For a while, Oujin had been silently listening to my conversation with Riona. Then, as if suddenly panicking, he finally opened his mouth.

"W-wait a minute. Belzhein-san—"

Riona cut him off.

"I told you, just call me Riona. I said that even when I was Miku, didn’t I? I asked you to call me by my name. Huh? Wait, did I actually not say that?"

"I don’t know. Don’t ask me."

"Ahaha, you do seem like the forgetful type, El-tan."

How rude. To say I have no memory when I even retain memories from my past life—what a ridiculous accusation. Well, I do tend to forget recent things, though.

Oujin interjected.

"Ah, uh, yeah. That’s fine. That’s fine, but, um, Riona-san—"

This time, I cut him off.

"Why are you blushing? It’s just calling someone by their name. You really need to get used to dealing with women. If your enemy were a woman, you’d just stand there silently and get cut down."

"Don’t say things like Void would!—No, wait!"

He muttered something to himself.

His face turned serious.

Oujin swallowed hard.

"The things I’ve been hearing are too big… It’s starting to scare me a little. If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t just a crime within the kingdom, but an international one, right? The kind that could spark a world war…"

Riona and I exchanged glances before turning back to Oujin.

"That’s right."

"Bit late for that, huh?"

Oujin shouted.

"You two are taking this way too lightly!? I know I’m the last person to talk, but are we seriously okay!?"

"You’re too loud."

"We won’t be okay if you keep shouting!"

"S-sorry."

There had indeed been a risk of war breaking out.

An assassin sent by the Egil Republic had targeted the King of Galliant Kingdom. That would position the republic as a dangerous state capable of sending assassins after the leaders of other nations.

In that case, the republic would be isolated from the world, and depending on the situation, a coalition of knights from multiple nations might have taken action against the Nesep regime. If Nesep refused to surrender and struggled to maintain power, then a world war could have erupted.

Normally, even though the republic was a major power, it was unthinkable for them to defeat a coalition of nations. The difference in military strength was just too vast.

However, if they had already reached the stage where they could mass-produce those homunculus biological weapons, the situation would change entirely. I couldn’t say how many of those foolish knights could be slaughtered by just one of them, but it would be a considerable number.

If those things had been deployed in large numbers back in my battlefield days, even Blythe might not have stood a chance.

But at least this time, Kilpus had chosen to keep silent. Because of that, the worst had been avoided. However, as Oujin pointed out, if we had deviated from our course even slightly, war could have easily broken out.

I nodded with a deliberately cheerful expression.

"Don’t worry too much about it. You’ll go bald, Oujin."

"Who cares about my hair!?"

"Then go bald as you please."

"That’s too harsh!?"

"Anyway, Kilpus has decided not to make this incident public. You were told to keep quiet by Kilpus as well, weren’t you?"

Kilpus had told me.

He had ordered Void, Oujin, and Lili to remain silent.

"In other words, there was no attempted assassination. His Majesty was never even at the knight academy. So it’s best if you don’t speak of this incident carelessly."

Setting aside what was true and what was false, we were to establish this as the official version of events.

Riona, looking dejected, added in a small voice.

"If this got out, I’d definitely be executed. Even if I escaped back to the republic, they’d probably kill me to cover up the evidence."

"Ah, right. The Nesep regime has a rather massive precedent for that."

That so-called ‘Westwill Incident.’

A large-scale poisoning of the population via water sources. There were no survivors. Suspiciously so.

Inside the republic, it was officially labeled as an operation by royalist agents, but most of the other nations had already figured it out. The Nesep regime had poisoned Westwill at that exact timing to break the peace treaty after the kingdom returned the territory.

And those who had been lucky enough not to drink the poisoned water were surrounded and finished off by the republic’s forces. They massacred their own people. Just to keep the war going.

And as for Belzhein—its noble lineage was wiped out in that ‘incident.’ Meaning that within the republic, Riona Belzhein was officially dead. Since she was already considered deceased, even if the Nesep regime erased her now, it wouldn’t cause any problems. A girl who didn’t exist would simply disappear.

"Ah…"

Void’s last words, "They must have really wanted to erase the witness," now made perfect sense.

He had been warning Riona, telling her to be careful not to get eliminated.

With Kilpus bringing Riona under the kingdom’s protection, she had become the only living witness outside of the republic’s military.

"So that’s what he meant."

"Right? He’s actually a pretty decent guy. But I wish he’d been a little more straightforward about it."

So that’s why he had cut off the conversation so abruptly. Damn that Void. For a kid, he’s got one hell of a sharp mind.