Chapter 8. Becoming Your Shield (2)

* * *

It was a beautiful night with a pure white moon. Gideon and Tatiana lay in bed, gazing out the window.

Their expressions were peaceful as if enjoying the moonlight, but they were wearing stealth clothes instead of nightwear. As if anticipating a sleepless night.

In the early evening, Gideon’s side received intelligence. Military movements had been detected in the capital.

Intelligence reports naturally have as much chance of missing the mark as hitting it. However, Gideon and Tatiana stared at each other before immediately rising from bed. There was a change in the surrounding air that only swordsmen with keen senses could feel.

Gideon calmly fastened a scabbard around his waist and handed a sword to Tatiana.

She instinctively held out both palms, then thought this moment resembled a knight’s investiture by the king.

“Your Highness, today I shall become your sword……”

“Don’t do that.”

Gideon raised his hand to stop her, saying those words made him feel strange. Tatiana chuckled softly, and right on cue, Kay’s voice came from outside the door.

“Your Highnesses, soldiers are entering the castle.”

That one sentence was enough.

The two nodded briefly to each other and opened the door. Several assassins had gathered outside the door besides Kay.

Gideon commanded them.

“Move according to plan.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Tatiana was about to follow Gideon but grabbed Kay’s forearm and requested,

“Please take care of my maid.”

“One of my men has already carried her out.”

She nodded gratefully and gave a small bow. Let’s meet outside, she said.

Gideon and Tatiana sat on the roof of the feed storage building located in the northwest of the royal castle. After thoroughly roaming the castle, they caught their breath while observing the scene inside.

Gideon’s expression was somewhat bland, but Tatiana’s eyes clearly showed regret.

‘How could this happen? The joint property of His Highness and me……’

It was burning vigorously.

If no one were inside, you’d just assume that’s how it was, but why set fire to someone else’s home?

However, Gideon and Tatiana’s side were in no position to criticize. The assassins were also setting fires. Their mission was to create as much commotion as possible before leaving the castle to announce this situation to the world.

Both sides were shouting loudly. From what Tatiana could hear, the Capital Defense Force soldiers who had stormed the prince’s palace seemed to be saying that the First Prince was trying to imprison the King and usurp the royal authority. That they should protect His Majesty.

Since the Second Prince alone would lose the battle of justification, they seemed to be putting the King’s existence at the forefront.

In response, Gideon’s soldiers were shouting that military action without His Majesty’s approval was rebellion. That the Queen had staged a coup.

But with both sides’ shouts mixing together, even Tatiana, who roughly knew the content, couldn’t clearly hear the slogans.

Tatiana thought that when leaving the capital, she should cast an amplification spell on the voices of their soldiers. So that all the capital’s people would recognize that a coup had occurred and that the First Prince had been unjustly driven out by his stepmother.

But she still wasn’t sure if that would earn Gideon sympathy votes from his subjects.

Rather, quickly going north and establishing military achievements might better match his usual image—Tatiana thought this very honestly, even though he was her husband.

Perhaps thinking they had sufficiently achieved their purpose, Gideon jerked his chin toward Tatiana, indicating they should leave. However, somehow unable to tear herself away, she wore a complex expression. In truth, Tatiana had never once lived outside the capital area.

Though she occasionally carried out external schedules, Gideon probably wasn’t much different. Wasn’t he someone whose home had been the royal castle since birth?

Yet he looked extremely detached, so Tatiana asked,

“Aren’t you feeling regretful?”

“About what?”

“Just…. leaving the castle like this. It’s like retreating with the throne right before your eyes.”

“……”

“I thought Your Highness wouldn’t have much experience with this……”

This is neither giving up, failing, nor retreating. If forced to describe it, perhaps a strategic withdrawal? But Tatiana thought Gideon wouldn’t be accustomed even to this level of regret.

Gideon smiled with furrowed brows. He thought she sounded similar to his father-in-law.

Sir Bloom had once told him, Your Highness always succeeds at everything too easily.

Gideon had taken those words to heart but didn’t directly refute them. Yet he wasn’t ignorant about momentary failures or the patience of sharpening a blade. Though he hadn’t lived constantly feeling his limits, he clearly understood intellectually.

“This might sound cliché, but let me use you as an example.”

“……Okay.”

“People are excited these days about you being a mage, right? Most now say that you were indeed the daughter of a great mage. As if this were inevitable.”

“……”

“But no one pays attention to the fact that you never let go of magic for even a moment.”

This isn’t a natural result that anyone born as the great mage’s daughter could achieve.

It was she who persevered without giving up. When the sleeping magical power somewhere inside awakened, Tatiana could grasp that opportunity because she had continued to wish and try despite frustration.

If even he, her husband, didn’t recognize that lonely effort, who would?

“The truth is, nothing comes for free. I know that truly important things in life require patience and time investment.”

“……”

“For me, the throne is like that. So I won’t feel regretful now.”

Tatiana pondered his impeccably clean answer for a moment. Then she let out a soft laugh.

Suddenly this thought occurred to her. She often said failure is the mother of success, then self-deprecatingly wondered how many mothers she had. In truth, she sometimes questioned that saying, as it occasionally sounded like self-consolation.

Do people really need the experience of failure? Doesn’t success rather than failure make people grow? If one could enjoy only success throughout life, who would willingly undergo that depressing experience of failure?

However, humans inevitably face hardship once or twice without choice.

Failure at least raises the threshold for enduring that hardship. It builds strength to withstand and endure any situation without wavering.

Yet Gideon, who likely hadn’t experienced major failure in his life, might actually have a higher threshold than anyone in the world. He could speak so calmly and detachedly while watching the burning castle.

It seemed only she felt regret. And perhaps sensing that regret, Gideon chuckled and took her hand.

“Let’s come back again. Before spring arrives.”

“……”

“At that time, please come to the throne with me.”

“……Yes, let’s definitely come back together.”

Tatiana nodded repeatedly. His words promising the future sounded so good to hear.

But now it was truly time to leave.

The two stood up on the roof, and before fleeing, Tatiana thought of one small trick. She decided to create some confusion for the soldiers searching for them.

What criteria determine a mage’s ability? Most would focus on the magnitude of magical power. Tatiana agreed with that. But she thought there were a few more important things.

Application ability. Spontaneous ingenuity. The judgment to decide which of thousands of spells to utilize in each moment.

Tatiana chose illusion magic at this moment and chanted the spell aloud.

“Your experience into imagination. Imagination back into picture. Breathe life into the picture. Put your heart into it. Live and move. What I want to see now is…… His Highness and me.”

Suddenly, commotion broke out among the soldiers searching the castle.

“It’s the First Prince!”

“The princess consort is with him!”

Gideon seemed somewhat curious as he carefully observed the illusions that looked exactly like himself and Tatiana. However, the soldiers chasing the illusions suddenly hesitated. They seemed to find something strange.

Gideon promptly rubbed his forehead in embarrassment. His expression showed he wanted to laugh but couldn’t quite bring himself to do so.

“Titi.”

“Please don’t say anything. I think I know what the problem is.”

The illusions showed no significant difference from reality. She had carefully implemented even the shadows. However, the problem was that these fleeing people’s expressions looked too happy.

Tatiana’s illusion, smiling brightly, ran with her hair flying, while Gideon’s illusion had his hands in his pockets, smirking as he chased after her. They looked like newlyweds playing tag and engaged in a love game.

“This is my first time creating people.”

“……”

“Really. I can do better next time.”

“……”

“Actually, I can’t imagine Your Highness looking rushed…… And looking pitiful is even harder.”

Tatiana made a sad face.

Gideon patted her shoulder, saying that was more than good enough. But since laughter had already escaped through his lips, it wasn’t comforting at all.

The soldiers inside the castle chased the illusions to the end. Although they sensed something off, it was difficult to consider the possibility that these might be fake.

Someone reached out to grab the First Prince’s shoulder, and at that moment, the illusion scattered in midair.

“What is this…… It disappeared.”

“Magic, it’s magic!”

The surroundings became even more chaotic than when the First Prince couple had appeared in the middle of the castle. And Tatiana, watching from the roof, decided to create a few more pairs since they’d been discovered anyway.

Although they had been found out, those soldiers couldn’t ignore the illusions either. If the real ones were mixed in, they couldn’t escape responsibility.

Tatiana recited the spell with even more care than before. Though it was difficult to concentrate in this environment, thoughts of Gideon always occupied a corner of her mind. She could bring them out anytime.

“They appeared again!”