Guardians of the Prince

“Kohme, I’d like you to meet with a mentor of mine.”

Mr Lahzt said this to me as I sat down at the breakfast table the morning after I’d literally drunk myself unconscious.

Not really knowing what he was talking about, I handed the prince some bread, and looked over at Mr Lahzt, urging him to continue.

“She’s the foremost researcher in the field of Shin. She might be able to help us find a solution to the problem with your name. Maybe after you meet with her, you can think about your future.”

Mr Kahzam nodded. “I know her too, she’s a very friendly, warmhearted person.”

I thought about it for a minute.

Some part of me wondered if, after last night, I wasn’t unfit to be the prince’s nurse after all, but… No matter what happened to me, I was still going to have to live here in this world.

Besides, Mr Lahzt and Mr Kahzam were both worried about me. I had to face this head on.

“But should anyone else really be finding out about me?” I asked, and Mr Lahzt glanced up at me, combing his hair up out of his face.

“Eh… To be honest, I think she might already know. She’d be the only one, though. She must have at least noticed the traces of my Shiino, with us going in and out of the Garden of Stars so many times.”

“Isn’t that kind of a problem?”

“The truth is, using the arts to transport people across time and space is basically forbidden by law except for government purposes.”

Wait, so Mr Lahzt turning Mr Kahzam into Morio and teleporting him in to bring me supplies all those times… That was against the law?

“It’s pretty much forbidden in principle to even enter the Garden of Stars for several months prior to the grass cutting. So that the grass can actually grow. Which is precisely why I knew we could hide you and prince there.”

“Well, okay, but how did your mentor find out about me then!?”

I was worried, but Mr Lahzt looked away and his mood got dark.

“I’ve been fined… and I got five points… It’s kind of a problem, too many more and it’ll be suspended…”

“You have a license!?”

I was from Japan, a nation of laws, so this felt much more real to me than the Crown Prince’s faction had ever been. Wait though, when he said too many more and he’d be suspended, that meant he’d had other infractions, before now? Was Mr Lahzt some kind of ne’er do well?

“I mean, it’s just a license, but it’s not like you can’t use the seals without it. I just won’t be able to use any official facilities, and my research funds’ll be cut.”

“And that’s not a problem!?”

“Well, even if we are found out, Lady Solamire would probably pull some strings for me.”

Mr Lahzt calmly took a drink from his mug. Okay… So I felt a little better, I guess. His breaking the law this time was under mitigating circumstances, after all. But still.

“But when I go to meet your mentor, Mr Lahzt, we do it without teleporting!”

This was definitely personal business, so we weren’t going to use the arts. I could ride the anpy, maybe.

Mr Lahzt and Mr Kahzam both softened their expressions.

“Alright then. Well, we’ll have to start preparing right away then, Mom.” Mr Lahzt grinned. And thus it was decided we were going.

And also, oh yeah. I’d confessed the real reason for ‘Mami’ in a drunken fit last night. I’d been secretly enjoying it, but when he said it now, I felt a bit attacked somehow.

“Oh, ah, but the prince is much more important than me…” I started to say, but then I heard a faint whine through the open window. That was the sound of an electric car. Mr Fatido was early.

“We’ll be away for a while, so we’ll have to tell Lord Fatido about your name, Kohme. Is that alright?” Mr Kahzam asked.

“Of course, I don’t mind,” I answered, but then again, there was a reason I’d not told Mr Fatido my real name in the first place, wasn’t there.

I didn’t want him to get a hold of any of my weaknesses. Big sigh.

As soon as he saw me, Mr Fatido’s whole face lit up with a smile. “Mami!” he said. “You’re beautiful again today!”

Mr Lahzt and I burst out laughing at the same time. Even Mr Kahzam turned the other way, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Huh?”

Mr Fatido stared at us in complete bewilderment, poor guy, so I sat down in the hearth room and immediately told him my real name. And apologized for excluding him the day before.

Mr Fatido slapped his forehead and broke into a broad smile.

” ‘Mommy’ huh? I never suspected a thing!” he said, grinning. “I’ll have to get you back for that one.”

Would he now!

I trembled to think of what he might do to me, and Mr Lahzt sighed lightly.

“Do you mind if we get down to business?”

“Lahzt’s mentor, that must be Lemonina. So you’re going to meet with the Shiinium?”

Mr Fatido had listened to our story, and crossed his arms.

Shiinium? 1 And their name was Lemonina… From the sound of the name, maybe they were a woman. 2

“It’s about half a day’s journey, one way. And you probably ought to stay overnight once you’re there, one night at least. Are you taking prince with you?”

“Of course. It’s better for him if he stays with Kohme. And since he’s a child, we’ll have to think about colds and things like that, so I should probably come too.”

As Mr Fatido and Mr Lahzt went back and forth, Mr Kahzam interrupted. “And if Dr Lahzt, and Kohme and prince are all going, I’ll be going as well, as their bodyguard.”

“Understood. In that case, a car would be a lot easier. I can make some arrangements, if you don’t mind waiting.”

“Thank you very much, sir.”

The conversation chugged along, and Mr Lahzt said his thanks. Mr Kahzam bowed his head too and said thank you, and even the prince imitated them, dipping his head forward.

Mr Fatido smiled at me.

“Kohme, I’ll be awaiting a favorable response.”

Seeing that grin, I felt like I owed him an apology for something.

“Um, please. Our highest priority is this boy and Lady Solamire, right? Returning the one to the other? I’m afraid you’ll end up waiting quite a while on my account.”

“I know. But, if we don’t figure out your name, you can’t go with prince anyway, right?” Mr Fatido seemed confused.

“But, I mean, I know it’s a little late to say this, but back in my original world, I was just an ordinary citizen, I don’t know that I’m really fit to be a prince’s nurse, so…”

I screwed up my courage and said out loud what was on my mind, but in the end, my mouth froze up, and I looked at the floor.

That was when Mr Kahzam spoke. “Kohme. I’m sure you feel like it’s only been a few short days since you met us, Lord Fatido, and Dr Lahzt, and myself. But we’ve been watching you this whole time, while you were taking care of prince.”

I looked back up, surprised, and Mr Kahzam was watching me gently, and smiling. “I’m sure I won’t say this very well, but… Prince seems very happy.”

“That’s true. I’ve only heard about things second-hand from Lahzt and Kahzam.” This time it was Mr Fatido who turned his earnest gaze directly on me. “But we all know how much happiness you’ve given this kid. Do you really think we’re the kind of men who would just silently watch the two of you get pulled apart? We’re all – all of us – comrades, protecting prince.”

I got all flustered, and stared at the floor again. The prince jumped onto my knee and looked up at me, concerned.

My mind had been full of junk like, I’m just a pawn to be moved across the board, and once I’ve served my function, I’ll be pulled away from the prince, or even, I’m not good enough to be his nurse, I’m just trying to secure myself a place in this world, using the prince as an excuse.

But maybe I’d been overthinking the entire thing. These people were all worried about me, their hearts hurt for me, as a comrade.

And besides, it wasn’t like they were completely ignoring the prince’s feelings. If the prince needed me, I was going to stay by his side as long as I could.

In summary, they were right! I wasn’t going to be separated from the prince on my own account, at least! I hadn’t been apart from him more than two hours since we’d met, so if we were separated any longer than that I knew I’d keep thinking of him, keep worrying about him forever. Seriously, what a little criminal he was.

“I’m… sorry. Thank you…”

These three men were so trustworthy, like knights who were protecting my heart too. I picked up the prince and hugged him, and… started crying again.

We packed up the room we’d been staying in. The prince was pretty excited, and ran around the room, fussing at everything. He kept grabbing our carefully folded clothes and tossing them around the room.

“Alright, put those in here, will you.”

I opened the travel bag Mr Kahzam had gotten for me, and showed it to the prince, and he shoved the clothes in joyfully, his navy blue eyes sparkling, and then ran off in search of some other trophy. I took the opportunity to quickly refold the clothes.

I looked around the room to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything, my eye catching on my lavender party dress, still on the bedside table. It’s what I’d worn to Koaya’s wedding. In other words, it was an important dress that I’d been wearing when I came to this world.

I picked it up, and wavered a little.

When I’d left the treehouse, I never imagined I might never return… This time, the plan was that we’d come back here after meeting with Mr Lahzt’s mentor, but who knew what might happen. Yeah, let me take this, it’s important to me.

And my single earring too, given to me by Mr Lahzt after the other one had been lost.

Maybe it was because of my time in the Garden of Stars, but my piercings had completely closed up.

The bouquet of dried flowers, of course, didn’t go in the bag. They were definitely coming with me in the car.

I wanted to take care of them. My sisters had been thinking of me when they gave them to me.

The following day, the car Mr Fatido had arranged arrived.

Well, what he’d arranged was for him to arrive first, and his subordinates to bring the car around later. They were the president’s subordinates, so I assumed that meant they were his secretaries, right? So some sharp young person was going to show up then?

Or at least, that’s the image I made up in my head, but it is not what actually appeared.

“Mr Fatido, sir! Thanks for all your hard work, man!”

“Mr Fatido, sir! We brought the car, yo!”

One young man with a pink crew cut, and another with a bandana on his bald head stood in the entryway in clothes that looked like work coveralls with the sleeves cut off.

They each had Shin tattooed on their thick upper biceps, but… I tried to read the letters, and if I wasn’t mistaken, one said Favoritism and the other said Heresy. I really hoped it wasn’t some kind of weird trend in this world. 3

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And what was more, Mr Fatido’s answer was, “Yeah, thanks guys, great job. You head back first, yeah?”

Eeeh!? That was totally different from his usual tone! My eyes flew open.

“Yessir! You take care of our president, sister!”

They bowed to me, like two giants bending over, and I couldn’t do anything but nod and squeak out a “Yes.”

I silently watched the two of them as they headed back on a giant anpy that Mr Favoritism had been riding.

So ‘sister,’ that was me?

“So then, princess, shall I show you my vehicle?”

Mr Fatido returned to his usual tone as if nothing had happened, and put his hand on my back in the traditional escort pose, grinning.

This guy’s older sister is the king’s second wife?

I wondered what kind of person Lady Solamire was, and why she’d been selected as the second queen. I’d heard from Mr Kahzam that the king had chosen her himself, but… It was something I’d recently become quite worried about.

One way or another, we made it to the following morning, and set off with Mr Kahzam at the wheel.

What Mr Fatido had prepared for us was some kind of RV. It definitely made things a lot easier for me in taking care of the prince, and it was so large that he wasn’t likely to get bored.

It was my first time in an RV, and I confess I was a little excited. It had a sofa with a table, and even a little kitchen, and apparently, you could store the table away and stretch the sofa out to use it as a bed. The design was a little retro to my eyes, but it still had a nice atmosphere to it. The prince was overjoyed, and ran around investigating every part of the wood-grained cabin.

When I peeked in on Mr Kahzam in the drivers seat, it turned out that driving in this world was fundamentally the same as in mine. Well after all, the human form was the same, and so was the basic machinery of the car, so it made sense for things to be laid out the same.

The road sloped down gently, with sparse forest on either side. We’d been driving for a while, when suddenly the view opened up, and we came into a grassy clearing. The prince and I were both glued to the window.

The gentle hills rolled like surging waves, and extended all the way to a green mountain in the distance. Animals were munching on the grass, and flocks of birds flew across the sky.

We’d seen a lot of birds when we were in the treehouse too… Just as I thought it, I spotted some kind of carrier pigeon, but it wasn’t really a pigeon.

Over here, this orange bird was called a postey, the same type that carried the tube with Lady Solamire’s letter in it.

Mr Lahzt had used the posteys to exchange letters with his mentor before we left, and it seemed his request for an interview had been granted.

“People and animals get along really well over here, don’t they?” I said to Mr Lahzt, amazed, and he nodded.

“Our relationship with animals goes back to the time of legend in this world. That’s different from your world, I believe, Kohme?”

“What kind of legends? I’d love to know,” I begged. A place’s legends are the roots of that place. I felt like maybe if I could hear one, I might be able to understand this world better.

Mr Lahzt took something white and rectangular from his luggage. He popped it open, and set it up at an angle on the table. There was some kind of folded up mirror inside, which reflected the interior of the car.

“So we can hold prince’s interest, too. Watch it while I tell the story,” Mr Lahzt said, and the prince must have understood, because he parked himself in front of it.

The mirror part of whatever this thing was started glowing, and some Shin flashed across it… Oh, what was this image? A man was standing there, his body emitting some kind of white light, glowing from the inside.

“This world is called Gaduelyon, and it was created by the god Gaduos. Shin were created in order to transmit his will to humans. The Shin were entrusted to the animals originally, who were in turn sent out to human beings,” Mr Lahzt began. The floating seals were changing moment to moment, and now they showed images of different animals. This was a device that projected Shin. “And so, humans came to respect animals as the messengers of God.”

God, animals, and the next image was… Oh! I let out a noise at the familiar image. “That mysterious tree, in the Garden of Stars!”

“There are actually several locations around the world known as Gardens of Stars, all said to be places where God transmitted their will to the animals. That’s why no human can enter.”

“Oh… So God didn’t give the seals directly to mankind, the animals acted as intermediaries.”

“Exactly. And in the beginning…”

Mr Lahzt unraveled the letters wrapped around his left hand and made the Circle Art – apparently this was called unfolding them – and a bunch of the seals flew off from there. They gently wafted about, glowing faintly, and eventually melted away.

“The animals showed the seals to only a portion of humanity. They didn’t leave behind any records or documents of any kind. The humans could only accept them, they weren’t good enough to fully master them. Eventually, human beings petitioned God, asking that they be able to use the seals as well.”

I could see an image of human beings pleading with animals.

“God set down terms. As long as humans learned the will of the animals who’d been sent to them, and respected them, humans would be permitted to use Shin. And so, humans went through a lot of trouble to work out the shapes of the first Shin from letters they’d long been only able to look at, and changed themselves into animals and learned their will, and appeared in the Garden of Stars.”

There was an image of humans unfolding the Circle Art. A Shin appeared with the image of a giant bird taking off. Something about it… Somehow it seemed like I’d seen this before.

“God bore witness to human determination, and gave us the Shin… That’s the story.”

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God was granting a seal to that phoenix-looking bird…

“Incidentally, the first man to change into an animal was named Lahzu. They say that because the Art wasn’t yet complete, he wasn’t ever able to turn back into a human, and lived his whole life as a bird. It was the fact that he was brave enough to risk it in order to earn the seals that impressed God, and that’s why they gave us Shin.”

Wow… That Lahzu was a real hero.

In the image, the seal that must have indicated this Lahzu person, and the seal that indicated the huge bird, lined up next to one another.

Wait, ‘Lahzu’?

Just then, the prince, who had been staring at the seals intently, turned to Mr Lahzt and pointed at him. “Ahz,” he said.

“Wait, What?”

“Ahz!” The prince looked back to the seals and then back at Mr Lahzt. Oh.

“Ahz is Mr Lahzt? Is your name taken from Lahzu, Mr Lahzt? What a wonderful name!”

“Ah… Yeah,” Mr Lahzt muttered, and adjusted his glasses. Oh-ho, was he a bit shy about it? Heheh.

“Now that we mention it, Kahzam’s name is like that too.”

“What?”

“Prince figured it out.”

I looked over, and the prince was staring at the bird seal that floated above the projection equipment and muttering, “Mo-oh,” to himself.

We could hear Mr Kahzam chuckling from the driver’s seat, so Mr Lahzt explained.

“When Lahzu changed forms, the bird he turned into was called Kahzapka. He was a mediator between humans and God.”

So Mr Kahzam was named after the bird, huh. Wow… That was really nice… Well, ‘Koume’ was a perfectly nice name to have too though, right?

Still though, they said Shin could be read by anyone, even children… And the prince had indeed been able to read them. So if they could learn things this way from the time they were little, did that mean kids from this world would develop their mental faculties a lot faster than kids from my world?

Aaaah, but maybe that meant they’d grow out of that cute age a lot faster too! Man, I’d have to enjoy it while I could!

I suddenly grabbed the prince and rubbed my cheek against his. He hated it, and squealed.

Footnotes

kanji meaning Star Heart Lord, as in Lord of the Shin sealsduring the earlier conversation with Lahzt and Kahzam, the gender of Lahzt’s mentor was never explicitly stated, so Koume had no way of knowing whether the person was man/woman/other. i couldn’t figure out a way to replicate that lack of pronouns without sounding awkward in English, so i just stuck with she above. Koume figured it out pretty quick anyway.if i ever get to pick a Seal for my name, i am def picking Heresy, yall.