The hunting pavilion where the annual hunting festival was held was located far from the imperial capital. For Leonardo, attending the festival was one of his annual pleasures. Rather than the hunting of animals, he found it more meaningful to spend time relaxing in the rich natural surroundings outside of the city. The air was clean and refreshing, and it was soothing just to walk around and look at the different kinds of trees. And this year, she would be joining him.
“‘How nice to meet you. I am your goddess,’ sheesh,” Leonardo muttered. “She” was Westalia Lejainne, the once would-be queen of Lhumzia, and someone who was currently causing quite the stir. She was a cheerful woman, who’d joked the night they’d met, but just a few days ago, she’d submitted a corrected personal statement to the palace, which had caused a bit of a controversy.
Some people held the opinion that she should be disqualified for misrepresenting her background, but the emperor had the final say and he had allowed her to continue participating. As for the opinion that she might have entered the country illegally, Leonardo took personal responsibility, stating that he had allowed her to enter the country. He’d even said he was the one who’d allowed her to slip through the night they’d met. It wasn’t a complete lie. When he’d met her, he’d intended to punish her, but he’d never thought he’d end up protecting her.
“What should I call you today?” Leonardo asked.
“Whatever you like.”
“Very well then, Westalia,” Leonardo said. She looked a little embarrassed to be called by her real name, and she pushed a lock of her long, silver hair behind her ear as she looked down.
“It feels kind of weird for you to call me that,” she said.
“I think it suits you,” Leonardo replied. Westalia had once been disgraced and supposedly executed for attempting to assassinate the princess, but she had, in fact, survived and had finally proven her innocence thanks to her strong will. People were excited by the reversal of fortune from adversity. In particular, the people of the Kingdom of Lhumzia, who had been exhausted by an epidemic, were especially thrilled by the fact that the former queen, whom they’d resented for the herb-hoarding incident, had been defeated, and they were loudly calling for Westalia to be regarded as a hero.
Westalia had no intention of returning to her position as the fiancée of Lhumzia’s crown prince and had crossed over to the enemy nation of Archaites. Even this was speculated to be in order to build a bridge for peace negotiations, which had been broken down for a long time. One of the reasons for the breakdown was that Delphine and her family, the Wynds, who had made a large profit from importing medicinal herbs from foreign countries, had interfered in diplomatic policy and prevented peace talks from taking place. However, there were also forces within the Archaites Empire that did not want peace because of their own interests.
If Westalia, who had defeated the former queen of Lhumzia, became empress of Archaites, the unsettled spat between these nations might finally turn the corner. People were hoping that Lhumzia might even be able to obtain the medicinal herbs necessary to heal the sick, which were native to Archaites.
“You really don’t want to go back to your home country? You’ve been cleared of the false accusations. You could certainly become queen without coming all the way here,” Leonardo said. Besides, Felix was in Lhumzia. He’d worked hard on Westalia’s case because he cared for her, and he clearly needed her.
“I’m not going back to my home country. I don’t have good memories there and I want to make a fresh start in a new place. I’ve only been here a short time, but I like this country and the people here,” Westalia replied. She explained to him that the image of the people of Lhumzia as they sent her to the executioner’s block was burned into her mind. She looked up at Leonardo and laughed. “Besides, I think it would be fun to be your empress. So you should let me do that.”
“What’s with that attitude?” were the words that came out of Leonardo’s mouth, but he really didn’t mind the idea.
Westalia herself might have held the lofty goal of making peace in some corner of her mind, but she had just given Leonardo her answer, and, after all, her motive in the first selection questionnaire was “I wish to have all the power, honor, and wealth and to reign at the top of the empire.” In summary, Westalia’s participation in the empress selection process, regardless of her own intentions, had shocked both countries, and everyone was excited by the possibility of improving diplomatic relations.
“In any case, I’m glad you were able to reclaim your real name,” Leonardo said.
“It was all thanks to you, wasn’t it, Leo? Felix told me that you had a hand in seizing the Devorah Trading Company’s transaction history,” Westalia replied.
“My help was trivial. You did all the hard work.”
“I looked into it, you know, and Devorah’s no ordinary organization. I can’t believe you got a history of its business dealings... Are you working on something in the criminal underworld?”
“A little.” Leonardo frequently went into the city undercover to maintain security in the imperial capital and was working in secret to bring wrongdoers to justice. That was also the reason he often ran into Westalia in the city. This time though, he’d helped out because his friend Felix had asked him to.
In this instance, the Devorah Trading Company, which had been exposed for selling poisons and weapons, had gone out of business, and the person who had been running the trading company had been caught. Leonardo had known that he’d have to bring it down at some point, so the timing of Westalia’s case was perfect. The Reyn family had also been involved in the management of the Devorah Trading Company, but the evidence of that had been destroyed by the time Leonardo started his investigations.
“I don’t want you to get involved in anything too risky,” Westalia said. “I worry about you...”
“Yes, I know.”
“Do you really? Oh, that’s right!” Westalia took a handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to Leonardo. It was a white handkerchief embroidered with wisteria flowers. “Here, it’s the handkerchief I promised you. Take it.”
“Thank you. I will take good care of it,” Leonardo said.
“Please, please don’t get hurt,” Westalia said. She folded the handkerchief and put it in Leonardo’s breast pocket.
The hunting festival began and everyone went out to hunt. Most of the people who liked to hunt were men, but there were also some women hunting with bows and falcons. Westalia had said she’d never hunted before, but she was enthusiastic nonetheless.
Westalia and Leonardo rode horses deep into the forest.
“The wind feels great,” Westalia said. Feeling relaxed, she closed her eyes as she rode. As Leonardo gazed at her intelligent face in profile, Westalia turned to him, tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and said, “You’re staring. Is there something on my face?”
“No...I just think you’re beautiful.”
“Cheap flattery gets you nowhere!” Westalia said, her cheeks flushing.
Leonardo wanted to be the only one who knew the girlish side of her that she had suddenly revealed to him. He didn’t want any other man to see it. He was perplexed by the feelings he’d never had before that the thought provoked in him.