First of all, there was still no reply from Ophelia. Since Starlet’s death, she had been silent. At first, I thought it could be due to her great sorrow, but given how much time had passed, even a brief word should have come by now.

Moreover, when I last received a letter from Salode, it said that riots had broken out in Reden. Even if Ophelia didn’t have much feeling for Reden, it would still be concerning.

The Galisa waters too, I heard, had become unstable since Starlet’s death.

But the biggest problem wasn’t that.

I’m not sure how much Gilrod knows about the news from here, but he shouldn’t learn about the rebellion here before Salode. No, to be precise, he shouldn’t learn first that the rebellion had failed.

Since Gilrod had cunning and evil sides, if the rebellion had succeeded, he wouldn’t touch the capital until he secured his neck. Being the type who enjoyed pressuring and tormenting others, he would remain silent to let those remaining in the capital harbor hope before crushing it.

However, if he learned that a rebellion had occurred here and failed, even Gilrod wouldn’t be able to maintain his composure. He would try to take the capital somehow before his return.

Fortunately, Sigrasal Castle was structured for defensive warfare, so if the gates were well locked, we could hold out for a while, but in the worst case, it greatly bothered me that Ophelia could be taken hostage.

How can I face her like this?

When bringing Ophelia here, Idren had promised her he could do anything for her. He married her saying he’d let her live doing only what she wanted, but he couldn’t put her in danger.

I had already sent a letter to Salode to close the castle gates as soon as he received it, but I couldn’t just rely on that, so I needed to return quickly… The problem was that the war was not even close to ending, but just beginning. There was only one way to quickly end this situation. Breaking the commander.

That was why they had come to the foot of the mountain where Hator had gone up.

Resda said that since his master didn’t want his true nature to be revealed, he wouldn’t fall for provocations until the end.

But as someone who had sufficiently experienced Brinwell’s First Prince, Idren knew that although he might seem vile to enemies, he valued loyalty to allies.

Of course, if Hator was in his right mind, he wouldn’t come down to rescue Resda. But even if not for Resda, he would have to come down because of that nature.

Someone who cared for his subordinates like that couldn’t hold out until reinforcements arrived while watching his soldiers die.

So he would try to come down somehow.

And if Hator came down the mountain, all that remained for them was an all-out battle.

Penrel also knew this fact and had opposed it.

“Although the Brinwell army has lost much of its strength now, their numbers are still greater than ours. Moreover, aren’t they coming down from high ground?”

“If we don’t end the war now, the capital will be in danger.”

…When I said that, he closed his mouth.

It was then that the sound of drums announcing the enemy’s appearance was heard from outside. Idren, who had been drumming on the table all along, took his hand off and stood up.

He lifted the tent cloth and went outside. In the night vision brightly lit by torches, the flag of the Brinwell army could be seen in the distance.

Anika entered the room of the inn where the southern lords were gathered. A commotion must have already broken out in the room, as it was filled with acrid smoke. Since her father also did the same thing when gathering friends at home, Anika knew that the smoke was from the tobacco they smoked mixed with herbs.

With a slight cough, she pushed through the smoke and entered the room, where staring eyes were fixed on her. The eyes of men about her father’s age or a bit older showed no trace of goodwill. It was natural since their relationship was quite poor.

Anika, hardening her expression to avoid showing any sign of agitation, looked around at them and greeted,

“How do you do?”

One of the men sitting in a group looked her up and down and said,

“Have you been well?”

“Yes, I have been well. Have the lords also been well?”

“It’s been quite a while. The last time I saw you, you were just a child, but now you look quite grown up.”

At that, several of them snickered. Man, how can you pick on a child like that? Some even said that while slapping their friend’s knee.

Disgusting bastards who don’t act their age. Thinking that, Anika still raised the corners of her mouth.

“Quite some time has passed, hasn’t it? For the sake of the family, I had to become an adult.”

And regardless of having to face such subhuman beings, the role of a lord suited her better than expected. Even if she hadn’t been a king, it would have been quite unfair if she couldn’t do it.

A lord who had taken a deep drag of smoke spoke again.

“There was no contact after the funeral, and now you only seek us when needed.”

“I couldn’t contact my father’s friends carelessly. This time, I contacted you out of necessity for the southern economy.”

“Taeran’s thoughts under the coffin would have been different.”

“The thoughts of the dead cannot rise above the ground.”

The snickering ones finally fell silent. Anika met the glaring gazes of the southern lords without avoiding them.

It was then that one of them stood up.

The person who had been sitting in the back and not easily visible, unlike the other elderly men, looked quite young. The young man with a short beard raised a bottle and a glass and spoke in a clear voice.

“Come now, let’s stop this pointless argument. After all, we are all subjects of His Majesty. We’re not misers from Edegrun, so there’s no need to tear each other apart like this. Moreover, didn’t we come here today to discuss important matters?”

The young man was right. They had gathered to discuss ways to minimize the impact on the market and secure grain for Reden.

The lords, also realizing this fact, finally quieted down.

The young man who had stood up pushed through the smoke and approached her, handing her a glass.

“Lord Rohos, please have a drink as well.”

“Thank you.”

The drink poured into the glass she received was a deep brown color and smelled strange. But there were too many eyes watching to refuse, so Anika drank it in one gulp. There was no need to give any unnecessary excuses in a place where even one wrong breath could be picked on.

As she emptied the glass in one go, the young man raised his eyebrows as if surprised.

“Oh, you seem to handle your drink well despite your youth.”

“…I’ve learned quite a bit, from before.”

People had picked on all sorts of things, so she had learned to drink from a young age.

Still, this drink must have been quite strong, as her stomach churned not long after swallowing it. Her chest felt tight and she felt like vomiting. Anika blinked. Somehow, her vision kept getting blurry.

She dropped the glass and grabbed her knees. It was then that a mocking voice was heard from above.

“Still, you should be careful. This isn’t a world where you can just accept and drink anything given to you.”

Only then realizing that something had been put in the drink, Anika retched to try to vomit what she had swallowed. She turned her body to go outside the room. With that attempt, everything before her eyes went black.

The atmosphere in the royal palace has been bad lately.

It’s strange for the atmosphere to be good when the owner is away, but there’s no need for it to be this gloomy. Hazel thought, standing in front of the queen’s study. Clearly, there seems to be something more than just the war.

As if that wasn’t enough, her cousin and the queen seemed to be on bad terms these days. They didn’t confront each other directly, but there was a feeling. Although she didn’t particularly like her cousin, Hazel knew him quite well, and Salode had been watching the queen’s mood lately.

It wasn’t her business whether that guy watched his superiors or not, but the problem was that the fallout seemed to be affecting her as well. Hazel thought the queen seemed to be avoiding her these days.

She was still in charge of guard duty, but that wasn’t what mattered. The woman who used to respond to her jokes three or four times out of ten now gave off an atmosphere where jokes couldn’t even be attempted.

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

As far as she knew, the heads of the elder families were clearly not supposed to enter the royal palace, but these days the queen was accepting most of the elder family heads’ requests for an audience.

Unable to understand this, Hazel had gone to ask her cousin.

“Aren’t you supposed to block the elders’ audiences? The king ordered it before he left.”

Her cousin shook his head as if he couldn’t help it either.

“Even if I try to block them, Her Majesty the Queen allows it.”