Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 110 - Operation 10

The banquet was held in the royal palace.

One of the large halls reserved for grand occasions. Long rectangular tables. Seats arranged in a fixed configuration, every detail already decided.

The venue had been pulled together in 10 days. Standing before it now, that was almost impossible to believe.

My heart was buzzing with anticipation.

I had come as a staff member, and Eris and I stood near the entrance of the reception room, scanning faces as the guests arrived.

The reception room itself was spacious, set up for mingling, not sitting, more like a standing reception than anything formal. People drifted through it in small clusters.

Some wore excitement openly on their faces.

Others carried unease they couldn't quite hide.

They had all arrived early, and they were already talking, speculating, really, about what Ariel would say tonight.

......

"...Hmph. You think you can just waltz back into the Notus Greyrat household at this point?"

Pilemon Notus Greyrat stood at the entrance with his eldest son and their guards, staring at Aisha Greyrat with barely concealed suspicion.

The remark came out of nowhere. Aisha blinked, then realized it was aimed at her.

She had no particular interest in arguing. She answered lightly.

"I have no such intention."

"You'd better remember that: you were never even permitted to carry the Greyrat name in the first place!"

Aisha smiled.

"Ho... I'll be sure to remember those words."

Pilemon said his piece and moved off into one of the private rooms reserved for high-ranking nobles.

......

At the appointed hour, the banquet began.

The nobles filed in and took their assigned seats. By Ariel's orders, there were almost no guards stationed near the hall tonight, which meant nearly every noble had brought their own escort.

When the last of them had settled, Ariel stepped forward from the host's position.

"Tonight, I am deeply honored that all of you have found time in your busy schedules to attend."

She opened with the customary pleasantries. His Majesty's illness. The recent state of domestic affairs. And then, with what seemed like genuine feeling, how much she had missed the Asura Kingdom during her time abroad.

When the pleasantries were finished, her tone shifted.

"Now then. The reason I have called all of you here tonight is not for ceremony. There are certain matters that need addressing — and certain rumors."

Her eyes moved to Darius. There was something almost playful in her gaze.

At that moment, Aisha Greyrat stepped forward.

"I believe everyone here recognizes her: the younger sister of Lord Rudeus Greyrat."

A murmur ran through the room. No one quite knew what she was doing up there.

"Over the past two years, Aisha Greyrat and her brother have freed a considerable number of slaves. Lord Rudeus is not present tonight, so his younger sister, Lady Aisha Greyrat, will be the one to explain the origins of those illegal slaves."

Ariel stepped back.

Aisha stepped forward.

"I've thought about this a lot, and I still don't quite know where to start. Hmm... let me put it this way."

Aisha smiled. Her eyes found a heavyset figure and didn't move.

"Darius. Tonight, you will receive your punishment."

Then she stepped off the stage.

The hall erupted. It didn't quiet until Ariel walked back to the front.

"There is one more person I would like to introduce."

As Ariel spoke, a woman appeared at the entrance. She was striking, captivating really, draped in ornaments that caught the light, and she moved through the hall without hurrying, completely composed.

She stopped beside Ariel.

The moment Darius saw her face, his already unpleasant expression curdled further. His eyes went wide.

Among the nobles, some turned pale and stood without thinking.

"During my travels, I happened to cross paths with her. The second daughter of the Papelhos family — Miss Doristina."

The woman introduced performed a bow of flawless noble etiquette.

"As presented: my name is Doristina Papelhos."

The hall went loud.

She had gone missing.

There had even been talk that she was dead.

And yet here she stood.

Grown into a woman like this?

While the room was still reeling, Ariel spoke, and her voice carried heat.

"Speak everything that is in your heart. In the name of Ariel Anemoi Asura, I guarantee your safety. I will punish the one who harmed you!"

Doristina gave a small nod. Then she shook her head sharply, like she was throwing off a weight, and stepped forward.

She stopped very close to where Darius sat in the VIP section.

The look she gave him was the kind of look you give something beneath contempt. And she began to speak.

How her own family had betrayed her and sold her to Senior Minister Darius.

How Senior Minister Darius had kept her like a dog.

How she had watched, helpless, while her closest friend was enslaved right in front of her.

How she had nearly been killed in secret during the Fittoa Region Displacement Incident.

How she had been rescued during Rudeus's liberation campaign, only to be captured by bandits on the road home and made a sex slave.

And then, how Ariel had saved her.

It was a devastating story.

Some nobles didn't even try to hide the tears.

The others, particularly those in Darius's circle, couldn't mask their confusion. Or their dread.

"Alright. Allow me to take it from here."

Ariel placed a gentle hand on the weeping noblewoman and saw her off, then turned back to the room.

Her expression was different now. The practiced warmth was gone. What remained was controlled anger, held just barely in check.

"Lord Darius. If you cannot provide a reasonable explanation..."

Her voice climbed.

It rang through the hall like a verdict.

"To commit such unforgivable acts within this Asura Kingdom, and without a reasonable explanation — I believe the people of this nation, and every noble in this room, will not forgive you."

Darius scoffed.

He rose to his feet without any apparent hurry.

"Lady Ariel, haven't you taken this jest rather too far? Bringing a woman of unknown origin before this gathering and presenting her as a Papelhos..."

"Are you saying you have proof she is not a Papelhos? And do you also doubt the younger sister of Lord Rudeus Greyrat?"

"Indeed! The body of the Papelhos second daughter was recovered just last month. And these so-called illegal slaves? That's your claim alone. You can say anything you like about the dead."

Darius turned to another face in the VIP section.

"Isn't that right, Lord Fletas Papelhos?"

He looked at the man with easy confidence.

Fletas Papelhos said nothing.

The silence stretched. Darius pressed again.

"This woman is an impostor. Would you be willing to state that on record?"

"I... my... my daughter. She was... taken. Senior Minister Darius took her from us..."

Darius lurched to his feet.

"Don't speak nonsense, Fletas! You have it with you, don't you — the certified seal used to verify her identity!"

"No such thing ever existed."

Ariel smiled.

A quiet smile. Barely there. But it reached her eyes.

"Abducting, imprisoning, and violating the children of nobles. Illegally enslaving commoners. No matter how vital a pillar of the kingdom one may be — a crime is a crime. There is no escaping that. You will face judgment under the laws of this kingdom."

Darius's face twisted.

Ugly. Savage. He swept his gaze across the room and found nothing reassuring in any direction.

There were no allies left standing with him.

Darius had lost.

"Ariel. Father is gravely ill. What exactly are you trying to accomplish by stirring up chaos like this?"

Gravel Zafin Asura, the First Prince, stepped forward.

He walked straight to Ariel.

"I am protecting the honor of the royal family and the nobility. Where is the chaos in that?"

"I'm telling you to consider the time and place."

Gravel shook his head, clearly irritated.

"With Father bedridden, Senior Minister Darius's abilities are indispensable to the Asura Kingdom."

"Even so, a crime is a crime."

"Even granting it's a crime, Darius is a high-ranking noble, Papelhos is mid-ranking. Which one matters more to the nation? Surely that doesn't need to be said aloud."

Ariel didn't argue. She looked as though she'd been expecting every word of it.

"Brother. Shall we keep going in circles?"

"No need. I intend to settle this here and now."

Gravel turned to face the assembled nobles.

"I have no desire to convict Darius. She does. So let us do this, a vote, as custom dictates. Nearly every pillar of this kingdom is gathered in this room tonight. Let them decide. Which of us, myself or Ariel, is in the right."

The nobles didn't waver.

They had all known this moment was coming. Most had been preparing for it.

Darius had been knocked off the board, that much was true, and it was a real blow to Gravel's side.

But within his faction, the strength was still there.

The four great regional lords. Notus. Boreas. Several additional high-ranking nobles, all aligned with Gravel.

On paper, this wasn't close. Gravel's victory was already a foregone conclusion.

The one variable, the only person in this room anyone genuinely feared, was Rudeus Greyrat. And Rudeus had sent his younger sister to protect Ariel, nothing more. He hadn't shown up himself. He hadn't declared anything.

Maybe it was just a favor. Maybe he was only helping Ariel this once.

And even if Rudeus truly backed her, they still had to support the First Prince. If Ariel took the throne with Rudeus behind her, the fate awaiting nobles who had opposed her didn't bear thinking about.

The choice was obvious.

Gravel smiled and looked at Ariel.

Her expression stopped him.

She was smiling too. But it wasn't warmth. It was disdain, clean and absolute. The look of someone watching a losing move play out exactly as expected.

Like she was looking at a man who had already lost.

"You..."

Before Gravel could finish, Ariel snapped her fingers.

The next instant.

An explosion, and a pillar of fire tore upward from one corner of the castle.

Intermediate Fire Magic: [Pillar of Flame].

Amplified to a tremendous scale through voiceless casting, the blaze clawed up the castle walls and punched into the sky.

The nobles watched it rise.

But the fire wasn't what stopped them cold.

Magic of that level wasn't unusual within the royal palace.

What they were staring at was something behind it. Beyond it.

Something that had no business being visible from the royal palace, under any circumstances.

The Pillar of Flame lit it from below.

It emerged from the night sky like a thing out of legend.

A colossal shadow.

"Sky Fortress!?"

"When did that — "

Sky Fortress Chaos Breaker.

The great castle moved toward them, slow and deliberate, carrying a weight of sheer awe that pressed down on the lungs.

It flew low. Impossibly low. Close enough to scrape.

Every noble rushed to the windows.

It stopped.

Directly overhead.

The Sky Fortress hung motionless above the royal palace, above the Silver Palace itself.

The hall went completely silent.

Then, footsteps.

A clean, measured sound, click, click, click. One person, by the sound of it.

But some of the nobles' guards had sharper senses than that. They felt the presences in the air, and the count came back wrong.

Thirteen.

The ones who caught that number couldn't keep from trembling.

"We have long awaited your arrival."

The moment Elmorea spoke, the breath went out of the room.

The doors opened.

The hall erupted.

A man in a white cloak. Silver hair. Golden eyes.

The portrait didn't fully do him justice. No portrait could capture that kind of pressure, that absolute, crushing presence that filled the room the moment he crossed the threshold.

Twelve attendants at his back.

He walked through the hall, and the gazes that followed him were a collision of trembling awe, naked fear, reverence, longing. He received all of it without acknowledgment, moving at an unhurried pace to the front of the room.

He stopped before Ariel and Gravel.

The twelve spirits split, six to each end of the hall.

"I am honored by the invitation. Ariel Anemoi Asura." A faint pause. "I'm a little late, am I not?"

"Not at all. The main act always arrives last."

The nobles understood in an instant.

One of the legendary Three Heroes who slew the Demon God. He had declared for Ariel.

Gravel went blank.

He stood there, eyes wide, staring up at Perugius.

"Distinguished guests, allow me to introduce one of the Three Heroes who slew the Demon God. Lord Perugius Dola, the Armored Dragon King."

Perugius didn't bow. He surveyed the room with a gaze that belonged to someone who had never needed to.

The nobles dropped to their knees in a scramble, heads bowed low.

"I am Perugius Dola. Please, rise, all of you. Tonight I am simply a guest who answered an invitation, the same as any of you. That level of reverence is unnecessary."

They got up unsteadily and found their seats, unease written on every face.

Then Perugius paused.

3 seats were empty in the noble section. 3 seats, side by side in the VIP row.

Three people were still standing.

Ariel. Gravel. Perugius.

"Oh. A problem. Three empty seats." He glanced between them. "Ariel Anemoi Asura. Gravel Zafin Asura. Where exactly should I sit?"

Gravel's breath caught.

Someone in the crowd audibly swallowed.

"In that case... naturally... please take the seat of highest honor."

"No. I have been away from this country too long. I will not take the seat that belongs to the next king."

Perugius placed his hand on Ariel's back.

He did it the moment the words "the next king" left his mouth.

"Ariel. That seat is yours. Let me sit beside you."

In that moment, every person in the room understood.

The next ruler of Asura Kingdom had already been decided.

......

"...Lord Perugius!"

The instant Silvaril cried out.

The ceiling came down.

A falling crystal chandelier crushed one of the nobles beneath it. Scattering debris cut several others. The scale wasn't enormous, the ceiling only collapsed through the center of the long table, but it didn't need to be.

Because what dropped through it was a person.

She had blown a hole in the ceiling and jumped through it.

A small frame, etched deep with wrinkles.

A beautiful golden sword was planted in the floor in front of her, used like a cane.

The old woman stood there, perfectly upright.

She had dropped into the middle of the venue and looked around the room.

"Hey. I came to help."

Water God Leda.

She was looking at Darius when she said it.

➤ Next: Action, Finale — Steel and Blood