LIGHT NOVEL
LIGHT NOVEL
During the vacation, Tisli witnesses an exchange between Alde and Mia that seems to hint at something more… and she can’t stop fretting about it afterward!
And yet the situation takes a sudden turn for the worse, as a conspiracy that has been brewing abruptly comes to light…!
Faced with that conspiracy, can Tisli—her mind on Alde and Mia—still bring her usual genius to bear?!
Even so, the royal capital remains perfectly peaceful, and as autumn sets in, it becomes school-festival season.
Naturally, a school festival is held at Yuinas and Lily’s school as well… so Tisli and Alde end up going to see it. The only trouble is… their school is a girls’ school…
Will Alde manage to skillfully navigate the social scene at the girls’ school and build himself a harem? No, never mind that—there’s the girls’ school to contend with, but what’s to become of his relationship with Mia?!
The fifth volume of this isekai romantic comedy, where conspiracy and romance intertwine. Please, do give it a read!
— Tisli’s perspective —
Just what in the world was that last night…?
The question kept circling in my head, and before I knew it, I had gone the whole night without a wink of sleep.
“Ugh… I was so sleepy, and yet sleep never came…”
Seeing the morning sun slip through the gap in the curtains, I gave up and sat up in bed.
And the same words rose in my mind all over again.
What in the world was that last night…?
On our way to the fireworks display, we had gotten separated in the crowds, but everyone rejoined us without incident—everyone except Alde and Miss Mia.
No matter how long we waited, though, those two never appeared, so I tried calling them on the communicator I’d built into the Rings of Guardianship. Alde answered. From Miss Mia, nothing.
And so a flutter of unease rose in my chest.
Naturally, that unease was out of concern for Miss Mia’s safety. Failing to answer an emergency call could mean, at worst, that she was lying somewhere unconscious.
It was absolutely, positively, not in a million years because Alde and Miss Mia happened to be the only two missing!
So, having judged this an emergency, I followed the beacon spell in the rings to find the two of them.
For some reason, somehow, mysteriously enough, the two signals were coming from the very same spot……… Surely it just means they were lucky enough to run into each other!
And while it was rather baffling that said spot lay in the woods off the forest road, no doubt they had strayed from the path hunting for a restroom or some such!
And so.
When I reached the source of the signals.
There the two of them were, in a small clearing in the woods.
And Miss Mia was speaking, with the utmost earnestness—
—to Alde.
“What… were they talking about, I wonder…?”
Watching from a distance as I was, I couldn’t hear a word Miss Mia said. I could have used magic to listen in, but of course, I could never bring myself to do something like eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.
Still, from that setting and that atmosphere, I could tell this much: something out of the ordinary had passed between them.
In fact, after telling Alde whatever it was, Miss Mia left the clearing at once…
All that remained was Alde, standing rooted in a daze… until at last he scratched the back of his head and started walking.
Th-this is bad…! He was walking straight toward where I stood! At this rate, we’d run right into each other!
N-no, but wait… I had only come to fetch the two of them… it wasn’t as though I had anything to feel guilty about… and yet, for some reason, I felt that coming face to face with Alde at that moment would be extremely bad!
So I turned to slip away at once—
—Crack.
By sheer bad luck, I stepped on a twig!
“Hm? Who’s there?”
And now Alde had noticed me?!
Wh-what am I even doing?!
I would never make a blunder like this normally!
And then, even more unthinkably!
“M-meooow…”
On pure reflex, I had blurted out a cat impression, of all things!
As if that could fool anyone?!
“Oh, just a cat—”
I mean, Alde, how simple-minded can you be!
“—is what you thought I’d say? I can see you from behind plain as day, Tisli.”
“Ngh…!”
For a moment I’d thought I had fooled him, but it seemed even Alde wouldn’t be taken in by that excuse for a cat impression… and hold on, I’d let him catch sight of me from behind on top of everything—what an utter blunder…!
Left with no other choice, I turned around and glared at Alde.
“I only came to fetch you because you two were taking so long! I was most certainly not peeping!”
“I mean… that’s basically announcing you were peeping.”
Nghh…! T-to think I’d be out-argued by Alde, of all people?!
And why on earth was I getting this flustered in the first place?!
Left with no other choice, I decided to state the facts exactly as they were!
“I-it couldn’t be helped, could it?! You two were late, so I came to fetch you, and we simply happened to cross paths! It’s not as though I was spying on you by design!”
“Ah… right, sure…”
Alde only averted his eyes awkwardly; he showed no sign of being angry that I had been watching.
No—rather than angry, he looked troubled.
It nagged at me, and before I could stop myself, the question slipped out.
“So… um… did something happen? Miss Mia went off somewhere all alone…”
“…Hm?”
Alde knit his brows at my question.
“Weren’t you listening in on us?”
“I-I did not go that far! There was a fair distance between us; your conversation never reached my ears.”
“Right…”
Alde thought in silence for a moment, then answered.
“No, it’s… nothing major. It wasn’t a fight or anything, so don’t worry about it.”
“But, Miss Mia…”
“She’s probably headed for the venue. So let’s get going too.”
“Eh… but…”
Paying my hesitation no mind—or rather, with his heart seemingly somewhere else altogether—Alde walked off.
After that, there was no way I could press him any further… All I could do was follow after him.
And sure enough, when we returned to the venue entrance, Miss Mia was already there.
She was chatting with Alde as though nothing had happened, with a smile that somehow looked unburdened. Though Alde, for his part, somehow seemed at a loss…
And of course, having spied on them without leave, I could hardly ask Miss Mia about any of it… Last night, after we all watched the fireworks together, we returned to Lily’s villa, and the night ended without further event… except that I never did fall asleep.
Resigned, I climbed out of bed and drew open the curtains.
The light made me squint, yet for all that brightness, the sky was overcast today.
Thick, heavy clouds covered the sky over this southern island. Perhaps a spell of rain was on its way.
I had hoped the blue of these southern skies would clear away my listless mood, but there was no helping it.
I took a shower in the en-suite bath, woke my sleep-deprived head at least somewhat, and made myself presentable.
Then, just as my hand came to rest on the handle of my door—
—I wonder… will Alde be back to his usual self today…?
With that thought drifting through my mind, I opened the door and headed for the living room.
But the person in the living room was someone I had never even imagined.
— Alde’s perspective —
Unable to get to sleep no matter what I tried, I was out doing early-morning training to clear my head.
But however hard I pushed my body, I couldn’t get Mia out of my head… and on top of that, Tisli had seen us… The worst.
Hm? But why… why am I thinking that Tisli seeing us is “the worst”?
Well, because Tisli would get angry… but hold on, why did I figure Tisli would get angry in the first place?
And anyway, Tisli didn’t get angry, did she. Pretty flustered, sure. But was that just because she hadn’t heard the conversation?
Then if she had heard it, would she have been angry?
H-hmmm… no, something about that feels off…
More to the point!
What the heck am I supposed to do about Mia!
I mean, to think Mia… um… had feelings for me…
We go way back, and she’d never shown a single hint of it, so this is way too sudden…
And “you don’t have to answer”… what’s that supposed to mean?
Normally, when somebody confesses, the other person is supposed to answer with something—”I like you too,” or “let’s go out,” or else “I’m sorry”—right?
But instead it’s “you don’t have to answer”… Then what am I supposed to do?!
“Haa… it’s no use… time to head back…”
However long I ran along the shore, my thoughts only went in circles, so I gave up and returned to Lily’s villa.
After a shower, I walked into the living room to find Tisli already up despite the early hour—and an unfamiliar face besides.
“Morning, Tisli… who’s this?”
“Ah, that’s right—this is your first time meeting her, isn’t it, Alde. This is Rahful Burschenschaft. The captain of my Princess’s Guard, currently serving as acting lord of Fergana as well.”
“Fergana—as in, the lord over my village? …Ah, so you’re the poor soul who got the acting-lord job dumped on her by Tisli.”
The woman in question—Rahful—spoke without so much as taking a seat on the sofa, standing ramrod straight.
“This is not the first time you and I have met—”
“Eh, we have?”
“—though given the circumstances at the time, it could not be helped. Allow me to greet you anew. And I am no poor soul. To be granted an honor as excessive as that of acting domain lord is, if anything, the height of privilege.”
“If it’s ‘excessive,’ doesn’t that just make it a pain?”
“N-n-nothing of the sort!”
Well, with Tisli right there, she pretty much had to say that. No point nitpicking, so I let it slide and sat down on the sofa.
“So, what brings Madam Acting Lord all the way to the southern isles?”
It was Tisli who answered that one.
“Of course, it will hardly be happy news, I should think. Not if she flew here by Teleportation magic.”
“…Guess not.”
“She wants Lily to hear it as well, so we’re waiting for Lily to make herself presentable.”
Just as Tisli finished explaining, a knock came at the living-room door, and Lily came rushing in, all in a flurry.
“M-my deepest apologies, dear Sister! To have kept you waiting—the greatest blunder of this Lily’s life—”
“It’s still early morning; never mind that. Just sit down.”
She had a point—it was only six. Everyone else was still asleep.
So the gathering in the living room came to four: Tisli, Rahful, Lily, and me.
Apparently Rahful had arrived at the villa by Teleportation magic at dawn and had been waiting for Tisli to wake. Rough job, first thing in the morning.
And since Tisli had gotten up earlier than expected, Lily got dragged out of bed to match. That was the picture.
On top of that, it seemed they didn’t want the rest of our group hearing this, so the early hour was actually convenient.
In that case… I only happened to be on hand. Should I even be in the room?
Rahful seemed to be wondering the same thing, because she said to Tisli,
“Your Highness. This matter is top secret. Is he—”
“It’s fine. You are to treat Alde as my close aide.”
“I-I see. Understood.”
Eh, seriously?
All this time I’d been called every name in the book—guard, valet, plain old man-repellent, and to cap it all off, slave—and now, out of nowhere, I’m the princess’s close aide?
My standing’s seen way too many ups and downs, hasn’t it?
I had the vague sense that Rahful was eyeing me with jealousy… well, she’s a noble; a commoner like me becoming close aide to the princess is bound to stir up a twinge of jealousy or two, I suppose. Not that I’m looking for advancement or anything…
As I was thinking all this, Rahful straightened her posture and began.
“I shall state the conclusion first. The truth is… of the Five Great Houses, every house save House Theresia… has risen in rebellion.”
Several heartbeats after Rahful’s announcement—
“Whaaat?!”
Lily’s shriek, alone, echoed through the living room.
— Tisli’s perspective —
Hearing one of the answers I had anticipated, I let out a small sigh.
Beside me, Lily was laying into Rahful.
“A-a-a rebellion?! By four of the Five Great Houses?!”
“Yes… that is the case.”
“Wh-wh-what is the meaning of this?! Explain it to me, in detail!”
“Yes, my lady… In truth, this rebellion appears to have been planned for some time now—”
In this Kingdom of Calvan that we govern, there exist five great noble houses. Houses sworn to the crown since the founding of the realm—and first among them in precedence stands House Theresia. In other words, Lily’s house.
That House Theresia had not joined the rebellion was a mercy; every other great house, however, had thrown in with it.
Which meant this country would now split into “the Royal Houses Alliance” (the Crown and House Theresia) versus “the Four Great Houses,” with every remaining noble family choosing one camp or the other.
Given the resentment the nobility had been nursing all this while… most of them would side with the Four Great Houses. In which case, even with House Theresia, first in precedence, remaining with us—
“—the balance of power would come to roughly four against six, I should say. With the Crown and House Theresia as the minority, needless to say.”
“As expected of Your Highness. That is precisely the situation now taking shape.”
Hearing that, Lily bared her anger all the more.
“The royal side, the minority?! Why?! We are the rulers of this kingdom—and with dear Sister, a once-in-an-age genius, among us—why should our side be the one at a disadvantage?!”
“Th-that is…”
Rahful looked hard-pressed to answer, so I answered in her stead.
“It would seem their long-simmering discontent has finally boiled over. Many of my policies did tighten the screws on the nobility, after all.”
“What are you saying, dear Sister?! Every one of your policies has been magnificent! Thanks to them our kingdom has leapt from strength to strength—by now no other nation can come close to us, militarily or economically! And we nobles have received blessings beyond measure from that very prosperity! Where in all of that is there room for complaint?!”
Lily does say rather un-noble-like things now and then. For all her imperiousness, she seems, in a way, indifferent to aristocratic pride. Perhaps that is part of why Yuinas has taken to her…
So I explained it to her as one might explain it to a commoner.
“Nobles are creatures who choose pride over profit. However rich they grow, if their vested privileges are being pared away, then I daresay none of it pleases them in the least. Nobles, as a rule, have never once wanted for money or gone hungry in their lives. Which makes them cling to their privileges all the harder.”
“I-I cannot understand it in the least… Why do they not simply trust in you, dear Sister? Not believing in dear Sister is one and the same as not believing in the gods!”
“That is rather too far-fetched… but to them, being stripped of their privileges is the same as losing their reason to exist. It must have sounded like being told to die.”
“You never said any such thing, dear Sister!”
“Whether I said it or not, if that is how they chose to take it, then there is nothing to be done.”
By now, the nobility’s reason to exist amounts to nothing more than their privileges. However prosperous the present grows, a threat to those privileges is, to them, one and the same as the terror of death.
And however patiently one preaches that this terror is a phantom, they must be too deep in its grip to understand a word of it.
And so they mean to force a civil war that would split this country in two—never realizing that this is self-destruction in the truest sense.
I sighed, then put a question to Rahful.
“And what of Fath—His Majesty?”
“Th-that is… upon hearing the first report, he took to his bed…”
“Haa… sulking under the covers again, is he. What a useless man…”
I had nursed some faint hope that His Majesty’s banishing me from the royal family might serve to douse the flames of rebellion… but in the end my absence seems to have been filed away as an inspection tour, so it accomplished nothing. Honestly, he never could bring himself to make a decision.
“Hey, Tisli.”
As I was feeling a certain fatigue creep over me, Alde spoke up.
“You sound like you saw this coming—so does that mean you’ve got a fix for it?”
At Alde’s unexpectedly sharp remark, my heart gave a little leap despite myself.
Does Alde… understand me rather better than I thought? In a sense he understands me far better than Father ever has—no, not that I care one whit about Fath—His Majesty—but something about it left me feeling odd, almost ticklish, unable to settle—
“Tisli? What’s up?”
“Wh-what is it?!”
Called back by Alde’s voice, I snapped to and turned my eyes toward him.
“I asked if you’d seen this situation coming… that’s all.”
“Eh—ah, yes… I did anticipate it, though…”
Th-this is bad… ever since yesterday’s incident, my thoughts scatter whenever Alde is involved.
So I closed my eyes a moment, composed myself, and spoke again.
“Only… this scenario was meant for much further ahead. Ten-odd years from now, by my projections. So in that sense it is indeed unexpected. As for why it moved up… what set it off was most likely the lord’s arrest.”
The former lord of Fergana comes of central noble stock—one of the Four Great Houses’ own lines. If a noble of that pedigree could be arrested and thrown in prison by royal authority without ceremony, then anyone else tarred with the same brush could hardly help but quake.
It is possible that is what moved their timetable up. Even so, they moved fast…
As I pondered in silence, Rahful spoke.
“Your Highness, I have one further report, if I may.”
“Yes, go on.”
“In truth, while examining the Fergana domain’s finances, I found something suspicious. The breakdown of its military spending shows purchases of arms and armor only.”
“Arms and armor only?”
“Yes. No increase in soldiery; weapons and armor alone. If this too was part of the rebellion’s design, I would surmise it was a staged expansion of armaments, meant to keep any swelling of the military budget from drawing notice—but I judged it best to report it regardless.”
“I see…”
If they were plotting rebellion, then raising military spending year upon year would have caught the eye of the relevant ministries and landed them in trouble.
So for a period they purchase only arms and armor, and once that is settled, they funnel their funds into recruiting soldiers next. The total never grows, and the expansion proceeds by stages.
Even so—did the Four Great Houses truly mean to cross swords with me? Word of my combat strength must have reached the nobles. Most recently of all, I demonstrated it by half-demolishing the royal castle; I would not have thought them so eager to start a civil war…
Though at the time, well, I was not thinking nearly that far ahead…
Remembering my battle with Alde, I glanced over at him—he was listening to our exchange with a grave look on his face, but…
Is it really the rebellion he is thinking about?
Could it be that he is remembering last night…?
Come to think of it, why was Alde even awake at that hour of the morning? I know he never skips his daily training, but even so, training that early is rare for him.
Then, as I thought—just like me—had he been unable to sleep because Miss Mia was on his mind?
Then what in the world passed between them last night…?!
For someone as dense as Alde—a blockhead whose sensitivity is stone dead—to lose sleep over it… what on earth did Miss Mia say to him?!
“Um… Your Highness?”
Rahful’s voice brought me back with a start.
“Is something the matter? You have been staring fixedly at Alde Rama—”
“I-I-I have not been staring!”
“…Have you not?”
“If I was looking at him, it was only—that! I was merely looking at him and thinking he has the same idiot look on his face as ever!”
“Why am I suddenly the one under fire here…?”
“A-anyway!”
I ignored Alde’s protest, cleared my throat, and pressed on.
“Whatever the case, a rebellion at this juncture is outside even my projections. And if His Majesty is going to be useless… then I shall simply have to return to the royal capital myself, for a time at least.”
“T-truly, Your Highness?!”
At my words, Rahful’s face lit up with joy. In perfect contrast to her, I said, sighing,
“I can hardly claim, under circumstances like these, that having been banished from the royal family makes it none of my affair. It is the innocent common folk who stand to suffer most.”
“As expected of Your Highness! I knew you would say precisely that!”
Rahful looked ready to leap into the air for joy—while I, in perfect contrast, only felt my heart grow heavier still…
(Continued in the Kindle edition)
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