Chapter 18: The Kingdom’s Darkness

Chapter 2 – The Dark Side’s Combat Maid The Kingdom’s Darkness

「Did her highness manage to depart from the capital without any problem?」

Inside a room of the palace in the capital of Claydale Kingdom, a large country that was located at the southern part of Thurs continent, the man who was the owner of that room asked that question to a young butler. The butler quietly opened his mouth in reply.

「In regard to her highness the first princess, she didn’t particularly mention anything about her body’s bad state of health and was able to depart from the capital today. If there isn’t any problem on the way, her highness will be able to arrive at the territory of Margrave Dandall two weeks later just as scheduled.」

「I see. Her highness Elena’s selfishness in this palace was troubling, but when she arrive there, we will be able to entrust her to her grandfather Dandall and leave the rest to him.」

The owner of this room, the prime minister of Claydale Kingdom, Margrave Belt Fa Melrose had been acquainted for long with Margrave Dandall since they were still academy student. He recalled his friend’s face while leaning deeply on his chair.

This Claydale Kingdom was three countries in the past. The old royal families of Dandall at the north and Melrose at the south were left alive as the margrave in those areas. Originally the role of margrave was to mediate between the nobles in that region, but due to the political problem from the unification at that time, in order to suppress the dissatisfaction of the nobles and people of the former Dandall Dukedom and former Melrose Dukedom, a tradition was made where the head of the two houses would be given important posts of the kingdom.

Dandall was entrusted to be in charge of the military matter. For generations, a family member of the head of Dandall House would be the one taking the position as the head of the knight order that also acted as the field marshal of the military.

Melrose was in charge of the domestic affairs. For generations a family member of the head of Melrose House had always been assigned as the prime minister.

More than a hundred years had passed since the unification. The ill feeling between the nobles of the old royal families had faded and they considered themselves as people of the same country, but it was difficult to change a tradition that had taken a deep root after this late, so the two margrave houses were still monopolizing the two important posts.

The first princess Elena that became the topic here was born from the second queen who was a princess of Dandall House.

At that time there was no noble lady of suitable age from the duke houses. Originally that princess of Dandall House was the only one worthy to be the first queen with her pedigree and beauty, but the young man who was the crown prince at that time instead chose a viscount daughter as his first queen. That lady of viscount house was his classmate in the sorcery academy and her name wasn’t even listed among his fiancée candidates.

That viscount daughter who became the first queen safely gave birth to a son who became the crown prince of this generation. At the next year, the margrave daughter who became the second queen gave birth to Elena.

The second queen whose beloved fiancée was snatched away from the side at that time became desperate so that her child could be the next king at the very least, but because the child that she gave birth to was a girl, her hope was almost completely crushed.

But the second queen was unable to give up completely. She gave Elena special education for gifted children with an abnormal zeal since she became aware of her surrounding. As the result, Elena reached the level where she possessed four elements, but her body lost its healthiness due to the excessive amount of magic power that she possessed. Everything was for the sake of surpassing the prince that the first queen gave birth to. But ironically, the one who got concerned with Elena’s weak body and became her mental support was the prince that the first queen gave birth to.

The young Elena was showing affection to her half-brother to a degree that was unthinkable for a normal brother and sister. The king who felt that Elena’s affection was going a bit too far decided to separate her from the crown prince temporarily by sending her to the parent’s house of Elena’s mother the second queen for “recuperation”.

Currently at Dandall, there was Lady Clara Dandall who was one of the fiancée candidates of the current crown prince.

It was worrying whether it would be alright for the first princess who harbored affection to her big brother to approach her brother’s fiancée, but Elena and Clara were cousins and they had been playmate with each other since they were little. Elena too had never bared her fang toward Clara, or rather, perhaps as the result of the gifted education that Elena had received, as long as her brother wasn’t right in front of her, she was actually an extremely brilliant girl with calm personality.

「Belt-sama isn’t going to head there too?」

「Ozu……how can I go there when I’m the prime minister? Although her highness’s recuperation isn’t made public, someone from the dark side is taking control of the security at the recuperation resort right?」

「My elder sister Sera is in charge of the security there, so I believe there will be no problem.」

Melrose House that was in charge of the domestic affairs also held the additional post as the chief of the 『dark side』, an organization that was in charge of gathering information, protecting VIP, and removing any dangerous individual from behind the scene.

This young man called Ozu was also a descendant from a retainer family that had served Melrose House since they were still a royalty. He was a butler of the prime minister but he was also a knight from the dark side.

At present the king’s children were only the crown prince, the first princess, and then the second prince who was just born. Although the king himself was also still young, that number of children was clearly too few for a nation of this scale.

Because of that a part of the high class nobles was secretly maneuvering to send in a concubine for the king. The crown prince and Elena had also gotten their lives targeted several times by the people who desired to obtain a part of the interests, but they were all removed by the dark side’s knights who were constantly guarding their surrounding without the knowledge of anybody else.

Currently Melrose’s territory was being governed by Belt’s eldest son as feudal lord representative, but Belt who was holding multiple duties even now glared at Ozu asking if he intended to increase his work any more than this.

Belt was a noble with a lot of magic power, so his outer appearance was still that of a man at his mid forty, but his actual age was already at the late fifty.

Belt himself wanted to live like the previous king who had already handed over the throne to the current king and indulged himself in travelling with his wife the empress dowager for a comfortable retirement or the head of Dandall House who passed his position as the field marshal to his son and lived in his territory surrounded by his grandchildren. But his surrounding wouldn’t allow him to retire at all.

(……Grandchild huh.)

That muttering of Belt didn’t come out as spoken voice, but Ozu guessed from his expression and raised that topic.

「But, there is also a report that the young miss was found at the territory of Baron Horace that isn’t that far away from Dandall……」

Ozu’s sentence made Belt who slightly indulged in a nostalgic thought to raise his eyebrow slightly.

Belt had two sons and one daughter. Belt really doted on his daughter who was the youngest child and also his first daughter. His daughter was even considered as a fiancée candidate for the current king.

But his daughter was secretly building a romantic relationship with an apprentice knight of all people. Belt who didn’t want his daughter to go through a life of hardship was unable to recognize their relationship. His daughter who was at a loss from that then ended up eloping with that apprentice knight around ten years ago.

From the rumor it was thought that his daughter and the young apprentice knight drifted to the northern part of the country. When their whereabouts came to light, his daughter and the young man who worked as the soldier of that place got dragged into great outbreak of monsters that attacked the town and died.

However there was a girl who was born between the two of them as their only child.

The『moon rose(Melrose)』 that was the family crest of the old Melrose royal family……its other name was 『Alicia』. It was thought the girl who was given that name also got dragged into the monster attack and died, but a report that a girl whose appearance met the descriptions was found in an orphanage of a small town in Baron Horace’s territory came in. But──

「……I’ve heard about that from my subordinate. But, the girl’s hair is dark blond that is closer to be red hair unlike my daughter’s hair color. Her eye color is also blue that is closer to black. And from the description of the person who saw the girl, I don’t think that her face is also similar with my daughter.」

「However, it’s possible that is an influence of the blood of the knight apprentice who was that girl’s father isn’t it?」

「……All the women from my family’s lineage has pinkish blond hair is the same color with the『moon rose』. It wasn’t just my daughter, my elder sister and my aunt were also the same. Then why is it that girl they discovered is the only one who differ?」

The women from the direct lineage of the old Melrose royal family all had pink blond hair. But, strangely when the woman came out from the Melrose House and wasn’t considered as direct descendant anymore, that characteristic hair color would be gone from within several generations.

But, although Belt’s daughter ran away in elopement, she was still registered as a member of Melrose House. Therefore Alicia who was born outside was also considered as a 『princess』 from the direct lineage of Melrose House. It seemed that girl who was discovered introduced herself as 『Alicia』 and said that her mother was a daughter of a southern noble. That testimony wouldn’t be enough for her to be considered as Belt’s granddaughter but, certainly it was too rushed to decide that she wasn’t based only on her hair color.

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「In regard to that girl, send someone from the dark side as caretaker of that orphanage for several years to ascertain that there is no inconsistency from her testimony. If it’s actually true that there is no falsehood from her words……」

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「Is Melrose House going to adopt her then?」

「……No, I’ll send her to other house until she become of age. Let’s see……a branch family like viscount house of Mercis might be a good place. The viscount’s talent is average but his character can be trusted.」

「That person who is managing a personal territory of Melrose House is certainly qualified. And, what will Belt-sama do?」

Ozu was someone who Belt had known ever since he was born. He frowned at his question. Ozu too also knew about Belt’s personality very well.

「……If I’m not mistaken, the retired Hosu knew how my daughter looked isn’t he?」

「Yes, me and my elder sister weren’t really acquainted with her, but if it’s grandfather who worked as the butler in the main mansion, I believe that he definitely remembers about her.」

「Then send Hosu to there as the orphanage’s caretaker. Go ahead to take a look at that girl’s face then head to Dandall. I’ll listen to the report directly over there.」

Viro and I had arrived safely at the territory of Margrave Dandall. Margrave Dandall was a powerful noble who owned a territory at the northern part of Claydale Kingdom and forty nobles as his dependents. On paper the peerage of margrave was equal to the rank of count but in practice the rank was equal to a marquis. Especially when it came to the two margrave houses in this Claydale, it seemed that they possessed financial and political strength that surpassed the duke houses. As expected it seemed that great noble wasn’t the client, but it seemed that request came from the noble who borrowed the recuperation resort in this land.

The city where the margrave lived was a metropolis where more than one hundred thousand people lived, we stopped by at the adventurer guild there only to give a report and then we immediately headed to the recuperation resort at the south without even staying for a night here. I watched the cityscape that was made from stone and the huge castle that looked like a fortress far away. ……I wanted to look at that castle for a bit.

After walking for around the whole day from Dandall’s capital, I could see a lake from the gap in the forest. We walked around the very big lake and then a smallish castle that was built at the bank of the lake came into sight. I thought that was our destination, but Viro didn’t head there and knocked the gate of a three storey white mansion that was located beside it.

「I’m Viro of Rainbow Sword who accepted the request. Please tell of my arrival to the butler Castro.」

Rainbow Sword……? I presumed that was the nickname that the other adventurers called Viro with or perhaps it was the name of the adventurer party that he belonged to?

「Rainbow Sword……tsu. Understood, I’ll check immediately so wait there.」

One of the guards made a slightly surprised face and headed toward the mansion. From the guard’s reaction, I could feel that his surprise wasn’t from Viro personally but from 『the Rainbow Sword that Viro was connected with』.

A while after that, a tall and lean btler appeared from the mansion together with the guard. He seemed to be in his thirty with a face that looked slightly ill natured.

「Yoo, Castro. Are you in good health?」

「Viro, you’re late.」

That man didn’t even pay any mind to Viro’s casual greeting. He turned his gaze at me who was behind Viro.

「So it’s that kid. She is smaller than I expected……is she usable?」(TN: I don’t know whether this guy has realized that Aria is a girl or not, but I’ll use she anyway.)

「I’ve given her the minimum training. Besides, it’ll be better if you don’t group her with the random brats around.」

Viro grinned. The butler, Castro grimaced slightly.

「For you to say that much……. Viro, show yourself to Sera-sama. You kid, come with me.」

After saying that Castro started walking toward the mansion. I turned my gaze to Viro. He shrugged and smiled wryly.

「That guy has a bad look and he is also unfriendly, but he is simply an inflexible person so don’t worry. For now we’ll part temporarily here. Have that guy tell you about your work.」

「……Understood.」

Which part of what you said just now could serve as a factor to reassure me? I would separate from Viro from here and be alone. Even so he too should be assigned with security work in this place, so there was a chance that I would meet him again for sure.

For now I too followed behind Castro who was walking ahead and headed to the back of the mansion. Just from looking at his back and his way of walking, I could feel that he was quite powerful.

.

▼Castro Race：Human♂

【Magic Power : 123/130】【Stamina : 244/260】

【Overall Combat Strength : 355】

.

But not at Viro’s level. He was dressed as a butler, but he might be a scout with rank around 3. I was guessing that his combat strength would be more than 400 if he used body strengthening.

「tsu!」

The moment I caught up to Castro, he threw something without even showing any preliminary movement. I who was on my guard against him jumped away to dodge that. There stabbed on the ground was a thin knife.

My eyes stopped at that only for a moment before I kept my posture low while my hand reached toward the knife on my waist. Then the faint killing intent that was leaking out from Castro vanished.

「Hoo…… even Viro’s nonsense doesn’t seem like a lie.」

「……What’s your intention?」

Was he testing me? But, even if he wasn’t serious, that knife would have pierced my foot if I was just a normal kid.

「If you got injured from just now, I’d use it as an excuse to dismiss you right away. But, it’s just as Sera-sama said, there will also be times when it will be useful to have a child as lookout. Viro is the one taking you here so we will hire you but, let me tell you just one thing before that.」

Castro slowly turned around and glared condescendingly on me.

「I don’t trust a slum dweller like you.」

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