“Slaughter? Don’t call it so ill. Weren’t the commoners in distant provinces planning to overthrow the nation? That was a rightful duty of repression. Anyway, it’s mostly a legend.”
Agnes left.
Richmon watched the closed door for a while… Would he be given the pen and the parchment again, he might change his decision, as he felt that a vicious force had been unleashed just now.
Agnes, who left the residence, took the horse from the page. She took out of her saddle bag a black robe and put it over the chain hemp garment, placing the hood over her head. Then she took out two pistols and carefully reloaded them, watching that the gunpowder would not get wet from the rain. Then she checked the fire grate, percussion hammer and shut the gun barrel. It was a new, flint type gun.
Then she placed her sword in a sheath and straddled the horse, finishing up the battle preparations. But then… someone ran out through the rain. The girl could be seen coming from the Chicton Street, who, after noticing Agnes straddling the horse, ran up to the female knight. Because she was running through the rain she looked poorly. Her white camisole was dirty due to mud and barefooted as she had taken off her shoes since they were too uncomfortable to run with.
“Wait! Wait! Please wait!”
Wondering, Agnes turned around.
“Lend me your horse! Hurry!”
“I refuse.”
Saying that Agnes tried to turn her horse away but the girl blocked the way.
“Move aside.”
She said but the girl did not listen. She took out some parchment and pointed it in front of Agnes.
“I am Her Majesty's court lady! I have the authority to use police powers! Your horse is requisitioned in Her Majesty's name! Dismount it at once!”
“Her Majesty's court lady?”
Agnes looked doubtful. The girl looked like a woman from a bar. However, though she was all dirty from running in the rain, her noble features could still be recognized. Agnes hesitated for the moment.
Louise, finally losing her temper because Agnes didn’t dismount her horse, pulled out her wand. Mimicking Louise’s movements, Agnes pulled out her pistol at once.
Two people went still aiming wand and gun at each other.
Louise said in a trembling low voice.
“…Though I am still not well accustomed to my magic. Nontheless, it is still more powerful. Give up.”
Agnes replied, with her finger on pistol’s percussion hammer.
“…from such distance, a pistol will be more accurate.”
Silence settled over.
“Introduce yourself. You have a wand, thus you must be a noble.”
Agnes said.
“Court lady, directly accountable to Her Majesty, de La Vallière.”
La Vallière? That was a familiar name. In the conversations with Henrietta, she heard that name on countless occasions.
“Then, you…”
Agnes withdrew the gun. This trembling girl with her wand set up… is rumored to be Her Majesty’s best friend. This young girl with disheveled pink hair…
“You know me?”
Louise, with a blank expression on her face, put down her wand as well.
“I often heard about you. I am very honored to meet you at last. You can share a horse with me. Let me explain the circumstances for you. If you were shot, it would cause Her Majesty to hold a grudge.”
Agnes stretched forth her hands to Louise. Agnes easily pulled up Louise with a strength that was hard to imagine for such a delicate woman to posses.
“Who are you?”
Louise straddled behind Agnes.
“Her Majesty's musketeer. Commander Agnes.”
This made Louise, who heard about the ‘Musketeers’ from the soldier before, enrage.
“What on earth were you doing?! Were you sleeping while forgetting your guard?! Her Majesty was shamelessly kidnapped!”
“As I said, let me explain the situation. Anyway, Her Majesty is safe.”
“Whaat?!”
Agnes spurred on the horse and it started to run. With the rain falling hard the two people disappeared within the darkness of the night.
On the bed of the cheap lodging house, Henrietta was sitting with her eyes tightly shut and Saito’s arms around her, trembling. Saito couldn’t find words… so he just sat and held Henrietta’s shoulders.
When the rain finally changed into drizzle, Henrietta calmed down a little and forced a smile.
“I am sorry.”
“No…”
“I brought you to this useless place. Yet, I was helped by you again in the end.”
“Again?”
“It is so. On that night, I… I could not think straight, I was manipulated and tried to leave with Wales… You stopped me…”
“Yeah.”
“You said at that time. 'If you go I will cut you. I cannot permit you to lie to yourself even if you are madly in love', you said.”
“I s-said so.”
Embarrassed, Saito turned down his face.
“Still, the foolish me did not awake. I tried to kill you. However, you stopped the foolish tornado that I myself unleashed.”
Henrietta closed her eyes.
“By the way, at that time… I felt relieved.”
“Relieved?”
“That’s right. Even I noticed that it wasn’t the same Wales whom I loved. The truth was different. I... in the bottom of my heart, wanted for someone to say those words and stop the foolish me.”
Taking a deep, as if painful, breath, Henrietta continued to talk. In a withdrawn voice.
“Therefore, I ask you, Familiar-san. If I were to do something foolish again… if I were instigated again… Would you stop me with your sword?”
“Why?”
“At that time, I was ready to kill, not holding back. Even though I was asked by Louise, that gentle child, I could not stop. Therefore…”
Saito said in a surprised voice.
“I can’t do it! Really… you can’t be weak. You are the queen. Everyone obeys your will. Don’t talk like this, Princess. You would not be alive after all this if you were not brave. Was that all a lie?”
Henrietta looked down.
Then…
Don, don, don!
Someone battered against the door.
“Open up! Open the door! It is royal police! We are searching for run away criminals hiding in this inn! Open up now!”
Saito and Henrietta looked at each other.
“They do not seem to be searching for me.”
“…Let them go away. Stay silent.”
Henrietta nodded in agreement…
Meanwhile, the knob began to turn. However… it was not possible to open because of the lock. Clank-clank! The knob shook violently.
“Open up now! It’s an emergency! Or I will break it!”
Bam! One could hear the sounds of sword against the door knob, trying to open it.
“Not good.”
Henrietta, with determined face, unfastened the buttons of her shirt.
“Princess?”
His surprised voice was cut short as Henrietta captured Saito’s lips with her own. The kiss was sudden and intense. Locking her arms around Saito’s neck, Henrietta pushed him down to the bed. Seemingly undisturbed, Henrietta had her eyes closed and with a deep sigh, pushed her tongue into Saito’s mouth. It could take one’s consciousness away, so intense was the kiss.
Simultaneously with Henrietta pushing Saito down to the bed, the soldier, who was trying to break the door knob, kicked the door open.
What the pair of solders saw… was a young woman, lying on top of a man, intensely kissing his lips. The woman did not pay any attention to the soldiers and kept on going crazy. Sighs of affection were escaping from the opening of the pair of lips. The soldiers watched the spectacle for a while… then one murmured to the other.
“…T-they seem to be just sheltering from the rain, and enjoying it a lot.”