Escort Request

"Gah!?"

The pillow hit me with all its might, sending me rolling backward until I slammed the back of my head against the wall.

"Guh—!? My head!?"

My face hurt, and my head hurt too.

Wondering why this was happening to me, I writhed on the floor, rolling around in agony.

Meanwhile, Erna closed the door to the room.

As things unfolded, Anna-san and Sebas arrived carrying tea and snacks.

"What happened, Al? Did you remember something embarrassing from the past?"

"No! Erna and Fiene were changing in there, and they attacked me!"

When I told Anna-san, who was pretending not to know despite deliberately setting things up, she responded with an obviously feigned, 'Oh my.'

This woman...!

What is she trying to do?

"They said they were going to take a bath... Well, never mind that. More importantly, how was Erna? Did you find her even a little attractive?"

"It wasn't 'never mind,' and before I could feel attracted, I felt murderous intent..."

Why did she brush it off with a casual 'never mind'? What an idiot.

If that had been anything but a pillow, I would have died.

I rubbed my still-stinging face. This was what a soft pillow had done. What would have happened if it had been something hard?

As I shuddered at the thought, the door flew open.

Erna emerged, of course.

"Al~? You didn't run away? I'll give you credit for that. So I'll give you a chance to explain yourself, okay? Now explain why you were peeping."

"H-hey! That's a practice sword, right!? Not a real one!? Calm down! I was only here because of Anna-san—!"

"Don't blame Mother! You're the one at fault for not knocking!"

"You don't knock when you enter my room either!"

"I'm allowed to!"

"How is that fair!?"

Erna swung the sword around, and I rolled out of the way.

It probably wasn't a real sword, but in Erna's hands, even a practice sword without an edge was more than enough to be a deadly weapon. Even if it didn't kill me, getting hit could easily knock me senseless.

"Erna. You're making a spectacle of yourself."

"M-Mother! But Al—!"

"It's fine if he sees your underwear. You used to take baths together all the time, remember?"

"Th-that was then! We're both adults now!"

"If you're adults, calm down a little more."

At those words, Erna glared sharply at me.

Why was I the one getting glared at...?

The word unfair had been popping into my head over and over. Come to think of it, things had been like this when we were children too. Whenever I was with Erna, I always felt that something was unfair.

"Why don't we have some tea for now?"

With that, Anna-san entered the guest room with a smile.

Erna followed her, for some reason slamming the door shut with a loud bang. That woman...

That left Sebas and me.

"What a misfortune."

"Hey, Sebas..."

"What is it? Oh, I should mention that I truly had no idea. I never imagined that the two of you would be changing in the room. I did think something was going on, though."

I swallowed the silent cry of, Then tell me if you think something is going on!

It had been the same since childhood. Unless there was danger involved, Sebas never said or did anything unnecessary.

"I'm amazed at myself... How did I manage to grow up so upright?"

"Upright? What an amusing joke."

"Whatever."

I gave Sebas a light glare and entered the guest room too.

This time, I remembered to knock.

■■■

"I'm sorry, Al. I had no idea you were choosing outfits in this room."

"No, it's fine now..."

"I'm sorry... It was my fault for doing something unnecessary."

"It's not Fiene's fault. This is all Al's fault."

Fiene was apologetic, while Erna acted as imperiously as ever. Their personalities were on full display.

The story, in short, was this.

There were plenty of clothes for guests here, so Erna and Fiene had stopped by before their bath to choose an outfit for Fiene. For some reason, that had turned into a fitting session, and far more time had passed than they expected.

Anna-san, who naturally assumed they had already gone to take a bath, had consequently shown me into this room.

And that was how the tragedy had unfolded.

There was nothing odd about it. But it felt deliberate. Why had she gone out of her way to send me to this room? It could only have been intentional. Still, there was no point in pursuing it. I had no chance of winning an argument with Anna-san.

"Well, you paid the price for the pleasure of seeing them, so I think that's fair, Erna."

"How can you possibly think that's enough!? Two unmarried young ladies were seen changing! And they're the daughters of the House of Valor and House Kleinert!"

"Then should he take responsibility? I wouldn't mind."

"Wha—!?"

"Ehhh!?"

"Sigh..."

While Anna-san calmly dropped that bombshell, Erna turned bright red and fell silent, while Fiene fidgeted in shock.

Honestly, this woman...

"I think my husband would say he wouldn't mind if it were Al, either. What do you think?"

"W-what do you mean...? Th-that... I-I'm a knight, so I can't discuss things like that..."

"If you really can't forgive him for seeing your underwear, that's where this would lead, wouldn't it? But the problem is that you'd be fighting over him with House Kleinert. You're quite popular, Al."

"Indeed, we will have to contact Fiene-sama's family as well."

"Hwaaah!? A-are you going to contact my father!? Th-that..."

"Please don't decide my life as though this were entertaining. I'm sorry, but I don't intend to marry anyone yet."

"Won't you take responsibility?"

"I'm not."

"Oh, what a shame."

With that, Anna-san popped a snack into her mouth.

Only then did Erna realize that she had been teased. Her face turned bright red, and she looked away.

Fiene seemed to realize it had been a joke as well. She turned bright red and lowered her head.

"Now then, Al. Why don't you get to the real matter? You didn't come here just to visit, did you?"

As expected of Lady Amsberg. She knew exactly what this was about.

I switched gears and turned back toward Anna-san.

"This may be presumptuous, but could you let Fiene stay here for a while? Also, could you have her spend as much time with Erna as possible?"

"This is related to the struggle for the throne, isn't it? Then I'm afraid not. We are the House of Valor. We do not involve ourselves in the struggle for the throne."

Of course.

I accepted the answer I had expected.

Sheltering her for a single day would be one thing, but if Fiene stayed here for a while, people might assume that the House of Valor had taken our side.

They couldn't do that.

But...

"The Blue Gull Princess is His Imperial Majesty's favorite. If anything happened to her, it would incur his wrath. Wouldn't it be natural for the House of Valor to protect her?"

"Oh? So that's the angle you're taking?"

"You wouldn't agree otherwise, would you?"

"You could have just asked me to do it as a favor to you, and I would have agreed. You're still terrible at appealing to people's emotions. You'll lose out because of it, you know?"

Anna-san said it all with a carefree air.

In other words, she had agreed to do it.

Fiene would be safe here until Zandra's offensive subsided. As long as the House of Valor was here, nothing could possibly happen to her.

"I'll bear that in mind. And thank you. I appreciate your help. I'll repay this debt someday."

"Yes, you will. But... time flies. I never expected that Al would be involved in the struggle for the throne... In my eyes, you're still a crybaby child, but I suppose that's no longer the case."

"I can't keep crying forever. Well then, Fiene, stay here for a while. I think it'll be over in a few days, so don't worry."

"Yes... Um, isn't it dangerous for you, Al-sama?"

"I'm having you stay at the House of Valor because being at my side is dangerous. To be honest, now that Zandra is enraged, he might attack me without regard for the consequences. He must be desperate to kill me right now."

Zandra was cruel by nature and quick-tempered. As this offensive demonstrated, there was no one in the opposing faction who could control Zandra perfectly. At least, no one close to Zandra could.

That meant we couldn't make things proceed according to plan either.

The next few days would be extremely dangerous. In a few more days, someone like Gordon would launch an attack on Zandra's faction. That would weaken the offensive against us, but even Gordon would wait a few days.

Whether we could hold out until then would decide everything.

"Th-then Al-sama should hide too..."

"If I hide, Leonart will be targeted. I can't hide, since I need to keep Zandra's attention on me. Still, they might send an assassin at least once."

"No way!?"

"Don't worry. We have Sebas, and we have a helper we can call on in a pinch."

At that, Fiene finally backed down.

I felt sorry seeing her worried expression, but there was no chance that I would be assassinated.

Those on the other side might think they could get to me if they broke through Sebas, but even if they did, I had defenses of my own.

Unless they realized that I was Silver, assassinating me would be impossible.