Ore wa Mada, Honki o Dashite Inai - CH 45

Aristocratic Power 9999

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

In the audience hall, a messenger came from the kingdom today.

“It’s His Majesty’s secret order”

Though he looks like a man, his voice is high-pitched and uses feminine words.

Even though his skeleton is definitely that of a man, he doesn’t have a beard or an Adam’s apple……. a eunuch* huh. (TN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunuch)

Eunuchs are those who are most closely connected to the king’s private life in the so-called inner palace(harem).

I had an unpleasant feeling about the “secret order” he brought.

However, it’s hard to disobey it.

“Don’t make a difficult face, just take this first.”

The eunuch smiled suspiciously, and opened the letter which was sealed.

When I received it, I felt some power.

“Mu……”

“You understand”

“What does this mean?”

“It’s a light seal, and since it’s a secret order, it can’t be opened by anyone other than the person himself. I am the deliverer, and you are the recipient. It has a mechanism that automatically vanishes itself when touched by other humans.”

“I see”

I nodded, but I was getting more and more worn out.

I can’t imagine what kind of trouble it would be; a secret order that would bring out such a seal.

However, the hard part is that I can’t go against it―― I think I said the same thing a while ago.

“Haa……”

I let out a small sigh and open the envelope.

The seal was of the Aegina Kingdom style.

Only the king and each nobleman had been given the method of opening its seal. (TN: it was this)

In short, only the king and the heads of the nobility have a pass key; it has a seal like that.

I’ll open it using the method I was taught when I assumed the headship.

Of course, I could open this kind of seal with all my might, but that would have been the beginning of trouble, so I didn’t do that.

I took out the contents, which had a lingering scent of magic power.

It was a letter, so I read it.

The first half of the letter is a rhetorical flourish without content, which is a preference of royalty and nobility.

I skip it and read only the text.

“Aristocratic power?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“They measure and rate that aristocratic power …… Why would they do that again?”

“Have you ever heard of the Seven Great Thieves?”

“I’ve heard of the Seven Orthia, though.”

“Ara, is that so”

The eunuch official chuckled like a woman.

I got goose bumps a little, but I put up with it.

“That’s particularly fine, since it’s basically the same thing. The seven Orthias, the most popular prostitutes on the continent in ratings. Certainly, they attach points on that as well”

“Ah”

I don’t know why they attach something like that, but it’s in the form of a ranking, and their rating is in the form of points.

I heard that all seven of them were quite beautiful, and that they were booked up for the next three years.

By the way, that Orthia which I favored so much is 97th in the recent ranking.

I don’t know if it’s high or low, but I’m told there are at least 10,000 prostitutes who called themselves Orthia, so it must be high.

Well, whatever.

“It’s the same as that. It’s not about the points, but about the bounty rankings of the Seven Great Thieves; His Majesty is very fond of it. It’s exciting to watch, is what he said.”

“I see”

I don’t understand that feeling.

“That’s why, we would measure the aristocratic power of all the noblemen in the kingdom and rate them.”

I understand the story.

But, I can’t get on board with that.

Even if it was a secret order, the person who would take the ranking can’t just end up enjoying himself.

I’m sure someone will show it off, and it will eventually leak out.

Hence, let’s suppress it.

I don’t know how I’m going to be evaluated, but I’ll deceive them using less power.

I’ll be serious about this.

I may be contradicting myself, but I’m going to seriously suppress my abilities.

Here we go, I’ll do it seriously from here.

To do that, I need to start in gathering information.

I, asked the eunuch a question.

“What am I supposed to do. You know, that measuring the aristocratic power”

“It’s fine, it’s already over”

“……Eh?”

Wha,what do you mean?

“Kusukusu, you’ve just had a change of color in your eyes after listening to that. It was eager, those eyes”

“Mu”

Was I seen through.

It was certainly so.

I made up my mind that I would “seriously suppress my abilities”.

It has a different meaning than usual, but there’s no change in me being enthusiastic.

“His Majesty also said this, when they hear the story, everyone will be eager to get a high score. That’s why it’s best to measure it before they can understand the story.”

“Before I understand the story ―― hah!”

Pah, I stared at the letter I had in my hand.

Strictly speaking, it’s the envelope containing the sealed letter.

Sealed.

“……Don’t tell me”

“Yes, the act of solving the seal is the measurement.”

“Ugh!”

“By the way, the result will be sent to His Majesty immediately.”

“Ofooh!”

They got me…….

I was disappointed to see that my eagerness had been a letdown, and my shoulders slumped crestfallenly.

I never thought, they were ahead of me.

“Don’t be so downhearted. After His Majesty confirms the result, it will be sent to the messengers who are like me―― Ara, it’s already here.”

“Ooh……”

That means, it’s after the King saw it…… it’s too late.

The eunuch took out a sheet of paper from his sleeve, and I could see from a distance that the letters emerged from the paper, which was tinged with magic power.

It was a real-time transmission system huh.

The eunuch official saw it.

“Ara ara, I didn’t see that coming.”

“Wha,what’s the result?”

“Tania Chichiakis-sama, the Secluded Duke, who was the number one until now, has fallen to number two.”

“……That means”

Gokuri, I gulped.

“Congratulations”

I was congratulated by the eunuch.

I,I’m not happy.

I wouldn’t be happy that I won first place, because I couldn’t cheat and deceived them.

“In terms of points, Chichiakis-sama was 371 ―― eh?”

“Eh?”

The eunuch rounded his eyes.

Until now, he was like “Ara ara” and had a completely calm and composed speech, but this “eh” was obviously of a different quality; it was a surprise.

“Wha,what’s wrong?”

“……Canoe-sama, what kind of cheating did you do? No, it should be impossible to cheat on what His Majesty had the Wise Man prepared.”

“Wha,what do you mean?”

I had been talking at a distance (partly because I was dealing with a eunuch), but I approached him (?) and looked at the paper.

The characters that emerged from the paper are ――

“Hermes Canoe ……9999……”

After seeing that, I also vacantly, stiffened.

“Why didn’t you set the limit to 3 digits!”

Then, I did a tsukomi that was so off-point that I sighed afterwards.