Chapter 377: Horn Kingdom, and the Heated Conference.
Horn Kingdom.
A country focused on agriculture, situated in the Surface World, on the eastern edge of the continent. Being blessed with fertile lands and mild weather, it had developed into a region with unique culture, and only interacts with very few outside countries.
One of the reasons for that was the invasion by Heavenly Empire Yulong in the past.
Until around a hundred years ago, Horn Kingdom had some territory to its north as well. That piece of land was taken by Yulong through force.
Horn Kingdom obviously took offense, and severed any diplomatic ties with Yulong while forming an alliance with Ferzen to keep the former in check. Afterwards, it continued its half- isolation diplomacy for nearly a hundred years.
It sounds nice when they say that Horn has a unique culture and national identity; however, the fact that nothing new is coming in from the outside also means that Horn is being left behind by the world. It's not even trying to take in some of its ally, Ferzen's magic-inclined cultural development.
And one of the people who felt a sense of crisis at the current situation is the previous king, Tonam Da Horn's son and the crown prince, Kamra Da Horn.
At this rate, Horn Kingdom would never develop any further. Driven by that thought, he petitioned the king—his father—to start proactively gather foreign talents and incorporate their skills into the current structure.
However, the king did not approve of his thoughts; and with that, a rift formed between the king and the crown prince. They did not acknowledge each other's views at all, and apparently they break out into arguments whenever they meet. As they both had stubborn personalities, they did not give ground in their arguments, and their relationship only worsened with the passing of time.
And a year ago, tragedy struck the royal family.
The accidental death of the crown prince. He fell down a cliff together with his carriage on a rainy day, and departed this world at 21 years of age.
A huge funeral procession was held, and all the citizens mourned the early death of the crown prince. And as if to pour more oil on the fire, the king also passed away suddenly, only a week after the crown prince did.
As for the cause, some said it was due to the shock of losing his son piling up on top of his mental burden, while others claimed it was the worsening of his body condition, which had been in a bad state for several years before this.
A state funeral was immediately held, and the entire nation mourned. The citizens were struck hard by the consecutive tragedies.
However, the misfortunes that would befall Horn Kingdom did not end with this.
Normally, the crown prince would inherit the throne when the king dies. However, that crown prince had died just a week ago. In this case, following regular procedure, the one-year-old son of the crown prince, Cuo Da Horn would inherit the throne instead.
Of course, there's no way a baby one year old can manage the country as king. As such, people expected the prime minister, as well as the maternal grandfather of the young King Cuo, Schwein Adante to act as regent for the moment.
However, the late king's younger brother, Ganossa Da Horn voiced his objection.
He claimed that the late king had wanted to take the right of inheritance from the crown prince, and pass it to his younger brother—in other words, himself—instead. Following that logic, he accused Schwein of plotting to take away the authority of the throne by force.
On the other hand, the prime minister side claimed that the late king had wanted to mend his relationship with his son. He refuted the king's younger brother's claims, saying that he himself had been asked to mediate between the two.
"With neither side yielding, a power struggle began to brew between the grandson faction and the younger brother faction. And ultimately, it has brought the country to the brink of civil war… Is it something like that?"
"It is."
The Ferzen king gave a small nod to the Ramissh pope's words.
A large carriage belonging to Ferzen was running on the road leading to Horn Kingdom's royal castle.
Inside the carriage, which is wide and comfortably furnished, Her Holiness the Ramissh Pope and His Majesty the Ferzen King are sitting in front of me.
And on my two sides are Yae and Sakura, who tagged along with the reason of guarding me.
"Ferzen would mediate between the two camps and oversee their discussion. And during that, I'd like to borrow Your Holiness the Pope's power to see through any lies they might make."
"And depending on the results, Ferzen would align themselves with one of the factions, is it?"
"Umu. With my country behind one side, that should be enough deterrent against a civil war."
Well, I can agree to that. Still, I know Her Holiness the Pope is here to see through lies, but what am I supposed to do here?
"I'd like to request Touya-dono to be on guard against magical interference. While I don't think it's likely, there might be people who would aim to harm the king's younger brother or the prime minister. There might be things that we cannot notice ourselves, after all."
I see. It's true that if the former intelligence corps of Yulong is involved, something may actually happen. They're the type who would blow themselves up for their cause. There's no telling what could occur.
As I took a deep breath to refocus myself, the carriage stopped; we'd arrived at the royal castle, it seems.
The royal castle is small compared to the ones in Belfast and Regulus. Its appearance, too, is rather simple, with almost no splendour to speak of.
To compare, let's see… Think Shuri Castle, except more dull-looking and without the red color. It's just an image, though.
We passed through the gates, and entered the castle. Unfortunately, the gates don't look like Shureimon at all.
As the carriage came to a stop, from another carriage which had been in front of us, soldiers belonging to Ferzen's magic corps jumped out. In a similar fashion, holy knights belonging to Ramissh alighted from yet another carriage behind us, and lined up in front of our carriage.
The captain of the soldiers opened the door of our carriage for us. We alighted in the order of His Majesty the Ferzen King, Her Holiness the Ramissh Pope, and finally my group of three.
"Welcome to Horn Kingdom, Your Majesty the Ferzen King, Your Holiness the Ramissh Pope, Your Majesty the Brunhild Sovereign."
A man stood in front of the door that leads into the castle. Age around thirty, swept-back black hair, and a pair of glasses on his face. His appearance gives off the impression of being a civil servant, but his eyes are sharp. He's wearing asymmetrical ethnic-styled clothing, and there's a sash hung over his shoulder.
"You are?"
"One of the Four Marquises of Horn Kingdom, the Eastern Sea Marquis, Toren Hanoi. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"The Four Marquises?"
When I spoke out due to hearing a new phrase, the person in question answered me himself.
"It refers to the four marquises within Horn who hold the largest territories. I govern over a territory facing the ocean to the east, hence the Eastern Sea Marquis."
Within the numerous territories in Horn Kingdom, there are four pieces that are particularly large; their governors are called the Eastern Sea Marquis, the Western Forest Marquis, The Northern Mountain Marquis and the Southern Spring Marquis, making up the Four Marquises.
Within them, the Nothern Mountain Marquis and the Western Forest Marquis support the king's younger brother, Ganossa Da Horn, while the Eastern Sea Marquis and the Southern Spring Marquis support the prime minister, Schwein Adante; they're perfectly split in half.
So, Eastern Sea Marquis Toren in front of me is part of the prime minister faction.
Marquis Toren… I guess the Eastern Sea Marquis is fine. The Eastern Sea Marquis guided us into the castle.
"I did not expect Your Majesty the Brunhild Sovereign and Your Holiness the Ramissh Pope to visit as well, however."
"I had wanted to see Horn's lands that are famed for their wonderful ambience. We're thankful to His Majesty the Ferzen King for listening to our unreasonable request."
"I see. Our country doesn't interact with other countries at all besides Ferzen, after all… I'm part of the group who thought that that's not something good… On this occasion, it'd be fortunate for us if you would act as witnesses for our conference."
The Eastern Sea Marquis answered with a bitter smile. Fumu. So this person is part of the reformists, huh. He might be holding some sort of expectations towards us, who are leaders of foreign countries, lending credibility to their views.
Eventually, we were guided by the Eastern Sea Marquis to a room that looked like a conference hall.
It's a luxurious-looking room, with gold coloring peeking out here and there on the walls and the pillars. A huge dragon is engraved on the entire ceiling, leaving quite an impression. It's a drastic departure from the simplistic look of the castle itself. For now, we sat down at the north side of the rectangular frame-shaped table placed in the room, and several Ferzen soldiers and Ramissh holy knights stood behind us as guards.
The Eastern Sea Marquis left the room to call in the representatives of the two factions. After that, I looked around the room and found the source of the magic power which I had been feeling since a while ago.
"Fuun…"
"Touya-dono? Is something wrong-degozaru ka?"
Yae noticed my line of sight and asked.
"The eye of the dragon engraved on the ceiling. And the crystals it's gripping in its hands. Those are most likely enchanted magical tools."
"Eh?"
"Well, they aren't things that would harm us. From what I can tell, its effects are something like [Silence] which prevents sound from leaking out of this room, a barrier that prevents teleportation-type magics, and an activation sequence for a simple protective wall… I think."
Basically, sound from within the room would not be heard outside, any kind of transfer magic would be dispelled, and if someone tries to harm another person within the room, a protective shield would appear. Well, I don't know about the strength of it, though. Still, it should count as a decent safety measure.
After some time, the doors on the two sides from where we were sitting opened together, as if timed beforehand, and the representatives of the two factions entered the room.
Since none of them are above a king in terms of standing, we remain seated as they entered. Yae and Sakura stood up and nodded in greeting, though.
And like that, we exchanged greetings.
To our left is the prime minister, Schwein Adante, followed by the Eastern Sea Marquis earlier, Toren Hanoi, and the Southern Spring Marquis, Navait Chelmin.
Prime Minister Schwein is right before his seventies, and despite being an old man, the light in his eyes cannot be underestimated. He has some white beard on his face, and the deep wrinkles on his face as well as the hooked nose accentuated his impression of being a strong- willed person. He looks like the type who wouldn't really get jokes.
On the other hand, Southern Spring Marquis Navait is in his thirties, and looked like a middle- aged man with a rather plump body shape. While he looks like he's mild-mannered, from a while ago he has been constantly wiping sweat off his face with a handkerchief; I wonder if he's nervous. He seems like a weak-willed person.
And then, to our right, we have the king's younger brother, Ganossa Da Horn leading the other two marquises, the Northern Mountain Marquis, Hawkes Manius and the Western Forest Marquis, Seiria Suile.
If I remember correctly, the king's younger brother Ganossa is forty this year. He looks very well-built. The black moustache and hair make him look younger than his actual age. Together with the sharp glint in his eyes, he definitely looks like a warrior.
Northern Mountain Marquis Hawkes, who's sitting next to him, is an old man over sixty. He's a grandpa with a mysterious atmosphere around him, and is somewhat hard to read. He kind of reminds me of old man Naito. A rather useless person.
The last person, Western Forest Marquis Seiria. The only woman in the Four Marquises, with a head of chestnut brown hair.
Her age looks to be in the early twenties. Pretty young. However, in contrast to her age, she has a resolute aura which makes one raise their evaluation of her unconsciously. It's only my first impression, but she looks like a hard-headed person who wouldn't allow compromises. While she is a beauty, she doesn't look like the type that men would approach, eh.
Besides the main actors, there are also several guards and aides following behind each group.
Prime Minister Schwein.
Eastern Sea Marquis Toren.
Southern Spring Marquis Navait.
King's younger brother Ganossa.
Northern Mountain Marquis Hawkes.
Western Forest Marquis Seiria.
The conference that would decide the future of Horn Kingdom began.
"Elder brother disagreed with Prince Kamra's thoughts. He feared that his son's radical ideas may shake the very foundations of this Horn Kingdom. That is why he had promised to withhold the crown prince's succession rights, and transfer them to me."
"However, you cannot prove that he had actually made that kind of promise. While the story would be different if the crown prince had already been stripped of his succession rights, right now, following civil laws, it is the proper procedure for the first son of Prince Kamra, Prince Cuo to inherit the throne, isn't it?"
"Is Prime Minister-dono insinuating that my claims are falsehoods?"
"Nothing of the sort. The king had been very troubled by the rift between him and his son. A spur-of-the-moment statement made when he is overcome with emotions… I believe that that's a possible scenario as well, is all I'm saying."
Prime Minister Schwein and the king's younger brother Ganossa. They're going on complete parallels, with neither side willing to back down.
Just like what the prime minister said, it's possible that the king may have said that when he's drunk, or after one of his more heated arguments with the crown prince…
Even though he said it, he doesn't really want to do it… There's the possibility. The problem here, however, is that the king's younger brother fully believes in those words.
"There's something I want to confirm, Prime Minister-dono. Is it true that on the day elder brother died, there was an argument between him and you?"
"… Yes. It is the truth; what about it?"
"According to the people in the castle back then, elder brother had cleared everyone else out of the room, saying he had something important to talk about with you. Can you tell us what that something was?"
While receiving Ganossa's glare, Prime Minister Schwein slowly opened his mouth.
"… We only talked about the will of the deceased Prince Kamra. It was about how he still believed that Horn needs to open its doors to the world in order to not get left behind by it. However, the king was still opposed to the idea, and it developed into an argument…"
"Is that the truth? Didn't elder brother talk to you about passing the throne to me? There were several points I found suspicious regarding elder brother's death too. Don't you have any idea about them, Prime Minister-dono?"
"… I have no idea what you're asking from me."
Nn? So he's claiming the prime minister killed the king?
No no, would he kill the king just because he wanted the country to be opened to the outside?
Ah, if the king died, he could control the country as regent to his grandson. I guess the motive is there.
The two of them maintained their silence while glaring at each other. If you ask me, both sides have suspicious parts to them.
Well, it's for times like this that I brought Her Holiness the Pope along, though.
There's not many people who know of the pope's lie-detecting [Mystic Eyes of Sincerity]. And given that it's the half-isolated Horn Kingdom, there should be very little possibility anyone here knows.
I stealthily asked Her Holiness the Pope, who's sitting next to me.
"How is it? Can you understand which side is lying?"
"That is…"
Her Holiness the Pope tilted her head with a troubled look.
"Neither side are lying… I think."
"Eh? What, what do you mean?"
"My mystic eyes did not react. Either both sides are saying the truth, or they believe what they're saying to be the truth… Or, they may have something that could block the effects of my mystic eyes…"
Although I havn't seen an artifact that could block the effects of mystic eyes yet, if we assume mystic eyes to be a type of non-attribute magic, it's not impossible.
I don't sense anything like that from both sides, though…
"Prime Minister-dono is the grandfather of Prince Cuo. If he becomes regent, he could wield even more authority than before. However, with Ganossa-sama here, there's no way that could happen. Exactly a thorn in his side, don't you think?"
"What exactly are you trying to say here, Norther Mountain Marquis?"
As the Northern Mountain Marquis grandpa opened his mouth, the Eastern Sea Marquis opposite him glared his way with a sharp look.
"Nothing much. On the way to the royal castle, the carriage Ganossa-sama rode in had one of its wheels fall off, and he almost sustained serious injuries because of that. He might've even died if something else went wrong."
"What did you say?"
Shocked voices came from the prime minister's side.
"I thought it's an accident due to the decaying of the material at first, but there's some suspicious parts about it. Prince Kamra also passed away due to a carriage accident… Do you have any ideas, Prime Minister-dono?"
"There's no way I would have any. I find it confounding that you would even consider asking me that sort of thing."
"Is that so…"
While laughing, the eyes of the Northern Mountain Marquis never left the prime minister. Is the wheel falling off the carriage simply an accident? Or…
I looked at Her Holiness the Pope again, but as expected, she only returned a small sideways shake of her head.
There shouldn't be any reason for the prime minister to kill Prince Kamra. I mean, he's the husband of his daughter, for one.
"… Let's take a break for now."
When the Ferzen king said that, the people in the room left via the door they came in from in the beginning.
I leaned back against my chair and let out a breath. The tension just now made for a pretty bad ambience. They were constantly glaring at each other and stuff, you know.
I drank the tea prepared by the maids of Horn (they're wearing ethnic-like clothing, so I'm not sure if they are maids, though). Delicious. It's like Eashen's tea, but also a bit different. On the side, Sakura is munching on some cookie-like thing which accompanied the tea.
"Delicious. King-sama, try some?"
"This one? Hee, it's pretty nice."
"Un. Want to bring some back to everyone as souvenir."
Sakura smiled lightly. The tension that lingered in the room abated instantly. Ah, I'm healed…
The Ferzen king, who was muttering to himself while folding his arms, turned to look at us who have calmed down. (Note: Fuyuhara-sensei made a mistake here and wrote "Ferzen kingdom" instead of "Ferzen king" in the raw, lol. Guess nobody told him.)
"What's your opinion on the meeting just now, Sovereign?"
"Nothing much. While both sides feel like they're saying the truth, both sides also have parts that I'm suspicious about."
"Fumu… Still, this isn't going anywhere."
"My apologies. Me being here turned out to be rather useless…"
"Ah, no, it's not Your Holiness the Pope's fault…"
The Ferzen king hurriedly consoled Her Holiness the pope, who had her shoulders dropped in dejection. As I was smiling wryly at that sight—
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
The scream of a woman came from outside. While there is a soundproof barrier in this room, it only blocks sound from going outside, and outside sound can normally be heard by people in this room.
The scream came from beyond the door the prime minister's side went through. I immediately threw open that door and jumped out into the hallway.
A large group of people was gathered at a place further down the hallway. A woman was squatting down while trembling in front of an opened door. The scream earlier was probably from this person.
When I ran into the room beyond that door, the sight of a single man lying face-down on the floor greeted me. With a puddle of blood on the carpet beside him, the identity of the man, who had already breathed his last, is none other than the Southern Spring Marquis, Navait Chelmin…