Side: Olive Melt ——— Zilba Imperial Army: Flame Princess Knight

「Mist, you got your permission from your Majesty, but what do you really think?」

After the audience, I"ll be discussing the future of our household in the royal capital.

「Which is it, onee-sama? If what Marley-sama said is the truth, or about what"s going to come?」

「Both-desuwa. But what I want to hear right now is about what"s going to happen in the future」

Mist is similar to me, a splendid orange hair, and a beauty on par with mine.

She can use a magic sword in the same way as me, but if I had to say a difference it is that she uses her brain more than me.

Therefore, I come up with a plan a.n.a.lyzed by Mist based on the situation, and then Mist makes minor corrections and implements them.

「About the future…? Yeah, it"s as onee-sama says, we both will have to give an explanation in a while. As expected, onee-sama intuition is amazing」

「That"s just because of you, Mist-desuwa. So, what do you think?」

「Indeed. The cause of this time summon it"s due that Marley-sama"s aide died fighting an orc and dying, but I think that"s a lie」

「As expected, you too, Mist, think that?」

「Yes, that Marley-sama"s close aide wouldn"t be defeated by a mere orc」

「Indeed, she was a woman who could fight on par with us even with our magic swords. She wouldn"t fall even if she was caught off guard by a mere orc」

「To be honest, if she wasn"t Marley-sama"s subordinate, I would have taken her, after all, she was such a talented person. And, leaving Jessica"s a.s.sessment aside, I think what I heard from the soldier who got the information is true」

「So Mist conclusion is the same」

「As expected, you too, onee-sama? Although it"s an absurd story, I think it"s true that Marley-sama was captured after being defeated by a mercenary group of 150 men」

That"s right, after obtaining this information beforehand, we came to Marley"s audience this time.

Although we heard it from the soldiers, we were not convinced by the information that Marley was defeated.

And even though I actually tried to provoke her in the audience room, something felt wrong.

A very natural response. However, If Jessica had really died in battle, she would have been a little more emotional.

Even if you are a n.o.ble and a magic sword user who goes frequently to war, it"s impossible not to feel any emotion at the death of your allies-desuwa.

Moreover, it was the carelessness of the commander, or in other words, Marley, who was caught by surprise that took the life of her subordinate.

Yet, she didn"t ask for the defenses to be reinforced, let alone to kill the orcs.

You could say that the orcs have ruined the lives and reputations of her subordinates.

Therefore, I found out from the soldiers that they could have been defeated by the mercenaries.

Though Mist thinks the reason is trivial.

「The details are unclear, but maybe the conditions of being released from captivity prohibited Marley-sama from contacting the mercenary group? If that"s the case I can understand why Marley-sama would not want to tell the truth」

「I wonder why though?」

「Indeed. Have you heard of a mercenary group so capable that can defeat Marley-sama, onee-sama?」

「No, I haven"t」

「Me too. So, the fact is that the mercenaries don"t want to antagonize us, so to silence Marley-sama, they released her. Or it could be that there is no mercenary group and it was done by the demi-humans…?」

「Hmm, I don"t think it"s the latter. There"s no reason to hide it. Rather, if they were captured, they would have killed them」

「You"re right. That would mean that there really is a mercenary group capable of repeal Marley-sama」

「Should we concerned about that mercenary group?」

「No, from the way they let Marley-sama escape, they don"t want to antagonize us. So, if we pull them over to our side, it will be a good way to increase our strength. In the unlikely event that it becomes a battle…」

「We know about how they attack by surprise and our numbers are almost twice as Marley"s. So we can crush them all at once, eh?」

「Yes, onee-sama」

「Then, rather than negotiations, let"s attack at once and incorporate the mercenaries who will survive as subordinates. If we negotiate from the start we may be underestimated」

「I agree. If we make the power relationship clear from the beginning, they will calmly listen to us. As expected of onee-sama!!」

「It"s also thanks to you Mist for always thinking about everything-desuwa」

「Then, I will start preparing for the expedition immediately. However, there"s only one thing that worries me…」

「I wonder what could it be?」

「Yes, according to the information I"ve got from the soldiers, most of the 150 members of that mercenary group are composed by goblins, and I heard that Marley-sama was also defeated by goblins」

「That is of course, impossible. According to the soldier"s information, the main reason they were defeated was because their headquarters was destroyed, so that one should be misinformation. Besides, what mercenary group doesn"t keep several goblins to several groups of goblins? Since they lost, I wonder if those goblins who had acted as decoy are burned into her eyes?」

「That could… be. I also can"t imagine how Marley-sama, who is also a magic sword user can fight against a goblin and lose」

「When I thought of goblins, I thought it could be the Blood War Mercenaries」

「That"s impossible, of course. As we have the information that that mercenary group was hired in a country further in the enemy"s country」

「Yes, that"s what I thought, so I saw the information about a large number of goblins as misinformation-desuwa」

「Thank you, onee-sama. One less thing to worry about. All we have to do is watch out for any surprises and defeat the enemy. Same as usual」

「Yes, in a fight, the basics are the most important thing. Now, after winning this fight, we"ll continue going up and up」

「Yes, let"s get bigger and make the life of the people of our territory easier」

I reaffirmed our goals with Mist and started getting ready for the expedition.

Side: Yuki

As usual, I was researching magic with Zergis, but that day I got another report.

「Yuki-san, someone started moving in the Zilba Empire」

Ria, as usual, was sorting through her materials when she suddenly said something like that.

「What"s wrong? Eh? I"m now receiving those kinds of rumors here too」

We"ve sent doppelgängers to gather information before when we were scouting in the city of Fail before.

Among them, there was a rumor that the Zilba Empire started moving its army towards the demi-humans.

「Yes, there were rumors even before that, but this time we have something to back it up」

「Really? From where?」

「It came from Marley-san」

「Oh, is that right? That girl doing something like that, eh?」

「Something must have happened. There was also a letter to Jessicsan, and it says that Marley-sama"s army will return to the battle against the Holy Land and it"s currently pa.s.sing thought Fail, so that should be when she sent this」

「What? That princess stopped by that town? She didn"t greet me at all, you know?」

In this day and age, a city so close to the front lines has many armies coming and going that I didn"t notice at all that she came.

Fail which was taken off from the Holy Land, has a large number of soldiers transporting supplies, recruiting soldiers, and sending them back and forth.

「Well, Yuki-san was basically gathering information behind the scenes, and since you gather information in that way, you haven"t had any kind of contact with Marley-san lately」

「Indeed, Yuki was gathering information with the tavern as center. So the princess would have no chance of contacting Yuki. In the first place, she can"t carelessly contact you. As official stance, the princess is supposed to have succeeded in defeating the demi-humans and the orcs, so it would be bad if she were to be seen with Yuki while feeling mentally weak」

From the side, Jessica also gives her opinion.

For the past month or so, Jessica has been working as my close aide, just like Ria.

The information I got of this continent, the way it moves it"s… old. Though I"m really grateful to have an unbiased voice telling me the way of fighting on this continent.

Well, Jessica has also been going to Weed and learning to drive away all the common sense she"s ever had until now.

She already has the ability to surpa.s.s the princess and Narujisan has given to her given to her a sword that it"s even stronger than that phony magic sword.

The look on her face when she was handed that sword…

「Are you perhaps thinking about something rude?」

「I was thinking. About the expression you had when you were handed that sword.」

「Yes, Jessicsan burst into tears. ‘It"s okay for a prisoner like me to receive such a fine sword?" was it?」

「Please stop talking about that!! I can"t help it, this sword is so great to that extent!!」

「Even so, the performance of this sword is lower than mine」

「That"s natural!! Were you planning to give me a sword like that of the hero or even better!!?」

「I was planning nothing, you just need spend your time normally. Like me」

「Who the h.e.l.l who be able!! Haa, rather, what army is moving right now?」

Tsk, she changed the subject.

Normally, it would be a big problem to know that an army is moving towards us.

「It"s like Jessicsan predicted. Ori○ー and Piku○n (オリ○ーとピク○ン). They have about double the numbers, and as official stance, they will prepare the defenses as well as carry out the reconnaissance against orcs」

「I"m telling you, they are Olive and Mist」

「Does they have some other objective rather than using this wanting to rise in ranks?」

「Yes, from what I head from Marley-san, it seems like their goal is to obtain the truth and get us under their control」

「No, I"m asking about real information?」

I know you can"t build a door in a man"s mouth, but I"m sure the story of 2500 soldiers led by the princess being defeated by 150 was pa.s.sed on…

「Perhaps they interpreted the surprise attack in a convenient way for them. I think it"s impossible to measure Yuki"s strength unless they go by themselves, which is what they could be thinking. And as I"ve said before, Olive and Mist have a strong desire to rise in ranks. Surely they think that if they defeat the enemy that the princess could not, their reputation will go up and they"ll get powerful soldiers called Yuki and the others」

「I see. Though I smashed the princess head-on, they turned a deaf ear to the inconvenient information? No, they just grabbed the information they could understand, huh?」

「So what are you going to do?」

Come to think of it, it"s about time I a.n.a.lyze the magic sword, too.

They will be here just in time, should I destroy them?

But I"d also like to know the information about the swords they are using, and if it"s really a dungeon core material or similar, I have a bad feeling about taking it from their magic swords users.

Then we"ll need to capture that Olive and Mist alive.

「Okay. I"m going to capture Olive and Mist and use them in my magical research experiments. So, it will be the same as that time with the princess…」

I"ll use CALL to summon the heroes from the previous battle.

「What?」

「Steve, in about two months from now, two magic sword users like that princess will be coming with 5000 soldiers」

「Haa, a fight-ssu? But that"s something that can be left to the generals and demi-humans. It"s too troublesome to deal with those hot-blooded people anymore-ssu」

「I see now. Yeah, I"ve decided, Steve should lead the demi-humans against those magic sword users」

「Haaaa!?」

「If I have to be detailed, it"s just a way to get those hot-blooded people to listen to us, right?」

「Ah, I understand, we"ll just let them charge in at random, help them in a pinch, and let them know that what we say is absolute」

「Yeah. I"ll leave the details to you」

「Yeah yeah, we"ll do anything to repeal them」

Ah, he did just say repel?

I have to correct him.

「Ah, sorry. Don"t repel them, but capture them」

「Don"t be ridiculous-ssu! Even though the demi-humans are gathering right now, we need to make this village bigger and increase its capacity first-ssu!? Right now, we only have about 500 battle-ready at the most-ssu!!」

「Ohー they"re here. Well, they are only about ten times bigger, good luck. At worst, I"ll hold back the magic sword users」

「Is is true-ssu?」

「Yeah, I don"t lie」

「What"s with that suspicious-looking answer!」

「You"re going to adjust the budget yourself since I"m busy with my magic research」

「HiiiiIIiiIii!! You aren"t lying, but aren"t you pushing the most troublesome thing to me-ssu? The budget has to pa.s.s through Serarinee-san, the finances through Ellis-nee-san, and then ordering supplies to Lutz"s nee-san, isn"t this a doc.u.ment h.e.l.l-ssu!?」

「I don"t care about what you do with your salary, you know?」

「It"s impossible with our low salary-ssu!! In fact, if you, the general talk, it would pa.s.s in one shot!!」

「No, not really. Just make the paper and it will pa.s.s through, you know? Well, I"m sure they will fix the little mistakes you do」

Well, they are all my wives after all.

「d.a.m.n, I"ll do it-ssu! If I say no anyway, I"ll be used as a magic research subject, right?」

「Ooh, you sure know it. I had to observe how far a monster could go with zero magic, and so I was thinking of Steve to…」

「I have a job to do, I"m going-ssu!!」

Tsk, he escaped.

「…I think I now know what Steve meant when he said those words during that battle」

Jessica looked somehow sad as she stared at the door from where Steve escaped.

I wonder what does she thought that I was talking about?