16. The Outcome of Our Game of Tag

16. The Outcome of Our Game of Tag

I’d managed to escape the room I’d been locked in, but I’d run into the Aurantian royal siblings right outside. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh?

And to top it all off, were blabbering ridiculous things like “taking me for themselves” and “marrying Mr. Fisalis as his second wife after I disappear.” I was honestly starting to doubt if there was anything inside their heads. Are they crazy?! Do they actually understand words?

I was quite sure that talking with them was a complete waste of time, so I went for some tougher measures...again.☆

I’d managed to throw the crown prince once already, but he was really heavy, so I wanted to avoid doing it a second time. I’m sorry, I just don’t have it in me to manage a repeat performance.

That meant the best thing I could do at the moment was using my ring to punch him. Yes, I’d learned all about how to throw a punch with my left hand and where to aim from the servants! Giving the prince a glare, I quickly ran through my best angles of attack.

He was unnecessarily bulky, so a punch to his solar plexus probably wouldn’t do much. Actually, I’d probably end up hurting my own arm, so hard pass on that one.

What about his face, then? But he was tall too, so even if I aimed for his nose or forehead, I probably wouldn’t be able to pack much power into my punch.

I settled on his chin. I could aim for that even from a lower position, so that’d probably work best!

Having made my decision, I did as Rohtas taught me and shifted my weight to the left, tightening my fist as I moved to strike the crown prince.

“That move again? Ugh!” Thinking I was going to throw him again, he lowered his body and squared himself off. But this just played right into my hand, since it lowered his chin well within my range as well!

Yeah, that’s it! I needed to take advantage of the fact that he lowered his head and throw everything I’ve got into my punch!

“Wrong! This time, it’s an uppercut!”

“Gaahh!” Paying attention to my ring, I tightened my fist and put my all into punching him in the chin! Whoo, that was so great!

The crown prince was so worried about getting thrown again that I caught him off guard and toppled him over. No way I was going to use the same attack twice! Just to be safe, I gave him a smack on the temple to knock him out completely.

“Eeeek—?! Brother?!” Princess Orangé screamed once she realized what had happened, and she moved to grab at the necklace resting on her chest like she’d done before.

She’s gonna use that drug on me again! I couldn’t let myself get knocked out again, so I needed to take her out too.

“I still don’t know what that is, but thanks so much for letting me get a whiff of that weird medicine!”

“Eeeeeeek?!”

She fell straight down after I swept her feet out from under her, smacking her head on the floor for me while she was at it. What an easy win!

Now that they’re both down for the count, I need to get out of here!

I started running through the hallway and towards the reception hall. This time, I managed to find the staircase down without getting lost. How the heck had I gotten so stupidly turned around last time? Just thinking about it was enough to make me feel a little depressed.

Rushing down the stairs, I pictured about where the gardens should be and ran that way. I was pretty sure I was going in the right direction.

Believing in myself, I kept going, and found a glass door at the end of the hallway. And on the other side of it, I saw...the garden with the braziers! If I made it out there, I’d be able to see the reception hall, and maybe I’d even be able to get there without getting lost again!

I flew towards the door, but... Yep, it was locked. Of course it was! Pushing and pulling did nothing, so I shoved the hairpin I’d been holding the entire time into the keyhole.

Hurry, Viola! I needed to do this quickly, since I didn’t know how long the crown prince would be out of commission!

This lock was a bit of a hard one too, but with a little effort I got it open pretty quickly. Man, regular practice is so important, isn’t it? I was a bit overcome by my strangely intense emotions about this whole lockpicking thing.

But forget about all that. I pushed the door open and stepped outside. If I go to the left and hug the wall, I should be able to get back to the hall... Huh?!

Just as I was about to walk along the wall to my left towards the reception hall, I stopped dead in my tracks for a moment. There was a chest-height hedge blocking my way! Despite the darkness, I looked around at the braziers, and realized that the hedge seemed to be separating the area near the hall from the rest of the garden. If I wanted to get past it, I’d have to either get over the hedge somehow or find an opening in it.

Wahhh, I couldn’t see the hedge from the windows! Huge miscalculation!

“It’s pretty high, so it’d probably be impossible to jump over... So I need to go under! Gotta search for a place I can wiggle through...”

I peeked at the bottom of the hedge, but it was beautifully taken care of with nary a hole in sight. It was covered top to bottom in dense green leaves, leaves, and more leaves! The gardener does a great job! Yes, I’m still impressed despite my desperation.

Then, is there anyone outside? Maybe if I yelled, someone would hear... But there’s nobody around. Too optimistic of me.

There’s nothing else I can do. My only option now is to find an opening to slip through!

Just as I was steeling myself up to run along the hedge...

“Stop!!”

Through the glass door, I heard someone yelling—and the sounds of someone running through the halls! I turned towards the commotion, only to see Aurantia’s crown prince! His aggressive-looking face was even stiffer than usual, and he was running towards me with a look of desperate rage.

“And I was so nice to you!” Completely unlike the creepily gentle tone he’d been using before, he didn’t seem to care how he sounded right now—which was even worse! And how the heck was he back on his feet so soon?! Didn’t he recover kind of fast?!

I shouldn’t have spent so long dawdling around the hedge. I needed to get away quickly, because I felt like things were getting worse by the minute! I started to run along the edge of the bushes.

“I told you to wait!”

“What kind of idiot would actually stop when you order them to?!”

Crunch crunch crunch crunch. Our banter and the sound of our feet stomping through the gravel echoed through the gardens.

Running on gravel is actually pretty tough! If I wasn’t careful, my heels would sink into the rocks, or I’d slip. I hadn’t had any practice running on gravel before this.

No, Viola! I’ve got no time to cry about the ground, whether it be marble or gravel! I ran like hell, doing my best not to fall.

I had a brief moment of glee when I finally spotted an end to the hedge—only to realize that it was just a corner of the hedge, not an actual opening in it. The hedge actually continued to the left, towards the hall. Let’s go that way!

I made the turn at the same speed, taking care not to slip.

“Ah! An opening!”

As I kept running along, I finally found a... Gap? Crevice? Entrance? to the area of the garden that surrounded the reception hall. I ran towards it, still being careful about the gravel...and finally made it to my destination. I could see the light coming through the glass windows. I was so close!

The crown prince was still behind me, though, so I sped up for one last spurt. As I did so, however...

“Whoa!”

My foot hit something with a loud thunk and I toppled forward. I quickly rolled to break my fall, so I wasn’t hurt badly, but I did smack my arm. It’d probably bruise.

But I’m so glad I’d had some martial arts training, no matter how rushed it had been. Without that, I would be covered in scratches and cuts on my bare shoulders and arms!

“Owwwww! What was that?!” Turning towards where I’d tripped, there was a tree root right there on the ground. That had apparently tripped me up. The rest of the garden is so well taken care of. Did they just miss this one bit?

Rolling to the side, I braced myself for another sprint. I had no time to waste, after all! But as soon as I put weight on my leg to get up, an intense pain shot through my ankle.

“Gaah?!”

It hurt so badly that I collapsed straight to the ground again. Damn! I must have twisted my ankle on the way down! What should I do?! The pain only got worse while I was thinking to myself, to the point where I couldn’t move my leg at all.

While I crouched there clutching my ankle, the crown prince finally caught up. After all my efforts to get away. After using every skill I’d been taught. And I was so close to the hall! This sucks!

Seeing that I wasn’t moving, he stopped running and instead slowly walked towards me.

Ahh, jeez! He’s seriously gonna catch me!

Crunch, crunch. The sound of the gravel as he slowed down was noticeably different from the noise we’d made while running.

Dimly lit by the braziers, his smirking face was absolutely revolting! He didn’t even seem to care that I was glaring at him, desperately wanting to run but physically unable to do it.

Then, he finally reached me.

“Oh, whatever could be the matter? Are you injured?” he drawled, dropping back into that disgustingly fake gentle tone of voice. You saw exactly what happened, jerk! Don’t you smirk at me!

“I’m fine! Absolutely fine!” I replied, trying to subtly hide my leg under the skirt of my dress.

“No, no, your ankle is terribly swollen! I’ll take you back to your room.” Apparently he’d seen my injury. If he brought me back to that room, I’d be right back where I started. All of my efforts would’ve been for naught.

Still smirking despite my glare, he reached out towards me.

I am absolutely not taking his hand! But what can I do? I’m out of options!

Just before his hand reached me...

“Stop right there, Your Royal Highness, Crown Prince of Aurantia. And step away from Viola, if you would.”

A deep, angry voice called out from the darkness of the garden, along with the noise of footsteps on gravel. It was...

“Mr. Fisalis!”

“D-Duke?!”

Mr. Fisalis, my savior, emerged from the night!

“Vi! Are you alright? Our pest extermination took a bit longer than we thought, and it took a while to find you,” he said, running over to me and pushing the prince out of the way. Then, he crouched down and gave me a gentle hug.

Just that was enough to drain all the tension from my body. My painfully pounding heartbeat changed into a happy pitter-patter now that he was here and we were together. My nose started to itch, and the corners of my eyes grew hot... Wait, I think I’m gonna cry!

“Yeah! I’m okay! Wahhhhhhhhh, Mr. Fisalis!”

“Don’t cry. Everything will be fine now that I’m here.”

“Okaaay!”

Seeing him made me burst into tears with relief. I’d been so nervous! While I was sobbing, he pulled the handkerchief out of his breast pocket and wiped my tears. I caught sight of a cherry motif and his initials...and realized I was the one who’d embroidered that for him.

“Just wait one minute. I’ve gotta finish up my work,” Mr. Fisalis said, giving me the handkerchief to hold as he stood and turned towards the prince. “Crown Prince Osmanthus of Aurantia, we know everything you’ve attempted today. It’s ridiculous that you tried this in Flür territory—in our own royal palace, no less.”

He had his back to me, so I couldn’t see his face, but it was almost like there was a blizzard blowing out from behind him ...Damn, he’s pissed.

“Whatever could you be talking about? I was just taking a stroll in the gardens when I came across Duchess Fisalis and her injured ankle. All I did was offer her some help,” the crown prince said, playing dumb. The idiot is still telling barefaced lies! He was so shameless that my tear ducts completely closed up shop.

But, of course, Mr. Fisalis didn’t fall for it. “Oh? Really, Viola?” He gave a little snort of laughter before turning to ask me.

“No! I heard this guy and his sister plotting something terrible—they were gonna lure you out and kidnap you! Then, when I tried to go warn you, he found me and chased me. Princess Orangé dosed me with some weird drug that made me faint, and while I was out they tied me up with rope! Then, when I finally escaped, he chased me again!”

I’d tell Mr. Fisalis all the details later. For now, I just gave a brief rundown of what happened.

“And that’s my wife’s story.”

“No, we were plotting to kidnap Viola, not you... Ah!”

He really was a moron. He confessed in an attempt to correct my story. Too late to cover your mouth now, Your Highness.

Hearing that, Mr. Fisalis gave a low chuckle. “Huh...I see! So you were going to kidnap Viola. And you just admitted it yourself, Your Royal Highness.”

“Dammit!”

“You let the cat out of the bag, Your Highness. I’ve got a loooot of questions to ask, so I’ll need to have you come with me.”

The crown prince grimaced while Mr. Fisalis told him exactly how things would go with a sinister smile on his face. Then, the prince dropped his shameless dumb act and flushed bright red.

“How dare you get in my way! If you two would just divorce, you could marry my sister, and I could marry Viola, and things would’ve been wonderful for both Flür and Aurantia!”

He was still on about that at this point in the game. Ugh, what a dumbass. I stared at him silently out of disgust, but...

SNAP.

I think that sound was Mr. Fisalis finally losing it.