Editing Rakuin no Monshou:Volume4 Chapter5 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

"Vileena-sama, Vileena-sama!"

Theresia called out loudly. Although her mistress often disappeared from sight, the situation was as it was. The princess had been informed of the prince's disappearance. Official notice had not yet been given to the town, but as a large number of soldiers from Apta were performing searches, it was only a matter of time before the populace would find out. And of course, if they raised a fuss, the entire country would also learn about it.

Not to mention that if the prince were to safely be found at some point, naturally his situation would once again take a turn for the worse. Thinking that it was by no means impossible that in order to avoid that, the princess might follow after the prince and go out of Apta, even Theresia went pale.

However,

"Vileena-sama."

She almost sank down unintentionally. It was somewhat anticlimactic.

Vileena was wandering aimlessly around the military training range within the fortress. As to what she was doing, she was gazing up at every tree, peering in the shade of the stacked up piles of armour, walking to the stable to compare the horses one by one, and appeared for all the world as though she were looking for something that she had lost.

"You surely can't be thinking that the prince will be in this kind of place. This isn't a game of hide-and-seek."

Against her better judgement, her tone was somewhat biting.

"I don't know," Vileena answered without so much as turning towards Theresia. "With that prince, it isn't impossible that he could have dug a hidey-hole. As an experiment, we could try digging where you're standing, Theresia. You never know, he might appear saying 'Boo!'"

''Aha!'' Theresia homed in on Vileena's detached tone of voice. She was angry. And it was no ordinary anger either. Occasionally when her anger got to her head, her mistress would do things that she herself didn't understand.

Back then, had it been when she was seven or eight years old? Her older sister, Princess Lula had wanted a puppy that had been sold at a street stall during a festival, and so she had begun to keep it in a corner of the inner palace. Vileena also expressed an interest. However, the dog was scared of her and wouldn't go near her, whose training methods were so strict despite her youth that she was almost like a tyrant.

"I've never heard of a dog that won't let humans hold it. It must be a cat. When people aren't looking, I'm sure it goes 'meow'".

Thus angered, Vileena had taken to watching the dog in the dead of night from near where it slept. Although very young, Vileena of course didn't really believe such a thing. As it was something she had said herself, she couldn't stand down - was an explanation that was also incorrect. Being excessively strong-willed, she would persevere even if brought her no personal satisfaction.

"Won't you come out, Prince? After all, I'm in plain sight."

She called out, looking as she had when dealing with a dog that might have been a cat. At the same time, having thought about wandering around the training grounds, she walked instead towards the garden. Just as Theresia had surmised, Vileena Owell was angry.

''That, that sly, scheming, pretentious, jokster of a princeling!''

Getting more and more wound up in her irritation, she unthinkingly stamped her foot.

When she was told that the prince appeared to have left Apta taking Bane with him, Vileena's first thought was '''Again?''' Yesterday, as they had passed each other, prince Gil had said "Please wait a little more." And so she believed that this time too he had some kind of purpose in mind. There surely couldn't be any need to mobilise the soldiers at Apta in a search, since after all the outcome could only be such as to leave everyone amazed.

And yet, in spite of that - or rather because of that, Vileena felt resentful.

''Again, again you didn't confide in me.''

This was the prince who had revealed all his plans at the time of the war with Taúlia. Vileena had thought that she had come a step closer to his innermost thoughts, so she found it hard to forgive that this time he had once again acted secretively and kept his mouth firmly shut.

''At the time of the war with Taúlia, I thought I could place at least a little faith in him. No matter how strange his behaviour might seem on the outside, I was going to stop scolding him, getting angry at him and saying childish things''.

Having faith in him was surely important. However Vileena was finding that not being able to do anything but wait was making her thoroughly irritated.

''This isn't like me. If the prince decides to seclude himself indoors again, I might need to attack more forcefully''.

Vileena was growing enthusiastic about the idea that there were different ways of believing in people. Since waiting silently went against her nature, she should support, if necessary forcibly, the prince who moved at his own accord.

At that moment, the horses in the stable suddenly grew restless. Instead of drawing near the fence, they were hurriedly shying away from it.

"P-Princess!" Theresia let out a small scream.

As Vileena watched a medium-sized Baian dragon came lumbering near. It wore neither chains nor reins. As the not-unnaturally astonished Vileena was unconsciously about to jump out of the way, from the other side of it, Hou Ran's figure, sitting astride a small-sized Tengo, came into view.

She wondered whether she was chasing after an escaped dragon, but Ran didn't appear to be in a hurry. She seemed instead to be slowing down the Tengo in order to let the Baian take the lead. Forgetting her fear, Vileena drew her eyebrows together slightly; the training and exercise ground for the dragons was in the opposite direction.

"Ran!"

"The princess?"

Ran brought the Tengo to a standstill. The Baian turned its head in her direction and, understanding that she wasn't moving on, also stopped. Theresia appeared to have lost her ability to speak and could only wave her hands at the princess as though to tell her to run away.

"Where are you bound?"

To Vileena's question, Ran answered as though it were perfectly obvious,

"To where... the prince is."

Vileena couldn't understand why Ran had faltered before saying 'prince'. Or rather, she didn't realise that she had.

"Did he inform you before leaving?"

"No", the girl from the borderlands had eyes reminiscent of a deep lake and in those eyes, Vileena's figure was reflected. "It's simply that that child knows. Once its heart has connected with a human, it can feel them no matter how far apart they are.  It's what humans call being guided by ether."

'That child' no doubt referred to the Baian that was standing quietly a little in front of her.

"I've never heard anyone say something like that before."

"Is that so?"

Ran didn't seem inclined to argue. Nonetheless, Vileena judged her to be extremely knowledgeable when it came to dragons.

''Come to think of it...''

The ancient Magic King Zodias was said to have discovered the existence of ether as well as the means for manipulating it from the ruins of the Dragon Gods. Zodias had later expressed his belief that the Dragon Gods had once freely manipulated ether and that they had built a great civilisation on this planet.

In Garbera, those kinds of legends were given little credence. They even doubted that Zodias had actually existed. But since having been sent to Mephius, Vileena had remembered the theory that modern-day dragons were the degenerated form of the ancient Dragon Gods.

"So then, if you follow that child, you will find out where the prince is?"

"If it's nearby."

"But... why do you need to go to the prince now? Weren't you the one who said to leave that person be?"

"I don't remember saying any such thing. Personally, I can't bear for that child to feel lonely. So I'm going."

"That child..."

Vileena carefully scrutinised the Baian's face. Its forked tongue was flicking in and out of its mouth. Occasionally when it opened its mouth, tusks as sharp as blades would peek out.

Within her chest, Vileena's feelings were stirring noisily. She herself didn't understand what was going on. And while she didn't understand, it was with a feeling of desperate hurry that she spoke,

"Is it ''only'' that child?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I'm asking is if it is only that child who is feeling lonely and who is worried about the prince."

"I don't need to tell Vileena."

"Vileena." While repeating her own name, Garbera's third princess let out a chuckle. From 'she' to 'Vileena'. It probably marked an elevation in status.

"I see. You are as difficult as a dragon. Well, I probably am too. I was only looking for a pretext to convince myself."

"....?"

Atop of her saddle, a slightly troubled Hou Ran frowned. Without realising that that kind of behaviour was unusual for her, Vileena said,

"Very well. In that case, I will go too."

"P-Princess!" Theresia exclaimed, horrified.

"I need to get ready. I will be done at once, so could you please wait."

"The limit is how long that child can wait. I won't wait beyond that."

"You make things clear. Understood, I will hurry."

"Princess, you cannot!"

While once again playing tag with Theresia, Vileena felt her body grow light.


Elsewhere.

Although the prince's whereabouts were unknown, Oubary Bilan didn't much feel like joining the search.

"That prince delights in entertaining us with his bizarre behaviour."

Having said that, and after sending soldiers to search in all directions by way of an excuse, the man himself went back to drinking and to going out hunting in the forest.

He was not in the least bit concerned about where the prince may have gone, but since Oubary was at Apta, the imperial family might hold him responsible for the disappearance, and thus he couldn't simply leave things be.

''How troublesome'', such were his real thoughts.

However he remembered somewhat uneasily that his own subordinate, Bane, was rumoured to have gone with the prince. When he had asked around, he was told that he had been on surprisingly close terms with the prince at Apta.

''That bastard. Just because the prince is highly praised doesn't mean he should change his allegiance''.

Remembering the captain's puffed-up face, Oubary, who had gone out hunting, tossed back a large mouthful of wine from his flask. Hunting gun in hand, he took aim at a wild boar that had was cornered nearby. He felt like that splendid kill completely refreshed his spirits.

He couldn't stand Bane's personality and if the prince particularly wanted that man as his subordinate, it would be no great loss for the Black Armoured Division. Or rather, if that man would do for the prince, Oubary would give him over immediately.

''He's a poor judge of character'', Oubary sneered as he walked towards his next prey.

That evening, just as he arrived back at the fortress, a soldier knelt before him. Upon enquiring, he learned that Bane had returned.

"Why hasn't he come here in person?"

Oubary's angry words were accompanied by the stench of liquor on his breath.

"Yes. That is, the captain can't move but there is something he wishes to tell the general no matter what and..."

He explained that Bane was waiting for the general at a shop in the fortress' town. Moreover, he did not want his return to be publicly known and the soldier appeared to have more to convey.

"What's going on?"

Oubary glared at the soldier with eyes clouded from drinking, but when Bane's message was whispered in his ear, his opened wider and wider as he stared at the man. "What! Is this true?"

"Yes, it's what captain Bane said..."

All at once, the liquor-induced colour faded from Oubary's face and, taking a number of attendants with him, he descended to the town.

Bane was waiting for him at a cheap ale-house that stood away from the town's hustle and bustle. Not touching a drop of drink, he sat in a corner seat, quivering. When he saw Oubary's figure, he shot upright, forcefully kicking his chair back in the process.

"Gen-General!"

"Is what you said true?"

Oubary cut in without any form of notice. Bane nodded earnestly.

According to what Oubary had heard, Bane and the prince had been captured by bandits while out on a long ride. Bane was separated from the prince and imprisoned in an underground. dungeon but, through a gap in the thieves' vigilance, the prince had hurried to him and untied his ropes.

"There's no guard on watch right now. If we're going to escape, now is the time to do it." The prince had said to Bane. It seemed however that they wouldn't be able to escape together. "I'll deliberately make it look like I'm escaping in a different direction. I'll be more likely to attract their attention. I'll buy time as a decoy, whatever happens go and inform the general. Right, be sure to let general Oubary know by the end of the day."

Sent off by the prince, Bane had jumped onto a horse tied to a tree and had galloped back to Apta.

Oubary pondered. Most of the prince's imperial troops having been sent to Garbera as reinforcements, Apta's current military strength was no more than the five hundred from the Black Armoured Division. No doubt that was why the prince had said to inform him specifically.

"Should we inform the Imperial Guards?" Asked one of his attendants.

"No", Oubary answered however, running his tongue over his lips. "The prince's life is at stake. Not only is there not a moment to lose, but if soldiers charged out of Apta in large numbers, those bastards would probably realise it and escape. I'll go with a hundred and fifty from the Black Armoured Division. Sarne."

"Yes."

Oubary entrusted the task of choosing the hundred and fifty soldiers to his adjutant, Sarne. After that, while making sure that the soldiers were hurrying about, the general of the Black Armoured Division's face seemed to be wreathed in smiles.

''That the princeling was stupid enough to go out for fun and to get caught by bandits means that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to pull off a great feat. Even such foolishness can sometimes have its uses''.

To save the life of royalty, and moreover of the heir to the throne, would be an achievement that would more than wipe out his disgrace in Solon. It was an added bonus that the one whose gratitude he would earn for having himself saved him from assassination was the prince who had appointed slaves as his Imperial Guards. He would surely return the favour done him by Oubary Bilan, no matter how extravagant the reward,

"I'm getting tired of hunting beasts. Slaves would be next after beasts, and treating myself to some bandits might not be bad either."

Best of all was the feeling of his blood boiling. For Oubary, life was meaningless without fighting.