Chapter 86 - Investigation - 2

The following evening, in the mansion’s drawing room.

Albrecht, who had arranged another meeting to hear their answer to his proposal, thought to himself:

'This time!'

He would not repeat yesterday’s mistakes!

Albrecht straightened his back and folded his arms, raising one hand to his face to stroke his chin.

“So, have you given it some thought?”

He flashed a radiant smile as he spoke, revealing his pearly white teeth.

Seated opposite him, Renée gave a slight nod and replied.

“Yes, we’ll help with the investigation.”

“A wise cho—”

“On one condition.”

Renée interrupted Albrecht, her expression firming.

“I’m coming along too.”

After their conversation the previous night, she had stubbornly insisted until Bera gave her permission.

It was still too dangerous, he had said. Would she please reconsider, just this once? Only after rejecting every plea he made in that almost-begging voice had she finally secured his agreement.

Of course, Renée knew she might become a hindrance.

Still, she could not stop thinking that she must not send Bera there alone—that sending him alone to a place that hurt him so deeply was simply out of the question. She had no choice but to insist.

Renée’s love was the kind that could not look away while the person she loved struggled alone.

Troubled expressions appeared on Albrecht’s and Count Vaishur’s faces.

“Well...”

Albrecht was flustered again.

He needed to ask whether she would be all right, but even someone as tactless as he was knew one thing.

Saying, “You’re blind. Have you not considered that you would be a hindrance?” would cause a disastrous strain in their relations with the Holy Empire. It would also be an affront to his elder brother back at the imperial palace.

Albrecht’s golden eyes trembled as though an earthquake had struck. The corners of his radiant smile began to twitch, turning it into a foolish expression.

His thoughts grew increasingly distant.

Amid that haze, Albrecht squeezed his eyes shut and pulled himself together.

'No!'

What would the Holy Empire think of the imperial family if he made such a fool of himself?

He snapped his eyes wide open and composed his expression once more.

“Th-then we should bring in additional personnel...”

“No.”

Renée rejected that suggestion too, then offered a gentle smile as she explained.

“I know what you’re worried about. You think I’ll be a hindrance, don’t you?”

“That is...”

Renée could hear the tremor in Albrecht’s voice. She understood it, too. Her blindness was a limitation that could readily give rise to such concerns.

But this rather hapless second prince was overlooking one important fact.

“Your Highness.”

“Go on.”

“You haven’t forgotten who I am, have you?”

Albrecht tilted his head.

“You are the Saintess, are you not?”

“Yes, I am. And Saintess is the title bestowed upon someone granted the Supreme God’s divine powers.”

Renée was not someone who let emotion carry her away and made unreasonable demands that troubled others.

Her blindness certainly posed a weakness, but she also possessed a clear advantage that could render that weakness insignificant.

“Using my divine powers will make investigating that unidentified cartel much easier.”

The divine power to weave fate.

The miracle she had received in exchange for her light.

Though she truly disliked that power, Renée felt a small measure of gratitude for it now.

She was thankful that even this useless power allowed her to remain at Bera’s side and be of help to him.

Albrecht’s expression went blank at her words.

“Certainly...”

He would be truly grateful if she did.

It was not that this method had never occurred to him. With the Saintess’s divine powers, the investigation would undoubtedly be much easier and yield conclusive results.

Despite knowing that, he had refrained from asking Renée for one reason.

Three years ago, his father, the emperor, had made a move against the Saintess.

Albrecht might lack tact and knowledge of the world, but even he understood that asking her to use her divine powers could seem like a shameless attempt to pretend the incident three years ago had never happened.

As a member of the imperial family, at least, he needed to tread carefully when mentioning Renée’s powers.

Far more cautiously than before, Albrecht asked:

“... Would you be all right with that?”

He had left much unsaid, but Renée understood his intent.

“Yes. Because it’s the right thing to do.”

It would be a lie to say she bore no personal resentment. Renée knew the emperor had acted against her. She also knew he had tried to exploit her divine powers.

Yet she gave this answer because she knew that allowing those personal feelings to make her turn away from people in immediate danger would be wrong.

“Does that answer your question?” Renée asked.

Albrecht watched her with his lips pressed tightly together, then bowed his head and replied.

“... Thank you.”

At this unusually solemn expression of gratitude from Albrecht, Count Vaishur’s face filled with emotion.

'His Highness...'

He had grown! He was expressing his gratitude! The shock treatment had worked!

These thoughts hardly suited the occasion, but how could the count suppress them when he had just witnessed a sight he had only dreamed of?

Count Vaishur gave a small nod, privately celebrating Albrecht’s growth.

That sentiment also filled his voice with joy when he spoke.

“Well, it seems we’ve settled matters nicely. Given the hour, shall we have dinner?”

“Pardon? Oh, certainly.”

A little puzzled by Count Vaishur’s sudden outpouring of delight, Renée nodded.

* * *

Later, over dinner.

Partway through the meal, Count Vaishur looked at Renée and Bera and asked:

“When do you plan to begin the investigation, then?”

They had left without establishing any concrete plans, so he thought they might as well settle everything while they were together.

This time, Bera answered.

“We’ll begin in four days.”

“Hmm? That is rather late.”

“Reinforcements will be arriving from the Holy Empire.”

Cutting his meat with impeccably formal movements, Bera continued.

“He’s someone we can trust when it comes to finding the way. Taking him along will be more reliable than simply poking around at random. In the meantime, Count, please devote your efforts to maintaining public safety.”

“Ah!” Count Vaishur exclaimed at Bera’s words.

“Is the person coming the apostle of guidance?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh...”

Count Vaishur nodded.

“It will be good to greet him after so long.”

“... You’ve met him before?” Bera asked.

The count nodded in reply.

“Yes. Around this time eight years ago, he came to deliver a letter from my wife.”

It had been a brief acquaintance, back when Mari was staying in the Great Forest.

As the count recalled that time and was about to say more, Mari scolded him.

“Honestly, must you talk about work even at a time like this? Stop that and eat!”

Both the count and Bera flinched.

Mari narrowed her eyes at them, while an awkward smile appeared on Renée’s lips.

“Talk after you’ve finished eating. You’re making the Saintess uncomfortable.”

“I-I don’t mind.”

“Oh, don’t be so considerate of them. You have to keep them firmly in line every now and then! Oh, right—Saintess, is tonight’s food to your liking? I did tell them to take extra care.”

The conversation abruptly changed course.

Mari’s endless chatter had started up.

Once it began, that long, long stream of talk showed no inclination to stop. Bera and the count gradually bowed their heads lower and lower over their plates.

* * *

Mari’s chatter ended only after the meal was over and dessert had been served.

Once that stretch of time, enjoyable only to Mari, had finally ended, Aisha—who had eaten without saying a word until then—seized the lull to speak.

“Your Highness.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Are you a man or a woman?”

“Wh-what...?”

Aisha waited for Albrecht’s answer with sparkling eyes.

She had wondered about it all through dinner and simply could not hold back the question any longer.

He was too pretty to be a man, but acted too much like a man to be a woman.

“Well? Which one are you?”

Albrecht was briefly flustered by her question.

That, too, was a natural response to a question he had never been asked before.

After that moment of confusion, however, he began interpreting her words as praise, just as he always did.

'Ah, I was simply too beautiful!'

He was so beautiful that he did not look like a man, and had confused the little girl!

... He had not changed at all, rendering all the emotion Count Vaishur had felt in the drawing room meaningless.

Albrecht tilted his head, his golden hair swaying softly. His golden eyes curved into crescents with his lovely smile.

Beaming, he answered Aisha.

“Who knows? I could be a man, or I could be a woman.”

A young girl’s innocent wonder ought to be protected. Someone as beautiful as he was should remain an elf in her heart instead. With that thought, he gave his coy answer.

“Hmm... So you’re neither one thing nor the other.”

Aisha said it as though it were of no consequence.

Albrecht froze, his smile still fixed in place.

“A-Aisha!”

At Dovan’s flustered exclamation, Aisha tilted her head and delivered more words that drove nails deep into Albrecht’s heart.

“You said so yourself, Master. Things with no clear purpose are the most useless things in the world. Adding all sorts of unnecessary bits just makes them neither one thing nor the other.”

Hearing that, Albrecht wondered, 'Am I dreaming right now?'

No clear purpose. Neither one thing nor the other.

Wasn’t something wrong here? Surely it made no sense to use such words to describe him.

Albrecht simply could not accept that those words referred to him.

Thus, he began to conclude that all of this must be a dream.

In other words, he chose to flee reality.

The light went out of Albrecht’s eyes.

At the sight of him, Count Vaishur put on a hollow smile.

With a single remark, Aisha had sunk two people.

... No, she had sunk two people and brought another to the brink of sinking.

As Renée listened to the conversation, she felt her fingertips twitching.

'H-he doesn’t know?'

Why not? Why didn’t he know his own sex? Was he hiding it? Had he actually been a woman all along?

Cold sweat trickled down her forehead. She tried desperately to maintain her composure, but by now unmistakable bewilderment had settled over her face.

Come to think of it, there was something the grave atmosphere had made her forget.

'A-a rival in love...!'

Albrecht might be her romantic rival.

Renée’s hand tightened into a fist.

She thought, 'Perhaps it isn’t time for the sword inside my cane to sleep just yet.'

It was a thought entirely typical of Renée.