The Saintess Hates the Princess (3)
Given a little time to collect herself, Mirajen seemed to have cooled off from her earlier outburst. She swept a hand down her face, then pressed her palms together into a triangle and peeked at me through the gap.
It was a habit from the old days — was it really that embarrassing? Mirajen wouldn't remember, but with the person she loved, she could be remarkably forward. Of course, that was when we'd been officially lovers. Now that we were nothing to each other, I supposed the shyness made sense. Still, seeing this side of her was a novel experience in its own right. Even if I'd watched this exact scene more than ten times before, Mirajen was the sort who always found a new reaction to show me.
When I laughed, she glared at me with knitted brows. Her darting eyes stilled for a moment, and at last her mouth opened, hesitant.
"This might be an intrusive question, but... did you happen to have a great many women in your life?"
"I didn't expect that to be your first question, but there's only ever been one."
"...I know you had a fiancée. Haah, I'm just surprised, is all."
I caught on quickly to what had surprised her, so I simply smiled and said nothing. What I'd done just now did skirt the line a little — perhaps old memories had crept in. To think that even mid-anger, one look at her face would melt it away. Sometimes I wondered if I wasn't a fool.
"I was only teasing you. I was a little angry."
"I don't usually say this sort of thing, but I am the Princess. You do remember that, don't you?"
"I remember. But would you prefer I treat you as one?"
At that, Mirajen fidgeted, then gave a small shake of her head. She probably thought this arrangement suited her fine. I felt much the same. I could have afforded her every courtesy due a Princess, but doing so would only have left me feeling stifled for no reason.
In any case, it was time to hear her reasons. What relic had she come searching for, and why had she slipped out of the Imperial Palace in secret? Surely she hadn't set out without a single precaution — when I asked, Mirajen, to my relief, walked me through the various measures she'd put in place.
"For starters, I've had a double of myself made."
"A double...?"
"As you know, I'm on good terms with plenty of people at the Magic Tower. Ask the mages, and conjuring a double of me is simple enough. I'm confined to my room for the duration of my discipline anyway, so there's no need to make it move about."
"And what will you do if word reaches the Emperor?"
"The others will cover for me. He doesn't come looking for me all that often to begin with, and lately he's been busy with his own affairs."
Come to think of it, the palace was indeed in a busy season. Wasn't this around the time the Emperor and the Crown Prince had begun discussing territorial expansion in earnest? And into that very gap, she had journeyed all the way to the South in person. I truly couldn't fathom where Mirajen's courage kept coming from.
"If I asked about the relic, you wouldn't tell me, would you."
"No, I can tell you. The problem is that I haven't been able to pin it down precisely myself yet."
"Then why come here at all?"
"It's one of the candidate sites. I'd originally meant to keep moving with mages in tow, but... I don't suppose I can manage traveling alone anymore."
I watched her in silence as she stole a glance at me. It went without saying. Her making it here at all was audacious enough — there was no chance I would stand by and let her wander on her own. The mages could be saved for her journey home. At least for as long as she remained in the South, I felt I had to keep an eye on her, if only for my own peace of mind.
The moment I fixed her with a stare, Mirajen flinched, rubbed her arm, and spoke up.
"You're not thinking of watching over me the entire time, are you?"
"Everyone seems to have taken up mind-reading lately."
"Everyone? Well, Adrian has always been good at reading people."
"I meant Adele. We'll be meeting her soon enough."
At the name Adele, Mirajen nodded along — then stopped mid-motion and stared hard at me. What could possibly have been wrong with what I'd just said? As I turned it over, her next words made the problem plain, and I let out a wry laugh.
"You call the Grand Duke by her name?"
"...Ah. It just sort of happened."
"I'm almost jealous — you've made so many friends without my knowing. Adrian, and now Adele too. They came all this way with you, didn't they?"
I'd been doing it even inside my own head, and now that I used their names in their presence as well, it had apparently slipped out. There was no need to make excuses, was there? It wasn't anything that needed hiding, and what was so remarkable about calling someone by name? It was nothing more than proof that we had grown close.
But perhaps Mirajen considered it a little more special than that. She studied me for a long moment before speaking.
"Try calling my name. Just once."
"Your Highness."
"...You won't use my name?"
"As you said yourself, you are the Princess, are you not?"
Strictly speaking, Adrian was a Saintess and Adele a Grand Duke besides, but neither I nor any of them put much weight on such titles. One thing was certain, though: my feelings ran contradictory. Trying to keep my distance, yet taking satisfaction in every step closer. I knew that someday it would have to stop — I simply couldn't decide when.
"Well, I don't imagine I can keep calling you 'young master' forever, either. It feels awkward."
I raised my head at the voice that came suddenly, and found Mirajen saying it with a faint tremble, as though embarrassed. Had it bothered her, my calling other people by their names? She had always been the type to stake her life on the smallest things, and now she seemed to be working up the nerve to use mine.
"You may call me by my name from now on. Maybe not back at the palace, but out here like this? Treating each other as 'young master' and 'Princess' would only make things awkward, don't you think?"
"It doesn't make me uncomfortable at all."
"...Er. Well, I thought it was awkward."
Cornered, she began to fidget, and a chuckle escaped me. Calling Mirajen by her name might be a genuinely difficult thing for me. Speaking a person's name is no great labor — but Mirajen was... a special person in more ways than one. The problem was how often I had once called it. If I lacked that history, I could have said it without a second thought, but the name Mirajen stirred up far too much in me. Memories I would rather not relive, for instance. Either way, I had no desire to say it just yet. Given a little more time — once my heart had settled — perhaps then it would be all right. What was certain was that now was not the time.
When I stuck with "Your Highness" to the very end, Mirajen pushed out her lip in displeasure. I found myself a little curious what reaction she would show if I did use her name someday. Would she blush? Or accept it naturally, asking what had taken me so long? Knowing the Mirajen I knew, she would play it cool on the surface while dying of embarrassment inside. I supposed that was part of why I had enjoyed her company.
That is to say — back when she and I were lovers.
The moment Adrian laid eyes on Mirajen, she began pouring out her anger, much as I had. What on earth had she been thinking, coming to a place this dangerous? Watching the scolding unfold, Adele looked faintly intrigued.
"So she does know how to get angry."
"They're friends. She seems to let herself be a little more casual around friends."
"Has she ever turned that temper on you?"
"Hard to say. I don't really do anything worth getting angry over."
Adrian was distinctly more at ease with Mirajen than with anyone else. I assumed it was because they'd been friends since childhood, but even to me, the sight of her angry was a considerable surprise. I chuckled quietly as I watched Mirajen flounder under the barrage. The Imperial Princess, being scolded by the Saintess — if not here, where else in the world could one witness such a thing?
"So you really did come for the relic? You knew how dangerous it was."
"I'm sorry. But there's a record of it — how could I not try? You understand, don't you?"
"You knew I was here. You could simply have asked me."
"Would the Church have just stood by and let that happen? If it came from the Imperial Family, they couldn't say a word."
It was rather amusing, hearing her say this to the very figurehead of that Church. And yet Adrian treasured Mirajen above the Church itself. Even after hearing such words, her worry for Mirajen only deepened — was that not admirable? I suspected that heart of hers had a great deal to do with her becoming Saintess in the first place. Most people, upon befriending the Princess, would have started thinking about how to use her.
Back when Mirajen and I were lovers, I had once asked her to introduce me to Adrian. I'd thought that meeting the Saintess might open up another way out of things. I remember Mirajen agonized over that request for quite a while. It was only later that I learned the greatest reason for her hesitation was that Adrian herself hadn't wanted it. Mirajen and Adrian were so alike — perhaps that was exactly how they'd come to be such friends.
Adele, for her part, simply watched the two of them in silence. She had no friends of that kind. She had subordinates like Bunta and Lotos, but those were bonds of comradeship and command — nothing one could call an equal relationship. Perhaps, somewhere inside, she envied it. Adele's true feelings were impossible to read with any certainty, so unless I asked her outright, there was no real way to know.
"So. Are we to stay here?"
Adele turned her gaze toward the Paladins standing nearby. Establishing our base here had been the right call, but while the other priests and Paladins conducted their investigation into the mages, we had a brief window of respite. Which meant, in effect, that we were free to roam the surrounding area.
I had my own interest in the relic Mirajen had mentioned. Even if it wasn't one I needed to secure for myself, I had made use of relics before, and my attention naturally gravitated toward them.
"I intend to travel about by carriage. The tower here is one thing, but the deeper levels hold quite a few separate sites, don't they?"
"Then I suppose I'm coming too. What a bother."
"If you'd rather not, you're free to stay behind. I have no intention of inconveniencing you."
At that, Adele laughed as if exasperated, shook her head, and her lips twitched.
"I believe I told you already. I don't feel at ease unless you're where I can see you."
As she said it, her gaze drifted to Mirajen and Adrian, still together nearby. Mirajen, who had been getting an earful until moments ago, was now laughing with her over some other topic entirely. There was a certain chill in the way Adele watched them. She blinked once, twice, then murmured under her breath.
"...Not that I could send you off alone, I suppose."
"Then we all go together."
I had come here following Adrian in the first place, so Adrian was a given. I had no intention of leaving Mirajen on her own, and since Adele had insisted on coming, the four of us would move as one.
So we walked toward the carriage — and then, abruptly, Adele glanced at me and spoke.
"By the way. How do we sit in the carriage?"
It seemed such a trivial question that I opened my mouth to answer — and then the weight of every eye upon me sealed my throat. Mirajen, mid-conversation with Adrian, turned to look at me. Adrian, who surely couldn't see a thing, turned as well. And so did Adele. All three of them simply stared, as if my answer were the only thing in the world worth waiting for.
In that delicate silence, I had barely finished blinking before Adele smiled sweetly and pressed again.
"I'm curious what you think. How would you like us to sit?"
Across so many regressions, I had believed I'd found the answers to most questions. I had unraveled riddles once called unsolvable, and fancied myself arrived at some mastery of wisdom besides. Perhaps it had all been an illusion. For faced with the conundrum now before me, I found I could not open my mouth so easily.