The emperor stayed silent, but greeted her with a nod. Duke Alcede then stepped forward again.
“Very well. During our stay, Lyse Winslette shall be the emperor’s personal lady-in-waiting,” he proclaimed loudly to the court of Olwen, all lined up in front of him.
While Lyse was spacing out, Alcede next announced that they would be withdrawing. The emperor rose, and all of the knights and imperial nobility followed suit.
“Miss Lyse, please come with us,” Alcede urged her.
But in spite of his words, Lyse couldn’t move. She was simply too stunned by this impossible turn of events.
“It seems that her legs are bothering her. I’ll bring her myself,” Sidis offered.
His kind words snapped Lyse back to her senses. This was bad. He was planning on carrying her again.
“No, thank you! I can walk on my own!” she assured him, only to be met with a pout. This puzzled her immensely. Did this guy have a thing for carrying people? Is that why he’d been so quick to pick her up when she’d stumbled?
On her own two feet, Lyse quickly fell into line at the end of the emperor’s procession. The entire happening was so surreal that she felt as though she were walking on clouds...and it was all because of the knight named Sidis. Said knight was quietly speaking with Duke Alcede as they walked in front of Lyse, most likely about why he’d chosen her. Hopefully it wasn’t because of the calluses.
As Lyse fretted, Alcede noticed her gaze and drew back a step to speak with her.
“My, you look quite upset, Miss Lyse,” he said. “Could it be that you didn’t want to be His Majesty’s lady-in-waiting?”
“P-Please, it’s not that! Um, it’s just such an honor that I’m not sure I’m worthy. Surely there’s someone more capable...”
“Wherever we go, people are usually quick to jump at the opportunity to make imperial connections, and yet... You’re certainly an odd one.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t dare hope as much for myself. Truly, I’m unworthy...”
“Is that so?” Alcede replied, cocking his head with a grin.
Once they arrived in the emperor’s quarters, Lyse was invited to take a seat on the sofa—the elegant, imperial, exquisitely-decorated-with-the-Razanate-coat-of-arms sofa—right across from the emperor himself.
Lyse sat there, tense with nerves, as Alcede whispered something in the emperor’s ear. It seemed to be a very long something too, because even after his servants brought out tea, he still wasn’t finished.
Lyse wondered what they were talking about. Her gaze fell to her lap as she trembled with anxiety. It was then that she heard...
“Woof!”
The cry of a large dog.
“Hm?” Lyse quickly looked back up, scanning her eyes around the room.
She wondered if maybe the emperor had brought a dog along, but there was no hound anywhere to be found. Both the emperor and Alcede were quizzically looking at the window behind them. It must have come from outside, despite how close it sounded.
“Is something the matter?” Sidis asked. It seemed he hadn’t heard it.
Lyse thought it was strange, but asking about any dogs under the current circumstances would be even stranger. She simply chalked it up to her imagination.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she assured him.
“I see. Please do tell me if you’re feeling unwell. Truly, are your legs all right?” he replied. It seemed he was still stuck on the idea that something was wrong with her.
“My legs are just fine, thank you. I was merely surprised you took my hand like that...”
“I’m most sorry. Do forgive me,” he begged, moving to kneel beside her in apology.
“Please, it’s quite all right! There’s no need to go that far!”
Lyse couldn’t stand the thought of an imperial knight kneeling before her in front of the emperor. She reached out to assuage Sidis, and he grabbed her hand for the second time.
“Ah...”
Lyse was again seized with the same strange feeling as before. It was so calming that she found it hard to let go. Sidis seemed like he might be experiencing the exact same thing. He was staring curiously at their linked hands...but this was an imperial audience. It was hardly proper to stand around holding hands in front of the emperor.
“Ahem, Sidis...” Alcede interjected in expectation.
The emperor himself reacted in surprise—“Ruff!”
“Huh?!” Lyse exclaimed, her eyes wide.
She’d unmistakably seen the emperor’s mouth move, and unmistakably heard a dog bark.
“What...” she stammered.
As she wondered what she’d just witnessed, the emperor slapped his hands over his mouth. Alcede did the same. The looks on their faces just screamed, “Oh damn!”
“Your Majesty...” Sidis groaned, releasing Lyse’s hand.
As for Lyse, there was but one thing she could make of all this. “Don’t tell me...that was His Majesty...” she murmured.
The emperor looked troubled and let out a low whine, “Khhhn...”
Lyse could only look on in shock. His voice sounded exactly as she’d expected—authoritative and commanding. And yet...here he was making doggy noises?
Turning it over and over and over in her mind, she realized that she shouldn’t jump to conclusions here. There had to be a dog hiding behind the sofa. As she craned her neck, trying to peer and see...
Alcede removed his hands from the emperor’s mouth, glowering at him as he hissed, “Why did you try to speak? We’ve managed to hide it so well...”
“Woo... Ruff,” the emperor replied, lowering his hands as well in resignation.
Lyse was certain of it now—the dog noises were definitely coming from him.
“Wh-What?!” she screamed in shock. “Why is His Majesty imitating a dog?! Is he teasing me?!”
“W-Wait! Keep your voice down!” Sidis urged her.
“Wooooohn,” the emperor howled in lamenting distress.
“Enough, Your Majesty. Try to contain yourself. We’ll have a problem if anyone hears from outside.”
The emperor zipped his lips at Alcede’s orders.
“I’m sorry, Miss Lyse. This must be quite a shock to you...” Sidis apologized.
“Um...” Lyse said, still quite confused. “I’m guessing not, but is this some kind of joke?”
To think that the emperor of the glorious Razanate Empire was making doggy noises... Was he teasing her because she was a lady-in-waiting of a vassal nation? No, the Egbert she knew would never do such a thing.
And yet, what if he’d undergone some kind of unthinkable transformation these past hundred years? What if—dared she think it—he’d learned to make fun of people? Actually, that would be the best case scenario.
But alas, Sidis shook his head and explained, “This is no joke, Miss Lyse. His Majesty, I’m afraid, is unable to speak in anything other than dog sounds...”
“Why...” Hearing this, Lyse teared up in pity. Egbert had been such a lively little boy, and she’d had such hopes for his future. She’d never dreamed the day would come when he was reduced to making doggy noises. “Why has this happened?”
“His Majesty’s mana has been warped,” Sidis said, responding to her whisper.
“Warped?” Lyse inquired.
“Imperial nobles like us live longer because of mana, which can be used for magic. But when our mana is warped, we go through physical changes. We believe that is why His Majesty can only make canine noises now,” Alcede clarified.
The emperor nodded along with this explanation, growling like a dog. A proper “grr.”
“This is the reason we’ve been saying the emperor is under the weather,” Alcede continued. “To eliminate the need for His Majesty to speak in public.”
Lyse had thought his face was remarkably bright for someone allegedly so unwell. At last, she understood why. Perhaps it was fair to say His Majesty was sick, in a manner of speaking.
“But what has warped his mana so?” Lyse asked.
“We’re still unsure. But the change began once we started approaching the capital of Olwen. His Majesty first complained of feeling strange, and things worsened from there. Now he can only speak as a dog,” answered Alcede with a deep sigh. “There are cases of provincial nobles having their mana warped by others. But with how strong His Majesty’s mana is, it’s unthinkable that someone else’s malicious mana could warp it.”
That much made sense to Lyse. In her past life, she’d heard stories of nobles who fought using magic and ended up growing horns or laid up in bed after the fact. She also recalled that the only treatment for it was time.
She thus began to nod sagely, but when she realized Sidis was still looking at her, she quickly donned a perplexed expression as if this were news to her. It would be strange, of course, for her to be informed of such matters. She needed to act the part of an ignorant outsider from a vassal nation.
“We know for a fact that the cause is somewhere here within the royal capital. His Majesty should recover once we leave, but we cannot simply leave the issue unaddressed. We’ve heard word of imperial nobles in other vassal nations falling sick. We’re in the process of investigating.”
“That’s...”
“We believe that their mana is being warped using a similar trick. As such, we’ve decided to stay in the capital as planned in order to get to the bottom of things.”
“Woof!” the emperor agreed in doggyspeak, now free from keeping up appearances.