The Villain Changed the Ending

027 The key to unlock the barbarians

*****[Oscar, the main character]*****

‘what? Why is the child in a place like this?’

Children would have been banned from attending this banquet.

There are several rooms near the banquet hall.

Benno didn’t say it for sure, but since the banquet lasts until dawn, it’s probably used for a tryst between a man and a woman.

Perhaps there are people who come and go in the room during the day, and the garden may also be used for that purpose at night.

It was not a good place for a child like this to attend.

It seems that the other person thought the same.

Across the tree the girl jumped up again and shouted in a low voice.

“Why do you have children! I was banned!”

that’s what this one would say

The figure of the girl jumped up once more, but was soon out of sight.

There were small footsteps and after a while a child came out by the tree.

bigger than me

I think it will be around the 1st or 2nd grade of elementary school.

The girl looked around, then noticed Benno, who was a little away.

But when Benno averted his gaze, he grabbed my hand.

“Come here.”

pulls me tight

I looked at Benno, who was standing slightly behind.

Benno looked around slightly without saying anything.

It seems to have confirmed that people are paying attention.

It seems that I am a good child to be in contact with.

No, at this point I can roughly guess who I am.

It’s not that places where many high-ranking nobles gather don’t have guards.

In addition to the visible soldiers, there were those who stood secretly and guarded them.

However, no one catches the child in the garden attached to the large hall of the palace.

Speaking of a child resembling the second queen, who can freely move around the palace and looks older than Prince Robert.

‘Is this child a princess who will become a barbarian’s bride?’

I remembered the story of the princess that was mentioned a little in the novel.

The biggest reason Prince Robert was able to defeat the barbarians with his soldiers was because the barbarians were on the same side.

There may have been several reasons why the barbarians became allies.

However, in the novel, it was written that it was because the wife of the barbarian chief was the princess of the kingdom.

‘The princess of the second queen was said to be 10 years old this year.’

I was taken by the princess’ hand and led behind a tree.

“Sit, sit, come on. If you get caught, you’ll get scolded. I sneaked out too, so if someone sees it, it’s troublesome.”

“…”

“Anyway, you can’t come here. It’s a place where children can’t attend. Who are you following? Is the person standing over there your father?”

Did the princess not hear my rumors?

After asking in succession, the princess suddenly lowered her voice.

“Have you seen a barbarian?”

“A barbarian?”

“Yes. Uh, you speak well.”

The princess stared at my face as if in surprise.

“How old are you?”

“I’m five years old.”

“Eek.”

The princess’s eyes widened.

“My younger brother is also five years old. He can’t even speak yet. His pronunciation is bad. He sounds like an idiot. My mother says it’s cute. But you talk like an aristocrat.”

“…Because I’m a noble.”

However, the princess somehow did not look like royalty, let alone royalty.

Speech is crude.

The princess shrugged.

“Aristocrats are like you even when you’re young. No matter how much your father is a king, if your mother isn’t a proper noble… Oh, I shouldn’t say this. My mother is a noble, but she’s not.”

The princess said and sighed.

Now you’re talking about things you shouldn’t be talking about.

As for the queen’s origin, she only knew that she was from a domestic aristocratic family.

I’ll have to ask Benno what happened later.

As if impatient, the princess opened her mouth again.

“By the way, haven’t you seen the barbarians? I heard you’re attending a banquet today.”

I recalled the scene inside the banquet hall, but no one who looked like a barbarian was attending.

If there were barbarians, I would have approached them first and talked to them.

Because I want to somehow connect with the savage tribe that this princess will marry.

“I haven’t seen it. Why are you looking for barbarians?”

Marriage talks with savages have not yet come out.

It may have been quiet in the royal family, but I haven’t heard such rumors yet.

“1The queen is trying to marry me off to a barbarian. Ha ha.”

the princess sighed.

“My mother is crying every night because of it.”

The princess muttered, lowering her voice.

“That witchy old woman.”

You may not know a witch, but you will not be a granny.

1 Because the queen is a young woman who doesn’t show a single wrinkle yet.

“They say that if you marry a barbarian, you will die soon. That is why my mother cries every day.

However, the princess continued.

“If I’m not a savage, I’ll marry a seventy-year-old grandpa. It’s all because of the first queen. My mother still thinks that I’m better off surviving. I’m asking my grandpa to marry me. You’re still young, so I don’t know… Ha, which one is better? Do you think you’re happy?”

That’s right.

This is a difficult question to answer.

“You know what? Savages eat people. I heard they wear human bones around their necks.”

Is that why you came here to investigate yourself?

But it would have been better to ask someone for information about the savages.

‘If marriage was being talked about, someone would have explained about the savages… I bet there wasn’t even that.’

Benno gave a rough overview of the queens, but the information was skewed towards one queen.

I didn’t have time, so I only listened to a little bit of it on the surface.

‘Perhaps the second queen has less power than I thought.’

Was it that I was so alienated that I couldn’t get proper information?

1 The queen was not beautiful in appearance, but her hair seemed to be quite good.

Maybe even in an invisible place, they are driving the 2 queens.

“At least I haven’t seen them today. If you’re curious, can I meet you and let you know?”

“uh?”

The princess widened her eyes.

And laugh out loud

“How are you going to meet me?”

I got up and held out my hand to the princess.

“Princess Louise, nice to meet you. I am Oscar, Duke of Weiss.”

Saying that, I bent over and kissed the back of my hand, and Princess Louise stared blankly at me with her mouth wide open.

“Princess, flies get into your mouth.”

“…”

It seems he didn’t like Paris.

Princess Louise quickly shut up.

And after a while, as if realizing it, I cried out in surprise.

“Duke? Duke? A kid like this?”

Reaction is too slow.

Busy footsteps could be heard from some distance away.

A slightly overweight woman comes running as if embarrassed.

“Lu, Princess Louise.”

The woman called in a restrained voice.

Looking at the woman, I slightly dragged the princess’s hand forward.

“I’ve come to meet you, princess. I’ll ask the queen to visit you in a few days, so I’ll see you then.”

“uh….”

“I’ll find out the information the princess wants and go. Please pass it on to the queen.”

“…uh.”

Seeing that the woman looking for the princess was right in front of me, I bowed lightly and turned around.

When I turned around the tree-lined path to return to the original place, Benno was standing at the corner.

“Were you listening?”

“Yes, master.”

“Is it true that barbarians were invited to the banquet today?”

“It was on the list.”

“But why didn’t you attend?”

As I tilted my head, Benno lowered his voice and answered.

“I thought it was a savage, so someone in charge must have ignored it. They invited me, but they didn’t tell me the date and time properly, or they didn’t prepare the costumes properly, so they blocked me from attending.”

“Isn’t that a big problem in diplomacy?”

“It would be a problem in other countries, but barbarians are not familiar with the customs here. Unless someone deliberately tells them, there is a high probability that they will not know, and the person who will inform them is usually a diplomat or civil servant in charge of them.”

“…”

“Besides, the people of our kingdom tend to think of them as beasts who can speak.

“…”

this is my fault too

It was written as a barbarian in the novel, so I was calling it that way here without thinking.

“Then what should I call it?”

“In diplomatic documents, it is usually written as steppe people. They say that they call their people that way.”

“okay.”

Before meeting them, I should at least know how to greet them.

I raised my head, and Benno lowered his head slightly.

“I’ll try to find someone who knows about the grasslands.”

“Please, as soon as possible.”

“Yes, master.”

After that, I went back to the banquet hall.

“Oh, Duke Weiss.”

The lady, with her head erect like a parrot and colorful feathers tucked in, smiled gladly at me.

“Are you feeling well?”

“I felt a bit tired until a while ago, but it all disappeared the moment I saw your wife’s face.”

“Oh, oh, good job.”

When the parrot head lady laughed, the ladies next to her sighed lightly.

“You’re cute.”

“…”

one muttered.

She must have been in her mid-to-late twenties, from what I’ve heard.

‘It’s really embarrassing to hear that from a woman younger than me.’

You can even feel the redness in your face.

No matter how they received it, the wives sighed here and there again.

The wife, who looked to be in her 40s, gently shook a fan made of peacock feathers.

“When I see Oscar, I think of the nobleman I loved as a child. You can’t even imagine, but I also had a little girlhood.”

Well, to me, even a woman in her 40s doesn’t feel that old.

Maybe it’s because I’ve died once, but I think my perspective on women has changed a bit.

“You’re still like a girl.”

Looking into the dreamy eyes of his wife, the words came out of nowhere.

I think I knew it was sincere.

She looked at me with really soft eyes and bowed her head a little.

“Thank you, Duke.”

I was literally explosively popular among wives.

I heard that popularity comes once in a lifetime, and maybe now is such a time.

Even a three-year-old kid could propose to her.

“…”

Come to think of it, Princess Louise didn’t say that I was cute when she saw me.

Looking back at her actions, there was no sign of that.

Not conceited, my appearance would be quite beautiful in this world.

Anyone who sees it at first admires how lovely it is.

But Princess Louise had none of that.

He was simply surprised by the fact that he was a young duke.

‘Are my tastes different?’

Maybe that’s why they get married to the steppe people and live well.

At least at the point when the grassland tribes invaded, she did not die and lived as the wife of the chief of the tribe.

‘I haven’t been able to answer her before.’

It is better to be tied up with a steppe tribe than marrying an old man.

Not because she knows the contents of the novel, but because of her personality.

He is already ten years old, but he still uses a sloppy tone and says things he shouldn’t say, so he wouldn’t be able to live in an aristocratic society.

Falling into someone’s trap, in the end, even the 2 queens fall.

Maybe that’s why the king decided to send her to the steppes.

1 The queen is encouraging it well.

As the sun went down, the banquet hall became brighter.

Perhaps the light on the wall increased without me noticing it.

Even in the quiet garden, lights were lit here and there, and men and women began to secretly come out of the hall and disappear beyond the darkness.

The banquet became ripe with the atmosphere that it was just beginning.

“Master, it’s time to go to bed.”

Benno approached me while I was still among the people.

“It’s a little early, but I have to excuse myself.”

When I got up and bowed politely, everyone said one word at a time.

One of the most popular sayings is that you grow taller when you go to bed early.

Hm, is height very important in this world?

Benno took me to a room in the palace.

Each of the high-ranking nobles attending the banquet today was assigned a room.

There are rooms close to the banquet hall, but those rooms are probably used for trysts or assigned to lower nobles.

It was a long walk to where I was staying.

As I walked through the corridors following the guidance of the attendant, I gradually felt drowsy.

My eyes close and my head nods.

“Master, come here.”

Benno spread his arms.

Already far from the banquet hall, there is no one around.

There was only an attendant in charge of guiding.

The attendant turned his head away from looking at me or Benno.

It seems like you should treat someone who doesn’t have one.

“huh.”

It’s a little embarrassing, but I had no choice but to fall into Benno’s arms.

My feet hurt from being overworked by long-nosed shoes, and my nose seems to be numb from the smell of perfume and cosmetics.

To be honest, it was so hard.

Benno draped his cloak over me to hide his face.

In an instant, the whole place became dark, and no sound could be heard.

“…”

If this is the case, I will have no choice but to fall asleep.

When I woke up, it was already dawn after several hours.

The clothes were changed to a long one-piece shirt, and the hands and feet were probably wiped with a wet towel.

It was clean with no sweat or smell.

“Are you awake?”

Benno’s voice came from a dark corner.

Benno came closer and looked into my face.

“Get some more sleep. Tiredness is still on your face.”

“Um, it’s okay. Benno hasn’t been sleeping?”

“I’ve slept enough.”

Benno laughed lightly.

“Have you found anyone who knows about the Grasslands?”

“Yes, there’s someone who used to be a diplomat. I’ve been in contact with him. You can call me anytime.”

“Even now?”

“Of course. But the master is still tired.”

“It’s okay. I’ll listen briefly to the story first and then go back to sleep.”

“All right.”

And about an hour later, a former diplomat came to visit.