Chapter 213: The Kukkoro Male Knight and the New Power

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Lady Dalaiya and her group stayed in the city of Carrera for two days after that, then returned to the New Elfenia Empire. There had been almost no progress in the negotiations themselves, but well, considering it was effectively a first meeting, this was about what one would expect.

As for liaisons, we reached an agreement to exchange three people each. On the New Elfenia side, Uru would remain, with two additional elves joining her. On our side, I decided to send three knights who had been my childhood friends. After all, it was an important and dangerous mission. I needed to select the people I trusted the most.

“Nhii……”

Three days after the elves left Carrera City, I was buried under piles of paperwork in my own office. A feudal lord in this world was a position that held what would be called the three branches of power in my previous life—judicial, administrative, and legislative authority—all at once, so naturally the amount of work that had to be handled was staggering.

Desk work really didn’t suit me. It didn’t suit me, but I couldn’t very well throw my duties aside either. As I grumbled and moved my pen across the page, the door to the office was knocked. When I replied in a halfhearted voice, “Come in,” the one who entered was Karina.

“Onii-sama, you’ve got letters.”

My stepsister said that with a bright smile, her cuteness was enough to blow away the fatigue from desk work. Karina herself was in the middle of her training as an officer cadet, so she should have been terribly busy, and yet…She still found time like this to help me with my work. I could only be grateful.

“Oh, that helps a lot.”

When I took the bundle of letters, Karina naturally stuck her head out toward me. It was a signal asking to be petted. In any case, this bovine girl loved having her head patted. Of course, there was no reason to refuse. After rubbing her black-and-white hair thoroughly, I turned my attention to the letters.

“Let’s see… There are quite a few.”

There were dozens of letters, a rather impressive number. As I checked the senders with a slight feeling of annoyance, I spotted a name I couldn’t ignore.

“Geh, A-chan…”

The sender’s name written on that letter was Clown. It was an extremely suspicious letter with no family name written at all, but I recognized the name. It was the alias of Her Majesty Alexia von Richthofen, the former empress of the neighboring Holy Empire… Commonly known as A-chan.

Thanks to her participation in the Liseben War under a false name, I had suffered no small amount of trouble. Furthermore, due to an incident that occurred during the peace negotiations, she had developed a strange fixation on me. Honestly, she was someone I didn’t even want to see the name of, but I couldn’t exactly just throw it away. I let out a sigh, then used a knife on my desk to break the seal.

“I hope this isn’t more trouble…”

Muttering that, I skimmed through the contents. A-chan had a bit of a… No, a very questionable personality, but rotten or not, she was still the former empress of a great power. The letter was written in neat handwriting and an elegant style, filled with seasonal greetings and harmless updates about her well-being. …Up to that point, it was fine. It looked like a perfectly ordinary courtesy letter. The problem was the main point that came afterward.

“The arm that was broken by Sonia-dono has fully healed, but the hole in my heart that you opened has only grown larger with each passing day rather than healing. To soothe this wound, I have no choice but to receive the specific remedy from you once more. I shall visit your domain again someday, and when that time comes, I humbly ask for your favor.”

…To summarize, was it basically, “I’ll come see you again sometime, so please kiss me then”? What was with this woman? The real A-chan was exactly the kind of woman you’d get if the phrase “self-centered beyond all reason” were anthropomorphized and given a tall, voluptuous, outrageously lewd body, but when it came to letters, her character seemed to change entirely.

Still, a kiss, huh. I was at fault too for letting myself be swept along and allowing her lips once, but A-chan was A-chan for demanding a second time after getting a taste. 

You’re a former empress of an enemy nation, you know. …

As I was thinking that, something golden slipped out of the envelope and fell onto the desk.

“Waaow.”

When I picked it up and took a closer look, it was a gold coin. It was a high-purity, extremely valuable piece minted by a great nation that had fallen long ago. …Come to think of it, last time she’d given me a magical dagger as “payment for a kiss,” but… This time it was cash. It was starting to feel downright like prostitution. With a complicated feeling in my chest, I recalled her appearance.

A beautiful lion beastwoman with a height exceeding two meters and an extremely ample bust to match her build—that was A-chan. On top of that, her lineage was impeccable. Being pursued by someone like that didn’t feel entirely bad, but… Her personality was the problem. She was an obsessive talent maniac to a pathological degree, selfish, and she came at me with an openly erotic air… Well, maybe that last part was actually a merit. At least for me.

“This is a headache…”

In any case, taking money from an important figure of an enemy nation was dangerous. Even if I didn’t mess up, there was a real chance I’d be suspected of espionage. Especially since this gold coin was such a rare item. If this item were to be carelessly put into circulation, it would be traced back immediately.

The elf situation alone was troublesome enough to cost me sleep, so I really wished she wouldn’t dump another source of trouble on me. Now then, what should I do? Rotten or not, money was money, and it felt wasteful to just lock it away unused…

“…That’s it.”

An idea came to mind, and as I sifted through the bundle of letters… I found it. The sender’s name written on a simple white envelope was Nikolaus Baltzar. He was a highly capable mage who could be put to use by A-chan, and one of the exceedingly rare male military officers in the world.

During the Liseben War, I had shot him and blown off his leg. Even so, perhaps because we were both male soldiers, we had maintained some level of contact after the war. Though honestly, it felt less like mutual exchange and more like him unilaterally recognizing me as a comrade because he was plotting to expand men’s rights.

“Yep, figures…”

I opened the envelope and checked the contents. It wasn’t much different from the letters he usually sent. It explained the current state of the rights-expansion movement he was leading, along with a request for assistance. Since I’d just come into some extra funds, perhaps I’d cooperate with the movement. Supplying operating funds to reactionary elements lurking within an enemy nation… That would more than sufficiently serve my country’s national interests.

“Alright then.”

I stood up and walked over to the fireplace installed in the office. Then I lit A-chan’s letter with a lighter and tossed it into the hearth.

“Eh, Onii-sama… iI it okay to burn it?”

Karina asked with a confused look, and I grinned and replied.

“It’s fine. There are letters in this world that you just can’t show to other people.”

“S-so is that, like, a spy thing!?”

My sister moved closer, her eyes sparkling. She was fourteen, an age when mysterious topics like that were endlessly fascinating. Cute.

“Well, something like that. It’s a letter from an acquaintance of mine who’s hiding inside an enemy nation.”

“Ooooh! That’s amazing!”

I wasn’t lying. Not lying at all.

“But man, I’m starting to feel worn out. Karina, do you have time? If you’re free, I’d be happy if you’d join me for some tea.”

“Really? Of course!”

Watching my stepsister rejoice with her whole body made me feel energized too. The overly generous chest swaying right in front of me—far too ample for her frame—nearly energized another part of me as well, but I clenched my toes hard and endured it. I didn’t want to lose my dignity as an older brother in a place like this.

“Alright, then—”

Just as I called out to the attendant soldier standing by the wall, there was a sudden knock at the office door.

“Al-sama, it’s me.”

The voice belonged to Sonia. Karina briefly made an extremely displeased face, but there was no way we could refuse entry to my adjutant. I cleared my throat and replied shortly.

“Enter.”

“The wyverns dispatched to scout the area around Mount Rana have returned, so I am here to report.”

Sonia entered the room and spoke in the same tone and expression she always used. But I had known her for a long time. I could tell that this was how she acted when something had happened.

“Mm. How was it? Did anything unusual occur?”

The wyvern unit was dispatched to Mount Rana almost daily to drop relief supplies. It had been confirmed that crow birdmen were in the area. And where crow birdmen were present, there was a high likelihood that elves were there as well. My goal was to establish an information route separate from Lady Dalaiya’s.

“It seems they received a peaceful approach from the crow birdfolk in question. They were requested to land, and the rider complied, but…”

“I see.”

“At the landing site, there was an elven settlement.”

“Well done!”

It was exactly the development I had hoped for. I couldn’t help clenching my fist.

“So, how did it go? What did they call themselves? The New Elfenia Empire?”

“No. …The Legitimate Elfenia Empire. That is what they reportedly called their faction.”

“Legitimate, huh…”

It seemed they were a different faction from Lady Dalaiya’s group. I let out a small groan, then bowed my head toward Karina, who looked thoroughly displeased.

“Sorry, Karina. It looks like the tea party will have to wait. …Sonia, I want to hear the report directly. Is the rider at the stables?”

The Legitimate Elfenia Empire, huh. I had no idea what kind of people they were, but… At the very least, it seemed I’d be able to verify how much of Lady Dalaiya’s story was true. For a brief moment, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

…Well, that feeling turned out to be an illusion though.

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