If You Win, Your Prize Is The Princess

Sylia was more depressed than ever. Luna was concerned.

“I’m sorry, you were looking forward to it…” Sylia said.

“Th-There’s nothing to apologize for,” Luna said. “There’s nothing we can do about it, right?”

Sylia and Luna returned to their room in Eneria’s royal castle. As expected, there were so many unknowns in this incident and it was decided that leaving them back at the festival grounds was too great a risk.

So, up till recently, Sylia, Luna, and Feuille had been questioned.

However, they were just the victims and could only say so much. And the perpetrators were already captured, so it didn’t take long to figure out what happened. On a related note, after hearing a debriefing, Feuille left for the city again without saying why.

And now Sylia and Luna were forced to wait in the castle.

“It seemed Kaehn was very worried, and now I can’t go to the festival with you, Luna…” Sylia muttered.

“It seems to me that my brother wasn’t that worried…” Luna said.

When they returned, Kaehn was the first to come to pick them up. It seemed that he had been informed the two were safe ahead of time and although he was relieved to see them back unharmed, he wasn’t in a panic. He also went somewhere else after getting the report. Perhaps he’s preparing to return to Brenarch to file a formal report.

On a related note, Letarte, King of Eneria, seemed to be extremely busy, and his servants passed a message that he would apologize later.

“It’s no use grieving, it’s not like the festival is just for now,” Luna said.

“That’s right, but…” Sylia said.

“And you’re not to blame, Sylia, it’s those people that attacked us!”

Even Luna hasn’t completely accepted the situation. She was forcibly deprived of precious alone time with Sylia. That came out strongly for Luna but Sylia only responded weakly,

“All that said, it’s my fault. I think my Master has done something.”

Sylia’s mental image of her Master was of a rough-and-tumble woman. She didn’t think it strange at all that she’s caused some kind of uproar.

“I don’t know what Master did, or where and what she’s doing now…” Sylia muttered.

“Umm, wasn’t she called ‘Sagimiya’?” Luna asked.

“Yes, but she said ‘You can call me Master.’, so I rarely called her by her name,” Sylia said.

“Speaking of which, I haven’t heard about her in detail, so who was she?” Luna asked, somewhat careful.

She wanted to change the subject right now and relieve Sylia’s depression as much as possible.

Then, as ordered by Luna, Sylia slowly began to remember.

“My Master was… well, I wonder if the phrase ‘messed up’ suits her.”

“She was ‘messed up’?” Luna asked.

“Her swordsmanship skills are first-class and even though she’s already very strong, her magic is also first-class,” Sylia said. “During my training, I was always terrified of her.”

“Didn’t you learn your sword skills from her?” Luna asked.

“I did,” Sylia said. “I met Master and became her disciple, or rather, I was taken in by her… and I was suddenly handed that gigantic sword.”

The sword she didn’t have at the moment. It was the weapon she used at Brenarch’s arena, against House Enry, and then Feuille.

“When I remember those times, I only have painful memories…” Sylia muttered.

Being forced to hold it, inevitably getting pulled around by it, and being repeatedly beaten. Nowadays, she can attribute her fighting skill to those but at that time she legitimately thought she might die during training.

As Luna realized that Sylia had gotten a far-off look, she quickly changed the subject.

“W-Well, what kind of person was your master?” Luna asked. “She was a woman, right?”

“Mm, I wonder if you could pick her out by her long black hair… well, I think I remember she was quite beautiful,” Sylia said.

“Hey, did you just say black hair?” Luna asked. “Before you came to Brenarch, there was a great wizard. That person also had black hair.”

Sylia felt something resonate with the phrase “great wizard”. She thinks she’s heard it from somewhere but can’t recall it immediately.

“She’d already left the country… I hope she’ll come back,” Luna said.

“Huh… I can’t use magic, but I wanted to meet her as well,” Sylia said.

Luna was just trying to get a feel for Luna’s words. Sylia couldn’t remember what she was so caught up in, so she put it on hold for the moment.

And this time, Sylia shook up the subject.

“Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask… that man, Magusa. Who is he?”

Yes, the giant man who appeared as reinforcements. For Sylia, he was an acquaintance from the arena but he was a mysterious person. For some reason, he seemed to be a senior head of the guard of this country and above all else, Luna knows him.

“Oh, him? He’s…” Luna started.

From there, a long explanation began. It was incredibly long, it was all Sylia could do keeping things together after surprising facts.

“Umm, to put it simply, Magusa is the Captain of the Guard of this country,” Sylia said.

“Right,” Luna said.

“And until a few years ago, he was the Captain of Brenarch’s Guard…?”

“That’s right,” Luna said. “He’s effectively Kranz’s former boss, the current Captain of the Guard. He was trained by Magusa.”

Spin, spin, spin, Sylia was desperately trying to keep her head straight. Nothing seems to add up.

By Luna’s account, Magusa was the Captain of this country’s Guard. Then why was he at the arena then? And why did he lie to Sylia about being a mercenary?”

“I’m wondering how you know him, Sylia…” Luna said. “Did you meet him somewhere?”

Sylia replied without hesitation nor deceit. Yes, it was at the arena. And when Luna heard that, she tilted her head in confusion.

“At the tournament? That’s strange… by that time, he’d already moved to this country.”

“So you don’t know in the end, Luna?” Sylia asked.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know at all…” Luna said. “I know Kranz picked you up but I never realized Magusa was at the tournament…”

The two of them tilt their heads together. But now there was nothing they could do about it. After a brief interrogation for both of them, Magusa continued to untangle the problem and went on to interrogate the suspects. In all honestly, he probably wouldn’t be back any time soon.

“Maybe my father was asking for a favor,” Luna said. “Would you like to hear from him again?”

“Yeah, I do,” Sylia said. “I have to wait for now.”

She’s not distrustful of him. It’s true that he had lied but it wasn’t harmful to Sylia nor vice versa. It feels strange but there was no urgency and she should check it out carefully later.

Besides, Sylia had a lot more to worry about right now.

“What should we do about the festival from now on…?” Sylia muttered.

“………”

Luna’s desperate concern was all in vain, the subject loops back to the beginning.

Luna began to think up on another topic but at that moment, the door opened and today’s savior reappeared.

“S-Sorry, to have kept, you waiting…” Feuille huffed.

It seemed she had been running all throughout the festival grounds with all her might. After helping them so many times today, Feuille stood at the entrance of their room.

With the fatigue clear on her face, she holds a huge number of bags filled with things bought at the festival’s stalls.

“I can’t thank you enough, Feuille,” Luna said.

“… Think nothing of it,” Feuille said. “I’m just indebted to you.”

After Sylia and Luna returned to the royal castle, Feuille quickly returned to the festival grounds. She may have anticipated that they wouldn’t be able to leave the castle, so she’s bought things from the food stalls that they wanted to taste or would have been interested in.

They felt it was wrong to take it all for themselves, Luna and Sylia invited Feuille to join them, but Feuille replied, “I’m a little tired, so I’m going to rest.”

“We’ll have to thank her later,” Luna said.

“Yeah, we’ll think of something,” Sylia said. “Feuille saved our lives several times today.”

Being an escort was her job but Sylia and Luna can’t take her for granted.

However, Feuille wasn’t here right now so thanking her later it was, Sylia and Luna were grateful to get what she bought.

“Is this a meat skewer?” Sylia asked.

“It’s a sweet pastry,” Luna said. “She’s bought a lot for us.”

Perhaps Feuille bought whatever was most noticeable, from street food that seems to mostly be desserts and sweets, masks and toys they couldn’t understand very well, and other things that made them feel the festival atmosphere here.

“Now’s a good time, so let’s enjoy ourselves,” Sylia said.

The depression was gone, Sylia was happy again, and Luna was, too.

“Yeah, let’s do it!” Luna said.

After this, they didn’t know a “game” would happen between the two of them, after some odd inspiration from Sylia.