The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered (3)
The moment word reached them that the elves' Second Princess had appeared, the Evergarden family climbed onto Tene and set out for the Great Forest without delay.
Once again Tene found herself reduced to the role of an airplane, yet this time she transformed into her dragon form without a single complaint, settled them onto her back, and took off at speed.
Perhaps it was the shock of the Second Princess's return. Or perhaps she was simply growing used to her place as the Evergarden family's private aircraft.
Whatever the reason, once a dragon beats its wings, the journey is short. The Evergarden family reached the Great Forest in under an hour.
"You've arrived!"
"Where is Her Highness the Third Princess?"
"She's waiting this way. Please, hurry!"
The moment they landed, a throng of elves who had clearly been expecting them swept the Evergarden family forward.
"Grandfather!"
"Ah. So you've come."
They burst into the office of the Third Princess, Celebrian Estelle, and she greeted them as they entered.
A pipe absurdly long for her small frame hung from her lips as she puffed out lazy clouds of smoke. To an ordinary human it would have looked grotesque—a child smoking. To the elves, it was simply Estelle having a smoke.
But Freya knew better.
It was the habit of the Kim Han-sung who lived inside Celebrian Estelle—the thing he did whenever a situation refused to go his way.
"What happened? This business about the Second Princess…"
"Exactly what it sounds like. This morning, the Second Princess who left the Great Forest suddenly came home."
The Second Princess of the Great Forest: Celebrian Assir.
In any fantasy novel worth the name, she was the designated elf heroine. In the original Starlight of Dawn, she had grown so sick of the Great Forest's stifling ways that she cast off every title, fled the woods, and enrolled at the Imperial Academy. There she made a name for herself as an elven prodigy, took an instant dislike to the newly arrived protagonist, and somehow ended up as one of his companions—that was her role.
So why, against every current of the original story, was the girl who ought to have been at the Academy standing in the Great Forest instead?
"…First, please walk us through the situation. The Second Princess's return is chaotic enough on its own, but I know full well Grandfather would never summon us in such a panic over that alone."
"Ahem. Very well. It will take a moment, but I'll keep it brief."
At Freya's question, Estelle cleared her throat and laid out everything that had happened so far.
At present, the Great Forest's real power rested with the Third Princess, Estelle. With the elven king still asleep and no other royal blood remaining in the forest, and with the Council of Elders firmly behind her, command of the Great Forest belonged to Estelle alone.
Into that arrangement the Second Princess, Assir, had abruptly returned.
Up to that point, Estelle could still make sense of it. She had already heard Assir's profile from Felix, and had judged that a girl who once fled the forest's stuffiness would more likely side with the Estelle who was actually changing things.
But then—
"What?! She came back and immediately banned harvesting from the World Tree?"
"She did. And she enforced it with almost no real justification—pure force of will."
Estelle's prediction had gone spectacularly wrong.
The same Assir who, on the day she left, had insisted the elves needed to open themselves to humanity and see the wider world, had returned out of nowhere and, brandishing tradition and elven honor, forbidden the use of World Tree leaves for potion-making.
"…I rule the Great Forest for any number of reasons, but the largest is simply that I am the elves' Third Princess."
"Which means I am in no position to openly defy a decree from the Second Princess."
"W-what about the Council of Elders? Outside the royal family, they're the ones with real power—and they're on your side, Grandfather!"
"…The Council still isn't the king. Once someone starts waving tradition and honor around, they have precious little ground to stand on…"
"So what you're saying is… we can't make potions anymore?!"
"I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even I can see this is bad."
An abrupt Second Princess. An even more abrupt harvest ban.
"…Grandfather. How much finished potion stock do we have right now?"
"At best, two hundred forty-three boxes of twenty."
"That volume is nowhere near enough for a proper launch."
"This is a disaster! The only reason House Evergarden can throw its weight around at all is because of those potions. If we can't sell them…!"
Whether weathering a smear campaign, surviving death threats from Ganix, or even backing the Fifth Princess—every scrap of leverage the Evergarden earldom possessed rested on the value of those potions.
If the supply were cut off, they would be trapped with nowhere to turn.
"Is there nothing we can do?"
"The situation itself isn't the absolute worst. She may be the Second Princess, but she once abandoned the forest because she hated it—and we have a dragon on our side. Most of the elves are with us."
"For now we have no choice but to obey her order… but if we keep the pressure on, even she will have to reverse course."
"How long would that take…?"
"That's the problem. An elf's sense of time is absurdly long! Even a 'short' delay could stretch into years."
"…If it drags on that long, it will already be too late."
Ganix's campaign of public opinion would only tighten around House Evergarden with every passing day. The ideal answer was to begin selling potions as soon as possible—but if that window suddenly stretched, the smear campaign would simply bury them.
"But why would the Second Princess suddenly—?"
"…Possession. That Second Princess is a reincarnator. And she's on Ganix's side!"
"…No!"
A Second Princess who never appeared in the original story, arriving in perfect lockstep with Ganix's smear campaign.
There was only one explanation that made sense of it all.
"Lady Assir. Lady Estelle has requested an audience—"
"I'm not seeing her! I said I'm not seeing her! Did you not hear me?!"
"B-but…!"
"Do you find my words amusing?! The words of the Second Princess?!"
"…No, Your Highness."
On the highest floor of the royal palace, in a chamber reserved for royal blood alone, a woman's shout rang out.
Radiant golden hair spilled softly over her shoulders, and a circlet woven from World Tree leaves rested demurely on her brow—the mark of a high elf. Her eyes burned with the same brilliant gold as Estelle's, yet her figure was far more mature.
The Second Princess of the elves: Celebrian Assir.
"Anyway. You're keeping the World Tree leaves locked down exactly as I ordered, yes?"
"Yes, Your Highness. No one is permitted to lay a hand on them."
"Good. Keep watching. I don't care who it is—no one takes so much as a leaf."
"Understood."
"Now get out!"
"Yes. Please rest well, Your Highness."
She barked at her retainers with the arrogance of pure royal blood, yet unlike Estelle she carried none of the quiet dignity of someone who actually sat on a throne.
"—Haaah. This is seriously exhausting…"
Once she had all but driven the servant from the room, Assir slumped back into her chair and muttered under her breath.
"Blocking the World Tree leaves is fine, but… what the hell is that little brat? In the original she was barely even a side character…"
"And the elves and the entire Council of Elders are all on her side? This is nothing like what I was told!"
She had returned to the Great Forest on orders, but the reality waiting for her was so different from her expectations that the mental fatigue was crushing.
"And on top of that, of all things…"
There was one variable larger than anything she had prepared for—
Wooooong—
"Perfect timing."
The crystal orb resting on her table gave a soft pulse of light and a faint tremor. Assir picked it up.
"It's me. Did everything go smoothly?"
"Haaah… Ganix, that you?"
"Who else? So? How did it go?"
The voice from the crystal belonged to none other than Ganix Obina.
"I did what you told me. I stopped them from taking World Tree leaves. For the time being, they won't be able to make those potions."
"Excellent! That's more than enough!"
Assir lounged in her chair as if conversations with Ganix were the most natural thing in the world.
This had been his gambit all along.
A smear campaign alone could never stop the Evergardens—could never stop Freya. No matter how many subordinate nobles and newspapers he marshaled to shape public opinion, the moment those potions went on sale their sheer effectiveness would flip the narrative overnight.
But if the potions never reached the market?
Then the seeds of doubt Ganix had sown would bloom into full flower and crush House Evergarden under their weight.
"Ah! Wait—there's a bigger problem!"
"What is it?"
Just as Ganix was basking in the success of his plan, Assir pressed on in a rush.
"The Black Flame Dragon… Tenebrix Nox is here right now…!"
And with that, Assir fed Ganix the single most shocking piece of information she had ever laid eyes on.