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Table of Contents
Illustration

Character Introduction

Other Character Introduction

Chapter 1 – Lie And Truth

Chapter 2 – Circle of Destiny

Chapter 3 – The Dream of Beastman Race

Chapter 4 – The Power to Change the World

Credits

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Character Introduction

Other Character Introduction

.

Oka Sanai ………… The previous life of Baldr’s previous life. A stingy
general from Warring States era.

Oka Masaharu ………… Baldr’s previous life. A high school student of

modern japan.

.
Seyruun ………… Baldr’s fiancée. A childhood friend and a maid. Selina
………… Baldr’s fiancée. Savaran Company’s president. Agatha …………
Baldr’s fiancée. Entrusted with the management of
the territory.

Ignis Cornelius ………… Baldr’s father. A noble at remote region who

was famous for his military prowess.

Nigel ………… Baldr’s little brother. Marguerite’s twin. Marguerite

………… Baldr’s little sister. Nigel’s twin.
Tyros ………… Baldr’s childhood friend. Had commoner background
and devoted to Baldr.

Teresa ………… Baldr’s childhood friend. She became the crown

princess of Sanjuan Kingdom.

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Harold Edinburgh ………… Mauricia Kingdom’s prime minister.

Arnold Beaufort ………… A great noble of Mauricia Kingdom.

Deceased.

Rachel ………… Mauricia Kingdom’s second princess.

.
Jack Armadio(ジャック・アマーディオ) ………… The archduke
ruling over Trystovy Dukedom.

Bernardi ………… Jack’s eldest son. The crown prince of the dukedom.

.
Catherine(カトリーヌ) ………… August’s mistress.
Laura(ラウラ) ………… August’s secretary.

Angelica Mannerheim(アンジェリカ・マンネルハイム) ………… A

childhood friend of August who was like a little sister.

.
Gina Bjorck ………… Maggot’s grandmother. A 「 god of war 」 of the
beastman race.

── Past Arc Trystovy Kingdom ──

Viktor Pazarov ………… Maggot’s grandfather. The leader of reformist

noble faction.

Dahlia ………… Maggot’s mother. A queen who inherited beastman race’s

blood.

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Lisha ………… Dahlia’s maid. She was also Dahlia’s half-sister from
different mother.
Umberto I(ウンベルト一世) ………… Trystovy Kingdom’s king.

Veltina Sforza(ベルティーナ・スフォルツァ) ………… The first

queen who hated Dahlia.
Valerie Ost(ヴァレリー・オスト) ………… Viktor’s best friend. A
member of reformist faction.
Catalina(カタリナ) ………… The queen who married into the royal
family of Trystovy from Mauricia’s royal family.

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Chapter 1 – Lie And Truth

Part 1

The storm passed──.

The duel between son and mother that unfolded at Antrim where each side put their
obstinacy on the line closed the curtain with Baldr’s victory.

Maggot sobbed like a little girl while clinging on the chest of her beloved son who freed
her using sheer strength from the binding curse of loneliness of being the “strongest”.

It was unknown how much time passed.

Maggot who was crying for a while and Baldr wearily fainted as though they had used up
their whole energy and willpower.

The superhuman battle that didn’t allow any interference from outsider put a huge burden
on the two’s bodies.

The two fell asleep on the spot as though they had died. It went without saying that
Seyruun nursed them after that while half crying.

When Baldr woke up after sleeping for a whole day, Seyruun hugged him tearfully while
Ignis who came running after hearing the emergency dropped his fist on Baldr’s head.

「Fugyah!」

「 I won’t tell you to go easy on her but……this is the punishment for the son who
challenged his mother who just gave birth to a fight.」
「Yes……」

Being told that, even Baldr could do nothing but hanging his head down.

──As he thought, his mother was outrageously strong.

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Baldr won with brute force by applying Over Boost over the liberated King’s Gate that
was the beastman race’s secret technique, but if Maggot hadn’t just given birth, or if he
was against Maggot at her heyday when she was still twenty years old, he didn’t know
whether he would be able to win.

Of course Baldr was deeply emotional after surpassing his mother who had been
continuously exposing him to her absurdity since his childhood. However at the same
time, he also keenly experienced just how absurd his mother was once more.

From what Seyruun said, it seemed that Baldr was in worst state than Maggot, while
Maggot had only ended up with some bruises.

Maggot had woken up from her unconsciousness after several hours then she breast fed
the twins Nigel and Marguerite after that.

Baldr was secretly depressed when he heard that.

「What didja do, ya are in tatter.」

「This is the punishment of leaving us behind.」

Selina and Agatha were peeling fruits for the heavily wounded Baldr while laughing.

Seyruun and Ignis were accompanying Maggot right now.

It was clear from their expressions that they weren’t seriously angry, but it seemed they
were considerably sulking after getting left behind by Baldr who was hurrying ahead to
meet with Maggot.

Even the usually cool Agatha had stopped hiding her honest feeling in front of Baldr
recently.

「Sorry. But it was something necessary for me……」

Maggot was a wall that one day he had to surpass no matter what one day. And then in
order to ask her about the matter of Princess
Marguerite, no, in order to obtain the qualification to ask about it, he absolutely had to
win.

He thought that it was really a miraculous fate.

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If he directly went home to meet Maggot without going to Nordland Empire first after
the victory celebration at the royal capital Cameron, Maggot surely would never admit to
the truth.

Baldr would also never win against Maggot if he didn’t meet with Gina. In the end, was
it really just a coincidence that Ernst appeared and introduced himself as Selina’s
fiancée?

Baldr couldn’t help but feel that there was destiny at work here.

Even so, he still hadn’t asked anything from Maggot yet.

「──How should I talk to her?」

Baldr muttered to himself.

He already heard the story from Gina. It would be strange to make Maggot talk about it
again.

Even so, it would also feel stupid if he ended it with just 「 Is Gina’s story true? 」
「That’s right」.

「You finally woke up? How gutless, even though I finally reevaluated the way I look at
you.」

Maggot appeared at that timing with her skin looking radiantly glossy. She was carrying
Marguerite in her arms. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but to Baldr it looked as
though Maggot’s smile was kind and motherly instead of her usual sharp grin.

Seyruun who was carrying Nigel and Ignis also showed up from behind her.

「Kyah!」

Suddenly a sexy scream slipped out from Seyruun;s lips.

Nigel was looking for breast and clung on the sensitive part of
Seyruun’s chest.

「W-wait! I-I-I-I still can’t produce milk……hauu! Even Baldr-sama has never touched
over thereee……!」

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「 Nigel is really similar with his father. He is already making woman crying at this
age……」

「I-I wonder what do you mean?」

Ignis broke into cold sweat and his gaze wandered around because Maggot glared
fiercely toward him.

Just because she had become somewhat gentle didn’t mean that Maggot had stopped
being Maggot. A punishment that was even more terrifying than death would be waiting
if she was angered. Maggot breast fed Nigel who seemed to be hungry. She really looked
like a mother.

Her loving gaze and blissful smile told Baldr and the others who were watching her just
how much she loved her children. Most likely Maggot thought of family as something
that had to be protected no matter what rather than something to be loved. But that
unreasonable obsession had been cleared away in the battle with Baldr.

Surely Nigel wouldn’t need to experience that torturous training. Baldr unconsciously
got a faraway look.

「Say, how does it feel when yer breast got sucked?」

「She was clearly feeling it.」

「T-that’s not true! I, I just, feeling strange when thinking that perhaps it will feel like
this when I have children of my own with Baldr-sama……」

Seyruun hanged her head down with red face that was like a ripe apple. Selina and
Agatha couldn’t help but imagining the future after she said her words.

「T-that might be nice……」

「We are going to need rehearsal before that.」

「It will be nice if I can also produce milk……」

「Can you three stop with the shaming play!」

Baldr yelled. He wondered why a talk about Maggot was affecting him instead. ‘Hmph’,
Ignish snorted and threw out his chest as a senior with abundant experience.

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「In the first place you can’t continue being indecisive forever. If you like them then you
should at least has the passion to embrace them without thinking of the
consequence……」

「Aaa? Try saying it one more time you horny frivolous man!」

Ignis’s expression changed completely after Maggot yelled at him.

「……Baldr, the most important thing for a man is earnestness.」

「That’s not persuasive at all.」

Sometimes Baldr would feel anxious thinking that perhaps somewhere in this world he
had other sibling who he didn’t know about.

Actually after the war with Haurelia, Baldr was told about Ignis’s lecherous way at the
old time by his father’s comrade-in-arms Mattis.

He was truly a natural fisher. When he walked at the town, he would encounter a girl in
danger and gallantly rescued her, which ended up with the girl falling in love with him.
That kind of even was like an everyday occurrence for Ignis. Furthermore it was manner
for Ignis to not refuse a girl’s invitation. Even so his wiles to maintain his relationships
with the girls to not develop into something special were like magic.

His nickname as “Cameron’s Red Stallion” wasn’t just for show.

The number of relationships he had with women didn’t only stop at double digit, it
wouldn’t be strange for the number to reach triple digit. That was what Mattis said with a
wry smile.
「Keep this a secret from the madamMaggot as a man’s compassion.」

By the way the number that was found out by Maggot and Ignis was forced to break up
with was around thirty percent of the total. If he was careless, he might become the
second coming of his father. So Baldr admonished and straightened himself. Although
right now he already had beautiful girls like Seyruun, Selina, and Agatha, and there were
also Silk, Rachel, and Urraca falling in love with him.

As expected the son of a stallion would also be a stallion. That was the evaluation of the
society. Fortunately Baldr still didn’t know about how people talked about this behind
his back.

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Before long Nigel got full and fretful, even so he fell asleep beside Marguerite inside the
baby basket. Maggot and the rest of the girls were watching the babies in rapture.
Innocent babies always looked like angel no matter the world. Seyruun and others were
healed by Nigel and Marguerite’s angelic sleeping faces. Their imaginations were filled
with the thought of their future.

「──Now then」
With that short sentence, the atmosphere of Maggot who had a smile of affectionate
mother changed completely. She became the Silver Light Maggot who had overcome
numerous battlefields.

「Baldr already know this but, I have a secret.」

Her low and calm tone was like an unsheathed sword that was pointed toward the
listeners.

Seyruun and the others unconsciously gulped from feeling that pressure.

「I intended to bring that secret until my grave. Because I absolutely couldn’t allow my
family got hurt because of me. It was also because I swore to protect this family even if it
cost me my life.」

That was why Maggot had to be someone strong at all cost. She had to train Baldr to be
strong.

「 I have really grown old……my heart was shaken a little just because my stupid son
told me 『I’ll protect everything together with you』.」

Maggot laughed in embarrassment. With that it felt like the tense atmosphere was
enveloped in something soft. Seyruun and others breathed a sigh of relieve. Ignis was
wearing a conflicted smile because the one who liberated Maggot wasn’t him who should
be the one who wanted to protect Maggot more than anyone else.

At the same time he was also feeling something similar with pride because the one who
accomplished it was his son Baldr.

Ignis knew about Maggot’s strength and personality better than anyone. It was exactly
because of that he understood just how difficult and magnificent this accomplishment
was. (You have grown into a splendid man──father is……father is happy!
You should quickly let me hold a grandson next–!)
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Ignis was thinking such thing. Perhaps he was someone who would quickly grow old.

「……Now that Baldr has found out, it makes me feel stupid thinking of carrying this
secret to the grave. When I think that──」

Maggot said that and closed her violet eyes.

The faces of the people that floated at the back of his mind were always smiling
peacefully at her. Even though she wouldn’t be able to blame them if they looked at her
resentfully, they were always smiling in her thought no matter what.

They were the figures of irreplaceable family for Maggot.

「 I think that it will be lonely for them to be forgotten just like this. Because even I,
don’t want to be forgotten by my adorable children who I gave birth to.」

「Okaa-sama!」

Seyruun and others were moved to tears. Seeing that, it seemed there was no need to
worry about dispute between mother-in-law and daughters-in-law.
Although if things became like that, then Baldr would be completely unable to do
anything to stop it.

「Kaa-sama……Lisha-kaasamastepmother……and then Nigel- niisama……there will be

no one to remember them if I die. I didn’t even notice something like that. I too was
really immature.」

「Ni……gel?」

Ignis spontaneously turned his gaze toward his beloved son who was sleeping soundly
when his name was suddenly mentioned.

「Yeah, Nigel’s name came from my really, really important big brother.」

Maggot said that and reminisced of the far away past. It was when she was still childish
and innocent. She held an unconditional trust toward her family and didn’t actually know
how dangerous and malicious the position she was placed at.

For Maggot, Nigel was someone who she could entrust the deepest part of her heart to.

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「I loved being called Marguerite by Nigel-niisama’s kind voice.」

「Marguerite……is that your true name?」

Maggot nodded weakly at Ignis’s question.

Although she had resolved herself, something that was stretched to its limit inside her
snapped by recognizing that and it felt like tears would flooded out from her eyes.

「My name is Marguerite Pazarov Trystovy. I was called the eighth princess of the fallen
Trystovy Kingdom.」

「What!」

Ignis, Seyruun, and everyone were lost for words at Maggot’s

completely unexpected statement. Baldr was the only one who was staying silent without
any change in his expression as someone who had known everything.

「──I want my family here to listen to my story, not anyone else.

And then I want all of you to remember it in your heart, about the tale of the woman
called Marguerite and her other family who aren’t here anymore.」

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Part 2

Going back to more than thirty years ago, there was an internal trouble within Trystovy
Kingdom.

In a glance it looked like the kingdom was enjoying prosperity.

Its royal capital Millianna(ミリアーナ) was full with many things that came from the
whole continent. Its population continued to increase and right now it might even keep
growing until it surpassed Answerer Kingdom that was the greatest nation in this
continent.

Especially their powerful navy and influential merchants, the transport armada that was
formed by them might be already number one in the continent.

The support of the populace toward the royal family was unshakable. It was even
rumored that in ten more years this country would become the strongest country.

But, just like there was shadow where there was light, there was a force that found this
development unpleasant.

A part of the nobles who were the ruling class of Trystovy Kingdom had their vested
interests being usurped by influential nobles and bureaucrats with commoner
background.

Any country wouldn’t be able to avoid the spreading of plutocracy as the country was
getting wealthier and the economy became more developed.
And so vested rights were gradually getting traded with money in Trystovy. The nobles
who lost their fortunes were ruined and before anyone realized it there were even
merchants employing nobles in order to earn even more profit.
The number of nobles who were criticizing the structure of society
that got overturned like that wasn’t few.
The central figure of those nobles was Duke Batista(バティスタ) Sforza.
Duke Sforza possessed the biggest territory in the kingdom. He was a grandson of the
king two generations before and he was considered as a cousin of the current king.
Furthermore he offered his daughter Veltina to be the queen. His influence was
extremely vast.

He was planning to have nobles controlling the economy and forbidding the trade of the
vested rights in the kingdom by the merchants using the economic clout.

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In respond to this, there was also a faction that was aware that the flow of the world was
already leaning toward the commoners and they insisted that the nobles had to change
together with it.

The person who gathered the most attention within that faction was Count Viktor
Pazarov──Maggot’s grandfather.

He raised achievements as military officer when he was young. Furthermore he

succeeded in improving his territory’s condition and strengthening the public order there.
He was thinking that the domestic situation of the country should be reformed by
allowing the wealthy commoners into the elite class.

With this faction’s backing, administrative posts for commoners were created in not few
numbers and that number was also increasing every year.

Duke Sforza felt a sense of impending crisis by that trend. He made a resolute decision to
remove Viktor using any means available.

「──What is the meaning of this?」

Viktor glared threateningly at the group of dozens of knights that was surrounding his
residence. For a veteran warrior like Viktor, dozens of knights weren’t beyond his means
to defeat.

The knights seemed to be aware of that too. They kept their manner when facing Viktor.

「 With all due respect, there is a suspicion of my lord count being in collusion with
Answerer Kingdom. Please accompany us in order to clear this suspicion.」

「──Collusion? Are you accusing me of receiving bribery?」

Viktor who had retired from military was considered as the leader of the reformation
faction, but he didn’t have any post in the government that gave him authority to do
anything that other country would consider bribing him. Viktor sensed that this was
clearly a scheme by someone to frame him with false charge.

「Those curs! They don’t understand that the flow of the world can’t be changed even if
they toy with this kind of crude scheme!」

「 Please don’t act rashly my lord. If you draw your sword and pint it toward this
kingdom, your daughter will also get implicated in this suspicion.」

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Even Viktor had to restrain himself from rampaging after his daughter who was living in
the inner palace got mentioned.
With this Viktor’s fate had been decided.

If this was a plot of Duke Sforza, Viktor wouldn’t become the only scapegoat. A lot of
the reformation nobles would also get affected.

It wouldn’t be impossible for him to take up his weapon and revolt even if it would only
end up in failure. The number of nobles and commoners who were looking up to Viktor
was just that many.

However his daughter was a concubine of the king. There was also his adorable
granddaughter. When their face floated in his mind, Viktor couldn’t bring himself to
oppose this.

(Forgive me, Gina. I’m sorry that I can’t make the daughter who you entrusted to me
happy.)

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Part 3

「 Oh, you are still living shamefully like this despite the crimes that your father
committed? You are really the daughter of that shameless criminal!」

The queen, Veltina Sforza appeared with a triumphant look while bringing his hangers-
on with him.

It was like a bolt out of the blue for Dahlia when she was told that her father was
arrested. Her punishment was lightened by a degree because she gave birth to a princess,
even so she was still banished from the inner palace. Despite that she accepted Veltina’s
words calmly.

「I have nothing but gratitude for his majesty’s mercy to me……」

「Pathetic. His majesty too, there is no need to be merciful to this woman!」

That was the only thing that Veltina was dissatisfied with.

Dahlia was the woman who she wanted to kill the most in the inner palace.

Veltina had been a woman with strong jealousy from the start, but she hadn’t been
blessed with children even after three years had passed since her marriage. Her flame of
jealousy was burning hot toward the concubines who gave birth to a child.

Several concubines with low status had already been killed. There were also a lot of
pregnant women who were killed.

Dahlia managed to give birth safely because of the king’s great affection for her. At the
same time the commoners who were working in the inner palace were also giving their
unspoken support toward her.

「Die! Die to protect the prestige of the king’s concubine! It’s too good for the like of
you, but I shall lend you this protector sword of mine.」

Veltina said that and threw a short sword toward Dahlia.

「You will only be treated as the daughter of a criminal even if you keep living anyway.
Won’t it be easier to die?」

「 That’s right. You yourself also don’t want to live a poor life like a commoner do
you?」
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Dahlia felt like she couldn’t breathe in front of the malice from Veltina and her hangers-
on. However she couldn’t possibly die and leave behind her small daughter.

Dahlia shook her head and bowed deeply.

「I’m simply following his majesty’s will.」

「I’m telling you to die!」

Dahlia stayed firm and gave a hint about the king’s decision to allow her to live, but
Veltina was simply turning furious and threw her fan. She wanted to kill this woman no
matter what.
Veltina hated Dahlia to this degree because of one reason.

Dahlia’s father Viktor was proposing so there was a marriage between Trystovy’s king
and a princess of the neighboring Mauricia Kingdom in order to whittle the influence of
Duke Sforza.
Veltina was a daughter of the most influential noble within the country, but if a princess
from a great country like Mauricia married the king and became another queen here, her
rank would be below that Mauricia princess.

Viktor had violated a taboo for Veltina. She couldn’t forgive him no matter what.

「No matter. All of you, hold that woman for me.」

Blood vein pulsed on Veltina’s forehead. She gave an order to her hangers-on. The
women were drunk in pleasure like kids who were tormenting a small animal. Their
hands reached out toward Dahlia’s shoulders and hair.

Dahlia turned pale and tried to resist, but then, 「──Pardon me, my name is Ramillies, a
knight who is bestowed with a guard duty by his majesty. Please tell me what is going on
here.」

「U-uncouth! How dare a mere knight enter the inner palace!」

Veltina was hindered just a step away from the fulfillment of her wish. Her beautiful face
distorted like a horned demoness and she screamed.

「 It’s a royal order from the king. From now on this humble knight shall accompany
Dahlia-sama to live in a detached palace and act as her guard.」

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Ramillies unfolded a royal script that had the king’s seal stamped on it. Ruin would be
waiting for those who opposed this royal edict, at least on the surface. Even Veltina
wasn’t an exception.

She bit her lips so hard that blood trickled out. Veltina clenched her shaking fist before
she finally calmed down herself.

「──Don’t forget. I don’t have any intention of choosing my method in order to grant
my wish.」

She would definitely kill her.

She would send both mother and daughter to hell with the brand of loser stamped on
them. She would watch that happened joyfully while drinking a high-grade
alcohol──Veltina swore that in her heart.

「Let’s go. The air of the lowly mongrels will only dirty us if we are staying here.」

Veltina disappeared from view with her hangers-on trailing behind her. It was then
Dahlia staggered on her feet. She almost fell on the floor face first if not for Ramillies
who barely supported her with his right hand.

「It looks like I’m not late.」

「Ramillies, thank you for coming here. Even so, I’m amazed that his majesty is sending
you here.」

「 With all due respect, this is a deal that was made so that Viktor- sama won’t let his
blood rush to his head. If Dahlia-sama’s safety isn’t guaranteed, it’s possible that Viktor-
sama might cause a revolt.」

「I see……so Otou-sama is……」

She couldn’t tell her father to rampage as he pleased without minding about her. It was
because Dahlia had a beloved daughter who she had to protect no matter what.

「His majesty is also aware of this. From now on I shall protect

Dahlia-sama’s life with my life at stake.」

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「If it’s you then you should be able to obtain promotion as a royal guard to a very high
position……even so this kind favor of yours toward this helpless self is truly something
irreplaceable. I’m grateful to you.」

「Compared to my debt to Viktor-sama after he saved my life, something of this degree

isn’t anything big at all.」

Ramillies declared that without the slightest hesitation.

For this man of integrity, the man called Viktor was someone worthy of his loyalty.

When he was still a trainee knight, he got carelessly isolated in a conflict against Nedras
Kingdom. It was Viktor who saved him from that tight spot without even caring of the
danger to himself.

After that he also caused a problem with a son of a great noble. It was also Viktor who
helped him out just when he was about to be punished. It was also Viktor who
recommended Ramillies to be a royal guard that was a glorious post for a knight.

Originally Ramillies wanted to serve Viktor himself, but Viktor felt that Ramillies’s
talent would be wasted on him and pushed him into an elite course for a knight.

Since then Ramillies raised achievements smoothly and many people put their
expectations on him that he might even become the royal guard commander in the future.

However such thing worth less than a dust for Ramillies.

If only he wasn’t entrusted with safeguarding Dahlia and others, he would have cut his
way into the prison where Viktor was imprisoned around this time.

He swore that he would protect Dahlia and others in Viktor’s place without fail.

That was Ramillies’s oath as a knight and as a man.

「Oh? Sir Ramillies, why are you here?」

「Aaa! Beardy uncle! You’re coming to play?」

A lively girl with silver hair and sparkly violet eyes appeared with a maid leading her
here. She called out with a bright voice.
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「Ha ha! I told you to just call me Onii-chan, Marguerite missy.」

「Because, Nigel-oniisama said that beard is something that adult man grow out.」

「That’s certainly true but, that boundary is a delicate and important matter for a man.」

「Marguerite doesn’t get difficult thing like that.」

Although she said that, Marguerite pestered Ramillies so he would give her a lift.

Her daughter wasn’t understanding their situation at all. Dahlia finally realized that she
was shedding tears in front of her daughter’s loveliness.

「Mama, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?」

「I think so. Mama’s heart is a bit painful. That’s why, is it okay if mama cry for a bit
more?」

──In the first place Dahlia became the king’s concubine not because she wished for it.

She was Viktor’s only daughter. She was raised believing that one day a husband would
marry her to take over the headship of Pazarov House. But the king fell in love with her
at first sight by chance. Five years ago she left the house where she had been living in
until then and entered the inner palace thinking that doing this would help her father.

However with the incident this time, even the promise that her daughter would be
allowed to succeed Pazarov House when she grew up had become completely pointless.

What would happen to little Marguerite after this?

Just like how her father was gambling his life in order to secure
safety for Dahlia and others, the determination to throw her own life away in order to
save Marguerite was also starting to bud inside Dhalia. From how she acted, the
possibility of Veltina having a change of heart was extremely low.

Even if it was alright right now, it was unknown how it would be two or three years later,
or perhaps even earlier than that. Dahlia didn’t have the confidence to protect her
daughter for that long.

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She would even become a demon if it was for the sake of saving Marguerite. It didn’t
matter what she needed to sacrifice for that, even if she dirtied her hands with numerous
wrongdoings that would drop her into hell after she died.

That was why she wanted to cry just for now. Because she wouldn’t hold any resentment
no matter what was done to her when the time for her judgment came one day.

「 Mama, where is the heart located? Marguerite will pat it so that it won’t hurt
anymore.」

「You’re really a good girl Marguerite. But mama is fine already.

Mama is strong you see.」

Dahlia lifted her head and said that. Her eyes had stopped crying, in exchange flame of
dark madness that was difficult to dispel flickered within them.

──And then, her father Viktor Pazarov was executed.

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Part 4

「So this is the detached palace.」

It was a small house located around 700 meters from the inner palace. It was a detached
palace in name only. The place was too crude for a king’s concubine to live in.

However Dahlia felt that it would be easier to live here compared to the inner palace
where there was almost nothing but enemy at the surrounding.

「Looks like this will be a good chance to show off my skill to clean up this place!」

Dahlia’s maid, Lisha puffed out her chest while breathing roughly.

She had been serving Dahlia all this time ever since she was still living in Pazarov
House. She was like a little sister for Dahlia.

She had blonde hair with color that looked like bright honey, round eyes that looked
friendly, and innocent experience. She allowed Dahlia to forget about the graveness of
their situation.

「Hey! Mama! There is an attic inside! Can I go there?」

A young boy cling on Lisha’s skirt with a face shining bright from curiosity. Marguerite
also showed her agreement with him.

「Nigel-niisama! Me too! Me too!」

The young boy’s hair color was blonde like her mother, but even though he was a child,
the features of her face gave off a sharp elegance. He looked more similar to Dahlia
rather than Lisha. It wasn’t anything strange. These two would never say it by
themselves, but actually Dahlia and Lisha were sisters from different mother.

If Dahlia’s mother Gina learned this, it was unknown what would happen to Viktor’s life.
But, Viktor only laid his hand on the now departed mother of Lisha after he parted from
Gina, so he wasn’t guilty in this matter.

Originally Dahlia and Lisha should be raised as sisters.

However Lisha’s mother knew about the ardent love between Gina and Viktor. She
feared her child getting into a dispute of inheritance rights with Dahlia.

Page |28
Dahlia’s position was very unstable because Gina was gone. It was possible that the
retainers might be pushing for Lisha inheriting the house, but Lisha’s mother obstinately
refused such thing and she denied having any relationship with Viktor.

And then she taught her daughter Lisha to serve Pazarov House and Dahlia with
everything she had. Because of that the two of them had been getting along with each
other like best friends since their childhood, but Lisha never forgot her loyalty to Dahlia
as a maid.

「Nigel, be careful so that Lady Marguerite won’t get hurt up there okay?」

「Yep, I understand.」

「 It’ll be fine! I’m more worried that it will be Nigel-sama who get hurt rather than
myself!」

Nigel smiled wryly at Marguerite’s frank words. It was something shameful for a man,
but it was true that Nigel’s physical ability was far below Marguerite even though he was
seven years old while Marguerite was five years old.

To be honest, Nigel even though that Marguerite was too strong.

Even his mother Lisha wasn’t a match for Marguerite if it came to a head-on contest of
strength.

「Hey! Let’s go quickly!」

Marguerite pulled at Nigel’s right hand. He stopped thinking and ran toward the attic
together with her.

Page |29
Page | 37
「It might be good for those children that we left the inner palace.」

That inner palace couldn’t be called as a good environment for energetic children to play
around even as a flattery. It wouldn’t be strange for them to die an accidental death any
time if they let down their guard down even slightly.

Dahlia didn’t have any power anymore now after her father Viktor
was executed. It was impossible for her to return to the inner palace at this point. She had
no attachment to this world after her husband abandoned her.

She had no attachment except one, the future of her daughter

Marguerite.

Would that Veltina feel satisfied with just her life? The answer was no.
Putting aside Dahlia, Marguerite was a fully-fledged royalty. She was like an
insignificant surplus with her title as the eighth princess, but all her siblings had already
died.

There was widespread rumor that this too was the work of Veltina behind the scene.
Besides Veltina also still didn’t have any child of her own.

For her, all the concubines who were blessed with child were target of her jealousy. Her
way of thinking was that it would be better if her child who would be born someday had
as few rival as possible.

In other words the possibility of her overlooking Marguerite was extremely low.

What could someone powerless like her do for Marguerite’s sake?

Dahlia silently smiled while feeling anguished inside her mind that was on the verge of
insanity.

Fortunately as long as Veltina was in the palace, there wouldn’t be anyone who proposed
marriage talks for Marguerite. Ramillies would protect them while they were living here.
No, would it really be like that?. How long an overly energetic girl like Marguerite could
contend herself being cooped up in this residence?

Wouldn’t she sneak out from under their watch and run away to the outside world, and
ended up as a cold corpse after the enemy found her out?

Dahlia felt cold as though her body was freezing just from imagining that.

She had to think.

Page | 31
In order to protect her daughter, she couldn’t be picky with her method──.

Dahlia who should be a delicate and gentle woman was captured in her wild delusion.
She was transforming into a different existence even though there wasn’t any change in
her appearance.

──She could hear the joyful laughter of children from above. Marguerite was really
attached to Nigel. Dahlia recalled the memory
of her happy childhood just for a little bit.

She never thought that this kind of future would come when she was playing house with
Lisha in Pazarov House.

「When I look at those two, I can’t see which one of them is a girl.」

「It makes me worried for the future of my son.」

Those who saw Nigel’s crisp good looks predicted that he would become an
extraordinarily good looking man in the future. Marguerite also inherited the beauty of
her mother, but even she had to admit that Nigel was a step above her in that respect.

If Nigel grew his hair and Marguerite cut her hair, there would be few people who could
correctly guess their gender if there was any.
It was here that a devil’s temptation whispered into Dahlia’s head. It was truly a devil’s
deed. If Dahlia still had her sense, she would never even contemplate such absurd plan.

However Dahlia wasn’t the young lady of Pazarov House anymore.

She had fallen to be a monster in the form of mother. Dahlia spoke with a cold-hearted
voice that she never used toward her half-sister who had accompanied her life since she
was born.

「Lisha, can you please listen to a request of mine?」

The attic was still covered with a thin layer of dust, but there was no way children would
be bothered by such thing. Marguerite and Nigel tumbled into the room while messing
around with each other.

The ceiling inside was so low that even children could just barely stand up in there. The
light of the setting sun was shining in from the roof window. The children’s hearts felt
something mystical from that.

Page | 32
「This is amazing, Nigel-niisama!」

「Yep, now I want to stare at the star at night from here.」

「You’re right! I want to do that!」

Marguerite hugged Nigel from behind happily.

There wasn’t any maid who gave them cold gaze or annoying auntie here like in the
inner palace. It was fine no matter how much she fawned Nigel here. That feeling of
liberation was making Marguerite’s tension rising.

Nigel who was two years older than her was astonishingly pretty. He had a nice smell
when she hugged him like this.

Marguerite knew that Nigel was always kind and considerate to her. Her heart felt
cheerful just from staying at his side. Her cheeks naturally loosened when she thought
that these fun days would continue forever from here on.

「Look, your clothes got dirty.」

Nigel dusted off her clothes that got covered with dust. Marguerite smiled bashfully.

「Ehehehehe……」

This time Marguerite hugged Nigel from the front.

「Marguerite is more spoiled than usual today.」

Nigel spoke in exasperation, but Marguerite knew the truth.

Nigel’s hand was gently caressing her hair. He didn’t dislike what she was doing no
matter what he said.

Page | 33
Part 5

Ramillies was sleeping in front of Dahlia and Marguerite’s room. His hands were still
holding on his sword. It was late at night. There was no sound in this silent night except
the sound of trees rustling and insects chirping. There the door at the entrance opened
slowly without any sound.

At the same time men dressed in black entered inside one by one without making any
sound.

Their number was six.

「 Hmph, I heard he is the number one swordsman in the kingdom, but this is all he
amounted to.」

A man dressed in black laughed soundlessly.

For this man who lived in the world of darkness, Ramillies who obtained fame as a
knight under the light of the day was a target of scorn and also envy at the same time. In
the end a knight was nothing more than a muscle-brain who could only fight head on.

They could be killed anytime if a resident of darkness like him felt like it.

A knight was no different from a baby for them.

Ramillies showed no sign of waking up at all. The men approached him with satisfied
self-esteem.

It was then.

Ramillies who shouldn’t wake up because of the effect of sleeping aroma they carried
with them opened his eyes.

「──Rookies.」

The man spontaneously trembled in rage by the words of someone strong looking down
on someone weaker.

Even so the man just barely swallowed his words due to the instinct engraved into his
body to prioritize his duty.

And then he silently raised his short sword to sever Ramillie’s life.
Ramillies was still sitting while holding his sword in his arms.There was no way he
could evade this. The man’s lips twisted in pleasure because he was convinced of his
victory.

This man was talking big, but he couldn’t do anything anyway.

In addition he wasn’t alone. A human with only two arms couldn’t possibly dodge all the
attacks from his four comrades.

「──Too slow. You guys are inferior even to the average knight in the knight order if
this is your best.」

「What……?」

Short swords were swung toward Ramillies’s neck from left and right. In addition there
were also simultaneous attacks from the front and above.

Ramillies shouldn’t be able to do anything while he was still sitting like that.

And yet…….

Ramillies snorted with a nonchalant expression while holding his sword in one hand. He
deflected all four attacks with a quickness that made it looked like it all happened at the
same time. The men accurately realized the gap between their strength with just that.

No, they were forced to realize it whether they wanted it or not.

Because it wasn’t just their short swords that were repelled, even their wrist had been
severed.

Even so they didn’t even let out a scream. Their tenacity at least deserved a praise.

The vanguards who lost their ability to fight exchanged glances. Then they leaped toward
Ramillies once more.

They hardened their resolve to use their body and life as sacrificial pawn in an instant.

Two men were readying their long sword behind the four. They closed the distance to
pierce Ramillies together with their comrades.

The four would die in an instant.

Their torso might be severed into two. Or perhaps their head would be split open.
However there was no doubt that their body would serve as
hindrance to Ramillies’s movement.

「Die!」

One of the men let a word slipped out from his mouth. It seemed he flew into rage by his
comrades’ death.
However not a single one of their expectations came true.

「Foolish.」

From Ramillies’s perspective, he was simply being underestimated if they thought that
the bodies of mere four assassins could serve to restrain his movement.

Ramillies had faced knights in full armor and war horses at the battlefield.

On the other hand the assassins were just killers who murdered the weak with surprise
attack in the end.

They didn’t understand at all just how absurd a man who had fought at the frontline
could be.

They shouldn’t try to stab Ramillies together with their comrades’bodies.

With a simple light swing from Ramillies’s sword, the dead bodies of their comrades got
blasted away instead. The two assassins with long sword who tried to stab Ramillies
were blown away until outside the entrance door.

「Don’t disturb Dahlia-sama and Ojou-samaMarguerite’s sleep. If you

want to defeat me, bring a company of knight squad with you.」

The assassins were writhing in pain under their comrades’ corpses without understanding
what just happened. They realized with despairing clarity that Ramillies hadn’t even
displayed half of his true strength.

Till the end he was paying meticulous attention to not make any
sound so that his master wouldn’t wake up from her sleep.

「It’ll be bothersome if you guys dirtied the garden too. Trash should die like the trash
they are.」

And then with an outrageous physical strength that was like a bear, the assassins’ bodies
were thrown away over the tall rampart and even the moat to the roadside.

At the next morning, the corpses were discovered. Because the bodies were in a terribly
atrocious state, rumor that there was an apparition in the capital was spreading, but the
assassins’ corpses then vanished without anyone knowing about it.

.
Part 6

Around half a year passed since then.

「YAAAAAAAH!」

A girl with her blonde hair cut short let out a slash with an eye- popping speed.

However it was only relatively surprising for a five years old. It was
nothing but a child’s play for veteran warrior like Ramillies.

「 You are still lacking strength! Don’t swing your arm! Imagine your whole body
turning into a single sword!」

The girl’s eyes moistened in frustration because her sword was easily deflected.

The girl couldn’t accept defeat even though she was inferior in everything compared to
her opponent whether it was in age, physique, and also experience.

The girl used her frustration as fuel to charge once more.

「YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

「Umu, it’s quite good this time!」

Ramillies smiled broadly after feeling the attack this time that was backed with the
heaviness of the girl’s body weight.

The girl’s body weight was around 20 kilograms.

Her height was around 110 centimeters. She was taller than average, but it was her
physical ability that was more surprising than anything.

There was no way anyone in the same age with her could win against her.

It was doubtful that even twelve years old boy who became a knight apprentice could
win against her. The girl became stronger in a visible rate like a sponge that was sucking
water. Ramillies’s heart was beating hard in his chest.

It was a joy that he hadn’t felt for a long time since his lord Viktor was executed.

「 But it’s still too inadequate! Your foot stamped on the ground too weakly, so the
impact wasn’t fully transmitted!」
「UKKYAAAAAAH!?」

The girl was blown away like a ball. She rolled over on the ground.

「Damn it! Did I hit too strongly!?」

Ramillies held up the girl’s body in panic.

「A-are you alright? Marguerite missy!」

Ramillies unconsciously called the girl that because of his habit. The girl pinched his
nose with a displeased expression.

「I’m 『Nigel』. I told you that already.」

Ramillies finally realized what he had just whispered and scratched his head awkwardly.

「Sorry. Let me rephrase that. Are you alright, Ni?」

「Well, I’m not even scratched from just this much!」

The girl smiled. She was really a sturdy kid. She was carefree to the utmost. She was also
persistent and tenacious. She would surely become strong. Ramillies believed that
without a doubt.

「Then let’s have one more bout!」

「I’ll land a hit today for sure!」

The girl laughed animatedly. She continued challenging Ramillies until she became
unable to stand anymore.

The morning training ended. It made the girl sweaty and dusty all over her body. She
rushed toward the house with empty stomach. However, Lisha immediately dragged her
out.

「Eeh? What? What’s the matter Lisha-kaasama!」

「Are you going to show yourself in front of the madam looking like that? Wash your
body in the bathroom right away!」
「The water hasn’t been boiled right?」

「Obviously! Go already!」

「Ye~~~~s!」

The girl imagined the water that had turned cold in the bathroom while heading toward
the bathroom grudgingly. Lisha sighed seeing the girl’s skin that had become tanned
from sunlight.

The girl had become like an uncouth child even until her appearance. Lisha couldn’t hide
the bewilderment in her heart after seeing such degree of change.

No, the girl already had the potential to turn out like this from the start. Thinking back,
the girl’s grandfather, Viktor was also a completely unruly child at his childhood.

Even so, she wondered if it was alright for a princess of a kingdom to become completely
uncouth like this. The girl was turning manlier day by day. It made Lisha felt a tinge of
uneasiness.

「Well, it’s fine that she is like this for now.」

Yes, the matter of future could be considered again at the later time. Right now they
should focus more on surviving in this completely
unforgiving world.

「Yo, you’re completely pitch black, Ni.」

「Mar-oneesama, you’re pretty!」

The girl returned to the living room after she finished taking a bath. A girl with shiny
silver hair welcomed her there.

──Strictly speaking, it was actually an extremely beautiful boy dressed in girl’s attire. In
contrast with the girl whose hair was roughly cut short, the boy was wearing a wig of
beautiful silver hair that reached until his waist.

The boy’s bearing was filled with graceful elegance. It was hard to believe that he was
still seven years old with his appearance. The girl blushed ecstatically seeing the boy.
「As I thought, Mar-oneesama is really a princess!」

The boy who was called with the nickname Mar──Nigel tilted his
head in embarrassment and smiled at Marguerite. The two’s positions had been reversed
after they came to this mansion.

『Actually my true child is Nigel. I might get killed if they found out that a concubine
like me gave birth to a boy, so I asked Lisha to swap baby with me.』

Dahlia gave such explanation to Marguerite not long after they arrived in this mansion.

The first queen Veltina didn’t have any legitimate child. Although Dahlia was a
concubine, she came from a count house. It would be too dangerous if she gave birth to a
boy.

She might be assassinated or poisoned. Either way it was clear that Veltina would kill her
at all costs.

Actually there were already two boys who were born in the royal family until now. But
both of them didn’t even manage to live for one month.

Dahlia devised a plan to exchange child with Lisha who by chance gave birth to a
girl──in other words, Dahlia’s true child was Nigel while Marguerite was Lisha’s child.
Such lie was told to Marguerite.

If one thought carefully, they would be able to spot a lot of holes in this story. If Nigel
was the one who should be protected, it wouldn’t be logical for him to disguise himself
as the princess whose life was being targeted. Nigel was also older than Marguerite. The
timeline already didn’t match from there. But Marguerite’s physical ability was far more
developed than Nigel, so the lie that Marguerite was actually older was quite convincing.
And above all else, these were the words from her two beloved mothers──Dahlia and
LIsha, so Marguerite believed the lie easily.

「Ni. Mar has to dress like a girl so that no one will notice that he is a prince.」

Dahlia kindly patted her daughter’s hair.

「 But Ramillies will protect us so there is no need to worry. Keep getting along well
with him too from here on, okay?」
「Yep! Then, I also will protect Mar-oneesama!」

Marguerite accepted her position without any objection. That was because from the start
she had been thinking that Nigel was prettier than her.

Marguerite was smiling cheerfully in a good mood.

She was just having too much fun staring at Nigel who was dressing himself up
beautifully.

「Ni, come here for a bit.」

「What’s up?」

「You’re injured here. You’re still a girl Ni, no matter how strong you are.」

Nigel dipped Marguerite’s right hand in water and wiped it with handkerchief worriedly.

Nigel found small marks of bruise on Marguerite’s skin that had fine texture that was
sucking in his skin. Although the bruises weren’t so serious to be called injury, they
could be found all over her body.

Ramillies had held back skillfully in the sparring, but Marguerite was getting better faster
than he expected.

Ramillies was thinking that at this rate, he would be forced to get somewhat serious in
the sparring sooner or later.

Of course it would only be to the degree of paying attention when the opponent was just
a child. However at any rate, it shouldn’t be that long before Marguerite had mastered
martial arts enough to be able to face adult opponent.

Ramillies had been wondering if this martial arts talent was really natural.

Viktor was a prominent fighter even throughout Trystovy, but Ramillies didn’t think that
Viktor’s talent as individual fighter was as great as Marguerite.

Stamina, reflex, instinct. Marguerite possessed all of them in higher level as though she
was in a different dimension. If times were
better, it might even be possible for her to make a name of herself as the world’s
strongest warrior.

Ramillies regretted that Marguerite’s talent would be wasted because that dream couldn’t
come true due to her background.

Even so, strength was needed more than anything in order to survive. Furthermore it had
to be an overwhelming strength that could push aside the impossible. To do that, even
the slightest pampering wasn’t allowed. Ramillies decided so in his heart.

Of course, there was no way Nigel understood that kind of hidden circumstances. He was
simply worrying about his beloved little sister who he was serving as his master.

Marguerite got into a good mood because her beloved big brother was taking care of her.
Her eyes squinted fondly while she allowed Nigel to continue what he was doing.

「I’ll become stronger to protect Mar-oneesama!」

Marguerite seriously believed that.

She innocently believed that her role as Lisha’s daughter was to protect an ideal princess
like Nigel.

「Yes……thank you.」

However Nigel knew.

Marguerite was the only one in this confined world who didn’t know the truth.

It was Marguerite who should be protected.

I am the last fortress that is protecting you.

Nigel had certainly inherited the blood of the family that had offered their complete
loyalty and devotion to Pazarov House since the generation of his grandmother. Since he
became aware of his surrounding, his mother Lisha had imprinted into him that 「Your
body exist for the sake of Pazarov House」.

Even though he was still seven years old, no, perhaps it was exactly because he was
seven years old that Nigel didn’t feel any doubt at all toward his position.

Because of that, even if it cost him his life──.

「Oh, Nigel, are you injured?」

「This is just a scratch! Madam!」

Even though she was the one who made the lie, Dahlia felt ashamed in her heart to hear
her actual daughter calling her madam.

Even so she didn’t show her feeling at the slightest on her face.
Dahlia gently caressed Marguerite’s head.

「I see, Nigel is really a strong child.」

At the same time Dahlia knew that strength was a double-edged sword.

Because this talent was without a doubt something that Marguerite inherited from her
grandmother Gina who was a peerless warrior. Trystovy was a country with many
traditions. It would be a great scandal if it became known that beastman blood was mixed
into the royal family.

Originally Marguerite shouldn’t be allowed to learn how to fight like this. However that
extraordinary talent in martial arts became absolutely necessary in order for Marguerite
to survive as the maid’s son Nigel.

Veltina’s target was still Dahlia and her daughter, but there was no guarantee she
wouldn’t direct her ire toward Lisha and her son as harassment. Besides if they lost
Dahlia’s patronage, Lisha and Nigel would be banished from the palace and became
jobless.

There wouldn’t be any disadvantage in having as many powers as possible in order to

protect themselves.

In fact if Marguerite could survive until she became adult, she would become capable
enough to protect herself even if her opponent was a country. She had inherited Gina’s
blood thickly, so Dahlia didn’t doubt that at all.

「 Forgive me then, but can I ask Nigel to leave. Marguerite have a lesson to do after
this.」

「……Understood.」

Marguerite became visibly dejected. Nigel smiled kindly at her.

「I’ll read a picture book for you later, so wait for me.」
「Thank you! Mar-oneesama!」

「Then come with me Marguerite. Today’s lesson is about manner.」

Fortunately Dahlia and others were living quietly without anyone watching them. If they
didn’t show themselves for one or two years, there should be no one who could imagine
how the children had grown up.

In addition Nigel’s beauty was something that clearly would draw interest. If he was
made to wear silver hair, other people would just think that the princess had grown to be
very beautiful while outside of public’s eye. Additionally, it was essential to teach Nigel
manners and educations that were worthy for a princess in order to strongly impress
others that he was Princess Marguerite.

Luckily or unluckily, Nigel wasn’t lacking in strength of will, talent, or looks to endure
the situation and pull that off.

.
Part 7

A silhouette was approaching Ramillies who was standing straight while guarding the
residence.

Although Ramillies had confirmed that the approaching silhouette was a man who he
knew well, Ramillies didn’t change his straight posture that was like a rock.

「Working hard aren’t you.」

「What’s your business?」

Ramillies’s words were curt even though he had half-guessed what this man’s objective
was. This man was a comrade-in-arms and also a best friend of Ramillies, but duty came
before feeling.

「Won’t you stop already? Quit from a gatekeeper job like this.」

「I don’t think there is anyone else who can do this job other than me though.」

Dahlia was a daughter of a criminal. She had lost the king’s favor. Furthermore the queen
was aiming for her life. It was the absolute truth that there was nobody else but Ramillies
who could protect her.

If Dahlia was simply protected by some soldiers who were dispatched from the palace,
she and her daughter would have been killed already since a long time ago.

「 His majesty say that he will welcome you to be the royal guard’s commander once
more if you simply agree to it. I can’t bear watching a man of your talent to be rotting at
this kind of place.」

「 That’s really not like you, Olten(オルテン). A man rots only when they twist their
principle.」

Ramillies didn’t waver even when it was his best friend’s words. He had understood
Olten’s way of thinking since the beginning.
Because Olten was a friend that he was proud to have. Olten acknowledged Ramillies’s
strength more than anyone and Ramillies also trust him to guard his back in the
battlefield.

「 Trystovy needs you! Answerer Kingdom is eyeing our country, and the antagonism
between the nobles and commoners are also continuing to escalate. The day where you
will be needed in the battlefield will surely come!」
Most of all Olten thought that he wasn’t Ramillies’s match when it came to controlling
soldiers as a commander.

His best friend had a talent that was even more dazzling than jewel. Olten couldn’t allow
him to content himself with playing bodyguard in this kind of place.

「──What are you asking me to fight for? Is it for promotion? Is it to allow some nobles
to do as they please?」

「T-that’s……for the sake……of the country」

Ramillies’s words were scathing, but his expression was gentle.

「Forgive me my friend. I have a thought of my own. A country that pinned a crime on

someone innocent like Viktor-sama who had shed his blood for the sake of this country,
isn’t worthy for my loyalty and sword.」

Olten’s feeling toward this country was genuine. However the current Ramillies was
simply unable to innocently believe in his homeland like in the past when he was still a
knight.

Olten saw a despair so deep it didn’t allow him to even cry inside Ramillies’s smile.

──He couldn’t change the resolve of this man.

He repeatedly told himself that it would be a waste for Ramillies to stay here, but as his
best friend, he shouldn’t make Ramillies went against his principle here.

「At least don’t die. This is my request as your friend.」

There was no barrier that would protect Dahlia and others if

Ramillies died.

Ramillies laughed with a quiet confidence.

「 Have you forgotten the knight’s oath? We aren’t allowed to lose because we are
burdened with people who we should protect on our back.」

Those words were spoken when he was appointed as a knight for the first time. Ramillies
had never forgotten it even for a moment.

「Exactly. It’s exactly as you said but……how regretful.」

A man who embodied the ideal knight to this degree was put into a mortal danger in
obscurity just because of a selfish woman’s wickedness. Olten’s lips twisted in loneliness
when he was faced with such miserable reality.

.
Part 8

And then two more years passed.

Tonight too there were another assassins lurking in the darkness. They stepped into the
detached palace where Dahlia and others were sleeping. Although, the guard Ramillies
had become famous as assassin killer, so only ignorant thugs or foreign assassins would
visit here lately.

「 He he……the king’s favored concubine huh. I want to enjoy her first before we kill
her.」

「Quiet. If we get found out then even that person won’t cover up for us.」

「Yeah yeah……tough life.」

The man shrugged with a sigh.

Although it was in the past, there was no way a concubine who once received the king’s
affection wasn’t beautiful. If they were going to kill her anyway, they should get their
appropriate due first.

Although, it was a different story whether that was worth the risk or not.

「 Even so this residence, the security is too light. Didn’t they say that the king’s
daughter is living here?」

「The girl has the blood of criminal flowing inside her, so no one want to get involved
with them.」

「Heh! They should just kill her together with that traitor to save the trouble.」

「We can get a nice paycheck thanks to that though.」

「You ain’t wrong.」

They heard that there were only women and children and at best just a single guard. So
they entered into the residence’s garden carelessly without any vigilance. Although
usually the most difficult part in this kind of mission was to slip inside the castle where
the royalty was living at.

They got through that most difficult obstacle thanks to their client’s guidance. Because of
that they thought that this mission was already as good as done.
Page | 64
Of course that was nothing more than their hubris.

「Hm? Is the moon covered by cloud……everyone, pay attention to where you step.」

The moon had been illuminating the ground beneath them brightly until just a moment
ago, but it had been suddenly hidden by a thick dark cloud. The number of nightlight that
was placed inside the castle wasn’t that many. Much less the detached palace that was
ignored by everyone. This place was genuinely dark.

Although the men were used to seeing inside darkness, they were perplexed by their dim
vision where they could only see blurry silhouette. It was then──.

「──Die. There is no mercy for the trashes who are targeting the
madam and Mar-oneesama.」.

Of course, the mastermind also wasn’t so foolish that they thought the foolish thugs
could accomplish the assassination.

No matter what people said, the one who protected the detached palace for more than
two years had done his duty without letting even a single one of the residents died until
now.

There were even real knights wearing disguise among the assassins who were sent here.
And yet Ramillies kept sending all of them from this world to the distant nirvana like an
unwavering rock.

Ramillies wouldn’t even break a sweat against the average opponent. If his best friend
Olten received the order to carry out this mission, he would declare that they needed a
squad of knights from regular army and a commander with martial prowess at the level
of knight commander to accomplish it.

That was just how great a threat the martial prowess and calm judgment of the man
named Ramillies. The mastermind understood that the town’s thugs wouldn’t be able to
do anything against Ramillies.

「Hou……it has been a long time since a professional assassin visit here.」

An assassin sneaked into the residence smoothly with the sound of sword fighting at the
garden as his signal, but he jerked in surprise because someone unexpectedly talked to
him.
Page | 65
It was only natural that the man was surprised.

They had sent attackers that consisted of only thugs for five or six times for the
preparation of this day. Ramillies should be letting his guard down around this time, or at
the very least he should be assuming that it was an attack by thugs.

「I wouldn’t be able to serve as knight commander if I can’t see

through diversion of this level.」

「Is it fine for you to be here? Even those thugs will be enough to kill the madam and the
other people inside.」

The assassin intentionally laughed as provocation.

He understood that this wasn’t an opponent that he could win by

fighting head-on. Too bad however, Ramillies only had a single body. He couldn’t
possibly face those thugs and the assassin in front of him at the same time. If the assassin
didn’t fight Ramillies head-on and focused on defense, then it would be possible to at
least buy some time. The assassin silently believed so.

No, if Ramillies got impatient and his movement turned dull, then
perhaps he could even defeat──.

「Don’t worry. They will all die without exception.」

「How? Do you plan to leave me to take care of them? I don’t mind

if you do that.」

The assassin laughed boldly. But Ramillies simply smiled pityingly at him.

「──What’s so funny?」

Page | 66
Something was amiss.

Was something different from his assumption going on here?

It was while the man was pondering such possibilities in confusion that it happened.

「Kahyuh!」

The man heard a familiar and unique dying scream that could only be heard when the
carotid artery in the throat was cut.

A black and small silhouette leaped out from behind the thugs.

The silhouette’s movement was wild but refined. It reminded one of

a wolf when hunting.

A man fell like a decayed tree without being unable to do a thing. Finally the men
noticed the fact that they were under attack.

「S-shit! Is it the guard?」

「W-we got ten people here! Surround him and beat him up!」

The thugs moved about in confusion to take revenge for their comrade, but two men
silently fell once more before they could find the attacker. This time the cause was
thrown knives that deeply stabbed into their spinal cord. The thugs felt terror because
three of their comrades were killed without being able to do anything to fight back.

Even though they couldn’t feel any repulsion about killing, they were sensitive to danger
that could kill them.

「Hiiiih! Where? You coward, show yourself!」

「Crap……crap. We should run away quick……!」

「Stupid moron! Our lives will be gone if we run away without any result!」

The men were aware that their client was someone with really high position in the
palace. Of course, they weren’t aware at the slightest that the mastermind was Veltina,
but they were able to easily imagine that they wouldn’t get away unharmed if they failed
this request.

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「The opponent is just one person! If we can just injure him a
little……!」

It could be the arm or the leg or anywhere. The man judged using their experience that
even just a bit of injury would be enough to take away someone’s fighting strength.

However in the end that was a logic that could only be applied when they were trampling
weakling at a street corner somewhere.

「……Don’t think that you guys can get away just because you are merely bait.」

「Don’t tell me……this brat is-?」

The men finally saw the figure of their attacker.

It was a cute girl with blonde hair that looked vibrant even in this darkness. She was still
six or seven years old with a small body. The short sword that was dripping with blood
looked really out of place in her hand. The men’s eyes opened wide like saucer.

「T-this brat……how dare you!」

The men’s meager pride seemed to be stimulated by this. They recovered from their
panic and moved to surround the girl. However they immediately noticed that another of
their comrade had become a mute corpse. They didn’t even notice that a fourth victim
had been killed. They hesitated whether they should continue fighting or run away
without caring of any shame. The girl wasn’t someone who would quietly overlook that
opening.

「──The madam and Mar-oneesama and Lisha-kaasama are behind me.」

The girl leaped at the center of the bewildered men and her sword drove into the heart of
the man that she passed by.

「Guhah!」

──Fifth.

The limit of their pride and fortitude was reached there.

Nearly half of their comrades were killed without being able to fight back. Even if they
continued fighting like this, it was highly likely that the remaining half would just get
killed easily.

Page | 68
「D-dammit! This isn’t like what I heard! This should be an easy job!」

「Even though it should be just killing woman and kid……!」

The girl’s violet eyes were filled with the color of dark rage hearing the men’s careless
words.

「……You all absolutely won’t get away.」

「Shit! You brat! What the hell is this monster!」

A man turned his back to abandon his comrades and run away, but a knife hit his neck
and he expired. They couldn’t even show their back carelessly.

The terror of death that they felt so close to them for the first time made the men’s
expression convulsed and they begged for their life tearfully.

「W-we are in the wrong! Forgive us! We won’t do anything like this again!」

「We’ll do anything! We’ll do anything so at least spare our life!」

The men desperately started to beg for their life while shutting their eyes from what they
were about to do in this place.

They were people who took enjoyment from trampling the weak, but they were groveling
unsightly to a wretched degree when facing someone stronger. It didn’t matter what was
actually going on in their heart, they didn’t have the slightest pride that would make them
hesitate to butter up to the strong.

「……Lies. You all will just forget this after escaping from here.」

The girl had learned from her teacher Ramillies and also from real battle about the nature
of these low-lives.

They wouldn’t even feel indebted to the mercy they were given. They were humans who
wouldn’t hesitate to do anything in order to overcome the danger before their eyes.

If this kind of people were allowed to get away, it would expose the important thing that
she should protect to danger. That was why they had to be killed without the slightest
mercy.

Page | 69
It would be a different matter if it was a key figure who was close to the mastermind,
these were assassins at the level that the girl could defeat with her current strength. There
wouldn’t be anything good from letting them lived.

That lesson had been thoroughly driven into the girl.

Her teacherRamillies knew better than anyone that needless pity and hesitation could
decide life and death.

「Give it up. After all you targeted the madam and Mar-oneesama.」

「N-no! I don’t want to di……gufuh!」

The girl cut down the men who were so scared they couldn’t move one by one. There
wasn’t any hesitation at all in her movement. Only a warrior who was simply killing her
enemies efficiently could be seen there.

「──Looks like they have finished over there. Is it okay that you don’t save them?」

「Is there any worth in risking danger just to save disposable pawns?」

The assassin couldn’t help but feeling flustered even though he replied emotionlessly at
the surface.

Wasn’t the guard just Ramillies alone?

Could it be there was a noble who was helping Dahlia?

If that was the case, it would be possible enough for him to gloss over this failure if he
could bring back this information to his employer. The problem was whether the man
before him would allow that or not……. (I’m not so weak that I can be killed easily if I
focus on running away. It’s impossible that I, the Owl of Twilight can be done in that
simply!)

The name of the Owl of Twilight Gunnar was quite famous among the underworld.

The number of nobles that had fallen victim to him couldn’t be counted with two hands.
It was a famous rumor in the underworld that it seemed his patron was Sforza House.

Page | 70
In addition, he had never failed the assassination mission that he received. It was
something that Gunnar secretly took pride in, though it seemed that it would stop here.

「……First allow me to me say my congratulation. However, it’s astonishing that there

is someone so foolish who will ally themselves with Pazarov House at this point of
time.」

「 I wonder about that. I believe that Viktor-sama’s popularity should be greater than
your employer at least.」

「Popularity, something like that is useless!」

Gunnar laughed condescendingly.

「 How did that popular count-sama ended up in the end? Something like popularity is
powerless before strength, he is the proof!」
Something like childish justice only brought tons of damage without a single benefit.

The only thing that Gunnar trust was simply pure strength.

It didn’t matter if it was military strength or political strength, strength was the only way
one could carry out their will in this world.

「……The people who are drunk with strength will be defeated by strength. Your master
too will regret it one day. Although it will be you first before your master.」

「No thanks. I have decided that I’ll live long until I’m a hundred years old.」

「What a coincidence. Me too.」

The two of them accidentally laughed and moved at the same time. Gunnar moved
backward, while Ramillies moved toward Gunnar.
Gunnar just barely parried Ramillies’s slash that couldn’t be followed by eyesight. That
sword skill was certainly magnificent, but it wasn’t at the level that was impossible for
him to deal with.

Even though he wouldn’t be able to win, if he focused on not losing…….

「 Naïve. If you are a believer of strength, you should obtain at least this much
strength.」

Ramillies focused his mana in his lower body. Then he vanished from Gunnar’s view in
that instant.
Page | 71
Page | 72
「W-whaat?」
The nickname Owl of Twilight came from Gunnar’s good eyesight. Ramillies’s rapid
acceleration made even that Gunnar lost sight of him──it was an advanced partial
strengthening of body using mana.

In Trystovy Kingdom, this technique should only be possessed only by people at the
class of general or knight commander.

「If you have this much strength……why……」

「Even I have something that I trust more than strength.」

Gunnar moved his mouth to reply at Ramillies’s words.

However no voice came out. Gunnar fell into the darkness of death while still holding on
the resentment in his heart.

Page | 73
Part 9

「His overbearing attitude is quite intolerable to see.」

「Yes, his high-handedness is like he has become the king of this country.」

Count Valerie Ost turned down his face to hide his mocking smile while replying to
Archduke Jack Antonio( ア ン ト ニ オ ). (TN: In the character introduction his name is
Jack Armadio, but here it is Antonio. I don’t know which one is correct.)

Lately Duke Sforza and his faction were growing impudent as though they were the one
in control of Trystovy Kingdom. It was the fact that they were the biggest faction and
grasped the authority, but at the same time they were definitely making a lot of enemy
too.

Archduke Antonio possessed the biggest territory in the kingdom, even so he was
distancing himself from the political struggle within the palace. And yet he received an
insulting treatment in a banquet and he became one of the nobles that turned into Duke
Sforza’s enemy.

An archduke was different from the usual influential noble, he was like the lord of a
semi-independent country. Naturally the rank of archduke was higher than even a duke.
Archduke Antonio’s anger was deeply-rooted after Duke Sforza wounded his pride.

Not to mention the archduke was the king’s biological little brother, although he was put
up for adoption in the past and now he wasn’t counted as a royalty anymore. Originally
he should be treated as someone with a high position that was only second to the king.

However the archduke who was distant from the center of the government had no
strength to oppose Duke Sforza. Count Valerie Ost used that chance to offer his
cooperation. Valerie was a good-looking man who turned 38 years old this year. His eyes
were tinged green like emerald and they reflected his strong will. He was someone who
drew a lot of interest.

He had tall and well-proportioned body. His glistening blonde hair that grew until his
shoulder blade looked graceful as though it belonged to a woman.

He was a popular man even in the high society. Even the king took note of him as a
genius who would shoulder Trystovy’s future. There was a reason why Valerie was
approaching Duke Antonio. He was the best friend of Count Viktor Pazarov who got
executed. Originally it wouldn’t be strange even if he got purged together with Viktor.
Fortunately Valerie was staying in Mauricia Kingdom since last year for recuperating
from a sickness. Because of that even Duke Sforza’s scheme was unable to reach
Valerie.

After Valerie returned home, he acted as though his friendship with Viktor had never
existed. If he didn’t do that then it was highly possible that Duke Sforza would target him
once more.

He knew about Dahlia and others whose life were targeted by assassins at the detached
palace, even so Valerie only remained an idle spectator without doing anything to help
them no matter how heartrending it was for him to do that.

Valerie didn’t have any son or daughter. For him Dahlia was already like a beloved
daughter. King Umberto who abandoned Dahlia was nothing but a despicable traitor for
Valerie.

──Did Viktor die for the sake of these foolish bunches?

After he surmounted the despair and terror that he felt, only rage that was welling up
from the bottom of his soul remained.

Trystovy Kingdom had been under the pressure of Answerer Kingdom since its
founding. That was the geopolitical destiny between the two countries.

Trystovy was inferior in population and territory. As a maritime nation, it had to strive
for cooperation with many nations using their economic strength.

To do that, it was necessary to educate and promote the commoners and nominate them
to enter the upper echelons where they could carry on the national policy on their
shoulder──that was the farsighted vision of Viktor.

Something like noble supremacism would only stop the talented people from obtaining
important posts without bringing any benefit to the country.

The memory of drinking alcohol together with young comrades who shared the same
goal continued to shine brightly within the most important part in Valerie’s heart even
now.

「As expected, Count Pazarov’s plan is valid. I didn’t like that man, but at the very least
his talent was the real deal.」

「His connections to bring up the marriage talks can still be used. I can take care of it
anytime if only his majesty agree with it.」
Whittling down the influence of Sforza House and carrying out internal reformation with
Mauricia Kingdom’s power supporting them from behind the scenes.

That was Viktor’s scheme and also the reason why Veltina was
enraged to him. The plan at that time met setback, but the connections that were used to
lay the groundwork and negotiating with Mauricia were still existing.

「Does Mauricia’s king really have the intention to marry his little sister, her highness
Catalina to Trystovy?」

Archduke Antonio asked uneasily.

It would be really shameful if he proposed a marriage talk but got refused. Archduke
Antonio had to confirm that.

「The nobles of Mauricia Kingdom and Haurelia Kingdom are waiting for an impetus so
war can break out right now. I think their side is the one that is more anxious for this
marriage to happen rather than us.」

「……I see……leave persuading his majesty to me. Although it doesn’t seem like it, his
majesty too shouldn’t have any intention of letting Sforza House doing as they please.」

Valerie wondered if perhaps King Umberto was simply a coward.

If the king wanted to prevent Sforza House’s high-handedness, he should protect Viktor.
It didn’t even need to be compared to see which one of them was more loyal to the royal
family.
Valerie didn’t have any intention of forgiving Umberto for allowing a man who was
irreplaceable to the kingdom died in vain like that.

「Then I will gather the nobles who are hostile toward Duke Sforza.」

「 I’ll leave that to you. My name must not come out yet while we are still in this
stage.」

Archduke Antonio’s words were no different than a declaration that if this plan ended up
in failure, he intended to blame everything on Valerie while acting like he didn’t know
anything, and yet Valerie simply nodded silently.

From the start he already knew that Archduke Antonio didn’t have the resolve to throw
away his life for the sake of the country.
「 Please leave it to me. This Valerie swear that no one will know of lord archduke’s
involvement.」

Valerie renewed his scorn toward Archduke Antonio without allowing it to show on his
face. Leaving the matter of dealing with the nobles entirely to Valerie was no different
than granting the authority over the faction to him.

When one day Sforza House was ruined, it wouldn’t be Archduke Antonio’s faction that
became the new biggest faction in the country, but Valerie’s faction.

「Umu, I expect great things from you.」

Archduke Antonio was in a good mood without even being aware of that. Valerie bowed
to him before he left.

As expected, even Duke Sforza would hesitate before he directly made a move toward
the king’s little brother. The archduke was a simple and mediocre man, but his bloodline
was at least valuable enough to be used.

Valerie’s lips twisted thinly from the pleasure of revenge.

「──First I’ll take revenge for Viktor from Sforza. Then next will be the kind, and then
the nobles.」

Valerie was truly going mad at this moment.

A king who made him lost his irreplaceable best friend wasn’t worthy to rule over this
country.

He would destroy everything. He would overturn the very society of this Trystovy from
its root for driving Viktor to death.

To achieve that he didn’t care how much blood would flow or how many evil deeds he
had to dirty his hands with. He wouldn’t care even if he had to sacrifice his precious
things.

Perhaps the memento of his departed best friend──Dahlia was also feeling the same.
Suddenly Valerie dropped his gaze toward the letter that came from her.

She too was going to sacrifice something important for her for the sake of her daughter.
Feeling reluctant to pay the price couldn’t be allowed in order to achieve one’s objective.
Even if they were asked to sell their soul to the devil, they shouldn’t hesitate if it was for
the sake of obtaining something that they really wanted.

The idealist who once worried about the country together with
Viktor now was going to become a demon king who destroyed all the outdated things in
order to realize his ideal.
Part 10

Trystovy’s king, Umberto I embraced the soft limbs of his young concubine and
surrendered himself to the warmth of human skin.

The girl who had been a virgin just now was falling into a deep sleep after obtained the
king’s affection for the first time.

Umberto laid his hand on the girl as his duty dictated, but no affection toward the girl
was welling up inside him at all. He couldn’t hide his somber mood toward himself. (I
wonder how long this girl will survive.)

Lately Veltina’s jealousy was going off the rails.

Veltina was certainly beautiful with delectable body, but she prioritized trying to become
the crown prince’s mother rather than being the king’s wife. There was no way the king
would find it amusing.

In that point, Dahlia was one of the few existences who Umberto could relax his guard
around. Dahlia never asked the king for anything that would benefit her house. It was
unknown whether it was because of Dahlia’s own temperament since birth or because
she had been educated by Count Pazarov to act like that, but she simply wished for the
king to treat her as a woman. (Nothing goes like I want it. I can’t even save a single
concubine.)

However at that time, there was no option for him to back up Viktor and had a total
confrontation against Duke Sforza. Viktor too should play with intrigues to cause Duke
Sforza to fall instead of avoiding dirty method and got trapped by his enemy instead.

If it was possible to execute the duke’s faction thoroughly because of high treason,
Umberto might chose to side with Viktor instead.

Sforza House and the noble supremacists had thoroughly infiltrated the palace with their
men, from the maids, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, and even the knights guarding the
palace. The king needed considerable incentive in order to turn them into enemy.

Umberto’s life would be in danger if he turned the duke house into his enemy just
because of the matter of commoner’s promotion.

Actually there had been cases of Trystovy’s king getting poisoned to death only for their
death to be covered up as death from illness. There were three such kings just from what
Umberto knew, in reality the number might be greater than that.
Adjusting the balance between the nobles and commoners while defending the country’s
territory from the superpower Answerer Kingdom──.

He was revered with grandiose title of king, but actually Umberto was nothing more than
an administrator of the profit allocation of this country.

Viktor was lacking the discernment to see through that reality.

No, more than that, he was lacking malice. That was why he raised Dahlia to be such a
pure woman. Although at the present time, the situation was going to reach the limit that
Umberto couldn’t tolerate. If he allowed Sforza House to become even more impudent
than this, the balance of profit allocation would crumble and it might result in great
chaos.

No matter the era, it was destiny for a stake that jutted out too much to be hammered
back in.

「──Now then, it will be interesting to go along with Archduke Antonio’s suggestion,

but my life will be in danger if the rug is pulled from underneath me.」

Maintaining the balance by using the intervention from Mauricia Kingdom. That plan
itself was good. But Umberto was lacking a chess piece to protect himself while that plan
was carried out. To compensate for the lacking piece, he should obtain it from
somewhere or he should whittle down the opposing force.

「I want a tactician. A fellow who won’t balk from dirtying his hand, someone who has
misplaced things like their justice or common sense somewhere……」

He would be able to save Viktor and Dahlia if authority was concentrated on the king
like at Answerer Kingdom.

At the very least he hoped he could become a powerful king one day, so that no one else
would go through the same thing like those two.
It wouldn’t be long in the future when such long awaited tactician visit Umberto.

.
Part 11

It wasn’t long after that, a rumor about the marriage of Mauricia princess into Trystovy’s
royal family that had once died out was now spreading in the palace.

「It seems that his majesty is also serious about it this time.」

「No no, I heard that it’s Mauricia’s king who is enthusiastic about it instead.」

「Certainly, it might be difficult to keep expecting her highness

Veltina to give birth to a crown prince at this point.」

Veltina hadn’t given birth to even a single legitimate child for more than five years. The
criticism that was directed to her was unprecedentedly severe.

The influence of Sforza House just barely managed to protect her from all those
criticisms, but it was unavoidable that the topic of a new queen would come up in the
near future for the sake of the kingdom’s continuance.

Duke Batista Sforza was burning with unreasonable anger toward his daughter who was
still unable to be pregnant with a child.

「 I’ll have to send another daughter if Veltina continue to fail in getting pregnant like
this.」

Batista had three daughters from his legal wife, but the two other than Veltina had
married major nobles with deep relationship to Sforza House. Originally Batista hesitated
to send a daughter of his concubine to marry the king, but he was starting to think that he
had to make some sacrifice with Veltina being unable to give birth to a child right now.

History had taught that maternal relatives wielded great influence in the palace. Sforza
House was boasting immense clout right now, but there was still a possibility that
everything would collapse when the king changed.

「 Good grief, even though his majesty’s visitation has also decreased……what a
troublesome daughter.」

Perhaps because the king had aged, the number he visited the inner palace had decreased
to two times a week. There was no doubt that the possibility of Veltina getting pregnant
from here on had become increasingly lower.
「 The marriage talk with Mauricia’s princess is also a nuisance. It will be difficult to
refuse it if his majesty feels like it. My daughter has to be pregnant at least before
that……」

The information that her father Batista was recommending a marriage between Umberto
and his illegitimate daughter reached Veltina through her trusted maid Roberta.

「Why are you doing this to me? Father!」

She actually understood why. Batista had grown tired of waiting because Veltina
wouldn’t get pregnant even now. Even Veltina had understood since a long time ago that
she was demanded to give birth to the king’s child. From sleeping with the king, Veltina
also the one who knew best that both the king and her weren’t as young as before
anymore. Though it was a different problem whether she could accept it or not.

「The talk of Mauricia’s princess marrying the king is also recurring once more. My lord
too must be feeling agitated because of that.」

「That talk should have ended with Pazarov’s execution isn’t it!?」

Veltina’s eyes widened and she shouted.

The only thing left for Veltina right now was her pride as the first queen. If someone with
higher status like Mauricia’s princess came while she didn’t even have any child and
even her family abandoned her, who knew what would happen to Veltina’s existence
here.

「It seems Count Ost who was close to Count Pazarov is making his move. I don’t have
any proof because this is only a rumor between the maids here but……」

「Even though I heard that Count Ost has been emasculated

completely……was he just pretending?」

Even though that guy was overlooked because there were multiple coincidences that let
him gotten away, he dared to make a nuisance of himself toward her.

「 There are quite many nobles from Pazarov faction who avoided any sentence at that
time. Most of them are just trifling nobles, but it won’t be strange if they are secretly
moving behind the scene……no, don’t tell me it’s actually……!」

「Roberta, what’s the matter?」

Roberta was usually calm and collected and possessed a lot of knowledge in the inner
palace, but her face turned unusually pale right now. It made Veltina felt a very bad
premonition. The matter must be very serious if it made Roberta changed her expression
like this.

Veltina whose mental state was completely cornered approached Roberta with a grave
look in her eyes.

「Say it quickly! What have you realized?」

「Yes……there is a rumor that I ignored because it seemed groundless but……the child

that Count Pazarov’s daughter gave birth to is actually a boy, but they have been keeping
it a secret until now.」

Such thing was fundamentally impossible. Newly born children would have their gender
checked by the palace’s doctor and a priest.

The king himself would also see the children with his own eyes right after they were
born, so it was impossible that a mistake could happen. But Dahlia and her child had
continued to escape from any assassination attempts for more than two years.

There was also Count Ost and other nobles from Pazarov faction that suddenly started to
maneuver behind the scene. Taking that into consideration, it made this rumor suddenly
seemed like it might actually be true.

「I see……what a blunder I have made. I underestimated that

woman.」

She made light of her because she thought she could kill her anytime she felt like it.
She was previously satisfied seeing Dahlia and her child spending a life that was no
different from imprisonment due to fear of assassination. But she was too naïve. She
should kill her no matter what kind of method she should use.

Veltina gritted her teeth audibly. A drop of blood trickled down from her lips to her chin
before it dropped on the pure white table cloth, dying it with vivid red stain.

.
Part 12

「It has been a long time, Valerie-sama.」

「Indeed, I’m glad to see you safe and sound, Lisha.」

Lisha was dressed in very ordinary commoner clothes, while Valerie was wearing a
disguise. They were meeting each other in a crowded café in the city. Lisha wondered if
this person’s gaze was as sharp as now in the past.

Perhaps Valerie was just like Dahlia. The extremely unreasonable false charge that was
placed on Viktor might have changed him completely in the inside.

His eyes were glaring at emptiness. Those were eyes that had become unable to believe
anything in this world. Lisha couldn’t even imagine just how much despair and conflict
those eyes contained.

「I’m a worthless man who can’t do anything for all of you.」

「No, if Valerie-sama was also in the country at that time, you would only get executed
too. I’m glad that at least Valerie-sama was saved from such thing.」

It was also fortunate that Valerie was popular among the noble ladies.

Even someone so haughty like Veltina showed a slightly reserved attitude toward
Valerie. Although it didn’t reduce Valerie’s anguish at the slightest even if he was told
that he was saved by his good look.

「Please endure it just for a bit more. I won’t let Sforza House do as they please anymore
after Archduke Antonio and Mauricia’s king makes their move.」

When Valerie learned that Dahlia had been targeted by the assassins that Veltine hired all
this time, he seriously planned to cause an uprising. It seemed that Ramillies had repelled
all of those assassins with difficulty, but he was only one person. It was highly possible
that he might made a mistake one day and failed.

The negotiation with Mauricia Kingdom had entered the last stage. After that he would
make use of the third force that was Mauricia to destroy everything altogether, whether it
was the great nobles who maintained their inaction, or the figurehead king who did
nothing but watching.

Perhaps he should even go further until this country called Trystovy was gone from the
map. He wouldn’t care about it for even one bit. If Valerie’s ideal country could only be
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born from the handful of ash after Trystovy was burned to the ground, then that was what
he would do.

「──No, unfortunately it will be too late.」

Valerie’s eyes opened wide. He didn’t understand what Lisha was saying. The Lisha in
Valerie’s memory wasn’t someone who would just calmly accept Dahlia’s death.

「 What are you saying Lisha? If it’s about the assassins I can also pull some
strings……」

「Yesterday, an invitation for a tea party came from her highness Veltina.」

「That woman, how far she is going to go!」

She expressly summoned Dahlia to a hostile place like the inner palace. Her ulterior
motive was completely transparent.

──It was to poison Dahlia to death.

She intended to kill Dahlia right before her own eyes rather than leaving it to assassin.
Most likely the reason why she went as far as taking such bold measure was because of
his maneuvering with Mauricia Kingdom.

「 You can just refuse that invitation! It’s not like any of you have any more lingering
attachment to the inner palace at this time isn’t it?」

A formal invitation from the first queen also meant the cancellation of Dahlia’s
banishment from the inner palace. However Valerie knew Dahlia well enough that she
wasn’t a woman who put much stock toward keeping up appearance like that.

「……The madam isn’t the only one who is invited……her highness Marguerite is also
invited.」

「D-don’t tell me……」

Although Marguerite was a descendant of a criminal, she was a full- fledged royalty. If
she was poisoned to death, it would be a grave crime that couldn’t be covered up even
with the influence of Sforza House. For an instant Valerie thought that this was a great
chance to bring down Sforza House, but a second later he felt ashamed of himself for
thinking that.

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I was thinking to sacrifice my best friend’s daughter and granddaughter, just what was I
thinking…….

「Madam is prepared to die. In line with this, she request Valerie- sama to not waste her
sacrifice.」

「Impossible! Is she planning to take revenge for her father?」

Certainly it might take some time.

But a time would surely come when Dahlia would be able to live happily with her
daughter. There was no need for her to walk the path of carnage where even her daughter
would be sacrificed just for the sake of revenge.

「 Please rest assured. There is a body double taking her highness Marguerite’s place
right now.」

Lisha continued without mentioning that the body double was her own son.

「The madam has resolved herself to enter this conflict in order to protect the life of her
daughter as a mother. I am unable to stop that.」

That day when she lost her father and abandoned by her husband, Dahlia resolved to
throw away everything in order to stay a mother.

She asked Lisha who was like her little sister to sacrifice her son and even offered her
own life as a bait.

Lisha was unable to stop Dahlia who was quietly going insane.
She had a feeling of regret.

She couldn’t imagine how happy she would be if she didn’t need to lose both Dahlia and
Nigel and the day where all of them could live happily came.

However the reality was extremely cruel.

Even Valerie here who was expressing his sympathy was also someone who had
abandoned Dahlia and others. He didn’t try to get involved with them for more than two
years. That was an unshakable proof.

Valerie realized that from Lisha’s calm gaze without needing any word.

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「……In other words, today, you wanted to meet me today
because……」

Lisha nodded silently without any expression.

「 It’s to ask Valerie-sama to make the madam’s death useful. Her highness Veltina is
losing her composure after the assassins’ repeated failure.」

That was why she took a forceful measure like inviting Dahlia to a tea party.

She was undoubtedly unable to feel assured unless she called Dahlia to her own territory
where it was impossible to escape. There was no way that there wouldn’t be any chink in
her armor while she was being this flustered.

Valerie had a lot of supporters in the palace. He would surely be able to make use of that
opening skillfully. Dahlia never intended to ask for help from the start. Knowing that fact
struck Valerie’s heart strongly. (Certainly her tactic will work well. It’s also a fact that I
was unable to do anything for her until now……)

He had acted like his friendship with Pazarov House was nonexistent for the sake of
protecting himself. He didn’t have any face at this point to make excuses that he had
never forgotten about them or the like.

Besides if it was impossible to change Dahlia’s mind, he should make use of her death.
Doing that would also be for her sake wouldn’t it?

He understood that it was just an excuse. However her death would be unavoidable if she
wasn’t stopped from going to the tea party.

──As expected, there was a part of himself that was thinking that this was a chance of a
lifetime. Valerie realized that in aghast.

How would he be able to face Viktor in that world if he allowed

Dahlia to die without doing anything here.

「……Are you……alright with that?」

「 Nothing can be gained without sacrificing something. I can’t return anymore to the
happy time when I can believe on human’s virtue.」

A happy end where everyone could be happy only existed in a fairy tale. She had been
made to realize that. Perhaps Lisha had also been going crazy quietly just like Dahlia.

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Valerie came running to gallantly rescue Viktor from the execution and saved Dahlia
from Veltina’s harassment.

Such convenient fairy tale couldn’t be found anywhere.

「Valerie-sama, please make use of madam for the sake of your objective. We will also
make use of you for the sake of our own objective.」

Something hot welled up in Valerie’s eyes. He desperately endured it from flooding out.
He was going to make use of Dahlia. His pride wouldn’t allow him to shed tears for the
sake of his worthless self-satisfaction.

「……If that is your wish, then I shall put forth every effort to do so.」

「Thank you very much.」

Even though his guts was seething and screaming in anguish, Valerie felt his brain was
flooded with an exaltation that felt nearly like a pleasure. Count Valerie Ost sold his soul
to the devil right at this moment.

Three days passed after that.

Even if it was just a low-key tea party, it wasn’t something that could be held
immediately today or tomorrow when it was something that was done in the inner palace.

Normally the appropriate time for preparation would take one week, but the invitation
stated that it would be held in three days. It was a proof of just how impatient Veltina
was.

Dahlia put her hand through the sleeve of the light red dress that she had never worn
since she was banished from the inner palace. She smiled wryly seeing how thin her arm
had become.

「Perhaps it’s fine because I can still wear it somehow.」

「Putting aside the waist part, it seems that we won’t need to adjust the size, madam.」

Lisha was putting makeup on Dahlia happily. It made Dahlia recalled just how terrifying
the thing that she was going to do was. But there was something that she couldn’t give up
even then.

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Even if she had to sacrifice everything else, she would at least save her daughter,
Marguerite. That conviction was the only reason left for Dahlia to live.

「Thank you for everything until now, Lisha.」

She thought of her like her actual little sister.

Lisha always helped her. She loved her like she was her other half.

If possible, she wanted Lisha to live happily after she died. Although she had lost the
qualification to say something like that.

「No madam. This is my wish, my mission, my purpose of living. You don’t need to let
it weigh you down.」

She knew that Lisha would say that.

She relied on Lisha knowing that Lisha’s mother had made her to swear loyalty to
Pazarov House and how she had been raised to prioritize Dahlia’s wish rather than
herself.

「──It’s strange. I even forgot to shed tears.」

「Amazing! Mar-oneesama won’t lose to any princess from

anywhere!」

The nine years old boy was dressed like a genuine princess. He was certainly giving off a
distinctive charm. He looked older than he actually was because of his good posture. His
well-ordered looks would make anyone believe without a doubt that he would bloom to
be a beautiful flower in the near future. His silver hair was worn up with crowea flower
acting as pink accent on it.

Dahlia was also famous in the kingdom as a beauty, but perhaps this boy would become
widely known as a country toppling beauty if he kept growing beautifully like this.

「You see, Ni will be able to land a hit on uncle Ramillies soon! He said that if Ni can
land a hit on him, Ni will be able to become a knight who can protect Mar-oneesama!」

The boy thought that the girl’s wish unfortunately wouldn’t come true.

He knew about the cruel plan that was waiting for him after this.
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「Do you best. But──」

「?」

「It’s nothing. I hope you can land a hit on Ramillies quickly.」

「Yep!」

It isn’t you who are protecting.

You are the one being protected, and I’m the one doing the
protecting.

Today Princess Marguerite would die on the surface. And then a girl who wasn’t related
with the royal family would be born.

Lisha who lost the master she served and the girl would visit a distant relative at
Mauricia and live there.

The scenario had been written until that point.

The boy smiled gently and stared at the girl to carve her innocent smile in his heart at this
last chance.

「Mar-oneesama, what’s wrong?」

「Ni has gotten taller than me.」

His physical strength wasn’t a match against the girl at all and even his height had been
surpassed. Her martial talent astonished even that Ramillies. There was no doubt that it
would serve as powerful trump card that protected the girl from here on. (Even so I’m the
one who is protecting Marguerite.)

Nigel’s existence was indispensable for the sake of facing a country and winning a life
for the girl. He would be lying if he said that he didn’t fear death, but Nigel felt proud of
that fact.

That immature emotion that couldn’t even be called love had

enough passion to make a boy threw away his life.

「I want to quickly grow up!」

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「Yeah, I believe that you will surely become beautiful.」

「I’m not pretty like Mar-oneesama.」

That wasn’t true.

Surely she would become a beauty who would make everyone’s gaze turn. He wouldn’t
have any place at her side, but he prayed that he would let him live in a corner of her
memory.

That was Nigel’s only wish.

「Mar-oneesama……are you crying?」

Marguerite peered at Nigel’s face from below with a bewildered expression. Nigel
followed his instinct and kissed her lips.

「Haha……Ni’s first kiss is mine.」

「Uuuu! I hate Mar-oneesama playing a prank on me!」

The girl pouted sullenly. Nigel kindly hugged her warm body.

「I’m going.」

「Yep, take care!」

That was the last time Marguerite saw Nigel.

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Part 13

A quiet disturbance was running through the inner palace with

Dahlia’s return there after so long.

She lost her family and banished to shabby house that was a detached palace in name
only, and now she came to the inner palace once more.

People were coming and waiting for their arrival. Some of them
came just because of curiosity, and some of them wanted to see how Dahlia was doing
now after her ruin. Their number was growing in clusters.

「Oh, I’m honored that there are this many people here to welcome my arrival.」

But, their expectation was splendidly betrayed. Her beauty that once even managed to
monopolize the king’s affection hadn’t declined with her ruin. She looked even more
radiant instead.

Her faint red dress also wasn’t anything splendorous, but the excellent quality of Dahlia
herself caused the simplicity of the dress to look like it was bestowing her with elegance
and grace.

Although she had given birth to a daughter, Dahlia was still a woman in the prime of
womanhood with her age that was still in the middle of her twenty. Perhaps the king
would move his affection toward her once more if he was present here. Handpicked
beautiful women were gathered in the inner palace, but the answer would be no if it was
asked whether there was any of them who could rival the current Dahlia.

She was in a domain that couldn’t be matched by simply being beautiful.

Dahlia possessed an aura around her body──or perhaps a special atmosphere that
attracted the gaze of people.

The beautiful maidens who were made to realize that couldn’t laugh scornfully at Dahlia
like they first planned. They could only grit their teeth at the wide gulf that existed
between them.

「……It has been a long time since we are here, dear mother.」

And then the figure of the girl who was trying to hide behind Dahlia gave them even
more shock. Silver hair that grew until the waist and violet eyes that would make anyone
lost in them. Her fresh and youthful small lips gave the impression of a lustrous and fresh
cherry.
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She was previously free and uninhibited in her action. But such disposition had vanished
to be replaced with beauty that radiated from every single gaze and action she made.

The girl was still a fully-fledged daughter of the king despite the dirty blood of her
mother. She was still a bud right now, but she naturally would have the duty to marry as
royalty when she grew up.

It was clear to see that in the future innumerable youths would scramble against each
other to attract the girl’s attention. No, perhaps it wouldn’t stop with just that. The king
himself might immediately decide to grant the girl with a suitable livelihood for a royalty
to the girl if he caught sight of the girl’s beauty right now.
That would be a very unwelcome development for those who were involved in ganging
up on Dahlia and harassing her.

When the girl──Princess Marguerite became an influential person, she might also
decided to take revenge for any slight against her in the past.

「Welcome, it seems life in the detached palace really agree with the two of you.」

Veltina welcomed the two of them without flinching back at all. Her sweet smile was
provoking them.

Among the hangers-on and the concubines in the inner palace, she was the only one who
wasn’t swallowed by Dahlia’s charisma.

Perhaps it was to be expected from the first queen.

Thanks to that, even her hangers-on who were pressured by Dahlia’s transcendental
beauty finally could take a breath. (Unpleasant──what an unpleasant woman.)

However, Veltina wasn’t actually as calm as her appearance

suggested. Instead hatred was welling up inside her in rapid succession. She felt like she
would vomit and her head was turning strange.

She had killed Dahlia’s father and continued to send assassins after them, and yet here
she appeared with a completely carefree smile as though she was having the time of her
life.

She should have lived a poor and seedy life like a commoner.

She should be scared of the frequent assassination attempts that exposed her to the terror
of death. Seeing her like this made Veltina felt like she was being ignored as something
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inconsequential. (I’ll kill you. Don’t think you will be able to keep persevering
pointlessly until you die!). Veltina’s private room was located at the end of the inner
palace’s southern side.

Flowers of this season were blooming profusely in the wide courtyard, but all the types
of flowers here had weak scent so to not disturb the tea party.

This magnificent garden could only be realized with Sforza House’s abundant money
and influence.

「 What do you think? I think this is the first time you are invited to this part of the
palace.」

「The garden is truly splendid. A capable gardener must be working here.」

Dahlia took care of the garden personally when she was living in Pazarov House’s
mansion. She felt that this garden was slightly too gaudy and wasted much money, but
Dahlia thought that it surely took skill to create a garden like this.

「Is that so, it looks like even you have a discerning eye.」

Veltina’s irritation grew even more violently although her mouth was saying that. Dahlia
wasn’t filled with awe after witnessing Sforza House’s influence here. And yet she also
didn’t lament or resent the gap that existed between their position.

Dahlia didn’t give any reaction that Veltina hoped for. (I wonder how long you will be
able to keep that unconcerned look.) Anyone would fear death. A human who didn’t fear
death wasn’t a proper human anymore.

「I have prepared Fontaine(All Grey tea with orange pekoe base) for you.」

「Thank you very much.」

Dalia liked orange pekoe.

She was thankful that she could drink her favorite tea just before she died. Dahlia bowed
with a peaceful smile. Vetlna offered her to sit while acting kindly even now.

「That girl has grown to be really pretty even though it hasn’t been that long since she
left this place. I think her eyes look a bit similar with his majesty.」

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「I am a rebel’s daughter, but this child is still a royalty, so I gave my all to raise her to
be someone who won’t be an embarrassment.」(Is that so, but she still doesn’t have any
qualification to live because she is your daughter.)

Veltina had murdered several royalties until now. There was no way she would have any
hesitation or guilt from killing Marguerite at this point.

Even so Veltina had never killed a princess who didn’t have any right of inheriting the
throne until now. Marguerite was the eighth princess. It was clear from there that there
were ten princesses in Trystovy Kingdom right now.

In the crown succession system of Trystovy, only the male could inherit the throne
regardless of their bloodline. There were only two times in the past when female
inherited the throne when there wasn’t even a single boy who was born in the royal
family.

Therefore it had to be a boy that Veltina gave birth to who would inherit Trystovy in the
future.

「 I see, that’s really something. Surely even some great nobles will want her as a doll
when she reaches marriageable age.」

In the end she would only become a decoration for her look.

Dahlia chuckled in delight at Veltina’s sarcasm.

Her smiling face was fascinatingly elegant. It had a devilishness that could snatch the
heart of men.

「……I wonder about that. After all men are creatures with fickle passion.」

Those words were scorning Veltina who was unable to keep the
king’s affection for herself.

Veltina had vaguely noticed how the king’s affection was moving away toward the
young and beautiful concubines.

The king still visited Veltina’s bedroom only for giving face to Sforza House. There
wasn’t any love between man and woman there. Dahlia’s words robbed the air inside
Veltina’s lungs. She was unable to reply immediately. (──This woman! How far is she
going to irritate me!)

「It’s the thinking of a commoner girl that they can only cling on man’s pity.」
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I’m different. I’m a special existence, Veltina said her words with a hint of such meaning.
She also hardened her resolve to kill Dahlia.
She also wanted to try asking about the rumor of Marguerite’s true gender, but in the end
it wouldn’t matter if she also killed her.

She couldn’t endure her desire to see Dahlia crying and begging while dying anymore.

「Let’s enjoy the tea for now. The tea leaves will cry if we keep ignoring them.」

「Indeed.」

The maid poured the tea into the cups on the table with practiced movement.

All Grey’s characteristic citrus scent wafted in the air. The tea was poured from the same
pot to show that there wasn’t any poison in the tea, but Dahlia was aware that something
like that couldn’t be used as guarantee at all.

「What a lovely scent.」

「It must have been a long time since you can enjoy tea of this quality. You should drink
it slowly.」

「Then allow me.」

At that time, Dahlia noticed Marguerite──Nigel who was dressed in woman clothing
beside her was turning stiff despite his effort to act nonchalant.

He also understood. That death would arrive after he drank this tea.
(Forgive me. Although this is for the sake of my daughter, I can’t criticize Veltina now
that I’m also doing something fiendish like this.)

She made use of his loyalty and love toward his master to force him to die for her
daughter’s sake. Furthermore he was the son of her childhood friend. (Even so I can only
choose this path……I don’t have any right to ask you for forgiveness.)

A vaguely sweet and sharp scent was hidden inside the refreshing scent that tickled the
nose. Even so Dahlia elegantly drank the poisoned tea without any hesitation.

「Fuu……it’s a good tea.」

「I’m glad that you enjoy it.」

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Veltina observed Dahlia while saying that.

The poison that was mixed in the tea had immediate effect.

If she thought of her own safety, it would be desirable to use a slow acting poison that
showed its effect after more than half a day had passed, but Veltina couldn’t resist her
desire to witness Dahlia’s scream of death agony.

She had acted like a tyrant for along tome using her house’s power.
Her patience had considerably weakened.

「……Guh」

Nigel was the first one whose body shook violently. Even so he didn’t let anymore sound
slipping out from his mouth. He didn’t even open his mouth.

Nigel endured the burning intense pain inside his stomach with an astonishing willpower.

「Now this is very troubling, Veltina-sama.」

「Do you think so? Isn’t it more troubling that descendants of a rebel are still alive until
now?」

「 Perhaps that’s true for me, but Marguerite is undoubtedly a royalty who inherit his
majesty’s blood. You are making light of the royal family too much.」

「So what! I am a daughter of Sforza House!」

「You are nothing more than a vassal compared to the royal family.」

「You are too noisy for a mere pathetic loser. You are going to die now you know? Not
just you, your daughter too. If you lick my foot and beg for forgiveness, then perhaps I’ll
administer the antidote.」

Although she absolutely wouldn’t give the antidote no matter what.

Beg for your life quickly, writhe in agony pathetically while spewing out curses. Veltina
waited for Dahlia’s words with her eyes blazing fierily. She would never admit it but,
this woman was loved by the king more than her, she was more beautiful than her, she
possessed the intelligence and personality that were more befitting for a queen than her.
Veltina was waiting eagerly for the moment that such woman yield toward her like a
hungry beast.

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「 You are making a trashy face that is unbecoming for a lady. Despite your good
lineage, that lowly character cannot be hidden.」

「──What did you say?」

Dahlia didn’t beg for her life like she expected. Instead she spoke of words that denied
Veltina from her core. Her rage dyed her field of vision pure white. Her logical mind
snapped with scorching fury. Veltina leaped at Dahlia and straddled her while putting her
hands around Dahlia’s slender neck.

「Don’t you look down on me with that unruffled face! Die!

Disappear!」

「Aa, that unsightly face really suit you.」

「You still speak!」

Dahlia felt her consciousness growing thin as though mist was covering her mind.

She didn’t know whether it was because of the poison or because Veltina was strangling
her neck. But she strangely didn’t feel any pain. It made her felt apologetic to Nigel who
was bravely enduring the intense pain. (Farewell Marguerite……you have to stay
safe……)

「Wait……who are you people! Do you know where is this place!」

Noisy sounds of hard armors clanging filled the area. Veltina who was strangling the
neck of Dahlia who was already dead finally returned to her senses.

「What are you all doing! Get out right now! Don’t think that all of you will get away
after doing this……」

「It’s you who won’t get away with your doing.」

「Count Ost……do you understand what are you doing? This is lese
majeste!」

「Hah!」

Valerie snorted as though there was a thug at a street corner picking a fight with him.
This woman didn’t understand that it was already checkmate for her.
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「Who is the one doing lese majeste here? Dahlia-sama is still his majesty’s concubine
even now. Her position still hasn’t been revoked, and her majesty Marguerite herself is
also a royalty.」

「I didn’t do anything!」

Veltina finally realized that this was a bad situation for her. However, she just needed to
blame a maid about the poison. She could also make excuse about the strangling that she
was simply trying to nurse the poisoned Dahlia. With Sforza House’s influence, it should
be possible to twist the fact anyway she liked.

「Keep your excuses for the jailer in the dungeon.」

Valerie gave an order to two knights with a cruel smile to apprehend

Veltina.

Veltina who had never been treated like that yelled as though she had gone crazy.

「I am the queen! The daughter of Sforza House!」

「You are a murderer of royalty.」

「Father! Call father here!」

She would be saved if she relied on her father the duke. Veltina believed that, or rather
she had no one else who she could rely on.

Valerie asked a maid and a noble daughter who was mixed among
Veltina’s hangers-on to smash that faint hope.

「Can you two give the testimony?」

「Yes, it’s her highness the queen who ordered the purchase of the
poison.」

「She said that Dahlia-sama had to lick her foot and beg for forgiveness if she want the
antidote.」

「Very good.」

Valerie took out a parchment from his breast pocket and announced.

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「The criminal Veltina is apprehended for the high treason of assassinating royalty. This
is the will of his majesty King Umberto!」

It was the royal command who couldn’t be opposed by anyone who lived in Trystovy.

「 The involvement of her father Duke Sforza is also clear to see. You should prepare
yourself to be executed together with your father.」

「 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY DO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT! JUST

FOR A LOWLY WOMAN LIKE THIS!」

The equilibrium of Veltina’s mind broke down. She bawled while scattering snot and
drool without caring of her appearance. (We did it madam. Now we just need to leave it
to Valerie-sama……)

Nigel listened to that shriek at the corner of his consciousness while learning that the
plan they risked their life for had succeeded. (Marguerite will be free with my death.)

Marguerite didn’t know how to doubt other people. She was the
very picture of naivete. He was worried that she would be tricked by a bad man. Would
she be okay?

They had been together with each other since they became aware of their surrounding.
Nigel had a mind that had developed early. He had learned from the early stage that it
wasn’t his fate to be united in marriage with Marguerite. That was why he swore to do
everything he could for the sake of Marguerite’s happiness. (How troubling, as expected
it’s painful that I won’t be able to meet you again.)

She shouldn’t even hold any doubt that she was Lisha’s daughter.

That was fine.

After all she was going to live as the daughter of the commoner Lisha from here on.
(Farewell Marguerite. Get out of all these fetters and fly freely. I’ll keep praying forever
for your happiness.).

「──Mar-oneesama, did she call for me?」

Marguerite looked up to the blue sky. It felt like Nigel’s kind voice was mixed among the
passing wind.

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.

Page | 101
Part 14

「Lies! There is absolutely no way the madam and Mar-oneesama are dead!」

「I’m not lying. There is announcement under the king’s name that Princess Marguerite
will be given a state funeral. The two of them, are already dead.」

Dahlia’s existence was ignored by all sides even at this point of time. It made Lisha felt a
helpless grief. She had been educated since she was born that Dahlia was the master who
she should serve.

At the same time she was also her childhood friend and also half- sister. Even though this
was the result that Dahlia herself wished for, it felt like invisible blood was going to pour
out from Lisha’s chest.

「Who? Who in the world killed the two of them!?」

Marguerite didn’t understand anything about the malicious political struggle within the
palace, but she had repelled assassins who came here many times. She was aware that
someone was targeting Dahlia’s life. Marguerite had already slaughtered dozens of
assassins, but she had never felt this much hatred before.

Marguerite questioned Lisha with a dangerous light in her eyes.

「It seems the culprit is the queen, Veltina Sforza.」

It seemed the palace took quick action.

Not only Veltina and her hangers-on were caught red handed at the murder scene, the
noble daughter who witnessed the scene and the maid who was involved with obtaining
the poison also gave testimony about the flow of money. It could be seen from this fact
that the palace had been monitoring this assassination drama from the early stage. If they
felt like it, it would possible for them to use the poisoned tea as proof and apprehended
Veltina before Dahlia and Nigel died. But Dahlia was the one who asked Valerie to not
appear until she died.

Lisha and Marguerite wouldn’t be able to leave this country as long as she was alive.

Dahlia also didn’t have any intention of surviving shamelessly while sacrificing Nigel for
her daughter’s sake.

Everything was for the sake of Marguerite’s freedom──.

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「Kill──I’ll kill her with my hand for Mar-oneesama’s revenge……」

「That’s impossible.」

Marguerite was about to rush out with madness as her driving force, but Ramillies who
sneaked behind her without her noticing held her back. It looked like he was just placing
his hand on her shoulder lightly, but Marguerite was bewildered that she couldn’t even
make her toes twitch from the pressure.

「Do you think you can sneak into the palace’s jail with your skill? Something like that
is impossible even for me. You who can’t even win against me won’t be any problem for
the palace’s guards.」

「Then, it’s alright if I can win against Uncle Ramillies?」

「A warrior who can’t estimate their opponent’s strength won’t live for long.」

Recently Marguerite had become able to win once from five matches against Ramillies in
their training. However in the end it was only when she was facing Ramillies in training.
Even so, the shock from losing Dahlia and Nigel wasn’t so light that it would be possible
to persuade her with words. Ramillies was aware of that.

Marguerite wouldn’t stop unless someone beat her up till she became unable to even
groan.

The two of them faced each other at the garden with their fighting spirit seething silently.

「……Come.」

「UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

Marguerite rushed with a speed that couldn’t be followed with sight without even wiping
her falling tears.

It was truly a godspeed step that she had never showed before in training. Strong hatred
or love often could make flesh body to break through the limits.

Ramillies could see a hole of deep darkness that was opened in Marguerite’s chest within
that sharp movement.

「Is that all!」

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Ramillies gritted his teeth and yelled that instead. And then Marguerite was sent flying.
Her back crashed on the ground and she lost consciousness after her head got shaken.

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Part 15

「 NOOOOOOOOOOO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! THIS ISN’T RIGHT! IT

SHOULDN’T BECOME LIKE THISSSSSS!」

Not even a week had passed before the execution of Veltina and Duke Sforza was carried
out.

This was unprecedented for noble.

For example Count Pazarov’s execution took nearly two months with necessary trial and
formalities. The unusual speed this time could be said as the proof that they feared the
duke’s political influence.

「……Do you think that you can get away safely after doing
something like this?」

Duke Batista Sforza hadn’t lose his composure like Veltina, but his voice was filled with
deep grudge.

「 I can’t believe those words come out from the mouth of lord duke who has buried
many political opponents until now by framing them with false charge.」

Valerie looked down at Batista whose hands were tied on his back with a sneer. Viktor
wouldn’t die if only this man didn’t exist.

「 I have no intention to make any justification for framing Pazarov and my other
political rivals. However I am the one protecting Trystovy’s order right now. If you
execute me without even any proper trial, do you know how the other nobles will harbor
distrust toward his majesty?」

At the very least they should take more time to advertise the duke’s wrong doing.

Batista was the leader of the nobles who disliked the commoners’ encroachment to the
nobles’ vested interests. If he died, the discord between the nobles and commoners would
definitely intensify.

「I don’t care about any of that.」

「You! How can you call yourself a noble of Trystovy!」

Valerie had no intention to exchange words any further with Batista.

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(Distrust toward the king? That’s exactly what I want. It’ll be great if both nobles and
commoners hold distrust toward the king. All those foolish nobles and the king should
disappear!)

If the country couldn’t understand and realize Viktor’s ideal, then they should just perish.

And then after this country had turned into ruins, he would create a new country that was
free from any filth.

「Your majesty! Your majesty! Please don’t abandon your wife! Mercy!」

Veltina’s head was held down by the executioner. She let out her shriek of death agony.
(That kind doesn’t have the resourcefulness to save a woman just because he had slept
with her!)

The executioner slowly raised his axe.

「NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I’M NOT SOMEONE WHO WILL DIE IN THIS KIND OF

PLACE! I’M SOMEONE WHO WILL BE REVERED AS THE QUEEN
DOWAGEEEER!」

「Perhaps. You won’t be in this situation if only you could give birth to a child.」

Valerie let out a cynical smile, at the same time Veltina’s head flew in the air with her
face fixed in a wailing expression.

「Now then, lord duke, it’s your turn next.」

Those eyes that were filled with cold pleasure and mad laughter finally made Batista
realized that Valerie hated this country itself.

Valerie’s hatred wasn’t simply fixed toward him. It was directed toward far behind him.

「I don’t have any regret in trying to protect the order, but I feel responsible for giving
birth to a monster like you.」

「 You feel responsible? Do you want to say that you are repenting just before you
die?」

「 O insane one, it’s not evil that destroy the country. It’s virtuous ideal instead that
destroy the country. Ideal will simply get trampled by greed. It has taken even far more
lives than someone like me.」

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「Hah! Is that what you want to say?」

Valerie’s despair wasn’t so shallow that he could believe in goodness to win against this
evil world.

「Then go die. Die and die, then from the wasteland where anything and everything is
destroyed, I shall make the flower of ideal bloom without anything dirtying it.」

「 You underestimated human’s greed too much. You will realize that something like
ideal is nothing more than a method of greed.」

「Do you think that I haven’t realized something like that?」

He preached about ideal while knowing about the supremacy of greed. What in the world
was this man trying to do then?

「Insane! You are insane! Don’t drag this country into the wild delusion of a lunatic!」

However a monotone voice with stifled emotion called at Batista at that time.

「……Duke, it’s time.」

「 I’ll give you my life as many times as you want! I’m the one who killed that soft-
hearted Viktor! That’s why, satisfy yourself with my life alone!」

Batista begged at Valerie without any care for his dignity, but the executioner held him
down.

He still didn’t understand what Valerie was trying to do.

But his nihilistic eyes were eyes that wouldn’t feel any pangs of conscience at all even if
a hundred thousands of innocent people were to be massacred. It was what made Batista
agitated like this.

「Please! This country……at least don’t hate this country……」

Valerie lost interest and turned his back on Batista. He started going down the stair of the
execution site.

*Gosun* There was a heavy sound, followed by *thud* from a head falling into the head
basket. Valerie muttered in a low voice that couldn’t be heard by anyone after hearing
that sound.

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「I can’t listen to that request.」
.
Marguerite and Ramillies quietly watched the heads of the two culprits who killed Dahlia
and Nigel. Their heads were exposed to the public in shame.

She wanted to run over there and smashed those heads with this hand. However
Ramillies who was standing beside her wouldn’t allow that. Marguerite was aware of
that.

Besides it also wasn’t bad for that woman to die and had her head exposed to the public
like this after pathetically begging for her life. But at the same time Marguerite realized
that her anger was directed toward herself.

She was unable to protect the two of them. She was also stopped by Ramillies and
couldn’t take revenge. She couldn’t forgive her weakness that invited this tragedy.

「I’ll become strong……」

「I only know about individual strength you know?」

What Ramillies knew was in the end just the strength of a single individual as a warrior.

「I’ll become strong that I can protect everyone even if I’m alone! I’ll become so strong
that I won’t lose even against a country or an army!」

A violent light dwelled inside those violet eyes. It was like those eyes were dyed with
blood. Ramillies secretly sighed in grief.

Dahlia wished for an ordinary life for Marguerite, but this girl was trying to become
something that was the most farthest from that wish.

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 Part 16

Lisha and Ramillies who lost their master Dahlia naturally got chased away from the
detached palace. In addition Lisha also didn’t want Marguerite to stay in this country.
Lisha and Marguerite crossed the border under Ramillies’s protection.

They headed to the inn town Cardiff that was located at the border between Mauricia
Kingdom and Trystovy Kingdom.

Lisha’s aunt had married to someone in this Cardiff.

Although that aunt had died, she left behind a small house and farm for Lisha several
years ago.

「 We also have the jewels from madam. Our family won’t lack anything for living
modestly.」

Marguerite turned twelve. Even so she never slacked in her daily sword training with
Ramillies. Lisha watched the two of them lovingly, but she had visibly lost a lot of
weight during these two years.

She didn’t have any particular sickness in her body. It was like she was losing her very
life force itself with Dahlia’s death as the impetus.

Even so Lisha continued to illuminate her small family with a bright smile.

「FALL ALREADYYYYYYY!」

「You still aren’t there yet!」

Right now it had become impossible for Ramillies to endure all of Marguerite’s attacks.
He was blocking them with his tough body and his way in using shield and armor that he
had mastered to the bone as a knight, but Marguerite’s godspeed was already surpassing
Ramillies.

But she still hadn’t reached the level where she could break through Ramillies’s
experience and instinct.

──Allowing one’s flesh to be cut in order to sever the opponent’s bone.

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In most cases, just when Marguerite thought that her attack would connect, she would
always receive a blow that surpassed it.

(There is no one with speed like this even in Trystovy’s knight order……)

Ramillies himself was evaluated as someone who was blessed with natural talent, but
Marguerite far surpassed him in that area.

Ramillies wouldn’t be a match for Marguerite anymore when she finally started to learn
to use partial strengthening skillfully. (I have to train her until then.)
.

And then that day finally arrived.

Ramillies’s sword was struck away from his hand. It rotated in the air before falling on
the ground with a dry clanging sound.

The time had come when he couldn’t react to Marguerite’s godspeed attack even when
using his experience and instinct.

At this point Ramillies was helpless.

「I DID ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!」

Marguerite exploded in happiness. She hugged her sword on her chest and somersaulted
in the air twice. Marguerite’s ability had grown to the point where she could clearly feel
that she had completely surpassed Ramillies.

「Good grief, the time has finally come when my disciple surpassed me.」

The girl had only turned twelvy, but Ramillies didn’t feel any
annoyance or envy.

He simply felt proud for being the teacher of an extraordinary warrior like Marguerite.

「Congratulations, Nigel.」

「Thank you! Lisha-kaasama!」

Margeurite hugged Lisha with a wide smile. Since the came to Cardiff, Marguerite
worked hard like possessed to become stronger than Ramillies. It took her this much time
to surpass Ramillies even with her prodigious talent. It was because Ramillies was also
an outstanding warrior.
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For Marguerite who had the objective of obtaining a strength that wouldn’t lose against
anyone, Ramillies was a huge wall that she had to surpass at all cost.

Marguerite had completely won against Ramillies that was like a wall of an immovable
fortress. She won using her own strength without any trick. The happiness she felt from it
was immense.

That night, Lisha prepared a feast using all her skill.

Ramillies and Marguerite ate with great relish. They enjoyed sumptuous dishes that they
could only eat rarely to their heart’s content.

──The next morning.

「Ramillies-sama, thank you for everything you have done for us until now.」

「Lisha-dono! What are you talking about so suddenly!」

Ramillies was bewildered by Lisha’s sudden suggestion.

For Ramillies, the two of them were already his family after he spent nearly seven years
together with them.

He didn’t have the slightest intention to leave the two of them at this point.

「 We have taken advantage of Ramillies-sama’s kindness until now. Originally,

Ramillies-sama’s duty should have ended already after you took us to this Cardiff.」

「But, I told you already that I don’t mind it!」

「Nigel can already protect herself. Ramillies-sama should have known that too.」

Ramillies felt his throat tightened.

Certainly, even if he said that he was a guard, the possibility of

Ramillies winning against Marguerite was nonexistent right now.

「 Certainly I might not be her match anymore in martial arts. However there are still
things I can teach her as her senior……」

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「 Don’t let Ramillies-sama’s talent to die in obscurity. That was the madam’s will.
Besides……Nigel is just a commoner. It is very unnatural for a knight of your talent to
be serving her.」

Atmosphere, personality, strength, discernment. Ramillies was a first class knight in all
respects.

Someone like him serving Marguerite as though she was his master was already being
looked on with suspicion and inquiry.

「I’m grateful to Ramillies-sama for giving Nigel wings to fly with. Even so, please stop
sacrificing your own life even more than this for the sake of accompanying Nigel in
spreading her wings.」

If she didn’t say anything, there was no doubt Ramillies would follow Marguerite until
he grew old and died.

And with Marguerite having grown stronger than Ramillies, the possibility was
extremely high that Ramillies who was following her would die an unexpected death
sooner than her.

Ramillies would undoubtedly able to become a person of importance if he went up to a

big stage. Lisha told him that holding him back here would only go against Dahlia and
Viktor’s wish.

「Uncle Ramillies, it’s alright.」

Marguerite smiled gently and held her head high.

She had heard beforehand from Lisha that it would be the time for parting the moment
she won against Ramillies.

「Didn’t you say that there are a lot of stronger men in this world, and it’s your ambition
to challenge those men.」

Somewhere in the heart of this deeply loyal man, there was a wish of wanting to test his
skill. Marguerite had noticed that as someone who also possessed the purity of a warrior.

Ramillies who realized that his beloved disciple had discerned the wish that was hidden
in his chest stopped hiding it anymore.

「What is Lisha-dono planning for Nigel?」

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「 I want her to be free and spend her life with her own will instead of following the
flow. That’s why I won’t force anything to her.」

Even if Marguerite wanted to do something dangerous like being a mercenary or knight,

Lisha wouldn’t mind if that was what she wanted for herself. Of course she also wouldn’t
mind if Marguerite decided to marry and become a mother as a normal civilian. But, for
the sake of her son, her lord, and her friend, she didn’t want Marguerite to live by
bending her will.

「I see, so now I’m just a burden for Nigel to live freely.」

Ramillies smiled bitterly, even so his expression was bright.

He couldn’t even protect Viktor or Dahlia and left Trystovy as though running away, but
now he finally felt like that he had accomplished a mission.

「Then I shall also spread my wings. Even so I hope that you two will still rely on me
from here on, not as a retainer but as a family.」

Ramillies’s action was quick after he made his decision. He started preparing at the next
day and then the day after tomorrow he decided to participate to take part as a mercenary
in the dispute that broke out at the border with Haurelia.

「──I’ll come again after the battle is over and tales you two the
tales of my travel.」

However Ramillies’s words couldn’t come true.

Not even several days had passed since Ramillies left Cardiff when Lisha got a high
fever and fell unconscious into a critical condition.

「Lisha-kaasama!」

「I’m fine, I’m……fine」

Lisha’s face was white like wax.

She could exchange words with Marguerite only in that day. She went into a comatose
state since the next day.

「Doctor……is there no doctor?」

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Marguerite asked pleadingly at Cardiff citizens who were her acquaintance, but even the
doctor that she finally found said that his skill was insufficient and threw the towel.

「Hics, hics……don’t die, Lisha-kaasama……」

The tears that she had been holding back all this time since they left Trystovy kept
sliding down Marguerite’s cheeks without pause. Marguerite would literally become
alone in this world if Lisha died. Marguerite desperately nursed Lisha who kept being
comatose.

Human would easily get dehydration if they didn’t take in water while being in high
fever. Marguerite continued to make Lisha took in food and water through mouth-to-
mouth. Then two whole days passed.

Marguerite wondered how reassuring it would be if Ramillies was here at this kind of
time.

She thought she had grown strong.

And yet, she always felt truly weak when it really mattered like this.

──Lisha’s fever finally started to come down when the third day came.

「Thank god! Lisha-kaasama, do your best just a bit more!」

Marguerite saw a hope of recovery from that. She purchased food with high nutrition and
mustered her spirit.

However she didn’t know.

Human body was fighting toxin by producing heat.

Lisha’s body had already weakened to a degree where it couldn’t even fight to survive
anymore.

Lisha had stayed firm until now simply to protect Marguerite, but the mental shock from
losing Dahlia and Nigel and living in a country that she wasn’t used too had exhausted
her badly.

Lisha would open her eyes soon.

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When she got better, the peaceful days would return once more──that was what
Marguerite believed. But that wish couldn’t possibly come true.

Lisha’s condition was visibly worsening late at night of that day.

Her breathing had become so shallow that it wasn’t audible unless Marguerite brought
her ear close. The oxygen supply to the brain was lowering and Lisha began to see
hallucination.

「……Nigel.」

「What? Hang on there Lisha-kaasama!」

「 Forgive me……forgive this fiendish mother of yours who abandon her only son for
the sake of my master」

「Eh……what are……you saying?」

Marguerite’s body shook from a terrifying premonition. It felt like her heart was being
grasped tightly.

Marguerite knew that she wasn’t a man.

She thought that she had to act as a body double in order to hide that Nigel was a prince.
She wondered what Lisha meant when she said my son.

「 You did great. You have truly served the house well by protecting the princess.
Forgive this mother who can’t even praise and pat your head.」

It was a lamentation. It was a repentance that Lisha had been keeping inside her chest all
this time. Now she confessed it as though she was vomiting blood.

Nigel died to protect the princess. Marguerite understood what that meant.

However even though she understood, it was a different problem whether she could
accept it or not.

「Lies……lies……then Mar-oneesama was……Nigel-oniisama was-!」

──Killed by her.

Marguerite fell on her knees and cried. She even forgot about Lisha’s critical condition.

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「NOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!」

──Even though she swore to protect.

──It was actually her who was protected.

Nigel’s smile was bright at that time. Was he resolved to die at that time?

「Aa, don’t think that I was wishing for you to die. There is no
mother who will wish for his son to die. Everything is, for madam and the princess’s
sake……」

It felt like her head was hit with a blunt weapon.

The kind Lisha-kaasama who always smiled radiantly.

She would become really strict when it came to housework, but she always worried for
her when she trained with Ramillies.

She would pat her head when she was on the bed until she fell asleep.

It was her who took away Lisha’s son from her.

「……I’m sorry……I’m sorry」

She had monopolized Lisha’s love all this time for herself. But it was actually something
that Nigel should have. She couldn’t feel regretful enough. A child like her was filled
with guilt and the tears wouldn’t stop falling.

「I’m an idiot……I’m sorry that I didn’t realize anything, Lisha- kaasama!」

Lisha’s delirious muttering continued.

「 I love you, Nigel. But, if reincarnation really exist……don’t become the son of a
woman who is serving her master like me, but the son of a farmer or merchant who live a
good life. Grasp an ordinary happiness with your hand.」

I want you to be born as my son once more but……perhaps I’ll be punished for asking
something like that.

Lisha thought like that within her little remaining ability to think. Perhaps someone like
her who chose her master over her son
wouldn’t be allowed to wish for a son once more.
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Lisha was a maid who served Pazarov House until her very last moment.

「 It’s my fault……I’m sorry it’s my fault! I’ll work hard! I won’t disobey Lisha-
kaasama anymore! I’ll do anything, so please don’t die!」

She didn’t want Lisha to die without her being able to atone at all or with Lisha being
unable to even listen to her apology like this. And even more than that, she didn’t want to
come to doubt Lisha’s love for her.

She wanted to believe that they would return to those happy days once more. She
wanted to apologize to Lisha, receive forgiveness, and lived in peace again together with
her.

「Dahlia-sama, was I useful to you……」

She didn’t want to think that the result from her throwing away her son’s life and her
own lifespan was pointless. However Lisha believed that Dahlia was praising her, that
she had done well. She could at least believe in that.

After all, there was Marguerite who had grown to be strong and beautiful.

「 Ma……dam? Okaa-sama? Don’t take away Lisha-kaasama! I love you Lisha-

kaasama! So don’t hate meee!」

Lisha heard the crying of Lisha at a little corner of her consciousness. What would
happen to this girl after she died?
Marguerite could defeat Ramillies in a head-on fight. She couldn’t imagine there would
be that many people who could harm her, but she didn’t have any friend of the same age
or relative. Marguerite would be alone.

「……Live on, Marguerite.」

I love you.

I love you as much as Nigel.

Please find a man that you love and marry. I want you to obtain the happiness of a
woman.

Lisha didn’t have strength anymore to form those words.

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The answer that Marguerite wanted more than anything──did she love her, or did she
hate her, did she resent her, or did she feel all of those feelings.

Lisha’s soul left to follow after Dahlia while the truth that was carved in her heart was
swallowed into eternity.

「NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

She didn’t know how much time passed after that. Perhaps one day, or perhaps two days.
Or it might even be three days. From the throbbing pain that she felt from her forehead,
perhaps it had only been several hours.

She felt pains from everywhere throughout her body. She must be raging violently
without being aware of it.

「……Lisha-kaasama.」

Lisha died with a peaceful face. It wasn’t the face of someone who died in regret.

Marguerite knew that deep down in her heart.

Lisha wasn’t someone so skillful that she could act like she was loving her while hiding
resentment deep down. Even so, she was unable to wipe out a tinge of uneasiness inside
her heart.

Because it was an emotion that welled up from Marguerite herself.

「……I have to give her a burial.」

Although the season was still cool, the decay of human’s body progressed faster than it
looked.

There was no way she could allow Lisha who she loved to decay into something ugly.

Marguerite started digging the ground at the garden as though she was possessed by
something. Her eyes were like the eyes of a dead fish.

──*Drip, drip*

The thick cloud that descended until the base of the mountain started to rain. Before long,
it became a heavy rainfall as though a curtain of silver strings was weaved in the area.
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Marguerite’s small body was enveloped in rain and turned wet. The drops of water that
trickled down from her hair looked like overflowing tears.

Perhaps, those drops really weren’t rain.

「──Who?」

Marguerite asked. Her quiet voice was oozing with deep irritation.

Around ten men were surrounding Marguerite. She didn’t notice

since when they had gathered here.

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Page | 137
Marguerite sensitively felt the killing intent that they gave off. She felt that the fuse of
the bitterness that had been piled up sky high inside her was lit up. She was unable to
quietly overlook them even though she hadn’t even finished with Lisha’s burial.

「Are you Princess Marguerite?」

The man who seemed to be the leader asked. The remaining men drew out their sword
simultaneously with those words as the signal.

It was impossible that they were just wandering mercenaries from how trained their
movement was.

「 Are you guys, knights? You guys really troubled yourself to come so far until the
sticks like this.」

「……Do it.」

The man gave a short order before he himself also drew out his sword and rushed at
Marguerite.

The path of escape was blocked from all directions.

All of them could already see how Marguerite would be stabbed to death gruesomely.

「I’m in a bad mood today. You guys won’t find any mercy.」

First, the knight who attacked Marguerite from the left was blown away.

「What?」

It happened too fast. The men needed several moments until they noticed that their
encirclement had been broken through.

「Don’t tell me, partial strengthening?」

They made use of their number advantage, but speed was their natural enemy. If the
target only had excellent skill or physical strength, the knights with their absolute
coordination would definitely win without a doubt.

However when the enemy was overwhelmingly superior in speed, it would be the
attackers instead of the defender who would find it extremely hard to deal with the
situation.

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「Do you think you guys can kill me with just this much?」

Marguerite snatched a knight’s sword while she passed him and took down two knights
in clockwise rotation.

「Don’t let her get away! Kill the princess even if it costs you your life!」

「I won’t run. After all my opponents are weaker than me.」

Marguerite threw herself toward the knights in provocation. A knight was enraged that
this girl underestimated them and tackled at her. But it was beautifully dodged and
Marguerite slaughtered three more knights.

The number of the remaining knights had been reduced until four.

「Shit! All of you, give up returning home alive! WE will sacrifice our life here!」

「Ou!」

「Unfortunately, I don’t have any obligation to let you guys kill me.」

In addition of her natural instinct and physical ability, Marguerite had also been taught
battle analysis and tactic, and orthodox swordsmanship and spearsmanship by Ramillies.
There was no way she could be defeated simply because the enemies attacked suicidally.

The gap between her and the enemies was also despairingly wide even at one-on-one
fight.

──*Stab*

Marguerite stabbed her sword into the back of the last knight before she caught her
breath.

「Wow, that’s really amazing little girl.」

A man’s voice suddenly came from a direction where she didn’t feel the presence of
anyone. The fact that she overlooked this person’s presence sent a chill through
Marguerite’s back. She took a stance. If this man felt like it, he should be able to finish
this right at this moment.

「──Who?」

「Just a mercenary who is hired for insurance in case those knights over there failed.」
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Large dog ears. It was rare to see it in Mauricia Kingdom. It was the first time
Marguerite met a beastman. Marguerite’s instinct told her that the man was terrifyingly
skilled.

She raised her vigilance.

「Hou, you have good instinct. How unfortunate. I might be able to have fun if only you
have three more years.」

「Aren’t you composed!」

Although Marguerite knew that the man wasn’t someone she could let her guard down
against, Marguerite hadn’t really matured yet that she could keep her calm against the
commentary that was arrogantly underestimating her.

「Yo!」

「Kyaaaaaah!?」

Her balance easily crumbled and her back hit the ground. Marguerite just barely took a
stance to protect herself from the impact. She was faster than the man. And yet, she
didn’t understand how did she lose her balance.

「 It looks like you have never fight someone far stronger than you. At best you have
only fought your teacher isn’t that right?」

Certainly it was just as this man said. She had only fought assassinsthugs who were far
weaker than her in real fight.

The adverse effect from being used to fight Ramillies who didn’t use many tricks
immediately showed here.

「It seems you have good eyes, but you are only halfway there if you cannot read your
opponent’s ki you know?」

「Kuh」

Her body couldn’t keep up with the man’s skillful feint.

Marguerite was barely able to exchange several blows, but wounds of various sizes were
engraved on her body.

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Her consciousness was getting hazy from blood loss. She continued to endure the man’s
attacks half by instinct. (Perhaps, this is the end.). She didn’t feel like she could win
against the man’s illusive sword art. In addition her own swordsmanship was completely
seen through. (Even if I survive……). Perhaps the most she could do would only to
become someone else’s burden again.

Even though there were people who became unhappy from here birth, there wasn’t
anyone who became happy because of her.

When Marguerite was halfway giving up, Lisha’s last words revived in the back of her
mind.

『……Live on, Marguerite.』

(──I can’t die!)

Marguerite repelled away the man’s sword with all her strength.

Dahlia, Nigel, and Lisha risked their life to protect her. She was the last proof that those
three had ever lived in this world. How could she give up here?

So what if her skill was inferior?

Be even sharper! Faster! Let out an attack that couldn’t possibly be surpassed by skill!

She had continued to wish for strength all this time. However that wasn’t it.

The strength that she sought was already inside her body.

The ideal strongest that she dreamed of was simply asleep inside this body.

「Come!」

My sleeping strength

The strongest power to protect what’s important for me.

「──Impossible! Transformation, no this is……did you open the King’s Gate on your
own!?」

The man saw the shadow of a woman on Marguerite. That woman was like a monster
and she could be said as his teacher. (I thought that she look similar with someone, but
for her to actually be……!)
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A sword that was thrust straight forward approached the man. It was an honest attack
without any feint. Even so, the man realized that he wouldn’t be able to dodge or parry it.

He couldn’t block against it even though he saw it coming──It was a supreme attack
that could only be performed by the chosen people, something that couldn’t be achieved
no matter what by relying only on effort.

「Gufuh!」

Something hot like a burn welled up inside rather than pain. The man vomited out
crimson blood from his mouth.

It was definitely a lethal wound. The man realized that from his experience.

「 Good grief, opening the King’s Gate on your own like that, there is a limit even in
being absurd.」

「King’s Gate?」

Marguerite tilted her head in puzzlement. It was a lovable gesture that was fitting for a
girl who was still twelve years old.

The man smiled self-depreciatingly. To think that he was completely defeated by a child
like this.

「In a town called Orebro located at Nordland, there is an old woman called Gina. If my
instinct is right, she must be your grandmother.」

「Dahlia-kaasama’s, mother?」

「I don’t know whether she left because she is a beastman, but the beastman blood that
Dahlia inherited definitely belonged to that old woman. Shit. If only I knew that, I
wouldn’t receive this kind of request……」

No one would want to face that monster’s descendant by choice.

Even though he left his homelandNordland because he met that teacherGina and realized
his own limit…….

「Do you, want to be strong?」

「Yeah.」
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Marguerite replied instantly.

For the sake of surviving, so that she would never lose anything
again, she would be strong. That was Marguerite’s only objective.

「Then, go meet Gina. You, only you have the qualification to become truly strong.」

He who only enjoyed fighting had no qualification for that.

「……My name is Bertil Agren(ベッティル・オーグレーン). Tlel

Gina sorry, for me.」

「Got it.」

「Be careful. There are those who want to bury into darkness the fact that the blood of
beastman race is mixed within you.」

「……So that was why Dahlia-kaasama, wanted to make it look like I’m dead.」

Marguerite asked as though she was talking to herself, but Bertil couldn’t answer
anymore.

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Part 17

Maggot let out a long sigh and slowly leaned back into the sofa.

「And then I started on a journey. I met Gina several years later and got my King’s Gate
formally opened. And so I became Silver Light Maggot.」

A heavy silence filled the room.

Why was Maggot this fixated in being strong? Why did Maggot treasure family to this
degree? Why was Maggot unable to reveal this truth to anyone?

Now that everything had come to light, the fact was extremely heavy to accept.

「──I’m thankful that you keep living and encountered me. I’m glad that you are alive.
I don’t need any other reason than that.」

Ignis hugged Maggot with a strong determination to never let her go no matter what. Her
body was soft and slender. It made him wondered just where was such immense fighting
strength was hidden inside this body.

Certainly those who became sacrifices couldn’t return. There were also those who
wished for Maggot’s death.

However for Ignis, she was his most beloved wife. She was his lover who he loved more
than anybody else. If he was the one who was placed in Dahlia’s position, as expected he
would also undoubtedly protect Maggot’s life even if it cost him his life.

「──Ignis!」

Maggot clung on Ignis’s wide chest like a lost child who found her parent. Her usual
haughty and arrogant attitude that she usually showed couldn’t be found there.

Maggot who had cleared up the wall of secret she kept raised her voice and cried like a
maiden in her puberty.

「……It’s horrible.」

「Ya did great winning against your mom, Baldr.」

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「 I also wouldn’t be able to meet Baldr-sama like this if the madam isn’t here. I have
nothing but gratitude for that.」

Seyruun and Selina who were present here got affected by the crying and wiped the tears
on their eyes with handkerchief. Even Agatha who was usually cool also unexpectedly
let her tears flowed.

However Baldr was feeling a pressure in his stomach as though he had swallowed a
heavy stone. Maggot’s confession included a hint that implicated an existence that was
too big to be overlooked.

He might have succeeded in saving Maggot from inside the shell called strength where
she had shut herself inside. But that was nothing more than an entrance to even bigger
truth and difficulty.

There, Marguerite and Nigel who were sleeping quietly started crying.
Maggot immediately stopped clinging on Ignis and stood up with a motherly face to calm
down the two.

Maggot’s expression didn’t look like she was thinking something like I shouldn’t be
born at all.

She was surrounded by family and filled with happiness.

That at least became a salvation for Baldr. What was left now was for him to replace
Maggot and protect that happiness. Although, Baldr still couldn’t find the answer inside
him of what he should do to protect it.

──Baldr was worried seeing the energetic Marguerite and Nigel and Maggot’s motherly
and dignified expression.

Should he fight in order to protect them?

Or perhaps he could do nothing except keeping quiet and waited until the storm passed?

Marguerite and Nigel got tired from crying and slept soundly once more while Maggot
continued to pat them kindly. Baldr resolved himself and asked her.

「 With Veltina’s death, Princess Marguerite was officially regarded as dead from
poisoning, and yet assassins still attacked Kaa-san after that. Do you have any idea why
that happened?」

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Maggot’s violet eyes silently narrowed. Do you really want to hear the answer? She
asked Baldr like that with her gaze.

「……It was the new queen of Trystovy, the former princess of

Mauricia Kingdom, Catalina-sama wasn’t it?」

「 At that time, I still hadn’t done anything to be resented by anyone like now. The
number of people who wanted the life of a mere girl like me was limited.」

The domestic situation in Tyrstovy was in chaos because of Sforza House’s purging.
Queen Catalina married into the royal family from Mauricia Kingdom at such time. She
immediately established her influence within the inner palace.

The people who were knowledgeable about that period of time said that she was a very
capable woman of character. It was difficult for a foreigner to obtain trust from people in
foreign country and exerted one’s influence there.

In that sense, Catalina was really worthy to be called as the little sister of that King
Welkin.

「 Wait, wait! Even though she still didn’t have any child at that time, there should be
other princesses of Trystovy other than Maggot at that time! Besides, just because a
princess who was officially considered dead was still alive……」

Ignis was once acquainted with Catalina when he still lived in Cameron. He was unable
to suspect her as the mastermind no matter what.

Catalina was wise and well liked by the people.

「 Tou-san. The assassin said that there are people who want to hide the fact that
beastman blood is mixed in Kaa-san.」

「Y-yeah……」

「I got acquainted with Princess Beatrice who married into

Nordland. She is a splendid woman of character with ambition and strength. But it
seemed that even someone like her was a mass of prejudice toward beastman at first.」

If Ernst didn’t put himself at risk to protect her from assassin, it was possible her
prejudice would still exist even now.

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「 Catalina-sama must be thinking hard of how to rebuild Trystovy Kingdom. If she
heard a report that beastman blood might be mixed in royal family’s blood, what would
she think?」

「But, even then……would she really go that far」

Agatha interrupted Ignis’s words there.

「I think that Ignis-sama’s thinking is normal. However it’s different for royalty.」

「Well, they must find it unpleasant.」

Maggot shrugged and laughed self-depreciatingly.

「Spenser dynasty that once unified this continent was extremely majestic. And in this
whole continent, only Mauricia Kingdom, Answerer Kingdom, Trystovy Kingdom, and
Nordland Empire inherited that bloodline. The blood of beastman had never got mixed
with their bloodline even once throughout history.」

Nordland Empire was tolerant toward beastman race and they would even appoint
beastman to be minister. But even that country wasn’t an exception to this fact. If this
matter became public knowledge, it was clear that royal family would lose their standing
as a successor of the unification dynasty.

Even if in reality it was nearly impossible to unify the continent once more, there was no
way they could accept losing that just cause and got the status of their royal family
lowered.

「If a royalty who inherit beastman blood is born, they will be secretly assassinated. Any
country will surely do that.」

Ignis once more hugged Maggot who spoke dispassionately.

「Your value won’t change no matter that you’re a human or a beastman!」

「Yeah. I fell in love with you Ignis because you are that kind of man.」

That blood was also passed on to Baldr. Even human who didn’t hold any prejudice
toward beastman would hesitate to have one as their spouse.

Maggot was secretly happy by Baldr’s way of thinking that didn’t even hesitate to take
Selina as a spouse.
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「 I can’t believe it at all right now that Beatrice-sama previously was someone
prejudiced.」(Selina)

「I think that the tolerance toward beastman of her little sisters, her highness Rachel and
her highness Margaret are mostly because of their own personality, but her highness
Beatrice’s influence must have played a large part too. After all she is an influential
person for better or worse.」

But what about Catalina?

What if someone who hated beastman just for getting closer to them learned that her
step-daughter was actually a baestman, would she be able to stay quiet about it? The
answer was no. (If that was the case then there is one more problem. For me, this
problem is the bigger one though.)

In the end, was it really alright for him to poke into this matter? Thinking politically, it
was completely the correct decision to send assassins to erase Maggot at that time. At
that time, the dissatisfaction of Trystovy nobles were rising and the country was in the
verge of civil war.

In the end civil war still broke out and the country was ruined, so the sense of urgency of
the people involved must be really serious at that time.

If a scandal that there was beastman blood mixed in the royal family got spread at such
situation, the country’s lifespan would get reduced even further.

「──What’s wrong? That Catalina queen is already right ain’t it?」

Baldr was immersed in deep thinking. Selina peered into his face worriedly.

「 Catalina-sama was a former princess of Mauricia Kingdom, but at that time she was
already the queen of Trystovy Kingdom.」

Maggot’s eyebrow clearly twitched.

As expected she had guessed it right from the start. She simply didn’t say it out loud
intentionally.

「She was a princess who became the queen of another country. Although Mauricia was
her homeland, could she really order the dispatch of the knights of Mauricia Kingdom as
assassins?」
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Maggot said that the assassins weren’t killers who worked in the underworld, but knights
who received order. If Trystovy knights entered inside Mauricia Kingdom in group, they
would gather attention no matter what even if both countries were in alliance with each
other.

Welkin was someone who easily got carried away, but he also had the discernment to
discard his emotion if it was for the sake of his country.

Even if it was in the land of an allied country, scheming an assassination at another

country was an act with great risk. It was something that went against the unwritten law.

「──What do you want to say?」

Ignis asked with a tense voice.

He actually understood what Baldr was hinting, but he wanted Baldr to deny it. That was
what his expression said.

「In regard to this matter, it would be desirable if the number of people who knew the
secret was as few as possible. It would be difficult for Queen Catalina to move
Trystovy’s vassals who she still couldn’t trust.」

Selina and Seyruun still didn’t really get what Baldr meant. He coldly told them the
reality with a monotone voice.

「 The only one in Mauricia who can secretly move knights, is just the king of
Mauricia.」

Welkin wasn’t a bad person by any means. However if his little sister told him about the
truth of the matter, Baldr didn’t doubt that Welkin would prioritize the country’s interest
and ordered an assassination resolutely. Furthermore Catalina gave birth to the crown
prince at that time. It was in the interest of Mauricia to have a stable Trystovy. If
Trystovy Kingdom was stabilized in the ideal form, the war with Haurelia should also
end in a more advantageous shape for Mauricia.

「No way……」

Ignis was speechless in astonishment. Maggot hugged him with sympathy while also
confirming Baldr’s words.

「 I only knew about it later on but……the swordsmanship those knights used was
something unique to Mauricia. Even though they pretended to be bandits, they couldn’t
hide the sword art that had been ingrained into their body.」
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Maggot glared at Baldr with a sharp eye glint that could cut human with just her gaze.

「It’s something that cannot be proven at all at this point. What are you going to do after
knowing that, Baldr?」

Baldr fell silent toward Maggot’s words.

There were too many things that he had to take into consideration. But he vaguely felt
that he would be unable to live as Mauricia Kingdom’s subject with the same feeling
until now.

His determination to sever the root off evil for the sake of his cute siblings hadn’t been
shaken at the slightest. The problem was how to sever the root of evil. Baldr had too
many things to protect right now.

If it was just his family, it was possible to protect them to the end even if his opponent
was a country. However Baldr was burdened with wives and friends, siblings and
retainers, and also the people in his territory. He couldn’t act too freely.

Even though he was finally able to defeat Maggot, it felt like he was getting weaker
instead.

──No, I can’t accept that kind of weakness.

Baldr had to take Maggot’s place to fulfill his oath to protect his family without yielding
to anyone.

But, how──?

「 The first heir to the throne of Trystovy Kingdom right now is you Baldr. And then
Nigel is the second in line. Sorry but, I don’t care at all about what will happen to
Trystovy you know?」

Maggot’s homeland wasn’t that country that was embroiled in intrigues.

Maggot’s homeland was only that cramped detached palace inside her memory where
Dahlia, Lisha, and Nigel were together with her. She didn’t care about the many nobles
and people who died in the civil war.

Maggot imposed the duty to be the strongest to herself in order to protect her beloved
family. Although unintentionally, Maggot really didn’t harbor any strong feeling toward
the country called Trystovy just like Trystovy’s crown prince Bernardi said.
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She might even felt hatred toward Trystovy instead.

On the other hand, did he want to become a king?

Although he understood it in his head, his heart couldn’t keep up.

He had repelled Haurelia army and he was appointed as a margrave before he knew it,
but there was no way it could really click inside himself when he was told that he was a
heir to the throne.

Then could he stay as he was right now without doing anything?

He couldn’t do something like that. Baldr wasn’t someone so wise that he could
conveniently forgot something that he had learned.
Also, if he didn’t solve this problem, the burden would be passed on to Baldr’s children
and also the children of Nigel and Marguerite. At the very least, Baldr didn’t have the
option of remaining idle as a spectator.

「──Give me time to think.」

Baldr said that and stood up. Maggot didn’t blame him.

She understood from the start that this was a too heavy burden.

Even so if it was Baldr, if it was her son who defeated the Silver Light, he would step
forward to protect what she gave up and discarded. Baldr needed time to make his
decision right now so that he
wouldn’t regret his choice.

Page | 134
Part 18

Baldr was lying down alone on his bed.

His wounds that still hadn’t been healed from his duel with Maggot gave him sharp pain
from the surface of his skin, but Baldr’s worry was so deep that he couldn’t spare any
thought to such thing.

It felt like his thought was sinking deep into a swamp the more he thought.

「Shit!」

No matter how much he thought, it would be nothing but a thorny path if Baldr
introduced himself as the son of Princess Marguerite of Trystovy Kingdom. It was also a
problem that might put a crack into his relationship with Alford who was backing the
royalist faction of Trystovy.

Randolph House had been supporting the fleeing nobles until now in one way or another.
It wouldn’t be amusing for them if the legitimate heir of the throne suddenly appeared
out of nowhere and seized the initiative from them.

A bigger problem than that was the fact that beastman blood was flowing inside Baldr.

Certainly Baldr might be the legitimate heir. However, it was a different problem
whether Baldr would be welcomed as a king with the beastman blood flowing inside
him.

Perhaps the people would rather welcome Silk instead rather than having a beastman as a
king. That would be the normal reaction.

In addition, he was bothered at how King Welkin would react.

There was no doubt that it was Welkin who sent assassins after
Maggot in the past. It was completely the correct decision if he considered the political
position that Mauricia was put in at that time, but perhaps there was also a prejudice
toward beastman that affected Welkin’s decision at that time.

If he considered how even a woman like Beatrice was poisoned with prejudice, the
possibility was high that Catalina and Welkin were also the same.

If that was really the case, Welkin might turn into Baldr’s enemy in the worst case.

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There was an unwritten rule in this continent that beastman couldn’t become a king and
this rule had been protected until now. Baldr absolutely couldn’t think that Welkin was
free from that rule.

(There is also no way I can plot to overthrow the kingdom.)

Even though Baldr was a margrave now, his position was simply something that the king
granted him. If he got into conflict with the king, at best there would only be thirty
percent of his current followers who would still follow him. Plotting against the country
without any support from the retainers and people would be nothing but suicide.

Despite appearances, Welkin was a friendly and capable king for the people. (But what
then? I can’t imagine that Welkin will happily support me.). If Welkin gave his help to a
man with beastman blood to ascend to the throne of Trystovy Kingdom, he would only
give excuse for Answerer Kingdom and other countries to criticize him.

Furthermore not much time had passed since Bernardi announced Marguerite’s survival.
And then the son of the princess was quickly discovered.

Even more shocking was that son was the hero of the second Antrim war. Such story
would sound too good to be true.

Like this, it wouldn’t even become a pretext that could convince Trystovy’s archduke
faction, Answerer Kingdom, and their satellite countries.

And then last, there was the emotional problem that left a lingering discomfort. (In the
end, will Welkin be able to trust me who am the son of Princess Marguerite, someone
who he had tried to kill at the past?). Putting aside logic, there was no way emotion could
be so easily convinced.

However it would be just a pipe dream to interfere with Trystovy without Welkin’s
cooperation. (What in the world should I do? What should I──?)

If only he at least didn’t have this beastman blood inside him. Baldr was worried so
much that he ended up mourning his own blood. It was then.

『Don’t act spoiled, ye art a man right?』

.

It was the voice that he wanted to hear all this time since they parted company at the
middle of Antrim War. It was the voice of an old man who was firm like a huge tree. He
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was someone that Baldr could rely on that before he realized it he was mentally
depending on him. Baldr wanted to apologize to Oka Sanai, his previous previous life
who was sleeping inside him. He wanted to apologize to Sanai for taking away from him
the grand stage to die that he had finally obtained once more.

And yet, not a single word of apology that he had prepared beforehand came out from his
mouth. His lips were shaking. There were only hot tears that flowed out without pause
from his eyes.

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Page | 161
『Ye brat, don’t cry.』

Sanai’s voice sounded bashful. Baldr was unbearably happy to hear it.

「I’m happy that you are talking to me again.」

『There isn’t any place for an old man like me to butt in.』

Sanai was thinking that he wouldn’t interfere anymore until Baldr died. However Sanai
wasn’t so heartless that he could pretend to not see when Baldr might make a mistake
with his life right now.

『It’s a disgrace when a man wouldst not fight when it’s time to fight. It’s not manly.』

Now was the time to fight. When would he fight if not now. Even if the situation looked
hopeless with all doors closed, but sometimes there was situation where good
opportunity could be found right at the middle of predicament. A good example was
when the Minister of the Right (Oda Nobunaga) won at Okehazama.

Someone who was loved by heaven had moments where they encountered such fortune.
Those who could grasp that fortune would create history. Those who let go of the fortune
would be buried under history without anyone knowing about them.

Although there were many intelligent generals, brave generals, fierce generals, and
veteran generals, heaven would never smile to those who couldn’t grasp that fortune.

It was what happened to the Assistant Vice-Minister of Ceremonies (Ishida Mitsunari).

Sanai’s master the Acting Middle Counselor (Uesugi Kagekatsu) was also unable to
grasp that fortune.

In some cases there were also times when one had to retreat no matter what even though
they thought they could win.

Fighting only when they had to fight and retreating immediately when it wasn’t time to
fight. The Grand Chancellor (Toyotomi Hideyoshi) and the Retired Shogun (Tokugawa
Ieyasu) were people who could do that.

The Minister of the Right, the Grand Chancellor, and the Retired Shogun, Sanai had bear
witness to those three people who once held the reins of the whole country. That was
why he was thoroughly knowledgeable about it.

He also knew how he wasn’t someone who was loved by the heaven.
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『I’m really jealous. Ye art loved by the heaven.』

Being loved by heaven also meant being given trials at the same time.

If Baldr self-abased his beastman blood and passed up this chance, there was no doubt
that heaven would hand down punishment to Baldr.

The heaven would hand down punishment when somehow didn’t accept what the heaven
tried to give them. It was like a destiny of retributive justice.

『Fight. There art things that ye wouldst not be able to obtain unless
ye fight and win. Don’t ye want to obtain those things?』

「If I can’t obtain them without winning then──I’ll win!」

For the sake of protecting Maggot and his adorable younger siblings from the foul smell
of Trystovy’s bloodshed. And so Baldr resolved himself to fight against the prejudice
against beastman’s lineage for his whole life.

What was left now that he had firmed his resolve was only to fight. He would fight and
obtain the strength to not be discriminated just because he was a beastman and to protect
his family from this destiny with Trystovy. To achieve that, he would step forward even
if his only choice was to ascend to the throne.

『Hath fun. War is the glory of life.』

If life was a war, then it should be a man’s long-cherished desire to bloom even more
beautifully and gloriously.

If the heaven had generously shined down sunlight from above, he should bloom proudly
and boldly.

「Thank you Sanai-dono.」

『Stop it, I didst something that is out of character for me.』

Baldr thanked the awkward old general and accepted his own destiny.

If the world couldn’t accept beastman blood, he just needed to change the world.

Just how outrageously exhilarating that would be!

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Chapter 2 – Circle of Destiny

Part 1

There was an organization that was in control over around twenty percent of Trystovy
Dukedom’s coastal territory.

That organization was Trystovy maritime guild.

Almost all the merchants who were doing their business on land had run away or
surrendered to the nobles, but only the maritime guild was still maintaining their
autonomy using their abundant fund and navy power. If Trystovy maritime guild’s
military force was compared with the self-defense force that other merchants possessed,
then there was no doubt that they possessed the strongest maritime force at the continent.

Their strength rivaled even the navy of Trystovy Kingdom at their heyday. They were
even called as the monarch of the south seas.

However their force had been exhausted through the long civil war. In addition there was
their quarrel with Sanpaniradeon. Right now they were in a situation where they were
only barely on par with Trystovy Dukedom’s navy.

「I have a good news and a bad news, which one should I report first?」

The speaker had tanned skin and bright smile. He looked exactly like a nice man of the
sea, but the merchants who gathered here were thoroughly aware of just how cunning
and dangerous this man was.

He was a man who was just about to reach his thirty, but he was also a tough guy who
had sunk several ships of Trystovy Dukedom’s fleet on the sea. Furthermore he had
crushed three large companies that could pass themselves as veteran even within the
maritime guild, and he finally even climbed up until he became one of the Seven Elders
that was the highest decision-making body of the guild. He was a person whose success
story still hadn’t shown any sign of reaching the peak.

No, to be more accurate he was a proxy, the one who was tasked to carry out the policy
of the one he represented. This man, August Garibaldi(アウグスト・ガリバルディ)
was what was commonly known as a second generation. Originally it was his father,

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Bennett Garibaldi (ベネート・ガリバルディ) who should be present in this meeting,
but he was rumored as the illusive head because he never showed himself even once.

Furthermore August was a beastman. Of course it wasn’t like there was no prejudice
toward him because of that, but in the world of merchant, money and bargaining were
prioritized above all else, so the criticism for him in regard to that aspect was only at the
minimum.

「Please start from the bad news first. Be as gentle as possible to the heart of old man
like us.」

The chairman of the Seven Elders, Piaggio Delvecchio(ピアージ ョ・ デルベッキオ)

spoke with a feeble voice, but only his eyes were shining like blazing fire.

August stuck out his tongue inside his heart at this old man who was saying that despite
having a heart that was even harder than steel.

「Then I’ll start from the bad news. It seems Answerer Kingdom is seriously starting to
support the dukedom. They have already finished delivering ten ships of the line.」

「Admiral Barbarino(バルバリーノ), how will our defense fleet fare in case the enemy
send those ships of the line to the frontline?」

Admiral Barbarino who was in control of maritime guild’s defense fleet frowned while
stroking his prided beard.

「I won’t have any trouble to lead them by the nose and guard our merchant ships. After
all the skill of our sailors is still superior. However if I challenge them into a fleet battle
with all of our ships, our chance of victory will be 40% at best.」

「Do you think that their intention is to have a decisive battle with us?」

「 What reason they have to fight a war of attrition with us? Even Answerer Kingdom
won’t do something stupid like giving assistance for an effort that they don’t know when
it will end.」

In other words, there was a high chance that the enemy would launch a large scale land
invasion and decisive sea battle at the same time against this maritime guild.

「So we’re going to have to strengthen our armada and recruit mercenaries again. What
a headache.」

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The military expense increased each time there was an invasion. In the end it would deal
a serious blow to the human resource and financial situation of both allies and enemies. It
was the negative spiral of civil war that had been repeated many times until now.
Although now that Answerer Kingdom was involved, the danger would be greater than
ever before.

「Then can you tell us what is the good news you have? At this rate this old body might
suddenly drop dead from anxiety.」

「Then allow me to answer your expectation.」

August spread out his arms with an exaggerated gesture like an actor and grinned
complacently.

「 Apparently that prodigal son Bernardi made a formal announcment at Mauricia

Kingdom about the search of Princess Marguerite who should have died already.」

「──Hou」

Piaggio narrowed his eyes in delight.

However behind those eyes he was busily carrying out calculation in a dizzying speed.
Why did the son of the archduke Bernardi had to search for an old and forgotten
existence like Princess Marguerite at this timing?

「 I’m told that they found the diary of the late King Umberto when there was a
construction work in the palace. Now they are scheming to us Princess Marguerite as
figurehead to reconcile with the royalist faction by Answerer Kingdom’s
intermediation.」

August shrugged and laughed, but it wasn’t a talk that could be laughed off at all. If
archduke faction and royalist faction really reconciled with each other, the
disadvantageous position of the maritime guild would become even more precarious.

If Answerer Kingdom was setting out to support the dukedom in earnest, the guild would
have to prepare themselves for a high chance of defeat.

「 Perhaps I have grown senile. This doesn’t sound like a good news at all to me
though.」

Far from being a good news, this was nearly the worst news possible. Depending on the
situation, they might even have to consider abandoning the autonomy of maritime guild
and asked to negotiate for reconciliation themselves with the dukedom.
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「Perhaps the time has come for us to make a decision too.」

A man was looking over the table with a smug expression. Piaggio looked back at the
man with a feeling of loathing inside his heart. The man’s name was Gastone
Rebecchini(ガストーネ・レベッキー ニ).

Even Piaggio and the other members were harboring bitter thought toward Gastone’s
statement. It was because this man was advocating reconciliation with the nobles.
Gastone’s main customers were the moderate nobles. He was claiming that unlike the
past, now even the nobles had understood that they couldn’t possibly live without
merchant.

Gastone was building an influence among the merchants who were tired of the increasing
military spending that was burdening them in this long civil war. Even the guild was
unable to ignore his growing influence.

Even so Gastone’s faction was still in the minority because as expected the scars and
distrust of the merchants from the violence of the nobles still ran deep.

When the coup d’etat occurred, the nobles not only avoided paying their debt, they even
seized the assets and executed the merchants with trumped up charge. A merchant who
could still trust the nobles after that was normally thought as someone without talent for
long- term management.

Perhaps the problem was that the end of this civil still couldn’t be seen even now that
some thought it might be better to compromise even after such thing had happened in the
past rather than continuing the current situation forever.

「──Gastone, you still haven’t given up reconciling with the nobles?」

Barbarino glared at Gastone with his disgust clear to see.

As the one who fought at the frontline against Trystovy Dukedom’s navy, Gastone who
was exploring the option to form peace with the dukedom was an abhorrent existence.

「Don’t you think that the wind has changed? If Answerer Kingdom is interfering, then
the nobles too won’t dare to act outrageously.」

Certainly there was no country in the continent that would dare to violate an agreement
that involved Answerer Kingdom, the greatest nation in this continent. But the possibility
of Answerer Kingdom favoring the maritime guild was nonexistent. There was no doubt
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that the maritime guild would have disadvantageous conditions pushed on them. And
then once the situation was inclined toward reconciliation, it would be difficult for the
guild to maintain their fighting stance anymore.

Barbarino wondered if perhaps Gastone’s sense for such military matter was lacking, or
perhaps he actually knew that and tried to sell the guild to the enemy.

Merchant who was blessed with business talent but lacking political or military sense
wasn’t that rare. Normally such merchant wouldn’t be chosen to be one of the Seven
Elders, but Gastone possessed abundant economic clout and he had solidified his
influence in the pro peace faction, so he succeeded in becoming a member of the Seven
Elders.

「 There are a lot of nobles who regret turning us into enemy. In reality they have
become even poorer now compared to before the revolution. That’s only natural! The
wheel of economy won’t turn if they only squeeze the merchants dry. They too have
finally noticed that.」

Gastone was speaking the truth. The tax yields had sharply decreased because the
wealthy merchants who were supporting the foundation of Trystovy rebelled or ran away
to other country. And then it also caused a catastrophic damage to the circulation of
goods.

As the result, even after the nobles caught the merchants, executed them, and seized all
their fortunes, they ended up being greatly in the red at the long term.

Only the archduke and very few great nobles around him who had even more luxurious
living than before the revolution.

It would be better if we don’t revolt if this is how it turns out in the end──the number of
nobles who thought that was many.

「Even if that’s the case, I still won’t choose the archduke faction as the contract partner
if it’s me.」

A man past middle-aged who had kept quiet until now opened his mouth.

He had black hair and black eyes, and a gentle look, but he had intellectual eyes that
didn’t allow compromise. His strictness was truly represented from his appearance.

Pietro Milano( ピ エ ト ロ ・ ミ ラ ー ノ ). He managed the clerical affair and insurance

business of the maritime guild. He was a man who honored trust toward contract above
all else. Trust was life for merchant.
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Merchants who rested on their laurels while clinging on tradition and ended up losing
trust and fell into ruin were too many to count. It was a truth that even Gastone couldn’t
deny. As expected, even Gastone was unable to carelessly answered the question of what
should they based their trust on.

「C-certainly it might not be worth it to trust the nobles. However, can we do anything
else in this current situation where the archduke faction and the royalist faction are going
to reconcile!?」

It was foolish to continue fighting a battle that they knew would end in defeat. Rather
than losing, they should choose reconciliation even if it caused their privilege to be
limited and they lost their profit.

Certainly Gastone’s opinion was also one way of looking at this situation.

The remaining elders also understood that. They folded their arms and didn’t hide their
bitterness.

The one who broke that atmosphere was August’s amused chuckle.

「Everyone, why are you all looking that grave? And here I thought that this report is an
unparalleled good news for the maritime guild.」

As expected even Piaggio was unable to hide his loathing expression seeing August’s
smug face.

Did this man know what they were feeling right now?. If not for his position as an elder,
Piaggio would already yell Whose fault do you think this is!

「 It seems that there is a reasoning here that an old geezer like me is unable to
comprehend. Can you explain it to me with a bit more detail?」

He wouldn’t let him off freely if August’s reason was actually

something stupid.

Piaggio glared at August with such intention filling his gaze.

Of course August wasn’t shaken at all by such thing and he clapped his hands in delight.

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「 We had a good relationship with the late king. It can even be said that a king is an
indispensable existence to protect our fortune from the nobles’ tyranny and regulate the
friction with the foreign countries.」

However because the merchants tried to obtain political strength that was fitting for their
economic strength, their confrontation with the nobles deepened even further. Looking
back, there wasn’t any need for them to corner the nobles until that far. The old-timers
who had been elders since that time were reflecting.

「It’s just as you say. However it’s not like we can resurrect his majesty at this point.」

August continued further in front of the sarcastic Piaggio.

「 The royal family was our protector, they were irreplaceable ally who we should
support. Then why did we choose the path of autonomy rather than backing the king? It
was because there was no legitimate heir to the throne and the only available figurehead
was just a noble’s daughter.」

The noble’s daughter that he mentioned here referred to none other than Silk. She wasn’t
someone who they could trust just like the archduke faction.

「──And then right now it has come to light that there is a heir to the throne who hasn’t
been influenced by anyone.」

August let out a complacent smile.

There was no way the shrewd merchants who were chosen as elders didn’t understand
what he was hinting at.

「 That reasoning is interesting but impracticable. We are already one or two steps
behind those dukedom bunches you know? We also don’t have any connection in
Mauricia Kingdom, so how do you suggest we find her?」

Gastone snorted roughly and ridiculed this suggestion.

August’s suggestion was relaly attractive that Gastone judged he had to cause it to be
declined no matter what. It didn’t matter whether he was actually able to do that or not.

「I see, there won’t be any better dream come true than this if we
can forestall the nobles and declare our support to the princess first.」

「Yeah, the problem is how do we find her. And then there is also the matter of how to
proof her legitimacy even if we do find her……」
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Sure enough Barbarino and Pietro started thinking about how feasible it could be.
Gastone hit the table in panic seeing that.

「This isn’t the time to discuss about wild dream like this! The most important thing for
us right now is how to realistically deal with the approaching danger!」

「Are you saying that surrendering to the nobles is a realistic method?」

「It’s not surrendering! It will be a peace between equal!」

「Equal? Now you are also talking about a wild dream.」

Piaggio shut up Gastone with a pressure that would break no argument before he faced
August once more. The senile and gentle old man atmosphere from before couldn’t be
found anywhere.

He was the chairman who ruled over the maritime guild and the head of Delvecchio
Company that possessed the biggest merchant fleet in Trystovy. He spoke with the smile
of a predator in front of a prey.

「I know you. You said that this is a good news so you must have a considerable reason
behind it. Can you stop teasing us like this and tell everything?」

His tone was gentle, but there was no question that it was a command. (Now then, the old
geezer is showing his true face now.). August still dared to smiled thinly and bowed his
head politely to show his obedience. The elders renewed their evaluation toward August
seeing how he wasn’t flustered at all even while under Piaggio’s pressure. It was
impossible to endure Piaggio’s pressure just because one was a shrewd merchant. They
would also have to possess the experience of struggling through many carnages.

「Just as everyone here has known, my Garibaldi Company is in a deep relationship with
Dowding Company at Mauricia Kingdom.」

「──As annoying as it is.」

There were a lot of companies that wanted to work together with Dowding Company that
was at the peak of its popularity right now. Garibaldi Company had been building a tight
relationship of trust ever since Dowding Company was still a normal company. Not only
that, Garibaldi Company was also signing a contract with Savaran Company that was
hiding in the shadow of Dowding Company.

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The elders didn’t know about this fact.

「 They are intimate with that hero, Baldr Antrim Cornelius. I asked them with my
connection so that we are allowed to give our greeting to him too.」

「What an envious story, but what is the relation of that with this?」

「No no. Using that connection, I asked to be allowed to get close with Ramillies-dono,
the general of Mauricia Kingdom and also the headmaster of the royal knight
academy.」

「I told you to stop teasing us.」

August continued while treating Piaggio’s displeased words like a small breeze.

「Strangely, Ramillies-dono is exceedingly preferring Trystovy

products. If it’s just that then even I won’t find it unusual but」

「Are you saying, there is more to it?」

「His knowledge regarding Trystovy nobles, his knowledge of this country’s geography,
both of them are at the level that is unthinkable for a foreigner, so I mobilized all of my
connections to investigate about him too and what I found was……」

August paused there and looked over the faces of the elders. It was frustrating, but they
couldn’t help themselves from getting drawn in.

August’s story was just that shocking.

「His age is just about right with the knight who served Princess Marguerite in the past.
That skilled knight’s name was also Ramillies and he vanished from Trystovy together
with a maid in the past.」
.

Page | 175
Part 2

The meeting was adjourned with an oath of silence that would see them lose their lives if
they broke it.

First they had to move as quickly as possible to put together the evidences and asked
about the whereabouts of Princess Marguerite’s whereabouts from Ramillies. After the
result came out, the maritime guild would harden their resolve to put their all into this
gamble.

August passed through the magnificent gate of his mansion in high spirits and got out
from his carriage. The maids who lined up at his left and right were serving his need
while he walked toward his study.

「Return back all of you.」

August dismissed the maids with a cold voice before he opened the door to his study
alone.

「──Everything went just as you planned, father.」

August didn’t show any timidity at all even against Piaggio, but now he was clearly
acting nervously.

「Even so, was it really alright to give out Ramillies-dono’s name at this time? There is
a risk Gastone leaking out this information……」

「 That person is Viktor’s knight to the core. He won’t do anything that inconvenient
us.」

No matter how much success he had achieved in Mauricia, and even if he actually had
formed a family, Ramillies’s true nature would stay as the knight of Viktor who was
staying loyal for his whole life. This man knew that.

「August, you are the one who resemble me the most among all of my children. Things
will become interesting from here on. You better resolve yourself.」

「 If it’s something that father is looking forward to then it will be surely nothing but
troubles. In the first place father being here in itself is already a big problem you
know?」

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His life had been exposed to danger many times until now because of his father’s
recklessness. Even so August admitted that he certainly resembled his father. He had the
blood of revolutionary that wished for upheaval rather than stability.

「Please learn a little how to be prudent father, no, Count Valerie Ost-sama.」

There was a person who was called Trystovy’s shadow prime

minister. This person obtained the king’s trust and it was thought that he would respect
the commoner’s right, and yet he then changed side to the archduke faction and made the
coup d’etat a success. He was a person who was showered with both praise and censure
in equal amount.

He never stood at the center stage even once and his name had never been assigned to an
important office at all. However, he wielded a shrewdness that was indispensable for the
governance of Trystovy Dukedom the government structure of the dukedom that was apt
to descend into anarchy in this chaotic situation was barely maintained solely thanks to
this man’s capability. Without him, the tyranny of the nobles would have run wild
endlessly and Trystovy Dukedom would have broken up at the early stage.

And so once the government had managed to settle down temporarily, the man obtained
an influence in the government system that couldn’t be rivaled by anyone in Tyrstovy
Dukedom. It was only natural because he was the person who discovered and selected
almost all the people in charge of all the government departments.

The name of that man was Count Valerie Ost. It was a well-known fact. He was a
meritorious retainer for the founding of the country and the trust of Archduke Antonio to
him was deep.

However even though he possessed such vast influence, Valerie continued to keep his
silence while never showing himself at the center stage.

What was mysterious was despite not having any important post and he only had his
territory slightly increased, Valerie was maintaining a fortune that was disproportionate
to his station. An influential noble without any office.

Many nobles made light of Valerie like that and harassed him or aimed to snatch his
fortunes, but they all fell into ruin without exception. Even a great noble at marquis class
wasn’t an exception. Sometimes those nobles would have their scandal discovered, but
many times they would be visited by an accidental misfortune. Before anyone knew it
there was no more people who rashly tried something with Valerie.

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The influential person whose true form couldn’t be grasped even by the governing body
of the dukedom, the one who had the darkness of Trystovy under his thumb. Valerie had
shut himself within his mansion for more than ten years and he was considered to be half
retired, but he was still an ominous existence that was feared within Trystovy.

「Then what are we going to do now? Even Answerer Kingdom is putting their earnest
effort this time.」

Valerie had many wrinkles and his body had completely become thin.
August peered into his father’s eyes and grinned.

「 Recently the sudden change of the world affairs is surpassing my imagination

but……」

Valerie slowly closed his eyes with his mind running toward somebody far away. At
times he would also worry whether he would be able to achieve his objective before he
died or not.

Time had helped him to remove the obstacles in his way.

However there was no successoricon which was essential to succeed Valerie’s ideal.
(……Perhaps there is nobody else in this world that is seeking something like ideal.)

Once he even had such thought and considered dying gloriously while bringing
everything to destruction to accompany him in his death.

He didn’t do that perhaps because somewhere in his heart he had a premonition that this
time would come as he expected. (Viktor! Perhaps your great grandson will change the
world.) Yes, the keystone of everything was Baldr.

He was childhood friend with the future queen of Sanjuan Kingdom. He was also close
with the Mauricia king, and he was also liked by Majorca Kingdom’s navy minister who
subdued that atrocious pirate Sanpaniradeon. If the maritime guild could cooperate with
the navies of both countries, the maritime guild’s fleet would be able to fight even if they
turned the whole world into enemy.

They would be able to beat the like of Trystovy Dukedom’s fleet with a single blow.

「 My expectation is going off course in a good direction. That moron Bernardi turned
the gear of destiny on his own. No one can stop this anymore.」

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Anything and everything was starting to move as though it had been preordained by fate.
If not it was unthinkable that Baldr was able to obtain good acquaintance in Sanjuan
Kingdom, Majorca Kingdom, and even Nordland Empire.

Perhaps even Valerie was also just a clown that had his string pulled by fate.

However he didn’t mind being a clown. If it enabled him to play a dramatic role in the
never seen before stage that would start after this, then that was just what he asked for.
His late friendViktor would surely scold him, but he had decided the role that he would
play since that day in the past a long time ago.

「 Don’t take your eyes off from Dowding Company. Also──contact your relatives in
Nordland too. Do you understand, August?」

「Good grief, going to Nordland in this situation? Well, it’ll also be fun to meet uncle
after so long.」

August who had a beastman as a mother recalled how his mother’s brother doted on him
very much. That uncle had a candid disposition that was really like a beastman. He
hadn’t visited him for ten years already, but he heard that his uncle had become a cavalry
inspector general right now, an authority with established reputation.

That man possessed martial skill that was among the top five in the whole Nordland and
acknowledged even by that Thunder of Helsing Gina──his name was Gitze
Mannerheim(ギッツェ・マンネルハイ ム).
.

Page | 179
Part 3

Mauricia king Welkin was lately feeling depressed with worry. The last time he was
feeling worried like this was during the great failure due to the nobles running wild at the
first Antrim war more than ten years ago.

Welkin was fundamentally a positive and forward-looking person. Even when he faced a
difficult situation politically, he possessed the impudence to enjoy it instead. He was
especially like that since he overcame the war and grew as king.

At the very least Harold couldn’t remember Welkin looking this depressed in his
memory.

「……And is there any progress with their search?」

「The time has passed too much……won’t it be faster to pull up a hoax instead?」

As the prime minister, Harold was more troubled with how to deal with Answerer
Kingdom that was rapidly backing up Trystovy Dukedom.

According to the information that he obtained just now, they learned that Answerer
Kingdom was assisting the archduke faction with ten state-of-the-art battleships.

It would be impossible to use those ships right away, but as soon as the training for using
the ships finished, the archduke faction would definitely carry out a large scale military
action in order to bring the civil war to an end.

If the maritime guild was destroyed by that, Mauricia Kingdom that was supporting the
royalist faction would lose any ground for interfering. That was because militarily
speaking it would be too risky to turn the united Trystovy and the strongest nation in the
continent Answerer Kingdom into enemy.

「It will be a great scandal if we fabricate a hoax and then Princess Marguerite get found
later on you know?」

「True. For the archduke faction, they just need to buy time until they manage to unite
the country without any care of this search’s result.」

Due to the joker card called Princess Marguerite, the royalist faction that was centered
around Marquis Randolph was stopped cold from taking any action.

Currently many nobles were ignoring any talk for invasion to focus on searching for
Marguerite instead.
Page | 180
Those nobles who tried to court Silk until just recently changed their attitude as easily as
turning their hand. It enraged Alford so much that he wanted to kill them if he could.

「──Your majesty.」

「Oo, so you have come Baron Simpson.」

A gloomy looking gangly man silently stepped forward and kneeled in front of Welkin.
He courteously lowered his head. Baron Abel Simpson(アーベ・シンプソン) was the
one in charge of controlling the intelligence agency in the shadow for Welkin.

Because of that he didn’t have any post at the surface and other people were told that he
was shutting himself in his own territory because of his weak body.

「 My subordinates had searched Cardiff just as your majesty commanded. They have
brought me their report.」

「Umu.」

Harold sent his gaze toward Welkin to ask What is this about?

「──The mother and daughter who migrated to that city were

undoubtedly Princess Marguerite.」

「Wha-!?」

Harold couldn’t ignore that comment and interrupted.

「What is the meaning of this your majesty? Is there something that you know!?」

「I’ll tell you later. And? Were you able to confirm the corpses?」

「With all due respect, the princess wasn’t killed. I believe that it is almost a certainty
that she managed to survive.」

「……I see.」

Welkin let out a long sigh while leaning back heavily on his throne. Welkin usually
looked younger than his age, but now he looked like he had grown older than his actual
age in just several seconds.

「Do you know her whereabouts?」

Page | 181
「Unfortunately not……however I found a man who is in possession of a clue.」

From the result of investigating the trace of Princess Marguerite, there was a woman who
seemed to fit her description crossing to Nordland, but the trace was cut off from there.

After that as expected even the intelligence agency had no way to know where and what
the woman was doing after she left to other country.

「Who is this man?」

「 It’s the knight who was thought as the guard of the princess. His name is……
Ramillies. From his age and appearance, there is one person who is highly possible
person to be the same person.」

「Don’t tell me, you mean that Ramillies!?」

The veteran general who returned back to his post as the headmaster of the knight
academy after the second Antrim war was over. He boasted a peerless leadership and at
the first Antrim war, he was a hero who created the impetus for overturning the situation
using less than a company of troops. He was granted a noble rank, but he firmly refused
it and stayed a commoner. Because of that his popularity among the commoners was also
high. For a former mercenary who climbed up to his current position, he had insight and
upright personality that didn’t match his background. Even Welkin himself was puzzled
by that.

「Then it’s unavoidable. Call Ramillies here.」

「By your will.」

.Abel swiftly left like a shadow without any sound. Then Harold questioned Welkin with
a bitter face as though he had bitten a sour grape.

「What’s the meaning of this? How did your majesty know her whereabouts!?」

As the prime minister who was entrusted with the national politic, it angered Harold that
he didn’t know anything about such significant matter.

Sometimes Welkin could also get carried away and failed, but Harold believed of Welkin
as his close partner that wouldn’t keep any secret from him.

「Any royal family would naturally have one or two skeletons inside
their closet. This is something that I couldn’t say even to you.」
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Something like a pure and honest royal family didn’t exist in this world. It didn’t matter
how wise and king a king was, the bloodline that was flowing within a royal family with
long history usually would have rotten smell clinging in it.

「I once received an extremely secretive contact from Catalina.

It said that a maid that the king laid his hand on escaped and gave birth to a child.
Furthermore that child was apparently a boy.」

At that time there was a baby boom in Trystovy royal family after Sforza House was
eliminated.

The first queen Catalina also gave birth to a boy and a girl, but her body was harmed
after the childbirth and she was told that she wouldn’t be able to expect a third child. If
nothing happened, the boy would inherit the kingdom as the crown prince. But the only
boy that Catalina gave birth to had natural defect with his sight. He could still see image
faintly with his eyes, so it didn’t affect his daily life that much, but it would be definitely
discovered when his education as the crown prince began.

If he was the eldest son then this problem could be solved by simply giving him an
excellent aide. However what if there was a king’s son who was older than him?

Because of that Welkin could understand why Catalina would be so fearful.

「And so your majesty sent assassins to kill the boy?」

「I also considered that. For some reason, Catalina was really insistent that I have to kill
the boy no matter what so that he won’t become a source of disaster in the future.
However his mother was just a maid without any backing. So I sent some knights to
secure the boy, thinking that there won’t be any problem if that boy could be secured.
However──」

Welkin completely misjudged the violent emotion and persistence of Catalian.

「The report that I received was that both mother and child were killed.」

「How can that be! That was a breach of order!」

「There was a dependent of Duke Beaufort among the knights. It seemed that knight had
kept in contact with Catalina without my knowledge.」

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That was how much Catalian wanted to kill a mere maid’s child no matter what. She
even worked together with Duke Arnold Beaufort who was the political enemy of her
brother Welkin for that. Although it was Duke Beaufort who was taking action
proactively.

「It seemed that Catalina promised Duke Beaufort to reward him with the assistance of
Trystovy Kingdom against the coming war with Haurelia Kingdom and also marrying
her eldest daughter with his grandson.」

At that time, the majority of the nobles were greatly looking forward to the war with
Haurelia Kingdom. Duke Beaufort whose eldest son died in battle was right at the
forefront of those nobles.

At that time Duke Beaufort was at the top of the ten great nobles. Welkin didn’t have the
authority to restrain him behind the scene. Furthermore this was about a secret matter of
the royal family that couldn’t be made public.

「What is the reason that she wanted to kill the child by that much?」

「Catalina wouldn’t tell me no matter how much I hounded her. She even hinted that she
would sever the diplomatic relations between Mauricia and Trystovy if I kept asking. I
couldn’t even imagine the reason of why she had to go that far to hide it.」

Even if the child was the result of adultery like incest of the king and her sister or the
king cheating with the wife of a high ranked noble, one might still not reacted
excessively like that.

「 The rest is just like what you know. Because it was also a demand from Catalina, I
didn’t even doubt the report that they were killed. Furthermore we were facing the nobles
and also Haurelia at that time, so I didn’t even have the leeway to ponder about it.」

「That’s……understandable.」

Harold recalled the hellish political dispute at that time and let out a gloomy sigh. He lost
himself in his work at that time after the war ended. Those days were extremely busy for
him that he couldn’t even remember what he was actually doing until things settled
down.

「I noticed the possibility that the one who was killed might be Princess Marguerite after
listening to the story of that greenhorn Bernardi the other day. This matter had to be kept
hidden no matter what, and it’s also necessary to ascertain whether the one killed was
really a boy or the princess. But I never expected that she is still alive.
」
Page | 184
It would be the worst if the princess was alive and worked together with Trystovy
Dukedom.

「She must be……harboring a grudge.」

「It’ll be unreasonable to ask her to not resent us.」

Welkin and Harold looked at each other silently.

They couldn’t see any way to get out of this situation safely even though the situation
was going more and more disadvantageous for them even while they were talking like
this.

Should they just take the plunge and fabricate a hoax for covering this up?

It was while Welkin was seriously thinking of such possibility.

「──Ramillies-sama has arrived.」

A chamberlain announced the arrival of the old general.

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Part 4

His face was noticeably covered with wrinkles and almost all of his hair had turned
white, but his splendid physique that had been trained in the tumult of wars hadn’t
withered at the slightest.

While he had entered the old age of 70, Ramillies’s dignity as a general felt as though it
had heightened even more instead.

Welkin knew that even a flock of sheep would fight like wolves if they were led by this
old man. It was also clear when looking at the distinguished reputations of the
subordinates that this person had raised that he was the one who had advanced through
battlefields and accumulated experience the most in Mauricia Kingdom.

The only commoner that Welkin had be considerate to this degree was Ramillies alone.

「I have arrived just as your majesty commanded.」

His veteran dignity wasn’t marred at all even while he was courteously kneeling and
bowing like this. Rather with his large body it felt like that his pressure was increasing.
Of course Welkin wasn’t someone who would flinch just from something to that degree,
but he couldn’t help himself from naturally using polite wording.

「Umu, forgive me for summoning you like this so suddenly.」

Welkin was well aware of this old man’s honest disposition and solemn personality that
wasn’t greedy for honor.

The trust of his subordinates was incomparably high compared to the other nobles. That
was exactly why Welkin was still unable to fully believe that Ramillies was hiding his
relationship with Princess Marguerite.

「There is a matter that I wish to talk with you good sir. My subordinates had given me a
report. It mentioned that you Sir Ramillies was the guard of Princess Marguerite. Is this
true?」

Ramillies answered indifferently without showing any surprise or regret outwardly.

「It’s true.」

Ramillies’s answer was short.

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Welkin realized that his word was true because of how short it was. Because Welkin
wouldn’t promote Ramillies to be a general if he was someone who would make excuses
incoherently.

「I won’t question why you decided to keep it a secret until now. However let me ask
you where is Princess Marguerite’s whereabouts right now?」

Welkin was feeling resentful that Ramillies had been keeping quiet about such serious
matter that shook the palace greatly like that, but Ramillies’s value as general was too
valuable to be discarded just because of that.

Welkin had a simple thought that perhaps this old man merely disliked for his
background to be known.

However that thought was splendidly betrayed.

「Your majesty, there I have nothing to speak about this from my mouth.」

「What……did you say?」

It was a clear rejection without the slightest hesitation. As expected, even Welkin was
speechless from being struck dumb.

Harold came to his senses slightly earlier and shouted toward

Ramillies with a strong tone.

「Know your place as a retainer! That’s not an attitude that you should take toward his
majesty who not only promoted you to be general but also granted you the rank of
baron!」

「Isn’t it my lord who has forgotten? Far from being a baron, I’m not even a knight.」

「That’s……」

After being told that, both Harold and even Welkin realized for the first time that
Ramillies wasn’t even a formal knight of the kingdom.

As a matter of fact, Ramillies’s status as a knight wasn’t any different from a mercenary
who received battlefield commission.

His position as a general was just a job in the end while actually he didn’t have any
official rank. At present Ramillies had already let go of his general rank to work as the
knight academy’s headmaster.
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The hero originally should be appointed to a high rank of baron, so they couldn’t
possibly confer decorations to him as knight after this late. Ramillies’s position so to
speak was just a provisional knight.

「I have never doubted your loyalty until now. You had always fulfilled my order and
answered my expectation. Were all those just a lie?」

「I too have always thought of your majesty as a good employer. However, pardon my
rudeness, although your majesty is very good in gauging someone’s capability, your
majesty is third rate when it comes to seeing through feeling.」

Welkin only evaluated Ramillies’s ability highly and granted him tasks that were worthy
of his skill.

He saw his subordinate moving like he planned and thought that subordinate was loyal to
him. He was correct if it was only based on the result.

However there wasn’t any causal relationship between loyalty and producing result that
was appropriate for one’s capability.

Welkin and Harold displayed their anger at Ramillies’s blunt words. Baron Abel
Simpson had his hand on his sword’s handle, ready to behead Ramillies immediately if
he was ordered to do so.

「You sir are saying, that I’m you’re your employer?」

「 Yes. Before talking about baron rank and the like, your majesty would immediately
realize this if only I was asked whether I would offer my sword to your majesty.」

Now that Ramillies mentioned it, it was clearly an oversight from the kingdom’s side.

Although it was just a formality, the ceremony of noble or knight offering their sword to
the king and swore their loyalty was something essential. Ramillies had never done that,
so in effect Ramillies’s position wasn’t any different from a mercenary.

Of course the salary and treatment that he received were better compared to the average
noble, but at the very least it was clear that the king wasn’t in the position to demand
Ramillies’s loyalty.

「Then, to whom you sir offer your sword and loyalty to?」

Welkin was sensing a shapeless shadow behind every single word of Ramillies.
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Ramillies said that it was impossible for him to offer his sword to Welkin. It wasn’t
because he simply disliked doing so, but because there was already someone who he
offered his sword to.

Welkin still believed that it wasn’t Ramillies’s nature to maliciously deceive other.

「 A knight offer their sword only to one person for their whole life. For me it’s none
other than Count Pazarov, Viktor-sama. He is my one and only master.」

「……Count Pazarov……he was the grandfather of Princess Margaret wasn’t he?」

「As expected from your excellency, you possess extensive knowledge.」

「 I only heard that name for the first time after investigating the matter of Princess
Marguerite.」

Pazarov House was already exterminated and forgotten when Harol became prime
minister.

He would never hear about this name if not for the case this time.

「──I see, so you protected Princess Marguerite because of that link.

」

「I’m just a fool who abandoned even that duty midway.」

Ramillies smiled self-depreciatingly.

Several years ago after he left those mother and daughter, Ramillies who had
immediately distinguished himself as a mercenary returned back to Cardiff bringing with
him so many souvenirs.

However what he found there were only a small grave and Marguerite’s massage that
was engraved onto the pillar of the house that had become dilapidated. And then
Ramillies realized that he had lost the thing that he should be protecting.

As he thought, he should have stayed and watched over the two until the very end no
matter what they said.

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Even if as the result of that he only hastened the assassins’ discovery of their
whereabouts or that he ended up wasting away in obscurity, he shouldn’t have left them
no matter what.

In the first place his thinking of wanting to retrain himself once more because he had lost
against Marguerite was a mistake.

A future of being a farmer while working as bodyguard for the city and living in peace
was also possible for him. If only he lived like that, then perhaps Lisha too would live
longer.

When he thought that, Ramillies became unable to contain himself.

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He went through many battles that brought him to the verge of death that he became
called 「The suicidal Ramillies」 among the mercenaries.

During those times, he accomplished a decisive role that became the division point of the
war by chance. Because of that he was kicked upstairs to become general, but Ramillies
never considered it as a honor even once.

It was because Ramillies’s long-cherished desire as a knight had long been lost for
eternity together with Viktor’s death.

At the same time, there was also a duty that he had to accomplish no matter what because
of it. There was an oath that he wanted to fulfill before he died.

If the passed down bloodline wished to inherit Viktor-sama’s ideal by any chance.

「──Your majesty, your command?」

The one who broke the heavy silence with a monotone voice was
Abel.

Welkin wasn’t a ruler who rarely dealt with shady business that he couldn’t understand
the meaning of Abel’s words.

Abel was asking if he should torture Ramillies to find out the whereabouts of Princess
Marguerite.

「──It won’t work.」

If they were dealing with a normal knight, Welkin would choose torture without any
hesitation.

However they were dealing with Ramillies. It was unthinkable that he would speak
because of torture or the like.

Ramillies too shouldn’t show any hostility if their side didn’t do anything unnecessary.

「I believe that the answer will come out within several months.」

「What do you mean?」

Welkin tilted his head at Ramillies’s words.

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「 To keep quiet and live in peace, or to speak up and fight even knowing the danger,
these two are the only available choices. It won’t take that much time regardless of which
option will be taken.
」

If they chose to live in peace, Ramillies intended to bring this secret to his grave. She had
given birth to twins recently and her son was going to marry in the near future. Perhaps it
would be better to choose to keep quiet in such situation. As long as the secret was kept,
a bright future that would be envied by everyone would open up to them.

However if they chose to fight──.

「I wish to make a wish to your majesty with all due respect.」

Perhaps he kept living in disgrace until now all for this chance.

「 If by any chance that person choose to fight, this Ramillies wish to be allowed to
relinquish his post and leave.」

At that time he would never leave anymore.

He would offer all that remained of his short life and fought for their sake. That was
Ramillies’s vow.

「You won’t listen even if I tell you no right?」

「Yes.」

Ramillies was a valuable man for the kingdom, but he wasn’t an indispensable personage
now that Mauricia had emerged victorious against Haurelia. It was irritating, but Welkin
thought that the best option here would be to sell favor to the other side.

「I won’t stop you. I shall allow it out of respect for your contributions to this country
until now.」

「My many thanks.」

「──By the way.」

Welkin changed his expression and asked Ramillies with a detached voice as though they
were just having an idle talk.
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「 You can just tell me your own opinion. Do you think that the princess will stay in
hiding? Or do you think that she will show herself to the world?」

Normally when someone had stayed in hiding for dozens of years like this, it was hard to
believe that they would choose to stand on the center stage at this point.

If Welkin was in the princess’s position, he could declare with absolute certainty that he
wouldn’t show himself. No one could be trusted at all in this situation. Not the archduke
faction and royalist faction of Trystovy, and not even Mauricia Kingdom.

If the princess didn’t have any force with firm authority to act as her backer, she would
only be used for all her worth before getting assassinated in the future. Welkin could
only imagine such future for her.

For Welkin, he would be thankful if the princess kept hiding in the shadow like this and
vanished forever. Such wish was mixed into his heart.

「Ku-ku-ku……aahahhahhahhah!」

Despite not intending to, Ramillies burst into loud laughter when he imagined Baldr and
Maggot ticking their tails between their legs and spent their life quietly.

He was in the presence of Welkin, but he was still unable to suppress this impulse no
matter what.

Just what was he thinking? There were two options?

No, if those two knew the truth, then only one choice was available right from the start.

Besides there was no way the words tranquility and peace had any relation with those
overly problematic mother and son.

「……What is so funny?」

「 P-please pardon my rudeness. It was really stupid of me. This senile brain have
completely forgotten the nature of that person.」

Ramillies wiped the tears at the corner of his eyes and answered.

That stubborn tomboy who was his favorite pupil shined the most radiantly when she
was in the middle of battle. Ramillies knew that better than anyone.

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And then her son Baldr had also inherited from her mother the nature of trouble magnet
that drew all kind of stormy drama to himself. Though the person himself wouldn’t want
to admit it. Even if those two actually decided to keep quiet and live in peace, destiny
would never allow that.

The goddess of destiny would never allow hero to get away from her.

「It seems the answer has been decided.」

「 Yes. That person will surely choose to stand on the grand stage and fight. It doesn’t
matter how small the chance of victory actually is.」

「What a troubling personality. The appearance of Trystovy’s heir at this late will only
become a trigger of even longer war.」

That was how it would be if the person in question was just a normal person who
happened to inherit the blood of royalty.

「If that person is simply the successor of Trystovy, then I won’t even need to lend my
help. However, if he is the successor of Viktor- sama, then perhaps this will even become
a trigger that change the world.」

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Chapter 3 – The Dream of Beastman Race

Part 1

Two months had quickly passed since Maggot’s confession.

There was a mountain of things that Baldr had to do before he could announce
that he was the main heir of Trystovy Kingdom. If he simply announced
「I’m the son of Princess Marguerite」, he would only end up getting used
by others for all his worth.

Maggot decided to be stronger than anyone else was for the sake of protecting
her irreplaceable family. However a strength that was dozens of times greater
than that was needed in order to force the society to follow one’s own will.

At the very least Baldr’s strength as the new margrave of Antrim was
insufficient. For Mauricia Kingdom, the political influence of Baldr who had
just become the new hero wasn’t small by any means, however his presence
in the palace was still below the ten great nobles.
「There won’t be taking it back anymore once I announced myself.
First I need strength that can make the king unable to interfere.」

If one decided to fight then they had to win. To win strength was needed.

Recently Baldr was starting to think of Welkin with the term of king instead
of his majesty. It was unknown whether he was doing it consciously or
unconsciously.

「──Baldr-sama, a messenger from Sanjuan has arrived.」

「I’ll meet him right away.」

Among the retainers now, only Tyros was able to call Margrave Baldr with
his name. Even Baldr’s former classmate Brooks had stopped calling Baldr
with his name since he became the knight commander of the margrave house.

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To be honest, people like Agatha or Brandon weren’t pleased of the way
Tyros was addressing Baldr, but Tyros was a capable all-purpose retainer who
was fully devoted to Baldr twenty-four seven, so something like this could
simply be considered as a small flaw of his.
「──Ooh! You’re looking well Baldr!」

「Wait, why are you here Teresa!?」

The person who he thought as the messenger was a very familiar woman. It
made Baldr pulled at his hair and screamed. She was his childhood friend who
now had become the crown princess of Sanjuan Kingdom as the wife of the
kingdom’s regent Franco.

Her red hair that was cut short in the past had grown until her shoulder. The
features of her face looked mature now. If she dressed like a man with her
current appearance, anybody would immediately realize that she was a
woman.

Perhaps because she had obtained a spouse now, the growth of her chest and
waist was also striking.

However she should be busy everyday as the next queen because of King
Carlos’s critical condition. So how was she able to come to Antrim?

No, before thinking about that, could it be that this person actually didn’t
understand just how important her status right now? Baldr was driven by a
desire to interrogate Teresa for nearly an hour.

As a matter of fact Teresa was practically the queen right now because Franco
currently was in control of the country.
「Just the other day, the prototype ship that was made using the technology
that Baldr taught us had finished its voyage and returned, but the foreign
medicine it brought back was unexpectedly effective. His majesty too has
now gotten out from his critical condition.」

The ship that had just returned was the first prototype ship that set sail to the
South Seas with the compass and preserved foods loaded into it.

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Unfortunately the ship couldn’t discover new continent, but it discovered a
large island that had total length of several dozen kilometers and the crews
succeeded in interacting with the inhabitants there before returning home the
other day. It seemed that one of the souvenirs was a medicine that managed to
suppress Carlos’s sickness from progressing.
「Baldr is a benefactor of Sanjuan Kingdom, but now you have also become
a benefactor who indirectly saved his majesty. It’s simply courtesy for one of
the royal family to directly visit you isn’t it?」

Teresa smugly chuckled ‘fufuh’ with her chest puffed up with pride. That
gesture undoubtedly belonged to the childhood friend that Baldr knew well.

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Page | 207
Baldr didn’t show at his face that he was feeling happy to see that somewhere
in his heart. He shrugged with an exasperated expression.
「 Even though I thought that you had become slightly like a crown
princess.」
「You yourself has changed a lot Baldr. Really, you are a man without even
an ounce of true friendship in you.」

Even from Teresa’s eyes, it was apparent that Baldr had grown drastically
from his appearance and bearing.

Baldr had surmounted the borderline between life and death in the war and
even won against the personification of the strongest warrior that was his
mother Maggot. Now it felt like there was an unshakeable huge core within
his body.

It felt like Baldr had left her behind to become an adult. Teresa was vexed by
that.
「Well, let’s put that aside and get into the heart of the matter──」

Teresa changed the topic with an air that would make other feel pressured. It
was an atmosphere that was unlike the usual lively Teresa.
「……Is the story that you are the son of Princess Marguerite and now you
are aiming for the throne of Trystovy true?」

After she asked that, Teresa frowned and shook her head because she had
messed up.
「──No, I just asked you something trivial. There is no way that Baldr will
say something like that as a joke.」

A secret message from Baldr reached Teresa and Franco just the other day. It
said that Maggot was actually Princess Marguerite.

It also mentioned how there was a beastman blood flowing inside him even
though it was thin.
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Baldr was the first heir to the throne, while his little brother Nigel was second
in line after him.

Maggot was once attacked by assassins from Mauricia Kingdom in the past.

He had no intention to keep this secret buried and lived a peaceful life.

Reading that massage made Teresa came to an acceptance. The message was
filled with the words of man who intended to cut open his own path. It was
really like the childhood friend that Teresa was proud of for him to choose
such path.

This was a gamble for Baldr, but it was impossible for him to draw out
concession from Welkin and won the war against Trystovy Dukedom without
Sanjuan Kingdom’s support. Baldr had quietly resolved himself, that If he got
abandoned by Teresa and Franco, then in the end he was just a man of that
level.

When Teresa read the letter for the first time, she was feeling a terrible
indignation because her best friend was hiding something this big.
「First let me say my personal opinion……you are really stand-offish Baldr,
you are insulting me if you think that my friendship will be broken just from
this much!」

It was unfortunate instead that Baldr didn’t have animal ears on him. Teresa
declared with a rough breathing.

No, ears doesn’t play any part here, Baldr thought, but his heart was naturally
feeling warm toward his friend’s unchanging friendship.
「Speaking about animal ears make me remember. Is Miss Selina not here?
I’ll proof my full acceptance of beastman while showing my admiration to
those ears.」
「 Sorry but I have no intention to allow my fiancées to come within two
meters near you.」

This didn’t mean that Teresa’s ardent love to Franco had cooled down, but it
seemed that this vice of hers hadn’t been cured.
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「Flower exist to be admired. My love to Franco won’t cool down just from
that.」
「I’ll ask Franco-dono later whether he also agree with that opinion or not.」

It seemed Teresa finally calmed down after exchanging that silly joke. She
cleared her throat and continued with the important matter.
「Let me speak from the conclusion, it’s impossible for our country to desert
you Baldr at this point.」

For Sanjuan Kingdom, Baldr’s existence wasn’t simply a hero that saved the
country from a national crisis.

He was also the planner for a new navigation technology, the best friend of
the crown princess, and also someone loved by Urraca who was in control of
the navy of their allied country Majorca.

Baldr was someone that they absolutely didn’t want to turn into enemy just
because of those reasons, but in addition Sanjuan Kingdom had also signed a
capital alliance with Dowding Company and right now there was a large
project was in the middle of being worked.

First was the cultivation of pearl.

Akoya oyster was mainly used at Japan, while at Australia they mainly used
silver-lipped pearl oyster. Aquaculture experiment using these two pearls had
already been started in a large scale.

The accumulation of the mother-of-pearl had already been confirmed. For

Akoya oyster that had fast breeding, it was assumed that next month the
harvest could start.

Silver-lipped pearl oyster had long breeding period that reached two years. Its
harvest would start from next year, but in exchange they could expect large
pearls from it. Right now the kingdom and Dowding Company were busily
counting on their abacus to calculate how much profit this venture would
bring them.

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Of course the quality of cultured pearl couldn’t rival natural pearl, but they
were planning to market this pearl among the wealthy commoners and the
middle class nobles as luxury item. The scale of the market should be bigger
compared to having only upper class nobles as customers.

This was a feat that couldn’t possibly be done by Mauricia Kingdom no

matter how hard they tried because they didn’t have any sea in their territory.

A contract had been signed that if this venture succeeded, Baldr would
receive three percent from the transactions amount as someone who provided
the knowledge.

Depending on the production amount from here on, a vast amount of riches
would flow into Baldr’s pocket. And then the other project was the adoption
of downward flow style saltpan.

The formation of saltpan was relatively slow. In Japan it was thought that
such method was done after the Warring States period.

Before that, the people of Japan obtained salt by drying seaweed that was
submerged in seawater, burned it, then melted the ash into water and then
filtering the water with cloth, or boiling down seawater directly.

The song of the famous Fujiwara no Teika in the one hundred famous poems
「Waiting for someone who won’t come at the seashore at evening, even the
body of salt from the burning seaweed is also in yearning 」 was singing
about this method of creating salt.

After that artificially flooded salt farm above the high-tide mark and naturally
flooded salt farm below the high-tide mark got popularized. The famous
Akou salt from The 47 Ronin was created using the naturally flooded salt
farm below the high-tide mark.

In both types of salt farm, watertight layer had to be created using material
like clay so that the seawater wouldn’t get away. Then fine grain of sand
would be spread all over the surface, then after the sand was permeated with
enough salt content, the sand would be boiled down to take out the salt
crystal.

Page | 202
In case of naturally flooded salt farm below the high-tide mark, it would make
use of the tide’s rise and fall. This way would save the time for sprinkling
sand on the seawater, so the production area could be enlarged.

Sanjuan Kingdom was using this naturally flooded salt farm below the high-
tide mark. It wasn’t just Sanjuan Kingdom, all the countries that faced the sea
in this Aurelia continent was adopting the same method to obtain salt.

Compared to this, the downward flow style saltpan didn’t make use of sand
that needed a lot of time and effort. This saltpan used concrete or vinyl to
form watertight long slope, then by exposing the seawater to sunlight and
wind, the salt content’s thickness would be heightened.

Furthermore by making the seawater dripped down through bamboos or the

like that were piled on rafter by many layers like a broom, it was possible to
make the salt content of the seawater to become extremely thick.

Using this method, production output that was three until five times greater
than the traditional naturally flooded salt farm below the high-tide mark
became possible. Conversely the manpower needed became a tenth of the
traditional method. This technology was categorized as secret information at
strategic level. It was known by limited amount of people even within
Sanjuan Kingdom.

A total of three downward flow style saltpans had finally started operating not
long ago. The plan was to provide cheap salt to the whole continent through
Dowding Company in the future.

Salt was a strategic resource that was indispensable for human. If Sanjuan
Kingdom could snatch the market share using cheap salt, it might become
possible for Sanjuan Kingdom to ruin a hostile nation in the future by simply
stopping the salt supply.

As a matter of fact, creating salt was an even harder work than farming work.

Just like how spinning jenny caused the price of raw thread to crash in
Britain, if Sanjuan Kingdom’s salt caused the price of salt to crash, it
wouldn’t be strange for the salt making industry of many countries to be
devastated.
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There was no way Sanjuan Kingdom could desert Baldr after getting this
heavily indebted to him. At the same time, it could also be said that it was far
more terrifying for Sanjuan Kingdom to turn a single Baldr into enemy rather
than turning Mauricia Kingdom into enemy.
「 … … Besides I think you know this already but, Trystovy is a historical
enemy nation for our Sanjuan Kingdom. We are going to wholeheartedly
cheer if the one who become its new ruler is Baldr.」

Sanjuan Kingdom and Trystovy Kingdom had been in conflicts with each
other for many generations to contest the control of the South Seas.

Trystovy Kingdom employed the private mercenary of maritime guild

(Sanpaniradeon), while Sanjuan Kingdom had a powerful allied country that
was Majorca Kingdom. The forces of both sides were in rivalry with each
other.

However Trystovy navy and maritime guild split from each other due to the
civil war. In the recent years, the control of South Seas was gradually shifting
to the advantage of Sanjuan Kingdom.

It would become problematic if Answerer Kingdom turned Trystovy

Dukedom into their vassal state.

Answerer Kingdom boasted the biggest population and capital strength in the
whole continent. If they seriously put effort into rebuilding Trystovy
Dukedom’s navy, the current advantage of Sanjuan Kingdom would be
immediately blown away.

In that respect, Baldr becoming the ruler of Trystovy would be a welcome

news for Sanjuan Kingdom.

And then if in the future the navies of Sanjuan Kingdom, Majorca Kingdom,
and Trystovy got united, there would be no more need to fear any other
maritime force no matter who it was.
「──Even if it means someone with beastman blood inside him will become
a king?」

Baldr stepped into the heart of the matter.

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Currently there was no country in this continent that ever had a beastman as
king.

Especially for Answerer Kingdom, Mauricia Kingdom, Sanjuan Kingdom,

Trystovy Kingdom, and Nordland Empire that descended from the unification
dynasty. They had the tacit understanding to protect that pedigree.

In the end, how many people would still follow Baldr even knowing that he
had beastman blood flowing inside him?. Even Baldr’s birthplace Mauricia
Kingdom undoubtedly held quite a number of nobles that would harbor
prejudice toward him.
「I learned this from marrying into Sanjuan Kingdom. Our country is a land
that opened to sea. In short our country is used to accept outsider.」

Unlike farmers that spent their whole life doing nothing but cultivating the
same land over and over, the people of the sea wouldn’t settle down in one
place.

Sanjuan Kingdom was preserved not through agriculture but by

manufacturing and trade. Most likely this country was one of the most
accepting countries in the continent.
「Trystovy is also a maritime nation. I think that at the very least it also has
similar disposition with Sanjuan you know?」

Though I don’t know how it will be in Mauricia, Teresa said with a dry laugh.
She was a bit amused by herself who had become a woman of Sanjuan
Kingdom before she noticed it.
「 Be a bit more confident with yourself. Compared to winning against
Haurelia with just Antrim’s force, subduing Trystovy that is exhausted from
civil war won’t offer you any challenge.」

Baldr smiled wryly at Teresa’s blunt irrational argument. Certainly Baldr

could only be Baldr no matter how much he racked his brain.
「 Our country recognize Baldr as the legitimate ruler of Trystovy. We will
prepare to tie an alliance with Trystovy Kingdom that has Baldr as its leader.
Those are his majesty Carlos’s words.」
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.

Page | 206
Part 2
「Good grief, there is nothing but troubles.」

Jack Armadio Trystovy narrowed his already thin eye-slit to be even thinner
and reached out toward his favorite Tuscany wine.

He fully enjoyed the mellow fragrant that reached his nose even without
taking a sip before he poured the whole glass into his throat even though it
was slightly against the manner. Then Jack let out a loud sigh.

Jack celebrated his 70th birthday this year. He was the archduke who ruled
Antonio territory at the east part of Trystovy Kingdom in the past. After that
he killed his biological big brother Umberto and ascended to the seat of
Trystovy’s supreme leader. His journey until now wasn’t uneventful by any
means.

Rather Jack would sometimes think that he would be far more at ease if he
stayed as a mere noble instead of becoming the king.

When the pillar that was the king fell, he managed to control the foolish
nobles who laid their greed bare and secured the funds that were going to be
taken away by the escaping merchants solely thanks to the capability of the
man before him.
「──And, do you think that Princess Marguerite will be found, Count Ost?」

Valerie lightly considered Jack’s question before he shook his head.

「 The possibility of that is small. Even without us searching for her, she
would have showed herself if she has the wish for it. After all there have been
many chances for that until now.」

「True.」

Well, even if she was found, she would only be killed later at the appropriate
time using any suitable excuse.

Page | 207
Jack didn’t harbor even the slightest delusion that his position was build
above a rock-solid foundation. The number of schemes and betrayals that he
had experienced during these ten years was innumerable.

Killing the king was a taboo that destroyed the morality.

Jack had never been liberated from the fear that next time it might be himself
who got killed.
「 Although the time remaining won’t be long. We can’t discount the
possibility of Mauricia running out of patience and preparing a fake.」

「 They can’t even control the royalist faction, so what can they possibly
do?」

Royalist faction that was centered around Marquis Randolph was greatly
shaken at the foundation because of the news of Princess Marguerite’s
survival and Bernardi’s proposal──to marry Silk and return the old territory
of the fleeing nobles.

There were even some idiots among them who insisted that Silk should marry
with Bernardi. He heard that it infuriated Alford and he kicked out those
idiots with them only able to bring the clothes they happened to wear.

It had been more than ten years since those nobles in asylum had fled from
their homeland. They didn’t want to end their life in exile like now. Because
of that they started moving independently based on their own interests.

There were even some of them that sounded out the possibility of colluding
with the dukedom.

Considering that, Jack thought that there was no need to fear Mauricia
Kingdom as long as things didn’t devolve into an all-out war.
「 The problem is Answerer Kingdom’s movement. After all it will be
unbearable if we are turned into vassal state like Nedras Kingdom or Grand
Duchy Tenedora.」

Originally he wanted to unite Trystovy by subduing each force with his own
power without crossing a dangerous bridge like this.
Page | 208
However Jack was getting conscious of his own shortening lifespan due to his
old age. He wanted to achieve the unification of Trystovy somehow while his
life was still holding on.

After shouldering the stigma of killing his own brother and usurping the
country, he wanted to avoid leaving this world while still leaving behind
many troubles untouched.

He resented his own powerlessness that he had to borrow Answerer

Kingdom’s strength even knowing the danger, but he also couldn’t imagine
that his son Bernardi would be able to shoulder this heavy burden.

For good or bad, Bernardi was a mediocre man who wasn’t used to
bloodshed.
「Answerer Kingdom can’t even suppress the insurgent at Nedras Kingdom,
so how can they possibly act as they please in Trystovy. Of course, this will
be the case only if there is no traitor among us.」
「Umu, it’s just as you say Count Ost.」

Currently Answerer Kingdom was observing Mauricia Kingdom’s approach

to this matter. The proof of that was how Answerer Kingdom’s support to
Trystovy stopped with material aid like warships and the like.

Answerer Kingdom had the military strength to occupy Trystovy if they felt
like it, but they didn’t have the strength to continuously rule over the country,
nor did they have any good justification to do so.

Although it would be a different story if a force of some size turned traitor

and sold the country out.

Just like how Jack defeated his brother Umberto, there must be other people
who thought of defeating Jack and became the ruler of Trystovy. That was
what Jack thought.
「 Cappelloni and Delmilio are no good then. Marquis Randolph has taken
hold of their purse. They will attack if there is opening.」
「You still have ears everywhere just like usual.」
Page | 209
Putting aside Count Cappelloni, the monetary situation of Viscount Delmilio
was unknown even to Jack the king of this country.

Jack felt a chill once more at Valerie’s connection and immeasurable political
strength. He had to avoid turning this man into enemy no matter what.

Jack didn’t hold any doubt to Valerie’s loyalty even though he was feeling an
indescribable threat from him. The reason was because Valerie was appointed
by the late King Umbert to an important post. It was impossible for Jack to
win without Valerie’s cooperation.

So to speak Valerie was Jack’s lifesaver.

Furthermore Valerie never asked for any wealth or rank even after all his
contributions. He simply worked hard stoically because he was worried about
the future of the country. Jack was harboring such slightly convenient faith
toward Valerie.

This man desperately worked hard for him even without him giving any
compensation. There was nobody better than this man as his subordinate.

Although Valerie’s motive was actually the complete opposite from Jack’s
expectation.

Actually Valerie was one of the Seven Elders of the maritime guild, Bennett
Garibaldi. He had led a double life for more than ten years. He was
controlling the antagonism between the maritime guild and Trystovy
Dukedom from behind the scene. This fact was something that Jack never
even imagined in his dream.

Valerie had been maintaining a well-balanced antagonism of both sides while

also planting hatred to both sides.

And yet Valerie continued to leak information to both sides to continue

controlling the civil war so that no hope for ending the war could be seen and
feeling of war-weariness was spreading far and wide.

──He was laying the foundation so that one day a hero would appear and
solve everything.
Page | 210
Valerie thought that first it was necessary to make everybody grew weary of
war in order for all of them to be able to accept the hero regardless of their
interests.
「I want to settle this dispute with them for sure this time.」

Jack unconsciously clenched his fists tightly.

He always wished for the same thing during this long war, but this time only
there was an absolute limitation to the time.

If the war dragged on, one day Answerer Kingdom would push their princess
to become Bernardi’s marriage partner, then this country would gradually
become a vassal state of Answerer Kingdom starting from the generation of
their child.
It was Answerer Kingdom’s forte to usurp a country with marriage. Actually
Bernardi’s marriage proposal to Silk was also for reining in Answerer
Kingdom.

It could also be used as excuse for Answerer Kingdom. If the dukedom took a
wife from other country too easily, then the royalist faction that had finally
started to soften might get angered again.

The dukedom could use such excuse if Answerer tried to bring up the matter
of marrying their princess.

Regardless of the reality, Jack wanted to accomplish the unification of

Trystovy while they still had time.

Trystovy, Mauricia, Answerer. All of them were moving for the sake of their
own interests.

But even among all those, Valerie was the one who harbored the most
ambitious intention.
「I don’t want to be indebted to Answerer Kingdom, but first we have to win
at the sea. If we can snatch the control of the sea from the maritime guild,
they won’t be any different from a fish that is stranded on land.」

Page | 211
(Hmph, I won’t let you win that easily though.)

The elites of maritime guild displayed their true worth only when they were
allowed to carry out guerilla warfare in small scale.

They wouldn’t need to fight head-on. It was possible for them to face their
enemy in equal footing if Valerie just leaked information to them.

Valerie himself would also be troubled if the unification of Trystovy was

finished quickly by the archduke faction. (Foolish man. The likes of you don’t
have the strength to create the future of this country!)

In the end Jack was nothing more than a figurehead that Valerie raised in
order to crush the unshakeable emotional pillar of this country which was the
king’s authority.

With the murder of the king, the authority that Trystovy could
unconditionally obey had crumbled and this country was turned into a lawless
world where anyone could rise by overthrowing their superiors.

In order to welcome a new hero, Trystovy royal family that inherited the
bloodline of the unification dynasty was nothing but a hindrance.

Page | 212
Part 3
「Uwaaaa~~~~~! Cold cold cold-!」

August who was used to live in Mulberry that was located at the southern part
of the continent was nonplussed by the coldness of Nordland that was biting
into his body.

He had stayed here in Nordland for several years when he was a kid, but
August had gotten used to the warm climate of southern country and this
place had become too harsh for him. Although only the person himself knew
whether he was really thinking that or not.

After all August was burying his face into the breasts of his mistress who was
accompanying him. His hands were snaking around her waist and he got
intoxicated with the warmth of human skin.
「Young master, buy me a warm cloak okay?」

「It’s a cheap request if it’s for your sake.」

Garibaldi Company’s financial strength wasn’t so brittle that it would be

shaken just from buying clothes for a mistress. Rather using money
proactively would be better for the economy with the money moving around
from one place to the next.

Wasting money for the sake of his favorite mistress was one of
August’s hobby.
「Even so, I never even thought that young master is actually a
Nordlander.」

「Even though I have these ears?」

「Young master, you said that it’s only because the blood of your mother is
showing out.」
「She married with my father. Even my mother was somebody with quite a
high status.」
In fact, August’s mother came from Mannerheim House, a famous military
family in Nordland.

August recalled his memory when he was taken home by his mother and
spent his childhood here. He immersed himself in nostalgia briefly. He purely
missed his younger days when there wasn’t any obligations tying him down.

August was undoubtedly the fourth son of Valerie, but he wasn’t

acknowledged as a legitimate child of Ost House.

He was only considered as the eldest son of the merchant Bennett Garibaldi in
the end, and he was effectively the one operating Garibaldi Company.

August was actually thankful for such position, but there was certainly a part
of himself who harbored a longing to the warmth of ordinary family.

For him Nordland was one of the few tranquil lands that allowed him to recall
such familial warmth.
「Geez~~! Don’t just look at Catherine, look at me too!」

A pretty girl with baby face and red hair that was tied in sidetail style was
letting out her complaint. The way she puffed out her cheeks in her bad mood
looked similar with an adorable small animal.

「 It can’t be helped right? I can’t bury my face into breasts like this with
Laura.」
「 Mumumu! Even I can do something like that! ……It won’t be as soft
though.」

Laura’s height was about 140 centimeters or perhaps even shorter than that.
Her sexiness couldn’t possibly rival Catherine.

Even so she did her best to try seducing August. She exposed her skin and
rubbed her body on him, but August kissed Laura’s neck with a composed
expression and patted her head as though he was humoring a child.
「Don’t force yourself to get cold like that. Laura too will be a true
lady in three more years.」
While Catherine was August’s mistress, Laura was actually his
secretary.

Despite her childish appearance, she was born with memorizing ability that
couldn’t possibly be copied by adult no matter how hard they might try.

She made use of her talent to manage August’s schedule, but the person
herself only wished to be counted as his mistress quickly rather than simply
being his secretary.
「Buu, you are treating me like a child again……」
「What are you saying, you are a child.」

「Shut up Catherine, you’re annoying!」

August was self-aware that he was a lecherous man, but as expected he didn’t
have a special taste where he craved to devour a little girl whose period
hadn’t arrived yet.

August loved talent just like his father Valerie. However his sexual preference
was relatively normal with his love for sexy body and huge breasts.
「Laura will surely grow to be a beauty.」

August smiled wryly and kissed Laura’s lips that were like a small flower
bud.
「Funyuu……」

Laura’s eyes moistened from the surprise attack. He accepted

August’s lips in intoxication.

Perhaps this man was an enemy of woman of a different type from Baldr.

.
「──The carriage over there, stop!」
The tense voice of a young woman resounded clearly at that timing. Augusts
changed his expression as the representative of Garibaldi Company and
covered Catherine and Laura behind him.

Having assassins sent after him by rival company or the archduke faction
when he went outside the country wasn’t something that had happened just
once or twice to him.

His skill that was trained by his uncle hadn’t withered even now. Against the
average bandits, August had the strength to easily handle five or six of them.

August opened the window that was the size of a human head and searched
for the owner of the voice.
「……Could it be……Angelica?」

There August found the figure of his little sister figure whose age was apart
from him. She got attached to him when he lived in Nordland at the past.
「It’s August-niisama just as I thought! You’re horrible! You hadn’t showed
yourself here for ten years.」

It seemed this cousin had heard about his arrival beforehand and spurred her
horse right away to pick him up here.
「Good grief, so you’re still a tomboy even after growing up.」

It looked like she had grown up to a figure that was suited to his liking, but
August didn’t say that out loud and he only smiled suggestively.
Part 4
Nordland’s capital Madison( マ ジ ソ ン ) was a fortress city that had huge
ramparts surrounding the city. Its defensive capability wasn’t inferior at all
compared to Mauricia’s capital Cameron that was surrounded by water.

The first Emperor Ivan I who wanted to reign supreme over the continent one
day was the one who started the construction of this city. This city was then
finally completed at the generation of the third emperor Eric I.
「Welcome home! Nii-sama!」

August showed his promissory note at the enormous gate where one had to
look up to see the top. After he finished the procedure, Angelica who was
riding her horse in parallel with the carriage smiled happily at him.

After passing through the gate, there was the bronze statue of Ivan I and the
beastman Bowdwitt who was said to be the one supporting the emperor
turning their glaring gazes to the east.

A huge fountain and pond with colorful park were put at the surrounding.
Children were running around energetically with innocent laughter.

In the past he also played around here together with Angelica until the day
had turned dark. August’s gaze wandered around in remembrance.

Angelica’s age should have already passed twenty.

She should be younger by four or five years than August who turned 27 years
old this year.

She had a dignified sharp glint in her eyes and the aura of military officer that
was clear to see just from her bearing.

Most likely she had grown stronger to the degree that even August couldn’t
win if he fought her fair and square.

Although August didn’t have the slightest inkling that he would lose if they
actually fought for real.

Page | 217
August had gone through many bloodsheds above ship where there wasn’t
anywhere else to escape. For him, a knight who only knew of how to fight
head-on wasn’t any threat to him.

They passed a bustling shopping district and turned right at the main street
that was stretching to the noble district at the east of the castle. There was a
sturdy mansion made from stone that looked like a fortress mixed among the
luxurious mansions there.

The mansion had an abnormally spacious ground even for a noble district.
Such spacious ground was to be used for their own military drill. (I don’t want
to consider it but, they won’t make me train again at this age right……?)

If it was that martial art enthusiast uncle, then such thing might be possible
enough. August felt something cold running through his back.
「It has been a long time since Nii-sama returned to our house!」

It seemed that inside her mind Angelina was considering this place,
Mannerheim House of Nordland as August’s homeland.

Mulberry was certainly his base of operation, but perhaps mentally this place
was his homeland, August thought.

「Gramps! I brought August-niisama with me!」

The old butler who was waiting for them with a straight posture politely
bowed his head before he advised Angelica.
「Welcome, August-sama. However Lady Angelica, I won’t help even if my
lord scold you for leaving behind your military service like that you know?」
「Uuu……is father angry just as I thought?」
「Obviously! Personal matter must not take priority over government matter.
My lord has always said that.」

「I’m sorry……」

Angelica looked down in depression only until there.

Page | 218
August got down from his carriage that stopped at the mansion’s entrance
before he offered his hand to help Catherine got down from the carriage.
Angelica’s eyes snapped wide open seeing that. She never even considered
that there was a woman inside the carriage.
「Aaa, August-niisama! Who is that woman?」

「Laura is my secretary while Catherine is my mistress……」

「M-mistress~~~~~!?」

Angelica glared at Catherine as though she was looking at her parent’s killer.

Then Catherine’s chest measurement that surpassed hers with overwhelming

difference naturally entered her sight. Angelica received heavy damage even
though Catheline hadn’t said anything.

「Is it breast? As I thought is breast really that important for man?」

When becoming a target of jealousy like this, it was also the role of mistress
to deal with it in a way that didn’t make waves.

Catherine was a woman with professional mentality who would do her job
that corresponded to the amount she was paid with. She wasn’t just a parasite
that could only fawn on man.

That was why August placed his utmost trust on her and welcomed her as his
mistress.
「 It might not be my place to say this but……August-sama is the
representative of Garibaldi Company, so he need a woman to accompany him
when he is under public scrutiny. Normally it should be his wife who takes
that role but……」

To be more accurate, it was considered as manner to have a partner

accompanying someone in August’s position when at public event like a ball
or even at private when entertaining business partner who wasn’t a noble.

It was like a custom for a man who hadn’t married or whose wife had died to
be accompanied by their mistress.
Page | 219
Especially when that person acted as a host, it was seen as impolite to not
have a woman as a company, so the number of company president who signed
mistress contract with woman like Catherine was unexpectedly a lot.
「 …… That’s why although I’m serving as August-sama’s mistress, we are
separating public and private matters from each other, so I ask to please
overlook──」
「I’m aiming for the main wife position though!」

From the side Laura caused Catherine’s excuse to end up in vain in spite of all
her effort to explain. However August had been ready for that.
「Right right, let’s talk about it again three years later.」

「You’re treating me like a child again by saying htat~~!」 Angelica’s anger

was avoided by the three of them displaying such amusing conversation.
「……In other words, Catherine-san is just doing your job?」

「 Correct. I will immediately make myself scarce when August-sama

formally take in a wife.」

Although that didn’t mean that she had discarded the option of becoming the
first wife. Woman who worked in nightlife business was determined to the
bitter end. The old butler interrupted here because he was unable to just
watch.
「Angelica-sama, August-sama too is someone of importance who is already
running his own household. To speak further than this is……」

「I get it! August-niisama you cheater!」

「Eh?」

「Eh?」

August knew that Angelica was harboring affection to him, but here the two
of them finally realized that there was a deviation in each other’s perception
to the situation.

Page | 220
「Nii-sama, you are my fiancée aren’t you?」

In that moment, a memory of August’s childhood was played as flashback in

his mind.
「So uncle was serious at that time!?」

Gitze was feverish with excitement when the little sister who he doted on
returned home to give birth. He treated August affectionately like he was his
own child.

His little sister returned back to Bennett half a year after giving birth, but
August frequently returned back even after that in order to learn the minimum
common practice of beastman. But as August grew older, the frequency of his
visit also declined. Furthermore a harsh training was waiting for August after
that to be Bennett’s successor.

It was unknown when they would be able to meet again.

「──You two, get married.」
「Really? Hooray!」

「Haa……」

Angelica laughed innocently. In contrast August’s reaction was cold.

August was curiously clever even when he was still a child. He understood
just how absurd Gitze’s words were.

Angelica was an only daughter, while August was an only son. Each of them
would shoulder their own house at the future. It was common sense that the
two of them couldn’t marry like that.

As a matter of fact, August would later get tossed into carnages as the young
master of Garibaldi Company and he became unable to visit Nordland until
this day.

.
Page | 221
「There wasn’t any letter at all, so I thought that it was just uncle’s joke.」

「 No way! Even though I have protected my purity all this time for Nii-
sama’s sake!」

Angelica’s strong-minded expression became clouded looking like she was

greatly wounded.

It was unreasonable, but at this kind of time it was generally man who was
considered as the villain.
「Besides what are you going to do about Mannerheim House? I myself can’t
possibly leave Garibaldi family.」

What, that trivial matter, Angelica looked relieved with an expression that
seemed to say that.
「 It’s fine! After all the son that we eagerly anticipated has been born two
years ago!」
「Two years ago you say, how old is uncle again!?」

August himself was born when Valerie was 52 years old, but he was blinded
to his own circumstance and yelled reflexively. Even so it couldn’t be helped
for him to reach like that.
「Hm~~m, he is fifty years old this year?」
「Uncle is really energetic. That’s just like him.」

The old butler saw that the conversation had reached a stopping point and
gestured invitingly at August and others with a smile.
「 Perhaps everyone should have some tea first so you can talk leisurely
inside.」

「……You’re right.」

Page | 222
「 That stupid tomboy! Even though I had taught her that much that one
should never prioritize personal matter before government matter!」

Gitze received a report that Angelica had abandoned her work to welcome
August and roared furiously.
「Now now, that Angelica too is at the verge of getting married late.
That’s why don’t scold her over such minor matter.」
「 I have been thinking this since a long time ago but, you are spoiling
Angelica too much Aaron!」

Aaron had been Gitze’s best friend for many years and they were also fellow
disciple of Gina. For him Angelica was already like his own daughter.

Aaron had two sons, but actually he really wanted to have a daughter like
Angelica.

The adorable Angelica had been Aaron’s favorite since she was little.
「She has been waiting all this time until she is this old for that boy August.
Besides, it’s also your fault for being unable to make matter clear until your
son was born.」
「Muh……a-about that, you know……」

Even Gitze looked awkward when he was told that.

He knew that Angelica was in love with August, but it was Gitze himself who
neither opposed or accepted it and delayed from making the matter clear until
a son was born.
「 However I can already imagine those knight order guys wallowing in
despair if that princess knight Angelica get married to a man.」
The one who said that with his large shoulders shaking in loud laughter was
Euftace Frundholme(イェフタス・フランドホルム).

He was also a fellow disciple of Gina like Gitze and Aaron and currently he
was serving as the commander-in-chief of Nordland Empire’s army.

Page | 223
Within the army his position was second only to the military minister, he
could also be considered as the chief executive of the combat force.

He was a man with friendly personality and bright amiable smile, but actually
he was the most scheming person among the three men. It could also be said
as to be the reason why he was the one who climbed in rank the highest.

It was impossible for someone stubborn and earnest like Gitze to control the
whole army like chess pieces.

While Aaron was acknowledged as tenacious in defensive battle, but he too

was also the same in that respect.
「Certainly it’s a pity for those guys, but that girl’s stubbornness is something
she inherited from her father.」
「Who are you calling stubborn!」

「Oh, so you are saying that you’re someone understanding?」

「Nuguh……」

Gitze perked up his shoulders and his face distorted like he had bit a sour
grape because of Euftace’s retort.

He couldn’t even put on a bold front in front of his best friends who fully
knew each other at both outside and inside.

They competed against each other under Gina’s tutelage together, then when
they enlisted into the military they entrusted their back to each other and
became comrades-in-arms who were worthy for them to entrust their life to.

It was said that the combat force of Nordland Empire right now wouldn’t be
able to display even half of their true strength without the command of them
beastmen.

They were the leaders of the military who could even make crying child
stopped crying. A young knight who was unluckily passing by in front of
them got a tense look and stiffly saluted to them.

Page | 224
Every one of them was a fierce general who worth a thousand soldiers in the
battlefield. They were the best pupils of the Thunder of Helsing Gina who had
been turned into a living legend. Someone who angered them would be
unable to live no matter how many lives they had.
「However is it really alright? Even I have heard that this time
Answerer Kingdom is putting their serious effort to support Trystovy.
」

Euftace had a lot of chance to come into contact with highly classified
information. He was deeply knowledgeable with even the newest information
regarding Trystovy.

If Angelica got married with August, she might get killed at the end of losing
battle in the worst case. Euftace told that to Gitze.
「 Umu, he isn’t a man who will quietly allow himself to be defeated
though……」

August was also a disciple who Gitze had trained. An incompetent man who
would easily allow his wife to be killed shouldn’t be able to serve as
representative for Garibaldi Company since his young age.

Gitze wasn’t worried at all in regard to that. But, he was worried for his little
sister who was married with August’s father Bennett. Bennett was a
mysterious man, so he was honestly worried.

──In other words, Gitze had sister complex that he still wasn’t cured from.
「 This is also not somebody else’s problem for our country too you know?
After all Garibaldi Company is the largest company that import food and
export iron product in Nordland!」

Recently the expansion of Dowding Company from Mauricia Kingdom was

remarkable, but Garibaldi Company had firmly penetrated into the center of
Nordland Empire. If maritime guild was destroyed by Trystovy’s archduke
faction by any chance, there was no doubt that Nordland would get troubled
with food from that year.

Page | 225
「Even so we also can’t send reinforcement just because of that. The border
is calm right now, but there is no guarantee that Gartlake won’t attack
again.」

For Aaron who was the border defense commander, he wanted to avoid from
lowering their fighting strength unnecessarily.

After all they were only in a temporary ceasefire situation with their arch-
enemy of many years Gartlake Kingdom. There wasn’t even any armistice
treaty between them.
「Well, we can leave that matter to his majesty and his highness Gustav. By
the way──」

Gitze forcefully pushed the difficult problem without answer to the corner of
his brain before he talked about his present concern. Actually he asked his
busy best friends to make time for talking about this.
「I received a letter from masterGina that she will go to the capital soon……」

The faces of the leaders of Nordland Empire’s military who could make
crying children stopped crying froze.
「Sorry, I remember that I have an urgent business.」
「Now that you mentioned it, I also have a paperwork that I have to submit
before the day is over……」
「Do you think you two can escape from master with that kind of excuse?」

There was no way they could.

The three recalled the many humiliations that Gina made them tasted at their
youth.

They had climbed into high rank and even reached the age where they had
raised children. Getting smacked around by their teacher at this age would be
nothing but a shaming play.

However they couldn’t see any prospect victory at all against that teacher
even when her age had already passed the advanced age of 80.
Page | 226
「For some reason I’m getting an extremely bad premonition.」
「You too Aaron?」

「In that case, the timing of August’s arrival is suspicious.」

They possessed a certain type of precognition after struggling through many

carnages.

It was like a foreboding feeling that came from their survival instinct that was
working in extreme situation. Their sixth sense was telling them. It would be
better if they went home quickly.
「I hope this won’t become anything troublesome……」
「 Master has been quiet for more than ten years since her granddaughter
Liselina became mother, and now she is suddenly coming here. There is no
way she won’t bring trouble.」

A schemer like Euftace who could lay out his scheme until thousands of miles
in every direction when at the battlefield was now unable to prepare even a
single countermeasure.

Their teacher was just abnormal to such degree.

「 Anyway let’s hurry. We mustn’t forget master’s rule to give one hundred
times the payback if we run away.」

The three grown up men looked at each other with pale expression and their
shoulders slumped in depression.
.

Page | 227
Part 5
「This is the next head of our Mannerheim House, Clite.」
「Auu~~」

The baby could only take tottering steps before he lied on his back with legs
outstretched. The way he seemed to glow with self- satisfaction must be
something he inherited from his father.

August respectfully took the hand of the two years old toddler who was
waving around his hands energetically.
「My name is August, the representative of Garibaldi Company’s president.
I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.」
「He will be your brother-in-law soon! Get along with him.」

August smiled wryly at Angelica who had completely thought of their

marriage as a done deal in her mind. She too was a member of Mannerheim
House. Her marriage wasn’t something that she could decide by her own will.

Although in case the house head Gitze wished for the marriage to happen, it
would be difficult for him to run away, August thought in detached manner
like it wasn’t his problem.
「Forgive me for my late introduction. I have heard about you a lot from my
step-daughter.」

A lady gracefully greeted August with a clear voice.

From her appearance she didn’t look like she had even reached thirty years
old.

She had an alluring body, but her expression was sunny like a city girl. She
looked like she was welcoming August from the bottom of her heart.
「I am the wife of Gitze Mannerheim, my name is Nausica(ナウシカ
).」

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「 I’m the one who should ask for forgiveness for not visiting for so long. I
am August Garibaldi.」

August recalled back. Come to think of it, the wife of his uncle died around
five years ago after many years of marriage.

He didn’t know that his uncle had remarried. It was a shameful blunder for a
merchant like him. Most likely it was Gitze himself who intentionally hid that
matter from him.
Even Gitze’s actual little sister, August’s mother Idunn(イズン) didn’t know
about his remarriage. So there was no other explanation about this other than
Gitze keeping it a secret.
「You can also call me mother-in-law you know? It will be like that before
long anyway.」
「 As expected from mother! One has to move in haste when there is no
doubts!」

Crap, she is already fallen to the opponent’s hand.

It was really a great blunder for August. It wouldn’t be easy for him to resist
this trap.

Angelina and he were cousin, but having the ties between Garibaldi family
and Mannerheim House growing stronger wouldn’t have any drawback at all
for both houses.

Rather August himself even thought that politically this marriage would be
advantageous enough.

Although, August was aware that someone who literally could overturn such
calculation into anything she wanted was heading here.
「……T-th-, then, it might be strange if I keep calling him Onii-
sama……. H-how should I call him from here on?」
「For now stay calm Angelica.」

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Angelica started talking to herself about things like calling him with pet name
or perhaps calling him husband. Her mind had been completely filled with
delusion. August patted her head in order to stop her from going out of
control.

Angelica accepted it happily and sighed in pleasure.

「It’s been a long time since the last time Nii-sama patted my head.」

Angelica narrowed her eyes and recalled her days when she was still a girl
who was in love with August and kept him in her thought every day.
「I always wanted this hand all this time……」

Angelica thought that rather than marriage, she simply wanted for August to
be always at her side.

Now that they had reunited like this, she couldn’t even consider ever letting
him go anymore.

From her expression, August caught a glimpse of Angelica’s thought that was
excessively innocent and lacking any hesitation. He looked up to the sky and
massaged his forehead.

「──I might have gotten set up by uncle like this……」

「What do you mean that I’m setting you up?」

Gitze appeared with a bold grin at that timing.

Although August had noticed since a long time ago that the rough footsteps of
several men were approaching here.
「Long time no see uncle. You surely won’t say that you have no thought of
setting me up after intentionally hiding your remarriage and producing a heir
will you?」
「Muh, I also have my own circumstance here……」

「 I’ll tell motherIdunn about this. How uncle got a new young wife in his age
and how he is working hard to make child.」
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「 I’m begging you spare me from that! I too have my own pride as big
brother!」

Gitze got panicked and lost his composure. Aaron and Euftace who were
standing behind him burst into laughter.
「 ……Nobody will believe that this person is the cavalry inspector general
who is feared by both devil and demon.」

「Or rather, it’s already strange that you still can’t let go of your little sister
even now.」

「You guys don’t get it because you don’t have a cute little sister like her!」

It was unbelievable that a low level conversation like this was coming from
the big shot military officers who were supporting the military matter of
Nordland.

Gitze’s wife Nausica got exasperated and cut into their conversation.
「Dear, let’s have a lo~~~~~~~ng talk later okay?」

Even though her expression was smiling, her gentle eyes were eloquently
expressing her anger.

Just what where you doing to your little sister……August thought, but of
course he avoided the stupidity of running off his mouth in this time.
「 P-putting that aside, it has been a long time isn’t it? Do you remember
Aaron and Euftace? They often came to play here when I was training you
here you remember?」

It was a blatant attempt to divert the topic, but August too didn’t wish to
prolong the stupid talk any longer. Not to mention these three were important
people that he planned to hold an important discussion with after this.
「Of course I remember them. I was greatly indebted to them at that time.」

They were also career soldiers with devotion to their job that reached an
unhealthy degree in a sense. They immediately sensed how many scenes of
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carnage that August had struggled through and how much training that he had
imposed on himself.
「You have grown to be a fine man.」
「Umu, I might not let you go if I also have a daughter of the right age.」
「I won’t hand him over! Angelica already has prior contract over
August after all!」

Gitze bared his canine and kept his bad friends in check, but Aaron and
Euftace treated his words like a light breeze.
「I’ll tell on Idunn.」

「I think you don’t know, but we are still exchanging letters with Idunn even
now.」
「You bastards! Idunn is already someone else’s wife!」

Idunn was also a childhood friend for Aaron and Euftace. In the past there
was even a small conflict between them to fight over Idunn, but right now of
course that only became a material for joking around.

Though Gitze was the only one who was seriously arguing back even while
he understood that they were just joking.

.
「 ─ ─ Men at your age shouldn’t frolic around like that. It’s disgusting to
watch.」

The familiar threatening voice that sounded slightly hoarse caused the three to
tremble right away. They were unable to detect her footstep or even her
presence.

The three who stood at the peak of Nordland Empire’s military force were
this easily caught unaware. There was only one person in this country who
could do that.

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The three couldn’t suppress the goosebumps on their skin and they turned
around with stiff movement like a broken doll.

「Is that the face you show when you are meeting your teacher after so long?
I won’t mind to train you guys from zero once more you know?」

「Long time no see, master!」

She had grown even older compared to their memory of her at the bygone
days, but her pressure felt like it had grown even stronger instead.

The war god who was also their teacher Gina was wearing priest attire while
glaring at them with her sharp gaze.

The three hurriedly offered Gina to sit at the seat of honor before the three
finally managed to come back to their senses and wiped the cold sweat on
their forehead.
「By the way, what is master’s business for coming here?」
「What? So I can’t come here unless I have a business?」

「 How can that possibly be! However it has been more than ten years, it
weighed my mind that there might be something important.」

Even with the passage of time, it was still very difficult to free themselves
from the pecking order that was formed in their youth.

In Nordland, even the emperor had to give some respect to these three leaders,
but now they were acting like a green apprentice knight.

Angelica who never even saw her father acting like this had been dazed since
some time ago.

August interrupted their talk at that timing.

「I have been looking forward to be able to meet with you Gina- sama.」
「So you are Idunn’s son. You have some guts in you to dare to drag me out
here.」
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「No, you would still come here even without me doing anything.」

From the two’s conversation, it seemed that it was none other than August
who called Gina here. Gitze cocked his head in puzzlement.

He wondered what kind of connection there was between August and Gina.
Seeing that the bold smile on August’s face didn’t crumble, Gina snorted and
cackled teasingly.

Page | 256
Page | 251
「It’s a hundred years too early for you to try to threaten me. Good grief, you
have really become a crafty and underhanded fox like your father. If only you
can take after your mother even just for a bit.」

August had a poker face that wouldn’t lose even against other sly old
merchants, but he couldn’t stop himself from turning pale when he heard what
Gina said.

After all August was able to guess that Gina was referring to Valerie when
she spoke of his father instead of referring to the merchant Bennett.

Thinking carefully, Gina had come into contact with Valerie himself when
she was staying at Trystovy in the past.

A normal person wouldn’t even rely on their memory about something that
happened more than half a century ago, but Gina wasn’t a normal person at
every meaning.
「……Most people who saw me said that I took after my mother
though.」

August’s expression changed only for an instant. He immediately put up his

friendly smile again and shrugged his shoulders to play stupid.
「I can see that. I think your eyes and noses are inherited from
Idunn. It’s a shame that you were born as a man!」

「A siscon is just creepy! You moron!」

Gitze didn’t read the atmosphere and he was about to start boasting about his
little sister. Gina abused him verbally without letting him said anything back
and shut him up.

Gitze fell silent in fear once more after being faced with that pressure.

Gina who saw August’s brief agitation made a cruel smile and gave a passing
thought to the man who was hiding in August’s shadow.

Page | 258
Valerie was a lady-killer who was popular among Trystovy’s noble ladies
although not as much as Viktor. It would be easy for him to make Idunn fell
head over heel to him.

Gina couldn’t declare that there wasn’t any love at all between the two, but
that man chose Idunn must also be to make use of her for his own objective.

That man was even more a dreamer than Viktor. Gina couldn’t even imagine
just what he could possibly be planning right now.

The only thing she was sure of was that at the very least it wouldn’t be any
sweet thing like an ideal that anyone could dream of. Since nearly thirty years
ago after Marguerite suddenly appeared in front of her, Gina had been
probing about the situation in Trystovy using her own means.

Based on the information she gathered, she noticed relatively quickly that
there was a man secretly maneuvering behind the scene.

As Viktor’s lover, Gina knew about Valerie’s capability from when Viktor
and him were talking about their ideal to each other. That might be why she
was able to notice his presence.

There was Valerie in the shadow of Trystovy. Gina was convinced that
Valerie’s will was intervening with matters so that the kingdom was
destroyed and the civil war was still continuing even now.

What kind of business a man who had sold his soul to the devil could have
with her at this point of time?
「 You should be careful boy. Any beastman with good nose won’t mistake
the smell of your father on you. I don’t know what that person is thinking
about it, but I can only smell your father’s scent from you.」

August somehow suppressed his desire to scream.

He thought that there wasn’t a single thing that could connect him to Valerie.

He never even dreamed that this secret might get exposed because of
something extremely simple like scent.

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Gina clapped her hands as though to declare that this talk was over.
「──Now then, let’s hear what is it that you actually want to discuss.」

「I too greatly wish to do that but……can I ask you to clear out the people
from this room first?」

Laura and Catherine had turned themselves into wallflower that didn’t pay
any attention to the talk. Angelica protested vigorously when she noticed that
August’s gaze didn’t just move toward them but also toward her.
「N-Nii-sama, you are telling me to get out too!?」
「 This matter is concerning a national secret. Angelica, you don’t have a
position that can enable you to take responsibility for the secret you learned
do you?」
「 How can a merchant like Nii-sama know something like a national
secret!?」

「 Then let me ask you instead, why do you think that I won’t know any
national secret?」

After being told that, Angelica realized for the first time that she was only
harboring longing for August, but she didn’t know anything about his position
or the way he thought.
「 Just what have Gitze taught you until now……Angelica, cool down your
head for a little outside. There are things in this world that you can’t do
anything about with just love.」

Angelica who still had some shock lingering in her exited the room just like
her mother Nausica urged her to.

She questioned herself just which part of August that she fell in love with.

Until now her feeling felt like it was only natural for her to feel like that, but
right now she couldn’t help but feel that her feeling was terribly unreliable.

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Even the butler and servants were told to leave until the room became
deserted. Gina confirmed that there were only five people inside the room
including August before she released the killing intent that she had been
hiding until now.

Gitze’s hand reflexively moved to hold the handle of his sword. This killing
intent was something that he had only felt in the battlefield when he was in
danger.

If Angelica was staying behind, at best she might be paralyzed while at worst
she might faint and even peed herself.

Gina’s eyes shined golden as though to say that she wouldn’t allow any
excuse.

「 ─ ─ August, what are you planning to do to Baldr? You won’t leave this
place alive depending on your answer.」

August’s body directly felt Gina’s dominating aura that was exactly like the
legend described. Even so he kept acting easygoing.

This was an opponent that he didn’t have the a one in a million chance to
defeat if they fought, but they were standing on August’s stage right now.
There wasn’t any reason at all for him to fear Gina more than necessary.
「 By Baldr do you mean, Mauricia Kingdom’s Margrave Baldr Antrim
Cornelius?」

Baldr was a foreigner, but there was a reason why Gitze, Aaron, and Euftace
had to pay attention to Baldr.
「 I heard from his highness Gustav that Ernst was defeated by him. I hope
that I can have a bout with him if there is a chance.」

Ernst was an up-and-coming military officer who many people expected to

have bright future. Even at the present he was already counted among the top
five in fighting skill. Furthermore borrowing the words that Gustav said,
Baldr obtained a complete victory against that Ernst, so they too were unable
to keep calm when it came to Baldr.

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「Give it up. He isn’t an opponent that you guys can possibly match.」

「──Do we really look that weak?」

Gina told the three of them to give up so mercilessly without a shred of

hesitation. They asked her back with mortification rather than indignation
from how sure Gina’s tone was.

They were aware that although their technique had become more seasoned as
they aged, their physical ability had passed the prime, but they were confident
that they still wouldn’t lose against the young people yet. Gina’s words
wounded the delicate part of their heart.

Although there was no way that Gina would be considerate to such delicate
feeling of middle-aged men like them.
「It’s already pointless by the time you say something like that. After all that
Baldr is stronger than even this me.」

The three’s eyes shrunk into dot and their body stiffened by Gina’s
completely unexpected answer.

As expected, even August couldn’t hide his shock although he strived to at

least keep his expression from changing with his obstinacy.

(──I never heard about anything like that!)

August had highly evaluated Baldr for his skill to obtain victory against
Haurelia Kingdom even when he was practically alone and his capability as a
statesman that transformed Antrim into a rich land.

The information he obtained about Baldr when he probed at Savaran

Company was so outlandish that he even doubted that it might just be a joke.

However August was also a beastman. He knew very well about Gina’s
heroic tale and her actual strength. It was exactly because of that his shock
when learning about Baldr’s inhuman strength won over all his other feelings.
「I still can’t believe that even now but……if that’s true then that makes me
wish to cross sword with him even more.」
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「I’ll let you fight him if you can win against me.」

Gina grinned daringly. The three had no words to reply with after that.

There was a sharp fighting spirit that felt like a sword was pointed at their
throat. They couldn’t believe that this was a fighting spirit that came from an
old woman who was going to reach 80 years old soon.

Even for the three veteran warriors here, it was impossible for them to exert
this much fighting spirit.

This was the strength of the superhuman hero, the strongest warrior of the
beastman race Gina. As her disciples such understanding had seeped into their
core.

Although she had weakened compared to her prime, her presence as someone
who existed in the height that couldn’t possibly be reached by normal people
hadn’t crumbled at all.

Baldr was a youngster who could even still be called as a brat. Saying that he
was stronger than this Gina was something that these three couldn’t believe at
all.
「……How much I can say in front of the three of them?」

「 Just as you see, these guys can’t match me. They know best what will
happen if they turn me into enemy.」

When Gina sent a glance at the three, they immediately shook their head in
high speed.

Their reaction wasn’t at the level of because Gina was their teacher or
because Gina knew their personality.

They were the first class warriors of their generation, but exactly because of
that they could clearly sense the wall of talent that couldn’t possibly be
overcame with just effort.

Someone at Ernst’s level was still unable to sense until that far.
Page | 263
For them, turning Gina into enemy was no different then suicide.
「 First allow me to say my gratitude for kindly responding to a call from a
youngster like me. My apologies to uncle too for doing this without saying
anything beforehand.」
「You, just how suicidal you can be……」

Gitze felt a chill in his back rather than anger at his niece’s reckless action.

Gina had become calmer to some degree because right now she had status and
family of her own, but the Gina who Gitze knew when he was training under
her in his adolescence could only be compared with evil spirit or demon king.

August ignored his uncle’s miserable expression and continued.

「 Allow me to ask this to you Gina-sama, but is there no doubting that the
margrave is the son of Trystovy Kingdom’s lost child, her highness Princess
Marguerite?」

Gina had resolved herself for this, but it unexpectedly still felt impactful when
someone asked her about this matter.

Because this was truly the result that was brought about by the naivety of her
past self.
「Yeah──also, he is my prided great grandson.」
「P-please wait a second! What did you say just now?」

Euftace couldn’t overlook what was said just now and hurriedly interrupted.

It was already a big news that Baldr was descended from the bloodline of
Trystovy’s royal family, but then Gina gave a testimony that Baldr was her
great grandson. That meant, Gina had a connection with Trystovy royal
family.

It also meant that beastman blood was mixed into Trystovy royal family.

Even Nordland wouldn’t tolerate beastman becoming a part of the royal

family.
Page | 264
That went double for a country like Trystovy that could be said as a nation
with strong prejudice toward beastman. They wondered just how could Gina
become connected with the royal family there.

Gina could guess Euftace’s question with just a glance and she spat out the
answer with a bored tone.
「 It’s not me you know? It was a coincidence that my daughter caught the
king’s eye.」

She never even thought that Dahlia would be caught by that

Umbertogood-for-nothing of all people…….

Gina thought of how unfortunate Dahlia was although it was too late already.
「 E-even so, while it’s only a little the lord margrave still have beastman
blood within him──no, if he is even stronger than master, that means that the
beastman blood is flowing very thickly inside him isn’t it?」
「The ration is not even ten percent though……」
「A-and what about the baptism, did the margrave receive it?」

「 I was the one who baptized him. That child has the divine protection of
Zoras-sama in him.」

Gina answered while vaguely guessing why Euftace was so agitated.

Gina didn’t even doubt that Baldr hadn’t resolved himself about something at
this level. She only met him for a day, but Baldr was his prided great
grandson who she wanted to protect even if she had to risk her life.
「 Then regardless of how thin his blood is, the margrave has become our
pack’s childkahaui!」

Kahaui was a unique custom of beastman race. Those who received baptism
in the same shrine would basically be treated like family.

Page | 265
It was a way of thinking that was similar like mutual aid society in earth.
Selina didn’t know about this because she didn’t have any family to tell her,
but this custom of Kahaui was also functioning even at other countries.
「Before that he is my great grandson. I won’t allow anyone to unnecessarily
try anything to him you know?」

「──But, things can’t stay like that with how the situations are
progressing right now.」

August spoke with an insolent attitude.

「 His majesty Welkin had already learned of the existence of the knight
Ramillies who was also the teacher of Princess Marguerite. This information
has also leaked out from who know where and reached the ear of his highness
Bernardi too. In that case everyone will learn of it before long. That Maggot-
sama is Princess Marguerite.」

Page | 266
「Annoying. Is that unpleasant personality something you inherit from your
father?」
「No no, I’m striving that I at least won’t become like my father you know?
That is my sincere feeling.」

He could already see his life ending up in destruction the day he became like
that man.

Even his father had told him that they were similar. It made August scratched
his head in depression.
「 Forget about that, the problem is that according to Trystovy Kingdom’s
throne inheritance rule, as a male the margrave is in the first place to inherit
the throne.」

Gina didn’t miss how joyful look appeared in the faces of Euftace and even
Aaron and Gitze.
「Everything depends on that child’s decision. The surrounding has no place
to say anything about it.」
「Of course I understand that. Uncle and the others too──regardless of what
they actually wish deep down, they won’t do anything to turn Gina-sama into
enemy. However we don’t know what those idiots Bernardi and his cronies
will do.」

Their objective in the end was just to buy time. They would only get troubled
if someone with the bloodline of the royal family came out at this point. In the
first place even if they actually found Princess Marguerite, they intended to
assassinate her in the end.
「There is nothing that those bunches can do to Baldr.」

「 I still haven’t met him directly, but based from what I heard from my
subordinates’ reports, I don’t think that the margrave is someone who will
silently allow the sparks from this to descend on his siblings who were just
born.」

It was just as he said.

It was thoughtless of her but now Gina finally realized for the first time that
she was thinking of this matter using Maggot and Baldr as reference when
they were owner of King’s Gate and the strongest existence in this continent.

There were no humans who could get away unharmed if they tried anything
with those two. As the strong who possessed King’s Gate, Gina tended to
underestimate the existence of the weak.

Those mother and child loved their family more than anyone else. The
possibility of them postponing to solve this matter even though it might risk
the wellbeing of their powerless family members was nonexistent.
「August. Let me frankly ask your opinion. How do you think the margrave
will act after this?」

Gitze’s face was turning red with excitement.

The fact that Baldr was the legitimate heir of Trystovy contained an extremely
important meaning for them beastman race.

Gina who noticed that made a bitter expression. August replied to Gitze’s
question while doing his best to keep his air of composure.

「 Sooner or later someone will arrive at the answer. The margrave isn’t
someone who will just sit still to wait for that. He is already starting to
move.」

「Move──moving for what?」

「Of course, he is moving to sit on the king’s throne of Trystovy.」

For August’s maritime guild, Sanjuan Kingdom and Majorca Kingdom were
their neighbors.

Furthermore Trystovy Dukedom (archduke faction) was hostile to those two

countries, so in reality the maritime guild’s relationship with them was close
to an alliance.
Because of that August had learned that the two countries were already
solidifying their support to Baldr.

However just Sanjuan Kingdom and Majorca Kingdom wouldn’t be enough

to take on Answerer Kingdom that was standing behind the archduke faction.

Most of all, Baldr needed one more trump card in order to move Mauricia
Kingdom that Baldr was serving.
「You are saying, that he will stand as king?」

Gitze glared at August. He wouldn’t allow him to give a vague answer.

Euftace and Aaron were also staring hard at August like Gitze while
forgetting to breath. Gina too was looking like she would kill him if he said
any joke.

(Spare me……)

August was sweating bullets inside his heart, but he kept his face calm and he
nodded strongly.
「There is no doubt, Margrave Baldr Antrim Cornelius is wishing to ascend
to the throne of Trystovy.」

In reality Baldr had no other choice but that.

Regardless of what the person himself wanted, the blood that was flowing
inside Baldr was too rare, while his knowledge, military power, financial
power, and connection were too powerful for him to end his life as Mauricia
Kingdom’s margrave.

It seemed that Welkin believed he would be able to control Baldr if it was

him, but from what August observed, Welkin only looked like a child who
was playing with fire around oil.

Welkin was certainly a capable king, but abnormality like Baldr couldn’t be
measured.
「 A king is going to appear from among our Kahaui──from among the
beastman race……」

Gitze was overcame with emotion and looked down.

Even Nordland Empire and Gartlake Kingdom couldn’t fully get rid of
prejudice and discrimination toward beastman.

The prejudice and discrimination in other countries were even more deeply
rooted.

The discrimination that Selina received at Mauricia Kingdom was still at a

cute level. In Answerer Kingdom people could openly trade beastman slave.
Wanting to change the social position of beastman race.

All the beastmen who succeeded in obtaining high position was guaranteed to
have such wish without exception.

The birth of a king who had the blood of beastman within him. That was
something that they thought could become as an easy to understand objective
in order to achieve their wish.

They didn’t dream that prejudice and discrimination would vanish overnight
with just that.

However if even beastman could become king, it should contribute for

improving the status and right of beastman race at the long-term.

The birth of a king who had the blood of beastman flowing in him was close
to being the dearest wish of the beastman race that never had a king since the
beast king Brocas.
「Baldr only knew that he has beastman blood in him only recently. Besides
that child is serving Mauricia’s king.」

She understood that this was the dream of beastman race, but as expected
even Gina was reluctant to have such burden placed on her great grandson’s
back.
「 We don’t have any intention of expecting reward from helping a child of
the pack.」

Euftace and others didn’t think that a country by the beastman for the
beastman would be born just because Baldr became a king. But, just the fact
that Baldr became a king was important.
Besides if a child of the pack was holding a great ambition, helping out as a
fellow pack member was their natural duty.
「 I won’t allow anyone to push that child to do something that he himself
doesn’t desire you know?」

「 We don’t have any intention to do anything shameful that goes against

beastman’s code, Head Priestess Gina Bjorck-dono.」

The three didn’t call Gina master anymore.

Personal matter must not take priority over government matter. Right now
there was something that had to be prioritized even more than the bond
between Gina and her great grandson.

The three had taken hold of the military affairs of Nordland Empire and they
were effectively in control of beastman race’s combat force. The three of
them using all of their effort to support Baldr would have an unbelievably
major meaning.

If Baldr the beastman force of Nordland in addition of Sanjuan Kingdom and

Majorca Kingdom that possessed the strongest navies in the South Seas
backing him, that was a force that was more than enough to take on Trystovy
Dukedom.

However it was still lacking in Valerie’s design. August ran his thought to his
father who wasn’t here. He thought of how incorrigibly greedy and persistent
his father was.
「Haha, this talk has made me recalled the beastman code regarding baptism
after so long.」

The pack’s childrenKahaui should help each other.

August laughed brazenly even though he actually hadn’t forgotten anything.
「 By the way, there should also be a code which say that all tribes should
unite under the beast king and there must never be any discord. Am I
mistaken?」
「Muh……t-that’s……no, but in this situation……」

「Are you telling us to cooperate with those traitorous slit-pupils?」

Slit-pupils was another name for cat ear race who had the trait of eye pupils
that looked like vertical slit, but Gitze used that nickname as an expression of
his scorn. Gina sent him a glance before she sharply glared at August.
「Brat, is this the design that your father is drawing?」

「Now then, I wonder what are you talking about.」

The chasm between the two tribes that had been in conflict with each other
where they washed blood with blood for many years was deep. However the
draw of the birth of the king of beastman race had a radiance that greatly
surpassed that.

Valerie didn’t intend to just drag the beastmen of Nordland, he even planned
to drag the beastmen of Gartlake and the whole continent and overturned
every order. His deeply rooted delusion was going to shake the history of the
continent in a grand scale.

To respect Baldr’s will above all else.

As long as that principle was kept, Gina intended to support Baldr proactively
instead. After making Euftace and Gitze and the others understood that, they
immediately set about to maneuver behind the scene in order to support Baldr.

If the charismatic living legend that was Gina and the three leaders of
beastman race started to work in earnest, uniting the will of the beastman race
in Nordland was something simple.
And then they would use that fact to pressure and persuade the crown prince
Gustav.

Gustav was exploring for a way to create peace in order to put back the nation
on its feet because of the exhausting war with Gartlake that had continued for
a long time.

Because of that, when it was explained to him about the possibility of the
beastman race in Nordland and Gartlake setting aside their grudge to each
other by using Baldr as the focal point, Gustav thought that this was exactly
the time when he had to strike while the iron was hot.

His father the emperor might not agree to it immediately, but this was Baldr
they were talking about. There was no way this talk would just stop at
Nordland.

Sometimes history would put the person that was necessary to become the
turning point at the right place.

Gustav was unable to suppress his heart that was boiling because he was
present at that turning point of history.
Chapter 4 – The Power to Change the
World

Part 1

Baldr was going through his dizzyingly busy days without even
knowing about Nordland’s movement. He already obtained the cooperation of
Sanjuan Kingdom and Majorca Kingdom.

And then──through the intermediation of Selina’s Savaran Company,

Trystovy’s maritime guild offered a large scale fund support as well as their
assistance for expansion of foreign trade to Baldr.

The maritime guild was definitely taking action while knowing about Baldr’s
secret. Although Baldr felt wariness toward their action, the maritime guild
was a force that he had to make into his ally one day if he wished to unite
Trystovy.

Baldr had no option to refuse this. After all Baldr had stepped into a path
where there was no going back for him anymore. .

Baldr invested the fund he obtained from Sanjuan Kingdom and the maritime
guild without holding back. With that the development of the new Margrave
Antrim territory was progressing with a great momentum.

First he developed the ore mines that was stretching from the old Antrim
territory to the old Falkirk territory. A lot of mines had been discovered since
the past at Morgan Mountains. They mainly produced iron and copper.

All those mines had been closed for a long time because there wasn’t enough
manpower and the mining technology also hadn’t advanced.

Antrim was a place that was too dangerous militarily to do mining, processing
the ores, and then exporting the product.

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No matter the world, a place that was at great risk to be swallowed in the
flame of war anytime would never have its industry growing properly
regardless of how good its location was.

──But the situation had made a turnaround.

The fame of an extraordinary hero who repelled a major country with only
few soldiers became an unmatched guarantee of safety.

People would naturally gather if they smelled the scent of money and knew
that it would be safe.

The wheel of economy would turn when people gathered. Right now the
territory of Margrave Antrim was erupting with unprecedented wave of
prosperity.

Mine laborers gathered one after another looking for job and the problem of
manpower was solved. In addition, the advance of the mining technology was
also remarkable.

There were three more reasons why the mines were closed. First was in case
the vein of ore was completely exhausted.
The next reason was when the profit was insufficient because of the
circumstances surrounding the mine.

And then the last reason was in case the tunnel became submerged in water
and it became physically impossible to continue mining.

Even in Japan there were mines that was forced to close at the early year of
Edo period because spring water submerged the tunnels.

Uesugi House that Sanai served also possessed Narumi gold mine and
Okutadami silver mine (Sado gold mine was undeveloped) which produced
gold mine magistrates in great numbers like Abe Tsunayoshi for example, but
it was thought that there was no technocrat like Ookubo Chouan among them.

The mysterious person Ookubo Nagayasu who held tremendous influence in

ore mine development switched from the traditional vertical digging to
horizontal digging at the early days of Edo period. He ordered things like

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digging horizontal pit for draining water and the like and revived the closed
mines one after another.

Also by using the amalgam method that originated from Europe instead of
cupellation method that originated from China for refining the ore, he
succeeded in producing a lot more gold and silver.

Unfortunately Antrim didn’t have gold mine, but Baldr sold this technology
to Lefthoas gold mine that was a prominent gold mine at Nordland. He sold
this technology via Garibaldi Company that had some influence in Nordland.

With this ten percent of the increased production of gold would enter into
Baldr’s pocket. When August received that report from his subordinate, he
held his head and grumbled 「 Baldr should become our company president
instead if it’s like this isn’t it?」 because of how immense the profit was.

Along with the development of mines, Baldr was also developing railroad
construction for using rail car operated with human power.

Rail car was also something that was like a fixed feature of mines all over
earth in the past. That was just how indispensable rail car was for transport in
mine.

Manual rail car was still used even at the modern era in developing countries.
Among them there was even something like the bamboo trolley at Philippine
that borrowed a public railway for itself as it pleased.

The manual rail car would still put a heavy burden on manpower, but it was
definitely a far more effective transport compared to using horse carriage or
people carrying ore on their back through mountain path. This method should
greatly reduce the mining expense.

Baldr poured his excess fund and manpower to make the railroad track
construction progressed rapidly. In the faster cases they could even expect for
the track to start operating after half a month.

.
「 … … Tyros, you can unload your works to your subordinates a little you
know?」
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This man might have even more stamina than him who had King’s Gate.

Tyros’s competence in all fields was managing numerous projects.

His work attitude even caused Baldr to have such doubt.

「I’m simply observing in those works. There is no problem.」

The way Tyros worked made Baldr wondered when he had the time to sleep.
Even the core bureaucrats of Antrim including Agatha and Brandon had gone
past feeling astonishment and felt scared instead seeing Tyros’s work attitude.

Even so, it was also a fact that there was still no one who could replace Tyros.

They were currently hiring new personnel, but they had to first assigned some
people to educate the new hires, and there were too many secrets in Antrim
that couldn’t be exposed to people who couldn’t be trusted.

As the result, in such cases Baldr had no other way but to entrust it to his right
hand man Tyros. It was a vicious cycle.
「I won’t be able to be present in the communication experiment today. My
deepest apologies.」
「 No, I will attend that test, you don’t need to do even more work than
this!」

Antrim would fall into a dire strait if Tyros collapsed here, no joke about it.

Tyros’s existence was even more important than Baldr in a sense. If someone
wished to destroy Antrim, assassinating Tyros would be the surest way to
achieve it.
「Please don’t worry. This Tyros is very aware of his own limit.」

Tyros had specialized all his activity from moderating his eating habits until
his lifestyle, all in order to endure his harsh duty and devoted his everything
for Baldr’s sake. This was what he thought in his mind while showing a smile
that showed no fatigue at all. (That’s right, let’s go check on how Marguerite-

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sama and Nigel-sama are doing. I’ll be able to fight for ten more years after
receiving energy from those two!)

Now then, the experiment that was planned at the afternoon was the use of
primitive crystal radio. The development had started since more than one year
ago, but the path until it could be used practically was full of great hardships.

(Ee~~? It shouldn’t be like this though……)

It was only natural that Baldr’s previous life, Oka Masaharu was grieving like
that.

When he was at high school, Masaharu had once created a crystal radio by
himself. However the copper wire and brass board that he used were
something that he purchased from shop. Baldr also couldn’t obtain iron
pyrites, magnetite, or galena, so diode was used to replace them.

Perhaps it was because of that the crystal radio that Baldr created this time
after gathering all the materials from zero needed more than half a year of
trial & error until it could receive radio signal properly.

However the radio then met a roadblock which was its volume that was too
small. It was only the other day that it was decided to temporarily use wind
magic to make use of the radio.

The weak point of magic was that its power would decrease in inverse
proportion to the distance, but it was convenient to use magic to amplify a
very near sound.

Baldr would be pressed to make difficult political decisions from here on. If
the transmission of information toward him could be sped up using radio
communication network, it should become an immeasurable advantage for
him.

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「I have little time left……I don’t know how the maritime guild obtained the
information but, it won’t be long before someone in Trystovy Dukedom and
Mauricia Kingdom also reach the same answer.」

Before that Baldr had to first obtain an unshakeable power.

Antrim that possessed its own diplomacy pipe with Sanjuan Kingdom and
Nordland Empire possessed economic and military strength that rivaled an
independent small country. If Baldr felt like it, it was even possible for him to
go to war against Mauricia Kingdom.

However Baldr’s opponent wasn’t Mauricia Kingdom but Trystovy

Dukedom.

There was also someone that he absolutely had to persuade so that he could
direct the strength he accumulated toward Trystovy.

It wasn’t King Welkin. As long as Baldr had made the preparation and
removed the obstacles, King Welkin wasn’t a man who would make an
irrational decision.

The problem was someone who made a decision based on their emotion
without considering any loss and gain.

At present a major member of the ten great nobles, Alford Randolph was
leading the royalist faction of Trystovy. It was nearly impossible to aim to
become Trystovy’s king without involving him.

Perhaps it could be said as fortunate that Alford didn’t wish for his daughter
Silk to become Trystovy’s queen. Rather he wanted to keep Silk away from a
scene of carnage like Trystovy’s civil war if possible.

Baldr held exactly the same opinion in that regard.

Silk was a capable military officer, but her feminine gentleness and purity
would definitely become a shackle in a place like Trystovy that was smeared
with all manner of corruption.
「……Depressing.」
Baldr thought of the difficulty he would face when negotiating with that
Alford and he looked up at the sky with a frown.
Part 2

Margrave Antrim visited Randolph House.

With both sides being as busy as they were, quite a long time was necessary
in order to find a day where their schedule could match for them to meet. And
then today Baldr came to Randolph House for the first time since their last
meeting.

One side was a major member of the ten great nobles, while the other side
was one of the only two margraves in Mauricia and a hero who boasted
influence that in reality equaled or even surpassed one of the ten great nobles.

These two people would surely gather attention regardless whether the reason
of the visit was personal or official.

Even so Silk was feeling a happiness that she found it hard to

suppress from Baldr’s visit.
「……Somehow it feels like we haven’t met for several years.」

Events that normal human would never experience for their whole life even
once had happened in succession within this short period. Because of that she
couldn’t help but feel that the time had passed for even longer than it actually
was.

She was also feeling impatient because of Princess Rachel’s proactive

approach toward Baldr at the capital. It was a common knowledge now that
King Welkin was trying to marry Rachel to Baldr.

Although it was unavoidable in order to reward Baldr’s achievement, it was

certainly a good sense for the royal family to plan to quickly carry favor with
a territory like Antrim that was already like a semi- independent country.

Even so, she still didn’t have the slightest intention to hand over Baldr to
Rachel without resitstance.
「……I wonder if there would be a bit more development between him and
me if we stayed longer in the knight academy just like that?」

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At that time her mind was only filled with the thought of inheriting her
mother’s feeling, so perhaps there would be no such development.

Even so they would be able to act at ease with each other in the academy life.
But now such thing felt like something that happened more than ten years in
the past.

Silk had confessed in the confusion of the war, but after that they continued
with the state of being more than friend but less than lover. Perhaps it
couldn’t be helped because she was the only daughter of Randolph House, but
she had finally confessed, so she wished to at least hear a clear answer from
Baldr. It was the silly wish of her maiden heart.
「Yosh! Let’s put some effort!」

Silk huffed in motivation and headed to the bathroom resolutely. She would
completely polish her whole body from the top of her head until the tip of her
feet and displayed her best appearance to Baldr.

Alford understood the feeling of her daughter like the back of his own hand,
that was why he felt a black sneer rising from the bottom of his stomach.

「……Brat, I don’t know if you will be able to keep your life if you plan to
ask for something like Silk’s hand in marriage.」

‘Gu-fu-fu-* Alford’s throat made a stifled chuckle. There were still several
more hours until Baldr arrived at his presence. Only Baldr himself knew
whether he felt a chill on his back or not at this moment.

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Part 3

Randolph House was located at the border between Mauricia Kingdom and
Trystovy Kingdom. It has a history as a small dukedom at the past.

Because of that even now after it joined the rank of the ten great nobles, it
was still maintaining a spirit of self-reliance and self- respect as though it was
an independent country. It accepted the royalist faction nobles that took flight
from Trystovy and guaranteed their livelihood might not be unrelated from
such disposition.

Baldr felt such impression after seeing the highway that was properly
maintained and the populace of Randolph who were friendly but feeling like
they were drawing a line somewhere from the rest of Mauricia Kingdom.

Vineyards could be seen stretching out as far as the eye could see in this
fertile land with warm climate. Randolph was also famous as a place that
produced wine.

Randolph territory wasn’t just bordered with Trystovy Dukedom, but also
with Sanjuan Kingdom and the pope territory of Europa religion. Because of
that this territory was thriving as a base for transit trade.

Of course Baldr also wouldn’t be surprised at all if Alford sheltered the

fleeing nobles also in order to protect these rights. Perhaps the rank of
margrave would be the most suitable for Alford.

.
「……Eh?」

When the magnificent castle of Randolph House came into view, Baldr
noticed that there was a group of dozens of people blocking the path.

There were also armed people among them. They seemed to be noble too
seeing from their attire.

The aura that the group emitted was slightly too dangerous for them to be a
welcoming committee from Alford.
「……My lord, should we break them up?」
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「 We are within the territory of Randolph House you know? Don’t say
something dangerous like that.」

Because Brooks and others had been promoted, it was fresh recruits like
Mycroft and Steve who were taking the role as Baldr’s bodyguard lately.

Especially Mycroft who was a beastman warrior which was a rarity in

Mauricia Kingdom, he was deeply loyal but his belligerent attitude was like a
fly in the ointment.

His childhood friend who grew up together with him Porco didn’t accompany
him in his journey. Right now he was tasked with guarding Seyruun and
Agatha as one of Baldr’s trusted aides. To be honest a King’s Gate owner like
Baldr didn’t need any bodyguard, but having a visible guard was also a
necessary deterrence to stop other from trying anything.
「Am I correct to assume that you are the Margrave Antrim……?」

「──What is the business of you sirs that you are obstructing my path like
this?」

Baldr had a gentle expression, but his tone was obviously that of someone
higher rank feeling dissatisfaction. The men made an obvious grimacing
expression at Baldr’s attitude. But, it seemed they didn’t have the guts to
complain about it.

Although if by any chance these people were taking hostile action here, both
Baldr and Mycroft wouldn’t hesitate to use force.
「 Please pardon us for our impolite act. We are the retainers of Trystovy
under the patronage of Marquis Randolph. We are here today because there is
something that we wish to ask you lord margrave.」

Now Baldr realized why these people were unfamiliar to him, that was
because they were apparently the nobles that took flight from Trystovy.

At the same time Baldr also guessed what they wanted by stopping him like
this. Baldr felt ill will forming at the bottom of his stomach.
「Now then, what do you sirs wish to ask me?」
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Baldr deliberately showed an air of composure. The man in his thirty who was
acting as the group’s leader leaned forward as though to snap at Baldr.

Mycroft immediately moved to step in front of Baldr, but Baldr stopped him
with one hand and urged the man to continue.
「 I don’t wish to think that this might be true but, could it be that the lord
margrave is here with the intent of asking Randolph House’s young lady for
her hand in marriage?」

This was their intention as expected.

Due to the event that happened at the war previously, the rumor that Silk was
in love with Baldr had already spread among the nobles who had ears
everywhere.

And then the marriage proposal from Bernardi came after that. For them, Silk
was a figurehead for the sake of taking back Trystovy. Because of that it
wasn’t like that they would have a problem even if Silk married with a noble
who would lend a hand for taking back Trystovy.

There were also young people among them who dreamed of marrying Silk
and returning in triumph to Trystovy, but it was considered problematic if a
powerless person married Silk without bringing anything to the table. And
then right now a hope that they would be able to return home and regained
their old territory if Silk was married to Bernardi was born between the nobles
in asylum here.

Of course it would be a different story if Princess Marguerite was found alive,

but for them who had been forced to live in foreign country for more than ten
years, losing the trump card that was Silk at this stage was something that
they absolutely couldn’t accept.
「 If I say that I’m here to do just that, what business you sirs have with
that?」
「 Good heavens! Silk-sama is the only remaining descendant of Trystovy
royalty! Even if you lord margrave is a great noble of Mauricia Kingdom, we
won’t allow you to do as you please!」
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「──Are you sir accusing me that I won’t do right by Silk? Can I take that as
your accusation toward this Margrave Baldr Antrim Cornelius of Mauricia
Kingdom?」

The man wanted to yell in affirmative, but the man only groaned as though he
had something hard pressed on his throat.

Baldr’s position rivaled a member of the ten great nobles both in formality
and also in influence. Not only rivaling, his influence could be considered as
equal or even surpassing the top three of the ten great nobles. It wouldn’t be
strange for these people to lose their head physically if they offended such an
opponent even by mistake. The man originally looked down on Baldr because
of Baldr’s youth and because of his prejudice toward Baldr’s origin as a
provincial noble, but he finally realized that he was now stepping on a tiger’s
tail.
「I, I have no intention of making affront at the slightest. However, Silk-sama
is an irreplaceable treasure for Trystovy Kingdom. I only wish to ask you lord
margrave to take that into consideration, for the sake of both our countries
too.」

Two young men who were standing behind the man walked forward. They
couldn’t be patient anymore after seeing the man’s weak attitude.
「Watch it, this gentleman is Count Quatuor(クヮルトゥーロ), if times were
better he should be the one who inherited the title of Marquis Fadini( フ ァ
ディーニ). Don’t you think that you are saying too much even if you are a
lord margrave?」
「O-oi, Batista(バティスタ), Calimero(カリメーロ), step back!」
「But Quatuor-sama!」

I don’t give a damn!

Baldr wanted to yell that to these two who were glaring at him like he was
their parents’ murderer.

What worth there was in a status that had been lost?

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Had they put in at least half of Silk’s effort to accomplish something with
their own strength?

Wasn’t Trystovy Kingdom fallen into ruin because there were termites like
you guys nesting there? How much labor Silk had imposed to herself at the
knight academy? How large and heavy the responsibility that her small body
was shouldering?

For Baldr who knew a fragment of that, these men’s self-centered desire was
nothing but a blasphemy toward Silk.

Even when he stood up as the heir of Trystovy’s throne, Baldr had no

intention to help shitty insects like these guys.
「And, what can you sirs do?」

They looked at each other’s face in incomprehension of what Baldr meant.

「 You sirs have been extolling Silk since the beginning but, what is it that
you sirs can do for Silk then? Are you all providing her with funding? Or
perhaps soldiers? Or perhaps you are planning to stand at the frontline and
fight by your own sword?」
「T-that is……」

There was nothing that they could do.

Because they were planning to wait for someone to take back

Trystovy for them while they were waiting at a safe place. However it would
sound too dishonorable if they said that openly.

Their pride was only to that degree. No, they were unable to do anything so
they wanted to at least protect that small pride, because of that they couldn’t
continue saying anything. If they were a capable and determined nobles, they
wouldn’t do something like lying in wait for Baldr here just to grumble.

In the end they were just mere useless pets that Alford was keeping beyond
their useful life. Baldr coldly stared at these nobles who were biting their lip
in frustration.

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They had a detestable face. The face of a mass of narcissism that would
betray even their own comrade without any scruple if that would bring them
benefit.

Baldr resolved himself very naturally to not let this kind of people getting
close to Silk.
「 ─ ─ I’m astonished. Is there really nothing? Are you sirs really calling
yourself the nobles of Trystovy like this?」

Even they had to object for the sake of their honor when Baldr spoke that far.
「D-do you think we will just stay quiet against this humiliation?」

Their thinking was still paused at the era when they were still great nobles of
Trystovy.

That was why they could believe that they had the right to stop Baldr on the
way like this.

「I ask you once more. What can you sirs do? Or do you want to say that all
of you here are more threatening than even Haurelia Kingdom?」

──He would take them on anytime if they wanted to become his enemy.

Baldr intentionally released malice──no, killing intent that was accompanied

by such thought that was boiling at the bottom of his stomach toward them.
Instantly the men felt helpless as though they had just been tossed into
battlefield naked.

It felt like there was a naked blade approaching them right now, as though the
skies were covered with a rain of falling arrow. Their instinct was feeling
such danger to their life.
There was no way they could do anything against a monster like this. Their
body trembled without any care of appearance and they hugged each other as
their survival instinct ordered them to.

Those hands were blood soaked hands that had cut down hundreds of
Haurelia soldiers. And then those fingers were the fingers that had fiercely
slaughtered tens of thousands of Haurelia army.
Page | 295
The youth before their eyes was a heinous mass murderer that they couldn’t
even imagine.

When they considered the number of humans that Baldr had slaughtered, that
number wouldn’t change by much even if their number was added to that
count.
「F-forgive us!」

They were completely powerless before Baldr.

It was absurd of them to try threatening him. It was already a mistake from
the start to get involved with this devil.

They felt with their own body of the overwhelming difference of strength that
absolutely couldn’t be overturned between them, like a rabbit under the glare
of a tiger. And then they apologized so desperately they looked like they
would even prostrate themselves before scuttling away to escape from the
presence of the devil that was Baldr.

They were a bunch that only treasured themselves selfishly till the end.
「Just what are they here for?」

Steve muttered in exasperation while watching the road that had become
empty.
「They originally intended to chastise a cheeky brat like me.」

「That would be just like a chick trying to scold a wolf.」

「The chick won’t understand at all about what it’s doing. They won’t even
understand that they can get away with their lives only thanks to their
owner.」

Even that owner wouldn’t keep protecting them forever.

If Baldr told Alford about what happened here, it would only be a matter of
time until they got kicked out of this Randolph territory.

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It didn’t matter what kind of over-optimistic calculation they used, there
wasn’t even one in a million chance of Alford sending Silk to marry Bernardi.

「 Perhaps they don’t even understand that they will starve to death if their
owner stop coming to bring them food.」

Baldr’s lips twisted into a cold sneer when he thought of the certain ruin that
would visit them.

Page | 297
Part 4

The carriage that Baldr was riding passed under Randolph House’s huge iron
gate. Silk hurriedly reconfirmed her own appearance after confirming that.

The dress that she picked today had a tidy and simple design, and yet it
displayed her body line clearly. This was her chance to show Baldr her chest
that lately had grown remarkably. Although even after that growth she still
couldn’t rival even Seyruun, but her effort had bear fruit even if it was only
slightly, so Silk didn’t have any option of not making use of it.
「──Margrave Antrim-sama has arrived.」
「Baldr!」

Baldr and companies appeared along with a butler. Silk happily stepped
forward to give Baldr a hug, but then she stopped moving because she felt
something was out of place.

Their height was around the same when they were at the knight academy, but
now Baldr had grown quite a bit taller than her.

However Baldr was already this tall when they met at the palace. (……I see,
it’s his eyes.)

Baldr’s eyes previously looked indecisive somewhere inside him and he

would allow himself to be washed away following the flow around him. But
those eyes had gone now.

Now Baldr’s eyes were similar with the eyes of people like her father Alford
or his majesty the king. Those were the eyes of someone who was seeking
something and also throwing away something at the same time.

Originally it was impossible for Baldr to possess such mature eyes.

It should be impossible but──. (Why is my heart beating this fast……)

It was embarrassing to express it like this but, Baldr’s visage was enveloped
with tolerance and reliability that only a husband instead of a lover could
have. Baldr was giving off a charisma of someone who could achieve any task
Page | 298
no matter how impossible it seemed. He was brimming with manliness that
was making her trembling.

Silk didn’t know. That she was unconsciously sensing the invisible
connection between them as cousins that were connected by blood.

She turned red from the blood that was rising to her head. She forced herself
and only barely managed to avert her gaze from Baldr.
If Silk had continued staring at him for several seconds longer, she might
have fainted.

The emotion of a father who was shown the embarrassing figure of his
daughter would be beyond the imagination.

Alford put on a face that resembled a hannya due to the strong emotion inside
his heart and a stifled dark laughter ‘gufufu’ leaked out from the bottom of his
stomach.
「So you have surpassed Ignis even in this area. Let me tell you beforehand, I
have no daughter to give to a studhorse just so you know!」

Alford was observing Baldr vigilantly in spite of his words.

Baldr’s bearing was clearly different from the last time they met in the palace.

From Alford’s experience, a person needed the experience of maturing as they

aged and shouldering a responsibility that made them stood on their own legs
to be able to have a bearing like this.

Alford himself also obtained his current overwhelming presence because he

had experienced losing his parents and shouldering Randolph House on his
own.

He couldn’t think of anything at that level that could possibly happen to

Baldr.

Alford felt a pity toward Baldr instead because he had to experience

something like that at this age.

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「 Your excellency, thank you for meeting me like this. I’m shaking with
gratitude because you deign to share your precious time with me at this
chance.」

Baldr lightly bowed his head with an aloof expression that didn’t show any of
his emotion outward. It was truly a cheeky reaction.
Alford had definitely hinted at marriage with Silk even though he mixed it
inside a joke. If it was Baldr from the other day, he should give an innocent
reaction of panicking like the kid he was. But his reaction just now felt as
though Silk wasn’t in his consideration at all.

Alford had no intention to marry Silk off at all, but he also couldn’t accept his
daughter being ignored by someone who she held a feeling for.

「Hmph, regardless of my willingness, you are already my equal right now.

Stop calling me your excellency.」
「Then Lord Randolph it is.」
Alford sensed a silent sign of Baldr readying himself for something. Alford
raised the level of his vigilance once more. He thought that perhaps he was
also resolving himself like this when he was about to confess to his wife.
「 The influence from his highness Bernardi seems to be a more powerful
medicine than expected.」

Baldr spat out those words with his eyes filled with scorn that he couldn’t
hide even if he tried.
「──What happened?」

「I got surrounded before I arrived at this mansion. Those people said to me

that a Maurician shouldn’t touch Lady Silk because she belongs to
Trystovy.」

*Twitch*, a vein pulsed on Alford’s forehead.

Silk was his daughter. She didn’t belong to Trystovy by all means. If he was
forced to say then Silk was the daughter of Randolph House. He had no
intention to sacrifice her for Trystovy’s sake no matter what happened.

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「──Who are these idiots?」
「It was Count Quatuor and his followers.」

「 That profligate son. The late Marquis Fadini must be turning in his grave
right now.」

The face of Count Quatuor who was obsessed with the thought of being
privileged formed in Alford’s mind and he let out a deep sigh. He was close
with the previous Marquis Fadini. Marquis Fadini was his point of contact
with Trystovy Kingdom before their destruction. If his son Quatuor was so
minded, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to build up a resistance within
Trystovy Dukedom. That was because there were a lot of people who were in
debt to Marquis Fadini even now within that country.

However Quatuor didn’t try doing that at all. He simply let his followers to
lick his boots while appealing for reinforcement from Mauricia Kingdom. He
never tried to do anything that would put him in danger.

Originally he possessed an influence that could compete for being number

one or two among the fleeing nobles, but now the number of his followers had
decreased remarkably and the quality of his livelihood was growing shabbier.
It could only be said that he was reaping what he sowed.

For him, Bernardi’s proposal must sounded like an excellent plan to overturn
the table in a single move.
「However, there should be a lot of people who agree with Count Quatuor’s
thinking. If not, there is no way that the royalty faction will stay in obscurity
for more than ten years like this.」
「Hou, it’s unusual for you Lord Antrim to be that scathing.」
It was rare for Baldr to speak ill of other people so upfront like this. And that
should be even truer when his speaking partner was someone like Alford who
he wasn’t that close with.

「 I won’t even feel that surprised if they have actually changed side to the
dukedom. That’s why I hope that Lord Randolph will be even more careful
with Lady Silk’s safety.」
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──Lady Silk.

Silk’s heart was hurt when Baldr called her like a stranger like that. Baldr was
already a great noble who rivaled the ten great nobles and an authority who
carried the kingdom on his shoulder. The weight he shouldered was different
from when was still just an easygoing countryside noble.

Although Silk rationally understood that, she hoped that he would at least still
talk casually with her when it was just them.

She was unable to suppress her feeling.

「Enough with that conduct that doesn’t suit you. Did something happen that
made you want to snap at everyone without care?」

Baldr’s face reddened in shame when Alford asked him that.

It seemed that he himself wasn’t aware that gloomy irritation had been piling
up inside him.
「That was impolite of me……sorry, Silk.」

Tears unconsciously spilled out from Silk’s eyes.

She realized once more that Baldr had become an existence this important
inside her that it made her cried just from this.
「Those fellows doesn’t understand anything, just how much effort Silk has
given, and how much pain she is under to resolve herself. Not only that, they
even considered such things worthless. It makes me unable to suppress my
anger when I thought that.」

「It’s fine, I don’t mind it.」

The distance between Baldr and her hadn’t widened. Rather Baldr was
treasuring her even more than before.

Silk’s expression reddened and broke down into a smile after noticing that.

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「──They are just pigs that has no utility value other than being kept like a
pet. Caring about them will give you nothing other than stomachache.」

From the start Alford never hoped for them to be of any use in the fighting to
take back Trystovy. He felt like he would burst into laughter just from
imagining that Quatuor taking up a sword and going to fight.

In the first place there was no way that man could even swing a sword
properly.
「After this there won’t even be any worth to keep them as pet.」

「Hou?」

Alford’s gaze turned dangerous. Baldr’s statement was including an

information that he couldn’t possibly ignore.

Alford was protecting the fleeing noble like now not just because of his
connection with his late wife who was a princess of Trystovy, there was an
even more important reason than that.

Alford was recognized as the leader of Trystovy’s royalist faction. He would

be the one who carried out the recapture of Trystovy Kingdom using his
military might, financial might, and political might.

Assistance in the form of fund and information found their way to Alford
because of that recognition. And the most important thing he could obtain
from this recognition was a connection with Trystovy’s maritime guild.

Alford continued to look after those fussy idiots because doing so brought
him those merits.

Baldr was saying that Alford would lose those merits after this. At the same
time it also meant a violation to the vested rights of Randolph House.

Alford assented to that statement with a look of detest.

「──I see, so you lord intend to grasp the rights of royalist faction as the son
of Princess Marguerite.」

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As expected Baldr’s eyes snapped wide open in shock for a moment, but his
discomposure was small.

It was Silk who felt a great discomposure.

「Eh? Eh? What does that mean? Why does Otou-sama mentioned Princess
Marguerite there?」

It was truly like a bolt from the blue.

Baldr was the son of Count Cornelius. Silk knew just how lovey dovey
Maggot and Ignis were. She couldn’t even imagine either of them cheating on
the other.

It seemed that Ignis was highly famous as a playboy in the past, but he
definitely wouldn’t live until now if he cheated like that after his marriage.
「I thought that it anyone notice it would be Lord Randolph first. 」

「 That doesn’t feel like praise for me. After the existence of Princess
Marguerite came to light; it’s not that difficult to arrive at the name of a
knight called Ramillies. That person is a man who stubbornly stays
unmarried. Only Maggot-dono will remain if you crossed out all the other
women around him who doesn’t fit the bill.」

Silk felt like she had heard something that was outrageously out of place and
asked her father.
「Is Otou-sama saying, that Maggot-sama is Princess Marguerite?」

「That’s right.」

That Silver Light Maggot?

Silk’s gaze turned toward Baldr to look for help. Baldr nodded awkwardly to
her. To be honest, Baldr himself also wanted to doubt this fact and asked
whether there was a mistake.
「Then Baldr is a prince?」
「There is also that. Both of us are also cousin.」
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Now Silk finally understood the true form of the indescribable sense of
closeness that she felt toward Maggot the other day. She felt that Maggot’s
atmosphere was somewhat similar to her mother because they were sisters
from different mother.

She also realized why she never thought of Baldr like a stranger. Perhaps her
love toward Baldr was because she mistook such familial feeling as a
romantic feeling? (──That’s absolutely not the case.)

That was the only thing that Silk was able to immediately convince herself of.

A vague feeling like sense of closeness wouldn’t raise this passionate emotion
inside her that could even drive her to risk her life.

At that war, Silk killed several people with her own hands while also truly
resolved to face death. That was the first time she killed human.

The safety of Baldr weighed her mind so completely that killing someone
didn’t even bother her.

She held no doubt at all that she loved Baldr more than anyone else.
「──I’m planning to pick a fight with a lot of people after this.」

Baldr suddenly said that. He was holding his head high despite the words that
he said.
「I’m also irritated by that crown prince who expressly came to Mauricia to
expose Kaa-san’s past. However, I also don’t feel like helping the powerless
royalist faction that only know how to lament like ghost.」
「How self-serving.」
「I’m a self-serving man. That’s why I’ll make it so that it’s the world that is
moving on my own convenience.」

Baldr grinned. It gave Alford an impact that made his spine shivered in chill.

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Baldr’s eyes weren’t the eyes of someone losing his head over his dream, they
also weren’t the eyes of youth who was overconfident of his own strength.

Baldr was seriously saying those words knowing that his chance of success
wasn’t small.

Alford wasn’t so young that he would believe such fairy tale.

However he was vexed because a part of himself was thinking that even this
wouldn’t be that impossible if it was Baldr.
「 I don’t want Silk to feel even more grieve than this for the sake of
Trystovy, so I’ll beat up those idiots.」

Of course he also would discard the royalist faction that was taking refuge in
Mauricia Kingdom right now. He would only have anything to do with the
capable people among them.
「 And then I will become Trystovy’s king to make Silk’s hope and dream
come true.」

Silk stared at Baldr with moistened eyes at those words.

She had weighed her feeling to Baldr and her dream of restoring Trystovy
many times.

In the end even when she realized that she couldn’t stop loving Baldr, she also
couldn’t give up her dream to save the Trystovy that her mother loved. Both
would came true without her needing to abandon either one. Was such pipe
dream really possible?
「You’re motivated. However a dream is called a dream because they can’t
come true.」
「 I have no intention of letting my dream end as nothing but a dream.
Trystovy’s maritime guild is already my ally. Of course, Sanjuan Kingdom
and Majorca Kingdom too. In addition──」

Alford grimaced as though he had bitten a sour grape hearing what Baldr said.

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Although he had guessed this, he realized just how serious the problem was
after having it said clearly like that.

Randolph House was able to support the refugee nobles by using a large part
of the fund assistance from maritime guild for the royalist faction.

If the maritime guild stopped their assistance, Randolph House’s financial

affairs would definitely worsen. And yet if Alford downgraded the living
standard of those useless parasites, they would immediately forget all their
debts to him until now and criticized him.

If that happened it would be as though Randolph House was keeping a snake

in its bosom. It was plain as daylight that they would try to make use of Silk
for the sake of their own selfish desire in that situation.

In addition there was also one more thing that Alford couldn’t ignore.

「If there is a path to make both my dreams come true, then I will choose that
path no matter how difficult it is.」

She herself must have given up on it without noticing.

She wanted to save Trystovy. She wanted to marry with Baldr.

There was no need to give up on either of them. Surely both dreams could
coexist with each other. No, a firm resolve was needed to make both dreams
come true. Baldr taught that to her. When Silk thought that, feeling of love
filled her heart and she naturally hugged Baldr’s left arm.

Page | 307
Page | 304
Alford raised his eyebrows, but this was the only thing that Silk wouldn’t
move aside for even if her father ordered her to. No, she had decided that she
wouldn’t move aside.

Silk stood beside Baldr and glared at Alford right from the front with a
hardened resolve in her eyes. Alford averted his gaze in displeasure.
「Even Alford-sama won’t be able to stop Silk when she is like this.」

Baldr shrugged with a wry smile.

If Alford wanted to stop Silk here, he would either have to imprison Silk or
brought a marriage partner that Silk absolutely wouldn’t be able to refuse, but
there was no way Alford who loved his daughter could do such things.
「……Do you think that his majesty will allow it?」

「 I need to pay back his majesty Welkin. A payback for sending assassins
after my mother Maggot. There won’t be another chance so I’ll collect this
debt from him at this chance.」
「Impossible──there is no way his majesty would commit such
foolishness!」

「Not even if──my mother has the blood of beastman flowing inside her?」

Alford’s eyes shined dangerously hearing the words that Baldr spoke out
casually.
「Brat, what did you say just now?」

「 The concubine of Trystovy King, Dahlia──the mother of Princess

Marguerite was a daughter of a beastwoman. That was why there was a need
to make it like she had died, but even with that his majesty Welkin still sent
assassins after her.」

A man of Alford’s caliber could do nothing except gasping because of this

severity of this unexpected matter.
「You think that, you can become a king……with the blood of

Page | 309
beastman inside you?」

Alford himself wasn’t someone who was that biased. Even so he couldn’t
help himself from speaking out his scruples about a beastman becoming a
king. It was considered that a type of sacredness was indispensable for the
position of king.
「That’s why I said that I will make it so it’s the world that follow my own
convenience. The maritime guild, Sanjuan Kingdom, and Majorca Kingdom
has also known about this. Nordland’s crown prince his highness Gustav has
also known. Which reminds me, just the other day there was a message from
the beastman race of Nordland that they are giving me their full support.」
「What……did you say?」

Maritime guild, then Sanjuan Kingdom and Majorca Kingdom and then even
Nordland Empire. That was effectively an alliance of four countries!

「 What do you think? Am I a fool who doesn’t know my place? Am I

incapable of liberating Trystovy? Am I unworthy to be Silk’s partner?」

There weren’t just four countries that were backing Baldr.

There was also Baldr’s own position as Margrave Antrim and Baldr’s father
Count Cornelius, their sworn friend Count Bradford, and then Dowding
Company.

Alford was shown for the first time that far from being equal, the current
Baldr was overwhelmingly above him in strength.
「 Having the blood of beastman isn’t something as light as you are
thinking.」

「 Perhaps that is so. But I have decided. If the world is rejecting me, I’ll
change the world. I will protect my important family with that strength.」

Alford looked at Baldr’s gaze that lacked any hesitation and sent his thought
flying to the past.

Page | 310
Trystovy Kingdom was destroyed and Queen Catalina also died. His wife fell
into despair and left behind a will that was like a curse to Silk to take care of
Trystovy in her place.

At that time, was it possible for Randolph House to attack Trystovy on its
lonesome?

It would be too rash to start a war with his arbitrary decision and Alford had
the duty to protect Randolph House as its head. But it was also a fact that as
the result he lost his wife and his daughter was driven to resolve herself to
become sacrifice.

Was it possible to change the world?

It was a question that he had never even considered until now. This question
was haunting Alford.

「Silk. Do you think this youngster has the power to change the world?」

Her father was making a face as though he was being crushed under his past.
Silk gently hugged him.
「 Of course. It’s not just Baldr. Otou-sama and I also have the power to
change the world. Although it’s very hard to notice that fact.」

Page | 311
Part 5

So the time has finally come, Welkin thought while his body that recently had
become very heavy leaned on his throne.

Around five days ago, there was a request from Baldr that was asking for an
audience. Furthermore the request asked that nobody else would be present
other than the prime minister. Baldr himself would also come alone. That
meant that Baldr had something complicated to talk about.

Welkin wasn’t an incompetent king. After his meeting with Ramillies, he

gathered all the information he could and made many deductions based on his
experiences until now. As the result, he arrived at the conclusion that the only
woman with no known background who was connected to Ramillies was
Maggot.

He was dumbfounded when he arrived at that conclusion.

Just the reputation of Silver Light Maggot was already troublesome enough,
but now that Duke Beaufort had died, Baldr was the person who Welkin
didn’t want to turn into his enemy the most in Mauricia.

He was terrified just from imagining Baldr rising in revolt toward the
kingdom. The biggest problem of all was if Baldr was thinking that it was
Welkin who sent assassins after Princess Marguerite.

It was actually his little sister Catalina who sent the assassins, but Welkin
couldn’t be said as free from the responsibility with his position.

Even so he was still puzzled of why Catalina was that obsessed with killing
the princess.

Duke Beaufort was also an influential person of the kingdom, but his strength
was far from reaching the king himself.

If Catalina didn’t do such unnecessary thing and honestly asked for Welkin’s
help, the possibility was high that they could secure Princess Marguerite.

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Certainly Welkin had no intention to kill Princess Marguerite, but he decided
to never talk about this matter to the world in order to protect Catalina’s
reputation.

Thanks to that Welkin was so troubled of how to ask for Baldr’s forgiveness
that he couldn’t even sleep.

.
「──Margrave Antrim has arrived.」

「Umu.」

Now then, how to deal with this.

「It’s an honor to be at your majesty’s presence.」

The instant Welkin saw Baldr’s composed appearance, he sensed that this was
bad. In a glance Baldr was looking composed, but his face was the face of
someone who was hiding an unshakeable resolve in his heart. (Perhaps I had
stepped on a tiger’s tail.)

At the past Baldr was unable to show a tranquil bearing like now. There was
no doubt that his experience from struggling through the
war and overcoming the darkness that his mother was holding had greatly
made him grown.

Welkin was aware from his experiences that someone resolved was an
extremely tough opponent in negotiation.
「It seems that you have been taking some really bold actions.」

Welkin naturally knew about Baldr’s contact with Sanjuan Kingdom,

Nordland, and how he even personally went to Randolph House the other day.

He wouldn’t be able to rule as the king of a country without being able to

gather information to this degree.
「I believe that my actions will also be beneficial for Mauricia.」

「──Is lord talking about becoming the king of Trystovy?」

Page | 321
「This country will also obtain advantage against Answerer Kingdom in that
case too won’t it?」

There was no arguing that Answerer Kingdom was currently the strongest
country in this continent.

Population, economy, military, all of them were more than double of Mauricia
Kingdom.

However if Sanjuan Kingdom and Trystovy Kingdom became the allies of

Mauricia Kingdom, this alliance would surpass the national strength of
Answerer Kingdom.
「It should be the same even if Lady Silk take that role isn’t it?」

「Alford-sama isn’t someone who wish for Silk to become a queen if there is
no need for it.」

Baldr was displaying his confidence while implicating that his talk with
Randolph House had been settled. Welkin was astonished by that from the
bottom of his heart. It was because he never expected that Alford who was
leading Trystovy’s royalist faction would recognize Baldr this quickly.
Furthermore Baldr was calling Alford by name like this, could it mean that he
had even recognized Baldr’s relationship with Silk?

Baldr had displayed his strength in politic and military using his novel way of
thinking until now, but it was an alarming situation if Baldr even have a
negotiation ability that could even convince that Alford.
「 Good grief, I didn’t promote you lord until your current rank with the
intention of producing a king though.」

Welkin couldn’t possibly allow Antrim territory to become lordless in case

Baldr really became Trystovy’s king.

Although Haurelia’s strength had decreased, a considerably political and

military skill were still indispensable in order to keep them in check.

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It was out of the question to keep entrusting Antrim territory to Baldr if he
became the king of another nation.

This was a problem that was giving Welkin another headache.

「Even so I’m indebted to you lord. I will lend you my help.」
「──What does your majesty mean by debt?」

As expected, the talk wouldn’t progress as long as this matter wasn’t made
clear.
「It’s the debt from my little sister sending assassins after your mother.」

「──Her highness Catalina did?」

After hearing Welkin’s words, Baldr felt like the discomfort that had been
stuck somewhere in his heart until now had finally cleared up.

The assassination attempt was too inadequate for something that Welkin
arranged.

Normally an assassination attempt should have someone with monitoring role

who didn’t participate in the battle.

But Maggot was able to cross border easily after the attempt. The possibility
was high that there wasn’t anyone monitoring her at that time.

It was something that was really hard for Baldr to swallow.

That meant──.
「His majesty only instructed his subordinates to secure Princess Marguerite.
You lord must be unable to believe it so suddenly but, this is the fact.」

The prime minister Harold continued after Welkin to cover for him. For them,
this misunderstanding was the one thing that they earnestly wished to resolve.
(Well, I don’t know about Kaa-san but I myself am not really concerned about
it.)

Page | 323
「 At that time Catalina still hadn’t even given birth to the heir, and her
standing in Trystovy was shaky. Because of that she made use of Duke
Beaufort’s connection to arrange for assassins.」
「 Even though there wasn’t any need to kill her. Trystovy was also already
treating her highness Marguerite as dead. There were many methods to keep
the survival of her highness from being exposed to the world.」

Although it was true that killing the princess was the quickest way. Harold
stopped himself from saying those words.
「──Does your majesty know why her highness Catalina was targeting my
mother that persistently?」

「Umu. It seemed there was a mistaken information at that time that Princess
Marguerite is actually a boy. But such thing originally should be
impossible.」
「I have an idea about why her highness did such thing.」

That was why he hardened his resolve to fight. He had decided to pick a fight
with the world. Even if his opponent was Welkin, he didn’t have the option to
withdraw.

On the other hand, a bad premonition was rumbling in Welkin’s chest. He

was convinced that this reason that Baldr mentioned must be something no
good.
「And, what could this reason be?」

Even so it was impossible for Welkin to close his ears.

He wouldn’t be able to prepare countermeasure without knowing the reason.

A politician had to keep his ears open, especially to bad news. But, until now
there was no news worst than this that would make him happier not knowing.
「──It’s because Princess Marguerite, my mother Maggot has the blood of
beastman flowing inside her.」

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「 I-impossible! There is no way beastman blood can enter a royal
family──!」

Welkin of all people jumped up to his feet with his agitation in full display.

The usual figure of the impudent and mischievous king couldn’t be found
there.

Even Baldr, although he had been resolved from the start, he was still
surprised that even a man like Welkin couldn’t completely free himself from
discrimination toward beastman.
「 The mother of Princess Marguerite, the king’s concubine Dahlia was the
daughter of the head priestess of Nordland’s beast god shrine, Gina-sama.
Will your majesty recognize her if I say The Thunder of Helsing?」
「──That’s a significant name!」

Even if they searched, it would be difficult to find a beastman with influence

as great as Gina in Nordland.

Not just Welkin, even Harold was flustered and speechless because a name
that was completely outside of their expectation came out.
「I have the birth record that was exchanged between the late Count Pazarov
and Gina-sama, the short sword that was inherited from the late Trystovy
king, and also the birth certificate that was written by the priest. Sir Ramillies
who was once a knight of Trystovy Kingdom can also provide his testimony.
Will your majesty still doubt it even with all of that?」
「 This isn’t the problem of doubting or not. That just cannot be! This is
completely bad!」

Welkin could still accept it if Princess Marguerite’s son Baldr ascended to

Trystovy’s throne.

It was obviously better to have a friendly neighboring country rather than a

hostile neighboring country. But the problem was completely different if the
talk was about putting someone with beastman blood on the throne.

Page | 325
「 So this is the difference in perspective between the royal family and
retainer. It seems to me that his excellency the prime minister isn’t as opposed
to this as your majesty is.」
「What?」
「No, I think that this is also a difficult problem you know? As expected the
prejudice toward beastman in every country is deeply rooted. There will be
some forces that won’t acknowledge Lord Antrim as a king.」

Harold was calmly analyzing the problem. It made Welkin wanted to yell to
him that the problem wasn’t that. As expected, even though Harold was the
top noble in this country, his way of thinking was still that of a retainer.

The royal families had given their all to protect each of their lineage’s
sacredness so it could be used as a guarantee to secure their rule until now.

The royal family was the royal family because their lineage was protected.
And then the thickness of their lineage would also become the royal family’s
just cause in order to aim to restore the unification dynasty.

This sacredness was already starting to tear apart at the seam when Trystovy
king was murdered, but if a king with beastman blood was born, the existing
royal families would lose the sacredness of their lineage.

Welkin couldn’t even imagine what would lie at the end of that chaos. And
most of all, Answerer Kingdom that boasted themselves as the successor of
the unification dynasty would take serious action to prevent such king from
being born.
「Is there no option of you lord to support Lady Silk at her side?」
Even in such case, it would be problematic if a child between Silk and Baldr
succeeded the throne, but it would postpone the problem and soften the
impact.
「None. Besides, Sanjuan Kingdom and Nordland Empire won’t move if this
is “for Silk’s sake”.」
「Of course it is.」

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The relationships with those two countries were formed by their friendship to
Baldr personally. The daughter of Marquis Randolph, Silk was insufficient to
be their figurehead.
Even so Welkin was still scared. Mauricia Kingdom was the only country
with a lineage that rivaled the lineage of Answerer Kingdom as the legitimate
descendant of the unification dynasty.
The first emperor of Nordland was an illegitimate child, while
Trystovy’s lineage was dirtied by beastman blood.
As the successor of Mauricia royal family, Welkin feared that Answerer
Kingdom would get ahead in this matter because he gave his support to Baldr.

「I have already obtained Marquis Randolph’s acknowledgement.

Sanjuan Kingdom, Majorca Kingdom, and Nordland Empire too will
recognize me if I ascend to the throne. In addition──」
Welkin didn’t have any choice from the start.
He should loosen his stiffened thought slightly.
「It seems Duke Richmond and Marquis Hadrien are also willing to allocate
some budget for this effort.」
「──What did you say?」

How many times you have to shock me before you’re satisfied?

Duke Richmond and Marquis Hadrien should be the ringleaders of the

bureaucratic nobles who were on bad terms with Baldr. How did it end up
with them cooperating with Baldr?
「I see. They’re thinking that the enemy of an enemy is ally.」
「Amazing discernment.」
Welkin sent Harold a questioning gaze. Harold smiled wryly and explained to
Welkin.
「In other words they want Lord Antrim to leave to other country.
Because it’s too troublesome to turn Lord Antrim into their enemy.」

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Welkin nodded in understanding. So it was something like that.
For them who was scheming to restrict the feudal lord nobles, rather than
getting into a head on confrontation with Baldr, it was self- evident that it
would be far easier for them if they just sent him out to other country like this.
「I won’t appoint any successor and leave the management of Antrim to his
highness William so that the territory enter under the direct control of the
royal family. I promise to make the transfer of authority to go smoothly
without any problem.」
──He got me, Welkin thought.
It was like an unseen blade was finishing off Welkin with a stab to the heart.
The vast and greatly developed territory of Antrim was to be put under the
royal family’s direct control.
Prince William who was personally close to Baldr would be installed as the
territory’s feudal lord. Baldr also guaranteed that the government structure
that was in place could be used immediately without any delay.
This proposal was overly attractive. It was nearly impossible for
Welkin to refuse it as a king.
「I’m not amused, this is really not amusing.」
He got the worst feeling. He was outwitted in every respect.
If Welkin wanted to seriously oppose this, he should have forcefully taken
action to bring this situation under control when the suspicion that Baldr was
Marguerite’s son first surfaced. But there was nothing he could do at this
point when all the path of retreat had been cut off.
「 You lord is the first one who make a fool of me to this degree. I see,
certainly your caliber isn’t suitable to be a mere retainer from the very start.」
A man whose genetic was engraved with the destiny to rule from his birth.
Although infuriating, Welkin’s capability would be questioned from inside
and outside the country instead if he didn’t support Baldr.

「──Show me that you can shoulder the same type of responsibility like me
splendidly, brat.」
Page | 328
Page | 329
Part 6

It seemed Baldr was visiting this capital Camelot.

Princess Rachel’s heart danced when she heard this rumor.
She immediately called her trusted maid to fix her appearance.
「I heard that Baldr-sama is coming to the palace, go check his
whereabouts──」
「……There is no need for that.」
「Otou-sama?」
Rachel was bewildered when Welkin appeared with a voice that was full of
deep anger that she had never heard from him before.
Did something happen that made him unable to suppress his anger like that?
Her father had never showed his gloominess that was caused by government
affair in front of his daughter until now. Because of that Rachel’s
bewilderment became even greater.
「Rachel, as I thought, you should marry into Richmond House.」
「Eh? Otou-sama, what are you saying so suddenly? I──」
「I have no daughter for a beastman to marry.」
Rachel couldn’t comprehend what Welkin was saying, but she instinctually
sensed that the string that was connected between Baldr and her had been
severed.
──Rachel never came out from her room since that day.
Credits
Translation Group: bakapervert

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