‘Do not worry, milady. The royal palace of Triciella has the highest security in the entire kingdom.’ were the exact words of the trustworthy(?) bodyguard of one Joanna Valeria Winsten, and these words were full of shit. The nobles could not be trusted, and those that believed in those nobles couldn’t be trusted either. Especially nobles who carelessly fired explosives in their fancy-ass gardens smack in the middle of the day.

Joanna Winsten— the young noble Lady with the body of a thirteen-year-old and the mind of an adult, who had hastily ducked beneath a table at the sound of the explosion, was now thinking of all the creative ways she would strangle Nero once she got out of this place.

‘Highest security’ my ass.

The heat of the explosion simmered in the air long after its sound had died down, and Joe nervously poked out her head from beneath the table to peek at the sky. A trail of black smoke rose above the trees from the direction of the glasshouse, looking like a dirty gray pillar disappearing into the clouds. She could smell the scent of burnt wood and grass, mixed with a whiff of some peculiar substance that smelled like a bizzare combination of chicken soup and wet paint.

Joe wanted to gag, but prince Emmanuel beat her to it.

“What the devil was that?!” He yelled, half wobbling and half stumbling towards a pillar of the pavillion. His face had turned a frightening shade of green. “Ugh! What’s this horrible stench? It’s disgusting and smells like— uurp!!”

Joe skidded out of her hiding spot with a speed she didn’t know she possessed, grabbed the royal prince by his collar and yanked him away from the table. “Don’t you dare puke here!” She snarled furiously, very acutely aware of her own rising nausea. The sight and smell of vomit would just exacerbate the condition, and Joe did not want to be covered in puke on the top of dealing with whatever had caused that explosion.

Niel had almost curled himself into a ball. “B-But, this sbell…” he moaned miserably, pinching his nose as if it was going to separate from his body and run away in full speed. “…This sbell is baking be dizzy— !”

Joe saw the boy quivering like a leaf and felt a prick of compassion in her heart.

Niel was frightfully delicate for a fan-favourite princely character of a video game.

She rubbed his back soothingly, her hands caressing up and down the spine. This was no time for theatrics. “Calm down, you idiot. Don’t pay attention to that smell. It’s fine. It’ll be gone soon. Here, drink this tea. No— don’t look at me like that. Relax and drink this. Slowly now.” If Niel had his wits about him right now, he would have given her one of his patented looks of confusion. But the boy prince was too lightheaded to care. He gave a weak nod and emptied the proffered glass in one gulp.

“….Th-That was nice.” The boy prince graced her with a vacant smile, which Joe translated as a sign of (confused?) gratefulness, and promptly slumped back against her arms like a baby.

-----------------------------------

The royal garden of Triciella was a picture of veritable pandemonium. Men and women ran around like headless chickens, screaming and tripping over each other in hapless heaps. Several flocks of sparrows hastily abandoned their branches amidst the confusion, and Joe saw a pair of squirrels scurrying up the nearest tree as if their life depended on it.

In the chaos that had ensued, only Shawn Wicksman remained perfectly unperturbed. That youthful face betrayed no emotion, but his hands clutched the hilt of his sword in a death grip— the knuckles white as a sheet. Clearly, this was an unprecedented situation even within the palace grounds.

Joe was strangely relieved at the presence of Niel and Shawn— even if her heart was currently beating over a hundred miles an hour. There was something strangely soothing about having two people stuck in the same unfortunate predicament as you. Of course, a more morally uptight person would never go down that line of thought. But such morals didn’t last very long with Joe, especially when dreadful blasts of explosives were involved.

“Your highness prince Emmanuel.” Shawn began, and those four words were enough to smack Joe with the cold hard reality of her situation.

She wasn’t just stuck here with any ordinary person. It was the second Prince of Triciella— a direct member of the Triciellan Royal family. If things went sour… if matters turned from bad to worse— Emmanuel Grayford will be the first person Shawn Wicksman will save, no questions asked. Of course, Joe didn’t want to think so little of him, but loyalties were a fickle thing in this world. There was seldom anything more important to these people than their duties and responsibilities, and Joe was well aware that currently she was no part of Shawn’s responsibility.

Between some scrawny pre-pubescent girl you’d met two nights ago, and a Royal prince that you’ve served for almost half your life, it doesn’t take much thought to decide which one takes priority in case of an emergency.

Sigh. Where was Nero when she needed him the most?

“Until we find out the culprits behind the explosion, it will be wiser not to carelessly walk around the garden.” Shawn was saying. She must have missed some of his words, because Niel had stopped slouching and disentangled himself from her arms. His ears were a bright shade of red. Joe had to suppress a smirk. She had forgotten how awkward teenagers could get about the barest hint of physical touch with the opposite sex.

Niel hastily fixed and collar and cleared his throat, but flush on his cheeks hadn’t faded away yet.

“What about the rest of the people?” His eyes were restless now. “The palace staff? The men and women working at the greenhouse? What about my sister?! I know that she was well within the palace grounds today!”

Shawn didn’t miss a beat. “The guards are doing their best to quell the chaos, Your highness. Sir Rylbert is with them—You needn’t worry about Lady Eleanor’s safety with him patrolling the perimeter around the Royal gardens. Walking around carelessly will only serve to paint an easy target on your back.”

“Eh— Sir Rylbert is here?!”

“Well, yes.” Shawn’s eyes had a forlorn look, which was gone in half a second before Joe could decipher what it meant. “He was supposed to depart for the Northern Fortress today, but it has been postponed to the day after tomorrow. But from the look of things right now, it would seem that the campaign will have to be delayed until this incident is investigated and the intruders dealt with.”

Whoa, whoa! Was it okay for this guy to divulge so much of sensitive information in front of her? Isn’t she practically an unrelated stranger?! Joe kept her eyes fixated on the ground and pretended not to hear anything.

“Who do think the intruders are?” Niel was asking, his voice laced with concern. Joe didn’t think that he was physically capable of feeling the seriousness of any situation, but here they were. She instantly felt terrible about it— because at the end of the day Joanna Winsten could simply waltz back to her home in the Winsten manor, with nary a concern about any errant explosion in the vicinity. She could just label this as a ‘terrible incident’ and move on with her life, but it wasn’t the same for Niel. This was his home— this was the place where he belonged to. An explosion of this scale might as well have thrown everything in his life into chaotic disarray.

Shawn ran a hand through his thick black hair. “I cannot say for certain yet. The greenhouse is located further down the palace grounds, quite a ways from the Royal garden. The fact that it was the epicentre of the blast means that it was the work of someone that sneaked inside the palace grounds.”

“What does that mean?!” Joe looked up in alarm. “Does that mean that someone managed to bypass the security of the Royal Palace and enter into the glasshouse unnoticed?”

“I do not know.” Shawn cocked his head to a side, as if contemplating his own words. “It could also mean that it’s the work of someone who already has the explicit permission to enter the Palace… as an employee…. or as a guest.”

Joe shivered at his gaze. The implications weren’t lost to her.

Niel, who had recovered from his loopy episode of nausea, apparently took this as an invitation to take a jab at her.

“What’s the matter, Joey? You scared now?”

“Frightfully scared.” Joe drawled. It didn’t take much long for the idiot to bounce back into his idiotic self. “You’ve got such a nice black sword over there, Your Highness. I’m going to duck and hide right behind you the moment things go south.”

“Err— no. Hiding behind me is a bit….”

“Ohh, what’s the matter? Don’t tell me you can’t swing that sword? Is it just for show, hmm?”

“Excuse you! I take regular lessons for swordsmanship from Sir Nicole. I’ve been taking lessons ever since I was a kid! You take that back!”

“You’re still a kid, Your Highness. That doesn’t make much of a difference. I’ll believe you when I see with my own eyes.”

“Fine, you—you stalker! I’ll show you! You will be in awe of my skills! You will be seeing me in a new light! You will be begging me to teach you!”

“……Wow. You’re that desperate, huh?”

“Someone’s here.” Shawn’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it instantly halted their squabble mid-tirade. Joe and Niel looked at each other and then at the bodyguard, their dumb expressions mirroring each other.

And true enough, a hazy figure came running through the thick cloud of smoke, huffing and puffing like an asthma patient. How Shawn had managed to spot a silhouette amidst all that dust and rubble was a wonder— but a warrior’s senses were nothing to scoff at. The silhouette belonged to a muscular man, with short cropped hair and thick, bushy eyebrows. When his eyes settled on the boy prince, his face lit up into a relieved smile.

Joe stared at the smile warily. The last time she’d seen this man, he had wordlessly led her into the royal garden and abandoned her before the giggling mob of ‘Prince Alastair fanclub’.

It was Gail.

The Bushy Eyebrows.

The man skidded to a graceless halt in front of the Ice pavilion. His sleeveless shirt was frayed and burnt at the edges, barely hiding the soot-covered skin on his muscular arms.

“Your Highness Prince Emmanuel!” Gail’s eyes were trained on Niel, as if Joe did not even exist in the vicinity. The girl was too stunned to see him to even properly feel insulted. “I am truly glad to see that you’re unharmed! The whole garden is a mess— I couldn’t find the other workers in the mayhem because the palace guards have blocked off all the entrances to the greenhouse right now. One-third of the entire structure has been completely blasted off— would you believe it?! They won’t allow anyone inside it, unless the person is ranked Captain or above!

Joe felt a shiver run up her spine. The royal greenhouse and the Ice pavilion were located at completely opposite sides of the garden. If the sound and heat from the explosion that they felt from this distance was anything to go by— the epicentre of the blast must have been burnt to the ground and reduced to dust. How the hell was that structure still standing up?!

Niel had visibly brightened up at Gail’s arrival.

He sprang up from his spot and jogged over to Bushy Eyebrows. “Gail! Ahh, I was worried about you guys! Is everyone else alright? Was there anyone inside the dome that was caught in the explosion?! Were the guards able to rescue everyone from the vicinity? N-No one’s seriously injured, right?!”

It’s impossible that everyone would escape unhurt from an explosion of that scale, Joe thought bitterly, but Niel’s concern was touching. You don’t often see a royal Prince going out of his way to worry about the commoners’ well-being. That, or perhaps Joe’s idea of a Royal Prince was limited to arrogant pretty faces who chased after gullible heroines and did not spare a glance towards the commoners’ around them. You can’t blame her, really— her sources were all limited to scandalous TV dramas and Gracie’s videogames.

“His Highness is too kind. We are grateful that you worry about us workers, my Lordship.” Bushy Eyebrows lowered his bushy lashes. “I don’t know much about the others. Thomas is injured and has been taken into the infirmary. Bart and Lawrence are still missing. A-Actually, I think I saw one of them in the greenhouse this morning!”

Joe listened on in muted horror. She did not know these people, but the thought that someone had been inside the glasshouse at the moment of the explosion twisted her stomach with ice-cold fear. These people had friends and families in Triciella. They were just one of the names in the long list of people missing after the explosion, but their loved ones would still desperately cling onto that small sliver of hope—that the person was missing, but somehow still alive.

Please let them be alive.

Joe remembered another person who had accompanied her into the Royal Garden.

Ohh shit!

Perry!

Whatever happened to Perry?!

She had left the maid back near the spring fountain. Perry must have heard the explosion! Was she safe?! She must have been looking for Joe! She must have been losing her mind with worry right now! Wait— does Perry ever lose her mind?! No, she doesn’t! She wouldn’t even flinch! That maid…she must have gotten tired of waiting and simply sauntered out of the garden by now.

Joe hoped that Perry had at least enough sense to alert Nero about her whereabouts.

“I met Sir Rylbert on my way here.” Gail’s voice had a tinge of urgency. “Her highness Lady Eleanor has been escorted to safety inside the palace. Sir Rylbert was looking for you, My lord. He said something about intruders still hiding somewhere in the royal garden, and that it’s not safe for you to be separated from the guards.”

“E-Eh? But my bodyguard is right here with me—”

“We stay right here.” Shawn’s voice was firm. He wasn’t even looking at Gail, instead staring resolutely ahead as if he could see straight through the smoke. “If Sir Rylbert is worried, he can come here himself.”

Wow, how rude— is what Joe wanted to say. But currently she was the weakest person in this place and perhaps the least of Shawn’s worries, so she wisely kept her mouth shut.

“A-Ahh, Sir Shawn? Th-that’s—um, I don’t know the details, but..” Gail was still babbling nervously. “B-But Sir Rylbert insisted that—”

Shawn’s eyes moved away from the rubble for half a second, settling on the blubbering man. “Yes?”

It all happened in a flash.

One moment Joe was standing beside Niel— and in the next heartbeat, she was thrown backwards on the ground with a force that rattled her teeth and knocked the air out of her lungs. Pain exploded on her left side, as if someone had just bludgeoned her shoulder blades and forearm with a hammer. Her skull throbbed painfully. She could taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.

I’m not dead yet. I’m not dead yet. I’m not dead ye—

Who killed me?

Joe opened her eyes with some effort, but the surroundings were all blurry and unidentifiable. She suspected that she had subconsciously started crying at some point. There was a distant sound of someone shouting, a clash of metal upon metal, and the pitter-patter of a pair of hurried footsteps running straight towards her.

I’m not going to die yet, right?

“Joey! Joey! Hey, can you hear me?!”

Someone was roughly shoving her bruised arm. Joe wanted to lash out and kick them in their family jewels, but all that came out was a pained hiss. A finger prodded her eyelids open, a smooth thumb hastily wiped away the tears, and the panicking face of Emmanuel von Grayford slowly came into focus.

Ohhh, this dumbass. It’s always this dumbass.

His golden hair was falling all over his eyes, but Niel paid it no heed. He patted her face frantically, and when there was no response, the boy prince resorted to shoving her shoulders again.

Joe tried to move away from his touch. “…Hurts.” She slurred with some difficulty. “D-Don’t move— hurts.”

Light sprang up into his blue eyes. “Y—You’re awake? You’re awake!”

Yes, I’m awake. Joe wanted to beg. Now please stop shoving my arm, or you’ll send me back to sleep. Permanently.

“St—op shoving….my arm… ‘s hurting.”

“Ah, what’s that? Your arm hurts?! W-Which side? Shit, I didn’t make it worse, did I?!”

“L-Left.” Joe suspected that it wasn’t the pain that was keeping her immobile as much as the force of the impact.

“O-Ooh. Alright.” Niel’s handsome face was puckered with worry. He discreetly glanced at something behind him, and that was when Joe noticed two figures in the pavilion engaged in a flurry of clashes. Both had their swords drawn for battle— they moved and slashed with a decisive swiftness that left her dizzy with fear.

She was certain one of them was Shawn.

The boy prince hunched over her face with a frown. “L-Look— stay calm when I say this… The man fighting over there— He tried to kill you just now. I don’t why— he just appeared from smoke in a flash and charged at you with a sword. I suspect that he was hiding in the rubble.” His words had dropped down into a whisper. “I couldn’t see it clearly—but if Shawn hadn’t kicked you out of the way, that man would have skewered you through the heart by now.”

Joe wanted to groan. Many thanks for the imagery.

First the bandits, now this. Why her of all people, dammit!

It did not make sense. If this was an ambush, shouldn’t the perpetrator target the royal family first? What’s the point of targeting Joanna Winsten?

“Let’s go.” Niel gingerly turned her body and lifted her right arm over his shoulder. Joe wanted to protest, but the other alternative was lying prone in the dirt and basically extending an invitation for another blind attack. She swallowed her saliva and leaned on the prince for support. Oh, how the turntables….

“You’re bleeding from your forehead.” Niel muttered slowly, as two drops landed square on his pristine white collar.

“So-sorry.” Joe didn’t know who she was apologizing to— Niel or his expensive outfit. “I-I’ll pay for it— uhh, no…wait, I’ll help wash out the blood. Maybe.”

Her brain wasn’t quite working the way she wanted it to.

The boy prince scowled. “Idiot— that’s not what I’m talking about!”

He had just taken three steps away from the pavilion when a solid body collided with him.

Joe lurched in Niel’s arm, and would have crashed straight into the ground if the boy hadn’t twisted his body to cushion her fall in the nick of time.

He had stopped himself mid-collision, and then swiftly adjusted her weight against his body, taking care not to move the left arm. The other culprit was now moaning on the ground, head clutched between his hands in agony.

Niel instantly recognized the person.

“Gail?!”

Bloody hell— this Bushy Eyebrows!

Gail snapped his eyes towards the prince. Joe could see a purple bruise blooming on his forehead. “Prince Emmanuel! Y-You are alright, aren’t you? You aren’t hurt, right?!”

“I’m fine.” Niel adjusted his hold on Joe’s right arm. “Jo— erm…my fiancée is hurt. I don’t know who that man is… but he can’t get away as long as Shawn’s here.”

Bushy Eyebrows scrambled up on his feet. “I told you—ahh, pardon my tone, Your Highness— I told you this place is not safe right now! We need to meet up with Sir Rylbert and the rest. We need to get out of here. Fast!”

The boy prince looked at Joe with uncertainty. “…But we need to get her to the infirmary first.”

“But YOU need to get out of here first, Your Highness! Bringing her along now will only slow your movements! Besides, Sir Shawn is right here! I can come back and bring her to the infirmary later! But we need to get you to safety right now, my Prince!”

“Wait— Gail! I cannot just abandon her in this state—”

“Your Highness, you must—!”

“Milady Joanna!”

Huh?

The third voice brought their heated discussion to a screeching halt. Joe lifted her tired eyes and saw the no-nonsense Winsten family maid running doggedly towards them from the direction of the smoke.

Perry!

Joe almost burst into tears right then and there. Finally— finally someone with a good head on their shoulders!