How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 25

Commencement

Miriam arrived at the rooms prepared for her in the Ruby Palace with Emilio by her side.  Her body was still trembling with fear for her sister.

Emilio led Miriam to the sofa and sat down beside her. He ordered the maid to bring some calming herb tea for her. 

“The maid’s bringing some herb tea. You should drink it, it’ll help you calm down…”

“Thank you, Prince Emilio…”

When Emilio saw Miriam’s pale face and shivering body he couldn’t help but wrap an arm around her waist and pulled her into an embrace.

Miriam’s small build fit perfectly in his arms. Emilio’s heart sped up suddenly as Miriam’s soft and delicate body pressed up against him.

‘Ah, I ended up embracing her without thinking… damn! She’s so small and cute…!’

For a moment, Emilio felt tempted to pull her closer, but he recalled the current situation and vigorously shook his head to clear his traitorous thoughts.

“Don’t worry, we’ll definitely have your sister back safe and sound.”

Emilio tightened his arm around her. Miriam put a hand on his arm and turned up to look at him.

“Thank you. I-I’ve calmed down now… My sister is the one in a difficult situation right now. I should pull myself together. I apologise for having you fuss over me.”

Seeing Miriam put on a forced smile after saying that, Emilio grabbed her shoulders and turned her around  to face him.

“P-prince Emilio…?”

“Really, Miriam! You don’t have to force yourself to smile. If you’re scared and anxious then it’s okay to cry it out. I’m here for you. You can rely on me.” Saying so, Emilio hugged her tightly. 

A flowery scent softly tickled his nose. Emilio felt his heart soften at the small warm body in his arms. He felt himself wanting to protect her from everything.

“I-it hurts, Prince Emilio.” 

Emilio quickly let go of her as Miriam tapped his back.

‘I… what did I just do!?’

Red faced, Emilio quickly got up to his feet. Just then, the maid returned with the herb tea.

“Sorry. A-anyhow you should drink the tea and rest for a bit.”

Miriam watched as Emilio rushed out of the room then she hid her own blushing face into her hands.

　◇

“There’s no mistake. The red robes are the same from Robin’s memory.”

The footman and driver that had been accompanying Alessia had mentioned the kidnappers were in ‘red robes’. Finding that to be too much of a coincidence, Valeria was called to Beatrice’s mansion to peek into their memories.

“So they really are the same as the ones who summoned Robin here?”

“It’s highly likely.”

“You can’t tell their objective, right?”

Emilio returned to the office to find Leonardo and Valeria talking about the memories she had looked at.

“Did you find anything?”

“Lady Valeria just looked through the driver’s memories. It’s very likely these kidnappers are connected to the red robed people who summoned Robin.”

“The red robes… What exactly do they want…?”

Emilio sat down at his desk and started jotting down the information.

An organisation of red robed people, summoning from another world, a young woman…?

“By the way, how’s Millie?”

At Leonardo’s question, Emilio recalled the events from earlier and flushed.

Leonardo frowned at that.

“Hey, why are you blushing? You didn’t do something untoward in this situation, did you?”

“Absolutely not!” Emilio quickly assured him as he felt his murderous gaze on him.

Then he remembered the encounter with his brother on the way to Miriam’s room.

“Maybe it’s completely unrelated but I’m a bit concerned about Ivan.”

“Prince Ivan? Did something happen?”

“I ran into him earlier on my way to the Ruby Palace. For some reason, he already knew about Alessia’s kidnapping. The news has been kept secret since it’s a young lady who was kidnapped. Ivan said he heard from a footman but no one knows apart from us so it would be unlikely for the news to get out in such a short time.” 

“That’s true, but what is he after?”

If Ivan was the one behind this then the objective for the kidnapping was clear. However, once Emilio realised that he felt a deep regret for his recent actions.

“If Ivan is involved then it’s likely that Miss Alessia was kidnapped after being mistaken as Miss Miriam.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ivan told me that heard me ‘fiance’ was kidnapped. But I actually don’t have a fiance. It’s just a rumour. People started speculating since I always go out of my way to accompany Miss Miriam back home! He probably didn’t realise that the one I escorted was Miriam. He must have heard that I was courting the ‘young miss of the Caparoni family’ and assumed it was Alessia!” 

He should have known he should be extremely careful with the dispute over the throne with the Second Prince’s faction. He had gotten too close with Miriam even though they weren’t even actually engaged. If his guess was right, then he couldn’t even begin to get rid of his regret over being too careless.

“I’m sorry, Leo. Your precious sister was exposed to danger because of my careless actions…!”

Emilio got up from the desk and sank to his knees on the floor. At this, Leonardo quickly rushed over to him.

“Stop! We still don’t know if that’s true! The kidnappers were the people in red robes. We can’t tell if they’re connected in any way to Prince Ivan! If you want to apologize then find out the truth and help me save my sister!”

Leonardo gripped Emilio’s hand and made him get up. An idea suddenly struck him.

“Lady Valeria! You always summon Millie to Lady Beatrice’s mansion. Can’t you also summon Sia?”

Valeria looked down and shook her head.

“It’s different from space-time teleportation magic. With summoning magic, you need to have met at least once to be able to do it. I’m sorry.”

Leonardo and Emilio dropped their shoulders in disappointment at Valeria’s answer.

“Have you told Millie about the situation with Prince Ivan?”

“No, I haven’t. I didn’t think there was a need to do so.”

“Yes, that’s probably wise.”

“I’ll first investigate Ivan. Why don’t you look more into the red robe organisation, Leo?”

“Okay.”

“Since I’ve come this far I’ll also pitch in. I’ll start by tracing the magic circle used to kidnap Alessia.”

Emilio and Leonardo felt grateful at Valeria’s offer of help.

“You will help us!?”

“Yup, I also want to find out more about the red robes. And, I’m more concerned than I thought I would be. About Millie, that is. Of course, I’ll get Rice and Ellie to help as well.”

Valeria smiled sweetly with her eyes burning in anger.