Chapter 90 - Episode 6: "My Murderous Intent Toward the Royal Family is Rising, isn't it?"
Gokigenyou. I am not feeling 'gokigen' at all, though.
After all, the Royal Family has come to crush the Settlement.
And the pretext is 'because this Settlement is suspected of harboring great criminals.'
...Spot on! That's exactly right—! After all, I, Onii-sama, and Doran are all here—!
Aaaaaah! It's so infuriating—! They're definitely planning to frame Carol and get in her way! By crushing the Settlement under this pretext, even if they can't directly haul Carol away for the 'crime of harboring great criminals,' they can give her a bad impression, and since it's an attack on the settlers, the people who would vote for Carol won't be in any position to vote!
...But! Why 'great criminals'—! They meant to frame us but hit the bullseye! We are right here! Even though they haven't done any investigation, they hit the bullseye and are even getting in our way!
I am! So! Angry—! Grrr—!
I'm incredibly angry! But I have no choice but to back down here!
If I were to casually step out now, this Settlement would truly become a 'settlement that was harboring great criminals'!
So, those of us being targeted by the Royal Family—me, Onii-sama, and Doran—quickly hid ourselves!
Carol, standing before the Royal soldiers, was in a position where she had to take the brunt of it alone... but Keeb and the other maidens also came to her side, trying to protect Carol. Ugh, it was worth saving Keeb for this! I can put him out in public without any complaints!
"Then we shall demolish this Settlement."
"Please wait."
And Carol immediately stopped the soldier who was spouting nonsense.
"Why is it necessary to demolish it? The people here have committed no crime; they are simply people working hard to open up the land. Please stop such acts as ravaging this Settlement. Or do you intend to say that everyone here is a great criminal?"
It's a perfectly sound argument, but the soldier can't back down here, so he started trying to carry out the destruction. However, we also have adventurers here from the Elsemarin Adventurer Guild. If they think they can just run wild and engage in one-sided destruction, they are sorely mistaken.
And above all.
"I do not know who you are referring to as a great criminal, but if the Royal Family says so, we will cooperate. Please search as you like. However, acts like destroying the Settlement and trampling on the efforts of the settlers are neither justice nor anything else. It is mere violence. Is it not?"
Faced with the sound argument from the Sister, the soldiers couldn't move.
The nobles are like this too, but the Royal Family is even more about face and pretext. Therefore, they won't demolish the Settlement without a pretext, even if it's a fake one, and they can't move if they can't claim justice.
If I were the Royal Family, I would choose to kill every single settler here, but I don't think the soldiers here now are capable of that.
...Yes. Therefore, unfortunately for the soldiers, they cannot move in this situation where the adventurers have gathered in droves to protect the Settlement and they are being glared at by Carol.
"Please tell us the characteristics of the great criminals. I believe we can help you find them."
"Ch-characteristics... well..."
There's no way they can answer! Since it's a frame-up in the first place, they shouldn't have even decided who the target is!
"...Why is no one saying anything?"
"That's... because it's classified. This information must not be made known."
"That is strange. In that case, you wouldn't have said anything to me from the start, would you? Since you specifically made an offer to me, that means the existence of the 'great criminals' can be made public, right?"
The soldiers are stupid, so they can't react to anything on the fly.
"Even though you say they exist, you say nothing about the reality. You say you will demolish the Settlement because 'great criminals' are here. Even though that's the story, it seems as if the 'great criminals' don't exist at all."
"W-what!?"
Bullseye. They're shaken because she hit the bullseye!
"God is watching. Is there righteousness in your hearts right now?"
The shaken soldiers might be thinking right now, 'Maybe we have no choice but to kill this person here.'
But even before the bristling soldiers, Carol did not back down.
"It's alright. I understand. It must be hard for you too."
With eyes and a smile that seemed to see through everything, Carol said that and took the hand of one of the soldiers.
"However, could you please overlook this place? For the sake of a twisted justice, innocent people must not be sacrificed. You, who work to protect justice, surely understand that, don't you?"
In the end, the soldiers, lectured by a sound argument, went home.
They must have realized that if they started running wild here, the backlash against the Royal Family would be tremendous.
...Or rather, I think the scale of the Settlement was larger than they expected.
Once they realized it would be bad to turn this place into an enemy, they naturally backed off.
I suppose it means they're taking it back to the Royal Castle for now, but it's a big deal that we were able to make the soldiers retreat here.
For their part, if they interfere with the creation of a settlement that also has the meaning of relief for the weak, the backlash from the commoners will naturally be large. So they shouldn't be able to openly crush the Settlement. Or rather, to make it so they can't openly crush the Settlement, I'll leak the information that 'the Royal Family came to crush the Settlement' beforehand. This way, the Royal Family will likely not attack any further, fearing the commoners' resentment.
Justice is on our side. The claim of 'harboring great criminals' is a frame-up. We have no choice but to be dignified. Fortunately, the attempt to crush the Settlement was a meaningless attack from the Royal Family, and it wasn't a smear against Carol or something that brought our faults into question. Since we've already discarded the noble votes and are only cozying up to the commoners, our policy won't waver.
...And so, we put in our maximum effort.
We were not at fault, and we gained a great deal of sympathy from the commoners; if anything, more people, resources, and money began to gather at the Settlement.
...But, it was no good.
The Settlement was indeed protected. However, more than that, a bad rumor started.
It's not a bad rumor about Carol, but in a sense, a bad rumor about the Royal Family...
'If you vote for Carol, you will be sanctioned by the Royal Family.'
Such a rumor began to circulate as if it were true.
Carol's skill in avoiding the demolition of the Settlement was brilliant.
The source of the rumor was the mechanism of 'dripping blood onto the voting paper.'
That's simply done to prevent the same blood owner from voting multiple times, but the stupid commoners who are ignorant of magic are spreading a rumor out of 'goodwill' that 'the blood dripped on the voting right allows for individual identification. Since there's a mechanism to know who voted, if you vote for Carol, it will be found out and you'll be sanctioned.'
This is why stupid commoners are so troublesome. It's well said that an incompetent hard worker is more troublesome than a talented lazy one.
Dripping blood on the voting paper is strictly to prevent multiple voting.
Even if you can check if the blood is the same, there's no way they'd do something as non-cost-effective as checking whose blood it is!
...But I can't go around saying that to every single stupid commoner.
This is... quite a predicament.