“Oh, you’d noticed.” The general’s arm glowed red as particles of light floated upward and transformed into a fire bird.
“Ah, a phoenix.”
“Even if Her Majesty does not yet have her own spirit beast, Jean and I can protect her. I ended up pushing myself a little too hard in a rush to evolve it, though.”
He’d had to make sure the imperial family wasn’t inferior to the Belisarios, after all. I could already imagine him exhausting his mana as he spoke to his spirit, all to protect the one he loved.
I wonder if he passed out. Maybe he even barfed everywhere. Bet he couldn’t stop himself from retching. He must’ve felt like a right royal wretch. Or would he be an imperial wretch...?
Having apparently read my thoughts, the general added, “I didn’t vomit.”
“Wow.”
“Please wait, Your Highness,” the chancellor interrupted, standing up from his seat. Here we’d just gotten a more whimsical atmosphere going and the chancellor had to go and shatter it. “The reason Lady Ephenia was acknowledged as empress was because Your Highness was still too young. Surely you are old enough now to—”
“Chancellor,” the prince cut in.
Count Dalimore begrudgingly acknowledged the interruption. “Yes.”
“Neither you nor your aides has the power to decide who should or should not be ruler,” Prince Jean said. “Her Majesty became empress through all the proper procedures. She is incredibly popular among the people. I will not allow you to cause more problems because of such a ridiculous reason as not wishing to take orders from a woman. I choose to acknowledge Prince Andrew as the crown prince.”
The chancellor’s hands gripped tightly together as he glared at Prince Jean. Given how cleanly the prince had rejected him, it was likely he’d already refused him before, so why had the chancellor thought he had any chance of putting the prince on the throne?
I was becoming much more suspicious all of a sudden. Eleven years ago, their political situation had been in dire straits due to how many people in power had been replaced all at once. I couldn’t help but think that the prince had shown interest in the throne at some point in order to weed out any remaining opposition.
If that were the case, had he chosen this meeting as the moment to finally betray the chancellor?
“There is one other thing we must discuss here.” Father spoke up then.
“Speak, Margrave Belisario,” Her Imperial Majesty commanded.
“Your Majesty ascended the throne eleven years ago. The Spirit Queen’s forest was destroyed ten years ago. I investigated what happened back then.”
“What?!” Chancellor Dalimore cried.
“The destruction of the forest was carried out to rehome those who had run from the fires of war along the borders.”
“Yes, I remember that.” The empress gave a slight nod.
“Now, who exactly chose that location and suggested the land be developed?” father asked. “It may help if I supply the fact that the development of that land gave easier access between the domain of Trier and the imperial capital, and that many buildings owned by Marquess Trier can be found there.”
“I...am aware of this too, yes.”
“What are you implying?” demanded the chancellor. “I went through all necessary procedures involved in developing that land.”
Now the only ones remaining in their seats were my brothers. Alan especially looked entirely disinterested. He was listening to what was being said, but his attention was completely taken up by the spirit beasts. I was also still sitting with my feet on my chair, holding my knees while I watched how events unfolded.
“I believe the chief mage has something to say on that matter,” father said.
The chancellor immediately turned pale. “That man’s words mean nothing!”
“Be quiet. I will be the judge of that.” The empress’s voice was deeper than usual. Even the general was standing intimidatingly between the empress and the chancellor.
“Before the decision to develop that land was finalized, we found documents that noted that area was a Royal Spirit’s place of residence and told the chancellor as much,” the chief mage explained.
Whoa! That’s crazy important! You knew all along?!
“But the chancellor stated that the documents were mistaken and that the Royal Spirit actually resided in the forest by Arlon Falls, claiming that was the reason it was the empress’s private land. He even showed me physical proof of this.”
“I don’t recall ever saying such a thing,” the chancellor countered. “Do you have those documents on hand?”
“Yes, I do. What we handed back to the chancellor was but a magically transcribed copy, so we still have the original. Believing the discussion to be important, I also recorded our conversation with a magic tool.”
“Then why have you remained silent on this matter for so long?” demanded the empress.
“Because I truly believed that the Royal Spirit’s land was the forest by Arlon Falls. I never imagined that the chancellor would truly plot to have the imperial capital fall into ruin. When I heard what the Water King had to say eight days ago, I thought it possible that the chancellor would try to find those records and destroy them, so I cooperated with Margrave Belisario to bring this truth to light today.”
Hell yeah, chief! I knew you weren’t just an otaku!
“You knew about this all along, didn’t you, Chris?” I asked, turning to my eldest brother.
“All of this was set in motion the day we met with the Spirit King,” he confirmed.
“You could’ve told me,” I grumbled.
“Are you prepared to tell everyone the truth, then?”
Ugh... He has a point. It was getting really hard trying to pretend I was a kid. If I’d gotten involved with this plan, I was pretty sure I’d have been busted. Besides, it had only been five days since I’d come out to my brothers.
Each day felt so packed with reveals recently.
“Chancellor, did you intend to go so far as to let the capital turn to desert merely to pull me from power?!” Her Majesty demanded.
“Of course not,” the chancellor huffed, barely minding the empress’s fury. “Prince Jean is loved by the spirits so I had planned for you to gain the ire of the Royal Spirits and then have His Highness ask for their forgiveness so he could become emperor in your stead. But then those filthy Belisario children had to stick their noses where they didn’t belong!”