The dignitaries and nobles from various countries who would attend Her Majesty’s coronation were gathering.
Because the nobles feared a Great Purge, I had permitted them to bring retainers beyond what custom and protocol allowed. In practice, however, none came in numbers that truly violated the limit.
We had invited diplomats from as many as thirty countries. For us to carry out a Great Purge of nobles in the royal capital while foreigners were visiting...
[You do seem like someone who might do it.]
“Did I seem that way?”
When a witness who had personally seen the killings at the Sanctuary said as much, I could not simply ignore it.
Of course, holding a bloodbath at an international event was diplomatically senseless, but...
I might be able to use it once.
I did not dislike dialogue and compromise, but there were times when it was better to simply kill people like that.
The diplomatic envoys from every country likewise came to the royal capital with modest delegations.
It was not as though our Kingdom of Palatina had gone mad enough to invite diplomats from thirty countries and kill them all.
The diplomats also knew that this was an event in which the Queen was the protagonist, so they did not flaunt their splendor.
But...
“Splendid.”
[She is like that bitch.]
“Did you know?”
[I remember her putting on that pathetic cutesy act, saying, ‘Give me this sword.’]
It imitated her surprisingly well for something so unsuited to it.
There was one carriage that came with a retinue of more than a hundred riders.
Who, other than a king, could bring more than a hundred retainers into the royal capital without permission?
Only someone from the Imperial family.
Indeed, it boldly displayed the Emperor’s flag and marched into the royal capital’s central square like a victorious commander.
Even though everyone else had read the room and did not observe protocol above the Queen’s, it was utterly blatant.
One could say she felt unsafe because her new husband was exerting pressure at the border, but she would not truly feel that way.
She simply hated this country, so she chose behavior that the people of this country would hate.
[So how long do you intend to keep me standing before the latrine?]
“Until you apologize with peep, peep.”
[No, truly, I was only joking? At my age, can I not even joke with a little girl? And this treatment for me, whom every king has respected?]
“Be grateful that I am not dunking you.”
For a sword, this bastard had far too much to say, regardless of place or person.
Still, tormenting it was entertaining.
Of course, I was not punishing it simply because I wanted to torment it. I was punishing it for being disrespectful to Her Majesty.
[That girl may be all right, seeing that she can hear me. She seems as though she will grow up well. Ch-chan... Cancel, cancel! Hey, you. Ah, do not lift me! Your Majesty. Your Majesty, all right?]
“Your Majesty?”
[Queen Casertania, Your Majesty. Is that enough?!]
“Hmm.”
Looking at the late King, the Duke of the East, and the kings of the past, the royal family clearly had a bloodline of warriors passed down through its lineage.
If Her Majesty possessed it as well...
After the coronation ended and the turmoil inside and outside the country was settled, I thought I might personally instruct Her Majesty once.
If Her Majesty possessed martial ability like mine or those two men’s, she would be able to build royal momentum in this military state.
After disciplining the Frost Sword, I continued watching the former Queen’s procession.
“I would like to make that bitch sleep in a pigsty.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had gone to identify the arriving envoy, saw me first and came running over.
“Lord Protector. It is the deposed Queen.”
“That woman has too little etiquette in matters of protocol, so send a low-ranking official. I will go attend Her Majesty.”
“What?”
As acting representative of royal authority, I was personally going out to welcome the arriving diplomatic envoys.
Of them, the Imperial family member came from the nation of greatest stature, held the highest rank, and stood highest in the order of protocol. In principle, it was proper for me to go out.
Otherwise, Her Majesty had to greet her herself.
But to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and to me, the deposed Queen’s procession was excessively presumptuous.
Meeting such arrogance by lowering the level of protocol was also a principle.
“That bitch should not have enough knees to bow toward the royal capital for having been allowed to live, yet she enters like a victorious commander. I want to hang her at once, but there are too many domestic and foreign guests for that. We must at least receive her poorly.”
“But were we not the ones who invited her?”
“Even if we invite a guest, that does not mean the guest may walk onto the carpet in mud-caked shoes. Do not even consider receiving her at the rank of the Privy Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs. A low-ranking official... Ah. It would be best to send a coachman who was cleaning horse dung just a moment ago.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs was still a man who had carried out ordinary diplomacy.
I thought that, if the Queen or acting representative of royal authority were absent, he might receive her as the general official in charge of diplomacy.
Thus, I ordered the coachman, who would be full of the stale stench of horse dung and feed, to receive her, and entered the royal castle.
The royal coachman himself was a baron-ranked noble, but even those who assisted the coachman and did the dirty work were royal officials.
I intended to have another conversation with the envoys from every country and the nobles who had already arrived.
But then...
Slap.
“Tell the Princess to come out herself. Otherwise, you will see me lie down. Hurry!”
Wondering what was happening, I turned my head toward the former Queen’s procession and the people receiving it. The coachman had been slapped and was being stepped on by an escort knight.
On top of that, the former Queen was lowering our Queen to a princess, screaming for the Princess to come out.
She was not merely shouting; she now looked ready to lie down.
“What an utter nuisance.”
As an Imperial-born woman, she had possessed dignity and had been a noblewoman cultivated in learning and etiquette.
She had insisted on Imperial etiquette and looked down on the Kingdom’s women, but there had been dignity in her actions.
But this pathetic display was surely her true self, and her etiquette and dignity had been a mask.
“Is this how you treat such a fine occasion? Princess, you will remember me!?”
I watched to see whether she would truly lie down, but she kept demeaning the Queen by calling her a princess.
It was their own demeaning statement that, under the Empire’s system of bloodline-priority primogeniture, our Queen’s taking the throne was improper.
“She is doing well.”
I had thought having one public enemy of the country would help stabilize state affairs.
But she openly caused a disturbance and drew attention this much, so I could only be pleased.
I had not expected the reception and reaction to be so satisfying.
Even if one tried to stage it, one could not make it go this well.
“Can you treat a diplomatic envoy so poorly?”
“I am now practically the Princess’s foster mother!?”
“What will become of the country’s dignity if someone like that lies down? Is there a country that receives guests this way?”
The friendly countries already gathered and the visiting nobles clicked their tongues at her behavior.
“L-Lord Protector.”
“Ah, you have come. Yes, Your Majesty.”
I had the right to greet Her Majesty even while wearing a sword, but there were many guests present, so I folded my arms and bowed deeply. Her Majesty flinched in surprise.
I did not know when she would cease being afraid of me.
I wondered whether she thought of me as a night demon from a ghost story meant to send children to bed early.
“What is the matter? Is there anything you wish to command?”
“I dislike hearing someone make such a disturbance in a place full of guests, but... According to national law, a sovereign of the Kingdom, the Empire’s Emperor and the Emperor’s special envoys or children, the Holy Emperor, and the Holy Emperor’s children should be received by someone equivalent to a sovereign...”
As she voiced an opinion based in law, Her Majesty opened the law book tucked under her arm.
She had even folded down the relevant passage.
I was glad that she seemed to be reading the law book well, but there was no need to treat her according to national law at a time like this.
Above all, under the Kingdom’s law, there was no provision to punish a monarch even if the monarch did not observe it.
Only under canon law was there an interpretation that a dynastic revolution could be possible if a monarch forsook the faith.
“That is so. Then?”
“Th-therefore, must I truly go out to greet her? Um...”
If we went by the law, she was supposed to go out and greet herself, and that seemed likely to end this commotion. But she found it awkward to do so.
I had intended to make the former Queen go mad through poor treatment and induce a bloody clash. I would arrest and bind her on a charge of rioting, pull out a few of her teeth, and then try speaking with her.
But now that I examined it, she did not seem to intend to cause unrest with soldiers. She was merely being an utter nuisance.
That was somewhat insufficient as grounds to seize, imprison, and torture her.
Since Her Majesty found it unpleasant, it would be better to receive her now.
“As acting representative of royal authority, this servant exercises full authority over foreign affairs. Would Your Majesty entrust it to me?”
“Will you do that?”
“I shall.”
Her Majesty was studying law.
As she said, if someone was an imperial envoy, it was true that not merely custom but written law stipulated that at least a sovereign or a crown prince, second in royal authority, should greet them.
But we could not put Her Majesty before that demon.
“Are your eyes all right?!”
There was no need for her to worry about my eye again.
Was she asking that because she thought I might use my eye as an excuse not to go?
“Hmm. Taking that eyesore into my eye would not greatly benefit my health, but seeing the mad things she is doing, I judge that it is right for this servant to step forward.”
“I will request books on herbology that brew tea good for the eyes from the Royal Grand Library.”
“Your Majesty.”
“Yes, y-yes? Lord Protector.”
“It is indeed right to govern while observing the law, but a monarch alone may sometimes undertake extralegal actions for politics. The tantrum of that madwoman now is such a case.”
“It is... a tantrum.”
“There is probably no law for punishing a diplomatic envoy when she throws a tantrum.”
I added a word and continued.
“Law is made on the basis of custom, morality, and duty. Therefore, we may mock them for having no such law, and likewise display not law, but morality, duty, custom, or strength and authority, to carry out Your Majesty’s will.”
“But the Queen is the guardian of the law. At my coronation, I must not violate religion and law...”
Her Majesty’s voice trembled at first as she firmly declared that she must not do so, but it gradually grew resolute.
Being both a conquering queen and a guardian of the law would not be easy, but all of that was a queen’s duty. I merely smiled and nodded.
“Yes. Then, please entrust every action that goes beyond the law to this servant.”
There was no reason to break a grand dream.
No matter what the Queen did, so long as she did not ruin the country, I would assist her.
“Ah.”
“This servant will now go and drag that madwoman out.”
I almost patted Her Majesty’s head because she was admirable, but stopped my hand.
When she looked at me strangely, I sheepishly hid it in my sleeve and stepped out.
She had called for the highest-ranking person in protocol, so I would go.
I did not wish to face the former Queen, but as Regent, I received the highest honors possible and went to the entrance of the royal castle’s inner ward.
As the Regent with full authority, and because of the late King’s well-known virtue that I should serve Her Majesty like a father, I was entitled to the protocol accorded to a king or Queen Dowager.
I had never used it, because receiving the highest protocol while Her Majesty was present exceeded a subject’s proper bounds.
But now the Imperial envoy was screaming as though her throat were being cut, so I received it and went forward.
“Ho.”
The Deposed Queen Elined, an imperial princess who had been shouting at the top of her lungs, finally stopped her tantrum, watched me, and nodded.
“Grand Duke of the North, Dragon’s Eye... But where is our Princess?”