Combatants Will Be Dispatched - Volume 6 - Chapter 5.6

6

It has been three days since Mr. Mogero went up in a flashy blaze of glory. We are in the conference room inside the Grace Kingdom’s palace. There is a palpable tension in the room when the bureaucrat from Grace Kingdom opens the proceedings.

“W-well then, let us begin the cease-fire negotiations between the Grace-Kisaragi Alliance and the Hiiragi Agency…”

At the table is the bureaucrat who represents the Grace Kingdom, as well as Alice and me.

On the other side of the table sits the representatives from Hiiragi: Adelie, who is still covered in various scratches and bruises, and a handsome man who appears to be her boss.

Adelie sits right across from me, and she glares daggers at me, her brow twitching.

“A pleasure to meet you, representatives of Kisaragi. My name is Fritz. First of all, allow me to apologize for all the trouble that my subordinate, Adelheid, has caused you.”

The handsome, silver-haired, blue-eyed man spoke with a faintly high-pitched voice before deeply bowing his head to us.

“D-Director?! Wait! I was just carrying out the dictates of justice! There’s nothing that you need to apologize for on my behalf! We’re the victims here! We were suddenly attacked, and just look at what happened to Toris…! The scars left by these people are still there! The residents have been plagued by daily nightmares involving orc intercourse…!”

Adelie starts on a heated rant, but Fritz doesn’t even turn to face her and continues, “…Watch your tone, Ms. Adelheid. Explain what it is you’ve done while in the Grace Kingdom.”

“At once, sir! First, I learned that the Grace Kingdom was so chronically short on water that it had to force a young boy wearing girl’s clothes to create water with magic! That being the case, I handed out the water crystals that can be harvested in these lands to merchants who seemed to be pure of heart. This way, they could help the people of Grace by selling the water crystals for cheap!”

Adelie speaks confidently and puffs out her chest before Alice hands over documents and opens her mouth to speak.

“As you can see from these documents, the water crystals you handed out were bought and resold in large quantities by the merchants and are being traded at an enormous premium. Grace Kingdom’s sensitive to changes in the water market. Your interference has caused a serious problem. Thanks to your unnecessary meddling, rumors have spread that Princess Tillis was smuggling in water crystals and unfairly profiting from their sale. It created a major problem, with the nobles gathering at the palace in protest.”

“Huh?”

Adelie is shell-shocked. The bureaucrat nods intently along to Alice’s explanation. Alice then follows up.

“That’s not all. Other issues included patrolling the city despite not being a police officer and unjustly cracking down on the residents. Trying to force orcs to leave the factory they had agreed under a contract to work in. Also, speaking of the boy dressed in a maid outfit, you tried to kidnap him, too.”

“W-wait! About that… The flame of justice that burns deep within my heart just got out of control for a little bit! …I’m sorry, I’ll certainly apologize for that… But—!”

Alice holds out her hand to cut off Adelie’s attempt to say more.

“You declared that Snow, who had been serving as a governor, was corrupt in front of the public and shattered her reputation. In spite of everything, Snow was a skilled governor. Yes, she may have accepted some bribes, but her leadership skills ensured that everything ran smoothly and everyone was happy.”

“Y-you’re mistaken! I didn’t know she was so good at governing, but if anything, having a skilled person engage in corruption would have resulted in something terrible happening in the long run!”

As Adelie desperately pleads her case, Alice hands her another document.

“Snow was an orphan who grew up in the slums, and she had been donating a portion of the bribes she accepted to the orphanage that had taken care of her when she was a child…”

“…Wha—?”

At learning an unexpected fact, this time, Adelie is at a loss for words.

This was something I’d learned recently as well, but that greedy woman had actually been donating some money to the orphanage. I was touched by the story when I first heard it, but naturally, there was an ulterior motive behind the donations.

Kids in the slums are keen eyed.

Apparently, Snow got the orphans on her side with her donations and used the information they gathered to help advance her own career.

That was the reason she always seemed so well-informed.

“She, of course, knows that it’s wrong. But I guess she wanted to help those poor children even if it meant engaging in corruption.”

“H-h-h-hold on! Hold on just a minute…!”

Adelie’s brow begins to bead with sweat after hearing of Snow’s unexpected kindness.

…Obviously, we didn’t mention the fact that the amount Snow donated to the orphanage was only a tiny portion of the bribes and hush money she’d collected. In fact, it made up less than 1 percent of the total.

“The same could be said of Tillis. Tragically, that princess lost her older brother, the Chosen One, and took over running the country after her father, the king, vanished. You called her evil, but she wasn’t always the way she is now. She took on the dirty work to protect her people. It was the only way she could face off against all the scheming nobles.”

“…?!”

Adelie’s demeanor goes completely sideways with confusion as she learns that the princess, who was still barely old enough to be considered anything other than a girl, is shouldering that much responsibility on her delicate shoulders.

Good work, Alice! Press the attack!

“But you, in your ignorance, decided to label her a Demon Lord and put a bounty on her head. As a result, the nobles and thugs started plotting her death, and she’s been having trouble sleeping ever since!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

When Alice points her index finger at her face, Adelie grabs her own head and begins to wail.

…Tillis actually took advantage of the bounty on her head to appear defenseless and serve as bait for the nobles she wanted to get rid of, having Combat Agent Ten capture the nobles when they attacked her. Basically, she entrapped them.

I want to mention that’s why the crystal ball turned such a dark shade of black when Tillis touched it, but it seems Adelie is in no state to think of that fact and trembles as she exchanges glances with her boss.

…Ah, seems like we’ve landed some good blows, but I should follow that up now.

“There’s also the fact that it’s because you let your pet wander off that Vi, the girl who was so pure of heart that it made the karma-measurement crystal shine a blinding white, got so badly hurt. And to elaborate, that was why it escalated into war this time. So if you’re feeling even a little guilty for all that’s happened, you should apologize for being born!”

The giant monster that protects Toris turned out to be Adelie’s pet.

Viper got hurt that time because Adelie’s coworkers had chased after Adelie’s pet and inadvertently crossed the border into Grace.

When they saw us attempting to capture the cat, they tried to subdue us without hurting anyone. But upon seeing how strong Viper was, they panicked and opened fire.

Part of me wonders how such a stupid incident could escalate this far, but it’s true that there have been incidents on Earth where soldiers chasing a feral dog across a border started a war.

Looking at Adelie’s face, it’s clear she’s one push away from breaking.

“I-I-I-I’m sorry… H-how can I atone…?”

Adelie is torn up by guilt and Alice hands her another document to render the coup de grâce.

“Thanks to you going around telling everyone that the Grace Kingdom’s artifact was fixed, Tillis was left in a serious bind. If you really feel guilty about it, you should pay us reparations and give us rights to the water crystals…”

“Wait! I don’t know anything about that one! Honest! That’s not my fault at all! …Director! Please believe me on this one!”

We safely concluded the cease-fire negotiations.

While they will pay restitution to Viper for her injuries, given that Kisaragi went too far, we agreed to sweep this under the rug as an unfortunate incident caused by a misunderstanding.

I figured that Alice would try to squeeze them for more, but it seems the ruthless android has developed something of a conscience.

With the various parts of the conflict settled, we are on our way back to Hideout City when Adelie stops us, not even bothering to hide her sour mood.

“Well, you’ve really done it this time.”

Adelie spits out the words, prompting me to snort derisively at her.

“What is it? You seem pretty unhappy. We’re not exactly pleased about not getting a giant reparations payment from you, y’know. I was planning to buy a ton of gifts for Vi using the money we wrung out of you guys.”

Adelie is about to comment, but she grits her teeth and swallows her words.

After she calms herself and straightens up…

“You got the better of me, but I won’t lose next time. I’m an agent of order, and a watchwoman besides. I’m the sentinel who surveys the world to make sure that people don’t acquire excessive power. I am the one who exterminates all evil,” Adelie says with a serious expression.

“You’ll eventually learn the reason why we’ve come back to the surface. And you’ll also learn what happened on this planet and how the world has come to be the way it is…”

She speaks with sadness in her eyes and looks off into the distant sky.

“You hear that, Alice? She makes it sound like there’s a giant mystery, but it all sounds familiar somehow.”

“Yep, so it’s gotta be that old cliché, right? There was a super high-tech civilization on this planet, but the idiots in charge went too far and the world was almost destroyed by pollution and the like, right? Then, they probably took shelter in a colony in the sky or something.”

“How do you know all that?! …I—I mean… No! You’re wrong! It’s not such a simple story that you can explain the whole situation in under ten seconds. A-anyway, it’s not time for you to know the truth yet. You know about the legend of the Demon Lord and the Chosen One, right? It seems that some people were already aware, but that story doesn’t end with the death of the Demon Lord. Even if things have changed a bit, there’ll be a new revelation…”

As Adelie begins to go on a weird tangent, Alice and I turn to go back to Hideout City.

“Don’t think you’ve won. We might have lost the battle, but we won the negotiations. You wanted the water crystals in lieu of reparations, right?”

Adelie seems to have become fed up with us ignoring her, and she tries to taunt us, but…

“You’re pretending not to hear me, but I can tell you’re frustrated! I can see your shoulders shaking, Combat Agentsix! I’m Adelheid Krueger, the Umbral Savior! I’ll consider this a tie! This time! Since you call yourselves an evil corporation, I’ll continue to stand between you and the world!”

I take Adelie’s declaration of hostility on my back and keep walking without uttering a word.