The Assailants

"Hiyaaah!" Yae screamed out with burning spirit. Her wooden sword plunged

forward, catching Viscount Swordrick off guard and stopping right as it reached

his neck. The speed of her sword was the very image of lightning striking its

target. The Viscount, defeated, relaxed his face into a smile.

"...Impressive. This round goes to you."

"Thank you for your tutelage!" Yae bowed before the viscount. Still, even

though she'd won, she didn't look all that happy about it. No surprise

considering this was the seventh round, and she'd only just finally landed a hit

on him. It took her seven attempts for a single hit, and she had to use an

incredibly risky move to just barely manage it.

No doubt she was cursing her own weakness, blaming it on inexperience. I felt

she really shouldn't be so hard on herself, considering that her opponent was

widely recognized as one of the greatest swordsmen in all of Belfast.

We traveled to Viscount Swordrick's dojo so that Yae could practice with him.

The audience consisted of Yumina and myself. These practice matches had gone

on so long that the sun had begun to set. Crows began cawing in the distance.

"Your skills have grown such that I might've taken you for a different person.

Have you grasped something, perchance?"

"I do not know whether it is yet in my grasp or not, I do not. However, your

words that day when you asked me what I sought from the sword are beginning

to make somewhat more sense to me now, they are."

"Oho. Very well. Then it would seem you've taken the first step toward

realizing your own way of the sword." Yae's words brightened the viscount's

expression. With their practice over, the viscount came over to the corner we'd

been watching from and prostrated himself before the princess.

"I am terribly sorry that I could not offer better hospitality, Your Highness."

"Please, pay it no mind. It was I who requested to stand in to observe your

practice sessions." Yumina offered words of polite forgiveness to the viscount.

With that formality out of the way, he cast his attention in my direction.

"I never could have imagined that the young boy from that day would go on

to save the king's life, let alone become betrothed to the princess. And I hear

that more recently you've even gone and earned yourself the accolade of

Dragon Slayer."

"About that, if you could keep my engagement with Yumina a secret, that

would save me a lot of trouble. I know there are plenty of nobles who'd be

quite upset about the idea."

"Fret not, I won't tell a soul. I, too, am well aware of the many greed-driven,

stubborn old nobles of Belfast." As it stood, I was officially engaged to Princess

Yumina. However, we still hadn't made this fact public.

Marrying Yumina meant marrying into the royal family, giving one great

political influence within Belfast. Naturally, that kind of social position drew out

the greed in a lot of people.

To those who would think themselves or their children more suitable for the

princess, I'd be seen as a rather big nuisance. That said, any who did approach

her out of vile intentions would be caught out immediately by Yumina's Mystic

Eye.

"However, if they know about your Mystic Eye, then would villains rather not

dare to approach you in the first place?" The topic came up as Yae asked

Yumina about her Mystic Eyes during the walk home.

It had already grown dark, but the viscount's estate was fairly close to the

western district, so we figured that it might be nice to walk home the oldfashioned way for a change. The streets were derelict of people, and at most

we saw a wagon passing by on the road every now and then.

The street lamps were dim, and there wasn't a hint of moonlight. Well, that

was basically just how things were in this world's night.

Yumina thought over Yae's question a little before giving an answer.

"Well, you see... Simply having vile intentions alone does not mean you've

actually done anything wrong yet. I can't accuse someone for a crime they've

yet to commit. Besides, all people are at least a little bit greedy at heart. Some

even approach believing that they've fooled my Mystic Eye... And those are still

among the less bothersome types." Yumina spoke with a strained smile. I

struggled to imagine having to put up with someone like that putting on an

overly friendly attitude, knowing all the while that it was just an act. Sounded

like a pain in the ass.

"You mean there were even worse kinds of people?"

"Yes. The most difficult kind of person for me to deal with is someone who

has deluded themselves into believing that all of their actions are correct and

justified. They tell themselves that they haven't a thing to hide, so they

wouldn't worry about my Mystic Eyes reflecting on them. If anything, they

expect my Mystic Eyes to find them with an untainted heart, thus proving their

own justice. I can't stand those types at all." I think I got what she meant. Those

who might claim that their actions are all for the sake of Belfast, that it was they

who were best suited to lead the country, that it would be in Yumina's better

interests as well... The sorts of people who think like that tend to have no

awareness of the fact that they're being nothing but a nuisance. They'd never

even considered Yumina's feelings on the matter from the beginning.

It was more like trying to use their own virtuous nature as a selling point,

though in fact it came across as more self-righteous than anything.

"Can you not see through those types with your Mystic Eyes, can you not?"

"No, I can still see through them. Mine are the Mystic Eyes of Intuition. They

let me see the corruption in a person's soul. The self-righteous have tendency

to march forward in a straight line with no care to their surroundings, causing

trouble for people without recognizing that fact." Those who would act out on

their own personal definitions of justice have a tendency to get into conflicts

with others. When that person is acting as the face of the country, it could very

easily escalate into war.

I swear, whoever said that "The world has too many Heroes, that's why war

doesn't end" really got it right. Yae and I both stopped in our tracks.

"Wh-What's wrong?" Yumina started panicking a little. I took her hand in

mine and spoke with a soft voice.

"I don't know who, but someone has us surrounded."

"What?!" Yumina cast her gaze wildly around our surroundings. The air was

thick with ill intent. What the hell do these guys want?

"Get out. We know you're hiding there."

"Hmph. Tricky kid, ain'tcha?" Groups of men came crawling out from the back

alleys. Every last one of them had the looks of a thief or thug.

They were carrying around swords and clubs openly. Definitely not the kind of

person you'd like to get involved with.

"What do you want with us?"

"Only one we're after here is you. The women are free to go." Eh? Free to go?

The bandits were letting the girls go free?

"Touya-dono, what have you gone and done this time, then?"

"I... can't really think of anything off the top of my head." To tell the truth, I

actually wasn't too sure about that. I'd gotten into trouble with many sorts over

my travels, even becoming rather infamous myself. Come to think of it, there

was that one guy whose face I broke when he came up and picked a fight with

me. Are these guys his friends, then?

"Nothing personal, kid... But I gotta kill you now!"

"Yeah, you and me both." The man swung at me with his sword, so I

ruthlessly shot him down with Brunhild. Ruthlessly shot him with perfectly safe,

Paralysis-inducing rubber bullets, mind you. The thug collapsed to the ground,

his face contorted in agony. Even though all they did was paralyze a target,

there was still the force of the rubber bullet itself to consider. It would still hurt

a fair bit.

"You've gone and done it now!"

"What, were you expecting me to just stand still and let myself get stabbed?"

I took down several more of the closer bandits, but they kept coming. They sure

were brave, if nothing else, as not a single person tried to flee even after seeing

hordes of their companions get taken down. These kinds of situations were

honestly even more annoying to deal with.

"Safety Mode." I shifted Brunhild into the blunt-bladed shortsword, on stun

mode. Then, I dodged a falling sword and used my momentum to slam my

sword into his torso.

In truth, there was no real reason for me to swing my sword so hard against

them. All it would've taken was the lightest graze and the paralysis would set in,

so long as the person wasn't wearing any talismans. That was all the force that

was really necessary.

A few minutes passed before all the assailants had been laid down to relax all

over the street.

"Phew... Man, what a pain."

"What should we do with them, do you think?"

"Mmm... I wouldn't really mind just leaving them here like this, but I wouldn't

want them coming after us again once they get back up... I think I'll pay a quick

visit to the nearest knight's station and—"

"What are you up to over there?!" The knights that I'd thought to go and

report to came to us instead. Apparently they'd headed over upon hearing

some kind of commotion going on in the area.

I displayed my guild card to prove my identity and explained the situation to

the knights. Since it was impossible to forge a guild card, they worked as a proof

of identity in times like these.

"They just jumped on us from out of nowhere, so we beat them up instead."

"I see. Some of these faces take up a few wanted posters. I'm guessing they

just saw you as an easy target." Oh right, anybody who didn't know me would

naturally just see me as a weak-looking kid from their perspective. I've run into a

lot of people like that, so, honestly, I've gotten used to it.

Still, did they really think that a weak-looking kid like me would be loaded

with money or something? I mean, I was, in fact, incredibly rich, but that was

beside the point.

"We'll take care of things from here. We'll let the guild know about what

transpired, too."

"Alright. Thank you very much." I bowed to the knights and decided to use

this as our chance to make a break for it. Part of it was that I just wanted to get

home, but it was also because it would be a pain if they found out about

Yumina. If people started getting worked up about an attempted abduction of

the princess, we'd never hear the end of it.

It seemed these were lower-ranking knights, however, since they didn't seem

to recognize Yumina at all.

"Misdeeds still occur even in the capital, they do."

"The crime rate just naturally rises with population size. I'm sure it's difficult

to deal with on my father's end, too." Sure sounded tough being King.

We continued chatting like that until we arrived home.

◇ ◇ ◇

"...Come again?"

"As I said, there was an incident yesterday involving a group of men who were

slashed to death in the middle of the street. We were investigating possible

leads when one of them led to you, Touya." Lyon came first thing in the

morning with unpleasant news. In my tired state, I took a moment to process

things.

There'd been a slashing incident? I'm the prime suspect? That is silly! It just

doesn't make any sense!

"It all happened on Fourslet Street in the western district. Several men were

found dead with slash wounds. It's thought that they all died instantly. Right by

the scene of the crime, we found this." At Lyon's words, Deputy General Neil

placed a solid rubber cylinder on the table. Wait a minute, that's...!

"That's definitely mine. It's the rubber I use for creating new bullets."

"Several people from the neighborhood also heard the distinctive noise of

your weapon... Brunhild, you called it? They claim they heard that very noise

being fired off last night. Do you admit to having been at the scene of the

crime?"

"W-Wait, hold on! Yeah, I was there last night, but I didn't kill anyone! Didn't

you get a report about this from those knights yesterday?!"

"...We haven't received any reports like that from any of the knights who

were on duty." That didn't make sense. What was going on? I carefully retold in

detail the events of the night prior to Lyon and Neil.

"That is indeed odd. I can confirm that we've received no such reports.

What's going on here?"

"What were they like, these knights who rushed to your aid? Can you describe

their appearances?"

"Can I describe them...? Let's see... One of them had eyes that were a bit high

up on his face, and the other had a nose that was like... Hang on, I've got a

better idea." I cast [Mirage] and projected the images of the two knights I'd run

into during the incident. I couldn't recall the faces of any of the bandits who'd

assaulted us, but I'd gotten a good look at both of the knights at least. I'd seen

their faces, so I could even recall what their voices were like.

Lyon and Neil were surprised by the sudden appearance of the projected

images, but calmed themselves down and inspected them in detail.

"I'm afraid I don't recognize them at all. Lyon, are these men under your

charge?"

"To my knowledge, there are no knights like this enlisted, at least not in the

First Division. Never mind that, I've never even seen these men before." Hold

up a sec, does that mean they were only posing as knights? If that were the

case, it meant that they were probably the ones who hired the bandits to attack

me. And, as soon as we left, those fake knights killed the bandits and planted

evidence in an attempt to frame me for the crime. They'd pushed me into a

position where it was near-impossible to prove my innocence by evidence

alone.

Heck, given that all of my assailants were dead and I hadn't so much as a

scratch on me, it just made it look like I'd one-sidedly slaughtered the lot of

them. Even pleading self-defense would be a challenge.

"...I suppose that claiming we were tricked by fake knights would just make

me sound even more suspicious in this case."

"That's true, but you also have Princess Yumina as your witness in this case.

We can't exactly just march up and arrest you under these circumstances."

"What do you believe the culprits' goal was? To frame Sir Touya for the crime

and have us imprison him?" This was... some hefty grudge I'd gone and earned

myself.

"It's strange that there were even any bandits out in the western district in

the first place. It may not be the nobles' district, but it's a well-guarded area, so

there's no way a group like that should've been able to move around freely

without getting picked up by the patrol or reported for suspicious activity." He

had a point. Without the aid of someone on the inside, it would've been

impossible to pull off a feat like that.

"The question is, what are you planning to do next?"

"I guess I'll just go catch the real culprit and clear my name. That seems the

quickest way to resolve this."

"Indeed, but how exactly do you plan to do that?"

"What do you mean, how? We've already got their faces right here." I pointed

to the images of the fake knights projected by my [Mirage].

"Run search. Find the fake knights I met yesterday. As for the range... They

should still be within the capital."

"Searching... Search complete. Displaying." Lyon and Neil were slightly

startled when Cesca suddenly began speaking out of nowhere, but their

expressions instantly turned sour when they saw the pins on the map now

projected in the air.

The search results were pointing to... An area in the nobles' district. On the

inner side, at that. It was an area full of people of very high social status. It was

even in the same area as Sue's, or rather, Duke Ortlinde's, estate.

The points on the map moved through the nobles' district before stopping in

front of one place in particular, at which they vanished from sight.

"Hm?"

"Targets have entered a barrier preventing the trace ability of search magic. I

am no longer able to track them." Whoever the culprit was, they had a barrier

up just in case. Always could count on sleazy nobles to do that kind of thing.

"Whose estate was it that they entered?"

"...That was Marquis Rygel's estate, no doubt about it. It all makes sense

now."

"Indeed it does."

Marquis Rygel? I didn't know if they expected me to recognize the name, but

he must've been a bigshot to have the title of Marquis.

"Sir Touya, do you recall the incident with Viscount Barrow?"

"...Not ringing any bells. Who was that, again?" The two knights simply

shrugged their shoulders with a face that said they'd been expecting as much.

What?! I'm serious! I don't remember the name of every two-bit villain I take

care of!

"Viscount Barrow was the father of a certain ex-knight trainee that you beat

to a pulp just recently. They're the family that were disbanded after their boy

tried to raid your mansion."

"Oh! The spoiled rich brats! Yeah, I remember them." There was no way I

could've been expected to remember their names, though. I didn't exactly care

much for them. Still, I'd have understood if it were the remnants of that house

who had a bone to pick with me, but where did this Marquis guy fit into the

picture?

"A member of Marquis Rygel's bloodline had taken one of the Barrows as a

wife. They were pretty close, those houses. They were more like a protege

house, I suppose. Also, while it's incredibly distant, Marquis Rygel has some

royal blood in him from some generations ago. The Marquis has been trying to

get his son married to Princess Yumina for quite some time now. A large part of

his claim being that his lineage was surely the most suitable. Naturally, His

Majesty has been refusing the proposal. The boy himself was judged as being a

mere brat who's being propped up on a pedestal due to his family's influence,

too."

To sum up, what this meant was that this Marquis Rygel must have found out

about my engagement to Yumina from the Barrows, and now for their own

plans as well as to avenge the Barrows' fall, the Marquis was trying to get me

out of his way. He'd have had no complaints if the bandits got me, and even

should they fail he would just frame me for their murder. Of all the slimy

tricks...

"Though you haven't ever openly committed any crimes before, you're plenty

infamous among the general populace as it is. The Marquis most likely planned

to emphasize this fact as proof that you're not qualified to marry the princess,

and that his own son would be a far better choice, no doubt. There are rumors

that the Marquis is willing to stop at nothing to marry into the royal family."

Hrmph... I was starting to get pretty pissed, but it had nothing to do with the

fact that I was being targeted. Learning that these people only wanted to use

Yumina as a tool to boost their own influence had lit my fuse.

"...Hypothetically, let's say these guys were the masterminds behind the

whole thing, and that they'd tried to have me assassinated. How serious a crime

would that be considered?"

"Fairly serious, I'd imagine. I highly doubt His Majesty would take the

Marquis' side, either. The Marquis has been a stubborn old coot on par with

Count Balsa for years, contesting the king's decisions at every turn."

On the same level as Count Baldy... So basically, a walking ball of sheer

incompetence? The more I learned about him, the more I learned that my guess

had been pretty much spot-on. There were rumors that he was involved in

some crooked dealings, and that he had vehemently opposed the trade and

alliance deals with Mismede due to his inherent contempt for Beastmen.

Lyon didn't even try to hide his dislike of the man. I couldn't really blame him,

considering his girlfriend was Olga and all.

"Still, even if we confront the Marquis with what we have now, it's obvious

he'd play dumb to the end. That would be why he hired bandits, nonrepresentative of his house, for the initial assault. The fact of the matter is,

were it not for your magic, Touya, we wouldn't even have this lead to go on."

That was true, too. Even the fake knights that had tricked me could easily be

saddled with all of the blame, letting the Marquis get away scot-free.

Considering the state of things already, that seemed a highly plausible outcome.

"Without solid evidence, even the king couldn't press an accusation like that.

How do you plan to find any such evidence when they've gone to such lengths

to cover their tracks?"

"Oh, that's easy. If we can't find any evidence right now, then we just have to

make some." I slipped a ruthless grin onto my face and began plotting my next

move.

◇ ◇ ◇

"And? What became of the brat?"

"The Deputy General and the Commander of the First Order paid a visit to his

house this morning. He was escorted to the knights' headquarters last we saw

of him. We can assume they'll launch their investigation into his background

before the day is out."

"Kuhahaha! Yes... Excellent. Those filthy rats that call themselves adventurers

should know their place in the world. Any commoner who gets in my way

deserves to end up like this!"

"You did it, Papa! In yooouuur face, commoner! Eehehehehe, now I'll be the

one to marry Princess Yumina! Me and me alone!" Standing out on the terrace,

facing the garden, was a man laughing in delight. He was a large-built man in his

fifties, wearing a luxuriously expensive-looking suit. He sported a very small

mustache and was the master of this estate; Marquis Rygel.

By the Marquis's side stood his only son, who was currently puffing out his

cheeks in joy. He was a blubbery little specimen of a man who, despite only

being in his twenties, already had a receding hairline. A layer of grease seemed

to coat the man's balding cranium as well.

Standing before these two, out in the garden, were a pair of particularly

notable men. They were the false knights who had appeared the night before at

the Marquis's order, as well as the true killers of the bandits in the street. They

also happened to be the Marquis' private guard.

"Next, we must sneak stolen goods into his belongings. For good measure,

you understand. When that arises during the inspection, his crimes will be

twofold!"

"Stolen... Stolen goods, sir?"

"You know, the ones you brought back after assaulting that one trade caravan

last month. We can use that! When it's announced that the princess' fiance was

a savage bandit, the whole country will be in an uproar!"

"You're the boss, boss..." The fake-knight also worked part-time doing

highway robberies under similar orders. This guy was an honest to goodness

Marquis de Bad.

"For the finishing touch, we'll make sure the fact that the princess' fiance was

a murderer and a thief and a jaywalker is rubbed in the public's faces. With this,

I shall approach the king and demand that the engagement be called off at

once. The king will have no choice but to oblige, given the circumstances. The

people simply would not accept a man known as a violent criminal as the

husband of the princess! We'll prove to everyone that the king is simply not

capable of choosing a suitable partner, then take full advantage of that! I can

already see him the very picture of shame!" The Marquis grinned gleefully to

himself. So convinced of his victory was he that even his reflection in the glass

window seemed alive with a rapturous joy of its own.

"...And this is how you plan to get Princess Yumina to marry your son?"

"Ehehehe! I can't wait! Once the princess belongs to me, I think I'll bully her a

little! She always looked down on me with those cold eyes, that impudent brat!

I'll have to make sure and spend plenty of time training her how to service me

as my wife!"

"Do with her as you please, just don't play with her so hard that she breaks.

Remember, your job is to knock her up and get those kids out. She's only useful

to us while she can still get pregnant. Don't forget that, boy."

"Ehehehe! I know that, Papa! I'll knock her up nice and good, and then that'll

make you into the new king's grandpa!" The boy's indecent laughter rang out

into the night. As though infectious, this filthy laugh spread to the marquis as

well. Their whole putrid conversation was loud enough to be heard echoing

down where we were in the garden.

"Touya, my boy. I believe this is quite enough. Any more and I fear my ears

shall rot off."

"Yeah, I was feeling the same actually."

"Wh-What the devil?!" The marquis was intimately familiar with the voice

presently emerging from the mouth of what should have been a member of his

private guard.

By our good friend's orders, I canceled the illusion cast by my [Mirage] spell.

The marquis' private guard slowly began to take on his true form.

"Your Majesty! But how!? That's impossible!" Made to gaze upon His Royal

Majesty the King of Belfast, who had been here from the very beginning, was

evidently such a fright that it made the Marquis fall to the ground on his

backside. By the king's left and right were Lyon, and Deputy General of the

knight order, Neil.

"Wha-Wha-Wha... What is the meaning of this?!"

"We took the liberty of borrowing your guards. Right about now, the real

ones are in a prison cell confessing to things we hadn't even accused them of

yet, I'd imagine. We were able to get more than enough information from them

to prove my innocence, but I felt that the king should hear your side of the story

personally, so I took the liberty of escorting him straight to your garden."

"...Perhaps there is a grain of truth in your accusations, Marquis. I must

indeed be a terrible judge of character, what with having learned that I've been

letting a scoundrel like yourself loose on innocent people." The king spoke to

the marquis in a deep, intimidating voice, not unlike the terror of thunder itself.

The king was absolutely and completely enraged.

"This can't be happening! I set up a barrier around this whole estate, even the

garden! You can't use magic in here!"

"That's it? A regular barrier? The most that does is exclude you as a target

from any spells aimed at the area it's cast on. That's why teleportation magic or

search magic ceases working the moment the spell interacts with the barrier.

However, if it's myself that I'm casting a spell on, then your barrier is powerless

to stop that. It wouldn't protect you very well to block any magic cast against

me, after all. So, my [Mirage], an illusion spell that I can cast on myself, is able

to slip straight past your barrier without a problem. Maybe you should've spent

a bit less time on evil plotting and a bit more time studying the very basics, at

least."

"Insolent knave! Do you not understand that you are in the presence of a

marquis, you bottom-feeder?! Know your place!" Perhaps the lecture was a tad

much, as it seemed to have sent the marquis off indignant with fury. Did he

even understand his own position?

"I'm being insolent, am I? Tell me this, Sir Marquis, which of us is the one who

committed murder, pinned the crime on an innocent man, plotted against the

king he was sworn to follow, and as if that weren't enough, used bandit groups

to assault and rob innocent people? That was all stuff you did, right? In my

opinion, I don't believe you're even deserving of being spoken to in a polite

tone of voice. Hey, pigboy, let me hear your opinions on the matter. Well?"

"P-Pig?! How dare you?! Don't think you can get away with talking to me like

that, commoner! I'll make sure you never—" I wasn't in the mood for these

charades, so I closed the distance between us faster than they could blink, then

lifted the fat bastard from the ground by his collar.

"...You're the one I'm the most pissed off with right now, piggy. You sure had

lots of fun going on about knocking up my future wife... If I ever hear another

word like that come out of your mouth, I'll rip your tiny pecker off, shove it

down your throat, and then stitch your mouth shut. You'll be sucking yourself

off for the rest of your days. Understood? Nod if you get the message, asshole."

"E-Eek?!" I threw all the malice I could muster in the boy's direction with my

every word, only to find that he'd wet himself and passed out from fear.

It was absolutely disgusting, so I tossed his piss-stained body against the wall.

"A-Alexander!" The marquis let out a scream at the sight of his son's body

being thrown aside.

His name was Alexander? That's the least fitting name I can possibly think of

for that sack of shit.

"Intruders! Intruders on the grounds! Take them out!" At the marquis's

command, the full force of his private guard came rushing out from their rooms

into the garden.

They were apparently exactly the sort of pathetic underlings you might expect

to find, since it was clear that they didn't so much as recognize the king inperson. They drew their swords and pointed them in our direction.

"Marquis Rygel, do you understand the gravity of your actions at this

moment?"

"Silence! I'll just subject you to brute force, instead! Guards, cut those men

down! Leave not a single one standing!" The marquis was so mad that His

Majesty the King's words were no longer even reaching him. He was a

completely lost cause at this point. Basically, he'd gone berserk.

"Guess we can safely add 'high treason' to his list of crimes."

"Idiots, the lot of them." Lyon and Neil each let out a heavy sigh.

It didn't exactly take a genius to consider that there was no way the king

would come out to a place like this in person without taking any precautions

whatsoever. The king made eye contact with me, so I took Brunhild from my

hip, then fired a single loud shot straight up into the night sky.

The explosive noise was their signal to move out. The royal knights swarmed

the garden in great numbers within an instant.

"Who... Wha... How...?!" Outnumbered this heavily, the marquis's private

army had no choice but to surrender. The marquis himself turned pale as he

watched his private guard throwing down their weapons one after another.

"Marquis Rygel, your title is hereby revoked on counts of high treason and

attempted assassination of the crown, among various other petty crimes. Your

guilt is clear as day. Just give up." The king's words shocked the marquis so hard

that he fell to his knees. Neil brought some rope to bind his arms with.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Responsibility for this incident rests entirely upon my shoulders. There is no

excuse for what you went through, Touya."

"Not at all. You managed to bring an enemy who had kept himself hidden for

a long time to justice. All's well that ends well, Your Majesty." I tried to appease

the king, who had taken a bow before me.

The day after the incident, I had gone with Yumina to the Royal Castle. I was

curious to find out what happened to the marquis and his son. Naturally, they

had both been given severe punishments.

"Won't this be kind of a big deal, though? I mean, he was technically a

marquis and all."

"Not at all. The whole affair is entirely sorted. He was a man that Yumina was

never fond of to begin with, so I never cared to delegate any important matters

to him anyway. I now have an open estate to offer to any of the more

responsible nobles should they perform a great enough service. I consider this a

good thing." Meaning he'd known all along that the man wasn't to be trusted

ever since Yumina first saw straight through him with her Mystic Eyes. In the

end, she was more right about him than any of us wanted her to be, however.

"Both of their souls have been caked thick with mud since I've first known

them. I always knew that they were thinking despicable thoughts on the inside,

but I didn't imagine that they would go this far... I had taken him for one to

participate in petty power struggles, not high treason. It seems I'm still far too

naive about the world." Yumina's Mystic Eyes were remarkably sharp, but not

so omniscient that they told her exactly what kinds of evil thoughts one might

be having. Seeing Yumina looking all dejected gave my hand a mind of its own,

and I was patting her on the head before I even knew it. Don't be so hard on

yourself, I wanted to say.

Marquis Rygel was marquis no longer. The incident had set an example for all

of the other nobles, and sent a message that none, not even those with blood

relations, however distant, to the royal family, would be pardoned for their

corruption.

Ex-Marquis Rygel was executed, and his son, Alexander, was sent off to work

in the mines for the rest of his life.

It turned out that the boy took after his father a little too closely, as his own

expansive list of crimes was uncovered after that night. I'd heard that he had

even been using his family's private guard to kidnap women from the streets.

Naturally, his father had covered it up each and every time, letting his son do as

he pleased. Evidence also arose that Viscount Barrow had been involved in

these very dealings in the past, too.

"The thought that those scoundrels had so much as a drop of royal blood in

their veins makes me want to vomit."

"That trace blood connection of his was from following his family tree back

over a thousand years, wasn't it? By that point you're literally just strangers."

Thinking to protect Yumina's feelings from going the same way, I offered my

opinion. The fact was that if you traced back two people's family trees far

enough, you were bound to find some kind of connection between the two

eventually. Well, with the exception of myself, who was just dropped into the

world by God one day.

"At the very least, I believe this shall put an end to any harassment from other

dissenting nobles for the time being. I shan't dare to think of any foolish enough

to follow the marquis's example."

"That almost makes it sound like I'm the one personally responsible for

bringing the marquis to justice..."

"That is essentially what you did, is it not?" It looked more to me like he dug

his own grave. All I really did was take the king to meet him, after all.

I felt that the most credible form of evidence would be the kind that came

straight from the culprit's mouth. All I had to do was get him to talk about it

openly.

My original plan had been to record the marquis's confession to all of his

crimes on my smartphone and present that as evidence later, but when the king

caught wind of my plans he insisted that I take him along to witness the truth

with his own eyes. I felt I would probably never get used to this ridiculous king's

antics.

"And when you snapped at that moron of a child, it sent chills down my spine.

Yumina is a fortunate girl indeed to have met a man who cares so intensely for

her as you do, my boy."

"What did he say?"

"Can we please drop that subject...?" Just thinking of that outburst made me

red to my ears. I had completely let the situation get to my head when that

happened. Yumina tried to pry it out of me, but what I'd said was far more

vulgar than anything this girl ever needed to hear, so my lips were sealed.

"Staaaaaare..." Don't even count on trying those eyes on me this time. I shan't

breathe a word of it.

"Touya, my boy. If you truly do care for my Yumina so much, then I believe

the best way to go from here would be for you to make a child with her! Well,

I'm sure you two'll be getting to it sometime soon, regardless!"

"Your Majesty, please cease and desist!"

"Father!" Yumina, beet-faced, screamed at the top of her lungs, loud enough

to blow out one's eardrums and echo throughout the entire castle building.

I, too, was undoubtedly red as a tomato, but that was neither here nor there.