Chapter 59

Blue sky and blue sea. A passenger liner threaded its way through the water, its white wake the only contrast in this endless world of blue. “Oh, I see it…!” Constance Grail cried, leaning over the boat’s railing. If she squinted, she could make out the faint mountain ridges of an island in the distance. Elated to finally catch a glimpse of their destination, she glanced over her shoulder and met a pair of equally excited eyes. The younger girl was as pretty as a picture-book angel, with rosy cheeks and fluffy, honey-colored hair blowing in the sea breeze. Standing on tiptoe, she pointed at the city rising from the glittering water. “Miss Connie, do you think that’s El Sol?!” “I do, Lucia!” They were clasping hands and dancing in circles when a wave abruptly jolted the ship. They stumbled, and Connie dropped Lucia’s hands with a surprised “Oh my!” Fortunately, Lucia kept her footing and remained standing, in a daze. But Connie was relieved for only a moment before she started to topple backward, having failed to regain her balance. “M-Miss Connie?!” Just as the clear blue sky filled Connie’s field of vision, a pair of strong arms grabbed her. “…Huh?” It took her a second to realize that someone had caught her mid-fall. What’s more, an unsettling coolness was now emanating from that person’s body. Connie glanced timidly over her shoulder. As she’d feared, the face frowning back wore a sour expression. “How many times do I have to tell you, boats rock! You need to be more careful!” Randolph Ulster said, scrunching his already intimidating face into an even more frightening grimace. Scolded like an unreasonable child, Connie looked away. She’d never been on a boat before. Couldn’t she get just a little excited? Her minor dissatisfaction must have shown on her face, because Randolph’s eyes grew still more forbidding. “Constance.” As Connie did her utmost to pretend she couldn’t hear that voice, so low it seemed to crawl over the ground, the little blond-haired angel’s eyes went wide and she threw out her arms as if to protect Connie. “Mr. Randolph, please don’t make that terrible face! You’re frightening Miss Connie.” “I hardly think so,” he snapped back after a quick glance at his unrepentant fiancée. Incomprehensible. “I swear,” a fourth voice cut in, light as a tinkling bell. Connie looked up from force of habit, but no one was there. Finding this suspicious, she glanced around and noticed that a ridiculously luxurious chair had been set out on the deck. With its soft crimson fabric and delicate gold embroidery, it looked just like a throne. And reclining on this throne with her chin in her hand like she owned the place was a teenage girl. “All of you need to calm down,” Scarlett Castiel said with an exasperated sigh. Stretching, she clasped her hands behind her head and smiled with satisfaction at the warm sunshine. No doubt about it—she was sunbathing. “We’re not here to play, so I’ll thank you to stop frolicking,” she said with a shrug. The beautiful ghost was so obviously excited herself that Connie was tempted to say, Look who’s talking, but she valued her life too much to let the words slip out of her mouth. Constance Grail, Lucia O’Brian, Randolph Ulster, and a certain vengeful ghost were aboard a ship owned by the Walter Robinson Company and headed for the island of El Sol, in the southern sea of the Republic of Soldita. The cover for their trip was tourism, but in truth, they were on a proper mission by order of the king. It all started with a letter from Alexandra, the young new queen of neighboring Faris. It was not an official document, but a very personal note to her ally King Ernst, asking him to check in on her dear little brother because she was too overwhelmed with her duties as queen to do so herself. Ulysses, the seventh prince of Faris, had been studying abroad in Soldita since winter. For the most part, he lived at his boarding school, but during summer vacation, he wasn’t allowed to stay in the dorms. In truth, studying abroad was merely a pretense; the real reason he was in Soldita was to get away from the pointless power struggles in Faris. And so, while the new queen solidified her position, he was to spend the summer in Soldita with his mother’s relatives. It seemed that Alexandra was quite distraught over the situation, and she appealed to King Ernst to at least let Ulysses see his dear friend. Of course, by “dear friend,” she meant Lucia O’Brian, who had been through thick and thin with Ulysses in Adelbide. “We became friends in that awful dungeon, so that makes us prison buddies!” Lucia insisted. “I wouldn’t quite put it like that…!” said Connie. Just because Ulysses had given up his succession rights didn’t mean there was no value to his royal lineage. After all, Faris was a kingdom that placed particular emphasis on bloodlines. And Adelbide wanted to avoid unnecessarily stressing the bonds of friendship it had worked so hard to establish with its neighbor. So Connie—that is, Constance Grail—was singled out for the job.