The plate armor that had so abruptly opened its mouth gets up with a clank and clatter, crosses the room——and takes the chair at the table in Carlo’s place.
“What is this armor……I thought it was just a decoration, but there’s someone in it?”
Luna doesn’t answer Zabok’s murmur and instead presses him on his earlier words.
“I’ll ask again. Am I to take those words as a declaration of war——”
Before Luna can finish, Zabok kicks his chair over.
“Yeah, it’s a declaration of war! I’ll kill every last one of you!”
“[Both]: ……!”
Carlo and Trebas flinch, shaken by the force and fury of it.
Taking that as encouragement, Zabok shifts to a more agreeable tone.
“But, well, we’ve got room to negotiate too. His Majesty the Emperor does say ‘there is no economic act more foolish than war.’ If you show us a little good faith——even a million gol——that’s a different story. I’d be willing to put down my sword and withdraw the declaration of war——”
“——No, let’s proceed with it. It’s not good to leave this sort of matter unresolved. Better to see it settled clearly one way or the other.”
Luna remains entirely ready to fight.
“Oho……you’ve got a big mouth for someone in your position. It’s House Spedio and its people who suffer when war breaks out, you know? ——Devastation! Massacre! Slaughter! Your flippant little comment is going to turn this domain into a blood-soaked hell! You do understand that, don’t you!?”
The sort of threat that would make any ordinary person shrink——but for Luna, who in three hundred years past had crossed more battlefields than anyone, cut down more enemies than anyone, and witnessed more tears than anyone, such cheap words land on deaf ears.
“My, that is frightening. ——Now, I’d like to nail down a date for the opening of hostilities. When would work for you?”
Like pushing against a curtain, she doesn’t budge a fraction and continues calmly.
(Wh-what is this thing……. Is it actually telling me it’s not afraid of my threats? Not afraid of the Empire’s white dragon crest……?)
Just as the plate armor’s uncanny calm is starting to put a genuine chill in Zabok——the subordinates behind him exchange hurried whispers.
“H-hey, that armor……could it be……’that thing’……?”
“Y-yeah, the one that apparently showed up in the kingdom——the ‘Proxy of the Saint’……right?”
Hearing the two, Zabok goes rigid.
“You……don’t tell me……! The Proxy of the Saint who supposedly killed those two demons——Silver!?”
“I don’t recall killing anyone in any particularly gruesome manner——but yes, I am Silver Glorious=El=Bloodfallenheart.”
Luna squeezes in the full name at the perfect opportunity.
She has still not given up on this name.
“What is the Proxy of the Saint doing in a backwater like this……!?”
“I have a certain connection to the Spedio domain. At the moment I’m using it as one of my bases of operations.”
“Ha, hahaha……! You had me going there. You could have just said so from the start……!”
Zabok plasters on a strained smile, his face going stiff.
He had never in his wildest imagination expected to run into such a major figure as the Proxy of the Saint in a remote corner of the world like this.
“Now, regarding the declaration of war you just made——let’s settle on a specific date. When shall we do it?”
“W-wait, wait, there’s no need to rush. That was a bit of a heat-of-the-moment thing on my part……I don’t actually want a war any more than you do. If your side shows us some appropriate ‘good faith,’ I’ll quietly step back.”
Zabok says this and tries to squeeze a ‘concession’ out of Luna.
“Hmm……from our side, given that we have already paid the prescribed land tax, we would ideally say ‘we have not the slightest intention of paying another coin’——but. Sending Zabok-dono all the way out to this remote area and having him go back empty-handed would perhaps be a touch lacking in good faith on our part.”
“I knew you were a reasonable man, Silver-dono! This makes things much easier!”
Luna, who had been privately thinking this was about where things would land anyway, retrieves something she had prepared in advance from a cabinet.
“This is my ‘good faith.’ What do you think?”
“Wh-what is……this?”
Set down on the table with a thump is a large basket, filled to the brim with the ‘bounty of the earth.’
“Vegetables harvested from the Spedio domain this morning. Exceptionally good, these——I’d say they’re something special.”
Spring tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, onions, asparagus——vegetables at the height of their season, every one.
In her past life, Luna was a farmer’s daughter, and ‘in-season morning-harvest vegetables’ represent genuine and proper respect in her mind——but the money-hungry Zabok and his crew interpret this as a clear-cut ‘provocation.’
“Hey, you little……! I’ve been sitting here quietly listening and I’ve had just about enough of your nonsense!”
The shortest-tempered man in the group kicks the table over with a crash.
The wooden dining table snaps clean in two. The basket of vegetables goes flying through the air——and the helm section of Luna’s face plate is splattered with a burst of crushed tomato.
“[Everyone]: ……!”
In the tense silence, Luna quietly picks up the vegetables scattered across the floor and places them back into the basket one by one.
She has a gentle nature, and almost never gets angry.
But this time was different.
“……Don’t waste food.”
The words come out low, with the faintest edge of anger.
In her past life, Luna was born to a poor farming family.
She knows firsthand how brutal farming is. How precious the harvest is. How valuable food is when you’re living in poverty.
For someone like her, the act of kicking food underfoot was something she simply could not overlook.
“Hah, what was that……?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said, ‘don’t waste food.'”
Luna says this and releases the faintest trace of killing intent.
For her, it was barely more than a reflex——but the killing intent of a saint who had driven every manner of demon to the depths of terror three hundred years ago is not something an ordinary human being can withstand.
“Ah……ah, ahhhh……!”
The man’s body seizes up like a newborn fawn, trembling uncontrollably, and then his eyes go blank and he drops where he stands.
From sheer terror, his hair has gone white and is falling out in drifts, leaving him looking like a feeble old man.
Watching this bizarre scene, Zabok and the rest go completely ashen.
Small-time operators that they are, they grasp the situation with impressive speed.
That under no circumstances are they to antagonize the plate armor standing before them.
“I-I-I-I……I’m so deeply sorry! This one is so mind-bendingly stupid it’s almost impressive……! A-anyway, the vegetables from the Spedio domain really are something, aren’t they! Right, everyone? Aren’t they!?”
“[Everyone]: Th-they are absolutely delicious……!”
Every last one of them tears into the vegetables for dear life.
Tomatoes crammed into mouths, cabbage leaves chewed through, asparagus crunched.
The message their survival instincts were sending was clear: eat now or die.
“Hmm……well, that’ll do.”
Luna wipes her face with the towel Trebas has brought her and turns her eyes back to Zabok and his men.
“Given that you’ve eaten the vegetables, I’ll take that to mean ‘our good faith has been received’——is that a fair understanding?”
“But of course! Silver-dono’s generosity has been received with great gratitude!”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Th-then! We still have work to get to, so if you’ll excuse us!”
With that, Zabok’s group bolts out of the manor as if being chased.
(Phew……that takes care of that, for now.)
The imperial tax collectors have left the Spedio domain.
This should mean another year of peace——until the next collection period arrives.
“Silver-dono, we truly cannot thank you enough……!”
“Thanks to you, it seems we’ll manage to get through this year too……!”
Carlo and Trebas bow deeply and offer their thanks.
“Please think nothing of it. This land has a connection to the Saint——as her Proxy, it’s a place I wish to see kept safe.”
“To think, the Spedio domain……!”
“How proud it makes me to hear that!”
Learning that their domain is a ‘land connected to the Saint,’ the two are genuinely overjoyed from the bottom of their hearts.
(Well……I haven’t technically told a lie……?)
The connection was formed not with ‘the Saint of three hundred years ago’ but with ‘the Saint of the present day’——but it is technically not a lie.
(If I keep talking much longer, they might realize Silver is me……I should probably head back.)
Thinking this, Luna clears her throat.
“Then, I’ll take my leave around here.”
“You’re going already……?”
“At least let us give you something in return……!”
“No, please don’t worry about it. I haven’t done anything particularly grand.”
Saying this, she heads out of the manor, and Carlo and Trebas come out to see her off.
“Silver-sama, please come by any time!”
“We’ll have a proper room set up just for you, ready and waiting!”
“That’s very kind of you. Well then——.”
Luna activates her high-tier spatial magic and disappears into the space between dimensions.
“——Phew, that was exhausting.”
Having jumped to the Saint Academy dormitory, Luna stows the plate armor in and drops backward onto the bed, still in her Saint Academy uniform.
The next instant——
“Wao-on!”
“Whoa!?”
Eyes shining at her master’s return, Tama launches herself forward with great enthusiasm.
Tail wagging furiously, Tama advances up to chest level and gives Luna’s cheek a series of enthusiastic licks.
“Ahahaha, that tickles……!”
She smiles happily and gives the fluffy coat a fond pat.
“Everything was pretty hectic but it worked out properly in the end……”
Having seen one job through to completion, Luna lets out a quiet sigh of relief.
Yesterday, when she had been lying in her room racking her brain, a certain clever idea had come to her.
What she had just carried out was exactly that——a special operation officially named by the Saint herself: ‘The Incident of the Armor Coincidentally Encountered Being the Proxy of the Saint.’
① Wearing the plate armor, she ‘happens’ to bump into Trebas, who has headed to a pawnbroker to scrape together money, and makes it look like a coincidence.
② After revealing her identity as the Proxy of the Saint, she draws out the details of the Spedio domain’s situation and offers to help out of righteous indignation.
③ Upon returning to the Saint Academy, she skips class and travels to the Spedio domain to stand by as the armor displayed against the wall——then lets events carry her from there.
(I have to say, even by my own assessment, that was a flawless operation. Heh, maybe I actually have a future as a strategist……?)
Luna is feeling rather full of herself, but in fairness, this time she had——by her own very exceptional standards——done an unusually good job of actually using her head.
Rather than her usual improvised approach, she had assembled enough cards to make the operation succeed before setting it in motion.
To begin with, Silver is widely known as the Proxy of the Saint, and no one is going to go out of their way to make an enemy of him.
She had also already confirmed with Ro that Zabok had no real power to start a war.
Press hard from a position of strength, and the other side has no choice but to back down——that was the thinking behind the operation, and it had played out exactly as anticipated.
(Now I just need to do some ‘follow-up’ to be safe.)
This operation carries one significant drawback: it creates a visible link between Silver and the Spedio domain.
She had put in a light cover by saying ‘the Spedio domain is one of my bases of operations,’ but——if sightings of Silver in the area kept stacking up, the connection would start getting talked about——and eventually suspicion of ‘could Silver be the Saint?’ would find its way back to her.
That was the one thing that absolutely had to be avoided.
(For a while I’ll stay away from the Spedio domain, and in the meantime establish other bases of operations as adventurer Silver.)
With the follow-up fully thought through as well, Luna fiddles absently with Tama’s paw pads and loses herself in thought.
(Ahh, I want to do Villainess Moves so badly……. But for that I need to build up the household first. And as an adventurer, I want to travel around and see the world three hundred years on. ……Oh right, I need to hurry up with collecting the dark history too.)
Her ‘things I want to do’ and ‘things I have to do’ are tangled up in a hopeless knot, and her heart and head are stuck in a complete traffic jam.
(……If I had someone to talk to about all this, I’m sure it would feel so much lighter……)
Luna is hiding the fact that she is the Saint, which means she has not a single person she could turn to as a confidant.
“Hahhh……I really wish everyone were here right now.”
Swordsman Zel, mage Shasha, priest Fiona——thinking of her now-gone companions, she lets out one long, heavy sigh.