Leaving the council room, Mila sighed weakly. Not because she was tired of fighting, or couldn’t come to terms with Eugene’s order.
She simply thought, So I’ve got to take on those guys again, huh?
In spring she had a glaring contest with a Muozinel army at a border fortress, and in summer she fought one in Brune. It was all too reasonable for her to be fed up fighting them even during winter.
“──Mila.”
Hearing her nickname called, Mila looked back over her shoulder, just to find Tigre staring at her with a worried face.
Tigre asked with a calm voice, “Is something worrying you?”
“It’s nothing so exag──” Breaking off at that point, Mila fully turned around, looking straight up to Tigre. “Did I have such an expression?”
“Yes, you did. It might sound a bit vague, but I felt like you weren’t acting like yourself, Mila.”
“You’re quite calm about this, aren’t you?”
Tigre laughed, and ransacked his hair, “I had the lovely chance to fully experience being busy on all fronts in Brune.”
Mila smiled at that. Thinking back on it, she remembered that she had accompanied him on various occasions back then.
“There’s nothing to worry about. Please brew me some of your tea again, once everything has been settled.”
Without answering, Mila simply gazed at Tigre, but suddenly she grabbed the youth’s hand.
“I’m going to borrow him for a moment, okay?”
Those words were more or less directed at Elen. Leaving the other three behind dumbstruck, Mila walked away through the long hall, pulling Tigre along. The passing civil officials and court ladies didn’t pay any attention to the two, likely too focused on their own work.
Spotting a deserted garden, Mila headed into it. This garden wasn’t anything you’d describe as extensive. Several potted plants were lined up, and a variety of flowers such as snowdropspodsnéžnik, yellow pheasant’s eyes, and winter violetsfialka created a path to use for visitors. Because the ceiling had been designed as an atrium, the noon sun poured its gentle light onto the flowers.
Mila stopped walking, and turned around. The youth seemed surprised by Mila’s sudden actions, but he looked at her with an expression, making it clear that she probably had some kind of reason for it.
──Although he pulls such a face, he always puts all his power into protecting what he wants to protect, doesn’t he? It’s not because he’s strong or because he possesses many things. He’s desperate because he truly considers them as precious. He persists through willpower.
I got attracted to him because of that attitude. His willpower made my heart throb. And I learned to consider his gaze as something dear. The more I got to know myself, the more my feelings stirred, filling my chest with warmth.
At this point Mila noticed that she was still holding the youth’s right hand, but she didn’t make any attempts to let go. She knew that there existed a difference in their standings. For this reason, she believed this to be a fitting distance.
But.
Mila pulled her eyes off the youth, looking at the flowers with a sidelong glance. Once she thought what if, she tried to lift her face while staring at the ground, but before Tigre’s face entered her visual field, she lowered her eyes to the ground again, her cheeks reddening.
While feeling nervous for no particular reason, Tigre silently waited for her next words.
Mila fixed her eyes on Tigre’s right hand, one trained through use during hunts and battle. The many white scars on its fingers told a tale how he had used them to shoot countless arrows. Mila gently wrapped up the hand of her beloved with both hers. It was bigger than hers, felt rugged and dry, and emitted a mysterious warmth.
A smile formed on Mila’s lips. Looking at him, Ludmila Lourie called his name, “──Tigre,” and then allowed her feelings to flow out of her mouth as if a dam holding back her emotions had broken, “I like you. I love you.”
At the moment she blurted this out, her cheeks flushed crimson out of nervousness and exaltation, and her eyes became slightly moist. Her small hands clenched Tigre’s hand slightly stronger than moments ago. The sense of liberation after finally having confessed, and the feeling of tension over finally having confessed alternately assailed her heart, causing her to rather tighten down on Tigre’s hand even further.
On the other hand, Tigre felt so confused that he didn’t even take any notice of the pain in his hand, standing stock still on the spot like a statue. Her confession came out of the blue for the youth. He had known that Mila thought of him well. He had also felt happy about it. But, ultimately he had expected that good will to be an emotion as Vanadis and comrade-in-arms. Or to be more precise, he had decided to think so. If he took their respective positions into account, that was a correct decision. Mila also avoided to clearly voice it out, even while acting somewhat bold at times.
However, she had overcome her inner conflicts and mental barriers, confessing her own feelings at long last.
──Seeing how Mila has been so honest with me, I must answer in kind. No matter what result it might bring about.
After resolving himself, Tigre was about to speak up, but Mila got a head start on him, sharply telling him, “──Wait.”
Having been beaten to the punch, Tigre held his tongue. At last Mila let go of his hand.
“Hearing an answer…it’s okay for that to not be now.”
Without understanding what she meant, Tigre stared at the blue-haired Vanadis.
Mila asked him with an innocent smile, reminding one of a child that had pulled off a prank, “However, just tell me this: Does it make you happy knowing that I like you?”
Although he wavered how he should react to this, Tigre still nodded. That much was doubtlessly true. Maybe he should have shaken his head when considering Elen, Titta, and Regin, but he couldn’t lie to Mila who had frankly bared her feelings in front of him.
“Thanks.” Mila said, putting all the emotions raging in her into those words.
──That was scary… But, for a confession to be this much…
At the time she confessed, a nervousness she had never experienced even on the cruelest battlefields pierced her spine. When she managed to say all she wanted to say, she got so overjoyed that she felt like shouting with exultation.
The entire confession being this much of an emotional trip was a precious experience for her. Right now she didn’t care about her and Tigre’s positions. Those were things that Sofy could ponder about afterwards.
“Well then, I’m off. ──I’m…counting on you.”
◆◇◆
Mila walked through the palace’s corridors with Sofy while pulling a sour face. As soon as she had stepped out of the garden after having finished her confession, Elen, Lim, and Sofy awaited her. Elen had looked disappointed, Lim’s face was as unsociable as ever, and Sofy was smiling.
Leaving aside Lim, it was next to impossible that Elen and Sofy would silently accept her snatching Tigre away in front of their eyes. But then again, even Elen didn’t interrogate Mila about what they had done in the garden, and this open-mindedness of hers allowed the two to avoid conflict.
Mila and Sofy separated from Tigre, Lim, and Elen, and headed outside the palace. They had to return to their respective principalities as fast as possible to confront the Muozinel army.
“Do you believe that Kureys is going to be the enemy general?”
“That’s very unlikely.” Sofy denied Mila’s question, asked in a casual manner. “It’s unthinkable for that 『Red Beard』 to attack our country in winter while his mental wound over having been defeated by Brune hasn’t healed yet. It’s probably someone looking to obtain deeds of arms to strengthen their position in their succession struggle.”
“Makes sense.” Mila nodded.
Both of them had fought the Muozinel on many occasions ever since becoming Vanadis. It was child’s play for them to see through this much. They briefly conferred over the numbers and composition of soldiers, and what roads to use. Just around the time they exited the palace, they had mostly finished talking about practical business.
Mila only broached the topic of her confessing to Tigre – after thoroughly hesitating whether to do so – when they arrived at Sofy’s mansion. It wasn’t as though Mila had asked her to, but Sofy had yielded her turn in confessing to Tigre to her. Considering that, she couldn’t afford to not bring Sofy up to date.
After blinking in surprise and commenting, “Oh my,” Sofy honored her friend’s courage with a smile, “Congratulations, Mila.”
“It’s not…like it’s something deserving congratulations. I didn’t receive an answer either.” Mila mumbled under her breath while making sure to not look at Sofy’s face.
While watching her behavior with a gentle look, Sofy shook her head, “That’s not true. Having been able to properly tell him was important. Besides──”
Suddenly Sofy’s smile turned into an impish one. Noticing that change, Mila looked up to her with suspicion written all over her face, “Besides…what?”
“I think I can finally put into practice what I wanted to do. The five of us ─ me, you, Elen, Liza, and Olga ─ are going to bestow some kind of title and position to Tigre. It won’t hold any substantial power, but it’ll serve as something like a reason for him to come to Zhcted.”
“There’s no way that something like that will be allowed. In the first place, under what kind of pretext…” Mila rolls her eyes.
Sofy giggled, “The pretext doesn’t matter. In the instant it became us five, it’ll count as a political maneuver.”
Mila covered her mouth in reflex. Five Vanadis, all ranking next in position to the king, would bestow it to an important person of a foreign country. She had no doubt that this might be interpreted as a political maneuver
“If it was done by one or two, it might be regarded as love or affection, but with five Vanadis…”
“But, was there any need to wait for me to confess?” Mila tilted her head in confusion. Mila thought that she’d have agreed to this if Sofy had consulted with her about this before her confession. She was certain that the other three wouldn’t oppose it either.
Sofy shrugged her shoulders, “If I had done this, I’m sure you’d have used this political maneuver to hide your own feelings. It’d have been convenient to do so. That’s why it was indispensable for having you become honest about your own feelings at least once.”
Mila couldn’t reply with anything but a blush.
◎
Six days after she had slipped out of the royal palace Figneria Alshavin returned to her governmental residence in Legnica. With many horses prepared in advance, Figneria had continued to race across the roads, switching from one horse to the next without allowing herself much of a rest. The closer she had come to Legnica, the colder had the wind become. The distant mountains were covered with a thick layer of snow, tolling the arrival of a typical, snowy winter.
Still, when she entered the residence built by piling up sand-colored stones with white marble mixed in every now and then, she didn’t seem especially tired. Figneria ordered the male servant, who welcomed her with obvious surprise on his face, to assemble the chief military officers and civil officials.
“We’re going to war.”
◆◇◆
Since she was told that it’d take around half a koku for the chief vassals to assemble, Figneria used the time to take a bath and change her clothes. She affixed the twin swords with the golden and vermilion blades to her waist.
Once Figneria lightly tapped Bargren’s scabbard from above, the two swords replied by emanating a faint warmth. When she had tried to call these two to herself during her escape of the capital, this draconic tool had truly appeared. For Figneria, these two small swords were now precious partners.
Since she knew that fatigue was still left in her body, she only ate soup before heading to the council room. When she entered, all chief vassals of Legnica had assembled. Eyes filled with various emotions such as anxiety, tension, disbelief, suspicion, and trust were directed at the black-haired Vanadis, but Figneria calmly disregarded those, surveying everyone present.
“I mentioned it before, but we’re going to war. The opponent will be Leitmeritz.”
The vassals stirred. One of them stepped in front of Figneria with resolve dyeing his face.
“Lady Vanadis, could you tell us about the reason? During the time of your predecessor, we had a close, friendly relationship with Leitmeritz…”
“I know that.” Harshly interrupting his words, Figneria added, “You’ve heard that I challenged the Vanadis of Lebus to a fight and was placed under house arrest in the royal palace, right?”
The vassals all remained silent. Their expressions told her that they were aware of this.
“Learning through an informant that Earl Pardu is trying to take the crown while being assisted by Elenoara of Leitmeritz, Elizavetta of Lebus, and Sofya of Polesia, I challenged Elizavetta to a fight.” Figneria explained as if the information from Kazakov was plain truth.
Shock clung to her vassal’s faces. All they could do was listening carefully with sweat visible on their foreheads. After all, they also knew about the close exchanges between Eugene and Elen.
“But, the Vanadis of Lebus and the Vanadis of Leitmeritz have a terribly bad relationship…”
“You’re forgetting that they fought side-by-side against Olgert Kazakov last winter.” Figneria immediately retorted.
This was a piece of news she had heard from Valentina.
“Are we going to invade Leitmeritz then?”
Figneria shook her head at the middle-aged official’s question, “We’ll pretend to attack Lebus, luring the enemy into Legnica.”
Figneria had an official arrange a map, and spread it out atop the table.
“I know how the Vanadis of Leitmeritz ticks. If you consider her exchange with my predecessor, she likely won’t do anything like thoughtlessly devastating Zhcted either. However, that girl went against His Highness the Prince. We must defeat her. Still──”
The vassals thought that this was a fairly long speech considering it was her. They were recalling that their current lord was a woman of very few words, saying only the least necessary.
Figneria let her eyes wander across her retainers once more.
“I don’t intend to force those who do not wish to fight. Come forward since I will have you protect this governmental residence.”
After a short moment, all vassals went down on their knees, bowing their heads. During the approximately one year since she had become a Vanadis, Figneria had continued to demonstrate her excellency as warrior and capability as lord. Moreover, some recalled that Elen, who had visited this residence at the end of autumn, had a clash of spirits with Figneria.
This spelled the start of Legnica going to war against Leitmeritz. With the ambitions of Figneria, the ringleader, remaining hidden.
◎
—————– End of Part 3 —————–
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