Apparently, I’m a Childhood Friend of a Saint in the World of Light Novels, and When We Meet Again After a Few Years at School, She’s Turned into Some Kind of Yandere?
The battle has been settled, all classes for today have been cancelled and the evacuated students have been sent back to their dormitories.
The students and teachers who were fighting are being questioned by the military police who have arrived.
“Yes. This concludes our questioning. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“No, it is only natural that you should cooperate this much.”
I bow to the military police and leave the tent.
I feel like I’ve been sitting in a chair for a very long time, so my body is stiff.
As I stretched, Charlotte came out of the tent next to me.
“Ah, so you’ve finished too, Alan-kun.”
“Good work, Charlotte. I’ve been sitting there for so long, my body’s all stiff.”
“Fufu, how about this then?”
Charlotte puts her hands on my waist and begins to flow magical power into me….
The warm, gentle magic envelops me.
“Oh ……! I feel so much lighter.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Charlotte smiles happily.
I laughed too.
“Well, I don’t have any more classes today, so I might as well go back to my room but……”
“We’re going to see Princess Iris, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, I think that would be better. A lot has happened today, so it’s better to share information as soon as possible.”
Especially James should be shared as soon as possible.
He’s royalty after all, and he said he’s the one in charge of intelligence.
There are other things we should talk about and today would be better because we have more time now that we don’t have classes any more.
“Can you go to Princess Iris’s room?”
“Okay. I’ll go.”
“Please. I’ll wait outside the building.”
Princess Iris lives in a dormitory like the other students.
Naturally, she is in a room with better security than other students, but that room is in the girls’ dormitory.
I can’t go in there, so I ask Charlotte.
“Then please wait a little while.”
“Yes.”
I saw Charlotte off as she entered the girls’ dormitory.
◇◆◇
About ten minutes later, Charlotte returns.
But her expression was a little troubled.
“What’s the matter?”
“……Princess Iris wasn’t in her room.”
“Princess Iris wasn’t there ……?”
I would have thought that Princess Iris would have made contact and started discussions immediately now that the attack had taken place.
She didn’t see her in the room. ……
“…… maybe she got mixed up. Shall we go back to the room once?”
“I think that would be good.”
Me and Charlotte agree, and when I turn to go back to our room, Alex comes running.
It is quite surreal to see him running at full speed like this in his suit.
“What’s wrong? You’re running so fast. ……”
“B-bad Her Royal Highness Princess Iris has …… disappeared ……!”
“”Eh!?””
When we asked for details, Princess Iris apparently sent all her forces to escort the students and reinforce us.
Even if they tried to leave some guards behind, they got strict orders from Princess Iris, and when they came back after the battle, Princess Iris was nowhere to be found.
“If this was going to happen, I should have broken Her Highness’s strict orders and stayed behind to escort her. ……”
“…… if it was a kidnapping, that would be very bad.”
“Let’s search a little more in the academy. If we make a big deal of it, it will not make a good impression on Princess Iris. I think we can organise a search party after that.”
We nodded and dispersed in various directions…
◇◆◇
(Damn …… I can’t find her ……perhaps she’s really been kidnapped ……!)
It was quite heartbreaking to look for someone you don’t even know is there.
Still, we had to look anyway.
“We’re not going to get anywhere if we just keep looking around at random…… think about where Princess Iris would be if she was moving of her own volition…….”
I stayed where I was and turned my head.
Then I arrived at one possibility.
“If she’s not there after all this searching, then she’s only there……Please, please be there……!”
I bet she’s there and run off at once.
That off-limits place ……
The only place I can think of if she is there
I climbed the stairs of the school building and put my hand on the door to the roof.
As expected, the door is unlocked.
I push a little harder, and the door opens with a rusty squeak.
When I stepped out onto the rooftop, I found Princess Iris sitting there looking at the sky.
“Princess Iris, …….”
“Alan-sama? Why are you here ……?”
Princess Iris looked at me and tilted her head slightly.
However, a faint hint of fatigue appeared in the eyes.
“I heard that Princess Iris had disappeared and I was looking for her. …… Alex-san was also worried.”
“Ah …… I forgot to leave a note ……. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
In truth, it would be better to tell them both immediately.
But now, I feel like Princess Iris is completely different from her usual behavior, so I sit down next to her.
“Did something happen? It doesn’t seem like it.”
“Nothing is …… out of the ordinary.”
The face was clearly not the face of a person who is ordinary.
I feel like her body is shaking a little.
“You might feel better if you talk about it. Or …… I’m not worth talking to?”
“That’s …… ! No, but …….”
Her face turns down again.
I wonder if something happened after all.
“Come on, please honestly confess.”
“…I’m talking about today’s attack.”
Princess Iris opened her mouth as if she had come to terms with it.
Her voice was trembling a little.
It didn’t look like the girl who always acts brave.
“Yes.”
“That was …… my fault.”
“Eh!?”
I tried not to be surprised no matter what she said, but I couldn’t help but let out a voice of surprise.
No matter how I look at Princess Iris’ face, it doesn’t look like she’s joking, and I gasp.
“What do you mean that the attack was Princess Iris’s fault?”
“We had information that the enemy was gathering intelligence in the west, but we failed to respond. If we had strengthened our …… borders, we wouldn’t have been taken by surprise! If we had deployed anti-air weapons, we could have swept them up before they crossed the border! So ……”
It is all my fault, says Princess Iris.
There was deep sadness and regret in her eyes.
But I could not hear anything she had just said that sounded like Princess Iris was to blame.
“Princess Iris is doing what she can. No one would say she’s neglectful.”
“But! I put you all in danger …… and it just so happened that there was no damage, but an attack of that scale could have resulted in many casualties …….”
Apparently, she is stuck in a cycle of negativity.
She has not been able to get out of the vortex of self-loathing.
The sight of Princess Iris is so painful that it makes me sad to watch.
“There must be many lives that Princess Iris has saved. It’s not just this battle. It’s also about the policies that Princess Iris has implemented.”
“But …… if I think of putting you all in harm’s way again ……”
“Then we will help you!”
I interrupted Princess Iris and raised my voice.
Princess Iris seemed startled, her mouth gaping open and her eyes wide.
“If Princess Iris is in trouble, we will help her. Whatever it takes.”
“……Why are you saying that ……?”
“I’d like to say because we’re collaborators, but I’m not. Because we want to see the future you envision.”
“……!”
“I’m sure you …… can make this country happy. No, only you can do that. I still believe …… in the promise I made to you at that time.”
Tears rolled down Princess Iris’s cheeks.
It seems that even she didn’t intend for it to happen, and no matter how much she wipes it away, the tears continue to overflow.
“H-huh …… weird. I can’t stop crying. ……”
“If you’re having a hard time, please lean on me as much as you want. If you want to cry, I can’t because my chest is reserved for Charlotte, but I’ll offer my hand.”
“F-Fufufu…… you are so heartless not to lend me your chest.”
“You wouldn’t want Charlotte to get angry with you, would you?”
“That’s true too,…… then, just give me a little shoulder,……”
Princess Iris presses her face against my shoulder and lets out a small sob.
I rubbed her small back without moving until she calmed down…
◇◆◇
“Haaa….. I cried a lot ……”
“Sometimes it’s okay to have a day like that, isn’t it? If you can look forward again tomorrow”
Princess Iris and I look at each other and laugh.
Her eyes were a little red and swollen, but her face looked cleaner than before.
“Alan sama, …..
“What’s the matter?”
“Can I tell you a few old stories ……?”
“As much as you like. I’ll listen to it as much as time allows.”
“Fufu… Thank you. I’ll talk to you then.”
After saying that, Princess Iris started talking one by one.