Chapter 34 - The Leader...? Me...? (2)

The north, where bitter cold and ashen earth stretched on without end. Here, where a descended Outer God had recently fought a count of Asteria, countless graves now held the bodies the expedition had been unable to take home.

THUD

It appeared.

It wore a black sacred shroud. Ominous black ornaments clinked at its waist and hands as it seemed to sweep its gaze over the surroundings, its face hidden beneath a hood.

“...?”

Its mouth twisted to one side, as though it could not make sense of the situation.

Before long, however, it smiled in amusement as it surveyed the area.

“Interesting.”

The voice was remarkably cheerful, quite out of place amid the ashen landscape. Impossible to identify as male or female, it rang out as though countless voices overlapped. Murmuring, the being slowly looked around before lowering its gaze to the ground.

It silently studied the spot where the Outer God had vanished—the very ground upon which a fair duel had forced the god to accept Alon’s strike.

“Shall we see just how far you can go?”

Muttering those enigmatic words, it turned away without hesitation, as though its business here was finished.

Soon, nothing remained upon the ashen earth but the graves.

####

Five months had passed since gifts began arriving at House Pallatio almost daily. Spring had come and gone once more, and the weather was beginning to take on the unmistakable character of summer.

The breeze was growing warmer, though “warm” still described it more accurately than “hot.” As Alon continued his research into magic and the excessive stream of gifts finally began to dwindle, two major tasks presented themselves.

The first was the emergence of Kahara, the forgotten city.

His constant requests to the Information Guild allowed Alon to quickly learn that a forgotten city had been discovered in the desert. The guild’s report amounted to little more than word that an explorer had found a hidden city, but his prior knowledge made it easy to identify the place as the forgotten city of Kahara.

In other words, all he had to do now was set out from Coloni, and he could finally obtain the information he wanted.

Yet he was currently traveling not toward the desert city, but in the opposite direction, toward Asteria’s capital, Teria. The reason was his second task: the Grand Council Session, which every noble was required to attend once every three years.

“... Are we still far away?”

“Uh... We should be arriving soon.”

Evan answered Alon, who had asked while gazing up at the clear sky from inside the carriage.

“‘Should be arriving soon’ isn’t good enough, is it?”

“But we can hardly go any faster, can we?”

Alon nodded. His carriage was already moving remarkably fast for a carriage along an unpaved road.

‘I hate arriving late and having everyone stare at me...’

Having miscalculated the travel time, he was now in danger of arriving late to the Grand Council Session. Behind his expressionless facade, he let out a long, weary sigh.

He desperately wanted to forget the whole thing, turn the carriage around, and head for Coloni. Unfortunately, that was impossible. Like the social gathering he had attended previously, the Grand Council Session had a rule requiring every noble of Asteria to attend once every three years.

‘Why does a rule like that even exist?’

In truth, he knew the reason, having searched through documents for some way to avoid attending.

‘... What is this, a communist state...? Oh, does being a monarchy make it a communist state...?’

Knowing why the rule existed did nothing to change his mind.

Alon had never intended to join any of Asteria’s political factions, and he was even less inclined to do so now. For one thing, joining a faction was tantamount to making all sorts of enemies within the kingdom.

Of course, there was much to gain by making those enemies, but unfortunately, none of it was anything Alon wanted. Thanks to Deus, that truly devoted son of his, he already had more money than he knew what to do with.

‘... At some point, the sheer number of gifts started to feel burdensome, so I sent them back. Still, I certainly have plenty.’

In any case, measured against what he needed to fulfill his dream, joining a faction offered him almost no benefit. That was why he had stayed out of them from the start.

“Evan.”

“I can see the capital up ahead.”

Evan answered immediately, as though he had been waiting for Alon to speak. Alon looked outside the carriage and saw Teria, the capital of the Kingdom of Asteria.

“Oh.”

Teria was impressively developed compared with any kingdom he had seen so far. Admittedly, he had only visited about five territories, and Callivan was the only capital he had been to.

Still, apart from its size, Teria was not far behind Callivan in its level of development.

For a moment, Alon found himself staring absently at the capital’s scenery.

“There it is.”

At the sight of the Grand Council building in the distance, his expression grew anxious. He was about to relive the feeling of a university student walking into a lecture ten minutes late.

“Hmm...?”

But as soon as they entered the Grand Council grounds, the sight before him made him tilt his head. Although the meeting should already have been starting, quite a few nobles were still outside the council hall, casually socializing.

‘What’s going on...?’

His confusion lasted only a moment. Delighted that he would not have to endure the icy feeling of arriving late that he had experienced so many times before, he hurried out of the carriage.

‘I’d better get inside.’

He headed for the Grand Council hall.

####

A moment later.

“Whew...”

Having driven the carriage to the Grand Council with barely any time to spare, Evan sighed in profound relief as he watched Alon. His lord was walking somewhat briskly toward the hall.

‘He seems to be in a hurry.’

To anyone else, he would merely have appeared to be taking long strides. But Evan, who had been with Alon for more than seven years and was approaching his eighth, could vaguely tell that he was in quite a hurry.

‘Well, that’s about all I can tell.’

Despite all their years together, there was still much he did not know about Alon. A slightly bitter expression crossed Evan’s face.

“... Huh?”

Then his expression turned puzzled. The nobles who had been chatting among themselves moments earlier began falling in behind Alon as he strode toward the entrance.

That in itself was perfectly plausible. They might have lost track of time while talking, then suddenly realized they were late for the Grand Council Session.

But that was not what puzzled Evan.

‘... They all seem to be falling in behind my lord?’

The nobles near the Grand Council hall were not gathered in one spot. They were scattered widely, from the steps all the way to the entrance. If seeing Alon had reminded them that they were late, they only needed to head straight inside.

And yet...

‘... No, they really are.’

Alon seemed oblivious, preoccupied with his determination not to be late and his relief at avoiding that old university-student feeling. But every noble was walking behind him.

THUD

“...???”

As Alon finally reached the top of the steps and entered the Grand Council hall, Evan stared in bewilderment. It looked for all the world as though Alon were leading every noble inside.

####

Meanwhile, Alon entered the Grand Council hall with a sense of relief and got his first look at its interior. It looked much like a circular version of the parliamentary chamber he had only seen on television in his previous world.

The only real difference was that it had been divided into three sections, as though to draw clear boundaries between the factions.

‘... The royalist faction on the left, and the aristocratic faction on the right?’

Alon glanced at the nobles seated on either side, then considered the completely empty section.

‘... This must be where the unaffiliated nobles sit... Were there this many nobles without a faction?’

He looked bewildered.

That lasted only a moment. Feeling eyes gradually turn toward him, Alon casually moved to take a seat in the very back. Then he sensed gazes behind him and turned his head, only to recoil in shock.

“...”

Behind him stood the nobles, all staring fixedly at him. Every one of their faces seemed to demand, “What do you think you’re doing?”

‘Wait, weren’t you all outside a moment ago...??’

Looking dumbfounded, Alon casually moved a little farther down and tried to sit somewhere in the middle.

“... Ah.”

But the nobles still wore expressions that said, “Seriously, what are you doing?” Only then did Alon understand why they had remained outside the council chamber even after the appointed time.

‘Don’t tell me they didn’t want to sit in front?’

Even to Alon, it seemed a little absurd—a notion that had only ever applied during his university days. But Asteria’s Grand Council Session had never appeared in the game, and he had never attended anything like it himself. Under the nobles’ pressure, he had no choice but to sit at the point of the triangle.

... In other words, the seat that anyone could tell ought to belong to a faction leader.

The instant he sat down, he heard the nobles taking their seats as though on cue, convincing him that his guess had been correct.

‘... I can certainly see why they wouldn’t want this seat.’

Alon glanced at the leaders of the other two factions, each seated at a point just as he was.

Duke Limgrave, leader of the royalist faction.

Marquis Philvoid, leader of the aristocratic faction.

In appearance, one might be described as a middle-aged man who had aged gracefully, and the other as a middle-aged man weathered by every hardship life could offer. Yet both exuded a formidable presence.

It was not mana. Rather, it was the seasoned authority of men who had led their factions for many years and endured every kind of trial.

‘They’re staring like hell.’

Just as Alon was inwardly beginning to understand why the nobles did not want to sit in front, the man at the center spoke.

“... Very well. Let us begin the Grand Council.”

Looking more like a clergyman than a noble, he glanced in turn at Alon and the leaders of the other factions.

‘I hope this ends quickly...’

Turning his head with that thought, Alon noticed Duchess Altia watching him from the row behind him. Seated directly at his back, she exuded the unmistakable air of a shadowy mastermind, unlike when he had seen her before.

“Now, before we begin, the newly established ‘Sword Faction’ has been granted voting rights in Asteria’s Grand Council from this day forward.”

Alon remembered one of the rumors he had shoved into a corner of his mind and forgotten, assuming it would fade away on its own.

Today was the day Lady Xenonia and Duchess Altia’s faction would officially launch—

“Now then, Count Pallatio, as the representative of the Sword Faction, do you have anything you would like to say?”

“... Pardon?”

—and at that very moment, he realized he had become the leader of the shadowy faction Duchess Altia and Lady Xenonia had created.