Maydare Volume 2 Chapter 8 - The Maidens of the Soiree (Part 2)

 Getting close to finding the real culprit

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The top floor of the Central Palace where the soiree was being held. We were in a room where special guests were entertained.

The lady with the pale wisteria hair invited us into it.

“Let the lass who fainted rest in that bed. There are plenty of clothes in the closet. You may take off your ill-fitting dress and change into something more comfortable.”

“Y-yes.”

I did as I was told and laid the unconscious Beatrice on the canopied bed in the room. I then helped her change into a negligee that wouldn’t suffocate her.

While I was at it, I also took off the dress that I’ve been told over and over didn’t look good on me, as well as the painful corset, and borrowed another outfit that fit my body. They were all open at the chest, and I had to be careful not to show the crest…

Once everything was settled, I peered into Beatrice’s sleeping face.

“She had received too great a shock. She will wake up before long once she gets some rest.”

The lady who helped us said to me.

She, too, had changed into a loose silk negligee and was lounging on a large sofa.

Leisurely, she lifted a bunch of grapes from a silver tray on the table and moistened her mouth. She was quite the free spirit.

I walked over to her and formally introduced myself.

“Thank you very much for your help. I am Makia O’Drielle. You are…”

“I? I’m something like an ambassador dispatched from Frezier.”

Before I could ask my question, she answered, anticipating my question.

The luxuriousness and royal atmosphere of the room made it hard to believe she was just an ambassador, though…

However, if she was a guest from the Frezier Empire, Prince Gilbert’s panic was a little understandable. She was the ambassador of an allied nation that was more powerful than the Kingdom of Ruschia. She might even be royalty.

“Um, how should I call you?”

“You may call me〈Wisteria Princess〉.”

“Wisteria Princess...the name of the great magician in history?”

“Fufufu. Precisely. I am a big fan of the Wisteria Princess.”

She smiled mischievously as she laid on her stomach and placed her thin chin on the back of her hand.

The Wisteria Princess. She was a queen of Frezier and a great magician who existed about three hundred years ago.

In order to save the people who were suffering under the evil rule of her father, the king of Frezier at that time, she revolted and defeated her father, then became queen herself. She was said to have been especially loved by insect spirits, and used her high charisma to unite the people and boosted Frezier into the great nation it was today.

In the end, however, she was betrayed by her aides and executed by guillotine…

“Indeed, your hair color is reminiscent of the legendary Wisteria Princess.”

“That may be, that may be. It is often said of me.”

The foreign ambassador who called herself Wisteria Princess was in good spirits and laughed a peal of bell-like laughter.

And then she picked up a grape again. The way she licked her lips, wet with juice, was somewhat seductive. She was a mysterious woman who was both girlish and mature.

At that moment, Beatrice, who was lying in bed, woke up with a small moan.

“This is…?”

She looked confused, not understanding her situation right away.

“You collapsed at the soiree, so I borrowed this bed through the kindness of the Lady ‘Wisteria Princess.’”

“...Makia O’Drielle?”

Beatrice was still somewhat in a daze.

She looked up at the canopy, let out a long sigh, and then slowly got up.

“I showed an unsightly side of myself. To think that I was defended by you…”

“I never thought there would be a day when I’d have to defend you, too. Are you feeling better now?”

Beatrice gave a small nod, and then looked around, searching for someone.

“Nicholas...has Nicholas been taken away?”

“Calm down, Beatrice. If we can only prove Nicholas’ innocence, Nicholas will be cleared of suspicion.”

“But what if we can’t? Who in the world can prove our innocence? If I lose him too, I’ll have nothing left.”

After saying that, Beatrice buried her face in her hands and shook uncontrollably.

“...You two really hadn’t done anything.”

“Of course we haven’t! Even you are suspecting me, Makia O’Drielle!?”

“No. It’s just that I was able to irresponsibly defend you up to now because we’re classmates.”

“...”

Beatrice gritted her teeth in frustration.

“I am sure that we were framed because Nicholas is blessed by【Water】and I had a reason to hurt the Lady Savior…”

Beatrice appealed as her face twisted in frustration and tears streamed down her face.

She said that the enemy had set it up to make them look like the culprits.

“It’s all my fault...I wanted to see Lord Gilbert so badly that I kept visiting the palace, as though I had lingering feelings. I am sure that was why they had an eye on me. Without knowing that, I raised my hand to the Lady Savior. ...I don’t think anyone would believe us anymore.” 

I didn’t know what to say to her, so I stood by her side with a complicated look on my face.

And, I felt an inexplicable sense of wrongness about this incident.

If Beatrice and Nicholas were the culprits, there was something that didn’t fit. Something…

“Makia O’Drielle. You...think I did something foolish as well, don’t you? You think I am a woman who didn’t know her place and struck the Savior, Lady Airi.”

“Well, just a little. But why did you do that? I’ve always been wondering about it.”

“That is…”

Towards my question, Beatrice was silent for a while, but then she began to speak little by little.

”It is...true that I was jealous of the Lady Savior. So when she told me that she was going to ‘give His Highness Gilbert back to me,’ I got angry and hit her.”

“Give him back to you? Lady Airi told you that?”

“Yes. At first, I couldn’t understand her words at all. However, it seems that she really meant that she would give His Highness back to me after our engagement was broken off. I lost my temper and hit her.”

I was surprised. I couldn’t believe that Airi would say something like that to Beatrice.

At the same time, those words led me to believe that Airi didn’t cherish Prince Gilbert all that much. Yes, she didn’t love him as a man, at the very least.

I see. So that was why...Beatrice got angry.

“So, you hit Lady Airi because you were thinking of His Highness Gilbert.”

“...”

“And you didn’t tell him about it.”

Beatrice’s eyes closed partly, and a laugh that sounded like a sigh slipped out of her.

“Because...I can’t tell that to him, can I? His Highness fell in love with Lady Airi at first sight. I was there the moment it happened.”

The third prince Gilbert, on whom the mark of the Guardian appeared. Beatrice said that she happened to be with him and saw the moment he met the Savior, Airi.

At that moment, Beatrice understood that the expression on his face was that of a man who met the love of his life.

“His Highness and I have been betrothed since we were children, and we have had the opportunity to see and come into contact with each other on a regular basis. Basically, we’re childhood friends.”

“...I see.”

“His Highness has known the legend of the Savior since he was a child, and he enthusiastically told me about it. Along with the legend of the famous〈Hero of Fraxinus〉. He told me that one day, a person from another world would appear and guide this world. He said that he couldn’t become the king, and he didn’t have any talent for magic, but if an emissary from another world appeared, he wanted to become the sword that protects them…”

Beatrice had happily listened to Prince Gilbert, who showed no interest in anything even though he was very young, talk about the only thing he was enthusiastic about.

And there was the queen who was watching over these two young children.

”His Highness’s mother was the late queen consort. He inherited his nobleness from her, and his appearance is very similar to hers.”

“That reminds me, you said that the brooch you had belonged to the queen consort.”

“Yes, that’s right. When I was little...I fell and cried in the palace gardens, and His Highness gave it to me. Even though it was a memento of the queen consort, he comforted me and told me not to cry and be strong.”

Beatrice’s face opened up slightly as she remembered that moment.

“He told me that I had to be strong if I were to be the wife of a prince one day. It was just after the queen had passed away, so I felt his regret and decided to be strong. His words were a guide for me.”

Hearing her story, I now understood why Beatrice was aiming to be the top student at magic school.

Even after her engagement was broken, she still tried to be someone worthy of being the wife of a third prince.

“His Highness watching over the Lady Savior always looks so happy. Just by looking at his eyes, I could tell that, ah, he was in love. It was an expression he would never show me. That was why I wanted to return the brooch, tell him how I felt again, and give up on him.”

And then, she slowly looked up at me and asked a question.

“Makia O’Drielle. You felt the same feelings as me, haven’t you?”

Beatrice probably knew that my knight had been chosen as a Guardian.

The look in her eyes wasn’t the usual naked rivalry and belligerence, but genuine interest, sympathy, and compassion flickering in and out. 

“...Yes.”

I nodded honestly. Our situations were a little different, but Beatrice and I were alike.

We felt the same pain.

“I...see.”

Beatrice smiled suddenly. But rather than an empty smile, it was a peaceful smile.

Nothing had been resolved yet, but maybe she felt a little better after letting out her thoughts to me.

And that was when it happened.

“What a pitiful soul. You continue to improve yourself for the sake of a man, only to be discarded by him.”

The lady from another country, “Wisteria Princess,” sighed dramatically,

We looked at her with a start. She was still sprawled out on the sofa, and unnoticed by us, was smoking a hookah. 

“After all, you were only improving your value as an ornament to that man, while he became attracted to another, more valuable gemstone that appeared.” 

Beatrice got a little worked up at those mean-spirited words.

“I just wanted to be an existence that would help Lord Gilbert!”

“Yes. And now that Savior has appeared, your existence has lost its meaning, and all your effort and accumulated feelings until now, have been wasted in an instant.”

“...”

“You have changed your life for the prince’s convenience. Furthermore, your love for him backfired, and you are even suspected of attempting to assassinate the Savior. Fufu, what should that be called other than pitiful? What do you intend to do from now on?

“That’s…”

Beatrice couldn’t say anything.

Honestly, I could understand Beatrice’s sadness and frustration very well. So much that I wanted to cry.

However, the palace was convinced Beatrice and Nicholas were the culprits.

That probably meant they had some sort of basis or evidence in place, but to disprove them, perhaps it was already…

“We have no choice but to find the actual culprit.”

I quietly declared.

Beatrice looked surprised, and Wisteria Princess’s mouth curved.

“Fufu, precisely. There is no time to lament sorrowfully and pretend to be a tragic heroine. No time to lick each other’s wounds. Ponder upon it. Who is the one who framed you? How can you protect your future and dignity?”

...One’s own future and dignity, huh.

Wisteria Princess closed her fan with a snap and stood up from the sofa with vigor. There was a sweet, honey-like scent in reaction to that.

“I will now be visiting an old friend. You may use this room as you wish.”

She threw on a silk outer garment over her negligee, hugged one of the cushions for some reason, and then turned to leave the room.

“Um, Lady Wisteria Princess!”

When she came back to this room, we might not be here anymore.

When I called her by that name to thank her, she abruptly turned around and silenced me with only her amber gaze. And then, she smiled the most beautiful smile I had ever seen.

“No need to say a word. We will be seeing each other again before long, after all.”

“...”

“I am looking forward to your return, Makia O’Drielle.”

And then, she danced out of the room.

I didn’t know where it came from, but a dark purple butterfly fluttered into the room before my eyes and landed on an iris flower in the room.

“Return…? To where?”

I had no idea what was the meaning of that word, but when you were an ambassador of Frezier, you had an extraordinary presence.

I mean, was she even really an ambassador? Maybe she was someone even more impressive than that…

“Oh, there’s some grapes left. I think I’ll have some, since I’m here. Oh, do you want some too, Beatrice?”

“You…”

“Don’t be so stubborn. If you don’t intake sugar, you won’t be able to use magic, and you won’t be able to think well.”

I took the tray of grapes to the bed and shoved a grape into Beatrice’s mouth. She gobbled it up…

She seemed to have thought of something, as she jumped out of bed and started changing in front of the dressing table.

“Wait, Beatrice, what are you doing…”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m preparing for my interrogation. They’ll be coming here soon.”

She looked as though she had resolved herself to do something. She was slapping powder from the dressing table in the room onto her face. She must be hiding her dried tears.

“I can’t let them see my tearful face anymore. I must appeal for mine and Nicholas’ innocence as soon as possible. If I give an unsure answer, Nicholas will be at a disadvantage. Nicholas is indeed blessed by【Water】, but he cannot be the one behind this whole series of incidents! He cannot be!”

Ooh. To think that I would hear that standard “This cannot be!” in a place like this.

I sighed a breath of relief that Beatrice was back to her normal self.

Before I knew it, Beatrice was looking at me in the mirror.

“What? Do I have grapes in my hair?”

“No...well, you do have juice on your cheek, though.”

She cleared her throat and paused for a moment.

“Makia, I know about that thing as well.”

“What thing?”

She stood from the dresser’s chair and turned toward me again.

She then placed her fingers on the wide open chest of my dress and pulled it down a little.

“About how you were chosen as the final Guardian.”

“...”

The Crest of the Four Lights. She gazed with narrow eyes at the mark that was indeed engraved on my chest.

I was surprised, but if she had been going in and out of the palace, then she could certainly get that information.

“No doubt you are feeling a great amount of pressure.”

“...Well, you might say so.” 

I swept my gaze around and scratched my cheek.

I haven’t done that much yet, and it still hadn't hit home for me, and lately I’ve almost forgotten that I was a Guardian.

“It doesn’t seem to be widely known,  but once you’re a Guardian, you might be in danger or have your life threatened in the future.”

“Oh, that might have already happened!”

“It did…?”

I replied so matter-of-factly that Beatrice looked amazed.

But in this vein, I recalled the blue clown and had a sudden realization.

The clown’s water magic had the same feeling of fear as the magic of the person who had targeted Airi at the palace.

If the blue clown was the same person who had targeted Airi, it was unlikely that it was Beatrice or Nicholas who did it. They might have justifications for attacking Airi, but they had no reason to kill me.

I told Beatrice about the blue clown.

“A...blue clown?”

“Yes. Someone dressed up as a blue clown and attacked me, but…”

I put my hand on my chin, and as I recounted everything that happened until now, I checked one thing with her.

“Hey, Beatrice. I want to confirm something. ...My team bumped into your Team 1 in the School Island Labyrinth before, right?”

“Yes, it was in the class where we were collecting automaton eyeballs.”

“Yes, that’s it. At that time, Nicholas was burned by my heat constitution. He’s blessed by【Water】, so I thought he would be strong against fire, but he got burned?”

“Of course. The【Water】blessing certainly is superior to【Fire】by rule, but it is also vulnerable to heat. This is expressed in the side effect of being prone to having blood rush to one’s head. He’s been burned many times before, and that is what will happen if he touches you.” 

“...I, I see.”

“What are you wondering about?”

“The blue clown who attacked me in the capital was completely immune to my heat constitution. I thought that was surely a characteristic of【Water】Blessed Children, but…”

When Beatrice heard my story, her expression suddenly stiffened, and then she lowered her voice and told me something.

“...Isn’t such a thing only possible with the anti-elements constitution?”

The anti-elements constitution. That was the constitution that blocked the abilities of Blessed Children, unique to 【All】Blessed Children.

I slowly widened my eyes. 

“B-but, an【All】Blessed Child is a very precious existence! No matter how much you search around the world, other than the Savior, Lady Airi, there might be only a few…”

No way, there was no way the culprit was Airi? No, that was impossible…

Everything was starting to get tangled up in my head, but Beatrice told me something in a low voice.

“There is. In addition to the Lady Savior, there is one other person in the Kingdom of Ruschia who is an【All】Blessed Child.”

“...What?”

“The leading palace magician, Lord Eugene Batiste. He was the only【All】Blessed Child in the Kingdom of Ruschia until the Lady Savior appeared.”

I raised my head, which had been hanging down in thought.

“Hold on a minute. I never heard of that before.”

It was true that Professor Batiste was a leading authority in the field of elements magic studies, but I never even heard that he was a general Blessed Child, much less an【All】Blessed Child. It wasn’t known.

“Of course. He hid the fact that he was a very rare【All】Blessed Child. Therefore, only the king and my grandfather, the director of the Royal Magic Institute, and a few other related people knew about it. The whole country hid that fact, along with his past, in order to protect him.”

It seemed that Beatrice happened to overhear her grandfather, the director of the Royal Magic Institute, and Lord Batiste talking about it in her mansion.

“Why? Why did Professor Batiste hide that he was an【All】Blessed Child?”

“It’s a problem with his origin. As a child, Lord Batiste was persecuted in the village where he grew up.”

“That’s…”

I remembered Professor Batiste telling us about it in the special class for Elements Magic Studies.

He told us that if there were eras where Blessed Children were worshipped and revered, there were also eras where they were persecuted and discriminated against.

He said that there was still discrimination in some regions…

“In the village where Lord Batiste was born, it was customary to treat anyone with magic power, not just Blessed Children, as cursed children. That was why Lord Batiste was confined in a village storehouse and abused cruelly since he was young. The one who rescued him from this hellish situation was a young female magician dispatched from the palace.”

The rescued young Batiste attended Lune Ruschia Magic School with backing from the palace, and it was there that he devoted himself to studying along with his peers, Professor Ulysses and Uncle Medite, and his powers blossomed.

The female magician who rescued him and Lord Batiste were about ten years apart in age, but they became drawn to each other, loved each other, and later became engaged.

However, the happiness he had finally found didn’t last long. The female magician he was engaged to became ill with an incurable disease, and she didn’t have long to live.

I didn’t know what that story had to do with this case. It might not be related at all.

However, I was feeling a vague apprehension.

If that blue clown was Professor Batiste… 

Just then, there was a knock on the door. When I opened the door, Sir Lionel and Thor were there with hard faces. It seemed that they had come to pick up Beatrice.

“I’m here,” Beatrice said, and then came out of the room without showing any sign of running away.

She asked Sir Lionel a question with a composed face.

“How is Nicholas?”

“His Highness Gilbert is currently interrogating him. Nicholas Harbury has denied the charges against him, but…”

Sir Lionel paused for a moment.

“Miss Beatrice, is there anything you would like to tell us right now, while you can?”

He asked. It seemed that he, too, felt something was off about this case.

Beatrice glanced at me. I cleared my throat and quickly walked to stand in front of them in order to stop them in their tracks.

“Excuse us. Now is not the time for this.”

When I told them that with a strong gaze that retained a feeling of nervousness, Thor let out a puff of laughter.

“...Milady, do you intend to do something?”

He backed me up with a question that was just like him.

“Yes, I’m going to do something. I fully intend to. I’m going to find and expose the real criminal.”

I once again took on the expression of the devious young lady like I did in the past, and called on the two knights here to cooperate with me as fellow Guardians.

We shared information, talked about my conjectures, and discussed a plan. 

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