Wakened up in dizzy, Ryoichi realized there were still some time before dawn. As for the last night, only did he remember that they'd had each other for several times. Now the girl was still sleeping, so he picked her up, took the herb with them, and headed back.
When they got close to the camp, Ryoichi saw more guards were busy patrolling around the palace. Meanwhile, there were also some soldiers with armor searching around. He came closer, and one team of soldiers saw him.
"Mr. guard … R," they saw the letter printed on Ryoichi's chest and saluted.
"What's going on?"
"Princess Fiona was missed last night, the queen is … " the leading soldier saw the girl on Ryoichi's shoulder and asked, "Guard R, is that Princess Fiona?! You found the princess!" He then turned to the person besides, "You, go report to the general Fergus and say that Palace Guard R found the princess."
Ryoichi said: "I don't know. Hopefully she's who you're looking for. But right now I believe she really has to see the doctor. She had breathed in too much air above the sea."
"Of course, please!" The soldiers then escorted these two people to the hospital.
After taking her to the doctor, Ryoichi also asked for some inhalations. Those magical medicine made out of sea plant made him feel better.
He carefully asked the soldier if he could go back to the duty.
The soldier however recommended him staying here for the queen and her reward. Princess Fiona was Queen Katharina's sister, who spoiled her very much. Princess was infatuated with exploring the outer world, but the queen was afraid that she might encounter some danger so as to forbid the princess to leave the palace alone.
Ryoichi thought: 'I could wish the queen rewarding me, but I was also one of the guards of last night shift. What if she blame me for not keeping the princess. And, we did that stuff last night… Hopefully she wouldn't find out and behead me or something.'
As he got a real bee in his bonnet, the queen and her followers came, and Ryoichi and other soldiers had to kneel.
The first person came in was the queen, she was surprisingly younger than Ryoichi's thought. Blonde hair, green eyes, and red lips. She wore the tight suit instead of gown, which showed her strong and beautiful curves. She was followed by a young man who was wearing the ivory gown. He looked very like the queen except for the silver hair. He was, to be honest, way too much pretty for a man, but with a sourest face. Then, they were followed by a very strong man in middle age, who was also in combat suit. There was an obvious scar on his right cheek, which, Ryoichi thought, must be a symbol of his bravery. After him, there were also some elite people passing by to the princess' ward.
Ryoichi lowered the invoice and asked about who they were.
The soldier introduced: "The first lady is the Queen Katharina, then is her younger brother Jonathan, followed by the General Fergus. Then, elite Aldrich, elite Bertram, elite Yolanda, elite Quintion …"
"Okay, that's enough. The rest is not that relevant. Thank you."
After a few time, one person came out and asked who found the princess.
"Him, him, the palace guard R." The soldier pointed to Ryoichi warmhearted.
"Okay," the person said to Ryoichi, "please come in."
As Ryoichi followed him to get into the room, the soldier even made a victory gesture to him, suggesting that he might get rewarded.
Ryoichi responded him with a bitter smile.
As Ryoichi entered, the queen dismissed the other except for his brother Jonathan. 'Jonathan,' he remembered the name, that was whom the princess mistook him as.
Katharina sat besides the bed, holding Fiona's hand. As the person entered, she turned her head and started to measure him with her eyes.
"Guard R, you're allergic recently?" she put the hand down and slowly stood up, "Whatever, could you please tell me how you found my sister?"
Ryoichi told her the truth that how he saw the princess alone heading to the land to find the herb and how he saved both the herb and the princess, while he hid the part after that and before coming back.
He also handed over the helmet with the herb in it over to the queen.
The queen asked her brother to take it and said, "I believe what you said. You did a great job saving my sister. I know she's that kind of person who would sneak away and do that kind of dangerous adventure. I really appreciate it that you can take her back to me, but," she stopped for a while and went back to the bed, "the doctor told me that she seemed to have intercourse within the last few hours. Could you explain that to me? As, I suppose, you're the only person she encountered since last night?"
Ryoichi was speechless, standing still. His brain was quickly operating to think of a resolution.
"Your majesty, as you may know that the air and fog above the sea is poisonous to us. After we survived from the land and got back to the sea, as I could recall, the princess was mumbling a name due to the illusion."
"A name?"
"Yes," Ryoichi intentionally looked at the young man besides the queen and quickly looked down, "a name that only elite like your majesty can have, but I'm afraid I can't easily bring that out."
"Tell me! Who that is!"
"You can behead me, your majesty, but I won't tell you."
This was Ryoichi's thought: 'Bringing this out can mislead the queen's attention to an elite, suspecting that there must be someone else who seduced her sister, so that it can disperse her attention on me. She won't really kill me until she finds out the person. Moreover, there must be something between the princess and the prince Jonathan, so bringing this out might also be a threat to the prince. The taboo between brother and sister must be the last thing the elites want people to know. Although there might be a danger of being murdered, there is, for now, no other ways to play for time and think of a way out.'
"Put him in prison till he gives me a name!"