Chapter 227: Chapter 213 – Delegation to Cielle

“Oh? Care to explain how you’re going to do this?” King Titus asked in response to Celeste’s suggestion.

“It’s simple. I can disguise myself a little bit so they won’t recognize me. They haven’t seen me since I was but a young child, so I’m pretty sure it’s hard for them to recognize me. There, I will give it my all to find my mother. She was the rightful heir to the throne, and I heard she had some solid supporters within the kingdom. If push comes to shove, Mother will try to help the situation,” Celeste said with certainty.

“Indeed, Oriel will be able to help with the situation in Cielle,” Nagare nodded, his eyes that stared at his daughter showed pride.

 

Meanwhile, I was still trying to digest everything that had been told until now, trying to understand if this strategy would be the best solution for the conflict on hand or not.

True, if Oriel-san, who was the former official heir to the throne as well as the unification’s leader, were to appear and try to assert her power, she might be able to help us break through this situation.

That’d solve the problem with Cielle, but…

 

“That might help us with calming Cielle kingdom, but what about the Naraka empire? If they were to attack, there’s no way Cielle kingdom would sit still, right? Although they will only defend, it can still result in a war. Moreover, the unsatisfied citizens will urge the royal to actively move against their attacker too eventually,” King Titus narrated exactly my concern.

Luca was observing silently, but I knew from his expression that he had been thinking of the same thing and was waiting for Celeste to answer this question.

 

“That will be our next step. We can only take care of one thing at a time,” Celeste said.

“Can we really convince the Naraka emperor to not attack the elves?” King Titus asked again.

“That…,” Celeste was at loss for words.

“From what I have known about him, he doesn’t seem like someone that we can reason with,” King Titus said again.

 

“That’s what we’ve discussed too, when we started our movements. That was why we took a more stealthy movements for Naraka so far,” Nagare spoke, and King Titus turned his line of sight to him, prompting him to continue.

“I am the former great general of Naraka, so I have a better understanding of the emperor and also the imperial family of Naraka in general. From what I’ve surmised, we need to take a harsher route with them,” Nagare paused before saying in a low voice, “There’s a need to revolt and abolish the current imperial family.”

All of us went silent hearing the gravity of Nagare’s words.

“Why?” Luca was the first one to speak.

“Simply put, young prince,” Nagare said, “We all already know that Emperor Shinokoutei looks down on the elves so much and wish to either enslave them or eradicate them. And his ambition… I’m afraid, he’d ultimately want to conquer the whole continent.”

 

I sucked in a cold breath.

To put it simply, after the elven kingdom was enslaved or eradicated by them, they’d want to go after Riviera next.

I thought he was only planning on fighting the elves due to his pure hatred, but…

He had a greed for power, I guess.

 

“And what does it have to do with abolish the whole imperial family?” Yuzuru was the one asking, “Can we just eradicate the emperor and appoint a better offspring of his? Surely you’re not saying that such an emperor is a loving father that all his offspring will take revenge instead of gladly taking the throne and rule the empire peacefully, right?”

“I’m just about to get there, young Oni,” Nagare said.

“Okay old gramps,” Yuzuru snorted, “The name’s Yuzuru. I already told you to stop addressing me like that. Are you really that old that you forget things quickly?”

“…Anyway, the Naraka’s imperial family… Simply put, his offspring all took after their father’s personality: ambitious. It didn’t help that their mothers were also ambitious in pushing their children. There has been bloodbath among the imperial siblings, like what happened with the formerly appointed crown prince, who was killed by his own brother…,” Nagare ignored Yuzuru’s words, perhaps thinking that it was nothing more than a child’s nagging, and began explaining.

Yuzuru wanted to protest, but seeing that Nagare had started to explain things seriously, she could only swallow her grievances and listen.

 

“And the emperor’s fine with that?!” I was too surprised hearing the bloody details and asked.

“Don’t you know, child,” Nagare shifted his gaze to me and began answering, “Emperor Shinokoutei managed to get his throne after killing all his siblings. He also sees his children as pawns, and those who got eliminated are deemed unworthy anyway.”

“…,” I widened my eyes in disbelief.

“When the former crown prince that he had personally appointed was killed, he only said that it was good he found out about his incompetency now than later.”

“…,” I hung my head down.

 

Being born in such a family, being raised in such environment, of course they’d also be twisted.

“I thought he was going to treasure the son who had killed the former crown prince, but I heard that the heir he had paid most attention to lately was his most brilliant daughter instead,” Queen Shaula added.

“Simply put, the son who managed to kill the former crown prince might be cunning and ambitious, but Sakuyanomiya—that daughter of his—was smarter than that son, who had committed a blunder that I personally think was a trap from Sakuya-hime,” Nagare said seriously.

“…Even if that prince got to kill the former crown prince, he was still outsmarted by this princess. It seems like the princess was waiting for that prince to kill the former crown prince before getting rid of that foolish prince,” Yuzuru pondered.

“I am thinking of the same thing, too,” Nagare nodded.

 

“…Which brings us to the discussion of abolishing the current imperial family of Naraka empire,” King Titus concluded.

“Yes,” Nagare nodded.

“Will it be alright for the empire and the new ruler? I imagine it will be full of internal strive after that,” Queen Shaula asked.

“Of course it will happen. To minimize that, we’ve been working stealthily to find Onis who agree with our clause. We can handle the rest who share the same extreme idea as the Yominoma imperial family,” Nagare stated with confidence.

 

If the Yominoma imperial family was so cold-hearted that they won’t even think twice about killing their own blood, why would they hesitate about suppressing the elves and the whole Riviera?

Come to think of it, the Kisaragi family, Osamu’s family also killed Osamu, their own flesh and blood… as well as Sen, who’s just a little child.

I shuddered when I thought of that.

True, I can’t think of any other way better than this extreme… last resort-like solution.

 

“That’s why… About the situation in Cielle kingdom first… Please let me be part of Riviera’s delegation!” Celeste requested again.

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“Then, let me come as wel—,” Nagare said.

“No!!”

Nagare didn’t even finish speaking when Celeste and Fideline protested in unison.

 

“Father, you’re a pure-blooded Oni. You are well-known as the former general of Naraka. It’s harder to hide you. Things will escalate if they were to discover you snuck into their territory,” Celeste quickly explained.

“Right. We can’t risk the same incident repeating itself and take the blame again,” Fideline answered.

“Yeah, that’s why, let me—,” Celeste’s words were interrupted by Fideline.

“That’s why, I will accompany Celeste and help find Oriel-sama,” Fideline contently said.

“What? No!” Celeste quickly refused, much to Fideline’s dismay and confusion.

“Why not? I am an elf, I know Oriel-sama the best, and I also know a lot about Cielle kingdom and the royal castle,” Fideline argued.

“That is exactly why. You will definitely be recognized eventually,” Celeste quickly added.

“But we can just use disguise magic or—”

“In the worst case scenario where they find out, it will be bad,” Celeste said, “and since you know much about them and vice versa, the chance of them discovering that it’s you is also high.”

 

Celeste then added, “Again, I was a child when they last saw me. Ever since then, I have grown up a lot and have changed a lot. I have the best odds of not being discovered here. I may not know a lot about Cielle or the royal castle, and I can ask about them from you. I will also probe for changes carefully once I am there.”

Fideline and Nagare looked worried and wanted to oppose Celeste going alone, but they had no words to refute her.

 

“She will not go alone. We are sending others as delegate. I am also coming,” Luca said.

“…Then, can I request to be part of the delegation as well?” Alt-nii suddenly raised his hand and asked.

“Alt…,” Dad and Mom looked at Alt-nii with complicated gazes, but the two of them didn’t seem to be surprised in hearing Alt-nii’s request.

Meanwhile, Celeste was clearly taken aback and looked at Alt-nii with a little bit of hesitation and guilt, then she said, “I don’t want to involve you in this…”

“I am a noble child from Riviera, a suitable candidate for the delegate. I can learn a lot from this trip. Moreover, I… want to be with Celeste,” Alt-nii first argued seriously before he said the last sentence with a grin.

And this earned him a glare from Nagare, Celeste’s father.

 

Oh well…

Nagare-san must have had it rough.

He hasn’t seen Celeste for years, and when he saw her again, the little girl that he remembered had grown up into a lady, with a potential suitor too…

I guess it must be too much for him to take. And that’s why he’s protective of Celeste as well.

I could understand Nagare-san’s thought, but I was also in Celeste’s position, so I could understand how awkward it’d be for her.

 

“I promise I will protect her,” Alt-nii then said with a serious expression on his face, his determined eyes looked straight into Nagare-san’s eyes.

Nagare-san was a little bit surprised seeing Alt-nii’s response, but his expression loosened after hearing and seeing Alt-nii’s determination.

Perhaps he felt that Alt-nii wasn’t too bad, and since Nagare-san couldn’t be there to make sure Celeste was safe, Alt-nii’s promise would be assuring.

 

“I haven’t said that I accepted this suggestion,” King Titus said with a smile that was unreadable at all.

“Please,” Celeste pleaded.

“King Titus, let me join too,” Alt-nii followed suit.

 

King Titus didn’t say anything before he sighed and said, “Alright. I will approve of this strategy.”

Celeste and Alt-nii’s expressions relaxed the moment they heard the king’s words.

“Father, will it be fine?” Luca then asked, he seemed to still be pondering over this decision.

“What?” King Titus asked Luca to elaborate.

“It’s like betting… Gambling,” Luca answered shortly.

“Mhm, and as much as the uncertainty poses a risk that makes us uneasy, I don’t hate this at all. If a king is occupied with defending and staying in the comfort zone alone, there’s no way he can make a better change. No risk, no gain. That’s the reason I sent you off as part of the delegation and just now, I also agreed to let Celeste and Altaire join.”

“……That makes sense,” Luca gave a small nod, but from his expression, I could tell that he was still thinking things thoroughly.

 

“How is she going to disguise herself, then? We’d need a good identity for her,” Luca quickly added.

Before the king or Celeste or anyone else could answer, Yuzuru’s voice could be heard.

“Simple. Let her assume the identity of Fumitsuna family’s member. Sure, she can hide her Oni characteristics, but it’s still risky. Let it be known then, so they won’t question it if they see her Oni characteristics later.”

Yuzuru then approached Celeste and looked at her intently before saying, “Ah, but if you think they’re going to recognize you like this, it might be best for you to do something about your eyes and hair color.”

 

With that, it was decided that Alt-nii and Celeste would be part of the delegation sent to Cielle.