14. Melting Point (26)
14. Melting Point (26)
The breathless back-and-forth between Anais and Nika had stretched on for an hour.
Eighty percent of the Performance Cards were gone, and the match was entering its endgame. The two of them began spending their remaining turns to shave the margin between their scores.
A KO victory rarely occurs between evenly matched opponents. Most of the time, the match is decided by the final tally. The lead had flipped with every turn. No one could tell who would win until the very last moment. By any definition, it was a razor-thin contest.
Finally, only six Performance Cards remained.
The remaining cards were arranged in a three-tiered pyramid: one card, then two, then three. The cards on the first and third tiers were already face-up. Both players had long since finished calculating those in their heads several turns ago.
The crucial element was the two face-down cards on the second tier. They would only be revealed after the single card on the first tier was taken.
Usually, the process of elimination could deduce what they were, but the identity of these two had fallen into the realm of probability, because several earlier cards had been processed face-down and kept undisclosed.
'Factoring in every possible scenario, my win rate is fifty-eight percent. But among the face-down cards, my opponent has seen the face of two. If both of those directly counter my current strategy, my win rate drops to forty-two percent. If only one hits, it's fifty percent. Factor in the possibility of a draw, and we're practically even.'
Anais's hand moved. She reached toward the single card at the very top of the pyramid. Just as her fingers were about to close on it, a commotion erupted at the tavern entrance.
"Clear the way!"
A group of men burst into the tavern with a thunderous shout. They were all clad in armor, swords hanging at their sides.
People screamed at the sudden appearance of armed thugs, but their terror subsided quickly. The reason was the crest emblazoned on their armor.
A bear wearing a bell-shaped golden crown and a splendid ceremonial cape.
It was the symbol of the very person who had turned this city into an uproarious spectacle for days—there was no one who didn't recognize it.
"Oh, is... is that...?"
"It's His Highness the Crown Prince's crest!"
"Has His Highness come here personally?"
The crowd hastily backed away, yet they still craned their necks, searching for any sign of the Crown Prince. But no one who looked the part could be seen.
"They are over there."
The hotel manager who had guided them in pointed toward the table placed in the center of the tavern. The two people seated there had been so focused on the game that they hadn't noticed what was happening around them. They only sensed the anomaly after the knights had already encircled the table.
"This woman?"
The knight leading the Imperial Guardsmen jutted his chin toward Anais, and the manager nodded hastily.
"Yes. She's an employee who has maintained an undefeated streak so far. She is intelligent and well-versed in noble etiquette, so there will be no trouble in serving His Highness."
"What... is the meaning of this?"
Anais stared at the guards with a rigid expression. She was currently a fugitive. There was no telling what sort of power her doppelganger might have wielded to put out a wanted notice for her.
But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they had not come to arrest her.
"Do not be alarmed. It is nothing serious. You will simply need to accompany His Highness for some entertainment. I hear you are skilled at card games?"
"Entertainment? W-Wait. By His Highness... do you mean His Highness Crown Prince Nikolai?"
"Indeed. You have been summoned. Rise, and attend him!"
The knight's attitude was decidedly overbearing. That was only to be expected; his counterpart was not a noble lady but a mere tavern employee. He had no reason to stand on ceremony.
"Ah, well, this friend of mine was hired by me as a Go teacher... I assure you, she is a capable and courteous person. She is certain to please His Highness."
Duke Shtani stepped forward, but the moment he locked eyes with the guard knight, he hastily retreated. The Crown Prince had been a figure of towering authority at the empire's center until just recently. Even if he had been pushed aside for a moment, he was not someone a mere honorary duke could challenge.
"Make haste! His Highness awaits!"
Anais gritted her teeth against the knight's oppressive pressure.
If only I still had my original standing, they wouldn't be able to push me around like this...
How old was the Crown Prince again? What if the game is just a pretense, and he demands my body...?
She shut her eyes tight. It was infuriating, but there was no other way. If even the duke was putting his tail between his legs, he was not someone her current self could defy.
Pathetic.
Stripped of her money, her title, and her status, she was impossibly small. She set the card she had just picked up onto the table and rose from her seat.
In that instant, a broad back blocked her view, stepping between her and the knights.
Long golden hair draped over the shoulders. It was Wonderstein.
He looked at the imposing knights without the slightest hint of tension, a smile curling on his lips.
"Hold on just a moment. Taking her away as you please like this presents a problem, you see. Miss Nika and I have already purchased her time for the day."
The onlookers who had been watching the situation stirred. They hadn't expected him to step up.
By rights, he did have priority, but since when did the world follow the rules?
Even in the most liberty-minded republic, it was common for people to get on the wrong side of someone powerful and end up with their lives at risk. To defy the authority of the Crown Prince in the heart of the Empire, of all things.
The guard knight inspected Wonderstein's manner of speech and attire, and apparently taking him for a foreign noble, instead of threatening him directly, turned to the hotel manager.
"What is this person talking about?"
"Ah, well, you see, we held a kind of competition to select who would face this employee, and these two were the winners."
From the very beginning, the manager had been excessively deferential to the knights.
Borjomi was originally private property of the imperial household, and business had only been permitted here thanks to a special exemption. If he got on their bad side, whether it was the Golden Palace or anything else, his business would be finished that very day. That was why the guard knights could afford to be so heavy-handed.
"Is that so? Then your game skills must be excellent as well. What is your name and status?"
"Frank Wonderstein. A wandering magician."
"A magician? Hah, an entertainer, then? Very well. All three of you, come along. Know that it is an honor to be specially invited by His Highness the Crown Prince to his bath party."
"Understood. We'll do that."
Wonderstein accepted the proposal without resistance, inwardly cheering.
This was the very Crown Prince he'd been unable to face in the game itself. He hadn't spotted him at the train station days ago, and even after hearing he had arrived here, he couldn't approach him due to the guard knights. A chance to both protect Anais and observe what kind of person he was—this was a welcome opportunity.
'The knights' attitude seems a bit high-handed, but... still, this is the Crown Prince, renowned far and wide as the man who'll become a sage ruler. It's not like anything bad could really happen, right?'
From what they were saying, it sounded like what the Crown Prince wanted was simply a "kkakdugi." He was calling for them because he didn't have enough people for his game.
According to the game's lore, by the age of nine he had already been brilliant enough at strategy and tactics to defeat the empire's top Go player. The thought of facing off against such a prodigy made his heart race. Well, because of The Smiling Man, he couldn't actually do that, but the feeling was there.
"Troupe Leader, are you sure about this?"
"Nothing will go wrong. Trust me."
Wonderstein gave her a reassuring smile. Seeing it, Anais felt a painful tightness bloom in her chest.
'How remarkable this man is.'
Unlike her, who the moment she removed the labels of Viscountess and President couldn't even answer back to irrational treatment, he was always self-assured. Even with the shabby status of an unregistered person, he never backed down from what he thought was right.
A man who throws himself into things for others without sparing himself. He had already come to her aid, even though she held no value for him as a patron. This, in spite of the fact that her enemy, the Voodoo Cult, was not the sort of opponent a mere circus troupe leader could dare to approach.
'Ah, right. Perhaps I...'
The real reason she had tried to bluff and pretend everything was fine when she met him again.
She had been terrified of showing him a side different from what he expected. If he had refused to help her with an awkward expression, or if he had calculated the pros and cons and even turned informant to the doppelganger's side... she would have been betrayed once more by someone she had trusted.
'Thank you.'
Anais ran her fingers along Wonderstein's solid back, expressing her gratitude to him in her heart.
"Hey, you. Aren't you a participant at this table too? Get up!"
The knight shouted at Nika. All this time, Nika had kept silent, her head deeply bowed; at that shout, her heart felt as though it was shriveling down to nothing.
"M-Me...?"
She cautiously raised her head and gauged the reactions around her. The guardsmen here were the "defectives" that Dmitri Kazenov had sifted out over the past few months.
In other words, they were individuals with bad reputations even within the Imperial Guard, or those who passed information to the Crown Prince's political enemies. The reason they'd been collected and brought on this journey was to use any problems that erupted from the Crown Prince's escapades as a pretext to expel them from the Guard for the crime of failing to properly serve him.
Until now, they had always been assigned duties far removed from the Crown Prince himself. Fortunately, none of them recognized Nika's face.
Nika's current appearance was so different from usual that even knights who had served her up close would have trouble recognizing her, and more importantly, the soldiers here had just come from escorting her body double, Kokarl. They could never have imagined that the person right in front of them was the real Crown Prince.
'What do I do? How do I handle this...?'
Just in case, Nika scanned the crowd. She hoped one of her own escorts might have finished their assignment early and returned. But there was no one there who would step forward for her.
'I can't reveal my identity.'
If she were discovered to be the Crown Prince here, it would be the end. Having lied about her height and build wasn't the problem; other nobles did that often enough, even if not to her extreme degree.
The problem was that she was currently cross-dressing.
An excuse like "I simply misunderstood how to wear a bathrobe" wouldn't fly. She had already spent three days in this place, behaving perfectly like a girl. Every single person here was a witness.
No, before that, it was questionable whether these guardsmen would even believe she was the Crown Prince if she said so. No, it was a problem even if they did find out. They were people in the enemy camp. No, more than that, how was she supposed to get out of here right now—no, why were things turning out like this...?
"There's no more time for dallying. Now, these people are guests of His Highness the Crown Prince. Escort them with all due courtesy."
Seeing Nika hesitate and try to edge her body away, the knight unceremoniously pushed her forward by the back. The guardsmen surrounded the three of them without a gap.
Most of the guardsmen here were those with generally poor standing in normal times. Having spent ages drifting through insignificant posts and finally grasping a chance to catch the Crown Prince's eye, they were all desperate to win his favor.
The knight admired his own acumen at handling the situation: the higher-ups had asked for one, and he was presenting three.
And so, the three of them were escorted by the guardsmen to the place where the Crown Prince's party was enjoying themselves.
From a distance, the boisterous laughter of men and women was laced with the fragrant scent of alcohol.
An open-air hot spring perched on a cliff overlooking the entire city of Borjomi.
Beneath the dark night sky—a place where frothing bubbles and pure-white steam, dancing in the faint flicker of lamplight, carried the stars upon them and swayed in time with the sound of a waterfall plunging into the deep.
The place they had arrived at was the Heavenly Bath, one of the Golden Palace's two great attractions.
Before entering the hot spring, the guard knight turned to face them and spoke.
"Remove your clothes."
Nika felt as though she were plunging headlong off the dizzying cliffside into the abyss below.