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“To say the least, I just can’t imagine seeing that man having the caliber of “Great King” but….are you absolutely sure you’re correct?” (Rosyth)
King Rosyth just said something quite mean. Although, I do agree with him.
Is the “Divine Protection of the Great King” actually not that rare?
It’s not just me who has it? Or should I say, you could actually obtain such thing?
Now, that feels kind of depressing huh.
“Yes. My ‘Divine Protection of Perception’ is quite accurate after all. It’s definitely the same as Almis’ ability……..that of raising the physical abilities depending on the number of people who believe in you as a leader. It also raises the physical abilities of people who trust you and have high loyalty to you as a ripple effect. They’re the same, yes?” (Julia)
(TLN: Pengu Trans translated 看破の加護 as DP of Perception. While I lean on the side of Clairvoyance, (or more preferably ‘the Diving Protection of Seeing Through Shit’ lol), I’ll just use their term.)
“Does that mean that Regal DeBell is actually a big shot without us knowing it?” (Almis)
If that really were the case, then I’ll be so disillusioned.
“Hmmm, I wonder. At the very least, the people of the DeBell territory ((do consider, or should I say)) are afraid of him as their leader. Look, didn’t he just boast that he killed a bear about three years ago?”
I see, it’s enough that they consider you as their leader. It’s not related at all to the person’s caliber, huh.
Well, the people of a population probably don’t know the character of their leader anyway.
It’s only natural.
“Nevertheless, why does a person like Regal DeBell have such a divine protection?….” (Almis)
“Beats me. Fairies are whimsical creatures after all.” (Julia)
Fairies?
“Hey, Julia. When you said fairies….did you mean the mischievous fairies?” (Almis)
In the Adernia Peninsula, fairies exist in folklore. They say fairies are mischievous and do things like pulling pranks on people.
If you’re having either an unusually lucky or unlucky day, they say it’s the work of fairies
If it suddenly rained, it’s because of the fairies.
Those kind of things.
“Right, right. I looked up a lot of things about them and there was that kind of theory. The evidence is laughter. Haven’t you heard them? Specifically, children’s laughter. ((You’ll hear them)) by the time you’ve been given a divine protection…” (Julia)
Children’s laughter, huh.
I don’t know. That might possibly be true, however……
It’s been so many years ago when I noticed I had the Divine Protection. I’ve probably forgotten about that.
“Is that so? Almis doesn’t know, huh. I’ve heard them many times, you know. I could already hear them a little when we first met, you know. Maybe it depends upon the person whether if they could hear them. Well, anyway, I think the fairies’ true form is that of children. When you speak of fairies, you kind of think of a childish impression, after all.” (Julia) (TLN: Julia, are you sure you’re not just high?)
In other words, they only call them fairies as a matter of convenience.
Now that you said it, didn’t Griffon-sama often spoke of “those brats”.
Well, it’s certain that it’s a child-like existence.
“Weren’t there a lot of particularly nasty episodes concerning fairies?”
“Certainly……. there were things like that.”
There were as many episodes concerning fairies as the number of stars in the sky. All of them about fairies pulling pranks on people.
These episodes can be classified into four types.
Those warm and fluffy stories.
Those moral lesson-like stories where the person gets deceives and loses everything but becomes aware of the importance of their bonds with family.
Also, those stories where people go through terrible hardships.
And the last one…..stories where people die because of the fairy’s mischief.
Let’s give one concrete example.
A long time ago, there was a man.
This man hopelessly fell in love with his childhood friend from the village. However, his childhood friend ended up getting married to the village chief’s son.
He was devastated.
And then, a fairy appeared in his dream and said:
‘Tomorrow, go deep inside the forest at night and shoot the tree growing at the top of the mountain as the soon as the sun rises.’
In the beginning the man ignored this, but the dreams kept coming every day.
One time, the man finally did as the fairy instructed.
The man shoots at the tree at sunrise.
At the same time, a rabbit jumps out and get hits by the arrow.
Since then, the man kept following the fairy’s instructions.
Because of this, the man becomes wealthy and gets popular too.
However, the only one in his heart is his childhood friend.
One day, the fairy tells him:
‘Your childhood friend was threatened to become the wife of the village chief’s son. You should kill the village chief’s son. After that, you should just run away. There are gold coins buried under the grape tree at the back of your house. With that money, you could run away.’
The man did as the fairy told him. He killed the village chief’s son. The village chief and his wife witnessed this, so he killed them too. He then proposed to his childhood friend that they elope.
However, his childhood friend resisted.
The two argued when suddenly the childhood friend gets stabbed by a knife and dies.
He escapes in the confusion and returns to his home to dig up what’s under the grape tree.
There he finds a sack.
However, what he found inside were not gold coins….
but cow feces.
The story ends there.
In a word, it’s a story with a moral lesson. That in this world, there are a lot of things that are too good to be true so don’t get deceived. However…..
Was it really necessary for it to get that horrible?
And what’s really scary here is that there’s nothing in it for the fairy that appeared in the story.
In other words, fairies, just as a prank, get people to kill other people.
“I really don’t get what fairies are thinking. I was somehow well liked by them too.” (Julia)
Which reminds me, this person has a lot of divine protections, huh.
“It’s probably fine to not be that cautious of that Regal’s divine protection, okay? Almis’ divine protection is more than a match for him. You should also just ignore about the fairies for now. In the first place, it’s just a hypothesis, right?” (Rosyth)
We stop at King Rosyth’s suggestion.
We’ve gone off topic, huh.
“Then, I’ll be going home for now. Let’s talk about the strategy next time when we have Bartolo with us.” (Almis)
“Yes. Let’s do that. Then come here three days later. Remember to keep this a secret, okay?” (Rosyth)
I salute King Rosyth and leave the room.
However, Julia stops me.
“Wait! Take me with you.” (Julia)
“N? Wouldn’t that be a problem?” (Almis)
Even if we tried to hide it, it’ll immediately be known if Julia disappears from the palace. It’ll cause an uproar, right?
“I know, but…… I want to have a talk with Tetra, so……” (Julia)
Julia looks at King Rosyth.
“Just do as you like. I’ll say something like ‘Julia is away from the palace for a special ceremony. The location Is a royal family secret so I cannot disclose it.’” (Rosyth)
In other words, I could take her with me.
“Jeez…..Then can I borrow a carriage, King Rosyth?” (Almis)
“Yes. Since it’ll probably cause a misunderstanding if the two of you get seen riding on a single horse together. Also…” (Rosyth)
King Rosyth cautions me.
“While it’s fine for you to conduct some maneuvering, do not yet fully antagonize Regal DeBell.  At the very least, wait up until the end of our war with King De Morgal. We’ll put in order all the preparations for the civil war so don’t carelessly fall victim to provocation. Well, come to think of it, we were saved by that time you humbled yourself into settling out of court with them. If the two of you had completely gone to war at that time, then this country wouldn’t exist today.” (Rosyth)
“I know. I’ll keep my head down, okay? For the mean time, I intend to continue as such.” (Almis)
Civil war would be dreadful. No matter who wins, all that will be left are minuses.
Therefore, we’d have to end this in an instant. Until then, I’ll have to trouble myself with keeping Regal on the dark.
“Okay. We’ve arrived but…… Julia, wear this sack for the mean time. “
I make Julia wear the sack on her head.
With this, we won’t be found out.
I hold Julia’s hand and carefully help her get down from the horse.
We didn’t have the time to open up the part near the eye so she shouldn’t be able to see anything.
“Ah, Almis-san! Where have you been? Tetra’s been worried abo…….eh, Julia-san?”
We got found out!? (TLN: NANI!?)
“Well, her hair’s sticking out, you know……”
Ah, crap. Now that you mentioned it, the only girl with lavender-colored hair here is probably Julia.
That said, we don’t have a sack big enough to hide all of Julia’s hair so……
“Why is Julia-san here?”
“Let’s talk about that later. For the meantime, let’s get inside the mansion.” (Almis)
The servants in the palace, for the most part, haven’t seen Julia before so they probably won’t know it’s her just by seeing her hair.
That said, I’m just making sure.
We have to move quickly.
I’ll have to get her inside the mansion without getting seen.
“That’s how it is so stay still for me, okay?” (Almis)
“Hey, wha! Wait….” (Julia)
I carry Julia and run with all my strength.
“You kinda look like you’re kidnapping some right now, you know.”
“Shut up” (Almis)
“Julia. I’m very angry right now.” (Tetra)
Tetra declares to signal the start of the two’s meeting.
I’ve known Tetra for so long now but this girl’s expressions are quite hard to understand.
Although she said she’s angry, her expression right now is not that much different from her normal one.
That said, if you look closely you can see that her eyebrows are moving a little.
It’s a peculiar trait of Tetra when she’s angry.
It’s about 7/10 on the scale, huh.
However, didn’t Tetra say that it’s fine for Julia to become my second wife?
That’s the reason I took Julia in.
“I I’m sorry……..” (Julia)
Julia apologizes looking like she’s about to curl herself up.
Tetra stares hard at Julia and says:
“ You just said sorry, right? What would that sorry be for?” (Tetra)
“E? That’s……..That’s for snatching away Almis and snatching away the position of queen consort but…” (Julia)
(TLN: I really don’t know how to translate 正妃. It means queen consort but in this context it kinda connotes the meaning of legal wife, more specifically the wife with the highest status.)
“It’s not like I’m angry about that. I’m not that interested in worldly social status.” (Tetra)
Then what are you angry about, this girl…
“You didn’t consult with me even once. If you did that, then we could have thought about how to force Almis together. Besides, if I was against it then I would’ve flat out refused from the start.” (Tetra)
“Uuu…….It’s just as you said. I’m sorry………” (Julia)
Julia bows her head to Tetra and apologizes.
Tetra smiles.
“Good. I forgive you.”
Well, I guess it’s settled.
Great.
“But is it really alright?” (Julia)
“Yes. That’s because I’m Almis’ No.1 after all. No matter what happens, it’s set in stone that I was the one who Almis married first. Beside, what’s important is love. To hell with social status. …..Well, it couldn’t be helped if you’re bothered about it.” (Tetra)
“Hey! What’s up with that? You’re making it sound like I wanted to be the queen consort so it couldn’t be helped!!!” (Julia)
I don’t know what the hell happened but it looks like it’s become serious again.
For the meantime, I guess I should stop them, huh.
“You two. Don’t fight because of me….Ouch! Don’t hit me with your staff!” (Almis)
Tetra keeps hitting my head with her staff.
Tetra’s staff has those wooden disks bound together so it’s quite heavy but……this is too heavy for a wooden staff!”
“Oi, you put a metal rod inside didn’t you!” (Almis)
“Nope~, The correct answer is…” (Tetra)
Tetra grabs the pointed tip of the wand. She unscrews it and pulls.
It’s a black luster sword.
“It’s a Swordstick. Isn’t it cool?” (TLN: Shikomigatana/Swordstick/Cane Sword; I don’t know much about Japanese swords)
“I agree that it’s cool but, don’t hit me with that. If you got careless, you could kill me….” (Almis)
“Hey, Tetra. Can you also make me one?” (Julia)
Thus, although the situation has changed, we’ve returned to our former relations.
I call together my trusted members.
Ron, Roswald, Gram, Soyon, Lulu, Yal, Bolus.
These seven people.
It’s not that I don’t trust the others not included here.
It’ just that you increase the possibility of leaking information the more you increase the people who know.
Because the possibility of getting tortured to be made to talk is real enough, I can’t speak about this to a lot of people.
Although I do feel bad about it….
In one line starting from the right, Tetra, me, and Julia sit in front of them.
All of their gazes fall at Julia.
They’ve probably noticed it to a certain extent huh.
“I’ll get straight to the point. It’s been decided that I’ll be marrying Julia.”
I could sense the tension in everyone.
Everyone falls silent.
Ron becomes the first one to speak.
“………That means Leader will…….have to become King, am I right?” (Ron)
“Yes, it’s become like that.”
Everyone exchanges glances.
“””HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Ron, Roswald, Gram, Soyon, and Lulu put their hands together and shouts happily.
Yal and Bolus, too, are smiling.
“I was so worried!! Because I heard that Julia might have had to marry that guy Regal ……..moreover, Almis-san looked so gloomy lately, too!  I’ve never felt so relieved.” (Soyon)
Soyon grins while giving us her blessing.
I see…..It seems I looked so gloomy huh.
I’m sorry I made you worry guys….
“However, that means we’ll finally cross swords with the DeBell Clan, am I right?”
“Yes. That’s correct. That’s why I’ll be imposing on everyone. This is…. so to speak, because of my and Julia’s love. I really feel bad dragging everyone into this. I’m sorry. However…..please support us!! (Almis)
As I say so, the seven smile broadly.
“Isn’t it time for Almis to finally wield us for his convenience? You’re so reserved. You don’t have to ask all of those one by one, you know!” (Gram)
Roswald declares in addition to Gram.
“We had to get along with the DeBell Clan before so ((I held back)). But if it’s become like this, then at that time, should I have just stabbed that ((Gilberto)) with my spear?” (Roswald)
Roswald shows a somewhat regretful expression.
No, that was a wise decision, you know.
If it became an all-out war then the neighboring countries would’ve come together to intervene and I would never be able to succeed the throne.
“Almis-sama. Congratulations. However, please let me confirm one thing. What would happen to Tetra-sama?” (Bolus)
Bolus looks straight at me.
Naturally, it’s something that’s bothering him, huh.
I embrace Tetra while looking straight at Bolus.
“Tetra will remain as my wife. Though she won’t become queen consort….by no means would I make light of her, I promise you that.” (Almis)
“Is that so…..I asked something awkward. I apologize.” (Bolus)
Bolus bows deeply.
When the excitement died down, Yal opens his mouth.
“However, Lord Almis. Have you estimated the opposition against your enthronement by the clans aside from the DeBell Clan? Also, how shall we deal with the DeBell Clan? (Yal)
“Naturally, I’ve thought about it. First, concerning the opposition by non-DeBell factions……the possibility of the De Morgal Kingdom invading us before long is high. When that happens, I’ll be appointed as the supreme commander. There, I should be able to obtain a great achievement. Furthermore, concerning dealing with the DeBell Clan, I think we should try to destroy them from within.” (Almis)
“From within, is it?” (Yal)
“Yes.” (Almis)
The DeBell faction is large.
If we fought squarely, it will probably become a very bloody battle. (TLN: Author wrote ‘a battle where we’ll wash blood with blood’; can’t think of a good English idiom.)
Though I don’t think we’ll lose, it will be a tough battle.
The people who are supporting me are Tetra’s relatives……..in other words, the Ars Clan’s relatives.
However, the Ars Clan had a time where it had come to an end for some time so they’ve lost a lot of influence during those years.
Because the opposing DeBell faction is quite collected by themselves, they’ve flexed their muscle to try to bury the retreating Ars faction.
Even though the Ars clan managed to make a comeback when I appeared, we’re still quite far off.
The ones who hold the key are not the Ars clan’s relatives but the clansmen who are not relatives of the DeBell clan. However……rather than someone like me of a doubtful origin, they probably lean towards the DeBell clan.
Even those who would support me in a normal political dispute, would certainly choose the weather when I’ve become to succeed the throne. (TLN: Another Idiom I don’t understand. Hiyori wo kimeru. Help me people.)
That’s why, as much as possible, in order to bring in an advantage, we have to drive a wedge into the DeBell Clan’s core.
“I heard about this from King Rosyth but… there seems to be two factions within the DeBell Faction. The first is the disadvantaged group of retainers led by Regal’s trusted confidant and subordinate Bermet. The second is the group of DeBell relatives headed by Gilberto. The former group is full of capable people but their social status, except for Bermet, tend to be low. The latter group, because they were chosen by their lineage, though lacking in capable people, are lucky in obtaining the good positions. Thus, it seems that Regal has a tendency to rely on relatives.” (Almis)
It’s not bad to reinforce your retainers with relatives.
There’s nothing you can trust more than your relatives after all, plus your unity is firm.
I, too, fill my close associates with Ron and the others.
However, there is a problem with installing and using only relatives to responsible positions.
Relatives would not be careful in making and shrugging off big mistakes because they can play the family card, and they would just rest on their laurels.
The man Ron, Roswald, and Soyon beat – Gilberto is a good example. Normally, if you had failed that miserably, at the very least, a demotion is in order. However, that guy got away with it with just a week’s house arrest.
This is a very delightful thing. There’s nothing better than having an enemy full of incompetents.
However, there’s one person that’s a cause for concern.
That man called Bermet.
Bermet, as the rumors say, seems to be a very capable old man. By all means, it was all because of him that the DeBell Clan had managed to expand to such power.
Certainly, I can feel some sort of drive from that old man.
It seems it was Bermet who made the horrible plan to casually slaughter the refugees before our eyes.
Honestly speaking, you really can’t tell ability with just that.
I know too little about that man.
However, I know that he’s very dangerous.
If I were able to remove that Bermet, then I’ll be able to split the DeBell clan right in half.
“That’s how it is but………does anyone have a great idea?” (Almis)
When I proposed such, everyone fell silent.
One thing or another, they seem to have a deep acknowledgement of Bermet.
Taking them down won’t be an easy task.
“For the time being, I have a strategy.” The one who spoke up was Yal.
Oi, are you serious?
“Regal DeBell won’t trust anyone except his relatives. In other words, he’s quite a distrustful person, yes? We’ll use that against him. It’s just that…….this plan would some preparation and quite a sum of money.” (Yal)
“I don’t mind. This strategy is?” (Almis)
Yal explains his strategy.