Chapter 161: Meetup ; Plans

"Prince Wales!" a sweet voice calls out to me as soon as I exit the teleportation gateway.

Looking over, I find Kirche who's accompanied by Tabitha and Louise walking toward my direction.

"Kirche, how have you been doing?" I ask with a smile on my lips the moment that she's close enough to hear me.

"I've been doing well, thank you," she responds.

"Hey, you went to war right?" Louise hastily says.

"If you're speaking about the battle that occurred two days ago, then yes, I did go to war," I casually reply.

"Why did you go?!" she exclaims, "Couldn't you have sent the soldiers to do everything?"

"No, Louise," I respond in a serene tone, "One must lead his men to glory to be accepted by his people."

Or, so I say, but I just wanted to kill some men myself and see if there is anything worth looking into.

In the end, there was nothing interesting other than the contraptions that created the vines, which only appeared in three towns.

Of those three, I prevented the one in the town I was in to get activated, while another one got destroyed fairly quickly.

As for the last one, that's where the tragedy comes in.

It turned out that there was another town under attack, however, it was done indirectly.

Unlike the other towns, that town didn't have much security, so the enemy exploited that to stealthily place the contraption and activate it without anyone knowing.

This resulted in the whole town to get swallowed up in vines, with buildings crushed and the inhabitants killed.

Simply put, even if the contraption is to be destroyed, there is no saving grace for the town itself.

Anyway, what amazes me is the fact that I have no idea why the enemy would do this.

It's seemingly pointless to kill the people in a town and destroy the town itself.

Wouldn't it be more effective if they 'usurped' the current lord of the kingdom for their objective?

Speaking of which, the objective was something along the lines of taking back the Holy Land.

I wonder what this Holy Land is and why is it referred to as such.

Is there some religious structure there?

Leaving all that aside, I focus back on reality and say,

"Louise, I will soon become a king. Do you believe that the people will be willing to follow a king that isn't able to lead his men to battle?"

"But, it wasn't for your kingdom…"

"That's right. It wasn't for my kingdom. The whole point of what I did was to show off our military prowess."

"That makes sense," Kirche comments, "I was wondering why you did that, but now it makes sense."

Shrugging my shoulders, I say wryly,

"I can't do anything that won't be beneficial for my kingdom, now can I?"

"So, what's going to happen now?" Kirche asks me seriously.

"We're going to take down the Kingdom of Gallia," I nonchalantly reply, "They're the ones who declared the war, so we might as well bring it to their doorsteps."

"You'd make a fine king," Kirche remarks.

"And you'd make a fine queen," I say while smirking.

"Stop that," Louise says, clearly annoyed, "Are you going to be leading again?"

I look at her in the eyes and say with confusion apparent on my face,

"Leading? I will be the one to take down the kingdom before having my soldiers take control of it."

"You're insane!" Louise directly exclaims.

"And why is that?"

Just as Louise is about to reply, someone's voice resounds in the distance,

"Sir Wales!"

Looking over, I find an exasperated Jean running over.

"What's wrong?" I ask him while holding back from the temptation of patting Louise's head due to how cute she looks while pouting.

"The headmaster wishes to talk to you."

Huh, it's about damn time.

"Very well," I reply, "I shall head over in a moment."

Jean nods his head once before heading back inside the building.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me?" I ask the three girls.

As a response to my inquiry, they glance at each other before looking back at me and shaking their heads.

"Alright then," I say as I move a little closer to them.

Then, I swiftly hug Kirche and pat her back a little before letting her go.

After that, I approach the blushing Louise and hug her as well.

A few seconds later, I let her go and move back before looking over at Tabitha.

As always, she expressionlessly looks back at me while tightly holding the staff that I gifted to her.

A grin forms on my lips as I approach her and give her a quick peck on her cheek.

This results in a red hue to cover her face as Kirche complains,

"That's not fair!"

I glance at Kirche before saying,

"I decide what's fair."

Then, I bid them farewell and head over to the headmaster's room.

---

"So…" I voice after ten minutes of glaring at one another, "Why did you want to speak with me?"

"You know the answer to that yourself," he replies.

"I'm not sure exactly. Is it related to the matter with Matilda or is does it have something to do with the recent attack on the kingdom."

Osmond takes a few seconds to deliberate on something before saying,

"I hope you're taking proper care of her."

"You're ex-secretary? Don't worry, I do not mistreat her in any way."

"Good. Now, there is something important that I must inform you of."

"I'm listening," I say while laying back on the sofa.

"Some noble factions are planning to betray the kingdom by collaborating with the Kingdom of Gallia."

"I'm not surprised."

"Well, as it turns out, they were offered a reward for their endeavors," he continues.

"However, one of the factions that were thought to be disloyal turned out to be otherwise and reported this matter to those in charge," I say.

"That's correct," Osmond says while nodding his head.

"So, why are you telling me about this?"

"I had heard that you are planning to visit one of these noble houses to retrieve an item won through a duel."

"Oh? Now that I think about it, I have to go get that Grimoire of Loss sometime soon."

I wonder what this Grimoire has in stock for me.

The other Grimoire is currently being researched by Tiffania.

For some reason, she's the only one capable of doing so.

Unfortunately, every spell she found seems to be a useless one with a much better alternative already being available.

However, I'm hoping that something neat would pop up sometime soon, as she has to decipher a quarter of the Grimoire.

"So," Osmond says, interrupting my thoughts, "I would like you to talk with the lord of the house."

"You want to make me act as a spy, huh?" I say, "Will this information be relayed to Henrietta?"

"Yes," he simply replies.

Sensing no lies in his words, I nod my head and say,

"That's simple. I could also just wipe them out of existence if they're annoying, you know?"

"I would be grateful if you refrained from doing that, Sir Wales."

I shrug my shoulders and don't say anything else.

Nevertheless, I'm a little startled that Osmond has yet to speak of Matilda properly. Doesn't he have any questions? Or did he know everything already?

Also, there is the fact that he can contact Henrietta.

I specifically worded my question in that way, so that I could see if he was able to personally meet with her.

Now that I know he's able to do that, I could lessen my suspicions a little.