The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered (1)
It took the Evergarden family more than two weeks after the New Year's banquet incident before they could finally leave the Imperial Palace.
While countless nobles and the great magnates who led the major merchant guilds—people who had formed the very foundation of the empire—were being reduced to dew on the executioner's blade, Freyja Evergarden endured a relentless cycle of interrogation, cross-checking every scrap of information for falsehoods, and then more interrogation still.
The affair had shaken the empire to its core, so in a way, the Imperial Palace's decisiveness and judgment in wrapping the matter up within two weeks was rather impressive. Much like the Korean Ministry of Defense churning out tanks at a frenzied pace, a government that had once lived through a coup possessed its own distinctive panic button.
And so, after a stay at the palace that felt long or short depending on how one looked at it, they were finally on the road home.
"Ah… what a shame."
No longer needing to keep up appearances, Rosaria had shed her elaborate, trailing dress and returned to her usual pants. She propped her chin on her hand and muttered to herself.
"Life at the Imperial Palace was seriously no joke."
"You already live like a noble at the manor—no, you are a noble. What more could you want?"
"No, it's really not the same level. The palace is just… different. Another dimension? Yeah. A whole different dimension."
As the eldest daughter and youngest child of Count Evergarden's house, Rosaria had always been treated exceptionally well at the manor—but her experience at the Imperial Palace had exceeded all imagination. She had stayed there as a key witness in the incident, yet unlike the count couple and Felix, who had been run ragged by daily investigations, Rosaria had been of little help to the inquiry and had essentially lived like a guest.
"When I open my eyes in the morning, the first thing waiting for me is a foot-bath basin. Not too hot, not too cold—just the perfect temperature."
"Once the foot bath is done, it's time for grooming. I don't even have to lift a finger. They do everything while I just sit there."
"After that, breakfast. They bring it straight to my room, you know?"
"Once the meal is over, I can sleep in as long as I want or wander around the palace—doesn't matter. Of course the areas where the imperial family lives are off-limits, but lying down for a nap in a field fragrant with flowers? Nothing better than that."
"Ugh, I thought I was going to die of frustration not being able to do any magic experiments."
Felix made a face of pure disgust as he listened to Rosaria's bragging.
"By the way, son? Could you continue that story? You said you met a new reincarnator?"
"Oh, right."
Rosaria, who had been continuing her boasts, finally recalled the matter she had completely forgotten about at Freyja's question.
"Jin Bore… Bores? Was it Bores…?"
"Bores."
"Ah, right. Jin Bores. He was a reincarnator too."
Jin Bores. The man who had approached her at the ball and casually dropped certain words, then sought her out after the incident to introduce himself as a reincarnator.
"Jin Bores is a reincarnator… so that's how he was able to capture magical beasts."
"But at this point in time, Jin Bores should still only be the Bordergrave heir. How did he rise to the Bordergrave seat itself?"
If it was Jin Bores of the Bores family, the ruler of the north, he would have been able to lend real weight to the northern magical-beast capture efforts. Of course the imperial family would have noticed this as well—not only them—but the frustrating part was that there wasn't a single piece of decisive evidence to connect him to anything.
"On top of that, the Third Prince turned out to be a reincarnator too… so the thing we were worried about has actually come to pass."
"That bastard looked at the people of this world as if they were nothing more than dolls."
"Just NPCs… that's dangerous. He's a textbook psychopath."
The ruler of the north, Jin Bores. The empire's Third Prince, Ganix Obina. Judging by the circumstances, these two seemed to be on the same side.
"For now we've been separated like this, but the key question is how they'll move next."
"We completely wrecked the plans they were building…"
"And then there's the death threat…"
"Dad's okay, right?"
"Those bastards… how dare they threaten my husband with death…? Those fucking sons of bitches are dead if I catch them…!"
When Freyja explained that Ganix had even issued a death threat against her, the three family members completely marked him as an enemy. Darian in particular growled as if he would charge in and chew the man down to the bone if Ganix appeared before him—emperor or not.
"Come to think of it, the three of us have some degree of combat ability, but Dad has an extremely frail body."
"That's true. You, me, Mom—worst case, if a robber came at us with a knife, we could handle it. But Dad can't."
"Honey, want to start training from today? At least wrapping some mana around a sword would make you a bit safer, wouldn't it?"
"Ah… haha…! That would be nice, but I'm so busy with work I don't think I could manage it."
"Hmm, what to do…"
As they talked, the conversation even reached the point that Freyja was simply too weak compared to the other three. Darian had raw physical strength and combat power, Felix had magic, and Rosaria had spirits and magic pistols—any of them could survive being thrown into almost any situation. But for Freyja, even running into a street thug with a knife would lead to a horrific outcome.
If this were the modern world, with good public safety and higher social awareness, it might have been different. But this was a medieval fantasy world with poor security and a low threshold for murder, so the three of them couldn't help but worry about her.
"Still, Gordon is always by my side under normal circumstances, so don't worry. I charged in alone this time at the palace for the sake of the performance, but from now on I'll always bring people to protect me."
"Well, if that's the case…"
"If it's Master Gordon, it should be fine…"
"I'm still worried, but…"
Freyja's assurance that she would always travel with Gordon from now on eased their concerns somewhat. After all, Gordon was the master who had trained both Darian and Rosaria, so they judged that someone of his caliber would be more than enough to save Freyja in a crisis.
"Well! There was a lot of talk and a lot of trouble, but in the end, home is best. Right?"
"Says the one who was just going on and on about how great the palace was."
"That's that, this is this. I want to get home already!"
It had been a capital visit full of talk and trouble, but now that things were roughly settled, the carriage headed toward the territory waiting for them. And when they arrived at the territory, what awaited the Evergarden family was—
"Th-this is terrible!"
"Tene?"
"What's going on?"
It was Tene, dressed in a maid uniform completely unsuited for a territory checkpoint, stamping her feet in agitation.
"Just hurry to the manor! I'll go ahead and wait for you!"
Whoosh—
"Huh? W-wait, what's the matter!?"
Tene only told the Evergarden family that something terrible had happened, then vanished in an instant.
"What could it be?"
"What? What's going on?"
"…Let's head to the manor quickly for now."
The family was bewildered by Tene's sudden behavior, but they followed her instructions and made for the manor at once.
"I have been awaiting your return, my lady."
"Gordon, what exactly is going on right now?"
"…First, I would ask that you look at this."
The moment they arrived at the manor, Gordon greeted them and handed something to Freyja.
"This is… a newspaper?"
It was a newspaper from this other world. Even though this was a medieval era, newspapers circulated as if it were the Industrial Revolution—a historical inconsistency one couldn't help but notice. But since the world had been built entirely to the author's tastes, one simply had to accept that newspapers existed. Of course, Freyja herself had frequently used newspapers after reincarnating into this world to grasp the empire's political situation.
But this time was different.
"What is this?! This is pure slander!"
"How can baseless tabloid trash like this…"
"The other papers are the same… no, most of the major newspapers are the same…!"
The front pages were filled with indiscriminate smear pieces attacking the Evergarden count family as the masterminds of the recent incident. Claims that the purge had been a calculated scheme for the Evergarden family's ambitions; that potion development was part of it; that the potions actually had severe side effects which they were secretly hiding while trying to sell them off—and so on.
There were even pieces about the Fifth Princess. They couldn't directly criticize her as an imperial heir, so they attacked her indirectly by talking about her relationship with the Evergarden family.
"A-and… most of the nobles who had placed advance reservations for the potions have since canceled their orders and are flooding us with demands for refunds of their deposits."
According to Gordon's follow-up, nobles who had paid enormous reservation deposits were now canceling and demanding their money back.
"How did this happen?"
"Who would do something like this…!"
"…….."
Coming home to this kind of chaos left them thoroughly confused.
"Ganix Obina. This is his doing."
But Freyja knew at once who the culprit behind this was. No—it was far too obvious.
And so, Ganix Obina's campaign of pressure—driving a chisel into the protruding stone—began.