The next morning, Kabe and his group decisively left the royal capital.
Leaving together with them were the royal family's magical communications, sent out to every noble house in the kingdom.
When those nobles learned that the kingdom had gained two new counts and one new baron, and that one of them was even a landed noble with actual territorial authority, their reactions varied wildly.
Some were delighted that the royal family had such means, enough to bind three powerful mages firmly to the kingdom's side.
Others were consumed with jealousy at Kabe's meteoric rise, at how the title and territory he had obtained surpassed the efforts their families had spent centuries building.
But none of that compared to the shock of the next message, one even more formal and even more explosive.
In order to bind Kabe completely, Toma had directly ordered that Kabe's engagement to Hisui be made public.
For a time, the entire kingdom was shaken by that earth-shattering announcement.
Many nobles had still secretly dreamed of marrying one of their sons or nephews to the princess, using that connection to elevate their family, and perhaps one day even seize control of the kingdom and replace the royal house itself.
Those people all exploded at once.
Why? Why did every good thing have to fall into Kabe's hands?
Was it really just because, at the age of eighteen, he had completed several Ten-Year Quests, openly killed Wizard Saint Jose head-on, lured away the strongest female mage from the neighboring empire, and then become one of the Ten Wizard Saints himself?
A man like that...
A man like that...
Actually did seem like the perfect choice for prince consort.
And once the nobles truly sat down and calculated it carefully, they only broke down harder.
The real problem was exactly what Toma had anticipated.
These nobles, who usually lived by schemes and dirty tricks, with bellies full of poison and bad intentions, simply did not have the courage to provoke Kabe.
Because no matter how filthy and ruthless the things they did might be, all of it still operated within the hidden rules of noble society.
And they did not believe for a second that Kabe, the newly made count, would be willing to slowly play along with their little aristocratic games.
According to the painful experience left behind by many predecessors, people with explosive personal power like his never bothered with the game at all.
They simply smashed the rules to pieces the moment the match began, found the one unlucky fool who annoyed them most, and used the cruelest method possible to kill one and terrify a hundred.
And so, much to Toma's disappointment, not a single noble house that received the news stepped forward to object to the king's decision.
Even when some brainless younger members of certain noble families complained in private, they were forcibly suppressed by their own elders.
This left Toma, who had originally hoped to use the situation to beat those families into line and conveniently reclaim a few territories while he was at it, feeling deeply regretful.
Looking at the congratulatory letters sent by each house, along with the long gift lists already on their way to the capital, Toma, who was still pretending to be ill in his chamber, clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Tch. After several hundred years of political struggle and purges, any family still able to keep both title and land is no longer the sort that can be easily fooled..."
With the powerful Alvarez Empire next door serving as an example, Toma had always wanted to turn Fiore into a more centralized state.
But now it seemed that goal would not be nearly so easy to accomplish.
...
"Achoo! Achoo!"
Inside the magic car, Kabe sneezed twice in a row. Rubbing his nose in confusion, he muttered to himself,
"Strange. Why did my DNA suddenly start acting up just now?"
"DN what?"
"Nothing. Just a word from my homeland."
"What does that even mean? You really are a weird one."
Muttering under her breath, Brandish increasingly felt that Kabe carried some sort of mysterious air around him.
"Your homeland? Which forest tree was it in?"
Irene, who had been looking out the window the whole time, suddenly tossed out that line in a flat voice.
Kabe exploded on the spot like he had been triggered by instinct.
"Monkey! You were calling me a monkey, right?! You hateful old woman, that word is absolutely forbidden!"
Irene had only meant to liven up the atmosphere a little, but she had not expected his reaction to be so intense.
And the enraged Kabe, in turn, had stepped directly onto one of her own landmines.
"You little brat! Who exactly are you calling an old woman?!
Yes, to humans, several hundred years may be a lot, but I am a dragon now. For dragons, a few hundred years is still maiden age."
"Maiden? So dragons really do tell jokes this funny.
You have already been pregnant, already given birth to a daughter, and you still want to fool yourself? Give it a rest, you overaged old hag."
"Ahhh! You dead monkey, are you trying to die?!"
"No, that line should be mine! You old hag dragon!!"