The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 193
Bang! The door opened with a dull sound.
The room must have been quite large, as there was another door inside. I could sense a person’s presence from within.
I composed my excited heart and pushed open the door with both hands.
“Ah!”
“How can this be…!?”
I was greeted by two reactions.
One was Bisketa. She was looking at me with a shocked face as if she had seen a ghost.
The other, Eonia, had her eyes wide open.
She was wearing loose-fitting clothes, as if she had been about to go to sleep.
Her face, looking at me, was inexplicably full of wariness.
“Eo, I’ve come to take you…”
“Lady Bisketa! Step back!”
Eo grabbed a spear and pointed it at me.
I felt my face, wondering if I hadn’t taken off my mask, but I had removed it earlier.
“W-wait. Eo? What is this…”
“I don’t know how you managed to defeat Lady Elena, but this is as far as you go!”
“What…”
Her attitude was as if she didn’t know me at all. But her expression said otherwise.
She looked anxious, as if enduring something unbearable.
“Bisketa, what’s going on here?”
I asked Bisketa, as she clearly seemed to recognize me. Bisketa let out a heavy sigh.
“To think you’d come all the way here. If I had known…”
“I’m asking what’s going on.”
“I’ll explain slowly. Eo, lower your spear. That person is not an enemy.”
Eo looked back and forth between me and Bisketa, then lowered her spear.
At that moment, blood flowed from my chest, gurgling and soaking the cloth I was using to apply pressure.
“Ugh!”
It seemed the wound had opened up, perhaps because I had gotten excited without realizing it.
“Ah! Are you alright…”
Eo tried to support me as if by instinct, but she hesitated as if her reason had put on the brakes.
Bisketa’s expression had also hardened.
“This is serious. It doesn’t look like you’re in a situation where you can receive medical help…”
“I’m fine. More importantly, shouldn’t we move to a different location?”
The guards would probably rush here soon. So we needed to escape.
However, neither Bisketa nor Eo seemed to have any intention of leaving this room.
Bisketa seemed to want to help me but was flustered, unable to find a way. Eo was staring intently at me, not lowering her guard.
‘A miscalculation…’
I never dreamed that Eo would be uncooperative. I thought that whatever the circumstances, she wouldn’t let me die at the very least.
‘Damn, now it’s hard to even escape…’
This place is about 8 floors up. Even for me, it’s too much to jump down. Especially now with a wound in my chest.
There was only one option left. To be arrested.
The woman I had fought earlier had said she would give me the right to explain, so there should be some room for dialogue.
Having made that judgment, I went to sit at a nearby table.
“Phew! It might be better to talk now. Won’t you offer me some tea?”
Reading my intention, Bisketa nodded heavily. She didn’t bring out tea, but she disarmed Eo and sat down at the table with us.
That’s when I realized it.
Because she was wearing loose-fitting clothes, it was only when Eo sat down in the chair that her figure became clearly visible.
A swollen belly.
“…!”
I was at a loss for words.
Could that woman’s words about me being too late have meant that?
‘Already with another man….’
However, as if reading my expression, Bisketa speaks sternly.
“What misunderstanding are you having? Of course, it’s your child given the timing!”
“Huh?”
At this, even Eonia’s eyes widened.
“Wh-what are you saying, Bisketa? My child is for Cailum…”
Bisketa sighs, saying things have gotten complicated. I couldn’t hold back and asked.
“W-wait a moment. You’re saying it’s my child?”
“You should have some idea, shouldn’t you?”
“Well… There was that incident the night before the transfer… But even so, the timing doesn’t match!?”
“If it’s about the size of the belly, it’s simple. They’re twins.”
“Gasp.”
Is this a manifestation of always being second in her major? Even so, twins…
“Do you understand now?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then I’ll explain. Eo, you listen carefully too.”
Bisketa briefly explained everything that had happened so far. There was still commotion coming from downstairs, but I was at ease since I had already resigned myself to arrest.
“Unlike you, Eo and I ended up in this elven settlement. It seems this was a natural occurrence.”
“If it was a natural occurrence…”
“That’s right. There were several measures in place for that transfer magic. Measures to transfer those who weren’t elves to places other than here. I was able to come along because I was with Eo at the time, but it wouldn’t have been the same for others. Isn’t that right?”
“That’s correct.”
I had thought we were randomly transferred due to a magical imbalance in the atmosphere, but that wasn’t the case.
“But Estelle couldn’t come here?”
“She inherited elven blood, but it was too diluted.”
“Well, that part doesn’t matter now. More importantly…”
“It’s about Eo, right? As you might have guessed, Eo caused a commotion, insisting on going out to find you.”
That part was easy to predict.
“But this place is not only difficult to enter, it’s even more difficult to leave. If those who go outside reveal the existence of this place to the world, all sorts of interference would come.”
“I don’t think that’s likely. Neither the Ellan Kingdom nor the Savior Alliance would particularly care about you.”
“That might be true. The problem is that the leadership here doesn’t think that way.”
“Tch.”
“Anyway… Eo was determined to leave by any means necessary. But it’s impossible unless permission is granted from here. Did you not experience anything when coming here?”
“Well… I did experience a tidal wave.”
“You managed to survive and enter, impressive. That’s the power of a monster called Maltron that inhabits this island.”
“Monster…?”
“It’s a creature with the power to control weather and ocean currents. The elves have been using it for generations. Through it, they’ve drowned those who tried to enter the island until now.”
“It’s similar to the Forest of Lament, then.”
“The Forest of Lament…? You mean the one in the south? Have you been there?”
Bisketa seemed to have studied this world quite diligently. When I mentioned that I had entered the Forest of Lament, her eyes lit up and she pressed for more information.
“Let’s talk about that later. We don’t have time now.”
“Yes, well. Someone as intelligent as you can probably guess how the story progressed from there?”
“You erased Eo’s memories to calm her down, is that it?”
“There are some complicated circumstances around that, but broadly speaking, yes.”
“And you condoned it.”
When I gave her a reproachful look, Bisketa continued, saying she felt ashamed.
“I didn’t want to do it either. But I changed my mind when I saw that Eo was pregnant. At that time, Eo was willing to steal a ship to leave the island. Even though she knew she and the child in her womb might die meaninglessly! What should I have done in that situation?”
“Hoo…! She should have trusted me and waited… Did you think I would abandon Eo?”
“It’s not that… But… I didn’t think you would be able to come here. I’ll apologize for that part as many times as necessary.”
Eo was listening to the conversation with a blank expression. She seemed even more shocked than I was.
Looking at her face, I asked Bisketa.
“Can her memories be restored?”
“Unless we ask the Queen Mother who took that measure…”
I had some ideas about memory erasing magic. Black mages were typical practitioners. Just the fact that they were using a monster made me think of black mages first.
‘The situation is complicated here too.’
It was no less complex than the Forest of Lament. In fact, the Forest of Lament might be easier to deal with than this place, which was difficult to enter and exit.
“Over here!”
“Lady Elena isn’t here! The intruder must have come this way!”
The commotion that had been coming from downstairs was now heard close by. Bisketa asked with her eyes what I was going to do.
“We have no choice but to accept the arrest.”
“It’s too dangerous! They won’t listen to an outsider who isn’t even an elf…”
“We’ll have to find a way to break through that somehow.”
I was planning to use charm aggressively.
If things went well with that, great, but if not, I was also considering building a faction here and leading a rebellion.
Click, click! The door that Bisketa had locked rattled.
I patted Eo’s head as if stroking it.
“Ah…!”
“Eo, wait just a moment. I’ll resolve this and be back soon.”
Eo, who had been on guard, raised her hand as if to brush off my touch, but soon flinched and accepted my gesture.
Bang! The door finally opens.
I was arrested by the guards and taken to prison.
* * *
It seems the intrusion of an outsider onto this elven island was an unprecedented event.
The prison guards were treating me as if handling a bomb.
It was a difficult situation for me, as I was looking for the right timing to use charm. No one approached me.
They didn’t even seem to consider feeding me, as I hadn’t eaten anything for nearly 10 hours since my arrest.
The only fortunate thing was that they had treated the wound on my chest. They must have thought I might die if it wasn’t treated.
That was encouraging.
At least it meant they intended to interrogate me.
I had decided to start by charming the interrogator and work things out from there.
Then, by my senses, it was close to midnight again after about a day had passed.
For some reason, the guards started leaving one by one, and I sensed someone approaching me.
Thump! Thump! Calm and orderly footsteps.
I instinctively guessed who it was.
The woman I had confronted before.
The middle-aged woman whom the guards had called Elena.
She was holding a plate of food.
“I heard you haven’t eaten anything. It’s not much, but…”
The plate was full of fruits. At times like this, replenishing sugar was like rain in a drought, so I decided to eat without refusing.
“…”
Elena was staring at me intently.
Finally, she cautiously opened her mouth.
“There’s something I want to ask you about.”
I was gauging the timing to use charm, but for now, I decided to go along with her. I had to be careful using it, as someone of her caliber might notice if I used charm.
“I’m a prisoner now. I’ll answer what I can.”
“That’s a good attitude. Then… What is your relationship with the Fensillon Empire? When I heard from Eo, I only got abstract descriptions like ‘an amazing person’, ‘a once-in-a-century general’, ‘someone who could become emperor’. And now I can’t even ask her. Moreover, Ms. Bisketa doesn’t seem to know much about you.”
“Hmm. That aside, why the talk about the Fensillon Empire?”
“Personal interest.”
I dug into my past memories. And matching it with the current situation, I figured out her identity.
“I see. You must be the former Valkyrie, Eo’s mentor.”
“That’s right. Though I came to this continent around the time Eo became an adult.”
“Eo said that you died along with your husband, Prince Melian, after he died.”
“She seems to have thought so. That child seems to have believed that the tracking magic called the Valkyrie’s Oath connected the lives of both parties. When Melian died and I disappeared around the same time, she must have thought I had died too.”
“Haha, that’s so like Eo.”
“So… You haven’t answered yet. What kind of relationship do you have with the Fensillon Empire?”
“Nothing special. I heard that I’m the last remaining bloodline. Well, it would be different if you and Prince Melian had a child.”
“…We didn’t.”
Elena looked at me with sad eyes.
“What kind of relationship did you have with Melian?”
“Well, I’m not sure since I haven’t seen the family tree, but considering the timing, he might have been my father’s brother?”
“Then that would make you Melian’s nephew.”
“Well, according to the family tree, I guess so.”
“That’s enough. That’s all I wanted to hear.”
Elena glanced around. For some reason, the number of guards had been decreasing, and now I couldn’t sense any guards around at all.
“Ars Elaine. There’s someone who would like to meet you.”
Thump! Footsteps are heard again.
The one who appeared was a thin male elf. He even looked sickly at first glance.
He nodded at me.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Cailum Aentail.”
“Cailum…!”
The guy who was said to be engaged to Eo after her memories were erased.
That guy had appeared before me.
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