I like crossing the most

Chapter 491 Engagement
"——I want to get engaged to Master Lin."

In the princess's boudoir late at night, Lana said this out of the blue in a gentle tone.

The air froze in an instant.

"Master Lana, what did you say?"

The atmosphere became extremely awkward with Lagis’s astonishment, Climb’s subconscious questioning, Lin’s silence, and Lana’s smiling face that made it unclear what she was thinking.

The young lady suddenly looked at the priest.

Although both her childhood sweetheart Lin and her close friend Lana are people she values ​​very much, even the devil captain, who is known for his strength and courage, would feel aggrieved when the melon is eaten by him.

The princess's guards were also in a similarly unwilling mood.

He knew that there would be a day when the gap between their status was too great, and the princess would simply marry a noble to consolidate the power of the royal family, or marry into a distant kingdom. But even though he knew, when it actually happened, he would inevitably feel unwilling, and it came too suddenly.

Only Lin frowned slightly, and under the different strange looks from the three people, he slowly spoke:

"Is there no other way?"

"Unfortunately, this is the only option left for now."

Lana smiled happily.

She was happy because someone could understand her intentions and follow her thinking, and that even though he knew her true face, he did not resist enough to shout "monster".

Lagis also woke up from her grievance. She realized that her friend was not the kind of person who liked to make groundless accusations, so there must be a reason for what he said. She couldn't help but ask.

"Lana, what's going on?"

“Because there are not enough people.”

It was Lin who answered him.

Prior to this, the original plan was to eliminate Eight Fingers' strongholds in the kingdom bit by bit, like boiling a frog in warm water, and by the time they realized what was happening, they were already powerless.

However, this plan had to be changed after the capture of Dunetron and Kekedal, because the destruction of the brothel and the elimination of one of the Six Arms had already aroused the other party's vigilance.

Sometimes catching a big fish can also be a headache, which is what we call the trouble of happiness.

Therefore, the next step is to capture all the strongholds in the royal capital in one go, including but not limited to the villages that produce black powder, the black market that resells weapons and equipment, the mines that enslave civilians, etc., which leads to the shortage of manpower.

Due to this shortage of manpower, it is impossible to hire adventurers.

One of the founding philosophies of the Adventurer's Guild is to protect humanity from external threats. In other words, they will not intervene in disputes between humans, otherwise the guild would not be able to cross the king's barriers and assist each other.

Therefore, even if the guild can save some lives, based on the judgment that once it intervenes, there will be no end in the future, the guild requires adventurers to abide by this unspoken rule and exerts certain pressure, such as verbal warnings, no job introductions, and the most serious is expulsion from the adventurer guild.

After all, if there are no restrictions, some adventurers will get involved in illegal work and cause considerable trouble to the guild.

However, the above mentioned is not valid for Cang Qiangwei.

It was not because of anything else, but because they were a team of adamantium-class adventurers, the face and representative figures of the guild, and many difficult tasks depended on them. It was precisely because they were the ones who violated the rules that they were forgiven.

This is the privilege of the strong.

And it would be the most foolish thing to do to use other manpower and involve the guards. The power of that gang has penetrated deeply into the guards. They can only be used at the end to clean up the mess, otherwise there will be trouble.

The same goes for the soldiers that the nobles brought from their territories. If they can't figure out which noble is in cahoots with them, they can't ask for help from there.

The only person he could trust was Gazef, and he didn't even know how many of his direct subordinates he could trust.

"So, Lakis, do you understand?"

"That's true. As a result, we can't come up with a countermeasure because we don't know the sphere of influence of our opponents. If we just keep investigating, the kingdom will eventually become completely corrupt. The result of being surrounded by enemies is like treating the symptoms instead of the cause."

Lagis, who had figured it out, sighed deeply. The empire was facing external threats, internal strife in the country, and the political situation was becoming increasingly corrupt. She felt deeply helpless about the kingdom's current difficulties and dangers.

"But being engaged to Lin... I get it! It's reasonable to ask the Axis Cultists for help!"

Laqisi suddenly realized.

The position of the Axis believers in the kingdom is awkward. Although they are officially on the same side as Her Royal Highness the Princess, and have even helped the royal family solve problems within the capital on several occasions, they do not have a formal organization - in other words, the kingdom does not recognize them.

It was not that the king did not admit it. To be honest, the king also coveted the benefits brought by the Axis Church and had even brought the matter to the surface several times. However, those nobles used the issue of the six gods to hinder the church's issue, causing it to remain deadlocked.

“So you need a legitimate cover? Because marrying the princess means that the Axis Church belongs to the kingdom, and with legitimacy, you won’t be targeted by the nobles?”

She quickly figured out the key.

But even though I understand it, why is it so sad that my childhood sweetheart was left behind by my best friend?

When Laqisi was in a complicated mood, she heard Lin say, "And this way, we can win over my brother, Marquis Leibun."

Marquis Leibun was one of the six great nobles, and his financial resources far surpassed those of other nobles, but there was no evidence to prove that Marquis Leibun and Eight Fingers were not birds of a feather. Or rather, it could be that he was so wealthy that he might have received bribes from them.

Maybe Marquis Leibun was also an obstacle to their elimination of Eight Fingers, but they tacitly did not say it in front of Lin.

"Brother did take Eight Fingers' money."

Lin simply admitted on behalf of Lord Leibun, but also said with a smile: "But no one stipulates that you must do the job if you receive the money, right?"

Even Climb realized that Marquis Rebuen was a typical person who took money but did not do anything. Since he did not do anything, there was no possibility that he would betray the kingdom.

Lagis sighed: "I really admire Lord Leibun's political skills."

Lin smiled.

This is natural. My brother, who is determined to balance the power of the kingdom and maintain strength to resist foreign invasion, hates these underground organizations the most. How could he possibly betray the kingdom?

I have to admit that Lana is very tactful. She said that marrying Lin was mainly for the purpose of appeasing people's hearts and making a statement to Lord Leibuen - I value you very much, so for this reason I am willing to marry into the Leibuen family and consolidate the Leibuen family's political status in the kingdom.

If you want to win someone over, you should at least give them corresponding benefits, right? Even Lin chose to cooperate with Lana for the great prospects.

The only thing that worries me is that when the elder brother hears that his younger brother is going to get engaged to the monster princess, will he be so anxious that he will yell at him on the spot? After all, not everyone can accept Lana's nature.

Moreover, the Leibun family is the representative of the aristocracy. Marrying the princess means weakening the power of the royal family, and the aristocracy will definitely be happy with this.

"Then use me..."

"No, I guess my brother will come with Marquis Lei Buen. After all, I have been very close to Lord Lin recently, and my brother will have a certain sense of crisis. If Lord Lin is present and tells the two of them that they want to get married, they will definitely be criticized and made things difficult. In this case, it would be better if Lord Lin is not present."

"I see. Are you pretending to be ignorant?"

The impact of a two-person discussion and Lana's decision alone is completely different.

If the two of them were together, the Second Prince would be wary and think that Lana might have been involved in corruption with the Rebuen family. But if Lana was alone and Marquis Rebuen made a scene when she told him about this, people would think she was acting on her own and would relax their vigilance.

Even this has been taken into account. This is admirable wisdom.

Lana covered the guard boy's slightly clenched fists with her hands again and said sincerely, "So, Climb, this is a fake marriage, just a show for others to see. And if everything goes well, it only needs to get to the engagement stage, and it can be cancelled in a year at most."

"Your Highness Lana, I, I..."

Climb felt uncomfortable being stared at by those eyes that were so tender and insightful. He turned his head away slightly and dared not look, but it also showed that he accepted the proposal.

"Same to you, Laquis."

"what?"

"As Her Royal Highness said, this fake marriage will last until the kingdom is stabilized, which is about a year, so stop pouting."

"I-I'm not pouting!"

Lagis's tsundere look is rare. I haven't seen her since she became an adventurer, which is a little strange. No, it's because we don't see her often after she became an adventurer, so it's rare.

The daughter of a noble family felt extremely shy when her childhood sweetheart was staring at her, and she raised her teacup to cover up her shyness, but at the same time she was also a little worried.

"Lin, is it really okay to get engaged to Lana?"

I couldn't help but speak again.

Lin looked at the pair of eyes that revealed anxiety and realized that she must have sensed something.

Lana never showed her true self to outsiders, including Lagis. However, Lagis, who had a good relationship with Lana, had a hunch that something was wrong or was concerned about her childhood sweetheart, so she asked this question, even in front of her.

"Rather, I am honored to be able to marry Her Royal Highness the Princess."

"……Eh?"

Not only Lagis and Climb, but even Lana didn't expect Lin to say that, and the corners of their mouths, which were disguised as ladylike smiles, couldn't help but expand outwards.

"The goddess I believe in is the goddess of wisdom, and Her Highness the Princess is undoubtedly a wise person. Sometimes I even suspect that Her Highness the Princess is the goddess who has descended to earth... or something like that. So I am honored to marry Her Highness the Princess."

This statement is sincere and there is absolutely no falsehood.

She said this knowing that Lana was rejected by others and feared as a monster. - Although Lagis and Climb were completely unaware, Lana definitely understood Lin's true thoughts.

"Is that so? Ha...haha..."

The noble daughter couldn't smile. Even as an adventurer she maintained the etiquette of a lady. She broke down on the spot.

I don't know why, but I felt an inexplicable sour feeling in my heart, which was ten times sourer than the unknown wild fruits I ate in the wild, and the corners of my eyes became moist.

"Speaking of which, when the princess proposed a marriage, it would have been better to set the first target on the elder brother's son. Of course, he would have been rejected. But if he had said "it would be okay even if it was Lin", I'm sure the elder brother would have agreed."

"Window theory?"

"Oh, you remember this theory?"

"After all, it was Master Lin who told me."

The atmosphere between the two was very good. Lagis could even see pink bubbles. Although she knew it was a fake engagement, her heart still began to twitch.

Unable to bear this atmosphere, she stood up and said goodbye, saying it was getting late. She also took Lin away forcefully, and Clem followed her out of the princess's boudoir.

Lana, who was sitting at the round table, looked at her jealous friend with her eyes wandering in mid-air.

If there is one word to describe her, it is gold. This word comes from her dazzling beauty, but few people know that she has a talent that can overshadow her beauty.

Her talents lie in her ability to think, see, observe, imagine, understand, etc. All her thinking-related abilities are exceptionally developed.

To describe it in one word is genius.

This talent can only be said to be a gift from God. I am afraid that even if I look across the entire continent, I cannot find anyone with talent that matches her. If I really want to find someone, I can only look outside of the human world.

Humans consider things from their own perspective, and in this sense, labels such as weird or eccentric may be the correct evaluation that mortals can make.

But she has one flaw.

She didn't understand why others couldn't understand what she could understand. If someone of her level came along, they would have noticed her gift. The result would have been different.

However, there is no such person.

The reaction she got was that the young girl's speech was difficult to understand and scary.

Because Lana was cute when she was little, she was not disliked by outsiders and received a certain degree of love. But no one could understand what she said, which had a great impact on the little girl's mental development. As time went by, the little girl's mentality was distorted little by little.

The loneliness called genius may be easier to understand.

This phenomenon was indeed alleviated when she picked up the puppy - Clem. Unlike the way they had long been accustomed to treating her as a freak and thinking she was cute, the puppy's respectful look made her feel that only in this way could she talk to other people like a normal person and get along with vulgar and inferior creatures.

Until she met Lin.

The priest suddenly appeared in her field of vision and rudely stripped off her disguise.

She thought they were using each other, but the other party's sincere words, never rejected the monster-like wisdom, and even admired it. He had extraordinary wisdom and foresight, and from time to time he said theories she had never heard of - only a man with the "Wisdom of the Goddess" could understand her words, and that was the happiness of being understood.

Lana couldn't help but dance around the room. It was the dance she danced with that man when she entertained the envoys, a dance that only that man could follow.

Although she was dancing alone, her outstanding dancing was still fascinating. The only pity was that there was no one to dance with her, and no one to praise her loudly.

“Should we let a few of the Eight Fingers escape to buy time, or should we finalize the marriage? But Climb can’t let go either. What should we choose? What should we do to firmly grasp our own happiness?”

In the huge floor-to-ceiling mirror in front of the dressing table, Lana's steps became lighter and her figure became more beautiful.

However, the smiling face reflected in the mirror was not beautiful at all. Instead, it was full of distortion, darkness, and chilling whispers.

(End of this chapter)