Marcus laughed derisively and made a wicked grin. “Princess, order your subordinate to be very careful with Ronald. If he so much as scratches him, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“Hee hee, you’re so charming when you pretend to be brave. It’ll almost be a waste to break your spirit.”
“I’d much rather not be broken, thank you very much.”
“We’re already far past that stage, thanks to no one else except you.”
Marcus felt goosebumps on his skin.
Originally, Juliette had planned to murder Reynold and Ronald without Marcus knowing about it. She would kill the physically weak Ronald; then, after she and Marcus had married, she would wait for a chance to kill Reynold. Of course, if two people ahead in line for the throne died in quick succession, suspicion would fall on the person next in line, Marcus. Because she wanted him to be king, the deaths were a required part of her scheme, but that was where problems would arise and why she had wanted to do everything over a long period without raising suspicion.
Juliette brought the components necessary for puppetry magic and the item she had used to mimic Ronald’s corpse to Emeroade, but she hadn’t planned to use either. The latter, in particular, was rare and expensive, and she had only brought it as a last resort. After all, she wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble if everything had been going smoothly and Marcus hadn’t wrecked everything. She knew how important taking her time was. She had planned to use the fertile soil of Emeroade as a breeding ground to expand her kidnapping rings, drug smuggling operations, and other criminal organizations that would bring in even more money for Gwyllt and weaken Emeroade, all while winning over Marcus. She was proud of her skill at making money, even more than her political ability, and she had sent all the money she had remorselessly made using her talent back to her native country. Here, too, she had been confident she could continue her work while keeping Marcus from noticing or doing anything she didn’t want him to.
That is, until that scrawny maid—what was her name? Cesia, that’s right—had barged in and forced her to change plans. Quick-witted as she was, Juliette had managed it on the fly, all while pulling things in the direction she wanted them to go. Bit by bit, however, cracks showed, and as she was compelled to ignore multiple low-priority objectives, her perfect plan slowly crumbled. The first was that she had lost the ability to make Ronald’s death look like an accident, and the second was that her only option now was to break Marcus’s spirit and turn him into a puppet when before he was going to be her close, loving husband and future crown prince. She had wanted to make Ronald’s murder look like the work of that annoying maid, but it had become impossible. Cesia had made Juliette go through all sorts of extra work, and she was fed up with it.
The true beginning of the end for Juliette was when she mistakenly judged Marcus by his appearance to be an easygoing, carefree prince, but she hadn’t noticed that yet.
“Puppetry magic is a forbidden art, and it even requires the consent of its target. How silly. Of course, it would go out of fashion,” Juliette said. Count Peck handed Ronald to her, and she made an unpleasant grimace. She hated soft babies and children because they never listened to reason.
Meanwhile, the count, his hands now free, approached Marcus and cut the prince’s arm, spilling his blood onto the implement necessary to activate the puppetry magic.
“Now, Lord Marcus, if you don’t want to see your baby nephew killed in front of you, consent to the puppetry magic,” Juliette said. “Don’t worry, I’ll make you a wonderful king.”
Juliette pointed a knife at Ronald. If Marcus refused, she would thrust its sharp blade into the infant’s soft skin.
But, even with magic cuffs binding his limbs, the air around Marcus’s skin tingled, and he felt magic enveloping him. He could tell that the mark he had laid out before his abduction was getting closer. “My eye for people is many times better than yours,” Marcus said, “and I never miss a good opportunity.”
“Huh?” Juliette raised an eyebrow.
“I have excellent subordinates, you see,” Marcus said confidently.
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a tremendous noise. The door and window were flung open, and Keith and Felix leaped in like bullets through both. Keith hit the count and knocked him off his feet, and he was taking Marcus away in the space of a breath. At the same time, Juliette noticed Felix advancing on her and moved to bring down the knife.
“Wait!” Felix yelled, but naturally, it had no effect.
Cesia appeared in the doorway and fired a spell at Juliette. “I don’t think so!” she shouted.
The bolt of wind Cesia fired with peerless accuracy pierced Juliette’s arm, blasting away the knife.
“Ow!” Juliette exclaimed.
“Nice!” Felix said. He speedily retrieved Ronald.
When she understood what was happening, Juliette yelled at Count Peck, “Take me and escape!”
He prepared to run. “Yes–”
“Where do you think you’re going?” Cesia interrupted the count with a loud laugh and, whipping up a strong wind, blew open the side of the ship’s hull. Following a deafening boom and a rush of sand, the room was opened to the outside. Beneath the blue sky, an Emeroadian fleet neatly encircled Juliette’s ship.
“When did this happen?!” Juliette cried.
“My magic teacher is a genius,” Cesia said, proudly smiling as her long black hair fluttered in the wind. “His Royal Highness left magic energy in my hair that told me his exact position, which at the same time worked as soundproofing magic in reverse that prevented either of you from detecting the fleet surrounding you.”
Seeing a bleeding Marcus in magic cuffs and Ronald in Felix’s arms, the knights and soldiers on the decks of the Emeroadian ships yelled. With the bloody magic item right there, there was no way that Juliette could talk her way out of it.
“Why, you…!” Juliette shouted, glaring at Cesia. She grabbed the knife on the floor with surprising speed and charged at Cesia.
To Cesia, that move was “by the book” for a villainess.
“Cesia,” Marcus called.
Cesia’s mouth curved upwards, and she unhurriedly began casting a spell. Her exhilaration transformed into visibly popping magical particles. “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on her,” she said. No sooner had she finished speaking than she dodged the knife and, with her excess momentum, slammed a magically charged fist into Juliette. Her blow landed with a dull thump, and Juliette slammed against the wall.
“What a hit…” Keith mumbled.
Though it was hardly the time or place for it, Marcus smiled proudly.
It went without saying that the others weren’t simply watching this scene unfold. Keith threw down the count and restrained him as he tried to run and abandon Juliette. Juliette was unconscious, but she was bound, and some Emeroadian knights who had boarded the ship took both away. All in all, compared to the lengthy conversation between Juliette and Marcus that Marcus had engaged in to buy time, their arrests were over in an instant.
Afterward, Layne appeared in the now well-ventilated cabin and irritably destroyed the magic cuffs binding Marcus. He kneeled and said, “I have come to pick up Your Royal Highness.”
“Good work,” Marcus said with a princely, magnanimous nod. Then, he healed his wounds. I’ll be scolded for this later, he thought as Cesia glared angrily at him. He pretended not to notice her and went to check on his nephew in Felix’s arms. “How is he?” he asked.
“His breathing is stable. He seems to be only sleeping,” Felix said carefully.
Roy rushed over, and Marcus told him, “Roy, examine Ronald.”
“I’m glad that Your Royal Highness is all right! I’m on it,” Roy said. He held his hands out over Ronald. “The small prince is fine; he’s only in a magical sleep.”
Juliette had planned to kill him, so he had been put to sleep with a simple, everyday spell. As soon as Roy undid the spell, Ronald woke up, and beneath the clear sky, his energetic crying echoed through the dry air.