Chapter 123
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Imperial Palace Visit
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Several days had already passed since the Imperial Princess, who had bickered with me all through the dawn, eventually turned back into Peep and fled.
Progress report on the emergency repair of Skill [Retry].
Thanks to a week of intensive repairs, we should be able to prevent random time travel for the time being.
Lying in bed and chatting with the System as usual, I jumped up with sparkling eyes at this rare good news.
However, since the side effects are not completely blocked, they are scheduled to resume in the near future.
This System will do its utmost to fully eliminate the side effects.
But after seeing the follow-up in slightly smaller text, I couldn't shake off the feeling that the good news had soured a bit.
"...Young Master, there's a message from the Duke."
Taking comfort in the fact that, for the time being, I wouldn't have to worry about being killed by my mother in the past, I was about to lie back down when Schwarz entered the room and delivered the urgent news.
"The location of the family meeting has been changed."
"...Pardon?"
"Normally, Belverk family meetings are held at the ducal estate as a matter of principle, but..."
My drowsiness vanished at her words, and I hurriedly sat up again, listening intently.
"This family meeting will be held at the imperial palace."
"...Ugh?"
"And in front of all the assembled bureaucrats, no less."
What on earth was this about?
"Wh-why?"
"It seems a lot of people are dissatisfied with this decision."
"Ah..."
"To be frank, a majority of the high-ranking bureaucrats are voicing opposition."
At first, I thought Schwarz was joking, but as I listened, I could roughly understand the reason.
"B-but... no one used their veto at the Merit Council..."
"The Merit Council isn't an official meeting to begin with. The very existence of such a council is top secret."
"...Y-yeah, that's true."
In any case, the empire's final decision-making body to the outside world was the grand conference hall in the imperial palace, where the Emperor debated with the bureaucrats.
Even if all the merit houses voted in favor, if the bureaucrats unanimously opposed it with their lives on the line, even His Majesty the Emperor would be put in a difficult position.
"But this time, the opposition is too strong, even accounting for that."
"Why is that?"
"It seems the Holy Church wields considerable influence over the empire."
Of course, it was understandable for rational decision-making. But if the Holy Church was truly involved, as Schwarz suggested, it left a slightly bad taste.
"Wait, so what do we do now?"
"No need to worry at all, Young Master."
Yet Schwarz patted me reassuringly, as if this were nothing at all, and continued.
"It happens more often than you'd think. Whenever fools forget Belverk's prestige and spout nonsense... no, misguided opinions, we grace them with our presence and correct their thinking."
She said it so casually that I almost nodded along, but wasn't this basically an act of force?
"Belverk has called such outings to the palace 'imperial visits' for generations."
And if the target was the imperial palace, couldn't that be seen as full-blown treason?
"...Well, we've been so quiet lately that it's about time to enforce some discipline. Perfect timing."
Cold sweat began to trickle down, but Schwarz just smiled leisurely, as if she'd been through this many times before.
"Um..."
"Yes?"
"It'll be done peacefully, right...?"
But my anxiety wouldn't fade, so I asked again, and Schwarz's eyes gleamed quietly as she replied.
"...Of course!"
About ten hours after Astridje's message arrived via Kairen that the family meeting location had changed.
"Alert! Alert!"
"...Eek."
"Intruders ahead! All units, battle stations!"
Shocked voices from the knights guarding the south gate, the entrance to the imperial capital, began to echo.
"Wh-what's the enemy's numbers!?"
"Uh..."
But the knight peering through binoculars at the swarm approaching like a hive of bees let out a slight sigh of relief.
"On second look, they're not enemies."
"What?"
"Well, they're similar, but..."
"What the hell are you saying? Give me that!"
The frustrated senior knight snatched the binoculars and observed for himself.
"Aha."
He fell silent for a moment, then sighed in relief as well.
Emblazoned on the red flags in the binoculars' lenses was none other than the seal symbolizing House Belverk.
"Another round of disciplining the bureaucrats, huh..."
"Th-this time the interval's pretty short."
"Man, nearly gave me a heart attack..."
Belverk was known for such bold moves so frequently that the knights began to relax their guard.
"Urgent dispatch!"
"Hm?"
"Th-the palace says no permission has been granted!"
But at that very moment, the mood froze again as a messenger burst through the outpost door.
"...What?"
In the icy atmosphere, the rookie knight stammered.
"What do we do? Block them for now?"
"Are you insane? The moment we block them, it's civil war in the empire."
"But if we just let them through, we're done for too!"
It was only natural for the knights to panic in this minefield of a situation, where every step triggered an explosion.
- Beep! Bzzzt!
And then, a situation arose that plunged the already trapped knights into even deeper panic.
"Report from the east gate... Belverk's eldest daughter smashed right through the wall and invaded..."
"West gate reporting... Belverk's second daughter took the guard captain hostage and entered."
"N-north gate...! Belverk's third daughter... Aagh!"
Reports flooded in simultaneously from all gates, only for the last one to cut off with static.
"...They're just knocked out, so relax, you idiots."
Moments later, the outpost rang with the bored, irritated voice of Belverk's third daughter, Lilien.
"A-all the other gates have fallen..."
"Wh-what now?"
"Of all times... on our watch..."
Just as the knights' morale hit rock bottom with the communication crystal fully dimming and despondent expressions on their faces.
"S-someone's getting out of the carriage."
"B-battle stations!"
"A-as imperial knights, we'll fight to the end!"
A figure began descending from the carriage that had now reached right in front of the capital guard knights' outpost.
"...Hm?"
But everyone, burning with their final resolve as imperial knights, soon stared in unison with blank expressions.
- Toddle, toddle...
A white-haired, red-eyed young boy approached the tense knights with an adorably waddling gait.
"I-I am..."
"......"
"The youngest of Belverk. Kairen Nox Belverk!"
The boy, who looked weak enough to be taken down with a single punch by any knight there, glanced nervously around before twisting his face into a ferocious scowl and growling.
"If you understand..."
"......"
"G-get out of the way!"
And then, a long, long silence ensued.
"Kyaa, Young Master is so cool!"
"That was totally scary just now!"
"You looked so valiant and handsome!"
The maids swarming behind the boy broke the silence, blushing and petting him vigorously.
"Wh-what do we do?"
"Uh, well..."
"At that level, maybe we can take him...?"
The knights, watching the absurd scene for a while, turned to the senior knight en masse, awaiting orders.
- Patpatpat...
But right then, the white-haired boy suddenly toddled toward the knights.
"...Um, excuse me."
Glancing at the knights again, he pressed his fingers together and asked with a somewhat frightened expression.
"Could you just let us through this once?"
At that single plea, the knights who had lowered their guards had no choice but to open the gate without a word.
- Gooooo...
Not because Kairen was too cute, but because they glimpsed the true forms of the maids behind him, radiating murderous intent.
Thus, the empire capital's famously impregnable gates were breached in under an hour.
"Your Majesty, please understand!"
"We cannot allow their tyranny to go unchecked!"
"Please reconsider!"
The bureaucrats crowding the grand conference hall looked up at the Emperor seated on the throne above and wailed in unison.
"Haa..."
But the Emperor gazed down at them with clear annoyance, frowning and waving his hand dismissively as he spoke.
"Look, I told them not to come, didn't I?"
"Then...!"
"But those guys barge in anyway. What am I supposed to do about it?"
At his words, the bureaucrats fell silent for a moment, glancing at each other.
"Or do you want me to raise an army to stop Belverk?"
"......"
"That wouldn't be bad. So, who'll be the commander?"
The Emperor had so straightforwardly acknowledged Belverk's treason, leaving the bureaucrats in a bind instead.
"......"
There wasn't a single bureaucrat—whose specialty was armchair debates—who possessed the force or means to suppress Belverk.
"...Guess you all still value your necks after all."
Well aware of this, the Emperor quietly curled his lips, needling the bureaucrats' nerves.
"Oh dear, with such spineless ministers, the palace will be overrun by those impudent fools again..."
Naturally, the entire situation was as the Emperor intended.
She knew full well that Belverk wouldn't curb their actions just because she refused entry.
Thus, she was thrilled at the chance to use this to discipline the bureaucrats who had lately been crawling all over her, reeking of annoyance in everything.
But even the cleverest strategist couldn't have every plan go perfectly.
- KABOOOM!!!
"...Huh?"
Especially when the opponent was the Belverk clan, who defied common sense by miles.
"...Ahem."
Belverk's eldest daughter, Edelasia—the first of the family to arrive at the palace, cheeks slightly flushed as she glanced around—was the culprit.
"It's been two years since my last visit."
Muttering that while keeping a cold expression, she quietly raised her fist and added.
"Time to mark our territory."
And right after.
- KABOOOM!!!
With the sound of hundreds of explosives detonating at once, the palace's historic garden began to shatter.
"...That might need reining in personally."
Watching from the window, the Emperor clutched her head, then stood and strode past the ashen-faced bureaucrats.
"I'll handle it myself."
Not in her usual listless demeanor, but radiating the fearsome aura of the usurper princess who had once terrified the Belverks in her youth.