Turmoil in the Imperial Capital (4)
With the arrival of the Capital Army, Attelina was liberated.
Without a caster to sustain them, the shadow monsters would eventually be riddled full of holes the moment the long-range mana bullets started pouring down.
The Imperial military was moving. Of course they were.
Look at that. The Capital Army was marching into Attelina under the banner of the moon-and-crown. Wait—
“Huh?”
What the hell.
“Wipe out every last one of those foul-looking shadows! Anyone who can handle summoning or sealing magic, check Attelina’s barrier!”
Princess Amelia rode in at the head of the Capital Army.
“Princess. I will assist as well.”
Princess Revia of the Kingdom appeared as well, covered head to toe in blood.
“It would be best if Your Highness rested. Having an allied nation’s envoy caught up in this is already the worst possible situation for the Empire. Let us reduce the damage to the delegation now.”
“Understood.”
So the Empire’s princess and a kingdom’s princess had shown up at the same time.
The Kingdom’s side was an envoy that just happened to get swept up on the way here?
Wow. Princess and princess. The two countries’ royal ladies had both graced us with their presence.
“What’s wrong?”
Celia asked carefully.
“Nothing. Just thinking it makes for quite the picture, having the princesses of two nations in one place.”
And the kingdom princess had been on friendly terms with me back when I was Noah.
The imperial princess, meanwhile, had been something like a close friend of the first-generation me.
“If you think about it, Lady Olivia is pretty high-status herself, you know? You could easily be called a princess too.”
Hearing that didn’t make me happy at all.
“Fuck. I used to be a man. I don’t need to go as far as ‘princess.’”
“And the Saint thing is just you reaping what you sowed, so that can’t be helped?”
“You wanna die?”
“But that princess is coming this way toward Lady Olivia.”
Huh? Toward me?
The princess was approaching with a broad grin, her eyes the spitting image of the Emperor’s.
“Ah, fuck. I had a feeling, and of course. Should I hide?”
“You already made eye contact with her. Hiding now might just make it look ridiculous.”
“Ugh.”
Left with no choice, Celia and I stepped forward first and offered the proper greetings to the imperial family.
“I present myself before the Taesa.”
“Please stop that, Princess.”
Really. This was sincerely burdensome.
“Or shall I call you Saint?”
The way the corners of her eyes curved told me she was clearly needling me on purpose.
“Just call me the way you always have.”
“Then… Olivia?”
Why was she acting exactly like the Emperor?
“Yes. That would be better. But how did you make it all the way to the capital in the middle of this mess?”
“Why, I came because I wanted to see my dear friend. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
“Ah, I really didn’t know.”
She’d come back from her post just because of me?
“Anyway, it’s been a long time. I never expected we’d meet under circumstances like these.”
“Yes.”
I had no choice but to play along for now. I’d just have to dig up the first-generation memories and lay them over everything.
With the princess present, the Capital Army’s momentum surged even higher.
The mana-gunners were stationed in front of the summoning circles until their mana ran dry, clearing out the shadows.
The military had already deployed the Capital Army early, keeping the imperial citizens from leaving the buildings while they thoroughly swept up every last remnant.
I spent a one-sided bonding session with the princess in a dormitory room.
“I never thought I’d see you like this.”
“And here we are seeing each other again.”
“They say the day you leave is market day—the moment I arrived, everything blew up.”
You’re telling me. How did it go off at exactly that moment? But still.
“Someone of Your Highness’s caliber would have enjoyed it, no?”
The princess was the spitting image of the Emperor.
At least in personality. And yet she openly looked down on the Emperor.
Mother and daughter were a strange pair.
“It doubled as an experiment, so it wasn’t bad. The thrill of blowing rebel heads off with a gun was something else.”
She shaped her fingers into a gun and made a shooting motion.
One look and it was obvious this girl had fallen hard for mana guns. She was the type who had to chase every latest trend.
“Mana guns, you mean?”
“Exactly. I plan to make them my main weapon going forward.”
“These?”
I could admit guns were good. But she was going to use this as her primary weapon?
Something felt off. A swordswoman deciding to pick up a gun? What was she going to do when Natalia blew a gasket?
“Yeah.”
“You’re a swordswoman.”
“Yep.”
“And the Light Sword’s disciple, at that.”
“That’s right.”
“And you’re saying you’ll use a gun?”
At my words, the princess simply nodded. I was looking at a genuine lunatic.
“So what? You can go from sword to bow and back again.”
“Lady Natalia is going to foam at the mouth.”
“If Master doesn’t like it, then she’ll just have to come stop me herself, won’t she?”
Come to think of it, the Light Sword was currently at Crad.
In other words, she was going to play gunslinger just to force them to summon her from Crad Castle?
“Haa. Fine. So you’re saying you came purely for fun?”
“I’d love for that to be the case, but.”
“But?”
She was suddenly laying on a serious atmosphere.
“It’s not that easy.”
“I’m not here to play word games.”
Right. If she’d really come all the way from Cagor just to play around, even a princess would have seen everything worth seeing by now.
“There’s the movement of the anti-imperialists, and lately the neighboring countries have been acting strange.”
She was suspicious of something.
“What do you suspect?”
“War.”
“Is there a realistic chance?”
If war broke out, with which country?
Judging by the princess’s words, it probably wasn’t the Demon King’s army.
Pector and Bernoa weren’t around, and the Four Heavenly Kings weren’t at the worrying stage yet. So it had to mean some other nation.
“Even near Cagor, where I was stationed, anti-imperialists raised a rebellion and we had to suppress them. Is that just a coincidence?”
“Hmm. That may be, but honestly, the Empire has expanded to its greatest territory while facing the Four Heavenly Kings, hasn’t it?”
How many countries in the world had pushed their borders all the way into the Demon Realm?
No matter how rotten the insides were, the Empire’s current prestige couldn’t be ignored.
“That’s empty bravado, and it’s Ashtar’s. Hard to call it the Empire as a whole.”
“Even so, war?”
“Anti-imperialists. The New World Group. And the corruption of the Empire’s internal nobles, plus the succubus incident at Attelina.”
It was true that the anti-imperialists and the New World Group had been acting more extreme lately. This was also the first time they’d resorted to force.
If there was a country targeting the Empire, it would be the surrounding small states… or no, maybe the nomadic tribes?
“The Empire’s weaknesses keep getting exposed.”
“The movements of the surrounding small nations are also suspicious. I came because I thought this was something I needed to discuss with the military.”
For someone like her—a woman who put the Empire first—that made sense.
But her eyes were still fixed on the mana guns.
This woman hadn’t simply switched weapons.
She was truly factoring war into her calculations, which was why she’d pulled out the mana-gun card in the first place.
“And switching weapons on top of that is just a bonus.”
“Now then, let me ask my young lady.”
“About what?”
Between the Emperor and this woman, whatever either of them asked always left a bad taste in my mouth.
“While I wasn’t looking, it seems the young lady has changed quite a bit. You seem to know a fair amount about war. The reclamation of Crad is proof of that, isn’t it?”
So she’d heard about that too.
She needed to remember I was a young lady. From a young lady’s position, I could just as easily claim I’d merely received the credit for my subordinates’ achievements.
“That was just my subordinates. As a mere woman, how much could I have done?”
“In other words, ‘You’re a woman too, so don’t get too full of yourself’—is that what you mean?”
“Do you have to put it that way?”
Honestly, between the Emperor and his daughter, I couldn’t stand either of them.
If both of them just dropped dead, I’d have no further wishes.
“If war breaks out, with whom would it be?”
Since she told me to speak, I had to answer.
“Hmm. War, is it. For starters, it won’t be the internal nobles. The central aristocrats have already been culled in droves, and the Emperor has already been chopping heads left and right. With Ashtar attached to the imperial house, they wouldn’t dare rise up.”
As long as Ashtar existed, the nobles couldn’t rebel.
They probably didn’t even have much to complain about. Outside the imperial direct domains, the throne didn’t put much pressure on the regional lords. There was the parliament, but its members were people from noble territories and figures from Ashtar’s side.
“Go on.”
“If anything, that itself will make the Empire look unstable. If there’s anyone, it would be the barbarian tribes subjugated by the Empire, and the external small nations Your Highness mentioned.”
For now, those two were about it.
“Mm. That’s right.”
“There aren’t many small nations openly hostile to the Empire. Aside from the merchant coalitions crushed by imperial economic power and the Pastia Kingdom. Even Pastia is currently so mired in noble infighting that they can’t afford to target the Empire.”
The Pastia Kingdom had been founded by refugees from the Kart Kingdom. Relations with the Empire were poor, but the power struggles among their nobles were too fierce for them to wage war.
“Other small nations could still rise. Think about it. Some nameless little country raises a banner, the barbarian tribes that have slipped imperial control start screaming for independence, and inside the anti-imperialists and the New World Group start stirring things up?”
“It would split from within.”
The princess had put forward a rather plausible hypothesis.
If things went the way she described, it would indeed be dangerous.
“In the Atla Kingdom there is a figure called the White King.”
“White King?”
“Word is he’s rapidly annexing the surrounding small states.”
Rapidly annexing the surrounding small states.
“You’re saying you see a possibility that he will turn hostile toward the Empire.”
“The Empire’s national power is great, but let’s be honest—an empire crawling with incompetents is nothing more than a large egg.”
The princess shook her head as she said it.
Hearing that from a princess’s own mouth left me wondering what to do with it.
“And the White King could become a small but hard stone that cracks the egg called the Empire.”
“I doubt it would go that far, but that’s why I came.”
Honestly, it was simple.
I could just go drop a meteor on them in secret and be done with it.
As an imperial young lady, disposing of them that way to protect the Empire was one method.
But if I did that, voices of concern about me would rise inside the Empire itself.
—Demon.
—Mass murderer.
—Do you think you’re some great sage?
Those were the words my companions had thrown at me when I’d single-handedly wiped out enemies to protect the Ruined Land.
And at a child, no less.
Not long after, those same people had all died by my hand while trying to resurrect a god.
From their perspective I’d been an obstacle to the god’s revival from the start, and a child possessing that kind of power probably warranted the reaction. Still.
This was the Empire, and I was a young lady.
If it were something moderate to earn recognition as a mage, fine. But if I carried out a slaughter like that, I’d draw the eyes of not just the Empire but the entire world.
If war did break out, I had to prepare for the worst case.
“I understand.”
“What? That reaction’s pretty lukewarm.”
“Do we really need to have such heavy conversations today? That matter is better discussed with the military than with me.”
I’d fought at the Plant, teleported all the way here, and fought again.
Even if I could erase physical fatigue through mana circulation, psychological strain was a different story.
“But we’re friends?”
“Before being friends, I’m tired. I took an exam at the Plant, came all the way here, and then fought anti-imperialists.”
Having Emperor Number Two sitting next to me was also honestly exhausting.
I’d almost rather have the dense Aslan standing in front of me spouting nonsense. At least that would be easier on the eyes.
“Ah. Sorry about that.”
“Your Highness. A lady-in-waiting has arrived from the Imperial Palace.”
A soldier who’d been standing guard outside came in and reported.
A lady-in-waiting from the palace?
The ones who looked like noble daughters on the outside but were actually from the Assassin Guild?
At any other time it might not have mattered, but right now it felt suspicious.
“Let her in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
At the princess’s command, the lady-in-waiting entered from outside.
Looking closer, the smell of blood clung to her—clear proof that something had happened at the palace. She’d probably spent the night hunting down and killing the assassins who’d infiltrated the palace.
She bowed her head.
“Greetings, Your Highness. Taesa. I’m relieved both of you are unharmed.”
“So what is it?”
“His Majesty has ordered that both of you be brought to him.”
Crack.
I thought I heard a blood vessel burst.
I’d figured the Emperor was bound to pull something, but should I just slip out of this?
“His Majesty said the Taesa must be brought without fail. If not, something might happen to the archives.”
Fuck. He was planning to blackmail me with the archives.
Honestly, that pissed me off a little.
“No helping it, ‘Taesa.’ Ah, and the kingdom’s princess also said she wished to become close with the Taesa.”
The kingdom princess was the better option—relatively speaking. But a kingdom princess seeking out someone who was Taesa, Saint, and young lady all at once almost certainly had political motives.
I glanced outside and caught sight of the princess smiling with her eyes as she looked this way.
Ugh. This is my life.