“Here we are, Your Highness,” I arrived at a hidden room of that palace after all the tryouts were over and a certain important old guy called. “Isn’t this room small for us all, though?”

  Everyone came along when we got called, so it was a lot for the small hidden room. Just the massive knight already made the room feel smaller. Packing everyone inside this little meeting room was too much even if the maids were leaving, something the king interrupted.

  “It is, but everyone here should hear.”

  Eve didn’t react much to it, but Dori was confused by the situation. From what I could see, even the royal captain didn’t know what exactly was happening. Elen was the only one who wasn’t affected by anything at all and was taking a seat as if it were normal.

  “You should tell me before getting in here, dad. My room is still connected to this place.” She complained while pointing to her maid to set the table. “What is it?I already explained everything to sis, but her maid will panic any moment now.”

  “T-t-that’s not i-it… Your H-highness…” Dori tried to answer, but seeing the situation made me sigh and give up on thinking about it. Instead, I took a seat even if I was a little unsure if my position was high enough for that.

  “Don’t worry, Ms. Dorothea, you heard most of it from my daughters, so you don’t need to be so stiff.” Prourene’s ruler continued in his usual tone, which didn’t seem very effective. “Also, remember that we’re not in the throne room. In fact, you should remember that we didn’t meet at all.”

  I could feel some shock on Dori’s and Valiria’s faces, but the proper princess soon understood the situation. She then moved to the table with a controlled expression and took a seat like her sister, seemingly calming the situation a little.

  “We are only having some refreshments after a training session, Dori. Only the five of us.”

  “Sigh… What a mess.” I ended up letting escape after watching all this. “I mean, what is the big plan, Your Highness? Didn’t expect direct contact considering how occupied you should be.”

  “That I am, but I needed to be sure about you first...” He smiled at me, making me a little angry. “And now I know you won’t be doing the same Mr. Hayato would.”

  “That’s…”

  “Dad! She’s not as strong right now, but she almost managed to beat me there. Get her some training and we’ll have a chance...”

  “I agree.” Valiria nodded at her sister’s words. “It wasn’t perfect, but an amateur being that good is…”

  “But she’s no amateur.” The towering knight surprised the room, shaking his head at what the sisters were saying. “I have no idea how someone this young is like this, but she got more training than what I could reasonably give. Only her magic is somewhat undeveloped, but even that is beyond simply training.”

  “This…” Elen bit her lips, but there wasn’t much more she could say. Her sister and the maids also seemed very surprised by the situation and in lack of words, but my reaction was a little different.

  For one, I knew all that already.

  “Well, that whole thing was just to be sure anyway, so it doesn’t really matter, you know?” I interrupted them before anything troublesome could be said. “The plan was always pretending to be a hero, not being an actual one or anything.”

  “That’s true, but I need to be sure you’re sure about trying this considering what you saw about your own skills today.” The king stared deep into my eyes almost as if he was trying to probe my real intentions, which I wouldn’t show. “We could always send you…”

  “That’s not an option, Your Highness.” I answered plainly, almost letting too much show while doing so. “You need a hero right now, even a fake one, and I’ll make everyone believe that I am this much, or at least, that I’m as dangerous as one.”

  “I guess there’s no going against you this time…” The king sighed after seeing that his plan to send me away didn’t work. “Are you sure you want to do that, Lady Illia? You won’t survive failing if you try.”

  “Failing was never an option.”

  “Is that so…?” The king stared away for a moment and closed his eyes, turning serious again a few moments later. “Take whatever you need and whoever you need then. You have free reign to do what you need, but you won’t have any official endorsement and I can’t do much to protect you.”

  “That’s fine by me. No, that’s more than enough even." I nodded, understanding the implications that I already expected to have. “The only problem is that I can’t do much before the other side starts moving…”

  "It'll be fine then. They’ll make a move for sure.” The king suddenly smiled in a way that reminded me of his daughter. “All you have to do is work as you did before and take the chances when they appear. Better, I’ll move some pawns to ensure they’ll fall for it."

  Like father, like daughter, I guess.

  “Since we’re at that then…” I smiled back and turned to the one trick I could already pull off, even if it would be in a forceful way. “I’ll need some manpower to hunt some rats, Your Highness. Some that hold a prize I want.”

  “Oh? You’ll use your small inquisition, will you? Roundabout way considering that I could just uplift you, but that works well enough too.” He continued, turning to look at his daughters with a serious tone and somehow guessing my ultimate aim. “And I’ll have the both of you help with that. You’ll need the legitimacy.”

  “Yes, father!”

  “I would even if you didn’t allow it.”

  Both princesses made me smile a little, but that wasn’t what I needed to focus on right now.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “I can do it in a day, but I’ll need some help with promotion, Your Highness… Some reinforcements too.”

  “Free reign, remember? Just don’t weaken the frontiers too much.”

  “Then it’ll be fine. Everything should be ready to move soon.” I snickered while throwing the math on what was left of my plans from before. “Oh! I’ll also need some new clothes.”

  As I said it, though, no one in the room managed to react right away. I mean, they all started to stare at me, but they only seemed exasperated. Only when Elen started to laugh that the tension finally vanished… Not that it made anything look better to me.

  “I knew you were the best choice, you damn weirdo!” She added when the laughter was done, but it didn’t make me any happier. At least no one seemed to want to complain for now…

  What followed were three days of preparations and planning.

  Nothing too glorious or interesting to comment on.

  The most I did was mingle with Hayato’s party and some nobles, but I was too busy to talk with them too much. Even talking with the princesses became rare since they were working on the targets I found out. With both princesses and twice the expected manpower,cracking down on the criminal components wasn’t hard.

  Arresting the nobles involved was a little more complicated. But for that, I already have a different plan, albeit one that would involve causing some unrest and bloodbath. A plan that starts with me sitting at the king’s throne and watching many confused nobles enter the room.

  Or actually, a plan that starts with me getting some darker tones into my clothing and transitioning from princess-knight to evil duchess.

  “Hello, my friends.” I controlled my shivering body and kept talking in the same tone I used when ‘negotiating’ back at my swindler days from last week. “Are you feeling well lately?”

  These were all nobles I visited before. Every single one of them paid their requested bribes by then and received a royal letter requesting their presence recently. A royal letter that hinted about helping them with the current problems their businesses were having. And they instead found a weirdo in an overly-stylized hairdo and wearing funky clothes while the actual king wasn’t even around.

  Probably the biggest case of lese-majeste I was involved in until now, but that was the point this time. They didn't even seem to mind how forcefully they were escorted to the room until they noticed me, but now they could see it was a trick. The deals we had and the fact no one other than me was here made it very easy to see they were had, even if they shouldn’t be able to guess the king was part of it.

  All in all, most of them were clearly weirded out and somewhat close to panicking even before I said anything.

  “C’mon, aren’t you going to greet your biggest friend and protector? I’ll feel if you don’t say anything… Or I may call some people to ‘deal’ with you.”

  My words and position soon brought shouts of outrage from the nobles that were yet to understand their position. Everything from ‘how dare you sit at the throne’ to ‘calling us here in an emergency is an outrage’. But in the end, all I had to do was shake my hand and make the whole floor shine in a very eerie hue. One that felt very scary for them due to my ring.

  It didn’t take much for them to notice that, in theory, I was the one calling the shots. Their eyes were moving around the room with no effect, looking for the guards that weren’t there and the blocked exit. A fair situation to start panicking.

  “Calm down, everyone, I’m just warming the seat while the big guy is solving some problems in another office.” I continued, pressing on before they could figure out the real trick or notice that all I had was a summoning circle that couldn’t do much. “And I have permission anyway. More than any of you can get.”

  My words stopped the noise in the room for a moment. They seemed to finally get the idea here, and soon after, the small nobles united under a single spokesperson in a hurry. Another one of the people I didn’t bother to have the name, but seemingly the one with the highest rank around. Maybe some marquis even…

  “Excuse us, Lady Illia, but what exactly are you saying here?”

  “Me? Have you heard about the other hero? The one who’s in coma and can’t help the kingdom… or annoy me. I’m saying that, with the current situation, I can move freely and get what I’m worth instead of staying hidden behind.“ I continued as if I had everything under perfect control. “Your help was appreciated, of course, but that’s too little now. Your territories and wealth are more attractive, and to be honest, you’re all small fry. Even the king wasn't against me getting some of it, not that he had much choice…”

  “But our deals…?!”

  “What deals? We had anything of the kind? I can’t remember…” I made a very fake expression of confusion as I answered. “And even if we did, do you think it would do much? I’m kinda the only hero around right now and the realm is close to war, so the power is ALL here.”

  “T-that’s…”

  "That’s this, that’s that, I'm not negotiating here, okay? I could have you and your family vanish just like I had your business, so don’t bother."

  They were straight-up shocked by my words. Even the impromptu spokesperson didn’t know how to react and was instead staring in a growing panic. It made me feel like I was the evil one here… which felt great.

  The people here were the small fries in my files and none of them had territories on the ‘dangerous’ frontiers, but they were a good chunk of the problems Prourene had. In gross value, the less than dozen people here made around two-thirds of all lost revenue. They were trash, and that was all.

  It wasn’t the perfect hit I wanted since I had to let the biggest ones flee, but it was enough for the time. And I wasn’t bad enough to not give them a way out.

  “You know what? You’re making me feel bad, so what about we make a deal?”

  “We had a deal before, girl!” The spokesperson spoke with a slightly angry tone. “You can’t pretend to be some…”

  “Yes, yes, I don’t care. I’ll hear your complaints some other time… or never, probably.” I dismissed the noble's words without even giving him a chance to talk. “What about taking some pity gold and leaving it to your families? They don’t need to go the same way as you all.”

  While I was talking, the summoning circle on the ground started to shine more, materializing some pills in my hand. Some colorful useless sugar pills that looked like much more.

  “Take some and die.” I said while throwing them to the feet of the nobles and starting my plan as their eyes focused on it. “I'll let your families live very well in my new lands after you do. A courtesy of mine.”

  Their focus went off me for long enough for this small trick to work, so I could finally calm down. It also seemed that they were recovering from the initial shock and starting to think, so I pushed them further.

  “Choose already or I'll get bored and ask the people in your house to…”

  Then, right as my words sunk in, the outraged, scared, and cornered small nobles opened fire with all the magic they could cast in a rush. A whole hail of fireballs, ice spikes, stones, lightning, and everything else. A whole assault that fully covered the fancy chair with a cloud of debris... And when this cloud vanished, I was still there exactly like before.

  Just not in reality.

  I was instead puppeteering my illusion from behind the throne after running there during the pill’s distraction. And all the while, I was close to panicking with the unsureness if the magical throne would hold or not.

  “Not a good choice, my friends… Now… Aham!” I took a deep breath while still focused on the utterly shocked nobles and then shouted with all I had. “Help me! They’re attacking the poor hero who only wanted to talk!”

  Almost instantly after, a huge flash blew on the flow and, before anyone could recover, all guards close by rushed inside. Armored knights numbering the dozens against stunned nobles who were yet to understand the situation.

  It wasn't even a fight.

  Still, it was close to my limit and I needed some rest. Chaining so many spells and enduring all this pressure was still a little too tiring for my taste…