Finding the Attachment Lady (6)
“Don’t do anything foolish.”
As Sisilia was about to set off to investigate the incident, Bianca grabbed the hem of her cloak.
“Do you intend to squander that fine reputation of yours? If you meddle just to help me, you’ll only come out the worse for it.”
Sisilia was curious.
“Then, is the lady fine with it?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s an unjust accusation, is it not?”
“Hmph. Do you think Bianca Eisenberg appears so frail that she’d quail at a mere handful more curses?”
‘Wow, tsundere.’
To witness it firsthand. Sisilia felt a quiet swell of emotion.
“In any case, they’d never manage to detain me over something so trifling. It’s a mere commotion that’ll fizzle out after a few days of yapping, so don’t step in and suffer needless humiliation.”
‘Her speech is amusing.’
The more she observed, the more captivating this attachment lady proved. In moments like these, a knightly display was in order.
“Lady. I am a knight. To pass by one ensnared by injustice without a word would shame me utterly, dulling the blade that must fell demons henceforth. Thus, this is for my own sake.”
“Y-You.”
Bianca was taken aback by Sisilia’s rather knightly demeanor.
“You can spin quite the convincing line, it seems.”
“……”
It smarted a touch, but Sisilia resolved to clear Bianca’s name.
After all, Bianca was her attachment lady.
She hoped for her happiness.
‘Smell of demons.’
Gazing at the haggard Charlotte, Sisilia knew at once.
Faint, yet unmistakable.
She herself wasn’t a demon—likely some connection.
What ties could a noble count’s esteemed daughter possibly have to demons…?
Whatever the case, it held no import for Sisilia.
‘If I handle it all, how will the newbies level up? Can’t have that. No sir.’
“For one who was kidnapped, you’ve managed chocolate chips and seem quite unscathed—I’m relieved, Lady Charlotte.”
Charlotte flinched, shoulders twitching.
“H-How did you…?”
“Why, there’s a trace of chocolate dust on your lips.”
Sisilia offered a gentle smile, tapping her own eye.
“I’ve rather sharp eyes, you see.”
‘Just how sharp…!’
Charlotte was friendly with many knights, yet none had ever pinpointed her snack from a mere glimpse at her mouth.
“…It’s true I ate dessert to lift my gloom. Is that an issue?”
“No need for tension, Lady Charlotte. I came purely from curiosity.”
“Curiosity…”
Charlotte gulped, forcing a benevolent smile.
To Sisilia’s eyes, it resembled a mouse’s desperate bid to flee a cat.
“The curiosity of the famed Sword Princess—now you’ve piqued mine as well.”
“Then I shall ask.”
Sisilia advanced precisely one step—and was suddenly at Charlotte’s side.
Charlotte couldn’t twitch a finger.
Tension soaked the back of her dress.
“What purpose lay in this elaborate farce, to besmirch Lady Bianca?”
“…!”
Sisilia’s words struck dead center; Charlotte stiffened.
“A f-farce? Perish the thought. Why ever would you imagine something so dire, Lady Sisilia?”
“Sloppiness.”
Sisilia had pierced the ruse from the outset.
‘A count’s daughter’s abductor wouldn’t bungle so badly.’
Charlotte’s abduction was yesterday; rescue today.
Kidnapping was the hard part—hiding afterward, simple.
In this CCTV-less medieval age, locating a vanished lady was no trivial feat.
“One of two possibilities, I reckoned: an abductors laughably inept, or the lady’s own staging.”
The former clashed with reality.
A figure bold enough to snatch a count’s daughter mid-capital—incompetent?
Sisilia set little stock in miracles.
“…Evidence.”
“Hmm.”
“To brand me shameless without proof—it’s rather discomfiting.”
“Proof there is.”
Sisilia was a master sleuth.
Sleuths sans evidence were mere posers.
“Show it, then.”
‘No proof exists. I was never taken.’
Charlotte steadied her resolve.
The “incident” was vapor to begin with.
Suspicion alone yielded nothing.
Sisilia nodded.
“First—guard, step out, if you please?”
From behind the wall emerged the knight, sword gripped silently.
Charlotte’s escort, Theo.
“…You knew I lurked.”
“I’m rather popular, you see.”
A true sword princess beauty bore at least three stalkers as standard.
“Lacking evidence as the lady claims, you’re naught but a bully terrorizing a count’s daughter. Blind to her fearful trembling? Knightly honor, reduced to street-ruffian antics.”
Sisilia merely curved her lips in a smile.
Theo scowled.
In that instant—deja vu struck; he thrust up his blade to parry.
Caaaang!
Swords met.
Blue flames from their clashes roared in a deafening blaze.
“What madness is this!”
Gale-force winds pinned Charlotte cowering, eyes barely open.
‘Damn it all—what woman wields such power…!’
As Sisilia’s smile deepened, the wind’s sword aura surged overwhelmingly.
Theo’s grip quaked under the crush.
“To weather my strike—impressive sword aura.”
Boom!
Theo’s sword-hand rocketed skyward.
Sisilia withdrew her blade, spun a roundhouse.
Kraka-boom!
Walls shattered; Theo hurtled through.
In the mansion’s ruins, Sisilia advanced on Charlotte, sword drawn.
Death’s terror, her first taste—Charlotte’s eyes brimmed wet.
Not her eyes alone grew damp.
“A knight skilled to match Windsor Knights’ strikes—fit to abduct a lady.”
“H-Hic.”
Blade-tip lifted Charlotte’s chin.
“Such a one wouldn’t release her quietly. Thus, my verdict.”
‘Flawless deduction.’
Quite the sleuthing flourish; Sisilia beamed inwardly.
“Once more: Lady Charlotte.”
She sheathed her sword.
“Why this charade to frame Lady Bianca?”
Sisilia’s emotionless gaze impaled her.
Charlotte knew terror in a stare for the first time.
Stripped of benevolence, malice—any feeling at all.
‘Futile.’
Tears welled in Charlotte’s eyes.
‘Before this monster, masks crumble.’
Sisilia cocked her head.
“Still in denial?”
“N-No.”
Charlotte seized her best escape.
“All lies. Your words ring true—a farce.”
She flung herself prostrate, forehead to floor.
“J-Jealousy drove me to the unforgivable. Truly, truly sorry.”
Sisilia blinked, grasped Charlotte’s hair.
‘Lovely texture. What product?’
A stray musing—shattered by a cry.
“But please…!”
Charlotte half-sobbed.
“Don’t speak of this to others, I beg.”
“I know it’s brazen, how absurd I must seem. Yet if word spreads, I’m ruined.”
Sobbing, she clutched Sisilia’s hand.
“A-Anything. Cover this, and I’ll give all I possess. Please…”
She bowed anew.
Instinct urged a heel to her head; Sisilia recalled—no demon—refrained.
Her mind flashed to longed-for luxuries, price prohibitive.
—Windsor meddling in royal knights’ affair unbidden, now bribes? Allowance revoked awhile.
Chiron’s voice, hallucinated.
Gasp—near disaster.
Sisilia refocused.
“Rise, Lady Charlotte.”
Regret tinged it, but bribes were off-limits.
For…
“I’ve no mind to arrest you.”
No fondness for Charlotte.
No antipathy either.
Demon-unlinked kingdom trifles? Mere pastimes.
Frankly, this bordered on endearing.
Yet no mere hobby indulgence.
“Truly…?”
“Indeed. Royal knights’ purview.”
“F-For so trivial a cause, my pardon?”
‘Weighty matter, that.’
Sisilia held royal knights in high regard.
Demonslayers: Windsor Knights.
Capital watch: royals.
Trampling their domain? Ill-mannered.
Chiefly, Sisilia was a pacifist.
‘No gain in foes when guarding newbies.’
Truth of it.
“Mark this well, Lady Charlotte.”
Sisilia leaned close, gaze serene.
Charlotte’s teeth clattered.
Sisilia’s aura—merciless severity.
“Pray I seek you never for ‘other business.’”
Demon-taint the trigger—no quarter as today.
Kindly forewarned.
“Then, Lady Charlotte, I’d have no choice but to slay you.”
‘Sisilia’s a total angel!’
Her own gentleness oft vexed her.
The ‘Charlotte Kidnapping Incident’ concluded peacefully.
Charlotte proved shrewd.
By the time Sisilia savored her usual strawberry cake, a fitting scapegoat stood named.
‘Shocker: my regular shopkeep.’
Sisilia’s haunt, Golden Honeycomb—owner and server Reina, no less head of a fearsome alley syndicate.
Massive scandal!
Bittersweet tidings.
Dessert quality dips? Unthinkable.
Gems aplenty for bribes, perhaps.
Charlotte’s grace, Edward’s off-books funds—might suffice.
Desired outcome secured, Sisilia called at attachment lady Bianca’s estate.
“No thanks shall pass my lips.”
Bianca veiled her face with fan.
“Your own gain, you claimed? Expecting gratitude was grievous error. Bianca Eisenberg would have triumphed unaided.”
Her prim villainess poise thrilled Sisilia.
“Not for thanks I came, Lady Bianca. Seeing you hale, I take my leave. Fare thee well in the interim.”
Straightforward excess lacked allure.
Push-pull: courtship’s bedrock.
Retreat’s wisdom defined the rake-sword-princess.
Cool departure today—
“Halt. Thy words unfinished.”
Bianca checked Sisilia at the gate.
At Sisilia’s puzzled look, Bianca folded her fan to a maid, approached, hem lifted just so, and bowed.
Textbook noble courtesy.
“Eisenberg shall not forget.”
“!”
“Should peril befall thee anon, the Eisenberg Ducal House stands as Sisilia Windsor’s bulwark.”
Unable to restrain, Sisilia enfolded Bianca from behind.
“W-What do you—?!”
Bianca flailed, yet max-level sword princess caress proved inescapable.