/
Chapter 17 – The Secret Behind the Summoning Circle
Nearly a week has passed since Tendo and the others headed for the dungeon.
In the past week, the reformation had progressed smoothly.
I gathered the Prime Minister and the ministers to receive their reports and to tell them that it was time for me to leave the capital.
By the way, my reason for leaving the capital is to head to the Nargadia Labyrinth to check on Tendo and the others.
“Thank you all for your hard work. As I’ve mentioned several times, if there are no major issues in today’s report, I’m planning to leave the capital the day after tomorrow…thank you all for sticking with me so far.”
The Prime Minister shook his head at my words.
“Not at all, sir, it’s us who ought to offer our gratitude. If I could have my way, I would have asked Master Haruto to be king instead of Queen Mariana…”
“And my answer will remain the same, I can’t.”
That’s right, the Prime Minister had been asking me to be the king at every opportunity.
But knowing myself, there’s no way I would want to go through all that trouble, so I firmly refused.
“…Right. I guess it’s time I give up on this matter.”
I nodded to the Prime Minister, who laughed.
“Oh, right, my bad…shall we begin with the report.”
It started with the Prime Minister.
“First of all, the investigation has been completed. It seems that all the people present there were lining their own pockets, except for the queen and the young prince, and almost all of them have been executed. As for the royalist nobles, from the documents hidden in the royal family’s private chambers, we have already made a list of our targets. All that remains now is for us to conduct an on-site investigation and seize the evidence.”
Oh, you’ve already gone that far with the investigation?
While still feeling impressed, the Prime Minister continued.
“Moving on, the reaction of the people has been favorable so far. The king’s death from illness, the suicide of the first prince and others, as well as the accession of Queen Mariana to the throne seem to have been accepted with open arms. As for the other members of the royal family, we decided that they were imprisoned because their embezzlement and coup plans were discovered after the king’s death. It seems that many of them were also bitterly disappointed, so there was no protest from the people.”
Wow, I really can’t imagine how much resentment the royals must have incurred…at any rate, I guess it’s a good thing that the country is now being swept clean.
“Finally, about the slaves, things are also going well. We are currently in the process of sending the freed slaves back to their homeland. Even those who rebelled obediently complied when I mentioned Master Haruto’s name.”
Hey, quit using my name like some kind of magic wand…but if it contributed to the emancipation of the slaves, so be it.
The title of EX rank adventurer seems to have been effective.
“All right, thank you…next, Minister of Finance.”
“Yes. First of all, we have received reports that the hurried tax cuts have led to an upturn in consumption nationwide. Also, the amount of money embezzled by the royal family and stashed away was of a rather significant figure. So, we used the money for public works projects to renovate the city damaged by the Yvel incident, and to hire a large number of unemployed people. The overall economic trend needs to be observed over a long period of time, but I think we can expect a brighter future because the people are becoming more cheerful now that the king has been replaced.”
Oh, it looks like things are going better than I thought.
“All right. I’ll leave the details to you…then next is, how’s the military doing?”
“Yes sir. First of all, the knights and soldiers who were transformed into Yvels along with the first prince amounted to a third of the entire army, so there were problems with patrols and the like, but thanks to the consultation of Master Haruto and the heroes, these problems have now been resolved. Thank you very much.”
It’s a little embarrassing to be thanked again and again for that slight utterance he keeps referring to as consultation, even though it was just a little suggestion on route selection and review of the rotation system.
“Also, the recruitment of new recruits has been completed and we are now in the training phase.”
“All right then. From now on, Glicente army will be a peace army, not an invasion army. Make sure they know that.”
“Yes sir!”
After that, the reports from the ministers continued.
～
When the meeting was over around noon, I went to the communications room, which was supposed to be used only by royalty, and decided to contact Dillan, the king of Perdis.
Actually, I had contacted him once, on the day of the attack, but I had only given him a brief report at that time.
So, I opted to give Dillan, who responded to my communication, a brief report again.
I told him that I had killed the king and replaced him with a queen who was under my supervision, that I had elves working with me and that he should not worry, and that I will be counting on him if anything happened, these three points.
Dillan seemed like he wanted to say something, but in the end he sighed as if he had given up.
～
I walked out of the communications room and went to Marvelle, the chief royal magician.
“The hero summoning magic circle…my apologies, but that field was completely controlled by the royal family, and I was not looped in. But I believe, the summoning room itself should still remain intact…”
So she said, so I couldn’t find out anything more.
For now, I’ll just have to take a look.
“Finne, Iris, Kusel. I’m going to take a look at the summoning room, wanna come with?”
“Yes. I’m a little curious about the hero summoning magic circle.”
“Me too!”
“I’m a little curious too.”
I took the three who were eager along and headed for the summoning room.
As we opened the door, we saw a magic circle made up of intricate geometric patterns that were drawn all over the floor.
“It’s been what, three months since we were summoned, huh? it feels awfully nostalgic…”
“This room does…?”
As I listened to Finne’s mutterings, I used my God Eye and Parallel Thought skills to analyze the magic circle.
But the result was…
“Unknown…huh?”
“Unknown, is it?”
“What do you mean, unknown?”
Finne and Iris looked at me and asked. Kusel was excited to see the sword on the wall. Yup, I should have known. What was I expecting?
“All I could tell was that it was a magic circle for summoning heroes. There are some small magic circles here and there, but I can’t tell what kind of effect they have, and there are many seemingly meaningless patterns…the most knowledgeable person in the country, Marvelle, was not involved in this, and as to whether the king could have created it is…”
“Nah, I don’t think so.”
For Finne, of all people to harshly deny the possibility.
“That’s right, which means…it must have been drawn while looking at some kind of reference.”
To think that God Eye can’t see through it, it must be very rare.
I walked over the magic circle and observed the room.
It didn’t have the same divine glow it had when we were summoned.
For the time being, I drew the magic circle on a piece of paper and left the room.
All right, the next stop is…
“Shall we go to the archives?”
“That’s a good idea.”
“That’s where the information is!”
“The archives huh…”
Finne, Iris, and Kusel all replied in different ways. But only Kusel was less excited.
Yeah, I can’t picture Kusel in the archives.
Nevertheless, the king must have gotten some information in the archives.
There may be clues in his office, but I should give priority to the archives first, which has the highest possibility.
I decided to ask a passing maid to guide us to the archives.