Princess Mira’s maid tried to calm her. “Let’s head back to your room, Your Highness.”
“No...” The princess shook her head. “I’m going to search for Mace too.”
“You mustn’t. It’s pitch-black outside, and the winds are very strong tonight. It’s too dangerous. Let’s wait inside.”
“Then at least let me wait in the lobby. Please,” Princess Mira practically begged, tears glistening in her eyes. This seemed to be an overreaction on her part—after all, the only thing that had happened was a mere subordinate had come under suspicion and gone missing. Everyone else likely felt the same as I did, and a puzzled atmosphere took hold. It’s natural for the princess to be upset since Mr. Mace is her old friend, but... Hmm.
I poked Prince Severin. He bent down so I could whisper in his ear. “There won’t be any danger in the lobby, so can’t she stay there?”
“I suppose...”
A booming voice cut through the space. “Mira! Why are you making such a fuss?”
His Highness and I shut our mouths and whipped around. Lord Hilbert was puffing his chest out as he stomped toward us. “This is pathetic! Don’t lose your mind over something like this.”
The princess glared at him with deep disdain dredged up from the bottom of her heart. “I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now. Keep quiet.”
Lord Hilbert snorted loudly. “This is precisely why you’re hopeless. You have no self-awareness about the position you’re in. Do you not feel embarrassed to act like this in front of Prince Severin? He’s a crown heir as well, yet look at the difference. Is there no limit to how miserable you can be? I beg you, don’t reveal this unsightly state of yours anymore. You bring shame to Vissel.”
Ugh. We’re already in a tough situation, yet he inserts his bothersome self into the mix? I glanced at Lord Simeon to ask whether he could kick Lord Hilbert out, but my husband grimaced and shook his head, implying that he couldn’t say anything. I’m sure you can’t, but still!
The problem wasn’t finished speaking yet. “I can understand panicking, since the man you decided to trust turned out to be a villain, but making a fuss now won’t erase his mistakes. As a princess, don’t you think it would be best for you to consider how to take responsibility for this?”
Princess Mira bared her teeth at him. “Don’t order me around when you don’t know anything. And what villainy are you accusing Mace of? All he did was inspect the carriages!”
“That’s what he wants you to think.” Lord Hilbert’s tone was rude, and he was grinning. “It apparently wasn’t an inspection at all. Isn’t that right?” He turned over his shoulder to ask Mr. Meyer, who was standing nearby. Oh, he came too? Lord Hilbert was just so obnox—present that I hadn’t noticed.
With all eyes on him, Mr. Meyer stepped forward. “According to our soldiers’ reports, he was fidgeting with something underneath one of the carriages. The patrol found it suspicious, so they called out to him, but that made him flail and run. This was found under that carriage.”
He held something out to us—something round and metal that was about the right size to fit into a man’s palm. It wasn’t spherical, but rather, oval-shaped and elongated. I was apparently the only one who was confused about what this object was. Lord Simeon’s expression hardened upon seeing it.
“What is that?” I asked.
Nobody answered me. Lord Simeon held out his hand to Mr. Meyer, took the round piece of metal, and studied it.
“It’s real.”
Prince Severin also peered over. “I’m impressed it didn’t explode when it hit the ground.”
“This type doesn’t use a detonator. The pin must be removed in order to ignite it.”
Explode? Ignite? I felt like I’d heard something similar before, then I remembered: This item was a small bomb the culprit of the previous incident in Lavia had used. If I had my facts straight... “It’s a hand grenade?”
That was what it had been called. Despite its size, it was powerful. An exploding grenade could cause someone to lose their life. I recalled the impact from that time in Lavia.
“Wh-Why did Mr. Mace have a hand grenade? And that’s a weapon meant to be thrown, correct? What was he doing at the carriage, then?”
Mr. Meyer answered. “A long string had been tied to one of the wheels. He’d evidently planned to have it dragged below the carriage body.”
String? How would that work? “So he would tie the grenade to the carriage, the string would wind when the carriage began to move, and the pin would be pulled out?”
“There’s no way!” Princess Mira screeched. “Mace would never do something like that! This isn’t his!”
Lord Hilbert’s brows furrowed. “You just don’t know when to give up, do you, Mira? We have both witnesses and evidence here, yet you still defend him? You’re the one he was targeting! You would’ve been blown to bits if no one had noticed!”
Mr. Meyer stopped him. “No, that’s not it. Her Highness’s carriage wasn’t the one being tampered with.”
“Huh?” Lord Hilbert swung around with an expression like he’d been blindsided. I’d also assumed the carriage had been the princess’s, so I was similarly shocked.
“Then whose carriage was it?” Prince Severin probed.
“This is a difficult truth to reveal...” Mr. Meyer was uncomfortable. “But it was the carriage Ambassador Shannon had been using.”
A brief silence befell us. What...? My next assumption was that Prince Severin’s carriage had been the one targeted, but that had missed the mark as well. Why Lord Nigel’s?
His Highness narrowed his eyes. “I see. So Marielle was targeted yet again.”
“Huh? Me?”
“There’s no one else it could’ve been. Out of everyone, I can’t think of a single reason Sir Nigel would be targeted on this trip.”
I-I suppose he has a point. Lord Nigel is on this trip for his own reasons, but from a third-party perspective, he has nothing to do with this excursion. Even if one were to consider that the incident could have something to do with the relationship between Easdale and Vissel, it was still too much of a stretch.
After the first day of travel, I’d switched places with Lord Nigel and ridden in the Easdalian carriage. If that really was the carriage that had been tampered with, then I was most certainly the target. But why would Mr. Mace be after me? I can’t even begin to think of a reason!