The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered (2)
“Those filthy bastards!”
Riiip—
The Evergarden family had barely returned to the manor before they gathered straight in the study. Darian, still seething, tore into a newspaper crammed with scurrilous flyers about House Evergarden as if he meant to grind it into pure dust, roaring all the while.
“If you’ve got a problem, come fight me fair! Not only did you threaten my husband with murder—now you’re pulling this underhanded crap behind our backs?! Just wait till I get my hands on you… I’ll pulp you into paste!”
As if Freya receiving death threats while he was away hadn’t already left him furious and frayed, Ganix’s cheap little war of public opinion had Darian’s blood boiling over.
“I’ll show these pieces of—!”
“H-hey, stop Mom!”
“W-wait, Mom! Calm down first! Put that thing down!”
“Let go! I won’t feel better till I’ve split their skulls like firewood!”
In the end Darian seized his personal weapon—a fearsome battle-axe—and made to storm out of the study with grim resolve, forcing Felix and Rosaria to break into a cold sweat just to hold him back.
“What do you think you’re going to do all by yourself, Mom?!”
“So I’m just supposed to sit here?!”
“Still, this isn’t the way! If you were climbing onto a dragon’s back and charging in, maybe I’d get it!”
“……A dragon?”
“Wait. That… actually makes sense?”
The offhand remark Rosaria had spat out in pure frustration made both father and daughter turn their heads at once and mutter the same thought.
“…Huh?”
They were looking straight at Tene, who sat blankly on the sofa with her eyes wide open.
“Hey, Tene. Want to put on a real fireworks show with your auntie?”
“Excuse me?!”
“Yeah—just one good breath over the Imperial Palace and they’ll be too busy shaking to make a peep.”
“E-excuse me?!”
True enough: even if Darian had mastered Sword Aura and could swat knights aside without breaking a sweat, charging the Imperial Palace alone would still be little better than suicide. But if a dragon entered the picture? If a living nuclear bomb started circling right over the palace roof—what then? It would make for a truly excellent means of negotiation.
“Absolutely not.”
Freya, however, shut down that perfect, brilliant plan at once.
“The moment we use Tene, we either swallow the Empire in a coup—or we abandon it entirely and hole up on some frontier. Those are the only two roads left to us.”
“If we used Tene to seize power by force… you or I would be sitting on the throne before the day was out.”
“The method is simple enough. We simply kill every last member of the imperial bloodline that exists in this Empire.”
“Urgh…”
Freya delivered the talk of wholesale slaughter with a perfectly blank face. Tene instantly pictured her own enormous self chewing through the imperial family like so much gum, and her complexion went deathly pale.
“If we took the throne that way… everything in this Empire we stand on would end up hanging from our shoulders. Can you bear that weight?”
“Mmm… that does sound a bit much.”
“I could manage it, of course. But wiping out a bloodline that has ruled for over a thousand years and governing the Empire through pure terror? I doubt it would end well for any of us.”
“Assassins would probably come after me and the rest of the family every single day. I refuse to make my family walk on thin ice for the rest of their lives.”
“So even a little intimidation is off the table?”
“The Empire executes people for merely capturing and raising magical beasts, that’s how paranoid they are about coups. Do you really think people like that would tolerate the existence of something that could casually twist their necks?”
“Haaah… this is just frustrating. Having power is useless if it’s too strong to use…”
Even magical beasts used in a mere attempted coup were kept under the strictest watch. Imagining what would happen the moment Tene’s true identity came to light, Darian could only heave a helpless sigh.
“That’s why Tene must always remain our last resort. A secret weapon, if you will.”
“Guess there’s no other way.”
“Secret weapon… what a cool ring that has…!”
Having finally calmed Darian, Freya murmured the words secret weapon—and Tene’s chuunibyou heart immediately began to pound.
“Ahem! Ahem! I am a secret weapon, after all! I must be saved for important occasions!”
“Yes, yes. Very cool.”
“So what do we do now? If we just sit here, something terrible might happen.”
“True—the situation is turning against us a little.”
“They prepared thoroughly during the two weeks we were at the palace. They really caught us off guard.”
“As of now, we’re the only house supporting the Fifth Princess, while the Third Prince’s faction is considerable.”
“They won’t welcome the Fifth Princess rising either, so of course they’ll pool their strength.”
“Most of the people demanding refunds right now are probably Third Prince supporters. The big names are calling for refunds first and dragging the rest of the nobility along with the mood.”
“And they’re even circulating flyers… looks like they’ve made up their minds.”
“Once someone finds a fault to pick at, clearing your name takes ten times the effort. We’re basically playing devil’s advocate here.”
Once one person starts throwing stones, the person beside them starts throwing stones, and then the person behind them. Slinging mud is entertaining in its own right, and the comfort of knowing you’re not the only one doing it dulls any guilt. From baseless flyers to refund demands—what begins as radical news can, once the fire catches, spread without end.
“But there’s no need to worry too much. This problem will solve itself the moment we start selling the potions.”
Freya, however, was not worried. Refund crises, malicious baseless flyers—all of it lost meaning in the face of an overwhelming product. The potions’ performance was simply too outstanding to be swayed by mere rumors. If this had all been a pure scam, that would be one thing; but House Evergarden’s potions were the real deal.
“Once they start selling, the rumors will be forgotten before anyone notices, and they’ll sell like crazy. Our product is worth that much.”
“Still, getting hit like this is just plain infuriating.”
“Right now is the time to conserve our strength and keep our heads down.”
“In the end the potions will spread across the entire Empire, and when they do, our power will grow even stronger of its own accord.”
Freya had already made her judgment. It felt a little strange to admit, but she almost wanted to applaud Ganix’s decision. Quick judgment and the resolve to act on it—if he weren’t an enemy, she would have loved to recruit him. But Ganix was an enemy, and House Evergarden had not been shaken in the slightest by his moves. On the contrary, Freya only smiled: the moment the potions began to sell, Ganix would find himself cornered by the very bad move he had just made.
“Is that so…”
“Well, our potions are pretty amazing.”
“Tch… just you wait.”
Under Freya’s explanation, the rest of the family gradually calmed down one by one. As long as Freya herself did not waver, nothing could bring them down—that absolute trust was enough.
“Well then, shall we all have a meal together today and shake off the travel fatigue?”
Having settled the matter of the flyers and the refund crisis, Freya rose from her seat and was just about to suggest dinner when—
BOOM—
“Lady Freyaaaa!!!”
“?!”
A woman burst through the study door as if she meant to smash it off its hinges. Ears far longer than any human’s twitched wildly. It was Shalye of the elves.
Celebrian Estelle had left Evergarden Territory for the Great Forest to oversee the production of potions from World Tree leaves in person. For any emergency, therefore, only Shalye had remained at the manor to serve as a living emergency line. Of course anyone could have filled the role, but Shalye had made the solemn choice of a lonely, quiet manor that served three delicious meals a day over the Great Forest—where warm family and utterly tasteless food awaited her—and that was why she was still here.
And now the very reason for her presence had arrived.
“J-just now…! Huff…! The Third Prin—! Huff…! Her Highness has…! Huff…! S-sent word…!”
“Catch your breath first. What’s going on?”
“…Hah! Yes! Just now, Her Highness Celebrian Estelle, the Third Princess, requested an emergency communication!”
“……The Third Princess?”
Shalye, still panting from having kicked the door open, hurriedly produced the crystal orb she carried. Grandfather is calling?
It wasn’t as if this had never happened before. Whenever the long-separated family felt lonely again, or whenever there was something to discuss, Estelle would reach out; Freya had taken her calls more than a few times. But Shalye’s reaction was different from usual, and Freya already felt the first prickle of something going wrong.
“Connect us, please.”
“Yes, ma’am! Connected!”
“Thank you.”
“Yes, ma’am! Call me when you’re finished!”
Bang—
Freya accepted the crystal orb Shalye held out. The moment she handed it over, Shalye left the study so as not to eavesdrop on a private conversation between royalty.
“…Grandfather?”
“Yes, is that my grandchild?”
“What’s the matter? You sound terribly urgent…”
Estelle’s voice came through the link. Unlike her usual hearty tone, it was tangled with complicated emotion; Freya swallowed without meaning to. Please, she prayed, don’t let it be what I’m thinking, and pressed on.
“Haaah… things have gotten tangled.”
“Tangled how?”
“Well, you see…”
In a way, Freya’s prediction had missed.
“The Second Princess. The elves’ Second Princess has appeared.”
It had missed so completely that that itself was the problem.