“…Thank you.”
“Now, I shall take my leave.” Georg rose from his seat, moving to cut the transmission.
“Wait!” Liscia burst out, after remaining quiet all this time.
Georg narrowed his eyes. “Princess…”
“Duke Carmine…”
Each addressed the other, but neither could find any words beyond that. They only gazed into each other’s eyes in silence.
Liscia and Georg. In the palace, they were princess and vassal. In the army, they were subordinate and superior. From that alone, they should have been able to find some way to understand each other.
For some time, the two of them looked at each other in silence, but then, in the next moment, Liscia drew the rapier she kept at her hip.
While I was still surprised at the suddenness of it, Liscia brought the blade around to the back of her head, cutting off her platinum blond ponytail.
Wait, whaaaa?!
Her hair, like golden thread, fell to the floor.
It was so sudden that not only I, but the three dukes as well, were left speechless.
Liscia suddenly had a medium-short haircut, but she showed no sign of caring. Instead, she thrust her rapier out towards the jewel. Then she said: “This is my resolve. I will walk alongside Souma.” She declared this with unwavering eyes.
Georg was dumbfounded like me at first, but soon his eyes took on a sharp glint, and he smiled like a carnivore that had found its prey. “I have seen your resolve, princess. However, I will have you show me that resolve on the battlefield.”
“Count on it.”
The two seemed to have come to an understanding. I couldn’t comprehend it myself, but it was probably just the way warriors communicated. The meeting had ended with everyone being taken aback by Liscia, but… Anyway, that was the end of the ultimatum to the three dukes.
“Was that okay… cutting your hair like that?” I asked Liscia once the transmission to Georg and Castor had ended.
Now that the ultimatum to the three dukes was over and done with, Aisha, who had come back from the dark elf village, as well as Hakuya, Poncho, and Tomoe, had come into the Jewel Voice Room. When they had all noticed the change in Liscia’s appearance, everyone’s eyes (except for Hakuya’s; he didn’t show much change in expression) went wide with surprise.
Liscia played with the ends of her freshly-cut hair, blushing. “I did it to make my position clear…Does the new look not suit me?”
“No, I think it suits you,” I said. “Right, guys?”
Everyone nodded.
“You cut a wonderfully gallant figure like that, Princess,” said Aisha.
“I do think the short hair is quite fetching for you, too,” said Hakuya.
“I–It really suits you, I think, yes,” said Poncho.
“It’s cute, big sister,” said Tomoe.
With all these people complimenting her, Liscia’s face flushed with embarrassment. (Though she didn’t seem to entirely mind the attention.)
The atmosphere in the room had softened like that, when…
“Sire…”
…the only one of the three dukes who was still connected, Excel, called out to me.
“…My apologies, Duchess Walter,” I said.
“No, I have already sworn my vassalage to you, sire. Please, just call me Excel.”
“Excel, then. Sorry,” I said. “For not being able to convince Castor.”
“There was nothing you could have done. He had made up his own mind.” Still, the corners of Excel’s mouth were drawn tight with frustration.
They said this beautiful woman, who looked to only be in her mid-twenties, was, in fact, five hundred years old, that Castor was her son-in-law, and that her granddaughter was also with Castor. Her family were split between opposite sides of the conflict, so it was perfectly natural for her to think it regrettable.
Oh, right. Speaking of Excel’s family…
“Excel. Is she there with you?” I asked.
Excel drew in her breath sharply. “…Yes. She is.”
“You called, Your Majesty?” Another blue-haired beauty appeared, standing beside Excel on the screen. She had a face that anyone would fall in love with, impeccable style, and an air about her that seemed more mature than her age. Yes, she was the lorelei songstress whose popularity was surging across the Elfrieden Kingdom, Ms. Juna Doma herself.
“Thank you, Juna,” I said. “Because we had you tying us to her, we didn’t have to fight with Excel.”
“No. I only did as ordered,” she said. “Besides, I was investigating you and reporting back to Grandmother at one point. I beg your forgiveness for my rudeness then.”
Yes, Juna had been a spy dispatched by Duchess Walter.
With her foresight, Excel had known that if Liscia’s father, the former king Albert, had ceded the throne to me, something must have been going on, and so she had begun looking into it immediately.
The spy she had chosen to dispatch for that was Juna, who was actually the commander of the Marine Corps.
On top of that, Juna was apparently Excel’s granddaughter. One of Excel’s sons had married into the Doma family, who were a merchant family in Lagoon City with loreleis among their ancestors, and that was how Juna had been born. That beautiful face of hers came from Excel’s side of the family, it seemed.
When Juna had used the Gift Proclamation event as an opportunity to make contact with me, it had been to investigate whether I had what it took to be king. Then, when she had deemed me fit to be king, she had reported those thoughts back to Excel, and finally chosen to reveal herself to us on her own.
I’d been surprised when I’d first heard, but between the maturity that belied her young age and the swift movements she had displayed during the argument with Hal, it had made some things suddenly make a lot of sense, so I’d been able to accept it fairly quickly.
After that, Juna had become the pipe connecting us to Excel. In other words, Excel had been the only one to swear loyalty to me before the ultimatum.
However, in order to monitor Georg’s disquieting movements and to try to convince Castor up until the very last moment, we had concealed that fact, and, for a time, she had gone along with the other dukes.
As Juna bowed apologetically, I said to her, “No. Because of you, we were able to coordinate with Excel. You took my side, so I have every reason to be grateful, and I have no intention of faulting you for what you did.”
“It’s just like I told you that day,” she said. “‘I, too, am on your side.’”
“…You did say that, didn’t you?”
On that night when I couldn’t sleep, Juna had told me that and then sung for me until I fell asleep. Afterward, I had heard from Juna that Liscia had arranged the whole thing.
Liscia was always looking after me. True to her words on that day, Juna had stayed on my side. Even Aisha, scatterbrained as she could be most of the time, could be counted on to defend me if it came to it.
I was able to be the king because of all these people supporting me. And so I wanted to do right by them, too.
“Hakuya, how are the preparations?” I looked over at him.
Hakuya put his hands together and bowed. “All is as planned. Sir Ludwin and the 10,000 soldiers that make up the directly-controlled portion of the Forbidden Army can mobilize immediately.”
“What movements have we seen from the Amidonian army?” I asked.
“They already appear to have assembled on the border,” he said. “It is as we anticipated.”
Having heard Hakuya’s report, I turned to everyone with a nod, thrusting my fist into the air. “Let’s go! Now it’s a battle against time! We’ll brush away the falling sparks and show Georg what he’s up against! Let him see the power that will support this country from here on!”