“Sister…I could get used to this.”
“Oh? But my hair is not as fine as yours, Alec.”
“Oh, no, Sister. Your hair is definitely superior.”
“You think so? Perhaps you see me through rose-colored glasses? Any other man would—”
“Don’t tell me you intend to let another man play with your hair.” Alec pulled my hair. It hurt.
“Oh, Alec. You know full well there is no other gentleman in my life who would caress my hair. It was merely conjecture.”
While Alec was technically a man, he was my baby brother, so he was the one exception. And if there were such a man in my life, I would’ve gone straight to him to be my pretend boyfriend…
That’s right! I’d gotten so caught up in my little soothing head-pats from Alec that I’d completely forgotten. I came to the training grounds to hunt for a man!
I hastily gave the training grounds a once-over. But…all it did was discourage me.
Hey, soldiers over there holding hands, what’s with the shy giggling and lack of personal space? Damn honeymooners!
Hey, instructor and student over there! What, am I supposed to believe that you’re hugging him from behind just to teach him how to swing a sword?!
The training ground was full of hot guys…just like I knew it’d be.
But this won’t do… Oh, the happy auras of the male couples are stabbing my heart with all kinds of mixed feelings…
The fujoshi half of my heart was shivering with unadulterated fangirl bliss, but the single-girl half of my heart was hit with the harsh reality that there was no room for me… It sucked.
This is bad… Now, just the sight of the young soldier who was sparring with Alec earlier walking over to a corner of the training grounds and talking with a fellow soldier made me think they were a couple.
“Alec…”
“Sister?”
“Please…stay by my side for a while longer.” I know he’ll have to leave the nest someday! Please let it be in the distant future!
Alec smiled sweetly at me. “Of course I’ll stay, Sister.”
My baby brother is an angel!
✦ ✦ ✦
One day, the princess of our kingdom set foot on the training grounds.
Her little brother, Second Prince Alexis, was quick to react. The moment he saw her, his eyes immediately lit up, and he said, “I’m going to say hi to my sister. Take a break until I return.”
No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he left my side, running. These abrupt changes in his demeanor always made me doubt my eyes. And who could blame me, given the way Prince Alexis usually acted?
I was a new recruit, chosen from what were likely many candidates to assist the second prince with his sword practice. And when I noticed a good portion of the other soldiers were glaring at me, clearly with jealousy born of lovesickness, I gave up and withdrew.
Despicable… Look, guys, your creepy behavior is the very reason why Prince Alexis didn’t choose you!
As I walked away, I happened upon a fellow soldier who was also on break, so I decided to kill time by shooting the breeze with him for a while.
Still, my eyes couldn’t help but wander over to the royal siblings.
There was Octavia, the first princess. At sixteen years of age, she was just the sort of princess commoners such as myself had pictured back in my home village. She looked so different compared to the girls who lived where I came from. Silvery hair, aquamarine eyes, willowy and delicate—words like pretty or girlish described her face better than beautiful.
She looked very kind and gentle. She was the physical manifestation of a dream princess. At present, she was smiling sweetly at her little brother, Prince Alexis. As I watched him relax and smile with such ease around his sister, it was hard to believe he was so cool and curt with us soldiers.
And right beside the sibling sweethearts…
“Look at that handsome fellow… You know who he is, right?” the soldier with me murmured. “He’s the same guy who was on the battlefield that day.”
Hey, don’t call him a “handsome fellow.” You remind me of my ma back home.
My armored colleague was a commoner, just like myself. Commoners who wished to become soldiers had a harsh road ahead of them. We needed either connections, coin, or competency.
And if you had none of those things, your only choice was—strange as it sounds—committing some heroic act on the battlefield. Most commoners were used as cannon fodder and died…but if you managed to survive, you would be a hero.
My armored colleague and I had broken through the glass bulwark and become castle guards by the fourth method.
One year ago, when Saza Church crusaders waged war against the crown, we fought in the king’s army. The Saza faith was the religion with the most followers in Esfia, but their defeat in this war brought to light a scandal the likes of which our kingdom had never seen before, causing their church to lose a lot of influence.
The biggest hit to the Saza followers was the assassination of their leader. That spelled victory for the crown, and it was a devastating blow to the Saza Church. However, for some mysterious reason, the king was currently seeking the man in charge of the assassination so that he could be punished.
Well, I’m sure there were some dirty politics at play between the Saza Church and the crown, the likes of which commoners such as myself couldn’t begin to imagine.
There was a man who fought in that battle…one called the Emissary of Ongarne. It’s a name we made up. Nobody knows whose side he was on: the Saza Church or the crown. And that’s because he killed soldiers on both sides.
Ongarne was the Saza followers’ version of Hell. It was an abstract place of the utmost pain and suffering. And to mock the Saza scandal that erupted in conjunction with the war, one of the dominions was also named Ongarne.
Anyway, someone decided to call that man the Emissary of Ongarne. Meaning he was the one who escorted people to Hell. My armored colleague and I both had seen the Emissary of Ongarne on the battlefield.
And now, the spitting image of the Emissary of Ongarne—the one we saw on the battlefield that day—was on the opposite side of the training grounds, serving as Princess Octavia’s bodyguard.
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s really him.”
“So…how much do you think Princess Octavia knows?”
How much does she know? That’s a good question.
In the first place, it was only by mere chance that he and I even knew what the Emissary of Ongarne looked like. So we didn’t doubt that he was an actual person of flesh and blood. But now that everyone was far from the that battle in both time and space, the Emissary of Ongarne became more and more of a legend with each passing day.
He was considered a fabrication created by many different people. Even in aristocratic circles, mentioning the Emissary of Ongarne would get you laughed out of the room.
So what did the royals think? The royal family consisted of His Majesty the King, His Majesty the Queen, Prince Sirius, Prince Alexis…and Princess Octavia. I found it hard to believe that the princess could truly claim to be ignorant.
Which meant…it was possible that someone had pulled some strings to get the Emissary of Ongarne to become the princess’s personal guard. It was seeming less and less likely that Princess Octavia was in the dark…
“Do you think she knows…and she’s got him right where she wants him?” I asked my colleague. “You heard that rumor, right?”
There were whispers in the wind that the Saza Church leader’s assassination was orchestrated by the Emissary of Ongarne. Whether you believed the Emissary of Ongarne existed or not, you had to acknowledge the crown’s common interest there.
Princess Octavia was delicate—the perfect princess. But ever since I got posted at the castle, I started to hear rumors that there was more to her than met the eye.
If Princess Octavia knowingly welcomed a traitor into her arms, what was her reason…?
I vigorously shook my head. My armored colleague shivered in turn.
“N-now, now, let’s not let our minds wander to strange places,” he stammered. “There is such a thing as an uncanny resemblance. We might have both misremembered him, too.”
“Y-yes, you’re right,” I said, choosing to go along with his declaration. It was technically possible that Princess Octavia’s bodyguard just happened to bear an abnormally strong resemblance to the Emissary of Ongarne…not like I believed a word of that!