“In short, Suu herself wanted to be whipped in order to apologize for her failure 1?”

“It is precisely as you said, madam.”

Although Albert’s fine play turned out useless, if we talked to each other in a calm manner, we all understood it.

It was actually very simple.

“Hahaha, Bea. The only things I whip are the horses and Albert.”

“Yes ma’am! It is precisely so.”

Albert instantly agreed with me.

It didn’t mean anything weird though.

“For us, kemonobito, this is very important. Being beaten with a whip is extremely humiliating for us. However, if our master, whom we respect and care for, does it, the situation changes completely!”

Right.

For kemonobito like Albert and Suu, if I beat them with a whip they’ll actually take pride in it.

It indicates that they are willing to accept this humiliation and the master appreciates their resolution.

It appears to also mean that there’s a very strong bond between master and servant.

“In other words, Suu’s real intention for asking you to hit her with that whip…….”

“Yes, madam. Regarding my master whom I dearly respect, even after I failed him greatly, will he still believe in me? This is the question I wanted an answer for.”

(Hee! Kemonobito sure have an interesting way of thinking!)

“I see. I also lacked information. If this is the kemonobito’s etiquette, it can’t be helped. In case there are others, please tell me beforehand. Are you convinced now, Bea?”

“Yeah, forgive me for jumping to conclusions, Zest-sama.”

(!? Should Toto go take a nap?)

Toto, no matter how you look at it, it’s still too early.

Doing that right after the delivery is nonetheless bad.

At any rate, this was settled.

“Then……Can we stand now?”

“Your excellency, I can’t feel my feet!”

We stood in a seiza position for about three hours……

The maids’ unit lent us a shoulder and we stood up, then, after we finished eating our lunch, the prince came.

He said something about a meeting with his guardian yesterday.

“Father-in-law, his name is Callis and he’s the Prime Minister’s right hand. His power is slightly lesser than mine……But still, in the elves’ country, he holds a very high position.”

“………I see. In terms or power, what rank are you in your country?”

He grinned broadly and answered brimming with self-confidence.

“I am hiding it, but there is only one person…..who is stronger than me! And that is my master, the old hag……Urm! I can’t win against the senior-sama.”

“Oh, the second strongest, huh? I see…..In the worst case, we’ll have to attack with strength.”

Prince Mars’ power is at the same level with the maids’ unit.

If this makes him the second strongest, releasing my main force will bring us certain victory.

There might not even be needed for Albert to intervene at all.

He sometimes manages to defend against my blows and……he’s become quite strong.

“For the time being, we’ll talk more about this after I meet with this Callis guy. How’s his character?”

“Yes, he has military power and he’s also fairly smart. However…….”

After I gathered some more information, I prepared for the meeting.

“I am glad to meet you, your excellency, Duke Zest. I am a General in the country of elves and my name is Callis. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“I am Zest, the 1st Rank Imperial Mage of the Grun Empire. There’s no need to call me excellency, it is unnecessary for people coming from a foreign country, right, General Callis?”

“Then, I will call you Duke Zest. Thank you listening to my sudden request today.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s about my cute son-in-law’s country after all. There’s no need for restraint.”

General Callis had a 180 cm, solidly built physique, so much so that you wouldn’t even believe he was an elf.

He also had a darkish skin color, probably suntan, and he felt exactly like a military person.

As for his age……Since he’s an elf, I can’t properly judge based on his appearance, but he looks like he’s in his 30s.

His face was finely chiseled and his short golden hair suited him perfectly.

“Then, what is your business with me today?”

After the usual lip service, it was time for the main topic.

This was also the custom in the elves’ country.

“Yes……To tell you the truth, it is about prince Mars. That prince, since his childhood……Urm…….”

In short, this is a summary of what he told me.

The prince was raised with excessive care, since he was the long-awaited heir of the royal family.

For that reason, he doesn’t have common sense and is usually impolite.

However, this didn’t mean that the elves’ country had ill intentions for the empire.

And they wouldn’t mind if we killed him for his rudeness either.

These were the contents of his talk.

Fufufu, so if I end up killing him, they won’t lift a finger?

Or is it that they sent the subject of their hostility to the empire in order to gather their own forces in their country? Is this their ulterior motive?

“I see……Such a man is now my son-in-law. However, I can’t go against the Emperor’s decision. Moreover, your own King also approved of this marriage.”

“Yes, that is precisely so.”

“Then, how about this? It looks rather bad for my daughter Tsubaki to become a widow before even getting married. But, after they are officially married, it will only look like an unfortunate accident. Am I wrong?”

“…….Accident?”

“Right. Fortunately, since Tsubaki was adopted into my family, she doesn’t have inheritance rights in the Imperial Household anymore. Isn’t this rather convenient for you as well?”

“As one would expect from Duke Zest. I see now…….”

In short, the prince can’t be killed just yet.

After they get married, the prince will die in an ‘accident’.

Tsubaki is nothing but an adopted daughter of mine, therefore, the Emperor cannot express any direct opinions on this.

But I do have a say in this, so they better get along with me.

Or something along these lines.

“I don’t really know how things will unfold after the accident. However, it makes it quite easy to use the title of the future Queen, who’s nothing but a very young woman who just lost her husband, right?”

“Right……Even now, we stirred up trouble for the Grun Empire….”

“You obviously did. Forcing that stupid prince onto us is an open defiance against the empire. My black knights, my war maidens’ unit……and my kemonobito unit will take the head and attack your country, you know? You stained my honor, after all.”

“Yo-you are quite right.”

“Moreover, Razatonia Frontier Count’s Household will join this war too. The black knights in the main household will happily rage over your country. Ah, even the Holy Country of Lilac will join. After all, you insulted the hero who achieved spiritification…….The Pope will be pretty angry.”

“Ye-yes! We shall go with your plan, Duke Zest.”

General Callis nodded to everything I said, his complexion looking rather pale.

Now, with this, the first stage is over.

“Thank you for your hard work, master.”

“Hm? Well, it went just as planned. But they won’t compromise more than this.”

I can also ask for the empire’s support, but it can’t be helped.

It has to look like the empire is rejecting the prince after all.

“Still, this was all within my expectations. There’s nothing really to be concerned about.”

“Understood. As expected from my master.”

It feels good to be praised by Suu.

Fufu, I am the type who makes progress with lots of praise.

I drank some tea, feeling in a great mood, but then Suu gave me a letter.

“This is a letter from the demons. Just to be sure, please read it quickly.”

Yeah……Are they telling me in this letter to quickly send back the dragons?

I actually wanted to keep them a little longer.

I opened the bulky letter and read it without delay.

‘First Chapter – The Knight and the Master

“Ah, master……I am a man. And yet, you still say that you like me?”

“It’s all right. So what if you’re a man? Look at you, just how happy you are.”

“Th-that’s!!”

“It’s not about that, right? Say it properly.”

“My c***k…….”

“Right. What is wrong with your c***k, Albert?”

Albert twisted his body in an embarrassing way and Zest stared in agony at the cloak in his burly hand……….’

“It was a cloak!! Those absolute morons, why did they 2 censor that word!!?”

……..This wasn’t a letter, it was a filthy manuscript.

Against my better judgement, I ended up reading up to the last chapter, Chapter 10; and I utterly regretted it.

The title was ‘Albert’s Pregnancy! Impregnated with Zest’s Magic’……..

I want to die.

1. Now, this failure or sense of guilt that Suu feels wasn’t really explained and I can only suppose that she feels this way because her master lost consciousness the day before, when it could all have been prevented… It might also mean that she did a random mistake which is not yet explained…

2. It is not certain who wrote this stuff, due to the ambiguity of the Japanese language and to the fact that no name was specified…I expect it was Albert (since Zest calls him ‘oobakamono’/’absolute moron’, ‘complete idiot’), but in case it’s someone else, I’ll correct it later, when I actually find out who wrote it….EDIT: As Horus-kun-Sensei mentioned in a comment, the one who wrote this stuff might have been the fujoshi human girl living in the demons country…..It kind of makes sense since this manuscript came from the demons in the shape of a letter. I guess we’ll know for sure later tho…