30.
“Your Highness, is there anything else you require? Please, say the word. And if you could at least tell me your approximate destination, I would somehow be of assistance…”
Philomel opened her mouth cautiously.
“Could you lend me some money?”
“…….”
Philomel’s face flushed with embarrassment.
*‘I hesitated to ask this of my former fiancé, too!’*
But dignity was an ideal, while a hollow wallet was reality.
Philomel had lived as frugally as possible over the past few days, yet she didn’t have much gold left. She probably wouldn’t even have enough to rent a Communication Stone.
“Ah, you mean funds. Well… I do not have any cash on my person at the moment.”
Nasar fumbled through his clothes in a fluster, which was unlike him.
She understood. As a rule, nobles often left the trivial matter of handling small change to their servants.
“I will borrow some from someone else. Sir Aaron, hand over all the cash you have. I will pay you back several times over when we return.”
“There’s no need to go that far!”
Philomel stopped Nasar, who was about to politely shake down the knight standing nearby.
“It seems… I have shown you a flustered side of myself. I am ashamed.”
Perhaps because he was embarrassed, Nasar’s neck turned red.
*‘Was his personality like this originally?’*
It was a fact she hadn’t realized back when they only exchanged polite, textbook pleasantries. Knowing it now wouldn’t change anything, though.
If—just perhaps, if—
*‘If we had opened up to each other just a little more, could we have become friends?’*
Philomel thought, looking at Nasar blankly.
At that moment, a man who appeared to be one of Abridon’s knights came running toward them in a hurry.
“Young Duke! We have a major problem!”
“What is it?”
“The Emperor has arrived!”
Philomel doubted her ears.
Wait. What on earth was he saying?
The knight, pale as a sheet, rambled on.
“He appeared suddenly a moment ago, and strangely, there isn’t a single attendant with him…. But it is certainly His Majesty. Even though the likes of us have only seen him from afar, I am certain!”
Before she could process the knight’s words, a large silhouette caught her eye.
“Philomel.”
He was a figure like a single black dot placed against the vivid light of the morning sky. Yet, that single black dot possessed a presence that made the whole world turn to night.
It was Eustis.
The Emperor, dressed in his sleeping robes as if he had just jumped out of bed, grabbed Philomel by the shoulders.
“How… where have you been all this time? Do you have any idea how much I have searched for you?”
It was such a surreal sight that Philomel’s mind stalled.
*‘How could the Emperor be here?’*
Even if the messenger bird Nasar sent had arrived early, he would have had to depart for Sangen the very instant he received it. Considering the distance, that should have been impossible.
No. There was one way.
The method Philomel had used when she fled.
Movement Magic.
She had never heard that the Emperor could use Movement Magic, but he was the one who had infused the Solar Flare Ring with Divine Power. It wouldn’t be strange if he possessed the ability.
Her heart pounded uncontrollably. She felt the blood drain from her face.
Now, she was truly at a dead end. There was no hole left to crawl through. The execution at the guillotine, which she had imagined thousands, tens of thousands of times, played out in her mind.
*He will kill me. I am going to die.*
“……Philomel? What is wrong? Your complexion is poor.”
“Your Highness? Are you feeling unwell somewhere….”
Strange.
Eustis and Nasar’s voices grew quieter and quieter. Eventually, they turned into a buzzing sound; she knew they were speaking, but she couldn’t grasp the meaning.
Her vision began to haze at the edges. Her body felt heavy as sodden cotton, and her limbs trembled.
*I need to run….*
Suddenly, the world tilted. No, it was Philomel’s body that was swaying.
“Your Highness!”
“Philomel!”
Instead of the hard, cold floor, a firm yet warm sensation enveloped her.
With that, Philomel’s consciousness sank into darkness.
***
“Philomel!”
The Emperor caught her collapsing body. The face within his arms was pitifully pale.
“Philomel, Philomel! Wake up!”
The Emperor called her name repeatedly and stroked her face, but her closed eyes did not open.
Nasar’s heart felt as if it were plummeting.
“I will go call a physician!”
He realized only after the knight’s shout that calling a physician was the obvious course of action.
But before the knight could move, a dazzling light erupted from the Emperor, enveloping both him and Philomel.
In an instant, nothing remained where the two had been. They had vanished via Movement Magic, just as the Emperor had arrived.
Nasar stared blankly at his own hands.
The hand that had slipped out of the Emperor’s grasp was just as pale as her face. He had wanted to reach out, to hold her, but he couldn’t. He felt it was a sin for the likes of him to touch her.
In the end, the warmth he couldn’t even reach had vanished in vain.
Nasar clenched his fists so hard that his fingernails dug into his skin.
The place the Emperor was taking his fiancé was obvious.
“Uh, she was clearly here just a moment ago.”
The knight who had brought the hotel’s resident physician looked around.
“They have left.”
To a place his hands could not reach.
“They are heading to the capital.”
“Right now?”
“Yes. Among the Abridon mages we brought, is there anyone who can perform Movement Magic?”
They had let the mages rest at the hotel last night after they had exhausted their mana while traveling to Sangen.
“Pack your bags quickly…. No, I will head out first, so you all follow later.”
Even if it were impossible to fully recover in one night, it should be possible for at least Nasar alone to be transported.
“Actually… about that….”
“Is something the matter?”
“The mages all left this morning at dawn. The Duke sent word that he needed them for other matters….”
“Damn it.”
His father, Duke Abridon, had been skeptical about finding the missing Princess from the start. Even if he didn’t openly oppose it, his displeasure with his son’s actions was evident.
*‘Stop playing around and focus on your new assignment.’*
The day she disappeared. The day the other Princess appeared.
The Duke, who had witnessed the girl suddenly appear while attending a government meeting, seemed convinced that she was the real one. The woman must have looked enough like the late Empress to sway him.
Still, Nasar did not believe it. Because the only Princess he served was one person.
“Should I search for other mages in this city? As soon as the Mages’ Guild here opens, I will run over and….”
“Forget it. We are going to the Magic Tower. If I need a competent mage, there are plenty more at the Magic Tower.”
Incompetent ones wouldn’t do. He needed someone who could transport not only himself but others as well, and who could reach the capital in one go.
“Bring me a fresh horse instead of the one that ran all night. The fastest one you have.”
“What about breakfast? You spent all of last night in the carriage, too.”
“It is fine.”
There was no way food would go down his throat. He felt he couldn’t endure another moment without seeing her face, safe and sound.
Nasar mounted his horse and grabbed the reins.