Chapter 4: Hence the Incident is Resolved

Under the name Larna Smith, I hold a senior position at the Magical Ministry — though my real name is Susanna Randall.

I had just finished compiling a report detailing the Keith Claes kidnapping incident. With the report in hand, I decided to pay a visit to Jeffery Stuart, the first crown prince of the kingdom, and technically my fiancé.

Jeffery greeted me with his usual flippant smile. “Hey there. That all ended up being quite the ordeal, didn’t it?”

“Yes, quite. It really went beyond my expectations, and not in a good way.” Indeed, this particular case had ended up being a lot more trouble than I could have ever imagined. As for how it ended, Keith had been rescued, and the mansion and its owner had been seized by the Ministry.

We were still dealing with the aftermath. The staff assigned to the case had been working hard, especially my subordinate, Raphael. He had quite literally been working around the clock, hardly resting, if at all.

“Good work indeed! Well then, I helped out too, so let’s hear all about the specifics.”

“Sure. I owe you one, after all.” By sharing what information I had with him, we were always able to plan for the worst. If and when the situation called for it, Jeffery’s power and status as a royal, combined with my capabilities as a high-ranking member of the Ministry, could be put to good use. So we often shared information with each other, unless it was incriminating or disadvantageous for one or the other of us to know about.

I started going over the specifics of the Keith Claes kidnapping case. Firstly, the main suspect who had currently been accused of the kidnapping and violent abuse of Keith was one Thomas Coleman — Keith’s half-brother, born to a different mother. The son of Viscount Coleman and originally the heir to the family name, he had been raised without ever wanting for anything, and somewhere along the way became a useless, conceited man.

He was quite the troublemaker in the Coleman estate. Shortly after his social debut, there were reports of him kicking up trouble with other nobles. As a result of his behavior, Viscount Coleman decided that Thomas’s younger brother should inherit his title instead. That caused Thomas to fly into a rage, and he soon started to get involved with ruffians and criminal elements, causing one outrageous scene after another. In the end, even Viscount Coleman himself could no longer cover for his wayward son, and had to resort to expelling him from the family estate.

With that being said, he wasn’t simply kicked out the door — in fact, the viscount saw fit to grant Thomas a small home in the city, as well as provide him with a fair sum of coin. Given how spoiled he was and how he had lived most of his life, however, there was no way Thomas would keep quiet for long.

Indeed, he soon used up all of his money, and then turned toward extortion, causing no end of problems for those around him. Soon enough, no one would interact with Thomas in any way, shape, or form. That was when he coincidentally witnessed Keith in the city, and experienced a sharp pang of jealousy. These feelings caused him to fantasize about Keith’s downfall, which was the root cause of the kidnapping.

But at that point, Thomas had neither coin nor status. How could he take his revenge, given that he had no allies of any kind...? The answer came in the form of a certain woman. According to Thomas’s testimony, said woman approached him one day out of the blue. She bought him food and drinks, and listened to all he had to say enthusiastically — passionately, even. Thomas spoke of his jealousy and hatred toward Keith, and about his plans for his half-brother’s downfall. That was when the mysterious woman offered to help.

Before he knew it, and without even lifting a finger, Thomas found himself in a mansion once more, living the elegant and opulent life that he craved. Although he had assumed that the mansion simply belonged to the woman in question, the reality was quite different. In truth, the woman had used Thomas’s noble title and a fair sum of her own coin to temporarily rent the place.

As for the original inhabitants of the mansion, though they were certainly guilty of crimes and dark deeds, neither the servants nor their master knew a thing about the events that transpired in the house. They had been paid to act a certain way and do certain things, and they had followed those instructions unquestioningly. In fact, there was a high chance that the Dark Arts had been used on them — strongly suggesting that they should overlook any suspicious points, and not ask any questions. Given that there were many fuzzy points in their collective memories, this was highly likely.

Soon enough, the woman brought Keith from someplace, after which he was confined to a room and restrained. Thomas would commit acts of physical violence against the restrained Keith, claiming that he would soon become a slave and be sold to bidders in foreign lands.

Piecing together the various pieces of testimony I had received from eyewitnesses, it was plain to see that Thomas was hardly the mastermind behind all this. He was nothing more than a cowardly puppet, whose status and name had been used to commit this crime. The one truly responsible, surely, was the woman who had approached Thomas to begin with. She was none other than the Wielder of Darkness who had spirited Keith away in the first place. However...

“Well? Has she been captured yet? The mastermind.”

“...Not yet.” I furrowed my brow as I gave Jeffery my response. She was a loose end that still eluded us.

“Oh ho. For someone as clever as you to let her slip away...”

“The enemy is every bit as clever, I assure you. I cannot find her location.”

“So... you mean to say that we still don’t know who she is, or where she is?”

“Well... I do have an idea. It’s somewhat of a leap, but still...”

“Oh? So who is this mystery person that has caused so much trouble for you? Do tell.”

“...If my assumptions are correct, the culprit is most likely someone from within the Dieke family.”

“Marquess Dieke and company, right? The very same that Raphael testified against?”

“Indeed, yes. The family that stained their hands and got involved with Dark Magic quite some years ago.”

“But didn’t we round up everyone in that family who had anything to do with Dark Magic, even in the slightest?”

“So we thought, yes...” I proceeded to inform Jeffery of the truths uncovered during this incident — secrets about the Dieke family.

The many crimes of the powerful and well-connected Dieke family had been brought to light thanks to Raphael’s testimony. For their crimes directly involving the use of Dark Magic, Madam Dieke and all of her conspirators were arrested — at least, that was what we assumed.

However... there was more to it. Firstly, that woman, who introduced herself as Sarah to Thomas, knew a little too much about the Dark Arts; she knew of the existence of familiars of darkness and how to craft them, and how to absorb and drain the essence of others to bolster her powers.

As I thought, this Sarah woman was by no means an incredibly powerful mage with bottomless reserves of Dark Magic. All she had been doing was draining energy from Thomas. Dark Magic was, after all, obtainable in exchange for a life. But the magic granted in such an exchange was finite, and could very well be used up over time.

However, there was a workaround. This was information that few within the Ministry knew of, but it was possible to replenish one’s reserves of Dark Magic by absorbing energy from other people. “Energy” did not mean mana, or magic, or anything like that. Instead, the Wielder of Darkness drained the life force out of someone, and if that continued, the victim would die.

On top of all that, individuals bearing strong negative emotions supplied much more Dark Magic when drained. Putting the pieces together, it was fair to assume that Thomas’s life force had been continuously drained from him over the course of this incident.

After we had arrested Thomas, we had done all we could for him. Although he recovered enough to be able to talk, he was exceedingly weak, and from the looks of it didn’t have long to live. I did some research on Thomas and his activities up until this point, and from what I gathered, he had been healthy as a horse up until a while ago. Ministry staff who didn’t know about the details of the incident could only scratch their heads at his sudden downturn.

This information about Dark Magic was only known to a select few. So why did that woman know of it? And then there was the case of Marquess David Mason, the perpetrator behind Katarina Claes’s kidnapping. He, too, had received information on how to gain Dark Magic from the Dieke family.

However, he was only taught how to obtain it, not to adapt it or properly use it. The man knew nothing. In fact, the same was true within the Dieke family — even with its hands stained in the pursuit of Dark Magic, the specifics of certain techniques weren’t widely known throughout the family.

As such, the fact that this Sarah woman knew so much about the Dark Arts and its intricacies was very suspicious. Perhaps she was also one of the individuals heavily involved in the research of Dark Magic in the Dieke family...

...Or so I thought. I decided to question our captives, and soon more new information about the Diekes was revealed. In their pursuit and research of the Dark Arts, the Diekes had granted a few specific people these powers, not just Raphael and the man who had possessed him. It was all part of Madam Dieke’s contingency plan — should anything ever happen to Sirius (Raphael), there would be a Plan B.

The unwilling recipients for these dark powers were often orphans or slave children purchased or picked up from one source or another. Amongst them, many lost their lives when the ritual failed, and many more to the complications that followed even if the ritual did succeed. Though they prepared these children for future use, with the apparent success of Sirius’s ritual, they became unnecessary. Sirius was raised as planned, and the Dieke family could do whatever they wanted with these children.

Those that survived and successfully obtained Dark Magic ended up being used in the family’s research. However, due to the twisted nature of the experiments that they were made to undergo, most of these survivors lost their minds — it was all too much to bear.

In the end, Raphael’s testimony revealed all of the Dieke’s crimes. But those conducting the research feared that their sentences would be compounded if the Ministry learned of these experiments — so many of these children were disposed of before the truth of the matter was discovered. Amongst them there was a young girl with black hair who was particularly known for her high Dark Magic aptitude.

“That’s pretty messed up. I see now that the twisted nature of the Dieke family went a lot further than I thought,” Jeffery said, frowning.

“Villains and scum, all of them. If I had not gone along this line of questioning, they would surely have all remained silent. Good thing they did talk — saved me a lot of trouble.” They hadn’t wanted to talk, of course, but with some persuasion and confronting them with evidence, they’d had no choice but to start talking.

“However, if your deductions ring true... this Sarah girl is also a victim of the Dieke family’s deeds, isn’t she? If what those scoundrels said is true, shouldn’t she be dead, disposed of by their own hands? Is this Sarah truly the mastermind?”

“They say disposed, yes, but not with their own hands. They used the services of some crooks here and there, to hide bodies and the evidence. Shoddy work, most likely. There’s a high chance that some of them could have survived. In addition, based on the information I extracted from Thomas and all those involved in the case, their descriptions match this woman. There’s no mistaking it.”

“Is that right? This mysterious girl from the Dieke family... what is her real name, then? Sarah would be nothing more than an alias, no?”

The furrow in my brow intensified at Jeffery’s question. “...About that. The girl never had a name to begin with. They were... assigned a number, you see.”

Jeffery’s expression twisted into a look of disgust. I probably looked the same way. Yes, the origin of the girl named Sarah was far too cruel. She was a tragic victim of her circumstances. Her plight should be empathized with. However... that gave her no reason to exact this same hurt and pain unto others.

Why did Sara cause all this pain? Was it a sort of twisted retribution against Katarina and the others for bringing about the downfall of the Dieke family? Or was it just like the imprisoned researchers claimed — had she simply lost her mind, and committed crimes for her own amusement?

None of this would ever come to light as long as the girl remained on the loose. We knew who she was. All that was left was her location.

I organized my thoughts. It was time for the next report, which was about Katarina Claes, and a bizarre event that had happened during this case. From what I had heard, Katarina had freed her brother Keith who, at the time, was bound by the Dark Arts. He was to become a sacrifice for the creation of a familiar of darkness.

According to Jeord, this black mist (most likely the familiar’s incubational form) was torn apart by Katarina’s bare hands. And then Katarina dealt the finishing blow to the scattered pieces of dark mist on the ground by crushing them, again with her bare hands.

Jeord then went on to describe how Katarina looked at the time — according to him, she looked very much like when she had finished off a snake that had wandered into her fields. For some reason, he had a faraway gaze in his eyes as he described the events.

First of all, what would a noble lady be doing in a field, disposing of snakes...? But anyway, to be able to simply crush that unknown black mass with her bare hands... Katarina Claes may be a much more impressive individual than I had initially assumed.

And then there was how Katarina herself worded it. “I felt like I could do it, so I did!” I couldn’t help but start laughing. I laughed so hard I felt like I couldn’t breathe. When he heard what had happened, Jeffery started laughing too. I suppose we had the same sense of humor.

After a while he calmed down, still wheezing between breaths. It took a while for Jeffery to finally finish. “In any case... why was Lady Katarina able to do that? She has no Light Magic, surely? Are you perhaps suggesting that she has control over the Dark Arts?”

“That was what I thought as well, but that doesn’t make any sense. After some questioning, I discovered that it was most likely due to the influence of a magical tool that is attuned to Dark Magic.”

“A Dark Magic tool, you say?”

I placed the object that Katarina had entrusted to me on Jeffery’s desk.

“Hmm. A mirror, I suppose?” Jeffery wondered, taking the object into his hands and regarding it with a skeptical expression.

“Not exactly. Simply an ornament of some kind, it seems.”

True, it did fit into a woman’s hand easily, and it was relatively round. It did very much look like a mirror. Despite its round shape and borders, however, there was no mirror of any kind in it — a mysterious ornament, and that was that.

Honestly speaking, this rough and somewhat primitive ornament was not well designed. From what I had discovered, the item wasn’t common in stores. If anything, it was a small knick-knack that one would find in an open-air stall. A small piece of scrap one could buy in a little corner of the city with some change. It was something that would never sell well.

“I couldn’t tell just by looking at it, but Maria and Sora were able to sense traces of Dark Magic emanating from the object. I did some research, and from my observations, it would seem like this thing is similar to the magical tools I’m developing now.”

“So, someone has been spying at the Ministry again, and emulating your work to make this tool?”

“Not exactly. I showed the round thing to someone who’s well versed in the history of bone and porcelain crafts. From what they can tell, it’s very old. It most likely existed back before Sorcié even became a kingdom — back when Dark Magic hadn’t been declared taboo yet. And, as fate would have it, it eventually ended up at the shop that Katarina and the others visited.”

“Oh ho, that is impressive indeed. Given that she was able to take hold of something like that so casually, Lady Katarina is really something else.”

“Exactly. If it were me, I definitely would have looked right over it. Katarina has good instincts, at least for some things.” The more I looked at the mystery ornament in Jeffery’s hands, the more I felt that to be true.

“So... Lady Katarina used this magical tool over here, and dispelled the Dark Magic cast on her brother?”

“That would seem to be the case. But there’s one more thing... the familiar of darkness did materialize.” Yes, the familiar that the woman had been trying to extract from Keith had taken form.

“Oh? A familiar really appeared?”

“Indeed. Katarina took a liking to it, and so she brought it back with her...”

“Hmm. So... is the Ministry currently investigating this familiar?”

“Well... about that...”

★★★★★

“Go on, Pochi! Fetch!”

I threw the wooden stick into the distance, and the black puppy happily ran after it. Before long, he returned with the stick firmly in his mouth, his tail wagging fiercely as if to say “praise me, praise me!” Ahh, so cuuute! I had fallen victim to Pochi’s irresistible charm.

“Young miss, are you quite alright?” Anne asked, maintaining some distance from Pochi.

“Eh? What do you mean, Anne?”

“Don’t you ‘what do you mean, Anne?’ me, young miss. After all, is that not the dog...?” Anne stopped short, not finishing her sentence.

“Ah, it’s fine, no worries. Lady Larna said that there was no problem!”

“I... I see...”

Pochi’s true origins had been explained to a handful of people close to me. Although he looked just like a cute puppy at first glance, he did have several unique abilities that made it difficult to hide what he was. This was probably why Anne, who was still not used to him, was afraid. Even though he’s so cute? Come on, Anne... Well, she’ll come around to Pochi’s charms eventually, I’m sure.

The little puppy that we had brought back after the Keith rescue operation was more than just a dog. From what I was told, he was some kind of familiar born of Dark Magic. He could be compared to a golem, like Keith’s earth golems, though a more evolved version.

Pochi’s body was full of Dark Magic, so he was originally seen as a dangerous creature, and was to be taken away by the Ministry to be investigated. But the puppy had become completely attached to me. Even if he were taken away, he would do everything he could to return to me — including transforming back into a cloud of black mist and flying home.

To ensure that he’d never be separated from me, Pochi decided to hide himself in my shadow. That way, no one would be able to take him from my side. Although the people from the Ministry had tried a bunch of different things to remove him, Pochi remained stubbornly stuck with me.

Lady Larna eventually gave up, saying, “This... is a lost cause. We should just have Katarina look after it and call it a day,” with a tinge of regret in her voice. Just to be sure, they ran a series of tests on the puppy and me to ensure it wouldn’t be a danger to me or anyone else. Once those tests were finished and I promised to bring Pochi over to the Ministry when requested, paperwork was signed and the black puppy officially became my pet.

I kept being surprised when the puppy dissolved into a cloud of mist or suddenly leapt into my shadow. But even so, he was my adorable puppy, and I loved him to bits.

Interestingly, Pochi didn’t need to eat any kind of dog food. And he seemed very intelligent — he’d dissolve into my shadow and calmly wait if I asked him to. I didn’t even need to build a dog house! What a convenient pet.

On top of all that, my position in the Ministry after graduating from the academy was pretty much a sure thing thanks to Pochi. I was even assigned a proper title! “Wielder of a Darkness Familiar.”

Well, I guess I wasn’t really doing anything useful except looking after the pup, but with this, I’d be able to hold my head high and walk through the Ministry’s calls. I would also be able to hold off on getting married to Jeord and becoming royalty.

And so I named the puppy “Pochi” and gained a pet of my own.

“Whatever does ‘Pochi’ mean, young miss?” Anne had asked, confused.

“Isn’t that the first name that comes to mind when you think of a dog?” I’d replied, but Anne didn’t seem to get it. It was a common name for dogs in Japan, but apparently dogs in this world had naming trends of their own, and “Pochi” wasn’t one of them. But I thought that naming the puppy that made him even cuter. In fact, he was so cute that I ended up playing with him daily in the manor’s gardens.

I had returned to Claes Manor a while ago. Though we’d managed to rescue Keith from his kidnapper, he was still very weak and injured all over. So he was instructed to rest quietly at the manor for a while. I was worried about him, so I’d decided to move back home from the dormitories for now. Thankfully, lessons at the academy were already ending, so this didn’t cause any problems.

But even though I’d declared that I wanted to look after Keith, I was quickly dismissed and chased out of the room. “With all due respect, young miss, you being here would inevitably increase our workload. Master Keith cannot possibly recuperate in such a noisy environment. It would be best for you to step outside,” said one of our best servants.

...What a bummer. Come to think of it, I feel like the servants have become really strict with me lately. Even Anne! When I decided to ask my friends about this, they all told me how gentle and accommodating their own servants were. I complained about this to Anne, only to learn the shocking truth — “You see, young miss... we have been specifically instructed by the Madam to be stricter with you.”

Mother, how could you...?

And so it came to be that I, Katarina Claes, who had specifically moved back from the dormitories to spend time with Keith, ended up with nothing much to do. Instead, I spent most of my time playing with Pochi. Luckily, that was a lot of fun. Pochi would follow me around, wagging his tail.

As if reminded of something as she continued looking in our direction, Anne asked me a question. “A while ago, when you first departed with the people from the Ministry, young miss... I happened to see Lady Maria from a distance. There was something perched on her shoulder, unless I was mistaken. Was that a pet of some kind as well?”

“Hmm? Oh, that? That’s a magical tool.”

“A... magical tool?” Anne repeated after me blankly, evidently having never heard the term before. I gave Anne a brief explanation of the tool on Maria’s shoulder, which was the Ugly Bear, Alexander.

“How impressive... to think that something like that could exist!” Anne did seem impressed.

I gave her a brief nod. “It’s definitely something...” The bear had a terrible personality, but it had played an important part in the rescue operation. You could even say it played the most important part, since we would have never found Keith without the bear’s help. I’d suppressed my dislike and formally thanked the bear for its assistance, only for the stupid thing to turn its nose up at me, ridiculing me again. I suppose, in the end, that bear and I would never see eye to eye.

After the trip had concluded, the bear was supposed to be sent to Prince Jeffery as promised, but that had apparently become impossible, since it had become very attached to Maria over the journey. The bear refused to stay with the prince, behaving just like Pochi did. In the end, after its many struggles to return to Maria’s side, Alexander the Ugly Bear was permanently assigned to Maria instead. Something else indeed.

On another subject, Lady Larna herself had received more materials and funding from Prince Jeffery for a new search-and-track magical tool. She was overjoyed. “A new project, a new project!” she’d quipped, bouncing out of the office. Prince Jeffery, who had been basically dumped by the bear, seemed to be feeling pretty down about the situation.

And so Alexander the Ugly Bear was now officially Maria’s pet. I knew that meant that I’d have to see the bear again whenever I met with Maria in the future. Just thinking about it made me feel kinda depressed.

If that bear was going to be with Maria from here on out, I had to do something to make sure we got along next time we met. But... what could I do? Maybe I should give it a present? But what would a bear even like?

As I continued thinking about a possible strategy for bear peace, a servant came running up from the direction of the manor, looking flustered. “Young miss, it’s Master Keith...”

“E-Eh?! What happened to Keith?!” What could it be?

“...He has safely woken from his slumber,” the servant finished, smiling.

Although we had arranged for a doctor to tend to Keith on-site as soon as we had returned, his body was significantly weakened from his ordeal. He had used up more than his usual share of stamina and had been sleeping ever since. He would wake up sometimes, and we would exchange a few words. Even so, it seemed like he was in a bit of a daze, and he’d immediately fall back asleep. Things continued that way for a while.

According to the doctor, Keith’s body had recovered and he would surely wake up sometime soon. All we could do was wait.

“...I see. So he’s awake at last...” I heaved a sigh of relief. Although I was told that he’d be fine, I couldn’t help but worry at the fact that Keith remained asleep for all that time. “Well then, let’s go see Keith. Ah, he’ll probably be surprised if he suddenly sees you, Pochi. Go home for now, okay?”

With a prompt bark, the intelligent Pochi was soon snugly tucked away in my shadow. With my preparations complete, I headed toward where my beloved brother lay — having opened his eyes for the first time in days.

When I entered the room, I found Keith, who had been lying down all this time, sitting up in bed. His blue eyes were now fully open, and immediately focused on me as I went inside.

“Keith!” I bounded happily to Keith’s bedside and hugged him tight. “Keith! I’m so glad you’re all right... so glad...” I said, sniffling in between words as I held him.

“Big Sister... I do apologize for causing you to worry so. I would also like to thank you. For saving me,” Keith said, smiling faintly, his eyes brimming over with tears just like mine.

Then I started explaining what had happened on our journey to Keith, going over all the details from beginning to end. After all, he had been asleep all this time and wouldn’t know anything that had happened. But he did apparently vaguely recall the moment of his rescue.

As I continued hugging him, I told Keith about everything. About how Lady Larna, Prince Jeord, Sora, Maria, and I had set off in search of him, using the bear-shaped tool. Keith seemed very interested in the tale, although he seemed unsettled by what he heard at times. Nevertheless, he continued listening.

Eventually, the story moved to the point where we had found the new-money mansion. When I told Keith of how I had grabbed the swirling dark mist with my bare hands, he couldn’t contain his surprise. “...Big Sister. No matter the situation, that was clearly reckless,” he said, troubled.

“B-But...! I needed to get that mist out of the way for you to finally wake up!” Now that I was retelling the story, I started recalling that specific point in time. After I had peeled the dark mist off him, Keith, for some reason...

Before I knew it, I had let go of him, and was now a few steps away. Keith looked at me, surprised. “What is it, Big Sister...?”

“Um... well. You see... when you woke up at the mansion, it seemed like you were sleep-walking...? Or sleep-talking...” Yes — it was exactly that. Keith had definitely been half-asleep. That was why he had said something about a “dream.” I think Keith had just confused me with someone he liked.

But... should I even bring that up? He doesn’t seem to remember. I decided we should just bury those memories back in the darkness.

As Keith stared at my still-flustered self, he seemed to be momentarily lost in thought, and then — “I... sleepwalking. Huh?! Y-You mean to tell me that... that was not a dream?!” Apparently he had remembered everything. All the color drained from his face.

Oh no! I quickly tried to reassure him. “Um... you were half-asleep, and pretty dazed, so there was no helping it. You confused me for someone you like, right? It happens. But it’s fine! I’ve already forgotten about it. You can forget all about it too, Keith.”

“It happens”? Even I had a hard time convincing myself of that. But it had been said, and that was that. I looked earnestly at Keith, my face completely flushed.

“Forget...? All about it...?” Keith muttered.

“Y-Yes! Exactly. Let’s do that.” Yes, that’s for the best. If word got out that Keith had mistaken his adoptive sister for his lover and kissed her, it wouldn’t be good for his reputation. He would surely agree that this should be stuffed down the memory hole. Or so I thought...

“I refuse.”

“...Eh?”

Keith turned to me with a serious expression. “I refuse to forget about it. Nor will I pretend it never happened.”

“Keith...?”

Although I was some distance away from Keith, he was soon by my side. His blue eyes focused straight on me. “Perhaps I was indeed sleep-talking. But it was my first kiss, with the person I love. There is no possible way I could forget about something like that.”

“Eh? Um... what do you mean, Keith?” His first kiss, with the person he loved? If I followed that line of reasoning, the person Keith loved had to be...

“Ever since I was a child, Big Sister... no. Katarina... I’ve liked you. As a woman. I... love you,” Keith said, his face completely red.

Eh? Umm. Let me process this. So I am the person Keith loves...?

Hmm... well, I do love Keith too, he is very important to me. But, huh...? Did he say... “as a woman”? And that... he loves me? But that’s...

With that, I finally pieced together the jigsaw in my head. I felt my cheeks rapidly heating up. My heartbeat was violently increasing. “Eh? Ah. Uh...” I was at a complete loss for words. The only sounds to escape my lips were strange single syllables, uttered at the red-faced Keith.

And then, all of a sudden... a whole flock of people invaded this space.

“Keith, whatever do you think you’re doing? Confessing off the cuff? Katarina belongs to me.”

“I would ask that very same question of you, Prince Jeord! Whatever are you saying? Lady Katarina belongs to no one!”

“Yeah, Mary’s right. She doesn’t belong to you.”

“That’s right... Lady Katarina does not belong to anyone! Ah, Lady Katarina... I’ve brought some novels I highly recommend... perhaps you would enjoy them, too.”

“Sophia, Keith is the one who is ill, not Katarina. Perhaps your choice of get-well-soon gift is a little strange.”

“Ah... Well, I baked some treats, perhaps Master Keith would enjoy them?”

How long had they been waiting there? Suddenly, all the regular suspects had rushed into the room.

Jeord was soon by my side, faster than my eyes could see. He wrapped his arms around me, as if to separate me from Keith. “Katarina is mine, yes?” he whispered, softly but clearly into my ears.

My cheeks were at critical mass. My heartbeat was so loud, I felt like I would explode! I didn’t spend much time in Jeord’s arms, though, as Keith was soon trying to retrieve me from his clutches.

“That won’t do. I will not hand her over to you, Prince Jeord.”

“Oh? I see that you have finally learned to speak up, Keith...” Jeord said.

The two of them now glaring daggers at each other — with me sandwiched in between. Ugh! What was even going on? I don’t know anymore!

Maybe it was because I was in a panic, or maybe it was because the room had become so lively... or it may even have been in response to the strange sounds I’d made earlier. Before I knew it, Pochi had leapt out of my shadow, and was soon busy running circles around me and my friends. Between laps, he would stare at Alexander the bear, who was currently perched on Maria’s shoulder.

All I could do was stare at this portrait of chaos, with my jaw hanging open in a daze. It was then that I heard a familiar voice...

“Cleared the Keith Claes route, huh! One on each arm, hmm?”

It was as if, in my ear, I could hear the voice of my best friend from my previous life.