After a whole day of traveling, Darkness's legs were nearly broken.
She finally arrived at the royal capital of the Belzerg Kingdom before dark. Without even having time to drink a sip of water, she pulled at her collar to hide the collar well and was summoned into the palace.
The magnificent royal palace was brightly lit.
Civil and military officials stood on both sides.
Darkness knelt before the throne and recounted the entire story of Alderp's elimination in detail.
She also included the fact that Alderp had been using the power of the Great Devil Maxwell to commit evil all these years.
She didn't deliberately favor either side.
Makoto had killed Alderp, and also killed the royal family's dignity.
But Alderp truly deserved to die.
On the throne, the king of Belzerg leaned on the armrest and listened to everything.
But he didn't state his position immediately. Instead, he glanced at the ministers beside him.
"What do you think?"
The ministers whispered among themselves for a while.
An old minister in a deep red robe stepped forward and said that Alderp deserved to die ten thousand times over, but Makoto's group, by executing him without the royal family's permission, was challenging the royal authority.
A middle-aged general in silver-gray armor stepped forward and said that what Makoto's group had done in the Kingdom of Melromarc was enough to prove that they were dangerous elements and should be expelled from the country as soon as possible.
"Your Majesty,"
Mitsurugi Kyouya walked out from the crowd. At his waist hung the magic sword given to him by Aqua.
Kyouya gave the king a slight bow. "Although Alderp's crimes were unforgivable, the people who eliminated him may not be good people. Their actions in the Kingdom of Melromarc are enough to prove that they are unquestionably dangerous elements."
Princess Iris sat beside the king, her legs together, her little hands properly placed on her knees.
It is unknown what she was thinking.
Claire, the guard, stood to Iris's left. Hearing Kyouya's analysis, she nodded in agreement.
Claire's short blonde hair shimmered with a soft luster. Two obvious curves were pushed out beneath her breastplate. She had the same voluptuous figure as Darkness, just lacking the blonde ponytail and having a bit more heroic spirit.
Rin, the mage and Iris's instructor, stood on the right and did not state her position.
The ministers echoed their agreement one after another.
Darkness knelt in the center of the hall, listening to these words, her heart burning with anxiety.
She stood up to try to persuade them, but before she could speak, something slipped out from under her collar.
A letter.
The great hall was quiet for a moment.
Everyone saw that letter.
Darkness's face turned pale in an instant. The next second, she picked up the letter with a dry laugh.
"Ahaha~ sorry. I dropped something."
Claire stared hard at Darkness's awkwardly smiling face.
She had known Darkness for over a decade. Of course, she could sense that something was wrong with her.
"Lalatina," Claire walked down from beside Iris, "What is that letter about?"
Darkness clutched the letter even tighter, smiled a forced smile, and said, "It's nothing. It's my personal privacy. You wouldn't just take it, would you, Claire?"
Claire turned her head and glanced at a girl with short pink hair and above-average looks standing beside Kyouya, and signaled her with her eyes.
Fio.
Her profession was thief. She was a member of Kyouya's team.
Fio received Claire's signal. She raised her hand toward Darkness, spread her five fingers, and shouted, "Steal!"
Darkness felt an empty sensation in the hand holding the letter. When she realized what had happened, the letter had already fallen into Fio's hands.
Fio shrugged apologetically, turned, and handed the letter to Kyouya.
"Wah! Give it back! Give it back!"
Darkness cried out and lunged forward two steps.
Three or four female knights in silver armor rushed up from both sides and grabbed Darkness.
Kyouya broke the seal, unfolded the letter, and his expression changed dramatically the moment he saw the contents.
A few seconds later, Kyouya put down the letter and looked at the king with a serious face. "Your Majesty, Nishikawa Makoto's group is rebelling."
The king's brow furrowed deeply. "Read it."
Kyouya cleared his throat and read the contents of the letter word by word. "To His Majesty the King of Belzerg. The matter of Alderp has been dealt with by us. No need for concern. However, Your Majesty is incompetent and ignorant, and treacherous ministers hold sway. Since we are already here, we hope that Your Majesty will follow the will of heaven and the people, abdicate and yield to the worthy, and hand over this country to our governance. Nishikawa Makoto."
When he read the words 'abdicate and yield to the worthy', Kyouya's voice lowered, not daring to be too loud.
The great hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The faces of several ministers turned from red to white. No one dared to speak.
Princess Iris's eyes widened. Her light blue pupils were full of incredulity.
She had lived in the palace for twelve years and knew nothing of the outside world, only able to learn through books and others' accounts.
But even in fictional stories, Princess Iris had never seen anyone as arrogant as Makoto.
A wanted criminal kills a country's lord and then demands that country's king abdicate.
Absolutely unheard of.
The king of Belzerg stood up abruptly.
"Deploy the troops! Deploy the troops! Immediately crusade against this group of madmen!"
All the ministers responded in unison.
In her anxiety, Darkness used her innate monstrous strength to break one hand free from the female knights' grasp and reached out toward the king. "Your Majesty! Please think twice! Don't fight them!"
Darkness's voice echoed through the great hall, drowning out the ministers' responses.
The ministers' gazes uniformly fell on her.
A minister stroked his beard and asked suspiciously, "Lalatina, you're so eager to stop His Majesty from deploying the troops. Could it be that you have some connection with that group of bandits?"
Another minister added, "I've heard that Lalatina has been associating closely with that group lately. Could it be that she's already defected?"
"Lalatina is absolutely without issue."
Claire sharply stopped them. "I can vouch for her with my life."
Iris also nodded. "Lalatina is not that kind of person."
The ministers' murmurs died down.
Darkness opened her mouth and quietly said thank you.
Although she had escaped disaster this time, she couldn't be happy at all.
Because she knew war was already inevitable.
Rin had not spoken all along.
Born into a poor family, she just wanted to be an ordinary working person. But seeing the ministers' emotions growing more excited, she finally couldn't help but speak up.
"Your Majesty, there are rumors that Makoto's group once summoned a huge meteor comparable to a village to attack in the Kingdom of Melromarc, which was then shattered by some unknown magic."