Ordering my men to advance and surround the city was one thing; them going through with that was another entirely. In short, it would be suicidal to have them set out now; preparations needed to be made before departing what was initially meant to be a more permanent camp. It was also late in the day, meaning that the night winds were soon to pick up in earnest. Without me present, it was decidedly unlikely they would be able to march.
Therefore, the earliest we could carry out the encirclement was tomorrow, and it would be late morning before we came to the city. Such a course would also necessitate the men to go all night breaking camp and preparing to move out, leaving them exhausted by the end of the forced march. Another suicidally stupid idea. As an alternative, Lord Alriss advised me to delay the departure by two days; the men would break down the camp on the first day and prepare to advance. That night, we would have only the minimum necessities and would finally move on the morning of the second day after my declaration to Leviathan.
That meant I had made a significant error, a massive blunder, in killing the two babysitters. That action would allow Zesten to prepare a response, predict our moves, and muster their defenses. Granted, they probably couldn’t envision my host would march up to the very gates of the city; the aforementioned winds had historically made such action nigh impossible. There simply hadn’t been a spell capable of protecting a large-scale force from the hostile environment until now.
It also paints me as somewhat emotionally driven, that I would act without first considering the long-term ramifications…
“You look troubled, my lady,” Jacqueline stated in a low voice from behind me. For the first time in a very long while, she was attending me in place of Sasha. It had been at the former’s insistence, with her citing that “We are now in a state of war, so our lady should project two shadows.”
“I am. Sasha would disagree, but I believe I made an error.”
She tilted her head, “Perhaps, though I disagree. Politics is not my strongest area, but may I speak freely?”
It couldn’t hurt to hear her out, especially since nobody else was present. Unless Claire was in my shadow again, though she was probably with Franklin. I gave her permission.
“You are concerned about the fallout from killing those two, but is it really a problem? From what I have gathered, you were alone at the time, with only yourself, a handful of knights, and Lord Alriss. Could you not simply state that the two attacked you? Claim that the parasites controlled them.”
She was correct, in theory, but that presented another issue; it reeked of a flimsy attempt at manufacturing casus belli. Any scrutiny would determine that this was a he-said-she-said at the state level, with only the she-said half; the he-said was dead, after all.
The choice I have to make now is between my short-term personal reputation and the reputation of Drakas, which also reflects on me.
In a democracy or republic, the choice is simple; the politician should put the country before themselves. The fact that Drakas was a monarchy muddied the waters. To an extent, my own reputation was the reputation of the country. In the long term, either option would end up placing all of the blame on the demons, so in effect, it was really a matter of minimizing the short-term problems…
Alright, I’ll use the American method.
Zesten didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction I knew of, but I would go the route of claiming the two had tried to kill me. In the end, my country was bigger, and on the international stage, that mattered most. Might might not make right, but it did make things easier.
“Thank you, Jacqueline. I had already considered that but was undecided on whether or not to go through with it. Now, I need to determine precisely what the two knights said about the bodies so that I can work on framing it in a way that works….” I trailed off, already coming up with various possible scenarios and wordings.
“I will assume that my permission has not yet expired. My lady, Lord Alriss can do that; you should attend to Miss Claire and Sir Franklin without delaying much longer… I know that you have things that must be discussed.”
Her words froze me. I had been putting that off, but it hadn’t occurred to me to leave Zesten to Lord Alriss.
…Am I delaying that subconsciously…?
It was true that I was trepidatious about telling Franklin who I used to be, but that was, in a sense, also my duty. This mission was a crusade to locate and recruit the other Champions first and a diplomatic envoy second. Rupert had been very explicit in that instruction, even going so far as to give me carte blanche to act if I felt an action would further that goal.
“All right. You are correct. As much as I am anxious over it… Please, send for them. And, instruct Lord Alriss on my behalf.”
Franklin and that woman (apparently named Taya) arrived at the camp an hour and a half after Lord Alriss and myself. According to reports, a man had been with them when they arrived at the inn. But he had declined to come to the camp, and, as the escort knight was under orders to avoid creating a scene, he did not press the issue. That was fine, as the fewer outsiders were involved, the better.
Speaking of outsiders, Taya can stay for the first part, but I’ll need her to leave before I start discussing my past life.
There came a knock on my carriage door, and Jacqueline opened it to admit Franklin, Claire, and Taya. Sasha was bringing up the rear; with the number of people now here, she probably intended to help Jacqueline.
…That’s fine. All things considered, I should probably tell Sasha as well at this point, and doing this only once is better for my mental health.
Lord Alriss was also here, along with two knights; their intention was to guard me now that two outsiders were present.
“Lord Alriss, as awkward as this will be for you, I cannot permit you to guard me. Please, begin working on our justification.”
“Your majesty, it is my duty-” His voice betrayed his anxiousness, a very rare slip of the mask for a member of Drakan Nobility.
I cut him off; as much as I appreciated the commitment, apparently even higher than I initially perceived, this was one thing I could not budge on.
“Lord Alriss, I do not wish to invoke the voice of the king; Sir Franklin is one of the Champions, and Miss Taya is a member of a Champions party. You are well aware of my own abilities and capability to defend myself. Not to mention my shadows. Please, do not force my hand.”
At the mention of ‘my shadows,’ Lord Alriss briefly flicked his eyes to look at Jacqueline. After all, she was a new addition to my staff as far as he was concerned. And, as a member of Drakan High Nobility, he certainly knew the rumors even if he didn’t have definitive knowledge. On the other hand, Taya looked at Claire with an openly mortified expression.
Ok, that’s going to need to be cleared up asap.
“Very well, your majesty. But, please permit these to stand vigil from the outside.” His tone had become stiffer, meaning he wasn’t happy, but would abide. The fact that even after being ordered, he had still persisted. Then, after being told no, he still continued. Even now, he was still pushing for a compromise… Combined, it demonstrated his commitment and made me regret having a few reservations.
Even if he knew the whole truth about the deception of the miracle, he would remain loyal.
“I will permit it; thank you for your understanding.” At this point, any further denial on my part would only serve to make me feel and look even worse.
This meant that our party inside the carriage consisted of six people. Granted, Claire was tiny, and Jacqueline was standing together with Sasha. So of those seated, there were only three. Add to that the size of this monstrous carriage, and it made things feel distant. Or perhaps that was because of how Taya and Franklin were acting; they were both apprehensive and quiet.
Of course they are; it isn’t every day that you get escorted by a knight to the camp of a foreign military to meet their queen. I also left them hanging for quite a while too, and there’s the fact that the men are clearly breaking camp… Yea, ok, this was another blunder.
To start with, I bowed my head toward Claire. This action produced predictable results from everyone else, with Sasha failing to completely hide her disapproval, Jacqueline nodding in open approval, and the Taya Franklin duo expressing shock and surprise. Claire herself seemed mildly surprised; the swishing of her tail slowed, and her ears couldn’t seem to decide if they wanted to stand straight up or go flat.
“I am sorry for how I spoke toward you the past few days. Especially the threat to remove Felicity’s [Envy] skill. I would never ever inflict such pain on a friend, much less my sister in all that blood. The fact that I attempted to use it as a threat to control you was completely inappropriate.”
Once more, the reactions of everyone followed along predictable lines and were much the same as they had been previously. However, that was likely to change with what I would say next.
“We cannot afford strife between us, not only because of the stake in the coming war but also because of the position that would force Franklin into.”
Claire was still trying to figure out how she felt about all of this. Meanwhile, Franklin had a more immediate reaction to everything.
“Me…? Why would I-”
“Exactly,” The Taya woman cut him off, “What has Franklin got to do with your relationship with that….” She glanced at Felicity’s tails, “...Odd beastkin child?”
Ah, you know what? I’ve only realized she’s been avoiding looking at Felicity this time; I thought it was because of the misunderstanding about my shadow, but it's way more likely to just be the tails.
Still, she needed to be addressed. I fixed her with an icy, practiced stare, “Miss Taya, while you may not be one of my subjects, I am the monarch of this continent’s greatest power. Your relationship with Franklin grants you certain liberties, but consider your tone when my people are present. That is to say, whenever you are in my presence.”
Stolen story; please report.
At the last moment, I realized she might not have picked up on the subtext of “whenever my people are present.” As the Queen, there would not be a meeting between me and her where at least one of my maids was not in attendance. Usually, there would be a lot more people than that. As such, I opted to forgo the riddles and tell her plainly; don’t speak out of turn. She didn’t seem that happy about the sudden turn of events, but neither did she protest. Franklin, likewise, appeared dissatisfied, but he also did not oppose my words.
Alright, now, let’s break the ice and lighten the mood before I tell him the truth.
“Now, Franklin, I have already stated my thought that you are one of the champions, and you have yourself confirmed it. Therefore, I would like to appraise you if you are willing?”
His eyes widened, “...You would do that? The guild told me that the tools required were scarce, and mages who knew the proper spells even rarer… So I figured it was something like diamonds back on Earth, sorry, back where I come from; a very common gem, but the people providing it restrict the supply to inflate the price.”
The comparison seemed apt and was in line with what I had expected to hear. It was interesting, though, considering that Ris, a small village, had an appraisal tool in its church. Almost every settlement in Drakas was furnished with at least one.
Though that’s probably something arranged by Count Francois as a way to find recruits, and for whatever other purpose, like how Frieda can see mana.
I don’t know how it is outside of my own country, but the ability isn’t quite that rare. Besides, I am the Queen... Why wouldn’t I have a few diamonds? Here, lend me your hand.”
It was better to get one of the two appraisal mages in the company to do this, but Franklin was a champion and would thus be working closely with me. Taya as well for the latter by connection to the former. So, they would learn about this before long, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.
Plus, this way, I can override the appraisal block of his champion skill.
Franklin glanced at Taya, who shrugged, “If her highness claims to be able to do it herself, I don’t doubt her. You should feel honored that someone so important is going out of her way.” Behind her, even Jacqueline, who was far more understanding than Sasha, twitched. But she held her tongue and was actually grinning faintly. After all, she knew that my method of appraisal was rather unique.
Following Taya’s affirmation, Franklin held out his hand. I was already wearing the mana drain wedding ring, so there was nothing else to do but to do it. So, daintily, I took his hand and began to pour mana into it.
Good. I was a bit worried that touching his hand would trigger something, but it seems that won’t be an issue.
While my previous trauma was now largely behind me, a few things still caused it to flare up in my face. One such was more intimate contact with a member of the opposite sex, stuff like hand holding, which this was. My mana flowed through his hand and then around his body before returning to me, information about his status coming with it.
Name: Franklin
Age: 22
Species: Human(Pureblood)
Class/Level: Knifefighter 20 | Swordsman 10 | [----] 1 Experience: 1378/68000
Social Strata: Commoner
Ability Values:
* Strength: A: 205
* Endurance: S: 240
* Dexterity: B: 182
* Intelligence: C: 122
* Charisma: SS: 137
* Mana: C: 122
Talents [Page 1 of 8]: Knife Fighting V, Sword Fighting V, Bladed Weapons Master I, Heroic Presence I, Charming III, Rapid Recovery II, Devil’s Luck V, Goddess’ Favor V, Giant Strength I,
Skills: Overturn, Resolve, Final Stand
Mhm, everything looks normal… Except for that hidden class and his missing champion skill.
I paused for a moment to check on people’s reactions; the theatrics were mostly for my own entertainment, which meant that how people reacted was important to me. Franklin was disappointingly unfazed, but that was to be expected; he didn’t know how appraisal was usually done. Claire was waiting patiently, though based on her ears, she was eager to hear the results. Sasha and Jacqueline… Taya was looking on.
Catching my eye, she eventually gave in to the silent pressure, “Is your highness going to start? Any halfway decent chant will take a minute or so.”
I grinned, “Franklin, you’re level 31. Your highest stat is Endurance, of which you have 240 points. Your Charisma has a compelling improvement value of SS; it should outpace endurance within a dozen levels, give or take. As for skills and talents, most of what you have is fairly predictable… except for two, both of which improve your odds regarding entropic effects… Basically, you’re very lucky.”
…I’ll privately tell him later that those two are called [Devil’s Luck] and [Goddess Favor]... And that he has both of them at level five.
Worrisome talent namings aside, the look on Taya’s face was naked disbelief, shock, and incredulity. I found it deeply satisfying.
This is a lot better than just having her thrown out for disrespect. And I haven’t even come to the best part yet.
“That said, there are a couple things that I can’t see… yet. Invoke Authority; override appraisal.”
As my intentions fueled my words, mana was imbued into my voice, and the air seemed to shudder. The familiar feed of computer-like output flowed into my head as the system checked my permission level. Then, Franklin’s appraisal results seemed to glitch before quickly correcting themselves in my head. The previously obfuscated class was a cliche “Hero,” and the skill [Champion of Summer] had been added to the list.
Well, here’s hoping that doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.
Invoking my authority with so many witnesses was possibly a considerable risk. However, of those present, only Jacqueline and Claire had any ideas about the full scope of what they had seen. Franklin didn’t know this world, and Taya would likely just assume it was an ability hidden by Drakan royalty or something. There was no way she could conceivably make the leap to realize that I had just used the same power wielded by this world’s gods.
Besides, even if information about this did get out, it still worked in my favor. The demons knew I could do something, just not what; Eris had claimed I cheated, and there was the whole thing with Count Francois escaping. If they learned I held an authority, it would make them far warier, which could only work out in my favor.
Hero… “A class granted to those who cross the boundary between worlds to answer the call of the gods….” Well, that’s a load of bullshit. Looks like it boosted all of his stats by one letter grade and Charisma by one additional.
His Champion skill was very similar to my previous [Champion of Winter]; it gave him three things: the ability to utilize divine mana, the effects of a skill, and immunity to a single element. In his case, the skill was [Limit Break], and the immunity was to Fire. The former was rather self-explanatory, while the latter was complete bullshit.
Fire!? I mean, yea, my Ice Immunity was useful, but FIRE!? How common is ice…?
My eyes must have been bugging out of my skull because Franklin drew back slightly, enough to break our connection. As the results vanished, I blinked to clear my vision and recompose myself.
“Ah… My apologies; you are indeed the Champion of Summer; I can also tell you exactly what your abilities are, but later. For now, I have… something else to divulge, that is, well….”
And now a cat’s got my tongue.
I shot Claire a glare, but she merely flicked her tail as though to say, “Go and get it over with already.”
Right, but, Taya is still here… Damnit, this is really throwing me off. Alright, focus.
“Before all that, Taya, will you please excuse us? This matter concerns only the three of us….” To drive the point home and to signal to Franklin what “this matter” was, I flicked my eyes meaningfully toward Claire.
His own expression turned mildly grim, and he nodded slowly, “Taya, please do what she says… While I might have told you some things, and you were there when the professor reintroduced herself… Well, there are some aspects of my life that…”
“It’s fine. I can take a hint, you know.” Following her brusque interruption, Taya stood and moved stiffly to the door, “Just, don’t let her sell you on anything; I found you first.”
Wow, ok. No.
From how she moved and, in retrospect, had been acting, it was abundantly clear that she seemed to have the hots for him. And for whatever reason, now viewed me as a rival. I mean, I was pretty, but there was no way… Hells, I was already married. Franklin was my previous life’s best friend… Even considering that now… Suddenly, I was a lot more concerned about telling him the truth.
Yea, I need to get this over with ASAP, before he gets the wrong ideas.
The moment she was out and the door was shut, I cast a silence spell and addressed Franklin, “I am aware that you and Claire both met your end searching for someone, and you presumably still want to find them...Well, there isn’t really any easy way to say this. Franklin, it’s me; I’m George.”
There was dead silence in the carriage. Jacqueline nodded, Sasha looked as though a great mystery had finally been solved, and Claire looked on. Franklin took nearly a full minute before slowly beginning to put the pieces together. The gears beginning to turn. Then, he burst out into a crazed laugh. It was… not the reaction I had been expecting.
“...Ha…. Haaha…. HAAHAA! Really? YOU’RE George?” He looked at Claire, “Proffessor, this isn’t some sick joke, right?”
…After accepting that your teacher is a catgirl, your friend being a girlgirl shouldn’t be so hard.
“Are you done?” My tone was a bit biting despite everything, “You really shouldn’t laugh; I might have changed teams, but I am a Queen now. I’ve done the best I could with what I had.”
Considering I literally designed myself, that isn’t saying much, but I don’t need to bring that up here.
Claire spoke up in support of my claims as well. Thankfully, as I had been somewhat concerned she would continue giving me the silent treatment.
“Haahaahaa…” His laughter abated slowly, as the realization that we were not simply messing with him dawned.
“You know, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised; there was a character creator, after all. Just because I skipped it doesn’t mean you did...” Taking a moment, he stared at me rather intensely, to the point that it was a bit uncomfortable. Finally, he nodded as though satisfied, “Yea, looking at you now, you really match your tastes.”
“Excuse me? I what?”
To my annoyed interjection, Franklin shrugged, “No use trying to hide it, especially not after going out of your way to tell me that. Sorry for laughing...”
“Nonono, you do not get to dodge this question. What do you mean, ‘my tastes?’”
Franklin adopted an amicable expression that I was all too familiar with, “I mean you look pretty damn cute. Gorgeous, even. Perhaps even approaching the beauty of a first-rate model, an actress fit for the biggest of silver screens….”
I forcibly released the tension from my shoulders; he was fucking with me now, and it was best to simply ignore it, lest it become an irksome (for me) habit. “Alright, it’s alright. That’s alright. I would say it’s good to see you, but the fact that you’re here means you died… According to Claire, you two died trying to figure out what happened to me, so… sorry.”
Franklin pocked at his as-of-yet undrunk tea, “Yea, well, when you put it like that… Well, no matter. Dead or not, I still plan on returning… Though, seeing Claire and you… I’m assuming that you guys don’t share those intentions?”
Claire answered in my stead, speaking up for the first time this meeting, “...Could you have said a more cliche line? ‘Let’s find a way home guys! together!’ …Besides, Stali Nee-chan has her kingdom and loving husband to think of, and well, I could never do that to Felicity.”
I stared at her, mortified. She winked at me, then ducked into my shadow.
You…!
It was too late, though, as Franklin turned his head back toward me with an audible creak, “‘Stali Nee-chan?’ Your loving what?”
Claire, it would seem, had seen an opportunity to enact her righteous vengeance for my recent transgressions and seized it gleefully.
Just kill me.