How did things come to this...? wondered Estelle, sighing for the umpteenth time and gazing listlessly at the white wall of her solitary confinement cell.
This was the Tower of Albion. Located in the center of the city, not far from the Palace of Albion, it was a tall tower that held political prisoners. Estelle was currently detained here.
Until yesterday, she’d lived in the Libra Palace. She’d been playing with Snow in the early afternoon, but then, all of a sudden, she’d been arrested and brought here.
“How strange. Why isn’t she reacting to it?” wondered Estelle.
She’d waved a rod with a mouse-shaped toy hanging from it in front of Snow, but the white cat wasn’t playing with it at all. She was chasing it with her eyes and waving her tail, so she did seem to have an interest in it, but she simply sat there, just moving her head.
“Is she tired of it?” suggested Leah, a worried look on her face.
“Perhaps it has to do with the way you move the toy. May I borrow it for a moment?” asked Cian, who was Estelle’s bodyguard today.
While he was a member of the Royal Guard serving Arcrayne, he was temporarily filling in for Neville as Estelle’s personal guard, since Neville had been badly injured in the dragon attack and was still recovering.
Furthermore, it was still unclear who’d brought that dragon there in the first place, so both the royal family and Albion Police were desperately looking for those responsible. Hopefully they’d find something soon, though they didn’t seem to be making much progress.
Estelle handed Cian the rod. He waved the toy mouse hanging from it in front of Snow, at which point the cat got up and leaped at it. Snow was absorbed in the play—she lay down on her belly, then ran chaotically around the floor like a lizard, then jumped about.
“What is this anger I feel...?” Leah uttered quietly.
And while Cian didn’t deserve it, Estelle felt the same way.
“What makes us different?” she wondered, frowning.
“Try to think about how the cat feels.”
Cian’s reply didn’t really explain much to Estelle. She recalled Neil expressing his dissatisfaction with how ridiculously popular Cian was with animals.
“Cheating is bad, Snow,” Estelle complained, giving the cat a serious look.
One of the appeals of owning a cat was that you couldn’t tell who actually owned whom, but it was unreasonable nonetheless.
“How do you do it? Could you try to be a little more descriptive?” asked Leah.
“Well... You have to imagine how a real mouse moves...” replied Cian, seeming at a loss.
Estelle took the rod from him to try again.
Suddenly, she could hear someone arguing outside. Snow put her front paws on a nearby couch and got up, then stared at the door with a face that said, What’s meowing on over there?!
It appeared someone was being so rude as to try and force their way into the room. They were arguing back and forth with the guard who kept watch outside the door.
“What’s going on? I’ll go take a look,” said Cian.
As he went over to the door, Snow hurried to hide. Immediately afterward, the door opened without so much as a knock, and an imposing group of men dressed in deep blue military uniforms entered the room. The color of their clothes startled Estelle.
The only ones allowed to wear royal blue—the exclusive deep blue color that symbolized the royal family—were members of the royal family and those with special permission from the king.
Which meant that these were no ordinary soldiers, but the Sovereign’s Guard—troops under the king’s personal command, formed separately from the Royal Guard.
Why are they here...? wondered Estelle. Cold sweat beaded on her back.