I nodded several times, understanding. Had Lord Simeon been single, there wouldn’t have been any issue with him marrying a princess. They would’ve been celebrated as a perfect couple.
“Also,” she continued, “it was actually more convenient that he was married. That way, I could have the rumors end with me having a one-sided love, and nothing would come out of it since the man in question was already married.”
“Didn’t you say you were envious of me?” I poked fun at her, making her smile widen.
“That’s right. I was very jealous of you. Not only did you have the person you loved, but you also just seemed so happy. Yet I was having the absolute worst man pushed upon me.”
She wasn’t jealous of me because I was Lord Simeon’s wife—she was envious of my happiness.
I’d somewhat gleaned this, and now I knew that the reason was Lord Hilbert.
“You actually want to marry Mr. Mace, don’t you, Your Highness?”
I wouldn’t hold back anymore. Having this bluntly pointed out made the princess go silent. She fidgeted, but it didn’t take long for her to accept my words. “I suppose I can’t hide it anymore. Yes, I’ve been in love with Mace for a long time now... Alas, it’s an unrequited love. He doesn’t feel the same way.”
“Did he tell you that directly?”
I was asking if he’d already rejected her, but she shook her head. She hadn’t even confessed to him, apparently.
“I can tell just by looking at him. He doesn’t give off those feelings at all. He even refused to be my secretary at first.”
“Wasn’t that because he was a soldier?”
“No, it was after he’d resigned. His family are commoners, so he didn’t have to succeed his father, but he left the army because he didn’t want to leave his mother alone. He said he’d search for a job that he could commute to from home, which made me think that being my secretary was the perfect opportunity... Ah, how am I going to explain to his mother what happened to him...!”
She covered her face with her hands again. I kept my mouth shut and rubbed her back until she pulled herself together. I didn’t hear any footsteps belonging to people searching for us, so Prince Severin and Lord Nigel had probably stopped anyone from coming after us. It was most likely better for us to stay here, away from them, than to go back.
“We have to rejoin them soon...” The princess said this with no energy left, even though I hadn’t been rushing her. “You won’t be able to leave as long as I’m here.”
“Please, don’t worry about me. No matter where we are in this castle, we have to wait for help to come anyway. Though, I suppose it would be smart to move to another area. We’re up too high—lightning could strike this tower, and I believe it would be safer to leave. But we certainly don’t have to go back to where Lord Hilbert is. Let’s just get back to the main building first.”
“Right...”
I was relieved that she finally rose, and I stood with her. We linked arms as we headed back to the stairwell.
“Please watch your step.” The staircase was narrow and steep, as was common in old castles. Even after renovations, this was one part that had been left untouched. We grabbed our skirts and made our way down cautiously, trying not to trip over the hems.
“There’s a tower in our palace as well. When I was a young child, I would go up there in secret, even though I’d been warned not to because of the danger.” Princess Mira wasn’t really telling me this. It was more like she was musing about past memories. “I thought no one noticed me sneaking up there, but Mace came running after me every time. He always noticed when I was up to something...”
“You knew him when you were young?”
“Ah, I forgot to tell you. Our fathers were classmates during their college years.”
“So you were childhood friends with Mr. Mace?”
“Yes... But once he became my secretary, he completely changed. He insisted that we only have a professional relationship, and he wouldn’t interact with me like he used to. My plan backfired.”
Ah. She’d only been able to revel in the joy of getting to work with her beloved in the very beginning. It’d actually driven a wedge between them, so she’d ended up with melancholy, lonely feelings. How heartbreaking... I would’ve enjoyed this story had I read it in a novel, but it was painful in reality.
“People like Mr. Meyer are around too, so perhaps Mr. Mace can’t help it. He probably doesn’t want to disgrace you.”
“Indeed. Mace takes his job very seriously and never mixes in private affairs. Yet Mr. Meyer still looks down on him... That man obtained his position through connections in his family too, yet he acts so pompously!”
“Huh?” I stopped in my tracks at her unexpected words.
She paused in the middle of the staircase as well, looking back at me with a curious expression. “What’s wrong?”
“No, uh... Mr. Meyer didn’t obtain his position through proper means? Mr. Mace had said he was a legitimate official.”
“Mr. Meyer was employed in a regional office, so I suppose he did indeed work his way up, but he only recently came to work in the palace. I heard that when he was younger, he moved away from the area where he grew up due to family circumstances.”
“Then how did he end up in your entourage on this journey?”
“He’s the nephew of a member of parliament. He used his uncle’s power to crawl his way in. I don’t like that either. It gives him no right to put Mace down.”
My heart began to pound in my chest. I had a very bad feeling about this.
The princess looked on worriedly at my changed demeanor. “What’s the matter? Did I say something strange?”
“Your Highness... Were you the one who decided we’d come to this island today?”
“Hm? Yes. Some suggested to me that we should cancel it, given the current trouble, but if I abandoned my duties, Hilbert would have just used that as an opportunity to put me down again. Or at least, that’s what Mr. Meyer told me. I don’t care what Hilbert says anymore, but I figured Mace would’ve said the same thing. I didn’t want to disappoint him.”
I pressed my hand to my chest. What should I do? I may have had a grave misunderstanding.
Mr. Meyer was obnoxious, yet he hadn’t argued against the princess’s actions. And though he’d scolded the other Visselians, he alone had seemed to take her side. He saw me as an enemy. He’d even tried to tear me away from Lord Simeon. On the day of our tea party, Mr. Meyer had let Princess Mira run out in secret, away from the royal palace, despite the fact that he’d usually try to stop her.
That was why I’d considered him a possible suspect behind the incidents where I’d been targeted. He’d been nearby during the carriage accident and had a build similar to the person spotted at the bazaar. Had his goal been to go after Lord Simeon while I was hurt and unable to move? I also didn’t believe he’d intended to get the princess involved.
In the end, however, his schemes had failed, and I’d even ended up tagging along on the journey to Terrazant. He might have come up with the extreme plan of bombing the bridge out of desperation. The political situation being how it was, he could pin the incident on terrorism. He’d even said as much earlier. He’d called out to the princess at the time and had pulled her over to a safer area.
On the other hand, I’d been closer to the scene of the crime—I’d almost been caught up in the explosion. Since a few among the guards were his accomplices, it was also possible for him to subtly guide them away from the danger. Had I been directly hit, Prince Severin would have been taken with me... I’d thought that was rather extreme, but if my theory had been correct, then Mr. Mace could’ve still been alive. Perhaps he was only trapped somewhere—that was what I’d hoped.
I’d felt like I was getting closer to the truth, but given what Her Highness had just revealed to me, I began to lose confidence. Calm down. What’s bothering you? Where’s the contradiction? Mr. Meyer being a new hire didn’t automatically disprove my theory. Perhaps he’d been trying so hard to get the princess to approve of him because he was new. But he didn’t seem like the type of person who would care about that sort of thing. I didn’t see him as trying to curry favor with Her Highness. It also wasn’t as if he were quietly revering her.
What is this? I’m not really understanding anything, yet I have an incredibly bad feeling about everything. I couldn’t help but feel like my theory was incorrect.
“Mrs. Marielle?” The princess called for me, bringing me back to my senses.
I wavered for a moment, then settled on heading back downstairs. Regardless of anything else, remaining in the tower was perilous. Lightning was frightening, of course, but moreover, we wouldn’t have anywhere to run if we were attacked.
“My apologies. Let’s keep going.”
I moved my feet again. We passed by the third floor, then the second floor. We were so close, when suddenly, footsteps noisily approached us.
I gulped and stopped once more, as someone appeared in the stairwell. The person trying to come upstairs noticed us and skidded to a halt.
“Hilbert?” The princess scrunched up her face in disgust.
Indeed, the one who was breathing heavily and bounding up the stairs was Lord Hilbert.