It was quite an irritating method of verification, but as a result, Argentir trusted my words.
Saying that a person who immediately thinks of killing just because of some threats, and one who harbors such killing intent towards royalty, would never be utilized.
The qualities required for a national force are superhuman power and loyalty deemed safe enough to be entrusted with important roles.
In my case, he said I was overwhelmingly lacking in the latter?
"A double-edged sword... no, even that's too generous an expression. You're a blade without a handle. A defective product that will cut its owner's fingers. Who in the world would want to grasp this?"
Argentir said.
An untrustworthy superhuman is nothing but an overt threat from the kingdom's perspective, so I would have no path other than retirement anyway.
Therefore, even if he raised me, I wouldn't become a threat to his country in the future.
"So... it should be fine to give you the compensation you wanted."
The deal was made.
* * *
"You said you wanted the authority to freely enter and exit dungeons, right? Then a disguised identity would be the best solution."
The first compensation Argentir proposed was to create a new identity for me.
An identity that could enter even strictly guarded deep dungeons with a free pass.
"Tell me. An identity that can only enter dungeons, or one that can freely come and go outside as well. Which do you prefer?"
"Well... the latter would be better, right? Of course, the former would be fine too."
"Hmm..."
Argentir lightly tapped the table with his fingertips of the opposite hand while stroking his chin as if pondering something.
"Then, next, do you have any attachments to things like names or hair color? If you're going to mix part of your real name into an alias to this extent, there must surely be a reason for it."
"I don't particularly care. The alias Hilde was intended to confuse potential pursuers in reverse... but it wasn't very effective."
"A low-level idea that would only work on fools."
This bastard?
...No, hold it. Hold back, Iron Arm within me. Don't ruin everything by smashing the prince's head.
"One last question. Would you mind having two mothers?"
Should I not hold back...?
"...I don't understand the meaning of the question. Is this question intended to insult me?"
I managed to hold back once more. While inwardly repeating dozens of times the knowledge that regicide is punishable by dismemberment.
"Insult? You make a strange misunderstanding."
Argentir snickered, shrugging his shoulders.
"What I mean to ask is simply whether you, with that personality, could serve a woman you've never met as an adoptive mother."
"Like an adopted child? If you're saying I should show affection as if I were her own child, I have to answer that would be difficult..."
A question asking if I could serve a woman I've just met like my own mother. After some consideration, I answered that it would probably be a bit difficult.
Unless it was a child under ten, asking someone over twenty to serve a woman they've just met as a mother. It would be incredibly awkward for both parties.
"I don't expect that much. It's enough if you don't act rudely towards the other party and can properly play the role of a child in public places."
So he's saying it's okay to maintain a lukewarm relationship in private, just act like a daughter in public places?
"...That should be fine."
"Good, very good. That's fortunate."
Argentir smiled with satisfaction as he puffed out cigar smoke.
Seeing him blow smoke in others' faces in an enclosed space, I could gauge the level of his home education.
"I'll prepare two identities for you. A secret identity as an executive of the organization you impersonated, and an official title to present outwardly."
An official title. It meant abandoning the name Brunhilde and living under the identity of someone's daughter that Argentir would arrange.
It was a proposal I had no particular reason to be dissatisfied with. After all, it seemed to be the best option in the current situation.
For now, I could build up strength with the disguised identity, and then later, after clearing my false accusations, I could claim to be Brunhilde again.
When I agreed to this and expressed my gratitude, Argentir enumerated one by one the disguised identities I could choose from now.
The number was four in total.
First of all...
"The young lady of Count Cygnus' family. A young lady aged twenty with dull blonde hair and blue eyes. She's been in seclusion due to an unknown illness for six years."
"Are you saying I should become her temporary stand-in? Pretending the illness has been cured?"
"That woman died two years ago. Though it hasn't been made public."
A proposal to take the place of a deceased noble young lady. It was a proposal overflowing with benefits in its own way.
The status itself of being a high-ranking noble young lady, the assets of the count's family, and the fact that few would recognize if the person had changed due to the six-year time gap.
However, there was just one problem with that identity.
"The young lady of Count Cygnus was betrothed to the young master of Viscount Brun since before birth. The count's family is in a position where they must send their daughter because the gifts received in exchange for the betrothal were substantial."
The truly fatal problem that a man I've never seen or heard of was destined to be my husband.
"...Are you telling me to stand in for that betrothal too?"
"It should only take about a year. The Brun viscount family is overflowing with wealth but has been weak-bodied and short on heirs for generations, so they'll be satisfied just to have a healthy successor. You could divorce after that."
Argentir spewed nonsense nonchalantly.
Telling me to just give birth to a child and leave, is that something to say? As befitting the upper class of a status-based world, this bastard's head seemed to have gone completely mad too.
"That's-"
"No way!"
Just as I was about to say I'd refuse, Friede, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, jumped up and shouted. It was almost at the level of a tiger's roar.
At that sudden movement, the two knights standing behind the prince stopped as they were about to draw their swords. I also flinched in surprise for a moment.
"Be-betrothal? A child! Such things, such things I absolutely cannot allow!"
A sudden outburst. Argentir, flustered by her momentum as if she might draw her sword, violently coughed out cigar smoke he had swallowed wrong.
"Cough, cough...! What's this all of a sudden, I didn't tell you to get married. What on earth... Ah, could it be?"
Argentir looked back and forth between me and Friede with searching eyes as if wondering. His gaze turned to my face cupped in my hands and Friede's bright red cheeks.
"Hmm... I see. So that's the kind of relationship. To think that's what you meant by retiring together..."
Was it my imagination, or did I feel a subtle contempt mixed in Argentir's eyes as he looked at me again?
"Hmmmm..."
...Well, I can tell what he's thinking without him saying it. But that's a tremendous misunderstanding...?
She may look like that, but she's an adult over twenty, and I didn't touch her in the first place.
I felt deeply wronged. Looking at it closely, I wasn't the one who ate, but the one who was eaten.
"...Well, I understand. Then Count Cygnus' family would be impossible. We can't have another man intrude between such a loving couple."
Argentir withdrew the first proposal. With an attitude that intruding a man between lovers was a grave sin among grave sins.
Only then did Friede finally calm down, and sat back down saying she was sorry for causing a disturbance.
"If you two have that kind of relationship, the second and third would be difficult too... There's only one position left."
He said the second disguised identity he had in mind had the problem of having to be separated from Friede for a long time, and the third disguised identity was a position notorious for changing men every month.
When I asked what on earth he was taking me for to make such proposals that shattered the concept of chastity, he just glanced at my armor's chest area instead of answering.
...Come to think of it, hadn't the perception interference not worked on Argentir at all from the start?
In other words... the exposed parts of the armor I was wearing were fully visible to him.
"..."
I turned my head slightly and lowered my cloak to cover my chest, and Friede glared at Argentir like a Chihuahua that had its food stolen.
"There's only one disguised identity left. The only position left is as the daughter of Sir Esther, a retired kingdom knight."
Argentir opened his mouth nonchalantly, ignoring Friede's gaze.
"Current age is eighteen. Blue eyes, black hair. I heard she ran away in rebellion against her mother who tried to raise her daughter as a knight... and then all contact was lost."
"She must be dead."
"Probably. Either killed... or kidnapped. Either way, she's unlikely to return to the world."
So, he's telling me to go to the house of a woman whose daughter ran away and died, and ask her to treat me like a daughter with the intention of using that identity.
...Wouldn't I get stabbed in my sleep?
"Though retired, she was one of my close associates, and we have a relationship where she's received much from me, so she won't refuse my request. So, go and behave sincerely."
Of course, Argentir passed the choice to me, saying if I refused this too, there was nothing more he could do.
He said that with the organization executive identity, entering dungeons would be possible to some extent, but that would only be secretly entering unofficially by using those connected to the organization.
He said there was no other choice if I wanted to freely enter and exit dungeons and proudly walk around the world.
And so, my identity changed from Brunhilde the Knight of Betrayal to the returned runaway daughter of the female knight Esther.
Fernhilde Esther.
That was my new name.
"And, as for your alias as an executive of the 'Shadow'... Yes. How about Kriemhilde? That would be good."
Kriemhilde.
Meaning Hilde with a mask?
Thus, I came to have three names.
Brunhilde, Fernhilde, Kriemhilde.
None of them were my real name, though.