Chapter 50: Chapter 45 – Towards the Palace

“I am happy you chose to come with me today!”

Avilia cheerfully holds my hand as we walk towards the meeting hall.

“What kind of a girlfriend am I if I make you go to the lion’s den alone every day?”

Especially since they really want me, not her. According to her, Karine and especially the others keep demanding me to be present for their meetings, too. They want the “summoned hero” to be there, not her “assistant.” Karine didn’t tell us we’d have to do any of this! All we agreed on was helping the rebellion take over the capital, not watch the rebels form a new government!

Yeah, I need to stop forcing all this on Avilia. I need to stop hiding in our room and start doing what it takes to get out from here.

“It is less like a den of some ferocious beast and more like watching grass grow.”

“Point.”

Based on what Avilia’s told me, though, they just want me to be present, not to actually say anything. That’s what she’s been doing since they just ignore her whenever she tries to talk. Sometimes, another person has just repeated what she just said, and the others took it as that person’s input without giving her any credit. That’s infuriating!

What are we, mascots? Honestly, all of this is just insulting. First Karine kept us out of the loop until the last moment, and now they’re treating us like… I don’t know. Like we owe them something rather than the other way around? That we should be here to see the creation of a new country, even if they seem dead set on making sure it has nothing to do with us. It’s weird, since we could’ve just walked away. I doubt they could’ve dealt with the royals’ summoned hero without me.

But only Karine and Vaqelin know what really happened. The others probably don’t understand how close Karine’s plans came to unraveling on more than one occasion. But even with that, Karine also kept telling everyone I was a “summoned hero” to gather support for the rebellion.

Huh. We could’ve walked away then. What’s stopping us from walking away now? Sure, we’ve been promised a reward, but is it worth all this?

I’ll have to talk to Karine about it. This was NOT a part of our deal!

“Are you ready for this?,” Avilia asks me with a worried look as we finally reach the door to the meeting hall. “You look preoccupied.” I can understand her worry, I’ve been skipping this stuff for days now with all sorts of excuses. I haven’t really told her why, either. I just don’t feel like watching them decide the future of the country. We just were kind of thrust into this all and did what we felt was right. The monarchy’s been toppled, and the people will hopefully have more freedom now.

That’s what Karine promised at any rate. I think they’ve been talking about turning this country into some sort of a republic?

And, jeez. I can’t believe they’ve started calling her “my assistant.” It’s worse than them calling her my “best friend” or something. Just tells you how this place is, I guess. You can’t change people’s attitudes that fast even if you can remove the monarchy in one go. I bet the two of us will be remembered as “the summoned hero and her trusty assistant” or something.

“Yes,” I say with a nod and a reassuring smile, “I’m ready.”

I kiss her on the forehead. “I’m sorry I’ve made you come to these meetings alone.”

“I am sure you have had your reasons,” she whispers and caresses my cheek for a moment, “What is important is that you are here now.”

“At any rate,” she says, turns to the door and pulls on the door handle, “We should not keep them waiting.”

-*-*-*-*-*-

It was back to us four.

The contingent that had arrived through the teleporter had either gone to the merchant district or the slums or to the noble district, while the four of us went to the royal district. Bulk of the garrison which included the city guard had been deployed to the merchant district to quell the riot, so that was where most of our forces went as well. Given the pressure from both the inside and the outside, the defenders would soon have to choose between defending the walls from cannon fire and the more immediate threat of getting stabbed or shot by the forces inside the city.

Just us four. I couldn’t understand what Karine was thinking. Surely the royal family would have bodyguards. And there was the royal guard, too. They probably weren’t defending the city from the siege. How’d we deal with them? Had she forgotten how we had barely survived our fight with the summoned hero just a short while before?

While the rioting had started to ruin the façade of the merchant district, the royal district looked pristine. Lonely, but pristine. Clean. The sort of clean that’d take someone, or something, constantly cleaning the area if people so much as walked through it.

Yes, it was magic. And it was always active. Only way to disable it would’ve been to find and destroy the runestones attached to the contraptions doing all this work, and that would have taken more energy than just leaving them be.

The streets were empty. No guards, no nobles, nothing. The guards were probably busy defending the city from the attack, while the residents cowered in their homes. The sounds of battle were distant. If you really tried, you could delude yourself into thinking that nothing was happening.

I couldn’t help myself. “Isn’t this going a bit too well?”

Karine shook her head. “It’s all within expectations. If they can help it, they wouldn’t want to dirty these streets.”

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“What do you mean?”

“She means we won’t be facing too much resistance here,” Vaqelin said, “The royals are seen as having some sort of divine mandate, you see. And they believe it the most. Not only do they think they’re in the right, but they also think they can’t be defeated and that they’re at no risk of losing. Ever.”

Oh, a version of the divine right of kings. I bet being able to summon heroes anointed by their gods gave them an even greater feeling of being in the right.

“Right,” Karine continued, “And that’s why we’ve been able to waltz in like this. There won’t be an army waiting for us. At most, they’ll have a few trusted bodyguards, if even that. It’s absolutely possible we can just walk in and confront them with no interference.”

“How come no one’s taken them down by now?”

Karine turned to me. “We’ve done a lot of prep work, remember? Normally, they can just bring their armies back with a moment’s notice, and a summoned hero is worth at least a few hundred trained soldiers.”

A short break.

“And not only that, thanks to you, we’ve gained a lot of popular support. Having our own summoned hero who’s not known for going around oppressing the common folk was a huge boon, you know!”

“I’m not a summoned hero, though.”

“You’re obviously something close to one at the very least, though! No regular person could’ve made the black knight run away like that. With just a few weeks of training, too!”

The black knight, huh. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard his name.

Suddenly, Avilia spoke up, pointing ahead towards an opulent looking gate. “Is that not the royal palace?”

“We’re already here? Get ready!”

-*-*-*-*-*-

I sigh as we finally leave the meeting room. “I can’t believe you’ve been going to these meetings all this time. Alone. They didn’t want our input on literally anything. I felt like a prop.”

“And I cannot believe you brought your diary into the meeting! Did you listen to anything they said?”

“Of course I did! And even if I didn’t,” I say and tap on my right temple twice, “I can keep perfect notes in my head even when I’m distracted, remember?”

“That is cheating.”

The cutest pout.

I pet her on the head. “To them, it probably looked like I was taking notes on what they were saying. It’s fine. I can even reference whatever they said this time next time if it makes you feel better.”

She shakes her head and grabs my hand. “But I know what you are doing. It feels like I am lying to them by proxy.”

For someone who doesn’t care what humans think…

I smile. “Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again if it bothers you.”

“Thank you. That is all I ask.”

If nothing else, I got Karine to agree to come to talk to me tomorrow. I need to remind her that this isn’t what we agreed on. We’ve already done our part of the bargain many times over.

Our reward wasn’t supposed to be held as hostages!

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