“Huh?”

“Your magic!”

Rubian shouted, glaring as she rubbed the hand that had touched his.

“Why is it so heavy now? You nearly scared me to death! Ah, it’s tingling...”

“Sorry. Are you okay?”

He hurried toward her.

“Damn it. Put the bracelet back on! Where did the other one go?”

“That... I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt this time, so give me your hand again.”

Khalid reined in the force raging inside him and refined his magic as softly and cleanly as he possibly could.

Rubian was small and fragile.

So he made it as gentle as he could, gathering only the clearest, purest things inside himself.

Not long after, Rubian, who had still been eyeing him suspiciously, blinked in surprise.

“Oh.”

“It’s fine now, right?”

“Yeah. Wow, it’s been forever!”

See? I knew you’d like it.

With the faintest hint of a smile, Khalid pushed his magic through her bit by bit.

Blue magic twined between them, and Rubian narrowed one eye slightly, as if she had tasted something sour.

Only then did he realize all over again that he had liked this moment rather a lot ever since they were children.

“But Khalid, weren’t you with the Princess of Casalia?”

Rubian asked the question as if it had only just occurred to her.

“Ah.”

Only then did Khalid tilt his head.

Come to think of it, he had forgotten.

The moment he sensed magic that seemed to belong to Rubian, he had run straight toward it.

“About that Princess, Ruby.”

Khalid took his hand away from where their magic had been touching, about to change the subject—

“Well now. You vanished without a word, and I wondered what on earth was going on, only to find you on a date in a place like this.”

A familiar voice floated in from behind them.

“Oh!”

Rubian’s eyelids fluttered rapidly.

Khalid rose to his feet at a measured pace and stood in front of her, almost protectively.

There was Sebelena, one hand resting easily at her waist.

Beside her, her escort knight was doing his best to placate the café employee. It seemed they had been going in and out of shop after shop looking for him.

“Hello. So you must be... bea—”

Ahem. Ahem.

“Princess. I’m Sebelena.”

“Did you hear that? She almost called me Beancess...”

Khalid quietly pretended not to hear the whisper soaked in shock.

*****

Princess Sebelena had the unmistakable air of an exotic royal.

She was beautiful. Elegant. Exactly as I had expected.

What I had not expected was—

“I wanted to meet you through Sir Khalid, Princess.”

—the very first thing she said.

Me? Why?

I kept my suspicion hidden as I looked into those deep green eyes.

Then, all at once, Licht’s voice came back to me—his voice when he had spoken of where she came from.

The western forests of Iosia.

I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now that I did, that was also where the second had arrived after crossing the Babilon border.

Don’t tell me the Princess is connected to the second. Is that why Khalid followed her?

I turned my head slightly and looked at Khalid.

I hadn’t added a single word, but he tilted his chin just a little, as if he had already read my thoughts and was confirming them.

...So that was it.

Uncle Allen had just gotten ahead of himself.

There had been no moist emotional exchange between the two of them, only dry, relentless business.

The moment I realized that, a strange relief washed over me, and I waited for Sebelena to continue.

Fortunately, she got to the point at once.

“I’ll be direct. The Magic Kingdom is going to make a move toward you. Their movements lately have not been normal.”

“Based on what?”

When I asked the question calmly, the Princess’s gaze landed squarely on me.

“You know Senia, don’t you?”

That was the second’s new name.

“I came to meet you because Senia asked me to. She told me that if anything ever happened to her, I absolutely had to help you.”

“The second... is she dead?”

Sebelena slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again.

“Not yet. But her condition began worsening rapidly a few years ago, and now she has not regained consciousness.”

“Ah. So that’s why...”

Why it had been so hard to contact her.

The thought left me quietly depressed.

That was how it ended for a mage who had lost her magic core.

Still, she had lasted more than seven years. If that counted as lasting a long time, then perhaps it did.

“But Princess, why would you go so far as to honor the second’s request? Even taking this kind of risk?”

Sebelena answered in the same steady tone.

“Have you ever heard of the blood-relationship-determining potion? That was how I was acknowledged by the King... by my father.”

I nodded. Licht had told me about it before.

“Senia was the one who found the base herb for it. Of course, the people of the forest village in Iosia were the ones who did most of the work in turning it into a potion that could actually function.”

Mages had a special eye for recognizing herbs.

Of course, the second had lost her core, so in her case it would have been entirely a matter of prior knowledge.

And the second had once been the mage who managed the Magic Kingdom’s secrets.

So it would hardly be strange if she knew rare herbs the public had never heard of.

Sebelena continued.

“Senia took care of me in many ways when I was young. We lived together in the forest village in Iosia like true sisters.”

“So... you mean you’re going to help me to repay the debt you owe the second?”

“Yes. Senia’s last wish was that you not be dragged back to the Mage King. And... I agree with her. Besides—”

“......”

“I have heard that the Magic Kingdom is trying to revive dark magic. Another war like that on this land... it has to be stopped, doesn’t it?”

Silence hung over the table for a moment.

I could feel Khalid, seated beside me, silently resting a hand on his sword, and I parted my dry lips.

“But Princess.”

“Yes?”

“You say you intend to stand against the Magic Kingdom...”

“......”

“So how is it that you know their movements that well?”

“That is...”

For a moment, Sebelena’s gaze dropped to the tabletop.

Then, after a beat, a long sigh escaped her.

“Because the King of Casalia... my father... has been in secret contact with the Magic Kingdom’s mages.”

“So the King is a collaborator.”

Khalid, who had been silent until then, added it almost like a thought to himself.

His tone was so low and cold that Sebelena’s expression darkened.

“For now, he is only a bystander. He has merely turned a blind eye while they use our gate portal.”

“I’m not so sure.”

That time, it was me who answered.

“Isn’t looking the other way a form of complicity too?”

“That... yes. You’re right.”

I swallowed a sigh and sorted the situation out in my head.

So this was it.

Being acknowledged as a Princess and entering the royal palace had been all well and good.

But once she got there, her father had already gone half-mad over profit right in front of him and become a collaborator with the Magic Kingdom.

And the Princess, trapped with nowhere to go, had ended up forced to come looking for me in place of the comatose second.

“Princess. In the forest village where I was raised, they say the names of one’s benefactors are carved into the soul and remembered there.”

Sebelena reached out and took the hand I had left carelessly on the table.

Her touch was warm.

“Use me. Senia is a benefactor so dear to me that she is no different from family, and I was told that you are Senia’s benefactor. Then that makes you mine as well.”

I gently withdrew my hand.

“How do you intend to help me?”

After a moment’s thought, Sebelena answered carefully.

“The Magic Kingdom will approach our King again. When that happens, why not make your move then?”

Dad and the Emperor had been chasing the Magic Kingdom with everything they had, but the truth was, they still had no real lead.

If the Kingdom of Casalia was the only thread still connected, then honestly, there was no reason to refuse.

But...

“Princess. If we do that, then it’s practically the same as exposing your «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» father’s disgrace to the entire world.”

He might well be branded a traitor to the allied nations.

“Are you truly all right with that?”

At my question, Sebelena looked at me for a long moment.

Then she leaned back in her chair and took a sip of tea.

Her movement was neat, impeccable, perfectly composed.

“You were adopted, weren’t you, Princess?”

“What is this all of a sudden?”

“If your birth parents suddenly appeared in front of you... how do you think you would feel?”

“......”

A slight crease formed between my brows.

“Would you go with them?”

I did not answer at all.

Perhaps she took something from that silence, because the Princess gave a dry laugh, brittle as bare branches in winter.

“I spent most of the life I can remember in Iosia. From the age of eleven onward, I spent it with Senia. But I have only been in the royal palace of Casalia for one year.”

“......”

“I thought I would be happier if I found my real family, but...”

The last words were so quiet they were almost a whisper to herself.

“In a situation like this, which side is the right one for me to choose? The family connected to me only by blood? Or... the family that held my soul?”

Those green eyes, like a forest, asked me the question.

“If it were you, Princess—what would you choose?”