The Empror's Trap

Ch 38 - A Special Envoy

Kenji naturally wouldn't want to make things difficult for Pluvia.

However, when he sat in the Four Seas Hall, he could barely keep his composure.

Good grief, no wonder she hadn't mentioned it earlier or later, but chose this moment - she wanted me to help deal with Sal Kingdom's envoy!

Kenji had never imagined that what should have been the Chancellor's job would end up falling on him. According to Pluvia, the old Chancellor was advanced in age and in poor health, so she simply let him handle it instead.

What nonsense - that same old Chancellor who had confronted me in court with such a booming voice, and now they're saying he's old and unwell? Who would believe that?!

Kenji sat formally at Pluvia's left hand, while at her right sat the Sal Kingdom's envoy.

However, to Kenji's surprise, the envoy sent this time was actually a young woman.

If Camelot showed some slight disdain toward women, the Sal Kingdom didn't even treat women as normal citizens. At least in Camelot, common women weren't discriminated against - at most they faced some opposition in taking official positions (which was why Pluvia's position as emperor was unstable).

But Sal Kingdom wasn't like that. Except for girls from noble families, most common women could be bought and sold like goods, to the point that Camelot had repeatedly expressed its disapproval and issued many warnings.

So when this young woman stood before Kenji, he couldn't help but wonder if he was seeing things.

"Seventh Princess Uheya of the Sal Kingdom offers the highest respects to the esteemed Emperor and Duke Anos."

The girl executed a perfect classical Camelot bow.

Probably King Tuwa of Sal had found himself a beautiful wife, because Uheya as his daughter looked nothing like her father's fierce appearance that practically had "brute" written across his face. On the contrary, this girl was slender and graceful, with bright eyes and white teeth, carrying herself with dignity and elegance. She didn't look at all like a princess from the Sal Kingdom.

In Kenji's memory, when he had previously gone to Sal Kingdom for military exchange, he had personally seen those princesses - none of them could be called beauties, and they were all rather burly. Mounted on horseback wielding sabers as if they meant to cleave people in two.@@@@

But this Seventh Princess was quite the opposite. Though from a northern kingdom, she had the gentle appearance of a southern Camelot lady. If not for her slightly northern ethnic features, Kenji would have thought she was from Camelot.

Kenji sat down and looked at the princess.

However, the princess didn't continue speaking, instead looking at Kenji rather strangely.

Ah, wait, princess, why did you stop? Why aren't you presenting a gift to Her Majesty?

Kenji's gaze darted between the emperor and the princess before him, taking the opportunity to look the princess up and down - that waist, those legs, that... ahem!

No, wait, she doesn't seem to have any other gifts?

Oh no, surely she hasn't...

Kenji realized something terrible.

The Sal Kingdom had never really established a dedicated diplomatic department and rarely trained diplomatic talent. Even their so-called diplomatic department had only been cobbled together in recent years. And in terms of diplomatic etiquette, they were particularly lacking.

There had even been instances where they sent envoys to negotiate peace with the previous emperor and ended up using "I" to refer to themselves - mind you, this was in formal diplomatic occasions, and the Sal Kingdom had already acknowledged subordination to Camelot at the time.

So... Could it be the princess had only prepared a gift for me?

Damn it, no, Uheya, you're setting me up!

If it had been some soldier from the Sal army who came with only one gift, he might have believed it, given the Sal Kingdom's diplomatic inexperience. But for Uheya to claim ignorance of diplomacy was pure nonsense - having grown up studying Camelot classics, how could she not know Camelot's etiquette?

However, Kenji could only think awkwardly for a moment before turning to Pluvia:

"It's an excellent blade, but as I am Camelot's Duke, during this national exchange, this sword should be a token of friendship between our two countries."

Better quickly attribute this to the nation, otherwise all the goodwill he'd built up with Pluvia would be gone.