episode_0128

“Sylvia, calm down for a moment.”

“I am completely calm right now.”

Of course, the hand that had been placed neatly on my lap rose about 3mm. I managed to calm it down and place it back on my lap before the hand hit my forehead, but judging by the fact that Alice’s eyes looked down for a moment, I couldn’t say that I was able to hide it completely.

Yeah, to be honest… …I wasn’t really in a good mood at all.

“From what I can see with my own eyes, it doesn’t look real at all.”

Of course, Alice’s eyes were accurate. As always this year.

It is natural that one is in a state of inability to calm down.

Wasn’t it Alice who first came up with the idea that even the Emperor wouldn’t do? While I was going back in time dozens of times to gather information here and there, the Imperial Army was turning some of the nobility and bourgeoisie of the system upside down.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ve arranged it so that I can turn it all upside down in one go before it gets to your father. ”

“… … .”

For just a moment, I wondered if Alice had the ability to turn back time.

Right now, it’s before Alice turned back time.

“You said I was going to be the emperor?”

Alice said to me.

“Then you should be able to do this much. Don’t you?”

“… … .”

Mia Crowfield’s face was now beyond anxious, almost terrified. An expression that said she shouldn’t know anything more about this.

“… … So,”

I had to take about 30 seconds to calm down before I could say that.

“So, you’re saying you figured something out?”

“Yeah.”

Alice said.

“The dots weren’t connected, but there was a thin line like a spider web above them. Of course. I don’t know about the children coming and going, but drugs are produced somewhere and brought to the system. There aren’t many places in the system where poppies can be grown so extensively. ”

Even Mia Crowfield was startled by those words.

“Well, I understand why we can’t eliminate the origin of poppy seeds. No matter how advanced magic is, we can’t stop producing painkillers. There are many cases where we have to use them even if they’re not good for our bodies.”

This was especially true for the commoners who could not benefit from magic. Or, in the worst case scenario where all magicians were wiped out, it could be emergency supplies for soldiers to survive.

“Are you saying that it is flowing out of our territory?”

Mia Crowfield finally mustered up the courage to open her mouth.

His expression was stiff.

“… … You seem to trust your parents. Just a moment ago, you thought there might be medicine in my teacup. ”

“… … .”

It seems that Mia Crowfield had nothing to say to Alice’s words.

“Okay, okay.”

Alice let out a small breath and sat up.

“You probably don’t know everything that happens in your territory. Until recently, I—”

Alice bit her lip slightly.

“—Because there are things I never imagined. I won’t blame you. ”

“… … .”

And Mia Crowfield also turned pale, but she still maintained a stern expression as she got up from her seat and followed Alice.

“If you want, I can let you see what’s going on here.”

“… … If it is to tarnish the reputation of the Crowfield family… … ”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

Alice said with a bitter smile.

“To be honest, the royal family isn’t that clean either.”

I couldn’t help but agree with those words.

*

“Are you going out for a walk?”

As we came out of the reception room, the countess who had been sitting by the window in the living room got up. Looking at her expression, I couldn’t help but be amazed. That gentle smile was acting. Is that what it means to be a noblewoman?

That doesn’t mean that the expression on their face is always positive, though. Maybe it’s because I know this person’s true feelings to some extent.

“Yes. Would it be okay if I walked around the territory with Mia?”

“Of course.”

At Alice’s words, the lady glanced at Mia. Mia Crowfield’s face, who followed the two of us out of the drawing room, was still pale. The lady looked at that expression and turned her face towards Alice as if she was suspicious. Of course, her expression was that of a kind noble lady.

“Our territory is—”

The words the lady had been saying were cut off as she followed Alice.

Because the door to the mansion we were heading to suddenly opened and a knight came in.

It wasn’t the escort knight that followed us. It was a knight wearing armor with the Crowfield’s signature crow emblem.

A knight of Crowfield Estate.

“Your Majesty… … !”

But the knight who had burst through the door froze when he saw Alice and me standing next to his wife.

My gaze turned to Alice again.

But Alice still remained with a smile on her lips. She didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

At least he seemed to know why the knight had come in.

“What’s going on?”

The knight’s actions were rude enough to be shown in front of the princess. However, if a well-trained knight would act like that, it meant that there was an urgent matter that needed to be reported. Perhaps that was why the lady frowned and did not blame the other person.

The knight took off his helmet. The handsome middle-aged man’s forehead was soaked with sweat and his hair was sticking to it.

Barely regaining his senses, he walked cautiously toward his wife. Then he raised one hand and placed it next to his mouth.

Alice said to me, even as she saw her wife turning her ear in that direction.

“Then, let’s go do our work.”

It was just before we left the mansion that my wife lost her composure.

“Princess!”

At that shout, Alice, I, and Mia Crowfield, who had been hesitantly following us, stopped walking.

“Now, what is this—”

The Countess, who had shown a slightly frowning expression to the knight, ran toward us with an attitude that was against manners in many ways.

“Princess.”

Before that, our knight came.

The entrance to the Count’s mansion was already full of our knights. That’s not so strange. It’s natural for a knight to come and wait for his master to come out.

But, the atmosphere was very strange.

Even though they didn’t draw their swords, the knights of the royal family and the knights of the countship were on edge as if they were going to draw their swords. If I could feel that I was alive, my back would have been drenched in sweat as soon as I came out.

“Everything has been taken care of as written in the order.”

“Like.”

Alice nodded at the article’s words.

And then she turned around and saw me, almost right behind her, and Mia Crowfield, who was loitering behind her. Alice said, not paying any attention to the lady behind her.

“Will you follow me? If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. I just wanted to know the truth anyway.”

“… … .”

I said nothing. If I were to say something like, ‘What would happen if His Majesty the Emperor found out about this?’, it would only agitate the knights.

Besides, if you think about it again… … .

Wouldn’t it be even stranger if the Emperor didn’t know about this fact?

At first, I thought I could kill the Emperor. That was only half a year ago. I thought that if I needed to, I could turn back time as many times as I wanted to, assassinate the Emperor, and let the story flow as I wanted. But strangely, as time passed, I felt like the ways to kill the Emperor were disappearing from my mind one by one.

I feel like he knows everything I do… … and even if I were to prepare a surefire way to kill the Emperor, I have a strange feeling that the Emperor won’t be there.

I also have a feeling of anxiety that I might have been caught up in the emperor’s scheme.

Alice looked at me silently.

“… … Okay.”

I answered Alice like that. A tiny smile appeared on Alice’s lips.

“I, I… … .”

Mia Crowfield looked back at her mother with a look of anxiety. The countess’s shoulders were shaking. It seemed as if she was going to kill the two princesses right now.

However, the knight who spoke to the Countess would have known that it was the ‘Emperor’s Order’. The order would have been issued in the Emperor’s name.

In the face of the imperial army, which was almost completely centralized and wielding enormous military power, refusing that order was no different from asking to be killed.

Of course, from a long-term perspective, solving the problem in this way is difficult even by the standards of the royal family.

What will happen to the next emperor after the death of the emperor with such great power?

I looked at Alice again.

When I look at Alice’s face with a confident smile…

note…….

I briefly thought that there would be no problem, and then I got annoyed.