The sky seemed ready to burst into a downpour at any minute as Rosemarie looked up at it, clenching her hands as they shivered with nervousness.
“Claudio on the move. Let’s go.” Edeltraud, who had been watching the main street hidden in the shadows of a building, gave a wave of their hand as a signal to come over.
As Rosemarie followed the gloomy mage in the familiar hood, her feet unsteady as she went, she held her chest and let out a sigh. She was dressed in a white blouse and a blue skirt that she borrowed from Heidi—the same Heidi that she explained everything to with some help from Alto yesterday. And, as expected, through her black cat’s mouth, she asked, “May I go and wring His Highness’s royal neck?”
(Why am I here in the city...? If I go by what we discussed yesterday, I should have been watching the prince conducting his Imperial Guard training from afar, shouldn’t I?)
Since she wasn’t able to observe Claudio from afar while he was in his office, the plan was to watch him in secret while he did his Imperial Guard training, but that ended up shifting gears to patrolling the city behind the castle walls.
That being the case, Edeltraud took her down there, also acting as her bodyguard, per Alto’s request. But, to be frank, Rosemarie didn’t have the best impression of the sorcerer after the whole fiasco with them trapping and carting her around in that glass orb.
(He really doesn’t seem to notice us, but... Ironic I have a spell cast over me despite having a trait that absorbs mana.)
When they left the castle, Edeltraud had cast a camouflage spell over her. It was apparently something where people would know she was around, but they wouldn’t pay her any mind.
Walking through the streets was something she had never done before—not even in Volland. She figured that she would be too afraid to even walk around, but knowing that she wasn’t being noticed put her mind at ease.
She followed Edeltraud as they walked through the considerably populated street, making sure not to lose sight of them. Considering that she was a sponge for mana, she would have to ask them to hold her hand so that she wouldn’t get lost—something which she couldn’t find it in herself to do. Instead, she followed close behind like her life depended on it.
“See over there?” The sorcerer suddenly stopped in their tracks and pointed. Looking over to where their finger guided, she saw several tents pitched in the square on the other side of the main street. The Imperial Guards, all clad in black uniforms, were walking there as a unit.
“What are those tents about?”
“You don’t know about the marketplace?”
She shook her head at Edeltraud, who was genuinely perplexed. While she had heard stories of a place that sold various foodstuffs and everyday accessories, she had naturally never seen one in person.
“Feel up to going?” Edeltraud asked Rosemarie in a tone that was considerate, yet still emotionless. Even looking at the crowded marketplace from a distance, she caught glimpses of people with beast heads.
“—I will go,” she replied raspily, forcing the words out from a throat bone-dry with fear. Edeltraud gave her a simple nod of their head.
“Okay, got it. Hold the ends of my clothes, then.” Maybe this was Edeltraud’s way of showing good intentions. Still feeling guilty for considering them an eerie individual, she held tightly to the ends of the sorcerer’s robe.
“You, sir, over there! Got some quality goods here, quality goods! If y’don’t buy now, yer missin’ out!”
“If you buy three, I’ll knock down the price for ya, ma’am.”
“Why not take this home to the spouse? The fabric’s from across the border in Rivera.”
Rosemarie set her resolve and rushed into the marketplace crowd. Voices passed by her ears one after the other, and although it was dizzying, her eyes widened over the wide array of unique items for sale.
There were black fruits and beautiful rainbow-colored fabrics that she had never seen before. There were even shops that sold birds in a plethora of colors. However, out of all the people and shop owners gathered there, there were mysteriously not that many of them that had beast heads, despite it being far more crowded than the evening gala at the royal palace.
“Why don’t they have beast heads...?”
“Animosity, when you come someplace this fun, gets forgotten. Anyway, look.” After receiving a reply to her whispered question, Rosemarie looked where Edeltraud directed. There, in a slightly open area of the square, the Imperial Guards were all amassed with Claudio at the front.
“Claudio sometimes come out to the masses. So he doesn’t scare them. Necessary action.”
“So, that is the reason why they are going on patrol even though they are the Imperial Guard...” Upon closer inspection, she saw some people who didn’t hesitate to approach Claudio, while others looked at him timidly en masse from afar. The latter group contained mostly beast heads.
“My stars, he really does have a lion’s head.”
“Is that the crown prince? How fearsome.”
“That is the curse of the sacred beast, isn’t it?”
She overheard a woman talking with a few other people, mostly about Claudio’s appearance. Since Claudio’s head didn’t register as a lion’s to Rosemarie’s eyes, she had almost forgotten that fact. But the clamor around her quickly reminded her.
It was one of the few times she felt hate, not fear, for the people with beast heads.
(If I hadn’t stolen his mana, people wouldn’t even have to hate him, nor would he have to do so much extra work for no reason.)
In the midst of Rosemarie’s fit of self-deprecation, a group of kids came running up to Claudio as he engaged in smiling conversation with those who approached him.
“Prince Claudio, your whiskers look so amazing!”
“Amazing? I am happy to hear that.”
“So pretty! Soft and fluffy, too. Can I touch?”
“Yes, go ahead. Can you reach?”
Upon seeing Claudio bending down to entertain the unknown child’s wishes, the heads of several of the people watching from afar reverted back to human form by ones and twos.
“Their heads are reverting back...”
“Are they? Then, no doubt about it. Claudio been constantly on patrol ever since head turned into lion. Been making people well aware of his appearance.”
Rosemarie tightened her fist as she heard Edeltraud’s soft, affectionate voice by her side.
Just as Alto had said, Claudio was strong, both mentally and physically. Anyone else would have lost the desire to see others if their head was disfigured, knowing they would be feared or shunned as strange. However, he didn’t settle for that. He accepted the way he looked and considered his options on how to remove that sense of disgust.
(And for me?)
Rosemarie had rejected everything in fear, keeping herself cooped up in the villa so she could neither see nor hear anything. All without once considering how she could improve the situation.
It was no small wonder why Claudio was so upset at her.
She felt something cold hit her forehead out of nowhere. Without even needing to come back to reality and look up, she saw rain come trickling down from the lead-gray sky. The shoppers that had been enjoying their experience in the marketplace all started running in panic.
“Let’s go back.” Edeltraud lightly tugged at the robe that Rosemarie had gripped in her hands.
“Right, back to the—” Rosemarie said and nodded, but cut off her sentence partway. Sure enough, she had caught sight of Claudio and his men in the midst of making their way through the now pouring rain. The people that had gathered around started to part ways in search of shelter from the rain. One person, however, with a gray dog head, went against the crowd and made a fierce dash toward Claudio. In his hands, with a cold, sharp glint—was a sword.
“Prince!” Rosemarie shouted, and Claudio turned around at about the same time. The gray dog-headed person charged forward with intent to stab. —That was when a strong wind gusted from next to Rosemarie.
“...?!” Rosemarie had closed her eyes in reaction to the wind, but when it finally died down and she opened them, she saw the dog-headed man being held and subdued by Claudio.
“Mm-hmm, have to stay on guard, after all.” Hearing the emotionless voice by her side, Rosemarie looked at the sorcerer, puzzled.
“That wind, was... that, by any chance, a spell you cast?”
“Just a little. Oh, got found out.” While Edeltraud’s voice didn’t have a trace of panic, Rosemarie coiled herself up in fear. She looked toward Claudio timidly and the color faded from her face. Claudio left the assailant to Alto and the other Imperial Guards, and strode over to Rosemarie and Edeltraud with long steps.