SALP Chapter 13

"Of course it's fine! Right, Commander Rix?"

When even Nina asked brightly, Rix rolled his eyes while brushing under his nose with his finger.

"There's no point asking me..."

He fumbled with a docile attitude that didn't suit his appearance, then ran his hand over the cowlick at the back of his head.

"Do as you please, young ladies."

An unexpectedly easygoing answer.

She hadn't expected that.

"See? Trust me, Lanthe sis. The lord put me in charge of guiding you, not Commander Rix."

Tap-tap—Nina was already down the stairs ahead of her.

In any case, he didn't seem inclined to object or stop them, which was fortunate.

Lanthe followed after her—rabbit-quick—and smiled.

The dining hall was extremely crowded. There seemed to be many people eating at this hour. The dining hall was a strange place that stayed open all day and served food whenever you went, so she'd never encountered so many people before.

She went to a corner seat and ate quietly. No one approached or bothered her. Rix also went to where the other knights were and waited quietly. She thought it was rather admirable, actually—eating quite normally among all these knights.

Then she laughed at herself for thinking so.

"Let's go, let's go! To Aden Square!"

"What does the philosophy gathering do?"

"We share tasty food and chat!"

"Sounds like a wonderful gathering."

"Hehe! I'm going to the square with Lanthe sis!"

Following Nina, who was excited with anticipation, Lanthe also laughed and said, "Let's go!"

She was finally going outside the castle. Though accompanied by a guard-slash-escort. She'd taken brief walks in the garden outside the building, but this would be her first time beyond the castle walls.

She fastened her thick coat like armor, carrying both anxiety and curiosity.

"Hello, I'm Lan—"

"So you're Miss Lanthe!"

Princess Ana was a woman with bright orange hair.

"I've been wanting to meet you!"

Her green eyes, a fresh shade reminiscent of summer forests, were captivating. She was petite and gave off an overall bright impression, unlike Lanthe's preconception of what a Penmarkian should look like.

"I was so curious! I heard Lord Vigo fished out a pretty mermaid princess from the Northern Sea!"

But her voice was surprisingly high.

"What...?"

Fished out?

"Did you get caught in Lord Vigo's sloppy net? Or was it a harpoon... no, that's horrible, cancel that!"

Lanthe received her embrace in a daze. Though she'd never been weak in strength, she swayed at Ana's vigorous hug.

"Sniff, sniff. You smell nice too. I like you very much."

Princess Ana buried her nose in Lanthe's shoulder and murmured, then suddenly lifted her head.

"But you're such a pretty young lady! Look at that silver hair sparkling like winter moonlight! I thought only our Lord Vigo had exclusive rights to amethyst eyes like that, but I guess not? What happened to your fins? Have you decided to live on land from now on? Do you like the human world?"

Fins? Land? The human world...?

"If Lord Vigo ever treats you poorly, tell me."

She rattled off incomprehensible things, then smiled brightly.

"As someone engaged to him, I'll give him a stern talking-to."

'Engaged...?'

Between the rapid speech and unique accent, Lanthe's already confused mind went completely blank.

"Ah, yes..."

'Vigo's fiancée...?'

"See? I told you you'd like her."

Nina, oblivious to Lanthe's state, poked her side lightly with a finger and laughed.

"Princess Ana is the daughter of King Kian. People from Logen have strong accents and talk fast, so it's a bit hard to understand at first, but you'll get used to it quickly."

'I see. He has a fiancée. Well, he's twenty years old. Wouldn't be strange if he were already married...'

Even though he had a fiancée, Nina had been pairing her and him this whole time—first love this, you never know what the future holds, that sort of thing.

Vigo was an even more serious problem. A man with a woman he was supposed to marry had casually said "we slept together a lot when we were young" and slept in the same room with another woman without a care.

"Do you like wine? Try a warm cup."

"I'd love to hear what poetry or songs Miss Lanthe likes."

"The Northern Sea can't be your hometown. Shall we hear about Miss Lanthe's hometown today?"

"Ah, I..."

People began approaching Lanthe one by one. The philosophy gathering at Aden Square seemed to be a group that built bonfires and shared food in a building that looked similar to Newbella's temples.

Even while exchanging greetings with various people, Lanthe's attention was fixed on one person.

Princess Ana. The young lady engaged to Vigo.

And... the daughter of King Kian, who ruled Logen.

No wonder the name sounded familiar. Even if Lanthe didn't know Princess Ana, she'd heard the name of the Logen territory and King Kian.

He was a member of the Allied Kingdoms. The Penmark Allied Kingdoms. King Kian was one of the twelve kings, including Derek.

"How is it? Wine imported from Logen. Sweet, isn't it?"

Someone allied with Derek.

"...Yes, the aroma is lovely."

Princess Ana was the daughter of such a person. She seemed cheerful and kind on the surface. What kind of person was her father? Did she know her father had joined hands with an evil man? What did she think about it?

Lanthe smiled awkwardly, feeling somehow cold inside.

The sweet wine's aroma resembled what she'd drunk in Newbella.

"Wow, did you hear that thunder?"

"Looks like it's going to pour."

The gray sky drew people's gazes.

"It's not time for snow yet, is it?"

"In a few weeks it'll be frozen solid."

"I hate that it's rain instead of snow when it's this cold."

"That's right, you all know King Kusante was struck by lightning and died on the battlefield just before complete conquest, around this season, don't you?"

Suddenly tapping the table to gather everyone's attention was Princess Ana, who'd been playing with cookies with Nina until then.

"If he'd lived and won, could we have gathered at Aden Square today to drink and eat meat and chat? Ever since I learned King Kusante's story, I've come to enjoy thunder and lightning."

"Hmm. The Penmark unification, you mean."

"Would an emperor appear in this era? Anyone claiming to be an absolute monarch would be assassinated before they could even build a palace."

The topic naturally shifted from weather to Penmark politics.

"Nonsense! Emperor Yebel, who once ruled all of Oden, was lord of all kings but not a tyrant. A good and capable absolute monarch benefits the world more than multiple kings putting their heads together."

"What about the head of the Allied Kingdoms? He doesn't seem inclined to become emperor."

"Isn't King Pavel too moderate? His family is so large he rose to the head position, but his temperament is too gentle and he lacks charisma."

"I think the Allied Kingdoms itself won't last long."

People treated Princess Ana with deference yet had no hesitation in stating their own opinions.

"What do you think, Princess?"

"I don't really care who becomes emperor or king."

She herself was the same.

"If I'm not going to be emperor, it's all the same. Either way, my future of marrying a promising man and helping my father won't change. If I were emperor, I'd eliminate all the other annoying laws and legally guarantee every woman the right to marry a handsome man."

She spoke casually and tossed a cookie into her mouth. She seemed more devoted to sampling the drinks and sweets laid out on the round table than seriously dominating the conversation.

"Then loyalty to Emperor Ana!"

When someone shouted, the women echoed one by one.

"Loyalty to Emperor Ana!"

"Loyalty!"

"What loyalty, everyone? The number of handsome men is limited. Are you going to vote for a candidate making impossible promises?"

"Because it's such a critical issue. If I had to choose between being emperor or wife to a handsome man, I'd choose wife to a handsome man."

"What about an emperor married to a handsome lord?"

"If that handsome man is the Lord of Hermea, you can't have both. Power struggles would make the marital relationship brutal. Our lord isn't the type to sit quietly under anyone either, is he?"

Lanthe found it strange that she could be part of this gathering. Sharing food amicably with Penmarkians, the people she'd called demons of the outside world and regarded as monsters, while listening to their current affairs.

And that there were people who talked as if they knew Vigo well, when she herself didn't.

"Come, Miss Lanthe, sit closer to the fire. Your lips have gone blue."

They were kind and courteous people. No one pressed her with questions or made difficult demands when she couldn't let go of her wariness.

"...Thank you. It's a bit colder here than where I lived."

The overcast sky soon began pouring rain.

The people absorbed in conversation held their ground, responding with shouts and laughter that pierced the drumming rain. Stories of living in the world. Stories of the world where various people lived in various ways—stories she'd heard neither in Roas nor Newbella—were so interesting that Lanthe also listened while holding the drowsy Nina.

The sweet, faintly fishy smell of water, the smell of turned earth, the savory smoke of burning wood—all of it spreading in every direction.

Even swallowing the wine's sharp perfume.

She stood in the rain—rain falling on land near Lake Eründel.

The smell of nature she'd forgotten in Newbella, where she'd always stayed indoors on rainy days, felt comforting.

It was strange. Even though she was in the middle of unfamiliar land.