Chapter 56
The Ember Knights' meeting place.
Lydia calmly told Mirian and Beatrice what she'd found out, including the fact that she'd have to go in herself and investigate the site.
…Dressed in a bunny outfit.
“And that's how it is.”
“….”
“….”
After a brief silence,
Mirian let out a small sigh.
“Phew. If it's already been decided, then there's nothing we can do.”
“!”
Beatrice looked at Mirian in surprise.
“What? I thought you'd be against it to the very end, Sister Mirian.”
“Unless this is just Beatrice indulging her own personal desires, I can't stop her if it's necessary for the infiltration. And it would be ridiculous to worry that Sir Lydia can't take care of herself.”
“Hmm, is this how a parent feels watching their child become independent…?”
“….”
As if she were moved, Beatrice slowly nodded. But anyone could see that the corners of her mouth were mischievously raised.
Mirian stared coldly at her and said,
“…Beatrice, you're just enjoying this whole situation, aren't you?”
“Huh? You caught me?”
“You never meant to hide it in the first place.”
“Teheh.”
“Good grief.”
Lydia looked at Mirian and spoke. While Lydia and Morgan had been away, she'd looked after the others and kept watch over their surroundings.
“Mirian, has anything happened while I was gone?”
“No, fortunately. Other than word briefly getting around that Your Highness had come to Saintroix…. I think people assumed you'd gotten tired of academy life and come here for a change of pace.”
“It seems not many people know what's going on inside the academy.”
Mirian briefly reported what she'd learned so far.
“Yes. The Hero Trial incident did attract attention, but there wasn't much damage, and only a few people know exactly what happened. If I had to guess, there's been confusion over the information even within the Black Temple, so they haven't been able to respond properly.”
“….”
Lydia nodded with satisfaction.
The rumors coming out of the academy were almost too unbelievable to swallow. So people couldn't bring themselves to believe them, and were left confused.
-The abandoned princess was actually at the Flowing Realm.
-It turned out that a holy knight was a devil worshiper during the Hero Trial.
-The academy's cardinal was also exposed as having fallen into corruption.
And so on….
Every single one was the sort of thing that,
if you said it anywhere,
would get you branded a lunatic.
‘Even in modern society, if allegations like these were flying around, people would close their ears until evidence came out. In this world, where cross-checking information is even harder, they must be even more confused.’
It was just the right amount of confusion.
A stalemate like this was preferable.
Lydia asked her next question with a satisfied nod.
“Have Arti and the others been behaving themselves?”
“They seemed to get completely tired of sightseeing and passing the time in the city… At some point, they started bringing books to study on their own, or training in the open space near the inn.”
“I can only apologize for not being able to pay attention to them for a while.”
Arti, Aria, and Mave, who'd been left to their own devices (?), answered with unexpected cheer.
-If it's Lydia, there must be a good reason.
-Don't worry about us.
-Mm! Just call on me if you need help anytime. I'll be there for you, Lady Lydia!
With those answers,
they each got on with their own business and switched to automatic training mode.
Lydia let out a hollow laugh.
“…Heh.”
It was a smile that held a measure of relief.
‘They've really grown by leaps and bounds compared to this point in the original story. Was the Hero Trial incident what made the difference? I can relax for a while now.’
As Lydia smiled,
Beatrice began speaking with a meaningful air.
“If that's the case….”
“?”
“?”
“Then there's only one problem left, isn't there?”
“!”
Lydia answered seriously.
“That's right. We need to find the ‘Triangle of Desire’ and identify the Black Temple forces inside it. I never imagined that a place I'd thought was simply a secret auction house would be so closely connected to the Black Temple.”
“…?”
But Beatrice shook her head.
“That's not what I meant.”
“?”
“?”
“How should we best show off our princess's alluring figure? There are all kinds of bunny outfits, you know.”
“….”
“….”
Mirian slowly walked toward Beatrice.
Step
Step
Maybe it was because the room was so small?
Each footstep echoed loudly.
“Beatrice…. I think you and I need to have a long talk.”
“N-no, Sister, hear me out!”
“Go ahead and make your excuses.”
“?!”
Step
As she spoke,
she took another step forward.
Beatrice broke into a cold sweat as she tried to explain herself.
“I mean! When Her Highness goes undercover, she always uses an artifact to change her appearance, right? The artifact itself is rare, so there aren't many people who know about it.”
“That's true.”
“?!”
Step
As she spoke,
she took a few more steps forward.
Now they were close enough for their noses to touch.
Mirian's angry breath was practically brushing the tip of Beatrice's nose.
‘S-she's really close…?!’
Beatrice's explanation came out like a scream.
“B-but the Black Temple people are needlessly cautious, aren't they? Even though they don't know we exist, preparing all sorts of countermeasures is just common sense for them.”
“You're awfully long-winded. Just what kind of devious motive are you hiding…?”
“Eek?!”
When they were close enough for the tips of their noses to press together,
Beatrice finally gave up on changing the subject.
“A-all right! I just thought that if we dressed her up as ‘a young lady hoping to rise in status through the troupe,’ those guys would be a lot less suspicious! You're scaring me, so stop coming closer—!”
“….”
After hearing her excuse,
Mirian took several steps back.
“Phew. I have a lot to say, but I'll let it go for now.”
“Phew….”
Lydia watched the scene and shook her head. Then she quietly spoke up.
“In that case, Beatrice.”
“?”
“Um… could you pick out an outfit for me? It would be difficult in several ways for me to go and buy one myself.”
“!”
At those words,
Beatrice's face lit up.
She clasped her hands and bounced excitedly.
“Of course—!”
“…You're really excited.”
“Heheh, it's been so long. I'll pick out your clothes, then you'll wear them to infiltrate the place and wipe them out…! We didn't need to pick out clothes the time we did it right before you enrolled at the academy.”
“Now that you mention it, that's true.”
Lydia recalled those days.
When she was carrying out ‘work’ as an Ember Knight, she sometimes had to go undercover. Whenever that happened, Beatrice prepared the tools, clothes, and identity she needed.
‘Since I was the youngest in the order, yet a Sword Master…. I was the best person to use when they needed to avoid suspicion.’
The infiltration missions she'd put on hold for a while to enroll at the academy.
Now she was starting them again.
“…This brings back memories.”
“Your Highness talks like she's forty.”
“….”
*
A leisurely morning.
Arti, Aria, and Mave were sitting in the open space beside the inn. They'd each spent time training or reading, then gathered together beneath the shade of a tree.
Beneath the cool shade,
a hot summer breeze blew.
Aria gazed at the bright sky and murmured,
“Lydia seems really busy lately.”
“….”
“….”
Arti and Mave answered,
“Well, yeah.”
“I suppose so.”
Then the three of them fell silent again.
“….”
“….”
“….”
Aria casually spoke up again.
“Morgan seems busy too.”
“….”
“….”
Arti and Mave answered again,
“That's right.”
“It does seem that way.”
Maybe it was the sweltering heat?
The conversation wasn't flowing very quickly.
The three of them fell silent again.
“….”
“….”
“….”
Once again, it was Aria who broke the silence.
“It's mid-July already, isn't it?”
“That's right.”
“Time passes so slowly.”
“?”
Arti asked in confusion,
“You mean it's going by fast?”
“Yes. It feels like more than three years have gone by, but it hasn't even been half a year. I can't believe it's only summer break.”
“You think so…?”
“I met Arti, then Lydia, then Mave, then Morgan. We became friends, explored dungeons, finished the Hero Trial, fought devil worshipers….”
“Ah.”
Now she understood.
‘It feels like years have passed. But hardly any time has gone by….’
Arti stared blankly at her right hand.
There was the mark of the Holy Sword, now so completely a part of her that it felt like one with her. And the same mark was faintly visible on Aria's right hand, too.
“When you put it that way, a lot really has happened. We haven't even known each other for half a year, but we've gotten as close as if we'd known each other for years.”
“Right?”
At Arti's words,
Mave shared her thoughts.
“Maybe it's because we get up at dawn to train every day, so our days feel longer? We've made twice or three times as much use of our time as the other academy students. If we're talking about combat experience, I think we could even measure up to third-year students by now.”
“Maybe so.”
“I suppose that's true.”
And in the end, they turned to praising Lydia.
“We owe it all to Lady Lydia's guidance.”
“That's right.”
“Exactly.”
Aria and Arti didn't argue.
They, too, had achieved a lot thanks to Lydia.
So the conversation quickly came to an end,
and the languid silence returned.
“….”
“….”
“….”
Eventually, Arti was the one to stand up.
“Whew, let's go inside and rest. If we keep sitting here spacing out, I feel like my mind's going to go blank.”
Aria and Mave agreed.
They slowly got up and went into the inn. But from behind Arti, the voices of some girls reached her.
-Hey, did you guys see that play?
“!”
Arti turned around without thinking.
-What play?
-<The Knight of the Lake>, the one the Hanson Troupe is performing! The new stage-director mage is really skilled, so the atmosphere is amazing!
-Oh, that one? It's famous lately.
-I heard today's the last performance.
Arti murmured,
“The Knight of the Lake….”
It was a play adapted from the life of Hero Arhen. As someone who had more or less inherited the title of Hero, she was a little curious about it.
“….”
Later,
maybe she could ask Aria and Mave to go see it with her?
That was what she found herself thinking.