I’m sure glad I’m alive.
Sophie gazed up at the sky.
“You can’t ride a horse?”
With a change in both time and location, Sophie found herself in Vyce’s office in the early hours of a tranquil afternoon. She was assisting Vyce with the translation of a book from another country that he’d said he wanted to use as a reference.
Sophie quietly looked away from Vyce’s wide-eyed, disbelieving gaze. She knew just what he was trying to say—she could hardly believe it herself. But there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
“I-I’m scared of heights, so...”
“But you’ve given speeches from places up high before, haven’t ya?”
“There was the pressure and my nerves then—I had all these different sensations numbing it...”
“I mean, I guess I get it, but...”
In truth, even when she’d been up high on a platform, Sophie had never been able to get close to the railing. Her shoulders sank in defeat.
“Then I shall carry you, master.”
The relaxed voice came from Azuello, who’d been munching away at cookies in the form of a cat. He had been frequenting the kitchens, and lately, he’d been walking around the castle looking like he owned the place. Today, however, he was beside Sophie, flicking his tail as if he were in a pleasant mood.
“I can transform into a size that won’t make you afraid,” he explained.
Azuello became a burst of light. The next moment, he’d transformed into a humongous cat.
He was large enough that Sophie couldn’t wrap her arms around his neck. If he were to get on all fours, he would’ve come up to Sophie’s chest in height. If he were like this, Sophie’s newly awakened fear of heights that screamed out whenever her legs weren’t on the ground was sure to quiet down.
“B-But is it really okay for me to ride on a god...?” Sophie asked.
“I shall permit it for you, master.”
“There’re sacred beasts and whatnot out there too—I don’t see any problem with that,” Vyce added.
Was it really okay? Sophie felt like it wasn’t. No, it probably wasn’t okay. He was a god! Sophie already knew about the god stalking Lunetta, and as adorable as Azuello might be, that was its own matter. What? He’s a god, for crying out loud!
“Whaaa?” Sophie said, furrowing her brow. Despite being at the center of it all, however, Azuello merely yawned and returned to his prior form as a small cat.
“I shall lie down now.”
“What?” Sophie gasped.
She felt plenty odd and had plenty of doubts as to whether riding Azuello was really okay, but that had probably already been settled. As if he’d lost interest, he curled up on Sophie’s lap.
In doing so, Azuello had forfeited any attempts at divinity; he was simply an adorable little kitty. But even then, was it really okay? But...well? Then again, Azuello himself had said he was wholly—holy?—fine with it. So it was fine.
After half forcibly convincing herself that it was okay, Sophie cast her gaze back to the desk. She ran her pen along the page as she followed the flow of the sentence with her eyes, only to be interrupted by Vyce’s whisper.
“Scared of heights, huh?” Vyce said, a bit of amusement in his voice.
“I-I’m not proud of it...” Sophie groaned.
“Nah, that’s not it,” Vyce said, shaking his head. “I just think that’s awfully human of ya. That’s a good thing, don’tcha think?”
“Human of me?”
“You always looked like you didn’t have a single flaw to your name,” Vyce replied.
“Huh?”
Just what sort of ridiculous nonsense was that? Sophie was startled to her very core.
She could list any number of her own shortcomings. Every single part of her fell short of others. All she’d ever done was desperately dispatch the tasks before her—that was all.
“You were always just so perfect after all, Lady Sophelia.”
Startled at the sudden voice that echoed out, Sophie’s shoulders gave an exaggerated twitch. Oh no, the ink! The ink...! The ink had leaped across the page so that the words on the page now read “which is why yerm.” What on earth is a “yerm” anyway? What’s that supposed to mean?
Sophie stared at the documents before her despondently.
“Hey now!” Vyce said, sounding stern. “Jeykos, don’t go startlin’ a delicate little lady like that! See, now she’s down in the dumps!”
“Oh my! Was that my fault?”
Sophie had been startled when he’d both appeared and spoken up out of nowhere, so while it was Jeykos the prime minister’s fault in that sense, the fact that Sophie had been so startled that she’d sent the ink flying was her own fault.
She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. I was just about to fix a part I’d messed up.”
“She’s lyin’ through her teeth.”
“Vyce...”
No, come on! Sophie didn’t want to see an older man apologize with shoulders slumped down like that. It was enough to prick at her heart!
Sophie glared fixedly at the mean-spirited king before her.
“Okay, okay,” Vyce said, shrugging before looking up at Jeykos from his seat. “Was there somethin’ ya wanted?”
Jeykos snapped his head up in an instant, beaming as he spoke—a far cry from how he’d been slumping. “Indeed. I’d like to talk with Sir Livio as well. Might I ask for a bit of your time?”
“See?” Vyce said. “The moment you take this old coot seriously is the moment you lose.”
That was quite a way to put things.
“You’re far too cruel, Your Majesty!” Jeykos responded.
Sophie couldn’t find so much as a trace of servile meekness in Jeykos’s smile anymore. Ah, I get it now. Jeykos had done a splendid job of teasing her. Sophie very much felt like she’d lost.
Yeah, let’s just put that aside for now.
And so, it was decided that Jeykos would also join Sophie and Livio for their final dinner in this kingdom.
“As it so happens, I’ve obtained information on the neighboring kingdom,” Jeykos said.
“The neighboring kingdom,” Lunetta repeated, stopping her knife mid-slice through her sautéed whitefish to look at Sophie.
“Indeed,” Jeykos answered. “I speak not of the other side of the ocean but, rather, the neighboring kingdom where Lady Sophie resided. If I may jump straight to the long and short of it, at present, no one knows the whereabouts of Lady Sophelia and Sir Livionis. Apparently, the search has been brought to a close.”
“Well now.”
“Huh?”
“Hmm...”
While Vyce, Sophie, and Livio each voiced their own reactions, Lunetta only tilted her head to the side.
“Do they think the two of them are dead?” Lunetta asked.
“As if!” Vyce replied. “If the Warrions were the type to die so easily, there’d be a whole lot more tryin’ to claim the kingdom for themselves.”
“To be fair, I knew it was a rather poor ploy to begin with,” Livio said.
They’d made their grand escape so suddenly. And yet, even then, thanks to Livio’s skillful preparations and the support of those helping him, Sophie found herself here now, passing the days away with not a scratch to show for it.
But still—while Sophie and Livio had been able to leave the kingdom far quicker than planned due to the irregular exception of teleporting to another country with magic, it was still unlikely that the king would let Sophie—who knew all the details of the kingdom and its workings—get away so easily. Under normal circumstances, the two of them might’ve still been desperately trying to escape from their pursuers. It would’ve been no time for them to be eating sautéed fish without a care in the world.
“So even though he thinks they’re alive, he stopped searching for them?” Lunetta asked, tilting her head to the other side. “But, Your Majesty, didn’t you say that their king wouldn’t let Sophie escape?”
“That’s enough. Are you just tryin’ to scare her for the fun of it, Jeykos?”
“Such slander!” Jeykos laughed, shaking the white wine in his glass. “I only intended to say that you can rest at ease knowing that there won’t be anyone coming after you, that’s all.”
“And that brat got stripped of his right to the throne, didn’t he?” Vyce said. “Would it kill you to say that first?”
Sophie gasped as her cutlery fell to her plate with a clang.
What did he just say?
Vyce had said it as if it were trivial, but Sophie was stunned.
Paying her no heed, Jeykos simply laughed. “I’d expect no less of you, Your Majesty.”
“It’s just as you say,” he went on. “I believe there must have been something that convinced him that it would be more beneficial to allow Lady Sophelia to run away and give up on that pitiful excuse for a prince.”
Hold on just a moment. Sophie placed her hand on her forehead before she even realized what she was doing.
What did the prince have to do with Sophie’s absence? How odd. She thought she’d been in a position that would have had her involved in the kingdom’s politics. She couldn’t even start to follow the conversation.
Paying no heed to Sophie, Vyce merely laughed. “It’s Oznil, of course.”
“My father?” Livio asked.
“Now there’s a scary one,” Vyce said with a jaded laugh.
“You’d never think it lookin’ at him, but he’s one helluva devoted father,” Vyce said. “I bet he pressured the king to turn a blind eye while you and the little miss escaped. Even if I were in the king’s shoes, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to go makin’ an enemy outta House Warrion. In that case, it’d probably be quicker to give up on the crown prince and set up the second prince instead.”
“W-Wait just a moment, please!” Sophie said. “I know that House Warrion is in an important position, and I know that Livio and I caused problems, but what does that have to do with His Highness’s right to the throne?”
“The hell?”
Oh wow, that is one scary look on his face!
Vyce’s eyebrows were squeezed tightly together, his mouth agape in disbelief. The expression was so terrifying, Sophie caught herself standing down before she even realized it.
“Sir Vyce, please don’t frighten Sophie like that,” Livio said.
“Before you go tellin’ me what to do,” Vyce started, “do somethin’ about the little lady in the dark here! Have you lost your mind?!”
“It’s all fine,” Livio replied. “I’ll just keep telling Sophie she’s the greatest ever until the day I die.”
“That so? Nothin’ to worry ’bout then.”
There was something to worry about. This whole conversation was something to worry about!
Sophie’s cheeks were flushed red, but Jeykos only laughed. His eyes were warm and kind, the corners of his eyes drooping down.