Led by Julius, Emilia announced her arrival through the communication mirror and received permission to enter.
Naturally, Hayashi Maki followed her into the royal castle, walking down the long, luxurious corridors and finally stepping into the great hall.
The king's throne at the front was empty. In its place, several members of the Council of Sages sat below it as representatives.
Hundreds of years ago, the Witch of Envy appeared and devoured half the world.
At that time, the Sage Flugel stood up, led the members of the Council of Sages, sealed the Witch of Envy, and established the Sage's Tower.
Since then, the Council of Sages had been part of the highest ruling body of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugnica.
Now that the king and all his heirs had died from a plague, the Council of Sages was effectively the highest decision-making authority in Lugnica, exercising the powers of the king.
As Emilia walked in, Hayashi Maki noticed one bald sage with long eyebrows twist his face in disgust, giving Emilia a look as if he'd just seen something filthy.
So this was one of the council members biased against Emilia.
By nature, the Council of Sages stood opposed to the Witch of Envy.
The original reasons the Sage had for sealing the Witch weren't really clear anymore.
After several centuries of their "glorious" existence, no matter how much later generations twisted the Sage's will, the Sage himself couldn't just pop out of the tower and smack them.
In the end, the current Council of Sages were just politicians sitting on high, and they did almost nothing actually useful for the kingdom.
With four supposed "respected elders," it was impossible for them to agree on anything important.
That's why Lugnica had become half-dead like this.
Under those conditions, it made sense for Reinhard to be concerned about Felt and want to quickly seat someone on the throne.
After all, Lugnica wasn't the only country in the world. Other empires were eyeing them hungrily.
If there were no Dragon Priestess on the throne, it meant the Dragon's protection no longer truly existed.
That was very bad news for Lugnica.
Of course, that sort of crisis was the kind of thing a righteous Sword Saint should worry about.
For Hayashi Maki, all he needed to do was contract outstanding girls and strengthen his own power.
He immediately spotted Reinhard standing at the head of the knight formation.
The red-haired Sword Saint gave him a friendly nod of greeting.
Hayashi Maki returned the look and calmly slipped into the ranks of the Knight Order, picking an empty spot to stand and wait for the show to start.
At the same time, this was his first chance to properly size up Emilia's rivals.
One woman in military uniform instantly caught his eye.
She stood ramrod straight, posture sharp and proud, her presence like a drawn sword.
Her long green hair was tied into a playful loop at the ends and hung down to her waist. A small officer's cap rested on her head. Her whole silhouette just screamed "cool."
Crusch Karsten—that was her name.
She was the current head of House Karsten, inheritor of the ducal title, and a very strong contender.
Crusch Karsten was also planning to hunt one of the three Great Mabeasts: the White Whale.
When Hayashi Maki had been wandering the capital before, he'd already noticed the Karsten family carriages constantly going in and out of Hoshin Company warehouses hauling supplies.
The White Whale had ravaged the world for centuries; anyone shrouded by its mist would be erased from others' memories.
In truth, the White Whale was created by the Witch of Gluttony, but people who didn't know that blamed it on the Witch of Envy.
Satella was carrying quite a few scapegoats.
Crusch wanted to slay the White Whale to win the people's hearts and build up achievements to help her ascend as king.
Reinhard's grandfather, Wilhelm, had longed for revenge ever since his wife was killed by the White Whale, so he now served under Crusch to help her realize that goal.
Because in this entire kingdom, she was the only one seriously planning to hunt the Whale. No one else cared.
Not even his own grandson, the current Sword Saint Reinhard, had made any move to avenge his grandmother, which had created a huge rift between them.
"Yo, little brother—so you're Emilia-sama's man, nya?"
A cute cat-boy in a maid-like outfit walked up to Hayashi Maki and greeted him.
Hayashi Maki calmly nodded. "Yeah, I'm Emilia's knight. Hayashi Maki. Nice to meet you."
"Heehee, I'm Ferris! I serve that lady—Crusch Karsten-sama, nya. Please take care of me~"
Felix introduced himself cheerfully.
Hayashi Maki just nodded slightly and didn't say much more.
Felix Argyle was very cute… but he was a guy.
A boy wearing a dress, speaking in a girl's voice, and even cuter than most girls… Hayashi Maki really couldn't bring himself to be interested.
Someone like Hikigaya Hachiman might be all over that, since he got along so well with Totsuka Saika.
But Hayashi Maki was absolutely not into that.
After taking in Crusch's sharp, elegant figure, Hayashi Maki's gaze shifted to the smaller silhouette by her side.
The girl had long purple hair and a small, adorable frame, with a very pretty face.
She wore a fluffy white hat and a white scarf around her neck.
From the faint aura he sensed, that scarf was the artificial spirit Echidna Fox—something the Witch of Greed had made.
Because it held some of Echidna's memories, the fox spirit believed it was Echidna.
In reality it was just one of Echidna's experiments—a test piece.
The girl's name was Anastasia, and Hoshin of the Wilderness was the master served by the "Finest Knight" Julius.
Because Julius was known as the Finest Knight, he had a very high reputation in the Knight Order.
At this point, two of the royal candidates still hadn't arrived.
Felix, feeling hurt by Hayashi Maki's coldness, puffed up his cheeks and deliberately acted cutesy.
"Hayashi Maki-kyun~, how did you meet your lady, nya? Tell me, tell me~! If you won't say, at least chat with Ferris a bit, nya. Don't be so cold to me~"
Hayashi Maki rolled his eyes at him.
"Sorry, Felix. I only like girls, so I'm not interested in people who are… ambiguous about their gender."
"As for how I met Emilia—that's a secret. I refuse to answer."
"Ehh~? That's so mean! But… you figured it out, didn't you? That Ferris is a boy?"
Felix leaned in, eyes sparkling with curiosity.
He was cute, sure—but he was still a guy.
Hayashi Maki just shot him a look and nodded calmly.
"Yeah. I could tell at a glance."