Chapter 256: The Tin Knight and The Imperial Banquet (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 256: The Tin Knight and The Imperial Banquet (6)
A heart-pounding political game of conspiracy and schemes, where the citizens of the Empire cheered, the powerful nobles and the Imperial Family clashed, and the neutral factions nervously watched from the sidelines.
And if you were to ask what the Tin Knight’s party—in a sense, the very origin of this incident—was doing in the midst of it all…
[‘Tin Knight’ displays the magnanimity of the strong, offering the first serve!]
“I won’t lose this time, either!”
A rectangular court was drawn on the ground, with a net stretched across its center.
Watching the Tin Knight and Adelaide engrossed in some unknown activity within it, Algind turned to Dorothea with an indescribable look in her eyes.
“…What in the world are they doing now?”
“It’s a sport called badminton, apparently. According to that guy, anyone can enjoy it, regardless of age or gender,” Dorothea replied, sitting with her legs crossed as she nonchalantly flipped through the pages of a book.
Next to her was a table with a large parasol, upon which sat drinks and even fruit. She was in perfect vacation mode.
Algind turned her gaze back to the side.
Adelaide tossed a ball into the air with one hand and used the tool in her other to send it over to the Tin Knight. Before the ball could touch the ground, the Tin Knight struck it back with the tool in his hand.
Both of them were sending the ball over the net, and they weren't just hitting it blindly, but trying to make it land within a designated area. She could roughly guess the rules.
The problem was…
“Anyone can enjoy it…?”
A deep sense of doubt colored Algind’s voice.
She stared at the ‘ball’ the two were using.
It had a bizarre shape, with a round head and something like feathers packed densely into it, forming a cone.
The design itself was quite different from any ball Algind knew, but the material was the bigger issue.
No matter how she looked at it, it was a lump of iron.
Worse yet, the tools they were using to hit this metal ‘ball’ were their respective weapons—a one-handed sword and a two-handed sword.
Every time the Tin Knight and Adelaide swung their arms, a sharp Klaang! Klaang! of metal rang out, and an eerie whoosh sliced through the air as the ball flew.
‘The ball… won’t break, I suppose.’
Both the Tin Knight and Adelaide were skillfully manipulating their sword energy to avoid cutting or denting the ball, but the Tin Knight had gone a step further, imbuing the ball itself with mana to reinforce its durability.
On top of that, he would inject a little more mana each time he struck it, ensuring its hardness never waned.
“Ah!”
With a short cry from Adelaide, the ball, now out of her control, flew toward Algind.
Where the building’s outer wall should have been, an extra wall made of a woven pile of skulls had been installed. As soon as the ball hit it, the skull wall was spectacularly pulverized, scattering fragments everywhere.
Clatter, clatter.
Skeleton Soldier A, who had been on standby nearby, picked up the ball and returned it to the court, while Skeleton Soldiers B, C, and D began repairing the broken skull wall with what looked like tools in their hands.
To top it all off, a Skeleton Referee flipped the scoreboard, signaling the Tin Knight’s point.
Even Algind, who was often described as ‘beautiful but doll-like’ due to her perpetually unreadable expression, found it difficult to maintain her composure at the sight before her, the corners of her mouth twitching.
“Perhaps ‘anyone can enjoy it’ means it can maim anyone, regardless of age or gender?”
“The people of the Empire must be well-fed and healthy if they can play that thing and only end up half-crippled. In the kingdom, they’d probably just drop dead.”
“……”
“Besides, that guy spouts nonsense on a daily basis. Don’t take everything he says so seriously.”
After tossing out the words, Dorothea went back to concentrating on her book.
Seeing her complete lack of tension, Algind couldn’t help but feel inwardly dumbfounded.
They say the eye of the storm is calm, don’t they?
No other phrase seemed more fitting to describe the party, who were peacefully vacationing in a mansion provided by Algind while the entire Empire was in an uproar.
Perhaps because of this, Algind found herself uttering a pointed remark.
“Aren’t you being a little too relaxed? Things are going according to plan for now, but there’s no guarantee they’ll stay that way. Aren’t you worried?”
“Why should we worry when you’re here?”
“I didn’t realize you trusted us so much.”
“Because if things get really dire, you’ll make full use of us no matter what we try to do, won’t you?”
Dorothea continued speaking calmly, her eyes still fixed on the page.
“This situation is different from the Tower of Control. That fight started because of us. This one is more like you were all about to fight amongst yourselves, and we just jumped in as mercenaries. What good would it do for a mercenary to run wild, trying to set the stage and control the flow of the whole thing? It’d just be a waste of energy. We just have to do what our employers tell us.”
“……”
“You don’t look convinced.”
“To be honest, no.”
Algind didn’t hide her true feelings.
Ever since their first encounter in the City of Struggle…
No, ever since she first heard of them through the incident in the Taros Labyrinth.
Goodwitch had been keeping a close eye on the Tin Knight’s party.
She had observed them, traced their past, and at times, even guided their future actions.
That was why Goodwitch knew better than anyone just how unconventional and unprecedented this group was.
They were the type of rebels who wouldn’t hesitate to bite back if something displeased them, even if their opponent was a legendary witch or the continent’s strongest nation.
The fact that such people would so obediently accept a leash and be led around was, to her, a cause for suspicion.
And to that suspicion, Dorothea gave a clear answer.
“Because it’s a contract.”
Thump. The book was closed.
Straightening up from her half-reclined, crooked posture, Dorothea looked directly at Algind.
“We don’t much care what your goal is. Eliminating the opposition, strengthening the Empress’s authority, do whatever you want. Afterward, just pay the price properly. Hand over the Pouch of Lilium. And prepare a stage to execute the masterminds of the Friedel incident. Do that, and there will be no problem.”
In other words…
It was also a declaration that if Algind or the Empress’s side broke the contract—that is, if they tried not to pay the price…
They would use any means necessary to crush them.
Algind’s mouth fell shut.
Just as she, seemingly lost in thought for a moment, was about to speak again…
A commotion arose from outside the mansion, and soon a servant approached the party, looking flustered.
“My apologies, but you have a visitor.”
As he said the word ‘visitor,’ both witches noticed the slight tremor in the servant’s voice.
The current residents of this mansion were the Tin Knight’s party, but the original owner was Algind.
Algind asked again.
“I believe I gave instructions to turn away all outsiders?”
It wasn’t to keep the Tin Knight’s party locked in.
On the contrary, it was a considerate measure to use the Witch of the South’s authority to ward off the annoying flies buzzing around them.
…Lest some fool who didn’t know any better poke one of these walking dormant volcanoes and turn it into an active one.
“W-well… they said they would wait until you came out.”
Algind’s eyes grew cold.
To be refused entry and yet insist on staying put meant they were ignoring the authority of Goodwitch, the owner of this mansion.
If so, there were two possibilities.
One, an idiot who didn’t know their place, who mistakenly believed that while they couldn’t defy the Witch of the South herself, they could certainly handle her apprentice.
Two, a big shot who knew the implications and was more than capable of handling them.
“Lady Maris von Lennart of the Ducal House and Commander Werner von Lennart of the Northern Forces have arrived.”
And unfortunately for Algind, it seemed these guests were the latter.
*
The woman named Maris von Lennart had almost never in her life received an ‘offer she couldn’t refuse.’
She was a pillar of the Lennart Ducal House, the most powerful family in the Empire, and the biological daughter of the Guardian Lord of the State, one of the Empire’s two great powers.
If one were to search for a nobler bloodline among her peers, one would find only the Imperial Family. But the legitimate children born to the Iron Blood Emperor and the Empress had all died one by one from illness or accidents. After the Emperor’s death, the other royals who had tried to bypass his last remaining heir and become emperor themselves were all crushed in power struggles with the Empress and died off. The only person who fit the criteria was the Crown Prince, and him alone.
It was a good thing that an unspoken rule against intermarriage between the Imperial Family and the Ducal House had been maintained since the Empire’s founding (a rule that would be immediately exposed by the child's appearance the moment it was broken). If there had been a blood connection between the two houses, she would have been born with a lineage so immense she could have even vied for the throne.
It was no wonder that Maximilian, the leader of the Patriotic Youth Corps and the Empress’s nephew who bullied other nobles, had tucked his tail between his legs in front of her.
It was possible because she was in a position where, even if she arbitrarily used her family’s name to intimidate others, it wouldn’t become an issue in most cases.
When Maris asked someone for something, they were more likely to bow and say, “Just give the order!” The reverse was almost unheard of.
Yes, almost.
“I heard you have a connection to the girl named Adelaide. I would like to meet her for a moment. Could you guide me?”
Werner von Lennart.
A great general who had accumulated countless military achievements during the height of the war with the Magic State, earning the immense admiration and support of the Imperial soldiers.
Due to his age, he was mentioned less often now, but before Maris was born, he was a warrior known as the Empire’s strongest.
The ultimate authority in the family hierarchy, whom even the Lennart Duke himself addressed as ‘uncle’ and treated with respect.
When such a figure said, ‘I have a small favor to ask,’ Maris did not have the nerve to reply, ‘Ah, that might be a little difficult.’
She was already fuming at the thought of the insults hurled at Adelaide—ungrateful wretch, a traitor who sullied the family name by leeching off the Empress’s faction, or an empty-headed b—
‘…Ah, seriously. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil.’
A grinding sound escaped Maris’s lips.
Even if they were all united under the name of the Lion Duke’s bloodline, the reality was that they were a gathering of relatives numbering in the hundreds.
A family gathering of just a husband, wife, and a few children could turn into a hell of shouting and insults the moment things went slightly awry. When that scale expanded to the hundreds, the horror was beyond words.
Maris wasn’t ignorant of the importance of diplomacy and managing people, so she usually maintained a pleasant smile and got along with everyone. But she was deeply displeased with the current state of affairs, where all sorts of relatives whose exact relationship was a pain to trace—uncles, second cousins, great-aunts-in-law—were bad-mouthing Adelaide.
And now that she knew the full story of the Friedel incident, which was far filthier than what her own investigations had revealed, she was even more furious.
‘If what the Tower of Control spread is true, the entire family should be joining forces to oust the masterminds and begging for forgiveness.’
Of course, Maris knew full well that would be difficult.
Not because the matter was trivial enough to be overlooked.
But precisely because it was too disgusting and shameful.
Admitting it would be to tarnish the brilliant name of Lennart, so even those not directly involved in the incident were denying the truth.
It was so severe that even though Maris knew Adelaide was near the capital, she found it difficult to visit her without a proper reason.
However…
‘Grandfather Werner (the exact relation is more complicated, but I’ll just round it down to that) asked me to go, so who’s going to say anything?’
It was truly an offer she couldn’t refuse. No, an offer she didn’t want to refuse. Maris visited Algind Goodwitch’s ‘White Mansion’ without any guards (reasoning that it would be rude to show up to apologize with a crowd, and that with Werner present, other guards were unnecessary).
The result…
“…I came to see a descendant of a tragic fate, but it seems some kind of monster has taken up residence here.”
[‘Tin Knight’ tilts its head, wondering why an episode’s final boss would appear without any foreshadowing!]
The strange ones had met.