Chapter 256: King Adom

In my room I was meeting with Chancellor Galt to prepare for the coming talk with the three heroes.

Both of us wore hard faces because of a report that one of the heroes, Bern Rolol, was doing something unsavory in the capital.

As if to hint at that, the three heroes had asked for an audience. Galt and I had received the report together from the hidden unit we had set to watch them.

Bringing royal guards was fine. They are heroes. Being careful is better than not.

But bringing extra soldiers into the capital without reporting it to the castle, and slipping them in as if hiding them, was another matter.

Unlike the Ryudo couple, Bern had many unsavory stories. Why he even sat as the Ryudo couple’s close friend had been a mystery for years.

No. I do understand.

Bern is smooth-tongued, sly, and deep with schemes. I had also noticed he was aiming at the throne.

But the evidence vanished every time, and all I could do was keep him confined to his territory.

This time, whatever he was planning, he had come to the capital asking for an audience.

Sanai, the fairy assigned to me waiting behind, felt hurried. I turned my face a little and glanced at her.

"King Adom, Bern’s private soldiers targeted Roy-dono and his lovers. Roy-dono and his lovers evacuated to the academy. Raide-sama is there as well."

"...They stepped on a tiger’s tail, then."

"If Raide moves... haa. When that man moves, nothing good comes of it, does it?"

I sighed and looked at Galt. Contrary to his words he was smiling like he was enjoying it.

Before I knew it I was smiling too. Even in this mess I was excited.

As expected of a childhood friend. We think the same things, is that it?

"Kuha, fuhahahaha! You look like you are having fun yourself, Galt."

"What shall I call it, my heart dancing...? Every time that man pulls us in, I feel like I am young again. Extremely troublesome, though."

"Same here. Thanks to him the number of times I go out into the capital with my wife has gone up."

"I would like you to stop that."

Galt made a sour face and cautioned me. I smiled wryly and muttered in my heart that he was a stiff one.

There was a reason I rode Sharle and the others’ Punishment and put Raide on equal standing with the royal family.

It was not only that I lost to Sharle and the others’ push. I thought that if it was Raide, he might make me the "formal" twenty-sixth king.

I do not know where he heard that talk, but I know that is what Bern is after.

"Sharle’s unit and the adventurers have captured Bern’s private soldiers who were chasing Roy-dono."

"Kuhahahaha! Oi oi, Raide is really going to get angry, you know?"

"King Adom, have you forgotten? They laid a hand on a student of the ’academy.’"

"...Galt, do you remember when the teacher got angry at us?"

"Please stop... I do not want to remember."

Galt let out a big sigh and looked into the distance. I remembered those childhood days too and my face twisted.

It was only for a short time, but Principal Croana had taught us.

Galt and I were wild and slipped out often, but after she got truly angry we stopped.

At the same time you could see in her the resolve to love her students like family, protect them, and teach them through.

What happens when a woman like that gets angry for her student?

We did not need to imagine. We had been yelled at. We knew the result far too well.

And this time Raide was involved.

...Would this case end quietly...?

"Word from Raide-sama. He is heading this way with Croana-sama and Roy-dono."

"...It has been a while since a king’s duty felt this painful."

"If I could, I would go home right now and drink with my wife..."

I did not say out loud, even though until yesterday you were spending a honeymoon with your wife?

I myself am wanted every day by both wives. If I slip, Sanai might report to them. That fear keeps me quiet.

Lately they seem to have grasped how much tonic to give, and even my sleep is managed properly, so I truly cannot say anything.

At this age I might meet a new life. When my wives whisper that, I have no choice but to try.

"A request from Raide-sama. He wants the meeting in the previous king’s reception room. If that is not possible, he wants permission to enter before the meeting starts... what will you do?"

"...Galt, do you think Raide knows about the succession?"

"From the request, it seems he does. But hmm... why the previous king’s reception room? There should only be a table there for meetings."

"That is so. That is a place we searched until we were sick of it. I think the hope is thin... but."

"I cannot imagine Raide making a request at random..."

I rubbed my chin with one hand, thought, and let out a small breath. Galt was the same, thinking hard.

If it was in the previous king’s reception room, holding the meeting there would also give Bern a chance.

If I thought of the danger, it would be better to let Raide in first and hold the meeting elsewhere... but.

I noticed I had started smiling without meaning to and looked at Galt. He was smiling with a troubled face too.

"Thinking the same thing?"

"So it seems."

"Fuu... Sanai, tell Raide we accept the request. And the heroes too... muu!?"

"Gu, uuu... hard on an old body."

A sudden pressure of mana hit us. Galt and I grimaced and groaned.

The pressure vanished in an instant. Sweating at the brow, I looked at Galt.

Who had come to the castle. We had been hit with the same thing in the past. We knew.

She is angry. Extraordinarily angry. This is Principal Croana’s threat. A threat that says, you made me angry?

Sanai wiped the sweat from my brow while I let out a big sigh.

"After coming this far it will not pay unless I see Bern’s suffering face, or his despair..."

"From there I would also like Raide to give me a drink."

"...Galt. I was thinking, are you not the only one being sly? You went to Raide’s tavern, did you not?"

"Sly or not, what would a king be doing in a commoner’s tavern?"

Galt and I stood, left the room, and walked together toward the previous king’s reception room while talking household talk.

Every time he tells me to stop, and yet he goes to the tavern himself. I looked at my childhood friend’s face sideways with flat eyes.

"What else is there to do besides drink?"

"Aah. The food from Raide’s wife at that tavern was good, you know?"

"You... are you not stirring me too much? No, wait. Once this matter is over..."

"What are you thinking? Stop."

"No no. You are the one stirring me."

While we shoved each other down the hall, Sanai, who had served as my exclusive for years, laughed happily behind us.

Aah. If I could have, I would have wanted to meet Raide twenty years earlier. No, ten.

Then I would have dragged him around to tavern after tavern... with Galt, of course?