I don’t know how long we’d been waiting, but Lord Reynard called us back after they questioned the kidnappers. When we came back to the first room, we saw the four men sitting dejectedly between Sir Celes and Sir Gaius, with His Highness sitting in a chair a bit farther away, while Sir Agliardi stood behind the prince.
“Well then, I’ll just be going to have a little chat.” Seeing us, His Highness took the Commander and left the room, still with a smile on his face. A chat... Did that mean they found out who the culprit was?
“So these guys...” Miss Maria opened her mouth to ask about things, only for the men on the floor started screaming.
“Mistress! Pleeeeease, use that on us again!”
“We’re sorryyy! We did as we were told and gave up our cliennnt!”
“So— So...! Heal usss! Healing potions don’t heal your hearrrt!”
“We won’t do anything bad ever agaaaain!”
Miss Maria and I looked at each other in surprise as they begged for me to cast Soap on them again. On her shoulder, Shiro matched her, raising his tail and squeaking.
“Huh? You still haven’t had enough? I told you guys to stay away from Lucia, didn’t I?” Sir Celes took a step to stand between the men and I, and the kidnappers let out a terrified scream, “Eeek!”
What did Sir Celes do? Why were they so afraid of him?
“Hold your horses. Captain, at least hold back when Lucia’s in the room. You don’t want to go crazy and end up with her afraid of you too. And you lot, be thankful we gave you healing potions. You’re about to get charged, so we didn’t have to do it. Now shut up. And you, little lady, don’t help them.”
“Ah... Okay.” I quickly nodded after Sir Gaius chided me. He must have realized that I was about to do what they asked and use Soap again.
Sir Gaius poked Mister Short-and-Stout with his boot after seeing me nod. It appeared that their leg wounds had disappeared, so they must have really given them healing potions.
“Brother, please stop kicking them,” Lord Reynard said. “For now, the Sacred Maiden and Lucia can rest in His Highness’s room. Even if you stayed here with us until they returned, you wouldn’t be able to rest, would you?”
Miss Maria and I looked at each other after hearing his suggestion. It was true that we couldn’t really return to our original room like this, and although this room was large, it wasn’t big enough for ten people to wait in.
“Okay...we’ll go back to Ed’s room. I’d just get ticked off seeing these guys if I stayed here,” Miss Maria agreed, and Shiro mimicked her with another squeak. “Kyu!”
Shiro...you really like Miss Maria, huh?
“Let’s go, Lucia. And Shiro, don’t dig your claws into me. It hurts. Come here.”
“Kyuu~”
She took the little dragon off her shoulder, holding him in her arms as she walked back to the inner room. I quickly followed her.
“Celes was scary, wasn’t he?” she said.
“His Highness was intense, too...”
“That’s probably the first time I’ve seen Ed get angry. But I hope they get back soon. I wanna get out of this dress and have a bath.”
She’d calmed down a bit now that some things were finished. Before, she’d been checking me over for injuries, but now she was back to flopping on the bed. Shiro flopped in her arms too, patting the cushions to check their softness.
“Shiro, don’t pull my hair! So, d’you think it was that selfish princess who set this up? She’s like the only one who’d go after you.”
“I don’t know... Really, why go after me?”
Pulling the little dragon away from her hair, she rolled from her back to her stomach, resting her chin in her hands. “I feel like I should tell them that I won’t purify Maynard’s Cristallo Sacro. What do they think we’re here for!?”
I thought to myself as I watched Miss Maria kick her bare feet in the air, complaining. It seems a bit too thoughtless for the princess to do this just because I’m in a relationship with someone she likes.
“It has to be that brat of a princess! It seems like something she’d do!”
“But, Miss Maria, we still don’t know if Princess Cecilia was the culprit.”
“Why don’t we ask the guys? Ahh, we should’ve thought of this sooner, but now still works—” Miss Maria shouted from her spot on the bed, “HEY! HEY, CELES OR GAIUS, OR ANYONE!”
“...What’s wrong?” Sir Celes was the one who came at her call.
“So they spilled the beans, right? Who was it who hired them?”
Sir Celes looked at me as she asked. He averted his eyes, probably thinking about if he should answer or not, and sighed.
“Oh, come on. You can tell us. Lucia deserves to know, doesn’t she? Celes!”
Joining in on the begging, I said, “Sir Celes, I want to know too. Can you please tell us?”
He looked at me again before moving his gaze to Miss Maria. “Then here is my report. Their client was...Princess Bernardina.”
“Huh?” Hearing his answer, Miss Maria and I looked at each other. I thought back to when we saw her in the rose garden. I couldn’t even imagine she’d do something like this from how weak she’d seemed there.
“Bern— You mean that princess with the cute act? Not Cherry or whoever?” Miss Maria blinked in surprise.
I could understand how she felt. I knew why Princess Cecilia would hate me, but I didn’t have connections to the elder princess. I had no idea why she’d go after me. I didn’t think she’d go that far just because she felt bad for her little sister.
“But, why...” I muttered.
Sir Celes shook his head at my question. “That we don’t know. They only did that because they’d been hired to. It turns out they’re Dal Cantan nobles with bad behavior.”
“So Ed was gonna go call out that princess?”
“He probably went to speak with the King. Though the princess will probably be called on to explain, I don’t know if it would happen today.”
“I see...”
“So please, stay here until His Highness returns. I realize it’s an inconvenience, but please understand.”
We nodded after glancing at each other once more. We really couldn’t go back to our room like this.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Maria, are you awake? Can I come in?” A while later, we heard the prince as he quietly knocked on the door.
“We’re awake. Welcome back, Ed.”
“...Thanks, Maria.” His Highness looked rather tired, but he smiled at Miss Maria’s greeting.
“How’d it go?”
The prince just patted her on the head without responding to her question. With another smile, he turned to me. “Lucia, I’m sorry.”
“Eh!?”
I never thought the crown prince would apologize to me once, much less twice!
“It was my fault. I’m sorry that you had to go through that because of me.”
“N-No, you have nothing to apologize for, Your Highness...”
“But I do. I can’t tell you right now, but I was the reason this entire thing happened. You never would have been targeted otherwise... I’m glad you’re safe,” he said in a whisper. There were large bags under his eyes, as if he hadn’t had a chance to rest. It reminded me of when I saw His Majesty back in Arldat. “I’ve talked with King Herbert. We’re leaving for Maynard tomorrow morning. We’ll leave as soon as we’re prepared, so get ready.”
I didn’t know what he had spoken with the King of Dal Canto about, but since he said he couldn’t tell us, it was probably best not to question him anymore.
Though I was still a bit upset not knowing why Princess Bernardina did what she did, there was nothing I could do. I suppressed my questions and nodded at His Highness.