The Princess's Decree

Dinner time, I have already relayed everything Iris told me to Megumin. I also told her to somehow convince everyone that I cannot attend and that they must pretend like I was gravely wounded during the battle.

Megumin offered to gravely injure me in response to that request. But she did tell me she'll figure something out. With a condition that she gets to make a backstory for hers and my 'character'.

I also decided to listen to Vanir and keep Liz and everyone else from knowing my identity. Megumin made a simple story of how Lady Eris wanted her champion to shine so she can compete with Aqua. That's why she doesn't want me to be the one fighting the Crimson Wrath.

Right now, Chris and I are hiding in the shadows in each corner of the room. We got ourselves decked out by Lady Paradox who's extremely ecstatic at this development. She gave us a matching pair of modern spy outfit.

Mine is a pitch black hood-less outfit made to complement Vanir's mask. It also has a pair of short sword for dual wielding. Paradox claimed that she has made this outfit since the first time I arrived here.

Chris's is a silver white outfit with a hood and a face mask that only leaves the eyes visible. It also comes with a pair hidden blades at the wrist. Paradox claimed that it is one the most modern thing in this world.

"I thank you all for participating in this event," Iris said and the nobles went silent. They all stared at the head table from their respective seats and whispered silently among themselves.

"It's here, it's here,"

"You think they got him?"

"Look, Kazuma dono isn't present."

"You think something happened?"

Iris clinked her glass and everyone went silent. "Now, I would like to announce that the Fantastic Dreamers has accomplished their mission of defeating and bringing the Chivalrous Thief to me."

The nobles clapped their hands politely, some looked incredibly happy while others look a little uncertain.

"However, Kazuma dono was gravely injured during the fight, thus he cannot attend the dinner party," Iris gestured to the rest of Fantastic Dreamers. "His wife, Megumin of the Crimson Demon shall be his representative."

The nobles began whispering to themselves again.

"That Kazuma? He was injured?"

"Whoa, that thief must be crazy powerful!"

"Or it could be Kazuma is a pushover."

"Are you joking, he defeated like five demon king generals!"

Megumin cleared her throat and everyone went silent. "I am Megumin, the Archwizard and the Strongest Member of Fantastic Dreamer," she let some of her killing intent seep through to put more pressure in her words.

"First of all, I want everyone here to understand that the Chivalrous Thieves are not evil and that there are two of them," Megumin said. "They are also not weak and Kazuma is no pushover. I have myself confirmed that the weakest one of them are level fifty two,"

The dining room turned silent after hearing that. It's a bit terrifying that there are two level fifty something thief working against the kingdom.

Alderp then raised his hand. "Excuse me, but I remembered you only caught one of them in my mansion?"

Megumin nodded. "Yes, we did, however Kazuma was ambushed by the stronger one of them on our way to the castle. That's when the real battle starts because the other one had the element of surprise."

"I see…" Alderp sat back down.

"Anyway, we managed to bring them to the Princess. The princess herself managed to make them work for her in exchange of a few terms. The terms to which they agreed on was classified."

A nobleman stood up.

"I think it's best if you tell us the term," he turned to the princess. "Your highness, even if you're the princess, I think it is within our best interest if the Chivalrous Thief isn't managed by you alone. Let some adult help you in this matter,"

"Yes, tell us the terms!"

"Don't keep them to yourselves!"

"Let us use them too!"

More and more nobles started demanding the princess to reveal the terms. Some even went as far as treating the Chivalrous Thief as a personal tool. This, of course, did nothing but to piss off the princess and her two body guards.

Claire glared at the nobles and brandished her sword threateningly.

"Silence! You may not speak ill of the princess!" she exclaimed. "Her highness has deem it necessary that the less people who knows of their identity, the better. If you want to know a term then I'll tell you one of the terms!"

Everyone turned silent and simply looked at Claire.

"The Chivalrous Thief may only answer to the Princess and the Princess alone. We have made a sacred blood contract on this matter through the use of sacred magic from the Archpriest of the Fantastic Dreamer. A breach of this contract will result in the death of both party. There are no magic in this world, as far as we know, that is capable of undoing this contract."

There's no such thing as blood contract by the way, I made that up for this exact scenario. It seems everyone buys that though so I guess it's working.

The nobles turned deadly silent after hearing that. They all looked at the princess in a mixture of shock and disbelief.

Iris cleared her throat. "Thank you, Claire," her gaze softened a little as she looked at all the nobles. "I know what you're thinking. You might think it was incredibly reckless for me to throw away my life like that."

Some of the nobles nodded in agreement while others just looked down in silence.

"But this is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. For the Chivalrous Thieves are an important part of saving the kingdom," she took a deep breath. "You see, it is only a matter of time before the Demon King is defeated. By the state of our economy, it will only bring trouble for us in the long run."

"We spend more than half of our funding on the military to protect us from the demon king. We have thousands of knights and thousands of adventurers making a living by fighting the Demon King Army."

"Now think for a moment of what will happen to those knights and adventurers once the demon king is defeated. What will happen then? They will become jobless and those who refuse to take up another job and those who finally realized that they are one of the big fish in the ocean…"

The nobles lost all their colors after hearing that. They realized what's happening now. All this time they surrounded themselves with people hundreds of times more powerful than them.

"A war is won before it was fought. The greatest victory is achieved without a fight. That is why I'm employing the Chivalrous Thief. One for my personal protection, two to give the royalty a better reputation among the people, and three to give myself two pairs of eyes and ears who can help me make better plans to manage this kingdom."

Some of the nobles looks a little sceptic while others seems to just accept that princess Iris is no longer the innocent little princess you can mess with anymore. This is Princess Belzerg Stylish Sword Iris, the next queen and ruler of Belzerg.

"Psst, Kazuma,"

I turned to Chris hiding next to me.

"What is it Chris?"

"I just used Detect Treasure, the necklace around the princess's neck is a divine artifact. I think it's the one that lets the user switch bodies temporarily… Hmm… Maybe that's what happened…"

"We'll deal with it later, best not to reveal it to anyone yet."

We looked back at the princess. She looked at our hiding spot and nodded a little.

"-that out of the way, everyone, I present to you, the Chivalrous Thief,"

In a blink of an eye we made it in front of the princess's table. We knelt down in her presence while the other nobles just gasped in awe.

"Did you see that?"

"I didn't even notice them there!"

"Impossible… My magic spectacles cannot see their movement."

Iris gestured at us to stand up. "Rise and introduce yourself," she spoke.

Chris and I stood up and turned at the rest of the nobles. Even the rest of Fantastic Dreamers were quite curious to see us. All except for Megumin that is.

I took a step forward and bowed a little. Using one of my Party Tricks Skill to alter my voice slightly.

"I am Karma, the shadow that hunts those who has debt unpaid, wealth unearned, and power undeserved," I stepped forward and glared at all the nobles through my mask. "I am the vengeance that follows every ill will, every curse of the victim, every cries of the weak, every wail of the innocent,"

Silence followed my proclamation. All the noble simply stood there in fearful silence. Some looks like they wanted to leave the room in a hurry.

"I am Grace, the light that protects those who are just, merciful, and benevolent," Chris stepped forward and her soothing feminine voice echoes through the room. "I am the hope that follows every word of forgiveness, every sign of gratitude, every gesture of goodwill, every acts of compassion." 

Both Iris and I took note on who are the more anxious one of the nobles. Those who are anxious will be kept an eye on. Those are still calm or even relieved will be protected.

"Thank you Karma, Grace," Iris said. "For my first mission, I want the two of you to spy on the demon king army and predict with accuracy when is their next attack,"

We both blurred away from existence, leaving behind a whole bunch of scared nobles.

"As you can see, those two are powerful and answers only to me. Their identity will be known only to me and people I trust," Iris said with finality in her voice. "Now, let's talk about the sponsor of today's dinner, the Morning Angel Coffee,"