“Oh, by the way, there was something I wished to ask you, young mistress,” Anne says when we had almost finished our preparations for the journey. She was helping me with them.
Although normally Anne always accompanies me no matter where I go, she won’t be coming along on this journey.
She was hesitant, saying that she was worried about me being on my own. But as Keith running away from home hadn’t been made public, it was thought that it would not be a good idea for a large group people to head out. So the number of people leaving had been minimized.
But the party includes Lahna, said to be one of the most influential in the Ministry of Magic, a light magic user, a dark magic user, and a prince who can do anything. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about with this fairly unbeatable lineup.
I told Anne this, but she insisted strongly, “I am not worried about that – I am worried about your everyday life, young mistress.”
Myself, I thought that I could take care of myself on my own, but Anne got angry at me, saying, “A lady who attempts to leave the house with a wrinkled dress and without brushing one hair on her head can most certainly not take care of herself!”
But my hair is naturally smooth so I don’t really need to brush it, and I think that even if my dress is a little wrinkled it’s not really a problem so long as I can wear it…
I tried to win Anne over by promising to do everything properly, but she just responded, “There is nothing less reliable than your definition of ‘properly’, young mistress.”
What a harsh maid.
Since everybody else, even Jared who’s a prince, won’t have anyone accompany them, me being the only one to have Anne accompany me is a bit…
… While she would be dependable, it would feel like I was the only one to have my parent come along with me on a school trip.
In the midst of my troubles due to my wanting to go alone, Maria became my saviour.
“In that case, I will look after Katarina-sama,” she said with a goddess-like smile.
“If you say so, Maria-sama,” agreed Anne readily, despite not even considering for a moment my declaration that I would do everything by myself.
I was kind of unhappy with how differently Anne treated Maria in comparison to me… but anyways the point is that thanks to Maria, I was able to avoid that embarrassing feeling of being the only one to have her parent accompany her on a school trip.
But Anne still helped me happily with my preparations for the trip.
“Young mistress, where do you plan to begin?” says Anne.
“Huh, where?” I say, my mouth opening in confusion. I didn’t understand what she meant.
“What I mean is that you plan to search for Keith-sama, no? So to begin with, where do you plan to look?”
“… Huh.”
I was very troubled by Anne’s question.
“What, young mistress, you don’t mean to tell me that you have not considered where to go? You announced that you were heading out so confidently – your preparations for the journey are almost completed – but you have not thought about where to go?”
“…”
“… Young mistress.”
No, Anne, don’t look at me like that… I’m shocked at myself right now too.
I had gotten all swept up in the excitement of heading out on a journey in search of Keith that I had completely forgotten about where to go.
To be blunt, at the moment, I have zero leads on where Keith may be. I don’t even know what direction he went – whether he went to the east, or the west, or maybe even south or north.
At this rate, I won’t know where to go on my journey…
Uh-h-h, what should I do? The day when we plan to set out on the journey is fast approaching. Seriously, what should I do?
In the midst of my troubles again, my second saviour was Lahna, a powerful figure in the Ministry of Magic.
I went to the Ministry of Magic, wanting advice about how I still don’t know where to go even though there was less than a day until we were set to leave.
“As expected from you, Katarina,” she said, bursting into laughter for a while. She then flashed a smirk and continued, “In that case, I have a special something.”
She told me to wait for a bit and left the room. Then, when she returned, she held a stuffed animal in her hand for some reason.
It was made from brown cloth and had rounded ears and beady eyes. From its shape, it was a bear, perhaps?
“Um, Lahna-sama, what is that stuffed animal?” I ask.
“This is a magical tool to help us search for Keith,” she says, flashing another smirk.
“Magical tool?”
Lahna explained to me what it was given that I was confused at the unfamiliar term.
Magical tools were something that primarily Lahna was developing. It was a tool used after packing it with magic.
She said that she’s using them for a variety of things, but they haven’t been working so well. So she’s in the middle of prototyping different versions.
“If we can consistently make good magical tools, even those without magic will be able to benefit from it,” explained Lahna, her eyes sparkling.
Her passionate description of magical tools continued. Unable to keep up with her explanations, which were steadily growing more technical, I simply responded with sounds like “Ah,” or “Hm.”
As I was listening to Lahna’s passionate words, I felt like the stuffed animal placed next to her slightly moved.\nH – huh? I rub my eyes and look at the stuffed animal… our eyes meet!
Until just a moment ago it had been placed facing down, its gaze downwards, so why!?
“W – why?”
Noticing my wide eyes open in shock, Lahna followed my gaze.
“Oh, right right, I hadn’t explained this to you yet,” she said, picking the stuffed animal up again, “This is something that some perver – I mean, an important person in a certain country asked us to make recently. It’s a tool that can search for people.”
“A tool that can search for people?”
“That’s right. It can follow someone’s aura from an object that has great emotional meaning to the person you want to find. It’s something we made after applying our research on dark magic, but…”
She ended up talking for a while after that too, but to summarize, if we got this stuffed animal to store an object that has great meaning to Keith in its memory, it’ll figure out where he is.
Apparently its success rate wasn’t too great, but it’s still wonderful considering that we have zero clues. But more importantly…
“Um, Lahna-sama. Is that stuffed animal moving?”
Even as she talks, it’s squirming around behind her arm. I can’t help but be bothered by it.
“Yes, it searches for people so it wouldn’t be much help if it couldn’t move around and guide you, right?”
“What!? That stuffed animal is going to guide us?”
“That’s right,” says Lahna, as if it’s obvious… but a stuffed animal guide?
But well, it’s true that I did wonder how a stuffed animal would search for people… but to think that it would guide us…
“Um, why is it a stuffed animal?” I ask, looking serious.
What!? That’s the reasoning!? Because it’s cute!? But well I guess it’s better if it’s cute?
I stare at the stuffed animal Lahna holds.
This has been bothering me since she came back with the stuffed animal, but… is this stuffed animal cute? Somehow, I can’t really think of it as cute.
It may be a bit hypocritical for someone with a villainous face like me to say so, but I would say it was more ugly than cute if I had to pick one.
I had thought that all stuffed animals were cute. But this amazingly ugly face… just where did she find it?
“I spotted it in a general store in town. I fell in love at first sight at its cuteness,” Lahna says with a cheerful smile, as if she read my mind.
Mm… people have a variety of tastes. Anyways, the point is that we can now search for Keith using this stuffed animal with its weird face.
In order to find Keith, we apparently need something of great emotional meaning to Keith.
I take a trip back to the mansion to search for something of great meaning to Keith or whatever.
Hmm, what would have meaning to Keith? I’ve always been with him, but I can’t think of anything that would fit.
So I ask one of Keith’s servants.
“Things of emotional meaning to Keith? Hmm. Perhaps something in this box?” said the servant, bringing me a fairly large wooden box.
I call it a simple wooden box, but it’s a fairly well-decorated box.
Hmm. I’ve never seen it before.
“To tell the truth, I’m not actually supposed to bring this box out without permission, but it is an emergency…”
“Thank you, I’ll apologize to Keith for you too.”
The box I accept from the servant is rather heavy. I place it onto a desk and lift the lid.
“Oh? This is…”
I recognized the items in the box. They were things like birthday presents that I had given him over the years.
“Woah, there’s even stuff I gave him so long ago…”
There’s even a crumpled piece of paper with ‘Coupon: I Will Listen to Any Request’ written on it in a child’s handwriting. It’s my handwriting, so I probably gave it to him… but to be honest, I don’t remember myself.
To think that he would carefully keep all these things… my stepbrother must really care for me as his sister. I’m very touched.
I decide to take the whole box over to Lahna since I can’t decide which item would be best.
************
When I visit Lahna again, there’s someone other than Lahna in her room.
“Hey, Lady Katarina Claes,” that someone says, smiling casually.
I recognize him. He’s Geoffrey Stuart, Jared and Alan’s older brother and the first prince of this country.\nWhat, why is the first prince here? But no matter how bewildered I am on the inside, my ingrained noble manners help me manage a curtsy.
“I actually requested the creation of a magical tool from Lahna so I’m here to check up on how it’s going,” Geoffrey explains with another casual smile. He probably could tell that I was bewildered.
“A magical tool?”
Geoffrey seems to be worlds apart from me, who only just learned about the existence of magical tools. He even goes as far as to request them. As expected from royalty. But anyways, I wonder what he requested.
Lahna just told me about how there’s a large variety of magical tools out there, even if they all are classified as ‘magical tools’.
“What type of magical tool did you request?” I ask.
“Oh, he requested a tool to help search for people,” Lahna responds instead of Geoffrey.
“A tool to search for people… ah, could that be?”
Even I realized what she meant, despite the fact that I’m not very sharp.
A tool to search for people – isn’t that the ugly stuffed bear I’m planning to borrow soon!?
“That’s right. It’s the thing we’re planning to use on the journey,” says Lahna nonchalantly.
But wait, is that okay? That means we’re borrowing something from the first prince that he requested himself, you know? Isn’t that bad? I panic.
“Ah, she already told me about that – no worries,” says Geoffrey in an easygoing tone, “It was never something I needed urgently. Feel free to use it first to test out whether it actually works. If it does, I’ll use it next.”
“… I see, thank you very much.”
Geoffrey was waving a hand dismissively as he talked – he doesn’t seem displeased at all.
It looks like it’s not a problem for us to use it first.
But honestly, this Prince Geoffrey… how should I phrase it… he really feels nothing like a prince.
Although Jared and Alan are both royalty, they don’t act high and mighty (though Alan was fairly arrogant when he was young.) But they don’t act as uniquely easygoing like Geoffrey is right now.
I asked Anne about him after we met at the school festival… but he’s apparently known for being a really talented prince with a large faction. I can’t reconcile that image with the actual person.
I couldn’t help but stare at Geoffrey. As I stared, our eyes met.
“Hm?” says Geoffrey, prompting me to continue.
“U – um, what do you plan to use the tool for?”
Since it wasn’t like I could tell him that I was thinking about how he didn’t act like a prince, I blurted out the first thing that I could think of… but this may not have been something that I should’ve asked someone I barely knew.
If it was going to be used for something important for the country… I might be in trouble.
“Oh well, it’s so I’ll always know where my dear sweet children are.”
“Y – your dear children?”
“That’s right, I want to always know where my children are. I love them more than anything else in the world.”
“… Does that have something to do with your responsibilities towards the country?”
“Nope, not at all. I just want to use it personally.”
… The country wasn’t involved at all. And I feel like his reason is a bit off.
He wants to always know where his dear sweet children are? Isn’t that a bit stalkerish… no, let’s not go there. Let’s avoid thinking too deeply about this. I feel like I’d start to see this prince’s smile as something more sinister if I did.
I chase away any related thoughts that pop up in my mind and clear my head.
“Very well then, I will take you up on your offer and borrow the tool.”
“Yes, feel free,” says the prince, smiling cheerfully.
Having received the prince’s permission, I give Lahna the box I had brought over from my house.
“What in the world is this?” she exclaims on looking in the box.
That’s true, a stranger wouldn’t know what they were looking at.
“These are presents I gave Keith. Apparently he carefully kept all them like they were precious,” I say.
Lahna along with Geoffrey, who had been looking in the box next to her, let out impressed noises.
“This is impressive.”
“You must be really dear to him, for him to keep all of these this so preciously,” says Geoffrey.
“Dear?” I ask.
“That’s right, he must really hold you very dear,” responds Geoffrey, smiling meaningfully.
“Yes. My stepbrother really dotes on me as his sister,” I respond with a smile.
Geoffrey and Lahna look at me with strange expressions.
\nJust what are they talking about?
“That’s true… she’s always been the type to forget about anything else once she latches onto something… but to think it was this bad.”
For some reason, Jared hangs his shoulders, looking crestfallen. Next to him, Mary seems to have perked up a lot, as if her bad mood from before was just a dream.
I’m confused.
“It’s nothing. You do not need to worry yourself over it, Katarina-sama,” says Mary with a lovely smile in response to my confusion.
It does bother me, but well, if Mary says to not worry about it, I won’t.
While we were talking, Lahna and Sora arrived.
“Katarina-sama, it’s been a while,” says a handsome young man, lowering his head. He has blue-tinged hair and eyes.
It’s Sora, who I haven’t seen since the kidnapping incident.
He smiles at me, looking the same as before. If I had to point out somewhere he changed, I would say that his speech is more formal now.
“Yes, it’s been a while…” I try to respond. But Jared slides in front of me, cutting me off.
“Sora-san, correct? I’m counting on your help on this journey,” he greets with a perfect princely smile.
“Please, call me Sora. I’m counting on you too, Jared-sama,” Sora responds politely.
… but for some reason, I feel like the atmosphere has darkened. It’s probably just my imagination.
“My apologies for making you wait. Well then, since we’ve all gathered, shall we head out?” Lahna says, acting like she couldn’t care less about reading the mood.
And so, I set out on my journey in search of Keith after bidding brief farewells to my friends.
************
I open my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. It’s hard for me to move my arms and legs. Glancing down, I see I’ve been restrained by ropes. I’m lying on the floor. It’s very clearly not a normal situation.
My last memory is entering an alleyway at that woman’s invitation. I feel like something happened after that, but my memories are murky. I can’t remember anything.
I deeply regret following that woman so easily.
She was always an unredeemable woman. I understood that in the past… but perhaps because I got used to my happy life, or perhaps because of her influence (since she’s always with me)… I’ve completely lost my sense of caution.
Well anyways, nothing will happen if all I do is wallow in regret. As I look around the room to determine just the kind of situation I was in, the room’s single door opens.
An unfamiliar man appears in the doorway. On noticing that I’ve awoken, the man narrows his eyes and walks up to me.
“It’s been a while,” says the man once he stands in front of me. He looks down at me, still lying on the floor, and smiles crookedly.
He has frizzy hair and a body so fat that I couldn’t make out where his limbs began and his torso stopped. Even his face is bloated. The skin on his fingers was shining and he was covered with acne.
He said that it had been a while, but I’ve never seen a man like this.
And so, I just silently watched him… but his face darkens, presumably not liking my attitude.
“Oh I see, you won’t say anything. You won’t even talk to lower-class nobles, I see!” he spits out loudly in anger.
His demeanor when angry awakens an old memory in me.
It was a memory from when I was still young, of a boy who grew up with me in the same grounds.
“… Thomas…?”
As I murmur the name, I immediately feel a jolt of pain in my cheek.
The man in front of me, face bright red, had punched me.
“Someone like you… using my first name… why would trash like you do that!?”
The man – Thomas – clenches his fist and punches down at me again.
While he looked completely different from how I remembered him in the past, he had definitely not changed at all on the inside.
With my arms and legs restrained, all I could do was let myself be continually punched.
Oh, it’s kind of a nostalgic feeling. In the past, I always endured it. I closed my heart and just waited for the storm to pass. It’s a sensation I haven’t felt in a long while.
As I blearily muse about such things, blearily gazing at Thomas, who continues to punch me, before I knew it, a single woman was standing behind him.
Black hair flowed down her back – she was about the same age as me. The sight of her drew my gaze. This was not because she was extraordinary beautiful or anything.
It was because she was laughing at the sight of the man crazily punching me, his face flushed red.
At the sound and sight of her innocent laughter, a chill ran up my spine.
I felt much more afraid of this woman that the man who continues to wave his fists around in front of me.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, the woman meets my eyes. Her eyes were so very innocent, as if she were a small child.
Ah, what is going to happen to me… will I no longer be able to meet her?
My memory of a smile – a smile from a woman I hold dearer than anyone else in the world – floats up in my head.