The Princess's Stubbornness
One hour later, at the temple in the capital.
Maru waited outside the sickroom. When the poison she'd coughed up showed no sign of improvement, he had bolted for the temple on horseback without a moment's delay, riding full tilt until he arrived. The temple's most skilled priestesses had been called in immediately, and only now did he finally have a moment to breathe.
It was a tedious wait. As Maru stared blankly into space, Audrite kept circling through his mind.
'Hey there. What exactly are you planning to do with this kid?'
'Guess it was a lie, huh? A know-it-all AND a liar. A Kkonjaengi.'
'Right on time. You really do keep your promises, don't you?'
Before he knew it, a smile had crept across Maru's face. What a bright, cheerful woman, he thought.
It felt refreshingly different from Kiera, who had only ever responded after he'd reached out to her first—after he'd done this for her, given her that, granted her every wish. This was a woman whose reactions bloomed in all sorts of directions even when he didn't approach her. Somehow, against his better judgment, she intrigued him. He wanted to poke at her, just to see what reaction she'd come up with next.
Not that he should be feeling this way—not after swearing he'd never date another woman again.
Click.
The sickroom door swung open, and the priestesses filed out in a rush. Since it was the princess who'd been hurt, even the temple's high priests had been mobilized.
"How is Her Highness's condition?"
The middle-aged priestess who appeared to hold the highest rank smiled warmly. "The healing went beautifully and she has fully recovered. She's perfectly fine now."
"That's a relief. Thank you. Would it be all right if I visited?"
"Of course, go on in."
The moment Maru opened the door and stepped inside, the princess was laughing with more energy than anyone who'd nearly died of snake venom had any right to.
"You're here! Hold on, let me get my shoes on."
She climbed down from the bed, slipped her feet into her shoes, and began tying the laces. When Maru stole a glance at her thigh, he could see two small holes still punched through the white fabric of her trousers—but beneath them, the skin had regenerated without a trace. The flesh peeking through those little holes was white and flawless.
"The temple food here is actually pretty good. Want to grab a meal together before you go? I'm starving—how about you?"
In stark contrast to her easy familiarity, Maru's expression had hardened into stone.
"There is something I must say."
"Go ahead."
"Please do not interfere with me and the Prince ever again."
"…?"
Audrite froze mid-lace, then rose from her seat and turned to look at him. The sudden gravity of the moment had clearly thrown her off balance.
"Your reckless behavior delayed the Prince's schedule and nearly cost you your own life. I would ask that nothing like today ever happens again. Send word of your own itinerary, Your Highness. As for our affairs, we will manage them ourselves."
"Hey—"
"I'll take my leave, then."
"Hey! Maru!"
The princess shouted after him, but Maru ignored her completely, gave a respectful bow, and walked straight out of the sickroom.
Left alone, Audrite leaned her hips against the edge of the bed.
"So friendly and concerned on the way here, and now he pulls this out of nowhere… Is he insane, or what?"
She fell deep into thought. "Could he be someone trying to climb the social ladder by using Edward…?"
Two days later, the King summoned Maru.
The white-bearded old monarch stood with his hands clasped behind his back, alone, admiring the moonlit pond.
"You called for me, Your Majesty."
"Ah, there you are."
Spotting Maru, the King broke into a genial smile and gave his shoulder a friendly thump. "You've been working hard lately."
"Not at all, sire."
"Thanks to you, our Prince's prestige grows by the day. I'm grateful."
"It is all thanks to Your Majesty's grace."
"I hardly did anything worth mentioning. Hoh hoh."
The King turned his head to gaze at the pond. He savored the scenery for a while, then spoke slowly.
"The Princess came to see me today. She says she wants to leave the palace tomorrow with the Prince on a tour of the common folk's living conditions. I suppose she means to thrash some bandits and hunt down the beasts ruining the people's fields while she's at it."
"Did you grant her permission?"
The King answered lightly. "I did."
A groan escaped Maru's lips. His words came faster. "The Princess suspects me. This inspection almost certainly carries an ulterior motive. What if—if it comes to it—the Prince's true ability is exposed before all the world? What then?"
"Then you'll simply have to make sure no one realizes it."
"That's impossible. There will be hundreds of eyes watching."
The King thumped Maru's shoulder again. "Turning the impossible into the possible—that's what you do, isn't it? Pull this off, and I shall reward you with a most glorious appointment. That's a request from your King. A man can't spend every day catching bandits, you know. Even a retainer must savor a different dish now and then, or people start asking questions."
A while later, Maru returned to his room, shaking his head, and slumped bonelessly into a chair.
"What even counts as a 'glorious position' in this country? The only position more glorious than your current one is the throne itself."
Either way, this was a headache. He couldn't step in directly in Edward's place, so what was he supposed to do? This one was a genuinely impossible mission.
"The coach can be as brilliant as he likes, but if the player has limits, he shouldn't get greedy."
He tipped his head back and stared blankly at the ceiling, thinking of the King. And in his mind's eye, Maru—shirt half stripped off—drove a fist square into the royal gut.
"What you can't do, you CAN'T do, Your Majestyyyy!"
"GRAAAAGH!"
The King spun like a top and went soaring off toward the upper atmosphere.
"Is that my revenge for the sickroom…?"
Maru snorted, picturing the princess.
"You smell far more powerfully of a dominant male than before, my Lord."
"Who's there?"
Maru rose from his seat and looked toward the curtain hanging over the window. Only the candles were lit in the room, leaving the window side somewhat dark. A beat later, he recognized the familiar voice.
"Luciela?"
The curtain swept aside, revealing a woman in a black robe. She wore the calm, composed smile of an aristocratic lady in her thirties. She stepped out into the light and offered a courteous bow.
"Did you miss me, my Lord?"
"You're alive."
Maru's face brightened. "You're the one who pulled me from the sea, aren't you? And I heard you were being chased by a wyvern."
"The injuries I sustained were grave. I was forced to devote myself entirely to recovery for a very long time."
"So I owe you yet another debt. Ah, wait a moment. I bought you a present."
Maru hurried to the wardrobe and pulled out a thick pouch and a black dress. "I wasn't sure if you'd like it."
Luciela pushed back the hood that had been shadowing her face and examined the gift—then gave a distinctly lukewarm response.
"Why on earth did you buy potions?"
"For you to drink."
"A waste of money."
"……"
"And why a dress?"
"For you to wear."
"The design is terrible. So provincial."
Maru clicked his tongue. "Demons really are incapable of gratitude."
"I'd rather receive a much grander gift than these trifles, if it's all the same to you."
Luciela slowly ran her tongue along her index finger, fixing Maru's lower half with a smoldering gaze. "I'm hungry for your essence, my Lord."
Maru whipped around and marched straight to his chair, sitting down hard.
"Cut the nonsense. So are you taking the gifts or not?"
"I don't need them. Nothing satisfies me but your essence."
"Then I'll have to call you 'dog.' I'll give the dress to some woman I know."
"Why not dress that Hero of yours in it?"
"You little—"
"Oh, right. You can't, can you."
Luciela's lips curled into a wickedly wry smile.
"But… what in the world have you been doing to yourself?"
She drew close, gliding her hands over his broad shoulders and then across the firm planes of his chest. Then she leaned to his ear and whispered, sticky and slow.
"Since when do you radiate such an overpoweringly masculine scent? It's intoxicating. I could die."
"I gained power. That's all."
"And yet you still haven't removed the brand, I see?"
Luciela gave a soft hhm-hm laugh. Maru felt his ears go warm.
"Don't make this weird. If you've got no business here, get out."
"Is that any way to treat the woman who saved your life, my Lord? Your benefactor deserves kindness."
"Then stop groping me and go bring that chair over and sit down."
"Shall I… keep you company, then?"
"What's that supposed to mean? I just want to talk. Hurry up and get the chair."
That night, Maru talked with Luciela long into the hours until dawn broke. Perhaps because she knew the depths of his story so intimately, the conversation never once stalled—it flowed between them effortlessly. They drank together, poured out their hearts without reserve, and he took her candid counsel to heart. It was, truly, an enjoyable time.
By the time Luciela departed and daylight arrived, Maru's heart felt considerably lighter.
"You told me not to interfere—so I'm doing my job instead."
Morning. Audrite stood at his side, dressed in what looked unmistakably like an official inspection uniform. Her long, straight hair worn down for once, she flashed him a smile that practically radiated serves you right.
"This is a livelihood inspection for the Prince and the Princess. The clerk can stay in the back. Other people will handle our support, so all you have to do is watch."
"Understood."
Maru, riding alongside, dropped back without protest.
The Prince and Princess's inspection had drawn out not only their attendants but several royal ministers, and even the Royal Guard had been deployed. With so many exalted figures crowding the procession, a lowly clerk like Maru had no place anywhere near the front.
"Onward! We depart!"
Before long, the party of nearly a hundred swept out of the palace in a grand procession.
The Prince and Princess had set out intending to spend the entire day inspecting the lives of the common people and resolving, one by one, the grievances that had been pouring into the royal court. Naturally, any grievance requiring brute force was to be resolved magnificently by the Prince himself.
But Edward was terrified.
Seizing a gap as the procession marched on, he frantically spurred his horse to the rear and drew up right beside Maru.
"M-Maru, my friend. What am I to do? If I loose my bow a hundred times, all hundred arrows will miss the mark. And if it comes to a sword, I'm more worried about getting pummeled than pummeling."
While Edward fretted like a man carrying a mountain on his back, Maru was so relaxed he was on the verge of yawning.
"My advice to you is this: 'just do it and see.'"
"Just do it and see? Won't we be found out? Is that truly all right?"
"Trust me. I've prepared countermeasures for everything."
"R-really?"
Edward's face lit up instantly. "Hooh!"
He clenched his fist. "Excellent! Then I shall do exactly as you say!"
He was a simple creature, and that made him wonderfully easy to manage. Feed him a little praise and his thinking turned on a dime. Edward urged his horse forward vigorously and rejoined the head of the column.
"You're saying that every night, wolves come right over the fence and carry off your sheep? Ohhh, my poor lambs! See that hill over yonder? Beyond it lies the forest where those devils den! Go straight there and put them to the blade, Your Highness!"
The first grievance: exterminating a wolf pack.
Having stopped briefly at a villager's home, the Prince and Princess's party headed straight for the hill. Soon enough they spotted the wolves, and the Royal Guard swiftly formed an encirclement, driving the pack into a single tight cluster.
"Seal them in tight! Not one wolf escapes!"
"Yes, sir!"
Now it was Edward's turn to step forward and display a prince's majesty. All he had to do was pick off the wolves rampaging this way and that inside the Royal Guard's encirclement, one arrow at a time, and the job was done.
Amid it all, the princess sauntered over to Maru with a smirk.
"I came to watch your face when I got that satisfying laugh out of you."
"And do you really think such a moment will come?"
"If my deductions are right, Edward's skill is a fabrication. What people don't know is that a Proxy Knight exists—a hidden champion they never see."
Audrite swept her hair back behind her ear and smiled. "That hidden knight is you. I honestly expected Edward to invent some illness and skip today entirely. I never imagined he'd actually show up. So now I'm the curious one. Why did you bring him along? You could have dodged this so easily. But no—you chose to see this through with me to the end. Which means this has become a contest neither of us can back down from."
"His Highness is an exceptional man, and I am merely an ordinary clerk."
"Then the truth will reveal itself shortly, won't it?"
"Did you come all the way over here to keep an eye on me, by any chance? What are you playing at?"
The princess was already wearing the smile of a victor. "If you'd just eaten your temple meal quietly and parted ways with me yesterday, we wouldn't be at each other's throats like this right now."
"……"
Maru held his silence for a moment, then turned his gaze away with a chuckle.
"Then by all means, watch."
He raised a hand and pointed into the distance. Edward was drawing his bowstring taut atop his horse. An instant later, the arrow flew.
Pi-yuung!
The arrow's trajectory shot off toward some wildly wrong direction—then curved, smooth and natural, back on course.
Thwack!
It struck the fleeing wolf squarely in the forehead. The beast tumbled head over heels, rolling across the ground, thrashed briefly—and went still.
"AHAHAHA! Did you all see it! Did you feel it! MY magnificence!"
Edward, utterly carried away, let out a whooping cry. The ministers who'd been watching marveled and broke into applause.
"Ooooh! Magnificent, Your Highness!"
As everyone around her cheered, only Audrite failed to smile. Her face was plastered with question marks.
"Wh-what in the world…?"
"Is that a satisfying enough laugh for you?"
Before the dumbfounded princess, Maru flashed his brightest grin.