DISGUISED to look like Maria, Cesia quickly walked away down a servants’ corridor carrying a large, wrapped box, acting as if she was on an errand. Marcus watched her thin figure disappear down the corridor, then turned around on the spot and headed to make his report to the king, crown prince, and other important leaders.
It had been risky for him to meet Cesia in the vacant house. Maria was an extra, irregular piece in a fight, but while she was active, Marcus was necessarily absent. It was more of a risk for someone to catch on that the second prince was gone from the castle than it was for anyone to see Maria visiting Cesia. In the Second Division, some thought it was an unnecessary danger to bring Cesia back and that it would be better to let her stay in hiding until she could proudly return to the castle with all suspicion around her cleared.
However, Marcus had wanted to see her, no matter what it took. He had convinced the others by bringing up how important she was to their fighting strength, but after seeing her helplessly crying as he hugged her, he was deeply relieved that he had gone. Still, if the Security Bureau found out that the Second Division had contacted Cesia, they might all fall under suspicion of having been involved in some way with Juliette’s assault. His one and only excuse was that he had gotten permission from the stubborn crown prince to do so.
Just as Marcus was about to begin walking, he felt he should visit Juliette and greet her. After Cesia had supposedly been on the verge of harming her the day before, Juliette had shut herself up in her quarters and hadn’t come out since. There were guards stationed outside her door, so if she left, he would know instantly, and he hadn’t gotten any messages of note—but did that really mean she was in her room?
When she kidnapped Ronald, Juliette swapped out the infant for a double without anyone noticing. She’d had the advantage of surprise on her side. There had—unbelievably—been only a single guard and lady’s maid, and everyone’s attention had been focused on the other room. Even so, it couldn’t have been easy. Cesia’s jump from the balcony probably hadn’t been part of Juliette’s calculations, and without it, the room would’ve been an even more confused mess of guards trying to arrest Cesia.
What was secretly slipping out of her quarters alone to a woman like Juliette? Even Marcus had been able to get Cesia back into the castle, so with Juliette’s thoroughness, it was likely that the princess already had a way to escape the castle. And Cesia finding out that Anita was the spy meant that Juliette had a deadline. Even if the princess didn’t know that people besides Cesia knew about Anita, Marcus couldn’t afford to be sloppy. His worries might be unfounded, but it was safest to check, just in case. She had been refusing visitors, saying that she felt sick, but she was in no position to refuse to grant her fiancé an audience.
With those thoughts in his mind, Marcus went to where Juliette was staying. When they saw him approaching, the lady’s maids out front visibly panicked. After the incident with Cesia, the Emeroadian maids and lady’s maids assigned to the princess had all been dismissed, having been told they could no longer be trusted. The ones left had all been brought from Gwyllt.
“Prince Marcus, Lady Juliette has stated that she won’t be meeting with anyone today,” one of the lady’s maids said.
“You said that yesterday, too. Being attacked by her maid must’ve been terrible. This time, I won’t leave until I can check on my fiancée’s condition,” Marcus said definitively.
The lady’s maids quickly lost their resolve and looked at each other as if to say, “What do we do?” Cesia hadn’t called them incompetent slackers for nothing, after all.
With that, Marcus was certain that Juliette was gone, but he couldn’t leave until he confirmed it with his own eyes.
“Come in,” one of the lady’s maids said in a quivering voice, leading Marcus inside. In the living room of the lodging for noble visitors, a woman was sitting on a sumptuous couch. She was wearing one of Juliette’s dresses, but she didn’t resemble the princess in the slightest.
“Ee—” The woman suppressed a shriek, and her face went pale. Her hair and build closely matched Juliette’s, so she had fooled the guards from far away. Someone coming this close to her, however, must not have been part of the plan.
“So? Where’s Princess Juliette?” Marcus asked, questioning the woman frozen in place on the couch.
“I-I…” she began.
Suddenly, Marcus felt something coming up behind him and nimbly dodged it. He backed up quickly, moving almost as if he had slid across the fluffy carpet, and stared directly at the person who had tried to hit him. He hadn’t even considered that the Gwylltian lady’s maids might do something so stupid.
“Hey! What are you thinking?!” the woman disguised as Juliette yelled.
Holding a vase, the lady’s maid who had attacked Marcus yelled back. “But it’ll be bad if he finds out!”
“So you attack a prince?! That’s even worse!”
With this loud of a shouting match, it’s odd that the guards outside haven’t come in to investigate, Marcus thought. Someone in Juliette’s camp must’ve cast soundproofing magic. Come to think of it, they might’ve been the same person who kidnapped Ronald. Why didn’t I think of this before? With what she’s planned, of course, Juliette would bring a couple of people who can use magic.
But Emeroade was confident in its excellent magic defense, thanks in part to its proactive pursuit of cooperative magical research with other countries. A defense spell was always active in the drawing room where Ronald had been kidnapped, for example.
Did they find some sort of gap as Cesia did? Or are they just that skilled?
Ignoring the arguing lady’s maids, Marcus rushed to exit the room when another person landed a strong blow on him from behind. His knees gave way, and he crumpled to the floor. The lady’s maids had diverted his attention, and he hadn’t noticed anyone there. His vision wavered. The person who had hit him, whoever they were, had swung with enough power to make him think that they had been trying to kill him. His field of vision began to turn red.
“Are you stupid?! What would you do if he died?!” one of the lady’s maids shouted.
Another one replied in a weak voice. “But, if Lady Juliette found out—”
“That’s why you’re stupid! You won’t make it out alive if you’ve killed a prince!”
“For now, let’s just let Lady Ju—”
“Gah…! That’s…I’m…!”
Besides the two lady’s maids, Marcus felt the presence of someone else standing right above him. He struggled to look up, and through his hazy vision, he saw someone he recognized. It was a diplomat from Gwyllt who had come along with Juliette.
The last thing Marcus remembered before he passed out was the sound of the lady’s maids’ shouting, but unable to understand what they were saying, he lost consciousness.