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Volume 3 Chapter 13.3

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

「Haru, that was savage……」

「Well you can say goodbye to any chance of me singing a serious song in front of a rude audience ever again.」

　Haruna blurted out something rather questionable for a singer to say.

「Well now Haruna-san seems to be content, so let’s disassemble this sucker.」

　Hiroshi got over his fear of Haruna’s anger and proceeded to cut up the sacrificial idol into suitable chunks. It appeared to have been thoroughly demolished by Haruna’s heart sutra attacks. Submerging it in the dwarf killer god liquor holy water mixture, he shut it in the bottle with a holy seal to prevent escape.

「Wow, now it actually looks like a sacrifice.」

「But a sacrifice to whom？」

「Maybe to quell Haruna’s anger？」

「Don’t compare me to an evil god.」

「Yeah, but it’s pretty standard to present offerings to any sort of angry god.」

　Haruna was indignant at the comparison. She began secretly plotting revenge in the form of tonight’s dinner for Makoto and Mio. Hiroshi only got off because she was too in love with him to do so.

「Let’s go ahead ‘n take this to the forge, erect a soundproof barrier ‘n then blast the music, y’all.」

　Hiroshi held the bottle (in which the idol was still thrashing around) and declared their next move as he hurried out. If it’s not broken, then don’t fix it.

「Alright, time to make dinner.」

Haruna declared with a rather happy smile, to which the other two responded by nodded their heads several times. Her smile was so powerful that not even Mio felt like helping out.

　The meal ended up being an arrangement of Darl cuisine, but…

「Ah, it’s spicy！！」

「Haru, this is a bit too much！！」

「Oh? But the seasoning is perfectly edible.」

「Ah, no, I can eat it, I can eat it！！」

　The spices were carefully selected to bring about the most intense effect you could think of, with every bite feeling like you were breathing fire but unable to stop eating because of how addicting this fearsome combination was. To make matters worse, the two of them weren’t given any beverages, and they were left to writh in their own kind of agony until the next morning, especially since they completely finished the food.

　Also, the evil god idol was completely white by the next morning, all traces of black wiped away and—-

「Hey, I might be able to use this as an ingredient for somethin’.」

「Really？」

「But first let’s try some more experiments.」

　And with that, Hiroshi’s wish was granted on the premise that something might change once the item was cleansed. As a result, they had to listen to the song on repeat all the way to Igreos Temple. But that is just between you and me.

「Quite the luggage ya have there.」

「Yeah, I have a rather urgent matter to attend to with this documents. As much as I’d like to, I cannot completely slack on my responsibilities.」

「Queens have it hard, I see.」

「The country is in my hands. Of course it is difficult work.」

「Right, right.」

　The queen stared at a large assortment of luggage that could not possibly just be clothing. While inwardly fed up with all of this, she kept her composure as an administrator. As much as she loved freedom, the queen was aware of what she must do.

　Hiroshi was riding together with the queen in the minivan. The queen had strongly requested this, which was why the Norton siblings and Sergio were riding with Aearis’ group in the carriage. Then came several members of the imperial guards, following along in a royal golem carriage. There weren’t enough golem carriages for anything more than this, so for the sake of time they settled on this.

「Then maybe we shouldn’t have set up our stand every single day……」

「No, these documents truly came out of the blue. Besides, that week, I didn’t have any appointments or any sign of an urgent matter. A typical day consists of early morning and evening work, not much else.」

「I’m not sure if I should be in awe of how capable a ruler you are or be exasperated at how much you want to gallivant about……」

　Haruna expressed her rather mixed feelings in response to the queen’s statement. But when you think about it, Alvan was allowed to run about wherever he pleased, so in a sense, this comment was needed a long time ago.

「So what happened to the idol？」

「We took care of it a good amount.」

「Although it’s rather curious how you managed to take care of that matter.」

「Believe me, I don’t know either.」

　Taking it apart and dissolving it in water like some kind of cooking procedure? Tatsuya still wasn’t satisfied with how strange this operation was. Usually when you thought of taking apart evil god items, you would think of large-scale rituals or special sealing tools. But instead, they had treated the idol like the ingredient in a meal or pickled hormalin. Tatsuya couldn’t possibly be the only one who felt weird about all of this.

「Hm. But how specifically did you go about disposing of it？」

「Broke it apart, submerged it in holy water, ‘n then we played purification songs repeatedly next to it. But I thought it might make a good ingredient if left to ferment so I just left it sealed at the entrance.」

「……Hm, this type of disposal does sound a bit…worrisome.」

　Stamping several documents she had brought with her with a magic stamp, the queen interjected with her own exasperated thought. She, too, had apparently envisioned something more bombastic along the lines of sealing or destruction.

「Let me ask. Is this really going to be okay？」

「Yeah, s’long as no one interferes, I think it should be fine. Entrance is firmly shut too.」

「Well, if it was sealed by one such as yourself, then I suppose there is no issue.」

　If Hiroshi was the one to seal it, no normal human could dissolve it. Besides, in order to infiltrate their temporary base, even with Alvan’s help it would be nearly impossible. The queen had already confirmed this when she snuck outside their base, so there was no worry about any disturbance at all.

「So what happens after you approve those documents？」

「These？ Everything takes care of itself as long as I do it this way.」

　The queen answered Makoto by actually showing her the process. Putting a bit more mana into the magic stamp would make the entire document glow momentarily before completely disappearing. Apparently this had to be done with several papers at once, as the queen was doing.

「And then the person in charge should take care of the rest.」

「I see.」

「This paper costs quite a bit after all. The price is a bit high, so I don’t generally do it this way.」

　The queen said as she continued approving things. At first glance, it seemed as if she were approving each document without accurately reading them, but in the middle of her work she tossed a few of them to the side without stamping them, so apparently she was reading the contents.

「Well, I have now finished everything needing sanctions. Everything left consists of unauthorized or deferred documents.」

「You’re quite the hard worker.」

「Honestly, those people are underhanded scoundrels for waiting until I went outside to thrust a bunch of papers in front of me.」

「Wow……」

　Everyone exclaimed in response to the queen’s complaint. There was no way she would approve matters that were forced on her like this. These underhanded, unskillful methods were truly not much different from any country.

「Although I already know what is in store for the people who made these cheap tricks.」

「Wait, could it be……？」

「Indeed. I have already gathered plenty of evidence.」

「Alvan’s back at it again……」

　Mio praised the queen’s rather free demeanor as she sent her a glance of what appeared to be admiration and respect. 

「After this is over, it’s going to be over for them too.」

「I get the feeling that Barold wouldn’t have been able to let loose if Alvan were in Farlane.」

「That’s just the way politics are, Little Apprentice.」

「Really？」

「Indeed. Barold only got to do as much as he did because of the faulty system that Farlane’s previous king created. When you have to gather that much evidence, even I could have not solved such an issue.」

　The majority of Farlane’s problems existed because of their attempt to suddenly restrict the rights of the privileged class and the extreme, clean-freak system created in order to prevent false accusations. If you couldn’t even present evidence that matched the writing of the author, then no matter how much evidence Alvan gathered to expose evil deeds, there was no way to prove that anything was not a fabrication.

　Maybe not as extensive as Alvan, the king of Farlane and Layotte had both gathered enough evidence to destroy an entire household with ease, and yet it still wasn’t enough to convict anyone. The previous king must have had enough with the mess that the king from two generations ago had created.