“Hey, Princess.”
“Yes?”
“You look like you could use a change of pace. I don’t like seeing you with that gloomy look on your face.” My words seemed to make her remember something.
“‘Why should I act all down in the dumps if I don’t get anything out of it?’”
“Hm? Oh, I did say that to you before.” I remembered saying something along those lines back when I’d been staying at her mansion.
“You are constantly cheerful; that much is true.” I had a pretty good guess as to why the princess was concerned. Freeing one of the Twelve Corpses wasn’t a decision to be made lightly. Even though her family’s technique had sealed my ability to spread the infection, that likely hadn’t stopped her from being scared. She had been setting a curion loose of her own discretion, after all. Still, she had made the call.
Now, a holy woman had shown up who had made that same decision. Not only that, but she couldn’t confirm that the technique that holy woman had used was the same as her family’s. There was something suspicious about the holy woman and her knight. One misstep and the tragedy of three centuries past could be repeated. Already bearing the burden of the witch’s blood, she couldn’t afford to ignore the grave keeper.
“I won’t tell you not to think about it, but worrying yourself sick isn’t helpful. Look at it this way—whatever happens, I’ll—” I stopped before I finished my sentence. That’s right. We’re partners now.
“Albert?”
“Whatever happens, we’ll do something about it.”
The princess’s eyes went wide for a moment, and then she smiled. “Right. Whatever problems we may encounter, we’ll overcome them together, my knight.”
“But of course, Lady Astrantia.” We looked at each other and chuckled.
“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, but when the time comes, we’ll lend a hand too.” I glanced over to see Cuphea frowning at me.
Linum just giggled. “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better, Lady Astrantia. You seemed down these past few days,” she said with a gentle smile.
“I’m sorry for worrying you two,” the princess replied. “If something happens, I hope we can count on you.”
“Certainly.”
“The students are supposedly going to be more active in the salvation efforts going forward, so let’s do our best.” With the defeat of the Pestilent Guardian Dragon and the Shaman of the Heavenly Garden, the biggest threats in two of the Forbidden Cities had vanished. Ordinary curions still had some variations in strength, but if they could all be defeated, the cities could be freed.
The mining town in particular might be able to resume digging after three hundred years, so people were probably eager to clear it out. Of course, the students would be stationed near the barrier so they could immediately evacuate in the event of an emergency. The actions of the Skeleton Sword Saint and the Grave Keeper of the Golden City were being kept under wraps, so there were no efforts to free our two cities. In my case, there were no curions left in the city. That meant reconstruction could begin at any time, but that would require detailing my situation, so the princess’s family had elected to keep it a secret.
“We need to start taking forming a squad seriously,” said the princess. As we started doing more inside the Forbidden Cities, it would become more important that we had allies to fight alongside.
“Yeah. I think we’re gonna need at least three pairs to actually look like a real squad.” Three pairs meant six people, which should be enough to function as a small unit. The first people who came to mind were Orlaya and Myra and Palu and Ozias, but both of those pairs were upperclassmen, meaning they were already in squads of their own.
“A few girls did invite us to join them, but we’re teaming with you, so we turned them down,” Cuphea said with a troubled look.
“Yeah, you’re pretty popular with the commoners.” Dealing with the bullies had made them famous overnight. Noble and commoner cliques had formed in the academy, and the nobles in particular tended to look down on the commoners. Not all of them were like that, thankfully, but discrimination didn’t disappear so easily.
“That’s true, though some of them have wanted to use us to get closer to you two.” Although nobody was publicly harassing her, the princess still felt distanced from the other students due to her relation to the witch. There weren’t many people like Cuphea and Linum who approached her without ulterior motives.
If people were taking an interest in us, it was probably... “Because we have the title of White now?”
“I think so.” Linum uncomfortably nodded. So they were flip-floppers who had been afraid of the witch but now wanted to get closer to us after we’d proved our capability in the field.
“How do you feel about that, Princess?”
“Wanting to team up with someone strong is only natural,” she answered. “Still, trust isn’t built in a day. Even if we meet with them, it’ll take time for us to get a good judgment of their character.” I was impressed that she didn’t just get offended and reject them on the spot. The princess really was a good person.
Well, if that’s how my master feels, I’ve got no complaints. “All right then, for now, let’s try interviewing the people who wanna join our squad. You can handle the holy women, and I’ll be in charge of the female holy knights. No problems there, right?” The princess and Cuphea immediately scowled. Even Linum had an awkward smile on her face.
“Albert? What about the male holy knights?” the princess asked.
“I’m not talking to men, so we don’t need to interview them.”
Cuphea was the next to ask a question. “And if those female holy knights were in your strike zone, what would you do, Albert?”
“Make every effort to get acquainted with them, of course.”
“Is that right?”
“I see.” Both Cuphea and the princess smiled sweetly. It felt like the intensity emanating from them was growing by the day.
“Anyway, that’s enough joking around.” They clearly didn’t think I was joking. Steeling myself against their doubtful gazes, I continued on. “I think it’d be good for the four of us to do the interviews together.”
“I like that idea. We need allies we can support and who can support us,” said Linum. With her on board, the other two reluctantly stopped giving me reproachful looks and we decided to interview people who were interested.
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days later, Nemophila, the holy woman who had become a celebrity overnight, announced that her next target from the Twelve Corpses was the One-Armed Giant. She was recruiting members for her extermination force.
Then I received a letter from her. It was to set up a meeting with me and the princess like we had promised the other day, which was all well and good, but...
“Orlaya and Myra are tagging along, huh?”
“Of course. I also have some questions for Blizzard,” said a girl with silver hair and icy blue eyes. The well-proportioned beauty was Astrantia’s sister, Orlaya.
“Are we getting in the way?” asked Myra, the serious, blonde-haired, blue-eyed holy knight.
“No, not at all.” Don’t look at me so apologetically. It makes me wanna spoil you. Myra aside, it only made sense Orlaya was curious given that her family’s secret technique being leaked could be a big issue for her. Nemophila apparently had plans in our city, so we didn’t have to go far. “All right, let’s get going.”