A/N: Thanks for reading!

Chapter 8

"There are rumors of slave traders being seen in Ishigaki," Gilbert said.

Gilbert was a traveling merchant currently in the provincial capital for the town market. He dealt mostly in tonics, a benevolent snake oil salesman whose stock was mostly ineffectual but harmless. I'd spent the past few months convincing him to consider becoming a perfumer, so his stock of useless brews was slowly turning into pleasantly-scented oils.

"Slave traders?" I echoed in alarm. Ishigaki was a nearby village, which meant the slavers would be pretty close by.

Human trafficking was illegal in the Sanc Kingdom. Slave traders had been mentioned in the novel, and Relena and Heero had even taken down a group trading in one of the port cities in the Bernett province. Still, they'd never interacted with any human traffickers in Heero's home province, so I was surprised.

Gilbert nodded. "Not a large group, mind, they probably figured they'd be caught if there were too many at once – but a friend heard the Governor bought some young girls."

Oh hell no.

"I want to visit Ishigaki."

Hilde barely even looked up from where she was pouring my tea. "Absolutely not," she replied, giving the fresh scar on my neck a death glare. I should consider investing in high-neck clothes from now on if this was gonna be the reaction.

"I want to perform an undercover inspection of Ishigaki," I amended.

Howard shuffled through his documents. "Ishigaki has seen a fruitful harvest this past year, and sends us the required tax quota," he said. "Why an inspection?"

"There are rumors the governor is facilitating human trafficking."

Both Hilde and Howard froze.

"…Alright, an inspection seems necessary," Howard agreed lowly. "However, I don't think you need to personally attend, Your Grace—"

"I'm going," I smiled.

"Your Grace—"

"I'll leave tomorrow," I continued smiling.

"…"

"…"

Smile, smile!

"…no hiking," Hilde demanded.

Given that Ishigaki was only about a day's travel from the provincial capital, and that I wasn't expected to stay gone for long, I managed to talk Hilde and Commander Broden down to three guards instead of the ten they wanted to send. I also had to convince Commander Broden that he could not come, and Howard – damn him – had not been very helpful because he looked like he really wanted to send the actual goddamn Acting Commander of the Knights down with me. It's like everyone was working to make this as difficult as possible.

I ended up with Hilde (who was convinced I couldn't do anything for myself) and three knights: Mikhail (who never strayed further than 10 feet from me at any given point), Sayaka (who I was convinced threatened my horse to behave as good as a horse could because the ride felt eerily smooth), and Mifune (who shot down a bird that startled me when it suddenly took flight).

For the time being, we would keep our identities hidden and spend a day mingling with the townspeople to get the latest gossip. Gilbert had given me the name and location of his friend, a local by the name of Marion who did the blacksmithing in Ishigaki, so we would head there first after settling in the inn.

Ishigaki wasn't big enough for more than one inn, most travelers stopping briefly for the village market or passing through on their way to bigger towns. Hilde took over getting things sorted with the front desk – I'd share a room with Hilde, and the guards would take the rooms on either side of ours – so I took the moment to look around the pub area of the ground floor.

Where I locked eyes with Lady Meilan.

Oh shit.

I couldn't just pretend I didn't see her – the recognition was obvious, I'd stared too long. And she definitely recognized me if the dumbfounded look on her face was any indication.

Time for damage control.

"Oh what a surprise!" I gushed excitedly, hurrying over to where Meilan sat alone at a table, nursing a beer. Unlike the pretty qipao she'd worn to my tea party, she was dressed down in a plain blue tunic with black pants, with no finery to speak of. Much like me, it was clear she was hiding her true identity under commoner garb.

"To think we'd run into each other here," I continued, also ignoring the way Mikhail and Sayaka hounded my steps. "It's been awhile, Mei."

Dumbfoundedness was filtering down to murderous rage with a thin mask of apathy very quickly on her face. "Yes, it's so nice to see you…Doe."

Doe? Doe?!

Stupid fake names aside, I had to figure out what the hell Meilan was doing here. She lived in the capital of the duchy, and though she refused to live in the Yuy estate while her husband was not present, she lived in a luxurious residence nearby. Hilde had said that though Meilan did not have a titled occupation – something to do with hers and Master Chang's culture, where married women were expected to be homemakers and nothing else – she was well-trained in both martial arts and politics, and even sometimes was treated as another advisor to Heero.

From the way Hilde described her, Meilan had a strong sense of justice married to a truly frightening temper. Other-me and her had not gotten along, and it was decided for the sake of peace that we shouldn't meet unless we absolutely had to, which gave her plenty of good points in my book. Anyone that disliked other-me must have a good head on their shoulders.

The only thing I could think of that would get a proud warrior like Meilan to visit Ishigaki would be the same reason I was visiting Ishigaki.

I kept smiling, taking the open seat at the table. "What brings you to Ishigaki? I was stopping by to meet a friend, I heard he was selling some interesting merchandise."

The thinly-veiled look of contempt on her face morphed into one of careful analyzation. Thank god she caught the subtext, I didn't want to reveal to the rest of the pub-goers what I was really in town for just yet.

"Yes," she said slowly, a dawning look of consideration on her face. "I heard much the same thing."

Similar objective confirmed! "Oh, where are my manners? Would you like to have some tea in my room?"

"Of course, Doe, thank you."

"Why the hell are you here?" Meilan demanded once the door to the room was shut. Mikhail waited inside the room, stationed by the entrance, as Hilde moved about to unpack our things and make some tea.

"Same reason as you, isn't it?" I replied. "A merchant I know in the town market said the Ishigaki governor was buying people."

Revulsion flashed across Meilan's face but she didn't let that distract her. "I heard much the same thing from a merchant from Shirokawa village. But why are you here?"

Hilde huffed a little behind me in agreement because Hilde was a traitor. "I'm the duchess, aren't I? Of course I should check things like this out," I defended myself.

"That's not within the duties of a duchess," Hilde interjected blandly.

"As I'm the only duchess in this room, I get to decide what are duchess duties," I said. "And duchess duties include investigating cases of human trafficking and putting a stop to them."

"That's actually the duty of the knights," Mikhail piped in because I couldn't trust anyone to have my back.

"That's why I brought three of you," I told him. "And Hilde, as a bonus, so that I get to enjoy her constantly second-guessing my decisions."

"You nearly got beheaded for iron ore."

"Will you ever let that go?!" I cried. "And he wasn't going to lop off my head, his sword was too dull for that!"

Now Mikhail looked angry. I turned back to Meilan, who was staring intensely at my neck scar. "You were attacked?" she frowned.

"It was just a scratch," I dismissed, ignoring the scoffing sounds behind me. "We were visiting Aoba-ku and ran into some bandits."

"Aoba-ku?" Meilan repeated in surprise. "The town that found the iron…ore…"

I saw her connect the dots and hurried to distract her. "It was nothing, just some bad luck, but the good luck we got in return was so worth it! Anyway, about Ishigaki's governor—"

"Did you find the iron ore?!" Meilan demanded.

Hilde replied before I could because she held long grudges. "After nearly getting beheaded, yes. His Grace managed to stumble across the cave of iron ore deposits after being pursued and attacked by bandits, nearly beheaded by their leader in the process."

I think Hilde was only making a big deal out of it because she didn't have to listen to the guy's villainous monologue. He wasn't nearly as threatening as her words implied.

"So anyway, about Ishigaki's governor…"

We decided to break into pairs for the investigation. I was paired with Mikhail, as he was considered the strongest knight present, and together we set off to meet the town blacksmith. Gilbert's friend Marion owned a small blacksmithing shop near the center of town, so I decided to take the long way around and get a good look at the governor's home.

Compared to the exhaustive opulence of the Yuy estate it was nothing, but it was defiantly more luxurious than the rest of the residences in Ishigaki. It was fenced off by gray stonebrick, but I didn't see many guards manning the area so it wouldn't be too hard to get inside.

Satisfied by our first surveillance of the governor's place, we headed to the center of town to find Marion. It wasn't especially hard, as he was the only blacksmith in town, and he was more than friendly enough when I let him know I was a friend of Gilbert's.

"Oh, you're the smart fellow whose been trying to get him into perfumes, aren't ya?" Marion grinned. "Not a bad idea, I agreed wit' ya. Ol' Gil will come around soon, he's been having my girls try out his newest goods."

'His girls' was in reference to his two adorable twin daughters, both around 10 years of age. They flittered around the blacksmith shop, smartly telling me about all of the tools they knew; it was clear they adored their father. I couldn't stop grinning at them, they were so damn cute!

"They've been selling well back at the provincial capital too," I said. "I expect he'll only needed to be punched out by one more irate customer before he finally gets his head screwed on straight."

Marion's laughter was loud and hearty. He shooed out his daughters, telling them to let their mom know he'd be home in time for dinner, so we watched the two girls bicker and run off. It wasn't until I was sure they were out of sight that I got down to what I was really doing in Ishigaki.

"Gil also told me about some of the rumors he heard around here," I started. Marion straightened a bit, grin falling off his face to be replaced by a somber frown. "There any truth to it?"

Marion glanced around the shop area – aside from both us and Mikhail, it was empty. "It was around a week ago, near dead at night," he said quietly. "A couple of the local kids – the shoemaker's boy and his friend – saw a group of people entering through the back gate of the governor's home. That was already suspicious enough, but then they noticed the chains; they got these young men and women – said the youngest looked to be about 15 years in age – all chained up by their wrists, being ushered into the place."

"Have you noticed or heard anything odd before about the governor?"

Marion shook his head. "Man mostly keeps to himself. Sends a page to announce events, and his guards to collect the taxes. We're a self-sufficient bunch here, you know – don't think we really need much governing."

I frowned. It sounded to me like the governor wasn't doing much but indulging in his vices.

"There's no clinic here?" Mikhail asked, eyes scanning the row of vendors out in the street. "I didn't see any when we were walking around town earlier."

"We got a few herbalists," Marion answered. "If someone's sick or injured, we go to one of them. If it's really bad, we ride to the provincial capital."

My frown morphed into a scowl. I'd reviewed Ishigaki's budget and account before leaving for the trip; they had definitely been given a subsidy to set up a small clinic. It looks like I'd have to add 'embezzlement' to the governor's list of crimes.

"Thanks for speaking with us, Marion," I said, flashing him a grin. "We'll be on our way then. Don't wanna keep you from your girls and the missus."

"'Ey, if you'd ever tasted my wife's stew, you'd thinking keeping me away would be a mercy."

Reconvening back at the inn in time for supper, we hashed out what we'd learned from our separate trips around town. It looked like everyone had heard the same story we had heard from Marion: chained-up youth being herded into the governor's property. They also confirmed the lack of clinic, and Hilde had mentioned a nearby bridge starting to crumble and become too hazardous to cross.

"It sounds like we'll need to get into the governor's place and see if we can find those slaves," I said. "According to his budget, he should only have five servants to staff his property and around 10 guards."

My knights didn't look impressed by the numbers. I imagine any one Yuy knight was equivalent to 10 mercs.

"Should we storm the gates?" Meilan asked, like this was a completely normal Plan A.

"No, they could kill their captives and claim they were criminals or something before we saved them," I shook my head. "We need something less aggressive…"

The idea came to me, and I knew immediately no one was going to be happy about it.

"Would the governor recognize us?" I asked Hilde. "Me or Lady Meilan?"

Hilde shook her head. "Your marriage parade never passed through Ishigaki Village, and the Duke never had any reason to call the governor to the estate."

Just the answer I wanted to hear. They were gonna hate this.

"We'll walk through the front doors," I said, mind feverishly churning over the idea. "As slavers."

Horror over all the faces present. Good reaction so far.

"Or, more precisely, Lady Meilan and Mikhail will be the slavers," I continued. "They'll ask for an audience with the governor. While that's underway, Sayaka and Mifune can sneak into the property from the back to look for the captives."

With Meilan and Mikhail acting as uninvited guests with presumably much-desired merch for the governor, it would distract the guards and hopefully the man himself enough so that the other two knights could get in and snoop around. If the governor also fell for the bait, we could charge him for human trafficking even if the captives were not present.

"You want me to pretend to be a slave trader?!" Meilan snapped in outrage.

"Do you want to find those innocent victims or not?!" I hissed back. "Is your pride worth their lives?!"

Her mouth snapped shut, startled.

"Wait, how are we meant to be slavers without slaves?" Mikhail asked in confusion.

Here came the part they were really going to hate. "From the way Marion described it, it seems likely they're pleasure slaves," I said. "And, well, I am quite easy on the eyes…"

There was another pause as they digested this and what I was leading into, before all of them – and I do mean all of them, even Meilan – began to furiously object.

"Absolutely fucking not—"

"—you are the Duchess—"

"—incredibly dangerous—"

"—if he lays even one finger on you—"

"It's an act," I interjected into the cacophony. "We're meant to be a distraction. Do try not to actually sell me off."

"You are not going to be the slave!" Hilde retorted angrily. "I will be the slave!"

"Hilde, no offense, you're lovely… But objectively speaking, I am very pretty…"

And there was no way in hell I was letting Hilde be the slave. Who knows what that creep would do to her? The only thing she should worry about is making sure I don't kill myself by eating bad meat in the marketplace. I wasn't going to ask her to play the part of a sex slave.

The argument lasted well into the night.

I won, but only barely. I'm pretty sure they only complied because they knew I'd walk in there with or without their agreement.

"We're here to see your governor."

I wouldn't say Meilan was a good actor, but fortunately, the honesty of her expressions actually served to help her play the role rather than detract from it. Contempt mixed with haughtiness was a good start for a slave trader only deigning to speak with a possible client, and it gave the impression she thought she was too good to beg for his attention.

Mikhail, a step behind and adjacent to me, was dressed in worn leather under the guise of being her mercenary guard. I was wrapped in a cloak myself, thankfully not standing out due to the late hour, and keeping my head bowed. I wasn't chained – I couldn't get them to go that far – so I was playing the role of a super-obedient slave.

The concession I had to make in order to play the role was allowing Hilde to come along as well, except she was Meilan's personal attendant. She was stood next to me, and I was sure that if any passing guard tried to get handsy, they'd soon find themselves missing limbs.

"The gov'nor ain't seeing nobody tonight," one of the guards drawled.

I stepped past Hilde to cling to Meilan's arm, all to stop her from lashing out and breaking the idiot's face. Honestly, I wanted to be violent too, so why did I have to play the peaceful one here!

"It's cold here, Master," I said huskily, letting the hood slip off my head to reveal my face. No one in our group knew what a proper pleasure slave looked like, so we'd borrowed some make-up from the innkeeper's wife and outlined my eyes in red eyeshadow, painting my lips a slightly darker shade. Hilde pulled some fancy twists into my hair and left the rest of it down to cascade around my shoulders, so I hoped I looked more sexy than ridiculous.

Meilan froze in my arms, but so did the guards so I counted it a win. No one calls someone "Master" unless they had a very specific occupation, so that was enough to let the guards know exactly what kind of business Meilan had with their boss.

"Well, we should get a good look at the goods, I reckon…" the guard from before leered in my direction.

Mikhail edged forward.

"These goods are wasted on dog's shit like you," Meilan sneered, shouldering past the guard and knocking him back a few steps. "I'll be sure to pass on my sympathies to your governor when I see him in the provincial capital soon for missing out on this chance."

"Oh, was he the man coming to visit during the Winter Solstice?" I simpered to her, flashing a coy smile in the guard's direction.

"But it seems he's too busy for us tonight," Meilan said with a dismissive glance at the guards gathered around us.

It was a gamble but I appreciated her resolve to play the part. With this, the guards would think that she was of a high enough status to be chummy with the corrupt governor, and also shared his interests in pleasure slaves. If she did leave at their cold welcome, it could be enough of an insult that the governor may become irate when he learned of it.

"Now, hold on," a different guard, a lot less interested in me and more focused on sucking up to Meilan, started approaching. "We'll let the governor know you've come—"

"If you're intending to make us wait, we're leaving," Meilan cut him off obstinately. "I've wasted enough of my time even coming to this grimy little village!"

Somewhere out there, Marion's heart was breaking at the insult to his home.

"We'll—"

Meilan turned around, dragging me along. "We're leaving then!"

"Wait, madame, please!"

"You're crazy," I breathed into Meilan's ear.

We were following the more lax guard from before down a corridor lined in paintings and expensive art pieces. I bet that if we sold every luxury good in this hallway, we could get started on setting up the small clinic Ishigaki should have had all along.

"I don't want to hear that from the one who made the plan," Meilan whispered back.

"We got inside, didn't we?"

Meilan glared at me, but thankfully we'd arrived and she had to pull back on her mask of derisive apathy. The guards on either side of the door scanned us, then looked at Hilde and Mikhail suspiciously. "No guards," they stated.

Meilan rose a haughty eyebrow. "She's my servant," she said curtly, motioning to Hilde.

"Then she can stay outside with the guard," they said. They looked me over, so I curled a bit more into Meilan's side – there was no way I was letting her go in there without me. She'd probably tear the governor to bits after one stray remark.

I glanced back at Hilde, staring at her especially hard and willing my silent message to reach her: stay here.

Hilde glared back at me.

I glared back harder.

She sighed and gave a nod, scrutinizing the two guards as they took her nod as affirmation to their orders rather than my own. I could tell she was mentally stacking up the odds, but we all knew Mikhail could easily handle them. They may have been better than the countryside bandits, but Mikhail had both experience and formal training on his side.

The guard escorting us announced our presence to the room, realizing belatedly no one had actually asked for our names and quickly introducing us as "esteemed guests" before he led us through the doors.

The governor was a stocky man of average height, thinning blonde hair falling to his shoulders frizzily, thin brows barely discernible over narrowed blue eyes. He was reclined onto his lounge room sofa, a decadent example of corruption given the splendor of the room and his own night-time robes, a scantily-clad woman decades younger than him half in his lap.

"Esteemed guests?" the governor echoed in bemusement. I tore my eyes away from the girl to look at the floor, falling back on my obedient slave role and hoping he couldn't see the fine tremors wracking my body. Meilan was stiff beside me – I could sense she was reaching her limit of what she was willing to put up with.

The doors closed behind us after our escort retreated from the room. I allowed the cloak I'd been wearing to fully drop to the floor, revealing the more skin-exposing outfit I was wearing underneath: loose white tunic pants that hung off my hips, tight-fitting matching sleeveless top with black embroidery around the seams, and delicate silver cuffs around my upper arms and matching bracelets.

Clearly pleased with what he saw, the governor smiled at me silkily before looking to Meilan. "I don't believe we've met…?"

"Friend of a friend," Meilan said stiffly. I imagined if she stood any closer to the man, she'd be going for his throat. I wound myself around her arm once more in a silent plea to keep her composure; any premature violence may injure the girl beside him or endanger the slaves we still had yet to find. "I am Mei Chiang."

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of a visit, Miss Chiang?"

"Similar interests," Meilan said, moving further into the room with me still on her arm. "I can see my competitors have sold you inadequate products."

She made a show of giving the girl a slow-once over, then raising her hand to lightly pet my hair. "I believe my pet far outshines all of theirs combined," she purred.

Damn, maybe she could act after all!

"He is eye-catching," the governor agreed, hungry eyes roving over me.

I smiled at him, turning my head to whisper into Meilan's ear, allowing my hair to slide over my shoulders to hide my face. "We gotta sell it, get him to agree to at least consider buying slaves aloud," I said softly. "Offer me as a gift, like a free sample, then have him agree to take a look at your other slaves. Leave the room and try to take the girl with you, she can help us find where the others are being kept."

Meilan ran a hand down my arm, using my hair curtain to hide her words. "You'll be put in danger, Your Grace," she hissed back.

"I can stall him," I promised her. "Just work fast."

Before she could argue with me again, I pulled back and stood up in one fluid motion. It was better I spearhead this, since Meilan was clearly in the 'that's not what duchesses do!' camp. She'd have no choice but to follow the plan now.

I sauntered over to the governor, settling down on the seat beside him. I could see Meilan's hands flexing like she wanted to throttle something – likely me – but fortunately the governor only had eyes for me at the moment. I guess there was a boon to being in the body of a pampered dandy.

"A proposition then," Meilan started evenly, her expression apathetic. "I have more just like him, some even better. If you're interested, I can bring them over tomorrow…and you can have that one," a dismissive motion made to me. "For tonight, as a gesture of goodwill."

"A delightful gift," the governor mused, one hand reaching out to squeeze my ass.

I very carefully didn't react. Meilan froze briefly, eyes burning, but wisely said nothing.

"Even Atticus wasn't so generous," the governor continued, dislodging the girl from his lap roughly. She landed on the floor with a surprised cry. "If your other slaves are as high quality as this one, I'd love to see them."

He ran fingers through my hair languidly. Obediently, I crawled into his lap, shooting Meilan a pointed look between her and the girl still kneeling on the ground. I could practically see her grinding her teeth as she stood, slowly moving forward. Hooking one hand under the girl's chin, she tilted her face up as if inspecting her.

"I suppose Atticus isn't that much of a snake," she mused aloud, tilting the girl's head this way and that. "Her face isn't bad. He's sold some truly vile merchandise before so I'm a bit surprised."

"Perhaps he didn't want to get on my bad side," the governor chortled, stroking my ass again. Maybe I should worry less about Meilan killing him because I was definitely about to. "If she pleases you, you can have her for the night as well – as a 'gesture of goodwill'."

Meilan smiled at him. I was very keenly reminded of Hilde. "The kindness is appreciated," she purred.

"Appreciated enough for a discount?"

"Oh, more than appreciated," Meilan agreed. She grabbed the girl by her arm and pulled her up so she could stand. "I'll take my leave with your gift, then, governor. Tomorrow, the same time is fine?"

"Perfectly fine, Miss Chiang."

Meilan gave me one last look before turning and dragging the poor girl along behind her. They stepped out and I got to glimpse Hilde's darkening expression just before the doors closed after them, leaving me alone with the man who kept fondling my ass.

Alright, so I talked a big game, but my focus had been on getting the poor girl out of here and finding the others. Now that I was alone with Creepy McPervert, I didn't actually know what to do. From the way his hands kept wandering, I don't think he was up for a discussion about the latest baseball game, or whatever sports they played here.

"Do you have a name, Pet?" he asked, breath washing over my face. Ugh.

I looked up at him beneath long lashes. "Doe, sir," I answered, because Meilan was an awful influence.

I feel like something much more dirty was about to follow that, but there was a loud crash beyond the doors. I wanted to sigh – it figured they couldn't behave for long. I'd been out of their eyesight for well over 5 minutes, that was probably Hilde's and Mikhail's breaking point.

The governor looked to the door in wary confusion. In his moment of distraction, I jumped off his lap but instead of putting more space between us, I just sucker punched him. He made a funny cry in response as his head snapped back, but I was pissed to see that wasn't enough to knock him out.

I'd been doing some exercising at night after I got Hilde and the others to go to bed, so that no one could stop me. It was nothing too extreme as I was limited by time and available support, but at least I'd built up enough core strength not to be winded by long hikes anymore.

Still not enough strength though, I thought, punching the governor again. If it had been my body, one punch would have knocked him out. Not to mention that this body was so unused to fighting, my knuckles actually hurt from punching him!

The governor backhanded me in retaliation. It didn't hurt as much as the bandit leader's strikes; I guess he wasn't too used to fighting either. I punched him a third time, which got me a gurgled response, then I punched him again just because I was pissed off and he definitely deserved it.

That finally did it. He went limp on the sofa, so I straightened up and examined my knuckles in irritation. Perhaps I could convince the staff that kickboxing was the newest exercise trend for noble dandies…

The doors slammed open, Mikhail storming in with both Hilde and Meilan on his heels. All three of them were covered in blood, which wasn't just gross but also alarming. There were only three guards in the hall, right? How'd they manage to get that bloody?

"Are you guys okay?" I asked, a bit horrified. What had they done, bathe in it?!

They didn't reply, too busy staring at me in shock. God, what now? It couldn't be the outfit, they'd seen me dressed in it before we began our merry roleplay, and I was covered in much less blood than they were.

"Y-Your Grace," Mikhail choked out. "Are you unharmed?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," I waved off. "I just knocked him out. We should probably tie him up though, I don't think my punches do much."

Hilde marched across the room, reaching out as if to grab me by the arm but stopping herself. "Did he…do anything to you…?" she ground out.

This was probably some weird dandy-virtue thing. Did I really have anything like honor left after what other-me had pulled from before I got here? "No, just grabbed my as—behind. You guys started making a ruckus so he couldn't do much."

"Your face…"

"My first punch didn't knock him out," I pouted. I bet Heero didn't have this problem; must be nice to be the main love interest. All his specs were high. "He got a swing in. I knocked him out eventually though!"

As if to mock my words, the governor let out a groan behind me. Meilan bolted forward, delivering a kick to the man's midsection so hard that he went flying. I gawked at her in pure envy.

"Hilde… do you think I could—"

"No," Hilde bit out, ripping a strip of cloth from her own dress to bandage my bloodied knuckles.

Oh, I'd get those kickass moves one day. Just wait.

I had to stop Meilan and the others from killing the governor so that we could get more information about the slavers, but they let out the rest of their pent-up wrath on the hired mercs who acted as his guards. It turned out that though there had only been three guards in the hall to start with, their numbers quickly escalated when Meilan exited the room without me, prompting Hilde and Mikhail to kick up a fuss. The total numbers of mercs was actually around 20, which I guess explained where some of the village's money had gone.

I hadn't been allowed out of the room with the now very-unconscious and very-tied-up governor, as they claimed the hallway outside was too "dirty" (read: covered in blood and gore from their killing rampage) for my eyes. Sayaka and Mifune, who had been scouring the halls nearby, had joined the fight for awhile until they'd culled the numbers enough to be handled by the other three, and then they had the slave girl we'd extracted show them the way to where the other slaves were being kept.

I very obediently stayed where I was, and when it was declared safe to leave, guided everyone back to the inn to the stunned eyes of the innkeeper. I managed to smooth things over by mercilessly using my title to assume control of the situation. Since all of my guards carried their knight emblems with them, it didn't take long to prove my identity, and I had to make some extra time to swear Marion to secrecy because I didn't want it spreading back to Gilbert that his friend from the town market was the goddamn duchess.

From the ones we'd liberated – three girls and two boys between the ages of 15 to 20 – we learned they'd been abducted from the nearby province of Armonia, among several of the border towns between it and the Yuy duchy. They'd stated there had been a larger camp in the Clark province, which was where they had been taken first before entering the Yuy province from its southern border.

The knights planned to take the governor back to the estate so that they could keep him locked up in their underground cells to pump more information out of him. We were going to take the abducted Armonians back as well, so that we could arrange transport with some traveling merchants to get them back home along with a hired guard to ensure their safety.

One of the last remaining issues was the vacuum of power we'd leave in Ishigaki. Their governor had hoarded the supplies and funds meant to stabilize the village, and the locals had been relying on themselves and each other to keep afloat.

The governor was someone that had been assigned by the capital bureaucracy in the provincial capital, so I wasn't keen on repeating the same mistake. I thought it would make much more sense to send down some bureaucrats – accountants, secretaries, tradesmen – to assist someone elected by the local populace.

The village square turned into an impromptu rally until finally they'd decided on a merchant named Stern, who'd dutifully gone to nearby towns and villages to bring back much needed medicines and herbs when the village had been under the hand of their indifferent governor. I had Stern and his family move into the governor's estate after it was cleaned up, although they planned to make the first floor serve as an interim clinic until a new clinic was made with the profit gained from selling off the previous governor's luxury items.

It wasn't exactly a clean wrap-up, but we got the job done.

A week later – with the captured victims sent home and resources on their way to Ishigaki – I was enjoying a nice cup of tea while I pretended Howard and Hilde weren't devising ways to keep me cushioned against every imagined threat in the world when Meilan stormed through the study room doors.

"I spoke with the knights," she started ominously, dark eyes locked on me almost predatorily. "They talked very highly of you."

I took a meditative sip of tea. "It was a long summer," I said. The bruise on my cheek from the governor's backhand was just beginning to yellow from the dark hue it had previously, and every time Mikhail and Hilde saw it, I had to remind them we needed the governor alive in case the Armonian slave traders weren't caught.

"The servants like you too. And Melissa is on vacation." Meilan made it sound like I'd given Melissa the directions to the end of a rainbow in order to find the pot of gold.

I didn't make direct eye contact even as I replied, "She was going to visit Taketoyo. They're…doing something interesting with their boats…" Hilde's expression inched closer to homicidal out of the corner of my eye.

Hands slammed down on my desk. "Who. Are. You?" Meilan ground out.

Oh.

I thought other-me didn't have much of a history with Meilan Long… I tried to wrack my brain for any sort of clue in the novel, but she had been so rarely mentioned…

Master Chang Wufei and Relena had had a very rough relationship in the beginning of the story. Wufei was, to put it simply, a bit of a misogynist; he gave Relena her due respect as a Duchess at first and Princess later, but he scoffed at her idealism and thought her goal was the "foolish hopes of a foolish girl." It got better after she started traveling with Heero and working her Protagonist Princess powers on the plot, so Wufei's grudging respect turned into a less-grudging admiration.

Heero had been the one to truly bridge the gap between them, telling Relena about the hardships Wufei had faced. His hometown had been destroyed in a Romefeller attack on Lagrange, so he'd been taken in by a nearby village where he eventually met and married his wife, Meilan Long. After they'd followed Heero back to the Yuy duchy, Wufei had been with Heero on an expedition when Meilan, left behind, took it upon herself to maintain the order and justice of the province. So when she'd heard rumors of possible human trafficking in a nearby town, she'd gone by herself to investigate – eventually saving the kidnapped victims but dying from the wounds she'd received, being outnumbered by the corrupt leader's mercenary guards.

…

…Wait.

Was she supposed to have died back then?!

I was overjoyed – this made two of us! Meilan would be the second minor character that survived her Death By Backstory! Sure, she wasn't an awful person like other-me, but that just meant saving her was even better!

"Are you listening to me?!" Meilan snapped.

"I have amnesia," I said.

She stared at me.

"It was from the accidental fire in the greenhouse," I continued on. "Doctor Po thought it would be temporary but it's been over half a year so now we're sure it's permanent. I don't really remember much of anything."

Meilan turned to stare at Hilde and Howard, who nodded.

She turned back to me. "But you know – you know some things! Right?"

Wow, rude. "I remember some basic information but not a lot. If there wasn't a picture of my husband hanging up in this room, I wouldn't even know what he looks like."

Hilde frowned. "But you've been writing him letters all this time…"

"He doesn't write me back," I pouted. It was like writing in a diary at this point.

"Amnesia," Meilan shook her head. "That's—I don't even know. You act nothing like how you were when you first got here!"

"I don't remember any of that time either," I sighed. "I learned about the Maxwell House from Hilde and my etiquette tutor. I didn't even know my eye color was a family trait."

Meilan shook her head again. "Amnesia, of all things," she mused. "Is that why you were okay with going undercover as a slave?"

"His Grace," Commander Broden intoned chillingly from the now-open Study Room door. "Did what?"

Oh god not again.

A/N: Duo, you gotta stop… the knights can only handle so much training…

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