Night…
Palace…
Princess's balcony…
Andrew's hand, which flickered with magic, was aimed at the defiant princess. He pulled off his black dragon mask earlier, hoping to see eye to eye with her. The words…the revelation she just poured on him…
"You are the creator of the androids?" Andrew said. "And how much of our Nation's money are you throwing away?"
"None," Princess Kaguya said. "I make them with magic and special metal my sister mails to me from abroad. I even use magic to give them realistic synthetic skin to be as close to human as possible. My sister's big in adventuring, so she sends me a lot of things on her quest for knowledge."
Andrew shook his head, the magic in his hands intensifying into a red and black glow.
"You're not lying to me, are you? Then why the high taxes? Why the unbalanced system? What do you plan to do about the other cities who have been begging for improvement for years?"
"Mother is trying," Kaguya said, her voice infused with a trace amount of anger. She seemed to deflate. "She's trying her best, but the structure of our government isn't as black and white as you think. We aren't dictators. Mother can propose some universal law for our nation, but the mayors of the provinces can impose province-local laws. Many times have we offered to upgrade other cities. Many times, but the mayors who sit on their backs getting rich and looking down their noses at even us, reject the offers, stating that they wish to keep the costs down. What can we do? We cannot force our laws on the seven mayors, as without their support, we cannot hold together the government." Kaguya seemed to wilt. "Not to mention the provinces fighting each other for power. Raids, scandals, and election manipulation." Tears streamed down the princess's eyes. "And then your group comes in, devoid of the facts, and makes things harder."
Andrew gasped.
"I know it isn't your fault," Kaguya said. "We know who's pulling the strings, hiding behind his power, connections, and even money that surpasses what we have left in the treasury. We hate putting out the taxes, making those in this province cover for the others that use loopholes set up by their ancestors to pay as little as possible. We tried so hard to change, begged the money-hungry mayors to work with us. One tried to reach out, only to get ridiculed by the others for being weak and giving in to the federal level. He retracted his support, deciding not to update his city nor improve it, even a little in the name of costs. We are battling and compromising. Mother and her lawyers are working on a loophole-free bill designed to impress even the provinces. But the more your leader keeps ordering attacks, the more time it takes away from fixing the nation. I know…I know he's misled you. He claims to want change, but is handling things the wrong way." Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com <a href="https://www.webnovel.com">www.webnovel.com</a> for visiting.
Andrew's hand was down, magic dissipated, as he listened and nodded. The princess continued.
"Did he tell you that before he began the attacks, we offered to bring him in as an adviser. He declined, despite having the qualifications, degrees, experience as an ex-mayor and even taught politics in major colleges for a while. Mother, Palona and I reached the same conclusion. Maverick is seeking control of the nation and the provinces are backing him."
Andrew's eyes widened, mouth agape. Kaguya sighed.
"We don't have all of the evidence up front yet to make a claim. Once the people see this, they can collectively voice their displeasure. At that time, Mother and I will have the power to remove them from their offices under the grounds of corruption and arrest them. Mother will fill those positions with people she know that deserve those spots. Some even lost due to dirty, underhanded tactics and false scandals." Kaguya stood. "I'm glad you came here, you may be able to stop this. Please take some time to think about it…if you're not here to kill me."
Andrew shook his head. "No. But you're right, I'll need time to think. Do you mind if we meet tomorrow afternoon? If what you're saying is true, then I will do everything in my power to reverse what Maverick has done."
Kaguya nodded.
"Thank you. I mean it."
Andrew nodded once, feeling legitimate sincerity in her voice. Of course he'd always known the princess was kind and caring, but Maverick's teachers only demonized the Queen and the government as a whole. He spoke on things that looked true due to the many problems across the provinces, but now that the young man had time to think on it….Maverick had never mentioned the mayors. Not once since the five years Andrew had been his apprentice. But…he seemed to genuinely care for the country. He often said he could do better. The young man agreed, due to the circumstances.
And Maverick was right. He could do better. But how could the queen do anything if the provinces had secretly turned against her with a plan to overthrow the royal family? Why didn't Andrew see this earlier? What was Andrew's role? Maverick often spoke of him being the key to this plan, the public face…
But…he was also the scapegoat in the case of anything going wrong.
Andrew leapt off the side of the balcony, making a Jump to his apartment.
Princess Kaguya hoped he'd do the right thing. Her mother and the lawyers cannot stand against the provinces without enough evidence for the grounds of corruption, no matter how obvious. Maybe the Black Mask could do something.
As for needing the blessing of the legendary hero, Kaguya requested that Palona take it upon herself, for they could not risk drawing the Stone deeper into their political affairs. She didn't want the world to look at him in a negative light. Without him, everything was doomed. Palona foretold it.
Kaguya sighed. Ironically, the gargoyles may be just as big of a problem.
**
Hotel…
Saturday. Week 4. Month 2. Year 1. Season: Late autumn. Last day of the month.
[Satovian Universal Calendar: Nova, 46389]
[School: Winter Break. Day 8 of 30.]
[Current declared fiancée(s): Melody, Alice, Tear, Harumi, Chika, Natalia.]
[Expecting: Harumi, Alice. Time left: Harumi, kitsune- 5 months till due. Alice, half-demoness, half-angel: 5 months till due. Alert! The time could shrink or increase as the infants absorb energy—and nature determines how powerful they are. Harumi, Alice week: 1. ]
[Card bearers in city: 1, Ming.]
[Cook-off opponents in Nation Seat: Attincusburon, Alon: 1200. Harumi, Advanced Chef Yuki, Kitome, Alice. The rest are unknown.]
[Adventure quest: During the Winter break, you must travel to the nation of Alon to give your blessing to the princess. Neko must be present. Her sister is an optional addition but will increase the awards. Beware of the wizard gang around this area. The troubling bunch may be the least of your problems if the Gargoyles are still around.]
So much for the Alonian holiday, Clyde thought as he sat up, stretching. Silver-hair peeking from the covers on his left clued him in on who spent the night in his hotel room. Alice held his right arm, her hair undone. She sometimes styled her twin tails, although when the young man joked about going for drills, Alice flicked his nose.
A familiar clacking of buttons made the young man look to his right to see Natalia playing her game. The loli-witch was quite persistent when it came to greeting him every morning. The same went for his fiancées at different intervals. How long did the loli wait for him to awake?
"Good morning, husbando onii," Natalia said, diving into him. She accidentally kicked Alice in the head.
Pink aura surrounded the half-demoness as she rose to glare at the trembling loli.
"Onii-chan," Natalia began in a whiny voice, "Alice is going to bully me." She tightly snuggled into the young man.
"You know Natalia, you could always try apologizing," Clyde said. Alice's aura intensified, causing the room the shake. "If you don't." The young man pulled her off. "Oof, that's going to hurt."
"I'm sorry!" Natalia quickly said to the half-demoness. "I didn't mean to. I was just trying to be a good wife."
The words surprised Alice so much that she snapped out of her tired rage. Even Chika woke up to gape at her. Yuki entered the room with freshly folded clothes for Clyde, also with a surprised look. Sigh. He told Yuki not to act as his maid and especially when they were out, but as usual, the demoness didn't listen. Sometimes she even doubled down on her efforts.
"Those words, from Natalia's mouth?" Yuki said. "If only Tear was up to hear them."
Natalia slumped onto Alice's chest, face first, blushing heavily. Alice grinned, pulling the loli into a hug.
"Alright, party's over, let's get dressed," the half-demoness said. "We'll have time to tease my Nattie later."
Yuki chuckled. "She so adorable when embarrassed."
Clyde pet the loli, before getting on with the morning. Seeing Alice's toothpaste in sight, he smirked. He couldn't get to it the prior night after the bath because most of his fiancées brushed with him.
The hotel rooms were the size of apartments, decked with their own living rooms and TVs and other things to fool someone rich into thinking they're paying for value. But hey, it had a working heater.
After breakfast, Clyde gathered the full team into the reserved room for a meeting. He stood while the others sat at table. They discussed yesterday's events, devised plans, created theories and debunked some of them.
"Airi, you will scout in one direction of their headquarters, Seth you take the other," Clyde said. "I don't need to tell you guys what it means to scout, right?"
"Quite frankly, I don't mind," Seth said. "I'm not keen on the idea of facing possibly thousands of fucking wizards by myself."
"Normally, I'd have a colorful remark to that," Airi said, "but I agree. No pulling any Yusukes."
Yusuke glared at her. Undine laughed.
"Don't tease my ninja hero," the reaperess said, dazzling smile making Yusuke blush.
Clyde laughed lightly. "Don't worry about your ninja hero, he's going on this mission too. Scouting in depth while in stealth. We'll need to have our guards up while in this hotel, because I'm pretty damned sure there's another attack coming. We're not going to stop posting watches anytime soon. So, Tear, any luck yet?"
"Still no hotels," Tear said. "It's best that we get to this Palona then leave."
"True," Clyde said. "It's not like we can stop what could be years of ongoing political issues. But before we leave, we're going to put a good dent in these fuckers."
He was starting to regret the decision to leave his lich behind more and more. She could've made them sleeping gas bombs or something to make capturing these bastards much easier. "Seth, Airi, Yusuke, move out. You know the drill."
Tapping on Clyde's leg made him look to the side and down at kuudere, mismatched eyes.
"Wizards are heading this way, onii-chan."
The young man nodded. He took the time to allow his earthly brain to question the bizarreness of having children in this situation. His normal brain reminded it that they were in fact not children and older than him. The loli below was old enough to be a grandmother of many generations. He wouldn't tell her that of course. The emotionless loli sometimes had just tiny glimpses of annoyance in her aura when it came to her age. The only reason why she let Fuyoko baby her was probably due to the free pampering. She hung out with Natalia, a genius witch stuck in her child form due to a curse and the gothic loli vampire. One would think this was simply a collaboration of great minds. Could be. But Clyde knew damned well they talked mostly about anime and manga. That damned Natalia only took things seriously on her own terms.
"We really don't got time for this shit," Clyde said, turning on his Area Sense. No red dots just yet—his range was limited at level two. Dera rushed into the room.
"My sensors have detected—"
"Yeah yeah, we know, droid," Kitome interrupted. "You're too late."
"They're golden robes," Dera continued, ignoring the magical girl. "I picked up feed from a camera some blocks away. They're in five vans. Some are armed with guns, one has a rocket launcher. Estimated time of arrival is twelve minutes."
"Fuck!" Clyde snapped, "why did some people decide to come back to this hotel?"
"Because they're not smart, pervy husbando," Natalia said.
"Tear, Noona, Chika—get this place evacuated," Clyde said. As if things couldn't get any worse, a prompt flashed into his mind's eye.
[Emergency quest: Evacuate the Hotel! This quest is mandatory and cannot be refused. If you ignore this quest, you will receive a Game Over. ??? will be happy to toss you to the depths of Hell.]
Well fuck, the stakes reveal themselves once again…
Night…
Palace…
Princess's balcony…
Andrew's hand, which flickered with magic, was aimed at the defiant princess. He pulled off his black dragon mask earlier, hoping to see eye to eye with her. The words…the revelation she just poured on him…
"You are the creator of the androids?" Andrew said. "And how much of our Nation's money are you throwing away?"
"None," Princess Kaguya said. "I make them with magic and special metal my sister mails to me from abroad. I even use magic to give them realistic synthetic skin to be as close to human as possible. My sister's big in adventuring, so she sends me a lot of things on her quest for knowledge."
Andrew shook his head, the magic in his hands intensifying into a red and black glow.
"You're not lying to me, are you? Then why the high taxes? Why the unbalanced system? What do you plan to do about the other cities who have been begging for improvement for years?"
"Mother is trying," Kaguya said, her voice infused with a trace amount of anger. She seemed to deflate. "She's trying her best, but the structure of our government isn't as black and white as you think. We aren't dictators. Mother can propose some universal law for our nation, but the mayors of the provinces can impose province-local laws. Many times have we offered to upgrade other cities. Many times, but the mayors who sit on their backs getting rich and looking down their noses at even us, reject the offers, stating that they wish to keep the costs down. What can we do? We cannot force our laws on the seven mayors, as without their support, we cannot hold together the government." Kaguya seemed to wilt. "Not to mention the provinces fighting each other for power. Raids, scandals, and election manipulation." Tears streamed down the princess's eyes. "And then your group comes in, devoid of the facts, and makes things harder."
Andrew gasped.
"I know it isn't your fault," Kaguya said. "We know who's pulling the strings, hiding behind his power, connections, and even money that surpasses what we have left in the treasury. We hate putting out the taxes, making those in this province cover for the others that use loopholes set up by their ancestors to pay as little as possible. We tried so hard to change, begged the money-hungry mayors to work with us. One tried to reach out, only to get ridiculed by the others for being weak and giving in to the federal level. He retracted his support, deciding not to update his city nor improve it, even a little in the name of costs. We are battling and compromising. Mother and her lawyers are working on a loophole-free bill designed to impress even the provinces. But the more your leader keeps ordering attacks, the more time it takes away from fixing the nation. I know…I know he's misled you. He claims to want change, but is handling things the wrong way." Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com <a href="https://www.webnovel.com">www.webnovel.com</a> for visiting.
Andrew's hand was down, magic dissipated, as he listened and nodded. The princess continued.
"Did he tell you that before he began the attacks, we offered to bring him in as an adviser. He declined, despite having the qualifications, degrees, experience as an ex-mayor and even taught politics in major colleges for a while. Mother, Palona and I reached the same conclusion. Maverick is seeking control of the nation and the provinces are backing him."
Andrew's eyes widened, mouth agape. Kaguya sighed.
"We don't have all of the evidence up front yet to make a claim. Once the people see this, they can collectively voice their displeasure. At that time, Mother and I will have the power to remove them from their offices under the grounds of corruption and arrest them. Mother will fill those positions with people she know that deserve those spots. Some even lost due to dirty, underhanded tactics and false scandals." Kaguya stood. "I'm glad you came here, you may be able to stop this. Please take some time to think about it…if you're not here to kill me."
Andrew shook his head. "No. But you're right, I'll need time to think. Do you mind if we meet tomorrow afternoon? If what you're saying is true, then I will do everything in my power to reverse what Maverick has done."
Kaguya nodded.
"Thank you. I mean it."
Andrew nodded once, feeling legitimate sincerity in her voice. Of course he'd always known the princess was kind and caring, but Maverick's teachers only demonized the Queen and the government as a whole. He spoke on things that looked true due to the many problems across the provinces, but now that the young man had time to think on it….Maverick had never mentioned the mayors. Not once since the five years Andrew had been his apprentice. But…he seemed to genuinely care for the country. He often said he could do better. The young man agreed, due to the circumstances.
And Maverick was right. He could do better. But how could the queen do anything if the provinces had secretly turned against her with a plan to overthrow the royal family? Why didn't Andrew see this earlier? What was Andrew's role? Maverick often spoke of him being the key to this plan, the public face…
But…he was also the scapegoat in the case of anything going wrong.
Andrew leapt off the side of the balcony, making a Jump to his apartment.
Princess Kaguya hoped he'd do the right thing. Her mother and the lawyers cannot stand against the provinces without enough evidence for the grounds of corruption, no matter how obvious. Maybe the Black Mask could do something.
As for needing the blessing of the legendary hero, Kaguya requested that Palona take it upon herself, for they could not risk drawing the Stone deeper into their political affairs. She didn't want the world to look at him in a negative light. Without him, everything was doomed. Palona foretold it.
Kaguya sighed. Ironically, the gargoyles may be just as big of a problem.
**
Hotel…
Saturday. Week 4. Month 2. Year 1. Season: Late autumn. Last day of the month.
[Satovian Universal Calendar: Nova, 46389]
[School: Winter Break. Day 8 of 30.]
[Current declared fiancée(s): Melody, Alice, Tear, Harumi, Chika, Natalia.]
[Expecting: Harumi, Alice. Time left: Harumi, kitsune- 5 months till due. Alice, half-demoness, half-angel: 5 months till due. Alert! The time could shrink or increase as the infants absorb energy—and nature determines how powerful they are. Harumi, Alice week: 1. ]
[Card bearers in city: 1, Ming.]
[Cook-off opponents in Nation Seat: Attincusburon, Alon: 1200. Harumi, Advanced Chef Yuki, Kitome, Alice. The rest are unknown.]
[Adventure quest: During the Winter break, you must travel to the nation of Alon to give your blessing to the princess. Neko must be present. Her sister is an optional addition but will increase the awards. Beware of the wizard gang around this area. The troubling bunch may be the least of your problems if the Gargoyles are still around.]
So much for the Alonian holiday, Clyde thought as he sat up, stretching. Silver-hair peeking from the covers on his left clued him in on who spent the night in his hotel room. Alice held his right arm, her hair undone. She sometimes styled her twin tails, although when the young man joked about going for drills, Alice flicked his nose.
A familiar clacking of buttons made the young man look to his right to see Natalia playing her game. The loli-witch was quite persistent when it came to greeting him every morning. The same went for his fiancées at different intervals. How long did the loli wait for him to awake?
"Good morning, husbando onii," Natalia said, diving into him. She accidentally kicked Alice in the head.
Pink aura surrounded the half-demoness as she rose to glare at the trembling loli.
"Onii-chan," Natalia began in a whiny voice, "Alice is going to bully me." She tightly snuggled into the young man.
"You know Natalia, you could always try apologizing," Clyde said. Alice's aura intensified, causing the room the shake. "If you don't." The young man pulled her off. "Oof, that's going to hurt."
"I'm sorry!" Natalia quickly said to the half-demoness. "I didn't mean to. I was just trying to be a good wife."
The words surprised Alice so much that she snapped out of her tired rage. Even Chika woke up to gape at her. Yuki entered the room with freshly folded clothes for Clyde, also with a surprised look. Sigh. He told Yuki not to act as his maid and especially when they were out, but as usual, the demoness didn't listen. Sometimes she even doubled down on her efforts.
"Those words, from Natalia's mouth?" Yuki said. "If only Tear was up to hear them."
Natalia slumped onto Alice's chest, face first, blushing heavily. Alice grinned, pulling the loli into a hug.
"Alright, party's over, let's get dressed," the half-demoness said. "We'll have time to tease my Nattie later."
Yuki chuckled. "She so adorable when embarrassed."
Clyde pet the loli, before getting on with the morning. Seeing Alice's toothpaste in sight, he smirked. He couldn't get to it the prior night after the bath because most of his fiancées brushed with him.
The hotel rooms were the size of apartments, decked with their own living rooms and TVs and other things to fool someone rich into thinking they're paying for value. But hey, it had a working heater.
After breakfast, Clyde gathered the full team into the reserved room for a meeting. He stood while the others sat at table. They discussed yesterday's events, devised plans, created theories and debunked some of them.
"Airi, you will scout in one direction of their headquarters, Seth you take the other," Clyde said. "I don't need to tell you guys what it means to scout, right?"
"Quite frankly, I don't mind," Seth said. "I'm not keen on the idea of facing possibly thousands of fucking wizards by myself."
"Normally, I'd have a colorful remark to that," Airi said, "but I agree. No pulling any Yusukes."
Yusuke glared at her. Undine laughed.
"Don't tease my ninja hero," the reaperess said, dazzling smile making Yusuke blush.
Clyde laughed lightly. "Don't worry about your ninja hero, he's going on this mission too. Scouting in depth while in stealth. We'll need to have our guards up while in this hotel, because I'm pretty damned sure there's another attack coming. We're not going to stop posting watches anytime soon. So, Tear, any luck yet?"
"Still no hotels," Tear said. "It's best that we get to this Palona then leave."
"True," Clyde said. "It's not like we can stop what could be years of ongoing political issues. But before we leave, we're going to put a good dent in these fuckers."
He was starting to regret the decision to leave his lich behind more and more. She could've made them sleeping gas bombs or something to make capturing these bastards much easier. "Seth, Airi, Yusuke, move out. You know the drill."
Tapping on Clyde's leg made him look to the side and down at kuudere, mismatched eyes.
"Wizards are heading this way, onii-chan."
The young man nodded. He took the time to allow his earthly brain to question the bizarreness of having children in this situation. His normal brain reminded it that they were in fact not children and older than him. The loli below was old enough to be a grandmother of many generations. He wouldn't tell her that of course. The emotionless loli sometimes had just tiny glimpses of annoyance in her aura when it came to her age. The only reason why she let Fuyoko baby her was probably due to the free pampering. She hung out with Natalia, a genius witch stuck in her child form due to a curse and the gothic loli vampire. One would think this was simply a collaboration of great minds. Could be. But Clyde knew damned well they talked mostly about anime and manga. That damned Natalia only took things seriously on her own terms.
"We really don't got time for this shit," Clyde said, turning on his Area Sense. No red dots just yet—his range was limited at level two. Dera rushed into the room.
"My sensors have detected—"
"Yeah yeah, we know, droid," Kitome interrupted. "You're too late."
"They're golden robes," Dera continued, ignoring the magical girl. "I picked up feed from a camera some blocks away. They're in five vans. Some are armed with guns, one has a rocket launcher. Estimated time of arrival is twelve minutes."
"Fuck!" Clyde snapped, "why did some people decide to come back to this hotel?"
"Because they're not smart, pervy husbando," Natalia said.
"Tear, Noona, Chika—get this place evacuated," Clyde said. As if things couldn't get any worse, a prompt flashed into his mind's eye.
[Emergency quest: Evacuate the Hotel! This quest is mandatory and cannot be refused. If you ignore this quest, you will receive a Game Over. ??? will be happy to toss you to the depths of Hell.]
Well fuck, the stakes reveal themselves once again…
