Chapter 298: When I Woke

When I came to and opened my eyes, Lily was there with tears pooled in hers.

"Lord Robbie!!"

She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. My head wobbled and I almost blacked out again... someone stop her!

"Lily! Stop that! He will faint again!"

Her Majesty’s voice. Ah. Bless her. Lily had been shaking me hard enough that my soul had been about to leave my body.

Lily let go and my head dropped onto the pillow. It was soft. Not the classic light-novel thing where you wake on someone’s lap.

"Lord Robbie! Are you all right?"

Lily asked. I could not say it was your fault I almost died a second time, so I went with,

"Yeah. I’m fine. My head’s a little swimmy, but it’s nothing."

"Really? Thank goodness!"

Then Lily started crying.

"Lord Marie collapsed from running out of mana. Dee realized that, but Dee could not pour mana into Lord Marie, so he was brought to me."

I glanced toward the voice. Her Majesty was speaking with a smile. So that was why she had shown up in that place just now? But how much of that had been real? Her expression was the usual one. No change I could see. She had called me Robbie then, and now she was back to the distant Lord Marie. So that part had been a dream after all?

I tried to sit up to thank her and a vicious headache hit.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

I clutched my head and went down on my side again.

"Lord Marie, you need not force yourself. Resting quietly now is the best thing."

Her Majesty said that. Lily sniffled, hiccuping.

"Lord Robbieee, please do not worry us sooo much. I thought you might be gone..."

And she went soggy again.

I had no idea what had happened while I was out, what kind of mess it had turned into, or how I had been carried here. Watching Lily cry, I thought she did not have to cry that hard.

"L-Lord Robbie’s face went so pale, and he just collapsed..."

Lily tried to continue, but it turned into sobbing and would not come out. It must have been shocking enough to shake her this badly.

I rolled my eyes around and Dee appeared. He crouched.

"Lord Marie, because of our failure it came to this. I am truly sorry. I thought to apologize with my death, but I at least had to wait until you recovered and offer one word of apology first! I am truly, truly sorry!!"

He mashed his head into the floor, or at least he vanished downward out of my sight. Do not die on my account!

"Dee. Hey!"

"Yes, Lord Marie?"

"You do not have to die. I do not want you to die!"

"Eh, but?"

"There is no need to die. I came back like this, and my strength is coming back, so there is no need to die."

"Eeh, but Her Majesty said you wandered the border of life and death. To put an important person through that is unforgivable..."

"It’s fine. You do not have to care about that."

I mean, I got to see Her Majesty with nothing on, and I got wrapped in those breasts, so the ledger was balanced. I glanced at her sideways and that image played again!!

Stubborn Dee still came back with,

"Even if you say so..."

I wanted to ask if he wanted to die that badly. He had to have family or a lover, right? So do not throw your life away that easily!

"May, that is enough. Lord Marie has said so. You will not take your own life. Use the life you were given the next time Lord Marie is in danger. You understand! You will not die on your own!!"

There it was. An absolute order from a superior. In company terms, the same as a strict command from the owner’s wife. You will not die!

Dee’s voice suddenly lost its force.

"I understand. I entrust this life to Lord Marie. If you ever have need of it, command me at any time! I will come no matter what and I will be of use! I swear it to God!!"

Ahhh. I just got hit with a really heavy vow...

—-

—-

Maxim Marie, former third prince of the Marie Kingdom, had more boredom than he could use.

After the coup failed he had been seized in no time, given one room in a tower of the detached palace, and left to live there. "Live" made it sound decent. In practice he was confined. Not being killed was the only mercy. Once a week, under watch, he could walk the detached palace garden. His mother was supposed to be confined somewhere in the same tower. He did not know what had become of his close aides. Executed? Locked up somewhere like him? Still working, never charged? He asked the watch soldiers. They would not answer.

The watch soldiers changed often. Maybe they feared that if the same men stayed too long, feeling would grow and something inconvenient would happen. The men on watch never gave their names and answered nothing he asked. Everything stayed official. They would not even take small talk. Not that Maxim could spend the day anywhere but the study and the bedroom. He had thought he would die in this room without ever leaving it.

He lost interest in everything. He no longer knew the month or the day.

Then one day he noticed a sheet of paper pushed under the door. A watch soldier was supposed to be on the other side. So the watch soldier had to have put it there.

Maxim opened the paper. As he hoped, there was writing.

"Prince Maxim. I have been assigned to watch your room. I am Florian Schneider. At the time of Your Highness’s rising I could not join you, but I sympathized with the ideal you raised. I wish to support you from the shadows now. What I can do is limited, but please command me as you will."

Maxim felt his head go hot. How long had it been since anything like this? Someone who knew his aim had appeared!

He pounded the door.

"Schneider! Schneider!"

He called it over and over. No reaction. Instead another sheet was pushed through.

"Quiet. They can hear downstairs. If you need something, write it on paper."

Maxim thought that made sense, wrote on the back of the sheet, and pushed it under the door.

"Will you truly be my ears? I want information from outside."

The paper was pulled away. Time passed. Maxim waited for a reply. For him it was a long time. Then the paper came back.

"Prince Maxim. I will attend you when I am on watch. Please refrain from using paper at other times. You say outside information, but what is it you wish to know?"

The paper had no blank space left, so he went back to the study and wrote on a fresh sheet.

"I want to know what became of the people who rose with me."

The paper he pushed under the door came back at once.

"The principal figures were all put to death."

That was all it said.

Death... faces of his aides rose up. All of them killed? Seize the government from rotten elders and reform the state. Everyone who had burned with that ideal was dead? Thinking of them brought tears. Why had men that patriotic, single-minded, upright, and serious been killed by incompetent old men clinging to power? Why had no one tried to use that talent? Was there no one with an eye for talent?

The dead must have died with regrets. He slammed a clenched fist on the desk. A loud sound. No reaction from outside. He hit the desk, hit it, hit it. Blood seeped on his knuckles. He thought it must be ringing through the tower, but outside the door, and everywhere else, it was dead quiet. Not a sound. As if the whole place were listening to what he did.

"Damn it."

Even the thrown-away words had no force. Nothing more happened that day.