Schwald and the Knights
To sum it up, I needed a new house. First of all, my workspace was pretty small. Marie commuted back and forth because of her younger sibling, but since I lived with Ritz, the place felt cramped. I needed somewhere with more room to breathe. Above all, sharing what was basically a studio with a girl felt strangely awkward. After all, I’m a man on the inside. Being alone with Ritz—who knew nothing about that—left me with a weird feeling. But a bigger house would change things. I could give Ritz her own room.
“Wow, this house is really spacious.”
“Well, you need your own room too.”
“I actually preferred staying in that small room with you, my lady.”
“What?”
“No, never mind.”
I felt like I’d heard something strange, but I decided it was just my imagination. Even though I lived with Ritz, the house itself was quite large. Of course it was smaller than the main Roen family estate or other nobles’ mansions, but for a young woman living independently in the capital, it was practically enormous.
“Then maybe I should set up a separate room for magic practice and another for sword training.”
No, that was overkill. Practicing inside a room felt wrong anyway. It would be better to have a dedicated space for storing swords, another for magic books, things like that. Sword practice could happen in the yard. Decaron would visit often, so that arrangement made more sense.
The remaining issue was security. No matter how safe the capital was supposed to be, I couldn’t ignore the possibility of trouble. That problem, however, was solved sooner than expected.
“And you are?”
“I am Yuria, assigned to the Roen family’s guard unit. From today onward, I have the honor of serving as your bodyguard, my lady.”
It seemed my uncle had attached something strange to me. She was a woman with black hair tied up in a high ponytail, wearing light armor and a sword at her waist. Honestly, if I were still in Korea I would have asked why she was cosplaying, but after seeing all kinds of people at the adventurers’ guild, I was used to it now.
“Yuria?”
“Yes. I am sub-commander of the Roen Guard.”
She was surprisingly polite. Since Ainhart had sent her, she must be exceptionally loyal. Still, that wasn’t really my concern. I could just treat her as a bodyguard. The real issue was her gender. No matter how you looked at it, a beautiful woman with a great figure as a guard didn’t exactly scream intimidation. In other words, she looked weak. After all, first impressions are usually based on appearance.
“Still, if we’re talking about that, I probably should have become an Amazon thanks to my master, but my body is pretty high-spec, isn’t it?”
The body is high-spec. For some reason those words from that plagiarist author came to mind, but it really drove home once again that this was the world inside a novel.
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. Yeah. Nice to meet you. Just so we’re clear, you’re only guarding the house, right? I have my own private work to do.”
“Ah, yes. Of course. I exist solely to follow your orders, my lady.”
Good. We’d treat her as a bodyguard then. The next question was where she would stay.
“Where will you be living?”
“I have quarters right in front of the mansion.”
“I see. Well, as long as you’re around during an actual crisis, that’s fine. Take it easy with the guarding.”
Even if she wasn’t exactly a spy, the fact that she was my uncle’s person meant she would probably watch me closely. If Yuria ever discovered the novels I was writing, given Ainhart’s personality he probably wouldn’t stop me, but he would definitely spread them around. The Milene-equals-K formula would spread like wildfire.
“Yes, understood!”
Soon after, my fan signing schedule was set as well. In contrast to being treated like a potential hero, I was currently enjoying the absolute peak of my career as an author. Ironically, who would have guessed that the Demon King—the villain of the original story—would end up helping me so much?
For now, I decided to finish organizing things with Ritz. I only brought the manuscripts and materials I immediately needed to the new house. During the day I would still work at the old workspace, so there wasn’t much to move. Just some magic books and tools I’d bought with my earnings. The empire issue could wait until after the fan signing. There was already talk of publishing there, so if anything went wrong I could just throw Decaron at them. No one spits on a smiling face. If I handed over my master for my sake, what could the empire possibly say? Sacrifice yourself for your disciple.
“Well, that’s settled. Hmm. Surprisingly, Schwald’s side has been quiet.”
After finishing the move, that thought suddenly occurred to me. When I looked into it, the matter had grown quite large. The royal family, wary of Holpert interference, had taken direct control of the reinvestigation. The kingdom apparently had something like a court, but for this case—because “major nobles were involved”—the royal family was handling it personally. The real reason seemed to be that the court might have been bribed by Holpert or contained his agents, so they were ignoring legal procedure and dealing with it directly.
Which made me suddenly angry. It felt like Schwald had blown up on his own before I could properly get my revenge. Even if I had unconsciously drawn a larger picture, I couldn’t forgive him for disappearing before I could even taste it.
The Villainess Has Her Reasons was currently popular in the capital. Because of the novel, Milene, Schwald, and Sophia had all been compared to characters in the story. People were even saying Milene becoming a hero couldn’t be a coincidence. In that case, how about using the character who played the prince?
Yes. This method would work. Since I was already in the spotlight, I might as well use it to annoy Schwald a little.
“Right. It’s not exactly my taste, but how about an episode like this?”
Houston Prince, while evidence of Vilia’s manipulation continued to pile up, eventually lost his mind upon realizing he could not meet her.
Houston Prince harshly scolded the knights guarding his quarters, dragged them inside, and fell upon them like a starving orc.
I wouldn’t write the details. After all, this novel was a romance-fantasy revenge story, not BL. The concept of a prince who had gone mad would suffice. If I described it too concretely I’d end up becoming a fujoshi myself. Anyway, the story could continue with the mad Houston Prince committing acts of homosexuality. It was just a story inside a novel. A small, petty revenge, nothing more. Besides, once this volume was finished, The Villainess Has Her Reasons Volume 2 would be released.
I sat down at my desk and began writing on the manuscript paper.
The judgment of Milene in the First Prince’s palace was making slow progress. Holpert’s continued denial kept things at a standstill. But in reality, only Holpert was still playing dumb. Starting with the capital, most people already believed Sophia had orchestrated everything.
And around that time, The Villainess Has Her Reasons Volume 2 was published.
The villainess hero’s descent upon the capital caused Volume 2 to sell like wildfire.
“Did you read The Villainess Has Her Reasons?”
“Yeah, I bought the second volume the day it came out. My little sister begged me to get it for her.”
The knights guarding the First Prince’s palace were also enjoying the villainess hero’s story. Some of the knights in the royal guard were women, and the book had spread through them as well. Thanks to the recent events, it had even gained popularity among male knights. Naturally, the hero’s party remained completely unaware.
“I want to read it properly, but those Holpert bastards are dragging things out forever.”
“What can you do if they’re dragging their feet? Anyway, who in the capital still believes Holpert? Only Holpert and his vassals. No one outside their territory buys their story.”
To the lesser nobles who followed the Holpert faction, the family was basically a money pipeline. To those who opposed them, Holpert was the worst possible house. After all, they were the type to destroy an entire family simply for disagreeing with them. In a kingdom like Glacia that wasn’t fully centralized, powerful noble houses held real influence. Even if they were caught, the royal family couldn’t easily punish Holpert. To these people, Holpert was basically an enemy.
“I’ve hated how those bastards throw their weight around for a long time. Our family was ruined because of them too.”
“All this trouble because of that flower-brained prince. It’s only natural for Prince Heintz to become the hero. Lady Milene is so pitiful. Let’s just read while we’re here.”
The prince would be deposed before long anyway. The only thing the knights could do in this boring time was read author K’s work. Even the notoriously strict Prince Heintz would overlook this much. After all, how annoying must it be to monitor that incompetent, flower-obsessed first prince?
Naturally, conversation turned to the characters in the novel.
“But Prince Houston really went insane, huh.”
“Even if I lost my mind, I don’t think I could do that with another man.”
How could one man do that with another? Just imagining it was horrifying. Especially the part where the half-mad Houston Prince tried to subdue a knight with “ass this, ass that”—it gave them chills. Of course the actual scenes weren’t depicted, but it was strangely vivid. The female knights and women seemed to go wild over that part, though.
“Maybe only a female author could write something like that?”
“Honestly, if it was between women I could see the appeal.”
“What if Schwald was the princess? Ah, Houston. I’m getting confused.”
“Who knows? Maybe that flower-brained prince is into that stuff too?”
Readers who had been cleverly overlapping the novel with reality by inserting Schwald, Sophia, and Milene into the characters naturally began to suspect as much. Of course they thought it was impossible, but—
“No way.”
“They say ‘no way’ is what gets people killed.”
“Hahahahaha!”
The knights looked toward the First Prince’s palace and laughed to their hearts’ content.
Around that same time, Schwald, confined inside the palace, grew more anxious with each passing day.
“Damn it, what happened to Sophia? I need to find some way to escape.”
When would they release him from this place? He had only acted for the sake of his love with Sophia. At this point, he had to find a way out no matter what. The palace was dangerous, so he needed to reach the Holpert family. The first priority was to take the similarly confined Sophia with him. After that?
He had to find Milene. If he brought her to court to testify again, it would work. Holpert was probably looking for Milene too. All Milene had to do was admit her own wrongdoing again.
“This isn’t working. At this rate I have to recruit the knights.”
Openly recruiting them was dangerous. So perhaps approaching them one by one was the way? Thus, Schwald decided to recruit the knights.
He immediately stepped outside. A suitable person caught his eye. He decided to start with the nearest knight. Slowly. If he invited the knight into his quarters and offered luxury goods and various privileges, the man would surely react.
“Hey, you.”
“Haha. Um, what can I do for you, Your Highness?”
“Could you come into my quarters for a moment? There’s something important I need to tell you.”
Schwald called the knight with the friendliest face he could manage in order to win him over. To the knight who had just been reading the novel, however, it was the worst possible situation.
No way… right?
It couldn’t be. Surely not. No matter how crazy this prince was, he wouldn’t actually do something like that, right? It couldn’t be. No. It wouldn’t happen. There was no way he was really gay. It was just a novel. The targeted knight broke into a cold sweat. The other knights watched their conversation closely.
“W-what is it you need?”
“Well, there’s something rather urgent I wish to discuss with you.”
“F-forgive me, but we are not permitted to speak privately with you, Your Highness.”
“I am still a prince, am I not? This is a prince’s command!”
For a moment the knights’ faces turned deathly pale, as if they had seen a ghost. What the hell was that cursed prince thinking? Was he really acting like Houston from the novel?
The knights instinctively realized how dangerous this moment was. If they entered the prince’s quarters now, their chastity would be at risk. Even though they were men, that thought crossed their minds.
My ass is precious!
That prince was dangerous. All the knights who had read the novel thought the same thing at once. Not only them—the female knights nearby who had also read it watched the scene with flushed faces, their imaginations running wild. The targeted knight felt a chill at being treated that way. A cold sensation spread down his spine, warning him that entering would be dangerous.
“Hiiiiiiik!”
In the end, the knights fled. And from that day on, rumors that Prince Schwald was gay spread far and wide.