Combatants Will Be Dispatched - Volume 6 - Chapter 4.5

5

As Alice and I approach the palace, there is a tense atmosphere in front of the gate.

“Please, let us have an audience with Her Highness! What’s with the water crystals showing up in the market? I thought we had no relations with Toris? If imports have resumed, our family would like to purchase them as well! It’s dishonorable for the royal family to monopolize them!”

“Wasn’t the war supposed to be over?! I’ve heard that the soldiers sent to defeat a giant monster wound up in combat with another army, is that true?! Are our taxes going to go up again?!”

“There are rumors circulating that Her Highness is the Demon Lord, but I don’t care if she is! I love you, Your Highness! I’ll stand with you until the bitter end!”

“I’ve heard rumors that the rain-making artifact has been repaired! If that’s the case, then why hasn’t the royal family conducted the rain-making ritual?! Bring the blessing of rain upon our lands!”

There is a group of what appears to be nobles seeking an audience at the gate.

Ordinarily, nobles wouldn’t be stopped at the palace gates, but today is different.

“The soldiers of the kingdom have just returned today! Please come back some other time!”

“The people of the palace are busy treating the wounded! We can’t answer your inquiries! You have our apologies!”

The guards try their best to keep them from swarming the castle, but the people they’re trying to hold back are their social betters.

Since the soldiers can’t be too forceful with the nobles, none of the nobles give any sign of leaving.

“Currently the palace is under martial law, and no one is allowed to enter! Please come back another time!”

The guards manning the gate try to deter the nobles, but they wouldn’t be nobles if that was all it took for them to back down.

“How dare you, a mere soldier, treat me, your better, that way?! This is ridiculous! Get out of my way! Who is your supervisor? Bring them out!”

Suddenly, as one of the nobles, completely out of patience, tries to force his way through the guards…

“I’m the supervisor. If you have any complaints, let’s hear them.”

…Snow emerges from the gate, drawn by the furor.

“<Hey, Alice, things look kinda bad, don’cha think? The nobles might revolt at this rate…>”

“<It won’t happen immediately, but it does look like they’ve got tons of grievances. Given the princess’s skill at dealing with these people, this is unusual. Things might devolve from here.>”

Alice and I watch from a distance and discuss the matter as though it doesn’t directly concern us. It’s then that a noble among the unruly mob who looks particularly important steps forward and speaks with an especially nasty grin on his face.

“I’ve heard the news, Lady Snow. It seems you failed in your mission to defeat the giant monster, despite mustering such a large force. How many failures does this make for you, now…?”

“And you are…? Ah, that’s right, the Lord of House Howard who does close business with the Cricket Merchant Company! Yes, I’m quite familiar with them. The head of the company often sends me gifts! I also do quite a bit of business with them, myself!”

Having her failures thrown in her face, Snow responds by dropping a bomb on the noble.

“<Damn, Snow’s a piece of work. She not only tactfully pointed out the lord’s corruption, but she even appealed to him by revealing that they’re birds of a feather. If he tries to drag Snow down by highlighting her failures, she could very well take him down with her by confessing to all the corruption. That’s a seriously impressive tactic. She really is good at this stuff.>”

“<It’s more than impressive. It’s terrifying. Look, the noble who spoke out against Snow clammed up.>”

As someone truly rotten from the inside out, Snow’s extremely good at verbal arguments.

The noble who sarcastically attacked Snow freezes, and his cheek twitches as he puts on a veneer of a smile.

“Well, as someone who uses the same merchant house, I would like you to look upon my latest failure with a bit of forbearance! Unfortunately, the people inside the palace are quite busy at the moment, so we would really appreciate it if you could come back another day…”

“Y-yes, well, indeed. I can’t say no to your request, Lady Snow! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Idiots don’t stay nobles very long.

The man must have decided it was a bad idea to mess with Snow, who was a veritable powder keg of issues. So he forces one last, greasy smile and scurries away with his tail between his legs.

“Those fools, using now of all times to cause problems. Her Highness is far too busy to deal with their petty nonsense…”

Having chased off the nobles, Snow complains to us as she shows us to Tillis’s room.

“Have the nobles of this country always been like that? In my experience, they were a lot more out of the way during the war with the demons.”

“No, them throwing their weight around is a recent development. Due to my less-than-prestigious upbringing, they’ve never liked me. But they love needling me for little mistakes. That said, they’ve never come to the palace to lodge a complaint in the past.”

I’m pretty sure none of your mistakes have ever been “little.”

“And that reminds me. Isn’t the protection around the palace a bit overdone? I hope this isn’t the case, but has Combat Agent Ten been up to mischief again?”

On the way to Tillis’s room, I noticed that the faces of the soldiers are grim, much tenser than I’m used to seeing.

“They’re on guard in case any nobles who are swayed by the bounty on Her Highness’s head completely lose their senses and try something shady. While they were happy to have a leader like Princess Tillis during the war with the Demon Lord’s Army…”

“Now that it’s peaceful, the smart princess is just in the way. I suppose reality is harsh in every world…”

Alice, who has been quiet until this point, speaks up.

“Damn, Adelie got us on this one. They’re pretending to do things in the name of justice to stir up rebellion in this kingdom. She was just pretending to be useless and made each of her actions look harmless to make us lower our guard.”

“…Seriously? She didn’t look that smart, honestly.”

Yes, if anything, she seemed like a meathead like me and Rose.

“The dumping of water crystals in Grace may have looked like charity from afar. But by flooding the market with water crystals that were hard to import, she made everyone view the princess with suspicion. To the nobles, it looked like the royal family was just hogging them all. That being the case, all they needed to do was spread the rumor, ‘Princess Tillis won’t use the repaired artifact so that she can make money off the water crystals she just acquired!’”

I do remember telling all sorts of people that the artifact was already fixed so that I could get Tillis to say the embarrassing activation phrase, but I’m sure it’s not my fault or anything.

“I see… So that woman is quite the schemer. She must have timed her exposing of my corruption and handed that crystal ball to Her Highness to…”

“Yeah, she used you as bait to cause a fuss and get Tillis into a public place. Then she made Tillis touch the crystal ball in public.”

I mean, I kind of think none of it would have happened if Snow hadn’t engaged in corruption in the first place. And I’m pretty sure the crystal turned black because Tillis’s personality is…well, y’know. But if my wise partner Alice is saying it, it has to be true.

“Which means she then declared Princess Tillis to be the Demon Lord and put a bounty on her head in order to…!”

As Snow reels in shock, Alice points her index finger at Snow like a famous detective.

“Yes, that was her true goal. Adelie wanted to reveal that Tillis had a rotten personality to the public so she could call her the true Demon Lord and put a bounty on her head. With that, the enemy gains the justification they need to invade us. They can say they’re going to come liberate the people of Grace from the Demon Lord.”

Eh, it seemed like Adelie wasn’t really thinking deeply about anything and just blurted out Tillis was the Demon Lord at random, but given how confidently Alice was making this assertion, I started to be convinced of it as well.

“Think about it. The day after that woman fled this country, the giant monster and the mystery force came to attack us. This happened way too quickly…unless they prepared in advance. Meaning, it was all according to their plan!”

That force turned around and went home without attacking us after they caught the giant cat, but if even that turns out to be a trap of some sort, then we need to stop underestimating Adelie.

“This isn’t the time to be standing around! I need to go report this to Her Highness at once!”

Alice pays little heed as Snow works herself into a lather.

“<There, I’ve given you a justification to attack. Now all we need to do is fight and win. I’m leaving that to you.>”

Alice keeps her voice low so that only I will hear.