It was impossible. Absolutely impossible.
There was a furrow on my brow as I silently shuffled my way through the pace corridors. Without needing to think, I took a right, a sharp left turn, two more rights, straight for 200 meters, through a series of doors, another left, down a flight of stairs, and then took the third exit in the roundabout atrium into the hallway that connected the botanical garden facility to the main castle complex.
Lisa had to be wrong — or at least — I was sure that she was reading too much into pure coincidence.
My friend was mistaken about her educated guesses more often than you would expect. For example, we often used to pce bets whenever we had a meaningless disagreement, and our current score was 72-19. Admittedly (yes), the tally was in favor of Lisa, but she was still totally incorrect with her judgement at least 20% of the time.
Moreover, on the times when Lisa was wrong... she typically screwed up massively and would miss the target by a huge margin. An example of this was one time when we were pying "Angels and Demons" (note: the Galuterican equivalent of an American party game called "Mafia" or "Werewolf"), Lisa erroneously deduced that the doctor on our team was a demon, and she threw the game because she sent our healer to the executioner's block despite the fact that our entire team was practically begging her not to do it. There were plenty of examples just like this, and you could say that Lisa's skills of deduction were either totally genius or incredibly stupid — but never anything in between.
—With those kinds of disastrous errors, it was too dangerous to take the things she said seriously.
+ + +
It took fifteen minutes of brisk walking through the maze-like corridors of the Royal Pace before I returned to the broom closet that I had chosen for my base of operations for the day. With my mind pre-occupied in my own thoughts, I picked up a straw broom and returned to my prior task of (uselessly) sweeping the leaves back and forth around the entrance of the arboretum.
+ + +
Lisa didn't know what kind of wish I made when I reincarnated in this world.
I had asked God to make me into "a NPC that my cssmates won't recognize", which meant that Lisa's interpretation of Kang Jiesu's behavior had to be incorrect. If Kang Jiesu had seen through my true identity with a single gnce, it would have fundamentally invalidated my only wish as a reincarnator
While I had no idea what kind of wishes my other cssmates had, it was only fair if each of our wishes were equally powerful. For instance, if Sha Guadi could wish himself into becoming a level 61 muscle-head, I would be extremely upset if my wish didn't have as much power as the nose-picking idiot who sat in front of me in css. I wasn't greedy and I didn't ask God for anything substantial — so I expected that this one very specific small request would take priority over anything vague, overpowered, and non-specific (e.g. wishing to become an omnipotent god), as the casual density of my wish must surely be stronger than a cheat-like wish that was stretched the rules of the universe thin to fulfill a conventional isekai protagonist's masturbatory power fantasy.
As far as it made sense in my head, specific and narrowly-scoped wishes had to be superior to non-specific and vague wishes. For example:
Person A's wish: "I want to be the strongest man on Earth in 2025."Person B's wish: "I want to be the strongest man in the Universe forever and ever."...If we work with the assumption that God granted wishes equally... Person A had to be stronger than Person B in the year 2025 (on Earth), or else B's wish would completely invalidate A's... which should never be allowed to happen if God treats Person A and Person B equally.
∴ In conclusion: My wish was impervious to any cheat-like stupidity my other cssmates might have hypothetically construed.
+ + +
Sweep. Sweep. Sweep.
I looked down at the ground for a moment.
A new trail of leaves and dirt had blown into the hallway, covering the floor with a thin bnket of orange and brown leaves. It occurred to me that I had only been gone for less than a hour to eat lunch, but the wind had ruined all of the sweeping I had done this morning, and I was completely back to square one.
...Well...
This was the perfect type of work for a professional NPC!
+ + +
Sweep. Sweep. Sweep. Sweep.
Sweep. Sweep. Sweep.
Sweep. Sweep.
Sweep.
+ + +
In the midst of all of my hardcore NPC sweeping, I heard some distant voices echo through the nearby foliage.
"My liege, are you concerned about any of the reports?" A worried male voice said.
"Leave it alone, Sebastian." A deep and sonorous voice replied. "Do not deploy the soldiers."
"But sire... It is an ill omen... If the masses knew the truth..."
+ + +
—I immediately froze with the straw broom in my hands.
Those voices. It was the King and the Prime Minister, wasn't it?
It sounded like something very serious... information that a lowly maid like me definitely wasn't supposed to hear.
I spped myself on my forehead.
Of course they would be speaking in the open here. The Pace Garden was probably the best pce on the grounds to hold a secret rendezvous. It was quite literally located in the furthest corner of the entire pace, and there was very little foot traffic on a daily basis. A person could stroll through the gardens for forty minutes or more before encountering a wild pokemon gardener. There was hardly any need to worry about eavesdroppers, and if I had to make an educated guess, this was an area of the pace that the King frequently visited with his ministers. His Majesty Ogerius IV was well-known for enjoying beautiful ndscapes and taking long walks through nature. In fact, this indoor garden had expanded to more than double its prior size in the st decade thanks to the King's sponsorship.
For a moment, I debated on sneaking away quietly, but I quickly decided against it.
I would definitely attract more attention to myself trying to move around suspiciously rather than staying still.
......
Was the best option to just stay where I was?
If I looked like an NPC, I suppose it was best if I simply stared off into space and continued acting like one too?
...
Sweep... Sweep... Sweep...
Don't look at me, I'm just a regur maid... Sweep...
I'm supposed to be working here...
Sweep... (quietly?)
+ + +
"There were a total of five major incidents that occurred in the past twenty-four hours:
The Demon Lord unched an assault on the frontier vilges outside of the Great Wall of the West,The Great Bell Tower of Duke Reinfeld's domain exploded in fmes, setting the city abze,A mysterious cloud of miasma emerged and is corrupting the farmnds in the south,An unknown disease has afflicted the port city of Tempuras, andA fire-breathing dragon appeared on the outskirts of Rosevale and began terrorizing the countryside."The Prime Minister was flipping through a stack of papers with a frazzled and distressed look on his face.
"Sebastian," the King repeated. "I told you once already. The answer is no. Those provinces have sided with the Reformists. There is no benefit to supporting the strongholds of our political enemies. Their governors have drawn my spite, so as far as I can see, they do not deserve the aid of the Royal Treasury, nor should I concern myself with natural disasters that occur in nds where the people do not support me. Let the ground burn so the citizens may see their error of their ways, cheering for foolish governors who dare oppose me."
"But... Please, sire. Putting the factional politics aside, this can't be a coincidence. The Demon Lord has slumbered for seven years, yet he awakens the day after we summon twelve heroes from another world? The occurrence of one disaster can be called pure chance, but five simultaneous camities all at once is unprecedented."
"Sebastian, they are distractions. Our priorities rest with a successful fulfillment of the prophecy. Nothing else matters."
"If you mean that our Kingdom's fate rests with「Excalibur」... I sincerely do not know. The holy prophecy only speaks of one hero, and I struggle to know which of the twelve is the true hero whom we seek."
"God is very generous and granted us with eleven spares. If there are five camities, send one spare in each direction."
"...I... At this point, I cannot say we even know what each hero is capable of."
"You were the one who called these incidents, an urgent 'emergency', " the King reminded the Prime Minister.
"..."
It seemed like the Prime Minister had been driven back into a corner.
"Very well then, Your Majesty. I will ensure that a superfluous hero is promptly deployed to each incident," the Prime Minister finally conceded.
"Make sure that your arrangements do not interfere with our pns to unleash the power of 「Excalibur」. That is ultimately the highest priority for the Kingdom, and it is the single most important ritual that holds the future of this dynasty."
"I understand, Your Majesty."
"And silence the newspapers too. We cannot have panic and anarchy among the people."
"It has already been done. I have already anticipated that those measures will be necessary."
"Excellent, Sebastian. Excellent."
"I must confess, sire, my heart weighs heavily. The road ahead of us is filled with fog, and I am unsure of the correct path."
The King pced a heavy hand on the Prime Minister's shoulder.
"Sebastian, my good friend." He spoke with a soothing voice. "God will show us the way."
?
