Everyone went silent upon realizing that it had been an inside job all along: Zanto was part of Marlena’s royal tour of inspection countermeasure team.
Zanto had earned the title of Grand Mage at a young age. He was responsible for keeping the palace safe, which would explain how he’d been able to slip letters into Marlena’s room undetected. What a waste of talent.
He was also, albeit unofficially, one of Marlena’s marriage candidates. The twenty-four-year-old had had a bright future ahead of him.
A pair of purple, almond-shaped eyes peered out through his long bangs. People knew him to be enigmatic and taciturn. Ladies considered him handsome for reasons I didn’t quite understand. Little had anyone suspected that underneath he was nothing more than a sad, sad man.
“Marlena, hn—”
“‘Marlena, hngh’ this!” I smacked him with the pommel of one of my knives.
“Ahn!”
Ignore him. Just ignore him, I was telling myself when his hands suddenly darted under my skirt. I felt them touch my legs and reflexively brought my knees together. “Eek!”
“Garter-belt-knife combo? Mmm. Briefs? Yuck.” I pinned his arms to the ground, and he grunted, “How forward, hnn!”
The earth underneath us began to rise again despite my layer of frost. Even with my charmed knives I couldn’t keep his magic under control. Dirt crawled up my shins, and I squeezed my kneecaps tight so it wouldn’t reach my thighs. Goosebumps erupted all over my body. Help.
“Ste—” I quickly closed my mouth before I could finish the name. He’s not here, I remembered, tearing up. Help.
Kraut rushed to my side. He tied Zanto up with rope enchanted to smother magic and stepped on the mage’s face for good measure. He slid his hands underneath my armpits, lifting me up. I clung to his arms in relief, and he nodded, as though telling me everything was going to be okay. “Go die in a ditch, perv!”
“Marlena and her maid. Oh, how precious. Om nom nom nom.”
It was terrifying how little sense his words made. Revolting. In spite of our success in his capture, I felt dead inside.
“Bern…” I felt something gently brush against my hands, returning me to reality.
I looked up and was met with Kraut’s concerned gaze. Get a grip, Bern. “Thanks,” I managed.
“I only did what anyone else would.” Kraut smiled, taking a step back. I watched blankly as the guards dragged Zanto off.
“Looks like we found our culprit,” I said to Marlena.
“I suppose.” Unsurprisingly, she was completely dumbfounded. “Lovey-dovey wedding…” she mumbled absentmindedly.
I’d really prefer it if you didn’t.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, looking into her eyes. She seemed to snap back to the present, staring into mine in turn.
Why does the color of her eyes feel different? “Princess?”
“Bern!” Marlena buried herself in my arms.
Poor thing. If I was creeped out by that thing, then Marlena was probably absolutely horrified. I patted her on the shoulder. “It’s okay now, Princess.”
“I’m scared.”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m right here.”
“Bern…”
Marlena had wrapped her arms snugly around my back, which put me in a bit of a bind: to those in the know, it appeared that we, members of the opposite sex, were hugging. Bewildered, I looked to the maidservants for help, only to see them approvingly nodding and giving me a thumbs up.
Do you not see anything wrong with this picture?!
“Princess, I—”
“Let me stay like this a little longer. Please.”
Even I wasn’t cold enough to deny her after that appeal. I awkwardly glanced around. Everyone was grinning, aside from Kraut, who was shooting a glare my way. Right, I almost forgot that he’s a royal family fanatic. Marlena, like Stern, is nothing short of a deity to him.
Unable to endure his glowering any longer, I removed myself from Marlena’s embrace. She hung her head, so I kneeled to meet her eyes. “I understand how you feel, I do, but we can’t remain like this any longer. There are people watching.”
“M-My apologies,” stuttered Marlena, averting her gaze in embarrassment. Such an ordeal on her very first tour of inspection had no doubt left her anxious at best and traumatized at worst.
I wanted to ease her nerves, but there was only so much I could do in my position. “If I may ask you to put out your hand.” Ultimately, I figured that I wouldn’t get too much flak for holding the hand of a frightened young girl, at least not while disguised as a maidservant.
Timidly, she resumed eye contact. “You would let me hold your hand?”
“If it pleases you.”
Marlena beamed from ear to ear. It reminded me of a younger Stern and his angelic smile. As she latched onto my pinky, I wondered if this was what it was like to have a little sister.
“Am I not a bother?” she asked, her light brown eyes apologetic. They had a soft shimmer to them unlike Stern’s blinding glow.
“Quite the contrary, it’s an honor to hold your hand. Not to get too sentimental, but it’s like I’ve just found the little sister I never had.” I smiled back at her.
Marlena nudged me. “Mind if I call you ‘sis’? Just for now.”
“Not one bit,” I said with a chuckle.
“What’s going to happen to that man, sis?”
The restraint to call that thing a man. What a well-raised girl!
“It’s hard to say, although personally I’d like to see him punished, and harshly if possible.” Pervert or not, he was a grand mage and had to be handled as such. If it were solely up to me, however, I’d go as far as to suggest the death penalty for the distress he’d caused Marlena
“Has he done anything to warrant such an opinion?” Her question caught me by surprise. “All he did was send me some letters.”
“Some disgusting letters.”
“Disgusting, perhaps, but not threatening or slanderous.”
She does have a point.
“He assaulted you.”
“Did he? I don’t recall him laying so much as a finger on me.”
As much as I would’ve liked to disagree, he had been, indeed, unarmed. He hadn’t threatened to kill or kidnap Marlena leading up to the encounter and had merely spouted a bunch of random nonsense and showered us in petals during it. I still couldn’t quite piece together the reason why he’d erected the dirt wall, but needless to say, the evidence against him was anything but overwhelming. “He knew the location of your room and your destination.”
“What if his position in court allowed him easy access to said information?”
“Using such information to one’s own selfish ends isn’t right.”
“But does it warrant harsh punishment?”
I couldn’t grasp her thought process. Does she want me to smack some sense into him before handing him off to the law? Wouldn’t he enjoy it?
“I’m not quite keeping up, Princess.”
“Sis…” Her light brown eyes had glazed over. “I felt something back there, something I’ve never felt before.”
“He didn’t cast some weird spell on you, did he?”
“No, sis, no, he didn’t. I want to befriend him.”
“Seriously?” My usual self slipped out for a moment. A perv and an innocent little princess, friends? In what world?
“I want to talk to him,” she declared.