Editing Rakuin no Monshou:Volume9 Chapter2 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

“W-What,” Orba faltered as he tried to answer. Finally, after repeatedly gulping back his own saliva, “What do you mean by that?”

He just barely managed to grind it out but in that instant, he had been so surprised that he thought that his heart was going to stop. The “mask” he had intended to maintain was crumbling and his real face was flickering into view.

Vileena gave Orba a searching glance, “it means what I said. You cannot be the Crown Prince of the Imperial Dynasty of Mephius.”

The heart, which he had thought about to stop, was once again pounding fast and furiously. The face and limbs his blood was flowing through were becoming hot.

“T-That... why?”

“Oh, but it’s very simple,” for some reason, Vileena’s tone and manner towards the disconcerted Orba closely resembled those of Ineli Mephius, “Lord Gil Mephius recently fell to the bullets fired by General Oubary murderous subordinates. Since then, he has not been seen. No matter where he was searched for or how many times his name was called, he did not appear. In other words, Lord Gil has passed away. Should I be in mourning? But then, given that we had not formally been married, it was, after all, someone else’s problem, so should I have speedily returned to Garbera?”

“Princess”

“Do not speak to me so familiarly!” Vileena’s manner made another turnaround.

While he was wondering if she had suddenly become enraged, she dipped her hand under the table. When she raised it back up again, she was clasping a handgun. It was as though that series of actions had whipped up an ominous wind.

The muzzle was perfectly still and was aimed directly at Orba’s chest.

“P-Princess…”

“I told you not to speak to me familiarly.”

Vileena’s eyes were smouldering palely. Recognising that those eyes were glittering with an urge to kill that was completely unbecoming of her flower-like countenance, Orba gulped again.

''This isn’t in the category of getting hit.''

Vileena adjusted her stance to hold the gun in both hands. In a way, the contrast between the dazzlingly snow-white arms extending straight out from the sleeveless dress and the brutal black sheen of the handgun held at their extremity was more horrifying than an encounter with a vulgar assassin would be.

While maintaining her stance, Vileena drew one step closer towards Orba. And then asked –

“Who are you?”

In that split-second, even though the trigger had not been pulled, Orba was certain he felt the touch of steel gouging through his chest.

“I’m…”

His voice shook as it slipped past his lips. Vileena’s expression did not alter. She looked at him as she would a bitterly detested enemy.

“I’m what?”

“I’m…”

''Gil Mephius in person.'' Those simple words would not come out. It had been the same thing not so very long ago. Then too the other person had been a princess.

“Oh my, was it by mistake that you called yourself Gil Mephius just a while ago? Indeed, if by chance you are Crown Prince Gil, you must be a ghost which slipped away from the afterlife by mistake.”

“I’m…” Orba just managed to grind the words out in a somewhat pained voice. “No, I am certainly the Gil Mephius that you know. There was no other.”

"Then you must have some way of proving that. Please do tell me, you who were fired upon here in Apta, what you have been doing until now and what led you to return?"

The muzzle was still being held up. Her fingers were constantly on the trigger.

Orba turned his eyes away from the muzzle, which was the equivalent of turning them away from Vileena herself.

"...You know that I ambushed Oubary's Black Armoured Division in a forest near Apta, right?"

Vileena neither confirmed nor denied it. But she and Ran had undoubtedly been present there.

Orba talked about his reasons for disappearing up until now as the thoughts occurred to him. Naturally, no matter how well he stitched it together, it was all a lie. That was why he could not face the princess straight on.

"At the time, I deliberately let Oubary escape from the village. That was because I suspected that he had been given orders for something by my father... by the emperor."

"..."

"Oubary hadn't taken it upon himself to move his troops just to seal my mouth because I had been investigating about the past. In fact, he was probably going to burn border villages again in order to lure the west into taking action. Even then, Father wanted to take Taúlia in the west. That's also why he prevented my troops from leaving Apta and going in reinforcement to Garbera."

Vileena's lips remained pursed together. Regardless of whether or not there was any slip-up in Gil's words, she simply maintained the gun muzzle in an overly-cautious aim –

"I couldn't let them burn villages in Mephius' domains. So I stopped Oubary's violence and afterwards hit on the idea of pretending to have been taken down by his men in order to leave Mephius. As things were, my father would probably have forcibly called me back to Solon and dispatched some other general instead who would have found some plausible reason or another to cross over the border. Taúlia couldn't possibly not retaliate against the attack. So I went over to the west ahead of it. I was going to send a call out to the various powers scattered throughout Tauran and gather them together in order to keep Mephius in check."

Although he shared the same thought that Princess Vileena had had a while earlier about how he sure was able to rattle on, neither of them realised that.

Vileena opened the lips that had long remained shut. "Did you tell someone about this before leaving Apta? Is there anyone who can serve as a witness?"

"...The only ones I told everything to were the Imperial Guards Gowen and Shique. I needed their cooperation for the plan to work."

"Oh," Vileena's eyes glittered from the other side of the muzzle, "in that case, why not have added one more to those you confided in? Was Garbera's Princess Vileena Owell so unreliable according to Crown Prince Gil? Or was I so trifling and negligible that you never even considered asking for my cooperating from the start?"

Orba remained silent again. But not because he was thinking that one wrong word could lead to his death. Rather than fear, what he was feeling was, strangely, something closer to pain.

"...Taking a part in that plan meant..."

"It meant?"

"It meant deceiving the emperor of Mephius." The only thing in Orba's field of vision were his and the princess' feet. "I couldn't involve you, Princess, in that kind of plan. If it were exposed, it would not only be you but also Garbera that..."

Having spoken that far, his words failed him.

''Right, this kind of reason'' – if he continued explaining like this, and even if he failed to convince her right now, once she calmed down it would still only be an excuse that would convince her for the time being.

''But –''

"Why have you fallen silent? Have you reached the limit of the lies you can tell? If you remain silent, I will definitely consider you to be an imposter and pull the trigger. Please, carry on."
"Princess, I'm..."

Unthinkingly, Orba stepped closer towards Vileena. Startled, she drew back, reversing her earlier action of shortening the distance between them. Once again holding the gun straight before her in both hands, she said –

"Who gave you permission to come closer? That is as..."

"I'm a coward."

"I know."

"Also, a liar."

"I'm well aware of that, too."

"It's true that I once ran away. From everything - from the emperor, from Mephius, from Garbera and Ende, and also, Princess, from you."

"..."

"But the one who called me back was also you, Princess. Things turned out like this because an idiot foolishly acted with idiotic naivety."

"Who's an idiot?"

"The biggest idiot on the continent. What with Ryucown and Zenon and you, Garbera is a complete nest of idiots. And Mephius is a hangout for fools. My father Guhl Mephius first and foremost!"

While he was talking, Orba's face had gone red. The restraint curbing his emotions had stopped working. Although he himself was not aware of it, it had been a long time since he had shown that aspect of himself to the princess. When they had first met, the two of them had often gotten into similar heated quarrels.

"Every last one of you does nothing but things I can't stand. That's why... so that's why I've had to resign myself to coming crawling back like this."

"Y-Your words... It's like you are saying that I'm responsible."	

"As for responsible," Orba stamped his foot and opened his mouth wide as though to hurl more angry words but then suddenly lost his energy and gave a deep sigh. "There is no responsibility. If there is, it's mine to bear from now on. Princess Vileena, I won't ask you to believe in me one more time. But, although the directions we're facing aren't always the same, I definitely think that they're similar. So..."

"So?"

Right then, Orba raised his head and looked directly at Vileena for the first time since he had entered the room. The princess' eyes sliced through his heart with the sharpness of daggers. But this time, he was not intimidated.

"Please lend me your help."

His voice, like the heat of a flame, seemed to scorch his throat and lips.

There was a moment's pause.

Vileena continued to glare at Orba with eyes like the tip of a blade but –

"It's fine already," she limply lowered the handgun and shook her head without strength. "Please leave, Gil Mephius. I don't want to see your face anymore right now. Hurry and go."

"Princess"

"Hurry and go!"

Venting her feelings, Vileena stamped her small foot against the floor. Orba could only obey the orders of this very young princess.
 


A short while passed after Gil Mephius left the room. Vileena was still in the same position as when she had driven the prince away.

A new visitor appeared. This time, the door was opened without a knock. Out of reflex, Vileena threw a stern glare at the entranceway, but in the next instant it was wiped away. Her drawn-down eyebrows rose and her eyes were suddenly filled with tears. She flung herself into the embrace of her new guest.

“Oh my, oh my. Now, now.” Theresia caught the daintily-built girl’s onrush with her full bodyweight and murmured in her ear. “My brave princess! Is today’s battle over? How many enemies did you kill and how many allies did you save?”

Back when the very young Vileena used to be covered in mud and drenched in sweat after playing soldiers all day long with noble children of similar age, after harshly scolding her, these were the words that Theresia had always whispered as she embraced the sobbing princess.

“How long are you going to continue to make me worry! Can a child like you, Princess, even understand how I felt when I learned that you had disappeared from Apta?”

“…”

“What did you say, Princess? I didn’t hear you.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Theresia desperately fought back her own tears that were about to overflow and softly stroked the platinum hair that hung from her shoulders to her chest.

After a while,

“And?” gently pushing Vileena away, Theresia asked the princess whose eyes were large with tears. “Did you give him a good, hard punch?”

“N-No, later.”

“Hmm,” Theresia nodded, imitating Vileena. “While that is fine as well, I will teach you something good.”

“What?”

“Whether it’s a punch or showing your tears, use it as a last resort. So as to make a man feel guilty. If you are feeling frustrated or sad, it is better to smile. Men are creatures who are terrified of having emotions thrown directly at them.” Theresia’s smiling face was actually startlingly scary. “Gentlemen, you see, have the impression that they have gotten off lightly if they are hit.”

“Theresia, you’re very wise.”

“It’s not for nothing that I have lived twice as long as you, Princess.”

To say nothing of twice, it would not be too much to say three or even four times thought Vileena but she stayed silent.

Theresia produced a handkerchief from her bosom and held it up to Vileena’s nose.

“Right, let’s have your nose. Now blow.”

“I-I’ll do it myself.” Hurriedly seizing the handkerchief, Vileena turned away from Theresia.

Outside the window, beyond the garden where the trees’ leaves were rustling in the wind, the people of Apta was still caught up in their excitement and they could hear a multitude of voices singing and laughing.

''You did well, Princess.''

While listening to them, Theresia inwardly addressed Vileena’s small back.

''You endured well until now.''

In this world, the princess was certainly the one who, no matter what anyone had said, had believed more than anyone in Prince Gil’s survival. And she had respected his will more than anyone, willing to be condemned as a traitor by her home country and go alone to Taúlia’s aid. Essentially, it was not surprising that when she had seen Prince Gil and heard his voice, the emotions that she had been repressing for so long, and which had been accumulating in her small frame, had been released with almost startling force.

''Honestly, considering it’s you, Princess, it wouldn’t have ended with ‘one punch’. By your leave, even I want to slap that gentleman’s face. But…''

''But now'' – it was alright, Theresia thought from her heart. In place of the handkerchief which had been stolen by the princess, she wiped the corner of her eyes with her finger.

Roars of laughter could still be heard from outside. The mood in Apta would probably be like this all day.

But for those who understood the situation a little, there was no cause for feeling festive. Emperor Guhl had decided to invade Taúlia under the pretext of a war of revenge for the Crown Prince. However, the Crown Prince, who should have been dead, was alive and had crossed the River Yunos from none other than Taúlia.

There were probably any number of people who were deeply worried about the signs forewarning the great disturbances that would be arising from now on. The ones to both start a war and to end a war were the imperial family. And therefore, it was also the imperial family’s responsibility to appease the feelings of the people about it.

Vileena Owell, who was currently intently blowing her nose, was of course more than aware of it.