Chapter 6: Council of Nobles (1)
The empire is in chaos.
Right after her princess sent her official letter, Etwarkyo openly protested against her princess’s actions and openly criticized her.
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Now, the two of them have fallen apart irreparably, fighting with each other’s all.
In this situation, the nobles began to weigh which side to take.
It was the same for Iris.
She looked at her crystal ball, clutching her head.
Of course, she had no choice but to support the saintess. She had already caught her weakness, and had given most of her personal fortune to buy her indulgences.
To be truly saved, she had to hope that the indulgences would work.
– Iris Your mission is to convince the nobles under the Duke of Rosie to turn to the side of the Church.
The problem is that the mission given by the saintess is by no means easy.
Duke Rossi and the nobles who followed him were supporting the princess.
“Indulgences are for cowards with a sting. Instead of wasting unnecessary money on things like that, do some self-examination.”
This was what the Duke of Rossier said when he had a regular meeting with other nobles.
And the nobles who followed him agreed.
Half of the nobles under the command of the Duke of Rosie are those who fought with him against the demon king, so their loyalty to him is very high.
The other half of them are small people who want to get a profit by clinging to him, so they pretend to follow his words, whether they like it or not.
In this situation, if his daughter suddenly expresses an opposing opinion, there is a high probability that he will rebel against it.
Especially Iris is well aware that she is insecure about her own position now.
Thanks to Duke Rossier’s halo, he can be recognized as the leader of the group right now, but to be honest, Iris has less age and charisma than Duke Rossier.
Even the achievement of being a member of the hero’s party cannot be compared to that of the former hero, Duke Rosie.
Even for the past three years, I’ve fought as a member of the warrior’s party, so I haven’t met nobles often, so I’m not close to them.
In many ways, the position of the Rosie family is bound to be shaken. So he has no choice but to be more careful.
But he couldn’t refuse the saintess’ request either.
‘… Being the head of the family wasn’t everything.’
Belatedly, Iris felt the vacancy of the duke in Rosie. Of course, in the worst situation, she became the next head of the family.
If I had known this would happen, I would have delayed her assassination… ….
“… No.”
Iris shook her head and regained her senses.
Anyway, Iris is the next head of the Duke of Rossier. So she has to somehow get through this crisis on her own.
Smart smart.
“Princess, the carriage is ready.”
“… I get it.”
For now, I had to postpone my worries. Because now she had nowhere to go.
Today, she is officially duke.
***
I am already familiar with the imperial palace.
Compared to when I entered after defeating the demon king, there were fewer nobles watching and the music was less grand.
But unlike that time, this time Iris is the sole protagonist.
How long have you been waiting?
The anxiety I had a moment ago disappeared like snow melting. Instead, Iris, as the head of the Rossier family, knelt before her princess with a solemn expression.
“… Duke Iris Rossier, I will appoint you as Lord of Roswell.”
And after her princess’s declaration, she now officially became a duke and ruled over Roswell.
Iris feels right now… I was bewildered. She still couldn’t tell if this was a dream or reality.
“… Would you like to talk to me for a minute?”
However, the princess’s words brought Iris back to her senses. She managed her expression again and rose from her seat.
After the princess killed all the other nobles, they were left alone in the wide hall.
“As you may have already heard, Edmund has left Speth. She still hasn’t figured out his location, but since he’s so talented, we can’t rule out the possibility that he’s entered the Empire by now.”
The first topic the princess brought up was unexpectedly about Edmund.
“… I know. And his next target will probably be me.”
“Roswell is an important city that has long been called the second capital. For the lord of Roswell to suffer a series of catastrophes like that, as the princess, I can never tolerate it. So I’m sending part of the Imperial Guard to Roswell to protect you. Are you okay?”
Iris immediately grasped the princess’ intentions.
Of course, there may be a security purpose. But more than that, she saw that her purpose was to keep an eye on her.
“… It’s okay. How can you mobilize the Imperial Guard to protect me?”
“This is all to catch Edmund. Don’t be pressured.”
“If so, there is one condition.”
“… Tell me.”
“Please let the Imperial Guard patrol everywhere in Roswell, rather than the mansion. Our mansion boasts impregnable defenses and is safe, but the citizens of Roswell are in danger.”
Therefore, Iris suggested a way to avoid the Guard’s surveillance by fabricating the words as convincingly as possible.
“Okay. Then we will give you instructions.”
Fortunately, the princess also accepted it.
Iris was internally relieved that she had solved her first puzzle, but she immediately made up her mind.
She thought that if she were the princess, she would definitely ask which side she would side with herself or her saintess.
“As you know, the Empire is in great turmoil right now.”
And in fact, the princess also seemed to be leading her conversation there.
“… Roswell will be very confused right now. So, Iris, she thinks your role is big. I hope she will become a great lord.”
However, the princess’ words were beyond Iris’ expectations. She thought she was going to do some kind of guided interrogation, but she just lost steam.
Or maybe she has something that Iris doesn’t know.
“… I will do my best to do her father’s part.”
Something was strange, but Iris said something formal and left.
She didn’t notice because her head was lowered.
When she mentioned the word ‘father’, the princess’s expression changed strangely.
***
‘In the end, they split into two and fight.’
Meanwhile, I traveled all over the empire to check public opinion.
When the proclamation to ban the issuance of indulgences was first issued, the majority of citizens seemed to support her princess, but things turned strange when the church immediately protested and publicly criticized her princess.
There were still citizens who welcomed the ban on indulgences, but not a few people fell for the saintess’ instigation.
However, the sample is small, and above all, the opinion of a small number of nobles who are more important than the opinion of the majority of citizens in the empire is not yet known, so it is not certain.
Since there will be a situation where you support one side and then lose money to the other side, you are probably just tapping the calculator right now.
So just to say the conclusion, as long as there is no big incident on the other side, I think we will maintain this tight fight for the time being.
And sooner or later I’m planning to explode a big incident.
“… I entered the Roswell Manor a while ago and left the marble near Iris’s bed.”
When she returned to the hideout, Mina brought good news.
“Good job. Sooner or later, the nobles will have a meeting at the Roswell Manor. Can you sneak in and tell us how things are going?”
“No problem.”
Fortunately, Mina, who recovered her condition, was proceeding with the work as I instructed without saying anything.
Now is the time to move on to the next step.
“I’m back.”
In the evening, Raphaella returned to her hiding place in the Tower of Blanc Magic.
She seemed very tired, probably because she had started learning the Mage Tower duties in earnest.
“… Is Marion rolling you too much?”
“Rather than that, what we’re doing right now is restoring the magic of Blanc’s tower, so we have a lot to learn.”
As Marion said before, she doesn’t even know 1% of the magic of Blanc’s tower. So her most urgent task is to learn at least half of it.
Therefore, she reads magic books and learns magic in the traditional way.
“… Does the job seem difficult?”
“There are a lot of high-difficulty spells, and some spells are very tricky because they lack unknown passwords or formulas that should be in the middle. There are many times when I wonder if this is what she left for the next generation of wizards to learn.”
“Did the previous Mage Tower owners rely too much on talent transmission….”
“I think so.”
She couldn’t understand Pesima even more. Did someone who knew that choose death so easily?
By the way, seeing Raphaella’s exhausted face, she hesitated to bring up the idea of entering Iris’ dreams.
“… By the way, Mina left a marble at the Roswell Mansion today.”
“Really?”
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“Yes. So later, when I’m not busy…….”
“No, I will do it today.”
Still, she only intended to deliver the news that Mina had completed her mission, and enthusiasm flared up again in Rafaela’s expression.
I guessed the reason.
A few days ago, when Rafaela asked a few questions about how to use her nightmares to present to Iris, she asked.
‘Thinking about it, I have a question. If you’ve been together for three years, haven’t you developed a little bit of romantic feelings?’
‘What kind of romantic feelings?’
‘It was before I was betrayed. The hero had a fiancée, the saintess was not allowed due to religious reasons, and Pessima-sama is old. Only Iris remains? He even said he was pretty.’
From then on, she was Raphael who strangely showed a strange obsession with the relationship between me and Iris. In the end, she somehow got over it by just looking around, but Raphaella seemed to be constantly conscious of Iris after that.
“… Then, please.”
“I won’t let you down.”
Rafaela said with a meaningful smile.
***
That night.
Iris woke up with a scream.
