The four of us were sitting inside the cave in pairs. Sarah was by my side, while Alicia and Diane were sitting in front of us. I didn't have time to check all my rewards back then, but I used that opportunity to check them with my Lover's Appraisal.
[
Name: Alicia [???]
Level: 4
Class: Priestess
Affection: 12
]
[
Name: Diane Stollen
Level: 8
Class: Assassin
Affection: 6
]
I tried to restrain myself. It was a good improvement. By her Affection points, Alicia could become a Valkyrie, and Diane was pretty close to it. I was pretty close to having a harem of three beauties. I made a genuine effort, because I didn't want to show my smugness in front of them.
"First, let us introduce ourselves properly." Alicia said in a cheerful tone, now happy that Diane was safe and sound. "My name is Alicia Ludvila von Astrea. I am the princess of the kingdom of Ashia. The girl next to me is Diane Stollen, my bodyguard and also my best friend. She may seem distant, but she is a good person."
"Lady Alicia, please don't say such a thing about me…" Diane said, uncomfortable with Alicia's words, but the princess didn't care a bit about her complaints.
"Anyway, thank you for saving our lives." Both Alicia and Diane bowed their heads. "You two have my eternal gratitude."
"P-Princess!" Sarah repeated that word really nervously, because someone she had been treating casually, as an ordinary girl, was in fact a member of the highest rank of our country's royalty. But Alicia just gave a small laugh.
"Sarah, you don't need to treat me differently from before. I'm still the same girl you were talking to." She said in a calm voice. As Alicia finished saying this, Sarah breathed deeply.
"What a relief! I was arguing with you earlier. If you were some kind of vengeful noble, I would be dead eventually. Hahaha!" She laughed carefreely, but I think she put her guard down too soon.
In a single instant, Alicia's expression changed, and she appeared to be annoyed with something.
"Ahem! We already made our introductions, so I think you guys should do the same." Alicia said to us with a bit of irritation in her voice. Her hand gesture pointing to Diane meant that we hadn't introduced ourselves to her.
"Richard Forster. You can call me Rick." I said readily. "She is my companion, Sarah Lockhart. We are adventurers."
"Just that?" Alicia asked.
"What do you mean, Alicia?" I asked, thinking that I had made some mistake that a high-status noble wouldn't dare to make.
"I mean, you know… what is your relationship with Sarah? You guys seemed very close for just companions." Alicia asked, probably remembering what Sarah and I were doing in the woods.
"We are, well…" Sarah was hesitating to tell the truth to them. Maybe she was insecure after I kissed Diane, or maybe because they would be the first people to know about us. She looked pretty embarrassed about that, so I decided to step in.
I put my arm on her shoulder and pulled her body closer to mine, nesting her head on my chest.
"She's my wife." I told them boldly.
"Eh?!" Alicia overreacted with a surprised expression.
"You are pretty courageous to say this proudly, after kissing Diane." The red-haired woman replied to me grumpily.
"Cough, cough." Diane coughed nervously, showing her discomfort toward Sarah's words.
"Hey, are you still thinking about that? I just cured someone in need." I said in a playful tone to her, not caring what the other two would think. "And if I remember correctly, I think I did something similar with you before. No, I think it was much more intense."
"You are a jerk." She said, her cheeks flushed.
"But you like me this way, don't you? You are so cute with this jealousy of yours." I said while giving her a make-peace peck.
"W-Wah! Wah!" Alicia started to make that shameful sound after this scene. Diane continued in silence, but her cheeks were a bit red.
"Well, this is our relationship. She's my lover and number one in my harem." I said to Alicia.
"H-Harem!!" Alicia said, completely in shock.
"I say this, but it is only her." I said, hugging Sarah with my arm, caressing her skin. "Well, this answers your question, so now it's my turn to ask."
"W-Well, I don't see why not. You can ask me anything." Alicia replied.
"Alicia, what is your story? Why is such a member of royalty hiding in the woods, being persecuted by mercenaries? Why is the king's daughter living in a forest in the middle of nowhere?"
Alicia's shyness disappeared from the blond girl's face, and she looked sad, remembering why she was here in the first place. However, this didn't stop her from telling us.
"I was traveling in my chariot. My uncle, Gerard Strauss von Astrea, is the governor of this region, and he invited me to visit his residence. His son, Jeremy, was having his birthday party, so I thought it was a good idea to come by." As Alicia was talking, she looked even more sad. "But I was wrong."
"Lady Alicia…" Diane stopped her from talking. Now that she was no longer in a life-or-death situation, she had returned to her normal self. She was speaking in a more polite manner. She seemed to be the kind of person who was more reserved. But now her eyes were showing worry about her friend.
"Jeremy turned twenty years old, and he came to me in private and asked for my hand in marriage." She said. "Of course, I turned him down. Members of the royal family marry among themselves sometimes, but I never saw him romantically or s-se…" Shyness wrapped her voice when she started to talk about a lewd topic. "I WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHING SEXUAL WITH HIM. IT'S COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION!"
Her last phrases showed her nervous side toward me. Because her Affection level was too high, she was worried that I would think she would see another man as the owner of her affection. I kind of enjoyed watching her like this.
"Sorry, Alicia, but do you need to talk about all this? You could just go straight to the point." Diane said to her.
"No, it's important for you guys to know the full context. It will make sense in the end." Her words appeared to be directed at Diane.
"Obviously, I rejected Jeremy. My cousin looked sad, but he was respectful toward me until I went back home. But when we were on the road, we were ambushed by mercenaries." Alicia's voice became more grim with each word that came out of her. "With the exception of Diane, all my guards were killed by them. They fought with all they could, but all of them fell in combat, while opening a path for us to escape."
Alicia was really sad about the men who died to protect her. It's not common for a noble to get involved with the lives of their underlings. Some of them think low of their underlings, others think that it will dirty their reputation to walk around them, but most of them just don't care. But that was not her case.
Alicia's eyes were fixed on the ground. She was trying to control the emotions that were boiling inside her heart.
"Sarah, please show Diane the medallion." She asked Sarah with a dry voice.
Sarah took out from her pocket the silver medallion with a wolf crest on it. Diane's eyes opened wide when she took a glimpse of that piece.
"Why do you have this crest?" the Assassin asked Sarah. The Swordmaster looked hesitant to tell this, not liking where this conversation was leading.
"The leader of the mercenaries was carrying it with him. Probably it's connected to the mastermind behind the attempt."
The white-haired woman understood what Alicia was implying. At first her expression was shock, but it was replaced by outrage. But it wasn't toward Sarah; if it were, she would try to kill her.
"That means…" Diane stopped her tongue, but we imagined what she was going to say.
In the kingdom of Ashia, there were four factions that ruled under the king's leadership: the Golden Lions of the South, the Blue Serpent of the West, the Dark Crows of the North, and the Silver Fang from the East. The last one being the region that we were in at this point.
That crest was the symbol of the Silver Fang army that is responsible for the east side of Ashia. And the leader of them is the blond girl's uncle, Gerard Strauss von Astrea.
"It's suspicious, right? I was invited to a birthday party where I was proposed to, but I refused, and then I'm attacked on my way back. And on top of it, a medallion of the Silver Fang with my pursuers. It's suspicious as hell." Alicia was on the verge of tears, clenching her fists.
We stayed in silence for a while. 'What could we tell someone whose own family tried to betray her and went for her head?' Nothing came to my mind.
"Hey Diane, do you remember? Humbert finally was going out with the girl that he always had feelings for. Daniel was just a newcomer among the guards, but everybody liked him. Old-timer Riggs treated him and all the rest as his own sons." Droplets fell on the floor under Alicia. "He was almost retiring from his duty by the end of this month, he was so happy about it. None of them deserved to die."
Alicia couldn't hold her tears anymore. "I don't want to suspect Uncle Gerard or Jeremy, and I hate to feel that. But if they are involved, I can't forgive them."