It was the day after their fun outing.
After breakfast, Vyce hauled Sophie and Livio to his office.
When the two told Vyce that, out of the three ships, they’d chosen the one going to the neighboring country that departed in two weeks, Vyce only laughed.
“Now that’s unexpected,” Vyce said, handing them a map.
“This is for us?” Livio asked.
“I have other copies besides,” Vyce replied.
Livio and Sophie looked at each other.
“And what’s that for?” Vyce asked, blinking.
“It’s just, you’ve given us so much,” Sophie replied. “You even told us we could stay here in the castle until we depart, so...”
“Don’t sweat it,” Vyce said. “We ended up gettin’ you all tangled up in our problem, and besides, it was good for Lunetta to meet ya. I’m grateful, honestly.”
“You didn’t tangle us up in this,” Sophie said. “I chose to go along. And it truly meant a lot to me to be able to make friends with Lunetta.”
“Is that so?” Vyce laughed, taking off his glasses as he rose to his feet. “Fair enough—have a seat.”
Sophie and Livio sat down on the sofa, large enough for three people, while Vyce sat on the other side of the table directly in front of them.
“We were talkin’ about havin’ you join our military training until you leave for your trip,” Vyce said to Livio. “Just havin’ the son of the legendary House Warrion put my men through the wringer is more than enough reward for me.”
“Apologies in advance if they don’t get up once I’m done with them.”
“Give it yer best shot,” Vyce replied with a cynical laugh.
Livio’s shoulders bounced with laughter in reply. The two of them seemed to get along quite well, no matter the situation.
“Well? So why’d you pick that ship?” Vyce asked. “You coulda gone all the way to the country to the east in one go.”
“More than going to the country to the east, our goal is to take our time with a leisurely journey,” Livio explained. “Not to mention, I don’t want Sophie to strain herself.”
Sophie continued, “We talked about how, rather than rushing off to our destination, we’d like to see other countries as well since we’re already here. Not to mention that...”
Just when Sophie paused, a knock echoed through the room with perfect timing.
Vyce urged the maid inside and she quietly began setting out the teaware. It was a beautiful tea set, made of pure-white porcelain, accented with lines of deep blue.
“Not to mention what?” Vyce asked.
Savoring the aroma of the tea before her, Sophie lifted her head. “There was just something a bit off about the way you explained it,” Sophie said. “The first ship had a lot of drawbacks—like how it’s a trading ship and there’s not much time to prepare. The second ship would arrive in a day and we’d have two weeks to work with as well—it sounded like nothing but good things to me. If those are just the facts, then that’s all it is, but it’s mostly intuition more than anything else.”
Were there really no drawbacks to the second ship? Judging from Vyce’s personality, wouldn’t he have provided a bit more information for every option?
It went without saying that neither Sophie nor Livio thought Vyce was the sort of unscrupulous type who’d purposely try to conceal the downsides to push them toward that ship, but the thought, however faint, had occurred to her. It was an odd pricking sensation, like a tiny fish bone caught in her throat—just enough to make her go, Hmm?
Sophie was a bit hesitant to say it...
“We wondered if there might’ve been some reason you wanted us to go to the neighboring country.”
But Sophie and Livio had had their suspicions—that Vyce might’ve had just a bit of an ulterior motive, almost like he was trying to say, I’d sure be happy if you chose this one! or I’d like to ask a favor of you if it all works out!
Vyce’s eyes widened for a moment, but his expression quickly turned to a sneer. Wow, that is one nasty look on his face!
“Nice work, you two. Stay here—I mean it.”
“No, thank you,” Livio replied in no uncertain terms.
“My bad,” Vyce chuckled back, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m not plannin’ on foolin’ you two.”
“We know. We don’t doubt that.”
Both Sophie and Livio knew that, despite how scary Vyce’s face might be, he was actually quite prudent. So perhaps he had a favor he wanted to ask of them but was trying to be considerate? I guess he actually does know how to exercise some restraint!
Giving it no more heed than that, Sophie and Livio had chosen their ship without any hesitation at all. They’d both neatly arrived at the same conclusion. They figured that if taking their time going on a leisurely journey could help someone, then that was a good thing.
“That so?” Vyce said, furrowing his brow as he laughed. “The ship’s not some passenger liner like you have in mind, and it’s not a ship I own either. But it is a large trade ship that I have faith in. You’ve got my word that you’ll be able to travel safely and comfortably enough.”
It wasn’t particularly surprising. It was the response they’d been anticipating. Both of them nodded.
Had it been a normal king they were dealing with, they would’ve doubted his response and accused him of fooling them—they might even have been on guard waiting to see what sort of unreasonable demand he might spring on them.
But this was Vyce they were dealing with.
Even though he’d been given the grand title of the Usurper King, Vyce treasured his petite fiancée, and while Sophie and Livio had been noisily spouting off niceties, Vyce had just laughed at them and told them he didn’t care for all that “stiff and stuffy nonsense.”
“So what’s the errand you want us to run for you anyway?” Livio asked cheekily.
Vyce laughed. “What? Y’can hardly call it an errand. I just want you to get a read on how the young king of that country’s feelin’.”
Vyce huffed. “To be frank, I’ve known him for a while. Heard he got engaged, so I sent him my congrats, but I haven’t heard a word back since. He’s the type to stay on top of that sort of thing, so it’s kinda outta character for him. I’m just a little worried, see?”
Sophie and Livio laughed, as if to say, Called it!
Vyce wasn’t going to risk making the young king feel bad by sending another letter—instead, he was sending them to check in on the boy under the pretense that they just happened to be strolling through. He was nothing but considerate!
“We’ll be glad to assist and report back here if there’s anything we can do to help,” Livio said.
“I didn’t ask ya to come all the way back here. The little miss here’s gonna make a spell for sendin’ letters back and forth with Lunetta, right? Once you figure out what’s goin’ on, all you have to do is send a letter. See all the sights, and then you can just be on your way to the next town. Got it?” Vyce asked, furrowing his brow as he glared at Sophie.
For her part, Sophie wasn’t scared in the slightest, and Livio was right there, clutching his stomach and laughing.
“What? That almost makes you sound like a nice guy!” Livio managed to say between laughs.
“I am a nice guy.”
“Really now? What a shame,” Livio replied with a laugh, bringing his finger to the corner of his eye to flick away a tear. Did you really have to go and laugh so hard you cried? It really doesn’t take that much to get you laughing, does it?
Vyce, however, seemed rather displeased, his face contorted into a grimace.
“You just let us do you a favor and help you out then!” Livio said. “Having you in our debt might be a good excuse to come back to this kingdom someday too!”
“Do whatever the hell you want,” Vyce snapped back.
Livio gave a masculine groan of disgust as he collapsed backward on the sofa, which made Sophie chuckle.
The days following that were quite peaceful.
Sophie spent her days going out shopping with Lunetta and her ladies-in-waiting, holed up with Lunetta in her laboratory only to be dragged out, and watching Livio train while looking so ridiculously cool that her soul nearly left her body. She even helped out Vyce with his work here and there.
There wasn’t anything sad, or hard, or painful. The days were simply filled with fun and gentle warmth.
Guess a world like this isn’t the stuff of fairy tales after all. Then again, Sophie already knew that.
Lunetta had taught her that the smell of a fluffy bed was called “the smell of the sun,” and when Sophie had confessed that she felt uneasy when she didn’t have anything to do, Lunetta had nodded back and told her she understood.
“Even when I was back there, I spent every day researching and making magic gems,” Lunetta said. “But if I do that here, Vyce gets angry at me.”
“It was the same for me,” Sophie replied. “Livio said I couldn’t bring the books and magic gems into my room, so he took them away...”
“Night’s when you make the most progress, though.”
“Right?”
Indeed. Not only did the two of them lose sight of their surroundings when they were focused on something, they were also both night owls. And what about their sleep? They’d just stay awake until they were at a good stopping point! They dove headfirst into their books and research, so immersed they were practically soaking in it.
Wow...this is a blast!
Even if she didn’t get enough sleep or exercise, Sophie was having such a good time she felt like squealing with joy.
But since the kind souls around them didn’t approve of the nerdette duet’s habit of egging each other on, the two were immediately forced to shift to a healthier lifestyle...against their wishes.
The next thing Sophie knew, she’d put on just a wee bit—no, more than a bit—perhaps a good deal of weight?
Harboring an uneasy feeling, Sophie tried on the dress that she’d received from Livio’s mother the day they left the castle. She’d thought there’d be extra space around the waist, but then—sure enough—it fit just right!
Sophie takes 10,000 points of damage!
Urk!
She discreetly told her maid that she’d like to cut back on the snacks, but the maid only smiled and ignored her without a word.
In the end, the maid simply gave her a bright smile. “You’d like to do so even if saying such is impertinent?”