I also just updated another chapter!
"A rebellion...!?"
Liliana let out a voice of shock.
This was the first Ermes had heard of it as well. He quickly scanned the reactions of those around him, trying to get a handle on the situation. Yurugen... his expression didn't betray anything, but this was probably the first he'd heard of it too. Otherwise, he would have said at least something beforehand.
The Prime Minister continued in a calm, matter-of-fact tone.
"Yes. It happened just the other day, so it's understandable that you weren't aware. ...Six noble houses, comprising roughly half of the northern territories, have united to form an alliance and launched a rebellion. Their claim is that 'the current royal authority can no longer be trusted.'"
"——"
"They are reportedly attacking the northern houses that didn't join the alliance, bringing them under their control one after another."
This went beyond mere rebellion — it had already crossed into the territory of civil war.
"What on earth... why?"
"There's no 'why' or 'how' about it. It's exactly as the Prime Minister just said, Liliana."
The first prince, Herk, responded to Liliana's voice.
Yes, the reason was exactly as stated — dissatisfaction with the current regime.
...Perhaps this too was a consequence of losing Aster. It seemed that prince had been remarkably popular with others, so long as his true nature remained undiscovered.
"...That's how it is."
The King spoke.
"This is the second reason I've gathered you all here today. Namely, I want to decide — as my representative — 'whom to send.'"
A regional rebellion was a matter of national significance. Sending a member of the royal family to suppress it was entirely logical.
Moreover, for each of the candidates, this was a major opportunity to earn merit. Whoever quelled the rebellion would prove their worth and draw significantly closer to the throne. Therefore, who should go was bound to spark a heated debate —
As, under normal circumstances, one would.
However, Ermes had already inferred a different conclusion based on the reactions he had just observed.
And — what followed was exactly as he had predicted, spoken by Second Princess Raira.
"Why not send Lilily, Your Majesty?"
"...What?"
As Liliana let out a stunned voice, Raira continued.
"Both Herkul and I are occupied with separate matters — something Your Majesty is well aware of, I trust? Then why not entrust the task to Lilily, who so generously volunteered herself as a new candidate? Of course —"
And then, with a smile not clouded in the slightest.
"— that is, provided Lilily's little faction has enough strength to quell the rebellion of the Northern Six Families."
"—!"
Just as expected.
To put it bluntly, Raira was first and foremost hurling an impossible demand at Liliana.
If she accepted, she would fail nine times out of ten, and Liliana's standing as a candidate — already tarnished with the worst rating of Incompatibility — would be beyond recovery.
Yet if she refused, she would be branded a princess who volunteered for nothing, capable of nothing.
Using the regional rebellion to her advantage, Raira was attempting to destroy Liliana's credibility as a candidate... No — wait.
In fact, it was even doubtful whether this regional rebellion had broken out by pure coincidence at such a convenient time. After all,
when they had been informed of the rebellion — Raira had shown not the slightest trace of alarm.
As though she had known about it in advance.
The northern territories were, comparatively speaking, lands under the strong influence of the Church. That alone was already suspicious — but suspicion alone was not enough to voice objections.
"...Ha. How delightful."
It was a proposal with the terrifying shadow of conspiracy looming behind it, yet there was one person who voiced their support.
The grey-haired man — Laplace, the First Prince's chief advisor.
"If you send either Prince Herk or Princess Laila, it will almost certainly provoke resentment from the other side. Of course, if it is Your Majesty's command, I will not refuse — but at the very least, Princess Laila's proposal would cause the least amount of friction."
Naturally, he continued, fixing his gaze on Liliana —
"On the condition that Princess Liliana can keep the rebellion in check, of course. ……If you feel that is beyond you, please, do not hesitate to rely on your dear big brother and big sister."
"……!"
"……"
Liliana glared at Laplace for his provocatively pointed words, and the First Prince Herk watched her with cold, appraising eyes.
Paying the candidates no mind, the King opened his mouth.
"……The foremost priority is whether you can actually quell the rebellion. It is true that Herk and Laila's hands are currently full. If Liliana is willing to go, then honestly, that would be the greatest help. Even in the worst case where she cannot fully subdue it, merely containing it to some degree would give us breathing room."
And so, King Fried posed his question — with eyes that sought to see through her, and at the same time, eyes that held some measure of expectation.
"Therefore, I ask. ……Can you do it, Liliana?"
Having stepped forward as a candidate, she must decide for herself — that was the message woven into his question. Liliana hesitated for a moment, then — with eyes full of resolve — looked toward Ermes and Yurugen.
And the two nodded. Ermes had confidence in his own abilities, and — if Yurugen was nodding as well, then surely there was a chance of success. In that case, he too had no need to hesitate.
Receiving their answer, Liliana returned a nod full of gratitude, turned once more to the King, and declared —
"──I shall entrust myself to this task, Your Majesty."
◆
After the finer details were settled, the King withdrew from the room.
As before, only the candidates and their supporters remained.
There were no complaints this time, as there had been at the beginning — but the gazes Herk and Laila turned on Liliana were uniformly dissatisfied.
Perhaps they had expected Liliana to refuse right then and there. After all, before she had met Ermes, she had been someone utterly consumed by despair over her own abilities.
Receiving their gazes, Liliana bore the pain visible on her face... yet, with quiet resolve, she left her parting words as she stepped toward the door.
"...Brother Herk. Sister Laila. I understand that you are unable to heed my words right now. ...I think it's only natural. It is certainly true that I am, at this moment, someone who possesses no power whatsoever."
But then, she raised her face.
"Someday, without fail, I will stand before you again—this time, properly, having acquired enough that we can have a real conversation. So...!"
Her words caught slightly in her throat there... but even so, she spoke one final sentence.
"...I believe in you. Brother. Sister."
And with that, she closed the door.
What Ermes caught sight of in that last moment was Laplace's characteristically inscrutable expression—
And the faces of Herk and Laila, which were indescribably complicated.
And so, leaving the audience chamber, the three of them walked together for a while—until they were far enough away.
"............!"
As if a thread had finally snapped.
Liliana crumpled—and threw herself into Ermes's arms, burying her face against him.
Gently, Ermes caught her.
"...Are you alright, Lady Lilie?"
"Yes... but I'm sorry, just a little longer..."
Her voice thick with tears, Liliana clung tightly to him.
...He couldn't blame her, Ermes thought. He didn't know the history between Liliana and her siblings from before, and there were surely the constraints of being royalty to contend with as well... but still, he could tell.
That was, by any measure, not how you were supposed to treat family.
Even so, Ermes thought, he wasn't exactly in a warm and fuzzy mood toward either of them right now.
Liliana's muffled voice echoed in his chest.
"...I couldn't... do anything..."
Her tearful voice made no attempt to hide the sobs — couldn't hide them.
"I thought I'd be able to talk a little more, but when it came down to actually meeting them, my legs just froze in front of my brother and sister..."
"...Please don't worry about it. For your age, you did splendidly."
Yurugen spoke those words of comfort. Ermes agreed.
Honestly, he hadn't expected the current royal family to be this bad. King Fried still tried to carry out his duties properly enough... but Helk and Laila — really, who knew what it would take to make them turn out like that.
Liliana had done her part — including answering the king's questions herself without faltering. Ermes turned toward Yurugen, gently rubbing her back as if to soothe her.
"Setting both of their Highnesses aside for the moment... a number of problems have come to light."
"Yeah. — Let's start with the regional revolt matter."
According to Yurugen, he hadn't been informed about that intelligence beforehand. He also expressed agreement with Ermes's concerns.
"Nine times out of ten, it's a conspiracy. I don't know how long it's been in the works, but there's a strong chance it was all set up — engineered to the point of loading unreasonable demands onto Her Highness Liliana."
So that was it after all. They'd need to examine that angle more closely later...
"But there's a silver lining. — No matter how you look at the process, His Majesty gave Her Highness Liliana the opportunity to earn merit. ...Well, to put it bluntly, that was probably more of a vote of confidence in my abilities than in Her Highness herself, but still."
He could see the logic.
It certainly made more sense to think the king hadn't so much trusted Liliana as trusted Yurugen — who had been performing as befitting a duke of a distinguished house — and delegated accordingly. That was the kind of king he was, in Ermes's estimation: someone who evaluated fairly without letting personal feelings cloud his judgment.
"We can discuss strategy for that in detail later. For now, what matters most—"
"—That man. Lord Laplace."
Ermes and Yurugen exchanged hard expressions. Yurugen spoke.
"I have but one question. —
Why
,
there
did he show himself
?"
Ermes shared the same sentiment.
"Even if he's confident he can evade any follow-up, the risks far outweigh the benefits — and more importantly, giving us the information that 'the First Prince's brain is a man from that organization' should be an unmistakable disadvantage."
"That's right. For this audience, he could have sent a proxy or something of the sort. And yet he chose not to. The reason why..."
Yurugen fell silent for a moment, then spoke as if organizing his conclusions.
"What I can think of is... there was something he personally needed to confirm at that audience. Or perhaps — was it a decoy?"
"A decoy?"
"Yes. By showing up like that at such an occasion, our attention would inevitably be drawn to Lord Laplace no matter what. By doing so, perhaps there was something he wanted to divert our gaze from... or something along those lines."
"I see."
It wasn't impossible. Based on what they had gathered of Laplace's character from their previous encounter, the man was thoroughly cunning. It wouldn't be at all surprising if he had layers upon layers of schemes in play.
"At any rate, let's consider that angle as well... He's a man who can slip past even my investigations, so there's no such thing as being too cautious."
"Agreed."
In any case, there was far too much uncertain information at this point. Rather than muddling through with half-baked speculation, they would do better to entrust the proper investigation and analysis to Yurugen before drawing any conclusions.
With that conclusion reached, and the information sorting now complete for the time being —
"...Lady Lillie, have you calmed down?"
"...Y-Yes."
Liliana, who had been shedding tears against Ermes' chest, answered in an embarrassed tone.
But whether she had found some resolve after crying her heart out, when she raised her head—
"At any rate, I now understand that there is far less time to spare than I had imagined. ...And to be able to speak with my brother and sister again... I must do everything within my power, with all my strength..."
She declared—but even so, the pain was clearly beyond what she had imagined.
The tears she had once wiped away welled up again, and before long she was leaking sobs once more, sinking to the floor where she sat.
To Liliana, who kept apologizing yet could not bring herself to stand—
...Ermes saw in her a reflection of his own early days of training, back when he still had no real confidence in himself.
"...Lady Lillie. Forgive the presumption."
"Eh... wha!?"
With a light motion,
he took Liliana's hand and helped her to her feet, then slid one hand around her back and the other beneath her knees, lifting her up and settling her snugly into his arms.
The classic princess carry, as they called it.
"Wha— no, w-wait, Master, um...!"
"If you cannot stand, there is no need to force it. Besides, the floors of the Royal Palace are cold—sitting here will be bad for your health."
To Liliana, whose youthful features had gone as red as her hair and whose eyes were spinning in bewilderment, Ermes spoke gently.
"There is no one who has not, at some point, been unable to rise to their feet. ...If you find it disagreeable, just say so."
"—"
Hearing his words, Liliana still had her cheeks flushed, but after a moment she lowered her gaze and, timidly, gripped the front of Ermes' collar tightly.
"...No. Rather... please do not let me go."
She whispered those words softly, almost like a murmur.
Ermes managed a wry smile. ...This girl reminded him far too much of his former self and of that person who had been his benefactor.
Perhaps that was part of why he couldn't help but worry about her so much.
Lost in those thoughts, Ermes began walking with her warm body held close in his arms. Yurugen, strolling alongside, offered his own wry comment.
"...If it's all the same, I'd appreciate it if you could set her down before we reach the room where Katia and the others are waiting."
"? Understood. Is that alright with you too, Lady Lily?"
"...Yes."
In any case, when Liliana later insisted "I don't want to let go" in front of the room's door and they ended up in a lengthy exchange at the threshold, Katia and the others noticed the commotion and opened the door from inside—only to catch their master and disciple in the act.
Despite everything that had happened, things eventually settled back into the usual state of the Third Princess's camp.
And with that, the stage was set and all the players assembled for the third volume.
The story looks poised to finally start moving next chapter. Look forward to it!