"You will not be attending the ball alone," Aerel said. "As you've likely heard already—the second Imperial Princess, Mel Mizu-bonaparte, will be coming to the academy."
Right, I heard those students talking when I was heading for a shower this morning. I raised an eyebrow. "For…?"
"She will be attending the academy as a first-year student, the same as you." Aerel replied. "From now until the Autumn ball, as well as during the event itself, you will be assigned as her bodyguard."
I blinked. "...I'm sorry—what? You lost me there."
Aerel smiled. "As you can imagine, the princess has enemies, not to mention that the autumn ball itself is a massive target. The officers of the constabulary will maintain external security, but we cannot be with her at all times. That will be your role. You can make it easier on yourself if you become her friend."
"And when something happens, I call you," I said slowly.
"Correct."
Inspector Aerel wanted me to become friends with a princess?
"...You do realize I don't know how to fight," I smiled weakly. "Or how to use magic."
"...A minor inconvenience," Aerel replied coldly. "It did not prevent you from firing twice—two killshots, might I add—under pressure at Vaulnere's docks."
…Oh.
So it was her who arrived at the end before I blacked out. Was that why she was staring at me during her orientation speech, or was that because she'd already noticed my gun?
I exhaled sharply. "You were rather late." I barely eked out the words under Aerel's pressure.
"My apologies," Aerel said as she straightened. "In the meantime, we've already notified her highness of the arrangement. She will make contact with you personally—most likely during one of your classes."
I let out a thin breath. "Okay."
"The ball is in two days," Aerel continued. "I hope your condition gets better by then. Oh, and do try to make a good impression on her highness, won't you?"
*Ttak!*
With a snap of her gloved fingers, Aerel dismissed her silencing spell. The shimmering veil around the room collapsed inward, vanishing with a ripple like water swirling down the drain.
Aerel turned toward the door and left without a word, letting her adjutant click the door shut behind them.
Air rushed back into my lungs in a sharp gasp as finally her pressure lifted. Dang, I sure didn't want to get on Aerel's bad side.
I looked at my current situation. Being a bodyguard for a princess, while personally investigating students?
…I really outdid myself this time. Great~
Eueueueue, this was no job for a beta… Couldn't they have found anyone else?
Sigh…
Just then, a spike of pain lanced through my skull.
"Ah—!" I grasped my head and fell back onto my pillow.
God, what was wrong with me?
After blacking out and waking up in the infirmary, it'd become clearer that my thoughts were sluggish. I felt like I was carrying some heavy weight behind my eyes. I stared weakly at the still too-bright lamps.
"...Just sleep," I muttered, my eyes already crawling shut. "Figure it out later…"
*Tick, tock, tick, tock, jjae-kkak, jjae-kkak.*
Somewhere outside, a bronze, brass clock ticked away, its intricate gears slowly turning as I slipped into slumber's grasp.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[Mel's POV - midnight]
While Rien rested up in the infirmary overnight, the second princess of the empire arrived hours later at the academy unannounced at the dead of night.
It was arranged so that she'd taken the Duke's express during the day to the station (in disguise, of course), then teleported using Voyager to the alpha dormitories at the time where there would ideally be the least amount of hassle.
*Pareureureureu!*
Their surroundings unfolded as the blinding white pages that had surrounded them peeled away like petals away from a stamen. They swirled away, the flipping paper disintegrating as it touched the ground like fine, snow-white ash.
Silence followed.
Mel lifted her gaze.
*Tick, tock, tick, tock, jjae-kkak, jjae-kkak.*
A gilded clock ticked against the wall. A hallway draped with a royal red carpet so plush it swallowed sound. Dark-paneled walls rose high around them, trimmed with polished brass and carved woodwork. Hissing gas lamps lined the wall in between each door, each flickering with a small amber flame.
*Tok.*
It was so quiet that the echo of Mel's footstep reverberated to the end of the hall and rippled back to her ears.
*Dugeun, dugeun, thump, thump...*
Distinctly, she could hear her own heartbeat in her ears as well as Jeanne's soft breathing behind her.
The princess swallowed. Her own breathing tickled her ears as she glanced out one of the giant paned windows that lined the hall.
Beyond them stretched a vast, lightless campus under the ocean—inky-black and endless. Above, faint silvery threads shimmered where the surface might be.
There was no moon, no sky, only the depth and silence that followed being in the middle of the night at the bottom of the sea.
Every sound seemed to echo in Mel's ears. Even after all the things she'd done as a tainted witch, this was the most unnerving thing that she'd ever experienced.
*CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.*
The great clock spire struck midnight. The sound reverberated through Mel's skull.
"Milady… are you sure we're in the right place…?" Jeanne whispered.
Mel glanced at the elegant door behind her, where her name gleamed on a plaque. "Yes."
Mel took a deep breath. "I guess we should get settled in—"
*HWENG-whoosh, rattle rattle rattle…*
A sudden arctic gust of wind tore through the corridor, rattling the curtains, their shadows writhing across the walls like tentacles.
Mel's long, navy hair billowed behind her like ribbons, and the lamps flickered violently.
Mel whipped around, glancing both ways in the hallway, her finger already drawing on her shadow, curling it into a curved, ink-black claw along her fingers.
A cold bead of sweat slid down her back.
The corridor was empty.
Mel stared for just a moment longer, when—
"G o od Ev en i n g , P r in ce s s."
The soft voice was close.
Standing just five feet away in the hallway was a small pale girl with short brown hair, soaked through as if she'd just trudged through a heavy storm. Water dripped from her onto the thirsty carpet.
A thin white dress clung to her frame.
The girl tilted her head up.
Where her features should have been, there was nothing—no eyes, no mouth, no expression; only smooth, pale skin stretched across a blank, featureless surface.