"My words are the will of His Majesty the Emperor himself. If anyone dares to crunch numbers and object to His Majesty's territorial expansion, bring them to me. I shall have them punished for treason."
"…."
There was no getting through to her.
This woman hadn't come here to conduct rational diplomacy. She had simply come to throw her weight around as the princess of a victorious nation.
"Rewrite it and bring it back. I cannot give those United Kingdom bastards so much as a bread crumb."
Aylit leaned back on the sofa and waved her hand.
"The tea has gone stale. Elli… was it? Bring new tea."
I glanced sideways at Sydney. There she stood, head bowed deeply, holding a tray.
'Status Analysis.'
[Name: Sydney Wellesley]
[Status: Extreme rage, murderous intent, confusion]
[Emotion: My… my Santa Barbara….]
The edge of the silver tray in her hand was faintly crumpled from her grip.
She had every right to be.
She had staked everything to obtain the Santa Barbara archipelago.
She had abandoned her pride as Chief of Intelligence and donned a maid uniform.
She had endured the humiliation of spreading herself open for me, servicing me with her mouth, even walking around with an anal plug inserted.
All of that had been for one single goal: the benefit of her homeland.
And now, the thoughtless princess before her was reducing all that effort to a scrap of paper with a single word.
"What are you doing? Can't you hear me?"
When Aylit pressed her, Sydney snapped her head up.
"…N-no. My apologies, Your Highness. I shall… prepare it immediately."
*
Some time later.
Princess Aylit left the lodgings as abruptly as she had arrived.
I glanced down at the scattered bundle of documents on the floor.
'Clause on the Entrusted Administration of the Santa Barbara Archipelago.'
To be honest, whether this clause flew away or not was none of my concern. As Princess Aylit had said, if the Empire insisted on swallowing everything, there might be some diplomatic friction, but it wouldn't deal a fatal blow to my position or survival.
After all, the only reason I had included this clause was as bait to strip Sydney Wellesley, the Chief of Intelligence, completely bare.
But Sydney's position was different.
To offer these islands to the United Kingdom, she had endured acts both debasing and repugnant. According to what I had glimpsed through [Shared Vision], she had even filed a report to her homeland guaranteeing success.
Yet now, it was on the verge of becoming a scrap of paper due to one whim of this thoughtless princess.
'Her blood must run cold.'
Late at night. Lying in bed, I activated my skill. What might the world's Chief of Intelligence be doing in this situation?
'Shared Vision.'
[Skill 'Shared Vision (Lv.1)' is activating.]
[Target: Sydney Wellesley]
Zzzt-.
Noise crackled across my vision, and soon an unfamiliar scene overlapped it.
It was a small room on the first floor of the lodgings, assigned specifically for her.
Sydney was perched on the bed. No, more precisely, she was hunched over. She held a fountain pen in her hand, and atop her knees lay a crumpled cipher paper.
"…."
Her gaze wandered over the blank paper. The nib trembled, hovering just above the sheet.
What was she supposed to write and send?
Canceled due to the princess's whim? Re-negotiation required?
No matter what she wrote, the homeland would stamp her as incompetent. She might even be suspected of being a double agent.
Creak.
She bit her lip.
*
The capital of the United Kingdom of Victoria, Londinium.
The Queen's glass greenhouse.
Queen Charlotte was cutting the thorns off a carefully nurtured red rose with scissors.
Snip, snip.
Amidst the sound of shearing alone, an attendant approached carrying documents on a silver tray.
"Your Majesty. A new report from the Chief of Intelligence in Elancia has arrived."
"Leave it."
Charlotte set down the scissors and picked up the envelope.
It was a follow-up report that had come after the sweet victory of securing the lease rights to the Santa Barbara archipelago. No doubt it contained details on obtaining the consent of the Imperial Diet, or the Imperial Family's reaction.
Charlotte's eyes swiftly scanned down the page.
[……Princess Aylit von Lohengart visited Elancia and unilaterally annulled the said agreement, a variable occurring whereby she commanded the Empire's complete monopoly……]
"……Goodness."
Charlotte's brow furrowed slightly.
"The Empire's mad dog… has muddied the waters. …How troublesome."
That Princess Aylit would throw a wrench in the works had indeed been an unexpected variable.
[……The target maintained strategic patience without showing the slightest emotional agitation even before the princess's irrational and arrogant command……]
[……An attitude of temporary acceptance……]
"So the target, Max Yeager, is still exercising patience?"
Then things hadn't gone completely awry yet.
Charlotte soon regained her composure.
Princess Aylit's intrusion was a politically vexing matter, but on the ground was Sydney, the United Kingdom's finest spy. If it were her, she would have skillfully circumvented the princess's whims and established a Plan B to manipulate Max Yeager once more.
To check what nimble follow-up measures Sydney had established, Charlotte turned her gaze to the final page of the report with a light heart.
The sentences written in the conclusion were, as was typical of Sydney, dry and neat. Except for the last one.
[……As the absolute variable known as the Imperial Family has intervened directly, the existing control protocols are insufficient to elicit decisive action from the target.]
[……Therefore, this office requests a comprehensive re-examination of the approach toward the target. To immediately deploy a more in-depth scheme befitting the target's capabilities and the weight of the variable……]
"…."
Charlotte's gaze lingered on the final paragraph.
Comprehensive re-examination of the approach. A more in-depth scheme.
A strange sense of dissonance rose within her.
An ordinary politician or officer might have dismissed it as mere wariness of the situation or an expression of difficulty.
But Charlotte, who knew the human named Sydney Wellesley to the bone, was different.
Sydney Wellesley. The United Kingdom's top elite, and Charlotte's long-time partner. When describing targets, she had always maintained the viewpoint of a cold-blooded observer, as though looking down from above.
No matter how mighty an enemy general, an arrogance had always pervaded, treating them as an 'object to be disposed of' or a 'chess piece to be controlled'.
"Don't tell me… she acknowledges him."
A distant memory suddenly flashed through Charlotte's mind.
Her days at the Royal Boarding School. The haughty, domineering blonde noble girl who had made even Charlotte, the crown princess, hesitant to approach her carelessly.
Sydney had been as cold as ice to everyone. Regardless of status, she regarded those who failed to meet her standards as insects.
The occasion when such a woman first bowed her head to Charlotte and pledged loyalty had been when Charlotte was recognized for some quality befitting a monarch.
"As expected… he is worthy of being called the Empire's hero."
Charlotte murmured, lightly brushing the report in her hand.
It seemed the man named Max Yeager was not simply being played one-sidedly in the palm of Sydney's hand. If that arrogant Sydney unconsciously acknowledged her opponent as an equal…
"That's precisely why I pity him, however."
Comprehensive re-examination. In-depth scheme. In Charlotte's memory, Sydney had never used such aggressive wording.
By now, Max Yeager was no doubt… being led around by Sydney without understanding a thing.
"What vicious and meticulous move she must be preparing. Truly, I even feel a modicum of sympathy for Lieutenant Colonel Yeager."
Charlotte smiled lightly and tapped the corner of the document with the tip of her fountain pen.
A 'deep scheme' intricately woven by Royal Intelligence Chief Sydney Wellesley with full determination.
Whether it was a physical assassination threat, blackmail seizing a fatal weakness, or a psychological war slowly strangling those around him, no one knew. The only certainty was that prey once caught in her web could never escape.
In Charlotte's mind, the image of the Empire's hero struggling while bound by invisible spiderwebs naturally took shape.
However.
Srrk.
Charlotte's gaze lowered once more to the report's final paragraph, and her smile hardened ever so slightly.
[……Befitting the target's capabilities and the weight of the variable……]
'Befitting the capabilities.'
Charlotte slowly chewed over that phrase inwardly.
Considering Sydney's personality, it was a rather unconventional choice of words. That overbearing, machine-like woman had never once used an expression that acknowledged someone's capabilities as they were and promised treatment befitting them.
Except for one person—Charlotte herself.
"……What a strange feeling."
She picked up the pruning shears again.
Snip-!
The sharp blade mercilessly severed the stem of the fully bloomed red rose. Looking down at the red flower head falling to the floor with a soft thud, Charlotte shook her head.
Though she understood perfectly well with her head, she felt a prickling sensation in a corner of her heart at the fact that her loyal partner was casting upon a foreign man the same gaze she had once given Charlotte.
*
At the same time, Elancia. Max Yeager's temporary lodgings.
The night had grown deep.
A head wearing a white maid cap busily moved atop my lap as I sat leaning back against the wide bed.
"Chu… haah, chup…."
It was Sydney.
Today she was unusually desperate. Normally, she would wait until I spoke, subtly providing stimulation, but today she had gripped my thighs firmly from the start, working her tongue without a moment's rest from my tip to my shaft.
The pressure of her tongue, the slipperiness of her saliva, and her violet eyes looking up at me pitifully as she fawned.
"Mmph, chuup… M-Master…♡ Are you… satisfied…."
She mumbled, holding my cock deep in her throat.
'Status Analysis.'
[Name: Sydney Wellesley]
[Status: Sacrificing herself for her country and her queen]
'Truly moving.'
I pulled my cock from her mouth and lifted her chin by the jaw.
Silver saliva stretched long between my cock and her red lips.
"Ellie."
"Haah, y-yes… yes, Master…."
"You're working very hard today. You've always been good, but today you're especially… desperate about something."
At my probing question, Sydney's eyes trembled finely.
"Th-that is… because you must be tired from… attending to Her Highness the princess during the day… as a maid, I must serve you more diligently…."
"Ah, Her Highness."
I deliberately pressed my brow and sighed.
"It was tiring. She's a very wilful person. She keeps shouting to throw everything out, so it's terribly difficult to dance to her tune from my position."
"……!"
Sydney's shoulders flinched. It was plainly obvious how on edge she was.
"That's why, Ellie."
I brushed her lips with my thumb and whispered.
"About the Santa Barbara lease we discussed. I'm afraid it looks difficult."