episode_0299

“Will you join the search party yourself?”

“Yes.”

In any case, if it is not an efficient decision for us to invade directly now, and the reason is not ‘internal’ to our military, including the rebellion―

My judgment was that the cause was clearly on the enemy side, the Asus.

At least at this point, it seemed more likely, and I wanted to see it with my own eyes just to make sure.

“Wouldn’t it be better to use people? If something goes wrong-”

“That probably won’t happen. The current Aesir Army’s control of the territory is at rock bottom. It’s obvious that they won’t have the power to catch me while I’m infiltrating. Even if they do catch me, wouldn’t you take revenge on me, my lord?”

I said that without thinking.

Perhaps, Serpina would have smiled and said something like, ‘That’s true. Your death would mean the destruction of the Aesir Army. “‘ I thought―

“Swen.”

“… … Yes?”

Serpina looked at me with a very serious and grave expression, not a playful one.

“Don’t bring up the topic of death… …so carelessly.”

“Swen, I don’t want you to be wrong… … I don’t want that. No matter what happens, I absolutely don’t want that.”

“Without you, I don’t think I’ll know what to do on my own from now on… … So, please don’t bring up things like that. Please… … .”

He looked up at me pitifully, holding my hand tightly.

I coughed several times in vain at the sight of the girl who was so innocent that she had no sense of dignity or composure as a monarch.

“Something… …I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. It’s really a shame. You just have to know that.”

“… … Yes.”

Because my face was burning, I quickly changed the subject.

“Well, don’t worry too much. Even if they get caught, they won’t kill me or anything. No matter how desperate they are, they have more to lose than to gain by killing me. And, I’m confident that I won’t get caught, so don’t worry about that either.”

“Of course I believe in you, but… … .”

She continued to feel helpless and unable to regain composure.

Does the fact that I might die really bother you that much?

Meanwhile, I strangely noticed that I saw Reika-san in the current Serpina-sama.

‘… Should I act similarly to how I did with Reika?’

However, unlike Reika, who is on an equal footing with me, Serpina is someone so high up that I have to immediately call her ‘sama’.

She wasn’t just my superior like Irene. She was a monarch. A monarch of a country. The leader of the vast Serpina Army, and one of the few remaining legitimizing women of the old Eingart Empire.

I don’t know if it would be okay to do ‘that kind of thing’ to a woman like that…

Still, I thought it might be okay.

I slowly… … placed my hand on her head.

“… … !!”

He strokes her yellow hair calmly.

Instead of glaring at me or anything, Serpina lowers her head and quietly lets me touch her head.

A sparkling golden wave was flowing between my fingers.

“Please trust me, Serpina. I will definitely come back alive.”

“… … .”

Instead of answering, Serpina hugged me without saying a word.

Her weight, with the world beneath her feet, was very light compared to the weight of the crown she wore.

If we compare, it’s probably no different from a feather.

Even women known as cruel tyrants are, when you hold them in your arms, you realize that they are actually warm and soft human beings.

I spent a long time stroking her long hair to calm her down.

Thump, thump.

―All I could do was try to ignore the sound of my heart beating harder than ever since I held her in my arms.

How much time has passed like that?

I immediately got to the main point with Serpina, who had regained some of her composure.

“So, this is a story about infiltration… … .”

“I already have some leisure time in mind.”

“Is that so? If it is better than my opinion, I am willing to follow your opinion.”

It may seem absurd to a third party for a subject to weigh his lord’s opinion, but-

Serpina nodded with a smile, as if that seemed okay.

“What do you think of me, Swen?”

* * *

“Stop right there.”

This is the third checkpoint.

If I could just get through this checkpoint, I could infiltrate the castle of Balharat.

I sat close behind her, adjusting my wig and pulling my hood up, as I had always done.

“Please identify yourself.”

“The second upper tier Ariyan above Mikhail.”

The guard checked the name tag the woman showed him for a long time.

“Well, there’s no problem with the nameplate.”

“Then can I come in?”

“No, wait a minute. I have some things to take care of too… … .”

The woman smiled slyly at the guard’s words, then handed him a pouch and said.

“I really didn’t have any clue.”

“No, that’s not what I was talking about… … Ahem. Go in.”

After passing the guards without much difficulty, we were finally able to arrive at the castle of Balharat.

‘It’s been a really long time.’

Valharat Castle. It wasn’t as much as Anel Castle, but it was a place that filled me with various emotions.

In a way, Yuuri was kind enough to make things convenient for me, so I ended up living with Irene.

Since then, Yuuri hasn’t used me as much – naturally, most of what I did during my time in the Aishus Army, away from central politics, was as Reika-san’s teacher.

It’s called a teacher’s job, but I thought he was just looking after Reika, but… … When I look at it objectively, it wasn’t such a bad time.

It’s not like I was risking my life to become a great person, and in terms of buying time until Luna-sama raised an army, I was actually more at ease than when I was in the Bran’s Army.

Although, I never thought she would make the unprecedented decision to sell me out to Serpina’s army.

“It looks like you got in without any problems.”

As I was gathering my thoughts, the woman in front of me turned her head and looked at me.

The woman who joined me in my infiltration was Ioline Al Kaski, a woman who looked exactly like the girl who once was my roommate at Eingart Castle.

“Thanks to you, I was able to infiltrate safely.”

“No. I just did what I had to do. As the daughter of the Al Kaski family, it’s impossible not to know how to disguise your identity.”

I wondered what kind of family’s young lady would know how to disguise her identity, but since it was true that she had helped me this time, I didn’t say anything more.

It was Serpina’s idea to ask Iolin. It seems that Irian, who had a talent for espionage, had heard various stories from him when he was just starting out and was going undercover here and there.

It would be quite amazing to remember that it was just a passing story of one of his subjects… … .

Anyway, thanks to her efforts, we were able to successfully infiltrate the ‘Mikhael Group’ as a member of the group. The Mikhael Group is one of the several groups supported by the Al Kaski family, and is a group of a certain size but not so famous – a perfect size to hide in.

“Thank you anyway. Even though you are the monarch, unlike your other brothers, Iolin-san is not a formal vassal of Lady Serpina. Since it is an infiltration mission, it is a problem that you could easily refuse by saying it is dangerous or something.”

If she had refused, she probably wouldn’t have been forced to do it. Serpina was that kind of woman, no matter what her public image was.

At my words, Ioline shook her head and smiled.

“No! If I can help, I should. It’s not someone else’s request, it’s Swen’s request… …! And I’m so, so happy that we can be together after such a long time.”

As she said that, her face turned slightly red and she lowered her head, so I felt embarrassed and avoided eye contact.

Either way, Ioline kept chatting to me, smiling brightly.

“Jenis Orabeoni also vacated the mansion a long time ago, and Irian Orabeoni is not in the mansion these days. I was so lonely living alone… … I’m glad I can do something helpful like this. Thank you for coming.”

Actually, strictly speaking, it was not me but Serpina who found her-

Still, I nodded my head in response, thinking that there was no need to nitpick every single sentence she was saying with her eyes sparkling like that.

“Anyway, I know it must have been a bit tiring to come this far… …but let’s take a quick look around. We need to get out as quickly as possible.”

“Leave it to me! I’ve been training my physical strength in my own way since that day… … !”

So, I took Iolin and the soldiers and looked around the castle of Valharat.

* * *

What I noticed while patrolling was that the expressions on the faces of the residents were all dark.

Of course, it was said that a very severe plague had spread throughout the central continent, but the castle of Valharat, which was relatively located in the eastern part of the central continent, had not suffered such a great blow, and even during the war with the Chel Army, it had not been caught up in the flames of direct combat, so it was only for a moment that I wondered why the people’s hearts had fallen to the ground.

It wasn’t long before it became easy to see why things had come to this.

‘Uh, that’s… … .’

A huge construction site that makes me doubt my eyes.

The very act of carrying out such a large-scale construction project in the middle of the capital city was an action that could not possibly be related to combat preparations.

Having seen countless civilians and soldiers being forced into forced labor, I could easily intuit this.

That Yuuri had once again made an unthinkably foolish decision.