Chapter 49: Prelims Day 3 (Part 3)

Silently watching my friends leave the 2 judges refused to speak until the door opened once more and a head poked in quickly nodding before shutting it again.

[Okay. Now that we're alone why don't we introduce ourselves formally. My name is Lady Agris de la Paludem, this irritating character next to me is Lord Harold de la Montem and the silent one in the corner is Lord Chris de la Planum. His family is actually related to mine coincidently.] - Lady Agris

[Distantly.] - Lord Chris

[Right. Anyway we called you hear because while you are technically a child you are intimately connected with the event that will take place in 2 days. And....] - Lady Agris

[Oh for the...! We need you to do something for us!] - Lord Harold

Seemingly the more polite of the pair the elegant looking lady took charge and introduced their side one at a time, even calling attention to a judge I hadn't previously noticed on account of his complete silence during the exchange only a few minutes before. Looking like she was trying to choose her words carefully the noble woman hesitated, apparently to the irritation of her impatient friend who got straight to the point rather than beating around the bush.

[...ooookay? And what exactly are you wanting from me?] - Rose

[I apologize for my colleague's attitude. To be frank. We want you to incapacitate our country's Prince during your match.] - Lady Agris

[What?!?] - Rose

[Are you daft girl?!? We want you to purposely take the Prince out of the equation!] - Lord Harold

[What my honorable companion means is it is preferable if he not die but if, in the course of rendering him harmless, an accident were to occur we will of course be on your side.] - Lady Agris

[Wait wait wait! Slow down!?! You want me to KILL the Prince!?!? You do realize that's not only treason but even calling for foreign support to do it?!?] - Rose

To say I was shocked was an understatement. A group of foreign noble's had asked me, like a common assassin, to all but kill their own Crown Prince. I mean technically they were saying they preferred he stayed alive after our bout but technicalities probably wouldn't save them in this case if anyone heard about what they were asking from her. With this she knew why they'd been so secretive, hell she wasn't even sure why they'd confided in her instead of just hiring some thug.

[We know that of course and in fact we've been assured by the King himself that if this get's exposed we will be thrown under the carriage to take the fall.] - Lady Agris

[Wait King?!? The King wants to kill his own son?!?] - Rose

[Good God's girl! Is your entire race this stupid or is it just you?!? This is why I said we should have hired that martial arts user that beat her trash friend.] - Lord Harold

[Quiet you! We all agreed that the Lady Rose made the most sense considering our ally in this, she is related to the one's helping us afterall.] - Lady Agris

[Wait my parents are helping with this?!?] - Rose

Getting more and more irritated by the farce in front of me that I was supposed to be falling for and how each subsequent question had just made less sense I felt the barely controlled rage inside me boiling at the fat man's comment only to be shocked out of it again.

[Not only will the Amchier head be participating in this operation but the Queen of your country is on her way with her personal retinue as well.] - Lady Agris

[Even Auntie is coming too!?! Why?] - Rose

[Oh right you probably don't know this but she's been invited to attend the Tournament in the King's box. With their Majesties themselves.]  - Lady Agris

[I... I need to talk to my family about all of this...] - Rose

[So you'll help?] - Lady Agris

[Honestly? I'm not sure. This is a bit beyond me and is way more serious than I was prepared to deal with. Regardless I wouldn't accept without checking that you're all telling the truth anyway, but let me be perfectly clear when I say this...! If, and I do mean IF, I decide to help out I will not kill the Prince for no reason. Plus if I'm going to be in this tournament anyway I might as well win it.] - Rose

[Tch! I told you that relying on a child was...!] - Lord Harold

[Lord Harold! We got her to at least consider our request, honestly that she's smart enough to confirm our side means she's more useful anyway. Ahem, now I must ask that you keep this strictly confidential, our plan relies on the strictest of secrecy to work properly and we can't afford to fail.] - Lady Agris

Forcing myself to nod to her question I turned to leave while the silent one behind them continued to stare straight into my eye's, not saying a word. Honestly I had more questions for the trio like; why do this in the first place or why use foreign involvement in what was clearly an internal affair but I decided that asking people I trusted would be faster so instead of committing to something dangerous immediately I gave a lukewarm answer to what was effectively a call for intervention from a foreign power.

[What do you mean they've pulled in our baby girl?!? I thought they were going to be using some contestant that was sympathetic to Demi's!?! Wasn't that the original plan!?] - Lily

[I know how you feel honey, I was just as upset with Jim as you when I heard about it but he personally assured me that they would take every effort to limit her actual involvement.] - Robert

[Limit her involvement?!? I'll shove my spear so far up that condescending Royal's a... oh hello baby girl w-when did you arrive?] Lily

Finding the whereabouts of my parents was surprisingly easy, they'd made no secret of their arrival afterall. The problem had been convincing my friends to wait until after I met with my family to be caught up on what had happened. I wanted to know the full story before possibly implicating even more countries noble families in what was effectively an attack against another Royal house, even one supposedly sanctioned by their own King.

Of course when I'd finally been ushered in to the temporary mansion my loving parents were I found an unexpected scene before me. Momma was yelling. Completely shocked by the unprecedented event taking place in front of me I continued to stare, open mouthed, as my normally calm, affectionate and gentle mother literally tossed furniture at the wall in anger, even pulling out a spear twice as long as her upper body. Only to freeze in place when I made a surprised squeak in fear of the never before seen side of Momma.

[U-Um you said something about the original plan not including me?] - Rose

[Oh good you missed the worst... I mean nevermind that, my baby girl I've missed you!] - Lily

Seemingly relieved by my answer my mother let out a sigh and let slip an even more terrifying sentence, apparently I'd only caught the TAME bits?!? Realizing her mistake immediately she changed the subject while rushing to hug me to her bountiful breasts, squeezing me tightly. Normally a source of comfort since my rebirth my face was instead fixed in a fearful expression at the just witnessed events from minutes before. Seconds later the hug was joined by my father as well and after calming down a bit we stayed that way for several minutes, enjoying each other's presence.

[Why are you crying baby girl?] - Lily

[Is everything okay?] - Robert

[I'm... crying?] - Rose

Sniffling slightly I ran my hand across my face only to feel it become wet. Somehow I'd started crying during our hug without realizing. Ah! I guess I'm more attached than I thought I was.

[I-It's nothing, I'm just happy to see Momma and Papa.] - Rose

[Hehehe. Did you hear that Darling? Our baby girl loves us so much!] - Lily

[Papa is so happy...!] - Robert

[N-Nevermind that! U-Umm w-what you were talking about before? About the plan?] - Rose

My face instantly went crimson at their words as red-faced and sputtering out of embarrassment I attempted to change the subject as soon as possible. My parents smiles instantly vanished upon hearing my question, worry on both of their faces. It seemed that whatever was going on was exactly as serious as it seemed.

[Okay so do you remember your childhood tutoring on the relationship we have with Abelis?] - Robert

[Hmmm... If I remember correctly we have both a mutual defense pact as well as various trading treaties. I don't remember the details though.] - Rose

[No matter, even Laura doesn't know all of the agreements between our country off the top of her head so I wouldn't expect an adolescent to care about the finer details of statesmanship. Broadly speaking we both belong to a Joint Council of all of our surrounding friendly countries and have various agreements besides that. Anyway to put it simply our country has a mutual defense pact with nearly all of our surrounding neighbors as well as maintaining trading agreements between the member states. Following me so far?] - Robert

[Yeah I vaguely remember this being mentioned once or twice before.] - Rose

[Good, I know learning all of this is a bit hard but we've always had high hopes for our little genius. Anyways, now that you understand the basic layout of our political situation next up is our specific relationship with this country. Specifically, our two countries are actually quite close with both of us supporting the other. Which is where this current event comes in.] - Robert

[Okay?] - Rose

[King Nero, a childhood friend of our own Queen, has been extremely friendly to our country just like his father before him and his father, so on and so forth. His heir, however, is not friendly with us. In fact it's a badly hidden secret that Prince Julias is connected with the Church of Light having been known to spread a human-superiority doctrine similar to the one that their priests do.] - Robert

[I knew he was sketchy as fuck!] - Rose

[Language Young Lady!] - Lily

[Oop! Sorry Momma. Sorry Papa.] - Rose

Smiling at my sudden use of colorful language Papa nodded at my apology while Momma glared dagger's at me until I hung my head to show my sincerity. Taking advantage of Momma's distraction I caught Papa giving me a wink and a smirk as I giggled at his obvious permission to use it when only the two of us were alone. Momma of course caught my smile and immediately rounded on her husband to flick him on the forehead.

[Ouch... Honey hold back a little why don't you?] - Robert

[Hmmm? What was that Darling?!?] - Lily

[N-Nothing nevermind. U-Umm a-anyway we were talking about the Prince right? Ahem, recently our spy network coordinated with the Abelis spy network and uncovered a worrying rumor. According to what they found it looks like over the last few years the various gangs and underworld guilds have been uniting under a single banner and while it's not 100% confirmed our best guess is the one pulling the strings is none other than Prince Julias.] - Robert

[Okay? So why doesn't King Nero just arrest his son then?] - Rose

[If only it were that easy... You see unlike our own country where the heir is chosen by the previous ruler the process here is a bit more... chaotic. The heir is selected from amongst the royal family by a group of the most powerful noble's and voted on. As you can imagine that gives these noble's considerable influence and power, many of which are adamant supporters of the Prince and as such it would be nearly impossible to arrest him without compelling evidence.] - Robert

Having a democratic system be referred to as chaotic struck me as odd from my modern point of view but Papa's reasoning made sense, except for one part.

[That... makes sense. Okay but in that case why are we moving against him now?] - Rose

[Well we've received credible information that the Prince, Julias de la Abelis, is planning to usurp his father's throne during this tournament by having him killed.] - Robert

Shocked into silence at the unexpected revelation I waited for Papa to continue.