I Became The Leader Of A Revolution In A Romance Fantasy

< Chapter 15: The Moon is the Merciless Queen of the Night – 4 >

Visenya did not bother to hide her face. She was too famous for hiding to have any meaning anyway.

Moreover, the masks were to avoid being recognized outside, but here, everyone knew each other with just a glance.

“Princess Your Highness. Congratulations on your election!”

“At last, it seems like order is being restored in this country. Your Highness!”

Countless requests for handshakes poured in. From the moment the princess made her dramatic entrance, a red-haired female knight stood by her side, trying to protect her.

However, Visenya Andrastra stopped the knight. Wearing a skillful smile, she walked gracefully and elegantly among the ‘audience’.

She passed most of the daring hands that reached out (limited to the same gender) but allowed a light touch on the back of the hand for a select few, causing an uproar among the crowd.

“Ah, Her Highness touched me!”

“Your Highness! Please, look this way! Your Highness!”

With her chest proudly thrust forward, her eyes slightly aloof yet wistful and charming, she truly was a star among countless fans. She was indeed the royalist star who descended upon the midnight banquet.

But was she the evening star that heralds a deep, dark night? Or the morning star that calls forth the dawn and then fades away? Even they did not know.

To be honest, they did not seem to care.

“Your Highness. We have let someone as noble as you be subjected to the ‘choice’ of the lowly. Please, have us executed!”

“That sacred bloodline should suffer such humiliation. Your Highness!”

Visenya laughed. It was a theatrical and confident laugh, almost a scoff. Then she spoke gently with her eyes half-closed, like a scene from a classical painting.

“Processes and formalities are mere trappings. What matters is that the people ultimately want me, isn’t it?”

Her youthful voice carried a soft rhythm. Visenya dramatically swept her hair back, bathed entirely in moonlight.

“But 78.1%, my, what popularity I have!”

The nobles, momentarily entranced, couldn’t help but marvel in unison.

“Oh, oh!”

“Indeed, you are on another level!”

Yet they thought, ‘She would be more than enough without the dramatic performance, so why…?’

Nevertheless, the nobles laughed. They laughed with Visenya, who smiled like an actress with her hand gently placed on her chest.

“Hoho!”

“Hehehe!”

“Hahaha!”

* * *

“First, we must restore this ruined country to its former state! We must restore the royal family and reclaim our unjustly taken lands!”

“We need to make the Parliament or whatever they call it ‘proper’! How can the representatives running the country be elected through a popularity vote among ignorant people? What do they know?”

The nobles, intoxicated by the fervor of the moonlit night, raised their voices with excitement.

They were swept up in the rare delicacies, fine wines, and the enchanting scenery of the moonlit garden, feeling as if they had returned to the golden age of the old times.

However, the legislators, adorned with golden badges and elected by the Royalists’ collective effort, merely ignored their shouts, finding them troublesome.

“How long are they going to talk about such impractical things?”

“Isn’t this why our Royalist faction can’t gain any power in the Parliament? Instead of presenting agendas that can sway the political landscape, we’re just opposing whatever comes up.”

Royalist legislators had become accustomed to being pelted with insults like “reactionary feudalists!” and occasionally even eggs. (Nowadays, with the economy in such a downturn, they were getting hit with banknotes instead.) Despite this, it was hard to argue against it, even from their perspective.

They realized that the Royalist faction was ultimately reactionary, simply opposing the movement of society.

When the Royalist legislators banded together, all they could come up with was “Let’s abolish the changes made after the revolution and revert to the old ways!” They sighed deeply.

Yet what they could only sigh about and not voice out loud, a clear voice began to convey.

“Change is not necessarily right, but blindly reverting to the past is nothing more than lamentations for a drinking session.”

“Who dares to speak such communist-like nonsense at such a joyous event—”

Before he could finish, a cold and hard face suddenly appeared next to the noble who was spouting about ‘communists’. The red-haired, green-eyed female knight looked ready to draw her saber at any moment.

“Eek, Sir Roche?!”

Camille Roche, the princess’s playmate since childhood and now her bodyguard, gripped the noble’s shoulder with a strength unimaginable for a woman.

However, it was not the pain in his shoulder that made the noble kneel. It was the realization of whom he had just insulted.

There could only be one reason Camille Roche clung to him like a specter in the moonlight.

“Y-Your Highness! I misspoke!”

“Hmm, should I forgive you?”

The nobleman’s face brightened.

Camille Roche’s grip weakened.

However, Visenya tilted her head slightly, her fingers lightly touching her chin.

“Should I?”

“!”

The nobleman’s face turned ashen.

The female knight began squeezing his shoulders like laundry again.

“Ah, aghhh!”

Visenya giggled.

“Milmil. Stop.”

“……”

“Alright, enough!”

Only then did the red-haired female knight release the nobleman’s shoulders.

The nobleman’s trapezius muscles, revealed briefly, showed distinct handprints as if drawn with pointillism.

Dozens, hundreds of capillaries had burst.

The nobleman bowed his head repeatedly and hurriedly fled to a corner of the garden.
Visenya watched him quietly,

then raised her champagne glass.

“It won’t be enough for our argument to simply end with ‘let’s revert the republic back to a kingdom.’ We need to focus on what aspects of the kingdom were better than the current republic. Efforts are needed to inherit the good policies of the kingdom and redesign them to fit the current situation.”

People listened attentively to her voice.

Her well-polished movements and dreamy expression, which could be captured in a painting at any moment, and her beautiful voice had a captivating power regardless of the content.

Without realizing it, they were tapping their glasses with silverware, giving applause.

“But I can’t win in the assembly just by asserting this alone. Of course, the fearsome congressmen of the revolutionary faction can’t take their eyes off me either-”

The nobles chuckled.

That was a truth that could not be doubted by even an inch.

The superstar of the moonlight.

No matter how deeply the demonic air of communism had penetrated someone’s bones, they couldn’t help but lose their mind once they looked at her.

“I need knights who will fight with me. Anyone who sympathizes with our cause that this republic is going down the wrong path will be granted the honor of protecting Visenya Andrastra.”

Clink, clink, clink.

The sound of silverware tapping against crystal glasses continued for a long time.

* * *

The banquet continued past midnight.

People who wanted to exchange words with her even once did not cease, and Visenya responded to all of them, sometimes arrogantly, sometimes playfully.

As time dragged on, it was the red-haired female knight, Camille Roche, who began to look impatient. She stared at the cooling dish.

The plate of Visenya, who had carved the best part from the roasted suckling pig, had been sitting there for quite a while.

Every time she tried to take a bite, the next admirer would come along and chatter away for a long time.

“……”

Camille’s gaze shifted around. Her social experience was specialized in a slightly different direction compared to other noble ladies. While most young ladies honed their senses to seize opportunities, Camille Roche had mastered the art of fending them off. Just like now.

The moment an elderly noble, who had been reminiscing about the “good old days” in front of Visenya, stepped back with a satisfied expression, and the next person was about to take their place.

Whack!

“Sir Roche?”

“……”

“?”

“Conversation, difficult.”

“?!”

Thanks to this rather excessive protector standing like an iron wall, Visenya had a chance to catch her breath. She winked at ‘Milmil,’ who was protecting her, and moved her plate to a corner. Though it had cooled a bit, the roasted suckling pig marinated in various spices and honey looked delectable just by sight.

“Hmm, mmmm!”

Just the scent alone was enough to make Visenya shiver and produce dozens of heart symbols above her head.

It was a slightly silly, carefree expression that she could only show when no one else was around.

As she was about to start her long-awaited meal, a sturdy servant approached and served additional side dishes.

Since the beginning of the banquet, that servant had been tirelessly running around with Sir Jini, known to be a close aide of the Count of Monte Cristo. Watching his back quietly, Visenya smiled softly.

“It’s been a while.”

“……”

“Isn’t it exhausting doing that? Count.”

“!”

The servant stopped in his tracks. He realized she had just called out two ‘Counts’ at the same time.

“……”

* * *

I removed and threw away the padding that altered my physique. No matter how cool the autumn night was, I had felt like I was going to sweat to death. I also discarded the facial mask that was supposed to be undetectable even to a spy master according to the story setting. Damn mask.

‘They say even a spy master couldn’t see through it, but it’s just suffocatingly uncomfortable.’

How did she see through it in one shot? I straightened my clothes and took a deep breath. Then, I slowly turned around.

In the moonlight, the original heroine of the story stood waiting for me, smiling awkwardly as if slightly embarrassed.