"How is it, Paladin? As you can see, the first Princess is a fair maiden."
This man named Cassius was nuts. He was as sly as a fox, and his tongue danced like a snake, just like Sana's description.
For his profit, he didn't even bat an eyelid to sell his daughter. Virtue Kingdom? The King of this nation was not Virtue at all. Humilitas family? What the hell was that? This man was far from humble. Avaritia – Greed – might suit his family better.
I really wanted to draw the sword on my waist and slash his head off his body. But he would be able to revive tomorrow and only lose 1 Level. What a shame.
The Princess also looked at me with her fake smile. It was about to crumble when she heard her father's proposal. Was it not discussed beforehand? Maybe I could use this.
I knew the Princess' hidden personality. Even if my memories of the game failed me a bit, her strange behavior was really famous among the players.
And right now, I plan to use that to my advantage.
"Unfortunately, I don't think the opportunity allows it, King Cassius," I replied to him with a confident smile.
This time, I needed to show him that I wasn't all talk and that I wasn't na?ve. This person needed to see what kind of person I was before he bothered me again in the future.
One thing I hated was being disrespected. I didn't hate being looked down upon; I had experienced that.
The King only thought of me as a youth who coincidentally passed the Paladin test, unlike Sana, who had respected me since we first met.
"What do you mean, Paladin?" His tone changed. I could detect a surprise in it.
He hadn't expected me to give him such an answer. Did he think I was a doll to manipulate? If so, then he was wrong.
"I am planning to pursue my education in the Academy and serve the church as Goddess Teri's vanguard," I explained to him without changing my expression.
Of course, that was a lie. I only attended Royal Academy to get close to four people, and I didn't have any plan to become a fictional Goddess' vanguard.
"I have already surrendered my body for the sake of the Goddess. So marriage is impossible. Please understand my situation." I continued while flashing the biggest smile.
King Cassius' expression almost crumbled. I looked at the Princess and noticed she smiled. It wasn't a fake smile like before. However, it wasn't directed to me. The cause was me, but her smile only widened when she saw her father in trouble.
But then, the King's gaze also changed. I looked at the middle-aged King, who was looking at me. There was a bit of respect now in that gaze. I didn't really understand his character yet, but it seemed like he was a good King.
To be able to change his perspective in such a short time needed something extra from a person.
On the other hand, the Princess could not contain her blissful expression. It spilled right in front of her fake sad smile.
"Father, let's respect his wish." Princess Carissa added.
Like her father, she was able to change her expression rather quickly. But it was a fake one, not an honest one. Hidden beneath that was a joy that she didn't need to marry me.
"We will bother Sir Paladin more if we ask more than this."
'Fucking yandere father-loving Princess.' I cursed her in my mind. 'Selling the nation to a guy she didn't even love to sleep with her father. What a psycho.'
That was why I was wary of this Princess and destroyed Adam on the second day. This Princess didn't care about the nation or the protagonist and could spit nonsense anytime she wanted. She only used the protagonist's power to get what she wanted, her broken father.
'Poor King Cassius and Adam from the game.'
"I see." King Cassius nodded at his daughter's words. "Let's just forget that, then. Let's talk about the contract we agreed on a year ago, Archbishop Sana. Of course, feel free to give your input in our conversation, Sir Paladin."
"Yes, of course," I responded with the friendliest smile I could muster.
We began talking about the church and government relationship, which was apparently a bit shaky because many nobles didn't even bother to attend morning prayer now due to their pride or something.
I had no idea what they were talking about, so I kept silent and listened. The Princess was also asked to leave because she needed to prepare for the morning class in the Royal Academy. As a Princess, she shouldn't arrive late.
Me? I already had permission to skip as many classes as I wanted to, so I could just show up later after we were done with our conversation.
After a minute of the conversation, I noticed a change in the tone. It happened once the King brought up the possibility of the nobles attending the morning prayer in a separate room, just like what we did earlier.
Sana clasped her hands and smiled widely, "Your Majesty, that's a wonderful idea!"
'It's begun.' I thought. Sana's plan to extort the King. To think she brought it up this fast right after the Princess left the room. Nicely done.
Then her smile fell, showing a sad expression. "But it's a shame. I don't think most nobles would like that idea. Especially those who don't really like us."
She glanced at me, and that was my signal.
"Indeed," I added.
"I noticed that some nobles' sons don't really see me with favorable eyes. And I think most of them won't even think that attending morning prayer is important. Because from what I observed earlier, only commoner-born students and the children of lower ranked noble houses attended the morning prayer."
"Of course, I want them to attend. But I think it's difficult."
My way of talking was a bit repetitive and only around noble kids, mostly those from the high-ranking house. The first sentence that I mentioned was the most important one.
I guessed the King had already received information about me and my background. And surely, he had heard something already about the spies.
So his answer should already be clear right now. He could only use this answer if he didn't want to destroy the relationship with the church, which was important considering most people in the Virtue Kingdom were devout believers of Goddess Teri.
"We will try to instruct the nobles to attend morning prayer more." The King nodded slightly as he turned to me. "And they will attend with the others. Let's forget I mentioned the special room earlier. Everyone is equal under Goddess Teri."
"That's wonderful! And that's correct! Everyone but the Paladin is equal under Goddess Teri." Sana exclaimed and implied the hidden message in her last sentence.
Everyone but the Paladin was equal under Goddess Teri. That meant I was in a higher position than those nobles, and the King shouldn't try to stop me if I wanted to do something to them if they pissed me off.
"That's true." The King couldn't help but agree with Sana, as he was also a believer of Goddess Teri in formality.
However, I bet he was fuming inside, thinking about how to punish the foolish nobles who dared to send assassins to me.
Thanks to them, his position in this meeting was lower than ours.
'I'd like to see how he deals with them. Of course, his punishment and my punishment would come in different manners and would be limited. At least, I wanted to see how the King dealt with the adult ones while I took care of their offspring.'
Our conversation continued for a while, and we didn't talk about anything important. Finally, after half an hour, the King left Sana with me in the room, promising to send 100,000 Gold worth of donations to the church.
"Fufufu, we got him." A sly smile appeared on the lovely Archbishop's face as she let out a low, evil laugh befitting of a villainess.
"And the nobles will be forced to attend our morning prayer from now on. Ah~ How lovely! They will know the Holy Mother's greatness! It's all thanks to you, Paladin!"
"It's nothing." I smiled at her. "I did this for me too."
I did this because I wanted to see those nobles suffer through the King's wrath. That would be amusing to hear.
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