Chapter 3
The late-spring sunlight shone down warmly.
An occasional breeze carried a ticklish floral scent.
The imperial palace's garden, said to be the safest place in the Empire.
Blanc had never once imagined that he would be attacked by a woman in the imperial garden in broad daylight.
Pink hair tied into a single long ponytail, and pink eyes that looked exactly like her hair.
The fixer he'd hired yesterday to find him a ball partner,
and now, the utterly bizarre woman straddling him, Vieta.
When Blanc cried out in surprise at seeing Vieta fall from the wall,
she rushed at him in an instant and knocked him down into the bushes.
“Mmph!”
The soft feel of grass that had gone untrimmed for ages against his back.
The sensation of smooth hair swaying against his cheek.
Blanc looked up at Vieta, who was gazing down at him.
“You know, I'm not a bad person. I just have my reasons.”
What on earth was going on with this woman?
Blanc was dumbfounded.
First she had leaped over the imperial palace wall, then she had knocked him down and covered his mouth without warning.
On top of that, she was incredibly strong.
Even when Blanc struggled to break free, her hands and legs refused to release him easily.
“Shh. We'll really get caught like this.”
As Vieta leaned over him, Blanc's face flushed in an instant.
Her face was so close that he could feel her breath,
and even when he desperately tried to look away, he kept feeling a certain part of her body.
And his own body was reacting to it as well….
This was a disaster.
Since coming of age, this was the first time he had ever been in such close contact with a woman.
That was only natural, since attendants had always been present whenever he met privately with young ladies.
"Ah, wait. I'm telling you, it'll really only take a moment."
Though Vieta repeated herself several times, there was no way the flustered Blanc could properly hear her.
What calmed him down in the midst of his struggles was the scent of Vieta's perfume.
Amid his ragged breathing from struggling, he faintly caught Vieta's scent.
Any corridor the Third Princess of the Kingdom of Madak had passed through was instantly recognizable.
The princess always exuded such a powerful rose fragrance that it sometimes gave him a headache.
It wasn't just the princess, either.
Most of the women he'd met up to then wore scents intense enough to evoke a garden in May.
And Blanc hated scents like that.
Because they reminded him of his mother.
Yet the scent coming from this woman was different.
A warm, gentle fragrance that put people at ease.
Entranced by it, Blanc stopped resisting before he knew it.
"Are you feeling calmer now?"
When Blanc's movements subsided, Vieta began whispering in a low voice near his ear.
“To explain, I need to find a cat right now. Unfortunately, the cat came to the imperial palace, so I had no choice but to jump over the wall.”
Blanc was dumbfounded.
It seemed the wall around the imperial palace was less of an obstacle to this woman than an ordinary neighborhood wall.
“So could you just pretend you didn't see me? I don't want to cause a fuss for no reason.”
Blanc quietly looked into Vieta's eyes.
The unwavering way she stared straight at him made it hard to believe she was lying.
“Besides, I may not look it, but I'm really strong, you know? I think we're meeting for the first time, and I don't want to hit you right off the bat. So please, just listen to me.”
At Vieta's mention of this being their first meeting, Blanc fell into thought for a moment.
Come to think of it, when he had visited this woman's office yesterday, he had been disguised.
He had gone through quite a lot of trouble wearing that stuffy brown wig.
‘So she doesn't know who I am.’
Blanc felt both relieved and hurt by that fact.
If she'd known he was a prince, this whole incident with Vieta would never have happened,
but on the other hand, it was disappointing that she didn't recognize him.
“Mmph-mmph.”
Perhaps she thought Blanc was still resisting, because Vieta began tightening her grip.
Blanc hurriedly nodded, then lightly tapped the hand covering his mouth.
Still apparently unable to trust him,
Vieta only finally got off him after making him promise once more.
“Phew.”
As he drew in the cool air, the heat in Blanc's flushed face subsided a little.
“Sorry, I startled you pretty badly, huh?”
“If you know that, how can you just cover someone's mouth without warning?”
“I'm really sorry.”
Just when he thought she'd finally moved away, Vieta's face suddenly appeared from the right.
He hadn't had time to notice earlier, but now that he looked, she had a remarkably lovely face with dainty features.
‘Lovely?’
Not wanting her to see his flushed face, Blanc quickly turned away.
“…Go. And don't get caught.”
If he continued talking with Vieta like this, he felt he might keep getting drawn in.
“You really won't say anything, right?”
But Vieta was persistent too.
As though she wanted a definite answer, Vieta kept trying to meet Blanc's eyes to the very end.
Blanc deliberately shifted his gaze to the dagger at Vieta's waist and continued speaking.
“At least I can tell right from wrong. You said you're strong. If you'd intended to harm me, you would have done so already.”
Even though she hadn't meant any harm, it still irked him to send her off like this.
“Since you know what a wall is, I'd appreciate it if you came through the main gate next time.”
Perhaps reassured by his grumbling tone, Vieta held out a hand and helped Blanc to his feet.
“Please be careful not to get caught. There's a guard unit over that way, so stay away from there.”
“Thanks.”
With a bright, sunny smile, Vieta disappeared in an instant.
If she was that nimble, even an ordinary guard would never be able to find her, so there was no need to worry any further.
Watching the direction in which Vieta had disappeared, Blanc looked down at his clothes.
Because he had rolled around in the bushes, leaves and blades of grass clung to him here and there, leaving him a mess.
“It really feels like I've just had a tussle with a cat.”
Remembering Raimond's nagging, Blanc hurriedly dusted off his clothes.
*
The cat Chichi was dozing lazily in a tree, basking in the sunlight.
Vieta caught Chichi in an instant and hurried out of the imperial palace.
There had been a mishap along the way, but she felt good after safely completing the request.
It was nice to have earned enough money for dinner, too.
“But I hid my presence. How did that thing recognize me?”
Vieta found it puzzling.
The spell she used was difficult for even an ordinary mage or knight to detect.
And yet, since it had somehow recognized her, perhaps the spell had been slightly disrupted when it collided with the imperial palace's defensive barrier as she jumped over the wall.
At least it was fortunate that they could communicate.
If they had continued bickering, she would have been summoned before Fulcare and the emperor again.
Meow.
Vieta looked down at the yellow cat in her arms.
Contrary to the client's description, Chichi was remarkably tame and docile.
It hadn't moved at all since earlier, to the point that it almost looked like a doll.
"Yes, you're uncomfortable, huh? Just hold on a little longer."
Vieta hurriedly took Chichi back to the girl.
“Wow, it's Chichi!”
“Thank you, Fixer.”
After receiving the siblings' thanks, Vieta returned to her office.
***
….
Vieta sighed when she saw the lock on her office hanging open.
There was only one person who would barge into an empty office while its owner was away.
“Yo, Vieta.”
When Vieta entered the office, Fulcare waved from the sofa in the waiting room.
Judging by the teacup on the table, he had even leisurely brewed and drunk a cup of black tea in the meantime.
“I don't even know who the owner of this office is anymore. It's broad daylight, and you haven't even opened the office. What have you been doing?”
“For your information, I've been working until just now.”
“So how much did you earn?”
“I earned enough for dinner. Exactly that much.”
Fulcare's teasing made Vieta's expression turn sour.
“So you came yesterday too. What brings you here today?”
Although Fulcare often stopped by Vieta's office, he didn't punch in every day.
Even though he looked like an idle good-for-nothing with nothing to do, he was actually so busy that he worked all week without a single day off, even putting in overtime to get through it all.
“Why else would I be here? A thief broke into the imperial palace, so I came to catch him. What on earth were you doing at the imperial palace?”
Vieta, who had been tidying up in the pantry, froze.
How did Fulcare know that?
Had he sensed her during that fleeting instant when her spell unraveled?
But that wall was a considerable distance from the building where Fulcare worked.
They were practically at opposite ends, east and west.
Then there was only one possible answer.
“…Don't tell me that guy already blabbed?”
“That guy? I only came because I sensed your presence in the imperial palace and wondered what was going on.”
Fulcare's expression shifted subtly at Vieta's answer.
“Don't tell me you caused some kind of incident?”
…I jumped to conclusions.
Vieta's eyes rolled this way and that.
Apparently, her skills really had gotten rusty.
Unless Fulcare's abilities had improved enough that he could detect even that brief instant.
“I swear to the goddess, nothing happened.”
At times like this, it was best to invoke a goddess she didn't even believe in.
“Anyway, I'm going to see Iseria now. What are you going to do?”
Fulcare's already uneasy expression crumpled the instant he heard the name Iseria.
“…Why Iseria?”
“There are no other options but Iseria right now.”
As though he understood what she meant, Fulcare shook his head from side to side.
“I guess I'll just have to beg and plead.”
Vieta swept one hand down her face.