WM – Chapter 91: Takatsuki Makoto speaks with the Highland nobles

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The Highland Castle, in the joining of the Silver Wings.

One floor lower than the highest floor of the Highland Castle.

The highest floor is a place that only royalty can enter.

In other words, this is the place where the people of highest standing aside from royalty gather.

(Uhm, who was who, Princess Sofia?) (Makoto)

(…I am only telling you one more time, okay, Hero Makoto?) (Sofia)

I talk to Princess Sofia in a low voice.

The first prince of Highland, Gaius Highland.

The second prince, Julian Highland.

The second princess, Noel Althena Highland. The current cardinal of the Sun Goddess Althena Church.

Pope of the Althena Church, Roma Borgia.

Head of the East Territory, Grand Duke, Mihael Rolland.

Head of the West Territory, Grand Duke, Marco Whitehouse. 

Head of the South Territory, Grand Duke, Lorenzo Belize.

Head of the North Territory, Grand Duke, Bartolomeo Valentine.

Prime Minister, Victorio Whitefeather.

Sun Knight General, Yuwein Bloodnock.

The leaders of Highland were sitting around the round table.

(Have you memorized them now?) (Sofia)

(…That’s impossible, Princess Sofia.) (Makoto)

(Haah, understood. I will teach you again later.) (Sofia)

Princess Sofia said this with a sight and a slightly happy visage.

Looking at me like I am a child with bad grades…

There’s no way I can remember all these people at once.

I look at them again.

These high class people don’t seem to be in a good mood.

“What happened to his Majesty?” 

One of the Grand Dukes resting his chin on his hand spoke.

“His Majesty is not feeling well. He won’t be able to participate in today’s meeting.” 

The Prime Minister answers.

“Again? His Majesty really has it rough.” 

“Any other that’s not present… The Great Sage-sama not being here is as usual, huh.” 

Looks like the Great Sage-sama is a regular skipper.

She does give that impression.

“What is it you wanted to talk about by even going as far as taking our precious time, Noel?” 

The one who implied to hurry and begin was the first prince.

That being said, he is quite thorny towards his little sister.

“About that, Sofia-sama will be speaking regarding this.” (Noel)

Princess Noel faces over here and smiles.

“Aah, and here I was wondering who it was sitting over there. So it was the Princess of the neighboring small country, huh.” 

One of the Grand Dukes said unamused.

“Don’t underestimate them. We have a Hero-dono who lost to a mage of that small country after all, kukuku.” 

“Marco-dono, what is it you are trying to say there?” 

“No, nothing, Bartolomeo-dono. Is Lord Geralt doing well?” 

“…”

For some reason, he glared over here.

Princess Sofia’s expression is unchanging.

Wow, even though my stomach hurts here from the stress. I want to leave.

Aah, why has it turned into such a mess?

◇A few hours before◇

When I returned, there was Fuji-yan, Nina-san, and Princess Sofia.

Is Lucy still at the place of the Great Sage-sama?

She has been working hard in her training lately.

Fuji-yan runs to where I am.

“I am back, Fuji-yan.” (Makoto)

“So you are! I have found out who is the one leading this time’s rebellion, Takki-dono.” (Fuji)

“Ain’t that fast, Fujiwara-kun?!” (Aya)

Sa-san raises her voice in surprise.

Yeah.

I heard from Noah-sama, but the information gathering of Fuji-yan is just unfair.

“Lord Fujiwara is really competent.” (Sofia)

Princess Sofia participated in the conversation.

“Princess Sofia, why are you here?” (Makoto)

“I have been told to come to the Highland Castle after. Before that, I thought about collecting the most recent information regarding the rebellion… Lord Fujiwara gathered far more information than us. By the way, Hero Makoto, Sasaki Aya, it seems you two went to the 9th District. Was there no danger?” (Sofia)

Did we worry her?

Her expression didn’t change, but I could tell from her tone of voice.

“Nothing dangerous—” (Makoto)

“It was a pain! We were chased by the 9th District residents, and got attacked by undead in the underground canals! Takatsuki-kun immediately wants to go to a new map location after all.” (Aya)

Sa-san interrupts my response.

Hm? Now that I think back to it, there was indeed a decent amount of troubles.

“What did you say just now?” (Sofia)

“Sasaki-dono, you said undead?!” (Fuji)

“Is that true?!” (Nina)

Everyone retorted.

“Uhm, we were attacked by the people of the 9th District, and…” (Makoto)

“That bothers me too, but what about the undead?!” (Fuji)

“There were a whole lot of skeletons and zombies in the underground canals.” (Makoto)

I summarized what happened.

“The underground canals are in that state…?” (Sofia)

“The young boss of the Castor family?!” (Fuji)

“The weed is a fund source of the Snake Church…” (Nina)

Everyone was surprised about different points.

Especially Princess Sofia, she has a complicated expression.

“Hero Makoto, please come with me to the Highland Castle.” (Sofia)

“Eh? I want to eat something though…” (Makoto)

“It was all information that would be best if it were to reach the ears of Noel-sama as fast as possible. Especially the undead in the underground canals.” (Sofia)

“But you know.” (Makoto)

“Even so, we go.” (Sofia)

I have been forced to come.

I wasn’t called though…

By the way, the other members will be staying.

I was seen off by Sa-san and the others, and went to the Highland Castle to meet Princess Noel.

When we told her about the information that Fuji-yan and I gathered, Princess Noel said: ‘Let’s have a meeting at once’.

And so, it ended up in a meeting opening.

…I am hungry.

◇◇

Princess Sofia finishes explaining. 

“A rebellion by the beastkin.”

“Damn ungrateful animals. As I thought, our laws are way too lukewarm. We should go back to making them all slaves.” 

“You can’t say that’s a good move when the revival of the Great Demon Lord is coming. The Wood Country, Spring Log, and the Fire Country, Great Keith, have a lot of demi-humans. There would be objections from them.” 

“It would also affect the Northern Expedition Plan of next year.” 

By the way, I haven’t said a single word.

Is there a point in me being here?

“Leave the detailed stuff for later. We should capture the leaders of the rebellion, and execute them.” 

Woah, a radical statement has entered! 

I know that face, father of Geralt-san! 

You are hot-blooded like your son.

Ah, it is the opposite huh. He resembles his father.

“They have planned the rebellion, but it is before actually doing it. We also have to consider the other countries, so let’s have the leaders exiled from the country.” 

A peaceful looking old man…the Pope of the Goddess Church says softly.

“Doesn’t that sound good?” 

The second prince says as if he were bored from beginning to end.

“Now then, everyone, we will be arresting the rebellion leaders according to the list submitted by Sofia-sama, and to investigate them. Is that okay?” 

““““““……””””””

There’s no objections.

Princess Noel smiles and says: ‘Well then, we will go with that’.

Noel-sama is the one who moves the meeting forward, huh.

“Then, the next topic.” (Noel)

“The undead in the underground canals, huh…” 

“Isn’t this the negligence from the ones protecting the capital, the Templars, Pope Roma?” 

A Grand Duke that seems to have a bad personality looks at the Pope and grins.

The person that provoked the father of Geralt-san.

“I have given an urgent order to the Templars to investigate the underground canals. But something like this hasn’t happened before in the capital with the barrier up. Don’t you think it is important to investigate the reason for this?” 

“There’s no way we can find the cause for this immediately.” 

“No, it should be easy. The ones who can make undead use necromancy. When talking about necromancy, it is the accursed moon element. Now that I think about it, there was a troubling person who let the Moon Oracle escape the other day.” 

“That was to gauge the connection between the Moon Oracle and the Snake Church…” 

The first prince was flustered.

So it was his mistake?

“What’s the point if that allowed her escape.” 

“There was a report that a Templar made contact with the Moon Oracle the other day. She probably doesn’t have anything to do with the underground canals.” 

“What are you saying? Cursed people like dark places. By the way, what happened to that Templar?” 

“…He was cursed. He won’t be of use anymore.” 

(Sofia-sama, what does he mean by cursed?) (Makoto)

(The Moon Oracle is a master of dark and curse magic. We will speak in detail about that later.) (Sofia)

Dark magic, huh.

That sounds attractive.

“Now now, it is not certain that the Moon Oracle is the one related to the undead underground. By the way, just how strong are those undead? That’s the problem.” 

“About that, the Hero Makoto here will explain.” (Noel) 

Oh, I am going to be talking here?

The gazes of everyone gather over here for the first time.

“Uhm, an adventurer comrade of mine and I went to the 9th District and entered the underground canals. We suspected that there might be clues of the Snake Church. But there were only undead. We defeated around 50.” (Makoto)

“…50. That’s a lot.” 

“But it is monsters that two adventurers can defeat. Doesn’t sound big.” 

“What are you saying?! The Hero there is a strong fighter that defeated our prided Lightning Hero. No matter the monster, it should be easy for him!” 

Whenever the talk about Geralt-san shows up, the head of Valentine glares at me, so can you please stop provoking him?

Do they not get along? Clearly they don’t.

“1,000 Templars have gone to subjugate the undead in the underground canals. There’s no doubt they will be wiped out in no time.” 

The Pope-sama says with a smile.

This person seems gentle and easy to speak to.

He doesn’t give me the impression of being hard-headed like what Noah-sama said.

“Then, we just have to capture the Moon Oracle.” 

“That’s only a matter of time too. We have strengthened the inspections, so she won’t be able to get out of the capital for certain.” 

“But the monster repelling barrier being weak at the underground canals was a blind spot. We have to improve that.” 

They are now in chatting mode.

My turn is over, huh.

“Lastly…” (Noel)

Princess Noel looks at everyone.

“There’s still more? It is fine already. How about you just do whatever?” 

The second prince seems like he wants to leave.

“There’s been reports that the monsters in the forest close to the capital have increased and gotten more active. Using monsters to attack villages and towns is a conventional method of the Snake Church. It happened recently in the Water Country’s capital too.” (Noel)

“The Snake Church lacks weapons and numbers after all. They have no choice but to use monsters.” 

“But it is not a bad move. The monsters have been tough lately.” 

“Hmph, comparing the Water Country’s capital to our Symphonia is stupid! Especially now, the Sun Knights, the Templars, and the Four Sky Knight Orders are gathered. Even if a Demon Lord shows up, we wouldn’t have anything to fear!” 

(Oh my, is this a Demon Lord flag?) (Noah)

Noah-sama, you were listening?

Just in case, the Great Demon Lord hasn’t resurrected, right?

(Not yet.) (Noah)

…I trust you, okay?

“It is unknown what connection the Snake Church has. However, the next attack target after the chaos they created in the capital of Horun is the capital of Symphonia. Being optimistic would be dangerous. Yuwein-dono, I count on you with the protection of the capital.” (Noel)

Princess Noel directs her gaze at the Knight General.

The silent man that had been listening without saying anything until now only said: ‘Understood’.

“Then, let’s end the meeting here. Praise be the Goddess.” (Noel)

The meeting ended.

So tiring…

◇◇

“I have to talk to Noel-sama, so I will be taking my leave.” (Sofia)

Princess Sofia is as expressionless as ever.

But…

(She seems slightly tired…) (Makoto)

Makoto-san, please help Nee-sama, okay?

Prince Leonard told me that.

I don’t know if I can bring up her mood though.

“Princess Sofia.” (Makoto)

“Yes, what is it?” (Sofia)

Her face when turned is cold and beautiful.

“How about having a meal together some time?” (Makoto)

“?!” (Sofia)

“Ah, if it is okay with you, tha—.” (Makoto)

*Grab!*

She grabbed my hand.

It is as hot as Lucy.

“Promise.” (Sofia)

“Y-Yes…” (Makoto)

She made me promise with incredible vigor. 

She probably doesn’t dislike it then…right?

Does she get in a better mood if she eats delicious food?

I should ask Fuji-yan what good place to go to.

I see off Princess Sofia who is going up to the royalty floor where Princess Noel is, and I go down the Highland Castle’s stairs.

(Now that I think about it, maybe Lucy is still at the place of the Great Sage-sama?) (Makoto)

I have been keeping my distance because of fear of getting my blood sucked, but since I have the chance, maybe I should go train?

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