A New Mission (2)

Vin was sitting on a velvet sofa in the princess's sitting room, hunched over numerous documents.

"Vin, you're going to ruin your eyesight trying to read in this light. At least give it a rest until the sun comes up." A blonde woman with a delicate bird-like beauty frowned at him.

"I'll need to escort you when the sun comes up, Princess."

"My schedule is all free until the afternoon." The princess wagged her finger at Vin. "Seriously, you need to take a break – and start calling me Sofia."

"You know I can't do that."

Sofia walked around the document laden coffee table in front of Vin and plopped into his lap.

"Princess. We are here to visit your fiancé. This hardly seems appropriate."

"And you know there's no way I'm marrying him!" Sofia said. "I'll get rid of him like I got rid of all my other fiancés."

"He seems like he might actually be a nice man. I couldn't find any dirt on him."

"You already looked into him for me." Sofia eyes began to sparkle, and she gave Vin a hug.

"Yes, and I didn't find anything scandalous about him. Nothing big enough to get rid of him, anyway."

"Then I'll do something so scandalous that he can't accept me."

"Well, I have no intention of being your scandal." Vin picked the princess up and placed her on the couch beside him.

"I would never make you be my scandal. I would, like, hire some maids to say I beat them or stole from the poor or something."

"If I accepted your proposal, I would be your scandal." Vin sighed.

"My dad would be a little upset at first, but he would come around. And my brother approves of you."

"One of your brothers approves of me – and he's last in line for the throne."

"Nothing a little uprising can't fix."

"Uh-huh."

"Come on, you love me. I love you. We both have enough power in society that we could make things work even if you aren't a noble. Marry me?"

"No." Vin spared Sofia one glance up from his documents.

"Rejected after another proposal. I'm starting to lose count." Sofia dramatically clutched her heart.

"Fifty-seven." Vin murmured.

"Ouch." Sofia muttered. "I didn't realize I was that pathetic." She paused. "This is the part where you say 'You're not pathetic, honey' and give me a kiss."

Vin gave Sofia a quick peck on the cheek. Her face flushed with color and she was silent. Well, for about ten seconds, anyway.

"Seriously, what are you studying so hard?" Sofia grumbled and picked up a document. "Normally you would have read through these three times by now."

"I'm analyzing these documents for any irregularities regarding Theo of Dullahan."

"Why are you looking into him?"

"Marc asked me to."

"Marc did?" Sofia raised one eyebrow.

"He's convinced that Theo might be more of a victim than a villain, and something does seem off about him."

"Then, let me look through this with you. Marc's an idiot, but he does have a good eye for people."

The princess and the knight read silently, side-by-side for about an hour.

"Hey, remember that case this winter when Theo of Dullahan stole the jewelry from the noble. Didn't Marie Audie end up arresting the noble he stole from for human trafficking?" Sofia asked.

"That's right. I was called in to help investigate and find as many of the children's families as possible."

"Well, I was just reading this document and it noted that Theo of Dullahan assassinated a duke in this land during the summer three years ago." Sofia pointed to a map in the middle of the table that Vin had been making notes on.

"Yes, he did."

"Isn't that the same time that the monsters in the area suddenly declined in population? I remember it being strange that they had gone from asking for aid right before the death of the Duke, to having virtually no problems when you would have expected the opposite when the region lost its leader."

"Are you saying I should look for patterns where the lives of the citizens actually improved after Theo of Dullahan was in the area?"

"Yes."

Vin neatly made note of the events and dates that Sofia had pointed out on his map. Then, they began to read again.

"Three years ago, in the fall. Do you remember when the group of young, wandering knights killed the giant chimera that kept terrorizing the south?"

"Mmm." Sofia nodded. "They had the head, but there was a lot of talk about how it was a fluke because they turned out to be really crappy and unskilled after that. They ended up admitting that they had help from another wandering knight who wasn't a member of their group."

"Theo of Dullahan had just attacked a city about a day's ride to the east of where the dragon was killed."

The two stayed up throughout the night, pouring over documents and making notes of every abnormality they could find. They stopped only once when Sofia insisted that Vin have something to eat and drink.

By dawn they had a long list of notes and the map was covered with Vin's neat, tiny handwriting.

"This is amazing." Vin stared at their notes.

"I mean, I could think of some more 'amazing' ways for you to keep me up all night-"

"Sofia, you have a fiancé."

"So after I get rid of him-"

Vin shook his head at her, but he couldn't keep a smile off his face.

"Alright, alright, this is a pretty amazing discovery." Sofia held her hands up in defeat.

"How did we never notice this before?" Vin asked.

"All the terrorism, thievery and assassination were pretty distracting." Sofia said. "I mean, even with these pages of good deeds, it's not like you can say Theo of Dullahan is a good man."

"But it is evidence that Marc might be on to something." Vin said.

"Exactly." Sofia leaned her head on Vin's shoulder. "I am worried that Marc is getting tangled up into something too dangerous."

"He will be fine." Vin said. "I'm more worried about you, Princess."

"Hey!" Sofia swatted Vin on the arm.

"Go get some sleep. I think you told me you don't have any plans until this evening. You need to have lots of energy if you're going to chase off a perfectly nice suitor."

"Now you're speaking my language." Sofia grinned