Volume 9 Chapter 1 (2/2)

His face was as young as that of the soldier who had escorted her out of the tent. His eyes met Vileena's.

”Princess!”

The Mephian's expression suddenly turned to one of delight.

Vileena recognised him. His name was Neil Tonson. He had been the commander of the airs.h.i.+p division within the prince's Imperial Guards. The princess had instructed them during flight practice. Also, he was the one who had gone to meet her when she had left Nedain for Apta.

”There is no greater joy than to see you safe and well, Princess. Please be at ease now. I have come to fetch you from Apta.”

”Why?”

Contrary to the somewhat excited Neil, Vileena's tone was cold. Neil was bewildered.

”W-What do you mean by why?”

”I warned Taúlia of Mephius' invasion. I do not recall criminals such as myself being greeted with such courtesy when they are about to be bound in chains.”

”A criminal you say,” the young man's ruddy face grew even redder, ”... Certainly, Mephius and Taúlia were at war. But the ones who brought that to an end were none other than you yourself, Princess, and our Crown Prince, Lord Gil Mephius.”

”Lord Gil Mephius...”

Vileena repeated those words in a murmur. Her expression was wooden. Just as when she had heard Orba's name, she had the illusion that on some level, she was still dreaming.

Thinking about it, Nabarl should also have placed this young man, Neil Tonson, under restraint. On the groundless accusation of having taken part in the prince's a.s.sa.s.sination. Yet he had come from Apta by s.h.i.+p to fetch her.

It's, I see. No, but...

A hundred, two hundred words that could not be expressed seemed to well up from within the depths of her heart and immediately fill up the tiny container that was the girl, threatening to overspill at any moment now.

”P-Princess?”

The young Taúlian soldier who was acting as the princess' guard and Neil spoke at the same time. They had expected her face to light up with joy but instead, her platinum hair abruptly fell forward and she hung her head.

After who knows how much time had pa.s.sed and how many times they called out to her, Vileena raised her head and said something unexpected,

”How many s.h.i.+ps of the same type as that one are there in Apta?”

For a moment, Neil mouth gaped open vacantly.

”General Rogue's air force is stationed there so there should be several such s.h.i.+ps.”

His words were somewhat vague as there were after all strangers nearby. Vileena paid it no heed and spoke quickly.

”Please have them send as many as possible here.” She went on to explain that she wanted those s.h.i.+ps to fetch the injured from the village and carry them to Apta.

Although normally it would be preferable to go to Taúlia, Apta was closer, however they would need to obtain consent from the Taúlian before Mephian s.h.i.+ps were sent. But Vileena was loathe to waste all that time.

Naturally, both Neil and the Taúlian were startled.

”B-But, Princess...”

”There are no 'buts'. The people of this village protected me. I will not turn my back on the debt of grat.i.tude that I owe them and unconcernedly escape by myself. Nothing will make me move from here without the guarantee of their safe arrival at Apta. But if you wish to tie me up and drag me away across the ground, by all means, please do so.”

She sure can rattle on - the one who thought that about the princess' caustic words was none other than Vileena herself.

It was no one else's fault but her own that they had ended up in this situation so this was her responsibility. While keenly aware of that, Vileena deliberately adopted a high-handed att.i.tude.

Neil excused himself for a moment and went to consult with what appeared to be the commander of the Taúlian side who was standing near the s.h.i.+p. In the end, it looked as though both sides accepted the condition.

Having come running back, Neil promised Vileena to bring a flotilla of s.h.i.+ps from Apta.

”However, please return with us on board this s.h.i.+p, Princess. If you yourself are not present, the people of Taúlia will fall under suspicion.”

”I understand.”

After that exchange, the villagers were informed that Vileena was a princess of Garbera and the injured would shortly be transferred to Apta.

”No way.”

”Why somewhere like Mephius?”

Shouts rose up and there was not a man there who did not have complaints.

Many believed that it was Mephius that had attacked the village and the Taúlian soldiers had to go around convincing them one by one. Vileena Owell herself went towards Rone Jayce to express her fervent hope.

Layla, who was nursing him, noticed the princess approach and quickly averted her eyes.

”There are a lot of things I need to tell you,” Vileena could not conceal the stiffness in her tone. ”However, right now, the most important thing is your father's life and the lives of the villagers. Please, won't you come to Mephius with us.”

Of course, Vileena did not know the circ.u.mstances surrounding the Jayce family. She did not know what it would mean for them to set foot in Mephius. Layla however recognised that she needed to prioritise her father's life over anything else. Apparently, she had already strengthened her resolve after consulting with her mother.

”I understand,” she answered in a voice that seemed to fade away.

And so, the battles.h.i.+p that Neil had ridden on left.

Vileena, Rone, Layla, who was attending on him, as well as seven others who were particularly badly injured were also on board. The man whose entire body was wrapped in bandages was also among them. Rone had found him before Vileena and the man had been in the care of the Jayce family ever since. He gave the mistaken impression that he had been severely wounded in the recent attack.

The airs.h.i.+p slowly travelled along the surface. That was unavoidable since it was heavier than on the way coming due to increased number of people. As she looked out of the window to the remains of the village below, Vileena felt the back of her eyelids grow hot.

At most, she had only spent eight days in that village.

But, those eight days…

She had spent them not as the princess of Garbera, not as the fiancée of the Crown Prince of Mephius, but as an ordinary girl of the people. There she had encountered manual labour, the unfamiliar songs of the Zerdian people, and the warmth of the Jayce family.

Unheeding of such sentimentality, the airs.h.i.+p picked up speed and landed in Apta before noon.

Instead of having soldiers suddenly burst in and seize her, or denounce her as a traitor, the Mephians greeted Vileena courteously and invited her to board a carriage.

They travelled along the paved street. Peering out of the window over which a curtain was half drawn, Vileena knit her eyebrows at the sight of the townspeople running along the way. There seemed to be a large crowd. And everyone seemed as excited as if a festival were about to begin.

At long last, they arrived at the side gate to the castle's main building. The princess stepped out of the carriage and once again set foot on Mephian land.

Her heart was beating wildly. On the way to Apta, she had strongly repressed her own feelings. She was almost at her limit. She barely saw the people who sent greetings her way, or heard their voices. Even so, the moment she reached the top of the staircase and stepped into the upper part of the hall -

Ah!

Only that clear-ringing voice reached her ears.

Without her realising it, Vileena's feet, or rather, her entire body, came to a stop.

That day in Apta, in the southwest Mephius, had turned into an extraordinary one.

Against the backdrop of the brilliant blue sky and from a balcony that opened out onto the town area, Gil Mephius waved his hand as he was enveloped in the cheers of the people.

”It was here, that night, that cowardly bullets rained down.”

When Gil swept up his forelocks a vivid scar stood out clearly against his forehead. It looked like the traces were from where a beast had raked its claws. If you looked closely, you would realise that it was a ma.s.s of smaller scars gathered together, but from a distance, it could only be seen as a single, large wound running in a long diagonal line.

Confronted with it before their eyes, the people raised shouts mingling horror and surprise, grief and admiration.

”But I, Gil Mephius, am not one to die so easily. Especially if the opponent is someone as vulgar as...o...b..ry.”

Amidst the roars of laughter, Gil Mephius' lips did not lose their faint smile.

”Those who would attack me had best be determined. Do their hearts hold righteousness? Are they prepared to have their hands smeared in my blood for all eternity? Finally, do they have the courage to carry the weight of Mephius on their backs? Act only after thinking carefully. When I am about to take someone's life, I certainly question myself.”

The people were in a frenzy over the calm figure of Crown Prince Gil Mephius. This was the land which had a deeper connection with the Crown Prince than anywhere else in Mephius. For the people, Gil Mephius, who had fallen in Apta and been revived in Apta, was already an object of almost religious faith and unmistakably emitted a dazzling brilliance. Men who could not contain the excitement boiling in their blood brandished hoes or spades, while those who did not have anything like that at hand raised brooms, daikon radishes, or at the very least their arms to the sky.

It could well be said that at that time, almost every person in Apta had their gazes concentrated on Gil Mephius.

Vileena Owell was, of course, one of them.

Having been led by the soldiers, she was standing directly behind the balcony. The Garberan princess stood still, not uttering a sound. She could not clearly distinguish the back of the young man who was only some twenty paces away from her. Not even she understood why that was.

Layla was also among those with their eyes fixed on Gil. After alighting from the airs.h.i.+p, she had been walking next to the stretcher that was carrying her father. Even forgetting to go with him, Layla stopped. The point she was looking up at was the youth who was making a speech. Although she had prayed to forget as soon as possible, not for a single day had she forgotten. That was, beyond any doubt, Gil Mephius himself.

The figure of the lover with whom she had once promised the future flashed through her mind. It was that man who had destroyed that future. Instead of happy days spent hand-in-hand with her loved ones, they had started out on a difficult journey away from Solon. Even when the journey had come to an end, it was to a life of hards.h.i.+p in a land she was not used to.

She had endured that daily reality, and just when she thought she had finally achieved the normal life of a human being where she could feel hope in tomorrow, if only a little, even that meagre wish was engulfed in flames. Amidst the blazing fire, the father who had always protected her had taken an a.s.sa.s.sin's blade and had fallen to the ground.

All of it, all of it had been caused by Gil Mephius. He was like something inhuman, a fiend born from another world that continued to curse and torment the Jayce family.

And then, there was one other.

The man whose entire body was covered in bandages peeled his eyes wide, almost devouring Crown Prince Gil Mephius with his fixed gaze. He was being transported when, along the way, he had heard Gil's voice and had run, half-tumbling, to the public plaza. The soldiers chasing behind had lost sight of him in the crowd.

When the man's gaze fell away from Gil, he started trembling violently and while the crowds gathered in the square before the hall jostled against him - they were simply too excited and happy to pay it any attention - he alone went against the throngs of people and left the plaza.

Having finished his impa.s.sioned speech for the time being, Gil finally turned away from the voices of the populace who seemed reluctant to let him go.

As soon as he left the balcony, Gowen, the former commander of his Imperial Guards, promptly held out water for him. His bronzed face with its spa.r.s.e beard wore a terrifying smile.

”For now, I'll give you my thanks for having saved our lives, but there are a lot of other things I want to talk about,” he said in a hushed voice.

Gil drained the water in one gulp. ”Yeah. We'll make time later.”

”And when's that going to be,” Gowen muttered low.

There were not many people who knew the incredible truth that the current Gil Mephius had once been a sword slave. He had to arrange separate times for the people he needed to reencounter as Prince Gil and for those he wanted to celebrate his reunion with as...o...b...

”However, Your Highness,” Gowen suddenly changed his tone as Rogue and Odyne approached, ”there is someone that you should meet with before us.”

”Oh,” having drawn up to their side, Rogue immediately guessed what the topic was, ”don't worry about putting off uncouth men like ourselves. Even if it's only a second earlier, please go and reunite, Your Highness.”

”Who's this about?”

”That's right,” Odyne pulled a wry face, ”there's the matter of Her Highness the princess to be settled. From what I hear, Your Highness' subordinate Orba rescued her from peril. Is it because this information had reached you that you requested a s.h.i.+p? It can't be that Your Highness has no suspicion as to how the princess was in a place like that.”

”She arrived in Apta just a short while ago. Now, please go and show yourself quickly. I'm sure she is waiting impatiently.”

”…”

For a while, Gil remained silent. His expression was like that of a soldier whose favourite sword had suddenly broken in half on the battlefield.

”Really, waiting impatiently?” a woman's voice threw out.

It was Theresia, the Garberan princess' head lady's maid who had been the only person to accompany her when she had travelled to be married.

She was maintaining a distance from Gil and the generals, probably because she was mindful of her own social position, but contrary to that admirable att.i.tude, her expression and voice were as cold as ice.

”A little while earlier, the princess was also here. Apparently not even hearing my voice, she simply gazed intently at the prince's back. And yet she flew off before he had finished talking.”

”W-What did you say?” Rogue's voice sounded like he was spluttering. ”A-And, where the princess go?”

”Well, how about His Highness be the one searching this time? Just as the princess was for a long... truly, a very long time.”

”Don't speak so unkindly. Miss Theresia, you know, don't you? Then how about telling His Highness.”

Despite what the old general said, Theresia turned her head away haughtily.

This is… The two generals exchanged glances, looking somewhat troubled.

”Me too,” Gil Mephius spoke. ”I... please. Could you tell me where the princess went?”

Right behind him, Gowen bit back his laughter.

After rudely staring long and fixedly at Gil Mephius' face - at the face of the heir to the throne of Mephius - Theresia said, ”well, it's fine. It was good that you showed yourself before the people first. Since you could not really have appeared covered in b.u.mps and bruises, now could you?”

According to Theresia, the princess was in the parlour that had been allocated to her on the castle's second[1] floor. As he was on his way there, any number of soldiers and fortress servants gazed at Gil excitedly, but he himself was pulling a somewhat long face.

This, Gil Mephius - in other words, Orba - surrept.i.tiously touched his own cheek, maybe I should prepare myself to get hit once or twice. It was after all that Vileena.

”I believed in your return and waited for you,” her saying that with tear-filled eyes was not something he could even imagine. What Theresia had said was not in the least bit exaggerated. This time, he had to be prepared for palms or fists flying his way.

And even more than the princess' personality, the cause of that and the one responsible was clearly Orba himself.

That girl, with her unyielding spirit and a personality that hated to lose, had come to marry from a foreign country, moreover an enemy country, and had struggled to somehow familiarise herself with this land. Every time Orba had found himself in a predicament, she had said, ”I want to help.”

Orba had betrayed that girl's spirit in the worst possible way.

And there was one other thing.

Orba was worried about one other thing. When he had met Vileena again in Taúlia's domain, it had seemed as if she recognised the masked Orba as ”the prince”. Because she had been all but unconscious and was in a daze - maybe she just made a mistake, or else… At any rate, that was something that he would have to figure out.

But it was still too early. In fact, what it was that he was using to measure whether it was too slow or fast, even he himself did not know; but he simply felt that right now, he should not reveal his true ident.i.ty.

Theresia left when they were in front of the door. Her eyes had remained cold to the last. For a while, Orba was unable to move, just as though her gaze had encased his feet in ice.

He hardly knew what he should say to start. Nor what kind of expression he should wear.

However, since worrying endlessly would not improve the current situation, Orba gritted his teeth. While steeling his resolve, for all the world as if he was going to face a giant with nothing but beat-up armour and a single sword, his fist hit the door in a light knock.

”It's me,” he said. For some reason, both the knocking sound and his voice seemed to echo far too loudly. ”It's Gil Mephius. Princess, can I come in?”

There was no answer.

He wondered if maybe she wasn't there, but there had definitely been signs that something had moved behind the door when he had knocked.

He cleared his throat once. Knocked a second time. As before, there was no answer. Yet more resolve was needed to make his next move. He grabbed the door handle and turned it. It felt heavy in his hand.

Beyond the open door, there, in the centre of the parlour adjoining her bedroom, the fourteen-year-old girl was sitting.

Vileena's gaze was turned out of the window to the side. With her elbows resting on a small table, her posture was evidently not one of a princess who was going to go and greet her fiancé.

When they had been reunited in Taúlia's territory, she had been wearing the clothes of a commoner girl but, of course at Theresia's urging, she had changed into a dress.

Has she gotten thinner? Orba wondered. He had the same impression as when he had met Princess Esmena in Taúlia some time earlier. Vileena's figure, as she turned away from him with a grave face, seemed far more grown-up than in his memories. The shadows that her long eyelashes cast over her eyes, the soft l.u.s.tre of her swaying hair - for some reason these intensified the feeling of tightness in Orba's chest.

It was similar to a fleeting look up at a girl from a different social cla.s.s striding along in a sunny place while he himself was just one of the crowd, hanging his head in the shadow of a building's eaves - in short, Orba was suddenly made keenly aware that the difference in social position between himself and the princess was so great that originally, they should never have met.

Why, at this point…

Before entering the room, Orba had been worrying his head about what to say first about all sorts of things, but the moment he caught a glimpse of her, all the words disappeared from his mind. Nor did he know anymore why or what he should do.

As a result, the silence dragged on for nearly five minutes until finally,

”A-Acting so rashly,” those were the first words that Orba strung together. Vileena still did not look his way. ”Riding alone into Taúlia… that isn't something a princess should do. At the very least, you should have given the order to my men.”

”All of your subordinates had been arrested at the time.” Her petal-like lips parted for the first time.

”O-Oh, right,” Orba was still just standing by the doorway. ”They were falsely accused and going to be executed, huh. You also acted for their sake. You have my grat.i.tude, Princess…”

”Your grat.i.tude?” Vileena suddenly interrupted Orba's words in a scathing voice. At the same time, her eyes turned towards him for the first time.

Being stared at straight on, Orba licked his lips.

What is this?

Orba was rooted to the spot. A strange feeling seemed to be noisily rising up from his feet to his chest.

”I-Indeed, my grat.i.tude. Your brave actions, Princess, saved my men and Taúlia. So…”

”There is not the slightest reason for you to be grateful.” Her wide, beautiful eyes still fixed straight on him, Vileena rose from her chair. And immediately fired off these words, ”since you are not Prince Gil.”

Which is the first floor by European count. Floor numbers throughout will follow the US/j.a.panese counting system in which the ground floor is the first floor, the first floor is the second floor, and so on.

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