Third person perspective (Aleidis's side)
"If they're not staying at any inn..."
"Huh. And there's no sign of they ever leaving the royal capital. That carriage is conspicuous, so whether you leave it at the inn's stable or with a specialist, you should be able to find it easily. However, there is no trace of the princess shrine maiden's party, neither in the carriage nor the horses, nor in the inn books of the inns in the capital... If they were able to get out of the capital, there is no way the gatekeeper wouldn't remember that carriage and the fact that the Archpriestess herself was acting as the driver."
"Mmm..."
Although he didn't want to admit it, the prime minister had no choice but to accept the extremely convincing explanation from his subordinate.
The prime minister, who had a bad feeling, immediately had all the inns in the capital investigated, and also had the gatekeepers at all the gates leading out of the capital confirm whether the archpriestess' party had passed through their carriage. but…….
This was the result.
The sun would soon set, but the archpriestess had not yet ascended the castle.
And the Prime Minister had already guessed that the probability that the Archpriestess would come to the castle today was extremely close to zero.
There wasn't much time left until His Majesty the King came yelling.
"They left the royal palace. They didn't stay at the inn. They didn't leave the carriage there. They didn't leave the royal capital. The answer that satisfies all of these conditions is..."
A subordinate answered the prime minister's murmur.
"…They were camped out in the corner of the plaza or somewhere…"
Certainly, then all of these conditions were met.
The prime minister thought so for a moment, but...
"Is there such a possibility?"
There were the Archpriestess and the accompanying girl...a young child...
And, the carriage was delicate and small, as if it were a private carriage for the Archpriestess.
According to the report, there were no tents or night gear loaded.
Even though they were all children, there wasn't enough space for them all to lie down in the carriage, and it would have been difficult for them to sleep in their seats.
There were no guards, no drinks if they're thirsty, and no restrooms.
Even if you were a noble, if you were a military man, you would be able to withstand it.
...But for a girl with a child...
"Well, no matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand what I don’t understand! And even if your theory is correct, the premise that the Archpriestess' party is within the royal capital will not change. It's hard to imagine selling the horse and carriage and disguising yourself or blending in with the cargo. That carriage is conspicuous, and there's no reason to sneak out of the royal capital. It's not like she's a wanted person, she'll probably come out normally. I never expected something like this to happen, so I didn't instruct the gatekeeper to stop them, and the Archpriestess would naturally think so... that's why……"
"……that's why?"
"You too, hurry up and go find the Archpriestess! Be sure to check all inns, plazas, vacant lots in back alleys, and any vacant lots that are large enough to park a horse-drawn carriage! If it's an inn, it's about time to check in. Even if they're camping out in the wild...I don't think that's possible...but they'll probably decide on a place and prepare before it gets dark. Make sure to secure it and have an audience with His Majesty tomorrow! There's only so much I can do to appease His Majesty today... ……go!! "
"Yes, sir!"
Third person perspective (Mitsuha's side)
"Well, I've been walking around a lot... It's been a while since I've walked around like this..." (Mitsuha)
"Mitsuha, you're weak. You need to train your body more!" (Colette)
"Eh~. I see, Colette-chan is fine, but it wasn't just me, Sabine-chan was also exhausted..." (Mitsuha)
"I was better than ane-sama!" (Sabine)
Mitsuha tried to dodge Colette's attack, but was betrayed by Sabine.
The three of them spent the entire day today walking around the country's royal capital, eating out and visiting all the notable sightseeing spots.
This country was as civilized as the Kingdom of Zegreius, but its customs and clothing were different due to geographical and cultural differences, and there were some rare specialty products.
Even if they bought a lot, Mitsuha would teleport and drop it off at her Japanese residence or the general store Mitsuha in an instant, so they wouldn't have to worry about having more luggage.
If she bought too much and had leftovers, she could sell them at the general store Mitsuha...
So, the three of them not only enjoyed seeing the famous buildings and scenery, but also visiting the shops.
And now, they were drinking tea and snacking on tea sweets at Mitsuha's Japanese residence.
Dinner was eaten at a food stall in the capital.
"Are we going to go home tomorrow? Well, even though I say I'm going back, I'm not going to that country anymore, I'm just going to transfer to the Kingdom of Zegreius. Ah, to avoid any discrepancies in terms of the number of days, I'll kill time by playing around on Earth (here) for a few days..." (Mitsuha)
"Hmm... why don't we continue sightseeing for one more day? There are still many dishes I want to try, and I want to listen to the people's lives and their true feelings as normal civilians, not as arrogant tourists...." (Sabine)
Sabine wanted to take this opportunity to learn about the true state of this country, not just for her own curiosity and enjoyment.
It was a major power that had an important relationship with their country, and although the probability was quite low, it was by no means zero that Sabine would be involved in the future.
The kings would probably try to marry Sabine off to their own nobles, but no one knew what the future international situation and power relations would be like...
"Yeah, I don't really mind. It must be hard to educate the princess on a daily basis, so you might want to take a break once in a while!" (Mitsuha)
"Ehehe... Thank you, ane-sama!" (Sabine)
Sabine looked happy, and Colette was also smiling.
Sabine was a genius and could learn.
She was good at memorizing other countries' languages, the lineage, and history of aristocratic families, manners, and many other things.
She could do technical things with little effort.
However, there were still things that she was not good at, and that didn't mean she didn't need to receive princess education.
Another disadvantage was that because she had a good memorization ability, the hurdles required of teachers became increasingly high.
In the future, after Sabine finished her debutante ball, made her debut in society, and became involved in politics, when her outstanding abilities were known and admired throughout the country and even in other countries, the teachers would say, "I raised her!!" In order to brag, the teacher taught students to acquire skills that were superior to their own.
...to a 12-year-old girl.
No wonder Sabine was disgusted by that.
Therefore, Mitsuha actively cooperated with Sabine whenever she had a chance to skip her princess education.
And Colette was just happy that Sabine would have more time to play with her.
"Okay, then tomorrow we'll continue sightseeing in the royal capital! The day after tomorrow, we'll leave the royal capital and head back home, and around noon we'll go to a small town to do some research, gather information, and do some shopping. We'll leave in the evening. Then, return to the Japanese residence (here). It's a little strange that we stop walking as soon as we leave the capital. After that, we'll live here for a few days, and after a reasonable amount of time has passed, we'll return to our country. Is that fine?" (Mitsuha)
"No objection!!" (Sabi-Colé)
The voices of Sabi-Colé duo were all in one voice.
"Okay, then let's go!" (Mitsuha)
On the first day of the tour of the royal capital, no one said anything to them, and there was no contact from the royal palace side.
So Mitsuha and her group no longer cared about the audience.
They were invited and went to visit, but they were ignored.
If they had been made such a fool of, there was no reason for the host to complain when they returned home.
With this, they had no intention of resigning themself to the humiliation of showing up at the royal castle every day from the next day onward and being left alone.
If it was just her, she had the option of continuing to climb the castle two or three times.
Even when you hired a detective to secure evidence of an affair for divorce, if the evidence only happened once, they'd say, "It only happened once." They try to mislead by saying things like, "It was the demon's fault, and I'm remorseful," or their mutual friends, who are smitten with their feelings, make unnecessary advances, saying, "It's only happened once, so please forgive me."
Therefore, in order to prove that it was a habit, it was standard practice to collect evidence multiple times.
...But this time, Sabine was with them.
Regardless of Colette's patience, it seemed that Mitsuha could not impose such as "Waiting in a small room all day" penance on the princess.
"Well, I fulfilled my duty to save my king's face. It's not my fault that they didn't meet me even though I went properly." (Mitsuha)
"Yeah!" (Sabi-Colé)