Volume 4 Chapter 6: Hands Creeping Closer

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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Shown into the reception room, Liltana and Cain sat down on sofas opposite each other.

In a corner of the room, a maid was preparing black tea and biscuits to go along with it.

The items displayed in the hall to the reception room, while being from the Empire, were not that much different from ones in the Kingdom, and were tastefully arranged.

And while the room was only a reception room, the sofa was so comfortable that Cain was quite happy.

“Cain-sama, you’re looking around everywhere, is something the matter?”

“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about how as the decorations here were different than those from the Kingdom, perhaps your hobbies were also different…”

Liltana giggled.

“I apologize for having kept you waiting. I have brewed some tea from the Empire.”

The maid placed a cup in front of each of them and filled them with tea.

Cain picked up his cup, and as he brought it up to his mouth, he noticed the tea had a slightly different smell than was usual.

Taking a sip, he involuntarily loosened his cheeks as a fruity flavour spread through his mouth.

Seeing him smile, Liltana also brought her cup to her mouth, satisfied.

“This tea’s delicious… First time I’ve ever had this flavour though.”

“We brought it over from the Empire. I really like it as well; I’ve been drinking it ever since I was little. Nigeet always finds these kinds of things for me.”

While the two of them were enjoying drinking the tea, Nigeet, who had finished carrying all the luggage, entered the room.

“I’ve finished carrying all the products, Your Highness.”

“Thank you. It seems Cain-sama has also taken a liking to the tea you chose.”

“Nigeet-san, this tea really is delicious.”

With a satisfied smile from Cain’s words, Nigeet went to stand behind Liltana.

“If Count Silford is happy with it, then I too am grateful. If you would like, we would be able to give you some to take home as a present, even if only a little? Otherwise, as these tea leaves are from the Empire, you could also get engaged with Her Highness and go to the Empire together––”

“Nigeet!!!”

Liltana scolded Nigeet for having said too much with a bright red face.

Liltana, her face red to the ears from Nigeet having said ‘engaged’, stood up and hit him on the head.

“How rude of me… I went too far. Count Silford, if you could forgive me…”

Nigeet bowed deeply while Liltana kept on hitting his head.

“Lil… that’s enough. I know it was a joke, okay. There’s no way a princess of the Empire could get engaged to a noble from a different nation so easily. I get that it was a joke, all right?”

Liltana’s expectations were crushed at Cain laughing it off, making her expression become cloudy, but then she opened her mouth as if to stop it from showing.

“––Right, indeed… I’m the sixth Imperial Princess. It won’t be that easy…”

Her expression slightly gloomy, Liltana’s words trailed off.

“Ah, Lil, also, just call me Cain, okay? I call you Lil after all. I call you Your Highness when in public, but at times like these, as friends… okay?”

Liltana, her gloomy expression replaced by coloured cheeks once again, nodded at Cain’s kind words.

For Liltana, as it had been several years since she had last met him back when they were young, she was hesitant to call him ‘Cain’ now that she had actually met him again.

Unlike back when she was young, Liltana had now grown up, even if just to the point of being a teenage girl.

“Then… I’ll call you C-Ca-Cain!”

Seeing Liltana’s embarrassment, Nigeet managed to refrain from laughing from behind her at her unusual attitude.

After that, the two of them continued having a pleasant chat for another half-hour.

“Well then, I really have to be going home now. See you at school!”

“Alright Cain. See you tomorrow!”

“Count Silford, I’ll give you a lift.”

Cain was shown to the carriage by Nigeet, as he was to be taken back to his mansion in it.

Nigeet, who was acting as the coachman, started speaking to Cain through a small window installed on the carriage.

“Cain-sama, despite appearances, Her Highness can get quite lonely. Please get along with her in the future too. Also–– I think she has a specific reason for having become a transfer student here in the Kingdom. And, I don’t know the details, but… Apparently, before I started serving her, when she was young, she came to the Kingdom once. So I’ve been wondering whether that was the reason…”

“Yeah, I heard about that from Lil. That she went to Lamesta, a town in my family’s territory. As such, she might not have had a bad impression of the Kingdom and decided to come here.”

Cain tried to recall what had happened when he had visited Lamesta when he was young.

(––Umm… I trained really hard with the knights… and then…)

“Huh… there was a kid back then with that stall… name was, ummm, right…”

Cain recalled choosing a necklace from a street stall from a corner of his memories.

“No way…”

Carrying a smiling Cain, the carriage headed towards the Silford Residence.

◇◇◇

The next day, after classes were finished, Liltana got in the carriage that had come to pick her up.

“Good job at school, Your Highness.”

“Yeah…”

A somewhat cheerless Liltana gazed out of the carriage’s window.

As the carriage proceeded, three carriages, all in a row in front of it, also rolled along slowly.

One of them was slightly ahead of the other two, which in turn were moving slowly, as if to obstruct Liltana’s carriage.

“The carriages in front of us are really slow aren’t they…”

Nigeet, the coachman, complained, muttering while gazing at the slow-moving carriages in front of him.

And, way ahead of the carriage, a single girl was walking along.

Having finished her before-noon classes, having gone out as a messenger for her company –– it was Palma.

She was in the nobles’ district in order to get in contact with the nobles who had made reservations for the glassware given to her by Cain.

“Ehmmmm… next is, Marquis Corgino’s residence…”

A carriage approached Palma as she walked along, looking at her notes.

And then––

Two men appearing out of nowhere from behind her covered her mouth and hit her in the stomach.

“Ugh…”

The punch was powerful enough to make the untrained Palma lose consciousness.

The men picked Palma up and threw her into the leading carriage, which then instantly accelerated.

Nigeet, the coachman of a carriage rolling along behind it, hadn’t seen it clearly, but he had seen someone be picked up and thrown into a carriage.

“?!…”

Nigeet wanted to chase after it, but an Imperial Princess of the Empire was riding in his carriage. There was no way he could expose her to such danger, and even if he told her about it right then and there, Liltana, with her strong sense of justice, would undoubtedly give the order to ‘Follow them!’, so Nigeet stayed silent as the carriage proceeded.

However, he burned the characteristics of the kidnappers’ carriage into his mind, following it with his eyes until it disappeared…

Back in the mansion, Nigeet told Liltana, who was sitting on the sofa and relaxing, what had happened earlier.

“Why didn’t you go after them right then and there!!!”

Just as Nigeet had expected, Liltana was furious.

“I’m terribly sorry. With Your Highness on board, I alone wouldn’t have been enough to guarantee your safety. It is my duty to keep Your Highness safe, after all.”

As Nigeet lowered his head, Liltana hit the table, stood up, and saying ‘We’re leaving’, she exited the room.

“Yes, immediately. As for the destination…”

“The guard station of course! Is there anywhere else!?”

“But, this is the Kingdom. We’re citizens of the Empire––”

“This is no time to be saying that!”

“Understood. I’ll prepare everything immediately.”

With Nigeet as her bodyguard and two knights from the Empire accompanying her, Liltana got into the carriage, which began rolling toward the guard station.

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