Chapter 120: Queen Maker [R-18] (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 120: Queen Maker [R-18] (2)
“Want to be a queen, too?”
Cloud’s words came out of nowhere, directed at the bewildered Lorraine.
In response, Lorraine…
“What the hell is this fucking bastard talking about?”
…furrowed her brow fiercely.
“Hey now, someone of your noble blood shouldn't be using such vulgar language!”
“Shut up!!”
Thwack!
Lorraine slammed her forehead against Cloud’s.
“Ow. Why’d you hit me?”
“Because you’re pulling your stupid pranks again!”
Lorraine sighed, watching Cloud wince and rub his forehead.
I'm the idiot for expecting anything.
She already knew what kind of man he was. Grumbling to herself in disappointment, she suddenly noticed the playfulness was gone from Cloud's face. Her expression hardened.
“Don’t tell me you were serious.”
“As playful as I am, do you really think I’d joke about something like this?”
“…A queen? Are you planning to steal the throne of your kingdom for me?”
“What are you talking about? Why would I impeach my own queen, who’s doing just fine? You have to do it in your own kingdom.”
“The Kalita Kingdom? Ha, I wondered what nonsense you were spouting.”
Lorraine scoffed in disbelief.
“My kingdom has my brother, Lorian, you know?”
“Then we just have to depose him.”
“Are you insane? That’s it. I don’t see any point in talking to you anymore. Move.”
Lorraine tried to push Cloud away. He thrust his hips up once, and with a gasp of “Hic,” her body went limp.
“Where do you think you’re going? I’m not done yet.”
Cloud began to move his hips again.
“You…!”
Lorraine glared at him fiercely. But it changed nothing. Realizing this, she sighed and pushed her bangs back.
“Do what you… huu… want. You demonic bastard… Huup?!”
Smooch… Chup, slurp… Haa…
When their lips parted, the irritation that had filled her face was gone. A sweet, dazed expression had taken its place.
“Didn’t you feel anything when you saw my queen earlier today? Like, ‘She’s amazing. I want to be like that.’ That kind of ambition.”
He said, continuing to give her short kisses.
“Mmph… Slurp… Haa… Still talking about that? Just shut up, move your hips, and get it over with.”
“If you don’t have ambition, you should make some. Haven’t you noticed anything about Lorian lately?”
“…”
The Lorian of late.
The magic words that shut Lorraine up.
Recalling how drastically different he was from the past, Lorraine grew a little somber.
“If things keep going like this, you’ll be used as a political pawn and then thrown away.”
Though for a princess, being used politically just means being married off to a powerful family, he added as an afterthought.
Cloud said it like it was nothing, but Lorraine’s expression turned grave.
She didn’t want to be married off like cattle to some man she didn’t even know.
Not that any woman would, but for someone as proud as her, the idea was especially repulsive.
Anxiety colored Lorraine’s eyes.
“…My brother would never do that.”
Lorian was her favorite among her brothers. She had followed him since childhood and strived to be of help to him. It was unthinkable that a brother would cast aside such a devoted younger sister—
“What do you mean, ‘never’? Can’t you tell just by seeing him drag an army all the way to Lupus? He’s gone mad with power.”
Her positive self-assurance crumbled at his mocking words.
“N-no. My brother isn’t like that…”
Despite her words, Lorraine chewed on her lip, consumed by anxiety.
Cloud whispered in her ear.
“Just watch. It’s only going to get worse from here, not better.”
*
On the first floor of the high-end inn where Lorian’s party was staying.
Lorian and the nobles under his command were seated at tables and chairs arranged in a circle, with their respective escort knights standing behind them.
“Are you saying the queen refused? Even when we’re using the food supply as leverage?”
Lorian nodded at Callion’s words.
“That is correct.”
“Perhaps it’s because she ascended the throne without a proper foundation, but she’s a queen with no sense of reality. How many citizens will starve if we cut off the food supply?”
Lorian’s faction had seized control of Lupus’s food supply as planned. It was safe to say that more than half the city, if not all of it, depended on their provisions.
If they were to halt the supply, the city would face a massive food shortage.
Despite this, Lorian and the nobles under him couldn’t understand the queen’s defiant attitude.
Amid the bewildered murmurs, someone spoke up.
“If they’re going to be so arrogant, then there’s no need for us to be considerate any longer, is there? Let’s cut off the food supply immediately.”
Let’s not play into their bravado and take a hard line ourselves.
The others nodded in agreement with that opinion.
“I agree. At the same time, let’s spread rumors among the citizens that the incompetent queen is the cause of the food shortage.”
“An excellent idea. If the citizens’ anger is directed at the queen, it will be easier for us to establish a pretext. We could even lead our army to depose her under the guise of removing an incompetent ruler. With Lupus’s current military strength, they won’t even be able to resist.”
The other nobles burst into laughter at one noble’s mocking remark about Lupus.
Lorian shook his head with a bitter smile.
“Mobilizing the army might get us to our goal quickly, but it won’t look good to others. And if we make such a blatant move, the Hero, Cloud, will not stand idly by. You all saw it, didn’t you? The people’s abnormal faith in him.”
The laughter among the nobles died down.
The sight they had witnessed that day was just that extraordinary.
Callion spoke into the awkward silence.
“Is there really a need to involve the army?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking if we need to act directly. When a food shortage occurs, aren’t the citizens the ones who suffer? Let’s make them rise up themselves. We just need to incite them a little and offer our support.”
“Ah, you mean we should incite an uprising. That’s a fine idea. If it’s the will of the people, even the Hero, Cloud, will find it difficult to intervene.”
“And on top of that, it gives us the pretext of ‘temporarily’ governing Lupus to prevent it from falling into chaos.”
“Haha! Excellent! But the pretext is so sweet, we must prepare well to ensure no flies are drawn to it.”
“Of course. We can’t do all the work just to let someone else reap the rewards.”
Once the general course of action was decided, the rest of the discussion flowed as smoothly as water. A cheerful, laughter-filled atmosphere continued in the temporary meeting room.
Clank.
Until the inn door was thrown open and a man walked in.
Every eye in the room turned to the door.
Recognizing the person who entered the inn, they wiped the smiles from their faces.
“Cloud? What are you doing here?”
Lorian asked, speaking for all the nobles.
“Seeing you all gathered, it looks like you’re busy. Sorry about that. I had to come in, there’s something I need to inform you of.”
Cloud walked into the inn without waiting for permission. He grabbed a nearby chair, placed it opposite Lorian, and sat down. Cloud’s party members stood in a line behind him.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
“I told you. I have something to inform you of. Neria, hand them out.”
Neria nodded and placed a sheet of parchment in front of each noble.
“It looks long-winded, but it’s nothing special. It’s the contract to pay the passage fee we talked about before. All you have to do is sign.”
“Didn’t we agree to discuss that matter later?”
“It felt like that discussion would drag on for too long. We’re busy with a lot of things, too. We can’t be held up by this one issue, can we?”
“…”
Lorian tapped the table with his index finger before turning his gaze to the parchment. The nobles, who had been watching him for cues, finally began to read the parchment’s contents.
“One hundred million Gold…?”
They were aghast at the outrageous sum.
One noble cautiously raised his hand.
“Wasn’t the kingdom’s original demand thirty million Gold? For what reason has it suddenly jumped to one hundred million…?”
“You just skimmed it, didn’t you? Don’t just look at the numbers, read it carefully. It explains exactly why the fee went up.”
“Attempted assassination of the queen…?” another noble muttered in a trembling voice.
The gazes that had been on the parchments now converged on Cloud.
Their eyes demanded an explanation. What does this mean? Explain yourself.
They were stares that could have been quite pressuring, but Cloud met them with a smile.
“Unfortunately, there was an attempt on Her Majesty the Queen’s life. Thankfully, it failed, and we caught the culprit. We tortured it out of him, and he confessed before he died.”
That Lorian sent him.
Cloud said, leaning back in his chair.
At that, the nobles could no longer contain themselves and erupted.
“What kind of nonsense is that! Why would we do such a thing?!”
“That’s right! Instead of commending our service to Lupus, you’re framing us for a crime we didn’t commit?! Is this truly the way of the Hero?!”
These were nobles who had been behaving themselves, not wanting to get on Cloud’s bad side.
But this time, he had crossed the line.
It was better to get on Cloud’s bad side than to be framed for the absurd crime of attempting to assassinate the queen.
“How should I know what you’re thinking? In any case, our magnanimous queen has decided to cover up your assassination attempt. Still, for the sake of royal dignity, she can’t just let it slide, so she’s decided to collect a slightly higher passage fee. Think of the seventy million Gold as a fine.”
Cloud reacted to the nobles’ protests with indifference.
His attitude only infuriated the nobles further.
Seventy million Gold was an enormous sum, even if split among them.
It was an amount that could make their families falter.
There was no way they could pay it.
Eventually, the nobles’ protests escalated into outright anger.
“Sir Hero, can you take responsibility for your current actions? If you cannot, then withdraw this immediately. This isn’t a child’s game, this is…”
“Does this look like a game?”
His single, icy phrase.
A silence fell over the room, as if the noise from moments before had been a lie.
It was a different kind of pressure from what Lorian had shown the other day.
If Lorian had controlled the nobles with charisma, Cloud was like a blade held to their throats.
“I asked if this looks like a game, you bastards.”
Cloud asked quietly, looking around the room, but no one met his gaze. If their eyes were about to meet, they would turn their heads away.
Talk back and you die.
The sharp killing intent pressing down on them served as a warning.
“…I trust you didn’t really think that. You’re the ones who took away any room for games by dragging an army here. You’re the ones who created a situation where one of us has to die. Isn’t that right, Lorian?”
His lifeless eyes turned to Lorian.
Lorian, meeting that gaze, also wore a cold, unchanging expression.
“You’re not wrong. But your methods are cheap. If you continue to act this way, I will cut off the food supply to Lupus.”
As if there was no point in further conversation, Lorian stood up from the table, unilaterally ending the discussion.
“Do not forget. We are the ones holding the hilt of the sword. Not you.”
Leaving behind a mocking warning.
With that, Lorian went up the stairs with his party members.
“…”
Cloud watched Lorian’s back in silence.
The nobles, who had been cautiously observing, judged that the momentum had shifted to Lorian’s side and began to rise one by one.
“Sigh, what is this all about…”
“To think the Hero would resort to blackmail…”
Not forgetting to throw out a few cutting remarks, they headed for the stairs Lorian had ascended.
Thump.
Neria blocked the nobles’ path, the tip of her sword resting on the floor.
The sword was drawn from its sheath.
Feeling threatened, the nobles stopped in their tracks.
“…Sir Neria. What is the meaning of this?”
Callion Oller, who was at least acquainted with Neria, asked. However, she simply stood there in silence, not answering his question.
Callion sighed.
“I’m passing through.”
He started walking again.
Neria grabbed Callion by the neck and slammed him to the floor.
“Keuk…!”
“Young Lord!”
Callion’s two escort knights reflexively reached for the hilts of their swords.
Slice.
The hands reaching for the hilts were severed. Two hands fell to the floor.
Seeing the hands that had been cut off in an instant fall to the floor, everyone, nobles and knights alike, paled.
“Where are you going? He might get to leave, but you guys have to sign before you go, right?”
The pen is mightier than the sword.
In most cases, that is.
In most cases.