Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

“Now this is a surprise! To think that someone who despises commoners like you would praise Alan like that.”

“Your Majesty, I do not really despise the commoners. I merely despise those who are incompetent and useless. Lord Corinth is a very talented young man. I do admire him a great deal.

Oh, yes, how about this? Why not temporarily appoint Lord Corinth as the Lord Protector while he is working on subduing the bandits?”

After hearing the prime minister’s suggestion, some of the other nobles burst into indignant screams.

“……Prime Minister, are you seriously suggesting something so outrageous? Even if two positions are now currently vacant, you intend to let a mere baron take over the duties of one of them?”

“Ah, it seems that my words were lacking. Of course, his authority will be limited to matters involving the subjugation of bandits. And like I mentioned earlier, the position will only be granted to him temporarily.”

(Iris, what exactly is a Lord Protector?)

『I’m not sure due to insufficient data, but it seems to be a position with a fairly high jurisdiction.』

Hou, so there was a position like that huh. Lord Protector. Hmm. Sounds pretty good. Even if it’s only temporary, being granted a position like that would allow us to make a lot of progress in bandit hunting.

“……Interesting. If the prime minister says so, then there is no reason for me to object. Fine. I now bestow upon you the Lord Protector’s shield.”

What’s this about a shield? As I puzzled over what the young king meant, ten chamberlains appeared out of nowhere and brought a ladder with them. Using the ladder, they began to lower one of the two small shields that were hanging on top of the wall behind the attending guests. It looks like they were pretty valuable items.

The chamberlains immediately brought the shield forward and handed it over to me, so I reached out to receive it just like how I received my coat of arms earlier.

“Sir Alan Corinth, I hereby appoint you as this kingdom’s Lord Protector.”

“Yes, Your Majesty! I will endeavor to live up to your lofty expectations!”

I gave the young king a deep bow. I tried to exaggerate my reactions as much as possible to make them seem more dramatic. I wonder if going this far wasn’t overdoing it?

When I looked up to see his reaction, the king was in the middle of nodding toward the marquis.

“With this, the title conferment ceremony is over.”

When the prime minister declared the end of the ceremony, the king swung his cloak back and left the venue.

As soon as the king was out of sight, the attending nobles started to discuss with each other noisily.

When the marquis approached me, I hurriedly got down and knelt.

“Lord Corinth, you do not need to kneel before me. We are already both nobles of this kingdom. We are now comrades who serve His Majesty, the king.”

Even if he said so, we were still of different ranks, so I continued to kneel on one knee.

“Thank you for your vote of confidence and support earlier, My Lord.”

“Think nothing of it. I am looking forward to how you’ll do, Lord Corinth.”

The marquis gave me an amiable-looking smile and walked away soon after. Whew. Actually, he was way too amiable, so it felt kinda uncomfortable.

After the marquis left, other nobles started to approach me.

“Oh, I have finally managed to meet you in person, Lord Corinth.”

“Congratulations, Lord Corinth.”

“Thank you very much, everyone.”

They each introduced themselves and offered their congratulations.

Apparently, the only ones greeting me and offering their congratulations were the barons and knights. The other higher-ranked nobles were just watching us from a distance while talking among themselves.

Well, this was probably just natural since I was a commoner until just a little while ago.

Of course, I had Nanom record all the names of the nobles who introduced themselves to me, and before long, name tags were displayed on top of their heads.

“Congratulations, Lord Corinth.”

It was Baron Volker Herring who came forward to greet me next. He seemed quite happy for me and displayed a cheerful smile.

“Oh, Baron Herring. Thank you very much. You and I are finally comrades now.”

“I did not think you would become the Lord Protector as well. I was really surprised.”

“Actually, I was too. It still hasn’t sunk in even now.”

“My Lord, it won’t do to continue having your chat with Lord Corinth at this place. Let us move to the dinner banquet venue first.”

“Oh, that’s right. Well then, let us make our way over the dinner venue, Lord Corinth. I shall show you the way.”

“Thank you very much.”

Two castle chamberlains approached us and offered to carry the shield and coat of arms for me, so I handed them over. Apparently, they would be following after us while carrying the items. They were pretty thoughtful folks huh.

The venue for the dinner banquet was on the castle’s fourth floor, which means it was one floor below the ceremony hall. When we arrived, I saw that the venue was another needlessly huge room with three twenty-meter long tables lined up within.

One pretty fancy-looking table with gaudy decorations that could probably seat ten or so people was placed at the very head of the hall. That table was probably meant for people from the royal family.

It seems that the seating order was decided based according to one’s position, but I was an exception. I was led to a spot near the table reserved for the royal family and was told to sit there.

As soon as all the attending nobles had taken their seats, five people who seemed to be members of the royal family came inside the venue. All the nobles stood up and knelt all at once.

“Everyone, this dinner banquet is to celebrate the new start of our kingdom’s latest baron. Let us put aside rank for tonight and enjoy ourselves freely.”

After the king’s words, everyone returned to their seats.

I should note that when the king said we would put aside rank tonight, he did not mean that in the truest sense.

They would merely overlook a little informal behavior to a certain extent they deemed acceptable. If you get carried away, it won’t be pretty.

When everyone was all seated once more, the chamberlains came in and poured wine into everyone’s glasses. After all the attendee’s glasses were filled, the prime minister stood up and raised his own wine glass.

“Well then, a toast to our kingdom’s latest baron, Lord Corinth!”

“”Cheers!””

After performing a slight bow, I sipped some of the white wine that was poured for me. But the moment I did so, my vision was filled with red.

What the heck?

『A lethal dose of poison has been detected. Please do not swallow the liquid substance for the time being.』

(What did you say!? Poison!?)

『Yes. Activating countermeasures to prevent the absorption of hazardous components. Twenty seconds to completion.』

(Am I gonna be okay!?)

『Yes.』

(……My HUD is displaying a sea of red though?)

『It is to indicate that we are currently in emergency mode.』

Before long, my vision finally returned to normal. So there was a mode like this huh. It was my first time experiencing it. Well, it was my first time drinking poison as well though.

The white wine was spiked with poison huh. I see. So an assassination attempt through poisoning, is it? Well, I expected something like this to happen to some extent, but I didn’t think it would come this early.

『It is now alright to drink the wine.』

I proceeded to swallow down the wine inside my mouth. It didn’t taste particularly strange and was even rather delicious.

(Is it okay to drink more wine?)

『There is no problem. Most of the poison can already be handled adequately. The harmful components shall be quarantined and ejected outside the body later.』

So the poison can’t be completely neutralized? I got chills just from thinking that lethal doses of poison were actually now being stored inside my body.

(Is the poison quick-acting?)

『It is a type with delayed effects. If left alone, the host would die from the poison approximately thirty minutes later.』

So that’s it. The only thing laced with poison was probably the white wine. They wanted to avoid an overt poisoning incident so they went about it this way huh.

If things went as they planned, I would probably die while happily chatting with the other guests.

They would definitely check the food and drinks for any anomalies.

I guess they’re angling for death due to illness or something like that.

They really planned things out well huh.

I continued drinking the wine and eventually met gazes with the prime minister. He seemed to be in a very good mood and, smiled, and slightly nodded toward me.

I, of course, smiled back.

Yeah. This guy was definitely the culprit. According to the brief status report by Selena and Sharon, it seems this shady guy actually led this kingdom’s former prime minister into a trap, replaced him, and sent him to be imprisoned.

That’s not enough to determine his hand in my attempted poisoning, of course. But his attitude toward me was really a far cry from when I first met him. I can at least assert that he was one of the prime suspects.