.
As the silence that followed my question stretched on, my mind began to conjure possibilities of devastating events, such as Ryuu having gotten himself killed or the hero’s party breaking up. But rather than one of Ryuu’s party members, it was Bruna who answered, in a subdued voice.
“Oh, those poor bastards.”
Brigitte began giggling, with Ceria joining in. Soon the three women were all trying to surpress giggles. Melione just smiled and looked down at her hands.
I looked at Arken, bewildered, “What in heck?”
He gave me a smile. “It seems the Baron’s Bloody Daughter thinks our two warriors haven’t lived up to their potential. In the days since we arrived, we’ve been busy gathering information, so she’s been using the opportunity to train them.”
“Actually, she says Graham just needs a little polishing,” Bruna corrected. “It’s Ryuu who pissed her off.”
Ceria started doing an imitation of her mother’s aristocratically-trained speech. “You dare to face this woman with such low-level techniques? You dare fight half-hearted against a blade that has slain trolls and sea wyrms? All you’ve shown me so far is crude power! You’re just a boorish little boy wiggling his stick and squirting out mana hither and yonder, aren’t you?”
“Your mother was saying things like that?’ I asked, a little appalled.
Bruna giggled. “That’s nothing, compared to when she really gets going.”
Melione, wearing a blush and staring at her tea, added, “It’s really hard to believe she’s a noblewoman.”
“Well, yeah, she was disowned, though…” I noted.
“That might not be true,” Ceria disagreed. “When we signed with the Adventurer’s Corps, the army people listed her as nobility. She objected loudly, but they insisted that she’s still in the noble almanac.”
“It looks like the Baron never reported her disownment,” Ceria said.
I felt a little surprise at that, considering everything that had happened. Baron Destia had adopted Allia after fathering her outside of wedlock, so she began on shaky ground, and she’d proceeded to refuse the fiancé he arranged for her, she’d eloped with a catkin adventurer, and after her husband’s death, she’d had three more children out of wedlock… four if one counted Bruna, the illegitimate amazon child of her dead husband. She was an utter mess in the eyes of society. Few noble fathers would tolerate such a wild child.
“He must really love her… or maybe he was really smitten with her mother?”
“That’s probably the explanation,” Ceria said with a nod. “He’s never married or had other kids.”
Many people believe the first sirens and lorelei were mermaids who became monsters. That theory’s origin is probably the extraordinary beauty of the merrow race, easily equaling elves. Of course, almost all non-human mortal women are beautiful. Even female dwarfs and halflings are wonderfully cute.
When I thought about how unfair that was for the human girls, it pulled up an incredible fact out of the fog of ancient memory buried in my mind.
There actually is a reason why non-human mortal men are always either manly, handsome or beautiful, and non-human mortal women always more comely, more sexy or more outright gorgeous. Senhion had actually watched it happen. Human mages, with skills far beyond the present era, had sculpted their own offspring into more desirable forms, and in the process they had created all the other mortal races. Even the birdmen, centaurs and merrow were human creations, born of the parental desire to have the best for their children.
It was knowledge I was pretty sure didn’t exist anywhere else in Tiana’s current world, unless the fairies still remembered.
My grandmother had said that the demons were humanity’s sin. Had they, too, come to exist during that time? Unfortunately, my memories didn’t extend that far…
“My Lady, are you okay?” Melione asked, shaking my shoulder.
I blinked and my mind jerked back to the present. Everyone was staring at me with concern.
“You weren’t replying,” Arken said, his eyes narrowed. “It was as if you passed out with your eyes open.”
“Um…” I colored slightly. “I had my mind on something. Did I miss a question?”
“Yes, you did,” he nodded. “I asked if you knew what had been happening at home?”
Wow. I had blanked out that badly a few times in Oberon’s palace too. Some idle thought would suddenly send my mind chasing down a rabbit hole. Either something involving magic or some ancient memory would cause my mind to hyperfocus on it and completely shut out the present.
I forced myself to focus on the question. “Mother told me that Parna is organizing a rebellion.”
“He plans a usurpation,” Arken nodded. “The southern lords who have been opposing Owen for his entire reign have finally made their move. It looks like they are trying to put the former Crown Prince Cullen on the throne. And inter-territorial war has already begun, with your mother’s neighbors coordinating to invade her duchy. The rest of the country is not yet at war, but the royal capital and Atianus Province are currently in a state of political paralysis.”
“Mother said she’s already gone to Pendor,” I nodded. “The neighboring territories have really sent troops in?”
“That’s right,” he confirmed. “Although Pendor’s territorial guard is apparently doing better than the neighbors were expecting. It seems she has a fairy mage helping her.”
I managed to keep a straight face. Naturally, Arken and Matthias knew the fairy mage and the duchess were the same woman, but not the rest of the room. Deharè coming to Sasara’s aid was Mother’s cover story for when she had to fight as a fairy.
“What happened to the Academy? Why is Lady Niaela with Uncle Owen?”
“I haven’t heard,” he answered, shaking his head. “I only know that something grave happened, causing Niaela to close the school. She led a number of the students up to Thuriben with Prince Gerald and sent the rest to their homes.”
I was having a hard time keeping up. It had only been ten days! Even with the forewarning from Mother’s message the previous night, it was hard to accept the speed of events.
It was also hard to accept it was really happening. Until my confrontation with Parna, I’d had faith that our kingdom was an orderly, unified entity. That was why my focus had only been on keeping the duke from using me as a means to trick the Fairy King into damaging that unity. But if Parna could so easily move the southern lords into ganging up on Pendor, and get cover from the Privy Council while backstabbing Owen, exactly where was this so-called unity I had believed in?
Arken was patiently waiting for me absorb the situation.
I shook my head slowly. I felt tears trying to start and blinked them away.
“Was our kingdom really this fragile, Uncle?”
“Four years of demonic attacks have done quite a lot to undercut Owen’s prestige,” Arken confirmed.
Matthias added, “And His Majesty’s insistence on not accepting any concubines has badly weakened his political position. I warned him that he was making a mistake by doing that. He needed to at least give the lords the illusion that they could manipulate him through the influence of their daughters.”
In Tiana’s naive romantic view of Uncle Owen, his refusal of concubines had been an act of discipline, and in Robert’s mind, it had been morally correct. Rotating between up to a dozen beds wasn’t decent behavior for a man from either of my original points of view. I wondered now what Owen’s actual reason for refusing the concubines had been.
I had another worry. “Did I weaken him, too?”
Arken narrowed his eyes. “Are you referring to your engagement to Prince Roderick?”
“”””What?”””” came the unison response from four women.
I looked toward the half of the chorus named Ceria and Bruna. “I told you two I had a fiancée, right?”
“You didn’t say he was the Second Prince!” Bruna retorted.
Matthias noted, “It is possible that when the Privy Council approved the engagement, they actually did so to bring your mother’s enemies to Parna’s side. And it’s likely Parna plans to capitalize on public fears over you. But without you, he would have found other fears to capitalize upon.”
While I was left anxious over that, the conversation swung over to the details of what the team had been doing. Bottom line, they had a solid lead on Amelia’s location. Or to be more accurate, they had narrowed it down to the border region between this kingdom and the country to the south.
Arken concluded with, “We would have left this morning for the southern border, but word came last night that you would be joining us, so we waited.”
My heart sank a little. “You had to hold up for me? I’ll bet Ryuu wasn’t happy about that.”
“He wasn’t,” Brigitte said, “I told him to stuff it.”
I blinked, and I think I stared at her a little bit. Had I really just heard Brigitte side with me?
She frowned and looked away, then said, “Look, I’m still unhappy about what happened. In the future, don’t hide something that big about yourself from your party members. We adventurers expect advance warning from our comrades when it’s something that important. But Melione’s still okay and you’re still the lady that saved our butts all those times. And we were a much better party when you were with us.”
Melione quietly added, “Graham says so, as well.”
The room went quiet for a several seconds, then Brigitte let out a huff. “Anyway, Ryuu’s an ass, but he’s not an idiot. He’ll find a way to deal with it.”
“Are you ready to set out tomorrow?” Arken wondered. “You aren’t outfitted for field work.”
“This was sprung on me yesterday,” I said, “and I had no idea who I was meeting or what to expect I would be doing. So, no, I’m not. But I have plenty of money, and I’m in a big town. I need to go shopping.”
Bruna and Ceria both grinned, and in a moment, Brigitte responded with a grin of her own, “Five girls and a fat purse. Sounds like a plan!”
“Ah…” Matthias interjected. “Before that, I have one question.”
“Yes?” I responded with a tip of my head.
“Are you planning on introducing your companion?”
He looked toward a spot to the right of my chair. There, most eyes were probably seeing an empty spot, but my fairy sight was revealing Lady Dilorè using her fairy stealth. Unlike Mother’s stealth, I could see right through it.
I think she had vanished as she followed us into the building. Whether the student council girl had noticed her vanishing, I don’t know, but she had not been visible by the time Matthias and Ceria saw us.
Rather, it seems she’d been visible to Matthias, after all.
“Lady Dilorè, I trust these people,” I told her. “If you would, please show yourself.”
She dropped her stealth. I immediately heard Melione heave a sigh at her immodest fairy knight garb, which was far more revealing than my armor.
With a bow, she stated, “Ëi onar lâ. I am Dilorè of the High Forest. The Fairy King sent me to escort My Lady during her journey.”
She looked at me and added, “From what I heard, you are not Lady Tia Mona around these people.”
“They’re aware that I am Lady Tiana Pendor,” I stated with a slight emphasis on my noble rather than royal title, “And that I am the fairy knight, Tiana of the High Forest.”
“Are you related to Tiana?” Melione asked, noticing our shared clan name.
“We’re cousins,” I stated with a smile. With any luck, Dilorè wouldn’t expand on that.
“My great great grandfather is My Lady’s grandfather, the Fairy King,” she expanded.
I facepalmed.
