The Blade Queen's Outing - 3
“By the way, may I ask you something?”
“Hm? What is it?”
“You know how to use purification magic, so why didn’t you? The bed got filthy, and the smell was thick enough that it must have bothered you.”
The moment Albert voiced the question that had suddenly occurred to him, Beatrix stopped waving her hand through the air.
Love juices and semen. The carriage that had been choked with the scents of female and male was now as clean as if it were brand new—all thanks to a purification spell any mage could cast.
“Because I was reluctant. I didn’t want to wipe away the afterglow with my own hands.”
“Ah… I see.”
He breathed in the lingering scent and felt a quiet pride. Albert understood well enough, so he simply nodded.
Every time he looked at a wrecked room he would blanch and feel guilty—yet part of him also swelled with the thought, I can do this much. Her feeling was probably something like that. He decided that was the case.
Hiiing!
As if on cue, a horse neighed. The carriage that had been rolling forward gradually slowed and came to a stop.
Knock, knock.
“Your Majesty. We intend to camp here for the night. Will that be acceptable?”
A knight rapped on the carriage door as she asked. Her voice was as stiff with tension as the knock itself.
Instead of answering, Beatrix opened the door and gave a small nod.
“Make do with dry rations for the meal. Water flasks?”
“Yes. We’ve prepared them.”
“Then get ready to take on water.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
As the knight turned away to set the camp preparations in motion, Beatrix and Albert stepped out of the carriage as well.
Even though spring had arrived, a wind as cold and sharp as winter’s sliced across their cheeks.
“Still chilly,” Albert murmured, letting out a light puff of breath.
At first he had found it absurd that this world had something like a late cold snap too. By now he simply accepted it.
“We’ll need a good fire.”
“Yes. Even with tents up, it won’t completely keep the cold out. We’ll need a fire as well.”
“You’re right.”
A knight’s body was hardly so frail that a chill like this would harm it. Beatrix knew that perfectly well.
But Albert’s worrying…
She simply disliked seeing him look concerned, so she took steps to preserve the embers—with magic.
Beatrix let out a short sigh and conjured a water droplet in midair. It was enormous, as if several human heads had been fused together. Water created by magic was pure and free of impurities, perfectly usable as drinking water.
From a distance, the knights preparing camp approached with small flasks in hand.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Grateful for their queen’s mercy, they thrust their flasks into the droplet. Water was sucked in through the clearly visible openings until each flask was full. Even so, the droplet showed no sign of shrinking.
When Beatrix finally dismissed it, Albert asked with open curiosity,
“You said you’ve studied magic since you were little, right?”
“I did. If you want to be king, you have to learn the basics. Nothing beats magic for crushing a large army.”
“Then there must have been someone who taught you.”
“There was. Or rather, there used to be. She’s dead now. She was far too old.”
He had half-expected assassination when he heard “dead,” but the truth was simply old age. Albert smiled awkwardly at his own wild imagination.
His gaze drifted toward a campfire burning in the distance. They were on open plains, so they had set fire to the firewood they had brought along—not for cooking, but simply to warm themselves by.
The meal was dried jerky and bread baked a little hard for long storage. That, and the water Beatrix had provided, was everything.
“Is this really all right to eat?” Beatrix asked, holding up the square of jerky and the round loaf the supply knight had handed them.
“Of course it’s fine for me. What about you, Beatrix?”
“I’m… fine too. When we’re on the move for several days like this, keeping the bulk down is more efficient.”
“Yes. I think so as well.”
Albert tore into the jerky the knight had given him and smiled. It was hard, but perfectly edible—similar to what he had eaten growing up as an orphan and working for a trading company.
“Maybe we should have brought some dried vegetables too. That would have been more balanced.”
“We pack things that give strength even in small amounts because it’s convenient. If we really need vegetables, we can just pick them while we travel.”
“Ah. You’re right.”
He hadn’t thought of that. Albert tore into the bread with a look of mild chagrin. Whenever it stuck in his throat he pressed his lips to the water droplet Beatrix made for him and wet his throat.
“Have you ever camped before?” Beatrix asked, brushing bread crumbs from her hands. She had finished the jerky and bread cleanly, so her hands were empty. The same was true of Albert and the knights eating nearby.
“Yes, I have. Back then the trading company master hired mercenaries, and we slept in the cargo wagons.”
Albert answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Working for a trading company naturally meant going out on caravans. He had followed a master who insisted that merely guarding a building didn’t make one a merchant.
Back then all the odd jobs were my responsibility…
Now he was in the position of the company master who simply watched those odd jobs being done. The thought that one never knew how life would turn out crossed his mind.
Crack. A brief silence settled, and the faint sound of the campfire reached them.
Albert’s hand closed over Beatrix’s.
“Shall we sleep now?”
There was nothing left to do, and no watch to stand. So it wasn’t wrong to say that only sleeping remained.
When Beatrix quietly nodded, Albert’s steps turned toward the carriage.
The knights watched the backs of the man and woman disappearing inside and flushed. The sturdy carriage had begun to rock, little by little.
It had been built so solidly that there was no risk of it breaking. Even so, they stared at it with restless expressions.
“Ah… I’m so fucking jealous.”
One knight muttered, rubbing her thighs together. No sounds reached them, but they could easily imagine what was happening inside. The other knights nodded as if they felt exactly the same.
“The second this mission’s over I’m heading straight for a brothel.”
“Same.”
Originally brothels had been created to target men seeking to relieve their desires, but of course in this world it was the opposite. The main customers were women, and the workers were men.
“What about you, Squad Leader?”
One knight tilted her head and asked. As the leader of ten she was sometimes called Decurion, sometimes Squad Leader.
The brown-haired Squad Leader stroked her chin for a moment before speaking. She had a strong sexual appetite herself, but she was also rather shy.
“Is there… a good place?”
“Of course! I’ve got a real knack for knowing the best places to get fucked.”
The knight who had asked lightly thumped her own flat chest with a clenched fist, showing off her confidence. The Squad Leader shyly agreed.
“All right… let’s go.”
The knights laughed and traded lewd talk in high spirits. The carriage continued to creak and rock in place.
Until night passed and dawn broke.
After several days of diligently driving the horses and carriage, a well-maintained wall finally rose to meet them.
Their destination: the Corondo Barony.
“Your Majesty…!”
Once they had passed the gate guards and reached a certain rundown warehouse, a man who had been waiting inside bowed his head with open emotion. A messenger had been sent ahead, making this possible. In truth half of what he felt was fear, but that was none of Beatrix’s concern.
The knights who had accompanied her scattered appropriately around the area. Thus the only people inside the warehouse were the Viscount, Beatrix, Albert, and two or three knights.
“Skipping the pleasantries—what’s the damage situation? Has it increased?”
No greeting, straight to the point. The man—Viscount Corondo—wiped the cold sweat from his brow with one hand and straightened his back.
“Y-yes… yes. Just yesterday I received a report that ten more men disappeared.”
“Security?”
“Naturally we reinforced it. I stationed soldiers in every alley for patrols.”
“Did they notice anything?”
“Ahem… ahem. It’s shameful to admit, but… they said not a single one of the bastards was spotted.”
I am deeply sorry. While Viscount Corondo bowed his head, sweat pouring down, Beatrix crossed her arms and sank into thought.
It would be easy to berate them for their incompetence, easy to find fault and take their heads. But if that would have solved the problem, she would never have come this far.
So it really is magic after all.
In that moment Beatrix became certain that the hypothesis she had formed in the royal palace was correct.
“Do you have a map?”
A map, out of nowhere? Viscount Corondo’s eyes shook violently. He was flustered by a question he had never expected.
“Pardon? N-no… that is…”
“So you don’t. Then the places where the men vanished? You don’t know those either?”
“N-no, that’s not it!”
When Beatrix’s eyes narrowed, the Viscount answered in a frightened voice. He knew perfectly well that a certain degree of incompetence could be forgiven, but if that incompetence went too far, one died.
“They mainly target alleyways or places with no people around after business closes for the day. That much is only natural, of course.”
“Anywhere else?”
“U-umm… ah! I’ve also received reports of people vanishing from ordinary residential districts.”
“Residential areas? Residential…”
Kidnappings in sparsely populated places were relatively common. That was only to be expected. But people disappearing from residential neighborhoods or fairly open areas as well? The perpetrators must be quite confident.
Beatrix guessed that their opponent was not only skilled in magic but also rather agile.
“Anything else you’ve learned?”
“Uh… nothing. I am deeply sorry.”
Looking at the Viscount bowing his head in terror was enough to make a sigh come out on its own.
“Go. Go and have them bring a map of the territory’s interior as well.”
When Beatrix waved a hand through the air, the Viscount fled with an expression of pure relief.
They could guess the enemy’s capabilities, yet they still had no idea where the bastards were slipping away to. The knights emptied their heads of the complications that had been forming and sharpened their senses instead. Their duty was not to worry—it was to protect Beatrix and Albert. Even when the situation grew complex, thinking simply was the wiser course. Worrying was Beatrix’s job.
“Beatrix.”
When Albert, who had been thinking alongside her, spoke, Beatrix’s gaze naturally turned to him.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Looking at the situation as it stands, there’s no clear answer, is there?”
“Right. Blanketing the entire territory in magic would only raise their guard, so that’s difficult. I also want to hide the fact that I’m here as much as possible.”
Even men-stealers feared a tyrant. If they learned that the tyrant herself was present, they would certainly flee at once. They might also simply move on and commit the same crimes in another territory. If they were the sort to quietly stay put after relocating, they would never have stolen people in the first place.
“Do you happen to have a good idea?”
Beatrix asked with a quiet note of expectation. A small curve appeared at the corner of Albert’s mouth—the look of a man who was confident.
“You do. Tell me.”
“I’ll be the bait.”
Bait? The listening knights startled and started to protest, but—
“Shut your mouths.”
Beatrix’s ice-cold gaze and voice made them flinch and look away. They looked exactly like scolded puppies.
“You know it’s dangerous, right?”
“Yes, I know. But with my limited brain, this is the best method I can think of.”
If the enemy won’t come, make them come. The idea itself wasn’t bad. There were plenty of cases where one threw out bait to catch a fish. The only problem was that the bait was Albert.
She really does like me, doesn’t she?
Watching the unrestrained tyrant hesitate, Albert felt a swell of pride. He took both of Beatrix’s hands firmly in his and spoke.
“I trust you, Beatrix. So let’s try it.”
Reading the firm resolve in Albert’s eyes, Beatrix nodded as if she had no choice. The idea wasn’t bad, and more than anything she didn’t want to crush his will.
Ordinary bandits wouldn’t know what the royal consort looked like. The chance that they would recognize Albert’s face and realize he was bait was slim.
“If anything happens… I’ll raze this entire territory if I have to, and I’ll save you.”
Beatrix comforted him in a voice that was thoroughly chilling.
In that instant, a flicker of regret—Did I make a mistake?—brushed through Albert’s mind.