As expected, Prince Severin was perfectly fine, as if nothing had happened between now and the last time I’d seen him.
“I see the three of you are all right.” He gave a brief nod when he saw us again, but that was it. He hadn’t moved an inch from this room and had only monitored the situation.
I curtsied. “And you’re all right as well, Your Highness. If you passed away right before your own wedding, nothing would be left for Julianne. I’m worried about when similar cases occur in the future, so please be sure to write a will as soon as you get home.”
“The situation has already wrapped up, yet you’re killing me off now?! I’m getting married, no matter what!”
“Oh, you’ve just said the one line you shouldn’t. Your foreshadowing is very heavy.”
“What do you mean, foreshadowing?! Nothing’s being foreshadowed!”
Of course I’m happy to see that you’re safe, Your Highness. For Julianne’s sake as well. Hmph.
Counting all of the members of Mr. Meyer’s armed force, there seemed to be thirty-six men in total. Nine of them had died, and the rest were all injured. Don’t tell me Lord Nigel did all of that by himself... Did he?
He admitted to it right away. “Oh, sorry. All the dead ones were my fault. I couldn’t exactly hold back in a situation like that, you know? I’m admittedly not the best at using my head while fighting. Ah, but those were mercenaries. They were only obeying orders—we wouldn’t have been able to get any information out of them. So you’ll forgive me, won’t you, Vice Captain?”
Lord Simeon gave him a single sigh as an answer.
The corpses were gathered in one room to rest, and the living were bound and thrown into another. The rain persisted, and the tide hadn’t waned, so we couldn’t leave just yet. We’d have to remain in this castle for a while longer. My allies were all around, and more than anything else, Lord Simeon was by my side. I had nothing to fear. But though my emotions were calm, my stomach had just about run out of its energy source.
When I pressed my hand to my stomach, it growled, and my husband took pity on me. “We couldn’t bring rations since they would’ve gotten wet...”
He pulled out his small knapsack and rummaged through it, but the only thing it produced was a water bottle. I was grateful for that, since I was thirsty. After letting Princess Mira drink first, I put the bottle to my lips, but I noticed Lord Hilbert glaring my way. With no choice but to pass it to him, I ended up with an empty bottle returned to me. I figured he’d do this... But thankfully, Lord Simeon pulled out another one, then Sir Alain handed me the rest of the snacks from his pocket, which I split with the princess. This time, I made sure not to give any to Lord Hilbert.
“I can’t believe you were able to swim through those rough waves.” I was satisfied with my small meal. “Wasn’t it dangerous?”
Sir Alain chuckled. “He took off his shoes and tied them to his body, along with his saber.”
“That...doesn’t really answer my question.”
“Of course it was dangerous, ha ha. He could’ve just left it to us, yet he went and did that.”
Lord Simeon held his head high. “It is not that I did not trust you. I simply thought it would be best to go since the option was available.”
He rode on the rescue boat for the first half of the trek, then swam the rest. Some of his subordinates had apparently tried to follow him, but not only was the flow of the tide swift, but the waves were also high. Lord Simeon had ordered all of them to stay put unless they were confident they could make it through. In the end, only one knight had done the swim with him.
That knight had this to say: “I come from a seaside town.” But even he’d almost been left in the dust by his boss, who’d swum across as though the rough waves were nothing.
My eyes dug holes into my husband. “I won’t be surprised by anything else I ever hear about you. You knew all along that the bridge would explode, didn’t you?” Both he and Prince Severin avoided my glare. “You ran back because people were near the explosives, right?”
“Yes. I tried to lure them as far forward as possible, but the rear guard was in a dubious position.”
“That means you were also watching in secret as I was placed in the guillotine. Meanwhile, I was scared I was going to die.”
“I didn’t intend for that to happen to you...”
Sir Alain hurriedly cut in. “Ah, actually...! We chased right after Meyer when he left, and we were going to burst in too. But we had to finish things up down here, so it’s our fault that we were late. I’m so sorry!”
I rubbed the back of my neck, which still sort of stung. So Lord Simeon hasn’t noticed where I was hit. He’ll probably fly into a fit of rage if he sees, so I’ll opt not to tell him.
After staying silent the whole time, Princess Mira finally spoke. “Lieutenant, I have something to ask. You said you noticed Meyer was suspicious and have been monitoring him the whole time, yes? In that case...doesn’t that mean you know what happened to Mace as well?”
I almost gasped when she asked that. I’d just claimed I wouldn’t be surprised anymore, yet here I was, surprised again. She was right; if Lord Simeon had been monitoring Mr. Meyer, then he should’ve also been keeping track of Mr. Mace’s actions.