Chapter 08
“Alend. Look over there. It seems Aunt Masha is really furious.”
“You jerk! Stayed out all night again and only crawl back in the daytime? How many times is this now?!”
“Aaah! Masha! I’m sorry!”
Masha, who ran a vegetable shop, grabbed her husband by the hair.
Gerrick’s hollow, exhausted face—clearly from staying up all night gambling—was yanked this way and that in Masha’s grip.
“See that, Alend? Uncle Gerrick can’t even move. I told you, you must never make Aunt angry. We should be careful too.”
Alend arrived at the scene with Henkel and several knights.
The emperor’s party froze at the sight before them.
“Say that again. I said, say it again. What was so funny that you were chatting away about things you can’t even say to someone’s face?”
“N-no! You misunderstand!”
“If you’d just let go of my hand, I’ll explain everything—aaagh!”
“Explain? I heard everything, so I don’t see what needs explaining!”
He had thought perhaps the report had been distorted along the way.
Distorted? Not at all.
Just as reported, the Saintess was gripping a nobleman’s head in each hand.
“……”
“Your Majesty, what shall we do?” Henkel asked Alend.
If this were a normal quarrel between nobles, they would first calm the situation and then investigate the truth.
But to do that, they would have to separate the Saintess from the nobles.
That was what made Henkel and the other knights hesitate.
‘May I dare lay a hand on the Saintess’s body?’
Moreover, the Saintess was angry.
Trying to stop her now would, in a sense, mean acting against her will.
‘Someone who is always so bright…’
‘Just what did those men do?’
The knights of the self-proclaimed “Order of the Saintess,” who operated discreetly within the imperial palace, glared at the two trembling men.
The nobles, who only saw the ground and had no idea what was happening, shivered with an inexplicable chill.
Once he confirmed that the two nobles didn’t seem likely to harm the Saintess, Alend decided to observe the bewildering situation a little longer.
“Who are they?”
“Nobles from the Rophen region. They are in the palace to attend a small gathering for which the palace provides the venue.”
Henkel recited the information without hesitation.
Reviewing the list of visitors to the palace each morning was part of his routine.
“Order that gathering to be dissolved from now on.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The Saintess still hadn’t noticed their arrival.
Normally, even at this distance, she would already have sensed his presence—either fleeing, or her eyes lighting up.
‘This is the first time I’ve seen her angry.’
Whoever had made her like this.
An unpleasant emotion rose inside Alend and wrapped around him.
Then his eyes met those of Charles, who was hovering restlessly near the Saintess.
‘Princess Charles.’
Her eyes trembled briefly upon noticing the emperor.
Charles lowered her gaze and bowed respectfully.
“It was a joke! Just a joke!”
“A joke? Wow, that’s the dirtiest joke I’ve ever heard. And don’t you know family is off-limits? Maybe you should go somewhere and have someone ask after your parents’ well-being, then you’ll understand what you did wrong!”
“Why is asking after someone’s parents—aaah! S-Saintess!”
‘I see. So that’s how it is.’
The inbreeding of the Bonia royal family was often used as fodder for crude jokes by low-class nobles.
The conversation those nobles had been having before getting their hair grabbed was probably along those lines.
It wasn’t worth engaging with—but for the Saintess, it wouldn’t have been something she could simply ignore.
‘Rophen, huh. They say it’s full of riffraff, and it seems they don’t even know how to watch their tongues depending on the place.’
Alend clicked his tongue internally.
The fact that such filthy talk had reached the Saintess’s ears was deeply displeasing.
Just then, one of the nobles being held by the hair lifted his head.
“At this rate, all my hair will be ripped out!”
He regained his scalp’s peace—but Ari’s body staggered violently.
Alend rushed forward and caught Ari around the waist as she lost her balance.
“Didn’t I tell you from the start that it was a misunderstanding? What the Saintess heard was only a fragmentary—urk! Y-Your, Your, Your Majesty…”
“Your Majesty?!”
“……”
The man brushed off the wrinkles in his clothes and looked up, only to feel as though his heart were plunging to the ground.
The emperor was standing before him, holding the Saintess in his arms.
What was strange was that the Saintess, head lowered and breathing rapidly, was trying to place her trembling hands atop the emperor’s arm around her waist.
She weakly pushed against his arm.
But despite her effort, the emperor’s arm only tightened again around her waist.
“Uaaah…”
“…Hm.”
Worse still, the emperor was smiling as though satisfied with the Saintess’s strange reaction.
Something felt off, but the man thought he couldn’t afford to miss this moment when the emperor seemed in a good mood.
He put on the friendliest smile he could manage.
Moments later, he was seized by knights who charged in, and forced to kneel alongside his companions.
“Your Majesty, we are innocent!”
“……”
The man kept protesting, but the others, perhaps possessing at least some conscience, stayed quiet.
The emperor listed their charges one by one.
“Insulting foreign royalty, causing a disturbance within the imperial palace, and assaulting the Saintess.”
At the words “assaulting the Saintess,” the man looked indignant.
Wasn’t His Majesty Emperor Leodius known for his generosity? Perhaps he would show mercy to a citizen of the empire.
But the emperor was resolute.
“Assaulting the Saintess is a grave crime of blasphemy.”
As the emperor’s arm finally loosened, the Saintess seized the moment and slipped quickly out of his embrace.
“Sir Henkel.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Tell the chancellor to proceed with confiscating their property and stripping them of their titles.”
“I will see to it.”
“Y-Your Majesty!”
“Mercy!”
The two pale-faced men pleaded desperately.
But Alend had no intention of reconsidering the punishment.
He left with Ari, who was receiving thanks from Princess Charles.
“…Um, Your Majesty.”
“Yes?”
On the path to Prodinta Palace, the two of them walking alone without even escort knights, Alend responded to Ari’s hesitant call.
“Could you… let go of my hand…”
“My hand?”
“Your hand… please let go…”
“I can’t quite hear you.”
Alend gently shook the hand he had been holding since they left.
A lie.
There was no way the emperor, that bundle of near-fraudulent abilities, hadn’t heard her.
‘He’s doing it on purpose. Definitely on purpose.’
Ari felt like crying.
As if she wanted to let go of His Majesty’s hand.
Even his hand was handsome.
Large hands with long fingers, soft except for the calluses from holding a sword.
And the warmth of the hand holding hers…
If someone ever sold hand-warmer merchandise that recreated this texture, shape, and warmth,
she was sure she’d hug it even in the middle of summer.
But still—
“Ugh… I feel like I’m going to die! My heart’s about to burst!”
She’d been unable to think straight ever since all the skinship earlier.
Especially when the emperor’s hand had wrapped around her waist.
She’d forgotten entirely what she’d been doing.
Her mind had been pounding so hard she’d thought she might meet the god Seikan right then and there.
“You mustn’t die,” Alend said with a smile, finally letting go of her hand.
Instead, he matched her stride and walked beside her.
Ari’s cheeks tinged red as she glanced up at him.
‘His Majesty seems to be in a good mood today.’
She’d hit the jackpot.
She liked both the bad-tempered version and the kind version of him, but
there was nothing better than seeing her favorite person in a genuinely good mood.
It was rare—she’d only seen it three times including today.
‘The rarer it is, the more precious…!’
Buoyed by her mood, Ari began chatting about what had happened earlier.
“…I do feel a little bad for them. They became penniless in an instant, didn’t they?”
She had grabbed their hair because their playing dumb had angered her further.
But she hadn’t expected such severe punishment.
This really was a different world.
Even so, strangely enough, she felt no longing for her previous world.
Ari looked up at Alend and smiled brightly.
“But still, you were so cool earlier, Your Majesty.”
The corner of Alend’s lips, which had been lifting, settled back into place at her next words.
“Princess Charles probably fell for you all over again!”
Ari clenched her fists.
“Taking me away to sort out the situation is a slight point deduction, but from here on I’ll go alone. You should go to the princess!”
She shone her night-sky-like eyes, clearly thinking this was her chance to earn points.
Alend let out a short, hollow laugh.
“Even if the Saintess had not intervened, they would have received similar punishment. The crime of insulting a foreign princess is grave. They should consider themselves lucky it didn’t go as far as execution.”
“…Huh? Suddenly? We were just talking about the princess…”
“But it’s true the situation escalated. Because the Saintess drew attention so spectacularly.”
Alend smiled brightly.
No flower in the palace’s splendid gardens could compare.
Ari flinched.
‘W-Why did his mood suddenly turn bad?’
This was a bad sign.
This was the bad-tempered version.
“I’ve never seen anyone grab a noble by the hair inside the imperial palace before.”
“Ghk.”
“For others, it might be called… causing a disturbance.”
“Hk!”
Alend rubbed his chin, looking troubled.
His blue eyes met Ari’s black ones—clearly flustered.
“I cannot declare the Saintess guilty and pass judgment upon her.”
Ari let out a sigh of relief.
For a moment, she’d even imagined herself reduced to begging on the streets.
Alend continued, bringing up something Ari had said at the ball.
“You said you wouldn’t do anything, so there was no need to worry.”
It felt like he’d cut away all context and picked only the words he wanted, but she couldn’t object.
Property confiscation. Stripping of titles.
Ari had neither property nor title, but she did have a palace she could be kicked out of.
Still, she needed to keep seeing her favorite person’s face.
“So I trust you will behave yourself.”
Faced with the emperor’s sunlike smile, Ari had no choice but to nod.
