The tension at the guesthouse was as thick as could be.
It was me, Gourry, MacLyle, and the mayor. We entered the building and proceeded inward. The soldiers standing at attention should have remembered us, yet they regarded us with suspicion. Nobody said anything the whole time. Eventually, we came to a door.
“Could you perchance explain things now, Sir Mayor?” MacLyle finally asked as we came to a stop. It had been a long walk here from the inn, but we couldn’t exactly talk about a VIP being abducted while in the public eye.
The mayor nodded, knocked on the door, and then opened it without waiting for a response.
Within was the room Gourry and I had visited the day before. It had carpeting, tapestries, a large table and desk, plus a grand canopy bed in the back. There were also several maids present and about six soldiers. It looked just the same as it had—aside from Amelia’s absence.
“When morning broke, the princess was nowhere to be found,” the mayor informed us. He looked around at the soldiers and the maids. “The night shift soldiers and night duty maids all said they were suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion and collapsed. There’s magic that can put people into a slumber, isn’t there?”
“There’s the Sleeping spell,” I said. “But that usually doesn’t work on people who are alert, like in the middle of a fight...”
“Are you suggesting we weren’t being vigilant?!” one of the soldiers barked at me.
I shook my head. “That’s not what I mean. I’m saying we should consider possibilities other than magic. After all, there was no way in hell a Sleeping spell would’ve covered the entire guesthouse... Maybe there was something in the drinks. Or some kind of incense-based soporific. Or either of those combined with a Sleeping spell to enhance it. Did you notice anything like that?”
The soldiers and maids all exchanged a glance, but my suggestions didn’t seem to ring any bells.
The mayor looked at me pleadingly. “Is there any chance that Princess Amelia just slipped out without telling anyone?”
“Well... I doubt it,” I confessed. Knowing Amelia, hearing about the raiders making trouble for the city had probably set her burning sense of justice alight. She might’ve even been eager to dish out punishment. But even so, she would’ve known it was pointless for her to run off on her own when she didn’t even know where their camp was.
“Then... that means...” The mayor’s voice shrank until it disappeared entirely.
Without any other options, I completed his statement. “It’s reasonable to assume she was kidnapped by the people who attacked the city, yeah.”
The mayor’s face grew even paler. “Th-Then we must find her... mobilize local security... yes, I’ll contact the authorities as well...”
“Calm down,” I said reassuringly.
Heedless, the mayor kept pacing around aimlessly. “Calm down?! This is a crisis for me... No, not just me! It’s an international crisis between Zephilia and Saillune!”
“I think it’ll work out somehow.”
“You can’t possibly think— What?” The mayor blinked a few times. “You think this is going to work out somehow?!”
“Yep.”
“How?!”
“I can’t share the details just yet since it might send my plans off the rails, sooo...” I improvised, then looked around at the people in the room. “Just wait and see.”
The wind rustled the leaves in the endless expanse of greenery dappled by soothing sunlight. I was sitting at the base of a large tree, looking up, and the rays kaleidoscopically filtered through swaying layers of foliage. It would’ve been the perfect spot for a picnic, but...
“So, how long do we wait?” Gourry muttered from where he sat next to me.
“Dunno,” I said easily.
“Hey now...” Not even Gourry could just brush that one off. “Were you just BSing them back there? Do you really think this’ll work out?”
“BSing them?! No way. I totally know what I’m doing!” I insisted.
After learning of Amelia’s abduction, I’d advised everyone—including the local security detail—to act as if all was normal. Panicking would only play into the enemy’s hands, I told them, so the soldiers of Zephilia and Saillune in particular needed to be on standby at the guesthouse in case a ransom demand arrived.
Obviously, no one was pleased with my brusque explanation, but the only alternative was a random search through the vast woods—which everyone knew would be pointless. So, as dubious as they all were about my plan, they decided to listen to me.
After that, Gourry and I had prepared bread and drinks for lunch and then set out into the forest. And here we’d been sitting for a while, waiting.
“At the soonest, it won’t be long at all. And at the latest... it’ll be tomorrow morning or so.”
“Or so? Well, I know you well enough to believe you’ve thought this through, but...” Gourry looked all around him. “Do we really have to wait here? We can’t do this in town?”
The grass around us was singed, for we were sitting where we’d tangled with the raiders the previous day.
“The city’s not out of the question, but I think this is the ideal spot.”
“If you say so,” Gourry responded.
Our conversation tapered off, and we spent a little longer sitting around in peace until...
“Hey.” Gourry stood up suddenly and glanced deeper into the forest. “You were right.”
I stood up too and turned my gaze in the same direction. There were two figures approaching us from the trees.
One of them ran up to us as they hailed, “Lina! Master Gourry!”
I probably don’t have to tell you who it was—the supposed abductee herself, Amelia. And trailing behind her was a man in white with a hood pulled low over his eyes.
“What’s going on, Lina?” Gourry asked, his head cocked.
“Long story,” said the robed man as he lifted his hood. His revealed face was handsome enough, but his skin was hard, blue, and inorganic. His silver hair sparkled with a metallic sheen under the mottled sunlight.
Zelgadis Greywords. Me and Gourry’s first encounter with him had been as enemies, but circumstances had led him to join our party. He knew Amelia too.
“Hey, been a while,” Gourry said, waving lightly.
“It has indeed... Wait, Gourry, you actually remember me?” Zel said jokingly.
Gourry smiled breezily in response. “Oh, come on. Of course I remember you!”
“Okay, just to be sure, what’s my name?”
“I know your name!”
“Then say it,” Zel insisted.
Gourry scratched his head bashfully. “C’mon, give me a break.”
“Give you a break?!” Zel, Amelia, and I all cried out in unison. My man’s response was that absurd!
Not even Zel could avoid losing his cool. “Now hang on a minute, Gourry! You didn’t really forget my name, did you?! Say it! I’m not even asking for my full name! Just my first name! Even a nickname would do!” He seemed a little desperate... though I understood why.
Meanwhile, Gourry smiled all the same. “I remember. Don’t worry. You just want me to say it, right? I’ll let Lina here do that for me.”
“Why me?!”
“He forgot it...” Zel whispered, his face awash with despair.
Gourry waved his hands hurriedly in response. “I’m kidding! I really do remember. It’s Zel-something, right?”
“Oh... so you do remember,” Zel said in relief.
...
“Waitaminute, Zel! You’re genuinely satisfied with ‘Zel-something’?” I asked, outraged.
But his response was calm. “Of course I am.”
✦ ✦ ✦
