421 - Giselle's Perspective - The Useless White Knight 12
Since the visit of the elderly lady who called herself Carlotta, it had become a little easier to get Christina to exercise. Christina seemed to like the puppy plush toy Carlotta had brought, and now simply inviting her with "Let's take the puppy for a walk" would make her walk around the sunroom. At this rate, she should be able to regain her strength little by little.
...Edgar is irritated again today.
Carlotta had reminded them of reality and driven them away, and for a few days the number of guests seeking Christina decreased, but now it had returned to normal. None of them had managed to win Christina over like Carlotta and get invited into the birdcage, but as long as this commotion continued, Edgar's irritation would probably persist as well. The maids with good looks like me who sometimes appeared before visitors were not so badly affected, but the servants who never showed themselves in public were beaten until their faces swelled up, or had their finger bones broken.
"Was bringing Sistina to the Imperial capital a mistake?"
Guests came day after day, and all of them were after Christina. Edgar explained that he had rescued his niece who had been kidnapped and gone missing, and was now protecting her, but the truth was the opposite. Christina was a victim that Edgar himself had kidnapped. Normally one would want to hide a kidnapped victim, but Christina's lovely features did not allow for that. It was Edgar who, instead of confining Christina, dressed her up and displayed her in a birdcage in bad taste. Whether he prepared a sunny room so she could be a little more comfortable, or whether he simply wanted to gaze at Christina's face in a bright place, it did not matter now. Edgar was also the one who placed the birdcage by a window visible from outside the grounds. Even if nobles, their curiosity piqued by Christina's face, came swarming in, it was all Edgar's fault.
"Has the welcome from the Sage of the Tower still not come? Without the Emperor's permission or an invitation from the tower, just approaching that tower is an act of treason."
"The Sage is a bit easygoing, you see. The last time I saw him... he said something about having found a promising method to draw out lost spirit arts, and that he would be busy for a while so I should not show my face."
Five years should have passed since then, but Jasper tilted his head, wondering if the Sage was still researching those so-called spirit arts. As for me, I wanted to tilt my head over something else, but I held back.
...So Edgar was not the mastermind behind the kidnapping?
As I eavesdropped on their conversation, this question surfaced. I had been certain that Edgar kidnapped Christina to make her read Japanese, but it seemed he planned to take her somewhere. When they said "the tower," the "Dawn Tower" being built atop the Great Erath Mountain Range immediately came to mind. Was that the tower they meant? I occasionally looked out the window, wondering if it might be visible from the Imperial capital located halfway up the Great Erath Mountain Range, but whether the summit was in a blizzard or not, I had never once even seen the shadow of a tower.
...If Christina-sama is going to be moved, I wonder if I can go with her?
Lately, I felt that even Edgar had come to understand how to handle Christina. Following the discovery that the same perfume as Hermine's could attract Christina's interest, the puppy plush toy had made guiding her to a certain extent easier. And this guiding using the puppy plush toy was effective even with people other than me. She still ignored Edgar and Jasper's words, of course, but when the other maids called out "Let us go walk the puppy," Christina would walk. Guiding Christina was not something only I could do.
If that was the case, it would be about time for me to be disposed of.
Originally I was supposed to have been brought here as a hostage against Christina, but against Christina as she was now, a hostage meant nothing. If anything, taking away the puppy plush toy would probably be more effective than taking me hostage.
...But I was told to stay put and wait.
Was it really enough to just wait for rescue? Christina's pickup seemed to be nearby, but there had been no contact since the Black Dog (Oscar) brought the letter. I had thought that as long as I trusted the letter and prioritized Christina's health and safety, that would be enough. But a feeling of impatience had also begun to stir within me, wondering if I should not take some action myself.
...Maybe I should just try taking Christina-sama outside the residence grounds.
If it was difficult to infiltrate the grounds and someone was watching the residence, then if I could take her outside the grounds, someone might come to receive Christina. Even if taking Christina outside the grounds ended in failure, there was no need to worry about Christina herself. I might be disposed of by Edgar, but even Edgar should not be able to harm Christina. He kidnapped her to use her, so there was no way he would threaten her life.
If I was going to be disposed of anyway, maybe it was alright to try something reckless just once. After a few days of thinking such things, a somewhat different sort of visitors appeared at the residence.
The visitors over the past days had all been well-dressed gentlemen, but today's visitors were different. A knight wearing impractical, decorative silver-white armor and a crimson mantle, similar to what White Knights wore when they cared only about appearances, had arrived, along with ten soldiers who looked like they had only been brought along for menial labor. I thought the soldiers were for menial labor because they were carrying a small cage that could barely fit one person. The knight, of course, came empty-handed.
...More of a birdcage than a cage? It is terribly small compared to Christina-sama's birdcage, though.
Compared to the birdcage where Christina spent her days, it was a small birdcage, but it was still spacious enough to hold birds. My thought that a person could fit in it was not wrong.
...No.
The birdcage the soldiers had brought was, indeed, a "cage." I realized this because the knight opened his mouth.
"We are imperial envoys from His Majesty Emperor Edeltroute. The living doll that has been causing such a stir in the castle town of late is to be presented, if I may be so bold, to His Majesty Emperor Edeltroute. Transfer the doll into the birdcage immediately."
There was no one present who could defy the knight shouting "Where is the key to the birdcage?" Since the imperial envoy said it "has been decided to be presented," it meant the Emperor had given the order to Edgar, I supposed. He wanted to see the girl reputed to be beautiful.
I did not think Edgar would comply quietly, so it had probably taken the form of a seizure via imperial envoy. In the Zugall Empire, the Emperor's word was absolute. Even Edgar must have been unable to defy this, and so Christina was taken from him.
Perhaps to confirm the situation, Jasper ran out of the room. With soldiers having come all the way into the sunroom, I could not believe Edgar was unaware, but even if Edgar protested the knights' outrages claiming he "did not know," they would likely be ignored. That was what the Zugall Empire was like. Those at the top did not consider the circumstances of those below. In a way, it was the same as Edgar taking his frustrations out on the servants. The only difference this time was that Edgar was the one being trampled on.
"Handing Sistina over to Edeltroute... what were you thinking...!"
It was rare for Jasper to raise his voice, I thought vacantly, staring at the now-empty birdcage without Christina. Christina's pickup was supposed to be watching the residence, but had news reached Leonardo that Christina had been taken to the Imperial castle? If the news had not reached him, I might need to think of a way to inform them from here. But as I kept thinking about how to do it, no good ideas came to me.
...I really am useless when it counts.
It was the same back then, I recalled the day Christina was kidnapped. Kalisa, despite being just a maid, had fought desperately to protect Christina, but I had only hidden in the shadows and trembled. When Christina was punched and knocked away, when Kalisa picked up the hatchet and swung it down at the men, I had only watched in silence.
"It cannot be helped since His Majesty Emperor Edeltroute gave the order. His Majesty the Emperor was aware of Sistina's origins, you know."
...What?
It seemed the Emperor knew that Christina was a kidnapped girl. If he knew her origins, then he probably also knew she was Leonardo's sister and a person from the Kingdom of Ivizia. Knowing that, he was still taking Christina from Edgar. Considering the attitude of the knight who had carried Christina away without allowing any objection, there was little hope that Christina would be returned to the Kingdom of Ivizia through the Emperor's hands. If he knew her origins, there was also the possibility that he knew Christina was a reincarnator who could read Japanese.
"His Majesty Emperor Edeltroute is also aware of who Sistina is. He probably will not do anything reckless."
"Edeltroute did it twenty years ago... or was it nearly thirty years ago now. He is the fool who killed a reincarnator who could read Japanese, fully knowing they were a reincarnator."
"You go too far, Gaspar."
Edgar's voice dropped an octave. Perhaps sensing this, the maid waiting in the corner of the room straightened her back. This was a bad sign. When Edgar's mood soured, it was directed at me and the maids.
...So Edgar also knew the Emperor was a fool who would kill even a reincarnator.
He knew, which was why he was putting on a calm face for Jasper, but he was probably panicking inside. Christina, whom he had risked so much to kidnap, had been snatched away by a fool who might casually kill her despite knowing her importance. I did not know what he had wanted Christina to read, but depending on the Emperor's rampage, Edgar's plans could go down together.
"Sistina was taken, but as a reward I received permission to head for the Dawn Tower. Now I can meet the Sage of the Tower."
"Without Sistina, going to the tower is meaningless."
From Jasper's words, it seemed the Japanese writing he wanted Christina to read was in the "Dawn Tower." The fact that the Emperor had granted permission to go to a tower where just approaching without permission was an act of treason should have been a cause for joy, but Edgar going to the "Dawn Tower" alone would achieve nothing. Christina, who could read Japanese, was in the Imperial castle.
Perhaps deciding the discussion was going nowhere, Jasper silently burst out of the sunroom. As I watched the maids flee out of the room as if chasing after his back, I noticed Edgar fidgeting with his finger. When I say finger, there was no finger there on Edgar. It was the finger that Kalisa had bitten off, which he usually hid by stuffing cotton into his glove. Edgar fidgeting with that spot meant he was in the worst mood I had ever seen.
And in this place, the only person left for Edgar to vent his irritation on was me.