The large, short-haired nobleman covered in scars who had spoken up to lodge an objection was Count Tappo, a hanger-on of the Duke Toad faction, who had once been considered the power behind the Gilbert faction. Currently, they had become the largest force backing Knut, and Count Tappo was one of the nobles who had made a name for himself among their militant wing.
"What is the meaning of this? The upper echelons of your Holy Amelia Kingdom have already officially recognized the founding of Fiesta. It should be far too late for any of you to have the right to object, should it not?"
Count Tappo raised the corners of his mouth in triumph at Inea, who questioned him with evident weariness.
"The suzerain state of Fiesta is our motherland, the Holy Amelia Kingdom! As the political core of that nation, we high-ranking nobles are the ones endowed with the absolute right over Fiesta's life and death! Is that not so?!"
He spread his arms grandly, appealing to the nobles of the Holy Amelia Kingdom for agreement.
"That's right!"
"Fiesta is the property of our Holy Amelia Kingdom! In other words, it belongs to us nobles! Therefore, we should be free to treat it however we please!"
"Prince Gilbert, who holds no right of succession to the throne, has no authority over this!"
Count Tappo nodded with satisfaction as the high nobles shouted one after another.
"Look, there is this much consensus. Sir Hero, we shall hold the right to govern Fiesta. That is acceptable to you, is it not?"
When he asked the Hero Mashiro, she replied with an equally absurd, off-the-mark response.
"As long as you can manage it properly, I don't care. If we sense even the slightest danger, we'll simply exterminate them ourselves."
Did these people truly understand the current state of world affairs?
The reason so many dignitaries from various nations were in attendance was to witness the sudden birth of a massive nation centered around monsters and the demon race, and to hold secret talks with the mastermind who had accomplished it.
Monsters and the demon race were like oil and water. They were similar yet fundamentally different. The two joining hands to establish a nation was an impossible scenario under normal circumstances. No one from any nation would believe that a single inexperienced prince had achieved such a feat. In other words, what they sought was contact with the figure behind this great undertaking.
They had not the slightest interest in the petty desires of these nobles. In fact, the attending dignitaries were watching this turn of events with great curiosity. What they anticipated was learning who would bring this chaotic situation under control; not a single one thought the claims of these foolish nobles would prevail. Indeed, the founding of a massive nation of the demon race and monsters was not something so simple.
At the same time, the irony was that the other nations placed their focus not on the Holy Amelia Kingdom, but on the new nation of Fiesta. After all, the military might of the Crimson Demon Nation alone was on par with the Holy Amelia Kingdom. Furthermore, when it came to its economic sphere, it held the potential to rival even Butou, one of the wealthiest nations in the world. No one believed for a moment that the nobles of the Holy Amelia Kingdom could keep such a titan in check.
In short, the high nobles were merely making fools of themselves and handing valuable intelligence to the foreign dignitaries.
Of course, behind those nobles stood Knut. Knut was a monster who had wiped out multiple divisions of the Beast Kingdom all by himself. Since that very Knut was present in this room, the high nobles likely felt as though they had an invincible shield at their backs.
Edward felt pity rather than anger toward these ignorant nobles, but he was the reigning King of the Holy Amelia Kingdom—the host of this ceremony. He had a duty to see this proceeding through to a safe conclusion.
Just as Edward was about to open his mouth to settle the situation—
"You dare?! A mere count acting this way?! Such disrespect in the presence of our King warrants ten thousand deaths!"
Having finally reached his breaking point at the outrageous behavior that completely ignored the reigning king, Royal Guard Captain Geralt placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and stepped forward.
"Now, now, that won't do, Geralt. Resorting to violence just because words fail you..."
He had stepped up after all. Knut wore a malicious smile as he rose from his seat.
The veterans of the Royal Guard Division had witnessed firsthand the sight of Knut single-handedly annihilating a massive army in the past. They knew full well that they stood no chance against him. Even so, to protect the pride of their king, the members of the Royal Guard Division rallied around Geralt, drawing their blades and taking up combat stances.
"My, my, are you really up for a fight? I don't mind in the slightest."
Now that it had come to this, Knut would not stop even if Edward tried to dissuade him.
Conversely, Edward could never order Geralt and the others to back down. For one, doing so risked making it seem as though Edward supported the high nobles' bid to control Fiesta. More importantly, he could never slight the retainers who were putting everything on the line to protect his pride and position as their king. Not only as a ruler, but as a man!
"What will you do, dear brother?"
That bastard Knut—so this had been his goal all along.
Their last hope, Inea, maintained an air of complete detachment, watching with suspicion to see how they would act. In all likelihood, Kai Heinemann had only asked her to serve as the master of ceremonies, and anything beyond that was none of her concern.
"Gil..."
In this volatile situation, the black-haired girl with cat ears sitting next to Gilbert clung to him, looking up at his face with an anxious expression. Looking at her, could she possibly be Gil's lover or something?
"Char, it's all right. Leave it to us. Tetor, Somni."
Gil gently stroked the black-haired girl's head, told her to stay seated, and rose from his chair. When he succinctly prompted the young Tetor and young Somni, who were watching the proceedings with amusement beside them,
"Understood."
Young Tetor cracked his knuckles with a pop as he stood up.
"Right on it."
Young Somni nodded heavily and followed after Tetor.
"Prince Gilbert, you no longer possess the right of succession to the—"
Just as Count Tappo shouted with a triumphant expression, Gil vanished, and in the next instant, he had seized Count Tappo by the lapels, hoisting him high into the air.
"Small fry like you need to shut up for a moment."
Gil's eyes were dyed crimson, and a red haze poured from his entire body so intensely that it became visible to the naked eye. It coiled around Count Tappo, taking the form of a giant serpent rearing its head.
"Eek!"
Letting out a shrill shriek, Count Tappo rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness on the spot.
"Giving up under an Intimidation skill of this level... What a joke. Not even the raw recruits of Fiesta would faint from something like this."
Spitting those words, Gil threw the count to the floor like a piece of trash, glanced once at Mashiro and the others, and then turned back toward Knut. And then—
"Uncle, let us put an end to this farce. As I declared earlier, I am the General Chairman of Fiesta, and Fiesta's full authority has been entrusted to me by its people. And I, Gilbert Loto Amelia, hereby declare."
Gilbert paused, raised his right hand high, and proclaimed:
"Fiesta is our nation. We will never acknowledge governance by you good-for-nothing nobles. Take your hands off Fiesta. That is, unless you wish to humiliate yourselves any further."
As cries of outrage erupted from the high nobles at Gil's utterly condescending words, Knut erased all emotion from his face and silenced them with his right hand. And then—
"Who are you?"
He voiced that blatantly obvious question.
"I am your nephew, Gilbert, Uncle. Well, in my case, I've restarted things an agonizingly long number of times, so I might already be practically reincarnated. Perhaps your question isn't entirely off the mark."
"Do it."
At Knut's terse order,
"Yes, my lord!"
"Understood!"
A burly, short-haired man with vicious eyes and a beautiful black-haired maid—both Knut's close aides—drew their respective weapons and charged toward Gil.
In the span of a single blink, right before Gil's very eyes, the vicious-eyed short-haired man and the beautiful black-haired maid were pinned in full nelsons by young Tetor and young Somni.
"Huh?"
The sound that escaped Edward's mouth was completely bewildered. Edward was skilled in martial arts himself. Yet, he hadn't been able to perceive the movements of Knut's two aides in the slightest. For them to be so effortlessly neutralized by the hands of two mere, seemingly powerless boys... Could such a reality truly exist? Yet, right before his eyes—
"Let me go!"
"Damn it!"
The maid and the short-haired man screamed frantically, struggling to break free from the hold.
"Annoying."
"So annoying."
Tetor's and Somni's voices harmonized perfectly, and the short-haired man and the maid serving as Knut's aides rolled their eyes back and went completely limp.
"I will say it once more. Uncle, please step down."
Amid the unnaturally dead silence, Gil delivered his ultimatum, to which Knut snapped his fingers without expression. The moment Tetor and Somni released them, the two aides woke up, shook their heads, and rose to their feet.
"We're leaving."
Issuing that order to the two aides who were still in a daze, Knut left the great hall.
"It seems your backing has departed; what will the rest of you do?"
Prompted by Gilbert's question, the high nobles of the Holy Amelia Kingdom looked around, finally understanding the meaning of the gazes directed at them, and hurriedly vacated the premises as well.
"Now then, since the matter appears to be settled, let us conduct the sanctioning rite for the founding of Fiesta."
At this non-negotiable call from Inea, no one raised an objection—no, no one could. Even the Hero Mashiro remained seated, staring with an expression of shock without moving so much as a fingertip.
"Are you ready, King Edward?"
"A-Ah, yes, of course. Let us resume the ceremony."
Edward nodded to Inea, and the ceremony resumed without further incident.