Previously:

Meanwhile, at sea, a small fleet of ships from the Kou Empire was on its way to Sindria.

"We will reach Sindria according to our schedule. Your Majesty," one of the soldiers onboard reported to a young man dressed in black and white with black hair and blue eyes with a scar on one side of his face. He was the Kou Empire's fourth prince, Ren Hakuryuu. Inside the cabin behind him, a dark aura was emanating from their other distinguished passenger, Kou Empire's eighth princess, Ren Kougyoku.
"I will kill… Sinbad… I will kill… Sinbad..." she muttered over and over like a curse, gripping her Metal Vessel so tightly that her hands shook. She was so upset that she had activated a partial Djinn Equip. "To do… something like that to me…!"

Chapter 65: Everyone's Daily Life and Sinbad is the Culprit

"Do you know what your mistake was?" Ja'far asked Hope, who was currently bound by the constriction of his rope darts wrapped around her. They were in a small training facility in the palace.

"Taking my eyes off the ropes after I thought I dodged them?" she said.

"Good," Ja'far said. Let's try that again." He released her, and she picked up the two sixteen inch sticks she had found and got ready for another round. Ja'far struck first. Hope jumped back instead of forward this time, keeping her eyes on the ropes and his hands. His hands twitched, and she knew it was coming. The ropes shot further back, getting behind her. Hope waited for them to start to cross each other and ducked. The two darts wrapped around each other instead, and she shot forward at Ja'far, tightening her grips on the sticks. Ja-far quickly untangled the ropes and retracted them, gripping one dagger in each hand as she struck. She pivoted, moving her right shoulder to her left hip, attempting to deliver a forehand strike known as a 'San Miguel'. Ja'far blocked with one of the daggers. He thrusted the other at her gut. Hope quickly used her other stick to knock the strike off target, so it slid a harmless inch away from side of her waist. Ja'far sliced through the first stick he had blocked, cutting it to eight inches in length. Hope tried to knee him in the gut as he did this, but he jumped back. She adjusted her grip on the short stick and charge forward again, determined not to let him make full use of his ropes. She attacked again, with the short stick, hitting the under side of his wrist just hard enough to make him drop the dagger. It didn't hit the floor, because the ropes were coiled around his arms under his sleeves, but at least it wasn't in his hand anymore. She used the longer stick push them further apart when he aimed the dagger still in his other hand at her neck. She didn't want to break any bones, so she avoided smashing the ankle towards the opposite foot to knock him over, and dropped to the floor and tried to sweep his legs out from under him. Ja'far jumped up and dodged, firing his darts at her from the air. Hope dodged and they embedded themselves in the floor. She quickly jumped on top of the ropes before he could pull them out, one foot on each rope, pinning them in place. She dropped the sticks, grabbed the ropes and yanked him closer to her, getting ready to knee him and pin him, when she felt something cold and sharp against her throat. Turned out he had another knife. "Congratulations," he told her with a smile. "I hardly ever have to use this."

"I'm still dead," she said, sweat-dropping.

"You're less dead than you were last training session, but you should stop holding back," he said. "You should also think about getting a more durable weapon."

"Improvised weapons are what I'm used to. We're not allowed to have them in most places in our world. So when trouble strikes, we use whatever's at hand," she explained. And she and Hope were trying to save up money to expand their business.

"I see..." Ja'far said. "Well, you're not in your world anymore. Again."

—∞—

Alibaba was training with Sharrkan in another small training facility in the palace. Sharrkan moved so fast that Alibaba couldn't completely dodge every attack. He had scratches on his face and arms. Alibaba had just successfully blocked a blow, when the jewel on the sword in his hand and the sheathed blade of his broken knife started to glow. An eight-pointed star seal appeared in the jewel on the sword Sinbad gave him. Alibaba knew what that meant.

"Amon… moved to Balbadd's royal sword!!" he exclaimed, excited.

"He finally moved, huh," Sharrkan said, smiling. "Finally, my strict guidance shows its results, I guess."

'It really is the result of his strict guidance...' Alibaba thought, remembering all the times Sharrkan was strict with him and pushed him to keep going. 'He is totally different when we do sword training!'

"Come at me with that," Sharrkan told him, pointing at Balbadd's royal sword.

"Eh?" Alibaba said.

"Let's make Amon's sword debut. You can perform a Djinn Equip, right? Weren't you boasting yesterday that Amon's sword can cut anything?" Sharrkan said.

"But even if it is you, a Metal Vessel vs. a Household Vessel is unfair..." Alibaba said. Sharrkan smirked.

"I will not activate my Household Vessel. I will fight you with just my swordsmanship alone!"

'He is completely underestimating me… It is true that I could not do anything against him until now, but if I… have Amon's sword, I can do it!' Alibaba thought, determined.

"Fight!" Sharrkan called, and Alibaba activated his Djinn Equip.

'But Amon's sword it too dangerous. I could cut him in two," Alibaba thought. 'I should just aim for his sword and cut it!!' He launched himself at Sharrkan, aiming for his sword.

'…?' Sharrkan thought, but he quickly guessed what Alibaba was up to. He shifted his stance.

'!' Alibaba thought. 'He took the blow with the side of the sword and changed the momentum without stopping it!' Alibaba slid right past him.

"What the hell is that swordsmanship?" Sharrkan asked. "You should fight me seriously."

'I'll fight… seriously, but...' Alibaba thought, stopping himself to turn and attack again. Sharrkan blocked him again. 'I'm not able to land a singe hit!!'

Alibaba kept trying, but he really couldn't land a single hit.

"I'm a little disappointed, the skills of the guy using Amon's sword are not on par with it, huh," Sharrkan said. Alibaba had no comeback to that. "Don't feel down. I'm not saying that I don't expect anything from you. Rather, I should say that you have a good sense! The peculiar sword style they taught you in the royal palace is quite good! … That's why I was surprised when I saw your Djinn Equip. Are you really okay with using that sword?"

"Eh…!?" Alibaba said.

"What… It seems you are not aware of it… There is a better way to do the Djinn Equip, you know…?"

"Another way… of doing Djinn Equip, you say…?" Alibaba asked. The bell rang to signal the time.

"Ah, it seems we have finished for today," Sharkkan said. "Okay, training ends here. Let's go drink something, Alibaba!" He started walking away.

"Wha? Um… teach me about the other ways to perform Djinn Equip, Master..." Alibaba said.

"You stupid fool! We are done for today, we will do it tomorrow, okay?"

"Let's continue, please!!" Alibaba pleaded. Sharrkan put his arm around his neck.

"No~~ I follow the doctrine of not working outside of my time!" Sharrkan said cheerfully. "Let's go drinking!"

—∞—

Meanwhile in the palace's interior garden, Aladdin was working on his heat magic, while Faith was working on producing a full borg at will. Yamraiha watched them from a bench. Every now and then, she would surprise Faith with a water attack.

"Come on, come on..." Faith said, trying to hold onto her borg longer. It disappeared. "Damn it!"

"OO Heat magic!" Aladdin said, producing more flames.

"Come on, come on..." Faith said, putting up another borg. Yamraiha pelted her with water. The borg stopped it and held. "Yay!"

"Very good," Yamraiha praised her. "You're improving!"

"XX Heat magic!" Aladdin said, producing flames again. "What do you think, Miss Yam?"

"Um… Aladdin!" Yamraiha said, standing up and walking over to him. She pointed at him "You are not making any progress!" she stated bluntly.

"You can tell me that even without all that coldness!!" Aladdin said, shocked.

"Ah. Sorry, I will rephrase it a little!" she said, feeling a little bad when she saw the hurt look on his face. "Your magic is all rough. All it consists of are tasteless magic attacks like Har-Har Infigar… But that doesn't fit a magician. Faith, you have this problem too."

"Really?" Aladdin asked.

"Yes. Aladdin, you are a magi, so you are a special case, but…" Yamraiha said. "Normally the magicians are not that different to the Metal Vessel users when it comes to offensive ability. Because the Metal Vessels are like a mechanism that amplifies one's power… It produces a natural phenomenon with a little bit of magoi and with that is able to display a single great and fierce offensive magic. We magicians cannot do that… Instead of that we are able to use different kinds of magic. According to the terrain and situation, we provide support by various means toward the Metal Vessel users and the Household Vessel users that are able to perform moves of only a single attribute… More than attacking, we have the support role for helping everyone! That's a magician's mission!"

"I see," Aladdin said, looking at his staff.

'Just like in a fantasy MMORPG...' faith thought, twirling her stick. Yamraiha looked at it.

"Say, Faith… don't you want a better wand?" Yamraiha asked.

"Actually, I'd like a staff, but my sister and I are trying to save up to expand our business," Faith replied.

"Business?" Yamraiha asked.

"They sell 'beauty products'!" Aladdin said, smiling. Making pretty ladies even prettier. Sounded like a good thing to him.

"I can hook you up with a free sample of our moisturizing soap, if you like," Faith offered. "We also do makeup and a shampoo and conditioner. A face cream and body lotion are on the way, too."

"I may take you up on that," Yamraiha said. "Okay. Let's continue your training!"

"Wait, Yam!" Aladdin said. "What are those things floating around you?" he asked, pointing at the bubbles of water floating around her head. "Am I able to do that too?"

"These? But this is water magic, you know?" Yamraiha said. "Your specialty is..."

"Yes, that's why..." Aladdin said, smiling. "I want to try to make something similar but with flames!"

"It would be handy to have balls of force already on hand for blocking and attacking..." Faith mused. "I could get multiple targets at once. But could you maybe teach me more about what 'strength' is? Like it's properties and so on?" she asked Yamraiha.

"Of course," Yamraiha answered, smiling at them.

—∞—

And everyone's training continued like this. In the middle of it, the Kou Empire's envoy finally arrived at Sindria

—∞—

Alibaba, Aladdin, Hope, Faith, and Morgiana stood together with Sinbad and his Eight Generals to receive the party arriving from Kou as they disembarked from their ship.

"Is it alright for us to be here like this?" Hope asked, referring to herself and Faith. Wouldn't it be a problem if they were recognized? They had changed into the Arabian-style outfits they wore outside the palace and for training (to keep their other outfits safe from damage), but their hair was still ginger. "We don't want to cause you any trouble..."

"It's fine!" Sinbad said. "We're fairly certain the Kou Empire already knows you're here."

Prince Hakuryuu marched calmly towards them, followed by soldiers and retainers.

'To meet a prince of the Kou Empire while you are dedicating yourself to take revenge for what happened in Balbadd… You have to endure this, Alibaba,' Sinbad thought, glancing at him out the corner of his eye.

"…" Alibaba stared at Hakuryuu. 'He is… the prince of the Kou Empire...'

'Wow, he looks nothing like Kouen… but he looks just like Hakuei!' Hope thought. She also wondered what the story was with that scar. It looked painful. Aladdin stared at him too.

'I heard he was the prince of the Kou Empire, and I was curious, but… he resembles that princess after all...' he thought, also remembering Hakuei.

'Yep, he looks just like Hakuei!' Faith thought, confirming her own suspicions.

"I'm the fourth prince of the Kou Empire, Ren Hakuryuu," Hakuryuu greeted him, putting his hands together and bowing politely.

"I heard about you from His Majesty the Emperor, I welcome you," Sinbad returned his greeting warmly.

"I thought of meeting you even if my father would not command me," Hakuryuu said.

"That's an honor. I will patiently hear what you have to say to me," Sinbad replied. "By the way, didn't I already meet the person behind you…?" he asked, looking beyond Hakuryuu.

"Ah!" Ja'far gasped when he recognized her. "P-Princess Ren Kyougoku..." She was smiling, but the twins had the distinct impression that she was angry about something.

"Eh, the princess who had an interest in King Sinbad?" Pisti asked. She looked very entertained. "She chased him here. "

"I knew it, an incident happened… during his stay in the Kou Empire…!?" Ja'far said, paling with trepidation.

"..." Kyougoku gave Sinbad a closed-eye smile. "Thank you for your visit… It's a pleasure to meet you again!"

"For me as well!" Sinbad said, smiling back at her.

"What? They are just acting normally..." Pisti said. She and Sharrkan seemed a little disappointed.

"Good… then nothing happened..." Ja'far said, relieved.

"I haven't seen you since Balbadd! We didn't meet even once while I was in the Kou Empire..." Sinbad said, still smiling. The princess's ears twitched. "I'm really glad to have met you again." He laughed good-naturedly.

"We didn't… meet even once?!" Kougyoku repeated darkly, trembling with rage. Sinbad wasn't sure where it came from, but suddenly she was trying to cut him down with a sword. It was so quick that he almost lost more that the ends of his ponytail. He stared at her, shocked.

"Whoa," Faith mouthed silently, her lips forming an 'O'. Hope stared at the princess in astonishment.

"Damn you, Sinbad!! If you had apologized, I would have swallowed my tears for my country's sake..." She glared at him as she reached up and drew her hairpin. "...But now I'll never forgive you!!" Her hairpin and arms transformed into her Djinn Equip. "Duel me, Sinbad!! You deserve death for the brutal act of defiling the body of a young maiden!!" Hope's eyes widened.

"D-Defiling!?" Alibaba, Sharrkan, and Yamraiha yelled.

"Hey w-w-w-w-what did you do!!?" Ja'far demanded, shaking the king.

"N-Nothing," Sinbad said, bewildered.

"What's the meaning of this, Princess!? Ja'far asked.

"Uh!!" Kougyoku flinched. She trembled as her face flushed and tears filled her eyes. "Waaaah!!" she cried, falling to her knees on the ground.

"Ooh, Ja'far made her cry..." Faith whispered.

"You're not helping," Hope whispered back.

"Sorry to intrude. It is too harsh for her to tell the whole story from her own mouth… let me continue," Ka Kobun, her attendant said, stepping forward. "This is a testimony from the princess herself… and there are also other witnesses… I beg of you to take this as the truth..."

"….!?" Ja'far said, dreading what was to come.

"According to her this is what happened," Ka Kobun continued. "The last night of King Sinbad's stay in the Kou Empire, we offered him a farewell banquet… and the next morning… the princess found herself in a bed… and when she looked around her… King Sinbad was lying in next to her, completely naked! Yet the king claims nothing happened. Explain yourself… King Sinbad!!" Everyone stared at Sinbad. Sinbad froze, staring back at them with wide eyes.

'I'm Sinbad of the Kingdom of Sindria,' Sinbad thought, standing there alone. 'I have overcome many dangerous adventures in my life, but now, I'm facing a crisis the likes of which I have never encountered in the past.' Kougyoku glared up at him.

"Curse you, Sinbad, for defiling the body of a Kou Empire Princess!" she said with tears in her eyes, picking up the sword she had discarded earlier. She gripped it tightly in her hands, aiming the blade up at herself. "Fight me!! If you refuse, I will kill myself!! If you accept, I will kill you and then die!!!" she sobbed.

"Ah, my poor princess!" Ka Kobun said. "What a huge scandal!"

"Oh, Princess, you must be in so much pain!' One of her other attendants said.

"Why does someone have to die?" Faith asked.

"We're dealing with an era where a woman is only as good as her 'reputation'," Hope reminded her. "Besides, what would you do if something like that happened to you?"

"Well, we both know they'd never find the body..." Faith replied.

'…. Did I really do that to this princess?' Sinbad wondered. "..." He tried to remember. He held a hand to his forehead. 'Sorry, but I don't remember anything. I'm the High King of the Seven Seas, but I would never commit the mistake of being drunk and doing that to a girl!' He looked to the side. 'Well, I cannot say that it has never happened in the past, but...' He looked at the princess again. 'This time, I did not do it. My opponent is a princess. She is a girl you cannot lay a hand on unless you promise to marry her. But I've never had an intention to marry a woman in my life, for some unknown reason. Well, maybe not never...' he amended, glancing sideways at Hope.

"If a princess harms herself because the King of Sindria committed an obscene act… What do you think will happen?" Ja'far asked him. "Our opponent here is an aggressive country that, throughout the years, would just look for any excuse to invade other countries. If that happens… It will lead to war with the Kou Empire!!"

'I would never risk making such a betrayal toward the people of Sindria!' Sinbad thought. He held his head. 'To begin with, why did such an absurdity happen? Calm down and remember what happened in the empire! In the Kou Empire… he had seen someone unexpected. "First, I was surprised that the banker had revived like nothing had ever happened to him. He probably wasn't the same person, but the darkness that surrounds that organization is immeasurable… Judar was there too, but he didn't come to speak with me, for some reason I don't know. He probably had a change of heart because something happened to him…? But that is not relevant right now. The problem is the princess. During my stay in the Empire, I never met her once! The last night, during the farewell banquet, with the emperor, I drank one or two sips of alcohol just for etiquette!"

"That's right. That night, the king wasn't drunk," Sharrkan said.

"Yeah," Spartos agreed. "In order to be sure, we'd checked that he returned alone to his room."

"And I went to sleep like that. I did not do anything to you," Sinbad tried to reassure the princess.

"Then why was I in your room the following morning!?" Kougyoku asked indignantly.

""Sorry, Princess… but I don't have any recollection of that..." Sinbad replied. He was alone when he woke up.

"Then why were you naked when you woke up!?" Kougyoku asked, getting flustered, feeling embarrassed just remembering it. "Are you saying that you naturally remove your clothes while you are sleeping!?"

"Yeah," Sinbad said, nodding. "It happens often!" His eyes widened and he paled when she suddenly thrust her Djinn Equip sword right next to his face.

"Stop fooling around!!" she snapped at him with tears streaming down her face, glaring. "Do you still intend to feign ignorance…? Should I tell you my version then…!? That last night… I was in a corner of that farewell banquet. As Sinbad would not come to visit me even once… I just wanted to see his face once again. In the end, the banquet finished and I wasn't able to greet you. After that, when I was returning to my room… I was attacked in the darkness by someone and I lost consciousness… When I regained consciousness, it was morning and I was in your room. I became confused and jumped out of the room, then went in search of the protection of the court lady."

"What are you trying to say…?" Ja'far asked.

"Let's say that… King Sinbad secretly noticed Princess Kougyoku during the banquet..." Ka Kobun said. "Let's say that, in order to destroy all the evidence, he made the princess faint, and after that, committed the evil deed!"

"Uwaaah, you are the worst!!" Sharrkan, Yamraiha, and Pisti exclaimed. Spartos covered his mouth like he was going to be sick.

"You are the worst after all," Ja'far told Sinbad.

"You should believe in your king," he told them. "Honestly… you listen to him and then say whatever you want… Do you really think that I would commit such a mistake because of alcohol during diplomatic negotiations!?" They all stared at him, unmoved.

"Yes," Ja'far answered bluntly. "We respect you from the bottom of our hearts, but we are completely aware of your bad habit of being an alcoholic. How many times up until now, because we went along with your mismanagement of alcohol so many times… In a village we stayed in during a journey, in the morning after a banquet, you had many local wives…"

"Really?" Faith asked, trying not to look too amused.

"Yes. And even in Balbadd… If you hadn't been drunk, they wouldn't have stolen the Metal Vessel from you, and that incident never would have happened."

"I see..." Alibaba said, looking down.

"Even Alibaba..." Sinbad said. "That's all true," he admitted with regret, "but I didn't do that this time!! Believe in me, I beg you!!"

"I cannot believe in you..." Ja'far said.

"Because it happens every time..." Masrur said.

"The complaints coming from girls molested by you when you were drunk never come to an end," Spartos added.

"That's right!" Pisit agreed. "The other day, you molested a very old lady!"

"To be honest, he did the same thing to me once..." Yamraiha admitted, sweat-dropping with a vein popping out on her head.

"Wha… What did you say…?" Sharrkan asked her, shocked.

"You..." Sinbad said, staggered. 'Every one of you… are one of the many people I met during my travels. With you, I had several adventures, and during those adventures, we built the trust we have for each other… But Masrur is looking at me… with disappointment like when he was a gladiator. And Ja'far is looking at me… with eyes like when he was an assassin.' He could hear them discussing how they simply couldn't trust him. "…. Why?" he asked, starting to shake. "Are you saying that our trust was only a lie…!?"

"Like we would ever believe the words of a drunkard!!" Yamraiha, Ja'far, and Sharrkan all shouted with veins throbbing on their foreheads.

"Well, normally he is a good king," Pisti said. Hope stepped forward.

"Excuse me, but I'd like to say something," Hope said. Everyone looked at her. "Princess, I believe everything happened as you say it did."

"!?" Sinbad exclaimed, taking a huge blow.

"Y-You do…?" Kyougoku asked, caught off-guard. Hope nodded.

"Yes, but… It's also possible that King Sinbad is telling the truth, too," she said.

"!?" Everyone said, staring at her like she didn't make any sense. Sinbad was partly relieved though. That meant she believed him, right?

"Because neither of you actually remember him doing anything to you, right?" Hope pointed out. "So, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I imagine you'd like to be sure of what happened, one way or the other..."

"What questions?" Ka Kobun demanded.

"I-I will answer them," Kougyoku said, steeling her resolve. She did want to know for sure. Part of what made it so scary was the uncertainty of it all. Hope crossed over to stand next to the princess.

"They're a little indelicate, so..." Hope said, lowering her voice to whisper the first question.

"Was I still dressed when I woke up!?" Kyougoku repeated loudly, taken aback. Her face flushed bright red with embarrassment when she realized what she'd done.

"Were you?" Sinbad pressed, seeing where Hope was going with this.

"I'll handle this," Hope told him calmly. She didn't need to be pestered by her alleged molester. This was probably traumatizing enough already.

"I-I was," Kougyoku answered quietly.

"He could have put her clothes back on after!" Ka Kobun said. Hope frowned at him. That was true, but she was starting to get the feeling that he wanted her to be shamed for some reason.

"Did you get that impression?" Hope asked gently.

"I… I don't know…!!" Kyougoku said, covering her face as she started crying again. Hope put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Have you finished with your poor excuses, King Sinbad?" Ka Kobun asked. "You laid hands on the princess's body after all. In that case… In order to take responsibility… I don't think you have any other choice but to marry the princess!"

"!?" Everyone gasped.

"Marry, you say…!?" Sinbad said.

"Yes. If you act like that toward the princess and you promise to become a married couple, her honor will not suffer any damage," Ka Kobun said. "Considering that you are the High King of the Seven Seas Alliance… even our emperor will not have any problem with giving Princess Kougyoku to you."

"Wait a minute, don't spout such nonsense like that…!" Sinbad said, starting to get angry.

"We don't have any other choices than that..." Ja'far said grimly, making him flinch and turn his head to look at his generals, who were currently discussing his fate.

"A political marriage between the Kou Empire and Sindria…!?" Yamraiha said.

"!?" Sinbad said. What were they deciding over there all by themselves!?

"They are not someone we want to form and alliance with carelessly… We can't trust the Kou Empire… But it is either war or a provisional alliance. We don't have room for a lot of choices..." Ja'far said.

"We cannot do anything about it," Hinahoho said.

"To share the fate of a disgraced master..." Drakon said.

"… Is a vassal's job after all," Spartos finished. Sinbad couldn't believe what he was hearing. They were dooming him on a bunch of hearsay! The Eight Generals stepped forward.

"King Sinbad! Please come to a decision!" Ja'far said seriously.

"Ahhh!!!" Sinbad yelled, snapping. "I'm out of patience! I was a fool for thinking you would understand if we talked about it! Yamraiha!! Prove my innocence with your water magic!"

"Are you sure you didn't do it?" she asked him.

"Yes," Sinbad answered firmly.

"Are you sure? I can only show them what really happened, you know?" Yamraiha reminded him. Sinbad nodded.

"…?" Alibaba, Aladdin, Faith, Morgiana, and Hope said.

"What are you talking about?" Alibaba asked.

"In that case, come here, Your Majesty. And the empire's princess, too," Yamraiha said, beckoning them over to her.

"…?" Kougyoku said, following her instructions. Hope returned to standing with her friends.

"I will show you. What really happened. Your rukhs will talk to us, and they will tell us the truth..." Yamraiha explained, holding her hand out to gather two spheres of water. "Through my magic."

"!!?" Ka Kobun gasped. "You cannot do that, Princess!! Not with such suspicious magic from another country. To show that without thinking about it… Princess!!" Hakuryuu watched silently from the sidelines.

"…." Kougyoku steeled her nerve again. "No… I will do it! Because I want to know what really happened!"

—∞—

Once the preparations for the spell were complete, Yamraiha was ready to go.

"Shallal Raqesa!!" she said, and the two spheres of water she had gathered and placed in a replica of the Kou Empire's palace began to take the forms of Sinbad and Kougyoku.

"!? The water took the shape of Sinbad and the princess!?" Alibaba said.

"Cool!" Faith said.

"What is this…!?" Aladdin asked.

"Heheh… This is water in which I've put a little drop of their blood. This way, their rukh enters the water. And then I cast my magic on it..." Yamraiha explained. Water Sinbad took a seat in the chair he would've sat in at the banquet, and water Kyougoku hid in a corner of the room. "In order to replay the events of that night. This is a type of clairvoyance magic that makes the rukh show things that cannot be seen, far away places, and events of the past."

"Is this a model of the palace?" Hope asked

"Yes. I cannot produce the place with my magic, so I had to create it before hand," Yamraiha replied. The princess's attendants had helped. "This type of magic doesn't tell any lies..."

"What about Sinbad?" Faith asked. He had disappeared from his chair while she wasn't looking.

"He is sleeping," Yamraiha said, pointing him out in his bedroom. He was lying on the bed.

"And the princess?" Aladdin asked.

"She is still in the banquet hall," Yamraiha said.

"But, while I was returning to my room..." Kougyoku said, just as water her fell over.

"Ah! She collapsed!" Aladdin said.

"It looked like she was hit by someone," Hope said.

"She is floating?" Aladdin asked when the princess seemed to lift up off the ground and move through the halls.

"Someone is carrying her," Yamraiha said. "And then someone brought her to the place King Sinbad was sleeping."

"Eh? So Mr. Sinbad didn't do anything?" Aladdin said.

"Things will probably happen here!" Yamraiha said anxiously.

"She is right. He probably asked someone to bring the princess to him!" Sharrkan agreed. Sinbad stood behind them with his eyes cast in shadow.

"Children should not see what is going to happen next!" Ja'far said, covering Aladdin's eyes, while Masrur covered Morgiana's.

"But we have a duty to witness it..." Spartos said, turning pale and covering his mouth like he was going to be sick. Pisti peeked happily through her fingers at the scene. Alibaba blushed.

"…" Hope and Faith waited to see what would happen.

"..." Everyone watched, but nothing happened.

"Aren't they just sleeping?" Faith said.

"Eh…?" Yamraiha said.

And then time passed.

"Nothing happened until morning after all," Yamraiha said.

"Did you see it?!!!" Sinbad shouted at his generals with a vein throbbing on his forehead. "I did not do anything!!"

"Sorry!!" they all apologized, bowing.

"It was true!"

"Sorry, sorry!!"

"Geez, are you able to understand how dejected I am right now!?" Sinbad fumed. He wouldn't be forgetting this anytime soon. "Princess!" he said, turning to face her.

"!" Kougyoku said.

"As you can see, we did not do anything. No offense was caused to your body or your honor," Sinbad said kindly.

"I… see..." Kougyoku said. So nothing happened...

"Princess!!!" Ka Kobun said urgently. "Don't let them deceive you!"

"Ka Kobun!" she said, surprised.

"That suspicious magic from another country will not prove anything, because she is one of King Sinbad's retainers! Perhaps she is covering for her king..."

"I didn't do that," Yamraiha told him.

"Accept your sins, King Sinbad..." Ka Kobun yelled.

"Please stop, Ka Kobun," Kougyoku said anxiously. "I'm sure that she was right. To be honest, I also thought that something was strange… as I said before, that morning, neither my clothes nor hair were in disorder. But I didn't understand what happened, so I was scared and went into a panic… After that, I felt embarrassed and I could not say anything." She bowed deeply. "Sorry..." She sobbed.

"Ahh… Princess… Don't cry..." two of her retainers said, rushing over to comfort her.

"Hmmmm??" Sinbad, Yamraiha, and Sharrkan said.

"I don't know why, but I feel pity for her..." Yamraiha said.

"Yeah..." Sharrkan agreed.

"She's a victim, no matter how you look at it," Faith said.

"But that means that the culprit that made the princess collapse and made her sleep together with the king was someone else, right!?" Sharrkan said.

"Thank goodness this didn't turn into a dangerous war," Yamraiha said. "Who would ever do… such a villainous act…?"

"..." Ka Kobun stared at the crying princess. 'My name is Ka Kobun. I'm the attendant of the eighth princess of the Kou Empire. I was born in a poor village in the north province of the Kou Empire. I passed the National Exam with high results and I was assigned as a government official. From that moment on, I was always together with the princess, and recently, we even captured a dungeon. And now I'm present to witness such turmoil. Poor princess. My dear princess that I have served for so many years went through such a difficult experience because of someone, but… the culprit is… me. That night… I made two of my subordinates escort the princess to her room… I used that chance, and made her faint. I brought her to King Sinbad's room. And, according to my expectations, King Sinbad was accused of having disgraced her. I did such a thing because… in the past, I had a scheme. I would follow the princess, who was to marry the king of Balbadd… soon, the princess would birth to an heir. I would become that child's guardian. It was a scheme for seizing the power in that state, but that scheme came to nothing. So I returned to my country, and there I thought about what to do with my plans. And then King Sinbad visited us. So I finally realized. This time, I will use that man. I will have the princess marry a king from another country and then seize that power… I will accomplish it in Sindria instead of Balbadd. Additionally, the princess will be able to marry the man that is her current love. Two birds with one stone. That's right, my primary ability is… reading in detail the hearts of other people and using that, just like I'm doing right now, 'heart manipulation technique'. Thanks to that, I was able to make many allies. My subordinates that move according to my will… even these two are my faithful subordinates who would hide anything. I concocted this plan with those two. For the moment, the problem was solved with magic, but if I stay strong, I can force my way through the situation.' "I will not accept this! King Sinbad has to take responsibility… and marry you!" he told the princess. 'This time, I will push through!'

"Sorry, it is all Ka Kobun's fault," those two subordinates said, ratting him out.

"Eh?!" Kougyoku said, shocked.

"Ehh? You fools!! Don't you want that promotion?!!" Ka Kobun yelled.

"But the princess is so sad!!" one of them said.

"We're not your subordinates, but hers..." the other pointed out.

"Seize the traitor that wanted to frame King Sinbad!" Ja'far ordered.

"!" Ka Kobun gasped.

"I cannot be arrested here!" Ka Kobun said, grabbing a sword from a Kou soldier.

"He intends to resist us!" one of the Sindrian soldiers surrounding him said.

"This is bad..." said one of the Princess's subordinates, who had gotten caught up in it along with Ka Kobun. Ka Kobun stood his ground, ready to fight his way out if necessary. Someone delivered a hand chop to his wrist, making him drop the sword. It was the Kou Prince.

"Pr—Prince Hakuryuu…" the Kou soldiers said.

"Enough of this farce..." Hakuryuu said. "King Sinbad!" He bowed and kneeled before Sinbad. "This turmoil was caused by misconduct from the people of my country."

"Ehh?" Ka Kobun said, pointing at himself.

"Yes, you! Do you see anyone else causing problems here?" Faith said, annoyed that he would play dumb after everything he did.

"He said it was a 'suspicious magic from another country', but in my country, there is a similar magic, even if it is not as strong. That magic is regarded as authentic. Also, your magic shows the truth. Isn't that right, Ka Kobun?"

"…. Yes," Ka Kobun admitted reluctantly. They got him.

"I ask for your forgiveness of the rudeness of my fellow travelers as a representative of the empire. But the important objective of my study abroad here is totally different, therefore… I beg you to allow me to stay here," Hakuryuu said, still kneeling and bowing.

"Yes… You have my permission," Sinbad told him.

"To make the prince fall on his knees for such a stupid reason," the two subordinates said, sweat-dropping.

"Shut up!!" Ka Kobun snapped at them. He fell to his knees and beat his hand against the ground. "I could not do anything about it… vulgar and dirty trash like me… cannot have any dreams..." he cried, trembling.

"Ka Kobun! Don't say that… you are a splendid person," Kougyoku said, kneeling down to comfort him.

"No, he isn't!" Faith said with a frown.

"She's too forgiving..." Hope said agreed, also frowning. "He was prepared to let her spend the rest of her life thinking she had to get married because she was raped..."

'This time, my plan came to a stop, too… but… in this kind of atmosphere, they will forgive me if I apologize. I have to apologize with all my strength!' Ka Kobun thought deviously while he clung to Kougyoku and cried his eyes out while she tried to comfort him.

"..." Ja'far stared down at Ka Kobun with a cold expression on his face. He was inclined to agree with the twins. He spat in the dirty schemer's face.

"Is it alright to forgive them?" Ja'far asked Sinbad as they watched Hakuryuu walk away, lead by some Sindrian retainers.

"Yeah. I have a feeling that prince will not return until he accomplishes his objective," Sinbad said. "It seems he is thinking about something." Aladdin, Alibaba, Faith, and Hope watched Hakuryuu as he walked past them. They wondered what kind of person he was.