Guardians of the Prince

[side Lahzt]

To the south of Vio Rizonna’s royal capital is a vast forest, which has become a private royal estate. Every year in autumn, a royally-sponsored hunt is held here.

Well, we call it that, no one actually uses weapons to hunt animals, it’s a learning experience, all about the study of wild animals that people didn’t normally come into contact with, and features talks on our role in protecting them.

Kohme taught me the term “Autumn Leaf Hunting,” and you might say that’s a similar sense of the term hunting.

The prince was participating this year too for the first time, and traveled from Shiz Cagna, with several of us accompanying him. I came with him too, just in case a one in a million scenario did happen.

Several tents of various sizes had been erected on a meadow that stretched out in the forest, and a garden party was in swing in front of those, and then in the middle of that was the prince.

If I had to say, the main purpose of the prince being here was to give him a chance to interact with other children of nobility of the same age. There was a big crowd of little ones, and they were all running around shouting and making a fuss, with Kohme and I watching over them from a little bit away.

She was wearing a white blouse and navy blue pinafore dress under an apron and cap-style bonnet. Kohme, always in nanny mode, was comparing the children to the faces of their mothers, mumbling at the memo book in her hands. No doubt she was matching names to faces.

She’d been referencing a yearbook of nobles just yesterday.

Her black hair fell gently across her cheek, and half hid her face as she looked up to gaze at me. I reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear.

“Sss! Wha– What was that!?”

Jumping up and pressing a hand to her ear, Kohme turned to me.

""

What was that Sss about? The first part of surprise maybe?

When I grinned without answering, she pretended to sulk about it and dropped her eyes to her memo book once more.

She was dyed a very pretty color though, from the nape of her neck up to her cheeks.

I readjusted my silver-framed glasses with my middle finger, and stealthily grinned in the shadow of my hand.

Lord Fatido, who’d been greeting King Ishdir in the center-most tent, came over to us. “Hey, Kohme! It’s been forever, I’m so glad to see you!”

It’s been forever. I was pretty sure it’d only been a few days since his last visit, but okay.

“Oh, Lahzt, you came too, huh?”

Indeed I did. I greeted him back, indignant.

“Oh by the way, Kohme,” he continued, “the one greeting His Highness right now is the Crown Princess’s nanny. And next to her is the Crown Prince’s nanny. She’s already retired, but they invited her today.”

“Amazing. It’s like a Nanny Convention, huh?”

Kohme watched the elderly women greeting His Highness a little nervously.

Lord Fatido taught her about a few nobles in various tents. Of course, he’d had a lot of interaction with these people through his older sister, who was the king’s second queen, so he knew them well.

Kohme probably found the whole thing quite helpful.

Awkwardly interrupting them, I excused myself and left to wander into the forest. The leaves were starting to fall, and red and yellow colors carpeted the ground at my feet. As I walked, each step made a crunchy noise.

From the gaps in the underbrush and treetops, small animals poked their heads out and then disappeared. Sorry for interrupting your day.

Eventually, it was about time for the tea party for the children to start. I returned to the tent where the second queen was resting with some other people from Shiz Cagna.

Lord Fatido came back there too, the prince with him.

“What happened to Kohme?”

“She left the prince with us and headed towards the stables,” Kahzam said, standing guard in front of the tent.

“The stables?”

Apparently a well-dressed man who seemed to be a guest had come to her, saying the anpy he’d rode in on was injured, but the royal Shiinoce had admitted that he was a bit busy to attend to it, and he’d wondered if maybe they couldn’t leave the treatment to a Shiinoce who’d only recently come themselves.

Kohme had mentioned that if it was only a light injury, she could fix it, and the man had agreed, and had taken her to the stables with him. A temporary stable had been erected just outside the forest, that must have been where they went.

“I think I’ll go too, just for a bit,” I told Kahzam, and headed for the stables. If things got out too much for Kohme to handle, no doubt it would be my turn.

However, when I arrived at the stable and asked the stable hand, there was no wounded anpy, and never had been.

So then where did Kohme go?

[side Idine]

“Idine. Take a look at this.”

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince called me over, an unusually questioning expression on his normally stiff face.

I accepted the letter he offered me. There was no Shin on it, so it didn’t seem to have been delivered via postey.

“Apparently, it was stuffed in my anpy’s saddle.”

“Your saddle?”

I opened the letter.

“We’ve taken custody of your precious nanny. If you want her safely returned, release Comrade Kikage.”

“A ransom note, then,” I said, scooting closer to His Highness and lowering my voice.

Kikage was the leader of a vigilante group in a city called Animos that had been terrorizing the citizens of the nearby town. He’d recently been arrested by the authorities, and was awaiting trial.

Among all the towns under His Highness’s direct control, Animos was the one with the deepest connection to him.

""

His Highness let slip a rare sigh, and looked behind himself. I followed his gaze, and realized wrinkles had formed between my eyebrows.

The Crown Prince’s nanny (retired, currently aged 60) was having a friendly chat with His Majesty the King’s first wife.

“She’s safe then. Your Lady Nanny.”

“It’s possible they’ve kidnapped someone else by mistake. Why don’t you investigate, but secretly–”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I unintentionally cut him off, and ended up turning around to face the Second Queen’s tent.

It’d been weighing on my mind for a while now. I’d lost track of her.

And then Lahzt had come running back, and started talking to Kahzam and Lord Fatido about something. Prince Ouji was looking up at the three of them with an uneasy expression on his face.

“… Her?”

“… I think so.”

I nearly clicked my tongue.

“The letter only said ‘Your Highness’s precious nanny.’ Did they mistake the Crown Prince for Prince Ouji, and as a result they mistook the nanny…?”

""

The Crown Prince lowered his voice at my suggestion.

“This thing with Kikage is my problem. Go rescue Ouji’s nanny, as quickly as you can. Take Endie with you, and whoever else you need too.”

“Yessir.”

I left immediately.

It reminded me of that night with Kohme at the Shiinium. And that pale hand that had played with me when I transformed into a cat (pewey).

I sharpened my senses as I analyzed the profile of any criminal who’d take her away.

Okay, she wasn’t my lover, but she wasn’t yours either, at least. I felt something like regret, something I couldn’t express using simple words.

Exchanging looks with my younger twin brother Endie, I removed myself to a place away from the tents. Endie immediately came over, and I explained the situation.

“I understand,”  Endie replied shortly.

“You remember Kohme’s face?”

“Of course I do.”

Of course he does? Hm… It’s rare that he remembers a woman’s face.

“You’re saying we should make sure the Second Queen’s faction doesn’t find out?” Endie asked, and I glanced to one side.

“I’d like to, if we can, but…”

“You were the first person who came to mind when Kohme disappeared.”

There was a voice from behind me, and I turned.

Kahzam was standing there with a grim look on his face. The air around him was like a finely honed knife blade. “You seem to know all about it. Perhaps we could share information.”

Endie and I looked at each other, and I put up both hands with a bitter smile on my face.

[side Lahzt]

I never thought the day would come when I’d be cooperating with these two.

Kahzam and I, and then Idine and Endie, were spurring our anpys down the main road. This was the street where witnesses had spotted an anpy running past with a large piece of luggage on its back.

If Kohme was in that luggage… The nearest town was Lagulay. Did they intend to lose themselves in the crowds?

“Well, you can probably kidnap an elderly person without them putting up a lot of resistance, but I’m not sure that entirely explains it. The Crown Prince’s nanny is very important to him, she’s probably worth plenty as a hostage.”

Idine had been running his mouth for a while now. Maybe he was the type to organize his thoughts as he talked, but he didn’t often fumble his words.

“Even so, Kohme’s age and appearance is completely different, there’s a limit to how mistaken you can be. This kidnapping is very strange.”

I interjected. “If they wanted to kidnap the Crown Prince’s nanny, they didn’t have to do it today. She’s retired now, and she lives by herself, as a regular citizen, they could kidnap her whenever they wanted. But if they were going to kidnap Kohme from the beginning, today was a good chance, when she’s outside of Shiz Cagna.”

Idine looked over at me. “Aiming for Kohme from the beginning…? But if they want Kikage released, there’s no point in having a hostage with no value to the Crown Prince…”

The look in his eyes was surprisingly serious. So even this guy was worried about Kohme, huh… Not that I was entirely pleased to know it.

There was a high probability the perpetrator had been among the guests. Investigation of the guest list had started immediately, and Lord Fatido was in charge of that.

He’d gotten down to business, spitting out a frankly amazing string of expletives, and talking about how he couldn’t believe Kohme had been kidnapped while he was right by her side. If anyone was going to notice something, it was him.

When I looked up, Kahzam and Endie had gotten quite far ahead of us. Neither one of them had said a word since we’d left the woods. Guess they were concentrating.

I adjusted my grip on the reins.

How much more trouble was I going to cause Kohme? Wait for me, I’ll find you!

Lagulay was a town with a lot of pedestrian traffic, so we got off our anpys and tugged them forward by the reins.

If the criminal could blend in with the guests of a hunting party, there was a ninety percent chance he was a noble. We circled around towards the upper-class residential area.

We’d taken a copy of the guest list with us, but there were a lot of nobles in this city. If the criminal started to suspect us while we were still blindly searching, Kohme would be in danger. There had to be a way to narrow it down.

“Shit… the fact that the criminal knows Kohme can use Shin is such a pain.”

I bit my lip.

The criminal had walked right up to Kohme and kidnapped her during a gap when I wasn’t with her, but they’d probably first tried to kidnap her in the forest, when she’d gone out looking for me.

But thanks to that man’s conversation with her, they’d realized that Kohme could use Shin. She must have had her arms restrained even now, to prevent her from using them. If she could have used them, I’d be able to find out where she was.

“Should we separate into two groups?” Endie muttered gently.

“Split up, why? I thought you said you have nothing to hide.”

Kahzam’s voice was low. Endie responded with a chilly gaze.

It was true though, Idine and Endie were following the criminal on the orders of the Crown Prince. If their interests didn’t align with ours, there was a possibility that they’d do something disadvantageous to Kohme…

Oh but wait.

When I looked up, my eyes met Idine’s.

This guy, he was thinking the same thing, huh.