kscans

Chapter 45 - The Unknowing Aggressors

Upon returning from the royal palace to the mansion that was her new home, Lupia found herself in the room that would be hers. She was just about to start her new life, having finished unpacking, when she saw it. A single letter, left by who knows who, on her desk. The familiar wax seal filled her with a sense of dread, but she opened it anyway. After reading the contents, her expression went blank.

"…After all this time…?"

An endless stream of apologies, a lamentation of his current situation, regretting how things had turned out. After reading the entire thing, she carefully folded it back up and returned it to the envelope.

"It's not as if he'll hear me if I say it here, but…"

Near the end of the letter was a question for Lupia, the characters slightly distorted.

—Lupia, are you and Falty truly friends?

"Of course not."

She said it with ice in her eyes, ice in her voice.

"To think that thing is my friend… I wonder what His Highness could have been thinking."

Lupia's voice remained cold, and only cold. Even though she had received such a letter from Liam, nothing about her current situation had changed. The future Falty was heading toward was likely fixed by that 'System'. The position of Queen, the highest female authority in that country. That was the future Falty had chosen to walk. Lupia, who had been robbed of the future that should have been, had decided along with her entire family to abandon that country. Perhaps only a fraction of the nobility knew that the Calmond family had left. The other nobles might not even be trying to find out.

"……The other nobles were all just celebrating Falty and the Prince's love story… without a clue as to what it meant."

The lower-ranking nobles, the commoners, and even the students of the academy were intoxicated by the unprecedented love story. How many nobles were left in that country who had realized something was wrong? That country would likely head toward its end. By the hand of a count's daughter who had taken the hand of an unknown entity. But the one who chose that was none other than the Crown Prince himself. If they all left at once, it would be noticed, but they would leave slowly, one by one, yet surely. Both their hearts and their physical distance.

"This will be interesting to watch."

A faint smile played on Lupia's lips. Was it only the nobles who were oblivious? They needed to realize soon, or things would become dire.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

"Hey, have you noticed more monsters around lately?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking that…"

The common folk whispered amongst themselves.

Something had been strange lately. The number of monsters appearing on the main roads was unusually high. Far more than ever before. Although the Knight Order was dispatched from the royal palace, if incidents occurred simultaneously, their response could be delayed. That wasn't supposed to happen, but the numbers were simply too great. Far too great.

"Maybe the nobles are slacking off on their jobs?"

"But do they have a reason to slack off?"

"…Don't think so."

How many people, one wondered, had realized it? That the presence that had protected them was no longer there.

"……Huh?"

One of the men, who had been laughing and chatting idly, suddenly froze. He didn't want it to be true, but the pieces were starting to fit together. As he recalled what they had all been saying, his face grew paler and paler.

"H-hey, what's wrong?"

"The Crown Princess…"

"What?"

"She's from a count's family, right?"

"Yeah. She's the one who pushed aside that nasty ducal lady and ended up with the Crown Prince, right?"

"Wait a minute."

"The Crown Prince really got stuck with a terrible fiancée… But he got rid of her and…"

"WAIT!"

"…What's with you, suddenly shouting like that…"

The other man asked suspiciously. The surrounding people, wondering what was going on, were trying to listen in without looking directly at them. A momentary hush fell over the area. The man who had shouted looked uncomfortable, jokingly told the onlookers not to worry, and then whispered softly to the one who had raised his voice.

"…So, what's up?"

"That ducal family…"

"Huh?"

"Weren't they the ones who… suppressed the monsters?"

"What are you talking about?"

At his words, a faint murmur rippled through the small crowd.

"…Hey…"

Someone said.

"We don't know much about the nobles, but…"

The voice wasn't loud, but for some reason, it carried clearly.

"The Crown Prince… isn't he just a simple cheater…?"

"H-hey! That's treason!"

The person next to the woman who had muttered this quickly covered her mouth, but the other women all had serious expressions on their faces.

"Now that you mention it, what's so special about a 'fated partner'…"

Another person said.

"If you think about it calmly, she just interfered when he already had a fiancée, stole her position, and became the Crown Princess!"

If that were me, it would be outrageous! The women started to get agitated. No matter how much they tried to stop them, no matter how nicely they tried to frame the story, the facts were what had just been shouted, so there was nothing they could do.

"B-but… it's a story about 'to hell with a relationship decided by your parents,' right?!"

"So you'd be fine with it, then?! If your own daughter, no, your son, was about to get married, but their partner had a change of heart and dumped them right before the ceremony, you wouldn't say anything?!"

"Ah…"

In Lupia's case, while it was true that she had been dumped, she herself only thought, 'Thank you for dumping me.' But since no one knew that, for those who didn't know the full story, the content of the current argument was everything.

"W-well… about that…"

"…If that's the case, aren't we in a terrible situation…?"

Someone else muttered.

"…Is a simple cheater going to be our future king…?"

If a palace guard had heard that, it would have been considered tremendous treason, but fortunately, this was a small market where only commoners gathered. The sound of a gulp couldn't have echoed, but it felt as if they could hear the sound of someone, anyone, swallowing hard.

"B-but the King approved the dissolution of the engagement, right?"

"The Crown Prince of a nation changed his fiancée just because he had a change of heart and threw away the original one!"

The ripples of unease spread. But then, yet another person spoke.

"……We can't say anything."

"Why not?!"

"……Didn't every single one of us keep making fun of the ducal lady…?"

The 'ah' that followed was incredibly foolish-sounding. Now, at long last, they had realized it.

They had relentlessly mocked the ducal lady. They had all gotten excited about the 'love story of the century' between the current Crown Prince and Crown Princess. It was something they should have understood if they had thought about it normally. The love story of the century, the Crown Prince finally finding his fated partner, the foolish ducal lady standing in the way of destiny. They had praised Liam and Falty to the heavens and insulted and ridiculed Lupia as if she were their parents' mortal enemy. But if they thought about it carefully, it was nothing more than 'the love story of a cheater who neglected his original fiancée and married the person he fell for.' To put it nicely, that's what it was, but to put it bluntly, it was just the love story of cheaters. Everyone had finally arrived at this conclusion. However, even if they had, it was too late. Lupia and her family had long since given up on the country and left. The result of that was the now-vacant position of the kingdom's guardian, a fact they only realized when the damage began to mount.

"H-hey, you don't think… the monsters started appearing because we said all that stuff, do you?"

"But it's the duty of the nobility, isn't it?!"

"That's because the ducal family was ordered to do it, and… oh."

"W-what is it?"

"Even we commoners said so much… The nobles must have…"

"Ah…"

A dead silence fell. It seemed everyone had realized something more. As commoners, they had been able to laugh at it as if it were someone else's problem, but there was no way the nobles wouldn't do the same. They love scandals. Especially in a case like this, where a 'count's daughter stole a ducal lady's fiancé,' it would have been an endless source of gossip, and more importantly, a chance to look down on the haughty ducal lady. They must have jumped at the opportunity. Some of them did business with the nobility. The worst-case scenario they heard from those people, they could only pray was just their own paranoid delusion, but unfortunately, this was an undeniable reality.

Only Falty's future as queen would not change. According to the 'System,' it was the 'Queen Route,' after all. But the seams had already begun to unravel.

Without stopping, the cracks spread toward Falty's feet, propelled by the realization of the nameless aggressors who had only just become aware.