"They have so many Royal Filolials here! They all have their own unique personalities and I got to hear them singing during dinner! And the food they serve is amazing too! It tastes so different from the food at the castle! And…!" Melty was talking at a hundred miles an hour as she gave her report that first night to her mother through a communication magic tool.
Miriella smiled as she heard her daughter so happy for the first time in so long. She'd nearly had a heart attack when her Shadows had reported in, saying that they had been unable to follow Melty into Rozemyne's territory and lost sight of her.
She knew that for the sake of the Kingdom and the world, risks had to be taken, but not having Melty safely tucked away left her with more than a little bit of separation anxiety. She'd been protecting Melty for the girl's whole life after the poisoning of her older brother.
She suspected Malty, though there was never any solid proof. She thought that her own eldest daughter had poisoned her brother, not because he was a contender for the throne, but simply because he was more popular and well liked than she was. And if she would do that to her brother when she was in her early teens, what would she do to her sister, who was a threat to her future inheritance?
Sending Melty to the Shield Hero's side was a risk, if Melty died then Melromarc's future would die with her, but where could be safer then by the side of the Hero who specialized in protecting people?
"What do you think of our Shield Hero?" Miriella asked her daughter, trying to direct her rant somewhere productive, even if she secretly wanted to hear more about the Royal Filolial herself.
"Ah… Hm." Melty paused in order to put her thoughts in order. "She is brilliant, skilled in shifting through information and has a talent for both managing people and motivating them to work their hardest. Her understanding of the economy and trade agreements far surpassed my own. She's not just focusing on making her city wealthy, but making sure it doesn't become a sinkhole that sucks the wealth out of its neighbors. She also is capable of amazing feats of magic, creating an entirely new race out of effectively nothing, just like how the original heroes created the Filolial. But I get the feeling that she doesn't understand her own worth."
"Is that so?" Miriella said, scratching her chin.
"She shows me a good deal of respect and is acting like a real tutor, instead of treating me like an underling and tool. I don't think she understood our intentions were only to use me as an offering to her in exchange for building a political connection." Melty said, sounding a bit embarrassed. "She seems to be under the impression that her social status is at the level of a wealthy mid-rank noble, rather than being above even that of the Royal Family."
Miriella was stunned by this, not having expected this result.
Because of both their power as a Legendary Hero and their influence as a religious figure in multiple countries where their political relationship was strained, the Shield Hero's value as a political tool was beyond anything else in the entire world.
If Rozemyne had been a boy, Melty would have been offered to become his wife and for him to become the next King in order to establish a relationship between the Shield Hero and their Kingdom. Hell, Miriella would even be forced to let Malty be Queen if she could have hooked up with the Shield Hero. But since that was impossible, the little Princess was supposed to go to Alexandra to 'gain experience under Rozemyne' and show her usefulness to Rozemyne as an underling by helping to govern the city as one of Rozemyne's retainers. Instead, the Shield Hero was actually taking her under her wing and planned on raising her.
It was more than the Queen had dared to believe possible. Did Rozemyne realize that on an international level, deciding to become Melty's tutor was basically declaring that she would side with Melromarc? …Or perhaps she just took an instant liking to Melty. Regardless of her political background, Rozemyne was supposed to be a 14-year-old girl, and their psychological profile of her did say that she liked cute things and had a soft spot for children.
Either way, the other nations would have to think twice about invading with Lady Rozemyne as a royal tutor.
Queen Miriella had been receiving regular reports about all of the Heroes activities since near enough day one of their summoning, and she had a good understanding of how most of them operated. It was actually worrying how human and flawed most of them were and they caused havoc wherever they went, completely unaware that they were doing it.
The Spear Hero was a fool who thought with his dick and would quickly believe anything he was told with without anything resembling deeper thought. He was basically a convenient tool for Malty.
He was probably what most people thought of when they thought about a Hero. He enjoyed women and parties. He flamboyantly spent the nation's money at Malty's request without having a good grasp of how much it was or where that money was coming from.
But at the end of the day, Motoyasu did make sure to train, even going so far as to use potions to fight off exhaustion as he worked through the night, and while he definitely caused more than a little bit of trouble with the mutated fruit incident, his heart was in the right place.
The Bow Hero was probably the more worrying one of the three boys, as he went through the countryside and punished anyone who he saw as 'Evil', regardless of whether or not they broke any laws. While this had led to him stopping a few bad characters, it had more often than not resulted in him leading uprisings against town lord who 'cruelly' raised taxes and implemented mandatory rationings so that they could store away a stash meant to save the town in case of a disaster during the Waves. Then he would leave without looking back to notice how the towns, pumped up by the overthrowing of their loyal lords and now completely without leadership, tore themselves apart.
The damage that Itsuki caused was terrifying. Even a routine attempt at bribery, the kind commonly offered to any noble as a means to try to buy favor for the village, could set him off on a tangent about justice. Worse was the fact that some of his retinue were using him as an unwitting tool, taking him to the territories of their family's rivals so that he would cause mayhem.
The Sword Hero caused relatively few large problems, as he was more dedicated towards his training than the others. The only real problems he caused were for all of the adventurers as he hunted some of the best farmable monsters to near enough extinction before moving on, leaving the local Adventuring population and economy in shambles. But Miriella was willing to accept that as just the cost of doing business with Heroes. It was just common sense that they get to ignore poaching laws, and it became less of an issue after he settled into Alexandra.
Despite not diving into socializing or acting like he was the law, Ren had a strong sense of justice, one that was causing him emotional trauma as he dealt with the real world, which he was dealing with by leaning on Rozemyne for support.
The three of them were all very human and when you took a step back their actions seemed predictable in a way. That was much less the case for Rozemyne.
While the Shield Hero's psychological profile was easy to understand, as she liked cute things, children, good food and books and disliked seeing pain, her actions were impossible to predict.
One moment she was the model noblewoman who you would never expect to lift anything heavier than a teacup, the next she'd fired all her guards and was selling home-made potion at a corner store for a little bit of spending money.
It was astonishing to Miriella just how much Rozemyne respected normal laws, going so far as to apply for patents and negotiate trade deals with existing guilds instead of just using her authority as a Hero to do whatever she wanted.
In the beginning, she seemed like an entrepreneur, rather than a Hero, as she started up a business and purchased slaves in order to scale it up. But then she started to travel about with Ren and perform miracles wherever they went, helping to ease the economic burden that Ren caused wherever he went.
Then, out of nowhere, she milked nearly a quarter of the nobles for all the money they could spare in exchange for miracles, purchased a giant chunk of ruined land and built her own damn city overnight after a little more than a month of being in their world.
If anyone claimed to have seen that coming, Miriella would call bullshit.
The entire world was watching her every move, every single show of force and power play she made, and none of them were able to figure out what her aim was. They couldn't tell if she was trying to prop Melromarc up, replace the Royal Family, create an army stronger than any other in the world for the war against the Waves, or to be an economic power that soaks up all of the surrounding wealth into her city so that all others would crash into a depression.
Purely in terms of scale, the disturbances that Rozemyne made exceeded all the other three heroes combined. Both the good and the damages were at a level that was hard to even measure, as the appearance of her city threw the entire adventuring world, which was the backbone of most of the economy and military defense, into chaos. It was enough to leave the more level headed people who were demanding her release from Melromarc to pause and wonder if they really wanted something so volatile in their country.
At the very least, Rozemyne appeared aware of the effects her city could cause and was trying to mitigate them a little. But there was only so much that could be done to dissuade the massive pilgrimage to what was already being seen as her holy land.
"Mother… That meeting tomorrow. Father is going to be at it, isn't he?" Melty said nervously.
"...I'm sure you will do splendidly." Miriella said with an encouraging smile.
Because of the dangers from within, Melty had rarely ever even seen the face of her own father and Miriella had made sure that the two hadn't spoken to one another in years. She wanted to keep her safe, both from the danger he and his followers represented and the hatred that poisoned his heart.
Now, not only was she going to have to face him, she was going to have to strip him of his right to lead the meeting. She was so young, but she already had to bear so much.
Miriella knew this was her own fault. It was because she was too weak a ruler. She had never had full control over her own country, and with every passing year since her coronation, it seemed like her control was only slipping. With this quiet revolution her husband and daughter had and the assassination of her key backers, she was a Queen in name alone.
This was the only way she had to get her country back on track.
"Just stay close to Lady Rozemyne and Lord Ren. They will keep you safe."
Motoyasu walked proudly down the corridors of the castle, side-by-side with the King as they went towards the meeting room where they were having the second pre-Wave meeting between the four Heroes.
Hopefully, with the King there to mediate, it wouldn't go as poorly as the last one.
By his other side was Princess Malty, and his two other party members were just a step behind him, along with the King's escort guards.
"Today's the day we set things right." Motoyasu said, pumping himself up.
He didn't see any value in this meeting in preparation for the Wave, since he was already a high enough level to solo the combat, but it would give him the time to set things right and put a stop to Rozemyne's shameless behavior.
But as he reached the room where they were scheduled to have their meeting, he came across Itsuki and his group coming from the opposite direction.
The two of them looked at each other with annoyance before forcing a smile. "Good to see you made it. I was half convinced that you wouldn't come." Motoyasu said.
"I had a few things I'd like to say, and I figured this meeting was the best time to do it." Itsuki replied.
The pair of them were still annoyed with each other and with Ren for lying about Legendary Weapon upgrades during their last meeting and hadn't forgiven each other entirely. The fact that Motoyasu received undo favoritism from the King didn't help at all.
While Itsuki and Ren were each rewarded with 100 gold coins for their contributions during the wave, Motoyasu was rewarded with twice that amount for no reason at all. Though Rozemyne, who received nothing, didn't complain, despite her contributions being arguably the most.
Itsuki and Motoyasu figured it was because she didn't do any damage to the boss, so when contribution was calculated, she didn't get any points, but that didn't explain why Motoyasu got MVP privileges.
"Well, let's see if we can't work together this time." Motoyasu said before opening the door and letting Itsuki head into the room first, before following behind him with his party.
Rozemyne and Ren were already there, along with what members of their team would be participating in the meeting.
Ren had brought a cute girl with long green hair done in twin braids and an older giant of a man who had an ax the size of a human child. The girl was holding a notepad and a magic pen, while the man stood behind Ren, doing his best to try to not look out of place and failing.
Rozemyne's entourage consisted of Raphtalia, who Motoyasu had talked to a little at the post Wave party last time, two humans, male and female, who he didn't recognize and a small child with rabbit ears and a black magic stone in its forehead. The rabbit child was a cute little boy, with dark blue hair and golden eyes. Actually, his features were a lot like Rozemyne's. He was also holding a notepad and magic pen.
Motoyasu didn't know this, but Rozemyne had brought two of her human gladiators in order to dissuade the claim that she favored Demihumans unfairly.
Not that she didn't, they were super moe, she just didn't want people to claim that she did.
The gladiator's races had been split pretty 50/50, since Zeltoble traded slaves with both human and demihuman countries. So she planned on treating them all well in order to try to seem neutral, rather than pro-Demihuman.
Motoyasu wasn't exactly surprised to find out that these two had been the first ones there, but he was surprised when there was something he didn't recognize at the table. A ten-year-old girl with blue hair done up in twintails, who was sitting at the head of the table, in the seat of honor.
Two Shadows stood on either side of her and five of the castle's guards stood at attention behind her. There was also a young boy with angel wings and four rabbit eared children standing beside her. The golden haired rabbit standing on the other with another notepad and magic pen, while the others had swords at their hips.
Ren sat in the chair on the girl's left, while Rozemyne was on her right.
"Thank you for coming. Now that everyone is here, we can finally start this meeting." The child said with a sense of authority.
Motoyasu was wondering who this was, when Malty screamed. "What are you doing here!?" Her eyes wide with disbelief and perhaps worry.
"Do not shout, sister. It is unbecoming." The child said, causing Malty to fume with anger.
"Melty… Why?" The King said, as if he was trying to process all this.
"Her Majesty was angry that the two of you were continuously ignoring her instructions, and as such she sent me to act as her representative." Melty said, holding up a piece of paper that even Motoyasu could recognize as a royal decree. "As a member of the Spear Hero's party and as a former great military leader, I welcome you to join us. Please, take a seat." She said, before moving on from them and turning her head towards Motoyasu and Itsuki. "It is a pleasure to meet the Heroes of the Bow and Spear. I am Melty Q Melromarc, Second Princess of Melromarc and the newly appointed Chancellor. I look forward to working together with all of you."
"Oh… Me too." Motoyasu said awkwardly as he went to take a seat next to Ren. The weird anime development of a 10 year old Chancellor was not something he had seen coming. Nor did he understand why that would make her able to give instructions to the King.
He didn't even notice the pale looks on his cheer squads faces, or the smirks on the faces of the Royal Guards that had been escorting the shell shocked King. Those Knights had obeyed his orders when he had been the official representative of the Queen, but now his youngest was highest on the pecking order. Itsuki's team didn't look much better as the Bow Hero greeted the young girl and took a seat next to Rozemyne.
"Let the first official strategy meeting of the Four Saint Heroes commence." Melty said with a nod of her head as she made a show of looking over papers. "I understand that an attempt at such a meeting was made previously, but a fight broke out and it was disbanded before the Shield Hero could arrive. So in the end, only the Shield and Sword coordinated during the Wave, is that correct?"
The tone of her voice carried the words, 'how childish can you be', causing Itsuki and Motoyasu to get a little hot under the collar.
"Th…That isn't what happened." Itsuki quickly denied.
"No. It is." Ren said, lowering his head. "I apologize for my behavior that day. We all were under stress and I acted immaturely. I will endeavor to not make the same mistakes in the future."
This took Itsuki and Motoyasu off guard again, as they didn't understand that this was a rehearsed response from Ren, and all this was meant to start them off on the defensive for the beginning of the meeting.
"Oh, so you admit that you were lying then." Motoyasu said, leaning back in his chair and looking away from the others uncomfortably. "How about you, Itsuki? You going to admit that everything you said was crap as well?"
"I didn't lie!" Itsuki barked, slamming his hands on the table. "You were the liar!"
"None of us had been lying." Ren said, raising his voice to cut the both of them off. "It's just like I said, each of the Legendary Weapons had its own unique training methods on top of the ones that we had in common. I just didn't know at the time that we needed a catalyst in order to share them."
"A catalyst? What catalyst?" Itsuki demanded.
"Lord Ren is talking about me." Rozemyne said, drawing everyone's attention. "Each of the Legendary Weapons has its own training methods and abilities. The Legendary Shield just so happens to have the ability to learn and teach the methods of other Legendary Weapons. After Ren spoke to me about the methods the two of you mentioned, we were both able to unlock them."
"Because of that, I'm a lot stronger than I predicted I'd be at this level." Ren said with arms crossed and head tilted back.
Itsuki and Motoyasu froze at that bit of information, eyes widened. "An…And you just kept this information to yourselves!? How selfish can you get!?" Motoyasu demanded, getting up from his seat so quickly that the guards behind Melty shifted to be in better range to protect her with their shields.
Rozemyne frowned and rather than responding, brought out a small golden Feystone. She placed it on the table, and materialized a wand into her hand before pointing at it. "Ordonnanz." She said, causing the stone to twist and transform into a bird with its beak held open. "Lord Motoyasu, I request an audience with you to speak about important matters regarding the Legendary Weapons. Please return my message as soon as possible."
The bird closed its beak and Rozemyne flicked her wand, causing it to fly across the room and land in front of the Spear Hero. It then opened its beak and in Rozemyne's voice, repeated the message exactly three times. It then turned back into a golden stone.
"I sent this message to both you and Lord Itsuki five times in the last forty days and had never received a single response." Rozemyne said, getting silence in response to this display. "It is possible that you were outside of the five hundred mile range within which it could find you, or that you were teleporting so much that it couldn't keep up, but after five attempts to contact you, I simply gave up… and sent living messengers instead. You parties wouldn't even give them the time of day."
Motoyasu and Itsuki were both shocked and humiliated by this, as they had no one to blame but themselves. They wanted to demand that Rozemyne share that instant, but to do so would be to sacrifice their last shreds of dignity.
Not that they had any.
"Given this information, it is clear that the Legendary Weapons were meant to work together." Melty said after letting the silence hang for a long and awkward moment. "So let us start with the strategy meeting. I understand that some of the Heroes have some form of precognitions about the Waves. For the sake of everyone being on the same page, I believe it would be best if this information is shared."
Ren nodded his head and spoke first. "From what I remember, the Third Wave in this region is mostly populated by Shadow Assault class monsters, mostly goblins and lizardmen. Unlike the first wave, there aren't any flying monsters, but lizardmen are capable of an AOE fire attack which could probably cause a lot of damage if left to run wild."
"I see. Aultcray, what kind of preparations have been made to deal with fires in the villagers?" Melty asked her father, who looked a little hurt at the unfamiliar way she addressed him, but he did respond.
"Those soldiers who weren't guarding the border have been digging additional irrigation channels and wells since the first Wave. …At least since the food situation had been taken care of." The King grudgingly admitted. "If a fire breaks out, a bucket brigade will be possible in all substantial villages, if they can be defended from the monsters of the Wave. As for towns and cities, we have distributed our water mages and water magic tools among them already."
"Understood. Good work." Melty nodded, seeming to be genuinely praising him. "So Shadow Assault type monsters are going to be making up the majority of the Wave. Given that the Wave is going to take place at night, this is going to cause problems with seeing the enemy. Make a note. Send messages to the villages to prepare bonfires so that we can increase visibility in case of an attack."
"Yes, Your Highness." Topaz said, before jotting down an additional note. Not that it had been necessary to say. She'd been recording every detail of what everyone said and facial reactions ever since the meeting started. It had only been a few short minutes and she already had four pages of notations stacked up. Same went for Indigo, with Rishia lagging behind as she was more concerned with important details than simply recording everything.
"Can't Rozemyne just put one of her barriers to contain the monsters of the Wave, like she did before?" Itsuki asked, as if he was wondering why they were wasting their time with this discussion.
"Even if she could, there would still be the monsters that leaked before the barrier was put into place to think about." Ren countered with a shake of the head. "And given the nature of the battleground of the Wave Boss, containment might not be an option this time."
"What do you mean?" Melty asked, a look of concern. She had also been mostly putting her faith in Rozemyne's barriers.
"The fight with the boss takes place on a flying Ghost Ship. And depending how high it flies, any barrier that isolates the crack in the sky might also contain the ship along with it. If that happens, we'd be fighting the entirety of the Wave while trying to get at the boss." Ren explained.
"That isn't the only issue." Rozemyne added. "From what Ren has told me, the boss of the Wave is a monster called a 'Soul Eater'."
Those who were familiar with monsters and the uglier side of politics all started to curse, completely ignoring the presence of Royalty in light of the news.
"What? What is a Soul Eater?" Malty demanded.
"What do you think it is? It is a monster that eats souls. Fuck!" Ren's escort said a hand going to his mustache as he tried to pull the look of genuine panic off of his face.
"Someone killed by a Soul Eater will have their soul removed from reincarnation and trapped inside of its body until it is digested over the course of a hundred years. Any who are killed are turned into undead servants and it is immune to all physical damage." Rishia said, shivering slightly. "It is used as a form of execution for the worst criminals. Those whose crimes are deemed to be acts for which even all of eternity wouldn't be enough time to find redemption."
"No soul will be trapped as long as we can kill it, even if the worst comes to pass. In the end, it is just another monster and no match for a Legendary Holy Weapon." Ren said, trying to seem cool in order to comfort Rishia.
It worked and she calmed down, smiling at him once again before flushing and getting back to taking notes.
"The more problematic part is that, even though it creates undead, I suspect it's magically aligned with the Darkness attribute, rather than Unlife." Rozemyne said.
"Meaning there is a good chance it is capable of eating mana." Melty translated for everyone else, getting a nod from Rozemyne.
"I can apply blessings to weapons in order to allow people to attack it physically and drain its mana back, but if a monster like that started to eat one of my barriers, the Wave would be the least of our worries." Rozemyne said in all seriousness.
Really, it was best practice to not let someone like her anywhere near a monster that can absorb mana. Not unless you want it to grow to be the size of a city… Which if they could guarantee they had the ability to kill it could have its benefits.
"So we will need to have soldiers on the ground in order to help contain the spread of the monsters." Melty said. "We can't react fast enough to the Wave if we have to wait to see where it occurs. Tell me, how many individuals can each Hero transport with them to the battlefield."
"That's… a good question." Rozemyne said, looking around the table at the other Heroes. "During the last Wave, I only brought my personal guard to defend me while I created my barrier. I didn't think to experiment with how many could be transported. Do any of you know?"
"...I thought it would be just one party, but thinking about it, there isn't really a hard limit to how large a party can be. It's just that when your party exceeds six members, there are experience penalties on the shared portion of all kill experience." Ren admitted.
Whenever someone in a party got a kill, 10% of the experience would go to them, while the remaining 90% would go to a shared experience pool that was divided between party members. But for each individual above 6 in the party, some of the experience would be lost. This was why most parties had 6 members.
"So we might be able to transport as many people as we want." Rozemyne summarized. "Hm… Alexandra has around 600 capable fighters who are level 40 and above. I wish to leave at least half of them to defend the city, but with magic buffs and the effects of the Legendary Shield strengthening them, 300 should be enough."
"300. 300 fighters or 300 slaves." Motoyasu said, suddenly aggressive.
"Excuse me?" Rozemyne said, unable to understand this sudden outburst.
"I can't believe that someone who is supposed to be a Hero is using slaves and forcing them to risk their lives against their will! No, I can't accept it, and I am going to do something about it!" Motoyasu said, getting to his feet. He then pointed at Rozemyne with one finger. "Rozemyne, I challenge you to a duel, and if I win, then you must release all of your slaves!"
Everyone was in confused shock by Motoyasu's declaration, while his cheer squad egged him on.
"Every well, as First Princess of Melromarc, I recognize the Spear Hero's challenge and will give it the backing of our Kingdom's law." Malty said with too much obvious pleasure as she took out a sheet of paper showing a Royal Decree on the matter, with the King's signature.
"...And as Chancellor and representative of the Queen, I nullify that Royal Decree." Melty declared flatly.
"Yo…You can't do that!" Malty shouted angrily as Motoyasu stared in confusion.
"I can, and I did." Melty replied. "The Heroes are supposed to be working together, not fighting. I cannot believe you are trying to facilitate conflict between them, and so close to the time of a Wave too. I will be reporting to Her Majesty about this."
"Daddy!" Malty cried, turning to King for support.
"Melty, it would be best if we…" The King started before being cut off.
"Guards." Melty said clearly, and the guards who had escorted the King into the room each put a hand on his shoulder, silencing him. "Your presence and input will be tolerated for military matters as a show of respect for your past achievements. But if you attempt to sow discord among the heroes, you will be removed and placed under house arrest until mother's return. Do I make myself clear?"
Melty's words and eyes were sharp but she was shaking slightly. She was counting on the Royal Guards being more loyal to her mother than her father, and if they chose to side with him, her position would break down and her and her mother's power would be reduced to nothing. Everything was hanging in the balance at that very moment and it left the girl terrified, but she did her best to put on a strong face.
But the Knights didn't turn, and her father didn't object. The King bit his tongue and threw glares at Rozemyne, but ultimately only nodded his head.
"What the…" Motoyasu said, blown out of his simulated rage by the 10 year old girl shutting down the man who was supposed to be the King of the country.
"Princess Melty, if you will." Rozemyne asked, requesting the chance to speak.
"Yes, Lady Rozemyne?" Melty said, glad to hand things over while she tried to recollect herself.
"As an Archduchess, I am not unfamiliar with such challenges and will accept Lord Motoyasu's request for a duel." Rozemyne said, causing another eruption in the room.
"What are you saying!?" Ren and Melty shouted as one while Rozemyne's retainers all voiced their own disapproval.
"Lord Motoyasu is not the only one with grievances about someone's behavior. I also find his actions unacceptable. So I will accept his challenge. If he wins, I will free all of my slaves and see to it that they are all fairly compensated for their time serving under me. However, if I win, the Spear Hero and his party will need to pay their debts." Rozemyne said with a sharp tongue.
"My debts?" Motoyasu said in confusion. Only one of his party members seemed to know what Rozemyne was talking about, and she visibly paled.
"Indigo, the papers."
"Yes, Milady." Indigo said, pulling out a stack of reports that Rozemyne passed to Motoyasu.
"What is this?" He said as he looked at it, completely unable to read it, since it was in the local language.
"They are receipts for all of the dresses, jewelry, parties, alcohol and prostitutes you bought these last sixty days. A total of 3,548 gold coins, from those I could find, all of it paid for with the national treasury." Rozemyne said flatly.
"He what!?" Melty shouted, faking total shock, while everyone stared at Motoyasu and his party in disbelief. "Elder sister, what have you been doing while mother and I were away!?"
"I… That is…" Malty stammered, not liking being dragged into the limelight for this. Not that she had time to try to think of a defense.
"If I lose the duel, the slaves are free. If I win, you and your party will have to work to pay off these bills yourselves, with a 2% interest." Rozemyne said with a smile. "So, do you accept these terms?"
"I… Ah…" Motoyasu stammered before looking behind Rozemyne to see Raphtalia staring at him with horrified eyes, not having been told about this before the meeting. Completely misunderstanding the look, it gave him courage. "I accept!"
"Very good. Indigo, prepare to write up the magic contract. Princess Melty, would you be so kind as to stand as a witness?" Rozemyne said with a smile that didn't seem very lady-like to Melty.
"Of course." Melty said with a sigh, trying to ignore the roars of laughter coming from the former gladiators that Rozemyne had brought with her.
Of course, Rozemyne didn't currently have any slaves. Why would she enter into a bet where there was the possibility of losing something?
To those who don't understand what is going on, Rozemyne just got Motoyasu and his party to sign a contract saying that if he couldn't pay the interest on his debt or defaulted on it, she would take on the debt in exchange for them becoming her slaves, the main target of this being Malty, not Motoyasu.
Also, 1 gold coin is roughly equivalent to 50,000 USD. ...So yeah. Motoyasu has been fucking around why too much. It is actually pretty horrifying how much money he wasted.
Someone asked why Rozemyne agreed to become Melty's tutor when it was obviously a power play. And it is because Rozemyne, despite being very savvy in business and in manipulating people, doesn't have any sense of self-awareness. She doesn't understand her own value or how people see her.
And example of this being her working to hook up a Prince and a high ranking noble lady because she thought they were a cute couple and would be happy together... not understanding it looked like she was trying to set the guy up to take the throne, with everyone thinking she was making a huge power play.
She doesn't understand just how much political clout she has.