Chapter 85 A Deduction Laced with Personal Grudges
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
I received an invitation to the private chambers of Princess Liliana—the one hailed as the “Angel of the Asgard Kingdom.”
And while I waited in that room for its owner to arrive——the room exploded.
Ten to one, the culprit was Princess Liliana herself——wearing that angel’s skin. But not a single shred of proof existed.
”Princess Liliana! Don’t get any closer! Please, stand back!”
Her personal knight, Serena Crystalight, was trying to pull Princess Liliana away from the room—now reduced to rubble—in case any danger remained. Judging by her worried expression, she seemed to have nothing to do with the explosion.
If my deduction was correct and Liliana was the true culprit, then the trap she’d set was only this initial explosion. She’d apparently believed that one blast would be enough to finish me off.
There wouldn’t be a second or third arrow——
I could safely assume that much.
Because she was the one who set the trap, she could now stand nearby at ease, leisurely observing the results of her handiwork.
…Not that it mattered, but could someone please show a little concern for me already? I’d transferred all the damage to the goblin, so I was completely unharmed. Still, the room smelled terribly of smoke and burnt wood—gunpowder and charred timber stung my nostrils—and I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Though without a proper excuse, I couldn’t just leave.
While these thoughts ran through my head, I remained seated—with deliberate composure—on the only piece of furniture still standing: a chair.
And then——with a flourish, a new arrival appeared.
”What in the world happened here?!”
The voice that rang out belonged to none other than Princess Liliana’s elder brother, the First Prince of this kingdom——Liam. It seemed he’d happened to be inside the royal palace at the time.
”Brother! Oh my, someone has blown up my room!”
”Wha—What?! Who would commit such an atrocity?!”
Liam was shocked and flustered by the news. One of his usual attendants caught sight of me sitting among the rubble and immediately cried out as if he’d identified the culprit.
”Hmph! You! Grimlock! What are you doing in Princess Liliana’s chambers?! Aha—so YOU’RE the culprit behind this!!”
It was Prince Liam’s aide——the blue-haired brainy type, Elliot Valias——who had loudly “deduced” that I was the criminal.
(…What in the world is this idiot saying?)
I let out a heavy mental sigh. In this situation, no rational person would think I was the culprit.
——But.
Prince Liam actually fell for Elliot’s ridiculous deduction, hook, line, and sinker.
”I never thought you’d go after my dear sister’s life…! I’m disappointed in you, Xenos Grimlock!”
And then——even Liliana herself, who should have been the one who planted the bomb, played along as the tragic heroine.
”Oh my… I only wanted to prepare a meeting for the sake of peace… How could you do something so terrible…?”
No, I mean——the one who blew up this room was you, right?
”Regardless, get this dangerous man to the dungeons at once! Guards, what are you doing?!”
Elliot ordered the arriving guards to arrest me.
…Was there truly no one but fools in this royal palace?
”OBJECTION!!”
I shouted in a slightly louder voice and stopped the guards who were creeping closer.
As a cool, mysterious villain, I didn’t particularly want to defend myself. But if things continued like this, I really might end up thrown in jail on false charges.
——That, at least, I needed to avoid.
”Even if I were the culprit——just what would you say my motive was?”
I asked the foolish onlookers surrounding me.
”Motive? That’s obvious! The assassination of my sister, Liliana!”
Prince Liam declared with utter confidence.
”If that were the case, then blowing up this room while the princess herself was absent would be completely nonsensical, wouldn’t it?”
”Hmph…! Th-That’s… true, I suppose… Then if the culprit is someone else, their objective must have been… perhaps you were the target?”
Good. I’d successfully guided him.
”That’s the only logical conclusion.”
”But why? With your ‘Zero Mana,’ there shouldn’t be any reason for someone to go out of their way to kill you… Why, exactly?”
Prince Liam casually said something remarkably rude.
…Could you at least wrap that in some tact, Your Highness?
No——before pointing out his rudeness, I needed to clear my name first.
The real reason Liliana wanted to kill me was——because I’d been dragging her beloved sister Elenor around as I pleased. Or perhaps because she held a grudge against me for opposing her brother Liam over a certain woman.
Something along those lines, most likely.
Where a young girl like her had gotten such information, and from whom—that question remained.
But there was indeed a reason for her to specifically call me out and kill me.
…That said, I couldn’t exactly say that outright here.
”Motive, you say. …For example, if I——who had received an invitation from Princess Liliana——were to be killed by someone inside the royal palace, then the radical factions who wanted the war to continue would be overjoyed.”
I presented a plausible, inoffensive reason.
Elliot immediately seized on it.
”Then the culprit is indeed the pro-war faction! In other words, YOU, Grimlock! You carried out a suicide bombing in this royal palace to prolong the war!”
”What?!”
”Grimlock-sama… For such a dreadful purpose, you turned my favorite room into this tragic wreck…”
The conversation had come full circle.
How could I logically convince these foolish royals and their aide?
Just as I was racking my brain, help came from a surprising direction.
Princess Liliana’s personal knight——Serena Crystalight.
”Please wait. For Grimlock-sama to have blown up this room, he would have needed a large quantity of explosives, or an extremely high-level Fire-attribute sorcery. But as you all know, Grimlock-sama’s mana is zero. Additionally, Grimlock-sama arrived at the royal palace today completely empty-handed. It would have been impossible for him to smuggle in explosives of that scale without anyone noticing.”
She was far more thoughtful and calm than Elliot, who was supposed to be the smart type.
”Having an ‘outsider’ plant explosives in the royal palace in advance would be even more difficult.”
”Hmm… Then the culprit must indeed be someone else…”
Prince Liam sank into thought. Beside him, Elliot gritted his teeth, looking very embarrassed.
”Gh… Gghhh…!!”
…Anyway, I really wanted to get up from this chair and get out of this smoke-filled room already.
Someone, please give me a reason to stand up.
I truly felt that from the bottom of my heart.
—
Summary:
The protagonist receives an invitation from Princess Liliana, only to have the room explode while he waits, deducing she is the culprit without evidence. Prince Liam and Elliot arrive, with Elliot falsely accusing the protagonist, and Liam falls for the deduction despite how illogical it is. As the situation escalates with Liliana playing victim and the protagonist nearly arrested, Serena provides a smart defense based on his Zero Mana status, shifting suspicion away from him.
—
Trivia:
Princess Liliana is the one who blew up her own room to assassinate the protagonist.
The protagonist survived the explosion by transferring all damage to his summoned goblin.
Serena Crystalight is the only character with an intellectual defense that saves the protagonist from false accusation.
The protagonist’s “Zero Mana” status is a major factor in proving his inability to have caused the explosion.
Liliana’s motive involves her sister Elenor and her brother Liam’s conflict with the protagonist.
The chapter ends with the protagonist waiting for someone to give him an excuse to leave the ruined room.
Notes:
• Liliana – Known as the “Angel of the Asgard Kingdom” for her golden hair and sky-blue eyes, this princess is the younger sister of Prince Liam and Elenor. While maintaining a refined, angelic public facade, she is a manipulative mastermind who wields explosion magic. As Serena’s liege and the true culprit behind recent assassination attempts, she carefully hides her dark nature behind whispered, noble asides.
• Lilia – Xenos’s fiercely loyal, trauma-resilient Head Maid is a lovely, pale, busty woman with long dark hair, a chest tattoo, and a nullified crest. Dressed in a black uniform, she maintains refined, icy elegance when disciplining others, especially Elenor. While formal and efficient with guests, she masks deep, jealous anxiety for Xenos, finding her greatest joy in serving him and sleeping by his side.
• Serena – A member of the noble Crystalight family, this competent and intellectual knight serves as the personal protector to Princess Liliana. Distinguished by long silver hair and elegant, noble bearing, they maintain a formal and deferential demeanor. Despite their professional composure, they are genuinely concerned for the Princess and are easily flustered by unexpected advances.
• Liam – Liam Asgard, the golden-haired, emerald-eyed First Prince of Asgard, is Liliana’s older brother and the liege of Elliot and Aldrick. Betrothed to Elisabeth, he is an arrogant yet fundamentally kind man who speaks with elegant grace. Though he underestimates his rival Xenos’s Zero Mana status, he shows consideration toward him, even as his obsessive pursuit of Cecilia threatens his political standing.
• Grimlock – Xenos’s family name.
• Elliot – Elliot Valias, a tall, slender, blue-haired noble and intellectual aide to Prince Liam, masks his deep, unrequited love for Elenor with crude, condescending arrogance. A pseudo-intellectual prone to quick accusations, he harbors murderous, freezing hostility toward Xenos Grimlock, driven by intense jealousy over Xenos’s intimacy with Elenor.
• Elenor – Princess Elenor, the haughty, analytical “Saint of Light” and sister to Liliana, is a silver-blonde swordswoman and healer with gray-blue eyes. Though a noble princess and Grimlock’s fiancée, she is the protagonist’s submissive, magic-sealed slave. A tsundere torn between royal dignity and affection for Xenos, she balances sharp retorts with intense devotion, often appearing in revealing cosplay.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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