Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
Kousuke and his group were having a discussion in a room at the inn where they had been staying.
In the room were not only Kousuke and the other usual members, but also Prince Renald and several others.
Prince Renald, who was sitting facing Kousuke, bowed to Kousuke once again.
“Um~? Is it really acceptable for a prince of a country to bow so easily?”
Kousuke asked the two members of the prince’s entourage with a slight retort.
When asked, they looked at each other and chuckled.
“Normally, that would be impossible.”
“But in your case, it’s a different story.”
The two who had already heard Kousuke’s position when they were asked to come along.
Prince Renald, who was bowing his head, joined in.
“This matter is completely our fault. You are a living god, after all. If I could get away by bowing my head, I’d bow down as much as I could.”
“Ah~, no. I’m already satisfied with the results, so you don’t need to.”
Kousuke did not miss the relieved expressions on the faces of Oke and Armin at the moment they stated that.
Whether he noticed it or not, Prince Renald started talking about the matter.
“I see… Well, anyway, it looks like this case is going to be a confiscation of the property of the nobles involved and a suspension of their qualifications to some extent.”
As for Kousuke, he had intended to leave the details of the punishment completely up to the kingdom side, so his eyes blinked when he was suddenly told the story.
“Are you sure you want me to hear about this?”
“Of course. You are the one who is involved in this.”
Kousuke looked at Prince Renald with some suspicion as he said this with a smirk.
“I won’t be held responsible just because I was informed of the outcome and agreed to it, will I?”
Kousuke preemptively nailed him before he could suggest anything else.
Kousuke (the living god) had also agreed to the punishment, so it would be unacceptable if they announced that there was nothing to complain about.
Of course, Kousuke had no intention of assuming such responsibility.
Prince Renald laughed at those words.
“No way. I would never do such a thing. To put it bluntly, I’m more afraid of incurring the wrath of those who are by your side by doing so.”
Saying this, he looked at Mitsuki.
Her expression was the same as usual, but her eyes were not smiling.
Prince Renald also knew what kind of existence Mitsuki was.
“It seems that the punishment for the nobles will be just that, but we will probably do something for the adventurers with the funds obtained from the confiscation of their property.”
“Something?”
Kousuke tilted his head at the ambiguous way he said it.
“Well, actually, it hasn’t been decided yet. It was because the nobles have been collecting completely randomly, and we no longer even know who they were taking it from.”
To Prince Renald’s words, Oke added.
“If we knew, we could return the money, but that doesn’t seem to be possible. Above all, it seems that they have been doing this for quite some time, and some of them are no longer in this country.”
Kousuke knew about that matter, as well.
It was not unusual for adventurers to move from country to country.
Just finding each one of them would use up all the confiscated property.
“The safest thing to do would be to increase the number of requests we send out from the country or something similar, but that hasn’t been officially decided yet.”
Armin added with a pained expression.
In some cases, they might think that they would take the military’s work.
“Also, there is a possibility that they won’t be able to suppress their dissatisfaction if that’s all we do, so the King’s retirement will be held in conjunction with that.”
Oke and Armin were impatient at this information.
“Prince!?”
“Seriously?!”
Both of them had never heard of this.
“If King were to retire because of this matter, it would curb the majority of complaints, wouldn’t it? The King also said the timing was just right.”
Prince Renald had been privately told about this by King Filip directly before he came here.
Of course, he had spoken only to Prince Renald in order to tell this story directly to Kousuke.
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Leaving the two panicked Oke and Armin aside, Kousuke calmly replied.
“Certainly, if he quits while he is in good health now, he will be able to come to the Tower, right?”
“Oh. Did you already expect that?”
“Alec said he might.”
“As expected of Uncle.”
Prince Renald was in no hurry to deal with Kousuke’s statement.
The other two seemed to be completely unable to keep up with the conversation.
“Re, Prince Renald?
Oke asked fearfully after wondering whether he should ask or not.
“What, Uncle Alec told me that Floria is having a baby, and the King. Wouldn’t you think that he would go to see her at any cost?”
“Queen Floria is having a child?”
Hearing this story, the two close associates were surprised in more ways than one.
They knew, of course, that Floria, former princess of the Flores Kingdom, had become Queen of Razequa Amamiya.
She should have just ascended to the throne, but if the Queen was already pregnant, there would be a lot of celebratory excitement in Razequa Amamiya.
At the same time, the reason for King Filip’s retirement made sense to them.
As long as he remained King, he would not be able to travel freely outside the country.
Once he retires, he will be able to visit Razequa Amamiya to see his great-grandchildren.
Moreover, diplomatic talks between the kingdoms can be more easily facilitated if the former King visits.
Razequa Amamiya might be a new country, but there was already no nation that would disregard its existence.
If that were the case, the current trend among countries toward Razequa Amamiya was to conclude a treaty with it on the best possible terms.
Of course, the Flores Kingdom was one of them.
No matter how much Floria was related to them by blood, they could not let their guard down.
“King Filip’s children’s troubles, or in this case, grandchildren’s troubles? Anyway, he’s famous in the country for that.”
Prince Renald chuckled when he saw that the two aides looked like they had given up.
“Haaah. Is that really how things stand?”
Kousuke, not knowing how to reply, replied in a nonchalant manner.
“Fortunately, our country’s next King was already decided. Even if the nobles come to me with something, I will be able to restrain them.”
Other countries may not be aware of this, but the Flores Kingdom had already decided that the next King would be Maxim, Prince Renald’s father.
That alone would prevent any political upheaval at the time of the succession.
In addition, the change from King Filip who was already long overdue for old age in this world to the young Maxim would be a rather welcome change.
“Can it really be decided just like that?”
“That’s just how things are. At least in our current state.”
Nominally, it would be taking responsibility for this time, but in reality, it would be closer to a heroic retreat.
How the adventurers would react to that remained unknown, but he thought at least a good number of complaints would be suppressed.
“I see. For my part, I have no complaints as long as adventurers can act like adventurers.”
Even for Kousuke, he had no intention of getting involved in the country’s mess any further.
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“What are you going to do after this?”
Prince Renald asked me that after we had finished talking, to some extent.
“Well, that’s right. I’m going to travel around and see a bit more of various places while doing adventurer activities. I don’t think I’ll be able to do so freely, though.”
Kousuke looked at Armin as he said so.
The reason he looked at Armin was because he knew that he would probably be monitored by the military or someone else anyway.
Prince Renald, sensing this, followed up in a manner of speaking.
“Give me a break on that. Our country cannot afford to leave a person like you unattended.”
“I guess so. Well, we can always escape if we want to, so it’s fine with us.”
Armin’s gaze lost its composure at Kousuke who said it so casually.
Indeed, if Kousuke and the others really wanted to escape from the surveillance, they could easily do so.
“Sigh… please go easy on us.”
Prince Renald said, unable to stop Kousuke’s actions in the first place, could only reply in a weary manner.