Volume 3 Chapter 0: Prologue

Part 1 - Vagabond Arc Ash Crowned Princess of Slaughter III Chapter 4 - Ash Crowned Princess First Part Prologue

Lake Mel boasted the biggest size in Claydale Kingdom. The majestic nature and scenery that could be seen at that late was widely known as a very scenic tourist attraction even in the whole kingdom.

Lake Mel and its surrounding had been under direct control of Melrose House since time immemorial when the house was still a royal family. The branch house Melcis with the rank of viscount was the one that was entrusted with the management of the land. That day, the house welcomed a certain "girl" as an adopted daughter.

「Lady Alicia, the mansion is coming into view now. Are you feeling tired?」

「Yes-, I'm fine-, thank you very much-!」

Inside a horse carriage that was running on the road alongside the lake, a young man wearing butler outfit talked to the girl called Alicia. She replied to his words with a wide smile.

She had blonde hair that was slightly tinged red. Her blue eyes looked closer to black. Strong will could be felt from those eyes, enhancing the loveliness of the girl who was still ten years old.

「So that mansion will become "my" house-!」

Alicia's eyes sparkled seeing the large mansion that was standing at the lake shore that was visible from inside the carriage.

She was wearing a well tailored suit even though it was just a travelling outfit. She seemed to be a noble seeing that she had a maid and a butler taking care of her, but as a noble she looked younger than her conduct suggested.

If she was a noble, she should have trained in sorcery since childhood and increased her mana capacity. It would cause her growth to speed up, making her look two or three years older than her actual age, but Alicia's appearance really looked no different than ten years old commoner child.

But there was a reason why she looked so young.

Alicia was originally a noble but, she became an orphan due to a certain circumstance. She had been living in an orphanage together with commoner orphans until this age.

"Alicia" whose whereabouts became unknown was finally found. Until it became confirmed that she was the right person, a manager who was dispatched from the noble house stayed in the orphanage and gave her education to some degree, but as expected someone without any basic training couldn't possibly be given advanced education like sorcery. As the result Alicia only managed to learn the fundamental of sorcery and she was unable to obtain enough mana to make her body grew rapidly.

「Umm......what's the matter? Is there something on my face-?」

Alicia realized that the young servant was looking on her face. She touched her face while peering into his face with an upward gaze. It made the young man smiled wryly.

「No, I'm just thinking that Alicia-sama is quite petite.」

「Eee-, is that so? Even my current height only came from my recent growth spurt you know-? I was even smaller when I was still in the orphanage-!」

Because the previous caretaker abused the orphans under her care, the children there had late growth. For her to be able to grow to similar size with ordinary commoner might meant that learning the basic sorcery had some effect for her.

Alicia scotched closer as though to press her "grown body" on the young man inside the cramped carriage. The young man looked troubled and took some distance from her. At the same time the maid who was sitting at the opposite side spoke up to her.

「Lady Alicia. A lady shouldn't come into contact with the opposite sex so freely like that.」

「Ee~......but, it's just mister butler.」

「It doesn't matter whether they are butler or servant, they are still male. My lady will become a daughter of Viscount Melcis, so you have to keep a proper distance with the opposite sex. If not my lady will be in trouble when you come out to society.」

「Ye~es」

Alicia's hands let go of the young man's arm reluctantly after the maid rebuked her.

Inside the carriage, there was a maid and a butler other than Alicia.

Originally with such lineup, a noble lady like Alicia normally should sit beside the maid, but she obstinately demanded to sit beside the young man.

The siblings who were chosen for the role as Alicia's servants as well as bodyguards during her travel from the orphanage until this place looked at each other. They communicated using only their gaze while recalling the troubled expression and the words of their grandfather who was ordered to manage the orphanage.

『There were signs of Alicia-sama getting bullied by her fellow girls who were jealous with her lovely appearance. Because of that, she has the tendency to be wary against female and seek protection from male. I want you two to keep that in mind while looking after her.』

Certainly she was a pitiful thing if that was true, but Alicia's conduct seemed to be more than that. She was giving off an "alluring" atmosphere that couldn't be considered childlike.

.

「──It looks like we have arrived.」

The carriage slowly came to a stop. Alicia got down from the carriage after the butler and the maid exited first. The viscount and his maids had been waiting outside for her arrival. Alicia looked up anxiously to the young man when she was about to be handed over to them.

「This is where we will part. The people of Melcis House will take care of Lady Alicia from here on as your family.」

「B-but......」

Alicia tried to grasp the young man's sleeve due to the anxiety of being handed over from familiar people to unknown people, but the maid's strong gaze stopped her. Her body jerked in surprise.

「──Is something the matter?」

The viscount who had especially walked here from the entrance to welcome Alicia asked that. A maid remonstrating a noble daughter who was still young was something common, but because Alicia's childish appearance provoked the desire to protect, the scene could also be seen like a bullying.

But, the anxious Alicia immediately changed her attitude the moment she saw Viscount Melcis. She snuggled up to him.

「U-umm......I, wanted to say farewell but, miss maid won't let me......」

「I-is that so?」

The viscount was taken aback by Alicia's behavior, even so thinking that there shouldn't be a problem with allowing the request of a little girl like this, he looked toward the maid, but then he noticed that the maid was someone really familiar and he gulped.

「Y-you are......」

「Pardon me, Mercis-sama. Please take care of the rest.」

「......Yes, I understand.」

Alicia's face frowned for a moment seeing that exchange between the viscount and the maid, but then she quickly changed it to a wide smile and she clung on the viscount's arm without even giving any glance at the maid anymore.

「Nice to meet you, please treat me well from now on-, dear father-!」

In that place, other than the viscount, there were also the viscount's wife and the female servants and maids who would take care of the new child, but Alicia wouldn't meet their eyes and only had eyes for the new man who appeared before her.

The maid who had accompanied her until here sighed without saying anything seeing that. She bowed to the viscount, greeted the viscount's wife too, then she got into the carriage again together with the young man and returned back.

「......Is this alright?」

「Doesn't matter.」

When the coachman asked like that, the young man that had been interacting with the girl with a gentle smile the whole time replied with a cold voice.

Originally they should stay for a day at least in order to observe how their protection target would do in the location where they got delivered to, but it seemed that they wouldn't do that this time.

His direct superior the maid also boarded the carriage casually, as though staying together with their protection target throughout these two months of travel didn't make her feel anything at all. Seeing that, the coachman also gave up asking anything further and drove the carriage away.

「Ah」

Alicia who realized that let go of the arm of Viscount Mercis that she had been clinging on and ran toward the carriage while waving her hand energetically.

「Oz-san-! Please come to meet "me" again sometimes-!」

「──That is the end of our report this time.」

「Thanks for the hard work......Oz, Sera.」

The head of Melrose House, Belt sighed while giving words of appreciation toward Oz who had just finished giving him a written report for the last two months along with a verbal report that described what happened in general.

Their mission this time was to escort Belt's granddaughter──the princess from the direct lineage of Melrose House "Alicia"to Mercis House, a branch house of Melrose House where she was to be entrusted until she came of age in order to ascertain her personage.

Although it was for the protection of an important person, the reason why Oz and Zera who held important posts got assigned with that mission was because Alicia's existence itself was still a great secret. Because of that Belt couldn't assign a lot of knights in order to guard her. He could only rely on the two people who he could trust the most from among all his subordinates in regard to their loyalty and also strength.

Sera was one of the people in charge of protecting the queen's residence and the princess's residence. Oz served as the butler of Belt who was also a prime minister. With them gone for this mission, many things got affected and he even received many complaints but, there was nothing that could be done about it.

The dark side had serious lack of manpower. People with suspicious ideology got removed from around the royal family due to the incident with Grave, so the personnel that could be spared for protecting the VIPs were very lacking.

They couldn't just recruit anybody to fill the lack of manpower. Even if they wanted to recruit people from among the graduates of the sorcery academy or adventurers, people with clear background and also could be trusted would always be fought over by many departments.

(If there is at least someone who can be entrusted with protecting the princess......no, right now isn't the time to think about that.)

Belt looked around at the people inside this room and his gaze stopped on a certain person.

「That's the situation, what do you think about it, Mihail?」

「Grandfather......」

Mihail was still twelve years old, but he looked like fifteen years old. His lustrous eyes that had caused the young maids in the palace to be noisy squinted with suspicion as he returned his grandfather's gaze.

「That girl should be sent to the viscount next year shouldn't it? Before that we would ascertain first whether she is the real thing or not, but why then you moved it forward by a year?」

「Because it was that girl herself who announced that she is a noble's daughter. It almost became a problem, because of that there was we had no choice but to secure her early.」

「......A really troublesome girl isn't she?」

Mihail sighed after hearing his grandfather's bitter words.

Two years had passed since the girl was discovered, but they still hadn't found any definite proof that the self-proclaimed "Alicia" was the "real one".

If it was only based on the girl's testimony and the circumstantial evidence, than any other noble houses would recognize her as Belt's relative, but Belt hesitated to recognize that girl as Alicia because she didn't have the "pinkish blonde hair" of the Melrose's female line.

「Anyway, I'm going to enroll into the academy next month. Even high rank nobles have to live in dormitory for half of the period, so I won't be able to do anything even if you call me here like this.」

「So even you are at that age already....... Sorry to bother you then.」

Belt unconsciously sighed, thinking that time passed really quickly.

Nobles enrolled into the Sorcery Academy after the harvesting of the crops finished and taxes had been collected. The new school term would begin at the New Year of the next year. Noble children who became thirteen that year were the ones targeted to enroll. Then everyone would graduate at the end of the year when all of them had become fifteen years old. Only then they would be treated as adult noble,

「............」

Belt suddenly called Mihail who was still minor to here and asked her about her impression of the girl was because he was completely at a loss of how to decide. Perhaps even this grandfather who usually could hand down level-headed decision as a prime minister couldn't help but have his sight clouded when it came to the memento of his late youngest daughter.

Mihail felt slightly sympathetic to his grandfather who seemed to have grown far older during these several years, even so he told him about his opinion bluntly.

「I also feel the same like grandfather. That girl doesn't sound like a Melrose(rose of the moon) at all even just based on the report. And so, if that girl is going to enroll into the academy, I recommend attaching a watcher beside her.」

Mihail only said that before leaving his grandfather's office.

Oz had left his post until today, so Mihail who hadn't even enrolled into the academy had to work like Belt's chamberlain under the guise of 『learning the prime minister's work』, but he felt that it would be troublesome to have his time taken any more than this.

Usually such experience would be just what he wanted but, right now he was busy with the preparation to enroll into the academy. And Mihail himself had other things that he personally wanted to do or to consider.

「......Melrose(Rose of the moon) ......」

Mihail repeated once more the word that he used just now.

According to Melrose House's old legend, the spirit of the moon praised the nobility and beauty of a woman and bestowed to her a rose of the moon and hair color that looked the same with the rose.

It was unclear whether the legend was true or not. But that hair color would vanish in several generations when the women of Melrose House married outside the family. It was as though the women who were directly descended from the lineage of Melrose House were really loved by the moon.

If he talked about it to his friend, Rockwell of Dandall House, he might get teased again as a romanticist, but the figure of a girl came to Mihail's mind just from him muttering that name.

The adventurer girl who he met at the capital....... Her hair color had the same color with the moon rose that only bloomed in the night when there was a moon in the sky.

It attracted his eyes since the first time he saw her. She even had a beautiful bearing that was truly fitting to be called "aloof". She was very similar with the woman inside the painting that Mihail had idolized since his childhood.

If the girl called Alicia was really alive, then wouldn't she look like that girl? Mihail felt something like a connection with that girl that made him thought like that.

But circumstance-wise, it was impossible for that girl to be the one. If she was Alicia then she should be around eight years old at that time. Even if her appearance at that time was because of her mana somehow, how could such girl possibly obtain strength that a first class adventurer would recognize?

Even if in the worst case he got rid of that girl from the orphanage and replaced her with that pink haired girl, there would be no one who suspected anything wouldn't it?

「......No good.」

Mihail rejected the thinking that he thought up himself. It might be possible to do something like that with Mihail and Melrose House's power. But, doing that would cause the girl's life to go off the rail. Mihail hesitated to do that.

If she was working as adventurer in the capital, then perhaps there would be another chance for him to meet her......thinking that, he had visited the adventurer guild several times but, it was only a complete waste of time without him being unable to be reunited with the pink haired girl. When Mihail enrolled into the sorcery academy after this, it would surely become difficult for him to go searching for her like before.

He didn't think that this feeling of him was "love". ......But, Mihail was definitely feeling that an emotion that couldn't be dismissed as simple curiosity was growing inside him.

「Will we......meet again I wonder.」

「Then, I shall take my leave.」

「Thanks for the hard work, Sera.」

「No, that is also "work" after all.」

A while after Mihail left, Sera who had been refraining from saying anything until then bowed as she said that. Although they had known each other for long, Sera simply dismissed the words of appreciation from the head of the house Belt saying that it was just her 『job』. Oz felt an unseen pressure from her big sister and cold sweat trickled from his forehead.

「............」

Sera pretended to not realize her little brother's reaction and left her master's office. Then she let out a long sigh while keeping silent.

The majority of her sigh came from mental fatigue. Because of the dark side's serious lack of manpower, even the retired Sera had to return to active duty. Furthermore she was sent out for something else than her actual duty and it even took several months to finish. Because of that various problems had cropped up everywhere just as she expected.

But the main reason for her fatigue wasn't only because the of piling up works that couldn't be handled by her subordinates alone. Staying together for two months with the daughter of the main house......that "Alicia" who was the cause of her getting taken away from her post had whittled down her spirit far more than she expected.

The girl couldn't follow etiquette which was reasonable seeing that she was previously an orphan. Even then she had been reeducated by Sera and Oz's grandfather, so she could still be considered better as a commoner.

But, the tendency that girl sometimes showed, how she would cling only on male and ignored female, it was just too abnormal even after taking into consideration that she was still a kid. To be honest, when she imagined that she would have to keep interacting with that girl as a daughter of the main house, it made her wanted to support her master and Mihail for doubting that girl's identity.

And then, after this she also would have to take care of Princess Elena who was in a bad mood.

Since the princess learned that the whereabouts of her favorite "maid apprentice" became unknown and how that maid apprentice belonged to the 『dark side』, she would always get into a bad mood when she saw Sera and other members of the dark side.

Elena who was wise beyond her age understood that the dark side's mission was accompanied with danger. Because of that, she wouldn't do anything childish like avoiding her guards from the dark side, unlike the impulsive crown prince.

Even so as expected her emotion was a different matter. No matter how wise Elena was, she was still ten years old. Because the only existence who she acknowledged in this world went missing, the idle passing of time without any new information worsened her mood exactly because she believed in that existence.

What was worse was that the mission that caused the disappearance wasn't actually that dangerous. Instead it was possible that the disappearance was caused by the betrayal of Grave toward the dark side. Sera herself was seething with anger toward Grave for erasing the excellent "disciple" who she thought might be worthy to become her successor.

Currently the dark side wasn't the only one looking for Grave. Sera herself had personally requested the adventurer party Rainbow Sword to search for Aria and Grave, but there still hadn't any result from it.

If that girl was still alive and returned as a combat maid apprentice of the dark side, Elena's mood would also improve, but nothing good like that had rolled her way.

.

「Mom-!」

Sera sighed again when she heard her son's voice. It seemed that he had been waiting for her on her way toward the princess's residence.

「Have you find Aria!?」

「I went to the north, but it was to a different direction. I didn't find her.」

Sera's son Seo was still continuing to chase after Aria's shadow.

He had grown rapidly, physically and mentally. Now he looked like twelve years old but, it seemed that his meeting with her left a deep impact in his childish self. Even when she told him of the possibility that Aria had died, Seo wouldn't accept it just like Elena and he continued training, believing that he would meet her again.

「I see......」

Although he hadn't given up, Seo also thought that it wouldn't be that easy to find her. He suppressed his depression and smiled at his tired looking mother.

「Mom, welcome back.」

「Isn't it too late to say that?」

Although she said that, Sera hugged him tightly to feel his growth. Seo also hugged his mother's back to feel her safe return for real.

「I went to pick up the young lady of the main house. She's going to be entrusted to Melcis House as an adopted daughter there for a while, but when she enrolled into the academy, you would likely get assigned to look after her as a combat butler.」

Rather than a situation report, it was more like a mother sharing information with her son. Seo looked at her with some exasperation, even so his face scowled just a little. Perhaps he was recalling about that young lady.

「......The rumor that I heard about her isn't really good though?」

「You shouldn't say something like that loudly.」

Seo let a wry smile slipped out on his face seeing her mother not denying what he said despite scolding him.

「I'm going back to my task as butler apprentice now. Let's train together again later.」

「Understood. Work hard.」

Sera smiled with a motherly look. Seo gave her his best smile before parting from her in a corridor. He walked quickly while speaking his oath once more.

「Aria will leave me in the dust if I just relax. ......I won't give up.」

.

Sera saw off the back of her son and felt slightly better. But then another voice called out to her just as she was about to head to the palace.

「Sera-sama, welcome back.」

「Castro......is something the matter?」

It was Castro who previously assigned improper job to Aria and exposed her to danger. He had also gotten removed from his post as a bodyguard of the royal family because of him being an acquaintance of Grave. But it seemed that he had also taken a lesson from everything that had happened. Now he had stopped discriminating people based on their background and environment.

It also affected him outside work. Sera had heard about how Castro was personally making effort in searching for the missing Aria by gathering information from Viro or other adventurers who he knew from the past.

「......Could it be, there is a development?」

「Yes, over here.」

Sera's eyes scanned the paper that Castro handed to her. Her eyes widened slightly as she read, then she sighed slowly before looking at Castro once more.

「If this "rumor" is true......Castro, go contact Viro.」

「Yes-」