Backing up a little bit...
Queen Victoria, the prime minister, the captain of the knights, and Rose the concubine secretly gathered in a room in the castle on Rose’s urgent request.
“My word...” After ordering everyone to leave, Rose showed Queen Victoria the handkerchief she’d received, which made the queen bite the nail on her thumb. The message was such a horrifying shock that she’d resorted to the childhood habit she’d long overcome. The message, written directly on the handkerchief, was an emergency indeed.
“Queen Victoria, I know this may be hard to believe, but...”
“No, Rose. I understand.”
The handkerchief Rose had given her was unmistakably real Emma silk. And it wasn’t just the thread for the embroidery either. The fabric of the handkerchief and even the tag were also made of Emma silk. The price of such a thing would have been unimaginable. There were only a select few in the entire kingdom who would be capable of having it, and of those people, only the Stewart family and the wealthiest merchants in the kingdom, the Rothschilds, would be able to use it so frivolously as a letter. The sender was someone with the Rothschild name, and even Prince Tasuku from the Eastern Empire was mentioned by name. The queen had heard (confidentially) that the first ship from the Eastern Empire, which was going to begin ongoing diplomatic relations with the kingdom, was due to arrive in the kingdom soon. The contents of this letter were undeniably the truth.
“Maximilian... What have you done?” The message on the handkerchief stated that the ships from the Western Empire had cannons on board that were pointed directly at the capital, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. The one who had brought those ships in was none other than the firstborn prince, Maximilian—the queen’s only son.
No matter where one searched in this world, one would never find any record of a country using its military strength against another country. The world had monsters, after all. Even if each country had its own interests, they mostly helped each other in the name of a common enemy. After all, if they didn’t, humanity as a whole wouldn’t have been able to survive this long.
What was more, this act of aggression the Western Empire was planning involved the queen’s own son. Rose was absolutely right. It was hard to believe. However, she couldn’t let her love for her son cloud her judgment. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. Victoria was the queen. She had a duty to protect her kingdom and her people.
“Lady Victoria, we should alert the king at once.” The prime minister urged in a low voice. This was, without a doubt, the greatest threat to the kingdom he’d seen since becoming the prime minister. Yet here they were without a king... No. Everyone within the castle knew the king was absent around this time, which meant Prince Maximilian had known too.
A cold chill ran down his spine.
Without the king, they couldn’t command the military. Neither the queen nor the prime minister had the authority to do so. Even if they were to use the knights stationed at the castle, most of them were filling in to help with monster hunts, and those who were tasked with protecting the royal family had been split, as many had gone on the field trip with the king. There weren’t many knights around to mobilize. With the king and the second-born prince away on the field trip, the only person with the authority to mobilize the military now was, horrifyingly, the firstborn prince Maximilian.
They needed to get the king home on the double. There would have been no point to this man becoming prime minister if he were to just sit and watch the capital he swore to protect burn to the ground.
“But even if we changed horses and traveled all night to the Skyte region, it would still take a minimum of three days.” The captain of the knights, who was well-known for his stalwart personality and for keeping cool under most occasions, was shaken now. It would take a minimum of six days for the king to return. And that wasn’t all. “If we were to send our fastest horses from the castle, won’t that make the Western Empire suspicious? And even if we were to send them, there’s no guarantee they’d make it in time...” Prince Maximilian might have had coconspirators in the castle, and if the captain were to send out their fastest horses, there was a chance they might realize something was afoot.
There was a silence.
“What should we do?” Rose whispered, seeing both the queen and the prime minister unable to respond to the captain’s words. Anything they did could alert Maximilian, and if there were any other traitors in the castle, they really couldn’t make any careless moves. They were out of options, and a heavy air clung to the room.
Though they were certain to clear everyone out, the ninja apprentice Hugh had hidden his presence well enough to infiltrate their space without anyone noticing.
Oof... Everyone’s really having a time of this... All the bigwigs in the country were doing exactly what Joshua had predicted, and were stuck right where Joshua said they’d be. That was why Hugh decided to show himself at that juncture, just as Joshua had ordered. According to Joshua, if Lady Rose were to be sad, it would make Lady Emma sad, so the moment that happened, he should appear and offer to take the letter to the king himself. After all, Hugh wanted to avoid making Emma sad more than anything too. As such, he appeared with a fwssh sound.
“You want me to take that for ya?”
All four people were absolutely thunderstruck when Hugh appeared, confident that they’d cleared the room before meeting.
Rose realized this was the same boy who had given her the handkerchief. “Oh... It’s Huey.”
Huey quickly gave Queen Victoria the same royal bow. Harold had always told him that as long as you can do a proper bow, you could probably get by with most things.
“When did you... Oh, Captain! This is the boy who gave me the handkerchief!” Rose frantically stopped the captain of the knights, who had rushed in front of the queen and was reaching for the sword at his side.
“How did you get in here?” the prime minister asked the boy in a low, cautious voice. Even the best spies in the kingdom shouldn’t have been able to sneak into this room after they’d gotten rid of everyone.
“Hee hee. That’s a uh...trade secret, I think it’s called? I can totally deliver a letter to the king without anyone noticing me!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” the captain of the knights spat as he looked the boy over from head to toe. How could a boy who didn’t even come up to his hips be of any use to them?
“Uh, none of you old fogeys could tell I was standing here this whole time! And I can get to Skyte in a day.”
“What?! You’re lying through your teeth! Even the fastest horse would take four days on its own! But if that were possible...”
“It’s not, prime minister,” the captain replied. “We’ve sent countless horses to the king since he went off on this field trip, and doing it in a single day is impossible.” No matter how light the knight, no matter how fast the horse, it didn’t matter.
“Exactly. I clearly need to brush up on my skills as a prime minister if a young boy like this could have fooled me so easily.” Clearly, the boy was just toying with the elites.
“Rose? If my eyes don’t deceive me, is that boy wearing...?” Queen Victoria’s gaze landed on Hugh’s purple clothes.
“He is, Queen Victoria. That outfit is made of Emma silk.”
“What?!” Both the prime minister and the captain stared at Hugh’s clothes.
Hugh grinned happily. “Heh heh. Yeah, Lord Leonard made it for me.”
“Count Stewart...handmade an outfit of Emma silk for a boy like this...? Handmade?!”
“An outfit this expensive... And there are cat appliqués on the elbows and knees too... Wait. That musclehead sewed those appliqués himself?!”
The prime minister and the captain were both dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what they’d just heard.
“Lady Victoria, I believe that Hugh can sneak out of the castle and deliver this message in a single day. After all, nothing is impossible for the Stewart family,” Rose said, trying to convince the queen to allow Hugh to help.
“Nothing is impossible for them... Young man, can you truly have this delivered to the king in a single day?” They didn’t have time to debate this. Though she could see the boy, she hardly felt any presence from him. She was worried about whether it was safe to trust him.
“I sure can! I guarantee it!” Hugh answered confidently.
The queen finally agreed, then took her pen in hand to write the letter.
Technically speaking, it wasn’t the Stewart family’s power that allowed Hugh to get there in a day, but Joshua’s. He’d be traveling to the Skyte region by sea rather than land. Normally, the Skyte region was surrounded by cliffs with no shores to land on, and the currents were far too dangerous to sail in, so the default path most took was the long and winding path on land. The way they were able to overcome this was through an insane plan Joshua had devised, as he was unable to attend the field trip. He would take an exceptionally fast and sturdy boat (specially made by the Rothschild Company), rowed by an exceptionally experienced sailor (Jacob, having made a full recovery from his scurvy), and then Hugh, the ninja, would scale the precipice himself. It was a course Joshua had devised so that Huey could get there at a moment’s notice if anything happened. He’d lost so much sleep practicing rock climbing for it too... Hugh understood him wanting to do his best, but the whole reason behind it was... Maybe it was best to say his tenacity was horrifying. Hugh could never understand it, and it certainly didn’t leave a good taste in his mouth either.