Chapter 261: The Queen Is…

"Lord Marie, let us stop joking with each other."

"Yes."

Become a dog rather than a hound? Forgive me—that wasn’t it at all. I understood perfectly well.

"’Become my dog’ was merely a figure of speech. I apologize for the rudeness. What I meant was that I would like you to become my partner. Of course I will pay you compensation."

I had forced the Queen to apologize. Anouk was glaring at me quite severely. Still... receiving payment to become a dog?

"Does that mean you want me to become a host?"

"What is a ’host’?"

The Queen asked with a perfectly straight face. There were no hosts in this world? If I refused would I become a "hanger"? No deep meaning there. This was not the time for jokes.

"Umm... a male prostitute, then?"

I couldn’t think of anything else, so I tried it even though I was sure the nuance was different.

"A male prostitute? Anouk, do you understand the meaning?"

The Queen didn’t know that either. Anouk, however, clearly did; she whispered in the Queen’s ear.

"My! That is not it at all! Please stop heading in that direction already."

The Queen was genuinely angry.

"Yes."

She was right. The joke and the punchline weren’t quite meshing.

"As I said earlier, I want you to deal with the political enemies and villains I designate. That does not necessarily mean killing them. Of course, if you find it distasteful you may refuse."

"Even so, I know nothing about this country."

That was the fundamental problem.

"I will assign someone to guide you properly. Naturally we will not leave you alone at the scene while everyone else disappears. I would like you to serve as a member of the unit—not as the one carrying out the act, but as an escort for those who do."

The proposal seemed to have retreated a little. Still, it was an extremely shady conversation. Hmm... I could accept something on that scale, couldn’t I? Experience was valuable, after all. My heart wavered. If I happened to kill someone by mistake I might even gain a skill. No—assuming I would kill people was not good.

"How frequent would this be?"

I asked anyway. I couldn’t suppress my interest. The Queen gave a soft "Hohoho" laugh.

"Asking that means your heart has already moved quite a bit, doesn’t it? Well... at most once a month, if that. Doing it suddenly would be impossible, so you may observe once first and then decide."

Her words were gentle, but her eyes were sharp.

"Why did you speak of such things to a foreigner like me in the first place?"

I had forgotten to ask the most basic question. The Queen looked at me as if to say Why bring that up now?

"My, what are you saying at this late hour? After you showed me that, after you made Anouk do that... if I so much as mentioned it to His Majesty, Ambassador Marie would have no choice but to drink poison or hang himself at the embassy. I assumed you performed those acts with that resolve already in mind."

In short, we were already in the same boat. It was no longer a matter of being a foreigner. I had entered the Queen’s inner circle, and there was no escaping it now.

The Queen showed a dark little smile. Behind her a pitch-black aura seemed to rise. Was that a hallucination? Was I seeing something I should not see?

Was this woman the final boss of the Kingdom of Mainz? Conversely, if I kept her as an ally, I could probably get away with a certain amount of mischief without worry. Time to steel myself.

"You are exactly right. I will follow Your Majesty. Lord Robin Marie and Your Majesty are now bound together—we live or die as one."

I would have to tell Rudolf later, but at this point I had no choice but to agree.

"’Ichiren takushō’? What does that mean?"

"It means that if one of us dies, the other dies as well."

"Fufun. I dislike that. If someone must die, only Lord Marie needs to die. I will not die."

Ah... so it’s "when one general succeeds..."?

"I understand. That means I have no real choice, doesn’t it?"

The moment I was summoned here, this Robin had already been unable to say no.

"I did not intend to speak so harshly to an important guest of the Kingdom of Mainz..."

She said it with a smile, yet her words and expression had been completely opposite for some time now. Tohoho.

"Yes. You are right. I have decided to follow Your Majesty. From now on please call me your dog. If that is unpleasant, you may call me Robbie. I will come lick Your Majesty’s feet whenever you wish."

The Queen made a clearly disgusted face at the mention of licking feet.

"I will refrain from that. If I allowed Ambassador Marie to do such a thing, I have the feeling it would not end there. Yes... when no one else is present I shall call you Lord Robbie."

The Queen was an extremely sharp woman.

Wearing an expression of Good grief, she continued:

"Anyway, I’m glad you understood, Lord Robbie. Today I wanted to complete the medicine handover and settle this matter. I wanted you on my side before the other nobles could pull you in."

"Pull me in?"

If they were going to recruit me, using a woman’s weapons would be the most effective method. Was there anyone who could refuse if the Queen herself invited them?

"Of course. For a noble to survive in this country one cannot remain indifferent to such things. You must join some faction. The only exceptions are nobles who appear completely useless—neither poison nor medicine. No one bothers to recruit those. Keeping them is a waste. But someone as capable as Lord Marie... everyone will try to draw you into their own faction. Thinking of it that way, Count von Kirchhoff is rather pitiable. To be unable to make such an excellent person his ally..."

Ah—the keyword "Count von Kirchhoff" had appeared. I should ask!

"Your Majesty, there is something I would like to ask about Count von Kirchhoff."

"Ah, I’ve heard. Through the Duke of Vélez’s mediation the Count will fight a duel, yes?"

"A-a duel? The Duke of Vélez said it would be a punitive expedition. And I thought the Duke himself was at the center of it, not me..."

"A punitive expedition, hohoho. That’s so like him. He intends to do it on that scale, then. It’s a kind of game between noble houses—a way to kill time. Though honor is at stake, of course. Nominally it is for Lord Robbie’s sake, but the one waving the flag is that man."

"A game? With honor on the line?"

"Yes, a way to kill time. It sounds better if you call it combat training as well. There are various formats, but they usually borrow a place where spectators can watch and fight three-on-three. Normally no more than five people take part... I wonder how many he plans to use?"

Three-on-three?!

"His Grace the Duke of Vélez told me to field three people including myself."

"Three people?! And House Vélez will send people as well, I assume. Then I want to watch too! Perhaps he intends to have House Marie fight House Kirchhoff?"

If House Marie fought it would mean fighting while carrying the weight of an entire nation. I didn’t think that would happen. And she said she wanted to watch?

"Huh? There will be spectators?"

"Of course there will. It’s a way to kill time, after all. There will be a referee as well, to decide the winner. Most of the time it ends in a draw. If you fight until a clear victor emerges, lingering resentment remains, you see? I could serve as referee. Ahh, I wonder if they’ll let me referee..."

I had a feeling resentment already existed. Had the Queen’s personality changed? Excitement was written all over her face.

"Mmm... in that case it’s more fun if I don’t say anything! Lord Marie, the Duke of Vélez is surely plotting all sorts of things, so you should ask him. It would be unwise for an outsider like me to say too much. Ahh, I can’t wait~ When will it happen? Will they save a seat for me? Do your best, Lord Marie! Injuries I can heal, but you must not die!"

She could heal injuries? Could a high potion cure everything in one shot? Did phoenix down exist here?

"Um... may I ask something? Does the Kingdom of Mainz have any medicine or magic spell that can bring the dead back to life?"

"I don’t think so!"

An immediate answer.

"I am the Queen and I don’t know of any, so there almost certainly isn’t. This isn’t even a secret. Bringing the dead back to life is the domain of the gods."

"Then what about restoring lost limbs?"

"Restore... you mean stopping the bleeding?"

"No—making a lost hand or foot grow back again."

"Ehh?! That’s impossible, isn’t it? Can they do that in the Marie Kingdom?"

"They cannot. I asked because I thought perhaps Mainz could."

"I see. Even the Empire probably couldn’t do it."

So it really was impossible. In light novels it was possible, though.

"Thank you very much."

I offered my thanks. It seemed we were finished.

"One last thing... I’m not sure if I should ask, but has Lord Robbie noticed?"

The Queen spoke as if something were stuck in her teeth.

"Please speak frankly. Robin Marie is already Your Majesty’s faithful dog."

"That’s enough of that."

The Queen’s troubled expression was rather charming.

"It’s about the maid Lord Robbie brought with him."

"Do you mean Lily Page?"

"That maid is named Lily Page, then. At times she appeared... blurred."

"Eh? Lily appeared blurred?"

Did she need an ophthalmologist? Or a psychiatrist?

"Yes. It was the first time I had seen someone like that."

She spoke with complete seriousness.

"What do you mean by ’appeared blurred’?"

"At times it seemed as if a tall, slender young girl with blue hair was overlapping her. Lord Robbie... does that ring any bells?"

"No. None at all."

The shock was too great. I remember nothing of the conversation that followed. The next thing I knew, I was back at the embassy.