This was beyond insane. Eliza had seriously come prepared to crush the knights! This country had been at peace for many years, so if the knights had to defend against forty elite psychos led by the militaristic grand duchess, they didn’t stand a chance. It would take a hundred of Martina at her craziest to stand up to them. Actually, they weren’t that different from Martina, inside. That was why it would take so many of her to make up for the difference in experience. If the palace staff led by the prince couldn’t even beat a monkey, they didn’t have a prayer against these people.
As Sofia pressed a hand against her forehead, her mind racing, Meia, who had a dubious look on her face, used hand signals to get permission from Sofia before opening her mouth.
“Um, Your Excellency... You’re all young women, right? Where did you find lodging for forty of you?” Meia asked.
The Young Ladies in Mourning Clothes would camp out if they had to, no doubt, but because of the origins of the group, they were largely a gathering of young noblewomen. If they were moving around in the guise of harmless civilians, they would need to stay at a reasonably large hotel. But if a group of highborn young ladies was staying at multiple hotels across the city, there would be rumors about it. Yet they hadn’t picked up on any.
Meia’s doubts, which were reasonable for an officer in an intelligence agency, made the grand duchess smile.
“Oh, you weren’t aware?” she asked. “They’re staying in the castle now as cultural ambassadors from the Kingdom of Bakura.”
They’re there. They’re definitely there. There was a report about a rather large group of envoys staying in the castle for the next few days for cultural exchange. But come on, how could we know that a group of diplomats from a completely unrelated country were with them?
Sofia looked to see Meia, their political expert, covering her face. She and Heidi, the one in charge of the castle, would be having their wages cut for this blunder—as would Sofia, as their supervisor.
“Didn’t you know? My vice commander is the third princess of Bakura,” Eliza boasted.
“I was unaware...” Sofia muttered.
“The members of the delegation and their attendants are all with us, so we have over a hundred fighters. With them already inside, we won’t have to break through the walls. If we launch a surprise attack, we’re sure to win.”
Prince Elliott had let his worst enemies into the castle without even realizing it.
“I’m amazed you came out of the palace in mourning clothes,” Sofia remarked.
“Obviously, we didn’t show our weapons until we got here. We told our minders that we were ‘going to a friend’s fiancé’s funeral.’ Ha ha ha, they never would have guessed it was their prince we meant.”
The grand duchess smirked, but Sofia and her people couldn’t smile at this. Rachel preferred them to take care of things quietly, so this was not amusing to them in the slightest.
Sofia cleared her throat. “Your Excellency, I regret to inform you that, at the present juncture, the young mistress is enjoying a vacation while teasing the prince and intends to drive him crazy until his father, the king, disposes of him. It will take some time to resolve, but the young mistress is not inclined to resort to force. Even if you stand by, I doubt there will be any opportunity for you to act.”
Eliza furrowed her brow. “Hmm... Can you really call being in prison a vacation?”
I don’t want her talking to me about common sense, Sofia thought, but she kept quiet.
“Anyway, I understand what Rachel plans to do, but what if he has other ideas? Stupid men hold stupid and unjustified grudges, you know? Can you be totally sure this moronic prince of yours won’t explode?”
As you might expect from someone who was a ruler and had past experience, Eliza immediately pointed out the weakness in their argument.
“In my case, I let him get away once, and it took a full two years to chase him down and capture him. Never underestimate the tenacity of human garbage. I really do think we should take out your stupid prince. Yes, let’s do that. We’ll slay him right away.”
Why had she gone crazy like this right after she got rid of him? Was the grand duchess in vacation mode too, perhaps?
“No,” Sofia replied. “For us, the young mistress’s decisions come first. We have several layers of monitoring on the knights and on the other sections of the palace, and we can step in immediately to defend the young mistress. There is no need for concern.”
Obviously, she couldn’t tell a group of outsiders that “this is Elliott and his merry band of idiots we’re talking about, so we aren’t worried about Rachel coming to harm.”
“Mrgh... I was so looking forward to lopping off that idiot’s head,” Eliza pouted, putting the cart before the horse. Then she seemed to have a flash of insight and slapped her knee. “I know, Sofia, how about this? Why don’t we save Rachel the trouble by quietly decapitating your stupid prince now? We’d be doing her a favor!”
“He visits her in prison nearly every day. She’d notice.”
“Hmm... I know! The prince is an idiot, so if the blade goes in cleanly, he might not notice his head’s been cut off for two or three months!”
The grand duchess was now making arguments that made her sound even dumber than the prince.
“This is different from filleting a fish,” Sofia explained. “And even if your logic worked, what would you do if you didn’t manage to cut him well?”
“Well, that would be an unfortunate accident. We all make mistakes, after all.”
“You don’t even believe your own fallacious argument!”
Oh, enough of this. I want to go home...
Tired of dealing with these exhausting people, Sofia snapped, “Why are you so eager to execute the prince yourself?! Prince Elliott’s fate will be decided by the young mistress. She’s the one with the right to chop off his head!”
Actually, the king was the one scheduled to dispose of him.
The grand duchess pursed her shapely lips. “But I wanted to do it.”
“Acting cute will not change things.”
Sofia massaged her throbbing temples. There was no doubt about it; the grand duchess was definitely one of the young mistress’s like-minded friends.