All That Glitters Is Not Gold
All that glitters is not gold.
Ashir was startled by the sudden visit of the Third Princess, but she quickly recovered her composure. Rather than turning her away with polite formality, she opened her mouth a little roughly.
"I've got nothing to say, so get lost."
[...I apologize for what happened during the day. I was rather high-handed, wasn't I?]
"Hmph! After raising that kind of ruckus!"
[Which is precisely why I am making a rather gentlemanly request now. You appear to have something you are relying on… yet it does not seem as though it will save your life at this very moment.]
"…Another threat? I'm so sick of this."
[Depending on how you choose to take it, this could be a threat—or a courteous request.]
"Which means it's a threat in the end! If you're so great, tell that lizard bastard to come here himself and throw a fit!"
She had been threatened since daytime and was still being threatened now, yet no real harm had ever been done. That had given Ashir just enough nerve to shout back with confidence.
[Oh…? Are you certain?]
"Ugh…! N-never mind, then…"
Still, the faint possibility that the Black Flame Dragon might actually be brought over to separate her head from her body made her falter. She could not keep pushing quite so hard and ended up shrinking back a little.
[What I ask is nothing much. Simply a brief conversation. We are, after all, from the same hometown.]
"A conversation…?"
[Thirty minutes. Give me thirty minutes of your time, and I shall not bother you again.]
"……"
The promise that a mere thirty-minute talk would keep her from being pestered any further made Ashir's ears prick up.
She was going to be stuck here for several weeks anyway. Putting up with constant visits and ignoring them the whole time sounded far worse than humoring the woman once and then spending the rest of her stay in peace.
"Fine! I allow it."
Showing up this late is a little creepy, but this actually works out. I'll finish things here and spend the remaining time rolling around comfortably, killing time.
After a brief moment of thought, Ashir gave her permission.
If she had thought a little deeper, she would have realized the Black Flame Dragon was still in the Great Forest, and that the two of them could simply ignore a verbal agreement and keep harassing her anyway.
Unfortunately, while she had possessed Ashir's body and gained her outstanding physique, she had not gained Ashir's intelligence.
Creeeak—
"It's been quite a while since we sisters faced each other alone like this, hasn't it?"
"We're not even real sisters, so quit the fuss…"
With Ashir's permission granted, the late-night secret meeting between the two elf princesses began.
"You fixed it rather quickly."
"You're the one who smashed it in the first place…"
Estel stepped into Ashir's chambers and murmured in admiration at how cleanly the section Darian had cheerfully wrecked that afternoon had been repaired.
"Just spill that fancy story of yours already. I'll half-listen, kick you out, and go to sleep."
Ashir let out a long sigh, made no effort to welcome her guest, and simply flopped onto the bed, tilting her head.
"Indeed. The young friend is quite lively and full of spirit. Have you been like that since childhood?"
"Well… ever since I was little I liked running around and playing more than studying."
"……"
Estel had come of her own accord, yet the sheer rudeness of the reception made her try a roundabout jab about whether the girl had ever received any manners training as a child. Ashir took the words at face value and answered them directly, leaving Estel involuntarily shutting her mouth.
She doesn't catch the sarcasm at all. Either she's an idiot, or she's deliberately pretending not to understand… though it seems closer to the former.
The closer she is to the former, the better for me, so it hardly matters.
"Very well. Let us get to the point. What is your relationship with Ganix?"
"Why do you need to know?"
"I already know the situation; I am merely confirming. You are here on the orders of Ganix Obina, Third Prince of the Obina Empire, are you not?"
"It wasn't an order! I just had no choice but to grant a favor!"
"I see. So in order to carry out that order—"
"It wasn't an order!"
"…to grant that 'favor,' you returned to the Great Forest and began keeping us in check."
"If you didn't like it, you should've joined our side."
"…According to your words, preventing the harvest of the World Tree's leaves is less about upholding elven tradition and more about simply controlling me and the Evergarden family."
"You already know that, so why ask? Of course it is."
"So that is how it is. You accepted Ganix Obina's 'favor,' returned to the Great Forest, and are now deliberately obstructing the gathering of World Tree leaves while citing a tradition you do not even believe in."
"Are you just going to keep saying the same thing?"
"Then, if we—myself and the Evergarden count family—were to join the side of the Empire's Third Prince, Ganix Obina, would this behavior also cease?"
"Dunno… probably?"
"What an interesting thought."
"What? Feeling like you're losing now, so you're gonna pull a dogija or something?"
"…It is dogeza, not dogija."
"Same difference! Too bad for you, though—it's already too late. No matter how much you beg now, you're finished."
"That insufferable blond bastard is throwing a fit about crushing you somehow. I have no idea what you did to make him lose his mind like that… well, tough luck."
"Hmm… then let us summarize."
"Ganix Obina, Third Prince of the Obina Empire, took a dislike to the Evergarden count family, forced you—who had once left the Great Forest—to return, and is now deliberately interfering with the harvest of World Tree leaves under the excuse of tradition. Is that correct?"
"Nice summary. Yeah, that's it."
"And yet, even though this potion production has given the elves—who have idled away their time in this forest without any progress—the chance to advance onto the continent and build a far more developed elven kingdom, your stance remains unchanged?"
"Oh, come on. The elves? Like I care. Those NPC nobodies."
"…I have heard enough. Forgive me for coming so late. I shall not disturb you further."
"Yeah, hurry up, shut the door, and get out."
With those final words, Estel turned her back and left Ashir's chambers.
Watching Estel's retreating figure, Ashir hummed a little tune, thinking she finally had some breathing room. She never noticed.
Even though Estel had requested a "conversation," nearly every word exchanged had been Estel asking questions while Ashir merely answered them.
Nor did she notice how the same points had been repeated again and again, as if guiding her toward particular answers.
But Ashir did not know.
All she wanted was to send Estel away quickly and go to sleep.
And so Ashir expelled Estel from her chambers, sank into the soft bed, and drifted into a comfortable slumber.
"I'm back."
"Welcome back."
"How did it go?"
Having finished her talk with Ashir, Estel returned straight to her office.
Even at the late hour, Freya and Felix had not yet gone to bed; they were waiting for her.
Both of them gazed at Estel with grave expressions, as though expecting some sort of "answer."
"I am almost limp with how easy it was. Why was it so simple?"
Receiving their tense stares, Estel let out a disbelieving little laugh and drew something from her sleeve.
In her hand was a magic tool Felix had prepared in advance, inscribed with a magic circle.
"Listen to it once, cut out whatever needs cutting, and then we begin."
"Was it that bad?"
"Indeed. That young fellow… or girl, I suppose I still do not know which. In any case, that one's head is empty. If you shook the skull, I suspect you would hear a single tin can rattling around inside."
"Still, that works out well for us, doesn't it?"
"'In war, the thing one must be most wary of is not a competent enemy, but an incompetent ally.' The saying fits perfectly."
Estel had kept her guard up to a degree, just in case, determined not to leave any openings during the conversation.
Yet as she spoke with Ashir, she soon realized there was no need to stay on edge at all.
Exploiting an opening required skill in the first place. In front of someone who did not even know how to strike, it did not matter how many openings existed.
"Still, it was quite a memorable occasion."
"In what way?"
"In all the years until I built the Hansung Group with these dirt-stained hands of mine, I had never once conversed with an idiot of this caliber."
"……"
In short, in ninety-three years of life, she had never spoken with anyone so foolish.
It was a statement of how fiercely Estel had lived among capable people—and, equally, of just how much of a fool Ashir was.
The next day.
After a deep, restful sleep, Ashir woke around noon—only to be immediately escorted by soldiers and locked in a prison cell.
Her crime was treason against the nation.
In a word, as the elves' Second Princess, she had been branded a traitor to her own people.