Master’s Smile

C125 – Dark Guild’s Saving Grace

Right before my eyes, the mastermind behind the chaos in the royal capital finally lost his life.

The one who took it was Princess Neena, the princess of Evans Kingdom.

I guess this was a reasonable conclusion?

It would be weird if I, a member of a dark guild, were the one who killed Wissen for the greater good of the kingdom.

But still, it’s been a long time since I had wielded a sword.

I rushed over to see if Ritter was all right, only to find a monster of some sort fighting her.

Finding out that it was Prince Lintz himself was shocking for me.

Well, thanks to the prince not being that strong, my poor swordsmanship could still manage to defeat him.

Of course, compared to Ritter, mine is just a laughingstock.

Though, I guess my swordsmanship was at least not at the level of being unbearable to watch since I didn’t get ridiculed.

That was a bit of a relief.

Princess Neena then put down her sword while letting out a short sigh, and turned to me.

W-What is it I wonder…?

“Master. If what Wissen said is true, it means that a number of monsters have now been released in the royal capital. The knights from my faction as well as Theldorff are fighting hard, but if more to appear as reinforcements, it will worsen the situation. Forgive me, but could I ask you to fight alongside me?”

Saying so, Princess Neena bowed her head.

Please raise your head. I’m currently your retainer.

If Princess Neena is going to fight the monsters, then of course I’m going to lend a hand.

“…I’m sorry.”

Princess Neena then let out a charming smile.

Fufu, don’t mind it. Ah, Ritter will have to stay at home, okay?

“…Why?”

No, you must be very exhausted physically and mentally after using your demonic power even though you were still in bad condition, right?

Even if you look at me sullenly like that, I still won’t allow it, okay?

“Muu….”

She looked totally unconvinced, but it didn’t seem she would force herself to follow us.

Alright, let’s get to the city as soon as possible, shall we?

Though, we are now short one strong asset since Ritter couldn’t move.

“Aah.”

Princess Neena agreed with my idea.

Although I don’t really care that much about the kingdom’s people, I’ll still try to do my best since it’s a request from our client, the princess herself.

“Oh myyy…? Shooould we help you, theeen?”

As we were in good spirits, a relaxed voice could suddenly be heard.

It was a soothing tone of voice that seemed to be unnerved by the urgent fact that the royal capital was in danger.

And that voice sounded very familiar.

“…….”

See? Even Ritter was openly expressing a grumpy vibe, even though she was still maintaining her poker face.

Then, what appeared at the main gate of the estate were three figures, gradually drawing closer towards us.

All of them were the people I knew very well.

“It’s been a while, Master.”

The first person to call out to me was Reese, with purple twin-tails and two astounding horns sprouting from her parted locks.

“If Ritter hadn’t been dragging Master around all the time, I could have been with him every single day.”

Kühling, with her bright fiery and ample red hair, had a face contorted in disapproval.

She folded her arms, which made her voluptuous-…I’ll digress that thought.

“Both of youuu, could you please not talk needlessly right nooow?”

Dressed in her nun garb with a kind smile on her face, Anat scolded Reese and Kühling when they began to speak out on their own.

Three members of “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)” had now appeared.

Including Ritter, almost half of the guild members had gathered here.

It was a common sight back at the headquarters, but it was rare to see them group up like this outside.

“W-Who are you guys?”

“Nice to meet you, Princess Neenaaa. We are heeere to offer you a deaaal….”

“What? Are you merchants? Now is not the time for business negotiations. Come back later.”

Princess Neena waved her hand gloomily as she didn’t understand why they would come here in times like this.

The girls didn’t consult with me either, so I had no idea what they were thinking.

When Princess Neena casually rejected them, Anat just kept smiling.

“We certainly know what’s going ooon, and that’s what we’re here fooor.”

“…What?”

“We’re heeere to help you clean up the monsteeers.”

I was astonished by Anat’s statement.

Eeeehhh!? A dark guild is accepting a request to help the kingdom!?

No, it’s not like I’m against it.

Rather, I think it would be better for both sides to be on good terms, and it would be good to help each other as well.

However, I was quite surprised to hear such a proposal from a “Yelquchira” member.

Even though it’s a guild full of excessively exclusionary children…, I guess not just Ritter, but all of them are growing up as well.

“What can you guys do? You don’t even look that strong physically….”

“Hah!! To think you judge us by our looks right from the get go, seems like the princess isn’t that big of a deal as well.”

“W-What did you say!?!”

It was a heartwarming moment at first, but suddenly became explosive for both Princess Neena and Kühling.

You two quarreled a bit too fast!!!

“Hey, stop fighting!”

“Wai-!! Let go of me! Only Master is allowed to touch me…!!!”

Reese halted Kühling, who was the one involved, and managed to settle the dispute before it escalated.

“Hmph! Do you even have the power to do that?”

“You have a good reason to be skepticaaal, but I don’t know if you could trust us with thiiis….”

Anat then told Princess Neena, who was looking at them with suspicion.

“ーーーWeee are members of “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)”.”

…Is that okay to tell that to the princess?

“A-A dark guild…. T-The same as that “Iron Queen (Inicken)”….”

“Oh, looks like she knew about us.”

“Though, I’m not sure how to feel being treated the same as that “Iron Scraps”.”

Princess Neena muttered shakily, followed by Reese and a grumpy Kühling.

As expected, “Inicken” was a very famous dark guild.

Compared to that, ours is….

W-Well, we’ll just have to work hard and become famous from now on. Yup.

“Don’t wooorry. Unlike thooose from “Iron Scraps”, we dooon’t kill people for no reason as we don’t really care about them in the first plaaace.”

So we kill people if there is some meaning or reason, I see.

Well, there are times when you have to kill someone for self-defense. Yup, that would likely be the reason.

“I heard that “Inicken” was recently crushed…. D-Don’t tell me, that’s….”

“We had a liiittle misunderstanding. Of course, uuus dark guilds would have our own ideaaas.”

Anat told her as if it was something absolutely unrelated to them.

Come to think of it, she didn’t have much to do with “Inicken” when we had some sort of dispute.

It was mainly me and Solgros.

“…What is your goal?”

“Eheheee…. We’d like youuu to allow us to meddle in your politics just a liiittle tiiiny bit if we liberate the royal capital from the monsteeers….”

“D-Don’t be ridiculous!!! Y-You think I will allow that!?”

Princess Neena, who must have thought they were worth listening to, was stunned and protested vehemently when she heard what Anat and the others were asking for.

Yeah, that makes sense. It was such an unbelievable request that it even almost peeled off the mask of my smile.

Dark guilds are criminal guilds that are despised by the kingdom.

The fact that a royal family member was negotiating with such a guild is enough to get them exiled, but the reward the dark guild was seeking was participation in the kingdom’s politics…, which was not likely to be accepted.

“No, nooo, it’s not like we’re saying that we wiiill control everything…. We’re juuust asking you to let us talk about issues that concern uuus.”

“Even so, I won’t allow that! It’s outrageous for a royalty to borrow a hand from a dark guild!!

“Oh myyy….”

Anat put her hand on her cheek seemingly troubled when Princess Neena flatly refused.

Hmmm…. I’m basically on the side of Yelquchira members, but as one would expect, I can’t support them this time.

Rather, what they were asking for was not something trivial.

“Buuut…, is there even a room for Princess Neena to refuuuse…?”

“W-What…?”

Anat’s eyes, which were always closed, opened slightly.

As Princess Neena was fretting over her threatening words, a thunderous roar reached us.

When I looked toward the royal capital, where the source of the noise came from, to see what was going on, numerous monsters could be seen roaming around.

The number was so great that even Theldorff and the knights from Neena’s faction would not be able to cope with them.

“W-W-W-Wha…!?!”

“Seee? The number of corpses will be huuuge if you don’t make a decision quickly.”

With a smile on her face, Anat urged Neena, whose mouth was wide agape.

…That’s strange. Did Wissen hide that many monsters in his lab?

No matter how much support he received from Prince Lintz, who had quite an authority in the kingdom, the contents of his research should not be known to anyone.

It shouldn’t even make a big fuss as well, so his lab must not be that big….

I thought about it and suddenly realized.

“Phew~! Phew~!”

I looked at Kühling, and she turned away, whistling very poorly.

…As expected, that girl had something to do with it.

Most likely, some of the monsters attacking the royal capital were mixed in with those she controlled.

It was understandable that Theldorff and the kingdom knights would have a hard time with this.

Eeek…. What’s with these guys and stirring up trouble…?

“Damn it…!! ‘Needs must when the devil drives’, huh…!?”

(EDN: It’s a proverb meaning: “sometimes you have to do something you’d rather not do”)

Princess Neena muttered in frustrationーdeep frustration with a contorted face.

…Sorry, Princess Neena. I couldn’t tell you that Anat was smirking somewhat nastily right now.

“Sooo, are you perhaps open to our proposaaal…?

“…Yes.”

Thus, the secret agreement between the next queen, Princess Neena, and the dark guild, “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)”, was made.

◆

Soon after, the chaos in the royal capital came to an abrupt end.

Well, the artificial monsters created by Wissen would be utterly defeated if we had more than one Yelquchira members here.

By the way, Anat didn’t participate in the fight and just stood next to me, smiling.

It was mostly Reese and Kühling who fought them all instead.

Thus, the trouble in the royal capital finally came to an end.