Chapter 34: Princess Mia... Gets More Blood Flowing to Her Head

"Look, Mia, I know you have your ways, but wasn't that a little careless?"

"Careless? Whatever do you mean?"

Sion's sigh came from beyond the door to Mia's room.

"I know he's unlikely to harm you as long as he's counting on military aid from Sunkland, but..."

If Lambert tried to harm Mia, it would be an immediate deal-breaker for Sion. Furthermore, it would undoubtedly make an enemy of the whole Tearmoon Empire. Therefore, the chances of Lambert turning on them were very low. Moreover, if they left the manor and roamed around outside, they ran the risk of running into the man called Jem. If he wasn't aware of Lambert's plans, he could very well make an attempt on Mia's life. It was safer for them to stay here with Lambert, who was at least willing to peacefully divulge some information.

"Still, spending the night here is—"

This sentence was interrupted by the sound of splashing water. Mia, you see, was currently in the midst of enjoying a nice, hot bath like the debaucherous aristocrat she was. Sion had chosen to stand guard outside her door in case of emergency, but the constant sloshing from inside the room assaulted his ears and mind, leaving him restless and a little stressed out. In an attempt to distract himself, he kept trying to make small talk, but his uneasiness caused it to come out more like idle grievance than friendly banter.

My! How terribly adorable!

Mia, in a rare display of perceptiveness, accurately discerned Sion's flustered state, and she seized upon the opportunity to entertain herself at his expense. With a downright devilish grin, she purposefully fluttered about in the bath, knowing full well that the sound of her conspicuous splashing would torment her anxious guard outside. The thought that Prince Perfect was now at her mercy filled her with an intoxicating sense of superiority that she simply couldn't contain. Her behavior escalated more and more as she sloshed around nonstop, ensuring he wouldn't have a moment of peace. At one point, she even lifted a leg out of the water and struck a seductive pose. Not that he could see her, of course, but it's the thought that counts. In her mind, she was now the Great Seductress of the Empire.

Mmhmhm... Face my revenge, Sion!

Meanwhile, Lynsha stood beside her, waiting, with a look of profound exasperation, for the pint-sized succubus to stop it with the bathtub acrobatics. She'd been told to wait inside just in case something happened, but did it really make sense to have her do this? While she was busy pondering the necessity of her job assignment, Mia picked up a bottle of shampoo and poured some into her palm. She rubbed it between her hands and promptly frowned.

"Now that's odd. For a Remno shampoo, it doesn't produce a very good lather... I suppose this means the one I received from Prince Abel must be specially made..."

"Receiving presents from a prince? Wow... you really are a princess, aren't you? Out of curiosity, what kind of shampoo was it?" asked Lynsha.

"It had an adorable drawing of a horse on it. I don't remember what it was called though..."

"Uh... Huh. Isn't that—"

"It was such a wonderful shampoo. When I meet Abel, I'll have to tell him I owe him a big thank you."

The sight of Mia's innocent smile convinced Lynsha to leave her sentence unfinished. Ignorance, she decided, was probably worth this particular bliss.

"Ah, right. You, uh, sure do, I guess?"

"Mmhmhm, don't worry, Lynsha. I'm sure you'll find a nice young man for yourself someday as well," said Mia, incredibly full of herself at the moment.

The smugness was honestly a little grating, but Lynsha, in a display of profound maturity, resisted the urge to snap at the cheeky little aristocrat. Someone, after all, had to be the adult in the room.

Ahh, I must say, thought Mia, taking a bath like this makes me miss Anne.

Normally, Anne would be giving her back a nice, gentle scrub. Under the current circumstances, though... Well, she couldn't exactly ask Lynsha to fill in.

"By the way, you're still going to stop my brother, right?"

"...Uh, well, you know what they say. Haste makes waste, right? And it'd be a terrible shame if this wonderfully hot bath went cold, so let's just enjoy this for now."

Mia dodged the question, but it made her ponder her next step. The combined effect of nourishment through the oral intake of sweets and bath-mediated improvement in circulation was sending glucose-rich blood to her head, and her brain was regaining its function. She was on top of the world, which, to be clear, was definitely a description of her perception of reality and not her actual place in it.

After the bath, having rid herself of many days' worth of sweat and grime, she was back up to maybe eighty percent of her usual beauty. Unfortunately, her cleanliness did not translate into competence, and ultimately, no good ideas materialized.

Faint wisps of warm vapor were still rising from Mia's head as she walked out of the bathroom. The bathrobe prepared for her was a tad large, but the comfort afforded by the extra space was perfect for her flushed body.

"Phew. I feel refreshed... Hm? What's the matter?" she asked, tilting her head innocently at Sion, who looked like he'd just fought a war and barely made it back to tell the tale.

He let out a bone-weary sigh and shook his head.

"I'm honestly dying to know what kind of plans you're cooking up in that head of yours... but regardless, we should still meet up with Keithwood and Tiona. Knowing them, they've probably made contact with the Wind Crows already and are searching for us as we speak. Also, I need to get word back to Sunkland..."

He spoke with urgency, but he figured they still had a few days to work with before anything significant happened.

He was wrong.

The next day, a scouting party returned with a report. Knights bearing the King's mark had already taken up position along the roads, and leading them was...