From Subterranean to Woodland to Homeland, She Carries an Item Like a Baby

"Wait, before we go back up, I have to tell you something," the princess said, stopping us from climbing onto the landing.

The princess asked, "You know, there is a procedure in my life, right?"

I replied, "Yes, I do. That the princess will always be guarded, right?"

The princess replied, "That's it. This time, I lied to them that I wanted to enjoy the forest atmosphere while looking for some leaves and grass."

"Oooh ...." I didn't respond with a sentence.

The princess continued her explanation, "I can't escape the procedure completely. There are still my guards who must be by my side. I told them to move a little further away. But still, they can be said to be by my side. I told them to just wait by the side of the road, guarding our three cars. But they insisted that at least one guard enter this forest. In this forest, there is still one of my guards; currently, she is my guard closest to my side. I can separate myself from her because it would be better if she helped me look for leaves and grass at another point."

I only commented briefly, "I see. Understood, Princess."

The princess and I then jumped to the stepping ground. Once back on the surface of the ground, our feet immediately stepped out of the forest. Not long after, as the princess had said, I saw someone standing among the towering trees.

"Miss Aria!" The person, a woman, immediately ran towards us. Once facing each other at close range, she said, "Miss, is it okay?"

The princess commented, "You're so rude, Sisy. I told you I didn't do anything dangerous. I just wanted to pick some leaves and grass. Have you done your part?"

A slightly guilty expression appeared on the face of the woman named Sisy. "Eee ... That, haven't—"

The princess interrupted Sisy's sentence, "Well, if you haven't found it. Come help me find it at this point."

"Okay, Miss," said Sisy. Before Sisy moved to look for leaves and grass, Sisy looked at me, "Hey, wait a minute, Miss Aria. Who is this man? Why is he with you? Why—oh, wait a minute! I've met you before, right?"

I answered briefly, "Yes."

The princess added, "You first met him when he and I were in high school."

"I remember. Your name is Schonewolken, right?" asked Sisy.

"That's right," I said. "I remember Miss Aria once told me about you. Miss Aria called you Polyops, right?"

"That's right," said the princess.

"And according to Miss Aria's story, you often leave impromptu. So maybe you also ended up in this forest without planning, right?" asked Sisy.

At that time, I chose not to answer; I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

"And you—" Sisy seemed to realize that there was something wrong with the words she had said earlier, "—sorry, Wissenmeister Schonewolken is currently a member of the Five, right?"

"Yes," I answered honestly.

"Sorry, forgive me, Wissenmeister," Sisy apologized for not calling me with the honorific Wissenmeister at the beginning.

"Yes, it's okay; it's not a problem. And more importantly, now let's help the princess find leaves and grass," I said.

(***)

There were four cars driving side by side on an asphalt road in Gmina Lubniewice. The car in the front was the car that Sisy was riding in with another bodyguard of the princess. The car in the second row was the princess's car, and the car in the third row was my car. The car in the back was the car that the two other bodyguards of the princess were riding in.

At that time, the princess and I had packed our things, and we had checked out of the hotels that we were each staying in.

By the way, earlier on the way back from the forest to our respective hotels, the princess communicated with me by phone and told me that she was staying in the most luxurious room in a high-class hotel with a view overlooking a beautiful lake.

The princess said that she could get the hotel by bargaining with the guest who had previously booked the hotel room. Of course, in a legal way, because there is an online platform from Deutschtonia that also operates in Polskachia that provides a service for selling hotel rooms that have been booked. The hotel itself will also get a share of such transactions, so it is not a problem for the hotel.

Now, on the way back to Deutschtonia, I communicated with the princess again. But this time we did not exchange sentences over the phone. I was currently sitting next to the driver's seat of the princess's car. Meanwhile, my empty car with no passengers was pulled by the princess's car.

When the princess had expressed her desire for me to speak directly to her in her car, her guards immediately agreed to it without asking any questions. However, I could catch the curious expressions on the faces of Sisy and the princess's three other guards.

The guards seemed to be asking, "It seems that Miss Aria wants privacy with this man? We know he is a member of the Five, but what does Miss Aria want from this man? Is it business or something else? Is it true that this man met Miss Aria in the middle of the forest by chance?"

But I did not care about the curiosity of the four guards. I myself preferred to speak directly with the princess to dig up more information. The princess and I asked and answered each other.

One of my questions was, "As far as I know, Princess is the representative of the Heissvogel family in the purchase of OSHI sake, right?"

I know that one of the factors that made the Heissvogel family appoint Princess to negotiate to purchase OSHI sake was because Princess had been close to Mr. Warm for a long time—that's why she called him "Mr. Warm" instead of "Mr. Herzwarm."

But business is business. No matter how close you are to someone, what's more important is the professional aspect that requires us to calculate the profit and loss.

The princess, who was holding the Jonquil Magic Ball at that time, answered, "That's right. But they rejected our offer—until now. Then, when Mr. Warm died, we temporarily stopped the negotiations. It is very unethical to continue business efforts during this sad event."

Not only about the business negotiations, but from our conversation I came to know—and tell—many other things. The princess said that in the business sphere, she was one of the people who had close relations with Mr. Warm, but not the closest. She said she was probably in the top ten in that regard.

I also said that among the members of the Five, I was not the closest person to Mr. Warm, but I was still in the top three in that regard.

The princess speculated that maybe Mr. Warm deliberately did not contact the people closest to him, including his family, but contacted people who were still in Mr. Warm's inner circle.

I agreed with the princess, "It is possible that Mr. Warm estimated that the people closest to him were being monitored 24/7 by the party who might have killed Mr. Warm."

We then talked about Mr. Warm's message. Unlike me, who got a puzzle in the form of a hexdump and steganography, the Princess got a puzzle related to botany. However, the messages we received had similarities: (1) Mr. Warm forbade telling our message to anyone; (2) our message described that our ultimate goal was to reveal the real incident of Mr. Warm and unlock the key to conquer the Quietus Cloud; (3) the term "magic women hatred" appeared in our message; (4) we received the message at 23:22:20.

I explained that it was possible that Mr. Warm deliberately sent the message at that time. I said, "It might be goroawase; although grammatically not very correct, it can be read as a true suicide story."

Our conversation had to end when we were about to enter Deutschtonia territory. The princess stared at the Jonquil Magic Ball and said, "We will soon enter the border area. Now I will put you in my bag; later I will hold you again."

For a few seconds, I was stunned watching the princess's behavior. The princess, who was aware of my gaze, then turned to me and said, "I know what you are thinking, Polyops. Yes, please feel free to think so. You think I treat this ball like a baby, right?"