“Here we are, Your Highness,” I called after entering Elen’s hidden tearoom. “Isn’t this room small for us all, though?”

Just the massive knight already made the room feel smaller, but we were walking around with a group of half a dozen people. Packing everyone inside this little meeting room was too much even if the maids were leaving, something the king interrupted.

“It is, but everyone here should hear.”

Eve didn’t react much to it, but Dori was confused by the situation. From what I could see, even the royal captain didn’t know what exactly was happening. Elen was the only one who wasn’t affected by anything at all and was taking a seat as if it were normal.

“You should tell me before getting in here, Dad. My room is still connected to this place…” She complained while pointing to her maid to set the table. “But for you to call us, what do you want to hide from everyone else? I already explained the ‘inquisition’ mess to sis, but her maid seems like she'll panic any moment now.”

“T-t-that’s not i-it… Your H-highness…” Dori tried to answer, but seeing the situation made me sigh and give up on thinking about it. Instead, I took a seat even if I was a little unsure if my position was high enough for that.

“Don’t worry, Ms. Dorothea, you heard most of it from my daughters if I’m not mistaken, so you don’t need to be so stiff.” Prourene’s ruler continued in his usual tone, which didn’t seem very effective. “Also, remember that we’re not in the throne room. In fact, you should remember that we didn’t meet.”

I could feel some shock on Dori’s and Valiria’s faces, but the proper princess soon understood the situation. She then moved to the table with a controlled expression and took a seat like her sister, seemingly calming the situation a little.

“We are only having some refreshments after a training session, Dori. Only the five of us.”

“Sigh… What a mess.” I ended up letting escape after watching all this. “I mean, what is the big plan, Your Highness? I thought Sir Neil would report to you and then you would decide what next, but if you’re calling here, have you decided something already?”

“Not really, Ms. Illia.” The king answered me without even stopping to think. “All I know is that we’re not putting you on a Divine Judgement as is. No matter what, you’re not strong enough for that, but I’m sure you knew that already...“

“So that’s how it is.” I tried to give some ideas while munching on an apple-like fruit, but another voice got over mine almost right away. “Then, what if…”

“C’mon, dad! Illia’s not that bad. She almost got me there, and it wasn’t that far from the others too.” Elen stood up after leaving her tableware to Eve. “In a month she may even manage to be better than us.”

“She has to be as strong as Mr. Hayato for it to work, princess.” The black-haired maid commented while moving as her primary job dictated. “Remember that the other side has people who can overpower us already?”

“Then all we have to do is get her every single powerful artifact we have instead of leaving the odd ones only! Right now, she only was my tiara, and that one is a safety measure, at most. If dad gave his…”

“Actually, there’s no…” I tried to speak again but with the same effect as earlier.

“Borrowing the artifacts in use could make Lady Illia much more powerful for sure.” Valiria agreed while focused on her own thoughts. “In fact, if she can tweak their effects enough, they can change much more than expected. Something like the portable waystone, for example...”

Oh? That’s a lotta trust there, princesses. Kinda makes me want to not be planning to go as far away from the fighting option as possible. Having them give me the powerful tools would be a problem, though. And not only because I’m not sure I could supply enough mana for them… At least my trainer had no belief in my fighting capabilities, so I could worry a little less that my plan was wrong.

“Not enough. Not enough for sure. If she was an amateur or we had a better understanding of her magic, then maybe, but that’s not the case. From what I saw, she already has all the foundation she can, and is the biggest expert in this ‘silver magic’ we have.” The captain spoke this time, and I could pretty much feel what he was going to say next. It was something I heard many times before too. “I can’t see enough talent to avail a fast growth at this point, and training to polish what she has will take too long. A month is too little.”

What I said, right? But again, I don't plan on fighting. Going against two sudo-heroes is way too much for me, even if I could get strong as one of them. There’s also the something that actually took that damn Mr. Hero down. I need to worry about it, don't I? Anything that made me go head-on there would also be against my whole play right now. What I need is…

Oh! They got silent. Better throw my plan out there while I can.

“Now hear me out. We don’t need a replacement for Mr. Hero, you know? We only have to make it seem he got wounded but is back.”

“And how do you plan to do so, Ms. Illia? Only getting a body double won't do in this situation.” The king called me out on the weak plan, but he seemed to know the answer to what he was asking.

I could feel this guy had a plan again, and since he was almost alone, it wasn’t anything good. But worse than that, it wasn't something he would tell me right away.

“My idea was to make it seem as if the hero was still fine. I can use the illusions to make it seem he is around, and that would be enough.” I answered at first, but I wouldn’t let him take all control this time. “But I don’t think I need this anymore. You actually came here with a plan, didn't you? The ‘we don’t have one’ from before was about me fighting only.”

And of course, he smiled at my answer as if he had predicted this much. A very punchable smile too.

“It seems you’re getting good at reading me too. Would it be enough to say that all I want is to keep you doing the same as you were before?”

Was he talking...? No, it can... This guy is crazy, isn't he? I mean, it's similar to what I wanted to do, but still... If he really meant to pretend to swindle my way through this, then I'd need the right situations to play.

“Are you sure about that? I don’t know how well this can go, and neither do I have enough information to try something this big. Making me look this good would need some luck too...”

“Take whatever you need and whoever you need, but it has to look as if you were always our secondary plan.” He stared deep into my eyes even while I was trying to escape from it. “It has to look as if everything from before was the truth all along.”

"You know it'll rely on what the other realms will do, right? I can't do much without a chance to do it."

"I believe it'll be fine. They’ll move. All you have to do is work as you did before and take the chances..."

“Is this about that ‘inquisition’ Lady Illia and my sister were involved?” Valiria asked as one of the few around who only received a vague briefing on my noble swindling scheme. She was better than most of the hero’s party, at least, but she still only had a vague idea of what I was doing before.

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“You can say so, yes,” I answered while trying to guess how much Elen told her sister. “You could say we were swindling troublesome nobles to have them arrested, or something…”

“That’s not very clear…”

“I can explain everything to you later, sis, but that’s the gist for sure.” Elen took over while smiling at the whole idea. “Hells, if you want to, we may even go bust them together later. We’ll need to tie those ends before anything…”

“If you say so, then I’ll support you both whoever I can. Sir Hayato would prefer so too…”

“I’ll also give any support the royal guard can, but know that I am against this idea.” The biggest person around gave his own comment on the situation. “After seeing you fight, even if it was more than I thought, my belief is that having you parade as a hero will only make things harder. Fighting head-on is still my preference too.”

“And that was noted, Neil, don’t worry.” The guy I wanted to punch for no real reason continued. “Cheap tricks aren’t the most honorable way, but it’s fighting fire with fire in this situation. Also, I want to see where this young girl will go with this.”

It was only for a moment, but I could see the same crazed stare that Elen sometimes gave on the king’s face. That same stare that came right after she started laughing and exclaimed again that I was ‘really interesting’ or something.

Like father, like daughter, I guess.

“Then I’ll need some help with promotion, Your Highness… And some help finishing the plans from before to have them hit well. I won’t be able to take them all too, no time to fix things if I go too strong...”

“Shouldn’t be a problem as long as you don’t weaken the frontiers too much.”

“Then it’ll be fine. I have a way to make them play nice later… Everything should be ready to move soon.” I snickered while throwing the math on what was left of my plans from before. “Oh! I’ll also need some new clothes.”

As I said it, though, no one in the room managed to react right away. I mean, they all started to stare at me, and the massive knight seemed a little annoyed too while some others seemed only confused, but no one said a thing. Only when Elen started to laugh that the tension finally vanish… Not that it made anything look better to me.

“I knew you were the best choice, you damn weirdo!” She also added when the laughter was done, for now, and it didn’t make me any happier. At least no one seemed to want to complain for now…

What followed were three days of preparations and planning. Nothing too glorious or interesting to comment on.

The most I did was mingle with some other people (Hayato’s party started to wander around since their princess was here), but I was meant to not show too much, so they were short. Even talking with the princesses was rare since they started to crack down on the targets I marked.

There shouldn't be problems with this part, though. Two princesses and double the planned manpower to manage this whole mess was more than enough.

Only arresting the nobles involved was a little more complicated. At first, the plan was to send them to trial and everything since we would have all the proof necessary, but that was too slow now.

But I had other plans for it...

One that started with a 'fake' royal letter calling every single one of them for a meeting at the palace. A meeting meant to give them the autonomy and power necessary to get troops moving as an emergency defense force.

Or if you wanted to call it as it was, a ruse called by me so they would meet the cheeky blonde using the king’s throne as her personal chair right now. The same blonde with an overly-stylized hairdo, perfect make-up, on-point proportions, and a terribly well-chosen outfit modified from the earlier princess knight set with darker colors and an evil-looking cape.

This was the dawn of the evil Duchess Illia!

Probably the biggest case of lese-majeste I was involved in yet too, but that was the point this time.

They didn't even seem to mind how forceful they were escorted to the room until they noticed me. And when they did so, it was already too late anyway. All the small details seemed to click in their heads as slow as it was, and that was fun to watch.

All in all, they were clearly weirded out and somewhat close to panicking even before I said anything.

“Hello, my friends.” I controlled my shivering body and kept talking in the same tone I used when ‘negotiating’ back at my swindler days (like, last week). “Are you feeling well lately?”

My words and position soon brought shouts of outrage from the nobles who were yet to understand their position. Everything from ‘how dare you sit at the throne’ to ‘calling us here in an emergency is an outrage’. But in the end, all I had to do was shake my hand and make the whole floor shine in the same eerie hue of always.

It didn’t take much for them to notice that, in theory, I was the one calling the shots here. Their eyes were moving around the room with no effect too. They were stuck with the unstable corrupt hero and in the middle of what seemed to be a deadly spell.

How they were panicking was very interesting.

“Calm down, everyone, I’m just warming the seat while the big guy is solving some problems in another office. And I have permission anyway…”

My words stopped the noise in the room for a moment. They seemed to finally get the idea here, and soon after, the small nobles united under a single spokesperson in a hurry. Another one of the people I didn’t bother to have the name, but seemingly the one with the highest rank around. Maybe some marquis even…

“Excuse us, Lady Illia, but what exactly are you saying here?”

“Me? I’m saying that, with the current situation giving me some extra worth and a lot more liberties, I want some real power to top it off. The real hero was too much of a softie and wouldn't let me play, but now he's sleeping, so... I'd like some territory of mine. Some riches too, and maybe some titles, you see? The kind of thing you all have and that wouldn’t be too bad if I took it.“ I continued as if I had everything under perfect control. “It’s not as if having you all is useless, of course, but I kinda don’t want you around anymore. Having you donate some titles and then vanish would be good enough for everyone. Even the king wasn’t that against when I hinted all I knew about you people, not that he had much choice…”

“But our deals…?!”

“What deals? We had anything of the kind? I can’t remember.” I made a very fake expression of confusion as I answered. “And even if we did, do you think it would do much? I’m kinda the only hero around right now and the realm is close to war, so…”

“T-that’s…”

"Also, I kinda have some people close to whatever family you guys have, so I'm not negotiating here. Some very frilly assassins, you see?"

They were straight-up shocked by my words. Even the impromptu spokesperson didn’t know how to react and was instead starring in a growing panic. It made me feel like I was the evil one here...

Well, it wasn't that bad actually. It was hard to feel bad for them anyway. Kinda felt good even, which was one of the reasons I didn’t like this plan...

The people here were the small fries in my files and none of them had territories on the ‘dangerous’ frontiers, but they were a good chunk of the problem. In gross value, the less than dozen people here made around two-thirds of all lost revenue, though the other third was in the hands of two or three others.

It wasn’t the perfect hit I wanted, but it was enough.

But since I'm feeling a little bad for them, lemme at least make them worry less about their lives since I’m here.

“Fine, fine, you’re making me feel bad, so what about we make a deal?”

“We had a deal before, girl!” The spokesperson spoke with a slightly angry tone. “You can’t pretend to be some…”

“I know, I know, don’t worry. It’ll help you too just like before. I’ll hear your complaints some other time but for now…” I dismissed the noble's words without even giving him a chance to talk. “What about taking some pity gold and leaving to your families?”

While I was talking, the summoning circle on the ground started to shine over the fake purple one as I summoned some authentic-looking pills to my hand. Very colorful and authentic, but they were no more than sugar inside. I don’t know enough about poisons to bring the real thing. But it was a ruse that was effective.

“Take some and die,” I said while throwing them to the feet of the nobles and starting my plan as their eyes focused on it. “I'll let your families live very well in my new lands after you do.”

Their focus went off me for long enough for this small trick to work, so I could finally calm down. It also seemed that they were recovering from the initial shock and starting to think, so I pushed them further.

“Choose already or I'll get bored and ask the people in your house to…”

Then, right as my words sunk in, the outraged, scared, and cornered small nobles opened fire with all the magic they could cast in a rush. A whole hail of fireballs, ice spikes, stones, lightning, and everything else. A whole assault that fully covered the fancy chair with a cloud of debris... And when this cloud vanished, I was still there exactly like before. Just not in reality.

I was instead puppeteering my illusion from behind the throne after running there during the pill’s distraction. All the while, I was close to panicking with the unsureness if the magical throne would hold or not.

“Not a good choice, my friend… Now… Aham!” I took a deep breath while still focused on the utterly shocked nobles and then shouted with all I had. “Help me! They’re attacking the poor hero who only wanted to talk!”

Almost instantly after, I flashed my white gauntlet and, before even I could recover from the blindness, all guards close by rushed inside. Armored knights numbering the dozens against stunned nobles who were yet to understand the situation.

It wasn't even a fight.

By the end of the night, not only did I have a new dark tale on my belt, but a good deal of the kingdom's inner problems were done for. Who would've guessed that my predictions were so on point there...

The first step was done.

For now, though, I needed some rest. Chaining so many spells and enduring all this pressure was still a little too tiring for my taste…