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“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have come. I don’t have a single good memory here.”

Reyne, the leader and representative of Auland’s reinforcements, spoke bluntly, instantly causing the atmosphere to cool at Darsos’ welcoming party.

“Your Highness Reyne is truly honest and direct. Although past events make one sigh, today is a joyful day. Let’s leave that topic for another time. Your Highness is capable of setting past matters aside and making the correct decision for the greater good. As expected of the pride of the Northlands, the Princess Knight!”

Darsos maintained a gentleman’s smile and led the way in clapping, helping ease the awkward atmosphere as everyone else hurried to follow his lead and clap as well.

Indeed, it was impossible for Reyne to have a good impression of Kagersi. First, when she was in a dire situation, she was forced to sign a subordinate country contract… and then almost forced into a marriage. If she was the female lead of a story about a female main character’s sufferings, it probably would count as the type where she had both personal and national grudges. Next up would be a love and hate relationship for the rest of her life… Fine, that style of story evidently didn’t fit this situation, so let’s not go too far down a tangent. At the very least, it was quite likely that Reyne held some grudges.

Her arrival, however, was indeed explainable. After all, the Auland Empire had sent a knight order and diplomatic envoy group to assist the Northlands in the war against the Beastmen. Even if Auland’s knights weren’t of any actual help in the end, not a single one of their White Wolf Knights retreated in front of Poison God Felix, standing firm to fight for humanity in front of insurmountable odds. We owed them at least this much.

Also, Auland was the Northlands’ largest trade partner and financial supporter. I had signed all sorts of contracts with Hemet back at Diffindor. At the very least, Auland and the Northlands were still allies—they even appeared to be solid allies with an excellent relationship.

There were only a few places in Eich with ongoing large-scale battles. Reyne wanted to level up her troops by giving them combat experience, along with earning Justice Points. She basically had two choices: the battle against the undead, and this battle here against the Sea Tribe.

As for the Northlands knights, for both the Aurora Knights who controlled ice as well as the Four Elemental Swordcasters and their magic swords, they wouldn’t have a large advantage over the hordes of undead. But with her aerial fleet and Aurora Knights, they wouldn’t fear an aquatic battle. This was why Reyne chose to come here.

It wasn’t only because it would be an easier battlefield to level up her troops. There were also political considerations. The Northlands needed to improve its reputation and authority. Simply remaining in a corner of the continent would be too passive. In a way, since Reyne had several excellent teachers and wasn’t dumb to begin with, she was far more mature than Roland had anticipated, especially after she rediscovered her confidence.

Just Reyne’s arrival together with her aerial fleet increased all Auland citizens’ morale. This was because aerial battleships were incredibly rare in Eich, and only we possessed them… Reyne even felt rather embarrassed at seeing the crowds below cheering for her. If she looked at the real origin of the Borealis, it was stolen from the Auland Empire. But since the original owner didn’t even know, she would just let things be.

The Big Dipper squadron for the Borealis was still under construction, so only the Mizer came together with the Borealis. Reyne’s aerial fleet consisted of one mega-aerial battleship Borealis, one heavy-class aerial battleship Mizer, along with around twenty small and swift fighters—a rather strange assortment. Together with her were about a hundred Aurora Knights and slightly over two hundred Four Elemental Swordcasters. Reyne had brought all her main forces with her with the intention of significantly contributing to this battle.

Of course, she also brought along Olive’s engineers and alchemists. Using such mega airships to only bring along her own people would be too much of a waste. At four pre-arranged locations, she brought on slightly over twelve hundred adventurers. Since space was limited on the airships, the adventurers had to be selected, with preference given to Contract Heroes and the strongest. About seven hundred were Contract Heroes, while the other five hundred were either those sitting on the fence about the Contract Heroes system or interested adventurers who hadn’t managed to obtain a Hero’s Armlet to become a Contract Hero in the first batch we recruited.

Of course, it was only natural that Reyne tried to recruit some adventurers into becoming her personal warriors on the way.

It wasn’t easy for Darsos, either. The Northlands princess didn’t even try to hide her grudge against him—she was polite to everyone else but icy cold to the extreme only towards him. Although Darsos continued to smile politely out of his pride as an emperor, as if her attitude didn’t matter, he felt more and more aggrieved inside.

The reason? Actually, he could have tolerated it if it was merely having to deal with Reyne’s attitude. After all, she was here to assist him. What gave Darsos trouble sleeping at night was her familiar face. Seeing Reyne, whose face was almost identical to Roland’s, constantly walk around in front of him caused Darsos to recall his dark history that he did his very best to bury: falling in love with a “man” and even publicly asking to get married, multiple times. Just recalling this memory made him want to clutch his head and cry.

And the most pitiful part was that every time he saw Reyne’s face, Darsos discovered that he actually mysteriously felt like he missed Roland, which made him want to cry even more. Every time he saw Reyne, he would mysteriously feel his heart skip a beat. This identical face always caused him to recall Roland’s every little action and smile, making his heart ache even more. It was as if a healed scar had opened up once again, with lots of salt being spread on top of this old injury.

“…Am I actually gay?”

The pitiful Emperor Darsos had never before doubted his sexual orientation. Feeling helpless, he could only go to his most beloved Empress Rosemary for consolation. When faced with Darsos’ lack of self-confidence, Rosemary appeared calm on the surface but secretly wanted to snicker, as “she” thought about her true identity. Still, she consoled him by having sex. Then, she told him:

“No need to think that much into it. No matter what, Princess Reyne is still a girl. If your heart is moved by her, it actually proves you’re straight.”

Alright then, her consoling was quite effective. At the very least, Darsos felt greatly relieved after hearing this.

“She’s still unmarried, isn’t she?”

For an emperor like Darsos with strong desires, of course he would act to obtain anything he wished for. The moment he felt like his heart being moved was only natural, he even wanted to make a move on Reyne. But his hopes had been dashed on the very same night of Reyne’s arrival.

His secret spies told him that Reyne had brought two beautiful female adventurers into her own room for “sexual escapades.” This caused Darsos to become confused yet again.

“So she actually likes women? Am I the one who’s not normal here? Or is she ‘Roland’ himself pulling a prank on me?”

He had his female spies secretly get close to Reyne and investigate, but the result was that Reyne was, indeed, a woman. Upon hearing this, Darsos received an even greater impact. [1] 1

“Ahhh! The person I love likes women?”

From a certain standpoint, Darsos, whose reputation was getting better and better as a wise lord, received yet another serious blow regarding his personal affairs. The end result was that he was greatly shaken about his sexual orientation yet again. He could only go back to his “female lover” for sexual consolation… By the way, if he knew the truth about his empress, would he commit suicide? Or would he change his sexual orientation and become gay, even writing some epic poetry in the process?

“You regret that I was born too late, while I regret that you were born too early—the greatest regret of my life is that I was unable to forget you even unto my death.”

Typically speaking, such epic poetry would be created when the author possessed some bone-piercingly deep emotions or had some inconceivable encounter. But this sentence later became used to describe a couple with an extremely good relationship, which was actually a misinterpretation of the original author’s intent. Since this sentence originated from Darsos, it wasn’t something meant to describe a straight couple’s love…

As for just what exactly happened in Reyne’s room, I don’t want this book to become censored, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination. At any rate, I’ll say just one thing—straight couples’ relationships are only for the purpose of breeding future generations, while relationships between the same gender is real, true love… What? I’m really not a veteran member of the FFF group! This is common sense! It doesn’t need any proof! How about you randomly ask someone on the street?

Cough—cough—this actually wasn’t Reyne’s fault. She didn’t do this because of her personal interests. Nor did she even know what Darsos thought of her. It was just that after she left Roland’s watchful eye, using Reyne’s body for sexual escapades became Karwenz’s “tuition” in exchange for teaching her knowledge. And she couldn’t stop Karwenz from forcefully taking over her body anyways—she refuse to pay such a tuition fee.

Anyhow, Darsos reaching such a state of affairs wasn’t particularly because he was evil or unlucky. Perhaps it was simply Fate at hand. Maybe the God of Fate didn’t wish this ambitious man, born far more talented than others, to have too easy of a life.

No matter if it was the Darsos of today or the Darsos in the game’s history, and no matter if it was in politics or his personal life, he was definitely no good person. But the end result made it seem that he was forever unlucky. However, compared to the “Dark Elf Empress” in the game’s history, Empress Rosemary was at least a great improvement. Perhaps it would even be possible for Darsos to have descendants. Wait a moment, the undead having children? Hang on, I must research this right away.

But no matter how internally conflicted Emperor Darsos felt, or how much blood he spurted over this, or how many times he visited his empress for sexual consolation, the war still continued. He needed to act like he was filled with vigor and high in spirits. At the very least, he refused to allow his personal feelings to shake the foundations of his country, or his army’s morale. Every day, Darsos was all smiles as he continued leading his patrols and held meetings with his council… If Roland had known how hard Darsos worked, Roland surely would have given him a big thumbs-up and praised him, saying “You’ve sure worked hard! You’re truly a good public official of Auland, sacrificing yourself for the sake of the people.”

As for Reyne, she was likely to have a celebration party of her own if she knew about Darsos’ mental struggles. Ever since she was born, Darsos, who had tried to threaten and force her, was the person she hated the most. If it wasn’t for Roland’s appearance, the East Mist Communal Country would have likely become the Auland Empire’s subordinate country. Reyne herself would have been forcibly married off to someone she didn’t like–maybe to someone she didn’t even know.

So Reyne didn’t attempt to conceal her great distaste for Darsos. But on another level, despite the fact that the Auland Empire had been in a state of war for a long period of time, Auland had indeed faithfully followed the contract to provide East Mist with resource support. Although the contract was a demon contract where failure to adhere to it would be punished by death, there were still loopholes that one could take. However, Auland had provided more resources to East Mist than was required by contract, so this was also an investment owed to Auland as a favor.

That was all part of why Reyne came to assist Auland. Just by arriving in New Kagersi, all of Auland knew about her arrival. There was even a huge crowd of citizens lined up on both sides of the road to welcome her. Even now, the people of Auland still recalled the astonishing performance of the Angel Bloodline “Reyne” in the arena. Auland’s nobles and knights also recalled how the Princess Knight had rushed forward into danger by herself when forced to the brink, all in order to save her relatives and friends. In their minds, the young Princess Knight was a perfect role model for how a knight should be.

As for the dirty politics and internal conflicts involved, those were secrets that no ordinary citizen would possibly know. Only the “highest-ups” of both sides knew the true nature of matters. What everyone else saw on the surface was that both sides had a wonderful friendship and alliance.

“The young Princess Knight’s outstanding spirit and ability allowed her to receive Emperor Darsos’ recognition. Emperor Darsos made an astonishing decision due to Princess Reyne’s potential and voluntarily allowed her country to have an equal status relationship with Auland rather than a subordinate one, along with giving her large amounts of resources as support. Now, Emperor Darsos has been rewarded for his excellent sense of recognition. After the Princess Knight returned to her country, she speedily increased the power of her country and even defeated the vicious Beastmen armies. Now, when we, Auland, are having difficulties, the Princess Knight has returned with her personal knights to fulfill her responsibilities and duties as our ally.”

This was what the common person in Auland as well as other outsiders believed of Reyne and Darsos’ relationship. Wouldn’t it make a great drama play?

Although all of this seemed quite logical on the surface, the reality couldn’t be any different. I suppose that it was akin to the difference in my previous world of what you saw on the news vs. reality. [2] 2 Actually, it was the same no matter which world I was in. Any public report, whether coming from the media or the government, would only report about what happened on the surface. Who knew how many things went on behind the scenes?

The end result was quite comical. Both countries’ leaders held great amounts of aggrievement towards each other. But, to any outsider, East Mist and Auland appeared like excellent friends and allies, to the point of even obtaining unity in military and economic affairs.

“Look, Auland’s continuously supplying East Mist with resources and even sent their knights to support the Northlands against the Beastmen. East Mist even gave Auland their national treasure, the floating airship technology. These two countries are just like blood brothers who don’t mind wearing each other’s clothing!”

From a certain standpoint, this wasn’t wrong at all. Since Auland’s empress was secretly a full supporter of East Mist, this strange allied relationship was likely to continue indefinitely.

Cough, once again, for the very, very, very last time, I’ll get back to the main topic. Reyne had arrived for Darsos’ planned sixty-eighth wave of attacks. And the strategic target for the attack was Kagersi’s former dock district… that’s right, the district with underwater ruins was Auland’s #1 prioritized strategic objective! Currently, the former docks had become a paradise for some giant sea beasts.

Alright then, you readers should know that this location had various things happen to it already, as a “certain person” had secretly taken away the most important treasure. But he wasn’t heartless enough to take everything. He had left behind all the information, as well as the equipment that was too inconvenient to take. For the Auland Empire, as long as they could open this “box,” the treasure inside would be worth any sacrifice.

Of course, that certain person was not exactly a kind person. He had always been waiting for Auland to open up the box, as his “design plans that are slightly ahead of your technology” and “the most critical technology that just happens to be missing” had been waiting for an incredibly long time! The moment Auland upgraded their technology skill tree, that’s right, I would instantly be there as a salesman.

“High-level new technology, package deal, free delivery! You can save ten years of hard work by purchasing this! It doesn’t cost 988, or 688, or even 488! It costs a mere 418! 418! Buy one package, and you’ll obtain two random loot boxes that contain top-level magical engineering technology! If you buy two packages, it’ll be five random loot boxes! That’s right, take a good look at the Roland brand New Year’s discount! Only found here! What are you waiting for, hurry up and place your order today!”

“What? You want to purchase some specific critical information instead of relying on random draws? Haha, dear customer, I don’t think you understand how business works, do you? Do you know what it means that this is only found here? It means that I have a monopoly, and I can sell my products however I want! I have the right of final interpretation, while you can only make recommendations. You can say whatever you want, but I don’t have to listen to you. Don’t you know that you have to pay the game company tons of money first before you can finally draw what you’re looking for? Don’t you know what I mean by saying that you’ll save ten years of hard work by purchasing this? It means that if you don’t buy this, you’ll forever be behind and have to grind for an additional ten years. It’s impossible for free-to-play players to ever defeat a pay-to-win player!”

Unfortunately, these advertisements that I personally wrote were never used for their intended recipient in the end due to their obvious ill intentions. Taking into consideration Darsos’ worsening mood, Rosemary was worried that Darsos would have a heart attack out of anger upon hearing such an advertisement, so she handed the issue of negotiating for Auland’s technology over to Chancellor Hemet… which ended in Hemet having a seizure due to extreme rage, requiring him to be “emergency healed” by Auland’s priests…

Well, I should stop spoiling the future. Let’s focus on the dawn before the battle which was to be the Auland Empire’s first full force attack on Rain City. And so, the sixty-eighth wave of attacks began.

And at this time, Reyne received unexpected reinforcements: three fully organized knight squadrons, with the most eye-catching one being a group of elves with grayish-black skin. With emblems of the full moon and a battle flag of the full moon, their leaders were people Reyne was quite familiar with.

“Diana? Victoria? Why have you all arrived here as well?”

Note:

[1] TL/N: What would you think if you were a spy, and your Emperor ordered you to get close to someone just to ascertain that person’s gender? Hahahaha

[2] TL/N: This is a jab at China’s censorship of the news, although I’m sure it has plenty of truth with regards to America these days as well. After all, America is starting to get famous for the “fake news” phenomenon…