He felt Feena slide up to him.
“Ah! Not that close!”
He took a step back.
This is bad. If we get too close, Heavenly Surge might activate!
He’d wanted to do that at the beginning of the trip, but he changed his mind after what happened the day before. He felt that doing it by chance or by force wouldn’t be right. That’s why he told Feena to stay back a bit, but...
“Meanie! You don’t like me?”
She had completely misread the situation.
“What? No one said that!”
“Then, can I stay by your side?”
“No, I mean, Heave—”
“You hate me after all...”
Feena wasn’t understanding his feelings.
Maybe I should just hug her and let Heavenly Surge loose.
It crossed his mind, but...
“Umm... Sorry to barge in on your little affair, but...”
“What affair?!”
Wait... I know this voice.
“Are you Inquisitor Kanon’s warrior... Toshisaka?” Al asked.
“Yes, I am. I know it’s hard to see, but please follow me.”
Without any explanation, the bushes began rustling again, signaling Toshisaka’s departure.
“What should we do?” Feena asked, completely perplexed.
It was an alarming situation; they didn’t know if Al’s identity had been found out, but they were in a dangerous place and in desperate need of a guide.
“All right, let’s follow him. Just don’t let your guard down.”
“Got it.”
With that, they began following the footsteps ahead of them.
“What in the world is this?”
Neither Al nor Feena could believe what was happening. It had only been a few minutes since they started following Toshisaka, but the thick fog had completely disappeared. They were walking through a dense forest under the clear, blue sky, accompanied by the cute chirping of birds.
“Ah, I totally forgot about this! We’re on a secret path, known only to the people of Eshantel!”
“Couldn’t you have remembered that sooner?!”
“Amazing, Lady Lesfina. I didn’t think you’d remember it,” Toshisaka remarked with a cheerful smile, though his cheeks were unnaturally plump, as though he’d been punched right in the face...
“So, would you tell us why you left your Inquisitor behind to come back and help us?”
Al wanted to thank him from the bottom of his heart, but first, he had to know why he’d come back for them. It was dangerous, but the sooner he learned the reason, the better.
“I simply happened to have a little something to do around there, Your Majesty.”
“And what would be that little so— Wait, ‘Your Majesty’?!”
That crucial expression was stated so naturally that it almost slipped right past Al.
“H-How do you know Al’s iden—”
“Feena!”
It was already too late.
“Hahaha, I had a hunch that was the case.”
Thanks to Feena’s slip-up, he’d managed to confirm that Alfonz, the newly-rich peon, was, in fact, Alnoa, the king of Althos.
“Feena...”
It was so sudden that Al couldn’t really blame her.
“Ah... Sorry...”
“No, no, you didn’t slip up or anything. I’ve met His Majesty before.”
Toshisaka tried to cheer up the grumbling Feena.
“We’ve met? When? Where?”
The tables had turned. Feena intently stared at him, but Al couldn’t recall their meeting in the slightest, so he simply shook his head.
“I was present at your enthronement as a representative of Eshantel.”
Al had certainly had an enthronement ceremony, but he was way too nervous and confused at the time to remember the guests.
“I’m so sorry, but I was just...”
Al started to make up an excuse, but...
“Al, I will make you a special potion that helps with your memory once we get home!”
Feena crossed her arms and pouted.
“Well, I couldn’t see you too well in that thick fog. What gave you away was Lady Lesfina’s unrest.”
The tables had turned once again.
“Maybe you need a potion to up your acting! Wait, so whose side are you even on?!”
“Huh? I’m Inquisitor Kanon’s loyal subordinate, of course.” Toshisaka answered, looking a bit dumbfounded.
Al realized that most of the Eshantel troops he’d met were rather hard to read. One could never be sure what they were thinking.
“And what are you going to do with this information? Are you gonna run and tell him? Or do you want to...”
Al reached for his scythe. He was preparing himself for a tough battle. The way Toshisaka drew his sword while they were fooling around and his skillful way with words alluded to him being a great threat. Or maybe Feena and he were too easily impressed. Toshisaka opened his mouth to answer the nervous king.
“Oh, by the way. Even if Your Majesty was wearing a name tag, Kanon probably would’ve bought your story. You’ve seen his less than powerful reasoning firsthand.”
“That may very well be the case,” Feena agreed.
Al let out a deep sigh. He was starting to feel a bit sorry for the Inquisitor; both his best friends and subordinates thought of him as a fool.
“However, the Inquisitor is as pure as the whitest snow,” Toshisaka said with a gentle smile.
But he didn’t notice the couple of mischievous ones that appeared right after.
“Really? Well, they do say love is blind.”
“You need your head checked if you think ‘pure’ is a good description of him.”
“Please; why would you assume that? I’m nothing more than the Inquisitor’s aide-de-camp.”
Toshisaka’s cheeks had turned bright red the instant he heard their comments. He was probably purer than anyone else.
“So, what made you leave your beloved Inquisitor’s side to come here?”
Al tried to get the conversation he’d derailed back on track.
“I’m not at all, not in the slightest, in no way in love with him, but I came here to talk about Kanon.”
The moment the discussion got back on track, his gentle expression became much more sinister.
“Lady Lesfina, what did you think of Kanon today?”
Their eyes met. It seemed like everyone felt the same way, though Toshisaka was probably even more aware of Kanon’s strange antics due to spending his days close to him.