Looking Back Now, It’s Really Regrettable

“Raise your heads.”

In the royal palace audience hall.

After maintaining proper etiquette with our heads bowed until the king was seated, a thick male voice spoke, and we raised our heads.

A middle-aged man with brown hair and a beard of the same color, dressed in luxurious clothing, was sitting on the throne.

His slightly visible bare arms were made of thick muscle.

This person was the king who ruled the Palaginya Kingdom, Gallarus Oldin Palaginya.

Indeed, he had an impressive physique that made the rumor that he had won the Mushin Festival in his youth believable.

“We are honored to meet Your Majesty.”

“We… we are honored to meet Your Majesty!”

Riel was extremely nervous.

Well, that’s understandable.

Gallarus His Majesty sitting on the throne seemed to be over 2 meters tall, and his shoulders were so broad that he exuded an overwhelming presence.

So much so that even the large throne appeared shabby, like a dining chair.

“Hmm…”

His Majesty Gallarus was examining Riel and me carefully with his sharp eyes.

I could hear Riel’s nervous breathing beside me.

However, unexpectedly, I felt a strange familiarity with this intimidating presence.

Ah.

This intimidation is similar to what I feel when Princess Aine beats me up during what she calls “sparring.”

Like father, like daughter—they’re extremely similar in this aspect.

“Yes, you are Sylvia’s son.”

His Majesty Gallarus’s eyes looked directly at me.

Wow, look at those eyes…

Honestly, although I’m familiar with intimidation… I’m actually terrified, just not showing it.

“I am Kyo Wentos, eldest son of Count Wentos.”

“Yes. That was your name.”

His Majesty Gallarus nodded and shifted his gaze to Riel beside me.

“Lady Riel… I haven’t seen you since you were a baby.”

“Is… is that so?”

“Yes. Duke Ignis used to carry you around when you were still young, showing you off everywhere.”

Hmm…

Duke Ignis was a doting father, I see.

“I see. My father…”

“…Hmm.”

Riel’s voice lowered slightly, probably remembering her father.

Hearing this, His Majesty Gallarus’s expression became slightly flustered.

“Regarding Duke Ignis, the royal family is mobilizing significant funds and personnel to find him.”

“Th-thank you.”

“Not at all, it’s what the royal family should naturally do.”

Well, regarding the Duke’s disappearance, even family members like Eve and Riel hadn’t noticed, so the royal family must have been quite surprised too.

Duke Ignis, who rarely returned home, citing busy official duties that took him to various places.

However, when Riel felt the need to meet him and tried to find him through Eve, his whereabouts were unclear, and the royal family belatedly realized that Duke Ignis was missing.

In fact, records of his visits to places he supposedly went for work were properly documented, and there was no problem with the records themselves, so the royal family hadn’t been paying much attention.

The issue was that while records existed, no one had actually seen Duke Ignis.

“Hmm… the conversation has digressed. I called you here today to talk about none other than the World Tree Church.”

“Yes. I heard the general story in the carriage.”

“Then we can proceed quickly. The church is targeting you.”

His Majesty Gallarus told us what demands the church had made and what negotiations had taken place during the Mushin Festival period.

After hearing that, I understood everything.

For the church, they could somehow manage with Allen, a commoner, whether by persuasion or force, but they couldn’t forcibly take Riel, the second daughter of a Duke’s family.

They seem to have attempted persuasion through Allen, though whether that can be called persuasion is questionable.

So they tried to kidnap her secretly, resulting in the dormitory intruder incident.

And as for me, they just tried to kill me.

The problem is that they did all this because of a divine revelation from the World Tree Yggdrasil.

The World Tree Yggdrasil.

Come to think of it, in the original novel, it never appeared except for the mention of giving its blessing to Allen.

“Lady Riel. Regarding the disposition of the one who tried to harm you…”

When I stopped my thoughts, His Majesty Gallarus was talking about Allen.

Riel’s expression hardened as soon as Allen was mentioned.

Well, she already disliked him, and now she must dislike him even more after the recent attempted assault incident.

“I apologize that it was only settled with permanent exile. In truth, I wanted to cut off his arm at least…”

His Majesty Gallarus spoke as if he were truly sorry.

According to His Majesty, they held a summary trial for Allen, who was arrested for attempted assault on high-ranking nobles.

The problem was that Allen, far from showing remorse, spouted nonsense claiming he was only trying to save his precious childhood friend, treating Phyllis, who was protecting Riel, as a villain.

In the midst of this, he also claimed that I was a mastermind and villain who used Phyllis and Emilia to deceive Riel.

It’s not wrong that Phyllis is my personal maid, but I don’t understand why Emilia suddenly comes into the picture.

Because of this, the magistrate was going to impose a severe punishment, seeing no sign of remorse from the criminal.

The problem here was that the church opposed this more strongly than expected, ready to sacrifice almost everything.

Although the church’s influence in the Palaginya Kingdom was limited, that was only within the kingdom.

On an international scale, the church’s influence could not be ignored.

Moreover, they expressed their determination to bring Allen back in one piece by any means necessary, even at the risk of a holy war, but His Majesty Gallarus thought it wasn’t worth deepening the rift with the church over such a young criminal.

In the end, Allen was given a permanent exile from the kingdom and a permanent restraining order from the victims.

If violated, he would receive such a severe punishment that no one could complain even if he was beaten to death.

Additionally, the church “donated” lands and business shares they owned in the kingdom, which I suspect involved some kind of transaction.

“The church was insistent on taking that youngster back ‘intact’.”

“…Probably because of that divine revelation. The hero can’t become disabled, after all.”

His Majesty Gallarus grumbled that he should have at least cut off a finger.

Well, I also thought several times that it would have been nice if Phyllis had cut off one of his arms that day when Riel was attacked.

Looking back now, it’s really regrettable.

“Even though the church has withdrawn from the kingdom, we don’t know when they might target you again.”

“Yes…”

Riel trembled slightly, seeming anxious.

Well, when the talk of that divine revelation came up in the carriage, she made a disgusted expression and found the part about sharing love with Allen revolting.

If Riel were to be captured by the church… I don’t even want to think about it.

“So, for the time being, I plan to station knights around the academy and dormitories.”

“Knights…”

Even considering that a Duke’s second daughter’s safety is at stake, stationing knights directly under the royal family is quite a radical measure.

“Well, part of it is not wanting to give those church fellows any satisfaction…”

…

I’ve heard that our royal family doesn’t have a very good relationship with the church, but was it to this extent?

“The recent movements of the church have also been unusual. I think it might be related to why they want you. It’s just my intuition, though.”

While listening to His Majesty Gallarus’s words, I fell into thought again.

The World Tree Church.

The World Tree Yggdrasil.

Allen is the child of Yggdrasil.

And the divine revelation supposedly given by the World Tree.

And the church showing strange movements recently.

I had a bad feeling that something was really going to happen.

THWACK!

With the pleasant sound of a magical beast’s head bursting, blood splattered everywhere.

「What is with that human!」

「Our power doesn’t work!」

Alicia kicked away the magical beast whose head she had just burst and rushed toward the next one.

The magical beast also roared and was about to swing its arm with sharp claws, but

SQUELCH

Alicia’s flail was faster.

Alicia’s flail crushed the magical beast’s claws along with its arm and sent it flying far away.

「Scary! Scary!」

「Why doesn’t our power work!」

The fairies were afraid, overwhelmed by Alicia’s momentum.

The fairies’ abilities were powers that interfered with the mind.

In addition to powers often used to show illusions and make people lose their way, they had quite malicious abilities such as amplifying emotions or making someone appear hateful to cause fights.

But no power seemed to work on Alicia.

No, actually, they were working to some extent.

In reality, Alicia wasn’t feeling very well due to the fairies’ abilities, experiencing headaches or dizziness.

But Alicia continued to wield her weapon wildly.

To smash those blasphemous worms who had brought magical beasts into the forest where the World Tree had lived.

“HAAAA!!”

「KYAAAAA!!」

In the end, one of the fairies was sacrificed.

The fairies were hiding among the magical beasts, but that doesn’t mean they had no physical form.

If hit, they get hurt; if cut, they bleed; if crushed, they crumple.

One unlucky fairy lost its life that way.

「AAAAH!!」

「Scary! Scary!」

「No! Save us, Lady Bellia!」

When one fairy died miserably, the panicked fairies fled in a rush.

Some fairies called for help from Bellia, but that couldn’t happen.

Besides being a spirit bound to this forest, Saint Bellia was in a state of using the power stolen from Yggdrasil in a limited way.

She couldn’t directly intervene anywhere.

“……”

All the magical beasts were crushed to death, and the surroundings fell silent.

All the fairies seemed to have fled as well, as no presence could be felt.

“Swift creatures…”

She was angry that she had let those blasphemous and filthy worms escape.

She wanted to catch one or two more, but without holy power, it was impossible to find and eliminate them one by one.

Thinking that she would definitely… if she encountered them next time, Alicia put her weapon back in her luggage and headed to the promised place.

Under the promised rock, Andrew Ignis was tightly holding his mother, embracing the jewel.

“I just returned.”

“Ah… Lady Alicia! The blood… so much blood…!”

“Ah…”

Alicia was wearing a leather travel outfit over her pure white priest robe.

However, not only the leather outer clothing but also the priest robe underneath was covered in bright red blood, so it was no wonder Andrew was shocked.

“It’s okay. There’s no need to worry so much.”

“But this much blood…”

“It’s fine. It’s not my blood.”

Alicia looked at Andrew with the benevolent smile she always gave to believers in the church.

Even though her face was stained with blood.