The Archbishop pondered my words for a moment before bursting into laughter.
“Ha ha ha! So you’ve finally been caught, huh!”
“Ummm….”
I had no words.
Well, technically I did.
To be precise, it wasn’t that my plans had been discovered. Maria had merely made assumptions about how I would move, based on my tendencies.
The problem was that Maria had moved beyond mere speculation and had come to a firm conviction. She had already instructed her maids to start packing. The irritating part was that she kept packing strange things, which made me feel like I had to step in and give her advice.
“So, what will you do? Should we just cancel the commission?”
The Archbishop scoffed as he asked me, as if mocking me.
His tone was quite frustrating, yet I couldn’t help but find his antics amusing, so I just sighed deeply.
“I think we might as well proceed with it.”
“Excuse me? Didn’t you say that Maria has caught on?”
I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should voice this out loud, but since everyone would know it eventually anyway, I decided to spill it.
“Maria said that she would accompany me no matter what happens.”
“Ha ha, such affection—”
The Archbishop stopped mid-sentence and blinked.
“Wait a moment, when you say ‘accompany’…?”
I nodded in response.
The Archbishop’s complexion turned pale.
“I won’t be doing that.”
“We can’t just back out of something that’s already been prepared.”
“Are you asking me to help the Princess escape the city?! I can’t do that!”
His stance was adamant. He even tried to block out the conversation by covering his ears.
At this point, I couldn’t help but get a little petty.
“Ahem, Archbishop.”
“Ahhhh, I can’t hear you! Maybe it’s because I’m drunk, but I just can’t hear you.”
I shoved the invoice in his face.
“Have you seen how much money Maria handed over?”
He hesitated.
The Archbishop flinched. Despite everything, he had been active as a lobbyist in the Palatinate for quite some time. There was no way he wouldn’t grasp the implication of my question.
“Maria told me that she made sure to provide ‘plenty’ for you.”
“…No way.”
A seasoned lobbyist would definitely know how the ‘cost’ of a commission is calculated. Conversely, Maria, who had managed to create a network of information as a member of royalty, wouldn’t be clueless about how to compute ‘costs.’
Exactly.
“She also mentioned to me that she’s looking forward to your help again.”
Maria had already paid her dues.
The Archbishop had already embezzled that money into accounts under the children’s names.
And the merchant guild was strict about safeguarding their finances, capable of raising their middle fingers even to the Holy Kingdom’s pope when it came to such matters. It wouldn’t be too out there to think that they had formally sent insults in writing to a kingdom that was ready to break open its piggy bank named “merchants” due to imminent bankruptcy, primarily using their skulls as caps.
Given the Archbishop’s character, that money, which he had earmarked for the children in case they were returned, was surely locked away for several years without the possibility of being touched.
In short, it was checkmate.
The Archbishop set down his wine glass and covered his face with both hands.
“Oh dear….”
“Umm, well, that’s how things turned out.”
Honestly, I felt a bit guilty.
If you looked at it this way, it seemed like we were acting like unreasonable trash, but we were just as much victims.
No, it’s true that they were generous with the money to create pressure, but I had never guessed that it would just be poured into this sort of savings account without a second thought.
I thought they might buy some drinks for a little celebration when the money arrived, not this.
“Sigh….”
The Archbishop exhaled deeply.
“Well, it can’t be helped. The situation has come to this.”
“…I’m sorry about that.”
I chose to express my regrets politely, avoiding informal language, as using it here would make me feel like the worst scoundrel in the world. The Archbishop waved his hand dismissively.
“So, how about I relay this right now?”
“Not right now; it would be best to wait until after this tumult settles down a bit. I’d say about a week from now should be appropriate.”
“That sounds about right.”
While it might be a bit tight on the schedule, I personally preferred things to move swiftly.
I did feel a bit disappointed that I hadn’t explored the capital much yet, but my recent realization after dealing with the empress faction was that the capital was a den of demons. It resembled a hellhole swarming with power-hungry monsters. This time, I had the cheat code known as Maria with me, along with the game manager (also known as the Emperor) subtly watching my back, which allowed me to run amok. However, as a mere Third Son, I couldn’t keep doing this indefinitely.
But it appeared that this den had a habit of swallowing high-ranking individuals for digestion under its various disguises—one of which was called the Empress faction, the Crown Prince faction, or perhaps the Recent Events faction.
In any case, if I stayed here too long, I would undoubtedly get tangled up in political issues beyond just my engagement with Maria.
So, I decided it was time to skedaddle.
After all, I could always come back to sightsee the capital another day. I guessed that once the current Crown Prince became the Emperor, this storm would die down a bit.
“By the way, there’s something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“Can you share what the commission entails?”
“Oh, right, I forgot to mention that.”
The Archbishop pulled out a piece of paper.
“In fact, there was no need to fabricate or manipulate a separate justification. There happened to be an announcement to rescue someone that was sent out to all parishes, and it just happened to match the criteria.”
He handed me the paper.
The details were enough to make my eyes widen.
——
While Wilhelm was meeting with the Archbishop, Maria was having an audience with the Emperor.
“Are you feeling relieved?”
“…Yes.”
At the Emperor’s question, Maria nodded slightly.
Though they were father and daughter, there was no deep emotional bond between them.
The Emperor treated Maria as a Princess, and Maria addressed him as her Father, but no sense of family affection existed.
There were merely the duties of a father and daughter.
While the Emperor did react when Maria appointed Wilhelm as her fiancé, it was confined to that boundary. Likewise, while Maria would likely feel sorrow if the Emperor fell ill or experienced a loss, she wouldn’t cross that line.
Their relationship had been established since Maria’s birth and the passing of the previous Empress.
While the Emperor generally maintained a somewhat distanced, but still caring demeanor towards others, he treated Maria with what could only be described as neglect, which Maria surmised was because he had truly loved the late Empress. After all, her death had been from the puerperal fever she suffered from after giving birth to Maria.
The royal family had poured their wealth, medical resources, and magic into prolonging her life for those few years, but fundamentally, they had not healed her disease.
While Maria loved her mother and that contributed to the ongoing bond between the Emperor and herself, without the mediator of the late Empress, their closeness was unlikely to grow stronger.
“Anyway, the arrangements were certainly well handled. I’ll make sure to reward you separately later.”
“You flatter me.”
“However, you’ve left a seed of conflict.”
The Emperor narrowed his eyes, reproaching Maria.
“Why did you directly involve yourself in this matter? If military power was truly needed, hiring mercenaries or enlisting a noble family with a prestigious military background would have been feasible.”
However, because Maria had actively pushed for her fiancé candidate Wilhelm, rumors began swirling that the royal family had directly intervened in the power struggles among the nobility. Although the current dissatisfaction towards the Empress faction was high enough to let it slide for now, if time passed and the Empress faction retaliated, they would undoubtedly use this against her.
The Emperor pressed Maria on the matter.
However, Maria had already prepared her response.
“The issue is that when the royal family directly intervenes in such competitions, it disrupts the traditional battle of who can garner more supporters, right?”
“Indeed.”
“And since I am also eligible to stand for election, that creates a problem as well.”
“…True.”
Although it felt slightly uneasy to question her, the Emperor agreed, as her words were correct.
And that was the trigger.
“Well, wouldn’t that mean I could simply renounce my right to stand for election?”
Thud.
A sound like something dropping onto the floor echoed through the room. The attendant standing beside the Emperor was so taken aback by Maria’s bombshell that they dropped the documents they were holding.
The Emperor, caught off guard by the sudden explosion, struggled for words.
“W-what did you just say?”
“If I give up my electoral rights, wouldn’t the criticism that the parties involved have directly broken the rules of the game vanish?”
It was a valid point. However, just because it was valid didn’t mean it was a reasonable choice.
Especially for a child of the Emperor, renouncing the right to ascend was not merely a matter of sorting out inheritance issues. It essentially meant that all the various privileges offered spontaneously by the nobility could vanish as well.
In the end, the reason the nobility lined up to secure their standing with the future powers was not out of a profound love for the royal family but for the crumbs they hoped to receive once those powers took hold.
Maria was not oblivious to this reality. No, quite the opposite—she had skillfully managed the administration during her time hiding outside the capital and consistently demonstrated her capabilities, executing whatever duty the Emperor assigned her without error, showcasing her political and administrative prowess.
“…Are you sure about this?”
The Emperor, who had never once expressed genuine concern for her since her birth, was momentarily at a loss. He had always carried out the duties of a father out of obligation and formality.
But this time was different. The Emperor had promoted a government, whimsically, to that of Empress.
He was acutely aware of what he enjoyed and where his power stemmed from. Therefore, he knew all too well the weight of Maria’s words about giving that up.
If Maria were unaware of it, he would have thought to enlighten her.
Yet, Maria clearly understood it perfectly.
“It’s fine.”
She listed off everything she enjoyed—the annual gifts, the rare items dedicated to her, and the people always ready to lend her convenience wherever she went.
“I wouldn’t mind giving all of this up, or even if my last name was no longer Hofburg.”
In that moment, the Emperor imagined he saw her pupils glow a deep red, an illusion that haunted him.
“As long as Bill is by my side, that would be enough for me.”
It was then that the Emperor realized that what Maria desired with Wilhelm was not some complex issue of power or primogeniture but something much simpler.
——
That evening, the Emperor learned that Wilhelm had accepted the Archbishop’s commission and left the capital after wrapping up his schedule.
In a hurry to find Maria, he received the news that she had slipped away from the capital, leaving only a note behind.
And in that moment, he acutely realized whose blood ran strongly through her veins.
Such blind determination in her resolve was astonishingly reminiscent of his younger self.
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