The one I was most worried about was Nia. She had a little smile on her face for some reason, but it made me incredibly concerned. I wanted to say something to her, but I had to stay quiet here.
But that frustrating period finally came to an end.
“You’ve told us a lot, but that hasn’t answered my first question.”
“Wh-What? What do you still want to know?! Just tell me, and I’ll tell you!”
Pathetic. His behavior could only be described as disgraceful, but he still tried to curry favor with His Highness with a condescending attitude. Even when trying to sell us information to save himself, he was still so arrogant. Ah, I guess this is what unsightliness looks like.
Inside of me, the cold desire to kill this man was keenly felt. But I wouldn’t be the one to wield that blade.
“First of all, why haven’t you wondered who I am? Really, I have no idea how you didn’t notice,” His Highness sighed.
After the prince said that, Balthazar took a good look at Prince Alphonse’s face for the very first time. This entire conversation up until this point, he hadn’t actually looked at His Highness at all. He hadn’t tried at all to gather information on his side so he could try to de-escalate the situation. He’d probably never been in a situation where he would have to up until now. I didn’t pity him for his position, though.
“Y-Your hair, and eyes... W-Wait, you’re a member of Brigandia’s royal family?!”
“You finally realized? So do you mean to say you don’t even know my name?”
“N-No, I, um... Oh! You’re Alphonse, the third prince!” Balthazar cried, frantically squeezing the answer out of his brain.
He was right. But in a lot of ways, that had been the wrong answer. I mean, first off, he didn’t add a “His Highness” in, even despite the situation he was in. He got that Prince Alphonse was a member of Brigandian royalty, but His Highness’s name hadn’t come to him immediately. That meant that Balthazar hadn’t had any information on His Highness stored in his brain in such a way that he could access it quickly.
Does this guy not even remember His Highness busting into Sylvario’s palace and doing so much damage?
It looked like the man hadn’t even thought of basic questions like who to be wary of or who might even show up in sticky situations.
“A man under suspicion of pretending to be a member of Sylvario’s royal family, speaking to me so irreverently? You’ve got guts.”
“What?! Y-You still don’t believe me?! Wasn’t what I told you enough?!”
“That’s not for you to decide. Looks like you still don’t realize that I’m in charge here.”
Urk. A chill just ran down my spine. I couldn’t blame His Highness, though. Balthazar didn’t know his own capacity and was being an uppity know-it-all. He was the type of person that His Highness hated the most. The only reason he was still alive was the fact that he was still a tiny bit useful, but that usefulness was about to run out.
“Though if I had to say so, there’s one person who could know who you are... Viscountess McGuine. Is this man claiming to be Sylvario’s second prince, Balthazar, truly the prince?”
At His Highness’s prompt, Nia, who’d been standing back by my side, stepped forward. Then, with a smile on her face, her and Balthazar’s eyes met. Or at least, they should have.
“Yes, there’s no mistaking it. He is Balthazar, second prince of the Kingdom of Sylvario.”
It was a lot less polite than a mere viscountess should have been talking to another country’s prince. Nia wouldn’t have made a mistake like that, meaning that she had spoken that way intentionally. But it seemed that Balthazar still didn’t understand what he was up against. Even though you could have called it his very last chance.
“Y-You wretch! How dare a simple viscountess speak to me like that?!” Balthazar raged.
That was where his fate ran out. Not only Balthazar’s, but the Kingdom of Sylvario’s as well.
Any trace of warmth left in Nia’s eyes as she looked at him disappeared. She kept a smile on her face, but her gaze was so cold that she would have given His Highness a run for his money.
“You don’t realize who I am.”
“Hah? Why would I?”
That sentence must have been the last bit of mercy Nia was giving him. But even though he got an even better look at her after hearing it, he didn’t seem to recognize her. And that was that.
Nia heaved a small sigh. Balthazar had no idea what that meant, and he would never get the chance to.
“If you don’t realize, that’s fine. We found out everything we needed to know,” Nia said with the expression of someone who’d gotten over the situation.
Nia, formerly Sonia, the fourth princess of Sylvario. She’d cut the golden hair that was a sign of the royal family, and dyed it too. But her face hadn’t changed at all, and her eyes were the same color as well. But still, Balthazar hadn’t recognized her—his biologically related little sister.
I frantically rushed to hold back the rage I felt welling up in my stomach. After all, Nia was the one who would be hurt the most about this, and she wasn’t showing her emotions.
“Thank you, Viscountess McGuine. Now we know that he’s actually the real deal.”
When His Highness said that, Balthazar was clearly relieved. He had no idea he’d just opened the gates of hell.
“That means that, despite Sylvario having just come to a truce with Brigandia, a Sylvarian royal himself led an army to try to invade our kingdom without a declaration of war.”
“Huh?”
He must’ve thought he’d been saved. Balthazar had a dumbass look on his face when he heard those fatal words a sentence later.
First of all, attacking a country without declaring war was a faux pas, one highly disapproved of. While you might think that war didn’t have rules, there were still some unwritten ones. One of them being, war must be declared before hostilities are to begin.
While it was somewhat unlucky for Balthazar, the war between Sylvario and Brigandia had started because of a regional dispute boiling over, and it had been gradual. Because of that, it had been acceptable for there not to be a formal declaration of war, but that wasn’t usually how it worked.
To be particular, Balthazar’s invasion should have been preceded by a declaration because it was decided unilaterally. But he hadn’t declared it. All because he didn’t want it to come out publicly and have people like the first prince Elmer object. And in the end, he’d driven the Kingdom of Sylvario into a situation where they couldn’t complain about anything that would happen to them now and moving forward.
“Thank you, Prince Balthazar. Because of you, we can do whatever we want.”
“WH-WHAAAA?!”
As Balthazar screeched unintelligibly, His Highness Prince Alphonse gave him an amused smile, with eyes cold as ice. This had probably played out exactly how His Highness had planned it. And Nia had helped it along perfectly... Though I wasn’t happy about what happened.
“I’ll let you live. You still have a little use left in you, after all,” His Highness said coldly.
Balthazar couldn’t even put together a response anymore, mouth just opening and closing. Prince Alphonse only gave him a single glance before turning and leaving. Nia and I followed behind him, with Count Farlon a step behind as we all turned our back on Sylvario’s prince. The last thing I saw was Balthazar’s face warped, white as a sheet, and I immediately brushed it from my memory.