chapter 11

I left the garden and headed towards my room, but heard a commotion from my supposedly empty room.

I could hear three voices.

Those familiar voices made it all too clear who awaited inside the room.

“…what are they doing here…?”

I frowned, wondering what they had in mind.

I opened the door, with the fleeting hope that it wasn’t my room after all, but the window was indeed equipped with my special escape device, so that hope was quickly shattered.

“Hey there.”

“Hey there…? Is that all you have to say…why are you in my room, Stenn?”

Stenn had climbed out of his wheelchair and was sitting on my bed. When I entered, he waved a hand at me.

It was so natural that I felt compelled to answer normally, but, after quickly realizing how weird it actually was, managed to return to my senses and glared at my smiling brother.

There were three people in the room: Stenn, Feli, and the maid pushing Stenn’s wheelchair.

“Oh, there’s the fun maid with you too. You managed to bring back Fay to his room, you’re quite something, aren’t you?”

Stenn nodded and raised his thumbs at Ratifah. As usual, he had no intention of listening to what I said.

I looked to the side at Ratifah and saw that she returned the thumbs up and blew air out of her nose, saying “I’m a first-class maid, after all!”.

I honestly wanted to ask since when had they begun getting along so well, but decided not to. I was sure that their answer would wear me down mentally even more.

“Anyway…why am I in your room, you asked?”

Stenn spoke all happy, dangling his legs.

“It’s simple, to find you it’s either here or the garden, right?”

“…I suppose so.”

So what? My clearly dissatisfied expression should have spoken volumes. Instead, Stenn laughed back, as if he enjoyed my reaction.

“I was waiting for you, Fay.”

Why? Just say why.

My mouth naturally turned in a disgruntled curve.

“We have a guest. Someone came for you, little brother.”

“For me?”

I definitely didn’t have many acquaintances.

I couldn’t think of anyone I knew that would come to visit, so the situation sounded more and more suspicious.

“We can’t have you meet them with a frown on your face, can we? I was sure you’d come back to your room once you cooled down.”

I realized that Stenn came here out of concern for me. I felt sorry for making him act like a butler, but I was more interested in what he was going to say next and listened intently.

“They’re waiting in the drawing room right now. I think they arrived about one hour ago?”

Stenn mumbled as he recalled the details.

He eventually gave up on remembering and turned back to his usual grin.

“The guest’s name is Mephia Zwai Afillis. She said she has something important to tell you, Fay.”

The name Stenn mentioned was completely unexpected.

~

“Why would Princess Mephia be here now?”

I said out loud the first of many questions popping in my head as I quickly walked down the corridor and tried finding an answer.

The Afillis kingdom had been ravaged in the recent war. It hadn’t even been two months since then.

I found it hard to believe that the reconstruction work left enough time to go to foreign countries.

…or was there a reason why she had to? That would make sense…

“….ah, dammit.”

I roughly scratched my head.

All the guesses I came up with led to very bad directions.

“No, wait a second….!”

Afillis, Afillis…that reminds me…

I searched my pockets for a piece of paper.

It was the letter that Stenn gave me the day before, which I hadn’t read yet.

“……….”

I ripped the envelope open and took out the contents. It was a piece of parchment, folded in four.

I scanned the contents.

I had never seen her calligraphy before, but the choice of forceful words here and there made me believe it was definitely written by Mephia.

The letter didn’t state anything too unusual.

Take care of yourself, don’t push yourself too hard, come visit whenever you want, for a change of pace or also to *visit King Leric*. Most of the letter was concerned about me or my health.

“Are you my mother or something…?”

It was so full of concern for me that I couldn’t help but react.

Other than that, she thanked me again for what happened in Afillis.

She wrote about Uncle Leric probably because she knew I was particularly attached to him. I was honestly thankful for that.

“….hm.”

I finished reading the letter, folded it back into the envelope, and pocketed it.

There was one more letter I got from Stenn.

This other one was written by Uncle Leric.

I opened the envelope and read it, but its contents were similar to Mephia’s letter.

The only difference was that uncle Leric’s letter urged me to be wary of the empire’s movements.

“Could it be that she doesn’t have any special purpose, then..?”

Did she just come to visit?

It sounded probable, but considering our relationship, there was no way that was the case.

For me, Mephia was just the daughter of a friend.

Nothing more, nothing less.

We crossed swords and talked once, but she definitely wasn’t someone I’d just go visit without a reason, nor was I to her.

Besides, for her I was still the despicable “Trash Prince” — maybe her actual impression was a milder one, but on the surface we agreed that she would treat me as such.

So there wouldn’t be any reason for us to meet. Unless it was political.

“….no, that’s impossible.”

If she really came because of a very important reason, Stenn wouldn’t make her wait like that. I would have gone straight to see her from the garden, regardless of my mood.

I just couldn’t imagine that boar-like straightforward princess, so loyal to her country, simply coming here on a pleasure visit, though.

A keyword flashed in my mind…

“Empire”.

“I guess it’s possible…”

I recalled the knight’s words.

.

—Their resolve towards killing is different from average.

.

I should be alert, just in case.

Since Stenn and the others were unharmed, the target could only be me.

—I was chasing theories, lost in such thoughts, and, before I realized it, I arrived in front of the door leading to the drawing room.

“Honestly — ”

Nothing happening would be the best outcome.

But the timing was just too good.

The spy knight had just died.

We had also returned from Rinchelle very recently. How did Mephia know that I was in Diestburg?

“…and I planned to laze about all day today…”

I unlocked the door and slowly pushed it open.