❄❄❄
WE visited Grand Mage Zanto at Marlena’s request. He’d been clapped in magic-suppressing cuffs and thrown into the Wurzels’ dungeon.
I watched him carefully from where I stood in front of his cell, Marlena hidden behind my back.
“Eek! Stay away, stay away from me, Marlena! The light, it burns! Forgive my existence!” screamed Zanto, retreating to the far wall, as nasty and incomprehensible as ever.
Marlena called out to him. “Zanto, sir, can I have a word?”
“She knows my name, she knows my naaaame!”
“Let’s go. He’s clearly not in the mood for decent conversation,” I growled as I turned around and grabbed Marlena by the shoulders.
“Sis, please.”
“‘Sis,’ she says! I can’t, I can’t anymore.” Zanto wept, pressing his palms together in prayer.
My head hurts.
“There! That’s exactly it!” exclaimed Marlena to both my and the pervert’s surprise. “Your words opened my eyes to a whole new world! I think we can become friends, I really do!”
“F-Friends?” Zanto tilted his head. The gesture was awfully cute for a pervert, and I recalled he was what some called handsome.
“Remember how you gave us your blessings? S-Sis and me.”
“Why, of course! I had no intention of causing you any harm, rather, I didn’t know I was even considered a threat to begin with. Me, assault Marlena? Not in a million years, I can assure you. The very thought is downright laughable,” he rattled off coherently out of nowhere, disconcerting me. “I had your back in secret, but you and the maid are so perfect together that I just couldn’t help but congratulate you two on your marriage. You were getting married back there, right?”
What is he even saying?
“Yes! Yes, we were!” cried Marlena enthusiastically.
Sorry? No, we weren’t. We’re both women, too.
“You were, you were! You one hundred percent were!”
“This is precisely why I wanted to talk to you in person.”
“Nuh-uh, no way,” he said, waving his hands in the air. “Me, some rando, get between a yuri couple? I’m not touching that landmine with a ten-foot pole.”
Marlena tightened her grip on my arm. “Say something to him, sis,” she pleaded, her baby-squirrel-like eyes directed at me.
I looked away. Normally I’d assist Marlena in any way possible but not when she wanted me to help her become friends with a pervert. “I strongly advise you to abandon this course of action, Princess.”
“Hnnnn! The sister-maid is angryyy!”
“Shut your mouth, perv!” I yelled.
“I know I’m walking into a landmine, I do, but how can I refuse you, Marlena? I don’t know if I can handle talking to you though.”
“Then what if we were to write to each other in a shared notebook instead?” Marlena refused to give up.
“Sh-Shared notebook…” muttered Zanto, his face flushing, before fainting. Knocked him out cold. Marlena’s quite the deadly one.
✦ ✦ ✦
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THE investigation that followed deemed Zanto incapable of harming Marlena. No one seemed to find the letters particularly incriminating, brushing them off as the product of poor judgment arising from a man’s natural excitement about making it onto Marlena’s list of fiancé candidates.
Why?
During his defense, Zanto claimed that he’d “only wanted to shower the newly wedded couple with petals.” Marlena chose not to press any charges, and so he got off scot-free.
Why are you okay with this?
Either way, given that his admiration for Marlena rendered him unable to so much as have a conversation with her, let alone go anywhere near her, he was determined a nonthreat.
At Marlena’s behest I delivered a notebook to Zanto in his cell. She and the rest were in the middle of a banquet.
Zanto threw a relaxed smile my way when he noticed my approach. “Hey there, maidy.”
“It’s like you’re a completely different person. Tell me, was it all some elaborate act?”
“You do nothing for me alone, maidy, not without Marlena.”
If you say so. Either way, I welcome the transformation.
“Besides, do you think I’d get any work done if that was my default modus operandi?”
Fair. I let loose a heavy sigh. “I was sent here to give you the shared notebook, at Princess Marlena’s request.”
“Haa, haha,” he cry-laughed.
Gross. “She said she wants it delivered to her room once you’re done.”
“Hnnn, a true goddess she is.”
My thoughts exactly. Why else would she show such kindness to a helpless perv like you?
“I’m willing to overlook your actions so long as you keep your hands to yourself.”
Zanto grinned. “You’re a girl, yes?”
“What of it?”
“You tell me, Bernstein.”
The air around me went chilly, I felt blood sloshing around in my head. “I see you are privy to the details of this operation.”
“That’s precisely why I kept tabs on Marlena, in case some lecherous knight accidentally developed feelings for her.”
As if you’re one to talk. “Then you must know that I myself am a knight.”
“I do, but your ‘feigned’ womanly mannerisms are awfully spot-on for a man, to the point that I had to wonder if there was a girl inside you waiting to hatch, which I was totally cool with. But there isn’t, is there? Because you already are one.”
“No, I am not.”
“Yes, you are. I knew the moment I touched your legs.” I clenched my fists to stop myself from trembling at the disturbing memory. “Relax, I don’t plan on threatening you or anything of the sort.”
When I didn’t respond, he probed further. “Tell me, is this part of some grand Eisberk conspiracy?”
“No! It’s nothing like that!” I froze in place.
It’s out, my secret is out. Wild accusations like this are exactly what I feared. I couldn’t breathe, my chest hurt, my head was spinning. It’s over. I can’t show my face in the royal capital ever again. All that’s left now is to run, throw away everything I’ve worked toward. I’ll never see Felzen again, I won’t even be able to send him letters.
But what hurt the most was knowing that Stern would think me traitor.
“Why the sad face? Your secret is safe with me, assuming you hold no ill will toward the royal family, of course.”
“I’d never!”
“I know, no enemy of the royal family would treat Marlena the way you did.”
I said nothing.
“All right, what say we make a deal?” he offered.
“Blackmail me all you like; I’m not playing your games!”
“Blackmail? No. Think of it as a small request.” Zanto grinned at my silent, angry glare. “Get intimate with Marlena!”
“Huh?”
“Apologies, Freudian slip. Ahem, what I meant was, bond with Marlena, please please please!”
“Sure? I’d like to bond with her myself, assuming she’s fine with it.”
“Preciousness overload!”
“Not sure how you see our relationship, but to me she’s like the little sister I never had.”
“I-I-I-I kneel,” he said, kneeling before me.
What is going on in this man’s head? Whatever it is, ew.
“You don’t know how much that means to me. Thank you. Now, please make me your slave! I promise I won’t tell anyone—I’ll even help you keep your identity under wraps, please! This scenario is a dream come true for me!”
“No, you sicko. And please, never say such things in front of the princess.”
“I, hnngh, I’d never! I’d never set off that landmine! The letters were admittedly a…err, moment of weakness on my part, otherwise I’m content with observing from a distance, with being a nameless face. What is it, if not arrogance, to believe myself worthy of Marlena’s affection?”
“Don’t forget to write something in the notebook.”
“Oof.”
That went well, I think. I still worried whether I could really take him at his word, but further questioning wasn’t going to make my uneasiness disappear, so I left. I should mention him to Elfen. They’re the same age, he’s bound to have some valuable insight, I thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
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WITH a sigh, I regarded the banquet lights seeping out into the garden. Talking to that pervert had worn me out completely. A chilly night breeze swept over the trees, complementing the cold clutch of anxiety tightening my chest. Such moments made me long for Felzen’s warmth.
If Zanto exposed me, Felzen’s warmth would become a distant memory, his kindness unreachable. Felzen would have to pretend he knew nothing of my deceit and label me a traitor. I’d be forced to cut all ties with the royal capital and return to Eisberk for good. Those were the conditions I’d agreed to when I enrolled in the military academy.
What a lonely feeling. A shiver coursed through me. My legs didn’t seem too happy about wearing naught but a dress in the brisk outdoors. There’ll be no Felzen to warm them once my secret is out.
“Bern?” rang a familiar voice.
I turned to see Kraut in his knight uniform. Why is he not at the banquet? “You could’ve signed off for today, you know,” I chided him.
“I can’t abandon my post. I volunteered for the position.”
“You’re out here while the princess is in there. How admirable. Heard your and the royal family share close ties?”
“Close enough to exchange friendly banter. Brother and Father, that is. Not me though, not me,” Kraut said as he melancholically stared at the light leaking out of an open window. “I’m sorry, I just—I get a little lonely thinking about it sometimes.”
“I know how you feel. I feel the same way.”
“You do?”
Even if I was close with men, even if we were childhood friends, I just didn’t get them. I didn’t know what it felt like to love a woman or how it felt to despise one. I could understand men, but I didn’t get them. “Unfortunately.”
“That’s…unexpected. You didn’t seem like the type.”
“Sorry to say that I’m just as weak and pathetic as anyone. Thanks for rescuing me back there, by the way.”
Kraut exhaled sharply, his eyes widening, and he blushed so vibrantly that I could discern the pink of his cheeks through the dark. “I just couldn’t stand seeing him put his hands on you, is all,” he said.