I was invited into the King’s living room together with Fraudia.
　The King, General Dolus and Minister Walles were walking before us.

　So that’s the King’s living room.
　As I expected it’s luxurious and solemn.
　I can’t really relax with such an atmosphere.
　The first to open their mouth was General Dolus.

“About Gerg, are you sure?”

“Yes, I am sure. And there’s something else I want to tell His Majesty.”

　There’s something I wasn’t able to say back then.

“Viscount Gerg had connections to Duke Armandi.”

“Is that true?”

　Minister Walles asked for confirmation.
　As Duke Armandi is the present King’s greatest enemy they should be bothered by this.

“This is also something I heard from the person himself. Fraudia was to be sent to Duke Armandi soon. She herself should know best about this.”

“Is that so, Fraudia?”

　Fraudia answered Minister Walles question in a clear voice.

“That’s what the Viscount told me. I should be prepared because I’ll soon be sent to Rejum-sama”

“Fufu, Rejum, he must have planned to use this girl as bait.”

　The King who heard this laughed in a gloomy, low voice.
　I’m not good at dealing with people with such dark personalities.⌈¹⌋
　I feel depressed just talking to them.⌈²⌋
　We were talking like this when suddenly the door was opened and a person jumped in.

“Father, is it true that Frau, that Fraudia returned?!”

“Princess……”

“Aah, Frau, Frau, you’re safe! This is……”⌈³⌋

　The beautiful, blond girl had her eyes filled with tears as soon as she jumped into the room and embraced Fraudia.
　”That” must be Princess Charlotte.⌈⁴⌋

“Where on earth were you, Frau? Do you know how worried I was? Are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, Princess. I was caught by some bad people while I was on my way home. But I was thankfully able to come back safely.”

“Well, like I thought! I knew that something bad must have happened for you to suddenly disappear in front of me. That’s why I asked the Minister and General to send out some soldiers countless times!”

　As the Princess said so she glared at Minister Walles and General Dolus.
　Though she is a stunningly beautiful girl she seemed strong-willed.⌈⁵⌋
　The way she changed from a happy expression to glaring that quickly was scary.

“Well, if we don’t have any evidence we aren’t able to do anything……”

　The Minister tried to hastily explain himself but the Princess seemed to ignore him.⌈⁶⌋

“It must have been hard on you, right, Frau? But you did well to survive. How did you manage to escape?”

“Margrave Medici who also came here helped me.”

　After hearing Fraudia’s words the Princess seemed to finally notice me.
　Do I really have that thin of a presence?

“This should be our first meeting, Margrave-sama. I’m Princess Charlotte.”

“My name is Carlo de Medici. His Majesty the King generously gave me the position of Margrave. Please forgive my rudeness as I come from a rural area.”

　I greeted her with a cool expression.
　Though it’s a little rough I used Lunos as my reference.
　That guy’s popular after all.
　Anyway, being disliked by the princess would be bad.

“I heard you helped Fraudia. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

　The princess thanked me elegantly and smiled.
　****, that smile is exactly like that of an angel.⌈⁷⌋
　I can’t fall in love with her, I can’t fall in love with her, I can’t fall in love with her.
　Because this girl will marry the Hero in the future.

“No, it’s only natural as one of His Majesty’s faithful subjects to also serve Her Imperial Highness the Princess.”

　As I answered to her politely a gloomy voice drifted over from the side.
“Hmpf, a faithful subject you say, but inwardly you think differently, right? You’re not thinking anything good about me either, do you?”

　Uwah, this King is seriously warped.
　How did he become like this?⌈⁸⌋
　……
　……Mmm, Even though it’s troublesome, let’s use a frontal attack!

“Even if it’s like this, Your Majesty”

“What? Speak”

“I know that His Majesty is aiming for a centralization reform right now.”

“Fufu, nobody wants to hear the rest of those words.”

“I heard that there are many feudal lords who don’t agree with His Majesty’s intentions. About that I, Carlo de Medici, want to tell His Majesty something.”

“Then just say it already.”

　The King was clearly irritated by this exchange.
　It also seemed like a noble was going to oppose his reform once again.
　I spoke in such a roundabout way intentionally to irritate the king.
I took a deep breath and continued to speak.

“If His Majesty promises to let me keep my current position and power even after the reform, this Carlo wants to act as a shield for His Majesty and approves of the realisation of this reform from the bottom of my heart.”

　When I kneeled and lowered my head while saying this the King remained silent for a while.

“……Are you trying to tell me you want to support me?”

“Yes, of course, though just if you guarantee my social position and territory.”

“Are you saying the other nobles don’t concern you?”

“I’m not interested in anything else as long as the results are favourable for Franz Kingdom and myself.”

“Hoh, You don’t care what happens to the other nobles?”

　The King asked again with a surprised face.
　This is a matter of course for Carlo, meaning me who’ll be aiming for the throne in the future.
　It would be more than convenient for the number of nobles who could become my rivals to decrease.
　Using the King’s authority I’ll disperse the nobles who look like they’d become rivals and after the number of competitors has considerably decreased I’ll arrest the King and aim for the throne, but it’ll fail in the end because the Hero will stop me, that’s the scenario I wrote for Carlo.

“I don’t care what happens to them. Even if I’m a noble as I’m just an emerging noble I am not particularly close with the other nobles. Rather it should have been obvious with this case that I’m on rather bad terms with Duke Rejum. My true intention is it to borrow his Majesty’s power to oppose those nobles including Duke Rejum.”

　I intentionally grinned as I said this.
　I think it’s better to just show one’s ulterior motives rather than use useless deceptive tactics.
　It seemed like it went as well as I expected.

“Interesting, if it’s like this I wouldn’t mind joining hands. Superficial flattery and pretty words do not deserve to be believed. Carlo, do you have any conditions for lending me a hand?”⌈⁹⌋

“Yes, of course, I will send soldiers in case of an emergency. Please grant me permission to organise a new army to enrichen our military strength and please let us pave the road between the Capital and Braham to promptly be able to move the military.”

　I heard that it was basically forbidden for nobles to organise an army without permission as they could pose a threat to the King.
　The pavement of the highway wasn’t permitted either for similar reasons.
　Even if a noble were to send out soldiers it would take a long time to reach the Capital on an unpaved road.

　I want to clear these two conditions by all means for Carlo to win the war against the barbarians, the fight against the nobles and also for Carlo’s coup d’état on the King in the future.
　The King believed that Carlo’s soldiers were weak so it wouldn’t matter and he would also be troubled if they would take too much time to get to the Capital so that was OK as well.

“Fumu, that’s fine. Discuss the details with Walles. That’s fine, right, Walles?”

“Certainly”

　With that said, I’ll leave the detailed negotiations with Minister Walles to the tactician Nals.
　Well then, there is another condition I haven’t said yet.

“I fear I have another request, your Majesty.”

“Let’s hear it.”

　I took a deep breath.
　Aah, I’m nervous.⌈¹⁰⌋

“I would like to clarify my position and would need a title to be able to stand on His Majesty’s side and to oppose Duke Armandi.”

“I see, a title, huh? What do you want?”

“I’m single. If possible I’d like to ask for Her Imperial Highness Princess Charlotte’s hand.”

“Are you telling me to give you Charlotte as your wife?”

　The King’s tone of voice became lower.
　Princess Charlotte was so surprised by this matter that her eyes became perfectly round and Minister Walles and General Dolus were also obviously astonished by this unexpected situation.
　OK, this is the crucial moment, Carlo.