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“I wonder what she’s doing right now. Levia, I mean.”
Liz was looking out the window toward the lord’s residence, worry on her face.
At her quiet remark, Ney answered in a cool tone.
“Who knows. But the other party is the lord of this territory. He’s probably the richest man who’s ever shown interest in her, right? So I imagine it all comes down to how long she can keep up the sweet-little-lady act.”
“…Now I’m worried for an entirely different reason.”
Liz grimaced. “Maybe I really should’ve gone with her,” she muttered like an anxious guardian.
Then, suddenly, she spotted something.
“Huh?”
“What is it, Liz?”
“No… I just saw someone who looked really familiar coming into the building…”
“Someone familiar? Don’t tell me…”
BANG!
The door flew open with a tremendous crash. When the two turned toward it, sure enough, Levia was standing there, panting heavily.
“L-Levia? Why are you here? What happened to the matchmaking?”
“More importantly, what the hell is that? Why are you wearing a wig?”
Just as Ney pointed out, a brown wig was sitting on Levia’s head. She had put it on for a laugh, only to end up barely holding herself together, her face twitching from the effort. Her voice came out slightly squeaky as a result.
“I-I’ll explain later. More importantly, get ready to leave. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”
“Leave…? W-what the hell did you do?!”
Ignoring Liz’s shout, Levia finished gathering her equipment and moved over to the window. Keeping herself hidden, she peered outside.
“Tch, they’re already here. But that blond bastard isn’t with them.”
Three mounted knights had arrived in front of the inn. Two entered the building while the third remained outside, watching the surroundings.
“Chance. Hup!”
“Gweh?!”
Levia jumped out the window and kicked the mounted man in the face. As he fell from his horse, she took his place in the saddle and called up to the other two.
“Come on, hurry up.”
“Wait a minute! Explain—”
“Just come. If you stay there, you might end up being treated as assassins.”
“A-assassins…?! Levia, what the hell did you do?!”
Ney leaned out the window, shouting in a mixture of confusion and fury. Liz beside her, on the other hand, gave a long, resigned sigh, grabbed her belongings, and jumped down.
“I really should’ve gone with you. Right. Before worrying about your trauma, I should’ve worried about fixing your personality.”
“Come on, Ney, hurry up. The knights will be back any second.”
Ney hesitated for a while, but eventually jumped down as well. Nobody wanted to be punished for something they knew nothing about. If Levia really had angered a noble, they might not even be given a chance to explain themselves. In a feudal society, the noble who ruled the land held absolute authority there.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
Apparently suspicious of the commotion, the knights came running back out of the inn, but they were too late. Levia and the others pulled on the reins and sent their horses racing away.
“So! What did you do?!”
“My attempt to ensnare him failed. Honestly, if not for that Gawain fellow, Pendran would have been mine.”
“Gawain?! What did Lord Gawain do?!”
They carried on this dangerous conversation as they rode, passing through the fountain square, which still had a fair number of people despite the hour, then entering the main avenue and heading for the town gates.
Before they could get there, however, pursuers appeared from the direction of the lord’s residence. Arthur rode at the front, with Gawain beside him and a large number of knights following behind.
“Give it back! Give it back!”
Arthur was shouting something. A white hat was pulled low over his head. It was the one Levia had left behind.
Behind him, the knights could be heard asking things like, “What is the lord talking about?” and “No idea.” Apparently he had managed to hide it just in time. Imagining the scene made Levia snort with laughter.
“What are you laughing about?! This isn’t funny!”
“B-because, Liz. The bald guy, the bald guy…”
“Bald?! What went bald?!”
Still laughing, Levia threw a volley of knives. Around ten blades flew toward Arthur.
Gawain deflected most of them, but ignored the ones he judged would miss. One of those caught Arthur’s hat and tore it away. Arthur hurriedly covered his head, but it was already too late.
—Clop, clop, clop.
Every other sound seemed to disappear, leaving only the horses’ hooves.
Liz and Ney stared at Arthur with perfectly straight faces. Then, little by little, those faces began to distort…
“A-ahahahahaha! He’s bald! He’s bald!”
“An octopus! A boiled octopus! Look how red he is! Kuhahahaha!”
Liz and Ney burst out laughing. If Arthur had simply carried himself confidently, they probably would not have thought much of it, but the desperate attempt to hide it made the whole thing funny. Looking closely, even the knights appeared to be struggling not to laugh.
“Hey, hey.”
“W-what is it, Levia?”
“Look. This is the main body.”
Grinning, Levia pointed at the wig on her own head. The other two immediately burst out again.
“Th-the main body?! Then what’s that over there, an ornament?!”
“Stop, Levia! I’m going to die… I’m actually going to die…!”
Liz laughed while pointing at the wig, while Ney doubled over in pain clutching her stomach. The knights who had heard the “main body” comment were also visibly twitching.
“You wretches! To laugh at Lord Arthur! I will not permit it!”
Gawain alone wore an expression of pure fury. Whether through sheer loyalty to Arthur or something else, he had not so much as twitched.
Levia, still laughing painfully, addressed this exemplary knight.
“C-come to think of it, you’re the Knight of the Sun, aren’t you? So what, is that guy the sun?”
“Th-the sun! He really is the sun!”
“Stop it, Levia! That’s disrespectful to Lord Gawain! Ahahahaha!”
“Enough! This emblem is a badge of honor personally bestowed upon me by Lord Arthur! Do not compare it to a mere shiny bald head!”
“Gawain?!”
Arthur stared at him in shock.
At last, the other knights burst out laughing too. The three fugitives were immediately swept into another fit of laughter.
“Y-you… Even if you are the woman I love, I will not forgive this! Mocking someone’s physical features…!”
Arthur’s horse suddenly surged forward, bringing him close behind Levia and the others. Seeing him approach, Levia pulled the wig off her head.
“Kihihihi… Fine, fine. Sorry. I’ll give it back. Here.”
“Ah!”
She casually tossed it behind her.
The wig bounced once on the ground, and Arthur managed to catch it perfectly—only to lose his balance and fall from the horse. Shouting “Nwooooh!” as he rolled across the road, he disappeared behind them.
“Lord Arthur!”
Apparently Gawain could not simply abandon his lord, because he brought his horse to an abrupt stop. The knights following behind had to stop as well or risk trampling Arthur. It was their chance.
“All right, let’s get out of here.”
“The wig! He fell off his horse because of the wig! Ahahahaha!”
“Pfft. F-fine. We don’t exactly have much choice but to run now.”
The group headed for the edge of town. The gates were already closed because of the late hour, but after some forceful negotiations, they successfully persuaded the guards to open them and rode straight out onto the plains.
“You will not escape!”
But Gawain appeared again.
Apparently the delay at the gate had given him time to catch up. More than a dozen mounted knights rode behind him. There were fewer than before, presumably because the rest had remained behind to help Arthur. And so the dead heat began again.
The distance between the two groups neither widened nor narrowed, except in Gawain’s case. As one of the Twelve Knights, he had apparently been given an especially fine horse. Liz noticed and shouted.
“L-Levia! He’s going to catch us at this rate!”
“Tch. What an annoying bastard.”
“Kh… As expected of Lord Gawain… Wait. He’s chasing us? Lord Gawain is chasing me?”
Ignoring the one member of the group who had begun entertaining a convenient fantasy, Levia started throwing whatever she had left. She was out of knives, so now it was things like soap and toothpaste. Naturally, none of them were particularly suitable projectiles, and Gawain avoided or cut them aside without difficulty.
Liz was trying to use magic as well, but could not manage it. Constructing magic required intense concentration. Normally she could cast even from horseback, but right now it was impossible. Every time she remembered what had happened with Arthur’s bald head, she started laughing again and lost her concentration.
Tch. Guess I’ll have to do it.
That was what Levia thought, though she would rather avoid it if possible. One-on-one, she could probably manage somehow, but this was three against more than ten. One of her companions was currently unable to use magic, while the other might even betray them. Even for Levia, the odds were far too poor.
While she considered what to do, the distance continued shrinking. Soon Gawain would be close enough to reach them with his sword.
“I’ve caught you! Now surrender quietly and—hm?!”
Gawain slowed down.
Why?
Levia wondered what had happened—
“Geh?!”
There was a huge body of soldiers directly ahead.
For an instant she despaired, thinking they had somehow circled around them, but on closer inspection the flags were different.
They were not from Yukt.
“Halt! Beyond this point lies the territory of Saint Faus! Knights of Pendran, why do you seek to violate our lands?!”
A priest standing at the center of the force called out the warning.
Caught between the two sides, Levia and her companions came to a stop. Levia began wondering whether they should try escaping to the left or the right while Gawain answered the priest’s challenge.
“I am Gawain Galadin! Priest of Saint Faus, we bear you no ill will! I swear that once we have apprehended those three, we will withdraw immediately!”
“That cannot be allowed! Those three have already crossed the border! If you insist on pursuing the matter, you must do so through the proper procedures!”
“What…?!”
Gawain looked genuinely shocked.
The border between Yukt and Saint Faus ran over open land, with no particular line marking it. It was extremely vague. And even if Levia and the others had crossed it, that would make the three of them illegal entrants. Since the two countries were not at war, refusing to hand them over under these circumstances was plainly strange. More importantly, there was no obvious reason for a force this large to be stationed here in the first place.
While Gawain stood there confused, part of the Saint Faus formation opened to create a path. Levia and the others were directed through it and led, still mounted, toward the rear of the force. If they were being treated as criminals, they would normally have been restrained.
“W-what’s going on?”
“No idea… Levia, did you do something?”
“Nothing in particular. I don’t have any connections in Saint Faus to begin with.”
Still confused, the three followed their escort. Behind them, they could hear Gawain and the priest arguing.
When they finally reached the rear of the formation, a female priest was waiting for them. Smiling, she spread her arms as though welcoming them.
“We have been waiting for you. I am Cecilia Valfore. We welcome your arrival.”