***

Just as Chamuka was passing the entrance to the rocky mountain, Leticia had already reached the trap set by the Empire.
She turned to Aina and asked.
“Does the Empire still think I’m 10 years old by any chance?”
The cave Aina pointed to looked like something even a 10-year-old would shout “Ah, it’s a trap!” at first glance.
First of all, it was strange that it was sitting conspicuously in the middle of the path. The trail leading to it was full of footprints and broken branches, as if someone had hastily created it.
“…Come to think of it, I think they told me to come at night.”
“It would look even more suspicious at night.”
The bright daylight sunshine sparkled on the suspicious cave.
Aina suggested reluctantly.
“Um… should we go in making some noise?”
They needed at least one person to escape to let the imperial family know that Leticia had been successfully lured here.
Of course, spies had surely noticed Leticia moving through the city.
Aina shouted, hoping they would send a carrier pigeon to report that the fake prince had been successfully lured.
“Oh my! Your Highness! There! A cave! Shall! We! Rest! There?!”
The two entered the cave, making extremely loud noises.
The midday sunlight penetrated quite far into the cave, so it wasn’t very dark.
“Is this really the right place? There’s nothing here.”
Leticia whispered.
Eventually, after silently walking through the empty cave, they reached the end. And there was nothing there.
Though they had come quite deep, as it was dark around them, they lit the lamp they had brought. Even shining it around, there was nothing to be seen.
“….”
“….”
A silence filled with absurdity and emptiness briefly flowed between them.
“They must have left because it’s daytime, Aina.”
“W-what! What is this, a shoe store? There’s no such thing as ‘temporarily away’!”
“It could happen.”
“No! This can’t be!”
“Don’t lose heart, let’s wait until nightfall. They’ll come.”
As Leticia was trying to comfort the frustrated Aina, she suddenly looked up at the debris falling on her head.
Thud, thud-thud, the ceiling shook, and stone fragments fell.
Leticia recalled a possibility she hadn’t considered due to the shoddiness of the cave entrance.
That perhaps the assassins weren’t in this cave, but the cave itself might be the trap.
“Ah!”
Along with Aina’s scream as she looked up, arrows rained down from the ceiling.
Soon after, the cave ceiling collapsed with a rumble.
“Aaaaaahhh!”
…And naturally, water that sprang from the prepared water bottle created a barrier above their heads.
Leticia deflected the arrows and then looked at the barrier that was now easily handling the collapsing cave ceiling, before turning to Aina, who was screaming with her eyes tightly shut.
“….”
“Ah! Ah! Aaah!”
“Aina.”
“Aah, ah…?”
A moment of silence passed between them as their eyes met.
Aina lowered her hands that she had raised above her head, dusted off her shoulders a bit, and said as if nothing had happened.
“Let’s get out, Your Highness.”
Leticia, not wanting to embarrass her further, simply nodded.
“Yes. The entrance is this way… Hm?”
The moment she took a step, her leg sank in. She bit her tongue in surprise.
Leticia quickly surrounded her entire body with a barrier as the floor collapsed like the ceiling had.
“Aaaaaahhh!”
Aina’s screaming started again. This time it was quite long.
And outside the cave, Chamuka, who had tracked Leticia’s trail only to witness the completely collapsed cave, lost his sanity again.
“…Leti?”
Leticia, safely rolling inside the cave, had no idea about this.

***

Underground, surrounded by dirt on all sides, it was hard to tell which way was up or down.
Leticia was sitting safely inside her barrier without a scratch.
Of course, Aina, whose voice had gone hoarse from screaming, was with her.
Leticia roughly gauged which direction to break through.
Since not only they but also the lamp they were holding was intact, it wasn’t particularly dark despite being underground.
“We should break through this way. Aina, move aside for a moment.”
As Aina was getting up, she flinched and let out a small scream, “Ah.”
She seemed to have pricked herself on something while placing her hand on the ground.
Soon after, Aina raised her hand and pulled out an arrowhead embedded in her palm.
Blood gushed from Aina’s hand.
“…It’s black.”
“Yes, the blood is black… Wait, that’s poison!”
Leticia quickly put her mouth to the wound on Aina’s palm, sucked the blood, and spat it on the ground.
After repeating this about five times, red blood appeared.
Only then did Leticia hand over a handkerchief and release Aina’s hand.
“Now apply pressure to stop the bleeding.”
“You can’t purify other people’s blood?”
Aina asked about this somewhat primitive(?) measure from Leticia, who had guaranteed she could purify poison in her own body.
“I might accidentally turn someone else’s healthy blood into water while trying to purify the poison. It doesn’t matter for my body, but it’s different for other people.”
Leticia felt a slight numbness where she had accidentally bitten her tongue earlier, wondering if poison had entered the wound. As soon as she purified it, the numbness disappeared without a trace.
“Is it okay if Your Highness has water flowing through your body instead of blood?”
“Yes. I think my body is closer to water than human. My mentor said I could even transform completely into water, but told me not to try it. Said I might lose my sense of self.”
Since the Grand Duchy’s land was very dry, it was actually easier to use the water she had brought than to draw moisture from the ground.
The water that sprang from the bottle at Leticia’s will began to carve a path through the earth.
“Let’s go up, Aina. It’s not as deep as I thought.”
The swirling water pushed away the soil.
As the soil was pushed aside, Leticia took one step at a time, then turned around when she heard a faint call.
Aina looked at her as if to ask what was wrong.
“Did you just call me?”
“No. I didn’t say anything.”
She was sure she had heard something.
Leticia touched her ear and turned forward again.
The path ahead had opened up quite a bit while she had paused.
Just as she was about to move, thinking they should quickly get above ground.
[Herta.]
Leticia’s steps slowed, then stopped.
“Your Highness?”
[…you. Herta.]
Someone was speaking to him.
Yes, “him.”
This voice was talking to some man, not to Leticia.
“Your Highness, are you okay? What are you looking at? Your Highness?”
[…won’t. Herta.]
When she blinked, a library filled with countless books appeared before her eyes. It looked like the magic tower library her mentor had once told her about.
The impossibly high ceiling and books that found their own places.
And some old wizard looking at ‘Herta.’
[No one will ever love you, Herta.]
“Your Highness, please snap out of it. Why suddenly…!”
[Everyone will be desperate to use you. They’ll worship you, fear you, and struggle to gain your favor. Because you have that kind of power.]
Leticia slowly ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth.
The poison had been purified long ago. So this wasn’t a hallucination or auditory illusion caused by poison.
Then what was causing it?
[But none of them will ever truly love you.]
Aina’s face, tapping Leticia’s cheek, looked anxious.
Leticia wanted to say she was fine, but she couldn’t move her tongue. No, it wasn’t just her tongue.
With a body that wouldn’t move as she wished, Leticia could only stare at the hallucination unfolding before her eyes.