Chapter 145 - The Stableman and the Princess

Ferda asked William again.

"You mean not that they cut it by 3%, but that it was 3%?"

-That is correct. It is a figure that is hard to believe even as I explain it.

By objective judgment, Olivia's contribution had been a staggering 45%.

No matter how forcefully they tried to cut it down, it was still worth at least 30%.

Ferda asked William how such a miraculous number could have come out.

If the reason was summarized in one sentence, it all came down to everything having been good luck.

The problem was that Olivia had only learned the accomplishments expected of a Princess and had never properly learned how to command people or tactics.

Therefore, even if her judgment had grounds, the Empire's position was that a person who had not learned tactics carrying out tactics could have endangered the army, and that she should consider herself fortunate that they had not held her guilty for it.

On top of that, they even added the reason that, midway through, she had endangered the army by using bold tactics and ordering the formation of a pursuit battalion.

So although she had performed well as chief of staff, they argued that most of that achievement should go to the actual contributors.

The reason Alexander had welcomed each of them and talked them up was all because of Olivia.

"I gave you a document. Did you not see how they used it?"

-I saw it. They did argue the justification based on the document you gave them, Regent, but it did not seem to carry much weight.

"Why?"

-The decisive factor was that Young Lord Lutenia kept his mouth shut.

Lutenia had been the second-in-command of this temporary alliance, the chief of staff.

In this assessment of merits, he had the highest percentage after Olivia at 15%.

"What percentage did he receive?"

-30%.

That would be enough to make him keep his mouth shut.

He had boldly taken one-third of Olivia's merit.

So, naturally, the highest medal Olivia should have received must have gone to him.

Ferda could picture how the matter had been handled.

They had turned this into a zero-sum game.

They had tempted many young lords and knights by making it seem like a game where, if the pie they got grew larger, someone else's pie would shrink.

To enlarge their own slices of pie, to claim greater merit, someone had to be sacrificed.

That someone was Olivia, who held half the merit all by herself.

For those whose merit was too small to even have their names listed, it was a good chance to take even 1% of the merit, so they had no reason to refuse.

Sacrifice one to make the many happy.

It was truly simple for them to abandon the duties of nobles and the code of knights.

The Princess was too beautiful.

She was beautiful beyond their station.

So they knew they could never have her.

Rather than curry favor with a pretty but hollow prize, choosing profit was long-term and rational.

'Vile bastards.'

Even so, he could not endure the disgust.

To think they had called her the Flower of the Empire, trailed after her wherever she went, and then sold her off for the prize in front of them.

-But among them, there were some who refused, saying they would uphold the spirit of knighthood.

"I hope you were among them."

-Of course. Even if I were to receive merit, my own merit would be enough, and I could not accept it inflated...

"So what percentage did they recognize for you?"

"They said 10%."

Ferda casually flipped through the copy Mori had organized.

William's had been 5%, exactly doubled.

Since they had tried to snatch Burnel right in front of him, Ferda asked William what sort of offer he had received.

-I was offered the position of Guardian Knight of the imperial guard.

Guardian Knight.

It was a title that ranked among the top for knights, and at the same time, only those directly under the imperial family could bear it.

The intent to make him abandon the Grand Duchy's territory of Valdrova and come there was strong.

"So did you accept it?"

-I accepted it only as an honorary title.

In other words, it was a title that only looked impressive on paper, without even an actual investiture ceremony.

The fact that someone from a knightly background said that meant he had politely refused by saying he already had a lord he served.

A Guardian Knight should have been a position no less than that of most counts.

Seeing him turn down something like that made Ferda feel strangely pleased.

"When will you return?"

-I had planned to leave right away tomorrow morning, but now I plan to depart immediately. They said they would support me with teleportation magic...

"You could take your time coming back."

-Should I not fulfill my duty as security captain?

How diligent.

"Understood. Then come to the castle as soon as you arrive. We will hold the bonus award ceremony and banquet as soon as you get here."

-Yes, sir! I will get there as quickly as possible!

After William returned through teleportation magic, Ferda awarded bonuses to the tactical infantry who had participated in the war and supported the festival.

It was not difficult, since they had banquet supplies that should have lasted for two days.

Ferda was able to use up the remaining supplies that might have gone to waste, and the infantry, by experiencing noble food they would never otherwise have tasted, were properly treated as veterans.

Just when it seemed things would pass without any particular trouble, Ferda's communication crystal ball flashed blue.

Ferda placed his hand on it and connected the telepathic message.

-Good evening, Regent! I am Joseph, an imperial liaison!

The fact that an imperial liaison was contacting him this late at night meant that something unusual had happened.

-I am contacting you to ask whether Her Highness the Princess has perhaps visited Valdrova Castle.

Ferda frowned reflexively.

"Why are you asking me that?"

-I am terribly sorry to ask a question that may offend you. But this is a matter on which we must reach a conclusion quietly and swiftly within the Empire, so I contacted you despite my shame.

Hearing that, Ferda understood.

Olivia had run away.

"My conclusion is that I do not know. Has something happened to the Princess?"

-I cannot tell you about that matter.

Oh, look at these people.

"You think you can say that much, then end it by saying you do not know? I have several conjectures of my own, so what do you think will happen if I spread those conjectures everywhere? At that point, it may not remain a secret."

When he openly threatened him, the liaison repeatedly let out troubled breaths before answering.

-As you expect, Princess Arken is currently missing. To locate her whereabouts, we are searching not only the imperial palace, but all across the Empire.

"So now you are even investigating people who crossed the wall?"

-That is correct. We are currently comparing entry and exit lists to determine her whereabouts. The security captain went there around this evening, so he was among the subjects of investigation.

"Understood. If I hear anything on my end, I will let you know at once."

-Yes, thank you!

With those words, he repeatedly asked Ferda to keep it secret before cutting off the telepathic message.

"A runaway, is it..."

To be honest, it was something she had every reason to do.

Her 45% merit had been reduced to 3%, and her entrance into politics had been thwarted.

To Ferda, it was similar to when he had not been recognized as a mage and had become the public enemy.

'Back then, I had not even wanted that hatred.'

But the world had wanted Ferda to hate.

If not, it made no sense that such malice had descended upon him.

Even thinking of that time now made him seethe.

Erdes, that fucking bitch.

After briefly chewing over that name, he returned to the original subject.

'Princess Olivia has disappeared.'

How had she escaped?

She too was a possessor of the Red Circle and could wield light magic, but escaping with magic like teleportation would be impossible.

To get out of a place that heavily guarded, she would need a helper, and that helper would have to shoulder a risk great enough to lose their head over it at the very least.

Nobles were no exception.

'What would they gain from doing that?'

Most people would likely have dismissed it as an emotional deviation by the weak.

However, Ferda first thought that Olivia was plotting something.

Ferda could not picture her rebelling like a child throwing a tantrum.

Through this runaway, she would surely obtain what she wanted.

At the same time, another image surfaced in his mind.

It was not from the present, but from the distant future when he had been consumed by hatred.

She had become a seductress who could bring a nation to ruin and was standing atop a balcony railing.

For some reason, Ferda thought she resembled him.

She had suffered because of her family, hated her family, and tried to kill them all, and in that respect, they were exactly alike.

If there was one difference, it was that Ferda had accepted hatred for the sake of revenge, while Olivia had put on a mask.

And Ferda succeeded, while Olivia failed.

Olivia cast everything aside and deliberately staged a coup.

The princes and princesses died, but the Emperor remained alive and well.

She too was ultimately human.

No matter how solidly one armed themselves with reason and philosophy, before emotion they were nothing more than a wall of salt caught in the rain.

A human being might hold out strongly, but still had any number of possibilities of collapsing.

That was why Ferda decided not to sit still.

Before others found her, he had to find her first.

Ferda left the castle and headed into the forest.

As always, it was a disorderly forest left unmanaged.

To be specific, it was a place just outside the perimeter guarded by Iorga's spawns.

It was midnight, with the crescent moon waning.

Beneath the shade of the leaves, he closed his eyes in the dark forest.

The moment he became conscious that he had given up one sense, the others amplified frighteningly.

When even the cries of night insects vanished and an unfamiliar sulfurous smell spread faintly,

Ferda quietly called a name.

"Sitri."

Then he felt a sticky sensation clinging to his back.

-Did you call me, oppa?

She appeared behind him, brushed her serpentine lower body all over Ferda, and came around to the front.

It was a trick meant to provoke disgust, but Ferda showed no emotion and spoke briefly.

"Where is she?"

-What do you mean?

"Olivia. I feel like you would know where that woman is."

-Hm? You are too impatient, darling. Do you think I live only to spy on the Princess in the imperial palace?

"As lustful as you are, there is no way you do not know."

Ferda knew.

When the Great Demon Sitri seduced humans, she transformed into the most alluring form, and one of those forms was Olivia.

Eight times out of ten, one could assume she transformed into Olivia Arken to seduce them.

In fact, that worked the best.

Even if it was a replica created by a demon, more than hundreds had died with the sole thought of holding the Princess.

To Sitri, the useful Olivia was a pet she very much wanted to possess.

No, perhaps even more than that.

To obtain such a pet, she would be waiting for an opportunity, and one of her eyes was surely fixed on Olivia.

So if he asked about the whereabouts of this runaway, she would know best.

-Suppose I do know... Why do you need that woman, oppa? Were you not devoted only to the Grand Duchess?

"I simply need that woman."

-Heeung? So no matter what you say, oppa is still a man... Is that what this means?

"You keep turning the sounds a dog would bark into human speech."

Ferda made a look of revulsion, but Sitri's gaze did not change.

-Then let us do this, oppa. I will try seducing you in this form for three minutes.

Sitri's shape was clear even in the darkness.

The appearance of Sitri, the demon, gradually changed, and then became Olivia's form as it was.

Her eyelashes, lips, even her fingers, everything resembled Olivia.

Sitri spoke in Olivia's voice.

-If you last for three minutes, I will tell you. How about it?

She floated an hourglass in the air.

It was such a filthy thing to do, perfectly like her.

"Do as you please."

Ferda answered with an indifferent face.

Then Sitri smiled triumphantly, as if she had caught him.

-How foolish. No matter how devoted you are, oppa, you are still a man, are you not?

Then she boldly pressed her body against him.

The curves he had only seen with his eyes seemed to lick vividly across his body.

She breathed against the nape of Ferda's neck, constantly tickling him.

Ferda did not resist and let her do as she pleased.

Sticky, suggestive sounds announced each second passing.

He was roughly counting about three minutes in his head, but there was still a long while before the hourglass finished falling.

'She used a filthy trick.'

This was not even a formal contest, and she had never said that hourglass measured three minutes, so of course she would.

From the start, her purpose had probably only been to shake Ferda and humiliate him.

"It is over."

-What? Really?

Ferda glanced toward the hourglass she had summoned.

As he said, it had long since emptied completely.

Olivia muttered instead as if her pride had been hurt.

-Just in case, I swapped it for a four-minute one, but are you saying I could not even seduce one man for four minutes?

Then she glared at him venomously with Olivia's face.

-Oppa, are you perhaps impotent?

"No."

-Then why is there no reaction even after seeing a body like this? That makes no sense, does it?

Ferda had confirmed that he was not impotent, so he could answer confidently.

And more than anything, Ferda knew what the Princess was like.

If she did something this vulgar, he would have been turned off before he was aroused.

"At any rate, I won."

-Hmm, you never lose even once. How annoying.

She let out her regret, pouted her lips, then smiled.

As if that was not necessarily a bad thing.

-There was an old story like this.

"Stop playing word games—"

-Listen until the end, darling. You have heard the story of the princess and the stableman fleeing the castle together, have you not?

"... Yes."

That story was a tale of rising in status, and even now, Ferda could recite its sentences reflexively.

-The answer is in that story.

At the words that there was an answer, he closed his eyes and followed the flow of its contents.

Ferda realized what she was trying to say.

'... No way.'

No, that could not be.

Ferda desperately denied it inwardly, but the more he did, the deeper Sitri's smile grew.

"Sweet dreams, oppa."

When Ferda opened his eyes again, Sitri had already vanished.

Ferda stood there and repeated it in his head.

'Did she lie?'

It had not been a formal bet, so she had no obligation to tell the truth.

But what would she gain by doing that?

Sitri's leash was in Ferda's hands.

If what she said was exactly as Ferda thought,

there was only one person that stableman pointed to.

'William.'

The security captain and a sword for the people.

The answer was clear, yet Ferda kept wanting to deny it.

William was one of the few examples of knighthood Ferda believed in.

There was no way such a man would have brought the Princess out on his own.

'But there is no such thing as absolute.'

To begin with, the reason William had come to this village was also to save commoners.

There was no guarantee that those who had crossed one line could not cross another.

Moreover, it also explained why he had returned this evening when tomorrow would have been fine.

Ferda could not get a sense of what he should do.

'If I do not know...'

He had to see it with his own two eyes and find out.

Even if that was an uncomfortable truth.