Was he teasing me…? Aska said generously as I frowned.
“I’ll explain what everything tastes like from now on.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Are you mad?”
“Why would I be?”
“Because I didn’t give you candy.”
I wasn’t a child, so there was no way I would be angry because of candy. But if I said I was angry, I was slightly worried that he might give me candy. I didn’t really want to eat it, but I felt stubborn because he hated it so much.
“Do you remember when we hid on the tree? On your birthday.”
I was at a crossroads of whether or not to act childish, but Aska suddenly asked.
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”
“Was it real that you said you were tortured back then?”
I remembered briefly mentioning the story when Benife was babbling about something.
This was also not a very pleasant story to tell, so I hesitated. Why was he so curious today?
“Were you really tortured? Is that why you can’t taste?”
“That’s not it.”
Aska asked me with eyes full of curiosity, even though it was a topic that ordinary people would be reluctant to ask about.
“Then?”
“Why are you curious?”
“I’m curious because I’m curious. Don’t you want to tell me? But it’s unfair if I’m the only one who doesn’t know what everyone else knows.”
I couldn’t figure out what was unfair. He looked like he really wanted to hear it, so I chose my words appropriately.
“I was deliberately captured during the war to capture the fortress, and that’s when it happened for a while.”
“You were deliberately captured?”
I had never been active externally at that time, so I could be a very good bait. Even if I was incompetent and cowardly, I knew that they wouldn’t kill me because I was a prince anyway, so I did it.
I inevitably got hurt a little, but it wasn’t a big problem because I could fix it with magic as long as I didn’t die.
“So your brother saved you? And you were tortured there?”
I was the one who killed the commander and opened the castle gates, but it was also true that Mahir saved me. It was a time when we clashed over everything we met, so there was a bit of a conflict…
There was no need to explain things, so I just nodded.
“How old were you?”
“Seven? Or eight?”
“Weren’t you a complete baby? You were at war then? And you were tortured?”
In terms of age, I was young, but it was just a meaningless number to me at the time, who firmly believed that the royal family was a god.
“How were you tortured?”
I frowned at the question.
“Do you want to hear that? You have a unique taste.”
“Did it hurt? Did you cry?”
“I cried a lot. I screamed, begged…”
I remembered exaggerating and begging more than it hurt because I had to pretend to be scared. Even if I added up all the tears I had shed from birth until now, it would be less than what I shed then.
“……”
Aska, who had been chattering on and on, became quiet, whether he was scared or something. I thought it was a good thing and changed the subject.
“Anyway, we’ve gotten off track, but you can’t hit anyone who comes in here. And you can’t throw anything from afar. Got it?”
“Then tell them not to let anyone in.”
I couldn’t help but sigh at the curt reply.
“Why would I let anyone in when it’s mine?”
“Not just anyone, the caretaker.”
“I don’t care. I said I don’t like it! I kept saying I don’t like it…”
Aska suddenly screamed. I was startled by the sharp sound for a moment, but I was greatly embarrassed to see his eyes filled with tears.
“Why are you crying, all of a sudden?”
“You keep making me say what I said! I kept saying I didn’t like it… I don’t like it…”
“……”
His voice began to tremble more and more, and he eventually closed his mouth without finishing his sentence. Aska, who was biting his lip and holding on with a sullen expression as if trying to hold back his tears, suddenly screamed again.
“It’s annoying!”
Eventually, the tears that had been barely clinging to his eyes fell down. I was embarrassed at first because it was such a sudden situation, but I vaguely realized why Aska was doing this.
I asked with a sullen expression.
“Why do you ask such things?”
I didn’t know if he suddenly felt sorry for me because I said it hurt so much, or if he was simply afraid of the word torture.
“Everyone else knew.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“I’m the only one who doesn’t know!”
“Anyway, it’s an old story, so stop crying.”
“That’s not why I’m crying.”
It was funny to hear him mumble in a nasal voice. But on the other hand, I felt strange. It was amazing that he was causing such emotional turmoil just by hearing about a fragmentary situation.
“If you ever have to do that again, I’ll go with you then.”
Aska said, sniffling.
“Go where? To be tortured?”
Aska nodded as I asked with a smile.
“It’s less scary to be tortured together than to be tortured alone.”
“It’ll be just as scary, won’t it? It’ll just be two people being tortured.”
Anyway, that wouldn’t happen now. It was inevitable because the situation was so special at the time. And you have to think about escaping, why would you be tortured together?
“Were you scared?”
Aska asked again. His eyes were full of pity.
I wasn’t scared, but rather more angry, but I just pretended to be pitiful.
“Yeah.”
“……”
Aska started to sob again. I thought this was the time and quickly added.
“So don’t hit the caretaker if one of them comes in without saying anything.”
“What does that have to do with this? I told you I’ll take care of it?”
“If you take care of it, all the plants and trees will die, won’t they? I don’t even have to look.”
“I don’t need weak plants in my Greenhouse.”
Aska said heartless words in a nasal voice.