Dalia looked at Meldon with complicated thoughts.
“So what are you looking for here?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you that. I heard that some treaty is being renewed between the Holy Empire and this Empire, and my father seems to be intervening here. I need to confirm something about the treaty. Will you help me?”
Dalia tilted her head.
“Can I help you?”
“The educated Miss Dalia would be much better than the ignorant me.”
It was a polite thing to say to anyone, but Dalia laughed because she was still grateful.
“Thank you, but I can’t help you alone. I’m here with Sir Cedric. But I think he’ll be more helpful than me, would you like to come with me?”
“Ah…… Is that so?”
“You don’t need to if you don’t like it.”
It was half a joke. She didn’t even think that he would agree, and Dalia smiled.
“It’s not that, but I think he’ll get mad.”
The last words were barely audible. So Dalia didn’t quite understand.
“Well, let’s go together then.”
It was the exact opposite of Dalia’s thoughts. She opened her mouth for a moment and stiffened.
“You, you’re going to go?”
Of course, it would be more helpful to know what Duke Artus is up to, but…….
She felt strangely sad. Even in this situation, she wants to be alone with Cedric a little longer…… that…….
Meldon said with a rather sly smile.
“Yes, since Miss had kindly suggested that, I should go then.”
“Ah……”
It became an ambiguous situation.
“By the way, what’s in your hand?”
Dalia looked down at her hand.
It was the letter from Beolde that Cedric had found earlier. She seemed to have accidentally brought it with her. Dalia hurriedly hid it behind her back.
“Well, this is a secret.”
Meldon beams in response to Dalia’s playful reaction.
“Come on, don’t do that.”
Dalia slapped Meldon’s hand that was reaching out to take the letter.
“Hehe.”
Dalia laughed with a strange nasal sound because she was proud of blocking his hand. Meldon looked down at her with a strange look on his face.
“Hmm. I understand. I’m sure it’s filled with sweet nothings from the Prince.”
“What? It’s not like that!”
Dalia made a loud noise without realizing it. Meldon shushed her with a look of surprise. There aren’t many people anyway.
“Then what is that?”
“I can’t tell you. And I’m not in that kind of relationship with Sir Cedric.”
“Really, really?”
Meldon asked twice. But Dalia nodded eagerly because she was really, really innocent.
“Since you’re writing an exchange diary recently, I thought it was true.”
“…….”
‘So he really meant what he said back then.’
Cedric said he liked it because it was like he was writing an exchange diary with Dalia.
She blushed as she imagined herself sharing an exchange diary with Cedric.
Meldon narrowed his eyes as if he knew everything and looked at Dalia.
* * *
Cedric stared at Dalia until her back disappeared. Then when she disappeared completely, he turned his head.
All of a sudden, the exhausted face disappeared, and he returned to his indifferent self as always and looked into the air.
He gently rubbed the forehead that Dalia had touched. It seemed that the warmth is still there.
‘I’ll have to pretend to be pitiful more often from now on.’
Cedric thought.
Of course, he can’t do it every day because he’ll get caught. Only on depressing days like today.
“Cedric, you hate me too, don’t you?”
“That’s not true, mother.”
“No, I know everything you hate. My sins are too deep.”
This was what he heard when he visited his mother this morning, as Dalia advised.
He wanted to do well as Dalia said, but it didn’t work out. Some of the things his mother said were right.
Brainwashed or not, it was her real feelings. His mother is afraid of him.
It complicate his mind.
At that time, there was a sense of someone’s presence again. It was time for her to return. He turned back with a smile and welcomed her. But after a while, he had no choice but to frown.
Dalia was walking with an armful of documents. With a half-crying face. It was very cute and nice until…….
There was another moron behind her.
“Long time no see, Your Highness. I had something to report to you anyway, I’m glad.”
“……Ah, I see.”
That’s really great.
Cedric stared at Meldon.
He shrugged his shoulders as if he were asserting that he was innocent.
Then Cedric looked at Dalia. As their eyes met, she wept bitterly and spoke by mouthing the words.
‘I’m sorry.’
Cedric, who had a rough grasp of the situation, sighed.
* * *
Meldon opened up some files and handed them out to Dalia and Cedric, and spoke.
“I should have briefed Sir Cedric on this anyway, so it saved me a lot of trouble.”
‘Ah, I see.’
She didn’t know that and suggested it for no reason.
Dalia sighed deeply inside. Then her eyes met Cedric.
He smiled calmly and shook his head. Then he took the documents that Meldon handed him and fluttered them over.
“I hope it’s an important report.”
Indeed, since this happened, she thought that she should get some information.
Dalia sat next to him and opened the documents.
Cedric brought Dalia’s assignment papers and circled each important item with his fountain pen.
Dalia tried to read intensively by making use of her previous life’s major, Political Science and Diplomacy.
However, she couldn’t remember what she didn’t know when she was in school. A few things barely caught her eye.
Meldon sat down on the empty seat next to Dalia, and gave a brief explanation.
Somehow, with Dalia in between, Meldon sat on the left and Cedric on the right.
Meldon said, briefly pointing to one side of the document.
“The treaty is called the Darby-Gatran Treaty, a treaty signed between the Frederic Empire and Holy Empire 50 years ago. It’s renewed every five years.”
“What is it about?”
Meldon opened the map of the continent at the very back of the document, and pointed to a place on the left side of the map.
“This is the northern border between the Holy Empire and Frederic Empire. As you can see, the border here is splitting this Mount Gatran in half right? Every winter, there’s a monster wave here, where hordes of hungry monsters attack the nearby towns.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of it.”
Then Cedric’s fountain pen appeared on the right side of the map.
He explained kindly.
“And this area of Darby Sea is a joint administrative area of the two Empires. Every summer, a giant kraken appears here and destroys fishing boats.”
“I’ve heard of that too.”
“The monsters of Mount Gatran are vulnerable to divine power, and the Frederic Empire now has its own sonic technology to neutralize the kraken. So these two risks are managed by the two Empires one by one. Both are a huge threat, which could cause 10% of the land to be lost if not properly stopped. Mount Gatran and the Darby Sea, hence the Darby-Gatran Treaty. It expires next spring, so it will have to be renewed soon.”
Dalia nodded.
The Darby Sea is part of the Duchy of Blueport.
She heard that the sonar technology to kill kraken was developed by the current Duke of Blueport’s grandfather.
Unlike other families, the reason why Blueport family is active in their own territory rather than the capital is to prevent the kraken’s attack every summer.
Then Meldon clapped his hands.
“Surprisingly, the patent for this sonic technology now belongs to the Artus family.”
Dalia asked in astonishment.
“What? But it was developed by the Blueport family right?”
“As a result of various adult situations and negotiations……. The Blueport family has suffered quite a bit because of Mary Blueport incident.”
“How……?”
“Well, it’s worrisome to leave the technology entirely to someone who might go crazy at any moment…… So the Duke of Artus paid a fortune to the Blueport family to buy the technology.”
“…….”
“Thanks to that, funnily enough, the Imperial Family is paying Artus the royalties for the Blueport family’s technology.”
Dalia’s expression darkened.
“If this technology is transferred to the Holy Empire, we will have to send a separate transcendent to the province to defend the monster wave independently. But since there’s no one to dispatch, and who can afford the risk of going berserk and consuming huge amounts of mana to stop the hordes of monsters? It’s a huge loss in this era where every transcendent is a national power.”
Dalia kept her mouth shut.
Meldon smiled.
“Somehow it sounded like we’ll screw up right?”
“……Yes.”
Perhaps this is what Aceras is aiming for.
Translator Note: Super late update hahaha…went to watch ‘Emergency Declaration’ yesterday…I really recommend it! You guys should go and watch it ( ´ ▽ ` )
