While Cid and Kanade were teasing each other, Alexia and Christina, who had moved away from the two of them, had also roughly worked out just how complicated the situation had become. Once she understood the general picture, Christina ended the conversation looking noticeably downcast.
"All right, Cid. You're leaving the royal capital and going straight back home. We'll handle everything from here."
Alexia spoke to Cid with a stern expression and a distinctly unpleasant tone, completely ignoring Christina's dumbfounded look as she processed what she'd just heard.
Did we talk about that just now?
Christina very much wanted to ask, but in the end, this wasn't something an outsider like her could interfere with, so she kept quiet.
"Really? I can leave? That's great! Thank you, Alexia-sama."
Cid immediately lit up at Alexia's words. He stared at her with the kind of hope he'd show if he'd just spotted a huge pile of gold coins lying in the middle of the street. His enthusiasm was so intense that it even startled the haughty-looking Alexia.
"O-Of course it's true. How could I, a princess of this kingdom, possibly lie to Po... Anyway, leave this to me. I'll have it dealt with soon."
The fact that everything had gone so smoothly left even Alexia feeling strangely unreal. She'd expected her only friend to cause all sorts of trouble for her, perhaps even refuse her goodwill and come up with some ridiculous excuse to get involved.
But then again, he was just Pochi. He might not be particularly strong, but his ability to read the situation and go whichever way the wind blew was definitely maxed out.
Tsk, Pochi. A weak-willed fence-sitter like you, always changing sides with the wind, would normally be the first person to get purged wherever you went. But since I'm both beautiful and kind-hearted, as your master, I'll naturally make sure you survive when the time comes. Then you can spend the rest of your life thanking me for it.
After easily convincing herself to ignore the faint sense that something was off, Alexia praised herself inwardly and instantly felt much better. No longer interested in overthinking it, she turned toward Christina.
"In that case, Christina, I'll have to trouble you to look after them for now. I need to go sound Father out again. With things having escalated this far, even he should at least put on a show to calm the public. If Onee-sama and I work together, we might be able to persuade Father to step in and stop the situation from getting any worse."
Alexia briefly and clearly explained what she planned to do next. She had a vague feeling that something might happen over the next few days, so making everything clear now might save her some trouble later.
"Wait, Princess Alexia. There's one more thing..."
Just as Alexia was about to leave after finishing her explanation, Christina stopped her.
"Um... well..."
Christina slowly began to speak, but the poised and decisive Christina who had displayed such excellent upbringing in front of Cid and the others suddenly started stumbling over her words. An awkward, embarrassed look appeared on her face. Finally, she took a deep breath and let it out.
"I heard you say earlier that you went to the scene where Earl Shoddi was killed to investigate his death, and that you also took some pictures of the scene as a record, right?"
"Right. I took a few ugly pictures of that fat pig's corpse. Why? Didn't I mention that earlier?"
Alexia nodded, looking at Christina with mild confusion. She couldn't understand why her friend was suddenly bringing this up.
"That's good, Alexia-sama. Would you mind sending me a copy of those pictures? I'd like to learn more about the person who killed Earl Shoddi."
For some reason, Christina seemed relieved. She stared intently at Alexia and made the request in an earnest tone.
"Huh? Well... sure. I only took them as a precaution anyway. But if you want more detailed information, you can ask the Guard. With your status, they wouldn't dare refuse you."
"Ah... Thank you, Princess Alexia. But I'll pass on asking the Guard. Information obtained from parasites is worthless."
Christina appeared calm on the surface, but the obvious excitement in her voice and the coldness that slipped into her tone when she mentioned the Guard made Alexia shiver instinctively, even though she hadn't consciously noticed anything strange.
"Uh... As long as you're happy, Christina. Be careful tonight. I'll be going now."
Unable to figure out what felt wrong, Alexia glanced around in confusion, gave them one last warning, then hurried away.
"All right. Princess Alexia has placed so much trust in me, so I can't disappoint her. I suppose I'll start cleaning out the parasites from here..."
Christina carefully put away the pictures as though they were treasures, then spoke words that sounded chilling when combined with what she'd said earlier before turning toward Cid.
"Cid, when are you planning to leave? I truly believe your character makes you exactly the kind of companion I'm looking for, but Princess Alexia is right. It's still too early for you to get caught up in a whirlpool this dangerous. You should leave as soon as possible. I'll look forward to seeing you again someday..."
Her words were completely sincere. An ordinary person might genuinely have been moved enough to leave on the spot. At the very least, Kanade, standing beside Cid, looked so touched by Christina that she was almost in tears.
What about me? What am I supposed to do?
Kanade didn't say a word, but her expression and painfully envious stare made it obvious just how jealous she was of Cid right now. She looked ready to punch him to death, take his place, and sprint out of the royal capital herself.
She was a lower-ranking noble just like him, and she was weak too. In fact, compared with Cid, who ranked somewhere in the lower-middle range of the world but around the upper-middle range within the Kingdom of Midgar, Kanade was the weaker one. So why was Cid allowed to leave while she wasn't? She still wanted to survive in noble society.
Because I know Alexia. I was even her Pochi once.
Cid shot Kanade a slightly smug look. The moment she understood what he meant, her expression turned into the kind of contempt someone might show an insect, as if she were looking down on him for selling away his dignity. Yet deep in her eyes was still a faint bitterness that practically screamed, Why couldn't I be the dog?
Cid smiled wickedly.
"Don't worry, Christina-sama. I'll leave soon, just like Alexia ordered. I just need to wait a little longer. Probably about three days..."
"All right, then there's no time to waste, we should... Cid-kun, when did you say you were leaving?"
Christina responded automatically, but halfway through her sentence, she realized what he'd just said. Her voice suddenly shot up as she stared at Cid in astonishment.
"Cid-kun, you're sure you didn't misspeak just now?"
"I didn't. Since I'm already involved in this, I think it'd be better to wait until everything is completely over before leaving."
Cid spoke as though it were perfectly obvious. If he left now, it wasn't as though he couldn't rush back overnight and kill the other side's entire family, but that would still be a little inconvenient.
"Why? Just like Princess Alexia said, this situation has gotten completely out of hand. It's dangerous for people like you."
"Mostly because I still have a few things to take care of. It'll be better to go back after I'm done."
"What kind of things are important enough for you to deliberately stay at a time like this?"
"Of course, the kind of thing you want."
For example... killing an entire family.
"...Is it really all right to go against Princess Alexia's wishes like this? Cid-kun, it's not only Princess Alexia who doesn't want anything to happen to you. I feel the same way. Those damned cowards all came up with excuses and ran away the moment they heard that one of our allies had been killed. You could afford to be a little smarter too."
"But if I just walked away now, wouldn't that be a little too pitiful for them? Even if this isn't exactly a good thing, I think I should at least show the proper attitude. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be pitiful for them. It'd be pitiful for me too."
Think about it. If I'm going to kill someone's entire family, but I have to leave first and then come all the way back, that's unfair to the people I'm killing, and it isn't cool at all. It'd be way too lame. Once I've killed everyone I need to kill, I'll naturally leave.
Thinking that, Cid suddenly paused.
The atmosphere around him seemed a little strange.
"...Whew. I really didn't expect this. I already knew someone Princess Alexia had taken notice of couldn't be that bad, but this still exceeded my expectations. In that case, I suppose we'll leave it at that..."
Her words sounded regretful, but Christina couldn't conceal the excitement and delight on her face. She didn't even seem to have any intention of telling Alexia that Cid planned to stay.
"But... since you're planning to remain here, Cid, your safety isn't something we can solve that easily. All right, I've decided. Move into my House tonight."
Christina spoke decisively, but what she considered an act of pure goodwill made Cid, who had only just realized where this was heading, cry out immediately.
"No, no, no! That's way too much, Christina-san. I'll be fine by myself."
Faced with Cid's refusal, Christina simply watched him in silence. Only after he quieted down did she speak again.
"This is for your safety."
"It's really not necessary. I can protect myself."
"Stop. It looks like you have absolutely no idea what kind of situation we're in right now, Cid. You seemed pretty smart before."
Christina rejected every objection he made, and her tone suddenly turned grave.
"Listen carefully, Cid. We may already be at war with the Thirteen Nightblades!"
"At war?!"
Two startled cries rang out.
Cid was completely confused. When exactly had he gone to war with a bunch of dead men?
"Yes, at war. It's only a theory for now, but I could tell from the Knight Order commander's attitude earlier."
Christina-san, aren't you overthinking this?
"Until the culprit who killed the Earl Shoddi is found, we're the most suspicious ones. After all, as far as anyone can see, we're the only group in the entire kingdom openly opposing the Nightswords."
Could this bunch of rabble stop giving themselves so much credit?
"That seems unlikely. Compared to the Thirteen Nightblades, we're weak and powerless. And people as important as them must have plenty of enemies. At best, we're just one group among many. We might not even deserve to count as one."
That was what Cid thought, and he voiced it without much restraint, merely phrasing it a little more tactfully.
"You're right. But what if the Thirteen Nightblades go cra... what if they decide that I... that we think the same way they do?"
You were about to say "I" instead of "we," weren't you?
"The assassin who killed one of our members was almost certainly sent by them. If we put ourselves in their position, there's no telling whether they'll assume the assassin who killed Earl Shoddi was sent by us. More importantly, as far as the public knows, we're the only ones openly hostile to the Thirteen Nightblades, and we're weak."
That was true. Although this alliance was made up of representatives from several Houses, as mentioned before, most of the people sent here were second sons without much ability. They were essentially expendable pieces whose political careers were already over the moment they chose to offend the Thirteen Nightblades. At that point, whether the Thirteen Nightblades killed them or not barely made a difference. It all depended on whether their prestige was strong enough to intimidate everyone else into submission.
"And the point is?"
"The Knight Order commander belongs to the Nightsword faction. He must have received some kind of instruction before he dared target us so openly. Now that one of the Nightswords' leaders has died, they may decide that what was originally only meant as intimidation should become real, both to preserve their authority and eliminate any possible threat."
"So..."
"If I'm right, the Nightswords will soon send more people to kill us."
Genius!
Cid looked at Christina with genuine surprise, amazed by the way her mind worked. Since he'd never once worried about his own safety, he truly hadn't considered that possibility.
It looked like tonight was going to be a little busy.
Before someone came to kill him, he would simply kill their entire family first.
There should still be enough time. Surely they wouldn't be cautious in the morning and then send someone to wipe out an entire family that same night. Villains were supposed to move a little slower than that.
With that thought, Cid was about to refuse Christina's invitation to stay at her House again, but Christina noticed and cut him off before he could speak.
"Please don't refuse me, Cid-kun. I already promised Princess Alexia that I'd keep you safe. You wouldn't want me to fall out with Princess Alexia because I failed to protect you, would you? Or do you think you can handle assassins sent by the Thirteen Nightblades?"
Those small fries, coming to kill me? I could wipe out their entire families with one finger.
Cid badly wanted to say it, but since that didn't fit his character at all, he kept his mouth shut and obediently followed Christina.
"Wait! What about me? What about me? Christina-sama, don't forget me!"
After watching all of this from the side, Kanade finally jumped forward, pointing at herself and looking at Christina with desperate anticipation.
"Don't worry. Of course I haven't forgotten you, Kanade. You can stay at my House with Cid. After all, the two of you are the only ones still willing to stand with me right now."
When it came to Kanade's request, Christina proved unexpectedly reliable.