Edited last chapter to add Sophia in the picture.

In spite of how little he actually got to sleep, Hachiman woke up in an alright enough mood. He wasn't fresh, nor had the mental fatigue of having no idea where he was extinguished fully. But when Hachiman woke up to the discomfort of having slept on wooden planks without a futon, he merely went through the motions of stretching and yawning the sleep away.

Campbell and Sophia were still asleep. Feet entangled and the little girl softly resting her forehead against Campbell's bossom. In turn, the blond had sneaked an arm below Sophia's neck and was sort-of-but-not-quite hugging Hachiman's sister against herself.

They looked so peaceful that Hachiman couldn't bring himself to wake them up. He wouldn't want to be, and so he carefully tip-toed his way to the door after giving up on finding his boots.

Not important in the grand scheme of things. But he didn't want to get his feet dirty by going out barefoot. He still sucked it up and opened the door.

...Right. There had been guards outside last night.

"Good morning, Ascart-sama!" The man in medieval armor saluted and his people followed suit. The noise of metal against metal strong enough Hachiman worried they would disrupt his sister's sleep.

"Rest, gentlemen." Hachiman blurted out without thinking and the guards relaxed "When will you be relieved?"

"We just swapped in, sir." The man replied with enough energy it was made obvious.

"I see. Then please keep up the good work." Hachiman nodded his way and took his first step outside to see if they would move.

"Sir."

The man did, so Hachiman had a path towards the maze cleared out. Which was good, considering these people were part of the royal guard. So they didn't actually have to listen to him.

The floor was quite cold, but Hachiman kept it out of his mind. He had more pressing concerns, which would have to wait since he was feeling ravenous. He didn't remember the last time he downed something filling, but given the blank he drew in his mind he suspected it had been a while.

One of the guards broke ranks and walked in front of him.

"This way, Ascart-sama. Breakfast should be ready." He was smaller than the first guard, and clearly younger. But his voice was clear and he walked with purpose. So Hachiman simply nodded.

Perfect. Hachiman didn't feel like climbing the labyrinth so early in the morning. He would if the need came up. But otherwise he would rather just go straight to eat and go back take a nap.

...Which he wouldn't be able to, if Hunt's hint about this so-called 'situation' was right on the spot. And given how only the third prince and Claes were even more skewed than her, Hachiman was inclined to believe her.

They took fewer turns than Hachiman expected. A surprise that he also welcomed, given his main motivation to put up with a dirty path barefoot was the promise of food. There were holes punched through the labyrinth to get them straight to their destination, though there were places where the random nature of the paths forced them to go around certain areas. Especifically, they had to walk around two gaping holes in the land and the paths that were too uneven and close to the holes, for safety's sake.

But it was all worth it.

"Nicol-sama!" Claes' voice alerted him of her presence before he actually knew where she was coming from.

He threw up his magic around himself without a thought. It wasn't strong enough to make the monkey lady crash and bounce off of it, but just enough for her momentum to get mostly sucked from her tackle.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm here. Get off of me before you cause a scene." Hachiman awkwardly patted her shoulder while the brunette hugged him.

He didn't quite mind people talking about him, but the glances were more immediate and harder to ignore. Hachiman felt them all around him, even on his back and he was never a guy that thrived in the spotlight.

She complied, but only after feeling his stomach demand attention through their body contact.

"Oh, right! If Nicol-sama came to eat. I won't get in the way." Claes took his left hand and led him around the mess hall to the place she had been eating at. Her maid was working on the dishes her mistress had finished, but stopped and bowed when the two nobles approached.

"Good morning Ascart…" Anne-san stared firmly at his feet for a moment. Her eyes went out of orbit before returning to their usual size the next instant "Good morning, Nicol-sama."

As expected of Claes' life-long babysitter. She kept her cool and didn't bring up Hachiman's lack of footwear no matter how strange it was.

"Good morning, Anne-san." Hachiman bowed a little before getting himself seated. The maid wanted to pull the chair for him, but Hachiman raised a hand to stop her. He was more than capable of doing it himself.

He didn't stop her from bringing the dishes, though. He half expected them to be there already, so when there was nothing at the table he just sort of stared at the emptiness until the food was presented to him.

The downsides of being spoiled rotten by constantly having servants around, he supposed.

Anyways.

"Thanks for the food." Hachiman slapped his hands together. There were no chopsticks around, but Hachiman already knew how to use a fork properly.

"Eh? Ah, yeah." Claes imitated him while already having her mouth full of food "Shanks foo se foo."

Normally that would be the end of it. Hachiman would focus on his own food and would ignore anything and everything that didn't involve chewing. He wasn't someone that did small talk after all. However, the person eating in front of him was none other than Katarina Claes. So his moment of respite of the outside world would not come at all.

"Claes, chew properly. You'll choke if you swallow so fast."

"Claes, you're getting too much stuff in your spoon. You want to dislocate your jaw or what?"

"Claes, clean your mouth. It's all filthy."

"Claes, back straight."

"Claes, be careful with your hair."

"Claes…"

"Claes."

"Claes?"

"Claes!"

"Nicol-sama is bullying me!" Claes slammed her hands on the table, making Hachiman's drink spill a bit out of the cup "You were never this strict!"

"You were never this bad at behaving like a lady." Hachiman shot back while cleaning his cup with a handkerchief before sipping the drink "Has being away from Claes-sama's reach made your manners go bad?"

To her credit, Claes didn't sweat too hard at the mention of her mother.

"I-I am perfectly capable of behaving." The girl looked away, turning to her maid for backup but the young woman had her eyes closed and stood still like she was a statue. Claes didn't find any support in the statue-turned-maid "Seriously!"

"Could've fooled me." Hachiman cleaned his mouth before pushing his cup away.

"More, Nicol-sama?" The maid came back to life a second after the soft click of the cupwear being placed down.

"Please." The reincarnated noble replied.

Anne-san bowed before bringing the teapot close to serve more tea. Her movements were deliberate and practiced, a great contrast to her mistress' usual antics. It actually made Hachiman curious, how would Claes deal with things like serving drinks and eating when she wasn't behaving like a moron in a dress?

"Well?" Hachiman worded his thanks to Claes' maid before turning his attention back to the brunette. Who was fidgeting in her seat after the prolonged silence "Is there something you should be telling me?"

"Y-You're in quite the good mood, Nicol-sama." Claes tried to deflect the subject.

But was he, really? Maybe he was. He remembered dealing with Claes at the table being a lot more stressful than this. Then again, Hachiman had the strong suspicion that he wasn't just missing how he came back to the academy among his memories.

It was confusing. Drawing a blank mid-thought. Letting things he knew happened left unsaid because his brain couldn't make out the final strand of the whole picture. It was disconcerting, actually. But Hachiman tried to convince himself he had lost nothing of value given important events like Alan playing his Dark Angel's Pledge, the evenings with Sophia and his talk with Mary Hunt were still there.

There were things he would rather forget too, like meeting that creepy student council president the year prior, or that one time Claes crashed on him mid-glide during one of their magic-to-blade sparring sessions. Weird how that was still clear in his mind.

Regardless, the subject wasn't about him.

"Claes." Hachiman warned the girl. He understood she didn't want to talk about it, much less in public. But he would have thought Claes would jump at the opportunity of having someone she could trust listen to her.

Maybe she already had things under control. Improbable, but not impossible. Yet Hachiman wouldn't know if she didn't tell him anything.

"I'm worried, Nicol-sama." She relented. Her expression twisted in more than just worry. She looked positively devastated for a moment, before she reflexively took a spoonful of pudding her maid had slipped in with no notice "Keith did all this, then disappeared into the tower…"

Of course, she wouldn't talk about the reason in public. However Hachiman thought she hid a bigger brain behind this monkey play she had going.

"He's not in the tower, though."

"He's not?!" Her expression changed way too easily. It seemed like she hadn't considered his words, but believed him nonetheless.

"There is no way he's that high up." Hachiman explained "Not only because there's no food nor water and he would have to come back down to get them. But also because being so high up would probably be hard on his lungs."

"Then…?" Claes' brain started working overtime, trying to process all the information Hachiman gave her. He gave her time, since that looked like some serious work for her head. And he had all day anyway "Then where is he?"

No clue, really. But that didn't mean Keith Claes could be hiding anywhere either. If he wanted to brood, he would have to seclude himself. But not so much that basic needs would be difficult to acquire. Hachiman wasn't sure about the timeframe, but given how he knew all there was about brooding, he could hazard a guess.

"Close to this very building, probably underground." The tower was just a distraction. There was no way to go so high up without a lot of magic power, which was needed to knock down the walls obstructing travel between buildings.

And some of them twisted and turned in ways that got nowhere.

In other words, Keith Claes was probably sealed somewhere in the vicinity. Safe from the outside world but close enough to the kitchen so he wouldn't starve nor dehydrate. They would probably not find him if he didn't want to be found, but that was a problem a certain fiancé of Claes could probably solve.

Hachiman suppressed a sigh. Rationalizing getting the third prince's help wasn't hard. After all, it didn't have to be Hachiman the one asking for help, since Keith Claes was neither his brother nor were his actions Hachiman's problem. He felt a bit bad for Claes, but this whole affair would affect her even more if not dealt with as soon as possible. So there was really nothing he could do.

"Are you sure?" Claes looked a lot calmer. Which was good, because panicking did no one any favors. Much less the girl that was directly involved in all of this.

"It's just a guess." Hachiman admitted "But if it's sound, then that fiancé of yours is probably working on it as we speak."

If nothing else, the third prince was bizarrely proactive when it came to Claes… Hachiman had always been of the opinion that the blond should spend his time in things that would lead him somewhere.

Oh, well.

"Right, Gerald-sama's been working hard…" Ah, no need to feel bad for him! If she didn't love him, then that was that. She shouldn't just change her opinion on the matter because the prince showed so much support.

Well, it kind of made her a bad person. But Hachiman wasn't going to defend the third prince's personality anytime soon. So that was mostly fine.

Probably, hopefully.

"Now then, why don't you tell me what happened here?" Hachiman took a sip of his tea. He had almost forgotten it was there and it was growing cold "And clean yourself."

He stood up and reached out to the brunette. Using his handkerchief to wipe her lips before she could protest.

"Honestly, you're a mess as usual." Hachiman allowed himself to fall back to his chair.

"Hehehe…" Claes tried diverting again by acting cute, but it obviously didn't work "Somehow, I feel a lot better already."

"Hmmm." Was Hachiman's eloquent answer. That thing she was eating looked great "Gimme."

"Sure, open up and say 'aaahh~'." Claes said before holding her spoon up for him to take a bite.

It was great indeed. Her brother would probably like it.