Published: August 10, 2026
When we returned to the base mansion from the Tsukimi family, we told Lattice Nail, who had been waiting for us there, about the attempted assassination in the castle town and about the "Butterfly Flower Society."
Amelia seemed to have gotten used to sitting on a cushion and drinking tea, and she was relaxing in the gentle atmosphere while nibbling on tea snacks. When we left the Tsukimi family, Morganaite had been a mess, clinging to Amelia and crying, but I was really glad she hadn't followed us all the way here...
According to Amaryllis, who had lived in this mansion before, this room was originally the room of her mother, Utsugi Cluster, who had once been the princess of the Kohana family. Since it had once been the private room of the highest-ranking person in the mansion, it was the room with the most hidden mechanisms. Even if someone somehow slipped past my or Yoru's guard, this room would buy enough time for everyone to escape, so we had brought in a large table and used it mostly as a conversation room.
At this rate, I wanted to be able to rest peacefully somewhere that didn't require constant vigilance, but as long as I remained in this world, that seemed unlikely.
"Hm~. An attempted assassination by an anti-war organization in the country against an elf race ambassador who adores Amelia, huh? That's a pretty dense episode for just one or two days. Akira-kun and the others seem to be very loved by trouble."
"I don't recall ever asking to be loved by it, though."
Lattice Nail laughed as she munched on the sweets she had been given as a gift from the Tsukimi family, an apology for all the trouble, and which she had said Amelia liked.
I sighed and sipped the herbal tea Amaryllis had brewed for me.
The fact that the princess of the elf race staying in Yamato Country had been targeted in broad daylight was apparently already spreading as far as the village where Amaryllis's row house was located, so she had come to visit us out of concern.
"And even now, the 'Butterfly Flower Society' is still the same, I see..."
Amaryllis muttered as she carefully peeled the wrapper off her sweets piece by piece.
"So they had originally been hostile toward the Kohana family, but were you also targeted by the 'Butterfly Flower Society,' Amaryllis?"
"Yeah. The Kohana family, especially since Lady Sakuya's generation, had been putting a lot of effort into war preparations, and the local militia in Yamato Country that maintains public order through force is made up mostly of people connected to the Kohana family, so we were especially easy targets. That's why Mother ended up marrying into the Kingdom of Reytis."
Amaryllis nodded without taking her eyes off the wrapper.
It seemed my guess had been right.
"What a pain."
"Right? It's one thing to advocate anti-war, but why attack the Kohana family for it? It really makes no sense at all!"
"On top of that, this war was practically an invasion war initiated by the Kingdom of Reytis. They're blaming the wrong people."
"Exactly!! If they're going to say that much, they should go to the front lines and say it to the soldiers of the Kingdom of Reytis who are trying to kill us! But they probably don't have the guts for that, so they caused trouble in the safe castle town instead!"
Amaryllis must have been holding in a lot, because she nodded much more vigorously than usual at Amelia's and Lattice Nail's words, raising her voice too.
From what I heard, because of that so-called "Butterfly Flower Society," all kinds of happy events in the Kohana family during her childhood, including birthdays and New Year celebrations, were ruined, and it also became the trigger for her mother Utsugi, who was originally supposed to take a husband, to be married off to another country. So it made sense that she'd be angry. Apparently Amaryllis herself had also had her life targeted several times.
That discomfort Amaryllis felt toward the kaminari family probably also had something to do with the fact that the kaminari family had once been the parent organization of the "Butterfly Flower Society."