The Villainess That Was Once A VRMMO player-Chapter 89.2
“…What?”
She was accompanied only by her aide, Lilia. Of course, the assassin maids would be watching from a distance in the shadows, but Flare had dyed her beautiful silver hair to red and tied it in a single braid, and Lilia’s face was plain to begin with, so she would be inconspicuous, and the two of them would be going to one of the outlying territories as the daughter of a wealthy merchant and her attendant.
“…Aren’t you treating me badly?”
“It’s just your imagination.”
The frontier territories of the Caenista Empire, like the former Principality of Arceides, include small countries that were exhausted by the war a hundred years ago and were taken over by Caenista.
Hence, these territories were cold-shouldered by the Royal Capital after the false mistress incident and easily sided with the Flare, but they were rather close to neutral.
The new Duchy of Arceides was founded under the patronage of the Demon Lord, incorporating the vast lands of the Demon Forest as its fiefdom, but one of the frontier fiefdoms, learning of this, was planning to become independent of the Caenista Empire in the confusion of the country.
Ostensibly, of course, they were loyal to the emperor.
However, the frontier count of Alta sent a secret messenger to the neighboring Kingdom of Solvet, with whom they had a longstanding friendship, to negotiate for independence, but they had yet to receive a good answer from the King of Solvet.
“Ah, Fle… young lady, we can see the castle town of Alta now.”
“Well, it’s a shabby town.”
That day, the Alta frontier territory was destined to have its worst day.
***
“As expected, it’s still not looking so good.”
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.
In the castle town of the Alta frontier territory, a man who looked like a beautiful adventurer, though not as flashy as the eccentric, let out a sigh of disappointment when he saw the townscape.
He was a little over 20 years old, with a stubble beard and a rough look, but his eyes were clear and sharp, and his face, while wild, was in the category of a handsome man, and the girls in town glanced at him with interest.
“Your Highness Skelly, you should not say such a thing in the streets…”
A middle-aged man with a merchant-like appearance approached from the side and whispered to him, and the adventurer-like man turned around with a frown on his face.
“You, too, stop saying [Your Highness]… In the first place, I’m the eighth child and a bastard child, so I don’t even have the right of succession.”
The middle-aged merchant was a so-called [grass], an interloper from another country who took time to take root in the land and gather information.
Who was Skelly, whom the middle-aged merchant called “Your Highness”?
“But, sir…”
“Just go back to work, you too. You’re wasting all these years of hard work, you know?”
“I understand. Take care.”
Skelly waved one hand behind his back in response to the middle-aged merchant, and he let out another faint sigh and started walking around the town.
Skelly had come to investigate the inner workings of this country.
In addition to him, there were dozens of middle-aged merchant-like agents and counterintelligence agents infiltrating the country, but in matters like this, where a territory asked for support from another country to become independent, the [eyes] of those educated as [royalty] were more important than the words of a hundred subordinates.
In reality, supporting the independence of such a frontier would only cause trouble rather than good fortune, as it could turn even the Demon Lord, let alone the Empress, into an enemy. However, the King could not take advantage of the fact that his sister’s heir was a Royal Member of Caenista, missed the opportunity to move due to the upheaval in Caenista, and was forced to form an alliance with the Demon Lords through his nephew.
