Chapter 38
1912 Words
Chapter 38
The commander of the eastern troops unintentionally frowned. There definitely wasn’t a good reason to suddenly request for leave behind this.
“.........what is it for? Didn’t you just come back with Abigail last week?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Martina was smiling sweetly, all while she squeezed the scrap paper remains of a book into a tightly packed dumpling.
“It’s just for a bit, there’s just something I need to confirm with a certain someone.”
Later on, the general deeply regretted not properly asking any more questions after hearing about what would happen in the capitol.
............still
At the same time he was painfully aware that even if he had known everything in advance he couldn’t have stopped her, so he decided not to worry about it too much.
- The King Condemns
- The King Condemns
The King Condemns
The royal palace, has finally seen the return of their King and Queen.
A carriage slowly passed by a line of royal guardsmen, and both military and civil officials poured out of the palace to greet them after their long absence.
“Hahaha, now this is quite the welcome.”
The enthusiasm from the courtiers at their lord’s return brought out a cacophony of delighted cheers, causing the King to ease up on his formal poise. Even though a welcome like this was against custom, it would certainly make anyone feel popular.
The Queen was smiling as well.
“We have been absent a long time. They must have fully realized how grand Your Highness’s existence was in that time.”
“But after week, I’m sure they’ll start saying how oppressive I am again.”
“Well, in that case Your Highness. I’ll have to begin to distrust the loyalty of your retainers.”
“Hahahahahaha”
From the window of the slowly moving carriage, you could see the numerous clerks and military officers rushing forward one after another to meet the King’s carriage. And the courtiers lined along the road looked truly happy from the bottom of their hearts.
........they actually looked a little too happy.
“...........My Queen. Isn’t there something strange about all of this?”
“...........I was just thinking the same thing.”
The people who had run up to greet them were waving their hands in the air way too energetically.........rather than coming back from a business trip, it was more like the King and Queen were being welcomed by a parade after a successful military campaign........no, it was more like they were desperately needed reinforcements arriving during a difficult siege.........
“Perhaps.........Elliott’s disturbance.........”
“...........let’s go back to our chambers to compose ourselves, and we can confirm everything then.”
So with mixed feelings swirling around in their hearts, the King and Queen’s procession continued through an enthusiastic welcome.
Informed of his parents’ return by a chamberlain, Prince Elliott’s expression tightened.
“So then Father and Mother have finally returned........yosh! Since things have already come to this, I have nothing left to do but to complain about Rachel’s injustices with all my heart!”
Last night, the villainous noble girl was so heinous that as a man he had to try and assassinate her.
“In an hour’s time, they shall immediately hold an audience in the small hall to make a ruling on the previous engagement abandonment.”
“Mm. I’ll head over there at once as well.”
“Yes. .........would you like me to push you?”
“Yes, please!”
And so the chamberlain pushed Elliott’s wheelchair out of his office.
Rachel deflated a bit when Sofia informer her the King, Queen, and her parents had returned.
“Is that so.........I wish they would’ve been a little slower.”
The word ‘bothersome’ was written clear as day on Rachel’s face.
“I don’t think a trial by absentia would work out too well for you.”
“That’s right..........I guess I don’t have any other choice.”
For the time being Rachel changed from her loungewear into a walking outfit.
“..........before heading there, aren’t you still too lightly dressed?”
When Sofia tried to point out the unceremoniousness of her outfit, Rachel snorted through her nose.
“I’ve been locked away in a prison this whole time, so it’d be strange for me to suddenly show up in formal wear. And these type of clothes are good enough if you’re just going to greet someone.”
“And the real reason?”
“If I were to wear a dress, then I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until they come get me.”
As she was saying as much, Rachel was already halfway back under her covers.
The small hall was a place used for informal talks or courtesy visits, and it was in this very room that everyone was now gathered where Elliott had canceled his engagement three months ago.
Other than the King and Queen–Rachel, Elliott, and Margaret had gathered here as well. Others included the Prime Minister and the Archduke, and other major cabinet-level individuals such as the knight commander and the chief minister. Duke Ferguson and his wife were there as well.
But that was it.
“............just this?”
Elliott’s expectations were betrayed when he saw how few people there were here.
Margaret kept quiet.
Seeing the King’s countenance and each person that had been gathered here, Rachel was able to guess how things were going to go.
“Hmm. We’ll be having an informal trial.”
The King gave a large nod to her words.
“Now then”
The King sat down on his thrown, glancing at the faces of everyone who had gathered here.
“We are gathered here today to put an end to all the confusion that has spawned from Elliott breaking his engagementstupidly during that party a few months ago.”
All the vassals unanimously voiced their approval. The Archduke especially breathed a sigh of relief.
As if waiting for this very moment, Elliott cut through the others as if a flame had been lit.
“Then Father, allow me to explain why the engagement was cancelled........”
“Ah, it doesn’t matter.”
A wet blanket was immediately thrown over that flame.
“............Huh? Why?”
The King rested his chin in the palm of his hand and made his response to his son a little clearer.
“I said, I don’t care about such a thing.”
“No.........eh? Even if you say that it doesn’t matter.......didn’t you gather us here to talk about it?”
“There is nothing to talk about. I have already confirmed all the facts for this case long ago.”
The corners of his mouth moved as the King looked down on his son.
“Do you think we visited the hot springs to enjoy ourselves?”
Of course they did.
“Even as I was using the hot springs to help cure my stomach condition, I was still collecting and analyzing information.”
He means his subordinates were.
“So as for why we’ve all gathered here...........”
The King moved his legs and rearranged how he was sitting.
“The reason is so I can announce my decision on the future of the Kingdom’s inheritance.”
Stunned for a moment, Elliott buckled over confused.
“P, Please wait Father! Even though you said that the circumstances behind my broken engagement don’t matter........!?”
“To be precise, should I say this is the result of the past three months?”
The King stared directly into Elliott’s eyes.
“In truth, after the first two weeks I had completed my investigation on you and your friends’ horseplay. I asked everyone and all of their stories matched up. There is no evidence that Miss Rachel bullied anyone. So without any solid reasoning to back it up, you abandoning your engagement and everything you did afterwards was completely unjustified.”
“That is........!? That’s wrong, because.........!”
“Well then listen! After we had finished compiling our evidence, Duke Ferguson joined me at the hot springs, and we began talking about countermeasures. And so just as we were considering how to best end this issue without creating any serious problems.......we realized it wouldn’t be that great of a loss.”
In front of the King’s eyes, chamberlains set down a couple mountains of documents that had been in the King’s carriage with him.
“Elliott. The mountain on your left is from all the reports I received from government officials and cabinet members telling me about how each department was faring. The mountain on the right is from my people who work behind the scenes, reporting on all the information they had collected for me. And as for that center mountain nearly twice the size of the others, those are all the reports Miss Rachel made herself and sent to her father reporting on her current condition using one of her subordinates. Even though the Duke and I were in a city so far away, these reports were so well made we felt as if we knew everything that had happened because we were there to witness it.”
The King’s intense gaze once again focused on Elliott.
“So, where are the reports from you?”
“...........!”
Elliott didn’t have an answer to the King’s question.
“Typically while I am away, you would send any inquiries you have to the government offices so that you’re not wasting time by having to confirm every little thing with me every single day. However........something like abandoning your engagement and changing who the future queen of this country would be, don’t you think that’s a major incident slightly out of your authority? You never thought to inform me of your decision, or to even explain your reasoning to me?”
“T, That is.........”
Elliott cleared his throat.......and then thought for a bit before squeezing out an answer.
“...........I was going to do it all at one time later.”
“Don’t talk like you were some child who procrastinated everything.”
The King picked up some documents that a fourth chamberlain brought over on a tray to him.
“This is a summary drawing its conclusions from all these other reports, detailing everything you and your subordinates did and the consequences of those actions. There were so many, do you have any idea how hard it was boiling all this down?”
Hard for his subordinates he means.
“Reading this, it becomes easy to understand how you allow important government affairs to rot. You spent all of your time trying to find new ways to harass Miss Rachel, using up valuable resources in these asinine plots, and then always took damage from some counterattack, so you neglected your duties for nothing. And then you went ahead and did it over and over again.”
“Because Rachel is........!”
“Miss Rachel was also almost always reacting on the spot. Even while you were off planning things on your own, she was finished after giving out a few orders and spent the rest of her time reading or napping or doing other hobbies..........i’m so jealous.......but so you weren’t even capable of forcing her hand.”
As expected, the King doesn’t seem to understand that Rachel has been spending her time writing BL novels either.
- Writer
