The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War ~And Thus, I Became The Strongest Knight Disciple (♀) in The World~-Novel

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「Well, unlike that piece of junk, it is not of my taste to dwell in the vulgarity of having several parallel entities at the same time! I alone am myself, always.」

Would that mean that it was safe to assume that the current Abel was operating because the previous Abel was killed by Black Mask of the Ironblood Chain Brigade?

And, judging from his demeanor, it seemed that he kept the memories of his previous instance.

Just how did that work, Inglis had no clue. But, either way…

「……Is that so? I do think that having one more of ourselves would be much more convenient, however…」

「……Inglis. I am afraid that we have to agree to disagree. But, that is fine, as that means at least one of us is serious!」

「How rude. You made it sound like I don’t take things seriously!」

「Not that I can deny it!」

「Deny it, Rani!」

「I won’t! However, everything, ever since the attack on the town of Lekrea, has been your doing! You really are rotten to the core! You are the one who can’t take anything seriously the most!」

「Hah. What childish logic!」

Abel was completely unfazed by Rafinha’s anger and sneered at her.

「Wh-, what……?!」

「Don’t you get it? Tactics are not dependent on the quality of an individual’s character. You can’t even understand that, that’s why I’m saying you’re childish!」

「Ugh……!」

It was Rafinha who flinched instead, so Inglis spoke up.

「So I assume that outside circumstances compelled you to devise this ploy… political reasons, perhaps? Like, say, an established pact with the Three Archdukes’ Party, your opposing political party, that prevents the entirety of Highland from invading the Midland, or something to that effect…」

「He doesn’t seem like he’s being prevented at all, though!?」

「On the field, he isn’t. However, he cannot do anything like sending in waves of troops from the Highland to conquer the Midland, regardless of whether he actually wants to do it or not. And this time, it is the Kingdom of Alucard that has sent a request for aid, and thus he merely responded to the call, on paper. Although, this Kingdom was actually pretty much driven to do so. What is happening on the paper and on the field is different most of the time. This is what you call a pretext. Isn’t that right, Lord Abel?」

「Hmph……!」

Abel only snorted, neither denying nor confirming. Not too far off the mark, perhaps?

「However, you sure have fallen for it too!」

「What……!?」

「Rani purposely said those words to fish out intel out of your own mouth now that you’re engrossed in victory. Thanks to you, I managed to compile an approximate guess.」

That was, in fact, completely untrue. However, as a guardian, Inglis couldn’t just overlook it. She was compelled to defend Rafinha. She did it because she couldn’t not do it.

「Th-, that’s right! You’re the one who fell for it! Hook, line, and sinker! Bleeh!」

「Kgh!」

「And of course, your real target is Dragon God Vufailbane who was slumbering here… I don’t know what are you planning to do to him, but now I know that the Highland has some information regarding the Dragon God.」

It was King Inglis himself who sealed Dragon God Vufailbane in this land. That story must have been passed down from generation to generation, and then remained as information in the Highland.

Inglis had no idea what happened in the between, but if she went to the Highland, she might be able to learn about the subsequent history of the Kingdom of Silvair which she personally built. How interesting.

「Hold on! How come you know that name?! That is a piece of information that only a handful few are allowed to have access to even in the Highland!」

「Simple. Vufailbane himself told me his name.」

Of course, the truth was because she knew from the beginning, but this answer was the most agreeable. She wasn’t actively hiding her memories from her previous life, but it would be a long story to tell, so she’d just leave it at that.

「You heard the voice of the Dragon God?」

「I do. We have been working out our relationship far before Lord Abel has come to this land.」

「Yeah, he’s finally opening up to us, so we won’t let you do bad things to him!」

「You dare say that when you tie him up and leave him out in the open! He is a most important being for the Highland! What insolence!! Which of you has done something so terrible?!!」

「Ugh?! G-, Glis! Say something back!」

「Fufufu…I cannot defend myself with that statement, it is exactly as you think it is.」

That was the only way to deal with Vufailbane.

「R-, right! We can’t exactly make any excuse for that.」

「I-, indeed……We can only do one thing, that is to admit what we’ve done!」

Leone and Liselotte were also cold-sweating.

「I will save the Dragon God you have persecuted! If you feel even the slightest bit guilty, then just shut up and watch!」

「Well, I will do just that then.」

「Hey, Glis?!」

「I mean, that’s how he put it. Don’t you feel a little bad for Vufailbane too?」

「W-, well……but, Abel must have something up to no good for Mr. Dragon too. I’m sure what he is going to do won’t make Mr. Dragon happy.」

「You don’t need to worry about that. I will take care of it if anything happens. Okay? Okay? Let’s watch them over just a little bit more, okay?」

「……In the end, you’re just looking forward to it, aren’t you? Like, you want them to team up to attack you, for example.」

「……I promise I’ll show you an impressive battle, okay?」

「GLIS!! Can’t you at least hide it or deceive me a bit better?!」

「Owch owch! Hyop idh, Wyani!」

「Come on you two, this is no time to play around!」

「The dragon is waking up!」

Leona and Liselotte stopped Inglis and Rafinha. Perhaps at Abel’s discretion, something like a long, thin arm extended out from the body of the fake Prisma, untying the dragon-scale chains that restrained Vufailbane.