That day, the palace was oddly bustling.
The servants moved about more briskly than usual, and the maids gathered in little clusters to whisper the moment they had a chance.
The entire palace was buzzing with tension. Whispers in this corridor. Murmurs in that one. This place—the Habsburg Imperial Palace, which prided itself on always being silent as the grave—was different today.
And there was one person who would absolutely never miss such an atmosphere.
"Sebastian. Is something going on?"
"Ah, Your Highness Johanna…"
The elderly man caught himself. He had served in the Imperial Palace for decades, so his emotions never showed on his face. Yet even a first-rate attendant like him couldn't help but break into a cold sweat before the little princess standing before him.
"Ah, that expression means something really did happen!"
The silver-haired girl with her hair curled into buns hopped up and down.
"I'm certain! A hundred times out of a hundred, a thousand times out of a thousand!"
"What a hurtful thing to say. What sort of expression did I make that has you so certain?"
"Heheh. You can try to play innocent, but the cup's already been spilled, Sebastian."
The girl wagged her index finger back and forth.
"No matter how much of a veteran attendant you are—thirty-seven years of service in this palace, the attendant among attendants—you have one little habit. Every time you lie, you have a tendency to bend your waist forward just ever so slightly."
"G-Gracious, is that true?!"
The man was visibly shaken. This was a disaster!
A palace veteran like him didn't just handle official duties. He frequently carried out unofficial tasks as well—that is, moving on secret orders from the Emperor or the Crown Prince. His emotions absolutely could not show. If the young princess before him was right about that habit, then who knows how many nobles he might have inadvertently leaked information to over the years without even realizing it!
"Of course it's a lie, you silly fool Sebastian. You actually believed that?"
"……"
"Well, obviously the stern Imperial Palace Internal Affairs Department wouldn't have promoted a man with such a fatal habit to first-class attendant. We're talking about Sebastian—the fourth son of a minor baron's house, and on top of that an illegitimate child with absolutely no connections to speak of."
The girl grinned ear to ear.
"In other words, Sebastian made it this far entirely on his own merits. In this palace where bribes and connections run rampant, there's no man who's risen as far through sheer self-made grit as Sebastian. Amazing. Truly amazing."
"Th-thank you……Your Imperial Highness."
"Right? You're grateful?"
The man was so anxious he could barely stand it.
"Yes."
"You're so grateful that you feel like the words 'I would gladly die for Your Highness' are about to burst out of you, aren't they? Right?"
"Y-yes, of course……This humble servant is always prepared to throw himself into the line of duty for the Imperial family."
The girl was impressed.
"Wow. I saw through Sebastian's loyalty ages ago. The pride and conscience of the Habsburg Internal Affairs Department, our very own Sebastian. The fourth son of a baron, an illegitimate child at that, who nonetheless secured his position through nothing but unmatched diligence and ingenuity—Sebastian, my good man."
The girl grabbed hold of the man who towered over her by twice her height and flashed a lecherous grin like some middle-aged uncle.
"So come on, out with it—confess what happened last night. I won't tattle to the head butler about how embarrassing Sebastian was in front of the Imperial Princess today. Heh heh."
"……."
Johanna von Habsburg.
She was the Second Imperial Princess of the Habsburg Empire—the absolute superpower that, alongside the Frank Empire in the west and the Anatolia Empire in the east, ruled over the Human Realm—and among the hundreds of servants and maids working in the Imperial Palace, she was known as the "Dread Ruler." She was fourteen years old.
In the end, the veteran attendant Sebastian surrendered.
"Phew, very well. I'll tell you everything."
"Wah! I did it! I defeated Sebastian――!"
Imperial Princess Johanna threw both arms high into the air.
Sebastian smiled wryly. Princess Johanna was certainly headstrong and a bit of a tomboy, but she overflowed with an inexplicable charm that made it impossible to hate her. One might call it a natural ability to disarm anyone around her.
This was probably why the servants and maids were tormented by Princess Johanna day in and day out, yet no real trouble ever came of it. In this regard, Princess Johanna was quite different from her younger sister, Third Imperial Princess Elisabeth. Princess Elisabeth was renowned as a genius, yet somehow she was difficult to approach...
"You absolutely must not tell anyone else about this, Your Highness?"
"Sure, fine. I swear on Sebastian's conscience and honor!"
"...Might I be so bold as to ask why it's *my* conscience and honor rather than Your Highness's?"
"Tsk, tsk. A real man shouldn't fuss over trivial matters."
Sebastian let out a deep sigh.
"Last night, a man who infiltrated the Imperial Palace was discovered."
"What, here?!"
The princess's eyes went wide as saucers in surprise, like a startled frog. It was exactly the reaction he'd expected, and Sebastian couldn't help but laugh.
"Hmph. Indeed. Just before dawn, there was a sound of something falling into the pond on the west side of the Imperial Palace. A maid who happened to be passing nearby heard it. She was so alarmed that she called the guards, and when they went to check the pond, there was a young man who had fallen right into it, if you can believe it."
"Th-that's insane... He broke through the palace defenses all by himself? Past thousands of protective wards and hundreds of royal guards?"
Sebastian nodded.
"Yes. It caused quite an uproar. They feared there might be a hole in the Absolute Barrier that the Imperial Palace prides itself on. Moreover — this is still a secret that hasn't spread among the maids yet, but..."
He leaned in close to the princess's ear and whispered.
"Surprisingly, the man who fell into the pond is not a swordsman, nor a mage, and certainly not an assassin. Apparently, his mana affinity is completely nonexistent. He crossed the Absolute Barrier of the Habsburg Imperial Palace without using a shred of physical or magical power!"
Princess Johanna shuddered.
Well, it's only natural to be frightened, Sebastian nodded to himself. No matter how much she was called the "Ruler of Terror," at heart she was still a fourteen-year-old girl raised in a greenhouse. The realization that an ordinary human with neither combat ability nor magical power had nearly threatened her life must have been quite a shock.
However, Sebastian's assumption was nothing more than a guess.
"That's amazing――!"
The princess clenched her fist and shouted. Her voice was so loud that it reverberated through the palace corridor. A maid passing by at the far end of the hall flinched in surprise and turned to look their way.
She paid the maid no mind. The girl was carrying on like she'd forgotten every last rule of imperial etiquette. Sebastian, flustered, tried to rein her in.
"Y-Your Highness? Your voice is far too loud. What on earth—"
"Incredible! A truly ordinary man who can't even use Aura and can't cast a single spell made it all the way to our doorstep — that's incredible! It's like something out of an old tale — incredible! He almost became a hero — incredible! Truly, truly incredible!"
"Your Highness, your voice… please, lower your voice."
Princess Johanna's excited outburst cut off abruptly. She slowly turned her head and looked at Sebastian. At that moment, an inexplicable chill raced down his spine. The girl before him, who just moments ago had been acting like a child, was now glaring at her attendant with a razor-sharp gaze.
The blood of emperors. There it was — the dignity that belonged only to one born to rule and command other humans from the moment of drawing breath.
Beads of sweat formed on Sebastian's forehead, but for an entirely different reason than before. Had he — perhaps — overstepped with that bit of advice? The girl standing before him held the most exalted station in the world. And he had just gone and irritated her.
Just as the princess's predatory stare threatened to squeeze the life out of Sebastian's heart, she parted her lips.
"Tell me where it is, Sebastian."
"…Come again?"
"The hero in the pond. You must have tossed him in some prison. Tell me nicely where that is."
Sebastian's jaw dropped in sheer disbelief.
"Y-Your Highness! Surely you don't intend to meet the intruder!?"
"Not 'surely' — of course that's exactly what I plan to do. An event this entertaining has fallen into my lap, and you expect me to just let it pass? I absolutely must see him."
"Please reconsider, Your Highness!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Sebastian dropped to his knees on the palace's marble floor.
"The intruder is, at this moment, a matter as volatile as a bomb within the palace walls."
"And just now, he became my personal bomb instead."
The princess matched his urgency without giving an inch.
"If I don't see that man, I'm going to explode first. Sebastian, know this—the day I explode is the day the Habsburg Empire falls."
"Your Highness! His Majesty the Emperor is also furious about this incident! If you approach such a grave matter on mere curiosity alone, you will at best lose the trust of the court, and at worst incur the wrath of His Majesty the Emperor!"
Princess Johanna fell silent. She gazed at Sebastian quietly for a long moment. Then she slowly raised the corners of her lips.
"My loyal and devoted Sebastian. I'm sorry, but this is actually a matter that no one else but me needs to handle."
"...Pardon?"
"Hmph. One thing on your mind, and you can't think of two."
The princess snorted through her nose.
"Listen closely. You said it yourself—when the hero in the pond was first discovered, it was by a maid. And that maid immediately called for the guards."
"That is correct. But what is the problem, Your Highness?"
"Keep listening. Now, someone has infiltrated the imperial palace. And they're an utterly incompetent commoner... so who exactly do you think should bear responsibility?"
Princess Johanna spread her left fingers and then folded them one by one.
"The Imperial Capital's security guard? It was a solo crime, not a gang offense, so it's hard to blame it on poor policing by the guard. Disqualified. The Magic Tower that carved three thousand six hundred and eighty protective spells into the palace? Then they'd have to declare that the esteemed mages are inferior to a single incompetent commoner, and we can't afford to stir up that kind of tedious dispute. Disqualified."
Oh my, spoke the fourteen-year-old princess in a theatrical tone.
"If there's no problem on the outside, then where would the problem be?"
Ah, Sebastian let out a gasp.
"Inside... You're going to push the narrative that there's an inside accomplice, Your Highness!"
"Exactly that, you idiot Sebastian."
Princess Johanna nodded.
"From now on, a bloody war of nerves breaks out between the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Imperial Palace Guard. The maid who happened to spot him first didn't report to her superior and went straight to the guards instead, and that's where things got tangled. If the maid from Internal Affairs had handled it on her own, they could have smoothly passed the blame onto the guards. But..."
"Both Internal Affairs and the Guard share equal credit for detaining the man in the pond... In other words, neither side can pin the blame on the other!"
"Ho ho. If things go wrong, it might be the head lady-in-waiting or the captain of the guard that rolls."
Sebastian now realized just how serious the situation was. The Emperor was undoubtedly furious. A bloody storm could break out at any moment…
"I'll bet that the hero of the pond is already half-dead by now. Internal Affairs and the Guard have probably been taking turns torturing him all night, demanding he spit out who his inside accomplice was. Tsk tsk… So that's why Commander Ersi wasn't at this morning's training. Well, in times like this, someone has to step up. Who else would it be but me?"
Princess Johanna shook her head back and forth.
"What do you plan to do, Your Highness?"
"Hmm? Are you curious?"
"Yes."
The princess grinned.
"If you're so curious, then keep quiet and tell me where my hero is. The Ruler of Fear will take care of everything himself."
"Haa, to think I'd get caught up in such a mess after thirty-seven years of loyal service…"
The diligent attendant looked like he was about to cry.
The princess, unperturbed, gave him a push on the back. Sebastian began walking down the corridor with a sense of resigned acceptance.
"Oh right. What did you say our hero's name was?"
"So now he's not *my* hero, but *our* hero? …Understood. Um, it's a rather peculiar name. I don't know which country it's from, to be honest."
"Oh? What name is it?"
Sebastian visualized the map of the underground dungeon in his head as he answered.
"Lolita, Your Highness."