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THE next day, Amy awoke after sleeping very soundly, ate plenty of food for breakfast, and arrived at the stadium fully revitalized. She bustled around the first-aid room, preparing the bandages and waiting for the tournament to begin, when suddenly she heard Finneas’s voice.
“Amy? Don’t you want to go see His Highness or your family?”
“But…”
“There’s still some time before the tournament begins. They’re probably either in their waiting rooms or out in the practice field right now. Why don’t you go say hello, at least?”
If they gave advanced notice, family and friends could enter a participant’s waiting room whenever they wanted. Additionally, there was an old superstition that a lover or spouse’s encouragement would ensure a participant’s victory, and those visits were welcomed as a sign of good luck.
As Amy was just a fiancée candidate and not really Edward’s spouse or lover, she didn’t think there would be any real benefit for him if she visited. However, once the tournament started, she would have her hands full with work the whole day, so now was her only chance to go see him.
And Harold, having finally returned to the royal capital late last night, had slept at the guild lodge and hadn’t visited home yet. Amy had come to the first-aid station earlier than the participants, so she hadn’t seen him yet, either.
I-It’ll probably be fine, seeing Ed… It’ll be fine. I mean, Ed wouldn’t care! Plus, Alec will be there, too!
At that moment, the memory of the carriage ride flashed across Amy’s mind again, but she forced herself to relax. She was just going to support him as a friend. Everything would be fine…probably.
Amy glanced over at Sir Dion, and he nodded at her to go.
“Don’t be longer than half an hour. And bring a guard with you.”
“O-Okay… I’ll just go for a little bit, then. Scott, could you come with me?”
“Of course, Lady Amy.”
An escort knight was stationed in the first-aid room as a security measure. There were apparently incidents in the past where losers would retaliate by attacking the healing magicians or breaking instruments in fits of rage.
Although she could definitely imagine Sir Dion turning the tables on any would-be attacker in Scott’s absence, Amy and the other healing magicians were basically useless at offensive magic.
Today’s guard at the first-aid station, Scott, was the same guard who looked after her at the royal riding grounds before. Because it wasn’t their first time together, Amy wasn’t particularly nervous around him.
I’m saved! Amy thought, her shoes making clacking sounds as she followed Scott down a narrow, dimly lit corridor.
Amy realized they must be getting close to the other members of the royal family, too. Knights of the Royal Guard were standing at attention with tense expressions, and staff members were rushing past Amy and Scott.
Amy didn’t leave the first-aid station at all yesterday, so she had no idea the corridors were this heavily guarded. Resisting the urge to fidget, she tried to quiet her breathing and plowed on.
Amy turned a few corners, crossed another corridor, and finally made it to the participants’ waiting rooms. The atmosphere suddenly became much more relaxed.
It was just as noisy as before, but excitement hung in the air instead of tension. The whole place buzzed with energy. With more windows and doors, there was more sunlight streaming into the corridors. Amy’s cat-like gold eyes softened in relief at the brightness.
“Boy,” Amy said, sighing, “that was stressful! I would totally have gotten lost on my own.”
Scott smiled, remembering his days as a rookie. “The corridor paths are pretty complicated. They all look the same if you’re not used to them. I had a hard time when I first started, too.”
Scott secretly thought to himself that Amy’s face was an open book.
There was a softness about her, which might have been partly due to her chubby frame, but she also never made the people around her feel small or insignificant, unlike many other aristocrats.
It sometimes made him waver in his vigilance as a guard, but he also realized that having the innate ability to put everyone around you at ease was probably a rare personality to have.
“Was it hard to memorize the corridors?” she asked.
“I couldn’t really do my job without memorizing them, but…yes, it was hard. I got lost many times.”
Amy giggled. “It’s okay! I won’t tell anyone!”
As he watched Amy put her index finger against her lips and promise to keep his secret, Scott suddenly felt a kinship with her, like she was his little sister.
When Amy became an adult, she would probably become a “normal” aristocratic woman, one who perfectly divorced her “true” self from her “socially acceptable” self…and he genuinely felt very sad about that.
“It’s just a little further now,” he said.
“Okay. Thank you.”
The participants were either waiting in their waiting rooms or practicing out in the attached practice field, while some were doing their own warm-ups in a large, open building.
People were gathered from all over the world in the unfamiliar building, and snippets of conversations in foreign languages zipped past Amy’s ear.
It’s like I’ve stepped into a foreign country!
Luducia had always had relations with foreign countries, but right now, Amy felt like a tourist visiting a foreign bazaar. She made her way through the building and arrived at another relatively quiet building that had a few rooms.
“Lady Amy, this is Prince Edward’s waiting room.”
Amy nodded at Scott, who turned around and announced their arrival.
There was a waiting room for each participating group. Amy wasn’t sure how they were arranged, so when she asked for “whichever one is closest first,” she supposed this meant Edward’s room was closer than Harold’s.
She had heard that the matches were to be conducted fairly and without any preferential accommodations for social status, so Edward’s waiting room was to be exactly the same as the other rooms.
But with the Prince of Luducia and the son of the Duke of Coverdale inside this waiting room, there was naturally a guard standing outside.
Amy smiled up at him.
“Hello, Darios!”
“Hello, Lady Amy,” said Darios, returning her smile. “His Highness just got here too. Come in.”
They had arrived just in time.
Darios knocked loudly on the thick wooden doors. The doors were opened, but they were immediately faced with a partitioning screen placed to conceal the immediate interior of the room.
The old butler from the Coverdale estate, affectionately referred to as “Gramps”, was standing in front of the screen, smiling and looking totally unsurprised that Amy had come.
“Gramps! It’s been too long!”
“It has indeed. It’s wonderful to see you looking so well, Lady Amy.”
“What? Amy?”
Alexander’s head popped out from behind the screen.
“Young master…” the butler chided gently.
He sounded as if he’d been waiting for someone else, but she could only think of one likely candidate…
“Could Rosalind not come today?” he asked, confirming her suspicion.
“No, she was supposed to come with Letizia, but— Oh, that’s right… They’re probably being held up by Jahal. Well, she’ll probably stop by before long.”
Alexander had replied in his usual manner, making it seem like he didn’t really care one way or the other. Amy had wondered if he’d get nervous before his match, but it didn’t look like he was nervous at all.
Amy got terribly uncomfortable doing anything in front of people, both in this life and her last, so she was envious of Alec’s courage.
There had been no other waiting rooms along their path with guards stationed outside them, so Amy assumed Jahal’s waiting room was in a different section.
The foreign prince had given participating in this tournament as a reason—or perhaps a pretense—for his study abroad trip. He had apparently invited an adventurer and a swordsman from his hometown to be his team members.
From the tournament seeding, it seemed like Jahal’s team would have to win quite a few matches before they would have the chance to go up against Edward’s team, but with two princes participating, both groups were getting a lot of attention from the spectators.
“You haven’t seen her around?” Alec asked Amy.
“No. I haven’t had time to see Rosalind or Letty lately.”
“Because you’ve been so hard at work, right?” came another voice.