Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Volume 14 E-Book

Riku Nanano

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 306

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Stranded deep beneath the Sealed Archive, Allen faces down the “angel” possessing his student Stella. Physically and magically exhausted, the young tutor’s chances seem slim without help. Unfortunately, rescue won’t be forthcoming—his friends on the surface have their own crisis to solve. A rampaging Great Tree threatens to engulf the royal capital in deadly foliage, and the kingdom’s armies rally to the city’s defense. The dukes have sworn to avert disaster at any cost—including Stella’s life.

To save their tutor and their friend, Allen’s remaining students must brave an ancient and secret route beneath the palace and uncover the secrets of a princess erased from history—and they have competition. Church agents race to claim the angel for their own sinister ends, and one wears a familiar face. Can Allen bring himself to face an old friend from beyond the grave?

Leseprobe

Prologue

White light washed over the dying knight sprawled on the crude altar. This old church lay within the walls of a holy citadel, the seat of power in the Knightdom of the Holy Spirit. Beside the altar, one hand raised, stood none other than our white-robed and hooded Saint. I ranked as the least of the Church of the Holy Spirit’s apostles, but even I could hardly fathom the scale of Her Holiness’s mana as it cured the knight’s mortal wounds.

It’s a miracle!

I felt so moved that I wanted to weep, keeping my surreptitious guard from behind a pillar. A quiver ran through the beast ears hidden by my hood. With both wolf-clan and demon blood in my veins, I had no place in the church’s worldview. I didn’t even know what my parents looked like. By the time I became aware of the world around me, I had already been enslaved as a soldier of the curial officers who oversaw espionage and assassination. My evaluation had read simply:

“With the vast mana of a demon and the sturdy flesh of a beast, the subject should prove useful in experiments with magic beyond any decent knight or common believer. Though horned, it shall not be subject to immediate disposal.”

They hadn’t treated me like a person. And yet, Her Holiness had taken my bloodstained hands and granted me the robe and station of an apostle—all despite her own human blood! She had even freed many more slave-soldiers, giving them warm food and beds. And above all, she had shown me the light of creating “a world without tyrants, where no children cry.”

No one else can lead us to salvation!

All the more reason why losing not only the robe and dagger she’d granted me but even a holy dragon at Rostlay filled me with bitter regret. One day, I would have my revenge on the despicable Stella Howard and the Hero. When I did, it might prove amusing to capture that “defective key” the noblewoman fancied—Allen, I thought his name was—and—

The gasps of knights and physicians filled the old church.

“Oh!”

“Can it be?”

“It’s a miracle.”

“Long live Her Holiness! Glory be!”

The knightdom shared a border with the Wainwright Kingdom, a veritable den of unbelievers, and we weren’t far from it here. Although major battles had long since ceased, skirmishes remained numerous, and more fighters died or suffered injuries with each passing day. Duke Algren’s forces seemed particularly intent on fighting. When Her Holiness had declared her intention to come here, I’d had the temerity to object. Now, however...

The numinous radiance ceased, and the once dying knight—a man nearing middle age—sat up in a daze. A lady knight with close-cropped brown hair threw her arms around him, weeping. The one I served never erred.

While I lamented my lack of insight, Her Holiness cast an affectionate gaze at the pair, then turned and said, “Please, bring the next sufferer. My power amounts to little. But as I have had the fortune to stand here today, I wish to heal as many as I possibly can. Please lend me your aid.”

Just then, sunlight streamed through the cracked stained glass behind her. Her peerless fall of light-gray hair shone with such mystical splendor that all of us present stared wide-eyed and drew in our breath. I shook.

Her Holiness will save us—and the whole world too!

“We hear and obey!” the knights and physicians chorused, hearts united as one as they saluted and then broke into a run. The knight on the altar shed huge tears as he and the lady knight bowed again and again and left the church on their own feet.

Her Holiness was watching them go with a smile when an elderly knight, gray-haired and bearded, led several more knights carrying a wooden chair into the room. The leader, Commander Dale of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, dropped to one knee.

“Your Holiness, please take this seat while you await the next sufferer,” he pleaded.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly.” Ever humble, the one I served shook her head.

The knights fell to both knees and bowed so low their foreheads touched the floor. “Please, I beg you, sit. I cannot deny that we Knights of the Holy Spirit have met with defeat on many battlefields. I cannot bear the shame! Yet mortified though I am to admit it, we cannot now repay your tender mercy in any way but this.”

The knights had taken advantage of the Algren rebellion not only to seize almost complete control of the kingdom’s eastern capital but to march on its royal capital as well. They had also dispatched forces to the League of Principalities, where I’d heard they had achieved their objectives in the city of water. Yet the fact of their defeats on all fronts remained.

“Dale.” Her Holiness dropped to one knee and took a wrinkled hand in both of hers without a moment’s hesitation. I couldn’t hide my shock, and the knights looked equally speechless, but the Saint continued, “You mustn’t say such things. The Knights of the Holy Spirit fought valiantly on every battlefield. True, you sacrificed much, and perhaps you didn’t achieve everything we could have hoped for in the cities you assailed. However...” Spotless white mana filled the air.

How...how utterly divine.

“Your efforts have brought us real progress. We’ve gained great prizes, especially the Great Tree’s most ancient bud from the royal capital and the principe’s tablet from the city of water. Please don’t abase yourself; hold your head high, like a knight in a storybook. And if you must blame someone, let it be me. On the day the great spell Resurrection is completely restored and our dream becomes reality, all those who perished shall claim their just reward.”

The battle-hardened knight’s shoulders shook as his sobs echoed through the old church. At last, he dried his eyes and stood, murmuring, “My thanks. Your words touch me deeply.”

“For the Saint and the Holy Spirit!” the lesser knights chorused, striking their breastplates and scabbards before filing out of the church.

For Her Holiness the Saint!

I was still praying to the one I served, who had lowered herself into the chair, when I heard a snort.

“Another transparent ploy. I see you haven’t changed,” said a young man’s voice. I felt a surge of annoyance, although I didn’t let it show. The newcomer hadn’t let me detect so much as a hint of his presence.

I won’t deny his skill, but how dare he insult Her Holiness?!

Suppressing my darker impulses, I forced myself to calmly cast wards of silence and perception-blocking. “Apostle Io,” I said over my shoulder, “should you not be keeping watch around this holy citadel?”

Atop a stack of crates, legs swaying, sat a diminutive demisprite sorcerer. His long white hair framed golden eyes. A pristine white robe covered limbs as dainty as a girl’s, and a witch hat of the same hue adorned with a black, eight-petaled flower perched on his head. His metal staff hovered in midair.

Io “Black Blossom” Lockfield, second of the apostles, had crushed the heart of the impregnable Fortress of Seven Towers single-handed and assassinated its daring commander Robson Atlas, who had caused Her Holiness concern. In the city of water, he had handily stalled some of the kingdom’s mightiest warriors. But for all his magical prowess, I found him insufferable, not to mention haughty. I’d lost count of how many times I’d thought of killing him.

“Fool,” Io scoffed, as usual. “I’ve already surrounded it with more wards than you can count. Only the Hero, the Dark Lord, or one of those pesky dragons could break these defenses in a frontal assault. The Saint doesn’t need any other protection—not that loathsome vampiress, not the Kokonoe swordswoman off in Lalannoy with that Atlasian spearwoman who lost her country to the humans, and not the other four apostles scattered all over the map. Was that clear enough for you, Least of Us?”

It took me a moment to force out an “I beg your pardon.”

The “loathsome vampiress,” the legendary Alicia “Crescent Moon” Coalfield, was recuperating in the pontiff’s domain. Her Holiness’s servant Viola Kokonoe; the third-ranked apostle, Levi Atlas; and the other members of our order had each undertaken missions requiring the utmost secrecy. And following the defeat at Rostlay, I had been judged “insufficient protection” if Her Holiness were to come under attack during her travels.

I hope Stella Howard rots in hell.

While I ground my teeth, Io hopped off his crate. “Don’t you agree?” he offhandedly asked a dark corner. “Give us your thoughts, mighty Prime Apostle and master of Falling Star.”

A patch of shadow dissolved to reveal two men. One looked young, wore a white robe trimmed with azure, and held a timeworn wooden staff—the head of our order, known as the “Sage.” I’d barely exchanged two words with him, and I didn’t know what he looked like under his hood, but he had Her Holiness’s trust. The other, a tall man, wore an apostle’s robe trimmed with dark green.

Who’s this?

“I concur, problem child of the Glenbysidhes,” the Sage replied before I could reach a conclusion. His remark struck a nerve, judging by Io’s disgruntled sniff.

The demisprite sorcerer couldn’t stand any mention of his origins. He lowered the brim of his white witch hat and changed the subject. “I assume that’s your replacement for our pitiful, doddering number four who let Lalannoy’s pet freak get the best of him? I don’t care about the least of us, but he’d better not get in my way.”

“Idris has fallen?!” I blurted out.

Her Holiness had personally chosen us seven apostles, and our duties might well include dying for her grand vision. Still, while Idris, the fourth of our number, had been even more arrogant and less likable than Io, his ability went without question. The ancient vampire from an eastern land had lost his dominant right arm, leaving him far from the height of his power, but I’d still never expected to hear of his defeat.

The prime apostle nodded without acknowledging my shudder. His lips curled slightly. “I’ll vouch for him. After all...” Shadows swelled in the church. A cloud must have covered the sun. “This man killed a four-winged devil with his own hands.”

I gasped, struck speechless. Even Io seemed impressed.

“Well now,” he murmured, “a devil slayer in this day and age.”

Devils, implacable enemies of mortalkind, numbered among the mightiest beings in our godless world. And this man had killed one?

“If what you say is true, I can understand giving him our vacant fourth seat,” Io continued. “If. He must have led quite an unusual life to— Hm? What’s this mana?” The second-ranked apostle fell silent squinting at the mystery man. What had he noticed? I couldn’t deny his knowledge or skill in such matters.

Before I could make up my mind, soft early-winter sunlight streamed into the church once more. Little birds slipped through gaps in the broken stained glass and alighted on Her Holiness. I could have been looking at a painting.

“Well, no matter,” Io said, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll take you at your word for the present. So, where will you send our new number four? Lalannoy again, I suppose?”

“That decision isn’t mine to make.”

The words had barely left the prime apostle’s mouth when my silencing and perception-blocking spells vanished—along with him and his companion, leaving Io and me the only apostles in the church. I couldn’t begin to guess how he’d done it.

I was still reeling from the gulf between our powers when Her Holiness turned to me. “Edith, to my side.”

“A-At once,” I replied. Her gentle voice made me feel like a powerless little girl again. Under his breath, Io muttered a disgusted “Fool,” but I ignored him, nervously approaching the altar and bending one knee.

“Your hand,” said the Saint.

“O-Of course.”

Hesitantly, I extended one hand, and tender fingers closed around it.

“Y-Your Holiness?! Your sacred hands are, er, that is...” I faltered, too shocked for words.

Oh, what an honor.

“You needn’t fear,” Her Holiness continued, love in the eyes like precious jewels I glimpsed beneath her hood. “No one here would ever dream of harming me.”

“Y-Your Holiness.”

She touched my cheek next, and my whole body burned. I couldn’t contain the sudden flare of heat. In my eyes, Her Holiness seemed more divine than any god.

“You’ll scare away the sufferers if you keep up that fierce scowl,” she said. “Try to smile for me. Please?”

“Y-Yes, p-please forgive me,” I replied, aware of my blushing cheeks and pounding heart. The awkward grin I somehow managed garnered a “Thank you” from Her Holiness. Body and soul awash in ecstasy, I couldn’t muster a word in response. I thought I caught Io mumbling something behind me, but what did I care?

(“Unbelievable.”)

Footfalls alerted me to the knights’ return. I looked up to find the one I served radiant with pure-white mana, left hand on her heart.

“Come,” she said, “as always, let us save as many wounded souls as we possibly can. You’ll help me, won’t you, Edith?”

✽

“Now, Your Holiness, if you’ll excuse me. Please have no fear that anyone will interrupt you at your prayers—Io and I will keep a close guard,” the girl said, bowing to me with the same puppylike expression she’d worn when we first met. What an amusing contrast she made to Io’s grimace.

“Thank you, Edith,” I replied in the mild tones of the church’s living Saint. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. Or you, of course, Io.”

“Y-You do me too much honor!” the girl exclaimed, while Io only snorted.

The sturdy church doors thudded shut behind them. A barrier so potent I could see it with my naked eyes went up around me. Once I removed my hood and dispelled my perception-blocking, the mana lamps and moonlight cast my silhouette on the wall—complete with gray-haired ears and tail.

The church despised beastfolk, yet it revered me as its Saint. No matter how many years passed, the absurdity never lost its humor. The knights I’d saved that very day might take their own lives if they ever found out. I giggled, my old pendant bouncing as I twirled in place, toying with the fantasy.

If they’re all going to die anyway, I’d better find them even nicer battlefields to do it on!

“So, has anything happened I should know about?” I asked my accomplice once I’d had my fill of mocking laughter.

Shadows wavered, and the self-styled “Sage” revealed himself, staff in hand. Never a man to waste words, he cut to the chase without so much as pushing back his hood.

“The summoning circle I left in the Sealed Archive eleven years ago activated. Someone in the kingdom must have realized the secret of ten-day fever.”

A sweet thrill ran through my ears and tail.

Ah, you never disappoint.

“Who else but my Allen?” I swayed, hands pressed to my burning cheeks. I couldn’t contain my joy. Stone Serpent must have shared it, because my surroundings petrified as my spirits surged. “He must have pieced together the scantest of clues to reach the truth. Of course, I doubt he understands all of it. Perhaps he worked through the Walker girl. She is one of his students, or so I hear. And her parents gave you quite a fight.”

The Walkers had shown great strength in the Sealed Archive eleven years earlier. My accomplice, the “Sage,” might well have lost to them.

Instantly, the floor froze solid. “I battled a Walker and a Great Tree warden in this godless world,” the man spat bitterly. “I only triumphed because they prioritized halting the flow of mana to the altar. But in the end, they bought Crom and Gardner enough time for the Star Oath to bar the way. Not even we would find it easy to reach the altar beneath that World Tree sapling now.”

My accomplice couldn’t have relished the reminiscence. He rarely showed such emotion. If not for help from my younger self and the fact that the secret altar camouflaged by the Sealed Archive had sapped the World Tree sapling’s power, he would have died in that fight.

“Only joking!” I sneered, chuckling. “You failed to kill Gardner or Crom, and the curse never covered the whole city, but you did kill a Great Tree warden who would have become a thorn in our side, and you managed to force the mana of everyone who died from ten-day fever into the underground altar. I consider that one of your successes.”

The man fumed silently, obviously put out. Despite our long acquaintance, we were merely using each other. But although our wishes differed, the same obstacles stood in our way. I also owed him something for tracking down Rupert, my sister Atra’s murderer, so I wouldn’t turn on him for the time being.

“Allen reaching the Sealed Archive is cause for celebration,” I continued. “But you’re the most intimidating man alive. I don’t see why you felt the need to drop your work deciphering those old tomes and banned books you stole or the principe’s record of the spells to drive a World Tree mad just to report it, unless— Oh! Did you want to give me a nice surpri—?”

The man pounded the floor with the butt of his staff. “An angel has manifested,” he said as the ice shattered. “Three skilled fighters overcame my serpent, but it still has enough life in it for me to sense a few things. That said, it seems alloyed, not a pure manifestation. The mana we channeled to the altar stagnated, which may explain the mixture. Even the Great Moon’s most secret ritual has its limits.”

“Goodness.” I held a hand to my mouth. I had expected further developments. In fact, I had planned them. But...an angel? Not a devil, the fruit of the Howard or Leinster cursed child losing control?

“You mean my sister wasn’t the only potential White Saint born? There’s been another in such a short time?” I asked seriously, wiping the shock from my face.

“I’m off to investigate that very question,” the man replied. “I hear one of the Howard girls earned herself the nickname ‘Saint’ on the northern front, but that hardly seems relevant. The younger sister is a cursed child and a vessel for Frigid Crane. If the elder one were— No, it’s not worth considering. Such things simply do not happen.”

“I suppose not.”

No gods walked our world, so it could never witness a genuine miracle. If, against all odds, one sister had the makings of a White Saint, harboring the potential to become an angel, while the other inherited a great elemental despite her status as a cursed child, I would expect my own sister to spring back to life at any moment. It would be no less miraculous.

“Considering that they breached depths sealed off by the World Tree,” said the man whose knowledge reached back five centuries to the age of strife, narrowing the azure eyes beneath his hood, “then as you say, the defective key and the Walker girl must be among the trio that overcame the serpent. The remaining member touched the holy sword and became an angel, just like a hundred years ago. I can’t glean any more at this stage.”

Not even the false Sage could observe every development in the distant royal capital. Mortals weren’t gods. Holding my long light-gray hair out of my eyes, I gazed up at the massive church insignia hung high overhead.

“Of the seven imitation great spells, we have Radiant Shield, Resurrection, and your Falling Star,” I mused, meeting the man’s gaze. His azure eyes held intelligence and a bottomless obsession to rival my own. “And we acquired Watery Grave from the city of water. That leaves three.”

“The Dark Lord still holds Dividing Wind,” he said, “and we don’t yet stand a chance against one who commands forces from the age of gods. As for the rest, Blaze of Ruin lies in Lalannoy. The cult of the Great Moon hid Quake Array, but I flatter myself that I can find it. And...”

Shadows flickered, and a tall man in an apostle’s robe appeared. Bloodred eyes gleamed behind his narrow spectacles. He wore his jade-tinged white hair in a loose ponytail, and an old dagger hung at his hip. Here was our new fourth apostle, my gift to Allen.

My accomplice spun aside. The moon dangling from his left ear caught the light, reflecting eight crooked crescents that overlapped to form a flower. “Six great spells and the sum total of my five centuries of research will suffice to kill the vile ‘Hero.’ Once we steal Thunderbolt, even the seven dragons will be ours to slay. The weakened great elementals—except for your Stone Serpent—and the Dark Lord can wait until after that.”

“Aster,” I called at the back of the quietly vanishing apostate.

The fourth apostle’s eyes shifted slightly. I read regret and sorrow in them, although he was supposed to have been robbed of all emotion. Already, I felt my spirits lifting.

“Visit the royal capital with our newest apostle and bring back this ‘angel,’ if you can,” I commanded, grinning from ear to ear. “Io can see to our other concern.” I chuckled. “I can’t wait to see what Allen does when he encounters my new doll! I just know he’s going to love it.”

Chapter 1

“Let me see if I have this straight,” I said. “The two of you tried to storm the Sealed Archive and got a thrashing from Romy for your pains? Didn’t you listen to Ellie’s report? The Great Tree’s thorns are blocking every route to the surface. My brother gave her water from a sanctuary, and she still barely made it out. No half-baked force will get anywhere trying to rescue him and Stella! What if you’d gotten yourselves lost down there too?!”

“W-Well, when you put it that way, C-Caren...” The object of my interrogation faltered, avoiding my gaze. This small, platinum-haired girl in a Royal Academy winter uniform was Lady Tina Howard, and her ducal house owned this mansion in the royal capital.

An older girl cowered behind her.

“M-Miss Caren, that glare of yours is scaring me,” complained Lily, the Leinster Maid Corps’s number three, who wore a black ribbon in her long scarlet hair and a distinctive foreign jacket patterned with interlocking arrows. The bracelet on her left wrist reflected the blaze in the fireplace.

I touched the school beret I’d inherited from my older brother, Allen, also called “the Brain of the Lady of the Sword.” I needed to keep calm. Times like these brought out drastic measures, especially from the Lady of the Sword, Lydia Leinster. But even she was restraining herself—at least after one of the kingdom’s foremost sorcerers had explained the hundred-year-old tragedy of the girl who had reached angelic heights only to fall and become a devil. As we spoke, Lydia was leading Princess Cheryl Wainwright and the professor—the sorcerer in question—to negotiate with Head Court Sorcerer Gerhard Gardner, the man responsible for the Sealed Archive and the ringleader of the aristocratic diehards. We could expect results before too long.

“Tina, Lily, don’t make the situation any more convoluted than it already is by running off on your own initiative. Didn’t you listen to what happened a century ago? The best thing we can do now is wait,” a red-haired girl chimed in from her chair beside a window looking out on the nighttime cityscape. Lady Lynne Leinster had been keeping watch at the bedside of Ellie Walker, who was still asleep in her nightgown. Atra the Thunder Fox, one of the Eight Great Elementals, lay curled up on Lynne’s lap in the form of a fox cub.

“I...I was only worried about Mr. Allen and my sister,” Tina protested, shrinking with every word. “I’ve never seen Ellie panic like that before.”

“I hear the church laid a trap inside the Sealed Archive,” Lily added, equally defensive. “And Lady Stella can’t cast offensive magic. Even Allen will have a hard time keeping her safe as well as himself.”

“I understand your concern,” I said, “but you’re both ‘Highnesses.’ Every person in the kingdom knows your names. I realize you got permission to stand by near the Sealed Archive as an ‘urgent response team,’ but try to spare at least some thought for your own positions.”

“W-We’re sorry,” chorused Their Highnesses—scions of the Four Great Ducal Houses that guarded the Wainwright Kingdom’s borders, entitled to the style by historical circumstance. Anything they did drew attention, for better and for worse.

I put a hand on my left hip and stared at the two wilting noblewomen. Tina wielded a supreme spell, currently the most powerful weapon in the ducal houses’ arsenal. Before meeting my brother, however, she’d been branded a “cursed child,” incapable of any magic whatsoever. I could understand her feeling deeply indebted to him, and I knew that despite her youth, she felt...fond of him as a man. Lily, meanwhile, had told her family, the under-duke and -duchess, that Allen was her husband-to-be, and she’d half meant it. But that still didn’t excuse their reckless, thoughtless two-woman assault.

I was just about to resume taking them to task when...

“Is that true, Anna?”

A snatch of Lynne’s orb conversation with her house’s head maid caused me to pause and reflect.

“Question the daughter of the Star Shooter, and in the City of the Shield, let the final key, the White Saint, and the youngest of the Great Tree wardens descend into the Record Keepers’ archive. In its depths will you face, unlooked for, the paltry obsessions of mortalkind.”

For the past several months, Stella had struggled with a magical abnormality that confined her spellcasting to the element of light. To cure her, Allen had called on the dragonfolk and obtained an oracle from the flower dragon. As if draconic prophecies weren’t already more than we could handle, fresh discoveries shed new light on ten-day fever, a disaster that had struck the capital eleven years earlier. Signs pointed to a battle between the Church of the Holy Spirit and Ellie’s late parents in the Sealed Archive, along with spell formulae belonging to Stella and Tina’s mother, Duchess Rosa. How could we face all this alone?

My fingers tightened on the hilt of my dagger, a gift from Allen, just as Lynne set her communication orb on a table.

“Caren, I’m afraid I have bad news,” she said glumly. “Negotiations with Gardner have failed. We can’t launch an immediate expedition into the archive. My dear sister and the professor will return here for now to avoid a direct confrontation. My dear mother, Uncle Lucas, Aunt Fiane, and Princess Cheryl will keep trying to reach an agreement.”

“I see,” I murmured slowly.

“No!” Tina cried, clapping her hands to her mouth.

Lily scowled but said nothing.

I looked out the window to cool my fury and saw my own dim reflection: a wolf-clan girl with silver-gray hair, ears, and tail wearing a Royal Academy winter uniform and beret. My brother, Allen, meant more to me than anyone else in the whole wide world. I was of the wolf clan, and he was human, but even if we didn’t share blood, we were still the only siblings either of us had. Younger sisters everywhere had a duty to keep their brothers safe at all times, yet here I was. Faint traces of mana escaped me, and I exhaled, suppressing them before they crackled into violet sparks.

No one could take Stella’s place in my life either. Many in the royal capital still held beastfolk in contempt, still more so in the elite halls of the Royal Academy. My best friend had been the first person there to look at me without prejudice. I doubted I could keep my composure if anything happened to her any better than if it happened to Allen.

No people passed on the streets outside. Solitary mana lamps illuminated empty lanes. I couldn’t see the mansion that housed the Sealed Archive from here, but I supposed the kingdom’s best troops must have it surrounded. My other best friend, Felicia Fosse, would be spending a worried, sleepless night helping to keep them supplied in her capacity as Allen & Co.’s head clerk.

I recalled the explanation that the professor had given us in the Lebufera mansion. A hundred years ago, a member of the Royal House of Wainwright had lost control of the great spell Radiant Shield and demolished several towns through their incompetence—or so the falsified records claimed. The failures of Gerard, the former prince, had left no doubt that great spells could run wild, but the princess behind the historical disaster had been known as the most capable royal in her house’s long history. She had supposedly surpassed all others with swords and spells, not to mention her kind and gentle heart.

“All the more reason,” the professor had said, “why no one can fathom what caused her—Princess Carina Wainwright, a potential White Saint—to fall and become an eight-winged devil. And although I speak like an authority, the same goes for the meaning of ‘White Saint.’ Only the term has come down to us from ancient times. Not even Duchess Letty or Lord Rodde can explain it, and they joined the then Hero in sealing her beneath the palace. It took seven days and nights of brutal combat, and even then they barely succeeded. I’d assumed that the royal family concealed the facts to save face, but if the Church of the Holy Spirit played a role, I might need to reconsider. We mustn’t forget the flower dragon’s message either.”

Touching the cold, triple-paned window, I struggled to piece together what I knew. A hundred years ago, the kingdom had witnessed the birth of a “saint,” an “angel”...and an eight-winged devil. Her fall had nearly leveled the capital. I also recalled one of the phrases on the note Duchess Rosa left in the city of water: “artificial angels.” It seemed related...but I couldn’t work out how. I wasn’t the Brain of the Lady of the Sword. I wasn’t my brother. I could never hope to connect the dots and bring the truth to light.

Crack! A log in the fireplace split open, and Atra stirred on Lynne’s lap. I heaved a deep sigh.

“Waiting for Lydia and Her Royal Highness seems like the best thing we can do right now,” I told the girls, brushing my fingers against the windowpane. “Taking action will have to wait.”

After a moment, Lynne nodded. “I can see that.”

“As you say, miss,” Lily added a little stiffly.

Knights and soldiers were hurrying along the road. New units arriving, I assumed.

“Caren!” Tina called. I turned to find her with her left hand on her slender chest, her hair clip glittering with mana. “How...how can you stay so calm?! Mr. Allen and my sister have gone missing!”

Atra gave a start and leapt to Ellie’s bed, where she curled up once more.

Of course. I always knew she had her heart in the right place.

Stella might be the future Duchess Howard, but as a houseless orphan adopted into the wolf clan, Allen had no social standing to speak of. Princess Cheryl had appointed him her “personal investigator,” but she hadn’t ennobled him. The “Silver Wolf” remained the only commoner to officially receive a title in the two hundred years since the War of the Dark Lord, his reward for slaying a mad dragon. Created a viscount for his lifetime, he had died young, and even his name had been lost to history. Yet no class prejudice marred the pure concern Tina felt for my brother.

“That’s simple,” I answered in my capacity as vice president of the Royal Academy student council, working hard to keep my joy from showing. “Lydia has earned a reputation far and wide for sulking interminably whenever Allen’s not around, yet she’s still tackling this problem rationally. Need I remind you what she did in the south, the royal capital, and the east during the rebellion? If things really were desperate, she wouldn’t be negotiating with the head court sorcerer—she’d have charged into the archive alone ages ago.”

Tina and Lynne exchanged a look.

“You’ve got us there,” Lily admitted, forcing a grin.

On the southern Avasiek Plain, Lydia Leinster had cut down a gargantuan spell-soldier and invoked the taboo spell Merciless Sword of the Fire Fiend to lay waste to an army. In the royal capital, she had stormed enemy headquarters and crushed it single-handed, while in the eastern capital, she had struck at the rebels’ supreme commander. The Lady of the Sword had strength to spare—but only because she had Allen. Neither her prowess nor her heart could hold up without him.

I winked and waved my left hand. “Also, I’ll need to interrogate Allen about this when he gets back, but I think he cast some kind of spell on Lydia before he left—probably one that lets them vaguely sense each other. There is something down there—what Atra and Lia said tells us that much—but it doesn’t pose any mortal danger at the moment.”

Tina and Lynne made noncommittal noises, half convinced and half impatient. Moments like this reminded me how young they still were.

“Your Honor!” The scarlet-haired maid raised her hand, making her ample bosoms even harder to miss. “I move to convene a formal inquiry as soon as Allen gets back!”

Both young noblewomen looked down, muttering.

“I...I haven’t finished growing yet.”

“I st-still have my whole future ahead of me.”

Tina aside, something tells me Lynne will grow to become a threat.

Shaking off the thought, I returned my attention to the smiling maid. “Motion approved. That said, Lily, you haven’t been cleared of suspicion yourself. Remember that duel you roped my brother into? Would you care to tell us just how serious you were about that?”

Lady Lily Leinster pressed her hands together and beamed. Her chuckle held not a hint of malice. “Why, I’m always in earnest!” she lilted. “I’d just love to have you for a sister-in-law, Caren!”

“There are no sisters-in-law in my future! Not now, not ever!”

“I object to your monopoly!” Tina interjected.

“I second Tina’s objection!” added Lynne.

“Objection overruled,” I replied.

“You’re abusing your vice-presidential authority!” my underclassmen whined in unison, but I shook my head. This was one issue I wouldn’t budge on.

“Whaaat?” Lily exclaimed, index finger on her chin. “Where’s the harm?! Come on! How about a hug?!”

“N-Not agai—”

Before I knew it, she was on me.

Talk about speed!

I squirmed, but in vain. The Leinster Maid Corps hadn’t made Lily its number three for nothing. While she nuzzled her cheek against mine, a grave look returned to Lynne’s face.

“My dear brother and Stella have gone missing, but they aren’t in imminent mortal peril,” she reiterated.

“But what about the Scarlet Order? Or the royal guard?” Tina asked, taking over for her. “Don’t forget every officer of the Leinster Maid Corps in the city; my house’s butler, Graham ‘the Abyss’ Walker; Under-duke Lucas Leinster; and the court sorcerers with their leader Gerhard Gardner.” Her gaze met mine, and I saw a fear of looming danger in her eyes. “The kingdom’s best and brightest have assembled, my father included. And they haven’t come to rescue Mr. Allen and Stella. They’re here in case the worst happens, to—”

“Yes, I know,” I interrupted, slipping out of Lily’s grasp before the platinum-haired noblewoman could finish. “Tina, Lynne.”

I’m starting to understand how Allen must feel.

The pair in front of me and the blonde girl lying on the bed were growing and improving by the day. I couldn’t be happier for them.

“We’d better get ready to act at a moment’s notice,” I said, nodding emphatically to my juniors. “Lynne and I will draw lots to decide who gets to do the actual rescuing.”

“Certainly, ma’am,” Lynne replied, grinning boldly while Tina and Lily gaped, speechless. But only a moment passed before Tina’s hand shot into the air.

“Excuse me, Your Honor! I object!”

“Overruled,” I replied.

“What?!”

Tina’s shout roused Atra, who raised her head and looked at me. She and Lia—Blazing Qilin—had calmed down a lot since Allen and Stella first disappeared. I took their composure as another reason not to panic, although I still didn’t understand what they’d meant in the Lebufera mansion by “trouble” and “nice girl, but scary.”

“You and Lily got to be the emergency response team, remember?” I said, stroking the fox cub’s head. “No one gets two turns in a row.”

“B-But...” Tina fumbled for a response.

“Miss Caren, this is an emergency,” Lily supplied. “I really think we ought to choose the most capable of us.”