Volume 2 – The World Sneered
“We ate so much!”
Ami tapped her bulging belly.
Mary did not eat as much as her, but she also ate more than she usually did.
It was all because of how delicious the cooking was.
“It’s been a long time since I ate such soft meat.”
“It was so delicious that it’s hard to believe that it was meat! Maybe it’s different from the meat I ate before?”
“It’s the same.”
“It was so delicious, and that’s just what I’d expect from Majoram’s high class hotel.”
“Heheh. I suppose. What did you think about it, Miss. Stella?”
“It was delicious, of course. It felt so luxurious. You also paid for it…… thank you.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m proud that I treated Stella Grant to a meal.”
“How petty.”
“C’mon, I’m a fan! It was like a dream come true for me!”
Cutie was sitting on a seat a little far away, but that was because ‘Her aura is too dazzling to look at her directly from next to her’.
She still wanted to ask her about the novel, so she kept throwing questions at her despite Ami and Mary being between them.
Stella also felt pretty good about a girl from the family of a famed company being her fan, so she answered her questions.
“Well, my room is in a different building, so this is farewell.”
“I still have questions, but…… I guess it can’t be helped.”
“Let’s meet again, Miss. Stella.”
“Mhm, before too long.”
Saying that, Stella climbed up the stairs.
The four started walking again when they could no longer see her figure.
“Hey, sis, that person was an old acquaintance of yours, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Did she know other people too?”
“Yes…… It looks like she knew my sister. I don’t know about any others, though.”
“She played with you in the royal castle’s garden when you were little, right? How luxurious.”
“But she wasn’t a novel author back then, right? She didn’t look like an aristocrat either, so who was she?”
“Hmm…… Back then, she was just a woman I knew. We just played together, and I never knew much about her.”
“That’s unfortunate. I thought I had a chance to learn more about the mysterious novel author Stella Grant’s past.”
“Is she that mysterious?”
“She doesn’t go out into the media much. I only knew what she looked like.”
“I think that’s probably because Miss. Stella doesn’t like that kind of thing.”
“She doesn’t seem like the type who likes to be out in the public, huh?”
“Yeah, she always said that she’s an introvert.”
“How did a woman like that end up as a best-selling author, I wonder?”
“I’m sure she has a dramatic past that you don’t know about, Mary! A person who can write something like that can’t have lived a normal life!”
“I think you have too many dreams about that person, Cutie.”
Mary could not help but smile at Ami’s sharp remark.
As their conversation continued, the girls arrived in front of their room.
They used a keycard to open the door.
When the four entered inside, they saw a man with long hair relaxing on a chair.
“Kept you waiting, General Ox.”
He frantically stood up when he noticed Mary and the others and kneeled.
“I apologize, Lady Mary.”
“It’s alright, this is not the royal castle. Please relax.”
“Yes!”
Ox still did not return to his chair.
Mary and the others sat on the bed and the couch, and turned towards him.
“We’ve cleaned up around half of them. We’ve set up traps for the remaining half, so they’ll be destroyed by themselves.”
“Very impressive, Lady Mary.”
“So, I did not have time to ask earlier, but….. Why are you here?”
Mary and her group noticed the assassins who had snuck into the hotel, and when they were creating a strategy, Ox suddenly showed up.
He visited their room, and told Mary that she was in danger before giving her information regarding the assassins.
It was the same information that Cutie had already acquired.
In the end, they did not earn anything from his appearance, and only talked a little until dinner time, so he awaited their return afterwards.
“I’ve heard the news of Lady Francis’s passing.”
“I’m sure it was quite shocking. I know you’ve sworn loyalty to my sister.”
“Yes……”
“Generals are the big-shots of the army, right?”
“That’s right.”
“He’s loyal to Princess Francis and not King Henry? That sounds weird.”
“While it is embarrassing, that is just my personal loyalty. When I move as a soldier, I am under His Majesty the King’s control.”
“Hehe, but you’re betraying King Henry so openly like this.”
“……It is as you say. My mask as a pawn of the king grew brittle after Lady Francis’s death. Now, all I feel for that man in my heart is hatred.”
“So you want to team up with us for revenge?”
“I know that I will not be trusted. However, after Lady Francis’s passing, I believe that I must show my loyalty to you, who shares her blood.”
It made sense at a glance.
In short, for Ox, who was devoted to Francis, protecting Mary was the way to prove his loyalty.
Cutie looked at Mary.
She was asking her if he could be trusted.
Mary was hesitant in making a judgment.
She could not even completely trust Philias, so it was difficult to determine whether General Ox, who suddenly appeared here, was an enemy or an ally.
Indeed, he did tell them about the assassins. But perhaps that was a sacrifice he made to earn the trust of Mary and her group?
Ox was a general, so it was even possible that he had hired the assassins.
“General Ox.”
“Yes!”
“Do you have any other information beneficial to us that only you know about?”
Mary asked the man to test him.
Then, he started speaking after a short delay.
“Queen Catherine seems to be in constant communication with someone.”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know that much. But, while this is only a rumor……”
“Please talk.”
“There are those who say that they’ve seen the queen using strange powers. Something different from sorcery, something stronger.”
“Wait…… Is my mother using arcana!?”
It was not a story Mary could believe.
She never heard of Catherine undergoing the same surgery as Cutie, and she was not from a sorcerer family in the first place.
Or, perhaps due to the influence of Henry being close to her, maybe a phenomenon similar to what occurred with Ami happened to her.
“She has a strong connection to her son, Prince Edward. She would do anything for him to become the king.”
“…….That really is true.”
As Ox said, Catherine was quite the adoring parent.
Edward’s obsession with the throne was also largely because of her influence.
As such, even if he had teamed up with Philias, it was hard to believe he could betray Catherine.
“The leader of the knightly order, Philias, is also getting closer with Edward. They have a constant desire for more power. They do not possess a tranquil heart like Lady Francis. I do not think they can be trusted.”
Ox spoke clearly.
It seemed that he had distanced himself from Edward and Philias.
From Mary’s current point of view, it would be strange to entangle herself with Ox, however……
“Have I earned your trust now?”
“……Yes. This is information we do not know. I trust you after you revealed it to us without hiding anything.”
Mary did not trust Philias either in the first place.
For better or worse, it was easy to drag Edward into things, so the ones to be wary of were Philias, and perhaps Catherine.
And Ox also could not be trusted completely.
In the end, his only objective was to avenge Francis.
He probably did not completely trust Mary either.
So the feeling was mutual.
Getting beneficial information was enough for Mary.
“By the way, you and your party also intend on avenging Lady Francis, yes?”
“Of course. I cannot forgive my father for killing my sister.”
Ox smiled in an almost creepy manner as his cheeks contorted after he heard Mary’s determined answer.
Leaving aside other emotions, these were definitely his true feelings.
“In that case, let’s work together in the future. Let’s stay in contact.”
“That would be good. Oh, could you give us advice on how to reach the royal capital? Being the general, you may have seen things that we haven’t.”
“Gladly.”
Mary spread a map.
The other three watched on with a little worry.
◇◇◇
The next morning, after the four checked out of the hotel and said their goodbyes to Ox, they headed for the next town by car.
“Miss. Cutie, can you park the car somewhere when the hotel is no longer visible?”
Mary spoke to Cutie from the backseat.
“Sure, but…… Mary, you’ve been strange since yesterday. You’re hiding something, right?”
“I don’t think sis would hide anything from us.”
Ami, sitting next to Mary, pouted.
“I’m sorry……”
“You could not tell us because there’s no knowing where Ox learned that stuff, right?”
Calaria spoke up.
Ami then tilted her head.
“Isn’t that man our friend?”
“We can’t be so sure. If he admired my sister so much, it’s strange for him to be so calm right now.”
“How big of a fan of Francis was General Ox?”
“I heard that he raised a statue of her at his house.”
“That’s more than being a fan……”
“He’s a worshiper.”
It was only a rumor that Mary heard.
But she could definitely sense that Ox’s feelings towards Francis were out of the ordinary.
“I think I’d like to speak with Miss. Philias after that.”
They then found a wide space where they could park the car.
Cutie drove the car in, and Mary took out her comms device.
They had asked for Edward and Philias’s numbers before they departed.
They decided to contact Philias directly this time.
“Hello, you called earlier than I expected.”
“Good morning Miss. Philias. There’s something I’d like to discuss, actually. About General Ox.”
“What, did you get news of him?”
“He appeared before us yesterday. He told us that you cannot be trusted. He wants us to cooperate with him to kill my father.”
“Oh, that’s surprising. I thought he always hated you.”
Mary’s expression turned stern.
“Hate me? General Philias?”
“That’s right, ‘Why am I not Francis’s brother?’. He hated you for being unconditionally loved by Francis despite being powerless.”
She had never heard about that, of course.
She did not remember talking much with him, but she had no idea he hated her so much.
It was possible that Philias was making this up, but……
“So why did he contact us?”
“He wanted to see what you were up to, and how powerful you were…… probably something like that.”
“……I see. Yes, that must be it.”
That made the most sense.
It was strange that he had arrived to tell them of the assassins in the first place.
Even if it was easy to find their positions from witnesses, why would a top army official move on his own?
That conduct did not make a lot of sense.
“Well, I wouldn’t recommend trusting him that much.”
The two exchanged some last words and ended the call.
Then, Cutie spoke up.
“What do we do? You said yesterday that we’d go to Laings.”
“I told him our plan B. As planned, we will go with plan A. Can you send plan B’s information to Majoram’s spies?”
“Of course. I figured you’d say that, so I already did.”
“I knew I could rely on you.”
“Don’t make me blush.”
“But, sis, if you don’t trust him, wouldn’t it have been better to put him down yesterday?”
“He’s a general. There would be a big effect on things if we killed him without a reason, right?”
“On top of that, we don’t know everything about Power’s abilities. Let’s be careful, we still have time.”
Their next destination was a town 4 hours to the East from the coast, Feedam.
There were a lot of worshippers to a certain god there, and very few supporters of the king due to past religious persecution.
There was also a Majoram factory there, which had a big influence on its economy.
There were Majoram facilities in the town of ‘Leings’ Mary told Ox about, as well as other towns, so none of them had a weaker connection with Majoram than the other.
Even if he noticed that it was a bluff, it would be difficult for him to estimate the group’s next destination. That was what Mary considered while making the decision.