Hard to Just Let You Go
“It seems it will be difficult to simply let you go tonight.”
When the Imperial Princess spoke, the clamor in the banquet hall quieted a little.
I lifted my hands from the floor and slowly rose to my feet. My fingertips still tingled. The traces of mana that had held the marble below still lingered on the insides of my palms.
The surroundings were a complete mess. Shards of broken mana crystals lay scattered across the floor, and noblewomen clutched the hems of their dresses as they crowded toward the exits. A few nobles who had fallen were helped up by attendants, while knights gripped their swords and stood unmoving, eyes darting between the cracks in the ceiling and the shadows of the pillars.
It was hard to believe this was the same hall where a waltz had been playing only moments ago. If the one who planned this chaos were watching, this would surely be the most satisfying sight of all.
Then the Imperial Princess took another step closer.
“Rion Elverhart.”
The weight of her voice was different from before. I bowed my head toward her.
“…Yes, Your Highness. If it is detention, might it not be postponed until tomorrow?”
The Imperial Princess’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“Detention, you say.”
She let out a breath that was almost a snort.
“At the very least, I will not do anything to you just yet.”
Just yet, she said.
Beside me, the young lady rose as she removed her gloves. Adelaide spoke in her usual voice, even though her fingertips had gone cold.
“Sending him away carelessly would not be a wise decision, Your Highness.”
The Imperial Princess turned toward her.
“Let us hear your reason, Lady Adelaide Rubenheim.”
“If not for him in the situation just now, the hall’s bypass lines would have been completely severed.”
Adelaide spoke without so much as blinking.
“If we simply let him go from here, we will never be able to uncover the truth of this incident.”
There was no hesitation in stating the facts. The Imperial Princess looked at me for a moment, then turned her gaze toward the edge of the hall.
At the end of that direction stood Serena. She was with Count Valter and his wife, but her eyes were fixed on me. The look in them was different from when we had met behind the pillar earlier. Her eyes wavered. She seemed about to say something, but only her lips moved before she stopped.
I could not tell if the Imperial Princess had seen that gaze. She merely wore a faint smile at the corners of her mouth.
“Very well. Then all the more reason to hear what he has to say.”
At her gesture, two nearby knights approached. They had sheathed their swords, but their eyes remained sharp.
“Escort him to the reception room. Guard him, but do not lay hands on him carelessly.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The reception room, was it. I swallowed a short sigh inwardly. A low-ranking noble dragged into the Imperial Palace’s private chambers on the night of his broken engagement. In any case, this would not end comfortably.
The Imperial Princess turned.
“Follow me. The Rubenheim young lady as well.”
The young lady followed silently behind. I too moved my steps a beat later.
Throughout the crossing of the banquet hall, gazes clung to me. Until moments ago, they had been the eyes of those spectating a border noble whose engagement had been broken. Now it was different. The look of surprise faded quickly, and in its place filled greedy stares. Everyone’s faces were those of people beginning to reassess my worth.
Among them, my eyes met Serena’s once. Her gray irises wavered. She seemed about to speak, but in the end could not open her mouth. I was the first to withdraw my gaze from her. There was nothing I could say to her face-to-face right now anyway.
By the time we had passed the long corridor and entered the Imperial family’s small reception room, the clamor had grown a little distant. When the door closed, the noise from outside became much fainter.
In the center of the reception room stood a low round table, and along the walls, barrier lamps engraved with golden patterns glowed softly. The Imperial Princess did not sit, but stood by the window and looked back at me.
“Now that there are no listening ears, I can ask freely, yes?”
Her gaze swept over my fingertips once.
“I thoroughly dislike saying things twice.”
I closed my mouth for a moment.
“—Sir Rion Elverhart, how did you know?”
That question was the most troublesome. I could explain. I could speak the words. I simply had no confidence I could make them believe me.
“The banquet hall’s barrier was subtly split.”
“Are you telling me you saw that?”
“It is not something one sees. It is to the degree that one can tell when the flow is misaligned.”
The Imperial Princess’s eyes narrowed.
“Do not be vague.”
“I have no intention of deflecting, Your Highness.”
When I answered thus, no one immediately continued. One of the knights straightened his posture. But the Imperial Princess did not grow angry. Rather, she tilted her head slightly. I continued speaking with my gaze lowered.
“On the border, such fissures are often the first to reveal themselves.”
“And so you noticed that someone had tampered with the banquet hall’s barrier as well.”
“I was not certain.”
The young lady opened her mouth lowly from beside me.
“It was far too precise a response to dismiss as mere conjecture.”
I did not look back at the young lady. I still could not tell whether those words were advantageous or disadvantageous to me.
The Imperial Princess slowly moved her steps from the window and stood opposite the round table.
“Sir Elverhart. Tonight the Imperial Palace’s barrier was broken, and through that gap external remnants seeped in. The timing is far too exquisite to call mere coincidence.”
“I share the same thought, Your Highness.”
“And yet the one who noticed it first of all was a low-ranking noble who, after his engagement was broken, was trying to leave the banquet hall.”
When those words fell, the knights’ eyes gathered on me once more. Yes, if one heard it that way, it would sound suspicious. I almost let out a short laugh, then stopped.
“I understand your suspicion, but—”
“You do not claim to be wronged.”
“What good would it do to claim injustice at this point?”
This time the corners of the Imperial Princess’s mouth rose a little.
Just then, urgent footsteps stopped outside the door, and soon one knight entered.
“Your Highness. One administrator has been found in the western auxiliary barrier room.”
“Found… Is he alive?”
“Yes. But he is unconscious.”
No one could open their mouth immediately. The Imperial Princess’s expression hardened completely.
“The barrier room?”
“Part of the inner axis was damaged. The internal seal has been reapplied, but… there are traces of someone having tampered with it.”
The young lady lowered her eyes a little. I curled my fingertips once and then opened them. As expected. It was not a natural collapse.
The Imperial Princess asked the knight.
“Were there any tools nearby that might have been used?”
“One barrier maintenance tool stamped with the official management seal remained at the scene. However, it does not match the registration records.”
Someone had moved from within. Or had used someone who could come and go freely.
The Imperial Princess was silent for several seconds. Even though the room was quiet, the tension only grew denser. At last she looked back at me.
“Sir Elverhart.”
I felt the sense that things were flowing in an unfavorable direction.
“Tonight, you may not leave the Imperial Palace.”
I calmly asked back.
“Am I to take this as a request for cooperation?”
“…Ha. Half of it.”
The Imperial Princess’s gaze grew cold.
“The other half is my personal judgment. Just now you read the flow of the barrier and actually held it. I do not know how many people within this Imperial Palace possess that sense.”
The young lady added quietly.
“At least as far as I know, this man is the only one.”
I looked between the two of them. When the Imperial Princess and the young lady reached the same judgment, the choices left to a low-ranking noble were… to be taken along obediently, or to be taken along in a more uncomfortable manner.
“Then what is it that I must do?”
The Imperial Princess answered at once.
“Recheck the bypass lines you just handled, and move together to the barrier room.”
“…Right now, Your Highness?”
“Yes. Tonight is not over yet.”
Outside the window, the winter wind made the barrier lamp’s light sway thinly. From afar, people’s voices could still be heard mixed together. It seemed the clamor had not completely subsided.
I pressed my tired eyelids once. Until a few hours ago, my plan had been simple. After the engagement was broken, quietly slip out of the banquet hall, return to my lodgings, and leave the capital early the next morning. That was all.
But now I was to head to the Imperial Palace’s barrier room under the Imperial Princess’s command, and the young lady of a ducal house stood beside me, fastening the buttons of her coat without hesitation.
The knight at the door asked.
“Your Highness, I shall prepare at once.”
The Imperial Princess nodded.
“And.”
She looked at me one last time.
“See to it that Sir Elverhart does not escape.”
I steadied my breath once and answered.
“…Your Highness, running away is something only those with stamina left can do.”
This time a breath escaped from the young lady’s side. Whether it was a laugh, I could not ultimately distinguish.
When the door opened again, the cold corridor air rushed in.