CH 474

Return of Citrina

“My, Rina? She went out at night by herself?” Mia was surprised.

As Duke Lorenz Etoile Yellowmoon’s only daughter, she was his pride and joy. She was the apple of his eye. Duke Lorenz Etoile Yellowmoon also knew how to make poisons. So, it was clear that if something bad happened to Citrina, Mia might soon end up eating something poisonous in the future.

She got up quickly out of panic. Or rather, she would have if Ludwig hadn’t said, “Talking about that, I haven’t seen Sir Dion around here either. I think he might have gone after her.”

“Oh, I get it. Dion is with her, is he not? If that’s the case…”

Mia took a deep breath of relief. The numbers worked out well for her. Citrina could be attacked by a whole army and still be fine. After all, she’d have an army plus one if Dion was with her. Mia thought that his being a “one-man army” was becoming a mathematically true way to describe how powerful he was. The only thing that could worry them now was that Dion might rub off on Citrina. She had a feeling that Duke Yellowmoon wouldn’t be happy if his daughter liked to kill people by stabbing them. If he was angry, he might take revenge in kind, and Mia didn’t want daggers coming out of the dark at her.

Regardless, Citrina was safe for the time being.

Mia said, “I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

Bel agreed. “Yes, I do. If General Dion is with her, she is perfectly safe.”

Then there was a knock at the door.

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“Pardon me, Your Majesty. I’m back.”

“Rina!”

As soon as the door opened and she saw her best friend, Bel ran over.

“Hm? Bel, why are you still up at this time?” asked Citrina, who looked around the room in wonder. “Oh, no… Don’t tell me they made you do your homework at night because you didn’t do it during the day…” She glared at Ludwig.

Bel, on the other hand, puffed up her cheeks. “Hey! Rina, you’re not very nice to think I didn’t do my chores because you aren’t here. That makes it look like I can’t do my own homework!”

Which was true, you know, but…

“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way, Bel,” said Citrina quickly. “I know that you can get things done if you put your mind to it.”

She looked uncomfortably at Bel, whose face was still doing the pufferfish thing for a few more seconds before she started to laugh.

“Ha ha, gotcha! I was joking, Rina!” said Bel, sticking her tongue out in a playful way.

“Ah! That’s awful! When you’re mean, Bel, I don’t like it!” Citrina made a sad pout with her lips. But it didn’t take long for the two girls to start laughing again, and their innocent smiles came back.

It’s important to note that Citrina’s account of Bel could also be interpreted as “completely incapable of getting anything done if she doesn’t put her mind to it.” But nobody in the room was really rude enough to say that. They just looked at the two girls with loving eyes as they shared a moment of pure friendship. After they had laughed until they were crying, Citrina walked over to Mia. The girl now had her regular flower-like smile on her face.

It’s really amazing how she can just change her face like that. It’s like flipping a switch…

Citrina then told what she had learned.

“I looked into the open market this evening. Sir Dion Alaia was kind enough to offer to help, so I brought him along.”

Huh. The open market?

Mia tightened the muscles in her neck to stop herself from tilting her head. She needed to look serious, not like she had no idea. She folded her arms to help her blend in more.

“Hm… So you and Dion went to the open market… Did you find anything in that place?”

“Yes. To cut a long story short, someone there had been in touch with Prince Echard in the past.”

“With Prince Echard, you say…” Mia hummed in a thoughtful way to hide the fact that she was starting to sweat a lot. She didn’t know what Citrina was talking about at all. Even the idea of an open market was foreign to her. It was out of the question to say that, but the problem seemed too dangerous to ignore. Citrina leaned in and stared her in the face as she tried to think of a subtle way to get answers.

“Uh, Your Highness?”

Mia almost jumped because she thought that her secret had been blown, but…

“Is it okay for Ludwig and Anne to know about this?” asked Citrina, pointing toward them.

“Well, of course. They’re…”, Mia said but then she stopped. She thought of a great idea. One that could totally change the course of this battle she was losing because she didn’t know what to do. “They are the most reliable people I have. I don’t hide anything from them, and there’s no reason for me to. By all means, please tell them what your present discoveries mean. I think all this talk about the uh open… market? Could be a little hard to understand for them.”

She gave Ludwig a quick look, and he gave a deep nod.

“Thank you, Your Highness. We’d also like the chance to fully understand what’s going on.”

Citrina also agreed. “Okay, I get it. If that’s the case, Your Highness, is it okay if we call Dion Alaia here? I’d also like him to say something about what happened tonight.”

“Of course. Go on.” Mia gave the final nod, which was a good way to hide the fact that she was about to yawn.

It was already midnight. A new day was just around the corner.