[V8C1] Not the Worst Situation
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryOne week had passed since the mages of the Wedge Tower departed for Darwock in order to put a stop to the King who joined hands with Monsters and sought to establish a new Darwock religion.
Around the time Tia and company reached a town along the border, the situation took a dramatic turn.
The people of the town were strangely abuzz. Even to Tia’s eyes, as unfamiliar with human habits as she was, it was clear that something had happened.
This wasn’t the kind of activity you’d see before a festival. This was the nervous activity of something bad happening.
Just what was it that got them all into a stir? The reason became clear almost immediately. A newspaper seller shouted as much in his loudest voice.
“King Valdemar of Darwock has passed! His Majesty, King Valdemar is no more!”
A tense air immediately gripped the entire carriage.
Tia looked to Hütter and asked.
“Mr. Hütter, by ‘passed,’ he means the King’s dead, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“…I wonder if the Monsters killed him.”
The King of Darwock had joined hands with Monsters, and was in the process of establishing a new Darwock religion that didn’t treat Monsters as evil.
But, for the King to die at this timing, would that imply the Monsters killed him, wouldn’t it?
As a Monster herself, Tia understood. She knew just how hard negotiations would be between Monsters and humans with completely different concepts of value.
At Tia’s words, Hütter folded his arms and looked towards Sevil. He was asking if Sevil, the Emperor’s sister, had any opinions to share.
Sevil shot a look right back at Hütter.
“I would also like to hear your interpretation, Mr. Hütter.”
“To be honest, it’s still too early to know whether it was the work of Monsters or not. It’s not impossible that factions in the country that opposed the King had raised the flag of rebellion and taken him down.”
(Oh, that’s right.)
From the beginning, their mission to Darwock was to help Prince Axel, a member of the Queen’s faction, either kill or capture the King. Killing the King was an option they were seriously considering doing themselves in the worst-case scenario. Whatever happened, this just meant that their mission had been completed for them.
As Hütter lifted his glasses, knocked askew by the carriage’s rocking, back into position, he continued to speak.
“If it was Monsters who killed the King, I would have expected the town to be in total chaos cowering in fear of the Monsters. Somehow, I get the feeling that someone’s doing a stellar job controlling the flow of information…”
(Well, Mr. Hütter might be right.)
Tia listened in more closely.
While the townspeople were all abuzz about the King’s passing, she heard no talk of Monsters killing the King or of the Palace being taken over.
The King of Darwock still had yet to inform his people of the existence of Monsters. On top of that, he had tried to create a new Darwock religion, but met a violent end before his plans could be fulfilled.
“The folks from the Investigation Office should have searched this town before we got here. First thing’s first, we need to link up with those guys and share intel.”
As Hütter said, the moment Prince Axel arrived at the Wedge Tower pleading for help, the mages of the Investigation Office were promptly dispatched to the Darwock border to gather information.
From here, the best thing to do would be to link up with those Investigation Office mages and decide their course from here on.
(I wonder… what those Monsters who took over the Palace did in the end.)
Tia looked up to the sky out of the back of the carriage.
Against the unending grey skies, she saw no signs of a Harpy.
(The wind is getting stronger.)
Because they’d come further North? No, more importantly, because Winter was coming.
Once the Wedge Tower mages arrived at the inn, they quickly made contact with the Investigation Office mages who had arrived before them and gathered for a quick meeting in one of the inn’s rooms.
In this meeting were gathered the true powerhouses of the Wedge Tower, not least of which being Headmaster Möbius.
Then, there the keystones of this operation: Prince Axel of Darwock and the Imperial Princess, Sevil.
Finally, representing the Guidance Office, Hütter was ordered to be present at this meeting for some reason. Doubtlessly, this was Sevil’s doing.
(Well, I wanted information anyway, so I suppose this is convenient for me…)
It went without saying that the other Apprentices aside from Sevil were not allowed in this meeting. Tia, Wren, and Rukiye stayed on standby in their rooms.
Hütter subtly glanced at Axel to see how he was faring.
He looked calm on the surface, but his face was pale and the fist in his lap was clenched with white knuckles. He was only hiding his panic.
…Which likely meant that the King’s passing was an unexpected development to him.
“Report.”
Möbius instructed the information-gathering mages who’d arrived ahead of the mage group.
The Investigation Office mages were highly talented, and several of them had already made contact with people from the Darwock Royal Palace — Particularly members of the Queen’s faction and exiled Lusterian priests.
A middle-aged mage of the Investigation Office spoke plainly, with all the color drained from his face.
“It appears King Valdemar jumped from the window in the throne room. Alongside all others who were in the throne room at the time.”
It was said that a grotesque pile of bodies accumulated beneath the window. The King, ministers, and soldiers, all in one mass.
It was no fabrication of the Queen’s faction, either. Möbius and the others concluded that this was most likely the work of a Monster with mental interference capabilities.
“Following the King’s death, the Monsters made no attempt to occupy the Palace, nor to attack the humans, and apparently just left the Palace… As if they wanted to say they had no business left in that place.”
Whether for better or for worse, the presence of Monsters had not been revealed to the public. The Queen’s faction made no mention of the Monsters’ interference and chose to report the King’s death as an accident.
Hütter could understand why they’d do that.
(If they revealed the Monsters’ actions to the public, then that would mean bringing the King’s ‘mistakes’ to the forefront. In that case, it would be easier to keep up appearances by writing it off as an accident and propping up one of the princes as the next king.)
Prince Axel ground his teeth together.
He had every reason to resent his father and seek to kill him with his own hands.
Yet, he probably never expected his father to be killed in such a manner.
(I’d considered the possibility myself, though.)
If you took the ruthlessness of Monsters into account, this was a very probable outcome if negotiations ever broke down between the King and the Monsters.
And ironically, this outcome was not bad for Hütter and the other Wedge Tower mages.
The worst-case scenario Hütter had been envisioning was the Monsters deciding to control the Kingdom of Darwock from the shadows.
A Greater Monster could take an impeccably human appearance. As a consequence, it shouldn’t have been hard for them to use the King of Darwock as a puppet and rule the country from the shadows.
(…If they did, it would be a pain to deal with. An undeniable pain in the ass.)
But the Monsters instead killed the King of Darwock, then disappeared somewhere.
While he’d considered the possibility that the Monsters snuck into the Queen’s faction after killing the King, if they wanted to do that, it would have been much easier for them to just use the King as a puppet in the first place.
After all, the King was trying to make a new religion that didn’t treat Monsters as evil. There would have been no reason for them to go out of their way to kill him.
(Honestly, right now, I cant help but feel lucky that the mad king and the Monsters had a falling out. Of course, I can’s say something like that with Prince Axel right in front of me, though…)
As that thought went through his mind, Sevil opened her mouth.
“As far as we are concerned, the current situation is not disadvantageous. Both the King and the Monsters have done us a favor by falling out with each other without need for our intervention.”
(And she went and said it…)
As expected, Axel scowled at her.
Speaking directly to Axel, Sevil’s voice was blunt.
“The King who tried to join hands with Monsters has died, and the Monsters have disappeared. I’m sure the country must be in a spot of chaos as we speak. In that case, is it not your duty as royalty to bring that under control, your highness?”
A deep crease formed between Axel’s brows as tried his best to squeeze out a voice.
“…It is as you say.”
(It is as she said, but she’s got no tact… Welp. Best of luck, Prince.)
Well, it would probably be the Queen and the Crown Prince doing most of the work bringing the country under control and all. Axel was only the sixth prince, so perhaps it was fortunate he didn’t suddenly find himself on the throne.
(…Still, what I can’t understand is what the Monsters were thinking… or even what they were trying to accomplish.)
The Monsters went out of their way to leave the Crystal Territory and negotiate with the King, only to just kill the King and leave the Palace emptyhanded.
It would’ve been more concerning if they Monsters had killed the King and captured the Palace… but there were no signs of that happening.
(What do the Monsters want? I don’t have a clue.)
The mages of the Investigation Office had made all sorts of other detailed reports, but it didn’t seem like they had any more detail to give on this matter. That wasn’t surprising. Everyone who witnessed the events in the throne room jumped out of the window.
Once the intel had all been delivered, Headmaster Möbius spoke up.
“I understand the situation…… Prince Axel.”
Named by Headmaster Möbius, Prince Axel sat up straight.
Möbius spoke calmly.
“My subordinates have already made contact with elements from the Queen’s faction hiding in this town.”
With those words, Prince Axel seemed to have decided how to conduct himself from here on.
The only reason why the Wedge Tower was cooperating with Prince Axel was because there were Monsters in the Darwock Royal Palace.
The Wedge Tower’s mission was eliminating Monsters. Thus, once the Monsters were out of the picture, they no longer had any reason to go to the Darwock Royal Palace.
Prince Axel bowed his head deeply towards Headmaster Möbius.
“…I shall rendezvous with the Queen’s faction and return to Darwock. I give you my humblest thanks for all of the work you have done for the sake of my country. In time, I would like to offer you a formal reward for your efforts.”
Prince Axel raised his head, then turned towards Sevil.
And, with a dutiful demeanor that would make one think he hadn’t been scowling at her mere moments earlier, he spoke.
“Your Highness, Princess Adelheid, I apologize for taking your time.”
“I am not bothered at all by this experience, so your apology is unnecessary. I would prefer if you thanked me instead.”
“…You truly are a…”
Prince Axel’s face twisted in mild exasperation.
Nevertheless, he showed no anger. A smile emerged from his exasperated face.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Princess Adelheid.”
“Indeed. I’ll accept my reward in either treasures or coinage!”
“……”
The faint hint of friendliness vanished from Prince Axel’s face in an instant.
(That’s Sevil, alright.)
Headmaster Möbius and the others then moved on to discuss their actions going forward.
There was a chance that the Monsters who attacked the King of Darwock were still hiding somewhere nearby, so it wasn’t as simple as having everyone pull back all at once.
They also needed to guard Prince Axel until they could hand him off to the Queen’s faction.
(But it would be best to have the Apprentices return to the Wedge Tower…)
That would mean Hütter, as their chaperone, would be able to head back to the Wedge Tower as well. He thanked his stars. He’d been able to make it out of this without having to seek asylum in Darwock.
As Hütter laid a hand on his chest and breathed a sigh of relief, Headmaster Möbius spoke to him.
“Mister Hütter, I have a request for your student, Tia Vogel.”