TL/ED – Miso

When I returned to the Assembly Hall and sat down with a somewhat uneasy expression, Elysia asked while munching away on a plum.

“Jern? Are you feeling sick?”

“No, there’s just something on my mind. It’s nothing.”

I reassured her worried face, then looked toward Lumia, who stood at the center of the darkened Assembly Hall, bestowing swords upon the knights in a formal tone.

“Having slain five boars at the Hunting Festival and having honed your skill with sword and spear to earn the recognition of Sir Kail, I hereby appoint you as a knight. Riksia, do you accept becoming my sword?”

“Yes! Until the day my life ends!”

The knights were extremely nervous receiving their investiture, perhaps because they stood before the Princess.

I was tense too. At Lumia’s demeanor, which was flawless to the last detail.

‘As I thought, it’s not her.’

Was I the first to notice?

The odds were very high. If Sharmia had known, she would never have stayed silent.

In the worst case, the original…

I clenched my teeth and shook my head. Whoever had secured the real one, having landed a catch as enormous as an Imperial Princess, there was no way they would waste her by simply killing her.

That would be like making shoes out of gold. She was certainly still alive.

The problem started from here.

[Princess Lumia has truly grown into a fine young woman. If only His Majesty could have seen this admirable sight…]

[Sniff, I feel as though tears might fall.]

The prominent nobles and knights in the Assembly Hall were on the verge of tears watching Lumia conduct the investiture.

Regardless of the probability of her becoming Empress, it meant she was deeply loved. Though it was possible that only such people had been invited.

If I were to dramatically step forward here and spout something like “That Princess is a fake! I can prove it!”- the Assembly Hall and the Empire would plunge into the worst possible crisis. Perhaps even civil war.

That was exactly the situation Crimson Circle would want most.

At least it was fortunate that the impostor wasn’t Lump. If it were Lump, he absorbed memories too, so there was no way he wouldn’t know I had gifted her a dagger.

‘Then that means this isn’t the work of Crimson Circle either…’

From Crimson Circle’s perspective, there was no reason to go through this much trouble. They would just say, “We kidnapped your Princess. Good luck. We’ll spread the word.”

A third force. An unknown territory beyond my knowledge.

As I sat watching the Investiture Ceremony, racking my brain over how to move this situation forward, Elysia yawned.

“Yaaawn, this is boring. When do the elephants come out?”

“You’ll get to see them soon. About half the attendants are left, so…?”

While soothing her and checking the attendants waiting for the investiture- I spotted a familiar face and slowly widened my eyes.

I had been so focused on Lumia that I hadn’t noticed.

…A face distinctly younger than the other attendants.

“Next is…”

A slight flicker passed through Lumia’s eyes as she nonchalantly flipped through the papers listing each knight’s achievements.

She soon began to recite that lengthy list of accomplishments.

“Having slain three bears, five deer, and ten wolves at the Hunting Festival to receive the most distinguished honor; champion of ten junior attendant tournaments; champion of twenty-two senior attendant tournaments; winner of five laurel crowns; top of the class in every semester…-”

Simply reading out the achievements took longer than it would have taken three ordinary knights to receive their investiture.

And yet- there was no sign of it stopping.

“Every Knight Commander in the Empire stakes their own sword to vouch that she possesses the most brilliant talent in spear and sword, bow and mace, shield and dagger, whip and net.”

She was far younger than the other attendants, yet she stepped forward with a confident expression- and at that moment, the knights observing the ceremony began to murmur.

[The youngest knight in the history of the Empire…]

[Ahem. About three hundred years ago, there was a knight of the same age.]

[What matters isn’t that she’s the youngest, but that she didn’t just barely scrape by. That child’s skill already rivals a battle-hardened veteran. The sharpest dagger, no, longsword that Karos has ever forged.]

Even the envious voices were ultimately buried beneath the brilliance.

“Linmel, do you accept becoming my sword?”

My fellow orphan, and the Empire’s rising star.

The golden-haired girl knelt with dignity.

“Yes. I will become the Empire’s sword.”

“…?”

A slightly different oath. A different emotion mixed in, less joyful. I was the only one who noticed that deviation, having been with Linmel for so long.

In Linmel’s voice, ever so faintly alongside tension- there was hostility.

My unease became reality. Linmel, who had been staring sharply at the fake Lumia with a puzzled expression, swiftly moved her hand toward her waist.

‘She’s insane!’

Feeling my heart drop, I poured everything I had into pinning Linmel’s hand in place with Water Pressure.

“?”

Linmel tilted her head, confused that her hand wasn’t moving the way she intended.

There was no time to form proper words, so I seized the moment and used Current to trace an arrow on her back.

She glanced at the direction, spotted me sitting among the spectators, and her jaw dropped.

“Hm? Do you have something more to say?”

“N-no, it’s nothing.”

Fortunately, the catastrophe of Lumia’s head flying off at the Investiture Ceremony did not occur.

“Elysia, I’m going to the restroom!”

“Uh, okay…?”

-Screech! I shot up from my seat and left the Assembly Hall, locking eyes firmly with Linmel, who looked back with unmistakable reluctance.

When I headed to the small waiting room she had gone to, Linmel came running from behind the door where she had been waiting obediently, throwing her arms around me with an expression that, had she a tail, would have been wagging furiously.

“Jern! It’s been so long! Don’t tell me you actually came to see me??”

“Of course. Congratulations on becoming a knight.”

“But my knighthood was supposed to be a secret. How did you find out?”

“Well, I’m one of the Princess’s closest confidants. I specifically asked her to let me know.”

“Jern…!”

I wasn’t so clueless as to say it was a coincidence in a situation like this.

Looking at Linmel up close, her face brimming with happiness, I noticed she had grown a bit taller than me.

Deliberately ignoring that, I held her by the shoulders and asked.

“You were about to kill Lumia just now, weren’t you?”

“Ah, so that was you after all…”

“Answer me.”

“Yeah.”

Linmel, growing slightly urgent, didn’t argue and nodded.

“I know how terrible the thing I was about to do was. And it was only natural for you to stop me. But please, just trust me this once. I can explain everything.”

“Princess Lumia is a fake?”

When I cut straight to the point, her face went blank.

“…Huh? Y-you know too, Jern?!”

“I met her just earlier and she’s not Her Highness the Princess that I know. How did you figure it out?”

“A few hours ago.”

She bit her lip and began to explain.

“I’ve been going in and out of the Imperial Palace a lot following my master. I met Lumia there, and we secretly became friends without anyone knowing. She said I was fun.”

“I-is that so?”

Linmel’s ability to win people over was apparently something not even a princess could resist, as she casually called the Princess by her first name. I wondered just how close they had gotten.

“I was even talking with Lumia as recently as last night. When I told her I was becoming a knight, she said congratulations, that she’d head over early, and that I should come in when I saw the Imperial carriage…”

“…And then?”

“She didn’t remember the promise. That part was fine. Maybe something else had come up. But…”

Linmel sniffed the air and muttered.

“She smelled different.”

“What?”

“She uses the same perfume. But Lumia says it undermines her authority, so she only dabs perfume once, right behind her ear. That woman sprayed it on her wrist, and twice at that. It’s unthinkable. Lumia would never do that.”

Is she a dog?

On top of that, this was the first time I’d ever heard that where and how many times you spray perfume mattered. But seeing Linmel’s expression of absolute certainty, it must have been a big deal.

“So I took one last look at her during the ceremony. She was definitely different. The low notes in her voice, the way she trailed off at the end of sentences. A well-imitated fake. And so, so…”

Midway through, Linmel tilted her head the other way.

“But if you already knew, why did you stop me?”

“Obviously I had to stop you. Have you told anyone else about this?”

“N-no. Not yet. I didn’t have time…”

“That’s a relief, at least. Listen. Whoever kidnapped Lumia, whatever they’re doing and wherever they are, we need to keep this hidden for now.”

“Why? What if she ends up impersonating Princess Lumia for real?”

“She never could. Not at a level where people like us can see through it. Listen. The reason those people planted a stand-in for Princess Lumia is to negotiate.”

I explained step by step to keep Linmel from doing anything rash.

“And the foundation of that negotiation starts from the premise that we, meaning the Empire’s side, would never want anyone to find out that Princess Lumia has been kidnapped. Of course not. This isn’t just anyone, it’s the Princess who was taken. With the public already on edge, if something like this came to light on top of everything, it would be impossible to handle. Knowing that, they planted a body double and plan to threaten the upper ranks to extract concessions. Understand?”

“…Yeah! I get it!”

I’d stake everything I had that Linmel did not, in fact, get it.

But she had at least confirmed that killing the fake Lumia was off the table.

“Still, we can’t just sit here and do nothing!”

“…”

She had a point. If Linmel was right, the kidnapping had happened very recently.

This was the golden hour. The longer we waited, the harder it would get.

Should I ask Sharmia for help? Or should I look around the area…

‘All too slow.’

A way to find out which faction had kidnapped Lumia.

Someone who would know.

“Linmel.”

“Yeah?”

I asked the innocent-faced, golden-haired knight with a wicked grin.

“We can’t kill Lumia.”

“R-right, I know that.”

“So let’s half-kill her instead.”

“?”

Well…

At the very least, we should be able to find out where the Princess had gone.

***

After the Investiture Ceremony ended.

As the performance troupe entered, Lumia had to return to the Imperial Palace.

Linmel and I- were holding our breath in a back alley with a clear view of the carriage.

“That’s the carriage. The time she’s inside is the only time Lumia is ever alone. But the carriage departs within three minutes after Lumia boards and the inspection is finished.”

“Got it.”

After confirming that Lumia had entered the carriage under the ironclad security of the knights, I carefully and gradually cut into the top of the carriage using Current.

The knights were still standing guard around the carriage. I carved just enough that the top section could be torn off in a single cut, then got one final confirmation from Linmel.

“You can’t make a single sound. And you’ll need to evade every one of the knights’ senses. Can you do it?”

“Yeah.”

Linmel said it plainly. As if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“I’ll finish in two seconds.”

“…I’ll trust you.”

If I had my way, I would have slowly extracted the fake using Current, but that was too slow. The risk of being detected by the knights was high too.

In the end, I had no choice but to trust Linmel. I took a deep breath and set Current in motion.

-Click. The last section supporting the carriage ceiling snapped free.

“Hyup.”

With a light battle cry, Linmel vanished from Current Sense.

A gust of wind filled the alley a beat too late. While I stared at the top of the carriage in stunned disbelief, a dark figure slipped through the hole in the ceiling in the blink of an eye.

“What the…”

Before I could even process what had happened…

“There. Don’t think they noticed.”

“Mmph?”

-Tap. Linmel touched down beside me.

With her hand clamped over the mouth of the fake Lumia, who looked utterly baffled, having no idea what had just occurred.

“Wh-what…”

Two seconds.

That wasn’t a figure of speech. It was literally two seconds.

‘She’s basically a Heaven’s Judgement Knight…’

No matter how I looked at it, she was not an ordinary knight. I had been prepared for the worst case of having to knock out every knight around the Princess’s carriage, but instead I hurriedly pulled out a key and unlocked the door of a nearby warehouse in the alley.

“Well done. Let’s go.”

“Okay!”

Inside the Workshop, we tied the fake Lumia firmly to a chair I had prepared in advance.

Once she could speak, the fake Lumia finally grasped the situation and opened her mouth in a panic.

“What do you think you’re doing? How dare you kidnap an Imperial Princess…”

“I know you’re a fake, so shut it.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?! If you release me right now, I’ll forgive you. But if you don’t, I’ll have your entire family executed!”

“Jern. What now?”

Predictably, the fake Lumia refused to admit she was an impostor.

Getting the real Lumia’s whereabouts out of someone like this would be extremely difficult.

“I have my ways.”

-Screech. I picked up a syringe that had been placed nearby, and the fake Lumia scoffed.

“Hmph, is that the extent of your crude methods? I’m sorry to say…”

“Relax. This one’s for me.”

“…Pardon?”

When I plunged the syringe into my own body, the fake Lumia’s face went blank with shock.

Dersia had made it, a liquefied form of the World-Sealing Pill. She said the effect was slightly stronger, but the duration was shorter.

In that state, I placed my hands on the fake Lumia’s shoulders, and Water Barrier slowly consumed her.

She wasn’t a particularly powerful mage, so I was able to envelop her fully.

“Wh-what are you…”

“Nothing special. I’m a Fallen, you see.”

Anyone who had come to serve as a body double for the Princess would surely have undergone training to resist interrogation.

But the world is a vast place.

There were plenty of things that worked better than physical torture.

“How about we have a chat in the world of truth?”

“…”

As the sticky sensation of Deep Sea Water gradually wrapped around her body-

the fake Lumia’s complexion turned a faint shade of blue.

Now, at last, she looked like the Lumia I knew.