In the end, Father returned to the mansion late at night. Until then, I felt small vibrations in the distance several times, but I was glad that there were no reports of trouble or that something happened in the mansion.
I learned later that many knights and guards were dispatched for the military operation. Fortunately, the damage to the civilians was small. As expected, the capital guards were quite skilled.
It looked like the commotion would continue for a while since the kingdom needed to clean up the aftermath of the battle and the kingdom also needed to make sure that there were no devils or demons that remained in the capital. These were all something that the commander of the military operation and several specialists needed to worry about. Not me, though.
Well then, since now Father has returned, let’s talk to him. Seriously, I got way too many things that I needed to report.
“Welner, you’ve returned.”
“Yes, Father. I am also relieved that Father has returned safely.”
“Most things have already been taken care of, so you can relax now.”
“Understood.”
As he gave his coat to Lily-san, Father said so and I replied. Max entered the mansion after Father so I nodded to him.
Father would probably change into his indoor clothes, so I have some time to spare. After Father left the entrance to the inside of the mansion, I turned my attention to Max.
“Thank you for your hard work. How’s the situation in the palace?”
“I cannot give you the details, but the palace is safe and sound.”
I frowned a little at Max’s answer. Probably someone who has the rank of the captain of noble knights or equal gave a gag order. Let’s just ask for the details from Father later than.
“Okay, no problem. Has the capital’s atmosphere calmed down?”
“From what I had observed, yes.”
“Good then. Tell Augen and others to stay alert. If they notice anything fishy within 3 days starting tomorrow, contact me. They can also send me a letter.”
“Yes, sir.”
I then gave several other instructions to Max, but half of them were for tomorrow. This world had no electricity after all, so things you could do at night were quite limited. Even walking around the town at night was quite dangerous.
Since there wasn’t any emergency now, there was no need to force anyone to move at this hour.
“For tonight, just finish the bare minimum you need to do, then rest.”
“Thank you very much.”
I would leave the details to Max. It would mean that Max needed to work a bit more, but it was better to leave it to him who was used to the job. If someone like me who barely knew anything did it, I might create a mess.
Plus, I didn’t have the time. I still have many things I wanted to ask Father.
***
After a certain amount of time, probably enough for Father to change his clothes and have a cup of tea, I was called to his office.
I had also used that time to change from my armor. I told Frenssen to clear the desk and take care of my armor, then headed to Father’s office.
“First of all, thank you for your hard work, Welner.”
“I only did what I had to do.”
Father looked tired. Well, I guess today was a hell of a day for the officials. Without a doubt, the military was busy today, but even Father, who was the Minister of Ceremonies, must have been busy dealing with the foreign affairs with the Minister of Foreign Affair.
“Tomorrow, you need to go to the palace in the early morning. His Highness said he wanted to discuss several things with you.”
“Just me alone?”
“Yes. His Highness said we wished to speak with you alone first.”
“I understand. Then, let me give you a simple report about today.”
“Sure.”
It looked like Father knew about what His Highness wanted to discuss with me, but he didn’t tell me anything. That meant whatever it was, it must be highly classified, so I needed to go to the palace to talk with His Highness. I got a feeling that I would be roped into some troublesome things again.
I put this matter in the back of my mind for now and focus on my report. I told Father about the situation in Valeritz, the incident in Alea Village, and the war in Finnoi. Really, how could these many things happen in just a month? And Father, what was with that bitter expression?
“Several people, including Duke Grunding, told me they envy me for having an excellent heir like you.”
“That was probably just empty flattery, Father.”
In this life, I just happened to get a cheat code called the memory of my past life. In terms of combat power, I wasn’t a match for Mazell while in terms of intelligence, there were people like the Crown Prince and many others who were far smarter than me. I only have my memory of my past life and the memory of the game. As for my work efficiency, that was the fruit of the knowledge and experience I had gathered in my previous life.
Or rather, I didn’t want to get too close to Duke Grunding since I had experienced just how reckless he could be. When I thought so, I realized something and asked Father a question.
“Since when did you start hearing that kind of flattery, Father?”
“The messenger informed me you were the one who created the plan in Finnoi’s defense battle. The flattery probably started around the time that news spread.”
“Did the noble ladies’ biography and portraits start to arrive at the mansion around that time, too?”
“Yes.”
Mr. Messenger, just what kind of thing did you say in your report that things become like this!? Well, the messenger had the duty of reporting exactly what he had heard. Despite that, I want to complain! I needed to make a lot of preparations for the eventual attack on the capital, so I didn’t have time to attend a noble lady tea party!
“I have many things I plan to do, so I want to refuse the noble ladies’ invitations as much as possible.”
“Ever since stuff they call prototypes has started to arrive in the mansion from craftsmen, I know that there’s something else you want to do. What exactly are you planning?”
“It will be hard for me to explain it with words, so I am planning to bring the things to the palace later. That is why, Father, I hope you will be there as the representative of Zeavert House.”
“When the time comes, I will definitely go.”
If this world were still a game, I could have just brought the thing tomorrow when I go to the palace but in reality, if I wanted to bring an unknown thing to the palace, a third party needed to investigate the thing and then gave me permission first. This was the rule created in order to prevent assassins from bringing weapons to the palace.
Well, the official procedure to get unknown things to enter the palace was only to get it checked by either a knight or an official, so it’s quite simple. The problem was I haven’t had the chance to see the prototype myself, so I didn’t know if it was good enough for me to show it to others.
“Other than that, I also want to ask about the Hearthing Family. “
“Like, why are they staying at our house, right? To put it bluntly, it was His Highness that wanted them to stay here.”
“His Highness did?”
It seemed like the royal family sent a messenger to interview the Hearthing family about what had happened in the Alea Village. After the interview was finished, the royal family, or specifically, His Highness the Crown Prince, decided that the Hearthing family would stay at the Zeavert Mansion for the time being.
“It was decided that they would stay here for the time being because of political and diplomatic reasons.”
“Political and diplomatic reasons…”
I muttered in reply, then fell into thought for a while. Ah, I see!
The game didn’t put politics into consideration. The protagonist and his party could freely cross countries as though there were no borders, they could freely enter the palaces of other countries, and they could leave without even saying anything to the immigration officer after they finished the game mission. Even in the medieval era, doing these kinds of things would be impossible, but well, it was the game after all.
But in reality, it would be impossible for someone to be that carefree in journeying across the countries. First, if the hero party went to visit a country that was having a hard time fighting against demons, the country would obviously want the hero to stay in its land for as long as possible.
However, forcing the hero party to stay with force would be impossible. Laura, this kingdom’s Second Princess, was one of the members of the hero party, so trying to harm the hero party was the same as declaring war with the Bain Kingdom. Not to mention, Mazell himself was ridiculously strong. For the current Mazell, I think even a group of 10 random guards wouldn’t be a match.
Since using force was impossible, the next step they would attempt was to tempt them with rewards. This was where it got tricky. It’s hard to refuse the reward that was given ‘as a show of goodwill’ even though it was obvious the people that gave the reward had an ulterior motive. However, since Mazell’s family was in the capital now, he could refuse the reward with an ‘I will consult it with my family first’ excuse.
As for the reason why Mazell’s family didn’t just stay in the palace, it was because there would be idiots that would claim that the royal family of Bain Kingdom was holding the hero’s family as hostage.
Then, people would try to take advantage of that situation. Maybe some family would say something like ‘Since it looks like making the hero’s family stay in the palace will invite misunderstanding, how about letting them stay at my house?’. Letting the Hearthing family stay at the church was also a viable choice, though.
If the hero’s family stayed at Zeavert House, the situation would be different. It was impossible for just one noble family to end up tying the hero down and, most importantly, if anyone dared to say my family was taking Mazell’s family as a hostage, Mazell himself would definitely get angry. I didn’t know how angry he would become, though. Well, he probably wouldn’t just explode on the spot. The important thing here was that the person who took care of Mazell’s family must be Mazell’s personal acquaintance.
At the same time, the royal family probably also thought they could arrest both the Hearthing family and the Zeavert family, the family of the hero and the hero’s friend in one fell swoop and place us in a house arrest or similar punishment when Mazell shows any intention of defecting to another country.
In short, the kingdom was using my relationship with Mazell in order to deter him from defecting to another country. His Highness was really merciless if he thought this far. Well, that was just how society works.
Sigh… the world of politics was pretty horrible.
♦
T/N:My final start tomorrow so just like before next week chapter will be pushed to the weekend! Enjoy the chapter~~