Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 544

Okay, I am not talking anything about her this time…

All right, we seems to have some issues with the English scanlation for this chapter. As it turns out, the wait was quite worth it, because this chapter has revealed quite a lot of things through words, and I don’t have much confidence in my Japanese reading…

Before we get into that, let us take note that Hata appears to be setting up a Isumi-Yozora rematch. Of course, we all know that Isumi has confronted Yozora once at the Violet Mansion, and the result was… well, let’s just say that it was something that Isumi didn’t like. Although she was too late to save the King’s Jewel, Machina or even Sakuya’s house, we can be damn sure she would avenge them.

Run, Yozora, run!

Presumably, the King’s Jewel should be top priority. After all, the Sanzen’in inheritance, the Royal whatever, the world and the manga series (in no particular order) all depend on the “usable” King’s Jewels out there, and getting them out of the enemies’ hands is just as important as getting them in your own hands. Yet I am quite sure that Isumi wouldn’t care too much about the stone; her only objective would be to totally trash Yozora in their rematch. It is almost as if the situation has given Isumi a heroic excuse to do something rather… vicious.

Let us then talk about Hisui, who for some reason looks a lot better than before (in my opinion, of course). If we take her lines in this chapter into consideration, it appears that her primary goal is not the Sanzen’in inheritance. After all, she said that she would not believe the key was there until she saw it, and there is absolutely no point going after something in some place if you don’t believe it is there. On the other hand, it seems that she believed the Royal Power was there just fine, so I would assume that was her target.

Nobody knows.

The most funny thing about this is that she didn’t know what the Royal Power was. You would think that if she was so determined to get her hands on the power, she would at least know what the power could do for her. Instead, it now looks like that she had no idea what she could expect from the power that she wanted so much. Either she was lying about her knowledge on the Royal Power (not unlikely), or that she was so greedy that she simply wanted everything – no matter what they are.

Okay, let us now talk about the big things!

First of all, we have the story of King Midas and his donkey ears. Now, Doughnut Gunso is ashamed to inform you that my knowledge on this myth is just as feeble as Hayate’s. Yet, instead of waiting for the story to be told by a 6-year-old girl, I have done a little bit of research on the Internet. I was then referred to the stories of King Midas Has Donkey Ears and The King with Donkey Ears. It appears to me that Hata has told a consolidated and simplified version of the stories, and let’s use his version without really accepting it as the “real” version.

Here comes the definition!

In any case, according to Hata, the story has taken a much darker turn afterwards. King Midas called upon the power of the stars – the Royal Power – to conceal the god within the Royal Garden, and the power was then sealed within the royal coffin. Such a power can grant any wish if one is willing to trade 50 years of their lifespan. This explains the Royal Power perfectly, doesn’t it? Not really. In typical Hata fashion, many more questions are left unanswered than answered.

Nobody knows why the coffin was used to seal the power (something intangible, I suppose) instead of containing the god. Nobody knows why King Midas wanted the god’s power if he could call upon the power of the stars to seal the god (meaning: the power of the stars was greater than that of the god). Nobody knows why King Midas turned into a giant monster instead of simply dying. Nobody knows why a goddess, who was female (彼女), was referred to as a god. 

Somebody’s wish is gotta be “bring back A-tan!”

Still, it does explain why people like Mikado, Himegami and Mikado are hell-bent on getting the Royal Power. One might question whether 50 years of your lifespan is too much as a tradeoff, but there seems to be an extremely obvious way of cheating, and I assume that the characters all thought about it.

More importantly, it also seems to imply the true cause of death of Yukariko. We know that Yukariko died at the very young age of 28, despite being a very energetic and healthy young woman. We also know that she was the one who returned the Royal Power to the Royal Garden. Could it be that she had made a wish with the power, thus cutting her lifespan from 78 years to 28?

If so, what could the wish be?