"Your Highness!! Lieutenant Colonel Yeager!!"
An urgent cry rang out from the top of the stairs. On the [Minimap] as well, numerous green dots were pouring down toward the basement all at once.
"Now that's some artistic timing."
Barging in after everything was already over. It seemed the police and the military arriving late was a universal constant.
"Allies are coming, Your Highness. You're safe now. Let's go."
I was just about to turn around.
"W-wait……."
Ailet grabbed my sleeve, her voice hoarse.
"Your Highness?"
"N-not…… looking like this……."
She looked back and forth at her mud-caked bare feet and bit her lip. Apparently, she did not want to show such an undignified appearance in front of her subordinates.
I let out a short sigh.
"Excuse me."
"Huh……?"
I bent down and lifted Ailet up, supporting the backs of her knees and her back.
A princess carry.
"Ah……!"
As her body suddenly floated into the air, Ailet gasped and reflexively wrapped her arms around my neck.
"W-what do you think you're doing……!"
"Her Imperial Highness lost not a single shred of dignity even amid the terrorist attack, but unfortunately, her shoes were damaged, and so she withdrew under the escort of a mere lieutenant colonel. ……Wouldn't this be better for appearances?"
Ailet's face flushed bright red. Unable to find any words to retort, she simply lay quietly in my arms and lowered her head.
No, she seemed to.
"……No."
"……?"
A small movement stirred in my arms. Ailet shook her head. Her slender hands pushed against my chest.
"Put me down."
"Your Highness. Are you saying you intend to walk out like this? Your ankle is injured, and you are barefoot."
"Exactly."
Ailet stubbornly set her feet on the floor. With a jerk of her chin, she pointed toward a corner.
There lay her two high heels, rolling in the dust. One of them had its heel snapped clean off.
"Put them on me."
"……Pardon?"
"I want to walk out proudly on my own two feet. An heir to the throne being carried in the arms of a mere officer would be a disgrace to the imperial family."
Though her body was still trembling faintly, the look in her eyes had already recovered its distinctive arrogance.
'Analyze status.'
[Name: Ailet von Lohengart]
[Status: Pride activated, bravado, unconscious dependence on Max Yeager]
[Emotion: I hate being treated like some pitiful princess. I am a ruler.]
The moment our allies arrived, she picked her mask back up.
The instant she became certain she would not die, her pride recovered just as quickly.
Then had the effect of [Charming Eloquence] already worn off?
[Emotion: Even so, what he did when he touched my leg just now… ugh…!]
[Hidden Desire: I will make this man mine, no matter what.]
Not at all.
Even though I had been so rude to her just moments ago. Even though I had lifted her skirt and tried to reach my hand all the way to the inside of her thigh, there was not the slightest hint of anger toward me.
Far from having my head cut off for lèse-majesté, she was subtly angling to borrow my hands again.
She was desperately pretending to have regained her composure, but the tips of her ears were still flushed red.
'She has a surprisingly cute side.'
Swallowing a laugh inwardly, I picked up her two high heels from the dust-covered floor.
Then I took the heel of the intact shoe in my hand and twisted it with force.
Crack!
"Ah……!"
The hard heel broke off with a dull snap. In an instant, the pair had become strange flats with no heels on either side.
Kneeling on one knee, I carefully took her mud-stained bare foot in my hands.
"Mm……."
Her pale instep still held some warmth from the massage earlier. I brushed the dust from her foot with the sleeve of my uniform, then slowly slipped on the shoe with its heel torn off.
"Now the heights match, so you should be able to walk somehow."
"……."
"Please try standing."
When I held out my hand, Ailet looked back and forth between my hand and my face for a moment before lightly placing her hand on mine. She pushed herself away from the wall and took a step.
Stagger.
"Ow……!"
Even if the heels had been made even, her sprained ankle was not going to heal in an instant. I reached out and supported Ailet by the waist as she swayed.
"Well, it seems walking alone will be difficult after all."
"……Be quiet."
She gripped my shoulder tightly and clenched her teeth.
"Support me. Whatever happens, I am walking out on my own feet."
"As you command."
The imperial princess leaning on me more than halfway, and the officer covered in dust and blood.
Like that, we left the basement together.
*
The surface we returned to was, quite literally, a complete mess.
Shattered marble pillars, blood pooled thickly over the red carpet, and corpses wearing red armbands sprawled here and there.
"Your Highness! Are you unharmed, Your Highness!"
The captain of the guard prostrated himself on the floor the moment he saw the imperial princess. The guards behind him all lowered their heads as one.
"……Useless things."
What fell upon them was only the imperial princess's cold voice.
"Captain of the guard."
"Y-yes! Please give your command, Your Highness……!"
"While explosives were going off beneath my feet, what exactly were you bastards doing?"
Cold sweat poured from the guard captain's forehead like rain.
"W-we have committed a mortal sin! The rats came through the sewers……."
"I do not want to hear excuses."
Ailet habitually raised her right hand. The hand that brushed back her disheveled hair looked somehow empty.
Without a word, I rose from where I was and picked up the red feather fan that had fallen to the floor, then held it out to her. A little dust clung to it, but it was not broken.
Slide.
As Ailet accepted the fan, her gaze reflexively turned to me.
"Ah, thank you. Lieutena…."
Flinch.
A soft tone, completely different from the voice with which she had been despising the guard captain. The moment her eyes met mine, her shoulders trembled and her cheeks faintly flushed. Ripples spread through those ice-cold eyes.
[Name: Ailet von Lohengart]
[Status: Heart rate rapidly rising, body temperature rising, mild dizziness]
[Emotion: I have to forget it… why does he keep bothering me so much…!]
Rustle—
She spread the red feathers into the shape of a fan and hid her face, which had lost its composure.
"A-ahem. …Ehem."
After clearing her throat awkwardly and fanning herself with practiced motions for a while,
[Emotion: …I have to calm down. What's important right now is….]
Perhaps thanks to that familiarity, she quickly cooled the heat from her face.
"Phew…."
With one last deep breath, she turned back to the guard captain and spoke.
"You should understand that the only reason your heads are still attached to your necks is entirely thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Yeager here."
A cold rebuke spilled from her red lips, and the gazes around us all turned toward me at once.
"How is it that men who call themselves the pride of the Empire… are inferior to a single black-haired officer?"
"……!"
"If not for Lieutenant Colonel Yeager, my blood would be soaking that carpet right now. Am I wrong?"
"W-we would have nothing to say even if we died! If you would only hand down your punishment……!"
"His Majesty, my father, will personally decide your punishment later. Wash your necks and wait."
It was then.
"W-wait. Your Highness! Are you all right!"
The entrance to the corridor grew noisy, and the heavy sound of military boots barged in.
It was Marshal Ludwig.
He roughly shoved past the guards and strode forward. On his usually composed face, there was a rare mixture of shock and fury.
"Marshal."
Ailet folded her fan as she greeted him.
"You are late. The situation has already ended."
"I have no excuse! To think those rats would infiltrate through the sewers……! I have deployed the military police to search every inch for those behind this."
Ludwig checked on the imperial princess's safety, then immediately turned his gaze.
There I stood, covered in dust, wearing a bloodstained uniform.
"……Yeager."
Ludwig called me.
"Yes, Marshal."
"You mad bastard."
The first thing out of his mouth was a curse.
"If not for you, not only the Empire, but the Republic and the entire continent would have turned into a sea of blood. You just prevented a world war. Truly."
'Analyze status.'
[Name: Ludwig von Stahlberg]
[Status: Relief, pride]
[Emotion: As expected, my eyes weren't wrong. This fellow is something else.]
The marshal's eyes gleamed. He was looking me over like a blacksmith who had obtained a famed blade.
"Are you injured?"
"Aside from inhaling a bit of dust, I'm fine."
"Stubborn bastard. I hear you cooked three assassins all by yourself? With a single pistol?"
"They were unlucky. They happened to crawl into a narrow passage."
When I answered calmly, Ludwig shook his head and burst into a hollow laugh.
"Luck? You call that luck? Even a passing dog would laugh. Hey, captain of the guard!"
"Y-yes! Marshal!"
The guard captain, who had been prostrating himself, sprang up.
"Did you hear that? While a mere lieutenant colonel protected Her Imperial Highness with a single pistol, you bastards stood around uselessly doing nothing. Aren't you ashamed?"
"I-I have no excuse……!"
"Get your ass to the stockade immediately! Disappear from my sight!"
At Ludwig's roar, the guard captain and the sentries fled.
"Lieutenant Colonel!!"
"Max!"
What followed were familiar voices.
Seraphina and Hanna. They had broken through the cordon and were running toward me in a panic.
"Eek…! B-blood!"
"Call a medic at once…!"
"You're late, idiots. The situation's already over."
I spoke in a deliberately light tone and tapped them on the head.
"Hmph. What a sight."
The one who approached with her arms crossed was Erika.
"Everyone's making such a fuss. As if this man would die so easily."
Her words were curt, but her gaze was persistently scanning my body.
'Analyze status.'
[Name: Erika von Stahlberg]
[Status: Relief, jealousy, awe]
[Emotion: I saw Father praise him…. I'm the only one falling behind again. It's irritating.]
"That's right, Captain Erika. Do I look like I'd go down that easily?"
"Who said anything? I just…. said it because you look like a mess."
The Empire's most beautiful female officers surrounded me. Instead of the smell of gunpowder, what faintly drifted through the air was their scent and their worried gazes.
However.
Hiss—.
From somewhere, the acrid smell of cigar smoke suddenly wafted over.
At the same time, the air behind my back sank heavily.
The guards around us, who had been making a commotion, fell silent all at once as if by agreement.
A chilling pressure, as though a massive beast had been let loose among us.
And at my ear, a deep, low voice clung to me.
"Heh heh, you're quite popular, Lieutenant Colonel Yeager."