Chapter 72
Though sunlight filled the room, Vieta, who had stayed up all night, was still in bed.
Staying up for one night was nothing to someone as nearly nonhuman as Vieta, but her heart was so unsettled that she simply did not want to leave her bed.
“…I’m screwed. How am I supposed to face him now?”
With her face buried in her pillow, Vieta recalled what had happened the night before.
“Go out with me.”
Bewitched by those enchanting violet eyes, Vieta nearly found herself nodding.
“No.”
After only a moment’s hesitation, Vieta squeezed her eyes shut and rejected Blanc’s confession. Regardless of whether she liked Blanc or not, she did not want to impulsively begin a relationship while swept up in the moment.
Despite Vieta’s firm rejection, the prince did not back down as easily as before, and Vieta even confessed that she had originally been a man so that Blanc might give up on her.
“It’s true. Believe me.”
Overwhelmed by unbearable embarrassment, Vieta huffed and looked up at him, but the prince merely smiled calmly.
“I believe you, Vieta. It’s just that dwelling on things like that would be a waste of time. I’ve decided to give it my all.”
Blanc, who had been looking down at Vieta, suddenly leaned over and whispered to her.
“So, Vieta, please, don’t push me away.”
At Blanc’s low voice resonating beside her ear, Vieta swallowed a groan. After speaking, Blanc reached out and tidied her stray hairs.
Crazy! Crazy!
When Blanc’s face as he tidied her hair came to mind, Vieta let out a short scream and rolled around on the bed.
She had only thought about it, yet her damn heart began pounding like crazy.
Even after drinking cold water and standing in the chilly breeze, her heart would not calm down. Only after burying her face in her blanket and silently screaming for a long while was Vieta able to finish getting ready and head to the hunting grounds.
Even as she left the castle, she remained on edge, afraid she might run into Blanc.
Perhaps because she had dawdled in her room before coming out, the area around the registration desk on the outskirts of Santpol was fairly quiet.
“Hello, Vieta.”
“It’s been a while, Elodie. I came really late, didn’t I?”
“It’s all right. Maybe it’s better that you came late? You have no idea how noisy it was this morning. People came pouring in droves to see Prince Roen, and the registration desk nearly toppled over entirely.”
Elodie, whose fluffy brown hair was neatly tied into two braids, spoke with a series of deep sighs. Looking closely, Vieta saw that her clothes were not merely wrinkled; they were also slightly torn here and there.
From Elodie’s disheveled appearance, Vieta could imagine how fierce the morning crowd had been.
“Still, it was quite a feast for the eyes. The prince really is handsome. I heard the big man beside him is some high-ranking person from Sijak, but the prince blocked him from view completely.”
Unsure how to respond, Vieta gave an awkward smile and held out the wooden token she had received earlier.
Elodie suddenly remembered and handed Vieta a wooden token marked with the number 67, adding that she had to bring back her game by five in the afternoon each day.
Leaving Elodie behind as she wished her a safe return, Vieta quietly walked toward the open fields.
According to the map, there were three possible routes the empress might take to escape. Every one of them crossed the mountains, including the only gorge connecting the Duchy of Sijak to Santpol.
“Ugh, do I have to climb this mountain again?”
Vieta’s hand trembled as she held the map. The route Fulcare had singled out as the most likely escape path passed through the same mountain as soft and squishy as a rotten potato, where she had found Michelle.
[Check for engraved magic circles or suspicious markings.]
Easier said than done.
Vieta quietly summoned the red thread, then entered the fog-shrouded forest.
***
“Number 67. Three raccoons, correct? Submit this record at the registration desk.”
Vieta examined the paper handed to her by the game official. Behind the kind-looking official, the prey hunters had caught throughout the day was piled high.
Vieta nodded, then headed toward the registration desk. A bulletin board that had not been there that morning had been erected nearby.
[1st Byon Sijak.]
It was a board displaying the tournament rankings.
Vieta disliked the name at the top, so she clicked her tongue with a ‘Tsk’ and checked the next rank.
But Blanc’s name was nowhere to be seen on the board.
Under the hunting tournament’s rules, magic could be used freely as long as it did little damage to the prey.
Even without directly using offensive magic, support magic alone would have been enough to catch a rabbit. Since Blanc had not caught even one, he seemed to have spent the entire day following Byon around and keeping watch on him.
‘Is it all right for the prince not to place in the rankings? It seems like it would damage the imperial family’s dignity.’
Vieta realized she had been worrying about Blanc and shook her head vigorously.
Seeing Byon’s name on the board, Vieta thought it highly likely that Blanc and the others had already returned to the castle. After submitting her record to Elodie, Vieta hurried back to the castle.
Contrary to Vieta’s expectations, however, the castle was deserted.
With this unexpected free time, Vieta ate her fill in the servants’ dining hall, washed herself in the communal bath next door, and headed straight to her room.
If she shared what she had discovered today with Fulcare and Michelle and made new plans, she might end up staying awake all night. It seemed best to get at least a little rest in preparation.
Knock, knock.
Vieta was lying on her bed in a comfortable shirt with her eyes closed when someone knocked on the door.
Vieta was about to open it without thinking when she remembered what had happened yesterday and paused.
‘Who could it be? Surely not Blanc.’
Picking at her thumbnail with her index finger, Vieta thought of Fulcare and Michelle.
Fulcare was the type to force the door open and walk in; he never knocked so meekly. Michelle, too, was the type to call out openly rather than knock. That left only one person.
When Vieta opened the door a crack, Blanc was standing there as expected, looking down at her in his hunting clothes.
“Were you sleeping?”
He really never listens to a word I say.
The moment she saw Blanc, a fire of anger flared inside Vieta.
“Blanc, didn’t I tell you yesterday? If you keep wandering around so carelessly, it could start a strange rumor.”
“What sort of rumor?”
“Well, you and I….”
Vieta hastily raised both hands and covered her mouth. She could not bring herself to say that people might start saying they were dating.
Seeing Vieta flustered, Blanc spoke with a faint smile.
“Get ready—we’re going somewhere, then come out. We could talk inside, but then the rumor you’re worried about would spread even more, right?”
“…Where are we going?”
Blanc had been smiling until just moments ago, but he answered Vieta’s curt question in a toneless voice.
“Michelle’s hurt.”
“What? Why are you only telling me now!”
Vieta felt ashamed of herself for jumping to conclusions and snapping at Blanc.
She merely threw on a cloak hanging on the wall and followed Blanc out.
The corridor leading to Michelle’s room was quiet, perhaps for the patient’s sake. When Vieta saw a maid walking by with bloodstained towels and a washbasin, her expression grew even darker.
“Is she badly hurt?”
“It was a riding accident. Thanks to the five priests who attended to her, her injuries have healed completely, but she should still rest.”
Byon must have had a hand in it. Vieta walked down the corridor with her fists clenched tightly.
Thick furs hung over every window in Michelle’s room, perhaps to keep rumors from leaking out or perhaps to keep the room warm.
“Ah, Michelle.”
Vieta let out a sigh when she saw Michelle lying neatly in bed. Blanc had said she was fine, but the young lady was deathly pale, as though she had lost a great deal of blood.
“Ful, is Michelle really all right? Why won’t she regain consciousness?”
Vieta sought out the Grand Mage. At that moment, the person she could rely on most was Fulcare.
Blanc’s expression seemed to tighten slightly, but this was no time to worry about such things.
“She’s fine. The priests checked her several times. I examined her myself, just in case, and found nothing wrong.”
Fulcare soothed Vieta as she clung to his arm.
“How did this happen? You said it was a riding accident. Was Byon behind it?”
“…It’s all my fault.”
Loras, who had been guarding one side of the room, answered in a voice filled with pain.
“While I was distracted tending to the game, someone attacked my lady’s horse.”
Loras held out what he had been holding to Vieta. When she examined it, she saw an arrow without an arrowhead.
“This arrow was found near where my lady fell from her horse. According to the Grand Mage, faint mana can be sensed at the end of this arrow….”
Loras was too overcome by emotion to continue, so Fulcare took over for him.
“There was a slight scorch mark on the horse’s hind leg. Since the horse she was riding was brown, it was difficult to distinguish, but it was definitely a burn mark. I think it might have been some kind of magic device.”
A magic device? Between the incidents involving Ugo and Raisen, magic devices seemed to keep causing trouble, and Vieta was becoming increasingly displeased.
“The chief mage is investigating the magic device, so let’s set that aside and think about the next problem.”
Blanc sat in a chair, tapping the armrest with one finger as he continued.
“I think Byon will use this incident as an excuse to take Michelle to the duchy. Melvin is already in the young duke’s hands; if Lady Michelle falls into them as well, we’ll be at a complete loss. So for now, I think we should agree to say that the accident’s aftereffects are more serious than expected and that Michelle needs to recuperate within Santpol Castle.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad idea.”
Loras nodded in agreement, followed by Fulcare.
“We’ll need someone watching both Lady Michelle and the young duke. How should we handle that?”
“I—I’ll keep watch on the young duke. Fulcare will be busy investigating, and Sir Loras needs to protect Michelle as her guardian knight. Since the young duke may try something again, it would be better for me to stick close to Byon.”
Vieta voiced her own opinion for the first time.
Perhaps because he was seeing this side of her for the first time, one of Fulcare’s eyebrows twitched.
“I have to keep checking the hunting grounds anyway if I’m going to check the escape routes. So….”
“All right, Vieta. Calm down.”
Blanc calmed the thoroughly agitated Vieta.
Vieta lowered her head and held Michelle’s hand tightly.
*
“Oh, aren’t you the maid I saw that time?”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Young Duke Sijak.”
As Vieta watched Young Duke Byon flash her a hearty grin, she forced a smile.