Chapter 2 : Empty Days (2)

As time passed and the meeting reached its conclusion, when the main agenda was about to end,
the prince opened his mouth with a bitter smile and a confident voice.

“Your Majesty, I dare say. In order to overcome the current crisis in our kingdom, we must consider an alliance with the Demon King!”

The conference room froze in an instant at the shocking claim that burst out of the prince’s mouth.

Everyone held their breath and watched the prince’s face and the king’s reaction.

An alliance with the Demon King?

Even I, who had been silently keeping my seat, widened my eyes slightly at the unexpected development.

The awkward silence was broken by the cunning voices of the ministers.

Is it because the king favored the prince?

They were just people who wanted to cling to power.

“Oh, an alliance with the Demon King? I cannot help but admire Your Highness the Prince’s wisdom!”

“Your Majesty, now is the time for a firm decision!”

The air that had been frozen until just a moment ago suddenly heated up due to the flattery of the traitors.

The sight of everyone lining up to the prince as if they had been waiting for it was truly disgusting.

The king smiled faintly and nodded slowly.

“Hmm, that’s not a bad suggestion.”

With that short sentence, the atmosphere in the conference room became even more insane.

Ugly, disgusting, trash-like people.
This was a place where such people were swarming.

And I, too, was a being who breathed the same air as them and lived.

The tense atmosphere in the conference room changed because of the knight commander’s reaction.

His tightly shut lips began to tremble, and it seemed as if a thunderous roar would burst out at any moment.

His flushed face and bulging veins clearly revealed his unconcealed anger.

Finally, the knight commander’s mouth opened.

“That’s what it is.”

But Fiora interrupted her words and said.

The usual playful and easygoing appearance disappeared without a trace, and raw and fierce criticism poured out from her mouth.

“What kind of bullshit are you talking about?”

An aggressive shout that did not match her beautiful blonde hair and sophisticated appearance echoed through the conference room.

“You want to become a public enemy while sucking the Demon King’s butt?
Are you in your right mind?”

The blue eyes were filled with disgust.

It was an expression as if you were looking at trash in front of you.

The conference room was once again engulfed in suffocating silence at Fiora’s sudden reaction.

A tension as if a bomb was going to explode before our eyes weighed down on everyone.

The usual cheerful and bright appearance of my sister disappeared without a trace, and what was standing before my eyes now was a beast seething with rage.

My sister’s voice was filled with a murderous intent that seemed like it would tear the opponent to pieces.

Everyone just watched her without even being able to breathe.

The prince could not hide his bewilderment at the unexpected fierce attack.

His face turned red and his lips trembled.

Those who supported the prince were also busy looking at each other, not knowing what to do with their embarrassment and bewilderment.

After a short silence, the conference room fell into uncontrollable chaos once again.

Sister Fiora’s sharp words seemed to instantly snap the tense tension.

The wise man shook his head, slightly twisting the corners of his mouth.

A short, sharp click of his tongue broke the silence.

It went without saying that his blatant contempt was directed at the prince.

Soon, the voices of the nobles and officials clashed, and the conference room turned into a place of fierce debate.

“Your Majesty is right! Now is the time for Your Majesty to make a decision!”

The voices supporting the prince burst out first.

However, as soon as he heard those words, the general in his military uniform slammed his fist on the table and shouted.

“Don’t make me laugh! Are you crazy, joining hands with the demons?”

His deep voice echoed throughout the conference room.

Following that, the old professor with the aura of a scholar also raised his voice in anger.

“Have you forgotten history! An alliance with the demons will be doomed!”

It was an instant.

The conference room fell into irreversible chaos, with voices for and against entangled.

“Shut up! Are you going against the prince’s will?!”

“Join hands with those dirty demons! Are you saying that you are spies of the demons?!”

Spittle flew and shouts were exchanged, and the excited nobles stood up from their seats, pointing their fingers at each other as if they were going to grab each other by the collars, raising their voices.

Their faces turned red with anger.

Sister Fiora glared at the prince.

Her blue eyes were filled with disgust, and her gaze was cold and sharp, as if looking at dirty filth.

On the other hand, the prince shrugged his shoulders and tried to smile, encouraged by the cheers and encouragement of his supporters.

That abominable sight seemed even more disgusting.

Was the author really thinking about the future of the country?

Or was he just trying to use this chaos for his own ambitions?

There was no sincerity in his actions.

I felt that he was not in his right mind.

The Demon King burned the World Tree, slaughtered the elves, and destroyed countless countries.

He was the absolute evil that declared war on the entire world and tried to devour everything.

It was impossible to understand with a normal mindset that he would turn his back on the world and form an alliance with such a being just for power.

The King’s face gradually hardened as the argument became more and more heated, and he soon stood up and shouted loudly.

“Quiet!”

However, the excited ones did not even hear the king’s voice and continued to make a fuss.

The atmosphere that had already become heated up did not die down easily, and eventually the king shouted in an even louder voice.

“The meeting is over!!”

When that shout echoed, the noisy atmosphere finally calmed down.

However, the intense excitement and tense tension still lingered in the conference room.

The king left the conference room with a stern face.

Following that, those who had followed the prince gathered in groups of three or four and left the conference room with the prince, expressing their complaints.

Some were still talking fiercely with their faces red.

Sister Fiora stood with her lips bitten and her anger not yet subsided, and the knight commander clenched his fists and suppressed his anger in silence.

The heavy silence of those who remained in the conference room weighed down on the air.

In that silence, I could feel the anxiety of the eve of the coming storm. It seemed like everything was over, but the feeling that the real chaos was just beginning remained in my head.

“What on earth is that piece of trash that is not worthy of being called oppa, and what is my father thinking?”

My sister’s blue eyes were fixed on the chair where the first prince had been sitting.

With every word, she revealed deep disgust, and her fingertips trembled as if they were restless.

She seemed to be trying to suppress her boiling emotions, but the suppression only made her anxiety more intense.

“Because of those idiots, I can’t live a quiet life as a noble princess, right?”

I didn’t respond to my sister’s sharp gaze and the words she poured out.

Unlike her usual bright and cheerful appearance, her eyes were burning with unconcealed anger.

I could see something tense at the end of my sister’s voice, as if it was about to burst.

Her hands, clenched into fists and shaking slightly, created a dangerous tension that seemed like an accident could happen at any moment.

“I’d rather just throw everything away.”

My sister muttered to herself, her voice getting louder and louder.

“We’ll take the soldiers and drag them all down. They’re idiots who can’t even unite anyway, so how hard would it be to deal with them?”

My sister tilted her head slightly as if asking herself a question, but her eyes looked so determined that it was hard to tell if she was joking or being serious.

“Even that old man, the commander of the knights, looked down on those crazy trash who wanted to ally with the Demon King. Wouldn’t it be better to start a civil war?”

My sister smiled bitterly, raising one corner of her mouth.

But that smile was aimed at the air, and beyond that, I might have imagined a bloody battlefield.

I silently stared at my sister with a blank expression.

That fierce anger and the precarious appearance created by the helpless situation felt like the anxious calm before a storm.

But a playful smile suddenly appeared on my sister’s face.

The tense atmosphere disappeared as if it were a lie, and as always, she patted my head as if she was talking to a child and said,

“Little brat, even if I really get into trouble, you should never come forward.”

My sister raised her finger and made a gesture of cutting her throat.

Her voice was soft, but there was firmness in it.

“If you go to a battlefield like that, you won’t last an hour and your throat will be blown off.”

My sister shrugged her shoulders and smiled slyly.

Then she reached out and lightly stroked my head.

I knew that my sister Fiora was genuinely worried.

However, behind that sincerity, there was a gaze that regarded me as a weak being who needed to be protected.

I nodded silently.

My sister smiled faintly as if satisfied with that, took her hand away from stroking my head, and slowly stood up.

To my sister, I was still someone who needed to be protected, nothing more, nothing less.

In the end, even my sister and I were blocked by an invisible wall that separated us, so we could not truly be equals.

I watched my sister’s back as she left the conference room.

The sound of her gorgeous clothes dragging on the floor gradually grew distant.

Was it resignation or emptiness that was stuck in her empty eyes?

I couldn’t figure out the answer.

I just nodded and silently carried out the role given to me.

That was the way I was now, Peridot von Winterfeldt.