GILBERT
“YOUR HIGHNESS,” I said with a deep bow, “I must leave now, but please enjoy the lovely banquet.”
After I saw Princess Pride to her place at the table, Albert granted me permission to leave. I was the one person in the whole country who couldn’t join in the festivities today; I needed to get back to Marianne, my fiancée, as quickly as I could.
As the royal family dined alongside the Freesian people under an open sky, my Marianne lay hidden away in a room in the castle, battling her illness. I kept my guard up as I slipped away, hoping no one spotted me. Then I boarded the carriage I’d left waiting for me and headed to the royal residence alone. No one would suspect a thing if I went to Marianne’s room on foot after that.
I gazed out the window as the carriage rocked. Freesian citizens strolled the castle grounds, but most of the people I passed were knights. I gently drew the curtains when they tried to catch a glimpse inside my carriage. I had permission, but I would raise suspicions if people found out I’d left the prince consort to return to the royal residence during the festivities. For my beloved Marianne’s safety, I couldn’t let anyone know my true reason for leaving.
✦ ✦ ✦
ALAN
“ALAN, DID YOU SEE who was in that carriage just now?”
“No, why?”
I cocked my head at Callum’s question and watched the carriage that had just passed us. I’d bowed to it just like Callum had, but I didn’t particularly care who was inside. Callum was even worse at tracking moving objects than I was, so there was no way he saw who was inside, but he seemed curious anyway. Since he was still gawping at the carriage, I walked off like I was going to leave him behind.
“C’mon, we’ve gotta get a move on,” I said. “We can pass through the banquet on our patrol route, right?”
“Just be sure not to pass in front of the royal family.”
Most knights in the royal order were patrolling the castle. As captains from the main forces, Callum and I happened to be assigned the same area, even though we led different squadrons. I was the one who’d invited Callum to patrol the castle grounds together, mostly because I was afraid I’d get lost on my own. I could keep track of the royal order’s training grounds, but the castle had way too many unfamiliar locations.
We’d gotten a thorough briefing and a map beforehand, but I’d still wanted to team up with Callum, who had a very good memory. We’d also joined the royal order in the same year, so Callum was easy to get along with, even though we served in separate units.
Callum turned away from the carriage and followed me, brushing aside his bangs as he looked toward the banquet venue. The huge crowd of guests was all focused on one table; some had already started eating. Instead of passing through the chaos, we circled the perimeter.
“Real feast going on over there, huh?” I said. “Sounds pretty nice. I bet they’ve got the best booze too.”
“You’ll have to wait until tonight,” Callum replied. “You can drink as much as you want when you’re not assigned to watch duty.”
As I soaked up the sight of all that good food and drink, Callum sighed. Knights lived on the castle grounds, but instead of getting to indulge in that beautiful feast, we were stuck on patrol. Luckily, once night fell, everyone who wasn’t on shift—including the gatekeepers—could indulge as much as they liked.
“Damn, you’re strict,” I muttered when he insisted I wait. I wasn’t actually jealous of the food and drinks at the banquet.
This time, Callum took the initiative. “Let’s go.”
I followed, hands behind my head. If we got on our tiptoes, we could have snuck a peek at the royal family, but neither of us bothered. Instead, we searched the Freesian citizens’ belongings and made sure no one suspicious was lurking nearby. We caught snippets of guests’ conversations as we passed.
“Prince Vest—I mean, Seneschal Vest has really grown, hasn’t he? He’s got a nice style now.”
“Princess Tiara is sooo cute! She looks just like Her Majesty!”
“Is that really Princess Pride? She’s oddly mature this year…”
“Prince Albert’s still handsome after all this time, huh?”
“Wow, what a lovely profile that Prince Stale has… He’s so young, but he already acts like a proper prince!”
“I’ve seen Queen Rosa at this festival for the past seven years, but her beauty never changes.”
Chatter about the firstborn princess had a distinctly different tone than the gossip about the other members of the royal family. Callum had attended ceremonies and said the princess was well mannered, but it hadn’t been enough to change her reputation.
I mulled it over as I followed Callum. When I glanced at the gates, I spotted my fellow knights against the walls. The guard included a mix of rookie knights and guys from the main forces, all standing still and stiff as they kept a watchful eye on their surroundings.
“I guess Harrison has watch duty after all,” I said under my breath.
Callum scowled. Harrison had joined the royal order the same year we did, but he was still a rookie knight after failing his entrance exam so many times.
That in itself wasn’t unusual, but in Harrison’s case, it wasn’t lack of skill so much as the fact that he kept causing problems. On occasions like these, he landed assignments alongside the main forces, where he couldn’t disturb anything. While he was on duty, the others would be the ones actually searching the guests and their belongings before entry.
Callum’s eyebrows twitched a little as we watched Harrison check out each guest as they entered—but the other knight paid us no heed. Sure, the guy was fulfilling his orders by standing at attention outside the gates, but he wasn’t suited for this sort of thing. His strength and his special power would have done more good if he were patrolling the town or cracking down on crime. His abilities were plenty to qualify him for the main forces; he just had to fix his attitude.
“Such a waste,” I said, hanging my head.
We walked past the gates and the rookies stationed there, who watched us in awe. Unlike Callum and me, whose orders were to patrol the castle on our own, this unit had to move as a group. When we waved, the rookies froze and bowed. They were just itching to join the main forces and become knights like us.
After a moment, they recovered and raced out of the gates like they were supposed to. It wasn’t unusual for us knights to cross paths with each other, so they hadn’t been stunned for long. The entire royal order was working together today, after all. It was also common enough to run into knights outside the castle, but even more so on castle grounds.
“Those guys we just passed were in the First Squadron with you, right, Callum?”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“We all joined in the same year.”
“That makes sense. I wondered why I recognized them…”