Just Two Days Into the Journey, I Witnessed a Power Struggle!!
Soft, damp, and searingly hot lips.
It had been nothing more than unavoidable physical contact during the rescue, yet the burning warmth of her mouth was more than enough to set my face ablaze.
But if I reacted or let myself get flustered here, she would only suffer for it mentally, wouldn’t she?
She might torment herself thinking she had accidentally kissed the very person who had saved her from assassination.
During rescue work I had seen naked women before, and there had been plenty of times I had to tear clothing or undergarments just to free someone. So I was completely fine!!
“Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I-I’m fine! Really, I’m perfectly fine!!”
Declaring herself unharmed, she briskly brushed the dust from her knees and turned her face away from mine. It wasn’t only my cheeks that had gone scarlet—hers were just as flushed.
Seeing her embarrassment told me she was fine both mentally and physically. Someone truly broken wouldn’t even be able to react like that. After all the time I had spent on the battlefield, I knew that much well enough.
Next I seized the hand of the girl who had recognized me and pulled her firmly toward me. This time I controlled my strength properly, so our faces didn’t collide again. Then, with one arm around Helena and the other around her mother, I leapt from the slowly sinking carriage. I even managed a soft landing so neither of us twisted an ankle—pure class.
Once I set the two of them free, Albert, who had been watching quietly from behind, approached. He already had towels and water ready; the man really did have excellent instincts.
Only the butler left, then.
I jumped high once more, landed atop the carriage, and held out my hand to the butler.
“Take it.”
“Th-thank y—waaaaaah!!”
How dare he not know who I was? I had treated the mother and daughter gently because they recognized me, but I had zero intention of being kind to someone who didn’t.
Instead of letting him land on the carriage first and then jump down the way the other two had, I yanked his hand and leapt off at the same time. The butler failed to stick the landing and went tumbling across the dirt.
“You’re fine, right? Not hurt?”
“I-I’m fine… *cough*…”
A man couldn’t afford to look weak in front of ladies. He scrambled to his feet, dusted off his butler’s uniform, and hurried over to the women. What a model butler. Maybe I had been a little too rough with him.
“My lady, young miss—are either of you injured?”
“We’re quite all right. More importantly, are you unharmed, Butler?”
“I… I am perfectly fine.”
He shot me a furtive glance and then shook his head vigorously. Looks like he had figured out that earning my dislike would make life difficult. You don’t go blaming the person who just saved you—that would be like demanding a drowned man’s bundle as payment.
The people I had rescued were, as expected, the family of the Mayor of Free Port City. His wife and daughter, no less!
To think I had kissed the daughter of someone so high-ranking… The soft, faintly sweet taste of those lips kept resurfacing in my mind. But that wasn’t important right now, so I shoved the memory into a corner.
“Thank you so very much for saving us.”
Mother and daughter lifted their skirts slightly in a perfect noble curtsy, while the butler placed a hand over his heart and offered an elegant bow of gratitude as well.
The woman who greeted me first was named Hella—the Mayor of Free Port City’s first wife. The daughter standing behind her was Helena, first in the line of succession among the Mayor’s many sons and daughters.
The two of them had been on their way home after visiting the girl’s parents and grandparents in the kingdom. The Mayor himself had been too busy with work to accompany them.
“You’re welcome. More importantly, what happened? Looking at the road, there’s no reason a carriage should have charged off like that.”
Even on an unpaved track there was still a proper path. The swamp where their carriage was sinking lay a fair distance from the road itself.
“Well, you see…”
With a sigh, Hella told us the story.
About two days after leaving the kingdom, another carriage had begun following them from behind. Sightings of other carriages were rare out here, but not unheard of, so they had thought nothing of it. Then that carriage had drawn right up alongside theirs, and their coachman had simply climbed over into it. Sensing danger, the butler had tried to open the door—only to find it locked. Moments later the carriage had veered into the swamp and begun to sink.
“I still can’t understand why a coachman employed by the family would do such a thing.”
“Our usual coachman fell ill, so a new one came to fetch us. And since the carriage itself was ours, we never suspected a thing.”
“I see.”
“There have been quite a few incidents like this lately. Not long ago a countess left the royal capital by carriage and vanished; a ransom demand followed soon after.”
Apparently all sorts of things had been happening in the capital while I was off at war. Even the coachman knew about them, yet I hadn’t. Albert, being a coachman himself, seemed familiar with similar cases.
So this really was a crime targeting the Mayor’s wife and daughter.
“Yes. It was almost certainly aimed at Helena, first in the line of succession.”
Hella gently stroked the hair of her daughter, who was clinging to her from behind and watching us. Just from the way she moved her hand and the smile on her face, even someone as clueless as I could tell how deeply she loved her child.
A power struggle, then… If they were willing to kill the first heir, the competition must be fierce.
“Power struggles always give me a headache.”
“Once we return to the city I intend to speak with my husband and tear this out by the roots.”
“Mother…”
“Don’t worry, Helena.”
She caressed her daughter’s cheek, a faint sheen of tears in her eyes. Nestled against her, Helena saw those tears and her own eyes grew moist as well.
A lioness with cubs bares her trained claws and fangs at any enemy. Even I—who had never shed a tear on the battlefield or when I was abandoned—felt a single tear slip free.
“Lady Esilly… might I ask one favor of you?”
Wiping her tears, Hella stepped slowly toward me. Helena, still holding onto her mother, followed a step forward as well. The sight was so endearing I nearly smiled, but I forced my expression to stay blank.
I would help with anything. A mother’s love for her daughter had lit a fire in my chest.
“What is it?”
“Please help us return safely to Free Port City.”
“I already planned to do that the moment I saved you.”
“You have my deepest thanks. To trouble the hero who saved our homeland with such a trivial request… I am truly ashamed.”
“Trivial? Hardly. From now on I intend to make my living as an adventurer, you know.”
Escort jobs were the most ordinary commissions an adventurer could take. If this counted as trivial, then every request adventurers accepted would be trivial!
“Albert! Get us ready to leave at once!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Hella, Helena—please climb into the carriage. It’s spacious, so don’t worry.”
I had rented a large carriage simply because I preferred roomy spaces over cramped ones; I never imagined it would come in handy like this.
Hella bowed once more and climbed aboard first. But Helena, who had been right behind her, didn’t follow. Instead she came around to my side.
Wondering what was wrong, I looked down—and found her clutching my sleeve, head tilted curiously.
…Cute.
“May I call you Helena? Come on, let’s get into the carriage.”
“……Lady Esilly… earlier…”
“Earlier?”
“Th-the… k-kiss…”
Helena’s face suddenly flushed as red as a beet. With the hand that wasn’t gripping my sleeve she slowly brushed her own lips, then hung her head low.
Oh no…
Apparently she had come to protest the fact that I had stolen her lips. Was she going to say she could never marry now and demand I take responsibility?
But this had been completely unavoidable!! And besides, being told to take responsibility for someone as cute and pretty as Helena sounded less like a punishment and more like a reward. If it meant taking care of a girl like her, I would gladly kiss those lips a thousand times over.
Wait—what am I even thinking? Women aren’t supposed to do that with other women!
I still didn’t have enough awareness that I was a woman myself, even after living as one for more than twenty years.
“I’m sorry. I used too much strength and our lips ended up touching.”
“N-no… that’s not it…”
The beet-red face had now ripened into a fully cooked tomato. Her embarrassment meter seemed to have hit lethal levels.
“I… I…”
“You…?”
“I… liked it…!”
“Huh?”
Without showing me her face, Helena covered it with both hands and bolted for the carriage.
Liked it.
If I hadn’t misheard, that single word had definitely been meant for me. Liked what? Obviously the kiss.
Could it be that Helena preferred girls?
Looks like I’ll have to call her out alone tonight and ask.