Chapter Three: Your Majesty, Please Use My Dress as a Mat
“SAI. Sai.”
The first thing I saw was the angel gazing down at me with concerned eyes. I had fainted, from the look of it.
I lifted my head from his lap and studied our surroundings. Still a little out of it, I mumbled, “This place is…”
“We’re in a cave on the bank of a lake. Right next to Ptarmigan Valley. Does that help?”
Using magic, I scanned our position and the direction we had been headed in. We were in the mouth of a cave near the main road and had come a long way from the village in my demesne.
I got to my feet, turning to him once again before kneeling. I bowed my head deeply. “I can never thank you enough for rescuing me from my plight, Your Majesty.”
“Ah, is it that easy to tell who I am?” he asked, smiling.
“That’s, well… You have wings, and your clothing is also rather distinct…” One finger was enough to count the number of winged beauties in the world who dressed in that style of layered white silk garments.
“Relax. There’s nobody else around, so it would be nice if you were more informal with me,” he said.
Once again, I had the honor of looking upon his royal features. He was so beautiful that he almost dazzled my eyes.
“I cannot believe I borrowed your lap, Your Majesty… You have my deepest apologies for my abhorrent insolence.”
“Now, now, it’s all right. I saved you and laid your head in my lap of my own accord, after all. How are you feeling?”
“All thanks to you, I am in good health.”
“And your magic?”
“You have destroyed my collar, so I am fine in that respect as well.”
“Glad to hear it,” he said with a gentle smile, appearing relieved. Light reflected off the surface of the lake and dappled his elegant face and ivory hair. The peaceful glimmer made me feel as if years had passed since the chaos earlier in the day.
“My subordinates will arrive before sunset to pick us up, so we have a slight wait ahead of us. But don’t worry. I won’t let anyone harm you again, Sai.”
Hesitant, I asked, “Why would you go that far…?”
Why was the emperor of Orient protecting me, a stranger? Why was he speaking so openly—so amicably with me—and smiling all the while?
I was utterly confused, and the emperor left me to my befuddlement while he glanced outside and hummed to himself in contemplation. “The weather’s too good. The Holy Knights might come here… Ah, I know!”
His lips moved as he breathed out a “th” sound. A few seconds later, the clear sky outside the cave blackened dramatically, and thunder boomed almost immediately thereafter. Heavy rain began to noisily pelt the forest below.
“I summoned some rain clouds,” he explained. “We’re not in Orient, so my range and the duration are limited, but, well, it’ll be a good signal beacon for my men too.”
“I have never seen magic that can control weather before…” I said slowly.
He grinned. “Well, I’m not an emperor for nothing.”
As the Wagtail Priestess, I also took pride in my relatively plentiful pool of mana, but the best I could do was produce wind. The Holy Knights likely wouldn’t realize that the thunderstorm had been caused by magic and would instead probably assume it was a cloudburst unique to the high altitude.
“We’ll get wet here, so let’s go further in,” he suggested. “How about we sit together and talk? We have a lot to catch up on.”
“To catch up on…? Ah, please wait, Your Majesty. Before you take a seat…”
“Hm?”
A loud ripping sound echoed through the cavern as I tore off the bottom of my dress.
The emperor let out a sound resembling a squawk. “Wai—”
I scoured the interior of the cave for an even surface and gently spread the ragged cloth on the best spot available. The emperor’s clothing was made of the finest silk one could find, a luxury commodity for which the Orient Empire was famous. I couldn’t allow its damage.
“I apologize in advance for its filthy state, but please use this as a mat.”
“Uh, aren’t you a little too…decisive? Well…” He deliberated. “I will, thanks.”
After we settled on the ground, I looked at him. “Um, Your Majesty, I know that this is rude of me, but there are many questions I would like to ask…”
“Sure. Ask me anything.” He crossed his legs leisurely and spread his wings.
Even in our present circumstances, he still looked like he had strolled out of a religious painting. A part of me couldn’t help but be distracted by his beauty, yet I managed to ask him my question, my face serious.
“Then, please pardon me for what I next say: I am Centoria’s criminal, and you are the ruler of the empire to its east. Why would you go so far as to fly here alone and save someone like me?”
He nodded, grinning again. “You’ve summed it up pretty well.” After a pause, he answered, “For a start, the Cutrettola lands are territory that we, Orient, once surrendered to the country located in the middle of the continent, Centoria. The Sekirei Prefecture, as we call it back in my homeland. You know that, right?”
“Yes. Both the people of my demesne and I have hair and features more akin to those of Orient’s citizens than of Centorians.”
“So far, so good. Okay, so if I watch the governor of that land—you—get executed on false charges and don’t lift a single finger to interfere, what happens to my dignity?”
It was clear. “You would be disgraced.”
“Well, considering this politically, that’s the reason I can give you.”
He was talking in a roundabout way. Does he have reasons that don’t have to do with politics, then? I found the specification odd, but it probably was a conversation for another day.
I hesitated. “How do you know that I was wrongly accused?”
He loosed a short bark of laughter, yet there was no humor in it. For a split second, his eyes seemed to darken into an inky abyss.