5 — An Unexpected Person

“Oh, that reminds me. There’s something I need to tell you here,” Mr. Fisalis said, retracting his dark smile and replacing it with a serious look.

It must be terribly important for him to look so serious all of a sudden. But “here” is a banquet hall at the Royal Palace! I can’t say this is an appropriate place to have an important discussion.

But then I realized exactly where specifically we were.

Ah ha. We’re in the most exclusive seats here. No one’s going to come over and bother us. In fact, the other seats are basically arranged around us quite a distance away. It seems like my in-laws have wandered off somewhere, and the only people nearby are Mr. Fisalis’ subordinates. There are nobles and knights seated a little ways away, but there’s a decent amount of background noise from everyone talking among themselves, so maybe no one would hear what we’re saying over here. They don’t even seem to notice that we’re here.

Well, if Mr. Fisalis and the others have determined that it’s okay to talk about something important here, I guess I’m fine with that. I’ll just go along with it.

“What is it you want to tell me? And that you have to tell me here?” I cocked my head in confusion, having no idea whatsoever what they wanted to talk about, completely surrounding me as they were.

“It has to do with the war. It’s something I want to tell you myself, so the facts don’t get twisted like last time with the mistress scandal.”

“Ohhh. That did happen, didn’t it?” As I said it, I spotted Angelica, the lady knight with silver hair who had been mistaken for Mr. Fisalis’ mistress. She noticed me looking at her and gave me a nod and big smile. She was wearing her usual knight’s uniform today, but I couldn’t stop myself from remembering how beautiful she had looked in women’s clothes back then, too.

My apologies. I’m getting off track, again.

“Exactly! If you misunderstand even one single detail, I’ll be back in the doghouse with you thinking I’m unfaithful! I’d like to avoid that outcome!” Mr. Fisalis contended with a sour look.

Okay, okay. No need to get so worked up.

“I see. What is it you’ve done this time?”

“...Why do I get the impression that you thought I was going to admit I was cheating or something?”

“Well, your impression was incorrect. So what is it you need to tell me?” I pressed, looking him in the eyes.

In all honesty, though... I kind of did. What did you expect me to think, sitting me down to “talk” like this?

“...Right. Our informant for this war was actually Calendula.” He spoke her name like it pained him a little.

“Oh! Your ex-girlfriend?” It had been so long since I’d heard that name that I stared at him in surprise.

I never expected to hear her name come up now!

“Yes. Is it alright if I continue?”

“Of course.”

He was trying to gauge my feelings just now, but what’s there for him to feel guilty about?

He continued on once he saw that he had my permission. He lowered his voice, taking our surroundings into account.

“Callie had been traveling all over since she left the manor and ultimately ended up in Aurantia. She was dancing at a tavern there like she used to, and apparently the second prince of Aurantia was a regular patron there.”

“And this second prince also happens to be an important figure in the Aurantian military,” Corydalis chimed in.

Mr. Fisalis and Corydalis gave me a helpful explanation of the situation in Aurantia. Allow me to summarize what the two of them told me.

The second prince had been regularly going to see Miss Calendula. She’d managed to get a prince to fall for her. No surprise there!

And despite this prince being at the tippy top of the Aurantian military, he blabbed all sorts of important information to her. What caught her attention was when he mentioned something along the lines of, “I’m thinking of invading the Flür Kingdom and swiping their natural resources.”

Naturally, she assumed that he was lying, given how he decided to just up and tell her classified information, but she was shocked into taking him seriously when he started to talk about specific preparations for war. She also said that in that moment she realized he must be some sort of idiot, which sounded like classic Miss Calendula. On that note, it seems the thought that she was a spy never even crossed his mind. How naive can you get? Miss Calendula wasn’t officially a spy, though.

According to what Mr. Fisalis and Lord Fisalis told me as well, Aurantia wasn’t exactly a kingdom that made bright decisions when it came to war. They found something to complain about, or some problem with another country, and picked a fight over it.

Even still, that prince should have known better than to reveal secret information to a woman he met at a tavern. Sounds like he was seriously lacking in self-awareness. Your military’s in trouble if that’s what the guys at the top are doing! Even someone like me, who didn’t know anything about war or strategizing, understood that.

But that’s enough about that topic.

Miss Calendula secretly informed the special ops division of all this because she actually cared a lot about the Flür kingdom that she’d called home for so long and liked Mr. Fisalis better than this second prince she had only met on a few occasions. Mr. Fisalis’ division began to plan their move around this time, since Aurantia’s shady activities was making waves even as far away as Flür. It was during those intelligence assessments that Mr. Fisalis met with Miss Calendula several times. That was likely the misunderstanding he was referring to earlier; he didn’t want me to think that he had been seeing a girlfriend he was supposed to be over.

“So it was one-hundred percent work-related!” he said, careful to emphasize ‘work related’ and even going so far as to clench his fist.

“Don’t worry, I understand.”

As surprised as I am to be hearing about Miss Calendula here and now, I’m glad she seems to be doing well, based on what Mr. Fisalis is telling me. So she still cares about Mr. Fisalis, even though she had to leave the manor after I showed up...

“I want to be clear, whatever lingering attachment she may have for me is nothing like what we have now, though!” Mr. Fisalis declared in a single breath, as if he had read my mind, all the while looking me in the eye.

Huh? Did I say what I was thinking out loud?

“Oh, haha, please.”

“You were there back then, you heard it all, too! I completely broke things off with her!”

“Oh, you mean when she said ‘I’m all too happy to give you away to your wife, you pathetic man’?” I recalled him saying something else, too, during their showdown, and mumbled to myself trying to remember exactly what it was.

Oh well, that was such a long time ago.

Mr. Fisalis must have still heard what I said because he began to choke, clawing at his chest with a pained expression.

Sorry! I didn’t mean to reopen an old wound!

“Oh, Commander...” Corydalis tsked, looking at him with a sad smile as he all but fell out of his chair.

“...Er, yes, anyway. So, Calendula was passing along information she heard from the second prince, but since I swore I’d never do anything that would make you distrust me, I just wanted to tell you that we were never alone together, even once,” Mr. Fisalis said, a little teary-eyed, once he’d gathered his wits while I stroked his back.

“What do you mean?” I cocked my head, not quite understanding what he meant.

“Whenever I met up with Callie, I did so with several other people accompanying us—all disguised as customers.”

It sounds like they conducted the information exchange with her at the tavern where she worked—a quick exchange in a noisy crowd of people while pretending to be barflies. Their conversation would have been concealed by the clatter of drunken patrons eating and drinking, so a private discussion between people sitting close together would have been barely audible. Not to mention, I doubt the other people in the tavern would have even cared to eavesdrop on their conversation. Still, it seems like they did try to be careful despite that.

“Oh, so that’s how you did it.”

“Yeah. And since we thought that you might not believe us if only guys went to meet with her, I had Chamomile, Alkanna, and Angelica dress as men. One of them usually went with me,” Mr. Fisalis explained further, pointing to the grinning lady knights.

He made them dress up as men...! You have piqued my curiosity. Knowing the lady knights, they must have looked very handsome! ...Uh-oh, ahem. Seems like I’m letting my imagination get the better of me.

The lady knights met my eyes, which were shining in the depths of a crossdressing fantasy, and each other’s, purposefully meeting mine in a way that could only be described as fabulous.

“It’s like he said,” blonde-haired Chamomile said with a mischievous chuckle.

E-Exactly what kind of disguises were they wearing, I wonder?

“I was absolutely amazed! I was even able to make it to the door of the men’s bathroom!” Angelica said, brushing her silvery hair aside as she flashed me a wink.

It’s a good thing no one was paying close attention then... You’re lucky she wasn’t so impressed with herself that she actually went into the men’s room, Mr. Fisalis!

“There was nothing at all that you needed to worry about, Madam! Trust us!” Alkanna said with a thumbs up, her bronze-toned hair pulled back in a sleek, dignified ponytail.

And so I received three guarantees—albeit very different ones—of Mr. Fisalis’ innocence.

Unless, of course, Mr. Fisalis, this is all just a very well-constructed alibi... But for me to actually think that, two things would have to be true: 1) I am falling for Mr. Fisalis and 2) I am a deeply jealous wife who is constantly suspecting him of cheating.

On a different note, although I do get the feeling that this was just a display of Mr. Fisalis’ integrity. If all this really was just a ruse, I’d never suspect there to be a division-wide destruction of evidence!

Feeling a bit defeated, I looked up at Mr. Fisalis.

“So you had to do all that, then. I see.”

“Yes. So if more ludicrous rumors about me having an affair start floating around, you can just laugh them off. As far as the intel gathering goes, they don’t know who was the first to suggest what. Now that you know the truth, though, there’s no room for misunderstandings, right?” Taking my hand once more, Mr. Fisalis leaned over so he could look deeply into my eyes.

You’re crushing my hand! Ow! Loosen your grip! You really don’t need to hold on that tightly! Plus, you’re making me blush, staring right at me like that.

“Oh, I get it now. You wanted to talk here because there are witnesses—the lady knights.”

“Exactly. So is everything settled, then?”

“Yep, it’s all good with me,” I assured him with a firm nod, looking back into his gorgeous dark brown eyes.

The tension in his shoulders melted away in a split second when he saw that I understood, and he responded with one of his usual radiant smiles. It was fifty percent more lovely than his regular smile, actually.

“Oh, thank goodness,” he said with obvious relief, his smile growing broader.

“Thank goodness” is right. When he sighed, he also loosened his grip on my poor hand. I thought he’d break my fingers.

“But if it gets out that Miss Calendula was complicit in something that dangerous, will she be able to stay in Aurantia? Will she really be alright?” I asked Mr. Fisalis, suddenly worried.

Assuming she’s still down there, if anyone somehow finds out that she was doing spy stuff, won’t her life be in danger? And I only just got to hear how she was doing after so long! She seemed to be doing well, too. If she was back in the Flür Kingdom, I’d even say she deserved a medal.

“She’ll be fine. Callie was under our protection when the war broke out. While we were protecting her, we asked what she wanted to do and we were able to escort her to Flür’s ally in the east, Umber. Please don’t worry too much about her,” Mr. Fisalis told me, picking up on my anxiety.

“That’s great! I feel a lot better now.” I’d heard that, unlike Aurantia, Umber was a good, peaceful country. If they had a diplomatic relationship with Flür, they must be very safe, too. I felt reassured, knowing where Miss Calendula was and that she was safe.

“Now that your fears have been dispelled... I’ve been looking after this, Madam,” Angelica said as she handed me something. It was a plain white envelope. There was only one place to buy those in town.

I took it from her and looked on the front and the back, but there was nothing written on either side.

“What is this?”

“It’s a letter from Miss Calendula to you. She left it with the commander, but since he wanted to ensure there would be no more misunderstandings, it was then entrusted to me.”

“You don’t say! Miss Calendula wrote to me?”

“She did.”

“Thank you so much. I don’t want to make everyone wait while I read this, so I’ll look over it when I get home.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Mr. Fisalis agreed with a nod.

I’m glad I could hear some unexpected news about an unexpected person. Oh, and I do believe that Mr. Fisalis is innocent. Everything’s a-okay!!