Ch.231231. Buckingham Palace

England’s Lord Protector and America’s President Arthur were each exerting influence over Western Europe for their own purposes, but as for Queen Alicia of England…

“I didn’t do anything in particular… or rather, I couldn’t.”

[So… hang in there?]

She truly hadn’t done anything.

If she had been in Paris, France, she could have exerted influence over Western Europe by personally intervening, but would our Lord Protector have allowed such a variable?

Thinking that to run wild himself, he first needed to return the Queen to her homeland, the Lord Protector appealed to the current cabinet and British public opinion about the Queen’s safety in Paris.

The cabinet could coolly judge that the Queen would be safer than anyone else in Paris since she had contracted with a dragon, but the citizens’ reaction was the opposite of the cabinet’s. They expressed sympathy, saying that the young Queen couldn’t be left to suffer(?) alone in Paris, and shed tears, supporting the Lord Protector’s call for the Queen’s safe return.

“Citizens! He is not my loyal subject, but a traitor who covets my position!”

[Ordinary people wouldn’t know that.]

Of course, the cabinet knew better than anyone that the Lord Protector was not the Queen’s loyal subject, but what could they do?

Whether the Queen was strong or weak, she was still just a child in her early teens who needed a guardian, and with the Lord Protector—her official guardian—receiving public support and calling for her return, they couldn’t resist.

“And to think he’s interfering at such a critical time!”

[He probably wants to avoid variables as much as possible.]

Thanks to that, Alicia was forced to leave her beloved Paris and return to London, where she was now staying in Buckingham Palace under the Lord Protector’s strict surveillance.

Even in the early morning, unable to take even a single breath without someone watching her, Alicia sighed and frowned in the direction of her observer.

She wanted to erase that blatant gaze right now, but since the Lord Protector might make a fuss again, Alicia was enduring it.

Yes, this was the treatment she had been receiving all along, so she could bear it.

“The problem is that even the minimal queenly duties I had before have completely disappeared since returning from France. Wow. Am I not even the Queen of this country anymore?”

Returning from France to England, starting her duties as Queen? Yeah right.

It seemed they had no intention of even treating her as Queen anymore, as no one reported to Alicia while she stayed in Buckingham Palace.

At least Alicia’s confidants informed her about the internal situation in England, and Bahamut kept her updated on the situation in France, so fortunately she wasn’t completely in the dark.

[As the returned head of state, you should be performing your duties, but wouldn’t that reduce the Lord Protector’s actual power?]

“Indeed, the Lord Protector doesn’t want to give me any real power. Now that you mention it, I really have nothing to do.”

The Lord Protector absolutely did not want Alicia to take any further action.

The current Lord Protector didn’t want to give Alicia even a shred of real power, which is why he had declared such a blatant exclusion of the Queen.

This made Alicia desperately want to strike back, but…

“With my limited power, when the Lord Protector is so openly keeping me in check, I should just quietly focus on preserving what strength I have.”

The problem was that Alicia’s faction alone wasn’t strong enough to oppose the Lord Protector.

By going to Paris, she had been able to avoid the Lord Protector’s obvious interference, but conversely, she had missed the opportunity to gather loyal subjects in England who would be willing to die for the Queen.

Still, loyal maids and knights were gathering forces for the Queen, evading the Lord Protector’s surveillance.

“The question is when I can escape the Lord Protector’s interference again. I’m already starting to miss Paris. The Saint was at least reasonable by comparison.”

Alicia couldn’t escape the Lord Protector’s sight, so she had no choice but to spend boring days in Buckingham Palace.

As Alicia said she missed Paris and evaluated the Saint as reasonable, Bahamut, who was watching her, shared some fresh information he had just obtained.

[If there’s any good news for you, it’s that the Lord Protector has intervened in this Phoenix Revolution. More precisely… he treacherously stabbed the Saint in the back.]

“Given that sneaky bastard’s personality, I knew he wouldn’t miss such a golden opportunity. He must have stabbed the Saint in the back with the mindset that he couldn’t afford to miss out.”

The point was that the Saint’s position had begun to rapidly destabilize due to the Lord Protector’s betrayal.

It was a political calculation to explicitly narrow the Saint’s standing and expand his own, and now that Alicia had left Paris and returned to England to be confined in Buckingham Palace according to the Lord Protector’s plan, he believed there was no force to stop him, so he betrayed the Saint.

But what he didn’t know was that Alicia’s eyes weren’t just her maids and knights—the dragon Bahamut also served as her eyes and ears, allowing her to know the situation in France in real time.

And after hearing about the current situation in France, Alicia’s thought was…

“The situation has developed more favorably for me than I expected, wouldn’t you say?”

[Is that what you think?]

It was an unexpected response.

Rather surprised at the realization that an opportunity had come her way, she explained her reasoning to Bahamut with a somewhat puzzled expression and voice.

“Yes. With the Lord Protector keeping me in check like this, I was thinking that Phoenix would step in to mediate between those two before I could act.”

[Phoenix, is it.]

“She has both justification and power. I think Phoenix believes that a fight between contractors would be to her disadvantage. They’re both Phoenix’s priestesses… Fire Priestesses, right?”

That was because there was a deity who could definitively mediate before she needed to step in.

She thought it would be easy for Phoenix, who had contracted with the Saint of Orleans and Teresa Mari, to mediate peace between them, even if there might be some resistance.

Phoenix’s prestige and power were great enough to enforce such mediation, which is why Alicia was questioning why she, who was said to be on par with the dragon Bahamut, wasn’t intervening in this situation.

[Well, if Phoenix herself mediated, she’d be in the position of a sister-in-law trying to stop a fight. If Phoenix intervened to mediate, it might actually leave a bigger bomb.]

“Is that so?”

Phoenix couldn’t possibly be unaware of what both Phoenix and Alicia knew.

After all, both were Phoenix’s contractors, and considering Phoenix’s power and prestige, it would be possible to stop the revolutionary war if she mediated at the right time.

Bahamut had initially gone to Phoenix’s temple with that thought, but…

“Mr. Bahamut! Mr. Bahamut! Mr. Bahamut! The moment I mediate between those two, I’ll be in the position of a sister-in-law trying to stop a fight between them!”

“Ah, sorry.”

But that meant all attention would be focused on Phoenix, and she could potentially be seen as the decisive culprit who caused this situation by both contractors and the public, so Phoenix was in a position where she wanted to mediate but couldn’t.

Phoenix wasn’t tactless, nor was she a fool who couldn’t read the atmosphere, so she understood well enough that if she intervened, it might spark an even bigger flame.

So the best she could do was cling to her friend Bahamut’s feet, trying to delegate to someone with the ability to resolve this situation in her place.

Bahamut, recognizing this fact, was working tirelessly, taking on Phoenix’s share as well, with a resigned attitude.

[So here, Alicia, you…]

“Your Majesty.”

[Oh?]

Just as he was about to request mediation from Alicia, who was truly in a neutral position in this situation, Mary, Alicia’s maid, returned to Buckingham Palace.

Always serving the Queen with an expressionless face, today she seemed to have some surprising news, as she called Alicia with a surprised expression.

“Mary, you’re back?”

“Yes. More importantly, there’s surprising news. Your Majesty, the Lord Protector is visiting Buckingham Palace.”

“Ugh.”

It wasn’t a sound befitting a queen of a nation, but Alicia made a face as if she had heard something truly terrible.

After all, the news that the Lord Protector was visiting Buckingham Palace was tantamount to coming to explicitly warn Alicia or, in vulgar terms, to pick a fight.

From Alicia’s perspective, having no good relationship with the Lord Protector, just the name alone was enough to make her face contort.

“Why is that person coming?”

“He said he wanted to consult about the French Revolutionary War.”

“Ah, that? It had nothing to do with me, and after returning home, I couldn’t intervene because of someone. I was tied to Buckingham Palace because of someone’s surveillance.”

From Alicia’s perspective, it was absurd.

Alicia herself couldn’t move because of the Lord Protector, yet that very Lord Protector was coming to Buckingham Palace because of the revolutionary war.

If he were coming for the sake of the country, she wouldn’t complain, but the Lord Protector cared more about his own throne than the country.

She thought he must have come because he had some complaint about Alicia, and…

“Perhaps he’s anxious that you’re staying quiet despite this situation. If… you don’t want to meet him, I’ll reject his visit request immediately.”

The maid suggested that the Lord Protector felt anxious because Alicia had remained quiet in this situation, and offered to reject his visit, but…

“No, I’ll meet him. I need to scout him out anyway.”

[‘Will this be okay?’]

Avoiding a meeting out of fear wasn’t Alicia’s style.

As always, she decided to confront him head-on and invited the Lord Protector to Buckingham Palace.

Mary and Bahamut worried about her bold attitude, but despite their concerns, Alicia was able to meet the Lord Protector in the reception room with only one guard.

“England will seize the international influence that the Saint of Orleans possesses.”

Though it was an official meeting, the atmosphere was more like a scene from a personal vendetta.

Without showing any respect to the Queen who arrived in the reception room or saying a single word about serving her, the Lord Protector simply stated his reason for coming.

He answered in a voice that restrained emotion, so one might mistakenly think this was his style, but Alicia knew better.

He had no intention of asking for the Queen’s opinion, and this meeting was essentially just the Lord Protector making an announcement.

“Wow. What a shameless attitude, Lord Protector. You really look down on me as Queen now.”

“Your Majesty’s eloquence is as cheap as ever.”

“Thanks to our cheap Lord Protector, my cheap manner of speaking just won’t turn noble! Ah yes, it’s about time for such a cheap queen to appear once, and I’m sure my father and grandfather would forgive me! Thanks to someone!”

Alicia half-leaned back in her chair, showing her explicit disgust at the Lord Protector’s announcement with an attitude that suggested manners be damned.

Saying that the Lord Protector was the cause of all this, she began to put her feet up on the table like a neighborhood delinquent, indicating that the Lord Protector deserved no courtesy.

At the Queen’s sudden rudeness, Sir Arthur, the royal guard protecting the Queen, sighed, and the Lord Protector’s attendant glared at Alicia with an enraged expression.

‘Wow. Not respect or dismay toward the Queen, but a “How dare you?” expression. I am this country’s Queen, and the Lord Protector is officially my subordinate.’

Seeing the sentiment of “how dare you” in that gaze, Alicia gave a bitter smile and glared at the Lord Protector.

“You never get tired of it. So you’ll get the Saint’s influence and use it to aim for the position you want?”

“Originally, the role I assigned to Your Majesty was just to sit in a chair, but somehow you’ve risen to a level where I must explicitly keep you in check.”

The Lord Protector said with a matter-of-fact attitude that the only role he had originally assigned to Alicia was just that one thing, and he seemed not to understand why she was trying to drink poison.

As always, the Lord Protector’s ultimate goal was to usurp the throne, and he betrayed his ally, the Saint, because that betrayal helped his throne usurpation.

“That’s right. So, Lord Protector, you stabbed your ally the Saint in the back? Wow? Who would want to ally with the Lord Protector after this?”

“In international relations, there are no eternal allies or eternal enemies.”

In response to Alicia’s statement, which questioned who would ally with the Lord Protector after this, the Lord Protector simply stated that there are no eternal allies or enemies.

Yes, even the alliance between the Lord Protector and the Saint, which was thought to last forever, broke as soon as the Saint showed a weakness.

In such a situation, who could assert that no one would cooperate with the Lord Protector just because he betrayed once?

Moreover, the world was facing an apocalypse, and in this apocalypse, betrayal was almost an everyday occurrence.

“But in this apocalypse, karma is settled very quickly, you know? Lord Protector. Your karma will be settled quickly too. Not by anyone else, but by my hand.”

“Hehe. If you hadn’t contracted with the dragon, I would be in that seat discussing with the cabinet now.”

Alicia warned him that karma would be settled quickly and declared that she would settle the karma the Lord Protector had accumulated with her own hands.

The Lord Protector responded with a contemptuous expression, saying that if she hadn’t contracted with Bahamut, that seat would already be his.

“Wow. You gained power just because you were lucky during the chaos when our royal family was wiped out?”

“Then let me ask, Your Majesty. What exactly have you accomplished yourself in this apocalypse? You’ve only contracted with a dragon, and the dragon solved everything instead of you. Did you recapture London? Have you ever ruled England by commanding the current cabinet?”

The words between the two major powers of England began to grow harsher, and it was actually Sir Arthur and the Lord Protector’s attendant who turned pale at this verbal battle.

Both began to explicitly mention difficult words, poking at each other’s vulnerabilities.

“Wow. Look at how you dodge the subject. Always avoiding unfavorable topics. Yes, I, who ascended to the throne, have never commanded the cabinet or ruled the country.”

Alicia waved her hand dismissively at the Lord Protector, who was speaking only to his advantage, showing the most arrogant attitude she could muster, and declared to the Lord Protector.

She had never ruled the country or commanded the cabinet.

And the reason for that was…

“Because of the traitor right in front of me.”

When she declared it was because of the traitor, the Lord Protector, his attendant’s face turned from pale to red, and he drew his weapon to threaten Alicia.

Sir Arthur, seeing the attendant draw his weapon, immediately drew his own sword to threaten the attendant.

Despite knowing that a traitor’s gun was pointed at her forehead, Alicia stared at the Lord Protector with an indifferent expression, showing no change in her face.

“But Lord Protector, I am not the crybaby Alicia you once knew. I am one of only three Dragon Priestesses in this world and the Queen of this country. Isn’t it disrespectful to the Queen?”

Declaring that she was no longer the person the Lord Protector once knew, she reminded him that she was a Dragon Priestess and the Queen of this country.

The Lord Protector’s attendant wanted to pull the trigger immediately at the sight of such a Queen, but under the fierce gaze of Sir Arthur, he couldn’t dare pull the trigger against the Queen.

In the first place, if she was the rumored Dragon Priestess, this level of threat might not be a threat at all, so the attendants slowly began to withdraw their weapons. As the attendants gave up attacking, the Lord Protector sighed with a contemptuous look and rose from his seat.

“Your Majesty is just a coward clinging to Bahamut’s protection.”

“So, can you stand against our dragon?”

“Conversely, the reason Your Majesty can maintain your position as Queen is largely because of the dragon Bahamut. If those wings are broken, Your Majesty’s throne will crumble too.”

All he could do was dismiss the Queen’s achievements with all his might, reminding her how she had maintained her position until now, and then he left.

After the Lord Protector left, Alicia quietly watched him go and said:

“I’ll make him eat shit.”

She prepared to make the Lord Protector eat his words.