Princess Mia is Bereft…
Connery let out a short sigh when he saw the two men. “I think they are looking for you. This young woman said she saw you two walking around.”
He shrugged. It’s okay if his secret was found out. He wasn’t trying to be sneaky or anything. He thought it would be fun to follow her and see what the two men were doing.
That’s as far as shadowing goes. I think it’s time for me to leave with the girl.
During her adven-tour of the castle, he kept an eye on the girl. He had done what he needed to do here. He felt a little better after thinking about it, maybe too much, because the next thing that happened caught him off guard.
“I see… What do you know? This is actually perfect,” Keithwood said. “Going in by ourselves would have led to trouble in the long run. But now that you’re here, we’ll have the testimony of the captain of Count Lampron’s guard.”
He had hoped for an easy escape, but fate wasn’t going to let him off the hook that quickly.
“A testimony? I am not sure what you mean.”
As Keithwood spoke in a relaxed tone, “Testimony, yes. Because we’re going to search Prince Echard’s room right now.”
“Huh?”
As Connery thought about what he had just heard, he got a bad feeling rising in his stomach. He understood now that he had put himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What do you mean?” I’m not very good at jokes, you see. It looks like I missed the funny part. I don’t think it’s even close to right. Keithwood, it’s not like you to say things like that.”
When Keithwood’s face stayed disturbingly serious, his pointless laughing sounded even hollow. He wasn’t joking. While Dion was smiling, which made him look scary. Connery realized right away that the smile he was seeing wasn’t that of someone enjoying a crude joke, but of someone who liked being in trouble and danger. I think this man would still be smiling if he had gone up against an army by himself.
Connery’s last hope was the girl that the Great Wisdom of the Empire had thought was important enough to bring with her.
The girl said, “Wow… Are we really sneaking into a prince’s room? That sounds like an adventure! Plus I get to do it with Keithwood, the Libra King’s most loyal knight! Also General Dion! Wow, this is amazing!”
Bel’s eyes were shining with joy.
Nope. There’s no hope there. So I guess we’re going to do this… Connery thought this as he felt five times worse than he did a minute ago.
“It’s not safe for Miss Bel to go with us, but we don’t have time to wait. We’ll have to take a chance. Sir Connery, please stay with us and keep Miss Bel safe.” Keithwood held up a mask and said, “Also, put this on.”
“This is…”
“Cover. In case. It’s better not to show your face.”
“This makes me think of a rumor I heard. It seems that there is a masked pair that is taking out small groups of thieves in the area.”
“Milord has a strong sense of right and wrong, as you know. It keeps me pretty busy.”
Keithwood just shrugged, but Connery felt a little sorry for the attendant.
The group got to Prince Echard’s room without too many problems because Keithwood knew exactly where the guards were stationed and how to avoid them. The closest call they got was when Bel tripped and fell, screaming and calling for a bunch of guards, who Keithwood and Dion quickly engaged. What happened was less of a fight and more of a show of how skilled the two were. They knocked out the guards and left them unable to do anything. With great skill, they made sure that the guards only unconscious and nothing else.
After the fight, Dion looked at Bel. Bel laughed in embarassment, which made the knight sigh in frustration.
“Bloody moon… You make me think of a certain princess in a certain forest.” He then looked at Keithwood and said, “But I have to say, you have a great sword arm. Prince Sion is very good, but you’re not bad either.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“How about a few rounds? It would make a nice gift for me.
“No thanks. I don’t think I could last even three seconds. I’ll get you a real gift instead.”
Keithwood laughed happily and turned around to hide the cold sweat that was running down the back of his neck. There is no doubt that Dion Alaia was a monster. It made his hair stand on end because he could feel it in the man’s energy. Even if he only had three seconds, he would have to be very tough to draw his sword when his whole body would be telling him to run away as soon as Dion appeared. The sheer fear was…familiar, to be honest. He had the same reaction when Mia cooked for him.
It’s also very important that Princess Mia never cooks, especially with mushrooms… It’s just as important that Dion Alaia never sees us as enemies. It would be very bad if we went to war with Tearmoon. I should do everything I can to stop it… Ugh, why are things never easy.
He grimaced as he his old friend, the headache, came.
As soon as Connery got into Echard’s room, he had to say something to warn him.
“Keithwood, I need to remind you that even someone in your position—”
“This is not allowed. Yes, I am aware of that.”
Keithwood smiled wryly when he saw the guard captain’s serious face.
“But certain times need unique responses. The well-being of the royal family is at risk, so this is a very important time.”
“What about the royal family?”
“It seems,” Dion said, taking over for Keithwood, “a very suspicious man was seen talking to your second prince. And most likely gave the boy poison.”
“Wha—? Poison?”
“Yep. So the story goes, at least.”
He blinked a few times and then shook his head.
“That’s it. So it’s just a story. That doesn’t make this behavior okay at all—”
“But it seems very likely,” Dion said, cutting Connery off. “The guy was seen hanging out in the open market, which is probably where he gave the poison to the second prince. Does any of that sound familiar?”
One of Connery’s cheeks twitched.
“You say the open market…”
His voice had a little shake to it. His eyes started to jump around. Connery wasn’t able to keep things a secret.
“Sir Connery, is something wrong?” Keithwood asked, noticing that he had changed the way he acted.
“No.” Even though he didn’t say anything, Dion put a hard hand on his shoulder.
“Is that the sound of joy I hear? Being honest will probably help you a lot if you know something. “Just a thought.”
“I, uh… At any rate…” He looked at Bel, who tilted her head to look at him with interest. His fate was sealed by her big, innocent eyes.
“You see…”
He told the truth. Connery wasn’t the type of person who could lie to kids. In general, he was a good, honest person.
“A while ago, when I went to the open market with His Highness, I lost sight of him for a short time…”
Dion laughed out loud when he told the truth.
“Ha ha ha! You would not last two seconds if someone interrogated you. Connery, you’re a good man, and I like that you’re honest. Try to keep your mouth shut around other people, though, okay? For your own good.”
“…should I? But…”
“No, really, just shut up. Heads rolling bothers our princess a lot. I don’t want to give her any bad dreams.”
Connery had to nod because of the seriousness in his voice.
“By the way, that’s one more reason to include you in this operation,” Keithwood said. You will help yourself and His Highness.
“All right,” Connery said after a long pause. “I don’t think I have many options. I’ll join.” He sighed and tried to remember more about that day.
“As far as I can remember, I don’t remember him holding anything. It probably can’t be too big for what we’re looking for.”
Echard’s room was surprisingly big. Since Solecsudo Castle was built for war, it put utility over luxury, and its inner rooms were not very big. Unless you group three of them together.
The first sub-room looked like a small library, with lots of books lined up on the shelves. It also had a desk where people could read and write. There were religious drawings on the walls of the second sub-room. Based on the furniture that was there, it was probably used for things like afternoon tea. There was a huge canopy bed in the third.
“This is one hell of a room to look through…” Dion sighed as he looked around the room. “We have no idea what we’re looking for. The kid might even be keeping it from him. Where should we look to find it?”
Keithwood just shook his head at his whining.
“He’ll be the center of attention at the party today, so I doubt he’d bring it. So it’s likely that we won’t be able to find anything. He might have thrown it away. Still, we— Excuse me, Miss Bel? What are you doing?”
Bel crawled on all fours and peered out from under the bed. Keithwood looked at her.
“Rina told me that noble boys hide things under their bed that they don’t want other people to see…”
She looked over her shoulder at him and said with a guilt-free laugh.
“Rina is very smart. She understands everything. She also told me that if you say ‘I know what you did,’ they’ll freak out and tell you all sorts of things, even if you don’t know what they’re hiding. There’s more…”
Connery thought of the girl whose name was Citrina. Even though she was nice and sweet, he remembered that there was something strange about her.
It makes sense. It’s likely that girl has something planned. I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone who works for Princess Mia.
Bel stood up, and he watched with his arms and brows knit together in thought. She looked at the bed.
She pursed her lips and put her hand under the pillow after a while.
“Ah!” She pulled her arm back and showed what she was holding with a shocked cry. Keithwood jumped in to get a better look. He wrinkled his brows.
“A troya? Why would a charm be here?”
“I’ve made troyas like these before,” Bel sounded very proud. “First, you roll up some stuffing for the stomach. Then, you wrap the thread around it. When you’re done, you can take out the stuffing and there’ll be a pocket inside.”
She opened the belly of the horse-shaped charm.
“See? You can hide things in this,” she said, taking out a small black powder vial.
To which Mia replied, “So you found this in Prince Echard’s room…” She let out a sigh of sorrow.
If Keithwood had found this before the party today, it’s possible to avoid this whole mess…
But it didn’t help to cry over spilled milk. Even more so when the milk made up for the mess. The poisoning gave them permission to search Echard’s room without his permission. They would have just broken into the privacy of a prince without the incident. In the end, there was no solid proof that he had it. Mia was sure, but she would have to use clairvoyance to back up her story, which was iffy at best in a court of law.
Of course, the cause-and-effect thing isn’t helping me. There wasn’t any real murder, though. That’s something to be thankful for.
She thought that Bel’s finding, even though it was new, wouldn’t really change anything. What kind of poison was used, and they knew there had been an attack. The only thing that had changed was that they now had the powder.
“May I take a look?” asked Citrina as she stepped up. She took the vial and quickly shook it.
“I see. If it’s okay with you, I think this is strong proof that Prince Echard did not mean to kill anyone.”
“Explain.” asked Sion, surprised.
“Earlier, I asked Prince Echard how much poison he had put in the wine glass. ‘One pinch,’ was his answer.” Citrina held the bottle up to the light, which showed what was inside. “We can see that there is still a lot of powder inside, which means that he chose to use only one pinch. He would have put in more if he had meant to kill. With poison, there’s no reason to risk the person living because the amount is too low. Especially if he planned to bring the poisoned drink to the party himself, because of all the noise and chaos, he would only have one chance. So, I think that the contents of this vial show that he wasn’t trying to kill anyone.”
This answer helped Mia understand a lot better. The vial looked like a sugar shaker, which let her use a much more common way of thinking to figure out what was going on. She would want to use it less often when the shaker was half full so it wouldn’t run out. Her shakes would get softer and less frequent on their own. But if you gave her a full shaker, she’d put a good cube’s worth of it in her tea. From her point of view, who wouldn’t want their tea to be too sweet instead of not sweet enough?
Without a doubt, poison was the same. It was possible that Echard would only use a pinch of powder if the bottle held a very small amount. But since it held a lot, he only used a little.
That clearly means he thought it would be bad if he put in too much. He might have been hoping for a mild reaction so that he wouldn’t have to show too much, but even so, one pinch seems too little… Well, this argument seems convincing.
“Since you have so much, it makes sense to try it on something like a mouse first. At least I would,” Citrina said, but her tone was stiff, which didn’t match what she was saying. “That way I’ll understand what it does. It’s likely that Prince Echard didn’t even do that much. His actions were very careless, which makes me think he was acting on instinct. Someone who didn’t care if they found out later. After all, you would do everything you could to hide your participation in the killing, right? Maybe you wouldn’t care about being seen, but you’d still make sure you used enough to kill the target.”
With a sweet smile, she won over her listeners. It was even more disturbing that her analysis was so morbid. Then she came to her conclusion.
“So, it’s clear to me that Prince Echard did what he did without planning to” He didn’t think this was poison either, and he wasn’t going to use it at the party. It was a random chance that the poison was available and a whim that made him do it.
There was something strangely convincing about her case. It could have been because she knew a lot about the subject. Her level of expertise meant that she knew a lot about both the tools and the people who use them.
Mia agreed and nodded. If she could, she would cheer. Citrina had made it possible for people to have reasonable doubts about Echard’s intentions.
This is nice. Miss Rafina came first, then Citrina. There are signs that the case for a lighter punishment will be favored. Surely, not even Sion could ask for a death in this setting!
She took a deep breath and thought that all that was left was to wait for Sion to agree to a less harsh sentence. That’s why she didn’t correctly understand the next question.
“Mia, what do you think?”
That’s it. It’s time for the last word. Mia, do it. Tell Sion what to say. We’re all waiting for you to finish, Mi—Wait… Mia?
Mia didn’t notice that Sion hadn’t tried to take charge of the conversation until after the series of expert opinions. He kept his distance and watched her without saying a word. Her!
“…Huh?”
While the rest of her body was frozen in shock, her mouth would have dropped. There were eyes everywhere in the room on her, waiting for her decision.
Huh? What, me? Uh… How do I…?
She took a deep breath in and got ready to speak. As soon as she opened her mouth, her throat hurt in a strange way. It was rough and dry. Her breath left her as a cough instead of words.
What is it? No… It’s not possible… Is this poison?!
It most certainly wasn’t. It was just the cookie she swiped as she left the hall. The dry, crumbly pieces of it were making her throat hurt.
Being without her voice, Mia was going through the worst hour of her life.
