Guardians of the Prince

[First Day – Noon]

I was staring at the face of a sleeping young man.

This feeling, was this deja vu? Like, hadn’t I been in this situation before somewhere?

A little boy was sleeping in my arms, a baby baby, who hadn’t even been born that long ago.

No, I didn’t give birth to him. And it wasn’t like time had rewound to when I was raising the prince in the Garden of Stars.

In fact I was currently in the prince’s living room in Shiz Cagna. The prince was already old enough to be going to school, and he was next to me, peering at the baby’s face with keen interest.

Mr Kahzam was standing by the entrance – in human form of course, in his guards uniform – with an alert posture, and Mr Lahzt was in his white coat on the terrace, leaning against the wall.

“So Mr Idine, Mr Endie, please explain what all this is about,” I asked quietly, sitting down on the sofa, still holding the baby, with the two dark-skinned men sitting in front of me. They had brought this baby with them. “Why have you brought the Crown Prince and his wife’s child to Shiz Cagna?”

Adding what I knew of our own circumstances to Mr Idine’s story, this is the general idea I got.

Just the other day, the Crown Prince and his wife had been blessed with a baby boy. From the prince’s (Ouji’s) perspective, he was Ouji’s nephew, and legitimate heir to the kingdom to Vio Rizonna.

The Crown Prince and Princess were of course delighted, and the whole kingdom had been in a festival mood.

But not even a month had passed since he was born before there was an incident.

The Crown Prince and his family lived in what was called The White Wing Palace, which itself was situated inside the royal palace, and yet a poison had been discovered in the room closest to the child’s.

It was actually a poisonous plant, in other words, still in leaf form, but it had been stuffed in a bag and stuck behind a picture frame, so it was clearly hidden on purpose, hence it was a problem. It was thought that someone hid it there deliberately, or possibly stuffed it there as part of a hand-off.

The plant itself wasn’t actually that toxic, and it was apparently even something that normally grew in the royal herb garden. It wasn’t life threatening for an adult.

But that wasn’t the case if an infant ingested it.

It was possible that someone had been making an attempt on the  baby, and so they’d begun an investigation of everyone connected with the White Wing Palace. It was thorough, from the baby’s nanny, to the merchants that came and went, to even the nobles who’d visited to congratulate them. But they didn’t know who had hidden the leaves.

Because no one was clearly innocent, there was no one they could entrust with the baby’s care, and his mother, the Crown Princess, and even ended up in bed, ill from all the stress.

And so, His Royal Highness had consulted with Mr Idine.

“Until we know exactly what happened, I’d like to hide my son.”

“So– So wait, why me!?” I asked, readjusting my grip on the baby.

Actually, I’d tried to put him to sleep in the prince’s bed a little while before, but this baby was what we call a Hold or Cry type, and the instant you put him down he started wailing. As long as I kept him in my arms, he didn’t shed a tear, so I gave up on the idea of putting him to bed.

“No one will ever find him here. I mean, the Crown Prince…”

Mr Idine glanced at Ouji and cut himself off.

In other words, relations between the Second Queen and The Crown Prince were known to be bad, so no one would ever imagine that the Crown Prince would leave his own child with us.

“And it’s Shiz Cagna, security doesn’t miss anything here,” Mr Endie said in a low town, glancing in Mr Kahzam’s direction. Mr Kahzam didn’t say anything, but his eyes had a sharp glint to them.

“People didn’t suspect you though, Mr Idine?” I asked, a little mean-spiritedly, but Mr Idine answered matter-of-factly.

“They did. A Shiinoce can’t hide in a place like that. Although there are all kinds of ways of concealing myself so that I wouldn’t be discovered.”

“Are… there now?”

“And I have paid for medicines like that out of my own pocket before. But I wouldn’t need to bother hiding myself, I’m in a position to be able to use them immediately.”

Uh, scary. Let’s not delve too deep on that one.

Behind me, Mr Lahzt quietly snorted.

“What about Mr Endie?” I asked.

“I’m the one who discovered it. Found it and reported it up the chain.”

A short response. Of course.

“But if people are going to doubt you, I guess they can go right ahead. The fact that the Crown Prince entrusted his son to the two of you proves he had confidence in you. Pretty amazing,” I said admiringly, and the twins stared at me, hard.

Silence.

What? But– I mean, in mysteries, it’s standard procedure to doubt the first one to discover the crime, isn’t it? I did say something kind of weird though, huh.

“Well, I understand the situation. Given all that, I think I would like to keep him under my custody for a while,” I said, throwing glances at Mr Lahzt and Mr Kahzam.

The both of them had been dead silent for a while now, but there was no reason to refuse. We’d protected the prince by any means and had come this far, after all.

And anyway, the truth was that Mr and Mrs Taval (the people in charge of Shiz Cagna) had taken one look at Mr Idine and company bringing a baby of important birth to us, and had started preparing in secret. I got the feeling it was par for the course to accept royal children at Shiz Cagna. Of course, I hadn’t had any intention of refusing, right from the start, even though I was the one who was going to be taking care of him.

This seemed like it was about to get complicated, and they needed someone, right? It did seem that Idine and company were bringing this baby here in secret, to a certain extent.

“Have they given him a name yet?”

I didn’t know the baby’s childhood name yet, but they probably had already decided on one.

When I asked about it, Mr Idine answered.

“It hasn’t been announced yet, but he is called Lord Waka.”

“Pfft-”

I unintentionally burst out laughing, and the baby squirmed and frowned a little, his eyes still shut.

Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to startle. Oh right, in this language, ‘waka’ meant something like ‘treasure’ didn’t it. But Ouji was Lord Prince, and now little Waka here was literally Young Master. Or maybe we could call him Young Prince instead. Or Young Lord, or even Young Gentleman might be good too. 1

I cleared my throat a few times and plastered a smile on my face, and the army of men in the room stared at me in confusion.

“Ah, so then, what’s your next task, Mr Idine?” I asked.

“Well I can’t leave Lord Waka’s side. I’ll be imposing on you here at Shiz Cagna for a while.”

“What?”

I seemed to be the only one who hadn’t assumed that would happen, and I heard Mr Kahzam and Mr Lahzt heave tiny sighs.

Footnotes

waka, 若, means young, and is often used in words referring to the young sons of rich nobles, such as 若様 wakasama Lord Young (Person); 若君 wakagimi, a young lord or prince, something like lordling; 若殿 wakadono, literally Lord Young (Person); and 若旦那 wakadanna, which is something like, Young Gentleman. so the new prince’s name is a lot like Ouji’s, in that he is literally named after his position. (^_^)