230Chapter 1: Queen Cosplaying Loli? (I'm serious!)
Lower Wind Month, 5th Day, 600 AGG(After Great Gods)
Draudillon Oriculus sighed.
Truthfully, she would've liked to have done much more than just sigh, but even someone as pitiful as her still had a modicum of dignity left.
'A modicum that's slowly being whittled away,' she bitterly thought while glaring at the retreating back of Cerabrate. The oh-so-virtuous Adamantite Adventurer who nobly took it upon himself and his team to hold back the advances of the Beastman Country from the east.
Of course, all it took was for her to, ah, appeal to the man's more carnal desires. Powerful people were often known to have their quirks, but to be a pedophile of all things…
Draudillon shuddered.
"You should really get your cousin to fix his behavior," she turned to the Prime Minister standing stoically by her side. Martin Beni Del Asturias had a rotten personality, but there was no doubt that he was someone she could rely on.
"Your Majesty. Some requests are simply impossible, no matter what you might say," the man cooly responded before pausing for a moment. "Though there is something else that might be of interest."
"Eh? Is that so?" her shoulders slumped in fatigue. "Well, out with it I suppose."
"There have been…" Draudillon frowned as her ever-stalwart minister hesitated for a moment. "Rumors in the east. Sightings of a Theocracy priest who appears to be making their way to the capital."
"A priest from the Theocracy?" Draudillon raised an eyebrow. "I don't recall the Cardinals sending any additional detachments to the east."
"Indeed. There was more gossip regarding this rogue priest, but I would not want Your Majesty to make any rash decisions based on hearsay alone," the prime minister carried on, unperturbed by her comment.
"Oi. Stop making it seem like I'm an idiot."
"There is no need for me to do such a thing, Your Majesty," the minister smoothly retorted without missing a beat, conveniently ignoring her displeasure. "Either way, there doesn't seem to be much we can do regarding this. It would be difficult to devote any resources towards investigating given our situation anyways."
"That's true…" Draudillon sank into the throne. "We just have to hold out like always. Somehow."
"Indeed," Martin grimaced. "If that is all, I will take my leave and attempt to request aid from the Theocracy and Empire again, mysterious priest aside."
" 'Kay~"
The minister directed a cold stare at her in response to the girlish reply. "Since Your Majesty is still so energetic, perhaps you could hold an extended court tomorrow. Ah, yes, please hold off on drinking tonight too since you'll be working longer."
"Guh…!"
Draudillon's eyes begged the Prime Minister for mercy, but to no avail.
"Now, I believe I have a few Cardinals and an Emperor to petition," the minister inclined his head towards her and made his way out the throne room. "I hope Your Majesty is ready for a long day tomorrow."
Draudillon groaned as she shooed him away with her hand. Once the door closed with a thunk she leaned forward, resting her elbows atop her thighs and covering her face with her palms.
"He won't know if I drink just a drop right? After all, it's just one drop…" she muttered to herself. Unfortunately, she doubted she would be able to limit herself to just a drop once she got started.
And as Martin—damn him—had said, she did have a long day tomorrow. Not that she had any short days, but thinking about that was even more depressing than her current predicament.
"It's not like holding court and listening to people ask for reinforcements is going to save us anyways," Draudillon's voice quietly echoed in the empty hall. What was the point? The truth of the matter was that they were going to be overrun and eaten by their eastern neighbors despite sinking the majority of the national treasury and budget into the military and tributes.
An effective military took time to build up and the tributes resulted in reinforcements that could not be relied upon. Either way, both were proving to be dead ends.
Even her last resort—Wild Magic—was a dead end. What kind of shitty magic required nearly a million lives anyways?! Furthermore, on the off chance that she lost control of the spell, the Draconic Kingdom would be finished. Wiped-off-the-map finished.
A kingdom on the verge of annihilation, being forced to pander to a pedophile, and a self-destruct as a last resort. Truly, she was a ruler to be envied!
"Yup!" she faked a cheerful smile to herself. "Worrying about all of this now won't do any good, so I'll leave it for tomorrow!"
The fact that tomorrow was unlikely to bring a solution to her numerous problems went unvoiced.
A thousand-yard stare crossed her face as she contemplated the likelihood of the Slane Theocracy or Baharuth Empire sending additional help. If the Draconic Kingdom were to fall, then the wyvern rider tribes—who still refused to send aid?—would perish in short order before the Beastmen stomped over to the Empire and by extension, the rest of the Human kingdoms to the west.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the Draconic Kingdom humanity's first line of defense. Knowing that, the fogies at the Theocracy still kept to the doctrine of sending forces at the last possible moment. Thus, the Draconic Kingdom would die a slow and agonizing death over the course of many years as the beastmen wore them down.
Draudillon let out a self-deprecating scoff. It wasn't as if the Theocracy was being unreasonable after all. In the end, even if their goal was to preserve humanity, they still had their own national interests to keep in mind. Devoting resources away from their other operations to deal with the Draconic Kingdom's not-quite-immediate disaster was most definitely a choice to conserve as much power as possible. Her draconic lineage definitely didn't win her any points with them either.
Well, when it came down to it, all the problems they were facing were her fault for entrusting the security of her kingdom to foreigners.
"Hah…" she leapt down from the throne, her body growing and its proportions maturing as she did so. Draudillon groaned in relief as she stretched her arms upwards and worked the crick out of her neck, ignoring the small surge of fatigue that came with using the Wild Magic spell. "Much better—"
"Wow!『True Seeing』makes that look sooo weird!"
Draudillon jolted and snapped her head towards the voice. "Who—?!"
An overwhelming aura filled the brightened hall as Draudilon gritted her teeth and struggled to keep her head up. The only time she had experienced something similar was in the presence of her great-grandfather, Brightness Dragon Lord.
It was the aura of an apex predator. Really, it was rather at odds with the intruder's appearance—that of a young, blonde, and golden-eyed woman with six white wings sprouting from her back plus a halo to top it all off. She looked rather alike to popular descriptions of angels though Draudillon had never seen an actual angel look so human before—
Then the pressure suddenly disappeared, making her wonder if it had ever been there at all.
Draudillon awkwardly coughed into her fist, noticing that the stranger was still staring at her. "Uh, that is, I meant to say… What are you doing here?"
'Nice going! 'Uh,' this will definitely make a good impression!' Draudillon kept a straight face even while her head began to throb in pain. Seriously, what was up with this day?
"Me?" the intruder put a finger on her chin as she appeared to seriously contemplate the question. "I'm… looking for something? Or someone?"
"Looking for someone," Draudillon deadpanned. The situation was slowly slipping out of her comprehension. "And you decided that breaking into a fortified castle would help you find this person?"
The intruder tilted her head. "Maybe. Wait, no, that sounds a little creepy—"
"I see," Draudillon fought the urge to groan. She had to be polite for the sake of her kingdom. If this being happened to be as strong as their presence suggested, it would be good to not offend them too much. Strong people like great-grandfather and Cerabrate were all screwed in the head.
"Yeah, so you see, I actually woke up east of here," the idiot—no, no, stay polite Draudillon!—woman nodded as if that was a satisfactory answer. "In a forest, actually. I think it was a forest."
"A forest," Draudillon confirmed.
"Mhm," the woman began picking at her ear. "A forest."
"In the east."
"You got it!" she inspected her finger with an oddly melancholic gaze. "No earwax huh?"
"I…" Draudillon shook her head after a brief moment of exasperation. "Nevermind. What do you want?"
"I dunno," the woman shrugged and said in that annoyingly captivating voice. It was unfair in the highest that she had both an impeccable appearance and—ahem—a heavenly voice. Draudillon wasn't prone to jealousy, but this whole situation was aggravating in the highest. Having to pander to Cerabrate certainly didn't do wonders for her self-esteem. "I'm just looking for—stuff? Yeah, stuff. I guess the villagers were exaggerating…"
"You don't know, and you still broke into a sovereign's stronghold?" the beleaguered queen asked.
The woman frowned. "I already answered that. If I knew more, I would've told you, right?"
'I must be dreaming. Yes, of course! There's no way someone so ridiculous would actually exist. I must be dead-drunk right now!' Draudillon desperately thought.
"Hey! I can tell you're thinking that I'm crazy or something!" the woman crossed her arms. "It's been a long week for me, you know?"
'It's been a 'long' several years for me, you buffoon!' Draudillon wanted to scream but forced out a smile instead. "Ah, is that so? Forgive me for giving that impression then."
"..." the woman pouted.
"What?" Were the Theocracy's gods punishing her for how much she'd complained? Was that why this bundle of surreal insanity was sent to her in the shape of an angel?
"You were definitely being sarcastic there weren't you?" the woman furrowed her brows. "If you're tired, you could always tell me to meet you later."
The exhausted queen nearly fell on her face.
"You're kidding me, right?" Draudillon said in a low voice.
"No…?" the blondie tilted her head in confusion. In any other situation Draudillon would have considered her a peerless beauty, but now?
Now she just wanted the day to be over. And to get drunk.
"No?" Draudillon's voice rose. "You barge into the heart of the capital during wartime, act like you've done nothing serious at all, and you expect me to just accept that you don't even know what you're looking for in the first place?!"
The woman nervously scratched the back of her head. "Welllll… If you put it like that…"
"If I put it like that?!" Draudillon stomped towards her—fear forgotten—until their faces were mere inches apart. "What do you mean, pray tell? Surely not how my kingdom would be lucky to survive just this year?"
She took another step forward, their foreheads nearly touching. "Perhaps you mean to say that now isn't the best time?"
"A-Ah!" the woman pulled back, her eyes wide-eyed in apology. "I, I'm sorry! I didn't think it was that serious—"
"ARGH!" Draudillon backed up and threw her hands up in the air in disgust. "I'm leaving." The disgruntled queen stomped towards the doors of the throne room, winged vexation floating by her side.
"Um, hm, I'm sorry?" the angel looked down at the floor in shame. "I wasn't trying to say it wasn't serious. Just that, like, I didn't know."
Draudillon took a deep breath in.
And out.
"Look," the Dragon Queen finally responded. "If you want to talk to me, you could come tomorrow. I'll be holding court all day. So if it's alright, could you please wait?"
The woman cheered up a little. "I… I guess. Yeah."
Draudillon almost let out a sigh of relief until the woman continued. "Uh, hm, this might sound a little bad, but could I stay with you? I tried sleeping in the air once, but it's just not the same as a bed, y'know?"
She paused for a moment as she looked up at the ceiling before looking back at Draudillon once more. "I've got tons of money and could help around with stuff?"
"The castle isn't an inn for you to lodge at," Draudillon scowled.
"Ahaha…" the woman clasped her hands together behind her back as she lagged a bit behind Draudillon. "It sounds pretty bad when you say it like that…"
"Forget it. There's an inn nearby. If you're…" Draudillon frowned as her steps slowed to a stop. Why was she being so casual with an obviously dangerous and unknown existence?
"Wait!" a slender hand found its way to her shoulder. "Just hear me out—"
"Just leave me alone, alright?!" Draudillon flinched back at the sudden contact as she fearfully growled.
"O-Okay," the woman hesitantly widened the distance between them. "But, um…"
"No, I'm sorry," Draudillon shakily said. "It wasn't right of me to lash out like that, nor should I have…gotten so excited earlier. My conduct towards you was unbecoming of my station."
"Oh!" the woman's eyes widened in panic while she raised her hands in apology. "No no, it was my fault to begin with. You're right. I shouldn't have broken in here so suddenly."
'You shouldn't have broken in at all…' Draudillon grumbled as she morphed back into the form of a child and pushed the doors to the throne room open, the blonde woman floating behind her. The castle servants standing outside the hall bowed before collectively stumbling, gaping at the unexpected newcomer.
"Ah, she's a messenger from the Theocracy, so don't mind her," the queen quickly came up with a feasible excuse. It wouldn't be good for national morale if people knew that a complete unknown had easily slipped into the castle undetected.
"But, uh, so is that a yes on the staying over thing? I'm kinda homeless right now…" the woman asked sheepishly. Draudillon couldn't see her, but she was absolutely making some sort of ridiculous expression right now.
Draudillon angrily stepped up a set of stairs and sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day. "Do whatever you want. Not like I could stop you anyways."
"Yay! You won't regret this!" the woman flew in front of her, floating backwards with a blinding smile shining from her face.
"Oh, I already am…"
AN: Some housekeeping - Nazarick won't show up in this fanfic (in other words, this 100 year 'wave') and『Message』is 4th-tier instead of 2nd because a lot of the things Maruyama does in Overlord really aren't possible when you have an unlimited-infinite range communication spell that's widely available.
I frequent the Grand Library of Ashurbanipal Discord where you can probably find me very occasionally posting art for this fanfic. Eventually, I plan on crossposting to AO3 since you can actually have images there.
Any other changes that I decide to make will be listed in future author notes. Thanks for reading.