“Uh, um,” I stammered. Albert was the last person on the planet I’d wanted to overhear that.
How could I answer? A noble lady would find a way to cover up her slip with a smile, but that wasn’t really in my repertoire. Maybe if we were at a party I could have managed a smile, even if it was forced. But unfortunately, we were at the institute. Between that and how I’d let my guard down, I had no hope of glossing over this mistake.
My thoughts froze from shock and panic, and I began looking around wildly.
Oh, I know!
“L-Lord Hawke. What are you doing here?” I met his question with a question—it was the first thing that popped into my mind! Sure, it was impolite, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“I needed to speak with Johan. And I always want to see you.” Albert smiled, launching a powerful attack—a critical hit upon my heart. And now that I had left myself open, Albert seized his chance to ask, “Just where is it that you want to go to?”
“Oh, uh—” In the end, I said the unthinkable. “Abroad…I guess?”
Why had that come out as a question? Because even my heart was poking fun at me.
“Abroad?”
“Uhhh, I always wanted to travel abroad at least once in my life,” I reluctantly admitted.
It was true that this had been my dream even back when I lived in Japan. I had always wanted to travel, to see all the sights, and to try every food I could find. Unfortunately, I had worked at a company where it was normal to work even on the weekends, so I’d never had the chance.
Albert thought for a moment before he said, “Do you want to go to Zaidera?”
“H-how did you know?!” I yelped in surprise.
Albert smiled crookedly and lowered his voice to explain, “I’m afraid I heard that they’re planning to send a second delegation to Zaidera. It was a reasonable guess.”
Albert was in the upper echelons of the military. I didn’t know who he’d heard this from, but it made sense that he knew the grand magus and some other mages were headed to Zaidera. From the way he said it, he probably knew the panacea was being sent as well, and that I had been summoned by the king.
“I’m sorry. I know they’re not going to Zaidera for the fun of it, but after hearing about the delegation, I started wishing I could go.” I wasn’t a very good liar, especially not to someone I was close to; I always started feeling really guilty. So I just gave up and told him the truth. I even forced a smile as I said it; I was already feeling awful about having these feelings to begin with.
But Albert didn’t rebuke me. “Please, don’t apologize,” he said. “We hardly ever get the opportunity to travel abroad. If you dream of seeing other countries, then of course you’d start to feel such things.” He made me feel it was okay to have these yearnings. The guilt wasn’t entirely quashed, but his kindness warmed my heart.
“Thank you. But it’s just a wish. I know I’ll probably never get to go.” I had no intention of really reaching for it either, especially because I didn’t think it was possible. These were my honest feelings. I told him as much, as I didn’t want him to worry, but he just gave me a puzzled look.
“Why do you say that?”
Huh? Had I said something weird? I felt a bit shy asking and hesitated as I said, “Uh, because we’ll be busy getting ready for our wedding?”
Actually saying it out loud made me suddenly even shyer, and a heat bloomed in my cheeks. I found it hard to keep his gaze.
Albert looked a bit bashful in turn. “True. We will.” He covered his mouth with his right hand as he nodded.
“Y-yeah. If we’re going to have our ceremony in, like, a year, then I should probably start getting my dress ordered and stuff.” Encouraged by his agreement, I started reaching for things I knew I had to do. According to Liz, the dress-making took the longest time, which is why I brought it up first, but Albert seemed stuck on a different part of what I’d said.
“In a year?”
He gave me a quizzical look, so I said, “I heard that the shortest appropriate engagement is usually a year?”
In fact, several people had told me this.
Albert seemed to have heard the same. He pondered it over for a moment, resting his chin in his hand. Then, he nodded. “Oh, you meant that’s how long you would want for preparations.” But he seemed to have his reservations about this, because he then said, calmly as ever, “But that’s just the shortest time, right? I’m pretty sure wedding ceremonies can wait for longer than a year.”
“I suppose that must be true.”
“Then you could wait to get started until after you return from Zaidera.”
“Huh?” I stared at him in surprise.
It made sense. We didn’t need to get married in exactly a year from now. I hadn’t even begun to discuss dates with the king. I probably could go to Zaidera and then just start on the wedding stuff after I got back, just as Albert had suggested. But surely there were other factors that would interfere no matter how badly I wanted to go? I couldn’t just blithely agree with him.
But Albert seemed able to read me.
“I’m guessing you’re also worried about whether you can take such a long break from work. Or are you worried about the cost of the voyage? Oh, and let me guess—your social standing too?”
How did he know me so well? Everything he had said was exactly on point.
I laughed awkwardly, which he took as my response, as he proceeded to persuade me otherwise—first saying that if I wanted to take time off, I’d have no trouble getting permission. If anything, they would be happy that I requested it, as they believed I worked too much as it was.
I still couldn’t tell when my work drive was worrying people, and Johan had on occasion forced me to take time off, so I couldn’t argue with this assessment.
Next, Albert said that the palace would gladly fund my journey without a second thought. Unlike the world I came from, traveling abroad was outrageously expensive for the common people. However, if I joined the official delegation, the cost would be minimal.
“But I can’t just decide I’m going,” I protested, to which Albert suggested that if I was worried about getting in the way of the mission, then I should ask the king to be allowed to go as a reward for all I had done for the kingdom already.
True enough, the last time we’d spoken, the king had yet again mentioned that they still owed me a great debt—and one of the reasons for that was my continued refusal of most of the king’s attempts to repay it. As such, Albert figured they’d actually love to fund my trip.
He’s not wrong. And doing this would put a dent in that debt…
Mind you, in Albert’s opinion, they probably wouldn’t count this toward a reward. The delegation was going to Zaidera in order to cure someone who had fallen comatose. If I went to Zaidera to help, I would be going for work and they would fund my trip as a related expenditure. Of course the palace couldn’t consider that a gift.
What if I went without offering my assistance? That didn’t really feel possible for me personally, though. Of course I wanted to help. After all, if I put my all into it, I knew I would be able to heal this patient.
That was why Albert had stated that definitively. He didn’t think for a moment that I would be able to stop myself from getting involved.
Huh? Why does he seem so confident in that?
“So, all that being said, you don’t have to worry about taking a leave of absence or about the cost. Which leaves the matter of your rank…”
Was the Saint even allowed to go abroad? Albert mulled over the last potential roadblock. However, he seemed to have some difficulty articulating his thoughts. Up until this moment, he had spoken with such sure eloquence, but here he paused multiple times, choosing his words with care.
He agreed that he couldn’t picture the palace enthusiastically sending the Saint abroad. The biggest problem was security. It was easier to protect a person within your own territory than it was in someone else’s.
They’d already had to think about this a ton when deciding who to send to Zaidera for this mission, and they had opted to send their most powerful mage as well as a significant resource—resource in this case referring to the panacea.
Which meant that for personnel, without taking anything else into account, I would have been their top pick, what with my absurd level in Holy Magic. However, letting me leave the kingdom had posed a problem, which was why they had elected to send their second best, the grand magus.
“So it really would be difficult for me to go, then.” It was disappointing, but it sounded like I would be best served by giving up on this dream.
But Albert seemed to think it was too soon to surrender. “If you have your heart set on it, I’m sure you have room to negotiate.”
He then revealed that the higher-ups had spent quite a bit of time deliberating between me and the grand magus. So, Albert believed that if I said that I wanted to go to Zaidera, and it looked like my security wouldn’t be a problem, then the palace wouldn’t refuse.
“Then you mean that the only real problem would be safety measures?”
“Indeed. And it just so happens that I have an idea as to how to solve that.”
“What is it?”
“I shall go with you.”
“What?!”
I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. Had Albert really just offered to go to Zaidera with me, or had I imagined it?
Doesn’t he have his responsibilities as knight commander?!
It was like he could read my thoughts! “It will be fine,” he assured me. “Protecting you is just part of my job.”
That’s true. Protecting the Saint is a priority for the palace knights. But I’m pretty sure that’s not his only job, being a commander and all. I’d feel terrible if he shoved all his other duties aside just to indulge me on a field trip.
I tried to argue that I’d be just fine staying, but he said, with a smile that brooked no argument, “But if you stay, how can I make your dream come true?”
His smile was even more devastatingly charming than usual. And this had all started because I genuinely really wanted it… Partly because of this, and partly because I was easily persuaded to just go with the flow, I lost all will to argue.
“Nngh… O-okay. Please…come…with…me.”
And so, Albert talked to the king on my behalf, and soon…I was going to Zaidera.