Chapter 106
The Captain of the Capital Guard was dumbfounded.
They didn’t do their jobs, but instead swarmed the Tram Baron’s mansion, gushing over how amazing The Dancing Boy was. When an actual victim came to them in tears, they brushed her off with, “We can’t do anything if he’s only staring.”
And then—recklessly—they even leaked the victim’s address to the perpetrator.
At this point, they looked like a group better off being disbanded altogether. And yet, the Capital Guard did have a mission, at least in name.
Under the protection of His Most August Majesty the Emperor, we safeguard the order and peace of the Empire.
That was how it had been at the beginning.
When they first became members of the Capital Guard and took their oath, everyone had sworn the same thing.
To be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor and his successor, and to serve their duties honestly and faithfully.
The problem was that life didn’t go the way one hoped.
“What? A faction threatening to kidnap the princess?”
“I’m telling you, yes!”
“But….”
If such a group truly existed, shouldn’t this be the Imperial Knights’ responsibility, not theirs?
And the Imperial Knights were already inside the Imperial Palace—the very place where this princess was currently staying. It would have been far easier to go to them than to come all the way to the Capital Guard headquarters.
So why come to us?
It wasn’t that he was trying to shirk responsibility—this was simply the truth.
With a bewildered expression, the Captain looked at the foreign princess seated across from him.
Wavy blonde hair. Perfect makeup that made her skin resemble peach flesh. Shining nails, and a light freesia scent.
The youngest princess of a neighboring kingdom, and His Majesty the Emperor’s niece.
He’d heard she had come all this way to become engaged to the Crown Prince—
Though others said that was nothing but a baseless rumor.
“Captain, are you listening to me?”
“Ah—yes, Your Highness.”
“Are you just going to let me be kidnapped like this?”
“No.”
How could anyone possibly say “yes” here?
The Captain shook his head reflexively.
Ten minutes earlier, the princess had burst into his office without warning and demanded that he immediately assign troops, insisting there was a group planning to kidnap her. Now, she smiled in satisfaction.
“Good. Then put the entire Marksman Unit on standby.”
“The entire… Marksman Unit?”
The Marksmen were an elite unit within the Capital Guard, specializing in firearms.
They also had expertise in explosives, and were currently scouring the streets of Loire in case bombs had been planted.
All of them?
“Why? Is that too much to ask?”
“N-no, not at all. But Your Highness, as you know, there may be explo—”
“So you do think it’s a waste.”
How dare he think it was a waste to deploy them to capture those threatening a princess.
“I understand your position, Captain.”
“…That’s not what I meant. You misunderstand.”
In truth, it was a waste.
But who could possibly say, “Yes, it’s a waste,” to a princess’s face?
No matter how foreign she was, she was still a princess.
And more than that—His Majesty’s niece. Rumored to be engaged to the Crown Prince.
If that rumor were true, then this woman would one day become the Crown Princess.
Could he remain Captain of the Capital Guard after earning the enmity of the future Crown Princess? Could he even continue living in this country?
But there really were bombs in Loire—
The Vice-Captain was faster to act than the hesitating Captain.
“Yes, Your Highness. We will place the entire Marksman Unit on standby.”
Stepping forward smartly, the Vice-Captain spoke up.
A former academy classmate of the Captain, he’d always looked down on him for being overly rational, constantly trying to overstep his bounds.
Despite multiple warnings for currying favor with nobles, he never listened. Perhaps he still thought the Captain was just his old classmate.
It had been this very man who’d led guards en masse to the Tram estate last time.
“We will immediately recall all Marksmen currently conducting city patrols and assign them to Your Highness’s protection.”
You bastard—!
If you say it that definitively, how am I supposed to object?!
The Captain’s insides churned as he glared at the overstepping Vice-Captain.
“Great! Then I’ll leave it to you!”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The Vice-Captain, having subtly pushed the silent Captain aside, rubbed his hands eagerly.
“Is there anything else you require?”
“Oh—keep this a secret from the Imperial Knights.”
The princess spoke.
“I don’t want to worry them unnecessarily. You understand what I mean, right?”
Apparently in a good mood now that she had her way, she rose lightly from her seat and winked. The Vice-Captain bowed deeply.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
The Captain bowed as well, reluctantly.
This is like watching how badly a company can be ruined when a boss’s spoiled child—well, in this case the Emperor’s niece—teams up with a sycophantic executive.
And that company was his own. The Capital Guard, no less.
He had a very bad feeling about this.
—Under His Majesty’s protection, we safeguard the Empire’s order and peace.
—We swear loyalty to His Majesty and his successor, and to serve honestly and faithfully.
But—
Was this really his duty?
The Captain’s unease didn’t end there.
“Is that unconscious man one of the kidnappers?”
“Yes! We’re going to use him as bait to draw out the ringleader.”
“……”
He looked less like a kidnapper and more like a con artist who preyed on noblewomen.
The Captain studied the unconscious silver-haired beauty, tapping his finger against his thigh in thought.
“….”
Was it just his imagination?
He felt like he’d seen this man before.
The holding cells? No—somewhere more solemn than that….
“Your Highness, are you certain this man attempted to kidnap you?”
“I told you, yes! His accomplice will be here any moment.”
“By the way, don’t you have strawberry juice? I’m sitting in Box Seat One, and this yuzu tea is too sour.”
The princess complained as she sipped her drink.
“Strawberry juice, Your Highness? I’ll fetch it at once.”
The Vice-Captain snapped his fingers and summoned a Marksman.
Using a proud servant of His Majesty like a personal attendant.
“….”
He couldn’t let this continue.
Even if he was being dragged around helplessly by a foreign princess now, he had thirty years of experience pounding the streets to catch criminals.
His instincts were screaming at him.
He couldn’t ignore this bad feeling.
“Ah—excuse me. Restroom.”
Pretending to step out, the Captain summoned a female subordinate.
“You called, sir?”
She still wore a splint—her arm hadn’t fully healed from the Fake Saintess incident.
“Soon, the princess will ask to be shown to a dressing room or something.”
“A dressing room?”
“She’ll say her lipstick smudged from drinking. While she’s there chatting with her maid, listen carefully. Find out what they’re talking about.”
She’d be less guarded around another woman her age.
And shortly after, the report came back.
“The Saintess?!”
So this was a trap—to catch the Saintess?!
“Who does she think she is?!”
Exactly.
“Then who is that man lying there?!”
“I’m not sure. She just said that if he was here, the Saintess would definitely appear….”
“……”
The Captain pressed his fingers to his forehead.
“A trap… to capture the Saintess.”
To the Capital Guard, the Saintess Sena was an uncomfortable existence.
The illegal herb trade of the Ingrid Merchant Guild.
The Tram Baron’s Dancing Boy affair.
The Plank Street fire….
Each case felt like her shouting,
You exist because you fail to do your job.
Like she was constantly asking,
Are you truly the people’s baton, serving the Empire’s peace and order?
Worse, she slipped through their encirclements again and again, as if mocking them:
See? You’re incompetent.
When a guard’s arm was broken during the Fifteen Newlywed Murders incident, their hostility toward Sena reached its peak.
Then, the very next day, everything turned around.
When the real Saintess cleared the Capital Guard’s name.
Every guard understood.
That even a Saintess couldn’t uncover the truth in a single night.
That realization struck something deep inside them.
The Saintess wasn’t acting just to mock the Guard.
She genuinely sought justice.
Enough to clear the Capital Guard’s name—even though relations between them were hardly friendly.
If Seraphina, who hadn’t considered the Guard’s perspective at all while solving the case, heard this, she’d be baffled. But that was the prevailing sentiment within the Guard.
If she saved one of our own, then the Saintess is one of us.
We can laugh off all the trouble she’s caused us later over a beer.
When I first took the oath, I swore I’d uphold justice even if the sky fell. That Saintess Sena—she reminds me of my younger self!
“What? Sir, were you a woman when you were young?”
“I meant figuratively, you idiot!”
The Captain, too, was not exempt from that sense of debt.
“….”
“What should we do, sir?”
The subordinate—who owed Sena more than anyone for clearing her of false charges—asked anxiously.
The Captain rubbed his forehead.
A princess.
The Emperor’s niece.
The Crown Prince’s prospective fiancée.
Royalty.
Saintess Sena.
Justice.
A trap.
And possibly, a false accusation.
And the true duty of the Capital Guard.
Under His Majesty’s protection, to safeguard order and peace.
To serve with loyalty, honesty, and faithfulness.
“Find Lord Arden.”
The Captain lowered his hand.
“He visited headquarters earlier. They’ll know where he is.”
“Sir….”
“The princess’s order to keep this from the Imperial Knights is unjust. Therefore, we cannot obey it.”
Lord Arden was the investigator personally appointed by the Crown Prince to oversee the Saintess.
He had the right to know.
“We serve only His Majesty and his successor. The Crown Prince’s will comes first. Not that of a foreign princess.”
Saintess Sena.
You are fulfilling your responsibility.
So I will fulfill mine.
