Iris' turn

I saw Kazuma off as usual before making my way to my morning training. Once there, I had my first surprise of the day.

Captain Mitsurugi was a regular fixture in the yard, as all the officers were. Komekko, however, was not.

Bemused, I halted well out of the way to watch. Superficially, the captain should have an easy time of this, the reason frontline classes existed was to screen wizards and priests from being rushed while they cast wanton destruction.

That said, the Crimson Demon Clan's all but official motto was that rules were made to be broken.

The pair seemed to have just started, neither had any marks on them and the fight was still in the feeling out phase. Komekko hadn't summoned anything, of course. But she was also seemingly restricting herself to Intermediate Magic, using it to harry the swordsman and keep him moving, too busy parrying or dodging to try to close the distance.

For his part, he wasn't using his relic sword Gram, but a common practice sword off the rack.

The received wisdom for a front liner taking on a wizard was to close the distance as soon as possible, and he seemed to be following it to the letter. A dash skill took him most of the way to his opponent in one blur of motion, but not quite enough to put him in sword range.

A wizard of perhaps half Mitsurugi's weight even out of his armor had no business grappling with a knight, and Komekko was no fool even if she sometimes played one for effect. She leapt back and to one side at the last moment, though that in turn put her up against the boundary of the practice ring.

"Good reflexes, but he's got her," I muttered, despite his slight mistake in judging how quickly she could get out of the way, Komekko had nowhere to go and she didn't seem to be doing much to his armor, limited as she was.

The knight charged up another dash, taking a fireball on his pauldron as he ducked to shield himself. It wasn't enough to break his line of sight to her, as Komekko tried to use the momentary distraction to maneuver out of the corner she found herself in he launched into another sprint, not a Dash skill like before but nearly airborne between lunging steps.

But not completely airborne, so Komekko spread a layer of ice in his path, forcing him to slow somewhat to keep his feet.

This bought time for her next move, a lightning bolt crackling against his armor. Surprisingly for intermediate magic, the grounding spikes in his boots seemed to have trouble discharging the bolt, the nimbus lingered longer than it should have and apparently numbed one side of his body.

The lingering effects of the bolt may have slowed the knight, but he still reached her with a good turn of speed and a working sword arm, not surprisingly Komekko appeared to panic slightly at the nightmare scenario for any caster class.

Still, she slipped to his weaker side, possibly with a movement skill of her own or simply leaning on the shockingly good stats her clan was blessed with, narrowly avoiding his swing.

Too close for a spell without risking backwash, she tried to work around his weaker side in a series of dodge and lunge exchanges as he in turn tried to bring his weapon to bear. Finally she seemed to judge she had clearance enough, or that she was unlikely to get more, and let off a Flash spell to blind her opponent for a critical moment.

Lunging forward, she aimed at a gap in his armor between two plates and discharged another lightning spell, numbing his other leg and sending him crashing down in a clatter of metal.

The knight refereeing the bout called the match at that point, an excited babble from the watchers starting immediately as she helped drag Captain Mitsurugi back to his feet.

"Well fought. If his highness had been wrong about ice interfering with your lightning defense I probably wouldn't have managed," Komekko said brightly, dusting herself off with a quick wind gust.

"Perhaps fate shall decree my victory another day, Miss Komekko. I shall have to devise a counter," the swordsman agreed, shifting his weight once his helper released his hand to get feeling back in his legs. "And perhaps induce his highness to help test it," he muttered too softly to hear, with a wry twist to his lips. Apparently not as magnanimous in defeat as he was pretending.

Komekko agreed to a follow up match, and exited the yard to appreciative clapping from the knights and questions about exactly what she had done.

That bit of my morning entertainment finished, I proceeded to my own exercises before retiring to my working chambers. There I was met by two faces, one familiar and one not. Neither of whom seemed to be bearing good news.

"I suppose having the whole morning be as entertaining as the last hour is too much to ask, out with it," I gestured to Rain first, assuming the brunette woman dressed as a thief beside her was here at her behest. Given the generous figure and endowments she possessed I would have thought her far too memorable for clandestine work, though I could hardly claim any expertise.

"Your majesty, I fear I have troubling news about Sir Kazuma," Rain began stiffly. "Over the past days I received reports of him leaving the palace unattended."

I frowned at her in confusion. "Kazuma certainly isn't a prisoner, if he wants to go into town that would hardly be a problem." Given his new notoriety he should really have escorts, though I was the last person who had any right to criticize him for shaking them off from time to time. Not that that would stop me from reminding him that a well placed dagger was no respecter of fame or rank. The opposite, really.

Rain shook her head. "Apologies, I perhaps misspoke. I mean to say that he is making efforts to leave surreptitiously, which is what attracted our attention. When we were unable to follow him, we called upon a specialist to track him despite his Lurk and Escape skills." She took a deep breath, and pressed on. "They followed him into the Riverside borough, where we found he was meeting someone at a series of locales of…dubious persuasion."

It took me a moment for her meaning to break through my instinctive denial. I believed Kazuma was more than happy with our impending marriage! To think he was…I didn't know what to think.

Political arrangements do of course exist, but a marriage of convenience is a business contract, a separate rite from a marriage born of love. The first might well have provisions such that the couple could do as they pleased so long as a legal heir was produced in good time, but the other was far more stringent. For as tightly as the ties of liege and vassal might bind, to invoke the holy might of Eris to tie one's flesh and very souls together is closer still. And with divorce a right granted to both parties without, much, prejudice, breaking vow is accordingly far more heinous than treason, a crime no mortal contrition can redeem.

I couldn't help wondering who it could even be. Obviously not one of the servants, since I made sure to assign no nonsense matrons. Outside of them his circle of everyday female acquaintances isn't large…

Komekko was a laughable candidate. I'm not sure if she evenhasany interest in that area, and furthermore Kazuma is perhaps quite rightly terrified of her. Though if he claimed she forced him into it I might well believe him.

If it was Sylphina I would cheerfully skin him, even if he weren't my intended, for dallying with someone as innocent as she atop the insult to extended family. Though her smothering tendencies seemed to put him off, so that was most unlikely as well.

Leaving…Megumin. Whom he does seem to get on well with and might consider exotically interesting, despite being perhaps even more dangerous than her younger sister…

I left off my considerations since Rain was continuing, and forced myself to listen despite what felt like a part of the world crumbling away. "Furthermore, we have finally determined the person he has been meeting so clandestinely is none other than Captain Mitsurugi."

The image the juxtaposition with my previous thoughts created took me aback for a moment, before sanity reasserted itself. "They can barely stand one another!"

"So we all thought, but they have been meeting regularly since your betrothal was announced." Rain placed the, admittedly somewhat poor given the lack of light and small camera used, magic photos backing her claims before me. "As such we seek your will on our next steps. Miss Melissa was present and can answer any further questions your majesty might have."

I barely heard her, intently staring at the photos before me which did in fact seem to bear out her accusations. Finally, I looked up at both of them. "None about the photos, as such. You were unable to determine what they spoke of?"

"No, your majesty. Even a small camera made getting close difficult. My Lip Reading skill could only catch parts from the position I was forced to use," the thief admitted. "I couldn't make any sense of what they were saying from it."

The angle of the photos bore that out, between that and the hood one wore and the hat of the other none of them were full face shots, though their identities were clear enough to those who knew them well.

It was possible their meeting was entirely innocent, though damnably unlikely. If that were the case, then none of their attempts at secrecy would be necessary. The prince consort and a captain in the royal guard meeting openly would draw little comment. Even those who knew they were hardly on friendly terms could easily assume a desire to mend fences and smooth the rough edges off a future working relationship.

Painful as it was to admit, I actually preferred adultery to this. Infidelity would be disastrous to our marriage but not necessarily to the kingdom at large. Perfidy and treason very well could be.

"Then that shall be our next step. We need iron clad proof. Nothing less will suffice."

Rain nodded, but Melissa frowned.

"Go on if you have reservations," I prompted.

"Then I ought to say that getting that proof is going to take some doing, your Majesty. Getting a decent angle on their faces for those pictures was tough. Seeing enough for my Lip Reading to work is gonna be even tougher without them noticing me."

"Can you do it?"

She thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, as long as I don't need to point a camera at them. But that's the other problem. Against two bigwigs like them, what's my word going to be worth, about where they were or what they said or didn't?"

"You are likely correct. Any accusation backed by your testimony will have that objection raised." I touched a hand to my chest. "Mine on the other hand, will not. That is my next question. Can you getusinto a position where we can follow their conversation unnoticed?"

"Your majesty, I must question if that is necessary!" Rain burst out, but I held up a quelling hand to her to wait for Melissa's answer.

"I…suppose I can make something work. But you have Lip Reading, your majesty?"

"Not the skill, but I can, yes. Curious little girls left to their own devices learn all sorts of interesting things to keep occupied. It has been a boon at soirées over the years."

"'Left' to them," Rain replied dryly. "I'm sure that ispreciselyhow your Majesty remembers it."

"Indeed. As to why take the risk," I turned to answer Rain, "Because there is a larger problem. If one of the captains in my guard is potentially plotting, then the next question must be how much of the guard is actually mine at all." Her lack of surprise told me she had come to that realization herself, but I carried on over her next likely objection. "Any movement against someone who has held our trust for years, and more so against someone whom we have just spent tremendous effort raising as a hero worthy of bringing into the royal line,must be unimpeachable. There can be no room for doubts or uncertainties. The damage will be bad enough as it is without anyone being able to point to our actions and cry foul."

"Some likely will regardless," Rain said softly, and I could only shrug my agreement.

"Some would dispute my saying the sun will rise tomorrow. But that needs to be the level of proof we strive for as we grasp hold of this and tear it out by the roots."

And when I did, may Holy Eris rain her blessings and mercy upon those two fools, for I would have none.

—

It was raining the day I received word that Kazuma was on the move again.

Dramatically appropriate, and useful in that our plain gray hooded cloaks of uncombed wool would draw no attention as we entered the tavern a few minutes behind our targets.

True to her word, Melissa managed to place us with a clear view of both their profiles, apparently without their knowledge. Though I like to think my experience changing my appearance during my days trading places with Rizlet wasn't completely unhelpful either.

Our drinks came, and I focused my attention on the pair without obviously staring. It took me a moment to start deciphering their conversation, though with her Skill Melissa was able to right away. Judging by the way her face went chalk white, the jitters in my gut were well justified as I...

"- then twist and nibble. You have to be careful about introducing that though, because some girls love it, but others will stop you right then and tell you off. Like I said last time, it's a matter of communicating what she wants and what you want," Sir Kyouya said. "Otherwise, it's just going to be awkward until it isn't."

"Fine, fine. And 'learning about sex from porn is like learning how to drive by watching car chases.' Got it." Kazuma grumbled, taking a pull from his drink. "That'll be a lot of help next year maybe. Not so much right now."

Mitsurugi chuckled. "If there was a magic secret I'd have sold it and made a fortune by now. It's just…"

I had to look away and bite my lip, not entirely out of embarrassment. For all Claire's efforts to make my upbringing as refined as possible, I wandered enough army camps incognito to sample the soldiers' mood that this wasn't my first time hearing talk about how to bed a girl. Being the girl in question was new, only the boldest would boast of what they wished to do to the queen even in camp gossip, but that wasn't why either.

It was taking everything I had not to cackle like a Crimson Demon out of relief that I was wrong after all. That I wasn't going to have to drag a man I'd grown to love and another on a good day I respected before my judgment and that of their peers. Destroying everything I hoped to build tomorrow, in a potentially vain effort to save the kingdom from destruction today.

I glanced over at Melissa, finding she had her face resting in one hand covering her eyes, the other mechanically bringing her mug to her lips. Sensing my look, she winced. "If it pleases your Majesty, I'd prefer a sword for my execution," she muttered.

I snorted softly. "I believe it best for everyone we pretend none of this happened. Though I believe your previous fee should cover monitoring their next few meetings, just in case."

Melissa slumped in relief. "That it will, and then some."

We stayed for a decent interval after they finished and left, then returned to the palace. Besides the memory of some mediocre beer and a preview of what Kazuma might be trying out in the future, I was left with a question on the way.

Given he had the goddess of the church of libertines inside his head on a regular basis, I had to wonder why he bothered with all this sneaking around at all? Surely Aqua could tell him everything he could possibly want to know about female anatomy and its practical applications?

—-

Now, months later, once more I had two women delivering bad news about Kazuma to me. This time I doubted I would have the same good fortune.

Komekko was frequently a menace, when she wasn't a gremlin, but the times she wasn't being either usually managed to outweigh them. I hoped this would be one of them as she and Claire waited for me in my office, seated at a small table..

"Good morning to you both, one hopes," I began, possibly as an example of wishes over experience.

"And to yourself, your majesty. Though I suspect this will not be one of them," Claire replied in confirmation of my fears. "Archwizard Komekko received this message from her 'friends' last night."

"Bethandrelina said she's never seen a message marked for delivery to the palace at all cost. Nevermind directly to Kazuma's hand," Komekko began, nodding at the opened waxed paper envelope sitting between us. The two sheets inside had been checked over as a matter of course. "So she decided to cut out the middlemen and send it here directly."

'Beth', being one of Komekko's succubi was, if not suborned, certainly not loyal to her supposed master. Ordinarily she would merely pass on where the message was going and from there the kingdom's security would find an excuse to investigate someone who clearly needed looking into.

Under other circumstances I might have chuckled at her creative interpretation of her instructions, but I had already begun reading the cover letter written in the demons' script. The other page was covered in what looked like the writing I saw everywhere in Kazuma's world.

It was in short a ransom letter. Very nicely worded, I couldn't fault the author there no matter how much the contents made my blood boil. Essentially in return for his brother's continued treatment as a guest of his majesty, Kazuma was to provide any and all information he has access to and work to sabotage any further projects he might undertake.

"One thing I couldn't help but notice," Claire pointed at the unreadable page presumably from this Jiro, "The line work is excellent. Even the fountain pens that recently started appearing aren't so uniform." She chuckled ruefully. "I had a mind to ask his Highness if he had a hand in those. I might owe him thanks for the time he saved me not sharpening quills."

I should have noticed myself, I spent too much time staring at paperwork not to. I stood, gesturing to them to wait a moment, and retreated into our private chambers. In Kazuma's chamber there was a small writing desk, with a selection of the usual utensils and a mug that served him as a pen holder, including one of the new fountain pens I noted. I quickly found what I was looking for, a pen he brought with him from Japan and still used on occasion.

Returning with my prize, I pulled the note across and scribbled in one margin. Besides the color being blue versus black, the line looked identical.

"I feared as much," Claire sighed. "I shall have one of his highness' countrymen translate the message."

"Why not give it to him directly?" Komekko asked her suspiciously.

"In case we decide it best he not know," she snapped. "There could be absolutely anything in that letter, from a description of a pleasure palace to the vilest torment. I wish no ill upon his brother, however there is nothing we can do for him!" She visibly wrenched back under control and went on, "But, now that we know about the plot, we can turn it to our advantage. We do it often enough other times."

Heart warmed a little at that show of compassion for Kazuma, I nodded agreement. Feeding false information to a known spy was a tricky game, though often a lucrative one. But…

Somewhat regretfully, I shelved the idea. "No, honor often has little to do with statecraft, but practicality should. An authentic sounding reply would certainly require Kazuma's cooperation, and I fail to imagine him playing games with his brother's life." I touched the bell on the table, and told the footman who entered to find my fiancé posthaste.

After he left at a trot, Claire replied skeptically, "Demanding his highness turn his coat is likely someone letting greed get the better of them, I suspect. If so, this seems a great deal of effort for securing a hostage. This Jiro would certainly have valuable information, but enough to outweigh that?"

"He might," Komekko spoke up, surprising both of us. "Not saying he does, I don't know him either. But Kazuma had good things to say about him, once you translate it from 'big brother.' If he's able to do even some of what his big bro did, we might have a problem."

I had met Jiro, if only briefly, and he hardly struck me as the sort to volunteer for another world's war. Kazuma had also mentioned his brother a few times since, and the impression he gave was a poor fit for the risks and uncertainties of an adventuring lifestyle as well. A stolid, but capable, man rather than his own impulsive, 'minimum energy' ways combined with flashes of brilliance.

That said, here he was, willingly or not. And Kazuma himself, between his martial feats and his contributions in fields from culinary to logistical to possibly even stationery, stood as evidence that with time and resources his brother might be very dangerous indeed. Perhaps enough to tip a balance that was finally in our favor into a rough parity once more? Who could say, perhaps even to their advantage?

It was all the more pressing to find out what was in that other letter, and I prayed to Eris she lent Kazuma speed in his return.

AN:

This chapter ran long, so it's going to be a two parter.

This arc is also where my long running love of spy thrillers, including far too many Tom Clancy novels at an impressionable age, got to come out to play.

Bonus feature

The goddess in my head was throwing popcorn at her screen. I still wasn't drunk enough, yet, for that to make sense.

"…and for heaven's sake, nothing ruins the mood like getting to business down there and then she starts flinching and complaining because you forgot to trim your fingernails, or your mustache feels like sandpaper!" Kyouya said sternly, driving his pointer finger into the table for emphasis.

"Kazuma~! Make him go back to the cute relationship advice! I want to hear more about how he leaves Fio flowers on her pillow before she wakes up on the week of their anniversary, not this icky mortal stuff!" Aqua demanded, blowing a raspberry at my drinking partner while winding up another toss.

I sighed and took another drink, tuning out her whining as best I could. 'Deal with it, unless you don't want cute babies on your channel next year,' I reminded her sharply.

"Fine~," Aqua pouted. Picking a popcorn kernel out of her tousled bangs, where it had apparently landed after bouncing off the screen, she popped it in her mouth before combing through her long blue hair looking for more and devouring them as she went.

Kyoya had told me, many, many times, how much he respected and admired the goddess who sent him here and gave him his life's work. As payment for his advice, I decided I'd take what she was really like with me to my grave.