Teleportation used to be the best means of transportation there was, mostly because it was instant, which made it feel like the safest way to travel too, at least until two years ago, when spatial disturbances spiked so violently that teleportation alone ended up causing sixty five percent of all the casualties suffered that year, and no one, not a single soul, could explain what was actually causing it.

Every engineer in Magitech threw themselves at the problem, private companies poured funding into every kind of research they could think of, all just trying to come up with something, anything, that could reassure a public that was quickly losing faith, but none of it amounted to anything in the end.

The moment you stepped through a spatial door, whether it was routed or not, you would probably disappear forever, and that was the best case scenario, because the alternative was having your entire body torn into a thousand pieces and scattered across countless different destinations, until eventually the King had no choice left but to forbid all research and every attempt at spatial travel entirely.

There was only one exception carved out of that rule, and that was for people who were born with spatial abilities of their own, people like Carmela, who right now was holding up what I could only assume was a doughnut, nibbling on it with this small satisfied look on her face.

She looked so cute doing it too, but honestly, I wasn’t in the mood, not even close, and even being this near to her, even with everything I felt for her, none of it was enough to pull me out of the restlessness that had settled into my chest. The thought that the girls could have died back then, however slim that possibility actually was, kept gnawing at me, refusing to let go no matter how hard I tried to push it aside.

"Master, it’s really good, alright, open up, I’ll feed you myself," she said, cutting off a piece and bringing it up to my mouth, but I didn’t open it, I just kept ignoring her the way I had been for a while now.

"Master... you’re leaving me hanging..."

I still said nothing. Right then we had just arrived at the stationed border in Listral, where, because of the dimension rift, most of the duchy’s inhabitants had already been evacuated and the passage in had been sealed off entirely, which only drove home how serious the whole situation really was, and right now the King’s messenger, the one who had personally delivered the decree to me, was off talking with the border guard trying to work out our passage through.

Come to think of it, "Where did you get that?" I asked, glancing around the area, which was crowded with unaffiliated slayers throwing themselves at whatever opportunity they could find just to survive, and I hadn’t seen anywhere around here that was even selling food.

"I went back to the city to buy them," she said, looking down at her feet, almost dejected, "and you won’t even take a bite," she added quietly.

She had gone all the way back to the city just for doughnuts, and at that point I couldn’t help but wonder if she wasn’t just abusing her ability at this rate, using it for something as trivial as this.

Either way, I kept right on ignoring her.

"MASTER!"

That was when she finally seemed to realize I wasn’t going to cheer up no matter what she tried, and instead of pushing further she just wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. "I’m sorry," she said, for no reason I could pin down, her voice suddenly so small it barely reached me.

"Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything wrong," I said, my voice coming out flatter than I meant it to.

"I’m the reason you had to remember..." she said, biting down on her lip, "now you’re hurting... I’m sorry, master, sobs, I’m sorry," she cried, and still I said nothing at all, just kept staring up at the sky above us, because honestly, at this point I didn’t even know what it was I was feeling anymore.

That’s right, I hadn’t seen Moressa in a while now, and truthfully I hadn’t wanted to see her either, so I never bothered asking where she’d gone, figuring maybe she’d realized that herself and decided to give me the space I needed on her own.

I really don’t want to hate her, but no matter what I do, the feelings just keep coming anyway, over and over, and I don’t know how to make them stop.

What am I supposed to do?

They did something of that magnitude, something that big, and then hid every bit of it from me, using the fact that I couldn’t remember any of it against me the whole time.

Should I forgive them? Can I even forgive them?

"Master," she said, and I looked down to find Carmela’s eyes locked directly onto mine.

"I’m crying, can’t you see?"

Huh. Oh well.

What was I even doing right now? Sitting here letting myself get swallowed up by all this wasn’t going to solve a single thing, and on top of everything else there was the simple fact that in a matter of hours I’d be walking straight into what was very likely certain death, so I really shouldn’t be letting all these emotions cloud my head like this.

"Is that so?" I said.

She went quiet for a second, then suddenly glared at me, "...master, you’re so mean," she said, punching me lightly in the chest.

"Oof," I gasped, and her expression immediately went pale, "I’m sorry! I hit too hard," she panicked, and hearing that out loud honestly just made me feel pathetic all over again.

"...tsk... where’s Nadia?" I suddenly remembered.

"She’s back at the mansion, she wasn’t going to be much help anyway, if anything she’d just complicate things, so we left her there," Carmela explained.

"That’s right, I never did get to ask what happened with Nirai’s men that day, how did it go, what happened?" I asked, and she pursed her lips like she was thinking hard about how to answer.

"...those men... well, we just made sure they understood you weren’t someone to be messed with," she said.

"...and?" I pressed.

"That’s it," she answered, far too innocently.

"Did they go back, or what?" I pushed again, but she decided to exercise her right to remain silent instead.

"Your Highness, we can go now," a gruff voice cut through, belonging to the knight who had dragged me all the way out here under the King’s orders, a man so powerful I could feel it just standing near him, and it was becoming clear the old man was dead set on sending Lorel to an early grave no matter what it took to do it.

"Alright," I said, nodding, then scooped Carmela up into a princess carry, which caught her off guard for a second before she just giggled and melted into me instead of putting up any kind of fight, still working away at her doughnut the whole time.

When we reached the car, one of the knights stepped forward and opened the door, and I set Carmela down inside before she scooted over to make room for me, and sure enough, Moressa still wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

I couldn’t help but wonder just where she’d run off to. I might be furious with her, sure, but that didn’t mean I’d stopped caring about what happened to her.

"Where’s Moressa?" I asked Carmela, who had already latched onto me again, hugging me tight the second we’d both settled into our seats.

"...umu? Moressa? Oh, that’s right, she’s not here," came Carmela’s less than helpful answer, which earned her nothing but a blank stare from me.

"Don’t worry, master, she’s strong enough to protect herself," she added instead, like that was supposed to settle it.

But how exactly was she supposed to get to the duchy if she wasn’t even coming with us? I figured maybe she just wanted to give me some space, or maybe she just needed to stay away for a while, sensing the way I’d been feeling about her lately, but this was the middle of nowhere, and she wasn’t Carmela, she didn’t have that kind of ability to just show up wherever she pleased.

Then, all at once, the car started moving.

I reached out and tapped the driver’s shoulder. "Hold on, one person’s missing."

Hearing that, the driver answered without so much as slowing down, "If you mean your maid, she informed me she wouldn’t be returning and that we should go on without her," and just kept driving.

...really?