Flower of Steel

“Are you okay, Lumi?”

Lumi seemed to be coughing badly and answered me in a hoarser tone at my question. “Yeah… I think I have a cold. You should sit down. Prince Siccain.”

“Er- yeah.”

I sat down and glanced at Lumi. Was it because she was sick? She seemed calmer and more mature. So, she is like this when she’s silent. By the way, she seems a bit more well-built. Did she… get fat? She’ll feel insulted if I say that, so I should be careful.

***

Time passed by quite a while, but Jianne and the Crown Prince didn’t return. I couldn’t focus on the play because of that. What happened to them? I was fidgeting with my fingers nervously when the light on the stage went down. It seemed this wasn’t planned, as I heard startled voices mumbling.

‘What’s going on?’

Out of curiosity, I looked down on the stage when the audience fell silent. The light turned on as the staff seemed to take care of the situation. I tried to breathe in relief to blow away my anxiousness when a shocking sight was seen on the stage. Jianne, covering the bottom half of his face with linen, was fighting against a mysterious masked man with a scorpion tattoo on his wrist. But no other than us knew that the fight was real. The audience thought they were actors doing their sword dance and began cheering them on.

“This is what it’s about!”

“Beat ’em kiddo!”

The audience’s cheers began to heat up the stage. However, I couldn’t play along. I felt like going crazy from watching my cousin fighting on the stage below.

“Rian! It’s Jianne…!” My voice trembled from the shock, and Rian sat me down on the chair.

“Don’t worry and stay here. I’ll go down.”

As I saw his back going further away, I realized I was wrong to ask him for help and had to tell him that he, the only successor of the family of a duke, didn’t need to risk his life. My conscience told me I had to do it, but my concern for my cousin stopped me from saying it. I bit my lip as I looked down. That’s when I heard a voice with a smirk.

“It’s quite strange, really. What was on your mind when you sent your only protector away from here? Tell me, pretty.”

I turned and saw the mysterious man that released me and Daisy back at the old bookstore last time, already inside the room and standing while leaning on the door, watching me.

“Lumi!” I ran over to hug her and glared at the man.

The man grinned, looked at us, and said, “I love your face the more I see it, but I like your character too.”

“Cut the nonsense! Is that man on the stage one of you?” I snapped.

“Ouch… Yes, he is. He’s one of two sub-guild masters of the guild, but I didn’t expect him to have such a hard time against that little girl. What a shame. Isn’t it? But of course, a girl of her ability would be hard to fight against… Where did you get such an ally?”

Little girl? Jianne would be angry if he heard that. He may look just like Lumi, but he always thinks he’s manly and handsome. He’s such a kid with a kind soul… Anyway, now is the time to question him.

“I don’t know what you’re getting at, but why are you here? I can see that you aren’t here to kill me from the way you’re blabbering all that nonsense.”