Alexel walked towards us with Noel, a fearless smile on his face.
However, Russell just stared at those two with a puzzled expression.
“…You are?”
“Hmm, you don’t know my face? That’s okay. You’ve been very aggressive with using that contract as a shield”
“Oh, yeah, of course! But that should be none of your business. Forget it and go somewhere else!”
Russell remembered the current situation and yelled at Alexel and the others with a troublesome look on his face.
Seeing Russell’s attitude, everyone who knew that Alexel was the emperor, looked at Alexel and Russell in turn while being harassed.
Wow, it’s amazing that you don’t know…
To be honest, the quality of the clothes that Alexel wears is several times better than that worn by ordinary aristocrats, which most aristocrats would notice, but Russell did not.
Well, even if he didn’t, the atmosphere that surrounds Alexel is clearly a noble person’s atmosphere, so even ordinary people should notice that too.
Still, seeing Russell’s complete obliviousness, I was simply taken aback.
“Hmm, well it doesn’t matter…how about that?”
“I…What do you mean?”
“Noel.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alexel snickered and called out to Noel, who was standing behind him.
Then Noel stepped in front of Alexel and unfolded a stack of documents in front of him and smiled at Russell.
“I’m sorry, are you Russell Mendia? Or is it…Malik Lamperia? Or Lyle Rompel? Thomas Buds? Xavier Cindy? Oh, perhaps I should have called you by some other name than this?”
“What!?”
As Noel smiled and said one name after another, Russell’s face grew paler and paler with a look of astonishment on his face.
We were watching Noel reading out his names in utter confusion.
“You know that you have a warrant out for your arrest on suspicion of fraud and extortion in your country, right?”
“My country?…No way!”
“Yes. It’s the Landrick Empire.”
“What is someone from the Landrick Empire doing here?”
“Hmph, you can remember the faces of the ducking aristocrats, but not the faces at the top of the country that was once fraudulent.”
“The face at the top?…You…No way!! You!?”
“My name is Alexel Dali Landrick. I am the Emperor of the Landrick Empire.”
“Hiiiiii!!!!”
When Alexel said his name proudly, Russell waddled backwards, looking at him with a look of horror.
But in the process, he bumped into the desk in the courtyard and stopped moving with his hand on the desk as if leaning against it.
“We’ve already arranged for cooperation in this country, so soon the soldiers of this country will be coming here to get you.”
“B-But!! This isn’t the Landrick’s empire! You shouldn’t be able to get me in this country…”
“You would have committed fraud in the first place at this point. That’s enough to get you arrested in this country.”
As he said this, Alexel pointed to Russell’s contract, which he still held in his hand.
“This, this is…”
“No matter how much it’s signed by the Marquis of Daiharia, a contract signed under your alias won’t have any effect at all.”
“Ah!!”
“Well, up until now you’ve been targeting the backwards aristocrats, so you could have gotten the money with a contract under a false name. But if you had just gotten the money as before, you wouldn’t have found out right away. But when you heard from the Marquis of Daiharia that his daughter wouldn’t marry, you must have had a way to get the title in your head. And that’s how you came up with the contents of this contract. But you chose the wrong person to deal with.”
Alexel glanced at me and Lady Lateia when he said that much.
“It just so happens that my fiancée’s friend was Miss Lateia, and when I heard about her situation, I immediately knew it was you. That’s why I immediately had Noel check with the Landrick Empire to make sure that we were ready to capture you, and then I waited for today.”
Hearing Alexel’s words, I was convinced of what Alexel and Noel were doing when they heard Lateia-sama’s story.
I see…You already had a lot of things in mind at that time, didn’t you? I’m sorry for thinking you were so cold-hearted~. But…If possible, you should have told me beforehand. That way, I wouldn’t have had to dress up like a man and act like a lover like this…
Thinking that, I looked at Alexel with resentful eyes, and he seemed to understand what I was thinking and raised the corner of his mouth while looking at me.
…Ah! That was definitely on purpose! You thought it was funny that I would dress up as a man and act as a lover!!!!
When I realized Alexel’s true intentions, I crinkled my brows and stared at him.
But Alexel dared to ignore my gaze and turned to Russell again.
“I’m sure you understand the situation you’re in now. Besides, it’s about time that the soldiers arrive.”
“Ah!”
“Huh, just accept it.”
Hearing Alexel’s words, Russell was gobsmacked and drooped in disappointment.
Well…as expected, there’s no way to escape in this situation. He must have given up.
I was relieved to see Russell’s condition and was relieved to know that this matter had been resolved safely.
I was so careless that I didn’t notice any subtle changes in Russell’s condition.
Russell was hanging down and putting his hands in his pockets.
And when he slowly raised his head, he stared at me sharply for some reason.
“You…”
“Eh?”
“It’s all ruined because you appeared! I’ll never forgive you!”
Russell screamed at me and pulled out a knife from his pocket and threw away the sheath. Then he ran at once with the tip of the blade pointed towards me.
Gah! He’s mad!!
That’s what I thought, but my body didn’t listen to me because of the suddenness of the event, and I froze in a rigid state as it was.
“Kyaaa!! Lady Cecilia!!!”
Lateia-sama’s sorrowful cry echoed in my ears, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off of that looming weapon.
Oh no…am I going to die here?
Just as these thoughts passed through my mind, a cloak suddenly fluttered in front of me.
“You’re going to make me kill you!”
A high-pitched metallic sound echoed around the area with Alexel’s angry voice, and then I heard a dull sound of something stabbing into the ground.
I was stunned, not knowing what the hell was going on, when Alexel, who was standing in front, turned around to face me.
I noticed that he had a drawn sword in his hand, and the tip of the sword was pointed at the throat of Russell, who was on his ass in front of Alexel.
“Are you okay?”
Alexel was looking at me with a worried look on his face, but I checked around, confused and still unable to swallow the situation.
Then, when I saw the knife stuck in the ground and Noel coming around behind Russell and grabbing his arm, I finally understood the situation.
“I see, so I was saved…”
“You just figured that out now?”
My muttering caused Alexel to look dumbfounded.
“It was so sudden that my brain couldn’t catch up…Oh, thank you for helping me, Alexel!”
I hurriedly bowed my head to Alexel and thanked him.
“No, as long as you’re okay…”
“Princess!!!”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, I heard Viktor’s voice which should not have been here, and when I turned around in surprise, there he was running towards me with a desperate look on his face.
“Viktor! Why are you here!?”
“I rushed to the scene when we were ordered to arrest the criminal…but apparently we were a step too late.”
Viktor looked around, gripping the hilt so that he could pull out his sword at any time, and his brow wrinkled as he stopped looking at Alexel, who had sheathed his own sword.
“Huh, you look quite dissatisfied.”
“No…Your Majesty, Emperor Alexel…Princess… I am so grateful that you protected Lady Cecilia.”
“It’s only natural to protect my fiancée.”
“Hmm! I’m still grateful for that. But…I had heard from rumors that His Majesty’s sword skills are quite good…and it certainly seems that the rumors are true. I can tell just by looking at your sword-gripping hand and your body language.”
“If you say so, then you must be quite skilled too, right? Knight Commander Viktor. Your rumors have reached my country as well.”
“…I train myself every day to protect the princess.”
“Well, until Cecilia marries me.”
“…”
Viktor’s wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened even more when he heard Alexel’s words.
And the two men looked at each other in silence.
Both of them are tall and solidly built, so when they stood side by side facing each other, it was intimidating.
Moreover, at the place where their gazes crossed, I felt as if I could see imaginary sparks flying.
Seeing these two people, I was dumbfounded while my cheeks pulled tight.
“…I would like to ask for your help.”
“I’m fine with that.”
As soon as they said that, they put their hands on the swords at their waists and got into a position where they could pull out at any time.
When I saw them, I hurriedly intervened.
“Wait, wait a minute! Where do you think we are!? Viktor didn’t come here for that in the first place, either!”
I shouted and held out my hands to stop the fight that was about to begin.
Then a dumbfounded-looking Noel approached us.
“That’s right, you two. And…the Knight Commander Viktor’s men will be arriving soon, right?”
Noel said that and turned his gaze to behind Viktor.
I followed his gaze and peeked out from the side, and sure enough, I saw the soldiers running towards us with pained expressions.
It seemed that they were running as hard as they could to catch up with Viktor, who was running as fast as he could, but they seemed to have gotten exhausted on the way.
…How much stamina does Viktor, who isn’t breathing heavily at all, have?
I was bewildered by Viktor’s physical strength as I looked at the exhausted soldiers.
For the time being, they seemed to have given up on the idea of fighting here and each let go of the hilt.
“…It can’t be helped. Right now, we will prioritize the arrest of the criminal. Where is that person?”
“Oh, he’s fainted over there so it’s not dangerous.”
Noel smiled at Viktor’s question and pointed at Russell, who was stretched out on the ground, with a smirk and a gesture as if it were no big deal.
“Oh yes, and please add attempted murder to his charges. Since he tried to stab Cecilia-sama.”
“What!?”
As soon as he heard Noel’s words, a black aura seemed to come out of Viktor’s back.
When I saw Viktor like that, I was impatient and stopped him by hugging his arm, which was about to place his hand on the hilt of his sword again.
“Huh!! Princess!?”
“Viktor, please calm down! I’ll be fine!”
“But…”
“It’s fine! Now, come on, Viktor, please do your job!”
I raised my face and smiled as I looked up at him, hugging his arm tightly and smiling at him.
Then Viktor froze as he stared at my face, and his own turned red.
“Viktor?”
“Hmm! It can’t be helped if the princess says so. Well, my men have arrived, so I’ll take that man with me.”
“Please.”
I was relieved that Viktor had finally returned to his usual behavior, and then Viktor was staring at Alexel again.
Then he straightened his posture and bowed neatly to Alexel.
“Thank you so much for saving the princess’s life.”
“I…Yeah.”
Rather than teasing again, Alexel nodded seriously, to Victor’s sincere words of gratitude.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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