Officially speaking, the man confined in the tower had been a double for that villainous duke. Deceiving the entire nation with a fabricated distortion of the facts hadn’t been easy by any means, but as a result of my thorough misinformation campaign, I’d been able to keep the truth to only a bare minimum of people—few enough to count on one hand. It went without saying that this was among our kingdom’s most closely guarded secrets. If it came to light that we were harboring the same unforgivable villain who had ground the people under his heel, riots wouldn’t even be the start of it—we could easily see another revolution.
It was entirely my fault that we were stuck holding this dangerous bomb, but my young master had ultimately assented to my unreasonable demands. “You’ve been through so much for my sake, after all,” he’d told me. For that generosity, I owed him a lifelong debt of gratitude.
“You’re in good spirits today, Craig.”
That same master, now His Majesty King Sighart, addressed me with curiosity in his voice. That startled me—I hadn’t let myself slip into a grin, but had I been smiling visibly?
“Was it showing on my face, Your Majesty?” I asked, embarrassed.
“No—it’s just that you took care of all this paperwork in a single day, but you don’t look tired at all.”
He gestured to the sizable piles of paper weighing down his desk. I’d concluded my duties for the day, and now I was in the middle of giving him my report. Normally, a simple knight would never be called upon to report directly to His Majesty, but given my in-depth knowledge of the workings of the kingdom’s government before the rebellion, I had certain special reports to make—and I was also tasked with keeping His Majesty updated on Lord Heinreid. And so, I would periodically meet with him here in his office.
It bears repeating that Lord Heinreid’s situation was an especially sensitive national secret. The only ones in the room were King Sighart, Queen Natasha, myself...and Karl Anker.
Her Majesty, sitting by the king’s side, spoke up sulkily. “Oh, Sig, there’s only one reason Craig would be in a good mood, isn’t there? If I could snuggle up with you as much as I liked after my work was done, I’d be absolutely full of energy too.”
Clad in an elegant dress and with her long hair tied back, she was the perfect image of a queen. It was difficult now to picture her as that heroine who’d cleaved through hordes of enemies, sword in hand; but her demeanor with King Sighart hadn’t changed even a whit.
“A-Ah, I guess so...” His Majesty replied sheepishly. “Sorry, Natasha. I’ve been stuck with a lot of work these past few days. I shouldn’t have pushed you to stay late with me. Let’s finish things up early today and take some time to ourselves to relax and talk together.”
“You haven’t been pushing me at all. But I’d love some time to relax with you—I’m holding you to that, got it?”
Her Majesty had the cheerful smile of a girl her age, but her selfish little demand was likely also a subtle ploy to give His Majesty a respite from his work. The Lion Princess, indomitable on the battlefield, was now working diligently as queen to support this nation—no, to support King Sighart. Insolent as it was of me, I couldn’t help but be grateful that my master had the love of such a wonderful person.
“Got it. Let’s get this wrapped up quickly, then. Craig, Karl, over these past two weeks, have there been any new developments with the man in the tower?”
In just half a year, this question had already become routine for us. I gave my answer first.
“He has been well-behaved as always, Your Majesty. However, he appears to have lost some muscle due to lack of exercise, and he’s grown unhealthily thin, so I plan on giving him a training regimen to perform in his quarters.”
“You will, Craig?”
I raised an eyebrow in bemusement at His Majesty’s uncomfortable expression. I vaguely recalled Lord Heinreid reacting similarly when I’d first raised the proposal with him. Was it truly that strange for me to be the one overseeing his exercise?
“Is there some problem, Your Majesty?”
“No, just... I get the feeling you might put a little too much on him. No assigning him a hundred push-ups a day or anything, all right? Go easy on him—he’s not like us.”
“I shall be mindful of that.”
Now I understood why Lord Heinreid had initially balked a little at the prospect. Obviously, I’d never planned on assigning him the same regimen that was given to knights in training. But in addition to his decline in strength over the course of his confinement, he had been a nobleman to begin with. If I pushed him too far, it could easily become no different from literal torture. I certainly didn’t want to turn those rumors into reality, so I resolved to adjust the exercise quotas I had been developing in my head.
“In any case, that’s all there is to report, huh?” His Majesty mused. “Maybe it’s time we reduced the frequency of these meetings a little. From everything I’ve heard, he hasn’t been acting at all suspiciously over the past half year. Obviously, it’ll still be a long while before we can let him out of the tower... But for now, I feel fine about leaving things up to the two of you.”
“Yeah, lately, it feels like we’re just meeting up to listen to Craig talk about his boyfriend, doesn’t it?”
“N-Natasha...”
King Sighart gave a strained smile at Queen Natasha’s playful interjection. Among those of us who knew the truth, she had been the one most staunchly opposed to letting Lord Heinreid live. Knowing that, it was frankly a relief that she had relaxed her stance to the point that she was teasing me like this. The slight awkwardness was a small price to pay.
“Ah, sorry. Right, I’m queen now... Ahem.” She cleared her throat pointedly, making a slightly belated attempt to regain her composure, and resumed speaking with a more queenly air. “Very well. Let us continue. Karl Anker, have you anything further to report concerning that man?”
Hearing his name called, Karl finally opened his mouth.
“I do have one matter to report.”
Wait, you do?
Normally, he would simply ride on the coattails of my report—“I have nothing further beyond what Sir Bauer has already presented.” This was unusual. Come to think of it, he’d also called out to me today for once...
As I recalled our interaction earlier, Karl presented his matter.
“When I brought him his dinner, I found that he had regurgitated everything he had eaten earlier in the day. He had no fever, but I believe it would be prudent to summon a doctor for caution’s sake.”
“Huh?”
Her Majesty’s mask of queenly composure instantly fell apart, and she gaped in unrestrained surprise. For my part, my mind was having difficulty catching up with the sudden new turn the conversation had taken, leaving me voiceless.
What the hell did that man just say? He didn’t even blink!
As the room descended into confusion, the first to return to his senses was His Majesty.
“Could you tell us a little more?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. He began experiencing a decline in appetite precisely one week prior to today. He had not lost the ability to eat altogether, so I slightly reduced his portions for a time while monitoring his condition. He had gradually been regaining his appetite... However, the baked goods that he consumed as a snack this afternoon apparently disagreed with him.”
Karl glanced pointedly in my direction without turning his head. “Flour-based confections are bad for one’s digestion,” he added.
The snack this afternoon... I recalled Lord Heinreid as I’d seen him earlier today.
That’s ridiculous! He enjoyed them so much, didn’t he? More importantly...
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “I’ve heard nothing of this.”
“He requested that I keep the matter secret from you.”
Secret? Lord Heinreid wanted it kept secret from me?
No, we could address that later. The issue was—
“Why did you listen to him?! You should have called a doctor at once!”
“Craig, calm down,” His Majesty said before repeating my question. “Karl, why didn’t you share this with us earlier and call a doctor?”
Karl turned his gaze forward once more and spoke with a cool demeanor, as though my shouts had never reached his ears at all.
“Notifying this man would have done nothing to help matters—if anything, it could potentially have exacerbated the situation. I was of two minds over whether to report it to Your Majesty. However, given that he had engaged in no wrongdoing or self-harm, that the symptoms themselves had occurred once or twice previously during his time at the Rodvelia estate, and that he had been showing signs of recovery, my outlook was slightly more optimistic than it ought to have been. I must apologize, Your Majesty.”
“If it’s happened to him before, does that mean you know his diagnosis?”
“Indeed—or rather, to call it a diagnosis may be an overstatement. In all likelihood, he is in poor physical condition due to stress.”
The office fell into silence following Karl’s matter-of-fact answer.
Stress... It might not have been a specific disease, but still, given His Lordship’s history, any decline in his mental state was too important to just overlook.
“Do you know the cause?” His Majesty asked.
“I am afraid not. In his present location, it is hard to imagine any proximate physical cause.”
His Majesty turned to look at me, but I shook my head as well, pathetically silent. Just as Karl had said, there hadn’t been any changes within that sealed-off space. Even if I narrowed my focus to the past week or two, nothing at all came to mind.
“For now, we should send over a doctor right away. There might not be any point if the cause is psychological, but we can’t rule out the possibility of disease just yet. Also, Craig—I’ll have you taken off duty tomorrow, so go pay him a get-well visit. If we want to find out what’s wrong, you’re the best one to ask him about it.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Implicitly, I was being ordered not to visit today, but all I could do was obey. Even I knew that I was lacking in calm and composure at present. I needed to cool my head before seeing him, or else we wouldn’t be able to hold a proper conversation at all.
Hearing King Sighart’s interim conclusion, Queen Natasha gave a deep sigh.
“Looks like we’re not relaxing tonight either...” she muttered.