After leaving Ignacia in his cell, I met up with Tarte to help her heal the injured. Once we were done, Tarte, Rudith, and I returned to my house...to find Frey, Luna, Lina, and Mio waiting for us, hats in hand.
“Sharon, we are so sorry!” they pleaded.
So Mio was the one who gave Ignacia the Pandemonium. “Um... Can you tell me what happened?” I asked.
“Yes...” Mio answered, sounding heartbroken.
I guided us all to a sitting room to hear her out.
“Do you remember when I told you that I was working as a Priestess in the castle? One of the people who gave his confession that day was apparently...Prince Ignacia,” Mio began.
“Right...”
She continued to explain that Ignacia hadn’t given her his name at the time. It wasn’t uncommon for people to confess anonymously, so Mio hadn’t thought anything of it. “He seemed to be in great pain, in search of courage to ‘defeat evildoers,’ he told me.”
“Evildoers... He apparently meant everyone in Erenzi,” I said.
“Yes,” Mio said weakly. “After he told me about a staff that would let him control monsters...I gave him the Pandemonium. I am so, so sorry...”
“You knew what the Pandemonium did, didn’t you? You really thought it was okay to give it away to someone you didn’t even know?” I asked. How naive can you be?
“I did know that he worked in the castle. He said he wanted to vanquish evil for the sake of his kingdom. I couldn’t doubt those noble intentions...!” Mio countered.
“You have a heart like a baby bird’s...” I let out a sigh. “Okay. It’s all over now, and I just wanted to know the course of events. But, Mio, you should keep in mind that you can’t trust someone just because of their position or background—myself included. To be honest, the castle is crawling with people who’ll do anything to fulfill their ambitions. That’s the last place you want to trust someone blindly.”
Mio’s shoulders slumped. “Frey and Luna and Lina told me that too. I was a fool. I’m sorry...”
“Well, it’s not up to me to decide your fate,” I said. “I’ll leave that to Frey. You can settle this among your party members, however you want to.” The looks on Frey’s, Luna’s, and Lina’s faces told me that they would handle this.
Mio wasn’t the one who’d used the Pandemonium, so I doubted the kingdom would prosecute her...but only because Ignacia had already been removed from the line of succession, by the sound of it. She’s just a poor girl who was duped by the disgraced prince seeking revenge. If Ignacia had still been the crown prince, Mio might have been brought up on some kind of charge, though. Within Frey’s party, I expected them to have a discussion and decide some sort of consequence for her having given away one of their items without the group’s consent. Even though a Pandemonium was a tricky item to make useful, it would have sold for a pretty penny in this world.
“I understand your reasoning,” Rudith said, having listened to Mio’s confession in silence. “Since you obtained the item in a dungeon while adventuring and simply gave it away, there’s nothing illegal there. Of course, if you had been the one to actually use the item in the city, we’d have to arrest you. We’re not detaining you, but I’d like you to give a statement to the Order of Knights. Is that all right?”
“Yes, I will share everything I know,” Mio said.
“Thanks. As for Prince Ignacia, his sentencing will take...a long time.” He sighed. “There’s no precedent for summoning monsters in the middle of the city. This should be fun,” Rudith grumbled.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Extra! Extra!” Loud voices rang out across the Royal Capital Blume.
I bought a copy from a newsboy and skimmed the page announcing an alliance between Erenzi and Farblume.
“Does the paper talk about Ti?” Tarte asked.
“Yep. She’s an awesome Pope, isn’t she?” I began reading the article out loud. “‘With both countries now working together, an exchange program for Knights and Healers is in the works. Aspiring Healers from Farblume will be welcomed at the cathedral in Erenzi, where they will be able to train in their craft...’ And Templars from Erenzi can come and train in Farblume.”
“That’s ameowzing! Ti must have worked really hard to already be starting an exchange program after such a long conflict!” Tarte purred with pride.
I smiled, happy to see that Tithia’s endeavors to create an alliance were off to a great start. She deserved to see her genuine wish for peace fulfilled.
Someone tugged on my sleeve—L’lyeh. “Sharon, I’m going to buy that.”
“Some skewers? Okay. Will you get me one too? I’ll get us drinks from the vendor over there,” I said.
“Me too!” Tarte chimed in.
“Got it,” L’lyeh answered.
Tarte and I made for the vendor selling fruit soda.
“What are we going to do now? Are we going to stay in Furblume?” Tarte asked.
“Now that the alliance is secured, I think we should move on to our next adventure. Is there anywhere you want to go, Tarte?”
“I want to collect more ingredients for Furmulation. I heard that Laureldite Republic is a good place to do that.”
“Good idea!” I said, impressed that Tarte had a concrete destination in mind. Laureldite neighbored Farblume to the east, in the opposite direction from Zille. There were plenty of Fire items to be found in its scorching deserts. “We’ll register the Gates in every city there. Oh, but we need to visit Cattora so you can register its Gate first. There’s something comforting about knowing you can go home anytime you want.”
“Thank you, Meowster. There’re so many places I want to go...!” she crowed with a beaming smile.
“Let’s decide where we’re going next over skewers and soda! Then, we’ll let Kent and Cocoa know what we decided,” I said with a grin.
“They’ll be happy to go anywhere,” Tarte said.
“I’m sure they will.”
I paid for the soda, met up with L’lyeh, and the three of us began discussing our future while laughing over food and drink.