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Reia settled gently onto the broad front lawn using up a lot less distance to land than if I were piloting, then taxied our direction while the technicians restored the shield over the estate. The fairy warrior escort landed near the aircraft’s hatch once it halted perhaps twenty paces from where the house knights, footmen, and maids were properly arrayed to receive the royal passenger within, and I stood resplendent in my court formal lady knight’s uniform with my wings grown.
Rod had mentioned he and Matthias were coming with ‘a few strong helpers’, which up until this point I had assumed to mean the craft’s pilot Dilorè and the fairy escort. But they were only the beginning. When the hatch opened and the exit stairs folded down, Rod was first out the door, followed by Matthias and a pair of royal knights, but behind them were…
I should have guessed it when I learned that Dilorè, who was supposed to be at my mountain home, was piloting. If she was here, naturally, Ryuu and Lady Chiara would also come.
But they were not all. Reia could carry fifteen passengers, not counting the pilot, Dilorè, and Rod had loaded her to capacity. Eventually, four knights in total came out, along with five Reladorian mages in their distinctive robes, the eldest in archmage robes.
Then the final passenger emerged, ahead of Dilorè. The pink-haired mortal girl, clad in a Royal Army female duty uniform, wore a worried expression as she descended the exit stairs. Her presence surprised me for the most part, but somewhere inside, I was thinking, Yeah, I knew something like this would happen.
The wizardry that afflicted me while I was at school, from which I suffered aftereffects all the way through my first trip to Tëan Tír, was magic which I should never have encountered.
Demons are unable to wield Holy magic and Wizardry directly, but they discovered how to enslave the mortal priests and wizards who could, and in demonic hands, these magics became too dangerous to allow. The gods had no choice other than to purge both from this world during the ancient war between Elders and demons. The only exceptions that I know of were Healing, which appears naturally, and Divination, which requires large numbers of mages.
So where did the wizard who attacked me come from?
She turned out to be a slave whom they had somehow pulled into our universe and who had for some reason been a fellow student at my school, until Diurhimath found her and freed her. I had not learned her identity, but I learned her gender and a few other clues, and from those I had been pretty sure who she was.
After all, Mireia originally had been a maid attending school as an attendant for Lady Sasie, the granddaughter of Lord Parna, the leader of the nobles rebelling under ex-prince Cullen. That changed because she had a very rare talent, being a Light magic user also capable of Healing. Normally, only people completely lacking in elemental affinity can wield Healing mana, so this was extraordinarily rare. Impressed with her, the Royal Army had issued a full scholarship and drafted her as a student.
But despite that, Sasie still treated her as a subordinate. If she were secretly holding Mireia in bondage with slave-controlling magic, it would explain her attitude, and Mireia’s failure to protest her treatment.
The trouble with this theory was, the slave had been pulled in from some world that had wizards and Holy magic, while I was certain that Mireia came from Earth.
She plainly spoke about the weird resemblance between the things happening to me and ‘Otome Games’, dating sims for women, as well as stories about transmigrating or reincarnating into such things. She believed she had somehow become the Heroine, and I was supposed to be the Rival character.
I have to admit, Mireia is the very image of a Heroine character. Cute face, pink hair, buoyant personality. And as a kind, honest girl she was perfect for the less common plots where the transmigrated person becomes the Heroine rather than the Villainess. And while I certainly wasn’t the blonde with hair-drills that might be expected for a Rival, I was indeed both a duke’s daughter and close to the prince.
So, I had not been able to square the two hypotheses, Mireia is an alien wizard and Mireia is from Earth.
But I had learned through Uncle Owen that Diur had passed the wizard girl into Rod’s custody after freeing her from Parna’s people and breaking her wizarding spell, and now Rod just showed up with Mireia in tow. I hadn’t seen her with him in the Tabad, but Rod and I had both been horrendously busy during that time and barely saw each other, either.
The final mystery of how she could possibly be the wizard had to wait. I had to put it aside for now, just like the part of me that wanted to say screw all this aristocratic puffery and protocol and run off to look for my missing uncle and suddenly absent mother. Although Rod’s uniform appeared to be covered in dirt, he was still a prince and he was approaching with his retinue. It was time for me to play hostess.
I stepped forward and descended into my deep curtsey, extending my wings, and inclined my head just slightly as I greeted him.
“Welcome to Pendor House in Atianus, Your Highness Roderick, Second Prince of Orestania. Your royal father’s knight humbly greets you in the name of her mother, Her Grace Sasara, Duchess of Pendor, and asks you to consider this meager abode your home for however long you deign to stay.”
I said those words with my voice shaking slightly, because the sight of him as he drew closer had filled me with anxiety. I finally realized just why his clothing looked so dirty. A frighteningly large quantity of dried blood coated the front of his uniform blouse.
Rod replied with a heavy voice, “Rise and be at ease, Ti. The people behind me are all too tired for protocol.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I rose quickly and strode forward to him, demanding, “Whose blood is this, Rod?”
“Ah… mine,” he confessed, exactly as I feared, as I planted my hand on his chest, where a rip in his shirt gave clear evidence of a stab wound.
“Rod!” I protested. I cast magic with a silently-chanted Healing, searching his chest in intense detail, looking for damage. If it had been a bit closer to the center, it would have skewered his heart. No, maybe it did hit his heart…
“Mir already healed me up, Ti,” he insisted. “Fortunately, she was right next to me when it happened.”
His words annoyed me, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.
“I’m just making sure,” I answered. Although the evidence I was seeing showed that he spoke the truth, I kept inspecting. This was one of my only two precious big brothers, after all. “What happened, and why in the world have you not changed your shirt?”
“I’ll explain inside, Ti,” he answered gently. “It’s been a long flight, so have some mercy on the people that came with me.”
His pneuma had a faded look, that meant his fatigue was deep. The recent events had been hard on him, probably going all the way back to when he first arrived in the Tabad. It wasn’t that long ago, by the calendar, but if he hadn’t been sleeping well since then, it was long enough.
Stepping back, I gave him a slightly abashed nod and agreed, “You’re right.”
I looked around at the people behind him, who had been looking on with warm gazes, and my cheeks colored a bit more. Laying embarrassment aside, I announced, “The people of Pendor welcome you all to the Ducal Estate in Atianus. Everyone, please come inside and be at ease. We shall extend to you our full hospitality.”
When I turned to lead them, Rod was already at my side, crooking his arm for me. I hesitated, then wrapped my hand around it lightly and let him escort me.
“You present quite a captivating figure in that uniform, Ti,” he said. “A charming sight that comforts my tired eyes.”
That was the family’s ladykiller prowess talking, but it wasn’t bad. Despite that, I humphed.
“My staff wanted me to receive you in one of Mother’s formal gown designs. I wanted to wear my duty uniform. This was the middle ground we found.”
“I fully support their opinions,” he declared. “You look best when you wear fashions that properly reveal your beauty. “
“Your intentions are showing,” I parried as we reached the front steps and began ascending to the portico. “I can tell that you mostly appreciate something else that the dress is revealing.”
The magic that glued the bodice to my front had a bustier effect at the chest, after all, helpfully lifting a generous quantity of bare skin up for better viewing.
He let out an honest laugh, looking over at me… and lowering his view once more without concealing it. “I won’t deny it.”
“Eyes up, Your Highness,” I warned him, and he chuckled a bit more as he finally looked forward again.
Then his lip twisted a bit. “So it seems that in order for you to call me ‘Rod’, I have to get stabbed in the chest. And it only lasts a minute until you go right back to calling me ‘Your Highness’.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I had called him ‘Rod’ when I was flustered, but I really did feel I should address him properly in front of others.
“For the record, I see your beauty first,” he then declared quietly. Caught off-guard, I didn’t respond to that, either.
The footmen held the doors open for us, and we entered the mansion. The front hall is an impressive two-story space with marble-tiled floors and marble banisters on the dual staircases. Since the sun was too low to properly illuminate the room– the front faces east so the light was already behind the crest of the roof– the great chandelier overhead was already bright with magically-produced light.
Behind us, various maids were already parsing and collating the mass of new arrivals, sorting them into groups to bring to various rooms where they could rest until dinner.
I steered Rod toward the receiving room, intending to discuss our missing parents immediately, but Benedetta appeared at the entrance to the room, bringing us to a halt. Her presence caught me a bit by surprise, since I had not seen her until this. I had understood she wasn’t in the building.
Her brow was raised, along with her chin, as she regarded Rod, probably reacting to the state of his clothing. She immediately corrected herself and gave him a curtsey, declaring, “Your Highness, welcome.”
“Lady Benedetta, I’m relieved to be here, among my father’s allies. I apologize for intruding upon your home.”
“That is not the case, Your Highness,” she countered with a shake of her head. “You have nothing to apologize for. You are the son-in-law of this house, and therefore no intruder.”
I was wondering why she wasn’t leading us into the receiving room, but she brought it up before I could ask.
“Please pardon me for stopping you, Your Highness,” Benedetta apologized. “Your uniform seems to be in distress. May I have the maids escort you to your suite and provide you with fresh attire?”
He smiled and nodded, looking down at the mess that used to be a Royal Army field uniform shirt. “That would be good. Perhaps there is a bath as well?”
“They shall prepare the bath for you as well, Your Highness,” she promised smoothly.
I’ll never know how the maid brigade of Pendor House communicates. Somehow, two maids immediately approached without any signal and led Rod away without any instructions that I could detect. The two knights that had been shadowing us went with them, leaving me alone with Benedetta.
She turned and curtseyed to me. “Young Mistress, it is good to see you well.”
“I had heard you were off fetching Genette.”
I had last seen my lady’s maid leaving the prison where she had stayed with me, at the academy in Copen. When Carson mentioned her earlier, it was a relief to know she was alright.
“Indeed, Young Mistress,” she replied. “We arrived a short time ago. She is currently inspecting your suite.”
“Fetching her from where?” I asked, now mystified.
Rather than replying immediately, she first looked around, as if making sure no ears would overhear. Once she was satisfied, she returned her gaze to me.
“Pendor, Young Mistress,” she stated simply.
“What was she doing in Pendor?”
“After you left, Her Grace thought you were more likely to show up in Pendor,” she said. “When she came back from Copen, I brought her there.”
“But then you decided to bring her back?”
“Of course, Young Mistress.”
I frowned, thinking things were not adding up. There was a war zone between us and Pendor. It would take many weeks to navigate around it. How could she know, weeks ago, that I would come here today?
A suspicion quietly grew as I struggled with this question. I remembered that this woman was a powerful Dark mage. Even though it was such an extreme distance, was it possible…?
“… when did you leave to get her?” I asked.
“I departed when you arrived at the front gate, earlier,” she stated, growing what I could only describe as a smug smile, a rare sight on Benedetta.
