After that, the men told me something, but the audience ended without me being able to hear the Queen’s voice even once.
☆
「Oros, Sukinaris, Rarouka. Those two eunuchs hold all the real powers」
Inside the carriage, in our return to the inn.
Althea told me while she’s still wearing her hood.
「Powers?」
「After the death of the previous King, it was those three that made Rica who was a princess a Queen. The crown prince who was reputable for being wise was cornered to a suicide in a political strife, and Rica was set to be the Queen. Since then, those three had held the real powers in this kingdom. But, their noble position isn’t that much, Kakeru is much higher」
『Well, if you compare a eunuch with a baron』
I recalled the Queen that I saw earlier.
Her expressions were poor, and she was like a puppet.
10
I thought, “Why, even though she’s the Queen?”, but it was like that huh.
A decorative Queen who lost her real powers.
Her face was stuck in my mind.
☆
「Wa!」
I was greatly surprised when I warped to the audience hall.
The Queen was sitting on the throne just like when I met her earlier, and was absent-minded. There’s no one else.
The Queen looked at me, compared to me getting very surprised, her expressions hadn’t changed that much.
「Baron Yuuki?」
The Queen talked. It was a voice that I heard for the first time and it was a very beautiful voice.
It was too bad that there weren’t any emotions with it.
「Are you by yourself?」
Unlike earlier, I spoke with my usual tone.
The Queen silently nodded.
「It isn’t the time for moving yet」
「Time for moving?」
「My actions are managed. I am here for until the evening today, and return to my room when the sun sets, it has been like that」
「Managed?」
A weird word came out for some reason.
「I mean, are you always here? You don’t go somewhere eles」
「If the procedures are followed. But records will be left, so Oros and the rest would get angry later on. “We are troubled doing something this selfish”, they say」
「……」
What the heck is that.
The term Puppet Queen entered my mind when I heard the story from Althea, but isn’t this worse than a puppet?
Isn’t it just like a prisoner.
「Let’s go somewhere」
The Queen shook her head.
「Impossible, if I took even one step to an unscheduled place, the eunuchs and the maid of honors would follow」
「Something like that, wouldn’t be an obstacle」
「……because you have the Demon Sword?」
「It can be with the Demon Sword though」
It’s one way to open a bloody path swinging Eleanor and Hikari, but I don’t need to do something like that.
「I’ll ask you again. Let’s go somewhere」
「……can we?」
I nodded.
The Queen thought about it. She thought about it very deeply.
After thinking about it, she nodded silently.
「Yosh, let’s go then」
I approached the Queen, and warped with her.
From the audience hall, we jumped to outside the castle in an instant.
The place where the carriage stops, the end of the street.
There’s a decent amount of passerby, but it’s a place hard to see.
I told “I’m back” to Althea who was waiting.
「You took her with you」
「Yeah. ……you knew about that, huh」
「Yes」
Althea nodded.
To the sudden thing, the Queen looked around with a surprised face.
「Where……is this?」
「Meteora’s castle town……is it」
I confirmed it to Althea, she nodded quietly.
「Castle town……」
「Look, there’s the palace」
「No way……with that instant right now?」
「Eunuchs or maid of honors, they weren’t an obstacle right?」
The Queen stared at me intently, and after a while, *KokuKoku*, she nodded.
And, she looked around the town.
「How many years has it been since I came out of the palace」
「Was it ever since you became a Queen」
「Un. In the past, if I asked Mother, she would let me come to the castle town. There are bodyguards though」
「Un?」
Something got into my mind.