The Second Kiss (2) — And Natalie
"You should've said so from the start."
Maru rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish.
"The truth is... I went to see Her Highness this morning."
"What for? Is something wrong?"
"I told her that I'd be leaving the kingdom in a couple of days."
"!?"
Audrite stared at him for a long moment with wide eyes before asking,
"...Why are you leaving?"
"Because I assumed you would accept the political marriage. I didn't want to be in the way."
"You idiot!"
Her face twisted in frustration.
"Go back and tell Her Highness you're staying! Right now! Go!"
But Maru shook his head, his expression troubled.
"I've already sent letters ahead to the people at my next destination — lodging contracts, a full itinerary, promises of every kind. There's no way to cancel now. If I break my word, they'll think me utterly faithless. I'd never be able to do business with them again."
His words struck Audrite like a dagger to the heart.
It felt as though her chest were caving in.
She looked up at him with pleading eyes.
"Don't go anyway. I was the fool. I shouldn't have thrown you into confusion like this. Please? I'm begging you."
"......"
When Maru offered no answer, only sighing as he stared up at the ceiling, tears began to well in her eyes.
"Tell me you're not leaving!"
"I'm sorry. Once a man has given his word, he has to see it through."
"Then what am I? Was I never precious to you?"
"Haah... If I'd known you were going to choose me, I never would have made those arrangements... It's too late to change the plan now."
"I was wrong! I was wrong, all right?!"
Audrite burst into loud sobs.
Wailing, she grabbed his arm and shook it.
"Send word that you're not going! Send it right now!"
"Throwing a tantrum won't work. The answer's still no."
"Why! Why not?! Write the letter and say you can't leave!"
She kept shrieking and begging without pause.
She blamed him for making such a rash, hasty choice, then swung back around to lamenting her own behavior.
"I'll never pull a prank like that again, so don't go. Please, I'm begging you. Sob, sob..."
"Ah!"
Maru suddenly clapped his hands, as if struck by an idea.
"I've just thought of a wonderful way I could stay!"
"How? What do I have to do?"
"Tomorrow morning, you and I will share a meal — just the two of us!"
"...Excuse me?"
The girl who had been weeping torrents of tears only a moment ago stared up at him blankly.
Her eyes said, Where in the world did that come from?
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"You don't get it? I was having a little fun with you."
"I'm too worked up to follow any of this — so you're not leaving? That's the point?"
"That's right. The whole 'leaving' thing was a bluff. Consider yourself reassured."
Maru flashed her a sunny smile.
"You really are...!"
Audrite scrunched up her face, sprang to her feet, and pummeled his shoulders with her fists.
"That's cruel! You're the worst!"
Relief flooded through her, but she still resented him for it.
She kept hammering away with her fists even as tears streamed down her face.
"I actually agonized over whether I'd have to chase you to the ends of the earth if you left! Never toy with a person like that again! I really believed you! Hic! You liar! Boomer! Kkonjaengi! Sob...!"
"I won't, I won't do it again. Okay, that's enough hitting. Ow, ow, ow!"
"I know full well that doesn't hurt!"
"Your punches feel like sledgehammers, Princess. Ow!"
"Don't be dramatic!"
After all that commotion, things finally quieted down.
Audrite settled onto the bed with a calm expression, and Maru sat down beside her, taking her hand and tenderly stroking the back of it.
"Feeling a little better now?"
"I don't know. Hmph."
Maru smiled quietly as he watched her sniffle, then soon spoke in a serious tone.
"There's actually... something I haven't told you yet, Princess. Something besides what happened with the Hero's party."
Maru had resolved to confess the truth — that he was the Crown Prince of the Empire.
But Audrite flinched and shot him a sidelong glare.
"Don't even dream of messing with me again. I will get seriously, catastrophically angry."
"Just hear me out. This is important."
"You're making it up on the spot right now, aren't you?"
"I'm not. I'm going to tell you the truth. My real past. A secret I never told Lucy, my old party mage — much less Kiera, my ex-girlfriend. I only want to reveal it to you."
"If I find out you've deceived me yet again after this, I'm walking out for good. Tell me, if you're so confident."
"The truth is... I am Queen Alexandria's son. The Queen is my mother."
"What did you say?"
When Maru delivered his confession with a perfectly straight face, Audrite stared at him blankly — then burst out laughing.
"Ahahaha! That one at least is so absurd it's actually funny! Hahaha!"
Maru blinked.
"It's the truth."
"Did the portraits they sent from the Empire give you an inferiority complex? Hahaha. Are you worried I might get ideas because those people are so impressive? Don't be. I like you better anyway. Even if you were a beggar, I'd love you all the same."
"No, I mean it. I really am."
"Stop."
Audrite said firmly, tapping him on the knee.
"Forget all that and talk about something else. You still haven't said anything, you know."
"What do you mean?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
"I truly have no idea."
"I'm the only one who's confessed so far."
She slowly rubbed her own cheek with the back of her hand, looking embarrassed.
"Earlier, and just now, too. It's been me saying over and over that I like you, that I love you, and you've said..."
"Ah..."
Maru gazed down at her hand in his with a warm smile.
Her hand was so pale and lovely.
Her nails were trimmed to just the right length, glossy and smooth as though coated in something translucent.
Tracing those nails idly with his thumb, he opened his mouth.
"Did you know? Because of you, I've become a liar. After I broke up with Kiera, I swore I would never fall in love again — but once I met you, that vow was broken."
"Are you the type who falls head over heels at the drop of a hat?"
"Never, not once in my life — and then you came along and made me this way."
"Is that my fault?"
"Yes. You're terrifyingly beautiful."
Maru's face drifted slowly toward hers.
He stopped just shy of her lips, close enough that a breath would bridge the gap.
"When you've found the most beautiful woman in the world, speed is everything. Linger, and some other bastard might steal her away. Remember this well — you belong to me, and no one else. From this very moment, don't even glance at another man. As Crown Prince — that is my command."
The words were barely out of his mouth before he sealed his lips to hers.
'Not a Crown Prince at all, and there he goes again.'
That was Audrite's first thought — before she lost the ability to think anything at all.
When Maru's tongue pushed insistently past her lips, Audrite welcomed the assault.
Eyes closed, heart pounding fit to burst, she wrapped both arms around his neck.
Between lips that met and parted, met and parted again, two tongues tangled in dizzying abandon.
Before long, the two of them tumbled onto the bed.
Both of them were young and in the full flush of blood and vitality — a kiss alone was never going to be enough, and once their bodies caught fire, no amount of open windows could cool them.
Maru laid Audrite down and drove into her, hard.
The Basilite Kingdom.
A forest near the border.
An arrow came flying in from somewhere and punched clean through a deer's torso.
The herd bolted in an instant, and the struck deer shuddered, trembled once, and died.
"Deer meat again. I'm so damn sick of deer."
Natalie grumbled as she picked up the dead deer.
She slung it over her shoulder and made her way to the spot where a campfire crackled.
At the fire, she skinned the hide from the deer's back and carved off only the choicest cut clinging to the backstrap.
It was a cut worth about three hundred grams per animal — tender and satisfyingly chewy, and by far the best thing about roasting venison over a campfire.
Everything else tasted like nothing, so she threw the rest away.
She threaded the trimmed pieces one by one onto an iron skewer and set them over the flames.
While the meat cooked, she sat staring blankly at the fire — until wolves began howling in the darkness around her.
Drawn in by the smell, most likely.
Natalie picked up a rock and hurled it into the distance.
"Get lost before I slaughter the lot of you, you mangy bastards!"
Her furious roar echoed through the trees, and the forest quickly fell silent again.
"Heh. Even beasts know a strong human when they smell one," she chuckled, thoroughly pleased with herself.
The laughter died quickly, though.
"Whew..."
A heavy sigh escaped her before she could stop it.
Two weeks on her own now, was it.
Camping out every night meant she barely slept and barely ate, and exhaustion had become her constant companion.
If she'd had money, she could at least have hired a servant — but she was a hopeless spendthrift, and had saved nothing at all.
She'd once blown the price of an entire house on a single night's drinking, and her favorite indulgence, Paradise Grass, didn't come cheap either.
She frequented brothels staffed exclusively by pretty young men, and to keep up appearances with the men she met there, she bought them gifts by the armful.
Warrior's equipment was ruinously expensive too — every time she replaced a single piece of armor, a fortune went out the door.
No wonder her purse had never once filled up.
"Damn it. When Maru was around, we camped every single night and I still ate well and slept well."
These days, she was belatedly coming to appreciate everything he'd done.
Doing it herself, she finally understood just how much effort he had poured in over those three years — how much sweat it had cost him to keep every member of the party in peak condition, day after day.
Standing night watch, cooking, washing laundry, hauling luggage, pitching camp — she'd always thought all of it was laughably trivial. Turns out it was harder than fighting.
There were a thousand tiny things that demanded attention.
It ate up absurd amounts of time, too.
She never had enough hours left to actually rest and recover her strength.
It was a genuine pain in the ass.
If merely looking after herself wore her down this much, Maru had been looking after four more people on top of her.
And yet he had never once let it show.
He'd earned her fresh admiration all over again.
She ached with guilt that during all those years together, she hadn't managed a single word of thanks for how hard he worked.
"I was such a dumb bitch..."
Thinking of Maru, emotion surged up in Natalie and choked her.
She clutched her chest and breathed in deep, then out again.
She only understood after he was gone.
That the only person who had ever truly seen her — truly known her — was Maru.
'Natalie. The way you look right now — you're not gleaming armor anymore. You look like faded armor crusted with filth. That never used to be true.'
'It's booze and fried chicken. Figured your mouth was getting bored.'
'A thank-you for standing at the front of the party and holding the line all these years.'
'To stop you from drowning in Paradise Grass, locking you up was the best option I had. It was the only way to protect you, Natalie.'
The warm words Maru had once spoken to her finally broke the dam.
"Hhk! Shit...! I'm sorry...! I'm sorry for everything I said to youuuu...! Sob, sob!"
Natalie wept bitterly, wringing her own heart in her fists.
The warrior woman who had once been savage as a beast and hard as tempered steel had lately turned into a sobbing schoolgirl.
Ever since the betrayal she'd suffered at Kiera's hands — and the shock of it — her self-worth had crumbled to almost nothing.
'Natalie. The new party members seem to find you a burden. I'm sorry, but I'd like you to leave the party.'