房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

It was also quite interesting to watch Elsby trot after Arreta, especially because the jet-black-haired woman clearly had no clue about gardening and the brown-haired one was doing exactly that.

"Dad, why didn\'t you ask her more things?"

Ettemi, the first corpse puppet sentinel, leaned forward and asked, cutely tilting their head as the three of them were sitting on the bench by the mansion\'s wall.

"Is it because you don\'t trust her after all?"

Oemir, the second corpse puppet sentinel followed up the first one, also leaning forward to see the expression that the black-haired boy would make.

"Immeri already knows most of that stuff anyway."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and motioned with his chin at Elsby who had a murky-black sphere sitting comfortably on the top of her head.

"Besides, I really am being considerate towards her. The things she knows are limited to how other Ghosts acted before they reunited with Cherro. Considering that Kirissu was able to keep her son\'s sins a secret even after what all of them went through during their pursuit for power, their modus operandi might change completely."

Zoemi breathed out and leaned onto the backrest of the bench, looking up at the clear blue sky.

"It can...?"

Ettemi asked in confusion and glanced over at Oemir who made a troubled expression and shook their head to show that they don\'t have a clue either.

"It sure can. Elsby\'s lover, Oktria, turned on her immediately, which was quite a shock for our new friend. I believe that, in fact, a lot of things were being kept hidden from her. I don\'t doubt our new ally being an asset, but relying too much on the information she knows doesn\'t seem like that much of a good idea."

The black-haired boy explained looking between the two sentinels with a patient smile.

"Ooohhh...! I get it! She thinks she knows things but was being tricked by the people who didn\'t like her!"

Oemir gasped in realization, straightening their back and nodding their head while keeping their mouth open.

"Exactly. Now then, please contact Horeo and tell him that I can talk to him whenever he will have some time. I can\'t imagine that ascending the throne like that, and more importantly trying to get everything under control, is leaving him with too much time to spare on his hands."

Zoemi breathed in the fresh morning air and stretched before looking back at his sentinels and requesting.

"No problem. We can call anytime. That\'s what he said himself before."

"Yes, your friend said that you want to talk to him, we can contact him anytime, dad!"

Ettemi and Oemir cheered in an adorable mixture of pride and excitement, surprising the black-haired boy quite a bit.

"He did? I need to remind him to not push himself too hard... Make the call, please."

The back-haired boy furrowed his brows with concern, thinking about his best friend and cautiously looking over towards the sun – or more importantly towards the shadow of a massive spell that was always in front of it.

Zoemi didn\'t see the Wrath of Light being activated the second time, and he also didn\'t feel any tremors that it would undeniably cause, so it seemed like the gold-haired young king\'s oratory skills were enough to hold the reins of power.

"Connected~! Ha! First!"

Ettemi hummed before lowering her voice and sneering triumphantly at Oemir, who made a grumpy expression and looked away.

...to hide a content smile...

"|Hello? It\'s Zoemi, is it true that I can call you anytime, my king?"

"[You\'re up already? Feeling any better? Your sentinels banning me from contacting you made it seem like it was some huge deal this time.]"

The black-haired boy felt the soft pressure of magic connection stirring up his mana – thankfully not enough to cause serious discomfort – and called out to his friend, who indeed responded immediately as if he was waiting for that exact outcome.

"|They are a bit overprotective, but they are good kids. How are things going on your end? I\'ve heard some murmurs about a celebratory ball. That\'s a bit worrisome, it sounds like you want to take people\'s attention from something more troublesome going on in the background.|"

Zoemi grinned at the thought of his sentinels doing their best to keep him comfortable, before going to the subject of interest that bothered him quite a bit since he learned about it.

"[You are not wrong in thinking that way. It is a distraction. The administrative division is barely keeping it together, but I\'ve heard that the increase in pay made them almost as happy as executing their boss.]"

"|Doing some cleaning up, I see?|

Horeo breathed out, sounding very tired indeed, to which Zoemi nodded and said in understanding.

"[I would have just fired the guy, considering that he was a member of the Vanterl family, so he was technically related to me in some capacity – but the absolute fool had the guts to openly defy me and refuse to acknowledge me getting the crown. Before I blew the head-shaped useless abscess of his shoulders I also learned that the former queen will not let things go my way, of course, he used a stronger language, but that\'s beside the point.]"

Horeo snickered, and Zoemi was sure that his friend was shrugging his shoulders with a disgusting smile.

"|Because of the circumstances you are in, ruling with fear can be good in the short term, but...|"

"[Zoemi, spare me the talk. The guy was so incapable and undeserving of his position that everyone working under him cheered as his body hit the floor.]"

The black-haired boy made a troubled expression after hearing the revelation and switched into the helpful attendant mode but the gold-haired young king scoffed dismissively, filling in the missing piece of information.

"(Oh... I see... Anyway. Are the troubles that make the administrative division overwork themselves now connected with you seizing the throne, or is it something else?)"

Zoemi flinched, taken aback just a little bit, before shaking his head and steering the conversation back on the right track.

"[Unfortunately it is something else. We were contacted by the Barbariacca nation. They already know that the queen and king fleed the royal castle and realized that because of what they did in the Perserios territory they would have to do a lot of damage control unless they want their land razed to the ground by an unceasing magic barrage. Oh, and by the way, lord Lazaram escaped the kingdom too. So I guess that Barbariaccans were so quick to act because they learned about my Wrath of Light. I guess they can\'t make the cursed totems fast enough to protect themselves from us.]"

Horeo explained, not having a single doubt in his mind about the reason for the shocking friendliness of the nation that hid their presence and wanted to take over the Bellcephora Kingdom through scams and trickery augmented by hexes and curses.

"(Then, they were not ready for war or anything? That sounds ridiculous... Even while having their hands on the queen, they weren\'t prepared for failure. If they contacted you so fast then they either are scared of your hot-headedness and unpredictability or are panicking because they never considered their plan to fail.)"

"[Or probably both. It still might be a trap or a ploy to lower lull us into a false sense of security... to which we will be ready. The problem is that we need to somehow contain the outrage after the information about Barbaraiacca nation even being a thing would spread out. Turns out we don\'t have just a few tribes, but an entire, functioning country as a neighbor from the side we thought to be completely secure... Unveiling a new potential threat right after I ascended the throne, just my luck.]"

Horeo breathed out heavily – it was more than clear that he had a lot of things he had to deal with, so it was that much more meaningful that he was talking with hZoemi at that exact moment.

"|You should keep in mind that making things that way might be a part of the Barbariacca nation strategy – if they make the mood in our kingdom unhinged enough, the nobles might step up to bring you down and push all the blame on you while our enemies put the queen, or just straight up Cherro, on the throne instead of you.|"

"[I know, I know... huh? And who in the world is Cherro...? Don\'t tell me we got ANOTHER bastard to worry about...! First Arisu, then Surou\'s disappearance, now some Cherro is showing up?]"

The young king groaned in annoyance the moment he picked up on Zoemi speaking up the unknown name.

It also made Zoemi realize that he probably should let his friend in on the whole thing about the Ghosts of Bellcpephora...

So he did.

-------

"[I hope that you appreciate the extent of the trust I have in you.]"

After getting so much information about another, even more, powerful threat dumped on him out of nowhere, Horeo sounded seriously done with everything.

"[With all of that in mind, the ball is actually a really bad idea. Putting all of the important nobility in one place sounds like a perfect opportunity for the enemies to strike... But if I don\'t go along with it, the unrest within the nation will make people band up and start an uprising against my rule. We can\'t have that."

The young king sounded as if he began massaging his forehead in annoyance.

"(That party. What date did you have in mind, to begin with?)"

"[Exactly ten days, counting from today. The same day that the Barbariacca nation peace delegation is set to arrive. The ball would also double as the official announcement about their existence. But if the Ghosts are behind them all along, things will get messy no matter what we will do, so maybe I should just start blasting behind the mountain range and see where and what I will hit?]"

Horeo was just done, and he certainly sounded that way.

"(Not necessarily... I mean, we will be using everyone as bait, but if I bring all my sentinels, grandpa Benevirau, Elsby, and maybe Aspaekony, if she will be up to it, we could make a nasty surprise in store if someone would like to act up. Not to mention, you, my king.)"

"[...]"

Zoemi wasn\'t sure whether his friend was joking or not, and he certainly didn\'t want to check – so instead he pointed out, hoping that the idea of launching Wrath of Light at random would stop being one of the possibilities for the solution.

"[...I get the King\'s Guard and then some to help plan everything out – do not disconnect unless you will start feeling discomfort...]

"(No problem~!)"

The young king ordered after a moment of hesitation, making the black-haired boy breathe out in relief.