"That"s quite an interesting question, along with a funny way you even formulated it."Instead of answering this daring guy directly, I put my focus on something entirely else. While when I first heard about the situation with a group of my subjects moving to another place, I didn"t really pay it any mind, when forced to deal with this matter by someone most likely tasked to overlook the affairs of the origin town for the sake of the people that moved, I couldn"t help but realise a few inconsistencies with the rest of the history I knew.
"First of all, you got one thing wrong. This b.i.t.c.h never was my representative."
Pulling on the dense cloud of energy formed around the former princess neck, I forced her to crawl on the floor towards the pedestal of my throne, as if I wanted to use her back for the resting place for my legs.
"The one that I appointed to govern this land, or rather, the one appointed by the people themselves after my suggestion, was Gabriel. I never justified the law of conquest to allow his murderer to take over his position!"
Instead of directly replying to the question asked, I used this situation to s.h.i.+ft the topic to the matter concerning Gabriel, Princess and the entire process of the s.h.i.+fting power. While in any other situation, just by bringing it up I could most likely get an amusing reaction out of this wreck of a human that the princess turned into after the hours of being strangled nearly to the death, but in her current state, all she could do was to simply follow my magical leash while fighting to remain conscious for yet another while.
"As some of you might know, or at least suspect, I believe that she was the one responsible for the death of my trusty retainer in whose hands I left the governance of this land."
Standing up from my chair, I finally used the soft back of the princess as the stepping stone, before going for a short walk around the perimeter only to end up at the edge of the central square, directly in front of the part of the tribune when the daring man was.
"So instead of replying to your question, let me sum some things up."
Stretching my back as if dealing with those kinds of simple matters bored me to no end, I looked around the crowd with a slight smile, before facing the guy I was talking to once again.
"You guys somehow managed to escape from the grasps of the princess, meaning that your group held enough strength to force her into allowing you to move, or you did so with her own consent. Am I right?"
Instead of shooting directly for the crux of the matter that was already obvious to me, I used one of the best debating methods I knew, when by leading the discussion partner through sentences that one couldn"t disagree with, we would reach the conclusion build upon the fact that was agreed upon by both of the sides.
"Yes, seeing where the new changes she was attempting to implement would lead this place, everyone who didn"t want to remain under her rule gathered up, joined the forces and threatened her to let us go if she didn"t want to spark a civil war."
With his words filled with pride and confidence, this man gave the exact reply I was expecting him to give, perfectly aligned with the conclusions I reached when I first heard the story from Helia"s mouth.
"Oh, so I would like you to explain one thing to me. If we ignore the statement that I had to give at the very beginning of this discussion, in which I declared that I never acknowledged her or set any laws for her to inherit the local rule, and follow the statement that you started with, in which she was the rightful representative of my will…"
At this point, the young man that I was speaking with had his face turned completely white as if this was the very first moment in his life when he realised the meaning behind my words and dared to connect the dots.
"I… I don"t know what to say…"
In the current situation, if he claimed that his previous words were true, that would mean that his entire group disregarded the will of the hero and decided to split up from his lineage. If he were to decline his previous words though, that would put a huge debt of trust on his statements considering how he would change them to fit the best of his interest.
"Don"t worry, I"m not going to blame you for the decision made by others. If my guess is right, you were sent here to monitor the situation in this place. Am I right?"
Once again returning to my cla.s.sic rhetorical scheme, I smiled amiably at the victim of the scheming of his own elders, who put him in this precarious position. As a simple lookout, he actually dared to put himself on the pedestal of my attention, only for the sake of his own people. That alone was enough for him to win me over, yet the fact that he was a servant of either true patriots that cared about the folk but most likely, a group created by the princess herself in order to diversify her influence made it hard for me to judge what I should do with him.
"My lord, your words are capable of seeing through all the disguise!"
Instead of confirming my statement directly, the guy only managed to praise me while admitting to being a spy in an indirect way. While at the first moment, the lowest part of my soul instantly added some points behind his character, as soon as my rationality managed to get rid of this useless feeling of happiness from being praised, I looked at him sternly.
"Then there are only two options. You guys are either traitors, who disregarded my authority over this world and escaped… Or you just never actually went against the princess orders, only claiming to threaten her, while in reality, doing nothing else than following her own orders!"