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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: The Silent Carriage
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The carriage set off without any trouble.
Since the soldiers had let me go peacefully, I figured it would be smooth sailing from here on out.
Thanks to Nikolai stepping in at the crucial moment, I'd shown them everything I needed to. And the woman sitting across from me, Erika, was showing up green on my minimap.
Now they would start asking questions, and all I had to do was answer in line with the persona I'd been playing.
I still had some lingering attachment to the kingdom, but I'd been racking my brain to craft responses that made it seem like persuasion wasn't impossible.
"..."
"Ahem! Hm."
It was too soon to say that.
The crisis wasn't over yet.
It didn't matter that I was still tied up.
They'd bound me loosely to begin with—my arms couldn't move, but there was no other discomfort.
What really bothered me was how the two sitting across from me had been dead silent for a while now.
I could understand Paul Richter, fidgeting openly with an uncomfortable look on his face, sitting to my left up front.
He was the kind of guy who'd be pissed just to be part of the negotiation team.
In the game, during the Northern War, Paul was the noble faction commander overseeing their forces, as well as a noble faction duke. Thanks to the complete victory, he got a chunk of Ruth Kingdom territory and rose to a position close to king in all but name.
He'd probably commanded the imperial forces in this world's Northern War too.
From facing him myself, he wasn't some brilliant general who could overcome the inevitable command chaos from multiple vassal armies or the insane edge of my tactical map.
He didn't seem hot-blooded by nature, but maybe because he had to show results to the nobles who'd entrusted him with troops, he'd sometimes move forces rashly and screw up.
Anyway, the key point now was that he was a major noble faction figure.
It was unusual for him to even join the negotiation team.
My guess was that if he'd been the emperor's pick, he was little more than a sacrificial lamb.
They'd minimized the team's size but still needed to fulfill the role, so maybe they added weight by making the current northern imperial army commander part of it.
A defeated general and noble faction guy—if talks went south and he got captured as a POW, it wouldn't hurt the emperor much.
Lucky for me, I guess.
He seemed aware of his precarious spot too—showing red on the minimap, but not openly venting his irritation, just staring quietly out the window.
People like that weren't a problem.
I feared the capricious and undisciplined more than the competent.
A competent person's moves were hard to outplay beyond my minimap and tactical map cheats.
In a world where magic just meant hurling fireballs at best, this overwhelming info gap meant most strategies got read the moment they started.
But the latter type?
If Paul had anger issues, he'd have drawn the sword at his side and taken my head right then.
Tied up as I was, I couldn't resist and would just die.
Fortunately, Paul was the former type.
If he'd been irrational, violent, and impulsive like Andrei, I'd have been way more scared—but he wasn't, so I didn't pay him much mind.
What worried me now was...
"Hm, hm..."
The woman next to Paul, Erika Bauman, who'd been clearing her throat nonstop.
I'd never heard the name, but she'd arrived in a carriage plastered with imperial symbols, so she had to be emperor faction.
Paul couldn't possibly be, so she was the only one the emperor might have briefed.
That made her behavior a clue to the emperor's orders, but...
"...Gasp!"
Her reactions had been lukewarm from the start.
She kept clearing her throat while glancing my way, so I'd look up thinking she wanted to talk, only for her to shrink back with a weird noise.
What the hell?
I couldn't speak first.
Right now, playing the heartbroken betrayed man, I could only sigh or groan—no other words.
I'd figured Erika would take the role of gauging who I was before the emperor, starting with small talk and building up.
But even she hadn't said a word for dozens of minutes.
She just kept her mouth shut tight and sneaking peeks at me, making it hard to tell if she even planned to ask anything.
...If the emperor hadn't told her anything special and that's why she was acting like this, it wasn't a simple issue.
I'd been operating on the assumption the emperor wanted to hire me.
She'd demanded my person first, and they'd sent a team all the way to the enemy kingdom's capital to take me.
For my plan to work, her interest was essential—and she'd seemed pretty proactive, so I'd assumed she had it.
But if that assumption crumbled?
What if the emperor had no real interest in some guy with just rumors swirling around, had only poked lightly, and the kingdom bit hard?
Job-hunting difficulty would skyrocket.
I was talented, socially adept, loyal, young—and heartbroken by the king's betrayal.
I'd shaped my image as 'precious talent! Now's your chance to sway him!'
I'd shown the merits of gaining my loyalty, aiming to make the emperor feel I wasn't easy to convince—but possible now.
That image helped when being persuaded, but hurt when begging for a job.
Fruits plucked straight from above taste less sweet than ones you climb for yourself.
Starting position, imperial interest, buzz—all would drop the moment I became the beggar.
Even if it didn't go that bad, if they didn't properly relay my palace performance to the emperor, all my hard work building that image would vanish.
You can't build that image from your own mouth—you need others'.
And with no connections in the empire, could I?
...No.
I had a last-resort move for when all else failed, but using it put my life on the line, so I wanted to save it.
In the end, I had to wait for them to ask first.
I was ready to answer diligently without breaking character—why weren't they asking?
Frustrating.
"Haa..."
"Eek."
Please stop panicking and say something.
Even a cliché question—hell, introductions if nothing else.
Please.
---
"Haa..."
"Eek."
Viktor suddenly let out a sigh, startling me so bad I nearly bit my tongue.
Wondering if it was my fault, I kept my head down but rolled my eyes to check.
"...Phew."
Fortunately, Viktor's eyes were peacefully closed.
At least it didn't seem like he was sighing because of me.
I reflexively sighed in relief, then checked him once more.
And felt a wave of self-loathing at my actions.
Up until I'd seen him in the main hall, I'd been confident I could carry out Her Majesty's orders perfectly.
I'd noted everything about Viktor's behavior in the palace, prepared answers for expected questions.
Plus, I'd witnessed his betrayal by the king and disappointment in the nobles.
Right before boarding the carriage, I'd even imagined personally convincing him to come to the empire.
The orders were just to gather info, but wouldn't it make things easier for Her Majesty if I changed his mind first?
-Thud.
"Eek!"
No.
It felt like nearly an hour had passed, but I hadn't said a single word to him.
As the eldest daughter of Count Bauman's house, with some experience in diplomacy from tagging along with Father, I'd met all sorts.
I'd dealt with nobles of various ranks to broaden my horizons for taking on diplomatic duties someday, and after years, I thought I was used to most people.
I'd met soldiers too.
I'd conversed smoothly with General Gerhard—older than my grandfather, arguably tougher than Viktor in position.
I'd even joined knight training and expeditions a few times.
Yet I couldn't utter a word to this mere tied-up man.
His face alone looked like a handsome young noble, but that expression... Even with eyes closed, it felt like 'say something weird and I'll kill you.'
General Paul beside me was no help.
He hadn't hidden his displeasure from the start, and now he was just staring out the window.
I'd worried he'd cause a scene with Viktor, and that was fine, but he was making the heavy mood even heavier.
"Hm."
Still, I couldn't return empty-handed.
Even if no personal chat, failing to say anything meant who knew what Her Majesty would say.
I took deep breaths, steeling myself.
"Um, Viktor."
"..."
At my call, his eyes snapped open.
Our gazes locked, overlapping with that chilling palace glare, making cold sweat prickle.
I clenched my fists tight.
"May I... ask a few things?"
I phrased it as politely as possible.
"..."
Maybe because I'd mustered courage.
Viktor seemed to ponder briefly, then...
"...Yes."
Answered in a voice thick with pent-up emotion.
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