The Keyhole That Wasn't There

Clack. Clack.

"What the—why is the door open? Did I forget to lock it?"

The voice muttering in puzzlement was unmistakably Graham's.

Click.

The door swung open, and he stepped inside with a bright lamp in hand.

What do I do if he catches us? What excuse could I possibly make?

Perhaps it was the shock of the sudden turn of events, but my heartbeat was pounding so loudly I could hear it ringing in my own ears.

"Sending approval documents over this urgently, honestly. Tsk."

Fortunately, Graham seemed far too preoccupied with his pending work to pay any mind to the open door.

"And where did the footrest go this time? Honestly, what does that butler think he's being paid for."

Scrape. Thud.

His irritated grumbling was followed by the sound of drawers being opened and shut. Braving the tension, I lifted my head by degrees and peeked just barely over the edge of the desk.

There was Graham, up on his tiptoes, straining to haul down a box from the very top of the office bookshelf.

And what he drew out of that box was none other than the very seal we'd been searching for.

Yes!

I was so overjoyed I nearly shouted out loud. But had I unknowingly made some noise? Graham, who had been about to press the seal to his documents, suddenly froze and turned his gaze toward our hiding place.

Yikes!

My head vanished from view by the narrowest of margins. Of course, those beastlike reflexes belonged not to me but to Eusilif, who had slammed my head down himself and was now glaring at me with dark crimson eyes as if he could devour me whole.

* * *

"Were you planning to get caught red-handed, then?"

Graham had thankfully left the room without noticing our presence, but from that moment on, Eusilif's scolding began in earnest.

"I suppose it wouldn't matter anyway. If we were caught, you'd be the only one beaten to a pulp."

"...I only wanted to see where the seal was hidden. Give it a rest."

"I should have been worried the moment you declared so confidently that we'd go steal it."

"Well, we didn't get caught, did we?"

"How on earth do you intend to sneak into the imperial palace with carelessness like that?"

Eusilif sounded utterly exasperated.

He was right, of course. The reason we had stolen the seal of House Mayona was precisely that it was the key to infiltrating the palace's secret archives.

"So? Do you not want to go after all? Are you just going to give up on the imperial swordsmanship manual?"

"......"

At my words, Eusilif pressed his lips shut.

Naturally. The swordsmanship manual passed down only within the imperial family was the secret of secrets, the hidden treasure every sword-wielder dreamed of at least once, even in their sleep.

And that manual was the single swordsmanship treatise ever written by Angelton Sealy — the peerless sword prodigy who had once been master to both Swordmasters: Roderick, Arabella's father, and Crown Prince Sota.

"Is it certain information that Sealy's Swordsmanship Manual is in the imperial secret archives? I heard a rumor it was auctioned off over a decade ago."

"Of course it's certain. I heard it straight from my father. You do know my father is Sir Roderick Mayona — Swordmaster and disciple of Sir Sealy himself, don't you?"

I answered with a perfectly composed face, but this was, in truth, a complete lie. The only reason I knew anything about Sealy's Swordsmanship Manual was a scene in the original novel where Dorothea stole the manual from the imperial secret archives for Eusilif's sake.

The imperial secret archives were a strictly forbidden place, accessible only to direct members of the royal bloodline. That was why Dorothea had been forced to obtain the manual by luring Sota himself to the archives.

And she very nearly got devoured (figuratively speaking) by Sota in the process.

But I couldn't use the method Dorothea had. There was no chance in hell Sota would fall for my charms, and I had no desire to go anywhere near him in the first place.

By tremendous fortune, I had no need to. Whether by coincidence or inevitability, the soul of Arabella that I inhabited had one more means of approaching the palace archives.

"The Mayona family seal is one of the keys to the imperial secret archives? Why on earth would that be? The count's family isn't even connected to the royal bloodline."

Eusilif, walking beside me as we slipped out of the office, voiced the obvious question.

"...I'm not sure either. I imagine the first Count Mayona was a founding hero of the empire, so perhaps the Emperor granted it to him as a reward."

I glossed over it with a plausible-enough excuse, but Eusilif showed no sign of being convinced.

The truth was, I'd learned that the count's seal was a key to the archives thanks to the genuine memories of Arabella's past. She had used that key to enter the secret archives herself, more than once.

But explaining that to Eusilif in detail was impossible. Because—

Arabella really was the Crown Prince's errand girl. I can't possibly confess that to Eusilif.

The moment I'd picked up the seal in the office, the memories had come flooding back — memories of Arabella meeting the Crown Prince in the secret archives time and again, carrying out every great and small task he assigned her.

Even her purchase of Eusilif from the slave market had, in truth, been carried out on Sota's direct orders.

Your Highness, but why would you go through me to buy that slave? And why buy him only to gift him to Princess Regita, rather than to yourself?

Arabella.

...Yes?

Did I ever tell you? The empress I need is not someone pretty and beautiful to look at, but someone I can keep at my side, lean upon, and trust.

Ah...

I need someone who will unconditionally believe in and follow what I set in motion, without demanding I explain everything.

...Yes, Your Highness.

If you carry this matter out well, it will go a long way toward earning my trust. But as I have always said — if you do not wish it, you need not comply.

I will see it done, Your Highness. Please trust me.

The tremor in Arabella's voice as she spoke those words rang vividly in my ears, as if it were truly my own. So did the desperate, anxious emotion she'd felt in that moment.

She had been so earnest about becoming part of the imperial family that she hadn't hesitated at the suspicious errands the Crown Prince assigned her.

And that bastard Sota used Arabella to the bone and then cast her aside without a second thought.

The lifeless eyes that had regarded me at the selection ceremony were still burned into my memory. That merciless gaze, as if looking at some bothersome insect, held something chilling about it.

By the time I'd turned all this over in my mind, we had arrived at the palace gates. It was past midnight, edging into the small hours of the morning; the streets were silent save for the occasional drunk stumbling past, and the guards yawned sleepily at their posts.

"This way. I know a hole in the wall."

Confidently, I led Eusilif to a shadowed spot beneath the fortress wall.

Two hundred paces west of the main gate, beneath the metasequoia whose branches reach over the wall.

I was carefully counting off the two hundredth step, recalling the details I'd read in the original novel, when—

"Huh?"

The metasequoia branches did indeed stretch over the towering wall, but the hole that was supposed to exist there was nowhere to be seen. To be precise, there was nothing but construction materials scattered about, as if someone had started repairing the wall and abandoned the job halfway through.

Wait. Now that I think about it, Dorothea sneaks through this hole months from now, going by the timeline.

Which meant someone digging this hole was an event that wouldn't happen until months in the future.

Oh no. What do I do now?

As I fidgeted in anguish, having been so cocksure only moments before, Eusilif — who had followed me along in silence — remarked flatly, as though I were hopeless.

"Don't tell me that's the hole you were talking about."

"Well, you see, an unforeseen variable came up? What am I supposed to do about this."

Eusilif watched me clutch my head and stamp my feet in a circle for a moment, then gave a small shrug.

"There's nothing to do with a variable but jump right over it."

"Huh? What do you—hyaaah!"

I barely managed to muffle the shriek that leapt out of me with both hands. At some point, Eusilif had hoisted me over his shoulder like a sack of luggage, and he spoke with complete nonchalance.

"Don't scream. Sit still."

With me still flung over his shoulder, he broke into a run down the alley. It was uncanny — in such perfect silence on all sides, not even his footsteps made a sound.

Whoosh, wheee, tap, thud.

Had it even been long enough to take a few sips of tea? Before I knew it, he had cleared the palace wall with ease and set me down in a courtyard so still it might as well have been dead.

Gasp. 'Jumping over a variable'... he meant it literally?

Stumbling from vertigo, I somehow righted myself and gave him a silent round of applause.

"Wow. Impressive, Eusilif."

He seemed a little pleased by my reaction, but answered as if it were nothing.

"I've jumped that wall hundreds of times in my head. Doing it for real felt refreshing."

Saying so, he tilted his head back and gazed up at the high wall. His beautiful face, lit by moonlight, was as impassive as ever — yet somehow, it looked troubled too.

Well, of course. He must have pictured escaping this place hundreds of times in his mind.

If Eusilif was this prickly even with me, how much more must he have clashed with and suffered under Regita? And the chain that had kept him from fleeing even then had been Allin. The mechanism binding him to my side now was surely the same thing.

"Let's hurry."

I urged him along. I had to earn his trust this time, without fail. Right now I was using Allin to keep him tied to me — but would he really stay by my side even after Allin was rescued?

I needed him, absolutely. Not only to stop the end of the world, but because he was the only remedy that could halt, even temporarily, the seizures brought on by my incurable illness.

Even if it's just to survive, smile. I have to plant as much closeness as I can...

With that thought, I led him onward wearing the gentlest expression I could manage.

"This way, Eusilif."

"That way's faster."

But he said it with the coolest face imaginable and briskly walked on ahead. Apparently, all his time in the palace had made him better versed in its geography than I was.

...Winning over the male lead really isn't easy, is it.

Deflated, I quietly trailed after him. By the time I was gasping for breath, we had finally reached the imperial library, where the secret archives lay.

The library was locked, of course. But Eusilif found a single open window, lifted me up without ceremony, shoved me inside, and followed right after.

"...It really is quiet in here."

The library at dawn was silent to the point of being unsettling. The books packed into every corner seemed to press down on me with some unknowable weight.

"So — which way to the secret archives?"

"This way."

Guided by the threads of Arabella's memory, I led him along. Past the dust-covered, neglected sections of the collection, a rusted door appeared — looking for all the world like the entrance to a storage room.

"Here it is."

So I whispered, drawing the seal from inside my coat. Then, with a gesture of utmost confidence, I pressed it against the door handle.

But why? No matter how many times I tried, the door gave no response at all.