Confrontation (2)
"You people. You've gotten far too conspicuous."
The Evergarden family had become far too conspicuous.
In the original story, they had been disposable villains—extras who handed the protagonist a string of frustrating setbacks early on, only to be cut down in a brief, refreshing rush of catharsis and left as dew upon the execution grounds.
That same family had now climbed so high they stood among the pillars of the present Empire.
"The Academy affair, fine—I'll grant you that. But that potion crossed the line. You used leaves from the World Tree for it, didn't you? There's a scene in the latter half of the original where a potion is made the exact same way."
"……"
"Staying quiet, are we? Fine. I'll just keep talking to myself, then. And the Fifth Princess… what were you thinking there? Standing up in front of every noble and every member of the Imperial family and all but declaring you'd back her—do you have any idea how awkward that made things for us?"
Freyja, along with the rest of the Evergarden family, had stood before the Emperor and, while uncovering the truth of the incident alongside the Fifth Princess, openly announced that the Fifth Princess's hand had been involved.
"In the original, the Fifth Princess only shows up through the early-to-mid sections, then fades into the background scenery without ever distinguishing herself. Yet somehow you managed to cook her up into this swaggering force—talking like she's already the next Emperor."
"Thanks to that, I've got more people I have to keep an eye on. It's extremely irritating."
This whole affair had completely shattered the carefully balanced structure of the succession war that the Third Prince, Obina himself, had been slowly devouring—himself included.
"Funny, isn't it? If we hadn't acted the way we did… it was written all over your faces that you planned to use us as a convenient outlet for selling magical beasts, then discard us as a throwaway piece. So what you're saying is we should've just sat there quietly and polished our necks for the blade?"
"Well… that's true enough. Not much I can say to that."
"So we're in the way. Is that it?"
"Exactly. I'm seriously considering it right now. At first, a lot of people thought we should just recruit you on reasonable terms. But when you backstab us first like this, it puts us in a rather difficult position."
"Distributing magical beasts wasn't a core plan, but it was a business that let us keep a leash on the Empire's nobility. And you people blew it apart."
"On top of that, with you backing the Fifth Princess, your faction's gotten far too large… so there were plenty of voices saying we should just—slash—and be done with it."
Click.
As he spoke, tossing out the idea of killing Freyja and the entire Evergarden family as lightly as if he were discussing the weather, Obina set something on the table.
It was a very small glass vial filled with a clear liquid.
"I prefer this to blood spatter. Much cleaner."
Without so much as a flicker in his expression, Obina grinned as he made plain what he intended to do to her, right here, right now.
"…You're going to casually poison a key figure inside the Imperial Palace?"
"There'll be a bit of a stir, sure… but when weeds start cluttering up the garden, it's safer to pull them out by the roots before they grow too large, don't you think?"
"On that point, I agree."
"So. You're going to kill me here and now?"
Yet even with a death threat hanging in the air before her eyes, Freyja only leaned back in her chair with easy composure, a smile on her lips.
"…You've got some nerve."
"Would I have started any of this without it? Incidentally—didn't you say there was no need to talk in circles? So when are you going to get to the real point? I'm not in the mood for these petty little games."
"…I like that about you."
Even so, Freyja looked at Obina with an air of mild disinterest and asked,
"If you were going to kill me, you'd have done it already. You have something you want to say, don't you?"
"You're right. Getting backstabbed stings, but more than that—there's a much bigger upside in play."
"Let's join hands. That's the real business."
"Join hands… is it."
"We're both from the modern world, aren't we? No need to waste time playing along with a bunch of NPCs."
"NPCs…"
"You've swung over to the Fifth Princess's side for now. But if the Evergarden family comes over to ours, there won't be anyone left in the Empire who can stop us. You'd be a massive help to our plans."
"And what do we get out of it?"
"The solid backing of the next Emperor of the Empire."
"You're awfully confident."
"When you know the original story, it's easy."
"Hmm…"
This might not be a bad opportunity.
House Evergarden currently rode the Fifth Princess's line. They had grabbed hold of it out of necessity, to keep the count's family alive—but the connection was rickety and deeply unstable.
If they switched to the Third Prince's line, as he suggested, the advantages over the Fifth Princess would be overwhelming.
However.
"Even so, your place in the succession is currently third, is it not? How can you be so certain you'll become Emperor of the Empire?"
"Simple, isn't it? If I'm the only heir left standing, the succession is mine."
"You're going to kill them all? And the chaos that would follow?"
"Well, I've got methods for that too… but there's no need to spell them out, so I won't."
"……"
"So. What's it going to be?"
"I refuse."
Freyja refused.
"…I thought you were smart. Why?"
"People who open negotiations by threatening your life—when the day comes they no longer need you, do they discard you? Or do they walk with you to the end?"
This was a conclusion Freyja had already settled the moment she decided to back the Fifth Princess.
"All you people want is the potion, isn't it? That's the reason House Evergarden rose to such an overwhelming position in the first place."
"If you ever learned how to make it—would you have any reason left not to throw us away? I wouldn't, if I were you."
There were many reasons Freyja and the Evergarden family had risen so high, but the largest share by far belonged to the potion formula.
House Evergarden held an enormous advantage through its monopoly on potions. If that formula ever leaked… the question became whether the Evergardens still held enough value on their own.
Of course, the essential ingredient—leaves of the World Tree—could only be obtained through trade with the Third Princess of the Elven Kingdom, Celebrian Estelle. Knowing the formula alone wouldn't make production easy. But if that arrangement ever came to light, it would also mean the crime of secretly colluding with a foreign nation—so that was something that could never be spoken of.
And the greatest problem of all was their methods.
At her core, Freyja thought only of her family's safety and cared little for anything beyond that. But there was still a line—a reasonable limit.
A human conscience? Hardly.
No matter how much family mattered, if you plunged society into chaos, your family would suffer for it in the end.
Of course, if killing everyone truly became necessary, Freyja herself would move without hesitation.
But these people acted as if there were no tomorrow to answer for.
NPC. Non-Player Character.
Obina made it plain that, to him, every original character who wasn't a reincarnator was not an equal person—merely a doll.
And since they weren't the same kind of "person," it didn't matter what became of them. That was the tone of his voice.
It wasn't so much that he scorned life itself. It was the way he committed acts without the slightest concern for the aftermath that left Freyja uneasy about the path they walked.
"…That's cold. Do you really have to think so harshly of someone from the same world as you?"
"I've never been fond of blood ties, regional ties, school ties—any of that."
"You do understand the position you're in right now, don't you?"
Click.
Hearing Freyja's clean refusal, Obina picked up the glass vial from the table and spoke.
"You think I won't do it?"
"Go ahead. Do you really think I'd sit here like this with no preparations at all?"
"……"
"……"
At last the carefully maintained pretense fell away, and Obina fixed Freyja with a cold, piercing stare.
A heavy silence stretched between them, empty of words, the air so taut it felt as though something could explode at any second.
"Ah, for— tsk. This is why I said we should cut you out from the start… I told them. I told them."
Obina broke the silence, slipping the vial back into his coat with a look of pure irritation.
"I'll let it go for today. But this isn't over. Go play house with those precious NPCs of yours."
"That sounds like a classic villain line."
"Take care. Auntie."
"……"
Clack.
And so the negotiations collapsed. Freyja watched Obina leave.
More problems to think about… The fact that he walked away like that suggests they're less interested in eliminating us immediately and more interested in extracting something further. The World Tree leaf supply, most likely?
As long as Grandfather is here, distribution of the World Tree will ultimately only happen through our family… but how they'll move after this is the real question.
For now, all I can do is watch their movements carefully and try to anticipate their next steps.
She had expected another peak beyond the one she'd just climbed—but she hadn't expected it to arrive this suddenly. Freyja's list of worries only grew.
But.
"How long has it been… since I met someone I wanted to utterly destroy this badly?"
Grind.
"Excuse me. Shall we continue with the—um… Countess…?"
"Auntie… he called me Auntie…? I will kill him. I will absolutely kill him…!"
Far more than any of that, Freyja seethed with a deeply personal, boiling murderous intent—so much so that when the investigator returned to the interrogation room to resume the inquiry, she failed to notice him at all and kept muttering under her breath.
And with that, Obina had done the one thing he should never have done.
He had turned Freyja Evergarden—once a senior executive of the Hansung Group, and later a leading candidate for its chairmanship—into his true and genuine enemy.