The curtain fell on the night.
　It was a quiet night. There was no moonlight, but there were magical lights in the capital.
　Garlesta, the imperial capital of the Galdio Empire in the underworld.
　We had shifted to the garden of the imperial palace located almost in the center of the city. Since we've been here once, we can easily come through [Gate].

''This is the Imperial Palace?''
That was a lot easier to get into, that it was.
''The defense against magic isn't very well developed in the underworld 《here》. But what do we do from here...?

　This time, the chaperones were Yae and Lou. Originally, I thought I should use [Invisible] from here, turn invisible and go to the emperor's sleeping quarters....... Compared to the daytime, there are more golems on guard than I thought.
　Invisibility 《Invisible》 can be fooled by humans, but I wonder how it would work with golems. If there's something like a heat-sensitive device [thermography], they might find out.
　And that's why it's hard for Golems to paralyze. I can't bear the thought of destroying it. Hmm, well, let's get on with it for now.

Search. Emperor Galdio.
"Search complete. Search is over.

　We look at the emerging view of the castle, hiding behind the trees in the courtyard. No, we are actually hiding.

"What are we going to do, that we are?
I guess we could do a quick [teleportation].
'What?　And, but that's....

　?　Roux's hesitation is shown by a toothless mogul. Was there a problem?

Huh, it's not a good idea to suddenly jump into the couple's sleeping quarters........ I mean, you could be in the middle of...

　Lou, who turned bright red, replied while looking down. Hearing that, Yae also turned red and averted her gaze. d*mn, the warped s*x education by that erotic duo is starting to take its toll!　You're getting old for the ears!
　.........well, that's not necessarily a possibility, though. I feel like there's no need to be so careful........ No, should I use it........?
　Searching and checking, I'm pretty sure the Queen is with you. The prince seems to be in a separate room.

''Well let's take a look inside the room with [Long Sense] and then...''
You want to see that?
You know...

　Oh no, like a bucktooth tortoise on a person.

''........Then I'll have the summoner go check it out.......''
Yeah, that's a good idea.

　He drew a small magic circle on the ground with magic stone chalk and summoned a small rat. The rat quickly disappeared into the darkness of the night.
　This wouldn't be a peep, as the vision wasn't linked. Let's peek through the window of the emperors' room or let them look in from the attic, and if there's no problem, let's jump in with [Teleport].
　For now, I activate 【Invisible】 on myself and apply it to the two of them as well. With this, they won't make a scene even if they move instantly into the room.

''........Oh?　Looks like you two are both off for the day.

　Receiving a telepathic message from the mouse, he gives a thumbs up to the two of them. Emperor-Emperor-Emperor, both of you seem to be asleep. Shall we jump at once then?
　I pull Yae and the others together and hold each of their hands.

''【Teleport】''

　We moved momentarily and appeared in a corner of the large sleeping area. A dim, magical light illuminated the room. A large bed (though it doesn't compare to the huge bed in my room) and a heavily built office desk. A luxurious fireplace and a gleaming table and chairs. This area is different from our house. I guess it's a matter of money or taste.
　Approaching the bed. Before that, let's use 【Silence】 to prevent the noise in the room from escaping. There will probably be guarded knights and guards on the other side of the door.
　We creepily approach the bed. I activated [Silence], but why?
　[Silence] is not a sound-eliminating spell, it's precisely a spell that blocks sound from within the range to outside the range. It doesn't have any effect on us and the Emperor and Queen who are in the same range. The figure is gone, but the sound can be heard. I wish I could block this one too with [Silence], but I can't cast it twice.
　As I slowly approached the bed, I saw that both of them were sleeping soundly. Alright, let's get started with the hypnosis magic 《Hupnosis》.......

''........who are you?''
"?

　Emperor Galdio opens both of his eyelids. His gaze is not directed at us, but he clearly senses our presence.

''Why........''
He sensed your presence, that he did. He seems to have a very keen sense of intuition, that he does.

　Yae, not the emperor, answers my question in a small way. It's true that it's just invisible, but there was a possibility that it could be detected by sounds and signs.......
　[Invisible] is not very effective against martial arts users like Yae, Hilda and Else. It's like they have an oddly keen intuition, or they can detect it with a sign. I wonder if this emperor is also a martial artist.
　Well, what should I do? Do we run away or do we force it? Since [Silence] has been activated, though, the guards won't come rushing in even if there's a commotion.

''Are you from Isengard's hand?　That old man's greed never ceases to impress me.

　Hmmm, this one totally recognizes us. The queen seems to be awake, and the emperor is reaching under the pillow. He probably has some kind of weapon tucked under it.
　However, he seems to be under the mistaken impression that he is an intruder in Isengard.

''........What shall we do, that is?''
No choice. It's a pain in the ass. You want to get straight to the point?
'It could ... well ... it could cause a rift in the marriage, couldn't it?
That's when I need to use the Hupnosis hypnosis spell to tickle your memory.

　As I answered that, Lou gave a small sigh. He's probably dismayed by the same haphazardness as always. ........It's time to get used to it.
　I snap my fingers and release the [Invisible] with a snap of my fingers. Seeing the three of us appearing in the corner of the room, the Emperor and Queen of Galdio got up from their beds.

''Who are you? Isn't it the Hand of Isengard.......?
No. Well, a messenger of the Rêve Kingdom, if you will.
"?　Rave's...!　No way...!
You're...!

　The Emperor and the Queen, their faces turn pale at my comment. Hmm?　They both seem to have some idea of what they've heard of the Rave Kingdom. Apparently, they both know about the prince's background.

''There's someone out there!　There's an intruder!

　The emperor pulls out his sword from under the pillow and shouts out, but there is no response from the corridor side. This is because the sound is completely blocked out by [Silence].

''It's useless. Your voices cannot reach us. I'm using my magic to completely block it out.
'　A wizard...!

　With his sword at the ready for me, Emperor Galdio stands up from the bed. In response, Yae bent down slightly and extended her right hand to the hilt of her sword.
　Is there some kind of misunderstanding?　If a guy from the country that we destroyed comes, you could be forgiven for thinking it's revenge.

"To be attacked by a vassal of the Levee Kingdom after all this time...
'No, we don't want to attack you, and we're not from the Rave Kingdom, okay?　Those people asked me to look for the prince of the Rave Kingdom by magic, though. I was surprised to see the prince from here, though.

　At those words, Queen Galdio rolled off the bed. As she sat down on the carpet, she turned her face, twisted with grief, to us.

''........Wait, wait!　She's, she's our baby!　He may not be blood, but he's our child!　Don't take it away from us...!

　The queen cried out, blotting out tears. Emperor Galdio, standing next to her, looked at his sobbing wife with eyes filled with sadness.
　I knew they both knew it wasn't their child. There were no cracks in their marriage, but honestly, I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. It makes me feel like I'm doing something extremely bad. Lou and Yae also seemed to feel the same way, and they gave me a look of bad luck.

''........You came to take our son away from us?''

　Clutching his sword, the emperor glares at me with a tone that contains anger.

''........I can use transition magic. If I wanted to kidnap the prince, I would have done it long ago. The reason I came here today is to find out the truth. How did the prince of the Rave Kingdom become the prince of the Galdio Empire....... It all starts from there. We want to hear it and then make a decision on what to do after this. ........Can you tell us?

　Emperor Galdio, who had been listening to my words in silence, eventually dropped the sword he was holding and threw it down on the bed. Then he hugged his wife's shoulders and made her stand up, and they sat down on the bed together.

'I feared that one day this day would come.... I feared that the day would come when someone would grab that boy's secret and expose it to the light of day....

　Emperor Galdio nodded his head and began to tell us about the events of ten years ago.




　Ten years ago.
　At that time, my father, the previous emperor Galdio, was still alive and well and I was the crown prince.
　It was almost the end of winter when I was ordered by the Emperor to lead an army to the land of Leve, I think.
　In his or her land, which contains a lot of divine silver "mithril" in the strata, the golems don't operate well and can only show less than half of their original capabilities. Only the 'Beast Emperor Machine' series controlled by the enemy's Twelve Generals of Rave was unaffected by it, and until now, the Rave Kingdom had been able to dispel any invasion.
　However, everything changed when one of the Twelve Generals betrayed Rave and sold the 'Beast Emperor Plane' to Isengard.
　Isengard analyzed the "Beast Emperor Plane" and succeeded in developing a device to block the influence of the Divine Silver Mithril. However, the catalyst for the device was not available in Isengard, and so they approached the resource-rich Galdio for help.
　The two countries would fight together and take the land of Leve, he said.
　I was opposed to this, but when Isengard offered to cede most of the land in the Kingdom of Leve to him, the emperor accepted the proposal.
　The land of Leve is a land that has been repeatedly invaded and failed by Galdio for generations. Perhaps my father thought that if he accomplished this, he would gain fame over previous emperors.
　Isengard's only target was the Ruins of Azure in the Kingdom of Leve. It is said that the 'Blue Ruins' is where many ancient aircraft, the Legacy, have been excavated. It seems that from the beginning, Isengard's goal was only to find those ruins.
　Thus, along with tens of thousands of Soldat soldiers equipped with Isengard's blocking devices, the Mage King from Isengard and I from Galdio will be heading to Leve from Isengard and the battle will begin.
　The twelve, or rather eleven generals, who had no more ground advantage, were defeated one by one by the combined forces of Isengard and Galdio. Even though the "Beast Emperor Plane" was superior in ability even without the ground advantage, it was not possible to overturn the battlefield with just ten units.
　The two armies rushed in and finally the royal castle fell and the Leve Kingdom was destroyed.

　The next day, after the battle was over, my entourage found a woman who looked like a nanny and appeared to have escaped from the castle. The nanny had died with a baby in her arms, but the identity of the child was immediately apparent. The baby's clothes were embroidered with the royal coat of arms of the Rêve Kingdom.
　That baby was the prince of the Rêve Kingdom. The last survivor of the royal family.
　If the exiled prince and others are left alive, they may eventually become the seeds of rebellion. The best thing to do is to kill him on the spot, which is the usual way of warfare.
　But I hesitated to kill him. I hesitated.
　I hesitated because a few days earlier I had received word from home that I too was expecting a child.
　My wife was not able to conceive, and the baby was finally born. I still remember how happy I was at that time.
　His decision to save the baby may have been just a whim of a young man who had just become a father, or it may have been an act of guilt for killing the child's parents. He would be laughed at for being so naive, but he couldn't help but hear the child's cries as if he was still screaming to live.
　Fortunately, this fact was only known to two people, myself and the entourage that discovered the nanny. I left the baby with that entourage and sent them on an airship to the Imperial City before anyone else could see it. I burned the maternity clothes, and there was nothing to prove that I was a prince of Leve.
　There is nothing wrong with leaving him in the orphanage in the imperial capital, as long as he grows up as a normal child. I even thought that if he was excellent, I would be happy to receive him as my child's squire.
　However, on the day I arrived back in the Imperial City, the worst thing happened.
　My child passed away. I don't know what caused it. I don't know, but for me, this was the worst possible turn of events. I was saddened and appalled by the death of my child and realized that I was in a very bad situation.
　More than once his father had told him to divorce his father's wife, who was unable to bear children, or to take a new, legitimate wife.
　Unlike my father, who had many wives, I had only one wife. I grew up with a sense of antipathy toward my father, who never considered his wife as a wife and who saw my mother as a tool to carry his children.
　He treated many women as if they were disposable, but I was the only one who gave birth to a few boys, and I was the only one who survived to adulthood. Sometimes I wonder if this is not a punishment.
　This is the kind of father I am. It is obvious to me that if the next incident were to occur, he would be forced to divorce his wife by force, claiming that she can only bear weak children. He wanted to avoid that at all costs.
　He had been so busy negotiating with Isengard that he hadn't even seen his newborn grandson's face. It was annoying, but for once, I was grateful for that indifference.
　In other words, the death of his grandson had not yet reached his father. That's how sudden his death had been. He had died only a few minutes before I had reached my wife's room.
　Stifling those who wanted to report to my father, I struggled to think of a way out of the situation.
　Then I remembered, I remembered the boy.
　I immediately sent a messenger to bring her to me. And then, after keeping a tight lid on all those who knew about it, the prince of the Leve Kingdom became the prince of the Galdio Empire.......




''........A year later, my father suddenly fell ill and did not return. I became the emperor, and I no longer feared my father, but by then, that boy was already irreplaceable to us.......

　Emperor Galdio finishes his story while holding the queen's shoulder as she continues to cry.
　So that's what happened........ Hmmm, I personally would like to leave her alone, but....... The question is whether or not the Colonel and the others will be convinced.
　It's not that easy to divide them, is it?

We have only one wish. I want to continue to live with my son and Lucretia. I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.
"Please......... Don't take her away from us........please........!

　They give me a pleading look. Wait, wait a minute!　How the hell did this happen?　Honestly, I've got nothing to do with this!

Good grief....
'For now, why don't you talk to the people of Leve, that I do?　They don't want the Prince to be unhappy, do they?
'That's right, at first it was because they were slaves and couldn't do it if they were living in misery. I think those people just wanted to make themselves happy if the prince was still alive. I don't think they're thinking of revenge against the Empire or anything...

　It's just my gut feeling. And they didn't look like people who wanted revenge or anything like that. If it was such a person, Yumina would have noticed it with her demon eyes.
　The Empress-sama raised her face and turned her eyes to me with something determined.

''Could you let me talk to the people of that Lave Kingdom? I want to tell them properly about that girl and make them understand........
Astiglia are you sure?

　The queen nodded quietly towards the emperor.
　........it can't be helped. It's a ship we've gotten on, let's stay with it until the end. I'm not going to be able to wake up if this family is split apart because of this.
　And since there's nothing we can do about it, I'll use hypnosis to falsify your memory!　 I'm pretty guilty of messing with the memories of people who aren't bad people........