“Krista’s friend is going to be there too,” Nacht said, trying to encourage her. “She said she was a skilled knight. If she’s a friend of Krista’s, I’m sure she’ll be friendly with us. We have every reason to expect this to go well.”
Suddenly, they were out of time. There was a knock on the door, and a tall, beautiful maid in a long skirt came to fetch them. “This way, please. My liege awaits you,” she said, then led them to the chamber in the back.
“Escuush me...!” Aisha declared as she entered the room, so tense that she bit her own tongue. “No! I mean, execute me...!”
“Where are you going, Aisha?!” Nacht called out. “Calm down!”
“Wehhh...” Aisha exclaimed. “No, no, no, I mean, um...excuse me?” It had come out as a question, but the elegant lady before her smiled indulgently.
“Hee hee! Yes, ‘excuse me’ is correct,” she said. “Welcome, champion! And welcome to your servant as well.” The princess, about as tall as Nacht, was sitting on a sofa. Her face still had its youthful roundness. Her eyes seemed to shine like the full moon. Her skin was white like porcelain, and her fingers were slender and elegant. She was lovely, more like an exquisitely made doll than a living person. This was the kingdom’s greatest asset herself, Theresia von Cynthesia.
Then, Theresia’s smile changed. It was like her mask had simply fallen away, her polite affected smile becoming a fiendish grin. “Enjoy the hospitality!” she said, and without missing a beat, a shining silver blade came down upon Nacht from behind.
Nacht, having been aware of the woman’s presence but not having kept an eye on her, went over the information in her head at lightning speed. The princess was smiling. Aisha still hadn’t noticed the attack. And the attacker herself, a knight disguised as a maid, was bearing down on her. Her face was screwed up in displeasure, but she wasn’t hesitating to bring the blade down on Nacht’s head.
Nacht ignored the maid and simply returned Theresia’s smile. Her sword lacked killing intent, so Nacht decided to let it come. Then, right when the maid was beginning to wonder if Nacht would make any kind of move to stop her, she reached out and caught the blade with her bare hands—mere inches away from her head.
The woman was stunned. Nacht had caught her sword without even looking. She pulled back, trying to wrest the sword from Nacht’s hand, but Nacht moved into her center of weight and simply threw her. She then stuck the point of the sword into the ground, grinning playfully.
“Hah,” Nacht said. “I had a feeling you’d pull something like that. Satisfied?”
“Huh-wuh?!” Aisha exclaimed, finally processing what had happened. “Wh-What’s happening?! Is the princess a bad guy?!”
Nacht petted Aisha’s head. “No, no, it was just a little surprise of hers. Nothing to worry about. You just sit down and make yourself comfortable.” She sat down on the sofa, facing Theresia. Aisha obediently sat down beside her.
“Pfft,” the princess chortled. “Ah ha ha ha ha! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Yes, very satisfied! That was even more splendid than I had been imagining! You are truly the hero who defeated an ancient demon—I don’t imagine anyone else could have humiliated my knight like that.” She turned to the knight lying on the floor. “On your feet, Yuri. This is hardly the time to be taking a nap!”
“I wish you wouldn’t use me for things like this, Your Highness,” Yuri, the knight disguised as a maid, said as she got to her feet. “That hurt quite a lot, you know...” Nacht had thrown her without much in the way of holding back, but she had fallen like a trained fighter, protecting herself well.
“What... What in the world is going on...?” Aisha asked in a trembling voice, the only person in the room who didn’t seem to know what was happening.
“Well, to put it simply, she attacked us,” Nacht helpfully explained.
“Huh?! Isn’t that a big deal?!”
“Now, now. That’s a bit unfair, don’t you think?” Theresia said. “It was just a little test of mine.”
“I would have to disagree, Your Highness,” said Yuri. “What I did was clearly an attack. If they had done that to you, I am certain you would have had them both beheaded.”
“I had no unjust intentions!” the princess protested. “It was just a bit of mischief! You’re going to make me cry if you keep making these unfair accusations!” She began to sob, making exaggerated weeping motions. She was very clearly faking it.
“Well?” Nacht asked. “Do we meet your expectations, Theresia?”
“Absolutely! You pass with flying colors! I do apologize for testing you. I’m afraid I’m the type who doesn’t believe something until I see it with my own eyes. The rumors didn’t do your strength justice! Nor, for that matter, did they adequately prepare me for how cute you are!”
“Ah ha ha! You can go ahead and call me your bestie Nacht!” Who could possibly be upset after such kind words about their appearance? Nacht’s smile brightened considerably.
“S-So...” Aisha stammered. “Wh-What does this mean, Mistress?” She didn’t have the courage to address her question directly to Theresia—a royal—so she asked her mistress instead.
“She wanted to see if Nacht, the hero of that battle we had earlier, really is as powerful as they say. So she had one of her knights attack me in order to check. But you didn’t really put your heart into that attack, did you?” Nacht said, looking over at Yuri.
“So...we were in danger again...” Aisha seemed utterly baffled.
“Don’t worry,” said Theresia. “I had a spell prepared just in case things went wrong. Perhaps you’ll let the matter slide if I offer you Yuri’s head?”
“Your Highness...!” Yuri objected. “Are you trying to make me cry?!”
“I’m only kidding, you know. I considered whether I would be placing you in danger before I decided to do this little test.”
Yuri gave the princess a dubious look.
“It’s true!” she said. “I looked into things beforehand. They say that Champion Nacht is kind and magnanimous, regardless of how she speaks. She made certain that the captives she rescued from the bandits were properly taken care of, and some of the city’s residents even say she occasionally steps in to resolve disputes between the townsfolk. She’s a cheerful, upbeat girl who gladly sticks her neck out for people in trouble. She treats all people with respect no matter their station, and while she enjoys being the center of attention, she hasn’t let the title of Champion go to her head. More than anything, she dotes lovingly on her servant, Aisha. If anyone so much as threatens her precious servant, she flies into a protective rage, but when it comes to herself, she is very forgiving. A certain noblewoman, who shall remain unnamed, told me that she was dangerous and that I should avoid getting involved with her no matter what, but I would give it ninety percent odds that she was joking.” Theresia grinned, full of confidence.
“I suppose that sounds about right...” Aisha said. “Um, I’m glad you’re okay, Miss Knight...”
“Oh? Even though Yuri went along with my little ambush?” Theresia asked.
“You know I cannot refuse your orders, Your Highness...” grumbled the knight.
Yuri Reinbelt was a tall and beautiful woman. The maid uniform she wore could not conceal her powerful musculature, and it was clear from her movements that she was an experienced fighter. She had held back in her attack against Nacht. Thinking back, she had called Theresia “my liege” before they had even entered the room. She had hardly been attempting to conceal her identity. Even before she had attacked, Nacht remembered wondering if she was a knight who was being forced to act as a maid as some kind of dare or if the princess just liked disguising her knights that way.
In the end, Yuri hadn’t been seriously attempting to take Nacht’s life. As far as she was concerned, that was enough reason to put it in the category of harmless prank.
Nacht glanced away from Yuri for a second, her eyes settling on a spot next to the curtain of the window behind the princess.
“Is something wrong?” Yuri asked.
“No, nothing.” Nacht shook her head and turned her gaze back toward the beautiful knight.
“Yuri is one of the ten greatest knights in this kingdom,” Theresia said. “If you’re good enough to avoid her sword, that’s a pass. If you can land a counterattack on her, that would be full points, and if you’re good enough to incapacitate her, that would make you worthy of being a candidate for my hand in marriage. Well, Yuri? How did she do?” Theresia glanced over at Yuri.
Yuri looked over at Nacht with evident awe in her eyes. “As much as it shames me to say, I am afraid I am no match for this woman.”
Theresia blushed red. Breathing hard with excitement, she suddenly took Nacht by the hand. “Nacht! My bestie! Would you be my bride?”
“N-No!” Aisha cut in before Nacht could respond. The girl who had been too awed to say a word to royalty a second ago looked the princess dead in the eye, glaring furiously.
“You can come too, you know.” Theresia said. “You’re her servant, after all.”
“Weh! I-I...! But Mistress belongs to me!” She cut herself off. “No, that’s not what I mean! What I mean is...she’s my Mistress! Please don’t!”
“Well, how about I hire you, then?!” Theresia proposed. “I can offer one thousand platinum as a starting bonus, and a yearly salary of one hundred platinum.”
A single platinum coin had the purchasing power equivalent to ten million Japanese yen. In other words, the value the princess placed on Nacht was in the neighborhood of ten billion yen.
“That’s pretty tempting!” Nacht said.
“Mistress?!” Aisha exclaimed in shock. But then a cunning smile crossed Nacht’s face.
“But I refuse.”
“May I ask why?” Theresia ventured. She didn’t seem particularly surprised. She must have been expecting Nacht to refuse.
“You’re avoiding placing a value on my Aisha by placing a value on me instead,” Nacht said. “But it’s not going to work. I’m not interested.”
Theresia pursed up her lips and kicked her legs like an impudent child. “No fair!” she wailed. “Why do the girls I like never want to be mine?! Oh well. I’ll just have to take my feelings out by tormenting Yuri some more.”
“At this rate, I may have to tender my resignation, Your Highness...” Yuri said, hanging her head.