Alexa audaciously drank the wine that Henry offered.

  For a few seconds, both Phoebe and Alfred were horrified by the scene. Even Henry had to pause for a double take, his eyes widening in surprise. He probably didn’t expect Alexa to be so bold. And in fact, Alexa did struggle. She was not a girl that was very good with alcohol. She preferred lighter juices or tea.

  Not this. Not wine, even the most refined ones. She wasn’t an alcoholic at all. In fact, when she felt the sweetness and warmth of the liquid pouring through her throat, the warmth overpowered everything else so much that she nearly wanted to throw up. She simply wasn’t used to it.

  Yet, she emptied her glass and slammed it lightly on Henry’s table before wiping her lips with a handkerchief. Her smug smile remained.

  “Pour me a little bit more, Sir Henry,” Alexa demanded. “I happen to quite like it.”

  I don’t. I hate it. Next time give me tea…p-peasant.

  But she didn’t dare vocalize that.

  “A-Alexa, that could have been—!” Alfred shouted.

  “It’s not, and quite frankly, I want peace here,” Alexa said. “I can’t have that if I don’t start by trusting his words, can I?”

  “...I agree with your knight,” Henry smiled, amused. “That was an exceedingly stupid move.”

  “It’s already a stupid move to come here, isn’t it?”

  “Yet you did it anyway.”

  Alexa leaned forward, slamming her fist on the table. “Because I want to save the lives of my subjects, Sir Henry. That’s why I’m here.”

  Her fury quickly abated, and she smiled again.

  “So please. Let’s talk. I’ve read and reviewed your demands and accepted many terms on it, yet you seem displeased enough that you insist on a pointless last stand. It simply boggles my mind.”

  “Oh, if it boggles your mind so much because you think it’s pointless, why try coming here to convince me?” Henry sat on his chair, pouring wine into his glass. “I mean, it’s pointless to try reasoning with a feral man fighting for no reason.”

  “The demon horde is pouring from the north,” Alexa said. “No matter what happens, your dreams of a ‘revolution’ are already dead in the water.”

  The man sighed as he sipped his wine. “It is, isn’t it?”

  Henry looked around the room, momentarily raising his eyes.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Phoebe snarled from behind. “I’ve already placed your men under a spell. They’re asleep.”

  “I’m not trying anything. Quite frankly, it’s a bit difficult already for me to resist the spell of a saintess,” Henry laughed, his grey eyes lightly glowing. “I guess I can thank my ‘gifts’ for that. You know about it, don’t you, Alexa?”

  “...I have some ideas about it.”

  “Then that means you know that you’re absolutely not defeating me here today,” Henry said. “Try as you might, I’ll find a way out. The Free Republic can fall, but I, Henry Richard von Hecker, will not. What reason then do I have to negotiate with you?”

  “Because I can offer you greatness, Henry.”

  That made Henry pause. He was so far relaxing like a madman on his seat, but no, he stiffened. Then, he leaned forward, perplexed.

  “Greatness? Pfft, pray tell, why would you offer something like that to a rebel like me? Are you out of your mind?”

  “On the contrary, this is the most rational approach,” Alexa said. “You…you covet nothing but prestige and glory, don’t you?”

  “Most certainly not!” Henry shouted. “I am leading this revolution because I believe in it. It is the path to the future. You of all people should know that already!”

  “And how will I know that?”

  “Because…” Henry stopped. “Hey, wait, why are you even offering me something like this? This is a massive trap, isn’t it? Don’t tell me you’re seriously considering allying with me after all that I did, after I opposed you, tried to kill you, and pulled off this stunt.”

  Alexa smiled wider. “Oh, you should really hear a lot about Sir Wilhelm. You know, when I turned him into my knight, first, I kicked his jewels.”

  “You’re not going to be able to do that to me.”

  “And it will be the same to you. Surrender yourself, accept the terms that I accepted, and join the Defense Forces and the Imperial Army in a campaign up north to defend mankind from the demon horde,” Alexa said. “If you do well, I will turn you into a misunderstood and misguided hero. I’ll even give you and your people a chance to have a new start in my new country.”

  “Why? Why do all this?”

  “I want you and me to work together. I want everyone to work together. Yes, even that Elisabeth girl, though she and her family will probably end up working as commoners for a living, but eh.”

  “You’re mad,” Henry said. “Utterly mad. This is not how a leader of the Empire should operate. You have to be ruthless, Alexa. You have to oppose your enemies absolutely. You have to fight. Or they will cut off your head.”

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  Alexa’s eyes trembled for a moment upon hearing that, as the words on the Iron Saintess’s novel flashed before her once again, words that detailed her brutal death in the hands of the revolution. It was something only she knew, because she was reincarnated into that same novel in the first place. Henry seemed to have noticed that too, as he immediately paused. She watched as Henry’s hold on his glass began shaking.

  “...No,” Henry said. “No…it cannot be.”

  What’s happening to him?

  Wait…

  Alexa stared at Henry’s eyes for far longer than she should have. There, she saw something. That cheeky, smug face of someone she knew and spent much of her time with for ages. The face of nerdy, good-for-nothing older brother. It was the face he always made when he was losing something.

  It can’t be…

  Alexa steeled herself.

  “That’s madness,” Henry reiterated.

  “Madness indeed,” Alexa declared.

  Both remained silent after that.

  “Um…” Phoebe spoke up from behind. “What’s happening?”

  “Nothing,” Alexa cut things off before it turned too stifling. “In any case, do you accept my proposition?”

  “You of all people,” Henry snarled, his face turning reddish. “This has got to be a joke.”

  “Do you agree or do you not agree?”

  “This last stand was meant to be glorious, something that was supposed to go down in history.”

  “With all due respect, you’re being a weirdo again.”

  That made Henry’s hands tremble into a fist, but he controlled himself. “Call me that again, and I’ll strangle you.”

  Then, Alexa made an annoying face with her lips. “Ufufu, so, so needlessly violent…really, can you do that, hmm?”

  “I swear…” Henry was becoming increasingly agitated, but he instead tried to breathe in and out deeply.

  Alexa, on the other hand, could see Alfred’s hands getting too uncomfortably close to his sword. He was definitely starting to think that Alexa and Henry were on a deadlock right now, and he was preparing to take extreme measures. However, Alexa gave him a glare.

  Don’t ruin it.

  I’m making headway.

  “I…” Henry grumbled. “There is absolutely no reason for me to accept this.”

  “Or, you can start from scratch. Even if you escape me today, how will you build up again to pull off another one of these stunts? ” Alexa haughtily asked. “If you do not fight the demon horde in a successful campaign to redeem yourself, you…you will be a footnote.”

  As Alexa correctly deduced, if he was him, and there was no way that he was him, Alexa knew that there was one thing that he would be most afraid of. It was not defeat, it was not being shamed, and it was most certainly the loss of his life. No, he had always been afraid of one thing.

  Of being a failure who’ll be forgotten.

  Her older, nerdy brother had always lived in the shadows of others, and he was always considered a weirdo that the family would eventually dispose of. Yet, even with his strange tendencies, Alexa knew that her brother always tried to be something worthy of recognition. He failed in that life, most likely.

  That’s why I know that in his second chance, he’ll most likely only want one thing—to be someone important.

  After all, what else could explain his megalomania to try forcing a revolution, no matter the cost? It wasn’t ideals that would drive a person to do that. If someone truly had ideals, they’d stop the moment their ideals became too costly to realize, for both themselves and the people around them. Those, however, who only used ideals as a cover for personal gain and glory…they were the most dangerous kind.

  They were people who would stop at nothing to create a ‘just’ world when in reality, their actions weren’t to see their ideals but only to change the world so they would be at the top.

  I doubt that he cares about the peasantry, about the workers, the people, and everything else. All he cares about is being someone great, and acting like he cares about all that is the easiest path there.

  Hence her offer. Now that he failed in that mad pursuit, she was giving him another option. Join her and prove himself worthy of being in Alexa’s empire, and he would have a place in it. It was the same offer she gave all the other bastards in power behind her back then so that they’d follow her.

  Surely then—

  “You will fail,” Henry declared. “You’re a naive brat. You’re too trusting. You’re not even thinking about how you can save your own skin properly. If you walked here into the jaws of your enemy, where you may die, how can I even know if you’ll bring greatness to anyone.”

  Henry laughed.

  “You’ll only bring ruin. Even if I surrender, I bet that dumb peanut brain of yours will lead us into defeat with the demon horde. Why would I want to be associated with that?”

  Alexa turned red. “Yes, you’re right. I suppose I am being naive right now. I suppose that there’s a high chance of failure in all of my plans, including this.”

  “Then why—”

  “Because I reject this cynical world, Sir Henry. I reject the soulless and craven fools who run it. I reject their ways, their logic, and the limitations they think are absolute. I reject that I will lose. And I reject that I will have to make sacrifices so I don’t lose.”

  “Then you just want to have your cake and eat it too.”

  “Exactly! As you’ve said, I’m a damned brat who asks for too much, and to that, I don’t care! I ask for a better world. I ask for an easy peace! I ask that everyone, no matter how bitter they are with each other, will unite and work together so we’ll all live! Do I care if any of it seems impossible? I don’t!”

  Alexa stood up, planting her hands on the table, her shadow looming over Henry, her pink eyes glowing lightly, and her halo from [Civila Mandato] began intensifying, its aura beginning to ensnare him.

  “I will make sure that this world will know me as Alexa Theresa—the Great. I will not stop until I get that, and I will get there in the easiest way possible. I don’t need brutality, I don’t need cynical and dirty tactics, and I don’t need anything that you ugly people want to keep saying is required to get what I want. You will accept my peace. You will accept my offer. And you will love it. Just like everyone else who accepted me.”

  She took a brief pause before continuing.

  “Fight for me. Fight for the Empire. Fight for the people. That’s what you will do. And in exchange, I will make you great too. Just like everyone else in this nation.”

  Henry looked up at her as if she were a monster. His lips trembled a bit, unable to even speak. He was both clearly taken aback by her passion, and he thought she was mad. But, Alexa thought, perhaps that was exactly what convinced many people to join her. She was a woman of so many contradictions, and she always sought to chase good things for everyone—especially for her—to the point of insanity.

  I think, even you will come to respect that, right, my dear brother?

  Henry closed his eyes, and with a deep exhale, words came out of his lips.

  “I and the Free Republic surrender so that we can fight the demon horde together for mankind. I thank you for your benevolent leniency, Your Highness.”