It was past midnight. The side door of the Giegold caravanserai was unusually busy. The Venetiaan Royal Guards, dressed in civilian clothes, were moving in an orderly fashion, moving all sorts of luggage quietly onto the carriages. The well-trained horses were elegantly standing in line as well.
It would not be weird for people to think that they were running away in the middle of the night. Flutter! As two staff members raised the curtain, a dazzling golden carriage appeared. Werner, carrying his daughter in his arms, immediately boarded the carriage.
“Hurry.”
“Yes, your Royal Highness.” The Chief Attendant bowed deeply and went to give orders to his underlings.
The Prince Consort was patting the back of his daughter who got tired of crying and fell asleep. He then headed to the highest spot in the carriage, placed the princess on a soft bed, and then fixed up her hair.
He was well-aware of the fact that Cornelisse was the treasure of his life. The child was someone whom he could look upon without any pain; the angel who had saved him once from danger. She was a different kind of jewel than that masterpiece, Elise, that he spent thirty years sculpting. But his second was giving him another opportunity. It was a blessing that was difficult to believe.
“He roamed around for seven years and didn’t even remember her name…… How laughable.” The Prince Consort whispered, almost in a sneer. A truly happy smile was on his face.
He was so handsome that anybody would fall for him at first glance, but the man’s insides were completely different. Around two years ago, he had to bite his tongue and taste blood to suppress the impulses rising up within him. He almost started dry heaving in anger when he saw the white knight standing by the princess’ side. The lowly janitor probably did not know his face, but he knew this man’s appearance very well.
If Werner had been loyal to his instincts just like wild animals, he had no idea what may have happened in the Night Market. But instead of pulling out the dagger in his heart…instead of causing a useless scene……
‘I will head to the Temple of Boundaries immediately. I need to see my daughter.’
‘……Yes, your Royal Highness. I will prepare right away.’
He ordered his people to prepare to travel at night. The coldness he faced from his family all his life… The betrayal of the wife he trusted and relied on… The man who had lived his life without being loved by anybody was someone who was very good at recognizing the scent of survival. He was not someone who would miss the rare opportunities that fell his way.
“I don’t know if that lowly thing ended up finally receiving divine judgment or went crazy roaming around outside the palace, but……”
It was a good thing either way. The dirty bastard not recognizing Cornelisse meant that he lost, at minimum, seven years of memories. That left just one important thing. Did his older daughter know about this?
“Big bro……” Cornelisse groaned and turned on the bed.
The Chief Attendant happened to be coming back, so Werner ordered him to bring a warm wet cloth and a bucket of water. It was also necessary to keep his younger daughter quiet. There was no need for his older daughter to hear about how they met the bastard in Giegold and he left Cornelisse a great shock. Even if she eventually ended up finding out, that needed to happen thoroughly under his calculations.
How….
– Shaaaaaaa……
The man’s chocolate-colored eyes opened wide at that moment. Blue light was coming out of his precious child’s body.
“Amy?”
“……”
A shocked Werner called out his daughter’s alias, but there was no response. He threw the cloth he was using to wipe her little face. His old servant quickly approached after noticing the serious situation. The princess’s body was very cold.
“Cornelisse!” He shook her shoulders and called out to her at the top of his lungs, but his daughter did not wake up.
The pale Prince Consort raised his voice. “What are you doing?! Quickly call the Royal Doctor, hurry!”
“Yes, your Royal Highness!”
– Shaaaaaaa……!
The blue light became even brighter. It felt like a large source of light was inside the child’s body.
Werner suddenly recalled a day from 25 years ago. It was the moment the six year old Elise first showed her power. ‘Is it possible-’
– Sssssssss……
Flinch. His clothes felt wet. The man shook as if he was burned by fire and touched the child and his sleeves. He then gasped. Clear water was coming out of his daughter’s small fingertips and curly ivory-colored hair. His eyes opened extremely wide after coming to this realization.
Cornelisse would not wake up for a few days like this. The fear turned into shock and the shock turned into delight.
“Anybody there?! There’s no need for the Royal Doctor. Call a healing priest! Actually, call them all!”
“As you command, your Royal Highness!”
Eight years old. Her ether was awakening. The entire world seemed to be looking after Werner Venetiaan.
*
That was how we lost the child whose name we didn’t even know.
– Swoooooooosh……!
Sir Johann quickly used his power, but the quiet breathing was quickly buried within the noises of the masses. Loud drunk chatter, haggling, sounds of plates breaking and fireworks… All of these things hindered the delicate tracking process. Most importantly, Holy Knights mixed in the crowd were scattering his ether. In return for the air attribute not being affected by other attributes very much, they also could not completely pierce through the other attributes.
I looked up at the Cardinal.
‘You’ll see her if you fly up.’
‘I will not take on such a danger, your highness.’
The Holy Knight had sternly rejected my request. He was worried that the attention would be focused on us if he flew around looking for the child. Knowing that his task was to protect the Imperial Crown Prince and me, I couldn’t ask him to do that. I could only gather the crumpled bouquet and get up. It was an upsetting night.
I could not fall asleep, so as soon as the sun came up, I went to request a meeting with the manager of the Giegold caravanserai. I even waited over three hours to meet with him. This was a place with a lot of people, including a lot of nobles from the Holy Kingdom, so I couldn’t ask him to push back everything else to meet with me. That would require revealing our identity, but that was too dangerous.
“A lost child…… You are looking for a lost child? Is she one of our guests?” Manager Zeromin had a concerned look on his face. He, and someone who looked like his secretary, sat on our living room couch.
“Yes sir. She is not a part of our group but someone else’s family member. She was crying in the night market yesterday having lost her guardian. We tried to help her but she ran away…… I thought you might know something about her. Have there been any reports like that? She seemed to be seven or eight years old. She was about this tall with black pupils.” I did my best to explain. I told him anything I could remember about the child. The way the child was crying so much and getting angry at me stabbed like a thorn in my heart that would not go away. The things I said to her echoed in my mind as well. It was hard to stop worrying about her.
Why was such a little girl so hurt and upset? That was an age they should be too busy laughing to do anything else. Maybe she was being abused at home and had run away by choice.
“She had curly hair that was very light blonde. The length was about……”
“About this long. I saw it from the back,” Christelle quickly answered.
Joanne and Sand chimed in as well. “Her clothes looked extremely expensive. I bet she’s a noble young lady.”
“The speaking style was definitely from the Holy Kingdom. She was definitely not a random kid from a village.”
“Mm……” The manager chose his words wisely. He exchanged glances with his secretary before wiping his half-bald hair with his handkerchief. “I truly apologize, young master. However, we cannot give you and your friends information about other guests. It is not that we do not trust Viscount Rambouillet’s companions, but……”
‘Ah.’ I had not considered that issue. I immediately flailed my arms. ‘Privacy is important.’
“I’m sorry. I was feeling so concerned that I did not consider that part.”
“Not at all. It is understandable. However, I can tell you that we have received no reports of a missing child. Furthermore, our lodging has a lot of VIP guests so the security is very thorough inside and out. The Vatican’s troops are also always on guard at the village entrance. I can tell you with full certainty that it was not an abduction or kidnapping. There would have been quite the commotion if something like that happened last night.” Zeromin calmly commented. I felt a bit better after hearing that. He smiled gently, and…
“You are all such kind-hearted people. Please don’t worry too much. A noble young lady like that is guaranteed to have some guards around her,” he tried to console us. He also promised to increase the number of guards on patrol and ask around the village.
I was truly grateful. The manager and the staff emptied their teacups and left the room. The red pandas, who had been in the bedroom, ran over into my arms. The way they opened their little mouths to beg for ether made it impossible not to sigh.
– Kiiiiiiiiiii, kiiiiiiiiii!
– They are trying to console you.
“Me?”
I jerked my head up. Hanan, who was using Isabelle as a backrest, nodded her chin.
– What else can I really do with old and worn-out ether? This Queen can feel other people’s ethers more clearly and sharply. The divine beasts are honest and not hiding their emotions.
– Squeeeeee?
Demy tilted his head and looked up at me. He seemed to be saying, ‘oops, we were caught.’ I laughed and started rubbing his ear when the Queen said something else.
– Furthermore, someone awakened as a Holy Knight here last night.
“Excuse me?”
“It looks like I was not mistaken.”
The silent Sir Johann answered. I looked back and forth at him and Hayan in shock. The way Christelle and the Imperial Crown Prince were calm made it seem as if you needed to be at the Cardinal level to sense it. Joanne and Sand, who had been sharing a börek, blinked as well.
Gerrit’s daddy smiled toward me. “I believe it was someone with the water attribute. I just thought things like this must happen when you have a lodging this size.”
“……How interesting.”
“Seriously. I feel like I just heard that a baby was born in the same lodging,” Christelle mumbled in a low voice.
It was something we didn’t even witness in Moreno, the heaven for wandering Holy Knights. I petted the little troublemakers to calm my mind. I thought it wasn’t a big deal and eight or nine out of ten times that would be true, but…… I felt like I would think about yesterday’s incident for a long time.
“Why don’t we go have lunch outside?” Isabelle, who had been helping Tithé, warmly asked.
We shook our respective heads out of our thoughts. The black rock-like eyes were holding the gentle aura of an adult.
“You’ll be able to feel better and it’ll make it easier to gather information from the villagers and merchants.”
“……”
Christelle and I looked at each other and smiled. We then looked toward crown prince Cédric at the same time. He scowled as he opened up his book.
‘What’s wrong? That’s a great idea. Big bro likes the inside better too, but let’s go together!
*
Mm, we didn’t gain much.
– Clack, clack……
A portion of my heart felt heavy, but that was the reality of things. We did not hear anything about the ‘crying child’ until we left the Giegold village and the caravanserai. Manager Zeromin tried until the last moments, but we got no useful clues. We first went through the old merchants selling flowers……
‘Oh, oh, a child like that did stop by! She was as pretty as a doll and her hair was curly!’
‘Yes, that’s her! Did you happen to see her run off in that direction late last night? She should have been crying.’
‘I’m not sure…… While I’m selling stuff, well… I don’t have time to check on all the passing customers. There are too many people.’
That was the only somewhat meaningful clue. Most people did not see the little girl, and even the ones who had seen her did not remember how her guardian looked. The only fact was that nobody saw the child anywhere after that day. It was possible that she already left Giegold. The only thing we could do was to ask Zeromin to take care of things.
The Rambouillet couple told us that he was a trustworthy merchant and consoled us. They also said that the child should have safely gone home.
– Clack, clack……
– Pruuuuuuuuu!
I could hear the carriage wheels and camels below. It was because we were currently sitting on the roof of the carriage as we moved. We were getting bored of just sitting inside. On the other hand, the desert night sky felt vast and new every time we looked at it. It was a sea of white falling stars and a glass orb-like round sky from one end to another.
Christelle was sprawled out, observing the stars. The crown prince punk was quietly observing something in the distance as well. Sand and Joanne were already asleep while Sir Johann, Isabelle, and Hayan were chatting about different things.
“Tithé, look over there. That constellation looks like you.”
– Aarf?
“Yeah. If you connect it like this, it looks squishy just like you, Tithé.”
– Aaarf!
I grabbed his flipper and drew a line in the air, making the harp seal curl his eyes with joy. He even dropped ice orbs from his open mouth. I wiped his whiskers and then had a thought.
‘Liar.’
‘Are you talking about me……?’
‘That’s not your name! I hate you!’
Maybe that child…… Was someone who knew the real Prince Jesse. So maybe I accidentally left her a big scar. If that was the case, I felt really sorry. I wondered if I would have a chance to apologize.
“Everybody, look over there. It looks like we’re here.”
I heard Sir Johann’s voice at that moment.
We all turned our heads. Then everybody’s jaws dropped.
“Hooo.”
“My goodness……”
The Temple of Boundaries. The largest and most magnificent building I had ever seen was right in front of me.
—
Translator’s Comments
Jesse realizes the truth but still doesn’t know who it is. Sooooob.