Guardians of the Prince

I had a dream.

It was from after we’d taken the prince and Kohme out of the Garden of Stars and hid them away in my villa.

I left my bedroom in the villa, squinting through my still sleep-hazy eyes. I grabbed hold of the railing, carefully descended the stairs, and when I got into the kitchen, Kohme was washing the dishes.

“Where’s Kahzam?”

“Oh, you surprised me. Good morning, Mr Lahzt,” Kohme answered, turning around and smiling at me. I was usually a late riser.

“I asked Mr Kahzam to take the prince for a walk. Shall I reheat some of this breakfast soup…?” She started to ask, and then looked in my direction for several silent seconds, before making an ah-ha sound. “I thought there was something different about you, Mr Lahzt, you’re not wearing your glasses!”

“I couldn’t find them.”

I cracked my neck and sighed, irritated. At this distance, I could see the position of Kohme’s eyes, nose, and mouth, but I couldn’t tell what her actual expression was.

“That’s usually when you find them on top of your head, isn’t it?” Kohme said, laughing. “Did something happen last night?”

“Yeah. I fell asleep last night reading some documents on the sofa, and then I finally moved to the bed about dawn… I think I took them off at some point and set them down somewhere, but I looked around and I couldn’t find them.”

“I’ll look for them! Since you wouldn’t be able to see them, probably.”

Kohme dried her hands with a towel, and immediately left the kitchen and started up the stairs. I followed behind her.

Kohme stopped for a minute in front of my bedroom. “I’m going in,” she said, excusing herself, and opened the door. Then she went over to the sofa.

“You fell asleep here on the sofa…” she muttered, looking in the gap between the sofa cushions and peering underneath the sofa.

“Not there, huh. Well, then you moved to the bed.”

She approached the pillow at the end of my bunk. Then, she moved the pillow and looked around the lamp on the side table, and even crouched down and stuck her hand in the gap between the bunk and the side table.

“Oookay.”

Apparently not finding it, Kohme stood up and looked around the room. And then, she suddenly went over to the foot of my bunk.

The top-most cover was crumpled up at the foot. Kohme turned them over.

“Ah-ha!”

She turned around, the silver framed glasses that were a part of my face in her hands.

“When you were going to sleep, you came over to your bed and put your glasses on the foot of your bed, and then you turned the covers down, I believe? And so your glasses got buried in your covers, that has to be it.”

“Sorry, thank you.”

I put my glasses on, and all at once my vision cleared. In front of me, Kohme was flashing a smile.

“Not at all! Well then, Mr Lahzt, shall we eat something?”

She left the bedroom first, and I followed, relieved that the world was back to normal. I was a wreck without glasses…

Oh.

In my bedroom. Kohme and I, alone. It really had happened, huh.

I could’ve leveraged my poor vision.

“Kohme is still Kohme though, good grief…” I muttered as I went down the stairs, and Kohme had looked up at me. “Did you say something?”

Just popping in and out of a man’s bedroom like it was nothing.

“Be a little aware, will ya!”

…. I awoke to the sound of my own voice, in my bedroom at Shiz Cagna.

“Good grief.”

I sat up, grouchy, brushed my bangs out of my face, and shoved the comforter back.

What a nostalgic dream, but… Back then, I’d had a few mean thoughts, like, Hrm, I wonder what would happen if Kahzam witnessed Kohme coming out of my bedroom. Although, probably she’d just say something like, “Welcome back, Mr Kahzam,” and he’d instantly know nothing was going on, but still.

With a wry smile, I reached over to the side table–

–As I moved from my bedroom to my private rooms, and then into the hallway, I crossed paths with someone coming from the other end at a slow trot.

“Oh, Professor Lahzt, good morning!”

Kohme called me that sometimes at Shiz Cagna, while she was in her nanny uniform. Of course, it was because I was retained as Ouji’s– His Highness’s personal tutor. Ouji sometimes had his lessons in my private chambers, but it was unusual for Kohme to come here by herself.

She tilted her lace bonnet-covered head at me.

“Oh, no glasses today?”

“I can’t find them,” I said, extremely sullen.

It wasn’t a lie, they really were missing again. It unfortunately wasn’t just some device to pull Kohme into my bedroom.

“Again, huh.”

Kohme seemed to remember that time at my villa as well, and laughed, and then glanced at the door to my rooms.

“Well… Shall I have a look, then?”

She seemed a little hesitant.

Oh? She’s more conscious of me than when we stayed at the villa…?

“Yeah, sorry, but would you mind?”

I opened the door and stepped aside to let Kohme come in. She let her eyes roam, and then turned around to check the way she’d come. Was she wary of someone seeing her?

It made me want to lure her in even deeper.

I reached out to her–

“Koume, found you!!”

said an enthusiastic voice.

It was Ouji, tottling down the hall behind us.

“Eh, you found me…” Kohme said, and caught Ouji as he launched himself at her. They seemed to have been playing some form of hide and seek. Wait, so that was why Kohme had been all nervous in the hallway? Because a ‘demon’ was chasing her.

Kohme changed her tone.

“Hey, Sir Ouji, let’s have a little competition.”

“Competition?”

“Professor Lahzt has lost his glasses. Let’s see which one of us can find them in his room first!”

“I’ll do it!” Ouji answered immediately.

“Alright, aaand go!”

Kohme clapped her hands, and the two of them rushed happily into my rooms.

….. Well, this was probably fine. I mean, it was fine, but… Yeah.

Grieving for my personal life, which was not even remotely sexy, I leaned against the door frame and waited for that moment.

That moment when my glasses would be found, and the smiles of two people who were important to me would pop clearly into focus.

[Clarity of Vision – end]