[Chapter 16] – It Won’t Entirely Be My Fault.
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I hammer my palm with my fist.

“If all we need is for VV and Robert to be at the festival at the exact time that the Scry boy shows up regardless of means then wouldn’t simply trapping them here work?”

That’s what I was going to say...”

I ignore Master’s slight grumble and continue to explain.

“When we first met her, you said that she ran away to cheer for her brother, right? And she told us that the reason she wanted to go back immediately was that she was worried that someone might notice that she was gone.

“But if we get rid of her cloak, her only way of hiding her identity, then that idea can be turned on its head.”

What would happen if suddenly the princess of the empire appeared all by herself in public? With her recognizable appearance, it would certainly cause quite a commotion.

—Even if there’s no real consequence for her if she gets caught, as long as she thinks that there is, that should be enough to motivate her to be more cautious and hide from the crowd until nighttime.

“How, exactly?”

“Rip it apart? We have the perfect person to do that for us don’t we?” 

In the distance, VV stumbles a bit and almost falls, but the hand that’s dragging her along continues on regardless of her well-being.

“And if she finds a replacement for it, then we can just make her lose that too. If they end up having to spend more time finding and losing means to hide her face than traveling, then we would effectively get the same results.”

“Um-hm, sounds good.”

Master nods and pushes himself up from the balcony and onto his feet. Then, we follow Robert and VV as they walk to a relatively secluded spot inside the Colosseum. 

—Eventually, we find the two standing face to face after the princess breaks free from Robert’s clutch as soon as they are alone.

“A-ah. Thank you for helping This One—I mean, thank you for your help, sir knight. Your intervention was truly appreciated.”

Despite the awkward situation, VV still conducts herself with formality. Though, that only makes it easier for the person in front of her to figure out her identity.

.....

“Are you the princess?”

After a moment of silence, Robert says that, causing the hooded-little girl’s shoulders to visibly tense up.

“Uh-um... I am not?”

“Aren’t the members of the loyal family [Restricted] from telling lies? Right, you mustn’t have taken any vow yet because of your age.”

“A-ahh…”

VV waves her hands about, at a loss of how to respond. On the other hand, even when he’s directly talking about the royal family who is literally this world’s gods, there isn’t a hint of reverence or respect in Robert’s tone.

—Surely, even VV notice that the man in front of her isn’t just a simple town guard.

“Master, this is our chance.”

Noticing an opportunity, I nudge Master with my elbow.

“Yes-yes. As you command.”

Master walks to Robert's side as Robert scans the young princess in front of him from top to bottom without saying anything.

“A-anyhow. It would be best if you return to your duty, I shall not be bothering you any further.”

VV quickly bows her head and says her goodbye, and without giving a chance for Robert to respond, turns around and begins to run away. 

However...

Just then…

—The world stops.

“Meru.”

And in that world of frozen time, Master puts his hand on Robert’s shoulder, and quietly whispers that name into his left ear. A name that, I think, holds some kind of significance to him.

“You always wondered why she had to die. Why they all had to die.”

Robert's eyes lock onto VV’s back. Despite being frozen in time, I can feel something stirring within them.

“The princess couldn’t possibly have the answer you want, and you shouldn’t direct your question toward her... shouldn’t condemn her. She’s young, innocent, naive; such a person doesn't deserve to be judged by the actions of her predecessor...”

Master circles around him, and whispers into his right ear.

“—But so was she.”

At that instant, the world resumes its rotation. Robert reaches forward fast with his right hand and grabs VV on the rim of her hood...

Quaaak—!

—And with the sound of clothes being ripped, VV jerks backward and falls to the ground, crying out in shock.

[Kyrias——0.000...75%——Divergence.]

—Good, now for the next step.

“M-my cloak!”

Holding her head with her hands, VV panics. She stares at the piece of dark cloth in Robert’s hand, but the man in knight armor remains expressionless.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”

“L-like this, how am I supposed to return to the castle before anyone notices—Ah! No, I mean… I… I..”

VV’s shoulder slowly drops as she realizes the trouble she’s in. She looks like she’s about to cry but is trying really hard to suppress her emotions.

—I feel bad for her, honestly.

“So I was right to think that you came to this place on your own?”

Because of VV’s slip of the tongue, it seems Robert's able to guess her circumstances. 

VV looks at him with widened eyes, realizes that there’s no point hiding it, then wraps her arms around her knees and begins to speak in a melancholic voice.

“Yes… I sneaked into the city today on my own accord. Perhaps you can say that I brought this upon myself...”

Robert goes silent again, contemplating what he should do with the girl in front of him. And just then...

“—Don’t you want to see for yourself what kind of person she is?”

Master whispers again into Robert’s right ear to direct his decision. This seems to do the trick, and Robert offers his hand to the girl sitting on the floor.

“If you want, I can help you find something to hide your face with for you.” 

VV looks up at him. Her round, bright-red eyes filled with subtle disbelief.

“You will?”

“It’s my fault for meddling anyway.”

VV continues to stare at Robert for a solid second. She then proceeds to get up on her own, pats some dust off her clothes, and politely addresses him with a courteous bow.

“I would be very thankful if you do, sir knight.”

Robert silently retracts his hand.

“Wait here. I’ll go see if I can get a mask or something for you.“

After watching him leave, VV crouches down again under the shadow of the Colosseum's pillar, leans against it, inspects her badly-tattered cloak, and lets out a sigh.

—And things are going according to plan.

“As long as you find a way to keep it that way.”

Master crouches down by VV’s side. Obviously, she doesn’t notice either of us, so he continues to talk to me, who’s standing on the other side of her, over her head.

“If Robert is able to find a mask for our little princess, then there would be nothing stopping them from walking out of here and all the way back to her castle. Even if the crowd slows them down, it wouldn’t take any longer than three hours to travel to the inner ring after they manage to get out of the middle ring. Which means you need to think of a way to keep them here.”

“If we have already gotten this far, then keeping them here for a while longer shouldn’t be that difficult.”

I lean against the concrete pillar. A smile forms on my lips.

“All we have to do is continue playing the role of tricksters.”

As for how exactly. I already have some ideas. So as Robert's walking around finding that mask for VV, Master and I discuss our plans and how we’re going to put them into action.

When Robert finally returns, VV receives a cheap-looking crayon-colored paper mask in the shape of a dragon from him.

“It was the smallest one I could find. All the other booths that sell these masks around the Colosseum were also too expensive.”

—And so, thanks to him being a cheapskate, we now have the perfect setup to execute our desired sequence of events.

First, Master convinces VV that instead of asking him to buy her a new mask, it wouldn’t be that much trouble to just constantly hold it against her face as she travels by whispering into her ear. 

“He seems like a nice person doesn’t he? Going out of his way to help someone he’s just met. We really shouldn’t bother him more than necessary."

"It's okay, sir knight… this will suffice."

Then when they immediately try to leave. To prevent them from going very far, we decide to take advantage of VV’s tendency to become easily startled. After all, she’s young; unfamiliar with her environment, and right now this place is basically the center of the world. 

With some timing and direction, we are able to make the two of them run into a pair of… something that looks like giant brown triangle-shaped balls of furs with mouths and feet (Master tells me they’re natives from Carinaru), and cause VV to freeze up and drop her mask on the ground.

“—Hey, what are those things in the corners of your eyes?”

“Ah!”

One of the fur-ball-monster-spirit-looking-thing-with-mouth-and-feet then steps on the paper mask, destroying it, and forcing them to quickly return to their starting point before attracting the crowd’s attention.

[Kyrias——0.000...80%——Divergence.]

While the first plan went very well. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t take long for them to find a replacement paper mask and try to leave again.

This time, VV even comes up with the bright idea of taking off her tattered cloak and using it to cover her face and hair for an extra layer of disguise—which means that the same trick won’t work a second time.

After some thinking, I also come up with an idea of my own. With the tournament going on, there are a few vendors that carry and deliver beverages from the outside and into the Colosseum. If we can take advantage of that, then we could more assuredly halt their progress.

Unfortunately, among all the people who sell drinks around the arena, not a single one of them has a reason to be anywhere near any of the Colosseum’s entrances. 

—Well, actually, I can think of one reason.

So I try asking Master if we could choose a specific person who ran out of their beverage to go find some from the stall outside.

“If their motivation for leaving the Colosseum is because they run out of drinks, then how would there be anything for them to drop on Robert and VV?”

—Alright, never mind. What if we just send the person away first and have the incident happen on their way back?

“That would—actually, that could work. If we also increase the time it takes for Robert to find another mask, that is.”

Fortunately, the issue can be easily solved by a slight timing adjustment. And once we figured that part out, the rest is a simple matter of execution. 

We choose a young human girl named Sol Hart to be our drink carrier from a few available names on a list compiled by the Grand Archive. She’s about 25, average-looking, single, works for a local tavern named Whirling Stone, and has an already existing record of being clumsy.

We wait for all three of them to line up near the opening of one of the Colosseum’s east entrances, make sure that the height she would fall down isn’t enough to cause any injuries, then cause her to trip.

Plank—! 

What I didn’t expect was for Robert to just smash the glass of beer to pieces with the back of his fist—on reflex at that. But the result is still what we intended. VV gets soaked and Robert has to drag her away from the crowd that the little accident attracts back to the secluded spot in the Colosseum.

With her clothes soaking wet, VV’s morale also dampens. Master and I see an opportunity to hammer the point home. 

—So he whispers into her ear.

“At this point, it would be easier to just wait out until the sun starts to go down. Besides…”

Master points his finger at Robert, who’s standing with his arms crossed away from them. His hair similarly soaked after they both tried to wash off the stains earlier.

“Don’t you feel bad about dragging him with you into your childish trouble?”

VV looks at Robert. Sympathy reflects in her eyes.

She echoes those same words to him. And finally...

[Kyrias——0.000...90%——Divergence.]

—The stage is set, and it’s time for the night festival.

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