Momonga stood quietly as he listened to Mave deliver his report.
But rather than plan for rescue, he instead felt conclifcted.
Sylvia Van Ryle Vaiself.
An unfamiliar princess and that made his stomach twists and turn.
'... It's might as well be a completely different world...'
The thought sent a chill down his spine.
He wanted to ask everyone who she is. What kind of person was she? What of her achievements? But he paused instead, seeing the determined faces of the Adventurers around him.
He could tell that she at least has the people's loyalty and sympathy.
'Could she be the Golden Princess of this world?'
He rejected the thought outright. 'Princess Renner still exist. She just happened to be younger. If left be, then the plot could still follow the same course but...'
'That would be years later... and I do not have the patience to remain a nothing till then just for the sake of plot convenience.'
Momonga had long acknowledged that his actions could cause ripple. He understands the proverb 'For Want of A Nail' well. A cautionary tale, one he any grown man had either learned the hard way or the lucky way.
Momonga knew, he was gonna save this Princess. Bacuse he knew he wasn't one to forgive himself for death he knowingly allowed.
'I always hated Momonga's cowardice. Specially the one that led to the Happy Farm. I'm not going to do the same by knowingly condemning an innocent life to their deaths or worst.'
Momonga has known death. He has seen it on the streets. The open killings. The rape in every alley. Even those who butchered the corpses just so they could eat.
He had defended himself so many times he had lost count and endured even more.
This world, it was a paradise to him and he wasn't happy having to let that go.
He turned to Team SkyWolf. All of them, including Britta and Nfirea all huddled together and debating the next course of action.
Their voices were rising from time to time. Each one rebuking the other. As if they were facing a dilemma regarding the aftermath. Seeing as Belotte grabbed his tag and harshly whispered to his team made him realize the argument for what it was.
'Right... Adventurers can't interfer regarding Kingdom Politics. Lest they earn the ire of the Noble's claiming a 'Silent Armed Invasion' and using the very by laws that exist between the Guild's and the Monarchy but.... that can't be all of it.'
Momonga observed them, but he didn't push beyond what they unknowingly spilled. Because he knew it was personal.
He could see it in their eyes. The fear, the doubt, their muscles coiled as if wanting to move. And what held them back are the tags wrapped around their necks that felt like chains.
Still, every second wasted is every second left to luck. And in less than two minutes, Momonga believed that should have been enough.
"Albedo."
"Momonga-sama?" he sighed tiredly at the formality but said nothing.
"Use your Divination. Scan the place. Map The location as much as you can. Specially potential secret exits."
"Are you certain Momonga-sama? I believe my skills could be best utilized to take to the field. My Buffer spells could easily provide us with overwhelming advantage and my healing could ensure the safety of the prisoner and the Adventurers as well."
Momonga thought for a second and nodded. "You're right. Very well. Inform the others. I will lead the front."
Momonga walked on ahead. His sabatons clacking with every footfalls, taking the attention of SkyWolf while Albedo approached them with her Lord's plan.
"Belotte-san."
"Ye-yes Lady Albedo."
"Have your ranger lead Lord Momonga to the Princess. I will explain as we follow."
"Wait!" the nobleman caught their attention. "You can't just leave us here!" he shouted, sounding indignant. But Albedo was unfazed.
"Britta will be staying with Nfirea. Stay together."
Belotte nodded in agreement while urging his warrior friend to stay as well.
As they ran through the forest, trying to catch up to the fluttering red cape ahead, Albedo began to explain.
"Momonga-sama understands your predicament. You are teetering on a grey line you hadn't walk on before. But rest assured, your involvement in this will only depend on the benefits it will give. While you let us shoulder the negatives."
"Albedo-san-"
"Momonga-sama won't let her die." Albedo cuts in. "It isn't him. He is no saint. Had killed even traitors that called themselves his friends for many years. Had often complained about a great many things.
"He isn't perfect. He's made that clear to me many times."
Belotte listened as she spoke. Her body kept running and moving with ease and grace but her eyes... they were glassy. As if she wasn't even there.
Albedo was so lost in the past that she can't help but reach within. Remembering the times he spoke to her. Conveyed his frustration. His fears. Even his anger.
She had watched as he tried to square his shoulders as more and more of Supreme Beings left. And even to this day, despite the loss of Nazarick. She could remember how his shoulders would fall. The pain in her heart as he tried not to crumble to the weight of the IRL.
"He understands. Or at least, he is trying to."
Th words she whispered felt like it weighed more than it should. And all Belotte could do was nod in acknowledgment, not knowing what to do.
As if composing herself, Albedo's expression hardened. "That is why we will be taking the lead. You would just happen to be there when bandits tried to attack you-"
"While they ran away from him?" supplied Belotte.
"Indeed Belotte-san."
"I see. Than I will have my team's Ranger make sure that he is a safe distance away." Belotte smirks, liking the plan already. "We would need someone to take the news should we fall. If he stumbled upon some secret tunnel or hidden exit, well... I'm sure it would just be coincidence."
"Your mind gives your Leadership credit, Belotte-san." said Albedo with both a hardened expression but with a calculative tone.
The man chuckled at the stony compliment. Shaking his head at any ill thoughts that strayed from it and looked forward, watching a heavily armored man move with surprising speed. His heart couldn't help but feel a deep pang of envy.
'Strength, wealth, and beauty... I can see why he could retire so young and early.'
"We're here... " Albedo whispers, and ahead loomed a rocky formation with a maw like cave just at the base of it.
—.—.—.—.—
Sylvia Van Ryle Vaiself groaned in pain as she laid sideways at the rocky floor.
"..w-why... " she rasped out. "...why are you doing this?"
Her eyes took in the dark cave, illuminated by torches on the walls.
Around her sat various men. Each holding a weapon of their own. But it was their eyes that made her shiver.
It was leering, slimy, and unpleasant. Worst even than the nobility that believed she belonged to them. Cause while those men were cautious to even touch her, a princess born of the King's first wife. These men don't need nor want the same permission.
The only thing holding them back are the two people standing in front of her.
Edström and Davernoch.
The crackle of torchlight filled the silence.
They didn't speak as if waiting for something. That, more than anything unsettled her.
"…If you intend to kill me," Sylvia said hoarsely, lifting her chin with a defiant glare. "then do it. I will not beg."
Edström snorted. "Kill you?" she then grabbed the back of her hair and pulled harshly. "You over value yourself Princess. You aren't that important."
Davernoch exhaled, slow and weary. "If we wanted you dead, you would not be speaking."
Sylvia's fingers curled into the palm. "Then why am I here?"
Edström's eyes flicked over her. She didn't leer like the rest, she simply assessed. After a moment of thought, she decided to entertain an answer.
"To remove you of course. To stop you from destroying this beautiful Kinhdom." she said. "...you'd be surprised at how many wanted you gone."
Realizing who had put her into such a situation, Sylvia snarled and spat out an answer. "I listen to the people. To the ones who were starving. To those crushed under taxes and levies they never agreed to."
"And in doing so," Davernoch cut in quietly, "...you gutted three provincial treasuries." he said so as a matter of fact.
Silence followed. Doubt crept into her heart, but she hardened her resolve and scoffed. "Coin can be replaced. The lives they spent cannot."
Edström smiled, humor dancing in her eyes.
"That line always sounds noble when spoken from silk sheets."
Sylvia's glare snapped to her but Edström added smoothly, "I've marched through villages where soldiers weren't paid, Princess. I've seen what happens when border forts were left undermanned, the monsters... or those who simply looked like men. I've watched merchants reroute trade away from your banners... the starving, he sick, the weak, and the desperate. Looking for a caravan at the horizon that never came."
Edström leaned forward slightly, mocking tone spilling into her voice. "Do you know what happens when nobles lose coin, Princess?"
Sylvia hesitated, but Davernoch answered in her stead. "They tighten. They hoard and bleed the land harder to recover losses... no matter how many bodies it takes."
Sylvia shook her head. "Then they are unfit to rule."
Edström laughed boisterously, victory spilling from her posture. "And there it is! Gentlemen! Oh how easy it was to say! Coming from someone who was ruled by no one!"
Edström then turned to her and added.
"You believe morality feeds armies," she said. "That goodwill keeps roads safe. That virtue alone stabilizes a kingdom."
But Sylvia remained strong despite her tears and met her eyes with her fraying resolve. "I believe starving children matter more than gilded halls."
"And I agree," Davernoch said softly, catching even Sylvia off-guard. "But kingdoms," he continued, "do not survive on belief. They survive on balance."
Edström straightened, voice colder than before. "You didn't try to reform the system, Princess. You punished it."
Sylvia opened her mouth, then closed it.
"You cut subsidies without any pending replacement," Edström went on. "You diverted funds without accounting for retaliation. You humiliated men whose pride is sharper than their blades."
"They deserved–"
"Did you think they would forget!" Edström snapped. "...did you think they wouldn't remember!?"
The cave felt smaller.
Sylvia swallowed, doubt now deep into her bones, but while she was cold, her hands remained steady and answered. "If the price of justice is enemies, then so be it."
Edström stared at her for a while, and slowly, her smile faded entirely.
"Oh sweet Princess... You didn't make enemies because you were hated. You made enemies because of those you didn't care."
"You did not care that it took starving an entire working family to feed an orphanage. You did not care that it took coin to make labor, believing that people should simply pull together. You did not care when it took what little harvest was left to feed the starving...not realizing that the price for what little remained rose and those with coin saved, starved in their stead..."
Sylvia breath rapidly as Edström struck the final blow. "Your heart was in the right place. But you lacked the intellect let alone the resources and strength to realize it. And your lacking cost coin, coin that beggared many, and starved even more."
"Now those consequences are here... and not even the crown is there to protect you. Something you had openly displayed to achieve exactly the failures you had done."
Sylvia's voice gritted with heartache and shimmering defeat. "S-So this is a lesson? Is th-that it!?"
Edström turned away. "No." Her eyes softened for a fraction as she added. "This is the price of shaking down a rotten structure, without checking first what's within it. What comes after. Let alone what happens when you did."
The torches flickered, while laughter stirred among those present as they slowly filtered out of the room. Laughing at the now crying princess who only gritted her teeth to hold back her sobs.
Edström exhaled slowly. "You wanted to save everyone, Princess." and turned back with a smug smile. "You should have learned who would kill you for trying."
...she barely heard the door slamming close. Let alone the darkness gripping from above and below.
All she had was the cold on her skin and salty taste on her lips as she cried. Wondering if she had been truly wrong, drowning out the whispered prayer that this was merely a nightmare.
In the end, she wanted only one thing.
"...please... someone... s-save me."