His smile is so similar to Julie’s, I thought while gazing back at him.
At that moment, he grabbed my hand. “You truly are remarkable, Ally. Being a holy woman is incredible in itself, but you’re amazing even at your core.”
“Th-Thank you very much,” I replied.
I broke into a smile. His sparkling eyes were so reminiscent of Julietta’s. As we laughed softly together, the conversation came to an end. Even so, Giusto showed no signs of releasing my hand. When I wondered when he would let go, Julietta called out, “I brought snacks!”
At some point, a table and chairs had been set up in the shade of a tree.
“Shall we go?” Giusto asked.
Though I expected him to let go now, he continued holding my hand while escorting me. Cia’s smirk sent a shiver down my spine. At any rate, Giusto sat me down next to him and even served me sweets.
“Custode, Squishy!” I cried, the excessive treatment making me uneasy. “Snack time!”
Custode was lounging on top of Squishy, who’d spread out on the water to the size of a cushion. The tiny dragon was the portrait of elegance, unconcerned with my awkwardness. I sighed in relief as the two creatures heard my call and returned to my side. Squishy shrank back to his usual palm-sized form. Of course, Custode perched himself on my lap and grabbed the sweets Giusto had served me.
Squishy grabbed a few sweets himself, immediately absorbing them into his body. When I first offered the slime treats, he’d responded with a puzzled, “Squishy?” and hadn’t eaten them. Yet now, he gobbled down as many sweets as Custode, thoroughly accustomed to them.
“Slimes sure are strange,” I said, staring at my familiar. “Squishy can float on water even though he’s made of minerals. There’s something mystical about them, don’t you think?”
Custode laughed. “Perhaps it’s because slimes have no concept of how they must behave. The wild ones live without much thought, getting by somehow or another.”
Goddess save the slimes—the embodiment of slow living!
Custode smirked at me. “You’re not too different from a slime yourself.”
Seriously? I’m not that devil-may-care about life, am I?
“I could say the exact same thing about you,” I retorted.
Custode responded with a hearty laugh. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Giusto said while grinning at me. Evidently, he’d been listening to our conversation this whole time. “Just watching you puts me in a good mood,” he continued. “I’m envious of Prince Embert for having such a wonderful woman as his future queen.”
“Th-Thank you very much,” I replied.
Honestly, he thinks way too highly of me. As I considered that, Lauris and Rosario snickered across from me. I would have to give them a stern talking-to later.
Julietta giggled. “I’m glad we feel the same, Giusto. Ally truly is amazing. Us becoming sisters-in-law is a dream come true.”
I nearly swooned at her unwavering cuteness.
“Dorky smile alert,” Custode warned me.
“Huh?” I responded. “No way.”
Custode roared with laughter as I slapped a hand over my mouth. The twins and Oreste laughed at me as well.
Snack time passed amiably. After finishing our light meals, we discussed getting back into the water. However, Custode was staring into the distance east from us.
“I sense bloodlust,” he said sharply.
In a flash, I erected a mana shield around us.
“Oreste!” Lauris cried while running eastward.
Arrows flew towards us from the upper air, high above Lauris and Oreste. The archers appeared to be firing from the trees. Fortunately, none of them hit us. My mana had enveloped everyone, and Squishy devoured the arrows just as he’d done before.
“It’s not over yet,” Custode said.
A second volley of arrows soared towards us, but Squishy devoured them again. Once the slime had finished polishing off every arrow, I heard Lauris shout, “Stop right there!” At that moment, I felt an enormous surge of mana.
A few moments later, Lauris returned. “They got away,” he said with a heavy sigh. “There were three men wearing balaclavas, but they used a magic artifact to teleport away.”
The enormous mana surge had probably been the magic artifact activating. In any case, the arrows Squishy spat out were the same model as the previous assassination attempt. That said, they were normal, commonly used arrows. Tracing them back to the culprit would likely be impossible.
“They might retreat gracefully, but their actions are despicable,” I said.
As I prickled with irritation, Giusto gripped my hand. “I’m honored you’re angry on my behalf,” he replied.
The prince maintained a listless attitude as if he hadn’t suffered countless attempts on his life. That quelled my irritation. After taking a deep breath, I looked him in the eye.
“The culprit is wealthy enough to own a magic artifact that can teleport several people at once,” I said. “What’s more, they know your movements, Prince Giusto. The mastermind—or a collaborator—is probably in our midst.”
Giusto squeezed my hand. “I should have expected as much from a holy woman,” he responded with a grin. “That’s exactly right. After all, my uncle is the culprit.”
“Come again?”
Everyone stood stock-still, staring at the prince wordlessly.
“…You knew the culprit’s identity this whole time?” I asked.
“Indeed,” Giusto confirmed. “As the royal prince, my uncle has the most to gain from my death. It makes perfect sense, no?”
Initially, I thought he resembled Julie, but that’s not right. He’s more similar to Em, isn’t he? Sure, he might look like his sister, but he has a certain mental fortitude. He probably has a cunning side, too. Is cunningness a prerequisite for becoming king or something?
Giusto chuckled at my dumbfounded expression. I let out a soft sigh as he continued squeezing my hand.
✦ ✦ ✦
🦊 🦊 🦊
IN the end, we returned to the castle without swimming again. We continued the previous conversation over tea in the living room.
“As of now, we can’t arrest my uncle, much less accuse him of a crime,” Giusto said. “While he’s clearly the culprit, we don’t have any concrete evidence.”
Cita wore a serious expression. “Then it’s imperative that we capture one of the assassins, right?”
Giusto nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s proven quite difficult, considering the speed of their getaways. Although we can trace spell remnants back to their source, we can’t do the same for the mana in magic artifacts.”
In many cases, magic artifacts contained the mana of more than one person. That made it difficult to identify the source. An artifact capable of teleporting multiple people at once would contain an immense quantity of mana. Almost certainly, a number of people had imbued the device with their magical energy. Identifying any one person would be impossible.
“Why don’t we perform an exhaustive search of every place the assassins have targeted you?” Oreste suggested.
Giusto shook his head. “We’ve already done that and come up empty-handed. For starters, we don’t even know how my uncle is contacting the assassins. As a noble supremacist, he would never venture into the city himself. We haven’t noticed him inviting any suspicious characters to his manor, either. Likewise, there are no signs of him exchanging letters. All that aside, access to the castle is already limited. Merchants and artisans undergo strict examinations when coming and going. There shouldn’t be anyone with questionable motives on these grounds.”
“Could a servant be acting as an intermediary then?” Rosario asked.
Giusto shook his head again. “We’ve looked into that as well and found nothing.”
This royal prince is one sly devil, I thought. Hm, wait a second.
“Um, I might have an idea,” I mumbled.
“That’s a first,” Lauris quipped.
Rude, much? I thought with a huff. I have ideas all the time!
“You know the gazebo across the pond in the courtyard?” I asked. “I saw the royal prince chatting with a merchant there. Could that have been his intermediary?”
“Huh?” Lauris asked while leaning forward. “Did you hear what they were talking about?”
When I shook my head, he slumped back onto the sofa with a dramatic sigh.
“A merchant, you say?” Giusto asked, his brow furrowing in contemplation. “We should know every merchant who comes and goes from the castle. However, my uncle summons them around the clock to buy an excessive number of luxuries. Perhaps he orchestrated the entry of unaccounted-for merchants.”
Julietta perked up. “In that case, we might be able to apprehend the assassins if we find that merchant.”
Her words fired everyone up.
Cita frowned. “But even if we capture the merchant, there’s no guarantee he’s one of the assassins, right?”
That valid point silenced the room. At that moment, a knock came at the door.
“There’s no need to search for him,” a familiar voice interrupted.
Yep, I saw this one coming a mile away. Everyone else probably did, too.
The new arrival was, of course, Embert. Janus followed behind him, as did another young man with white hair and sparkling obsidian eyes.
“Is that you, Severin?” I asked.
As soon as he spotted me, Severin approached me with a cheerful wave. “Hey there, Ally! Good to see you again.”