A Boulder Comes Rolling In... (1)
Tap, tap.
Erzena walked past the Smell Officer, whose hand still clutched in Elaine's grip had gone rigid as ice, and came to a stop before Elaine herself.
"You've brought the Princess here with you?"
Her voice carried a note of mild surprise. She stood slightly taller than Elaine—not by as much as the Smell Officer, but unlike him, who had bent at the waist to match her eye level, Erzena stood perfectly straight and looked down at the princess.
"Now that I look closely... those eyes really are the color of the Crossline royal house."
Golden eyes bore steadily into green ones. There was an indefinable weight to her presence.
"Uuu..."
Unable to endure the pressure, Elaine let go of the Smell Officer's finger and scurried back behind me.
"Princess?"
She still seemed to be struggling with it. When I called her name, she grabbed the hem of my coat and cast her eyes downward.
Come to think of it, she and Erzena actually have a few things in common.
Both held exalted positions, and both had ended up here at the Southern Border. And each possessed a unique power of her own—Erzena wielded Divine Holy Power, while Elaine had telekinesis, a Latent Talent Manifestation.
Come to think of it, the two of them might actually become good friends.
Having things in common meant having experiences and worries they could share. For Elaine, this was a precious opportunity to forge a new bond with someone who wasn't me or Hannah.
When I took Elaine's trembling hand, she calmed down noticeably.
"It's all right. Erzena is simply curious about why the Princess is here."
"..."
"She came out because she wanted to say hello. Just like that werewolf over there."
The princess glanced furtively at the Smell Officer, still frozen solid in his handshake pose. Understanding what I meant, she gave a slow nod and stepped forward again. She didn't release the hand she'd been holding until they were too far apart for it to matter.
"...Huh?"
At the sight of that, Erzena flinched for an instant—then, in less than a second, composed herself completely.
"Surely... no. It can't be."
A flicker of bewilderment crossed her face as she murmured under her breath.
When Elaine stood before her, Erzena spoke first.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess Elaine Castor. I'm Erzena Selaphe. No titles needed—just Erzena is fine."
Perhaps she had grown accustomed to being stripped of her position as Saintess, because her self-introduction was refreshingly plain. Elaine, looking up at those golden eyes, opened her mouth haltingly.
"...Uuh."
But all that came out was a mumble.
"...Princess?"
"Ugh..."
Even when Erzena asked again, the answer was the same.
"Ah, about that."
Come to think of it, I hadn't explained a thing to her. I gave Erzena a brief account of Elaine's condition.
"She can't speak?"
Erzena's expression softened at once.
"You could have told me sooner. And here I was, thinking..."
Apparently she'd misunderstood something, because she gave an embarrassed little laugh and bent slightly to match the princess's eye level. Then she took Elaine's hands in hers.
"Well, if that's all it is, then I can help."
Erzena closed her eyes, hands clasped together. The instant I realized what she was about to do, I shouted in alarm.
"Erzena, stop!"
But it was too late.
Fwoooosh.
A golden aura spread slowly around her.
"I'll have you fixed up in no time."
And those green eyes saw it—the warm, achingly familiar Divine Holy Power that had tormented the princess for so many years.
Her face froze in shock.
[The Church...!]
Elaine struck Erzena's hands away with every ounce of strength she had.
CRASH!
"Kyaa!?"
In the same instant, Erzena was flung backward by an invisible force.
"Lady Erzena, look out!"
Fortunately, the Touch Officer beside her shot out a tentacle and caught her, sparing her from nothing worse than a collision with the desk.
Grrrrrk.
Elaine stared down at the hand that had gripped Erzena's and clenched her teeth.
[You people... you've chased me all the way here...!!]
Just as it had in the royal castle, the entire building began to shudder along with that ominous sound.
Damn it all.
I'd forgotten—Erzena's Divine Holy Power is the same energy the priests at the castle used.
Elaine had assumed Erzena was one of the Church's people too.
"Wh-what, what's happening!?"
"An earthquake!?"
Frantic screams erupted from all around. I hurried to stand in front of Elaine, took both her hands in mine, and shouted.
"E-Elaine! Erzena is no longer one of the Church. She excommunicated herself! There is no one from the Holy Church here!"
Elaine faltered at my words.
[Ex... communicated?]
"When she met me before—at my residence and at the royal mausoleum—she had already given up being the Saintess. Look for yourself. She isn't even wearing the Church's emblem necklace, is she!"
Green eyes turned toward Erzena's chest. The rose-crested cross necklace that every member of the Church was required to wear was not there.
"There's nothing like what you fear. This place is truly safe."
Haaaah.
Only then did the trembling subside. One by one, the people who had lost their balance and fallen slowly picked themselves up off the floor.
"Good grief... what on earth was that...?"
"It felt like something was pressing down on me..."
"I suppose that's the Princess's Latent Talent Manifestation. Whew..."
Murmurs rippled through the room. And then—wary glances began to gather on the princess.
Oh no.
We could not afford for first impressions to go this badly. Perhaps sensing it herself, Elaine was looking around in a flustered panic. I quickly stepped in.
"I apologize, everyone. Elaine has never once left the royal castle in her life, so she's under considerable strain right now. And..."
I paused for a moment.
Should I really reveal this?
I wasn't sure it was right to tell these people how viscerally Elaine loathed anything to do with the Church. But sooner or later, they would find out. These are people she'll be running into constantly for the next two months. I can't hide it forever. And telling them now was far better than having it come out later—the longer I stayed silent, the more misunderstandings would breed.
So I simply came out and said it.
"She has... some very bad history with the Holy Church."
At that, the expressions of the Five Senses Officers turned bittersweet, and they murmured their understanding.
"Bad history, hm. We've got a bit of that with the Church ourselves, you know."
"Fair enough. Without knowing the circumstances, there'd be no way to understand why Lady Erzena is here in the first place."
Thankfully, the reactions were friendly.
All except one.
"...Elaine?"
Everyone except Erzena.
I hurried over to her.
"Are you hurt anywhere? I'm sorry. My failure to explain things properly caused this whole disaster."
"I'm fine, thanks to the Divine Holy Power and the Touch Officer. A little startled, is all. I never knew you'd hate the Church that much."
Erzena rubbed the wrist that had been pushed away by the telekinesis, then took my hand and rose to her feet.
Oh, this is bad.
I swallowed. Bad history with the Holy Church meant there was every chance Erzena and Elaine would clash in one form or another down the line. No matter that Erzena had left the Church—the Divine Holy Power still remained in her. And Elaine was in a state of ferocious hatred toward it.
I can't let the two of them get off on the wrong foot from the very start.
How on earth was I supposed to untangle this and explain it?
"This may be a bit unpleasant to hear, but Elaine—"
At that moment, she cut me off with an answer of her own.
"That won't do, Nathan. If you go around calling the Princess by her first name in an official setting, what will people think? And you a public official, no less."
"...I beg your pardon?"
"I'm just a little worried, that's all. I understand perfectly well, of course."
With a smile I couldn't quite read, Erzena lightly straightened my rumpled shirt.
Swish.
Her fingers smoothed the collar with casual ease.
"...Uuh?"
This time it was Elaine who flinched at the sight.
"Er... Erzena. The Princess using her power—does that not trouble you?"
"I know full well what kind of power Princess Elaine has. I know she's a Talent Awakener, too. But that's a conversation for later."
"And the bad history with the Church?"
"That's for later as well."
Erzena waved her hand as if to dismiss it all as irrelevant.
"However good-natured you may be, Nathan, I really do think you ought to be more careful in official settings."
With that, she gave my dust-covered shoulders a final pat-and-brush.
You're the one calling me by name right now, you know.
I barely managed to keep that retort from climbing up my throat.
It was Hannah, standing beside the Smell Officer, who answered for me.
"Th-the Princess and the Central Officer are friends who even write letters to each other!"
"I see. Well, I had guessed they were friends—but so the owner of those letters you kept cooped up in a drawer for days on end was the Princess all along."
Her tone was soft, yet somehow her voice was cold.
"So that's why you never told me, no matter how many times I asked."
Why did it feel like a winter gale was blowing in the middle of the day?
"E-Erzena? Are you angry?"
"Me? No? Why would I be?"
Because your eyes are scarier right now than when you declared me a heretic.
Even when she'd written "Believers' Heaven, Unbelievers' Hell" across my forehead, she'd never glared at me with this much venom.
"I'm not angry at all? Does it look that way?"
Erzena smiled as she said it.
Wow. Her eyes are not smiling.
At the same time, the Divine Holy Power behind her began to smolder across the floor like creeping mist.
"Why do I sense a catastrophe coming on."
"Well, of course she's mad—another woman just showed up on her man's doorstep."
"Where I come from, we call this a catfight."
When the Five Senses Officers started snickering again from beyond my field of view, Erzena spoke in a low voice.
"Keep talking like that if you'd like to spend seventy-two hours straight on overtime. I'll infuse you with Divine Holy Power so you can never go home. Ever."
"We'll shut up."
The Smell Officer zipped his lips instantly and fell silent, and beside him the Touch Officer stuffed a tentacle in his mouth as well.
She changed the subject with practiced smoothness.
"Anyway—why did the Princess come to the Southern Border? Did something happen at the royal castle?"
"Well, you see..."
There it was. The most fundamental question of all. Why the princess had come to the Southern Border—and why it was a royal command.
I scrambled to recall Incansus's orders and answered.
"There was an earthquake caused by the active volcano in the western region. His Majesty ordered us to evacuate the Princess to the most geologically stable location available—which is the Southern Border, as it happens."
Silence.
"..."
"..."
Erzena's golden eyes stared at me, unblinking. It was the look of a person being asked to believe that. Guilt pricked at me, and I added:
"It's true."
At that, Erzena turned her gaze to Hannah.
"Miss Hannah?"
"Eeek! Y-yes, ma'am!?"
When that winter-northwind voice called her name, Hannah jumped clean out of her shoes.
"Is it true?"
She strode right up to the poor girl—close enough that their eyes nearly touched.
"Did the Princess really come here because of an earthquake?"
"W-well, you see..."
Hannah's blue eyes slid away, avoiding her gaze.
"...Y-yes, ma'am. Earthquakes are so scary. The ground went all shake-shaky."
The answer popped out stiff as a malfunctioning machine. At the sight of her, the Smell Officer let out a long, long sigh.
"We're done for. Truly."
The laments of the other Five Senses Officers followed.
"Why does this kind of thing only ever happen to us..."
"First the Saintess, now the Princess. Who's next? Her Majesty the Queen? A dragon? An ancient sentient crystal?"
"At this point, I don't think anything could surprise me anymore..."
Everyone knew. They knew this was a lie. Hannah had only shown up two days ago, battered and desperate, begging us to save a friend—and now we were claiming we'd 'evacuated the Princess here for her safety due to an earthquake'? Who was going to buy that? And they'd all just felt the raw force of the Princess's power firsthand, so they could roughly piece together the truth.
But how am I supposed to explain that the Queen and I had a battle of wills at the castle, and the Princess nearly brought the whole place down?
Not to mention it was all sealed under a royal command of silence.
So I put on the most apologetic expression I could manage and told Erzena the truth of it.
"I can't tell you everything. Please just understand that there were circumstances that required it."
"...That, I can accept."
She finally nodded.
"I imagine she has her own story, just like I did."
Her expression softened, just a little.
It was then that the Hearing Officer spoke up.
"Then I suppose the Princess's residence will be the Central Officer's house?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Uuu?"
Elaine, Erzena, and I all echoed the question at once.
"How do you figure that?"
"Absolutely not!"
[Th-the Central Officer's house?]
And the Hearing Officer parried all three of us with remarkable smoothness.
"Is there any reason she can't?"
The answers came from Erzena and me in perfect unison.
"W-well... there are no spare rooms in the house!"
"B-besides, she's a Princess! Having her move into a young man's home without a second thought would be highly improper!"
The best rebuttals my frantically churning brain could produce.
"Oh ho~"
With his trademark sly smile, the Hearing Officer pointed at Erzena.
"And yet Lady Erzena is staying 'without a second thought' in a 'young man's home' as we speak~?"
"...!!! Th-that's..."
"If I recall, you requested it yourself... despite holding the title of 'former Saintess,' no less~?"
Erzena had no answer. She simply flushed red, her eyes going wide and round, stammering in place.
Then the elf spun his finger around toward me.
"And, Central Officer—don't you have about two rooms to spare? By my count, the chief administrator's house has five rooms, so between you and Lady Erzena, that leaves exactly two free~?"
"Th-those rooms haven't been cleaned yet!"
Cleaning.
It was a word I had scrubbed from my own memory—and one that even Erzena, who had been living with me for days now, had not dared to attempt.
Work was simply that relentless.
"Then clean them?"
"It's not as easy as it sounds. Even setting aside a whole day for a proper deep clean wouldn't be enough."
"Miss Hannah was a palace maid, was she not? Then she could help out, couldn't she?"
"..."
What is with that woman today?
Dragging Hannah into it, too. But fine—if that's how she wanted to play it, I had a counterargument now.
"Miss Hannah would object to that. Wouldn't you?"
Hannah, who had only just wriggled free of Erzena, jumped in surprise at being called on again.
"Me? Why me?"
"Yes, you. Surely the Princess should stay somewhere finer."
My house is already at capacity.
I've only just barely gotten used to having Erzena around.
It had only been a few days since I stopped stammering through the nightly ritual of tucking her in and asking if she'd slept well. Having her tag along to the Immigration Office with me every morning was still mortifying beyond words—one more person under that roof and I'd lose what little peace of mind I had left.
And the damned cleaning still wasn't done.
I could not let anyone see my wretched household twice.
So who would be the best fit, then? Where would be the ideal place for the Princess to stay?
At that moment, one of the Crossline Kingdom's loyal servants surfaced in my mind.
"Better yet, Marquess Reyes's castle would be far more suitable. It's a castle, for one—far larger and more comfortable. And above all, Count Reyes would regard the Princess's stay as a tremendous honor."
Marquess Reyes. Now that the princess was staying at the Southern Border, if she asked to take refuge in his castle, he would welcome her with open arms.
He's owed me one ever since the Changeling incident anyway.
I also still had to properly repay him for strong-arming him into canceling that execution. This would be perfect for it.
Full of conviction, I declared:
"I'll contact the Marquess at once. The moment he learns the Princess is here, he'll certainly make arrangements."
But an unexpected ambush lay in wait.
"You're... the Chief Administrator of the entire Southern Border, aren't you, Central Officer?"
Hannah murmured it with a dead-serious expression.
"Then the protective wards on your house must be ironclad, and you're personally responsible for the Princess's safety—and besides, the former Saintess is staying there too..."
Wait, this is going in a very strange direction.
"Miss Hannah. Let's just think this over for a moment—"
"I think the Central Officer's house is the best place! There's no one else the Princess can trust but you!"
And she stabs me in the back.
Hannah, what on earth are you saying?
"No, the Marquess's family has served the Crossline Kingdom loyally for generations. They can be trusted!"
"There were dozens—hundreds—of people at the castle who said the same thing, Central Officer. And every last one of them ignored the Princess."
An unexpectedly sharp rebuttal. She pointed a finger straight at me and pressed on.
"One person. Only you, Central Officer, stayed by the Princess's side to the very end. So it has to be your house. No—there's nowhere else!"
She went ahead and made it official.
Clap clap clap clap.
The Five Senses Officers broke into applause and drew Hannah over to their side.
"An honor to stand with you, sister. Come, have a seat."
"Welcome to the 'Watching the Central Officer Suffer' Club."
"I liked her from the moment I first laid eyes on her. Care to grab a drink sometime?"
"Tell us the whole story later, would you?"
Those miserable bastards.
The Smell Officer had, at some point, already started treating her like a little sister.
Clutching at my last straw of hope, I turned to Elaine.
"P-Princess. What would you like to do?"
Elaine. Think this through carefully.
What will people say about a princess moving into a strange man's house—a young man's house, no less?
This won't be good for your future either. I'd hate to stand in the way of your prospects for marriage.
But the answer that came back was not spoken.
[...]
Squeeze.
Elaine simply bowed her head in silence, clutched the hem of my coat, and did not move an inch.
What that meant was exactly one thing.
"...Ah."
This is a genuine disaster.
And Erzena, watching the whole scene...
"..."
observed it with an expression full of conflicted feeling.
"Well, if it's come to this... there's nothing to be done, is there."