Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi - Chapter 566.1
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Chapter 566.1

Chapter 566.1

Kuh! As expected, someone who kept him in check during his youth is formidable. Is there anyone else that knows Aegir-samas extreme fetishes!!?

Catherine-san, this is also not the time to be cheating. Do you have anything!?

I-its not like I cheat all the time!

Everyone, youre in front of the children! Dont talk about such graphic things in front of the kids! This whole fetish contest of their father is horrible!

The female community have gathered at the corner of the table and begun to discuss s.e.xual dispositions.

It is awkward to join and listening to the subject is bad for my mind so I am continuing to eat my meal away from them.

UmmIdidnt have any ill intent

Mumbling in a feeble voice and trembling is the girl who sent the soup plate at my face earlier.

Im not going to punish you.

Regardless of me saying that though, the girl likely cant relax considering the mess it caused in the palace and my reputation.

Thats why I s.h.i.+ft the chest area of her maid uniform to the side as I speak kindly to her, slip a hand in her skirt, pull off the cloth inside, and sit her on my lap.

Now, prove to me you didnt have any ill intent.

Y-yes.

The girl grinds her hips and starts serving me my food with her mouth.

Fumufumu, you have a plump body and skilled tongue for how childlike your face is, plus your precious hole that is warming up on my lap shows me that you didnt have malice.

I suddenly sense a piercing death glare at my back.

Is the real one here?

Obviously, its us. What do you think youre doing at the family dining table!?

Before I knew it, my seat was surrounded by the women and kids.

Gue.

Nonna grabs and tugs my ear. Carla presses my nose. Mel knees my side, and Celia drags the maid away by the hair. Dont be rough on her.

Yah.

Tei tei.

Copying their mothers, Sue and Ekaterina also deliver cute punches to me.

Hahaha, its a group-beating.

As I made the joke, someone stomped on my pinky toe.

Being a sensitive place, I pull my foot back in reflex and turn around to find a tearful Bartolomeor rather, its probably Anastasia, hiding behind him, who did it.

On top of realizing her powerlessness, she aimed for the most painful spot and blamed it on someone else? Im worried about her future.

I grab Anastasia and sit her on my lap.

She immediately covers her face and wails, but I already know shes a master of fake-crying.

I ignore it and stuff the same kind of vegetable she threw out the window earlier into her mouth, causing her sure-to-be-beautiful face to distort in disgust as she chews.

Father, me too.

Rose tugs on my sleeve, so I also feed her a vegetable.

Do it more forcefully, stuff it to the back of my throat.

What are you saying?

Antonio comes over and pulls Roses arm.

I thought he was standing in a weird position, but hes actually keeping himself between Catherine and Lucy.

I cant tell you not to be vigilant after all the fuss, but you better quit leaking such a strange aura.

Antonio hangs his head as if he made a mistake.

Im impressed that such a young child can emit a perceivable bloodl.u.s.t.

I have to call Rebecca after Im done eating.

I can repel any number of a.s.sa.s.sinations targetting me, but itll be trouble if they enter the inner palace like before.

Its possible that there might be more than one hidden pa.s.sage.

I have to do something about that too.

When I look at the corner of the dining table, the girls stop ganging up and hide behind my back.

Kekekekehee hee hee.

At the place where Im looking, Flantica is clearly acting strange, with her maid uniform disheveled and her head tilted at a 45-degree angle while her mouth is moving like its chewing something. Dropped by her feet iswhat appears to be a mouses tail, but lets hope Im wrong.

So the Intelligence Minister made a mistake shortly after taking up the post.

Uuurk

Rebecca kneels before the throne with me seated on it as I place my elbow on the armrest.

Celia is next to me while Adolph and Tristan are a little further away.

Apparently Myla has taken the initiative to confine herself.

For this incident, because the a.s.sa.s.sin snuck directly into the inner palace through a secret tunnel, blaming Mylaand the guards tasked with guarding the palace and capital from frontal attacks is unreasonable. Especially because guards arent allowed in the inner palace, they cant keep watch over that area.

That means the blame falls on Rebecca who failed to detect the conspiracy plot.

Not to mention Rebecca and the girls under her are permitted to enter the inner palace.

I-I actually detected the plan. I just thought they didnt have the personnel or the weapons to break through the royal guards and thought it would be better if they roamed a bit more so we can catch them with the mastermind all at oncewho would have expected that such an underground pa.s.sage existedurgh.

The s.h.i.+vering Rebecca resembles a cute little animal.

On the other hand, the waiting maids are saying some disturbing things.

Pst pstno way a cruel man like His Majesty will forgive her

Will it be death by hanging or by burning at the stakepst pst.

Pstmaybe he will gobble her up after violating herpst.

Give me another chance, Ill make up for it. I beg you, please dont demote me or reduce my salaryand if you could also let me keep the bonus

I cant bring myself to do something horrible to Rebecca.

I also owe her for helping me become king. Well, itd be different if she was a man.

Although the result would be the same this time regardless of whether you were a man or woman. I dont have the luxury to dismiss you.

I can also just dismiss her immediately if she shows incompetence in a trivial matter.

But if prompt action is not taken for this case, who knows when the next a.s.sa.s.sination will come.

After all, there was a hidden pa.s.sage that n.o.body knew about smack dab in the middle of the inner palace.

I dont have time to kick Rebecca from her position and find someone else to take over.

Are there other secret tunnels?

Once Rebecca believed discussion about her post had ended, she lifted her head and began to talk without pause.

Yes! There was one when I turned over the floor of Mel-samas room, there was a set of stairs hidden in the back of the closet in Nonna-samas bedroom, and I also found a pa.s.sage leading to the sewers in the side of the maids toilet.

There are holes everywhere.

I spread my arms in bewilderment and leaned back on the throne.

There are also multiple suspicious walls and mechanisms that I discovered. They wont open unless you have a special key or trigger it a certain way. We certainly cant demolish the entire inner palace.

Take care of all of them. Do it as soon as possible, either today or tomorrow.

Rebecca stops herself from nodding on instinct, and instead looks up at me and shakes her head.

Im afraid its not possible. There are too many hidden mechanisms. Aside from the simple escape routes, there are other contraptions which I can only a.s.sume are for nefarious purposes like holes small enough for a needle to pa.s.s throughthere was even a skeleton with a cracked head in one of the hidden roomsif only Your Majestys room could be made perfectly safe, but for such a vast palaceno blueprint should be laying around forwait!

Celia retrieves a knotted rope from within her clothes, causing Rebecca to retreat.

Do something about it. Thats your job.

I try repeating myself in a more serious tone.

Rebecca closes her eyes and opens them after careful consideration, then shakes her head again.

Im sorry. I really cant do it. The palaces history goes back centuries and with it comes an acc.u.mulation of an inevitable dark side. Its not something that we can handle from a hurried investigation.

I hold back Irijina from bringing a physical restraint attached to a wooden cross and stop Celia from setting up a bale of hay with a match, and think about it myself.

Then what should we do?

Rebecca quickly presents her idea, staying cautious of Irijina.

There are three solutions. The first is that we check every inch meticulously over several months. However, its possible that we might still miss cleverly disguised traps.

Rejected.

Time is also an issue, but if something gets overlooked and Nonna is stabbed, theres no way to undo it.

The second solution is to abandon the inner palace or overhaul it and construct a new building. This way guarantees complete safety.

How many years will it take? Also reconstructing something of this size wont take a mere 1 000 000 gold. That is way out of our budget. Surely that is an act of a tyrant.

Adolph is the first to object.

Building a simplified version wont work either. The inner palace may seem unnecessary at a glance, but it is the symbol of power. Not using it is one thing, but destroying it and building a smaller one has only demerits. And even if those on the inside are satisfied, an external dispute might occur next time.

Tristan chimes in next.

In other words, rebuilding is out of the question.

The third solution is to ask the people who know. Secret escape routes, treasuries filled with royal heirlooms, hidden rooms meant to spy on foreign guestsI doubt blueprints exist for these, but its possible that information was pa.s.sed down verbally through generations of royalty or royal knights

Everybodys dead though.

Its a serious crime to waste Aegir-samas indebtedness.

Celia pushes out a metal apparatus shaped like a cow. What is that thing?

W-wait! The successive generations of the kings wifeno, even banished lovers may have a clue! I will devote all my effort and find something in three daysno, in one week!

A thought flashes in my mind at the last second.

I hit my hand with a fist and stood up.

I know who has lived in the inner palace for a long time. There are dozens of them actually.

I rose from the throne and lumber out of the room.

Where are you going!? Or so I want to say, are you alright with not punis.h.i.+ng me? Youre really fine with letting me go?

Rebecca screams, surrounded by the rope, the cross, and the cow.

Celia, put those dangerous things away and bring that out. Ill have her work while wearing it for some time.

A dissatisfied Celia fetches the clothes I mentioned, and Rebecca shrieks hysterically when she sees them.

I am headed to the room Flantica was locked in.

Lookkikiki.

When I removed the lock put on the door for the sole purpose of punis.h.i.+ng her, Flantica rotated her head from side to side with her eyes glued to the ceiling. It feels like her condition has worsened, but Im sure shes fine.

Flantica, I have a favor to ask. No, I have a favor to ask the girls in the room!

It hurts. So hot. I hate it. Keh, kekekeke.

I grab the girl whose skin has an odd green tinge to it.

I try not to pay much attention to the tongue that sticks out and her googly eyes.

Okay, come in.

On my signal, men enter the room.

They are all dressed differently.

One is in royal knight gear, another is in the attire of my personal army, yet another is in the formal dress of a n.o.ble, and some are even in dirty peasant or farmer clothes.

The one thing they all have in common are their detestable faces.

Yes, Your Majesty?

The group of handsome men crowd around Flantica.

Flantica, who had been repeatedly behaving strangely with a crazy expression, stops.

I could have sworn multiple white wisps popped out of her open mouth, then rushed back into her mouth.

Kekekiiioh, han-handsome.

The creepy laughter also stops, and then after she rubs her face with both hands, she takes out a mirror from within her pocket and grooms herself.

Her face rapidly returns to its normal complexion.

Hey, thats a big difference from when you were in front of me.

I am the grudge that nests in the inner palace. Aah so bitter and envious. I hate it, I hate it.

What shes saying is the same, but shes saying it in a more decipherable and even charming feminine voice.

Somehow that frustrates me, but nothing will be solved if I overturn this room.

The ones that know the most about the dark history of the inner palace are none other than these girls.