“Setsuna, do you have any obligations tomorrow? Anything you must attend to?”
“No, nothing urgent.”
“Then you should stay here at the castle until you’ve recovered your strength.”
“What?”
“You may not notice it yourself, but your complexion is poor, and you’ve lost far too much weight.”
“I’ll be fine. I promise to eat properly from now on.”
“I’m afraid I don’t believe that. You’re just like the king, always pushing yourself beyond your limits,” the queen said, casually dismissing Master’s words.
“I can’t possibly impose on you any more than I already have with Alto…”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve already spoken to the king and everything is arranged.”
“That’s very kind, but I really—”
“Setsuna, I’ll continue taking care of Alto, so please rest and focus on regaining your strength,” Sophia said, cutting him off. The two women weren’t taking no for an answer.
Master and the queen went back and forth a few more times, but he eventually seemed to realize it was hopeless trying to convince her and finally gave in. A look of immense satisfaction settled on the queen’s face. She glanced around the room, then tipped her head to the side.
“Hmm? Where did Cyrus go?”
Come to think of it, Cyrus had said he’d remembered something he needed to do and slipped out earlier, but he hadn’t returned.
Suddenly, I remembered how he’d muttered, “There’s no escaping now,” before we entered the room.
As I puzzled over who he was trying to escape from, I heard Master murmur beside me in a small, sad voice… “It’s cruel to run off by yourself.”
Later, Master lay down for an afternoon nap, and the moment he did, he fell fast asleep.
When Cyrus stopped by that evening to check on him, he chuckled and said, “It’s no wonder, considering he hasn’t been eating or sleeping for days.” He ended up staying with me until it was time for bed.
After that, I was too worried to sleep by myself. I kept thinking Master might stop breathing if I wasn’t there, so I crawled into bed beside him. I’d check and make sure his chest was still rising and falling every so often.
Somewhere in the middle of the night, I fell asleep without realizing it, and when I woke up, it was already morning.
I felt so relieved to see Master awake again, but he had a hand pressed to his stomach, and his face looked pale.
“Master, are you okay?”
“I think so…”
I didn’t know what was wrong, but before I could ask, the queen and Sophia came into the room with breakfast. Since Master hadn’t eaten dinner last night, they started piling up even more food onto his plate than they had the day before.
At lunchtime, Sophia gently shook him awake and insisted he had to eat as much as I did.
“That was just cruel…,” he murmured, though I didn’t know what he meant. Master still seemed exhausted, and he took out some kind of medicine and swallowed it. He was looking worse for wear today than I’d imagined he would.
Then he collapsed back onto the bed and sighed. “I can’t take it anymore. I’m going to lock myself in here for teatime and dinner. Keep them away from me, Alto.”
“Master, is your tummy too full?”
“Yes. I’ve eaten more than enough, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Okay. Then I’ll tell them I’ll eat your share instead.”
Master’s eyes went wide. He looked like he was in so much pain I felt bad for him.
A while later, Master let out a deep breath and slowly pushed himself up. He wasn’t clutching his tummy anymore, so maybe the medicine was working.
“I’m going to the castle library to do some research. What are you going to do, Alto?”
I remembered Master had asked the queen at breakfast whether he could use the library, and she’d told him he was allowed so long as he was accompanied by a knight.
“I’ll come, too.”
“Okay, let’s go together.”
“Yeah.”
When we got to the library, Master started reading books about the history of this region. I wandered among the shelves, wondering what I should read. Then I heard several voices talking.
I didn’t recognize them and thought about leaving, but then I heard a name I did know.
“Hey, don’t you think that new maid, Sophia, is really pretty?”
“Yeah, she is.”
“I was thinking of trying to talk to her sometime.”
“You probably shouldn’t do that.”
“Why not? You could at least support me. I’m in love with her.”
Love?! Oh no! This is serious! I have to tell Master, or this is going to be a disaster!
“Don’t you know? Sophia is Sir Georges’s fiancée.”
“Huh?”
“You really didn’t know? Their engagement ceremony was all anyone could talk about.”
“Ahhh…”
“Aw, c’mon. Cheer up.”
“…Being jilted after just a few days is ridiculous.”
Their conversation broke off, and it sounded like they walked away. I whirled around and ran back to Master as fast as I could.
“Master!”
“Alto, you need to be quiet in the library.”
“Sorry.”
“What happened?”
“I heard something terrible!”
“Something terrible?” Master asked.
“Yeah! I think it could be a crisis for Sophia and Georges!”
“What’s going on?” He closed the book he’d been reading.
“A man I don’t know said he was in love with Sophia and that he’d been jilted!”
“…”
“What should we do? He could kill Sophia!”
“…”
“Master, this isn’t the time to be smiling like that. This could turn into a battle for Sophia’s love!”
“…”
“I think I should tell Georges so he can protect Sophia.”
“Alto, it’s all right. You don’t have to worry,” Master said as he rubbed his eyes, sounding very tired. “Sophia and Georges already pledged their love to one another, so there won’t be any fighting. Probably.”
“Really? Then it’s okay?”
“They accepted each other’s feelings and held an engagement ceremony, where they promised to get married.”
I knew what marriage was. That’s what Master and Tuuli had done.
“So then Sophia won’t be killed, and Georges doesn’t have to fight?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh. That’s good.”
“And the man said he’d already been jilted, didn’t he?” Master asked.
“Yeah, but what does ‘jilted’ mean?”
“It means she doesn’t love him back.”
Master gave me a small, awkward smile, then went back to his book. Love sure sounded like a complicated thing, so I decided I should look for a book about it and learn more.
I found one called The Princess of Many Loves: A Study of Lacio, the Beauty Who Toppled Kingdoms, and sat down to read it.