The First to Take Her Side

"As it happened, Grand Duke Fenrik was visiting as well, so I passed word to His Grace in your stead. And so……."

Ella never got the chance to finish.

A heavy shadow fell instead across the faces of Presepe and the Archbishop where they sat.

"……Grand Duke Fenrik?"

Fenrik had appeared at precisely that moment. He looked down at the Archbishop with a face gone rigid, and there was something faintly irritated about him—something that said his mood was already thoroughly soured.

"I heard of the church's affair from the maid. And yet you seem to be in possession of some proof that the matter concerns Lady Presepe."

"What do you mean by—"

"Otherwise you could hardly justify detaining Lady Presepe for so long, could you?"

"……Grand Duke, I was merely hearing Lady Presepe's account of what happened."

At the barb in Fenrik's voice, the Archbishop's expression hardened as well.

"And however close a confidant of His Imperial Majesty you may be, this is not a matter on which a grand duke may presume to comment. Do you fail to take my meaning?"

"I take it perfectly."

Fenrik answered without so much as a twitch of his brow.

"And yet there can hardly have been much of a situation to explain. According to the maid, you arrived and found the shattered statue not long after Lady Presepe entered the church. Which would mean Lady Presepe knows nothing either."

The Archbishop said nothing.

"If anyone ought to be questioned about what happened, it is the men who were standing guard. Or this maid, who was keeping watch at the door."

If she were honest, there wasn't a single flaw in Fenrik's reasoning. The trouble was that every word of it was right.

"Rather than interrogating her like this, shouldn't the first order of business have been to summon someone and make certain she wasn't hurt?"

……That, too, was true.

If she were still imperial blood, and not this lowly creature stripped even of her rank as princess, the Archbishop would never have questioned her like an interrogator in the first place. Fenrik seemed to be of the same mind, for he kept driving the point home.

"However much authority you hold over the church, Your Grace, that authority does not extend to Lady Presepe. Do you fail to take my meaning?"

The thrust seemed to land. The Archbishop glared at Fenrik in open fury, while Presepe could only stare, caught off guard.

Since falling into this game she had died one wretched death after another and watched ending after ending, and yet this was the first time anyone had taken her side. And of all people, it was Fenrik—not one of the male leads, but a mere NPC—stepping forward like this.

"I've already informed His Majesty's guard knights, so His Majesty will hear of this soon enough."

Fenrik went on, his expression still hard.

"As for the rest, perhaps you ought to question this maid. She claims she saw a suspicious figure leaving the building."

"Ah, but I only caught a glimpse of him in passing. He vanished so quickly……."

Ella, abruptly laid out on the chopping block, murmured the words, but Fenrik didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"I'll see Lady Presepe back myself. You can explain what you saw. That should suffice."

Fenrik offered Presepe his hand with formal courtesy—an offer, it seemed, to help her rise. She took it and slowly got to her feet.

"Shall we go, Lady Presepe?"

Presepe nodded, and leaving Ella behind, she stepped out of the Archbishop's chambers at Fenrik's side.

"……And so, truly, that was all I saw."

After they left the church together, on the road back to the tower, Presepe told Fenrik everything she had witnessed.

"I don't really understand what happened or how, but of all days for something like that to occur……."

"……."

"You wouldn't know this, Grand Duke Fenrik, but today was the first time I'd ever set foot in that church. That's why it rattled me all the more."

"……."

"……Grand Duke Fenrik?"

No matter how she chattered, no answer came, and Presepe turned to him with a puzzled look. Fenrik was, somehow, lost in thought. A very serious face, that is. But it didn't last. He smoothed his expression almost at once and answered in a worried tone.

"You're certain you weren't hurt anywhere?"

"Yes. I'm fine."

"I'm glad. Then that's all that matters."

It was a little strange. Judging by the fuss even the Archbishop was making, something fairly serious had clearly happened—and yet Fenrik seemed interested in nothing so much as her safety.

"But do you really think that man did it?"

"That man?"

"The one I saw. The one Ella saw, too."

"……."

"But could one person really smash a statue that large all by himself……?"

"That's something an investigation will tell us."

Fenrik answered with an indifferent nod. Presepe studied him for a moment, then carefully parted her lips.

"In any case, thank you, Grand Duke Fenrik."

"For what?"

"You shielded me."

Fenrik faltered.

"There's no one in this Imperial Palace who protects me the way you did. It was the first time I'd ever experienced anything like it."

"……."

"So I was incredibly grateful. Thank you."

……Had she said something she shouldn't have? And to Dietrich's closest man, of all people. The thought rose, but gratitude was still gratitude. Besides, if Fenrik had eyes at all, he could hardly fail to see how Presepe was treated in the palace. And he was only an NPC besides—hardly in any position to interfere with the game in a way that mattered. Saying this much wouldn't change anything of consequence.

"You seem considerably more at ease with me than when we met not long ago."

"……Pardon?"

"Back then you were stiff with nerves, and you answered only what I asked."

"Ah, that was……."

"But I prefer this."

A quiet breath of laughter left him.

"It means I've become someone with whom you can speak freely."

The words Fenrik had spoken the last time they met flickered suddenly through her mind. Back then she had wondered whether he truly meant them. Now, she wasn't so sure. She even found herself thinking she might have suspected him for nothing.

Still, had she gotten a little too carried away? Belated embarrassment made Presepe avert her gaze.

"In any case, you had nothing whatsoever to do with today's incident, so even if His Majesty learns of it, nothing serious will come of it."

Hmm. Would it, though?

Looking back on everything that man Dietrich had done, it was hard to expect him to let the matter pass quietly. He might not care much that something like this had happened at the church itself. The problem was that Dietrich was viciously suspicious. Setting the shattered statue aside, he would suspect that Presepe had been conspiring with someone else again—accusing her of trying to abandon him and leave once more, or some such thing. Just as he would in the Ice Prison event that was soon to come.

"You look as though you don't believe me."

Presepe gave no answer, and Fenrik laughed under his breath.

"Then shall we make a wager?"

"A wager? What kind?"

"If this incident brings you trouble, I lose. If it passes quietly, just as I said, then you lose."

"……."

"And the loser grants the winner a wish. How does that sound?"

"But I don't have the means to grant a wish of yours, Grand Duke Fenrik."

"That's something you can decide after you've heard what my wish is."

"And if I win?"

"I'll grant yours. Whatever it may be."

Even if that wish was to leave this game and go back to the real world?

A hollow little laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

"Lady Presepe?"

"No, it's nothing. All right. Let's do it."

"Shall we, then."

"Of course, even if you win, I don't know whether I'll have a spare moment to grant your wish."

However this incident played out, the game's second fixed event would proceed without fail. That damned event, in which a single mysterious letter sent to Dietrich landed her in the Ice Prison to suffer through hell. It was a process she couldn't avoid, and the imprisonment alone lasted days. She couldn't even guess when she might see Fenrik again like this.

So, well. It didn't matter how it turned out. He wouldn't be able to grant her wish anyway.

"Good."

But Fenrik, entirely at odds with what Presepe was thinking, answered with a bright grin.

"Be sure to remember. That you made a wager with me."

Before she knew it, the two of them had reached the West Tower. Fenrik offered her a courteous bow, and Presepe looked back at him with a faintly embarrassed face. There was almost no one in the Imperial Palace who treated her with this much regard.

"Then rest well. It must have been a tiring day as it is."

"Then you're heading back?"

"No. His Majesty said he would be up by dawn at the latest, so I mean to wait in the palace."

"Because of what happened at the church?"

"That as well, but I still have business left in the palace."

……Business?

"That maid. Ella."

"Pardon?"

"I heard that after she was ordered to attend you closely, she moved her quarters along with several other maids."