Fairy Tale Chronicles

Chapter 15.4

She was talented in keeping face and making excuses, but was too stupid for anything else. As she (optimistically) assumed that her reputation suffered no damage after she made excuses and kept face, she was far from competent. Although she had some talent for relentlessly bullying the defenseless (like Aearis) behind closed doors, she lacked the capabilities to square off against anyone with a semblance of self-reliance (like the Japanese adventurers) and never bothered to give anything a second thought before delegating the dirty work to her inferiors.

Still, if she would only take responsibility for the results, one could argue for her talent as a leader, but Katrina would (without exception) dodge said responsibility, claiming that she had nothing to do with those actions, despite any and all concrete evidence to the contrary. Without her beauty, royalty, and eligibility as a Priestess Princess (although she was the backup’s backup) she would have been an outcast long ago. Coincidentally, her first attempt at undermining Aearis had succeeded, convincing the majority of Aearis’ fake persona (that was very unrealistic for a child under ten years old) leading to her getting off scot-free until now. If Aearis were to go public with these events, she was sure to reap what she sowed.

Of course, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the appearance of these adventures had suddenly dampened her winning streak.

The contamination of the mineral veins were almost complete, and now they were even stronger than before; their progress was reversed in just a day. Although it was too late, Katrina couldn’t help but regret not forcefully disposing of Aearis earlier. She had sent minions to Piaranork’s nest to check on her work, but the powerful defense from Aearis’ Hereditary Spell had prevent Barold’s men from doing anything to them, and so they were left alone. The spell would have only lasted a month, which would not have been an issue for Katrina if there were no interference.

The best option, in the sense of eliminating Aearis, was to assassinate her directly, but (unlike a time-bomb transportation spell) attacking Aearis directly with an Attack spell within the castle would leave the wielder exposed to becoming discovered, which would have left Katrina with no excuse. Besides, while Douga and Rayna had low Magic Tolerance, their Magic Defense were surprisingly high. Without eliminating them (Douga, in particular, who had high Defense stats against Ranged Attacks) she could not have killed Aearis in any direct matter. On the other hand, it was difficult for Barold (not an assassin in any way) to kill a member of the royal family (no matter how young) with a physical weapon, and hiring an assassin without Douga and his team finding out about it was difficult.

So, considering that having Aearis missing rather than dead was more advantageous to them, Barold had trapped her with a Binding spell and a transportation spell to send them to the most dangerous enemy within range, Piaranork. The last thing Katrina had expected was for them to be rescued within three days. In fact, the last adventurer that had fought Piaranork before this had done so over half a year ago. The odds were incredibly in her favor.

Come to think of it, it seemed like things were not going Katrina’s way since the horde of Venomous Wolves were taken care of with no casualties all because of those adventurers. She had heard that about 220 antidotes were used that day, which meant that (if all went well) the casualties would have been 220 men, and the mineral veins would have been tainted with the affliction of 220 men. Considering that the antidote healed them immediately, there might have been more casualties without them. Katrina had come to realize that this band of adventurers had been tangling up their schemes for months, now.

And now, they had completely healed Elena, detected the specific poison used, and had locked them out of poisoning her again. Now that her guard was up, it didn’t seem likely that they could poison Elena any longer, even with a different poison. While Barold had instructed tasteless and odorless poison to be put in the drinks of Elena, Aearis, and the adventurers, he did not expect those to pan out.

Before I ditch this ditz, I have to keep an eye on that party.

While he wouldn’t let it show (like Katrina) Barold was just as annoyed by the Japanese party as she was. It would be difficult to turn the tide from here, but Barold wouldn’t stand a chance until he eliminated those pesky adventurers. He would have to fall back behind square one, but if he could take care of Elena and Aearis somehow, even if Katrina were to be executed, he could temporarily eliminate the Princess Priestesses. Then, the mineral veins would be naturally corroded by affliction (Barold would call this “cleansing”) allowing him to accomplish his goal.

In truth, Barold was itching to start working towards getting rid of the lot of them. Still, he had decided to hold Katrina back and standby because his scheme had been so cleanly dismantled since their emersion. He thought it would be too careless to make a move without understanding them further.

「For now, Princess Katrina, why doesn’t Your Highness use her beauty to show what true royalty means to those buffoons?」

「It goes without saying.」

Katrina responded, with an irritated scoff. Katrina and Barold did not yet know that even in the beauty department, she was about to face utter defeat.

「Thank you for coming, all. I know we all have busy lives.」

Finally, the ball had begun by the King’s declaration.

「Tonight’s party is to celebrate Elena’s health and Aearis’ safe return, as well as welcome the men and women who were an integral part to saving their lives.」

The room stirred a bit hearing this. Most of them were under the impression the ball was only to celebrate Elena’s recovery. While they had heard that Aearis was missing, then had returned about a week ago only to perform the purification ritual in the Temple before disappearing again, but most of them had not expected that she would make a public appearance today.

The attendees were split down the middle when it came to their reaction towards Aearis’ appearance. One half was aghast that Aearis had the gall to show up at a public event without shame, and the other half was simply relieved that she was unhurt. Even the latter half were most relieved that the national crisis of their missing ten-year-old Priestess Princess in direct line of the throne was resolved before dire consequences; this didn’t mean that they personally approved of Aearis.

While many who have been astute to Katrina’s activities of late would rather see Aearis maintain her duties as Priestess Princess rather than pass them down to Katrina, of all people, but even they didn’t approve of Aearis herself. They only acknowledged the reality that Aearis had been successfully performing purifications, and the fact that (even if all the rumors about Aearis were true) they still saw Aearis as a better fit for the job than Katrina.

Unfortunately, almost none of the invitees were genuinely happy to see Aearis safe (without accounting for her royal status).

「First, my daughters have something to say.」

The King said, with a gesture, and Elena emerged from the back, solemn. Her physique was far from completely healthy, but an adequate amount of vitality was emanating from her body. At this rate, she would regain her healthy physique in no time.

「My most humble apologies for leaving everyone worried for my sake.」

Elena bowed deeply, as she spoke in a clear, projecting voice. Watching her from the wings, Tatsuya, Makoto, and Haruna were trying to determine who seemed relatively reasonable in the crowd. Hiroshi, who was already drowning in the general atmosphere, and Mio, who had been speaking to Aearis (being more talkative than ever before in her life) were useless at the moment.

「Yikes. Prince Katrina isn’t exactly modest, huh…?」

「You said it. Sure, it’s a good look for her, but…」

With that, Makoto and Tatsuya glanced at Haruna and Aearis.

「What’s up?」

「Hm? I just thought you guys are going to make quite a splash when you go out there.」

Makoto said, honestly.

「In any case, you’re pretty chill about this whole thing.」

「It’s not that I’m not nervous, but I do have some experience in these kinds of settings, and a certain someone behind me is going to need some back-up.」

With that, Haruna chuckled looking at her partner of two months. Still a mysterious one, as he was so easily choking up now, in contrast to his confidence at the royal meeting earlier. Of course, the people present at that meeting were relatively reasonable, and both the King and Queen, along with his two concubines, had been pressuring the crowd silently as to keep them from intimidating the Japanese party too badly. A meeting like that under normal circumstances most likely would have left the majority of the Japanese party incapacitated, let alone Hiroshi.

Upon first seeing Haruna in her current attire, everyone in the party but Hiroshi had either let out an exasperated sigh or froze solid. The team was worried about this, but with the change in scenery, the team seemed to be back to normal. As to why Hiroshi was completely unaffected by Haruna’s beauty (according to Hiroshi) was because he would wind up dead if he was caught entranced by his natural predator. Could anyone blame Haruna for wanting to cry, just a little bit? Even though neither of them held any romantic feelings for each other, this was bordering on being too harsh.

Still, Haruna was having difficulties grasping the difference in situations when Hiroshi could and could not function. When they infiltrated the castle with Aearis, she could understand because he was rather skittish working outside of his comfort zone, but from time to time, he would become extremely sheepish, in situations that didn’t even involve women at all. At the very least, she hoped that he could at least see through blatant lies and keep his cool.

In any case, now that Hiroshi seemed to be far less useful than expected, Haruna had to compose herself. In fact, he knew that putting on a brave face was the best way to beat the nerves. While there were those who couldn’t pull that off, those who could had to pull their weight as well.

「Elle, you’re almost up.」

「Y-Yes.」

「You got it.」

With Mio’s encouragement, Aearis puffed her chest, straightened her back, and walked into the hall, with a solemn expression. In that instant, the entire hall fell completely silent.

「Everyone, I am terribly sorry for all the trouble you have gone through.」

Her delicate, clear voice filled the room, corner-to-corner. As she finished her sentence, she slowly bowed, as far as she could go, in slow precision as decorum demanded. Everyone there was entranced by her. Even Katrina, even the King and Queen faded in comparison to this girl, merely ten years old.

Aearis was truly beautiful, pure, and elegant.