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Chapter 15
Two days later—near the eastern border of Zilgus, an army of around 25,000 soldiers had gathered.
“It seems like progress is going well.” Minister Orgis mumbled as he looked down at the mass of people.
Minister Orgis had been Remonas’ previous aide, an individual Kyle and his friends met when they visited the last time. He had been a talented and influential individual, but after Princess Milena became more active in the political sphere, he has been bleeding influence.
“Are you certain about this? Milena-sama ordered the soldiers to not act no matter what,” Count Boroll spoke up.
He was yet another influential noble in the country. Known as someone with a warm personality, he was often tasked to round the other nobles together.
“What are you saying? You cannot say such things in genuine faith, Count Boroll,” Orgis spoke in utter shock, showing a grand gesture. “It remains a fact that Milena-sama is locked up on foreign territory. We need to offer as much support as we can!”
If anything were to happen, they would need to act immediately—that was his strong conviction.
“Everything is for Milena-sama and Zilgus.”
It sounded a bit of an exaggerated comment, so even Boroll had nothing more he could say. Everything rested on the safety of Milena.
“You are not wrong, but even so…” Boroll’s expression didn’t clear up in the slightest.
The other nobles seemed to agree, all feeling a bit guilty.
“It’s fine. Milena-sama will surely consent to our actions for her sake, because—”
Orgis stopped his sentence and looked around like a commander about to give out orders. Because of Eldorand’s sudden passing, Princess Milena was locked up in the Empire, and hearing the news of a civil war, it caused a great uproar within Zilgus. They started discussing the idea that they should ignore Milena’s orders to stay down. And the one who suggested the moving of troops was Orgis, after all. Many spoke against this, of course, but with the uproar inside the Empire, he reached the conclusion that Milena’s life was in danger, so he made his choice, gathering soldiers.
“Then…”
Standing in front of these soldiers, Orgis prepared himself for a great speech. He was about to give orders to save their precious princess—right as it happened.
“There is no need to do that.”
A clear voice reached Orgis’ ears, making it feel like his heart stopped. Even Boroll next to him looked in the direction of the voice in shock, his jaw dropping. Many of the other nobles had a similar reaction, but the owner of the voice walked past all those rows, standing on the stage in front of the soldiers. All 25,000 men were frozen stiff as Zilgus’ treasure opened her mouth.
“My brave soldiers from Zilgus, there is no need to worry! For I have returned!” Milena’s dignified voice sent shivers through the rows of soldiers, as they began cheering.
After a whole two days of rushing back with no sleep, she was utterly exhausted. Without her attendant Ninos’ help, she might not have been able to stand. Her hair was messy, and her dress dirty everywhere. However, her presence and beauty born as a Queen hid all of that. Every single move she took was bristling with grace, not allowing the soldiers to look away.
Meanwhile, swirls of doubt and disbelief filled Orgis’ heart. Not even two days ago, she should have been present in the Imperial Capital. A return from there should at least take ten days or more. For even a second, he doubted that she may be some body double, but everything about her screamed that she was the real deal. The cheers of joy became voices that supported her, and she responded to all of them with a waving hand and radiating smile until the very end.
Once the passion of the soldiers had begun to subside, the nobles and politicians gathered together with Milena, showing their relief.
“You’ve done well to come back home safely, Milena-sama!” Count Boroll shed tears of joy, as his fellow nobles showed similar reactions.
However, Milena met these with a cold attitude.
“We will not fight Galgan. I will not send out these soldiers no matter what. And I believe I gave you this exact order before my departure.”
Her stern expression, rarely seen from her, completely froze up the air around them.
“Th-That’s…”
The politicians tried to make up excuses, saying it was for her sake, but they still went against her orders. That, in itself, is an unforgivable crime.
“…Who pressed this mobilization?”
All gazes focused on Orgis. He was the one who urged this attack on the Empire more than anybody else.
“M-My sincerest apologies! But hearing the rumors, I was willing to risk it all to save you!” Orgis went down on his knees as he pleaded.
“Where have you heard those rumors from?”
“From Taihon! I’m certain they were setting this up to be a trap!” He said and removed a falsified declaration of their alliance that Milena had seen back at the Empire.
“We judged that your life would be in danger if the Empire were to know of this…And we knew it was a trap, but we decided to prioritize your life over anything…”
“I see…”
Orgis explained himself with tears in his eyes, as Milena began thinking. The minister in front of her stated that he had received the information about the civil war in Galgan from an outside source. However, the speed at which this spread, and the fact they began gathering soldiers this quickly…Doing the calculations, it was easy to reach a certain conclusion.
“I understand…Orgis, I appreciate your loyalty.”
“Thank you very much! I feel it an honor to receive such praise from you!” Orgis shed even more tears, as he pressed his head against the ground.
However, Milena continued to watch this with a cold expression. Everything was far too convenient. It’s almost like this third party knew that the civil war would happen and that Taihon would ask for an alliance.
“You may have disregarded my orders, but you cared for me. Although you should be punished for your actions, your devotion pleases me. And this all happened because I was so naive, so I should be blamed more than any of you…”
Milena stated to agree to disagree with this event, which evoked smiles of relief from the politicians. However, Milena didn’t miss the fact that many of them smiled not only for her safety but also because they knew they wouldn’t be punished. From this day on, Milena would have to work hard to replace some of these politicians and have them exiled for their actions, but that wasn’t her major concern at least for a little while.
*
“You truly helped save Zilgus. I cannot thank you enough,” Milena gave her gratitude to Urza, who had accompanied her using [Wind Walker] all this time.
Unlike Milena, who still had some strength left, Urza was completely out of stamina, barely able to raise one hand as she sat on the ground. It might be rude to act this way toward royalty like her, but nobody would be able to blame her for that. She almost ran out of mana several times on the way, using up tens of bottles to recover her magic power, going through hell and back to make it here in time.
“And thank you for guarding us, Lieze-san.” Milena then turned toward Lieze, who was currently looking after the exhausted Urza.
Kyle had asked Lieze to accompany them as a guard in case anything went south.
“No, I didn’t…”
However, both Lieze and Urza were not exactly too energetic about this.
“We can’t stay here. We have to hurry back and…Ugh!”
Urza tried to stand up, but she staggered. She didn’t have the strength to continue.
“I get you…But we can’t do anything. We will have to leave it to Seran and the others. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
Hearing Lieze’s comment, Urza sat back down again. Thinking that they must be in the middle of a raging war right now, they both wanted to rush to their aid right away, but at the very least, they had no doubt their friends would make it out alive. Watching this sheer bottomless confidence, Milena couldn’t help but show a dubious expression. She cleared her throat to make the people around her step away and then approached the two. Like she was talking with two average girls her age.
“…So may I ask, what exactly is Kyle-sama to the two of you?”
Unable to grasp the intent behind this question, Lieze and Urza looked at each other. However, judging from her way of phrasing this question, it looked different than as if it was just Milena asking if they had feelings for him, so they answered honestly.
“Well…I just can’t leave him alone. And…I want to be with him, I guess?”
“Agreed, leaving him be would be detrimental…and I enjoy the time we spend together.”
Both of them seemed to be feeling awkward, but were happy nonetheless, which spoke for itself.
“Is that so…I think I understand. Truly, we wouldn’t have managed to resolve things this peacefully without your help. I will not forget this debt.”
The two didn’t know exactly what Milena understood, but she seemed satisfied. With this, Zilgus managed to avoid going to war, and the debt Milena had to repay to Kyle grew exponentially.
CClaw Translations 