By Zephyria At Alec’s answer, Leonardo also tilted his head. His eyebrows furrowed slightly. At that strange expression, Alec laughed as if he was amused and added.
“If I had seen her in person, wouldn’t I already be dead?”
Kenneth, who heard him, also looked puzzled.
In fact, Leonardo had been thinking deeply about the system of this peninsula that Alec had mentioned throughout the move. If the demon beasts followed and were led by the Queen’s pheromones, he thought that the existence of that Queen might be a means to quickly end the subjugation.
But hearing that answer, he began to have a fundamental question about the concept of the Queen again.
“Then where did the concept of the Queen of the demon beasts first come from? And how do you know about it?”
“……”
“In the first place, isn’t it only possible to know that this Eldermilli Peninsula is structured similarly to a bee’s system after confirming the existence of the Queen? You wouldn’t have been convinced that there was such a thing just because the concept of the Queen was the only thing that could explain the cause of the suddenly appearing Deformed species, would you?”
At Leonardo’s sharp question, Kenneth blinked and looked back and forth between the two. Come to think of it, he also wondered how he knew of her existence if he hadn’t seen her directly, and how he was so sure.
As Kenneth’s suspicious gaze, who had been persuaded, turned to him, Alec laughed in disbelief as if it was starting again.
“Because I saw a historical record that the Queen exists.”
But Leonardo asked as if he found it difficult to understand.
“What historical record? This peninsula has always been designated as a restricted area, so there are hardly any official records left. You saw a historical record that even I, no, even the Council that came to subjugate, doesn’t know about?”
“Could I be so specific about a story that doesn’t exist? Of course, it’s because I saw something.”
Alec pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses that had slipped down and scratched his nose. He seemed to be contemplating what to say.
“Hmm, let’s see… where should I start….”
He said casually, but he just started walking ahead again, and for a while, he couldn’t give a specific answer.
Kenneth had doubts about whether all the stories Alec had brought up earlier were false, but he was confused because there were too many things that fit together perfectly to make such a judgment.
As Alec continued to worry, he suddenly stopped walking and turned around. The expression he faced was the most serious he had ever seen, and then he opened his mouth very carefully, as if he was about to start a dangerous story.
“I’d be arrested immediately if I told this story anywhere else, but it’s okay because this is a peninsula with no one listening, right?”
Leonardo’s eyebrows twitched slightly. He wondered what he was going to say that he was laying the groundwork like that. Although the tone was light, Alec’s words contained a stronger meaning of keeping it a secret than ever before.
Kenneth, who was listening with him, nodded blankly. Only after confirming Leonardo’s eyes that he would keep it a secret did Alec open his mouth again.
“Did you guys read a lot of fairy tales when you were young?”
“…Yes?”
Kenneth replied as if questioning the sudden topic.
“Fairy tales all of a sudden?”
“Do you know any stories among the fairy tales? A story with no dreams or hope where a hero went to defeat the southern witch who eats people, but he was only able to seal her because he didn’t have enough power and ran away, but unknowingly, he was already cursed by the witch and eventually died not long after.”
He was nervous in his own way, but when the story of fairy tales suddenly came out, Leonardo frowned, wondering what this was all about.
Moreover, fairy tales from his childhood were quite distant from him, who had lived an uneven life, so he had no idea what Alec was talking about.
However, unlike him, Kenneth seemed to know the story.
“Oh…, I know that. I think I saw it when I was young.”
“Didn’t you think it was a little strange while watching it? I wondered if this was a fairy tale made for children to see. There’s no lesson in the story, no lesson.”
“Yes, it was a bit like that… but I saw it when I was so young that I didn’t really think much about it….”
“Stop talking nonsense, so what does that have to do with what I asked? You’re not going to say that a fairy tale for children is a historical record that proves the existence of the Queen, are you?”
Leonardo interrupted the conversation and cut it off. Alec Siles, whom he had seen so far, tended to speak in riddles on purpose. Therefore, if he didn’t correct the topic in the middle, it was clear that he would go around in circles again until he got the desired answer.
Alec just smiled at him for a moment.
“The reason why that’s so strange is because it wasn’t originally made for the purpose of a fairy tale. It’s also an unnatural story that’s been intentionally distorted, and especially founding myths often express things that aren’t people by personifying them.”
He shrugged his shoulders and continued to speak.
“As a result, it’s spread in such a distorted form that no one knows what it actually represents.”
“…A founding myth? Then that’s a founding myth?”
Kenneth’s eyes widened.
There were many parts of the records related to the founding of Laina Rogia that were uniquely lost, so the causal relationship and facts of the events remained unclear. That’s why so many historians were so saddened by these lost parts.
In the midst of all this, the fact that the content known to the world only as a fairy tale was actually part of the founding myth was a shocking story in a similar context to the fork used at home being an ancient artifact that historians had been searching for.
However, Alec shook his head and answered Kenneth’s question.
“Strictly speaking, that’s a distorted novel based on the founding myth, which was made like a founding myth for the legitimacy of the later Monarch. Therefore, the interpretation of the symbolic parts is different for each person, and it’s not clear where the facts are and where the fiction is, so it’s not recognized as an official historical record and has only been passed down orally.”
He continued to explain, holding up his clenched fists at the eye level of the two as an example.
“Therefore, it didn’t even reach the process of verifying historical value or ideological censorship, and as a result, no one knew what it originally meant, and it was just left as a children’s fairy tale.”
Soon after, as Alec’s hand took a motion as if flying into the sky, the two who were watching the scene were silent for a while. It was because it was not well understood what Alec wanted to say.
Alec stared at the two of them, then turned back and continued walking down the road, saying as if he was frankly revealing everything.
“I said earlier, ‘If the King dies and disappears or doesn’t function properly, then those who aren’t Kings act like Kings.’”
“……”
“It’s a story related to that. In fact, what I was really researching was that.”
What Alec was researching was not the demon beasts that were acting like Kings in place of the peninsula’s King. The peninsula’s demon beasts were just one of the many roots that he had learned about while researching ‘that’.
The story that Alec brought out next made them understand at once why he had to lay the groundwork in advance and speak carefully while being conscious of the listeners.
Even though there is now more freedom of thought than before, it was still quite difficult to say such a story openly. It was because what came out of his mouth was such a clear insult to the Imperial Family.
He compared the current Imperial Family of this Laina Rogia to those ‘guys who act like Kings’. To be precise, he was talking about the Imperial Family after the first Emperor passed away and the direct lineage was cut off, and the heir to the throne was changed several times.
The first Emperor of Laina Rogia, Theodore Ragnarvaldr Laina, was also the last King of the Laina Dynasty before building the current Empire that integrated the two countries, Laina and Rogia.
However, opinions on whether he should be recognized as the first Emperor were still divided, because his reign was so short that it was difficult to see that it had a significant impact on the Empire after its founding.
The Laina Royal Family had taken consanguineous marriage for granted in order to maintain the external symbols and powerful Magic Power passed down through the bloodline, and as a result, they suffered from heart disease due to genetic diseases and had a relatively short lifespan.
And Theodore, who was said to be the most powerful King and Emperor of the time, could not avoid it either, and he died of heart disease not long after building the Empire, without leaving an heir.
After that, his short reign as Emperor and the absence of an heir coincided, and there were many conflicting opinions on who should be appointed as the next heir to the throne.
At the time, there were many opinions that the King of Rogia, who had made a peace agreement with Theodore in the process of integrating the two countries and was recognized as Grand Duke, should rise to the position of the new Emperor, but as a result, a collateral relative using the same surname as Theodore inherited the throne and maintained the lineage of the Imperial Family.
However, the parts recording the detailed process up to this result have been lost, so it is not known exactly what the situation was like at that time.
And Alec explained that in the case of the Imperial Dynasty that has been continued like this, it must prove the legitimacy of the succession to the throne, so it shows a form that strengthens the Imperial Power and checks internal and external forces. And he said that what was created as a result was the current Laina Rogia’s Imperial Power-centered political situation, which is said to have no roots.
Kenneth, who was listening to the story, unknowingly looked at Leonardo’s reaction. He was very worried about how he, who had been the Empire’s most brilliant Silver Arm until just three years ago, would react to this story.
However, unlike Kenneth’s concerns, Leonardo did not show any particular reaction and listened quietly to Alec’s words.
But in fact, his inner self was very embarrassed.