“Your Majesty the Queen.”

The woman blinked her large aquamarine eyes a few times before approaching him.

“What exactly happened?”

“……That’s what I would like to ask you.”

Confusion clouded the Queen’s eyes. Starret thought her expression looked quite innocent, then realized that was simply how she naturally looked.

Anyway, to be fooled again right after being hit on the back of the head.

Thinking himself truly hopeless, Starret shook his head. His head still ached from being dunked in water repeatedly, but it was nothing compared to the bitterness in his heart.

He asked the woman who was waiting for him to continue speaking:

“What was the meaning of the back of your hand that you offered me?”

When she closed the door and came out, Ophelia did not know how to resolve the situation.

First of all, it seemed Starret thought she had betrayed him.

“Isn’t it natural for a useless object to be discarded?”

Even though she had not grown particularly fond of him, being misunderstood like that made her feel cold inside.

Fortunately, after some conversation, Starret believed that his arrest was not her intention. It was not so much due to trust in her, but rather the result of him seeing and judging the situation with his own eyes.

He spoke with a voice still tinged with some distrust and hostility:

“But the one who framed me was using the Chesa crest.”

Since Starret would not try to deceive her with such a thing, it was probably true.

“The one who came to find me was Gilrod Nebel.”

“Then it must have been an impersonation.”

And there was only one reason for Nebel to impersonate Chesa. To drive a wedge between her and Salode while Idren was away.

Salode, who currently held a key position in the castle, was someone Idren had personally appointed.

And Idren and Chesa’s ties ran very deep.

So he must have thought it would be difficult to exploit that gap any other time but now.

But wouldn’t it be immediately exposed when Starret and she met anyway?

Ophelia could not understand what Gilrod intended by impersonating Chesa and handing Starret over to her. If he wanted to separate Chesa and her, it would have been much more rational not to hand Starret over to her.

Gilrod Nebel couldn’t possibly be this stupid.

Idren greatly disliked that man. He had warned her about Gilrod several times. If Gilrod was a fool incapable of discernment, he would not have done so.

Furthermore, she still had an unresolved question.

That someone had tampered with the documents coming up to her.

Everything regarding Galisa was being managed together with the people Idren had provided. Chesa was naturally involved in that as well. Though not deeply, it was enough to be able to divert a report or two if needed.

In the first place, even the news coming up to her was filtered by Salode, Chesa’s successor, wasn’t it?

It wasn’t that she was trying to doubt someone Idren trusted. But just because they were Idren’s people didn’t mean they were her people, and just because Idren accepted her didn’t mean everyone under him accepted her as well.

Even in her previous life, Salode had disapproved of her. Separate from understanding the man, Ophelia had grasped his personality through his openly hostile actions towards her.

He was loyal to Idren, but that loyalty was different from obedience.

There was one more person besides Salode by Idren’s side. Penrel Soar.

He was the one who embodied obedience. That knight, who knew best what kind of relationship she and Idren had, maintained his courtesy towards her until the end.

While Salode’s loyalty was to expose her faults on behalf of his blind master, that knight’s loyalty was to close his eyes along with his master.

So if Salode knew about the collusion between pirates and the royal family, and that she was behind it, for the sake of his king Idren……

No, this is useless thinking. Ophelia quickly chased away the thoughts in her head. Even if Salode disapproved of her actions, he would not have joined hands with Nebel. After all, Nebel was practically the representative of the Elder faction, while Chesa stood on the opposite Royalist side.

But he could still use him to some extent, couldn’t he?

Such a thought suddenly occurred to her.

Even without a friendly relationship, people could be used in many ways. Ophelia herself had experienced this several times. Hadn’t she used Mahanas to make Reden miserable, and used Reden to hold back Mahanas?

So, perhaps from Chesa……

No, this is exactly what Gilrod Nebel wants. Leaning against the corridor, she gathered her confused thoughts. What Nebel wanted was for the union between the royal family and Chesa to break apart. So the more confused she became, the more she would be acting according to his intentions.

First, she needed to think of a way to get rid of Starret. Having bought some time, Ophelia moved her feet. It seemed she could manage by either faking an escape or using a body double. At least she had not delayed punishment after finding out who had tampered with her documents.

However, when dawn broke the next day, Ophelia realized her plan had completely fallen through.

“Rumors are rife in the capital that Your Majesty the Queen has taken in a pirate.”

This was what Salode, who had requested an audience more urgently than usual, said to her.

“Is it true that Starret is really inside the castle?”

When the man she had been wondering how to deal with all night said such words, Ophelia unconsciously tried to discern the true meaning behind them. It was an instinctive suspicion that arose even though she knew that being so suspicious of everything would not help the situation.

Swallowing dryly, she replied in a slightly subdued voice.

“That’s right.”

At any rate, she could not deny it here.

“…I see.”

And Salode rubbed his face once, as if unsure what to say. After a moment of silence, he spoke.

“It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but it would be best to put him on the execution stand as soon as possible. Even today may not feel soon enough.”

Is he saying this knowing what kind of relationship Starret and I have? Is the bewilderment on that man’s face just a lie to smooth over the situation?

All sorts of thoughts came to her mind. Ophelia pressed her aching eyes again. The execution grounds of Reden that she had unfailingly seen last night seemed to flicker before her eyes.

“I’m sorry to say this, but that won’t be possible.”

“……May I ask the reason?”

“I don’t know if His Majesty told you, but Starret is a necessary card right now. So we need to keep him alive.”

“I am also aware that you received his help in revoking Brinwell’s port docking rights. But this is a separate issue.”

“We just need to buy a little time. Then……”

And Ophelia realized how shallow her words were. She had such thoughts just yesterday out of urgency, but after a night’s sleep, both ideas seemed ridiculous.

A body double? Gilrod already knew Starret’s face. The rumors spreading in the capital were also the result of Gilrod’s meddling.

If she put forward someone else in Starret’s place, it would be like openly handing Gilrod a weakness to exploit.

An escape was the same. A notorious pirate escaped from the royal prison. That sentence alone would make trust in the royal family plummet drastically.

Idren’s royal family was different from her homeland that her brother possessed. Though Mahanas had been Reden’s shame for a long time, the people of Aglante loved their king. She had already seen this fact with her own eyes.

And falling from the top is completely different from being at the bottom to begin with. The former shatters much more cruelly.

She could not ruin the reputation of the royal family, which was practically Idren himself, in such a way, even if it were her own.

As she lowered her gaze without finishing her words, Salode spoke again with emphasis:

“You must execute that pirate.”

Using his left hand instead of his right, which felt as if the bone had been removed, Starret recalled what the Queen had told him yesterday as he shaved.

“For now, just wait here for a while. I’ll try to do something about it somehow.”

The Queen, who had emphasized several times that she had not tried to dispose of him, had said that to him.

He didn’t want to just sit still trusting the words of someone he had only seen a few times, but right now there was no other choice but that.

To be honest, when the Queen said that, he had felt some relief. If he thought that he had fallen into a trap rather than being betrayed, his body might not feel better, but his mind did.

“……Even if I end up on the execution stand, I should at least have a clean face.”

Bringing out the humor that had momentarily disappeared, he muttered as he turned his chin this way and that to look in the mirror. Anyway, he felt he could survive this situation somehow.

It was then that the door burst open.