Night came and I came back to the secret place where I kept the Princess.
"Good evening, Hanako." I call her as I see her already standing at the hallway. She seemed a bit on edge.
I look over to the guards I left to spy on and they sighed shrugged.
"Same to you, Henry." She said while fidgeting her hands.
"Is something wrong?"
"No no… well I don't know." She said and showed me an envelope with the Sakurai family emblem on it, "This came from my father a few hours ago."
"... alright, let's go up and talk calmly. You look very jittery."
"I'm sorry for that." She said as we walked towards her room with Genzo following behind us. "I haven't read it yet."
"Oh!" I say and close the door in Genzo's face, stopping him from intruding, "Do you expect trouble?"
"I don't know." Hanako said, "My father is the one who send me to this tour." I nod, "So after talking to you and thinking for a moment I came across a thought."
"What if… what if my father knew that my brother was going to kill me?" Hanako looked with confusion, fear and hatred all gnawing altogether, "What if he wanted me to die?"
"Do you think he wanted me to die?"
"Probably" I shrug my shoulder as her face fell even more, "But I don't think the situation is that bad."
"You really think that… who knows, maybe he was deliberately confused by my brother." Hanako said and thought, "Maybe he wants to know what the killers plan here were."
"Well, we won't know anything about the matter until you read it." I say and point towards the letter, "So open it and read it carefully."
Hanako carefully opened the envelop and got the letter out. She took a moment before looking at me, "Do you want to hear it?"
"It's better if I don't. What if there's something that I shouldn't have heard." I say, knowing this was a trap from her, "Read it first and tell me only the things that you can tell me."
She nodded, her eyes brightening Henry's figure more.
Opening the letter, she read it. Hanako walked here and there in her room while carefully reading the piece of paper with a thorough face.
The place was very quiet except for the clicking of her heels.
'I should have told Genzo to bring some tea for us.'
Hanako stooped and gave me the letter, "He's calling me back." Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel{f}ire.net
There was no point in giving me this letter actually. This was in Japanese. I know how to read Japanese and I read what it wrote here but she shouldn't have known that.
'Look at that, she's trying to test me again. She's either growing up or she's more of a snake then I thought.'
I casually put the letter down beside me and say nonchalantly, "I can't understand what it says here."
"Oh, my apologies." Hanako said, "I forgot you didn't know our language."
I shrug away her fake apology with a smile.
"Well, in all basic form it says that My father told me to come home as fast as possible."
"Alright, anything else? Is he worried or blaming someone?" I ask, already knowing what there was.
"Yes, he is worried. He shares his fear of my attack and tells me to be extra careful." Her eyes, looked at me hesitantly before saying, "And he blames you for the attack."
'Good. She didn't hide that part from me.'
I nod, "A typical response, what else?"
"A typical… Aren't you angry?" Hanako asked, confused.
"You can't blame your father for accusing me. He couldn't accuse his own son that's likely to be the future emperor, so who could he accuse?"
"Well, it had to be the person that is hated by his own nation and wealthy business people. Doing that not only shadows his son's crime but also makes his sponsors happier by cursing me and putting more crime on me."
"Two birds with one stone."
"S- So… you aren't going to plead your case?"
"Nope, but on a more important note… what does he think about the Leonidas Kingdom or the royal family?"
Hanako sat down beside me, "He's not really that happy with the new ruler. Father wants to make talk with the King but with him bed sick and the new Queen being tough on her standards, he's keeping neutral on the matters."
I nod and look at her seriously, "Tell me Hanako, what does your father really think about war with us?"
"War?" She shook her head, "He doesn't want one."
"You sure?... what about his council?"
Hanako took a moment at that, "Well I can assure you my father doesn't want war… but the council, they have conflicting thoughts."
"And with the sudden emergence of my sigmat crystals," I continue, "The conflicting thoughts become more apparent, right?"
I take all the information in and breathe deeply before asking.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"I can't do anything else but go home." Hanako sighed, "And here I had thoughts of making a name for myself by having peace talks with the Queen. Now I'm about to go back empty handed."
I smile at her distraught look.
Back then when I mentioned her to be more cunning, I had told her to gain influence in ways that would make her a valuable subject. But going back home now would mean it was a lost project.
But I saw an opportunity.
"That's not true." I say as she looked cutely at me, "You made a friend of me."
She smiled, "Yes… that's something I did here, though I wonder how my father would take it considering he's accusing you of killing me."
"No, that's not what I mean." I say and get a bit closer to her. She didn't mind it one bit.
"What I'm saying is, you made friends with the person who tried to kill you. You have made an official alliance with the Snake Tail's Gang." I say as her eyes widened in understanding, "Not only will this be an amazing feat but you will also cut the alliance Snake Tail's had with your brother, showing you aren't that easy to kill."
"Yes… if I'm able to make friends with my murderer than it will indeed increase my influence and will even gain me connection with a few people in court." She said but frowned next, "But how will I change my father's opinion?"
"I have something for that." I say and bring out a scroll.
"In this scroll, there's a business opportunity between Sekai and me, more importantly between your father and me." She took the scroll and opened it, her eyes widening in surprise.
"It says there that I will decrease some percentage of sale with Leonidas and sell them straight to Sekai. The price will be the same number that I have with this kingdom, which is almost half the price your father buys from his own crystal sellers."
Hanako nodded vibrantly, "Yes, my father would definitely be satisfied with this. He might even want to personally start a friendship with you…" Then she looked at me in curiosity, "But what do I say when he asks how I was able to get so much from you?"
"Well…" I smile dashingly, "Just say that I got enamored by your charms and went head over heels for you."
Hanako blushed at that and looked down in shyness, "I- I'll do that."