With the immediate situation surrounding Elienor resolved, for the most part, I needed to start working on my assigned duties. Frieda could probably be trusted but Lucy’s attitude had carried a lot of red flags, so she would need to be restricted a bit. Regarding that, Sasha had wanted to punish her for her attitude, though I declined to authorize that for now. If she continued, then and only then I would do something. However, given that she deflated in the wake of Elienor breaking down and then recovering, I did not want to put the cart before the horse.
Regarding that breakdown, even after having broken my illusion, Elienor had not actually said anything about my body that I was aware of. Though I hoped that was because she had the sense not to, I feared that she was afraid I might get mad if she did. It was a topic to address with her, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it so had decided to put it off and break the news to the other two first. As for when that would be… the sooner the better in all likelihood, though Sasha would likely protest.
The odds are that Lucy was simply mad on Elienor’s behalf. The general contracts will prevent them from doing anything to directly harm me, but it otherwise leaves them completely free. Likewise, we know they didn’t have any special contracts with Count Francois; Rupert assured me of that… Still, until things come to fruition Sasha will be stuck attending to me directly, but that doesn’t mean the others can’t help in other ways.
In any case, the three of them had been subjected to an appraisal as part of Rupert’s checks; none of them would have the ability to overcome my knight detail, so I could quite easily restrict their movements until they proved trustworthy. I had some plans regarding that and hopefully, things would work out sooner rather than later; I did not enjoy keeping people locked up, but I would do what I had to.
As for what I had to do, at the moment that was to meet with one of the church’s Cardinals. Or, more specifically, listen in on Ferdinand’s meeting with him. Then there would be a debriefing regarding some intelligence gleaned from the first prince’s rebel group. Meetings with Ferdinand to begin ironing out the details of the new spy order. At some point, the trip into the city with Lady Lester and Edith. Sven would soon be returning to Ris, and I had summoned him to receive an answer about our business proposal.
All of this while still making sure to see Rosial, Felicity, and Rosin as often as possible. Keeping up with my parents. Dodging whatever the Lawrence’s retaliation would be. Overseeing the rooting out of the remaining shadows still nominally under Five’s control… My head was already swimming and I hadn’t even listed half the things I was meant to do.
And I’m not even in the ‘trial period’ as Queen yet. In another three years, my schedule is going to get even busier… Hell, that will probably start a year in, from all honesty, considering that the demon war should be kicking off… Ugh.
“My lady, Ferdinand has arrived.”
“Thank you, Sasha.”
She nodded and presented me with a magic communicator tool. Ferdinand had the other half, and it would feed audio and visual information back to me. Since I had never learned or bothered to research how magic tools were made, I had no idea how this one worked but, according to his explanation, it would be able to cut through the church’s wards against snooping. Not that I particularly minded giving the gods the middle finger, but I had to question if this was actually a good idea.
Well, even if I’m the Rule Breaker now, I was their champion at one point so it should be fine… I hope. Adroni probably wouldn’t permit them to just smite me, right? Yea, that’d be funny but only for a moment…
Even with my status still screwed to hell, I could still use Blood Magic. By exploiting that, I could feed mana into magic tools in order to operate them.
And add that to my growing list of tasks; figure out why the hell my stats, skills, and talents aren’t returning!
Upon the tool’s activation, my vision briefly went blurry. What followed when it cleared made my head spin; Ferdinand’s vision fed directly into my mind, giving me two completely separate points of view. Well, it wasn’t exactly his point of view, so much as the tool’s. Fortunately this much had been predicted so I was already sitting, and as a way to help limit the effects of it, I shut my own eyes.
I wonder if this is similar to what Five experienced when using the parasites? Dealing with just the one added perspective is bad enough, I can’t imagine what it would be like with several.
Ferdinand nodded to one of the lower-ranking priests, who in turn opened a large ornate door. This was, oddly enough, the same room I had once been taken to when the church summoned me.
Don’t tell me that cardinal was the one responsible for liaising with the shadows…?
The doors swung open to reveal the room’s sole occupant. It was not anyone I recognized. Since the one cardinal I had met was responsible for Sana, that was a small load off my mind and a relief to my momentary panic. Looking closely at him, or at least as closely as I could given the oddity of how this sub-vision worked, the cardinal appeared to be rather nervous.
Ferdinand went ahead and greeted him, his voice completely and utterly dry, “Cardinal, it is a pleasure to speak with you again.”
The cardinal responded nervously, not unlike a spring being held under high tension, “L-lord Ferdinand, it is indeed a pleasure… I heard that you,”
“That I was dead? That was a lie.”
“I-”
“Do not speak further. The fact of the matter is that a demon, one of the kings, rose to power under your nose. Disposed of all of his opponents within and without the order… Yet you were not cut off… curious, is it not?” Ferdinand cut off whatever the cardinal was going to say next. This had been his own suggestion, and one I readily agreed with; put much of the blame onto the church. If we made it clear that they were being blamed for letting Five take power within the shadows, then it would give us some degree of leverage over them.
“Of course you didn’t know, he simply tricked you, did he not?”
The cardinal gulped, but did not say anything further, which was the wrong choice of action.
“Well? Answer me!”
“Y-yes! We were tricked! No, I was deceived!”
Ferdinand crossed his arms and I could hear the sound of his foot tapping rhythmically against the stone floor. A few moments later, just long enough for the cardinal to increase the intensity of his sweating, Ferdinand broke the silence again, “Well, it is fortunate that in your incompetence, the gods themselves have seen fit to send salvation.”
The cardinal gave a small start at that proclamation, since what Ferdinand was saying essentially amounted to “the gods bypassed the church.” In any other circumstances, it could be taken as outright heretical.
“One of their champions has been named, and she has rooted out the source of the corruption. Be thankful, that you were not caught up in it.”
The cardinal’s gears were visibly turning as he digested Ferdinand’s words, “You speak the truth?”
“[##### #####], The Champion of Winter acted where you failed and cast out the corruption.”
All good so far, hopefully he’ll figure out what Ferdinand is saying. We made it pretty damn obvious though.
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The cardinal sat back into his chair, a look of relief coming upon his face, “Then, I suppose as the new head of the kingdom’s espionage unit, you have some changes in mind?”
Good, he figured it out.
For the most part, having Ferdinand be the one publicly in charge was beneficial and would be the status quo. Specifically with the church though, it would be better to lead them to the conclusion that I was the one really in charge. Ferdinand had agreed with my thoughts and suggested we also drop the bit about Winter’s Champion in there to further set them off balance.
“Yes, there will be a few changes. For the time being, all members of the original order are being hunted down as traitors. We will need new agents.”
The cardinal raised an eyebrow, “Then you are here for the list of candidates? I should think that would be unacceptable…”
He was fishing for more information, a good sign all things considered.
“No, you are correct; the former methods are no longer acceptable. Continue to pronounce the children purposeless and record their names, but they will not be collected. Instead, have the priests and priestesses reach out to them and serve as mentors.”
The cardinal nodded, “Of course, but you are aware showing such favoritism will cause some strife in the smaller villages and towns?”
“That has been accounted for. You will find that the next year’s royal donation has increased; It will come with a stipulation that the additional money be used to expand the temple schooling system. On your end, implement a rigged lottery; mixing in the purposeless from the list with a few truly purposeless children should serve as sufficient cover.”
The man nodded, “A smart plan, that will help prevent much of the jealousy and fallout; we can keep an eye on the children with problematic purposes while building up additional manpower to replace casualties from the coming war. Of course it will not prevent all of the jealousy from those who do not ‘win’ the lottery…”
My viewpoint bobbed up and down, and I realized it was due to Ferdinand shrugging his shoulders, “It is impossible to please everyone. For the time being, until proper agents can be trained, the priests will serve as information gatherers. Consider that the church’s punishment for allowing one of the nine to run rampant.”
The cardinal’s eye twitched but he said nothing. In this situation, there wasn’t anything he really could say, other than arguing that the gods superseded the kingdom and it wasn’t our right to punish the church. But Ferdinand had already established that it was a champion of the gods who went in and fixed the mess. Ferdinand had predicted, and I agreed, that the church would probably push back against being used as spies. We would then concede that point, and they would implement our plans for the children without much in the way of resistance.
Our real plan for information gathering was the adventurers. To that end, I was planning to cash in on an offer extended from what felt like an eternity ago. Ferdinand and the cardinal were now going through the motions of fine-tuning details, so my direct observation was no longer required. Disconnecting from the magic spy camera, I sighed, “…Someone needs to fine-tune that thing. Using it is such a headache… Sasha, next for today is meeting with the capital’s guild master. How are preparations with that?”
As I spoke I got up and moved from the soundproofed private room and back into my drawing room, where the other three girls were assembled, along with Stil and my guard knights. As we walked, Sasha glanced at a bit of paper she carried around for keeping notes, “Everything is in order, we can leave as soon as you would like… Who will be coming with us?”
I pointed out the people as I named them, “Two of the knights, Stil, and…” Hearing me hesitate, Elienor’s ears perked up. Unfortunately, there was no way I was bringing her, “…Lucy will come to assist you.”
The elf in question looked momentarily surprised, but that quickly turned into suspicion. Sasha as well, looked like she had a few choice words, but I was not going to give her a chance to voice them.
“Elienor, Felicity… That is Pet’s real name, will be coming by later today…” At the mention of the catkin’s name, Elienor’s face changed from a mild pout to a more pleased one, “…And she will be bringing with her Rosial, my little sister.”
“Yer little sister, Stali? I thought Rosi had died?” Frieda shook her own head and brought her hand down on the crown of Elienor’s head in a chopping motion.
“Miss Elienor, that is not the correct way to address your lady.”
Indeed, I had been doing my best to ignore it, but Elienor was in fact wearing a miniaturized maid outfit to match the ones worn by Lucy, Frieda, and Sasha. I had tried to avoid doing that, but Sasha had expressed disapproval, and the girl herself had even proclaimed the desire to have her own. In the end, I had relented; it wasn’t like she was wearing one of those fetish “maid” uniforms.
It was actually rather conservative. Mainly, I had wanted to avoid putting her in something she might have found demeaning, being the former daughter of a count as well as my friend. It was for that latter reason that I found seeing her dressed like my servant a bit disturbing.
“Frieda, please do not be so harsh on her; it has only been a couple of days…”
Besides, having Elienor call me anything other than ‘Stali’ would just feel wrong, let me hear it a few more times.
“As you wish, my lady.” Frieda backed off, and allowed Elienor to say her piece. Unfortunately, she seemed to have taken Freida’s reprimand in stride.
“Your little sister? I thought Rosial had passed on?”
“Mh, no she did not. She was taken away… But we were able to recover her recently.”
That was close, I almost said who she was taken away by… It might not be the best idea for her and Rosial to meet, if Rosial realizes who her dad is… But I won’t be able to keep Elienor and Felicity separate, or rather I won’t. And Rosial and Felicity have become somewhat inseparable themselves. Well, whatever comes of this, I’ll make it work somehow, what’s one more task?
If Elienor did find out it was her father who had taken my sister… well, if she was going to be staying with me, it would happen eventually.
“Then, shall we depart?” At Sasha’s question, I nodded.
Two of the knights, Lucy, and Stil joined us and we made our way out of my rooms and eventually down to the stable area. The whole time we were walking was spent in awkward silence. The cause of which was obviously Lucy’s presence. Both she and Sasha were likely questioning why she had been brought along. After all, she was ostensibly a liability.
When we were securely in a carriage, unmarked of course, I glanced at Sasha before cutting the mana feed to my ring. This of course caused the projected illusion to drop, “Well Lucy, this is what happened to me after the fight with Count Francois.”
Her crimson eyes flew open wide in a manner that I could tell wasn’t an act, “Stahlia…?”
So Elienor really didn’t say anything. At least not to you.
“Yes, it is me. No Sasha, I will not hear it.” My head maid looked like she was about to say something in accordance with my instructions to inform me when I was making a mistake, “Lucy, while I was in the care of Count Francois, you took great care of me. I somewhat understand your hostility in the wake of everything that has happened since then, and I hate the way I have to treat the three of you. So, I am going to take a risk; I am going to trust you without any reason to, in the hopes that by doing so, I can earn yours.”
This was a move that would definitely not have been approved of if I had run it by Sasha and Rupert ahead of time.
“Lucy will not be harmed, that is an order in my name.” I looked to each of the knights and then to Sasha. Though I doubted it actually needed to be said; the fact that I had willingly revealed the secret meant that her knowing it was my will. By saying it out loud, the only person now who could order for Lucy to be silenced was Rupert or the king himself. Something she would recognize.
“So, Lucy. I am going to trust you implicitly. I learned the hard way that keeping secrets only leads to suffering.”
The carriage was silent for some moments; the knights never really said anything while on duty unless asked, and Sasha was clearly waiting to hear Lucy’s response much as I was.
“…How could I ever trust that? Even if I keep your secrets, just by knowing them, I… You… How can I trust anything you say after something like this? After what you’ve done?”
Something was telling me that this went a bit beyond how I had abandoned Elienor.
“Lucy, what exactly did I do? From my perspective, other than abandoning Elienor, I have done nothing wrong.”
“You! Did you not arrange for Count Francois’ downfall? The destruction of his family!?”
I definitely did that, but what’s it to her? I know for a fact they were told about the Count being a hell king; I was very clear about that with Ferdinand after what happened with Sieg.
“Yes, I will not deny I was responsible for that, but he was a demon, one of the hell kings. While what happened was regrettable, it was,”
“HE SAVED MY LIFE!”
Ah. That would explain your reaction then. Ah… stop looking at me like that Sasha, this was going to happen eventually.
Fortunately, we had some time before we arrived at the capital’s adventurer’s guild branch, “Lucy… Will you tell me what you mean by that?”