EEA Chapter 11

Reunion I

The empty outer castle had spiral stairs that could lead all the way to the highest part of the castle.

Ailea would wear the clothes of the maids remaining in the outer castle and do work. Though made for easy work, they had their own formality. Wearing the clothes and making sandwiches, she climbed the stairs, but the kitten Blue tried to follow her, clinging and struggling on the stairs.

"Sorry. You wanted to come along?"

Ailea smiled gently and opened the picnic basket containing the sandwiches, placing Blue next to the sandwiches.

"Don't eat the lunch first, okay? You understand, right?"

Ailea spoke affectionately and slowly climbed the stairs. Now, in ten days on May 15th, it would be her birthday. Ailea muttered with a rather happy expression.

"This time I'll get to turn twenty."

Halfway up the spiral stairs, Ailea sat down on the steps, exhausted. She had grown potatoes and tomatoes, but her stamina hadn't improved much, making even climbing stairs difficult.

"I should have exercised along with you too. Right, Blue?"

When she spoke to Blue, this clever cat responded with a "meow." The blue-eyed, pure white cat had quickly regained vitality under Ailea's devoted care.

Barely reaching the top of the castle, there was a small, broken bell. Ailea stood in the bell tower and looked out with wide eyes. Though the outer castle was old and shabby, the scenery beyond was incredibly beautiful.

"Wow..."

Ailea opened the basket and took Blue out, holding him.

"Look at this, Blue. Today it's especially prettier."

As the sunset reflected in her sky-blue eyes, they took on a color like sunset reflected in glass. It was a beautiful color that seemed to mix green, sky blue, and gold all together.

She put down the squirming Blue and scattered some food on the floor for him, then took out her sandwich. It was a simple sandwich with tomatoes between focaccia, but the fresh ingredients made it delicious. As Ailea bit into the sandwich, she blinked in surprise.

From far away, a group of knights was approaching. Those she thought were far away quickly came right up close and arrived in front of the transparent barrier surrounding Ailea's castle.

Somehow knowing about this invisible barrier, the knight captain at the front stopped his horse.

Ailea's eyes widened as she saw the man who had removed his helmet.

It was Clint.

He had become a completely different person from two years ago. His build was larger, and his eyes had grown cold. With distinct features and a sharp jawline. Now twenty-six years old, he was so full of masculine charm that just looking at him made one's heart pound.

He dismounted from his horse. Then he drew his sword and lightly swung it at the barrier. At that moment, the barrier created by the imperial mages broke ridiculously easily.

"Wow, as expected of a castle where the woman who was to marry the crown prince lived—they really decorated it magnificently."

The vice-captain, Tarren, who was right behind the knight captain, said while looking up at the outer castle.

Clint mounted his horse again. While they entered the castle and tied their horses at the stable, Ailea in the bell tower hurriedly came down to the first floor.

It was definitely Clint and his knight order, but two years had already passed. Though Ailea thought of Clint as a precious person who had shared the antidote with her, she thought he wouldn't remember her. He was a man who couldn't even remember the names and faces of women he'd been with.

When she heard the sound of the group of knights entering, Ailea hurriedly hid under a table covered with cloth.

Shortly after, a pungent foot odor reached her nose. Ailea struggled not to lose consciousness under attack from this unimaginable smell.

Clint went straight up to the study, while the rest of the knight order remained on the first floor. One of them, Louison, grumbled.

"Why did we suddenly get separate lodging when we have this perfectly good castle here? That snake Roylin—the castle is empty too."

Then Shante chimed in.

"Exactly! And why is the wedding being postponed again? We came all the way to the capital. They must think we have time to spare."

Hearing this made Tarren even more irritated, and he slammed down on the table where Ailea was hiding. Or maybe he just set down his drink. Ailea trembled while clutching Blue tightly. When Blue meowed in surprise, Shante who heard it asked.

"Vice-captain, didn't you just hear a cat?"

"What cat?"

"Did I hear wrong..."

Shante scratched his head and then lay flat on the floor, exposing his mountain-like protruding belly.

"Ah, Vice-captain! I'm hungry! I'm dying. I was going to stuff myself at the wedding, but there's no wedding."

"Wait for the captain's orders. He said he's looking for something."

"Captain, I'm dying of hunger..."

Pretending to die, Shante fell asleep and his snoring echoed throughout the castle with a rumbling sound.

Only then did Ailea breathe a sigh of relief. Even if Blue meowed, it would be drowned out by that snoring.

She organized her thoughts again. Now that she could leave the castle, perhaps she could escape from here. From their conversation, it seemed the crown prince didn't know these men had come to the outer castle.

If she ran away now, the crown prince might just think she had burned to death. Ailea thought it would be better to hide in this castle for a while and see how things went.

When the conversation soon stopped and only snoring could be heard, Ailea carefully came out from under the table. Men were sprawled out sleeping everywhere.

Carefully moving toward the door, she came face to face with Kaiton, a knight order member who was just entering.

The hot-blooded young man who had just turned twenty-one said upon seeing Ailea,

"Huh? A woman?"

"What? A woman?"

As if the word "woman" was an alarm, the sleeping knights began waking up one by one. Ailea, holding Blue tightly, was too scared to say a word and just trembled pitifully. The men who wouldn't wake up even when dishes fell and broke—why were they waking up from just the word "woman"!

"Is she pretty?"

When Tarren asked, Kaiton lifted Ailea's chin, who couldn't even raise her head as she trembled, and said indifferently,

"She must have some disease, all blotchy and thin. Anyway, she's ugly."

"Damn... Ah, what does it matter. She's a woman."

Tarren came over and lit a fire. Whoosh—flames blazed up and all the men's gazes focused on Ailea. Shante sniffed and said,

"Wow, what a wonderful smell..."

"This guy. Are you an animal?"

"No, it really smells wonderful."

Shante said, pointing to Blue in Ailea's arms.

"Look at that. There's a cat. I told you I heard a cat."

"You're right."

Tarren rubbed his nose embarrassedly and asked Ailea,

"What's this. Why are you here? Are you managing the castle? Well, it was too clean."

No one could imagine that the woman engaged to the crown prince had been living in this castle for two years. Naturally, they assumed she was living well somewhere in the imperial palace, receiving the crown prince's favor. 

Tarren asked, "By the way, what's with the maid? Were you here alone?"

"Ah... Yes."

When Ailea answered appropriately, Kaiton responded from behind, "Dangerous."

At those words, Ailea looked a little surprised. Until now, she had been treated like hideous baggage. She'd been pushed from the inner castle to the outer castle and lived for two years, and had even been called disgusting by her fiancé.

But now these men were really thinking of Ailea as a woman. Worrying that being alone was dangerous. Ailea couldn't help but smile.

At her smile, the room fell quiet for a moment. Then Tarren smacked Kaiton on the head.

"Ugly, you say! Apologize quickly!"

"Uh, it was dark so I couldn't see properly! I'm sorry! No, sorry, maid... Ah, no, Lady Maid... No, what's your status... The, the form of address is... Miss Maid?"

As he babbled, Ailea laughed even more delightedly. Peace came to the hearts of men who hadn't seen a woman for two years.

Relieved by their peace, Louison, the only married man who knew how to talk to women, said to Ailea,

"Sorry. They're all like that because the captain took all the women for two years."

"I see."

"Actually, there was no time to meet women. For two years we pushed from Jeneta Castle all the way to Excalize."

"...Excalize?"

"Hasn't the news reached here yet? We recaptured Excalize Castle a few days ago. So the captain will receive a title from His Majesty the Emperor and return to Excalize."

As far as Ailea knew, the last castle Clint had reclaimed was Philio. So he became Duke Clint Rishers Philio. That was Clint's name from two years ago that Ailea knew.

'Philio' and 'Excalize.' These two castles were like heaven and earth. Excalize Castle was at the very end of the south that Teniac originally possessed before it became weak—in other words, Teniac's former border.

Excalize Castle had massive walls and cliffs in front of it, safely protecting Teniac throughout its long history. The reason Teniac's defense had become so weak recently, experiencing countless wars, was because they had lost Excalize to the Kana Empire. Occupying that castle had the effect of increasing defense capabilities by hundreds of percent.

Therefore, since ancient times, the people of Teniac's southern Sutton region regarded the owner of Excalize Castle as no different from the emperor. That's why the castle was named Excalize.

Had history changed? Or had I failed to hear the rumors before I died?

Unable to confirm the situation before her regression, Ailea could only look confused.

Vice-captain Tarren introduced the knights to Ailea.

"From over there, that's Kaiton and Shante, Louison, and you don't need to know the rest of the rookies. And I'm Vice-captain Tarren."

"Yes, Vice-captain Tarren."

Pleased by Ailea's polite manner of speaking, Tarren grinned. Ailea pointed to the cat in her arms and said,

"His name is Blue, and I'm Ailea."

"Ailea? I've heard that name somewhere... Ah, didn't Captain Ron mention it when he occasionally bragged about his children? His eldest daughter was named Ailea."

"Oh, I remember. Captain Ron's daughter was also named Ailea."

When her father's name came up, Ailea flinched. Kaiton said,

"Wow, I miss Captain Ron. The last time I saw him was when I was twelve..."

At Kaiton's words, everyone fell silent for a moment. Kaiton continued to lighten the mood, "He's my role model."

Then Tarren played along, "Hey, he's too high-level for a guy like you to have as a role model. Someone like me would be about right."

"But I'm much younger than you, Vice-captain. I think I could catch up in a few years?"

"This kid! Are you saying let's see about that!"

"Ahhhhh! Save me! Shante! The vice-captain is trying to kill me!"

When Tarren pretended to choke him, Kaiton made a fuss. Ailea watched them and laughed heartily for the first time since becoming engaged to Roylin.

Though they wanted to chat more, the hungry and sleepy knight order couldn't endure any longer and went to find their rooms.