Middle-Aged Man Isekai Summoning - Chapter 26

 Negotiation

The day after treating Lady Carla, I had a private audience with the King. In that room, my companions, the King, Commander Alphas, and another handsome guy were present.

"Lord Dai, thank you very much for your help this time."

I should be the one thanking you. Lady Carla made me feel great.

"It wasn't an act of charity, so please don't worry about it."

"Yes, I understand. What would you like in return? To assist you as much as possible, my son, First Prince Ashton, is joining us as well."

"Nice to meet you, Dai-san. I look forward to working with you. Also, thank you so much regarding my sister."

So he was Lady Carla's older brother! I should get on good terms with him!

"Nice to meet you too."

"I've heard about you from Douglas. Since I oversee financial matters, I'd like to consult with you on details moving forward."

Douglas is Cattleya's father. Being close with the Prince—that's impressive!

"Now then, with our greetings out of the way, please state your requests to His Majesty."

"I have two requests."

"Please, ask anything!"

"First off, please tell me everything you've been hiding."

"...What do you mean by things we're hiding?"

"Why the war started in the first place, and about the demon tribe."

"Doesn't Lord Dai already know that...? It's because the demon tribe was treated like slaves..."

"That's not all of it, is it!?"

"No, that's not true... That really is the reason."

"Don't take me for a fool. I've already realized that you and your people want to do something other than subjugating the Demon Lord."

When I realized there were no demon slaves or prisoners in the royal castle, I questioned why we were sent to the mine. Sending us to a place like that would naturally make us suspicious of this kingdom. So why send us there? Why set the training period for one month? Why do only certain nobles and wealthy individuals own slaves? Thinking about all of that, I assumed the true purpose of the mine reclamation was to make us harbor doubts, and from there, I deduced the real reason we were summoned.

"Your Majesty, it seems he succeeded. Why don't we tell Lord Dai everything?"

"I suppose so..."

Taking a deep breath, the King began to speak.

"Even before the war with the demon tribe, our country was suffering from ongoing economic distress. However, thanks to support from the great Ignis Empire, we managed to get by. That empire houses the headquarters of the Order of Light, and demons there have no human rights whatsoever. Then one day, the demon tribe declared war on us. Since nobles in our country who were closely aligned with the Ignis Empire held slaves, we became a target of their invasion... However, considering our past relations, I didn't expect them to declare war on us, so I conducted an independent investigation and discovered that someone in the Ignis Empire's royal family holds the Demon Prince."

"Why didn't you hold talks with the royal family of the Ignis Empire?"

"Our kingdom does not possess enough national power to hold talks with the royal family of the Ignis Empire. Therefore, I decided to place our hopes on summoning Heroes."

"??? Why is that?"

"Heroes are objects of faith for the Order of Light. Therefore, summoning Heroes requires permission from the Order of Light, but I summoned you on my own authority. That information has already reached both the Order of Light and the Ignis Empire. And just the other day, the Order of Light headquarters and the Ignis Empire—who previously turned a deaf ear to anything our country said—issued a summons for the Heroes."

"So the one-month period was set in anticipation of that summons."

"Yes! And, if I may say so, we wanted to see whether you could understand our true intentions and were someone who would not discriminate against the demon tribe. Truth be told, we know everything that happened at the mine as well."

Hearing that, my body stiffened. Wait, really? You didn't show any sign of that at all, did you?

"D-Don't tell me... you know I betrayed you guys too?"

"We know. In fact, you were exactly the kind of person we hoped for, which delighted us."

"Then was Miguel's hatred for the demon tribe just an act to make us resolve ourselves?"

Here, the Commander opened his mouth for the first time.

"Miguel was not acting. Miguel hails from the Ignis Empire and was at the forefront of demon haters. We selected other knights of similar standing, so there would have been no issue even if you had killed them."

"U-Um, I'm sorry for lying..."

"We knew the truth, so we weren't fooled, but the other nobles were completely deceived, which actually impressed us♪"

The King laughed and looked at us with admiration.

"Lord Dai and your party have fulfilled all the conditions we were looking for. On the surface, the objective is the subjugation of the Demon Lord, but I would like to make our true request once again. We would like Lord Dai and your group to find the Demon Prince and return him... no, reunite him with his family..."

Coincidentally, it was the exact same summoning objective as Kaede-chan and her group... In that case, do they even need us here? Still, I have no choice but to accept.

"Is everyone okay with this?"

"I'm fine with it. I'm just worried whether I can be of help, since this won't be a simple fight."

"Sharon will follow Husband anywhere, so there is no problem at all."

"Same here—as long as I'm with Dai, I'm fine."

"Yeah..."

"I'm getting a bit confused, but I'm fine..."

Yuno and Iris were the same as usual, while Sharon and Maya said things that made me happy! As for Aria, lately I've been getting worried about her intellect during our study sessions as well.

"Thank you, everyone. Also, the atmosphere among all of you has become quite wonderful compared to when we first met."

Praised by the King, everyone looked embarrassed. Then, the King brought up another topic.

"You had one more request, correct? What would that be?"

"Right. Simply put, please let us destroy the mine."

"...Eh! No, while that certainly is one of the causes... how do you plan to destroy it in the first place?"

"Yuno, can you do it?"

"I can. Should I use Volcano, Earthquake, or Landslide? The entire mountain will disappear, though—is that fine?"

"Please go with the one that causes the least collateral damage..."

As expected, the Disaster Sword is scary...

"No, but that mine is a national asset, so we'll be in serious trouble if it's destroyed..."

"Don't worry about that. Take a look at this. It's a business proposal covering the short, medium, and long term. If you utilize the current technology as outlined, it should generate equivalent national profit."

"Lord Dai, please allow me to take a look."

I handed over the business proposal, which repurposed this kingdom's existing technology. Since I didn't have a PC and had to write it in between sex and training sessions, it was quite a struggle. After reviewing the document, Prince Ashton spoke up.

"Thank you, Lord Dai. Indeed, with this proposal, we won't be needing the mine anymore. The only question is whether the nobles will cooperate..."

"That part is your job, Your Majesty."

"Indeed, I understand."

"No, Ashton... I don't think the nobles will accept this so easily..."

"Your Majesty! Are you going to give up without even trying!?"

The two began arguing. It can't be helped—time to play that card against the King!

"Your Majesty, are you feeling stressed lately? Have you seen Catherine-san recently?"

"Lord Dai, why bring up Catherine's name now?"

"The other day, I saw you two chatting intimately in a room on the third floor. I understand completely, as speaking with those ladies calms my mind too."

"Fufufu! Lord Dai, are you suddenly joking? Father, please don't lay a hand on young women. If you do that, Mother will kill you."

"That's right, Father. Oops, my apologies! I got carried away following Prince Ashton's lead."

""Ha-ha-ha-ha!""

Prince Ashton and I laughed. However, upon hearing the word "Father," the King trembled and looked at my face. It seems he realized that I knew about his true relationship with Catherine.

"O-Of course! There's no way I'd lay a hand on her! Indeed, it seems I was feeling quite stressed. Now that I've calmed down, I feel like I can persuade the nobles after all!"

"'Feel like' you can?"

"No! I will persuade them!"

"Father—no, Your Majesty! Thank you. Let us do our best together!"

"Yes, best of luck to both of you♪"

A bond seems to have formed between the King and Prince Ashton. That settles this matter! I turned toward Yuno and the others. However, everyone was smiling brightly at me. Eh!? What!? Why is everyone in such a good mood? Did I do something?

"What's up with everyone?"

"Hmm? Whatever do you mean~?"

After this, unlike yesterday, everyone stayed in a great mood for the rest of the day—and kept talking to me non-stop.

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