“Uh...”
I was walking through the halls of the imperial palace, following a brief exchange—not even enough to be called a quarrel—with the first prince, Hiltzel. Next up, I had an audience with the emperor, but I wasn’t alone.
“Once again, I am Seika Lamprogue,” I said to the fully armored knight walking next to me. “You may not be familiar with him as he rules a rural territory, but I’m the third son of the current head of the Lamprogue family, Count Blaise Lamprogue. It’s an honor to make your acquaintance, Miss Elysia.” I was speaking with someone from a ducal family, an extremely high-ranking noble, so I decided to give a formal greeting just to be safe.
“Ugh, that’s so uptight!” The knight gave a reply I didn’t expect from a duke’s daughter. “I hate that stuff! You’re friends with Fiona, right?”
“Y-Yeah...”
“Then there’s no need for formalities!” Elysia said with a childlike smile. It was hard to believe she was the same woman who had been standing so stiffly next to Hiltzel at the party.
“Umm, pardon my rudeness, but are you really the daughter of a duke?” I asked, taken aback.
“I am! Why do you ask?”
“Well...” Nothing about her suggested as much. That aside, I decided to ask what I had been most curious about. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come across as too rude. “How are you so strong? You’re the second-highest-ranked holy knight, you wiped out an army of elite undead, and you even took that mage’s head. How could the daughter of a duke have obtained such strength?”
It was unthinkable under ordinary circumstances. Even if she had been educated in swordplay and magic, it wouldn’t have been anything to that extent. Her time would’ve been too occupied with learning manners and etiquette, not refining her technique. Above all, someone who was promised prosperity from birth would have no reason to seek strength.
Elysia tilted her head in thought for a moment. “I don’t know!” she proudly declared. “Obviously, I worked hard, but people say that isn’t enough. I have no idea what makes me special!”
“Elysia is the eldest daughter of Duke Madias and received an education befitting a noble lady. She was assigned a sword instructor and took magic lessons, which is somewhat unusual for a noble’s daughter, but nothing more than that. She didn’t receive any special training, nor did she seek strength. She’s what you would call a natural-born brave.”
A brave. In this case, the word referred to a specific kind of person—someone with abnormal strength. A person with no special bloodline or circumstances of their birth, yet who possessed overwhelming power. Someone who went beyond the limits of humanity.
There had been such people in my past life as well. A warrior who cut down countless oni and ryuu with a single swing of his blade. A sorcerer who sealed a bake-gitsune that had reincarnated eight times and obtained power rivaling the strongest of ryuu by cutting it into nine pieces. In this world, the necromancer would probably fall into the same category, as would I, if I were being honest.
“Unfortunately,” Fiona said, turning to Elysia with a bitter smile, “she doesn’t seem well-suited to being a noble family’s daughter.”
“I’ve been doing my best,” Elysia protested.
“You did seem like you really didn’t want to be at that party,” I said.
Elysia’s face immediately turned dejected. “I hate high society. People always complain when I talk. They say I’m rude or lack refinement... That’s why I just stay quiet.”
“Can’t blame you there.”
Fiona giggled. “I find Elysia quite adorable when she tries to be ladylike.”
“Knock it off. I hated it. I didn’t even wanna go to that party!” Elysia frowned. “He spotted me when I came back to make my report and dragged me with him! He really is a smooth talker. I can’t stand it!” the noble daughter shouted.
“Report, huh? So you’ve been working under Fiona’s orders the whole time?” I asked quietly.
“Yeah! I have to come back sometimes, but I’m faster than any horse!” Elysia puffed out her chest.
Her mastery of teleportation magic would make her plenty fast. She could likely engage in covert operations in the west, then return to the palace to report back with no trouble at all. But that wasn’t the problem.
“Now that I think about it, you did mention that you had holy knights active. Were the rumors about the War Princess your doing too, Fiona?”
“No, they occurred naturally as a result of Elysia driving the citizens out of cities likely to be invaded and forcing them to evacuate,” Fiona answered plainly, making no attempt to cover it up. “Elysia is very strong, but not so strong as to take on an entire army of undead on her own. Striking down the necromancer was the only feasible option. That was why we needed to avoid exhausting ourselves and buy time until I could locate him.”
Fiona calmly revealed the truth of what had happened. “Normally, what an invading army plunders is food and water, but in this case, it was corpses. The undead don’t need food or drink, but they do need dead bodies to replenish and expand their forces. By abandoning the cities, we rendered their advance fruitless. Though a passive strategy, it was an effective one.”
It was a logical decision. In ancient wars in the West, there were records of armies repelling invasions by burning their own towns and villages in advance, cutting off the enemy’s supply lines. I didn’t know if this world had a similar history, but it was a well-thought-out means of dealing with the undead. However, that wasn’t the problem either.
“Of course, we properly compensated the residents who fled. Since they profited from this conflict, I made the merchant companies affiliated with me hand over their gains. Those people should be able to return home before too long,” Fiona said, showing no sign of guilt.
“So you knew even before we left the capital that the rebel army was actually undead?”
“Yes, of course.” Fiona nodded, a confused look on her face.
“Why would you keep that from us?” I demanded, baffled by her nonchalant reaction.
Fiona’s expression turned even more confused, as though she had no idea what I was talking about. I couldn’t understand why.
“Only a handful of people in the capital were aware at the time,” she said. “I absolutely couldn’t risk my brother realizing that I had learned the truth and was already taking action. Since you and the others aren’t accustomed to secret dealings, I couldn’t afford to tell you while you were still in the capital.” After speaking somewhat reluctantly, Fiona’s expression suddenly hardened.
“Actually, I have a question for you regarding this matter as well. Why didn’t you follow my instructions? I was shocked when I received reports that you were engaging the undead. Fortunately, it didn’t require us to alter the overall plan.”
“Instructions?” I blinked in confusion. “What instructions? Did you say something before we left?”
“Huh?” Fiona looked just as stunned as I was. “No, not before you left. Ren told you on the way there, didn’t he? Along with an overview of the situation.”
We silently exchanged a glance, then both turned to the young elf who had been innocently walking beside us. Ren’s face twitched in alarm.
“U-Uh, well...” He started making an excuse for himself. “I-I thought I told you, foolish human.”
“I didn’t hear anything about this.”
“That’s odd... I suppose I forgot. How odd— Ahhh!”
“Fiona! Fire him already! He attacked me too!” Elysia was pulling on both of Ren’s cheeks.
Fiona shot the elven holy knight a cold look. “Be honest with me, Ren.”
“U-Umm...” His cheeks freed, Ren averted his eyes. “I was thinking I’d take down the necromancer on my own. I figured a human you value so highly would be capable of finding him...”
“So you wanted the glory for yourself?” Fiona sighed, her piercing gaze locked on the elf. “I was aware that your personality could cause issues, but I never imagined you’d be incapable of delivering a simple message properly.”
“He also picked a fight with Amyu and ended up breaking his sword,” I added, making Ren visibly panic.
“D-Don’t tell her that, foolish human!”
“I beg your pardon?” Seeing the look on Fiona’s face, Ren froze. Fiona sighed. “Ren, you’re on probation until your sword is repaired. After that, you’ll be accompanying Vromd or Kanu Lu on your missions for a while. I’ll also be docking your pay.”
“Come on...”
“Don’t even start!” Elysia smacked Ren on the head. “Why did you attack me?!”
“I-I thought I’d be exposed if you met with the foolish human face-to-face...”
“That’s not a reason to turn an elven sword’s magic on your allies! I was worried Seika betrayed us when you guys started acting outside of Fiona’s plans! I thought you might’ve been killed! Give me back all that concern I had for you!”
“I’m shorry...” Elysia was pulling on Ren’s cheeks again.
That explained why Elysia suddenly attacked me.
“You know, for someone who went on about taking responsibility and not causing trouble for Fiona, you’re the one who ended up causing the most problems for her. Don’t you feel any shame?” I felt the need to ask.
“I-I think that’s an exaggeration,” Ren protested.
“Do you, now? I’d say you’re the one person who doesn’t have the right to make that claim. You can’t even beat Gly without your sword,” Fiona said, rubbing salt in the wound. “Perhaps you should introduce yourself as the ninth seat for a while.”
“Huh?! C-Cut me some slack!” Ren started crying. He seemed to really hate the idea of being beneath Gly. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him.
“Don’t worry about him!” Elysia said, seeing the pity on my face. “He’ll be back to normal tomorrow. He’s always like this.”
“Oh.” Suddenly, I didn’t feel bad anymore. While I was at it, I decided to ask something that had been on my mind. “You mentioned repairing his magic stone sword earlier. Is that actually possible? It looked like a rare item.”
“It’s possible. If you gather up the fragments, they stick back together on their own. Though it seems to get a little smaller each time. It’s supposedly an elven treasure. He stole it when he left his home.”
“Yikes.”
“I was the best at using it!” The thief attempted to justify himself through his tears.
“You really let him become a holy knight?” I said, taken aback.
Fiona and Elysia exchanged glances, their expressions difficult to read.
“Well, everyone has their quirks...” Fiona mumbled.
“He’s still better than the third seat.”
“Yes, much better.”
“What sort of people have you gathered?” I was dumbfounded. If this was their standard, then they really were holy knights in name only. They seemed to be composed entirely of powerful eccentrics. That Fiona could control them at all was astounding.