A Weapon Unique To Luminous

“Prince Saryu, can I speak in the Karaban common tongue?”

After taking a sip of her cocktail, Mail tilted her head slightly and looked up at me.

“I do not mind, but…”

After answering, I realized, ah, I see, she had already reached her limit with conversing with my eldest brother and his wife. Even if she had learned the Tidros language, she probably was not fluent in it yet.

“Lady Shitoen does not drink alcohol? There was a pretty cocktail earlier, so I asked her to drink it with me.”

After tilting her cocktail glass, Mail looked between me and Crown Prince Arios with a curious expression. Crown Prince Arios tilted his head suspiciously.

“No… I do not think she is incapable of drinking.”

“She messed up a little recently… It seems she has been abstaining since then.”

When I gave a vague explanation, Crown Prince Arios showed a truly surprised expression. However, he soon broke into a smile.

“That Shitoen did? It would seem she trusts Prince Saryu a great deal.”

“Trusts… me, does she?”

Considering the circumstances at the time, I really could not say. I took a sip of whiskey to hide my expression.

“You live together in that mansion, right? With Lady Shitoen.”

“Of course. We are husband and wife.”

I coughed despite myself. Why did Mail think we were living separately?

“Hey, hey. Then did you see Lady Shitoen’s dragon crest?”

“Mail.”

Crown Prince Arios finally rebuked Mail as she brought her face closer and lowered her voice. Mail puffed out her cheeks with a pout and drank her cocktail again.

“But I wondered if you were not curious. There are a lot of them like scales, right? You know, like a lizard…”

“Mail, be quiet.”

“Ah! …Could it be that Crown Prince Arios has seen it too? …Because you and Lady Shitoen were once engaged…”

She herself looked dejected, but…

This girl kept stepping on landmines.

She spoke of the dragon crest as though it were creepy, then asked in front of me, Shitoen’s current husband, “Have you ever seen the naked body of Shitoen, your former fiancée?”…

“Mail. The only woman’s body I have ever seen, before or since, is yours.”

Well… I suppose he was saying it to me too, but because Crown Prince Arios declared it so firmly, Mail instantly became elated, laughed with an “Ehehe,” and snuggled up to Crown Prince Arios.

…Do that after you return to your lodging, please. Seriously, spare me.

Even while thinking that,

I suddenly voiced something I had noticed.

“…Hey, about that dragon crest. How do you know its shape?”

“Huh?”

Because Mail looked blankly at me, I shifted my weight onto one leg and looked down at her.

“You said earlier that Shitoen’s body had scale-like tattoos applied to it, making her look just like a lizard.”

“Th… that was…”

She immediately lost color in her face and faltered.

“I will say this first, but the dragon crest applied to Shitoen is not the sort of thing you described. And yet you spoke as though you had seen it with your own eyes, did you not?”

When I bent at the waist, brought my face closer, and asked, Mail quickly hid behind Crown Prince Arios’s shadow. Damn it, this girl…

“I am not blaming you, and I am not angry. I was simply curious. Even the shape of the dragon crest is kept secret. And yet you seemed strangely certain when you spoke of it.”

At first, I thought Mail was lying.

I thought she had surely made up something she imagined from the image of a dragon crest and fed that to Crown Prince Arios.

But.

I wondered whether this girl had that kind of imagination.

I had also considered whether she had actually seen the dragon crest, but Shitoen herself had been so careful, and her maid Eaton had kept a sharp eye even on the servants. Even when Mail had been in Luminous, she probably had not had any opportunity to see it.

If so,

Could it have been something she had heard from someone else?

“Mail. Prince Saryu is only asking you. If you know something, answer honestly.”

Crown Prince Arios spoke to her gently.

With that, Mail finally timidly came out from behind him.

“Um… I heard it from someone who said they had ‘seen it before.’”

She blinked repeatedly and spoke while looking up at me, so I asked in as gentle a voice as possible.

“Who was that?”

“The owner of a shop I often visited when I was still living in town. They handled foreign accessories and outfits too, and since they sold cloth by the cut, it was very convenient…”

“The owner? They handled outfits and accessories?”

I could not help frowning suspiciously. Why would someone like that?

“They said they knew a lot because they often went abroad for work. They were also a very entertaining person to talk to, and when I said I was going to a palace party for the first time, they selected clothes and accessories for me at a reasonable price. See, Crown Prince Arios, do you remember? When we first met, the pattern on my ribbon and the pattern on your tie were the same.”

“Yes, of course. That was why I spoke to you.”

“That was the shop where I bought that ribbon. My family is just an insignificant baron’s house, and I did not know much about the palace, but that shop owner taught me all sorts of things.”

Mail spoke cheerfully, but…

Not only I, but even Crown Prince Arios naturally furrowed his brow.

A mere shop owner from the city… Could such a thing happen?

Mail called her family an insignificant baron’s house, but no matter how wealthy a merchant might be, would a merchant really know more about noble etiquette than a noble?

Suddenly, my eyes met Crown Prince Arios’s.

There was a questioning look in his eyes, but I could not know anything from just this either.

“…There was something I wanted to ask you as well, Crown Prince Arios.”

“What is it? Is it something I can answer?”

He turned a serious face toward me.

…When I looked at him straight on, this guy really was handsome. Raul often grumbled, “Why does Princess Shitoen prefer the commander?” but I thought the same thing. It was a wonder I had managed to beat him…

“Was your marriage arrangement with Shitoen pushed forward because of the dragon crest? Or was it a marriage between royal families meant to strengthen ties with the Kingdom of Tania?”

“I heard it was originally promoted by the chancellor. He said there was a girl of marriageable age who possessed a dragon crest, so how about her for the Crown Prince, that is, me. He also said she was a girl held in high favor by the King of Tania, so she would be good for building friendly relations.”

“The chancellor?”

That old man, huh? I hurriedly swallowed those words.

“He is also knowledgeable about dragon crests. Apparently, he has a friend in Tania.”

“I see.”

Somehow, that chancellor seemed even more suspicious now.

At that moment, one of the knights standing by the wall noticed something and approached me.

“What is it?”

“Sir Raul is…”

When I turned my face, Raul was poking only his head in from the entrance and beckoning me.

I excused myself from Crown Prince Arios and Mail, then approached quickly.

“What is it?”

When I stepped out into the corridor, not only Raul, but Roze and Mone, dressed in men’s clothes, were there as well.

“There was someone who looked like an intruder in the garden, so I called my sister and another knight too, and we chased after them.”

Roze said excitedly, and Raul took over.

“We joined up right away and caught them once, but they got away…”

“But they dropped something like this.”

Mone offered it to me, wrapped in what seemed to be her own large handkerchief.

“What is it?”

When I pinched it with my fingers and spread the handkerchief open…

“A mace, huh…”

It was about the length from a person’s wrist to their elbow, a striking weapon weighted at the tip and fitted with protrusions.

Above all, the biggest problem was…

“This is something unique to Luminous, is it not?”

Raul murmured.

That was right…

This was the sort of thing Luminous infantry often used to crush enemy armor.