Raised in Dungeon



"Drinking that much stamina potion, plus the blood-pumping potion. I guess we should be thankful the girl only slept for three years."

"You're really so careless, Alicia."

"I know, even though I have all the information. I knew that she could only use her god's blessing twice a day, and I also knew the bad effects of the potion, but it didn't popped into my mind how dangerous it was at the time. I was too blinded by the girl's heroism and the feeling of competing with her. In the end, all I could think about was what I should do and what things I should sacrifice for people. Little did I know I sacrificed one high-quality human for 300 people. Whereas that girl didn't need to go that far,"

"..."

"What's wrong? Why did you suddenly become quiet?"

"Nothing; I think I have no right to criticize the way you think."

"I see..." for some reason, Alicia didn't want to ask more about Harald's meaning because she felt it would be a long debate.

"So, why did you call me here? Was it really just to tell me about this?"

Alicia rubbed her eyes, and her face quickly turned serious, as if the sadness she felt just now had never happened.

"Maiden of Eden Garden, this epithet is too much for a child. She will go through many things with that name."

"Agree, I think kids should go to school first and think about politics later. I mean, look at me, I avoided politics until now even when I was an adult."

"Unfortunately, you probably can't avoid it anymore, brother."

"What does that mean?"

"That girl is the answer. Undoubtly, that girl's name will skyrocket tremendously among the nobles and royal family. Actually, such a heroic act can be obtained by an ordinary physician, but at that time, our brother, Eldritch, also went home."

"Meaning?"

"Brother Eldritch is revered by all as a hero; everyone knows the disaster that night was ended by Eldritch. But Felicia rose to the occasion and became a hero in the eyes of the soldiers. Her heroic actions were rumored to be on par with those of Eldritch. Whenever someone speaks of the great deeds of Eldritch that night, they inevitably follow it up with the story of how Felicia saved countless lives. There would be many people targeting the girl as a political tool. No... there were even moves from nobles to use her before she became a hero.

"I don't understand what you're trying to say." Harald replied, confused.

She sipped her tea again quietly.

"Our mother, Queen Regina Wildenhall, has had her eye on that girl from the beginning, she intends to make her a candidate for a queen, and she plans to make that girl become your wife."

-SPUUURT

Startled, Harald spurted out the tea while he was drinking.

"Are you kidding?"

"Brother Harald, you should know when I'm joking and when I'm not."

"No no no, this time I doubt it, and I hope I really doubt it. Anyway, where did you get that conclusion from?!"

Alicia bit her lip; She was hesitant to explain it to Harald.

But after thinking for about a minute in silence, Alicia decided to tell him.

"I'm going to say this because I think Brother Harald is the person I trust the most here."

"Uhm... Okay," Harald replied hesitantly.

"Actually this is just a small hypothesis with the smallest possibility, but because this is the most worrying result and because all of this is POSSIBLE to happen, I'm becoming vigilant and thinking about future actions.

I suspect A royal insider hired the Noctem Dolls."

"There is an impostor among us?"

"Don't say it like that! I am not joking!

I am unsure if there were not; my hunch is solid about this. Someone is planning this attack, and the goal is to kill Father. If Father dies, then there will be a vacancy on the throne. Brother Eldritch should have ascended to the throne, but that wouldn't have been possible if Eldritch hadn't been in town. So Eldritch's arrival yesterday must have been unexpected for everyone.

Since Eldritch, the crown prince, is absent, the one who controls the kingdom is the one with the highest power, namely our mother. Queen Regina.

I once spoke to Mother about the future queen, and she said she would use Felicia as a puppet queen. She will make you a temporary king, and if you marry Felicia, a hero, people will slowly accept you as king."

"You suspect our mother?!"

"Listen first...

Everything that happens will benefit to her, but there's a big hole here in this speculation, which is... you never knew that Felicia would become a hero, but mother must have thought of a plan to make her become a public figure.

I still have another speculation...

IF, for example, it's NOT our mother OR she didn't plan to make you king, then the culprit wants the vacant throne to divide the kingdom.

Because if no one becomes king, everything can be determined by how many nobles support.

Harald's brother only has a few noble alliances, so you won't be able to become king. Eventually, the kingdom will be divided because each noble has a candidate they want to be king."

"I'm sorry, I can't follow your way of thinking... I think the reason Norttish killed the king was simple; he hated him. Norttish must have tremendous hatred and vengeance for the kingdom, so it's no wonder that there are Norttish who try to kill the king."

"Well... I hope things are indeed that smooth... I just wanted brother Harald to know about this, so you know what actions you will take based on this information," Alicia said.

Harald stood and then said,

"What's important is that whoever has that kind of plan, all the plans you mentioned have been ruined because Eldritch is back. This story is useless to me; I'm leaving first."

"Where to?"

"To say hello to brother Eldritch, we haven't seen each other for a long time. Aren't you going to see him too?"

"Hmm... Yeah… Sure I will… but right now he's probably surrounded by our other siblings... I want to meet him when we are alone."

"Sigh... What a brocon." Harald left while waving his hand.

Alicia continued reading her book,

'There are too many problems happening simultaneously. This internal problem is one of the most troublesome. And then there's the matter of Severus Daemons's move which keeps destroying the countryside.

I was naive to think the council's choice to withdraw Rounds was reckless because they also needed to guard their posts. But in the end, nothing wrong happened in the territories they left behind. Unfortunately, most of the Rounds are dead, even though they were qualified and valuable to the people. I hope Tobias recovers quickly; we're short of strong men.

If only the captain of the secret division was here, maybe we could capture at least one of the Dolls, but he's away on a mission.'

There was suddenly a sound of footsteps going towards her; Alicia immediately knew whose it was, and then she greeted her,

"Welcome, Margareth."

Margareth Albreda Wildenhall appeared in front of Alicia with an unpleasant face.

"Your imagination is amazing, Alicia. I hate it."

With a smile, Alicia replied

"Imagination? Ohh, you were eavesdropping on my conversation with Harald."

Alicia's smile made Margareth even more annoyed, 'Don't play dumb, you should know what kind of blessing I have, but you didn't even try to speak slowly; it was obvious that you had noticed me from the beginning. And even then, you still talked about it with Harald, meaning she deliberately made me hear it too.

"What do you mean? What's your purpose?"

Without further ado, Alicia immediately answered, "I thought you should know about it because I want you to trust me too, my little sister."

"Aaah stop calling me little sister; I hate it.

Then what about your real goal? What do you really want to accomplish?"

"What? Peace for the kingdom, of course. I want to clean the kingdom from within, then create a system where everyone can live happily in the kingdom."

"You give me the creeps, you know? You're the one I hate the most among all my brothers."

"Pardon?"

"I hate your smile, I hate the way you think. Are you asking me to help you with your plan? Don't be silly, I don't want to be one of your pawns."

"You seem to have misunderstood something, Margareth, I'm not at all-"

"No, I'm not misunderstanding anything. I know how those eyes of yours look at others."

"Margareth, calm down; let's sit down and talk."

"No. I'm not going to sit down, because that will only get me into your cunning plan!"

The air became thick; Alicia didn't understand Margareth's actions. She had always hated people, and she understood that and the reason why she was like that. But she was sure that Margareth must not have hated others completely, in fact, she shot a fireball at Nishizaka to confirm how her god's blessing worked; then she also held Alicia's body when Alicia almost fell. But this time, Alicia could feel that the rejection she was experiencing now was too big.

"Alicia, I hate you. Do you know why I hate you? Because it's the way you think that makes me most nauseous. You are the one who wants to save others, yet you ignore the value of a human being."

"I don't-"

"Don't you realize? That's what makes me hate you even more. Alicia, you really are a hypocrite.

I heard everything you talked about...

You see humans as tools to be used. It's obvious from the way you use the word 'quality,' for humans, like determining the quality of meat."

Was it true that she didn't value humans? She was a person who wanted peace more than anything else.

Margareth then continued,

"You care about Tobias because you think he's a 'quality human being,' you also care about the rounds for the same reason. That girl too—what's her name? Felicia? I heard what you guys were talking about earlier, you said

'That time I sacrificed one high-quality person for 300 people'

Again you said something disgusting, determining the value of a human being with the word 'quality' for someone trying to be holy like you; that's the most disgusting thing you can say.

Still in denial?

Don't you remember what Harald said when he heard you say that? He said.

'I have no right to criticize your way of thinking,'

Fufu, Harald must be thinking the same thing as me. It's like he's thinking about your feelings, unlike me. What is more important is that today should be a day of mourning for the death of our beloved brother, Leofric. But I don't see you sad at all. If you ask me, I hated him from the start, so I was even happy when I found out that he died.

But you… you keep saying your love to your family, but I doubt you feel sad for Leofric's death."

Hearing Margareth's long chatter, instead of being sad, Alicia tilted her head

and smiled.

"You really are a hypocritical cold princess."

[Illustration]