ALL NOVEL 18: United in Victory
Night falls upon the kingdom before long, and while those in town have turned in for the day after all the earlier excitement, there’s still plenty of activity going on within the castle walls. The competitors from both sides of the tournament have gathered in the mess hall to celebrate what took place during the proceedings, most notably their joint efforts in vanquishing the bandits that have been plaguing the kingdom for so long.
Knight and mercenary alike join together, forging bonds through songs, laughter, the sharing of stories, discussions of training together in the future, and alcohol aplenty. Princess Tori is among them, of course, being the one who made such an overwhelming victory possible. Not that her mercenaries ever expected otherwise, considering she’s never missed a chance to party since she took over the group. Sir Percival, however, is nowhere to be seen. In fact, none of the knights have laid eyes on him since the competition ended. That being said, they aren’t particularly concerned about this fact, if only because it’s far from uncommon for him to be suddenly called away on council duties, not to mention the fact that he was never one for celebrations in the first place.
But even among those who are present, there is one person who does not find themselves in the mood to celebrate. Elise, along with some of the other staff, had volunteered to help serve food and drinks at the party, and the maid presently has too much on her mind to join in on the festivities as she does so. She had foolishly hoped that this would be a chance for her to speak with Tori about the things that have been bothering her recently, but a place such as this is far too rowdy to have that kind of conversation, especially when it involves some of the secrets the two of them keep.
Even then, talking to the princess at all has proven to be a challenge tonight, in no small part thanks to the fact that this entire celebration is essentially being held in her honour. The two have barely been able to exchange words before one of them gets pulled away for one reason or another. Elise’s patience starts to run shockingly thin as the party goes on, for reasons even she can’t entirely understand. Sure, there are things she would like to talk about sooner rather than later, but she managed to wait two whole years for Tori to return before, why is she suddenly having such a hard time waiting just a few hours?
To make matters worse, just when she finally sees an opening to approach her again, someone else beats her to it. Someone she never would have expected to show up to this event.
“Princess! I’m so glad I was able to find you!” Professor Levenne calls out as she approaches. “I wanted to congratulate you on dealing with that whole bandit business!”
“No need for that, professor, it’s all part of the job. Been takin’ care of criminals like that for a while now.” Tori jovially replies. “Besides, it was a group effort. Dunno if we could’ve gotten everyone out safely if the knights didn’t jump in to help.”
“But still, who would’ve thought you had it in you? It’s certainly a far cry from a few years back, that’s for sure!”
“Well, what can I say?” Tori chuckles.
Elise quietly watches from afar as the two continue their conversation, and the maid still can’t believe how friendly Tori is acting towards the professor, and vice versa. They even agree to host a tour of the mage’s guild for Tori in a couple days time. No matter how she views it, it just doesn’t make sense to the maid. Why is Levenne being so friendly towards the princess? Why is the princess treating her so differently from the other council members? Why hasn’t Tori told her a single thing about any of this yet?
Elise won’t be able to find out anytime soon, though, as Sara pulls her away to help serve some drinks in another part of the mess hall, and while the task doesn’t take long, both Tori and the professor are gone by the time she gets back. She quietly sighs in frustration at missing yet another opportunity to speak with Tori, but there’ll be other chances before the night is over, right?
Her hopes start to fade as the night goes on, however, as she fails to locate the princess again, even as the hours go on and people start to leave. At her wits end, she decides it’s time to seek assistance, and approaches a table where some of the attendees are still seated.
“Excuse me, do you know where Princess Tori might be?”
“Haven’t seen the boss in a while, sorry.” The young mercenary with her foot in a cast answers without once taking her eyes off of the knight who carried her away during the fight earlier, and the knight, now without her helmet masking her face, matches her gaze in turn. “Think she might have already left, to be honest.”
“I-I see. Thank you for your time.” Elise does her best to mask her disappointment as she walks away. Tori wouldn’t really just leave without telling her… would she? Sure, it might be risky for the two of them to be seen together in public too much, but Elise is her servant, for goodness sake, a simple exchange wouldn’t be too much to ask, would it?
Elise has to admit that she really doesn’t know what’s going on with the princess. It was clear she had changed a lot in her time away, but she can’t have changed that drastically, right? She knows the princess still cares about her, they talked about their promises to each other just the other day, so why is she suddenly acting like this? Why hasn’t she told her what’s going on? Why is just one little thing like this making her feel so much more powerless than usual? Why… Why…
Ba-Bump.
Why does it hurt so much?
“Elise? Elise? Are you okay?”
The maid suddenly realises that Sara is talking to her, how long has she been there?
“My apologies, what is the matter?”
“I’m worried that you might be the matter, Elise.” Sara says. “You’ve been standing there just staring off into space for a while now.”
“O-Oh, my apologies. There’s… There’s just been a lot on my mind recently.”
Sara looks at her with concern. “Look, the party’s pretty much over now, and you already weren’t doing great yesterday. I think you need to head back to our quarters and get some sleep, maybe that’ll help?”
Elise sighs. “...Perhaps you are right. Will everything be okay here?”
“Don’t worry, some of the servants have gotten a little drunk, but most of us are still sober enough to clean up.”
“Okay, maybe some sleep will do me some good.”
“Hopefully it’ll help with whatever’s been going on with you these past couple of days, yeah. Can’t have you fainting and spacing out on us during the coronation in a few days now, can we?” Sara chuckles.
“I-I suppose not…”
With that, Elise leaves the mess hall, heading back in the direction of her quarters. Hopefully she can collect her thoughts by morning, she has a lot of questions for Tori the next time they meet.
In another part of the castle, Sir Percival dejectedly enters his office, which is decorated with all manner of trinkets and awards granted to him during his tenure as a knight, after having received a very thorough beration from the queen regarding the outcome of today’s events. He intends to simply grab his coat and head home to his wife, but there’s something on his desk that grabs his attention first.
It’s a note, one that wasn’t there when he first arrived back after the tournament ended. It simply reads:
Meet me on the southern ramparts
Sir Percival sighs with resignation, realising that the list of people who would bother to contact him in this manner is quite short, and if it’s who he thinks it is, he’s not going to enjoy this meeting. Regardless, he is a man of honour, and would rather face the encounter head on than delay it any further than necessary.
Thus, he leaves his office and heads to the eastern wing of the castle, where one of the towers granting access to the ramparts is located. A quick detour, before finally heading home.
It doesn’t take him long to arrive at the stairs that climb up the eastern tower, and when he reaches the top and walks out into the night air, he sees none other than Princess Tori, turned away from him as she sits on the outer wall of the ramparts facing the town below, as she looks up into the night sky.
“Was wonderin’ when you were gonna get here…”
