Chapter 195 The True Mastermind

That was completely sudden and out of nowhere for me. I never imagined to hear such a thing, least of all from an old man in a city that was thousands of feet underwater. Of course, after hearing such a thing I was intrigued in finding out more, but he kicked me out with the promise of trying to find a way to Minerva for me. He stole more strands of my hair though. Turns out he didn’t need the first strand for anything. He simply wanted it for his private reasons… creepy pervert.

On the way back, I could tell that the princess was beaming with excitement. I asked why, but she told me not to think too much about it. In times like this, it was really annoying not being able to read her mind. The only solution was to keep pressuring her till she spoke, but she was tight lipped. In the end, I decided to ask if she knew about Vermillion.

According to her, there wasn’t any concrete text about Vermillion, but her father had once told her that there was an individual named Vermillion who came in search of a Kraken that was causing lots of noise. She dealt with the Kraken relatively easy then left. Apparently, her reason for doing so was revenge. The Kraken had attacked some of her men, so she came to punish it.

Vermillion sounded extremely scary when I thought about it. Imagine someone stole from her. There was definitely no way she’d let them go with a light spanking. Even if she simply spanked them, they’d probably lose their ass or something.

The princess said Vermillion was the sort of Leader anyone could look up to, possessing little to no flaws. But then, if my mother in this world was royalty, that meant from birth I was royalty. Well, I’d be damned.

On the way back, we met her brother and she teased a marriage between us. I was on the verge of snapping her neck in two when she said that, but her brother started dreaming about that. I glared at him, warning him to not get any nastier ideas.

We returned to her room quickly, there everyone was looking at the desk and discussing. Surprisingly, Yokino was now in the room as well with her hair in shambles and a bad aura around her.

“Oh? You guys have started discussing without us?”

She went to her side of the table next to Osveta whereas I joined up with Yokino. Kawaii jumped on me gleefully. She really didn’t want to leave me out of her sight.

‘Where were you? What happened to you?’

I asked Yokino who was frowning while looking at the virtual map on the table.

“Nothing.”

She responded quickly without [Telepathy]. Her voice was sharp and short, like how it was whenever something didn’t go her way. It was best to not piss her off even further, but it wasn’t like I was back on Earth anymore. She had to be accountable to me here to an extent.

‘Oi, don’t just ignore me. What happened to you? Someone piss you off?’

‘You’re pissing me off right now. Just stop.’

She warned me and folded her arms. Her attitude sort of agitated me, but I would ignore it for now. She wasn’t important at the moment.

“Sorry about that. It was simply awkward standing around doing nothing, so we decided to prepare instead. Sunalla and uuh-”

“Kawaii.”

He was trying to mention her name, but forgot it?

“Yes. Kowai, provided some deep insight.”

He butchered it with his accent! Although, now that I thought about it. This name probably fit her better.

“Care to explain?”

“Of course, your highness.”

He tapped on the map and it shrank. He then pointed towards the north, where one of the cities of the Kingdom, Anon, was.

“This city is most likely the entryway for the soldiers of Exsuole if they want to come in here unnoticed. Most of the people there would be busily rushing to get to Yorul to come celebrate the feast, rather than staying there. The invaders from Yorul could use that as a chance to cause confusion to sneak in.”

‘Huh? Hold on. I thought it was an army coming. How would you not notice an army coming?’

“Intel suggests that they plan to sneak in first to disorient us and weaken our security from the inside before the main army comes about.”

Sunalla explained to me. I guess that made some sort of sense.

‘What’s the source of this intel you’re talking about?’

“Just someone I trust. Don’t worry about it.”

Again, Sunalla explained. Since it was her, I decided that person was trustworthy enough. And from the way she was talking, this wasn’t the first time her source of information had given her good help.

“Anyway, we plan to up security around the Northern entrance of Yorul, as well as security on the Northern part of the Kingdom. If any suspicious individual were to show up, they’d be restrained immediately till after the feast, no matter how believable their story checks out.”

‘I see.’

“While Daxia and her crew will be fending off the main army, we will take care of the preliminary strike over here.”

‘Honestly, this plan is so simple I can’t believe it.’

I commented, then the princess decided to correct me.

“No. No it isn’t. Look at it better.”

She pointed at the domes and enlarged them, revealing a feature I had never noticed on them. There were pillars all around them.

‘What are those?’

“The Pillars. The power source that fuels the ley lines and the domes of the cities of Atlantis. A source of nigh-infinite power guarded by some of Atlantis’ best men, the Pillar Men.”

Shockingly, Yokino was the one to answer the question. Her eyes seemed to glow as she marvelled at the mere image of the pillars. I didn’t know why, but I was getting bad vibes from that.

‘Jojo?’

“What?”

‘WOAH! That sounds very important.’

“It is. Were to ever lose it, Atlantis would descend into chaos.”

‘Um, I get that it’s nigh-infinite power and all, but how exactly is losing it a demerit?’

“The Pillars power the domes. The domes are basically an escape for the people of Atlantis from the dangers of the outside. It’s sort of like living in a completely different world. Not only do the domes contain more than one can see from the outside, but there’s several magical runes set up to monitor changes in temperature and pressure. The leylines, connected with the city enable fast and safe travel, enabling the visitors from other cities to go in freely without having to expose themselves to the cold and vicious surroundings.”

‘Cold and vicious surroundings?’

“Yes. Remember how I was complaining about the cold and how the animals kept coming after me every morning? Even the way your… comrade keeps trying to consume me.”

‘Uuh… yeah?’

I had a feeling I was supposed to know what she was talking about.

“Basically, Atlanteans give off weird pheromones that attract all sorts of creatures. When it’s one Atlantean, it will attract like a swarm of spider crabs or something. However, if it was an entire city, there’d be a kraken showing up. If it were all the cities, well, we’d have to rename this place to the Bloody Sea.”

‘That sounds scary enough. Understood. Destroying leylines, bad. So, the pillar men are strong enough to protect it?’

“Indeed, they are. I have no worries about that part. My problem is the leylines which is still fuzzy, but the assassins of the Sikari guild should be able to filter out suspects better than the guards.”

“Do not count on them to help ya, princess. You stole their home, beat them to near death, destroyed their will to live, tarnished their goddess’ temple. You think they’d find it in their hearts to forgive you and listen to you?”

The Gate Keeper came out of nowhere and reminded us of the problem. Everyone in the room looked at me like I’d done something bad.

‘From the sound of things, I should have just eaten them. Don’t blame me for doing an outstanding job.’

I felt absolutely no remorse for doing what I did. If anything, I regretted not eating them earlier on. Now they were merely a wasted food resource.

‘Speaking of them, where are they and how are you keeping them silent?’

I asked the question.

“Oh? You didn’t know? The creatures that were with you are keeping them in line in the Sikari Guild’s hideout.”

Eh? They did? Well, it’s not like they couldn’t stay here without me telling them to. I would have to perform several experiments on what and what-not the shadows could do without me. The only ones who seemed to possess proper sentience were the generals, but even they wouldn’t do anything without me specifically telling them to.

“Alright then… we shall exclude the assassins then. We will rather add Hinotori’s monsters to the plan.”

The princess said nonchalantly.

‘Huh? What? Why?’

“Quiet, deadly, efficient and I’m assuming they can hide in plain sight using shadows?”

The princess effortlessly listed all the pros of my army.

‘Yeah, but who said I’d allow you to use them.’

“The fact that you want that information so bad you’ll work with me to keep the city safe enough.”

‘Tch… what were you going to do if you didn’t know about my shadows?’

“Obviously the Sikari guild.”

‘So, you had a plan to manipulate the Sikari guild before I even came around?’

“Remember I told you that I had a third reason for going into town?”

…

‘No fucking way.’

“Anyway, back on track.”

Ah?

No one was going to talk about the fact that she was implying that she plotted her own assassination just to find the Sikari guild. How was she planning to get them to work with her? Wait… was this entire invasion a scheme of hers?

“The festival will begin with the king’s entrance into the capital. That’s when security will be at it’s highest, so the attack definitely won’t happen then. There’s going to be an hour of him parading the city with his wife, the queen. After, he will come to the castle’s Banquet Hall. At the point, the guards will focus their attention on the king, rather than the surroundings, meaning most of the security will be around the castle, leaving the actual city defenceless. In case, the invaders sneak past the inspection process, they will probably attempt something not in the castle. I suspect planting magic bombs around to cause confusio-”

‘I have a question.’

I interrupted Osveta then glared at the princess.

“What is it?”

A smile formed on her face and she looked at me with what I could only describe as genuine excitement.

‘Why aren’t you informing anyone else so we can set up a better plan with more resources?’

I asked the question and the princess lost her smile, as if she was disappointed by that question.

“Obviously to curry favour with my father and become the likeliest for succession. He is about to announce his heir in this event.”

‘Is that so? Still doesn’t explain why you aren’t asking for help.’

She sighed.

“What kind of ruler needs help at every turn? Certain minuscule issues such as these should be no problem to an elite.”

‘Final question.’

“Make it quick. We need to hurry up the plans.”

‘This whole invasion. Did you start it to raise your standing with your father?’

The moment I asked, a very scary smile found itself on her face. Chills ran down my spine and for the first time since I’d met her, my [Superior Survival Instincts] were screaming when I looked at her. There was something seriously wrong with this.

“What if I did?”

<A/N: Sorry this took sometime to release. Been making some rounds around town. Alright, it's done. I hope you like it! Also, so that you don't get confused, Hinotori's conversation with Elriek can't be heard by anyone else. To them the princess is just responding without any proper context. Alright, I hope you enjoyed this, though I feel this plot twist was getting increasingly obvious as the chapters progressed!

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