Hearing the certainty in her tone, I felt the winds shifting inauspiciously. This wasn’t good. At this point, it might have been better if they’d found records indicating that Lord Heinreid had been evil from the day he was born. His sudden, inexplicable shift in personality, combined with the disturbing absence of his erased history, interlocked perfectly in the worst possible way.
“The man he is today has nothing to do with that,” I insisted.
“Sure, today. But will he keep on having nothing to do with it forever?” Her Majesty’s golden eyes mercilessly shot through me and my awkward excuses. “You understand what I’m saying, right? There’s always a chance something could turn him back into a monster all of a sudden. He’s doing what you tell him for now, but in the end, we couldn’t find out what made him evil in the first place. We have no idea what sort of trigger might bring the demon right back out again. Leaving a man like that alive is a danger to Sig—to the entire kingdom. That’s my opinion, anyway.”
Her Majesty unfolded her argument without any gap for rebuttal, overwhelming me completely. Once she’d reached a pause, she sank back into her large chair with a soft thump.
“The final decision is His Majesty’s, though,” she continued, slightly aggrieved and sulky. “I’ll leave the conclusion up to you, Sig.”
Having been passed the baton, His Majesty gave a pained smile, then quietly opened his mouth.
“Now that I’ve seen what records there are, my opinion is largely the same as Natasha’s. Even if who he is on the inside has changed, and he’s a good-hearted person now, the more I learn of everything he’s done, the more I feel he needs to pay for his crimes. In my role as king, I can’t understand him and I can’t trust him. I can’t save him either. I have a duty to take the side of all the people of this kingdom who he tormented in his days as a villain.”
That...was perfectly right, I supposed. Rebuilding a country that had been thrown into shambles wasn’t an easy task. The scars of those evil days ran deep, and there were countless people still on shaky footing. There was no way His Majesty could simply pardon the villain at the root of all their hatred and resentment. Even asking that of him was tantamount to treason.
Still... Even knowing that, I...
My thoughts went to Lord Heinreid, likely still asleep in the tower. I steeled myself and began to open my mouth.
“But,” His Majesty said, cutting me off before I could speak. “I trust you, Craig.”
His calm, powerful voice rang out as I fell into silence. My eyes widened. Given the flow of the conversation, I hadn’t expected to hear those words at all, but that wasn’t what surprised me. I was shocked by how clearly I understood the intent behind his statement, without needing any explanation.
His Majesty had already conveyed everything in that concise sentence, but he continued speaking as though checking his work.
“You held out for eight whole years, trusting that I’d come back, didn’t you? You must have been in a lot of danger, but you never went over to their side, and even now, you’re still giving your all to help us. If I started doubting a man like you, that would be even more unbecoming of me. So if you say he’s different, then I’ll trust that you’re right. And as long as I believe that, I’ll treat him accordingly.”
I felt a swell of relief flood through my chest, and I bowed my head. “Understood, Your Majesty. Henceforth, I shall devote still greater care to observing him.”
To sum it all up, His Majesty was allowing matters to stand as they were. As this kingdom’s hero, but also as brother to that tyrant, that was the greatest compromise he could possibly offer. I didn’t doubt that there was more to it than that, but as long as he was agreeing to turn a blind eye, it wasn’t my place to question him.
He could have driven the point home, warning me not to betray his trust in me, but he’d chosen not to. In my heart, I resolved anew to live up to that trust, for the sake of all the things we had a duty to protect.
I heard a loud, long sigh. Glancing over, I saw that Her Majesty had slumped forward onto her desk. His Majesty hurriedly stood and stepped over to her side.
“What’s wrong, Natasha? Oh, are you tired? I’m sorry for dragging you along with me in the middle of your brea—”
“No, that’s not it,” she replied petulantly. “I told you, I’m doing this work because I want to. I was just thinking... Building a good kingdom is harder than it sounds, huh? It’d be so much easier if we just had enemies on one side, allies on the other, nice and simple.”
“Yeah... It really is hard—too hard for me to handle on my own. So I’m glad you’re here, Natasha. Thank you for always being by my side.”
He smiled at her and softly stroked his fingers through her bangs. That seemed to improve her mood a little; she raised her head and gave a bright smile.
“You’re right. And thanks to you, I’ve learned that there’s more than one way to think about the world and more than one way to do things.” She turned to me. “So, Craig? Don’t forget that if there are any more incidents, my opinion might be the one that wins next time.”
“I shall bear that in mind, Your Majesty.”
The Lion Princess hadn’t just driven the point home—she’d rammed it into place with a sledgehammer. I really did need to stay vigilant, no matter what.