Princess Tianis's Past

I immediately contacted Lady Anatia and visited her room.

I brought Finn along to help confirm the situation.

I submitted the report exactly as written, without making any changes.

Lady Anatia put on her glasses and read through the report for a while before sighing wearily.

She removed her glasses and set the report down.

"I see… so that's what happened. In my case, I leave counterintelligence entirely to my maids, so I hadn't noticed."

"Were they aware of it?"

I glanced at the maids.

Apart from routine tasks, they wouldn't act without Lady Anatia's orders.

"Please treat any questions from Yohane-san as if they were coming from me."

"Understood, Ojou-sama."

The attendant maid spoke up.

According to her, they had been aware that Princess Tianis's security had gaps.

They apparently hadn't realized an assassination had been imminent, but from Finn's perspective, it had been a situation where something could have gone wrong at any moment.

"Our top priority is Ojou-sama's safety. If we tried to protect Princess Tianis as well, we wouldn't be able to fulfill our original duties."

"I see."

It made sense. I couldn't tell how much of it was the complete truth, but for now I had no choice but to trust Lady Anatia.

From my perspective, since they were close, I thought they might as well protect her too, but apparently it wasn't that simple.

It must have been a necessary measure to ensure absolute security.

"That's a problem. The royal family should have their own guards…"

"I never saw anyone like that. Your maids were constantly around you, though."

"Hmm, before that, Yohane-san. I'll overlook it this time, but please don't sneak your associates into the royal castle without permission."

"I apologize. I didn't think that far ahead."

I received a gentle scolding.

She didn't seem angry, more like she felt obligated to say something now that she knew about it.

She was right, so I bowed my head.

"You're always welcome to come to my room, you know."

"Ojou-sama, that statement is rather inappropriate."

The conversation had gone off track.

I cleared my throat and brought it back on topic.

"The royal guards are probably not protecting Princess Tianis. Whether something happened during that incident or before, I can't say."

"The only ones who might know are members of the current royal family… and now there's only Tianis and her older sister Yupe. I doubt Tianis knows, so if anyone does, it would be Yupe, but meeting her would be difficult."

"She was transferred to the Deiancle royal family's recuperation grounds after being injured, right?"

"Yes. She was a girl who prided herself on her beauty, so she probably doesn't want anyone to see her covered in burns."

That must have been a shock for a young woman.

But was that acceptable for a member of royalty?

Her injuries should be healable if there was a priestess.

It might be worth finding a way to meet her.

"Setting aside the security issue, I think the people who attend to her daily needs should be thoroughly vetted. This situation could have been prevented if she'd been surrounded by trustworthy people."

"You're… right. You're absolutely right. But, Yohane-san, how much do you know about the current Deiancle royal family?"

"Honestly, I don't know anything."

From my perspective, the royal family were literally celestial beings, impossibly distant.

Various circumstances had brought me into close proximity now, but I considered this a special situation.

Once Princess Tianis's coronation established her reign as queen, I'd eventually be dismissed from service.

After becoming an advisor, I'd researched the royal family extensively, but in the end I'd only managed to gather a few rumors.

Most of those were about King Izard's glorious legends and such, not about the royal family itself.

My merchant connections could tell me about business matters but nothing about the royal family.

"My uncle… the late king was a kind man, but weak as a ruler. He disliked conflict and resolved friction with the Empire through concessions."

"I have a vague sense of that."

For instance, the incident where Alexia was captured could easily have escalated into a conflict.

Because the Kingdom side didn't make a big deal of it, Alexia got off with just being treated as a prisoner.

Though she ended up becoming a slave after losing her place to return to.

In a way, perhaps I should be grateful.

"Being kind isn't bad in itself, but as a result, many nobles came to look down on him. The power balance between the royal family and the nobility shifted toward the nobles."

"I'd always thought of the royal family as an absolute authority…"

"Sometimes it is. For example, King Izard's era is said to have been an absolute monarchy. But after King Izard went missing, the nobility rose to prominence. The Deiancle ducal house, which branched off from the royal family, served as a check against such nobles."

Lady Anatia puffed out her chest proudly.

Indeed, without Duke Baroba's authority, Princess Tianis inheriting the throne would have been impossible.

So that was the background behind the nobles doing as they pleased.

Without a boss keeping watch, the underlings couldn't be controlled.

"Tianis was born into such a royal family. She had succession rights, but her chances of becoming ruler were extremely low. I've heard the attitudes of the noble heirs toward her were cold. I tried to meet with her whenever I came to the capital, but…"

Lady Anatia usually resided in Alsarm.

Protecting Princess Tianis would have been difficult.

"The servants pick up on that atmosphere too, I suppose. Unable to lean on anyone, looked down upon because of it, that child gradually became unable to trust others. Things improved considerably when her younger brother was born, but when the drug incident occurred, someone took advantage of it and had him poisoned."

"Ojou-sama, that topic is…"

"It's fine. In Yohane-san's position, he'd hear about it eventually. And that child flew into a rage. That's why she hates drugs. That's precisely why she trusts Yohane-san so much, because you prevented and resolved a new drug incident."

Lady Anatia added, "I trust you too, of course."

"So for Tianis, trusting others is very difficult. Apart from us, Kanon is probably the only person she can rely on. She wasn't on good terms with Yupe either."

"… It's complicated, isn't it? But this is troublesome. Setting aside security, I don't want to have unnecessary worries about daily matters during this critical period."

"I understand. I could say something to her, but how about you tell her, Yohane-san? I'm sure she'll listen to you."

"You think so?"

Now that I thought about it, she did listen to what I said, one way or another.

It was a heavy feeling, but if I did nothing, it was clear that new troubles would arise.

I couldn't ask Finn to solve everything every time, so I had no choice but to do it.