The Culprit’s Objective

One hour later.

While I was having Raul wrap bandages around me, Eaton came to inform me that Shitoen was still asleep.

It seemed that perhaps because she had coughed too much, she occasionally showed signs that her throat hurt, but other than that, she was apparently very stable.

Maybe because this was my own room, and because I was still bare from the waist up, Eaton hurried away as soon as she finished giving her report.

“It seems they slipped in through a gap in the security…”

Having finished treating me, Raul pulled out the report tucked into his belt and read it aloud.

According to the reports from the members, the intruders had apparently taken advantage of both the assumption that “no one would come in from a place like that” and a weakly guarded area.

“It’s a good thing Shitoen is safe, but…”

I muttered bitterly.

“She could easily have drowned.”

“Trying to make it look like drowning… that’s strange, isn’t it?”

Raul rolled up the report and tapped it against the base of his neck.

“Hm?”

I had moved from the chair and flopped down onto the bed, but noticing that Raul looked like he wanted to say something, I shifted only my eyes toward him.

“Well, the attacker was using clawed gauntlets, right? In that case, they could have just slashed her to death instead of trying to drown her. No matter how you look at it, they must have wanted it to look like a drowning accident, right?”

“What for?”

“Who knows. Still, compared to saying she was ‘murdered,’ I imagine people would find ‘accidentally drowned’ a lot more peaceful.”

“What do you mean, peaceful? Shitoen would be dead.”

Not that I would ever let that happen.

“Because if she were murdered, they’d have to search for the culprit, wouldn’t they? If Princess Shitoen were killed under these circumstances… then wouldn’t the Kingdom of Luminous be the happiest about it?”

“But the Kingdom of Luminous would be in trouble if Shitoen died too. They need Shitoen to forgive them, after all. Besides, why would the Kingdom of Luminous be trying to kill Shitoen now, of all times?”

“There could be all sorts of reasons, couldn’t there? Like, maybe there are people working behind the scenes thinking, ‘It’d be nice if Princess Shitoen just died naturally.’”

“Huh?”

I frowned and groaned, but…

Well, it did sound plausible… I could not deny it.

“What were the attackers like?”

Raul asked.

Lying flat on my back on the bed, I spoke whatever came to mind.

“There were two attackers. The one who tried to drown Shitoen was dressed all in black. The face was covered too, so I couldn’t see it. About as tall as you are, Raul. The other one I didn’t get a good look at at all—probably hiding in the shadows of the stone lanterns or something. Threw knives. The one in black used clawed gauntlets when attacking. Also had some sort of protective thing wrapped around the stomach. And…”

“And?”

Raul, who had been listening silently, tilted his head curiously.

“For some reason… that one was slender.”

“Slender?”

“Yeah. Since the bastard in black was in the hot spring, well, that affected things, but… the clothes were plastered on completely from being soaked. The clothes. So you could make out the body line. But it was slender.”

“…You mean it was a woman?”

“I don’t know. Could have been a boy too.”

Though I had no idea why they would use someone that young.