Great, we’ve got witnesses now! Look what you’ve done, Masuyama!

What do we do now?! Is it ok for people to disappear here? Is this place being watched? Could I kill them and get my Shadow Guards to replace them somehow?

Maybe we’ll just stage an attempted assassination and claim that these two guards were also part of that group or something?

I think that might work! Should we just go with that--

"Lady Aster. It is an honour," One of the guards bowed.

Masuyama waved at them, "Ah yes. This is the first time both of you are meeting her, right? Aster, these two are also part of the group that Miss Emilia infiltrated into the palace to gain information. They’re one of our people."

...

Couldn’t anyone have told me this before I came here?! Do you know how hard I was panicking just now?! I almost killed them just to keep your secret, you know?!

I sighed internally but managed to keep a smile and greeted them, "Good day, gentlemen. Seems like Emilia has been working all of you quite hard?"

The guard on the left lowered his head, "It is our privilege, Lady Aster. We owe our lives to you and Miss Emilia."

Me? What did I do to make you guys be indebted to me? I have literally never met any of you before!

Ah, I get it... They must have been in the same position as Masuyama and Emilia saved them somehow using her business. And since I was the owner of the business... They saw it as owing their lives to me or something?

Well... If that’s how they feel, I wasn’t going to say anything about it and just accept it I guess?

"Just curious," I muttered, turning to Masuyama. "How many of our people do we have infiltrated?"

He scratched his cheek, "I actually don’t know. Only Miss Emilia knows the number and from what I can guess... It’s quite a large number. Most of the time, you might not even know the person you’re talking to is part of the group until they are ’activated’."

"Activated? What do you mean? Are they some kind of robot?"

Masuyama leaned over to me and whispered, "I meant ’sleeper agent’ kind of activated..."

Scary!

Emilia!! What have you been dealing with that you saw the need for sleeper agents?!

Then again... Seeing that you literally inserted one of your men into this Kingdom’s government... I don’t even want to know anymore...

Somehow I feel like if I find out more about this, I would have lost somehow...

I sighed, "Ok... So what’s the next step of the ceremony?"

One of the guards straightened himself to gesture down the hallway, "You will be escorted to a nearby waiting room, Lady Aster. When they are ready, you will be called to the main hall and receive your medal as well as your honorary citizenship."

Oh wow, they have medals too? That’s cool.

"Which means I will be meeting with the Royal Family, right?"

Masuyama nodded, "Yes. The King will be there. Just remember what I told you about the rules and you will be fine, Lady Aster. If anything happens, I will cover for you."

"I don’t know if I should be reassured that I have you or be worried about your lack of faith in me..."

"There are... A few nuances that are hard to explain if you aren’t a local... But I believe they should be willing to overlook most of it since you are an outsider anyway. Just follow my lead and everything will be fine."

The three of them then escorted me through the palace which was completely different to the palace back at Crown Capital City in terms of aesthetics.

Ironically, the inn that Emilia had made actually looked more beautifully designed than the palace itself.

More because I believe this palace should actually be called a castle instead since it looked like it was designed with practicality in mind rather than aesthetics.

There were spaces that looked like they were reserved for fortifications and there were even barricades that were left in a pile ready to be set up at a moment’s notice as though they were expecting a siege.

"Why does this place look like it’s getting ready for a siege?" I asked.

"Because it is, Lady Aster," The guard on the right answered. "You might not know this but we are almost always at war."

I frowned, "With who? Last I remembered, the Lehcarouc Kingdom is at peace with you aren’t they? Don’t tell me it’s the Trasifs? Or is it monsters?"

"No. The threat isn’t external. It’s internal, Lady Aster. We are always at the risk of a civil war."

"Ah... It’s the City and Nomad thing isn’t it?"

"No one wants to admit it and most would just claim that it’s just a rivalry... But on both sides there are people who believe the right way to fix this ’problem’ is the eradication of the other side."

"But that’s only limited to Nekomatas, isn’t it? Isn’t this Kingdom for both Nekomatas and Inugamis?"

Masuyama sighed, "It’s a little complicated... And it has to do with the current Royal Family... The current monarch is a Nekomata and Inugami couple and the current heir to the throne is a Nekomata. Both sides wish to influence the heir to their side in order to sway the Royal Family to favour one side over the other. For the moment, things are kept in check because of the Inugami faction who want nothing to do with the rivalry and both sides recognise that dragging them into this fight will not be beneficial... So an uneasy peace is maintained."

"That still doesn’t explain why you’re at war?"

The prime minister gestured at the guard, "Like he said, there are extremists on both sides and some groups might resort to more drastic actions in order to gain political power. For example, staging an insurrection and storming the castle to take over by force."

"Has that happened before?"

"Yes. Three times in the last year by both sides."

I blinked at him, "Wait... That means this castle was attacked three times in total?! But the city doesn’t even look like it’s at war!"

"Ahahaha. A lot has changed after I took over," Masuyama chuckled, looking quite proud. "Before I assumed this position, things weren’t running that smoothly and people were always on edge. But when I was planted here by Emilia, I knew that if this continued, it would be bad for business so I revolutionised the governmental system and strengthened the security. The talismans you saw at the border of the city? Those were made by me."

"What are they supposed to do?"

The other guard answered, "For one, it deters monsters. Which I will admit is also another factor that contributed to the state of this Kingdom... We used to need to man the walls at all times since monsters might attack the city almost every other day."

Masuyama grimaced, "Oh you should have seen the city back then... They were less focused on cultural and technological advancements since everything needed to be geared for warfare. If Lady Aster had visited this place a few years ago, it would be a completely different experience. Those three times that they tried to take over? They were immediately repelled at the city gates without being able to enter the city. Before I came, there were times they managed to fight their way into the castle itself."

Ok... I completely did not know that...

I guess this was why Masuyama was so respected since he brought quite a big change to the people huh?

He continued, "Anyway... I will admit I had help from Miss Emilia to gather the necessary stuff to enchant those talismans so it wasn’t all because of me. The second effect of the enchantment was acting as a literal wall which prevented anyone from coming in except through designated entrances. You could have a dragon try to fly into the city but all that would achieve is hitting an invisible wall."

I tilted my head at him, "Could it be destroyed though?"

"Theoretically... No. It’s linked to the mana of the forest so if someone wants to break it, they would need to have the power to destroy the entire forest in a single hit. But well... We all know there are people in this world that are capable of doing something as ridiculous as that..."

That is true... I can imagine Mother being able to do that.

"I’m assuming that this is the same enchantment that was placed on those trading outposts in the forests as well?" I asked.

"That’s right. And before you ask why we don’t expand to make even more cities and towns with this enchantment... It relies on the forest to fuel the effect so if we were to cut down trees to build more cities, the strength of the enchantment would also decrease."

"Is that why you guys don’t build roads and cut down trees?"

"Oh that was already in place before I took over. The forest itself served as natural defenses against invaders so it has already been a tradition of theirs not to engage in overlogging. It’s just that my enchantment gives us an extra incentive not to do that."

Interesting... I’m learning quite a lot about them... I didn’t even know they had all these problems within their society.

Anyway... Looks like we’re here. Time to wait for them to call for me I guess.