Allen grabbed her shoulders and faced her with a grave expression. “That guy’s well-versed in magic, and most importantly, he’s diligent... He’s perfect for taking over Uncle’s post! If you get together with him for good, my turn won’t come around anymore! Make every effort to keep him!”
“That’s com-plete-ly selfish, you know that?! Don’t you have a scrap of brotherly sentiment, like a ‘how dare he mess with my precious sister’ sorta thing? Uh, hey! Wait up! Bro!”
But Allen had said all he wanted, he lost all interest in Eluka’s reproaches and sprinted after Charlotte. “Wait for me, Charl—Char! I’m coming!”
♢
That night, Allen and Charlotte visited Natalia’s dorm.
“Hey, Natalia. We’re here,” Allen called to her.
“Mrr...” Natalia mumbled, still asleep upon his back.
When they were having a strategy meeting at the cafeteria earlier that evening, Gosetsu and her apprentices came back from their training and joined them for dinner. The gathering quickly turned into a party. As a student cafeteria, alcohol wasn’t allowed, but the feast of juice and soda with snacks went on late into the night, until Natalia eventually fell asleep. Though Natalia already had the aura of a ruler at the tender age of seven, she still couldn’t stay up so late.
Charlotte gazed at Natalia sleeping peacefully and smiled softly. “She had a busy day today.”
“Thanks for carrying her, Dark Overlord,” said one of the dragonoids who escorted them to Natalia’s room. “I feel like my scales would hurt Boss if I carried her...”
“Don’t worry about it. Hurry up and open the door.”
“Okay, okay.” The dragonoid took out the key that Natalia had entrusted to him and unlocked the door.
Allen had to stop in his tracks and stare at the room. The room was fairly spacious, and there was a big pile of textbooks on her desk. The walls were covered with scraps of paper with her notes on magic spells and formulae.
“Hm...? She’s really studious...”
“Wow, she’s working so hard. Though I can’t make head nor tail of it...” Charlotte sighed in wonder, looking up at all the notes. She couldn’t tell what kind of magic Natalia was researching, but she could tell how dedicated her sister was.
Allen walked over to the bed by the window. “Come on, Natalia. You better lie down in bed—hm?”
He caught sight of something as he was putting her down: a square medium-sized trunk lay beside her pillow. It was a high-quality case made of leather, secured with numerous locks.
Natalia reached for the trunk, mumbling something in her sleep, and squeezed her arms tight around it. Though it was hardly a comfortable thing to sleep with, she fell into deep sleep clinging to it.
“Oh, careful not to touch that trunk,” the dragonoid warned them hastily. “She’d really beat us to a pulp.”
“Is it something valuable...?” Charlotte asked, leaning in for a closer look.
Allen could tell at a glance that the external locks weren’t the only things guarding the case. “Looks like it. It’s protected by magic,” Allen replied casually. “It’s designed to detect living things, and if anyone tries to open it by force, it’ll set off a trap... It’s rather high-security. What’s in it anyway?”
“Who knows? Boss doesn’t tell us much about herself...” the dragonoid said, cocking his head. He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Ah, it’s getting late. I’ll get going—whoa!” The dragonoid let out a yelp just as he opened the door and stepped out.
“What’s up?” Allen looked over to find a small figure standing in the hallway. It was the boy, Natalia’s rival, gripping a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. “Oh, it’s you, Chris. What is it? Challenging Natalia to another duel?”
“Sh-Shut up!” Chris turned on his heel and scampered away.
Watching him go, the dragonoid shook his head. “He really doesn’t learn, does he? Well, I gotta head to my part-time job now! I’ll take your leave, Boss!”
“Mrrr...”
“Right, take care,” Allen said. With the dragonoid gone, the room fell silent. Allen watched Natalia deep asleep and said with a wry smile, “When she’s like this, she looks just like a normal kid.”
“Yes. It reminds me of the old days.” Charlotte smiled affectionately. There was something wistful about her gaze. “I read her a picture book a few times, when she was very little. She used to fall asleep in the middle of the book.” Charlotte paused, and looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the pile of textbooks, and a melancholy smile crossed her lips. “But...now that she can read all these difficult books, I suppose I can’t read any picture books to her anymore. She really has grown up so much.” She looked like a proud older sister, but also like a child who had been left behind. “Maybe...I shouldn’t tell her who I really am, after all.”
“What makes you say that?” Allen asked quietly.
Charlotte slowly shook her head. She only gazed at Natalia asleep. She didn’t caress her little sister’s head. She seemed to be trying hard not to touch her at all.
“Since we came to this island, I’ve had a chance to talk with Natalia about so many things. But...she never wants to talk about her family. I think that must be the answer.” Charlotte spoke as if she was trying to persuade herself, with a sad smile. “I’m just a bad memory for her... It’s better if she forgets about me.”
“That’s so sad, Mommy. I don’t get it,” Roo whined anxiously, snuggling up to Charlotte. “You and Natalia are so close now. But you want her to forget you...? It’s weird.”
“We’re close because I’m Char, Allen’s assistant, not...me,” Charlotte explained.
“But you’re you, and Natalia’s Natalia. I’m gonna be sad if you two aren’t happy together.”
“Roo...” Charlotte looked pained as she stroked Roo’s head.
“Regardless,” Allen cut in, trying to sound cheerful in the somber atmosphere, “there’s no need to rush to conclusions. You can take your time, think it over.”
“That’s right, Lady Charlotte.” Gosetsu, still in her human form, drew closer to Charlotte and hugged her shoulder with a smile. “It takes time to resolve matters like this. You can watch over young Natalia with a patient heart.”
“Way to go, veteran. At times like this, your words carry more weight,” Allen remarked.
Gosetsu chuckled. “Well, I have had my share of experiences in my time. Long ago, I accidentally turned a volcanic belt in a country to the east into a devastated stretch of barren land, when I was half-asleep. However, these days, it has turned into a lush, verdant field. In other words, time heals all things.”
“The scale of your story is ridiculous...and isn’t that an infamous natural disaster that no one knows the cause of...?” Allen gave Gosetsu a withering look. She’d just casually let slip the truth behind a catastrophic disaster that was still debated by historians.
“You’re right, everyone...” Charlotte said with a giggle. “I’ll have a think about it.”
“Good. I’m here for you however long it takes,” Allen said with a leisurely nod.
But none of them could foresee that the situation would take a sharp turn so soon.
The very next day, Natalia disappeared without a trace.
♢
The morning after the party, everyone was gathered in the usual garden. Allen stood with his arms crossed, a frown darkening his face.
“So...when you went to wake her up, she was already gone?”
“Y-Yeah, that’s what happened,” the dragonoid nodded uneasily. He was clearly worried sick, despite his inhuman features making his species difficult to read at times. “Boss is really bad at waking up on time, you see. So one of us goes to wake her up every morning. But...this morning, she wasn’t in her room.”
“And that trunk she was so careful about—that was gone too?” Allen prompted.
“Yeah. She’s never taken it outside her room before...”
“Hmm...” Allen fell into deep thought, stroking his chin. Natalia’s followers looked at each other anxiously, but no one knew what to do. As soon as they’d discovered she was missing, they’d split into groups and searched everywhere. But when they couldn’t find a trace of her, they realized the situation was serious and came to Allen for help.
“Anything, Roo?” Allen asked.
“Hmm. Looks like she’s hidden her scent. I can’t smell her.” Roo had been sniffing around in the air, but she shook her head with her eyes squeezed shut.
There were other ways to look for her, but Charlotte already looked stricken with panic. “What if...she heard what we said last night?”
Human-formed Gosetsu nodded, grimacing. “I thought she was fast asleep...but I suppose it’s not impossible.”
Natalia might have run away when she realized that Charlotte was her older sister. It wasn’t entirely implausible, judging from how things stood. But Allen shook his head.
“No, that’s unlikely. There must’ve been a different reason.”
“You sound confident, Sir Allen,” Gosetsu observed. “But the question is, what shall we do about it? Either way, we must do something to find her.”
“Hmm... For now, I’ll—”
“Look! There they are!” someone shouted.
Just as Allen was about to say that he’d go look for Natalia himself, a few students ran over to them. They were all familiar faces—and they all looked even paler than Natalia’s followers.
“Oh, you’re Chris’s guys, aren’t you? We’re too busy to deal with you at the moment,” Allen said, shooing them away.
“Please! Can you help us?!” They all gathered around Allen and clung to him. Ever since Allen beat them up in the cafeteria, they had looked on him as their archenemy. But apparently today was different. As Allen stared at them suspiciously, they started babbling in a panic.
“Our leader...he made Natalia meet him in that dungeon...the part where it’s blocked off!”
“And he stole something really important from her!”
A stir ran through the group.
“Tell me everything,” Allen commanded.
At Allen’s quiet prompting, the followers calmed down just enough to share their story. According to them, Chris had been tormented in recent months. Just as Allen had guessed, Chris had been praised throughout the school as a child prodigy, and no one could beat him—until Natalia came. But now, having lost all his duels against Natalia, his pride was in tatters, and he was cornered. These days, he was getting so desperate that he talked of using whatever means necessary to defeat her.
Last night, when Chris went to Natalia’s room to challenge her to another duel, he happened to overhear the conversation about her precious trunk. He returned later, stole the case, and drew her out for a fight to the death.