I couldn’t hear a single thing, but I knew that these two ladies had honed senses that allowed them to pick up on people’s presences.
“Good luck, Anne,” Diana said, putting her hands together.
She’d likely made that pose instinctively, and we all followed suit, praying that Anne would be well.
“Oh?” Samya said in a low voice.
Right around lunchtime, her ears twitched energetically. We determined the time based on the sun we could see through the windows. We also had our trusty, stalwart stomachs—our internal clocks—which would growl when it was time to eat.
“Is it over?” I asked.
“I think so,” Helen replied, sensing it as well.
A short while later, I could just barely tell that the atmosphere outside of the door was becoming rowdy. “Ah, looks like they’re about to leave.”
Everyone else nodded, implying that they’d caught on and heard the noise too.
“I didn’t hear much of a fuss, so Krul, Lucy, and Hayate must’ve been quiet and acting like good girls,” Diana said.
I smiled. “We need to praise them to bits later.”
“Yes, we do!”
I’m positive that they love to play around with everyone, but that’s all. I wonder what their favorite foods are...? Lucy almost certainly prefers meat (though she occasionally eats some vegetables), and Krul will chow down on anything in front of her. Still, considering their small appetites, I’m not sure what their favorite things are. You know, something they’ll happily make room for, even if they aren’t hungry. I don’t have a clue, honestly.
Hayate, like Krul, was dragon-like, and she didn’t eat much either (though that could be attributed to her tiny stature). I also wasn’t sure about her dietary preferences. Maybe I’ll ask Matthias about it later—ask what they ate lots of while here.
“Will Anne return to us?” Lidy asked in a feeble whisper. “She won’t just go back to the empire after this conference, will she?”
We all grimaced, unable to provide a clear answer. All of us had worried about this, though we’d been too scared to vocalize it. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned. But fretting over this question did me no good, and I did my best to shove it into the recesses of my mind, hoping to put it off until I absolutely couldn’t ignore it. Considering Anne’s standing, circumstances, and her current situation, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for her to return to the empire.
Anne was the highest-ranking figure at the meeting. Others would assume that once the meeting concluded, she would elegantly make her way back to the empire. The high-ranking official of the kingdom would assume so, at the very least. In fact, if they had some time to spare, they would surely want to send off Her Imperial Highness warmly.
Will Anne have any choice but to head home then? The fact that she’s a hostage hasn’t been publicized, so if she returns to the empire, she really has no reason to come back to our cabin. Even if she wanted to, I doubt anyone in the empire would send her back to us with a smile. Wait, actually, I feel like the emperor would be true to his word and send Anne back to the kingdom...but there are no guarantees that she’d be sent to the Black Forest again.
I decided to blindly cling to hope. “She’s got excellent manners, so maybe she’s just been delayed with pleasantries.”
“She is the princess,” Rike said lazily.
“Right!” Lidy said, huffing energetically.
Samya and Helen kept their mouths shut, but they couldn’t hide their faces—it was clear as day that they hoped she would come back.
“All right, maybe we should take our leave,” I said.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
The door quietly cracked open, and a certain figure appeared, her head down.
“Anne!” Samya cried, raising her voice. She hastily clapped her hands over her mouth, but I thought she’d be fine. I don’t think it was loud enough to echo throughout the manor... At least, I don’t think so.
“Oof, I’m exhausted,” Anne said wearily. “Huh? What’s wrong, guys?”
She stared at us blankly, and we must’ve looked at her back in the same fashion.
“Uh, we just didn’t expect to reunite with you here,” Diana confessed.
We all nodded along.
“I mean, there was a chance that you wouldn’t return to us,” Helen said with a strained smile. “And even if we did meet again, I’d assumed it would be outside of the capital.”
“And if you were waiting for us somewhere, I thought we’d be told as much,” Lidy added.
“Plus, there still must be nobles of the kingdom wandering about in the manor,” Rike said. “I’d figured you’d have to leave the manor.”
Anne grinned, wide and a bit strained. “Yeah, I thought so too. I was also surprised. But the moment I left the manor, I was steered toward a hidden corridor.”
“A hidden what? Do we have something like that?” Diana asked in surprise.
Diana had been born and raised in the manor—she’d left only last year to join our family. If she didn’t know about it, then this secret must’ve been kept from even family members.
“Aside from pretending to leave the manor, it’s apparently used to sneak back in without using the front or back exits,” Anne explained.
“Huh...” I said.
“But one wrong move, and you’ll run into a trap! They didn’t show me what these traps were, of course.”
“Fair enough. So they allowed an imperial princess to use that secret corridor, huh?”
“Yeah.” Anne nodded.
The members of our forge considered Anne to be family, but she was undoubtedly still the imperial princess. A person of her social rank and status shouldn’t know the secrets hidden in the manor of a kingdom noble. The fact that Anne had been allowed to take a peek meant that the place boasted powerful security measures that couldn’t easily be broken.
“If I’d been a spy, I would’ve learned the location of the corridor, its front and back entrance, and one other exit,” Anne said. “However, that secret space probably has even more ways in and out.”
“Probably,” I replied.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the corridor had many exits, and I bet there were other secret passages just like it in the manor. I know the Eimoors are a military household, but they exercise caution to an almost absurd degree. The security measures within this manor are just as, if not more, numerous than the ones around our cabin in the Black Forest.
I voiced my surprise, and in response, Helen muttered, “Yeah, they’re probably wary about those close to them. I don’t know what happened way back when, but this manor is in the heart of the capital. They clearly don’t fear invasions from outside—if an army makes it this far, the manor might as well wave the white flag of surrender. No, they fear treachery from within the manor.”
“So, those on the inside,” I replied.
“Yeah.” She nodded as she gazed out of the room. “The placement of these windows allows one to view only the immediate area outside the manor. If the windows were meant to spy on invaders, they would allow for a view much farther into the distance. Diana’s ancestors who built this manor are cunning.”
Diana wasn’t the one receiving praise, but I noticed her puff out her chest with pride.
“So? How did it go?” I asked Anne.
“Huh? Oh, well...”
I wanted to know what the conference had agreed upon. But I couldn’t easily ask for details on the ride back, and since people of the duke’s faction and kingdom higher-ups were still around beyond this room, we couldn’t discuss the situation openly. Right now was the only private moment I’d get to learn about the meeting until we got home, and I really wanted to assuage my anxiety before then. That’s an excuse, but whatever.
“I know I’m being selfish...” I murmured. But I was so curious. And though I couldn’t change the results, I wanted to find out what had happened as soon as I could. “Of course, if hearing the details now will affect the mood on our ride home, I can wait until we get back to the cabin.”
I hastily tried to give Anne another option, knowing full well that the outcome of this conference might’ve not been positive. We had a long ride ahead of us, and it’d be awful if the entire trip to the Black Forest was plagued by a depressive atmosphere. We could hear any bad news at home, where we had plenty of opportunities to cheer ourselves up. Though if I ever mentioned being cheery in the Black Forest to anyone outside of our family, they’d be baffled by my claim.
“Nah, nothing like that,” Anne replied. “We settled on a solution that won’t exactly affect us.”
With that, she began to shed light on the morning meeting. Two nobles of the duke’s faction had been present for this meeting (according to Anne, they were boring, average nobles—not anyone special). Louis Alexandre Antoine de Valois, the king’s younger brother, was also in attendance. The king had a few siblings, and His Highness Prince Louis was the youngest brother. There were about five other older brothers between him and the king, and Prince Louis wouldn’t attain the throne unless there were some truly absurd circumstances at play.