The Only One Who Understands (2)
Meanwhile, the tremor of power the princess had unleashed rippled outward, spreading all the way to the deepest reaches of the royal castle.
To a certain vast chamber, where a single old man sat.
Rrrrrrumble...
With an ominous groan, the pen and candle atop the desk began to dance. It was a vibration violent enough to be mistaken for an earthquake, yet the man showed not the faintest trace of alarm, silently reading on through the documents in his hand.
Only when countless papers from the Intelligence Department came cascading down from the bookshelves and cabinets in a paper avalanche did his gaze finally shift.
"..."
This was no earthquake.
It could hardly be called a natural disaster — the vibration did not come from beneath the earth.
It was more like... as if the entire castle were being pressed down upon by something immense.
A feeling so familiar, one he could never forget.
King Leo slowly opened his mouth.
"...Elaine."
After a long, long time, he called his daughter's name once more.
In the silence, my eyes met the Queen's.
"Central Officer. I will not mince words."
The first to speak was the Queen. She pointed the tip of her fan at Elaine, standing behind me.
"Bring the princess here. Calm her down as much as you can while you do it."
Flinch.
I heard Elaine's sharp intake of breath behind me. My own face twisted as well.
"That..."
I could not simply say no. That would be defiance of a royal command.
So instead, I spoke with a carefully tense voice.
"Might I ask the reason, Your Majesty?"
"You call that a question? Look around you. Look at what Elaine has done!"
The fan swept toward the ruined corridor.
"The princess is unstable. And her power is far too easily swept away by her emotions. That much, at least, must be sealed. The Blessing of Tranquility appears to have broken — I will place the spell upon her again."
At the Queen's words, I quietly clenched my fist.
Good.
She wasn't blindly pressuring me to hand the princess over — she had given an answer. That meant dialogue with the Queen was still possible for now. All I had to do was present the reasons why Elaine could never be returned to her.
"I judge this entire situation to be a backlash caused by that very suppression. Is it not precisely because Her Highness has lived her whole life with her emotions under someone else's control that things have come to this?"
"Ha. Quite the silver tongue for a man who isn't even the one involved."
Helena snapped her fan open, leveled it beneath my eyes, and glared at me — a voice laced with irritation, anxiety, and worry all tangled together.
"The princess must be isolated. Can you not see it with your own eyes, even now? The tragedy of that day nearly repeated itself!"
The tragedy of that day.
Cruelly, the Queen was dragging even a painful past into her argument, all to justify herself.
"..."
At her words, Elaine dropped her head.
"I-it's all right, Your Highness! It didn't turn out that way, see!"
Hanna did her best to comfort Elaine with as bright a voice as she could muster.
A cruel woman.
Did that woman even see Elaine as her own daughter anymore?
"I cannot let it happen again. This is the only way. There is nothing else."
The Queen murmured as if convincing herself.
"Nothing else... my daughter..."
Then, without warning, she thrust her fan toward us and cried out,
"No — wait. This whole disaster is your doing in the first place. Hanna Meyer!"
The maid's name cracked through the air like a whip.
"Eeek!"
Behind me, Hanna froze solid, startled half out of her wits.
"If you hadn't gone and delivered that letter, none of this catastrophe would ever have happened. Do you understand me!?"
"I-I... that is..."
This was the girl who had defied the Queen's orders so bravely — yet face to face with a royal rebuke raining down upon her, she could only tremble.
This time I stepped in front of Hanna and answered.
"If exchanging letters is the true culprit, then why was Her Highness perfectly fine when she received the letter?"
"What did you say?"
"The princess's power did not run wild because of the letter. It ran wild because you took that letter away from her, Your Majesty."
She had sentenced her daughter's only friend to brutal punishment and destroyed every last channel of communication she had. How could she fail to see that this — this — was the real culprit?
Or perhaps she simply preferred not to know.
"Because she is easily swayed by emotion, you would control it by force. And then you permit her neither joy nor hope of any kind, locking her away in darkness — is that truly your method, Your Majesty?"
"Central Officer — don't you dare prattle on about things you clearly don't understand!"
"How is this supposed to be a solution!?"
Elaine had killed her own brother. She had failed to control her power.
That much was true.
But none of it made a reason for her to live crushed inside a cage like a caged bird for fifteen years.
Stripped of every joy and sorrow, slowly withering away — how was that life any different from death?
"That's..."
I barely swallowed the last of those words.
Elaine's breathing had been growing ragged again from the moment she laid eyes on the Queen. For her sake — to protect her — I could not let a word like that slip out.
So I changed the subject.
"Who on earth proposed this method in the first place? 'If emotion runs wild, suppress all emotion' — that's the kind of thinking you'd expect from a criminal syndicate, not a church!"
"Insolent wretch! How dare you speak so contemptuously of the Church's aid!"
the priests cried out, hit squarely where it hurt.
It's you lot again.
These insufferable vermin.
"I thought you at least a reasonably sharp man at the trial, but it seems we simply cannot communicate. Central Officer."
The Queen narrowed her eyes and bit the words out.
"That is a command. Bring the princess here. I will not ask twice."
The ultimatum had fallen.
Crunch.
My fist clenched so hard it went white.
Damn it all...
A command. That was a duty a subject was bound to obey, without exception. And it had come from a member of the royal family — I had no choices left.
The Queen knows exactly where my weakness lies.
Pressure through rank. However much cause and justice I had on my side, the moment it took the form of a royal command, refusal became impossible. If I refused, I would be punished for a far graver crime than even Hanna, a mere maid.
As a public official of the realm, every action I took was tantamount to an act of the state itself.
But if I defy a royal order in a situation like this, it becomes an enormous problem — and not for me alone.
They could seize on this as a pretext to purge everyone connected to me. And the Queen still had plenty more thorns in her side to pluck — the Minister chief among them.
"Do not dig your own grave any deeper, Central Officer."
The Queen's warning: give it up already.
If I resisted further, my fate was obvious. Defiance of a royal command was among the worst of high crimes.
And yet...
Slowly, I turned my head to look at the princess behind me.
Green eyes trembling with fear. On her forearm, scratched raw by her own nails, the words of the Blessing still smeared across unhealed skin.
[Central Officer...]
The face I had seen in the royal crypt, drenched in grief and emptiness. I remembered the smile that frail, melancholy woman had shown me for the very first time. The words she always wrote at the end of her letters flickered before my eyes.
— From your friend.
Hanna and I were the only friends she had ever had.
The world must never become a cage.
I made my decision.
"I beg your pardon, Your Majesty."
The maddest act of my life, committed with the worst decision and the finest courage I had ever possessed.
"I cannot do that."
I defied the royal command.
"...!!!"
Elaine jolted in shock and seized the hem of my coat.
[I-it's all right. I'll just go back. I don't want them to drive you out like this...]
"No. I won't allow it."
The words left my mouth with a firmness that startled even me.
I looked her straight in both eyes.
"I will not leave you alone ever again."
I would bring sorrow to my people no longer. That line would never be crossed again — not by anyone.
Remember the Sight Officer. Remember Rene's last words.
Recall the bond I failed to protect when I could have saved it.
I gritted my teeth and spoke, as if sealing a vow.
"This officer will not let tragedy repeat itself."
I would stop my tragedy. And I would stop yours.
"Never again."
That was why I had run all this way. That was why I refused to compromise.
[Ah... aah...]
A trembling voice. Furrowed brows.
Tears spilled down Elaine's cheeks — but they were not born of sorrow.
[You... you really are...]
Tears of overwhelming relief, from the realization that there was someone who would stand beside her no matter what happened.
[You are... my only one... who understands me...]
And behind her, sunlight slowly began to pour in.
"..."
Silent, Hanna simply wrapped her arms around her.
"You dare defy a royal order!?"
The Queen, who had finally seized her leverage, snapped her fan shut with a crack.
"A man in high office, defying the crown itself."
For an instant, a small smile flickered across her face. Then she pointed at Elaine.
"Elaine. I will grant you one final chance. Come to me on your own two feet. Do so, and I may consider sparing the Central Officer his punishment. You know full well how heavy a crime defiance is."
Unable to sway me, the Queen turned her aim squarely onto Elaine.
"Come back, my child. This is the only way left to save yourself."
With a tortured expression, she pleaded with her own daughter.
And then —
"Withdraw your wrath, Your Majesty."
A deep, resonant voice rolled across the corridor.
Enraged that someone had dared intrude, the Queen whipped her head around.
"Who presumes to interrupt the Queen's—"
And froze, stone-still.
"That will be quite enough from you as well, Central Officer."
Thud. Thud.
With each ponderous footstep, the owner of that voice at last revealed himself.
Who on earth— oh, merciful heavens.
And I froze too.
Incansus Vermotem.
The King's Proxy stood veiled in black silk between the Queen and me.
"Further unrest within the royal castle will not be permitted."
"I-Incansus? Why are you here...?"
The Queen managed to collect herself and speak.
The King's Proxy. After so very long, he looked exactly as I remembered — a dignified dragonewt, face hidden behind a black veil.
And when the King was absent, his appearance could mean only one thing. His will was the King's will.
Incansus answered shortly.
"His Majesty sent me."
"...King Leo did?"
"His Majesty sensed that Princess Elaine's power had surged out of control once more, and dispatched me."
"H-how could he possibly..."
"And he commanded me to resolve the present situation in the most rational and objective manner possible."
Those words meant, in effect, that every authority needed to settle this matter now rested with the Proxy. The Queen's face drained white as she grasped the implication.
"B-but His Majesty is currently..."
"His Majesty is reviewing Intelligence Department files in his private chamber. Revisiting the last fifteen years."
The Proxy let his gaze drift slowly across the demolished corridor, murmuring,
"Hm. So it finally erupted after all."
Beyond the veil, his gaze lingered on Elaine for a moment, then turned toward the Queen.
"Your Majesty. I would advise you to refrain from provoking Princess Elaine any further."
Then he raised his voice, loud enough for the priests of the Holy Church standing behind her to hear every word.
"Just as the Central Officer said — your method has failed. To throw shackles upon a beast that has already broken its chains by any means at its disposal is the pastime of fools and fools alone."
The Proxy delivering a velvet-wrapped message: cease this, or things will go very badly for you, you failures.
"But—!"
The Queen snapped back in a tone of wounded innocence — no, the moment she opened her mouth to retaliate, the Proxy swept right past her.
"...Incansus!"
Ignoring Helena's cry of indignation, her fan twisted in her clenched hand, he strode forward until he stood directly before me.
And I had to crane my neck a long, long way up.
"Central Officer Nathan Kell."
"Y-yes. I'm listening."
I bowed my head at once. Even having spoken with him alone once before, the pressure was no joke.
He held his silence for a long while, then spoke in a low voice.
"I understand your heart fully. But what you have just done is open defiance of the royal family."
"..."
"Whatever the reason, it is a grave offense, and its punishment must be weighed with all seriousness."
The Proxy inclined his head, peering down at me more closely still. Behind the veil, the smoldering eyes unique to dragonewts glimmered faintly.
"Remember your station. You are no ordinary subject of this kingdom — you hold an office devoted to the service of the state."
I swallowed hard.
"I-I will remember."
"Then all the heavier will your responsibility prove. Warden of the border."
He named my title deliberately — a clear sign that he had no intention of letting this matter end lightly.
There's no turning back now.
At last the Proxy turned his head to look at the two women behind me.
"Princess Elaine."
Hanna was flattened against the floor, practically fused to it. Only Elaine kept her mouth pressed shut tight and met the dragonewt's gaze head-on.
Ignoring the quaking Hanna entirely, he bowed with grave courtesy to Elaine.
"First, I offer you thanks for using your power so that no lives were lost in this incident. You were well capable of the opposite — and chose not to."
"..."
"But as a member of the royal family, you threatened the people of this kingdom and sought to bring down a castle centuries in the making. That can never be brushed aside lightly."
The princess gave a slow nod.
[That... I understand well.]
"Good. Bear it well in mind, then."
Having received her acknowledgment, the Proxy raised his voice.
"From this moment, I speak not as Incansus the dragonewt, but in the name of His Majesty Leo Castor, King of the Crossline Kingdom."
Everyone dropped to one knee.
Words now truly equal to a royal decree were about to begin.
"The events that have befallen this castle shall be buried in silence. Let those who saw close their eyes, those who heard stop their ears, and those who felt it erase it from their memories."
The solemn proclamation echoed through the corridor.
"The princess's surge of power inflicted meaningful damage upon the royal castle. Therefore, in the interest of the royal family and their vassals, the princess's isolation from the castle is deemed necessary."
The Queen allowed herself a knowing smile.
But the Proxy was not finished.
"However, as the Queen's method has yielded the worst possible outcome, the isolation shall take a different form."
"What on earth do you—!"
"Silence, Helena Castor. These are the words of the King."
"...Ugh!!"
The Queen trembled violently, head bowed. Paying her no mind, Incansus addressed the princess.
"Princess Elaine Castor. For the crime of endangering the royal castle, I hereby sentence you to two months' banishment from it."
Elaine and Hanna both gasped.
Good heavens.
Two months.
She's only just barely seen the light again, and they mean to isolate her for sixty more days?
Far too harsh.
But something was strange.
The banishment order named no destination.
"And Central Officer Nathan Kell."
Leaving that question hanging, he continued.
"For refusing a command of the royal family to its face, dishonoring your public office; and for presuming, far beyond your station, to style yourself the princess's friend — this constitutes a clear and grave offense."
"..."
"Therefore, in the name of the King, I shall pass sentence upon you."
A summary judgment.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
He spoke.
"For the next two months, custody of the princess shall be entrusted to you."
"...I beg your pardon?"
Before I knew it, I had interrupted a royal decree.
What did he just say?
Had I misheard?
"...Eh?"
[What?]
The princess and Hanna alike lifted their heads and stared at the Proxy.
His enormous hand pointed at Elaine.
"Princess Elaine Castor is commanded to undergo two months of isolation at the Southern Border, and the Central Officer is commanded to bear full and total responsibility for it."
Thus was proclaimed a punishment beyond anyone's imagination.