I boarded Emilia’s boat. The vessel was a familiar sight, but I couldn’t help but turn my attention toward the thing underneath it. I vehemently prayed that Emilia hadn’t employed any unusual characters this time around. Please. Never again...
My misgivings aside, we were well on our way to Relirex. I never would’ve imagined returning to the Dark Isle, especially not without Magiluka and my friends. This time, I was alone.
“Wow!” Sita cried. “So this is the sea! I’ve heard all about it, but it really is so massive compared to the lakes nearby Kairomea! ♪”
“Sita, don’t lean too far out!” I scolded. “That’s dangerous. Ah! Noa, no! Don’t copy her.”
Technically, I wasn’t all alone—I still had Tutte, Noa, Sita, Rachel, Snow, Lily, and a talking book. While I was anxiously fretting about the future, the kids around me were focused on causing a ruckus and ruining the solemn air I’d been basking in.
I gazed around at everyone, took a deep breath, and tried to get the girls to calm down.
“Our mission is to learn more about Xeoral,” I said. “The only potential issues I can foresee are that we either have to make a stop somewhere else along the way or get dragged into some kind of bizarre affair. What do you think, Tutte?”
“It’s all fine and well that you’re intent on avoiding trouble, my lady,” Tutte replied, “but will you really be all right meeting with the queen by yourself?”
“Please, not another word, Tutte. The mere thought stresses me out to the max. Urgh...” I groaned in agony as I buried my face in my hands. I usually left these matters solely to the prince or Magiluka. I was beyond nervous when it came to those kinds of meetings.
“If I’d known that this was going to happen, I could’ve brought Magiluka...” I lamented.
“My lady,” Tutte said simply, discouraging me from whining.
“I-I know! I decided this for myself!” Since I’d decided to head for Relirex by myself, I had to steel myself. Above all, I couldn’t keep relying on everyone around me.
“Wait!” I gasped, persistent in my drive to off-load effort onto others. “Maybe if I ask Sita or Rachel to—”
“My lady,” Tutte said again with a sigh.
“I-I’m just kidding! It was a joke. Ah ha ha...”
I tried my best to laugh it off—I couldn’t disappoint Tutte further. But deep down in my heart, I couldn’t shake off my instinct that there was less fear in numbers and that it’d be easier to approach this problem with a crowd than alone. I was a coward to the core.
“What’s this I hear?” Orthoaguina chimed in. “If you aren’t eager to gain the audience of the queen, shall I go in your stead? Simply meeting with the queen of a different kingdom is small potatoes to me. This will be easy.”
“Uh, no,” I replied. “If we add your existence to this whole affair, I think it’ll just make matters worse. Can’t you just watch from the sidelines?”
I wasn’t sure if he’d spoken up out of consideration for me or if he was acting in his own self-interest, but indulging in his offer would’ve only caused me more worries, so I had to politely turn his idea down.
“Mary, if all goes well, we shall arrive at the port city tomorrow,” Emilia reported. “If all goes well, that is.”
None the wiser to my worries, Emilia’s ominous choice of words struck fear in my heart. “Please don’t jinx it,” I replied. “What’ll you do if something does happen?”
“We’ll do what we did last time when you and we ran into something unexpected,” Emilia replied. “We’re quite sure that we can handle it ourselves. You have nothing to fear.”
I fell silent. She was practically acting like a jinx faucet, and my only choice to not start making my own jinxes was to not respond.
I’d sort of let Emilia rush me into the decision to come on this trip, and now that I’d boarded the ship and had some time to think for myself, I began to realize that there were a bunch of things she was doing that were extremely suspect. First and foremost, the biggest red flag was that she was deliberately having us avoid contact with Lady Elizabeth. Also, frankly, the claim that we weren’t going to be allowed to speak freely with Queen Belletochka wasn’t making a whole lot of sense to me. Were my questions going to inconvenience the kingdom in some way? It wasn’t exactly promising that she was currently imprisoned, but even if we were going to have problems getting to speak to her, I wasn’t convinced it was really all that necessary for us to sneak around.
“Emilia... You’re not planning something, are you?” I asked.
“Wh-Wh-What?! H-How dare you say that!” Emilia stammered. “Us? P-P-Plan something?! Th-The very idea!”
I sighed. Wow, she’s depressingly easy to read. I know Emilia isn’t the type to plan anything that would hurt me, so I guess I’ll follow along for now.
Unfortunately, even though I was so used to my trips having detours or concerning incidents, I failed to realize the situation that I was headed for. If Magiluka had been around, she would’ve immediately pointed it out for me, but she wasn’t by my side this time.
We all arrived at the port as scheduled the next day, and I was thinking my journey to Relirex had gone shockingly well...when we were immediately surrounded by soldiers upon disembarking. Why?! What’s going on?!
“Lady Mary, did we wrong this kingdom in some way?” Sita asked behind me. She was perplexed by the soldiers.
“Emilia, did you do something?” I asked. “We still have time. Turn yourself in.”
“Don’t treat us like a criminal!” Emilia snapped. “We are a princess, the symbol of innocence, purity, and cuteness!”
I felt like a truly innocent person would never say such a thing, but I didn’t dare vocalize my doubts. Instead, we all replied with dubious, suspecting looks pointed at her.
“Th-That aside, Sufia!” Emilia shouted. “Don’t be a sore loser! We have won this round, so give up already!”
A maid with cat ears parted the crowd and emerged—Sufia, Emilia’s personal maid. “Grr... I didn’t think that you’d actually bring her along, Your Highness...” Sufia grumbled.
“Heh heh heh,” Emilia chuckled. “As promised, you will tag along with us. Now then, make preparations so that we can depart for the royal capital!”
Sufia cast a befuddled look at me for a moment before she clenched her fist and emitted a begrudging groan. She then heaved a deep sigh.
Sounds like there was a bet going on to decide whether Sufia would side with Lady Elizabeth or with Emilia. I don’t picture Sufia to be the type to make such a silly bet, though... Emilia must’ve decided it was happening unilaterally and just happened to “win,” I suppose.