After returning to Argyll, Ras left the Vildhjärta in Izai’s capable hands and headed to the palace to meet with Fiarca.
Ras’s mission to prevent the assassination of Princess Tishna had been one of the utmost secrecy. Only a few souls among the imperial palace personnel even knew that he’d been gone. And yet, upon his return, Ras noticed a difference in the way people were looking at him. It wasn’t so obvious as to be called hatred, but there was a coldness in the way he was treated. The men looked at him with envious eyes, while the women regarded him with bitterness and scorn. It was treatment Ras was used to by then, yet he couldn’t help but wonder what had brought on this sudden intensity.
However, there was no time to corner anyone and grill them about it.
“I’m coming in, Aur.”
Capitalizing upon the privileges afforded by his position, Ras entered the crown prince’s office without knocking first. Since Elmira was away, the room was populated by several minor bureaucrats, while Kanalayka stood on guard duty. Naturally, Fiarca was wearing her disguise, complete with a black mask.
“Hey, Ras. You’re back early,” said Fiarca with a sly smirk.
The plan had been for Ras to stay in Barlama after his mission was done and meet up with the royal princess. As such, Fiarca realized something was amiss as soon as he returned. She quickly finished up her business and ordered all the officials to leave, so that only she, Kanalayka, and Ras remained in the room.
“Now then, would you mind telling me what happened?” asked Fiarca, removing her mask and setting it aside.
“There’s something I’d like to ask you first, Fi,” Ras forcefully interrupted. “This Princess Tishna—just who is she really?”
Fiarca raised one eyebrow inquisitively.
“What do you mean by that, Ras? I sent you her file, didn’t I? Did you forget to read it?”
“Drop the act,” he said with a glare. “You can’t say you didn’t know what they call her over there.”
“Of course I did,” she said without an ounce of guilt. “I just didn’t tell you and Elmira.”
“Why not?”
“Because I wanted you to go in with fresh eyes,” Fiarca explained. Her bold declaration left Ras speechless. He scowled in displeasure.
But the princess had a point. There was a big difference between hearing something and seeing the facts for oneself. Especially when those facts concerned such an exceptional figure as Princess Tishna.
“But if you learned about the Wicked Princess that quickly, that must mean her actions are common knowledge,” Fiarca went on.
“Sure seems that way,” said Ras. “At least, the mercenaries at the guild acted like everyone knew.”
“Interesting. So that means either she’s so notorious that even the royal family can’t keep people quiet, or else somebody has been spreading those rumors on purpose.”
Fiarca adopted a serious look and began to ponder. Kanalayka, meanwhile, became quite flustered and tried to interrupt.
“Excuse me, Your Highness. By Wicked Princess, are you really talking about Princess Tishna?”
“That’s right. She has quite the track record. There are tales of her seducing her own sister’s fiancé and taking him on a date, or bullying the daughter of a newly lorded baron until she left the royal academy… They even say she evicted an entire village just to buy up the land to build her private villa.”
“What?!”
Kanalayka’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
“Is she really allowed to get away with behavior like that? She may be a princess, but surely the king and the rest of her family have something to say!”
“They don’t. Because whatever she does, it always works out best for her people.”
“…How so?” asked Kanalayka, tilting her head. Fiarca shrugged.
“The fiancé turned out to be seeing three other older married women in secret. It all came to light because of Princess Tishna’s actions. One of those women even came to the palace to start a fight, and Tishna almost ended up getting seriously hurt while standing up for her sister.”
“I—I see…”
“Meanwhile, the girl that she drove from the academy turned out to be an imposter, an illegitimate child born out of wedlock, while the real daughter was being kept prisoner in the baron’s cellar. And that village that Princess Tishna displaced? Not long after, a freak landslide wiped the place off the map. There’s no trace of it now.”
“But how? Did Princess Tishna know those things were going to happen?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” said Fiarca with a noncommittal shake of her head. “It’s all a little too perfect to be called coincidence.”
Looking only at the results, Tishna’s actions saved many people. That was why she was never blamed. And yet her deeds were undeniably selfish and evil. It was little wonder she had come to be known as the Wicked Princess. The question remained: Was that part of her plan?
Fiarca turned her gaze back to Ras. “So, would you mind telling me what happened on your end?” she asked.
Ras’s expression turned sour.
“We ran into a dragon,” he said.
“A dragon?” asked Kanalayka with an uneasy look. “You mean a dragon dragon?”
Ras nodded lazily, hoping it would set her nerves at ease.
“Yeah,” he said. “An aquatic dragon. Fully grown, too.”
“And Princess Tishna just so happened to be there at the time?” asked Fiarca with an arched brow.
Ras let out a languid sigh. “She said she was going sightseeing or something and turned up with a bunch of armed guards. Because of that, we were able to keep local casualties to a minimum despite the many fiends.”
“And meanwhile, you took care of the dragon?”
“Well, I couldn’t just leave it there, could I?”
“So the princess just so happens to go for a meander when a dragon shows up, and then there just so happens to be an experienced dragonslayer nearby? It’s all so laughably perfect,” Fiarca added with a smirk. Ras looked at her dubiously.
“Can we really call it a coincidence?” he asked. “I feel like I was forced into being there.”
“You’re a member of the Imperial Guard, Ras. There was no reason to expect you to be in Barlama at that time. Not unless somebody planned it.”
“I guess you’re right…,” muttered Ras, reluctantly accepting Fiarca’s point.
The princess giggled at him, then asked, “Did you meet her?”
“That’s the problem. She knew who I was.”
“Wooow, you’re famous.”
“Drop it. She knew my real name and everything—even the fact that I’m a Guardian of Silver. Maybe the empire has a mole.”
“That’s ridiculous,” said Fiarca, suddenly growing serious. Ras raised his eyebrow at her.
“What is?”
“We’re not stupid, Ras. All countries spy on each other as a matter of course. That’s why we take action to prevent such leaks.”
“What kind of action?”
“With the assistance of Priestess Lisa, we’ve been able to make it seem as if you never left the empire at all.”
“Lisa?” replied Ras, suddenly looking blank. “What’s she got to do with this?”
“Um, Ras… Take a look…,” Kanalayka stammered, timidly handing something over to him. It was a newspaper, one of the major tabloids covering any sports, entertainment, scandals, and celebrity gossip that took place in Vif Arger.
And there on the front page was a full-length article that made Ras tense up.
“‘Broodmare Priestess? Stallion Beds Again!’ What’s this garbage?”
According to the article, a certain high-ranking officer of the imperial palace had been seen disappearing into the night with a priestess. While the paper didn’t name any names, it was obvious to anyone who read it to whom the story pertained. There were even clear pictures of Ras and Lisa included.
The newspaper was dated four days prior, the day after Ras arrived in Charlgia. Ras, of course, had no recollection of this supposed tryst, but in the first place, such a meeting was definitively impossible, because the two implicated persons had not even been in the same country at the time.
“You see what I mean now? With a scandal like this in the papers, not even the kingdom’s spies would suspect your true whereabouts, would they? There’s no way Princess Tishna could have known you were coming!”
Fiarca punctuated her explanation with a proud grin, but Ras immediately flew into a rage.
“You soiled Lisa’s reputation for this?! There was no need to involve her!”
“We did ask her permission, for the record. Once we told her it was to help prevent Princess Tishna’s assassination, she was all for it.”
“She’s too kindhearted for her own good, that girl! And you know better than to take advantage of it!”
“Oh, and her brother played the part of you, so you don’t need to get jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!”
Frustrated, Ras tossed the crumpled newspaper onto Fiarca’s desk. He felt a migraine coming on, so he pressed his fingers to his temples, shook his head, and took a few deep breaths.
He was letting himself get distracted. This fabricated scandal wasn’t the main problem right then. There was something far more pressing that needed to be addressed.
“In that case, how did Princess Tishna know I was coming?”
“That’s a real mystery. I’m afraid I don’t have the answer.”
Fiarca shook her head. Then she looked up at Ras with a confident smile on her lips.
“But I’m pretty sure therein lies the secret to unravelling Princess Tishna.”