The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

by saying that the conference this time was being held because of Alice, King Vincent was essentially saying that Alice was the Hero.

“Well, then.
I presume King Celtic and everyone else who has followed my fellow kings here should still be unaware of Alice's true identity, right?” Hatter chuckled when he saw the astonished expressions of Celtic and the various royal family members.
“As you know, her name is Alice.
Her identity to the public is that of my illegitimate daughter, but her real identity is the Hero who will fight against the Demon King.”

When Hatter finished speaking, the conference room fell silent momentarily.
The Ymir Kingdom's King Celtic had looked at Alice for a long while before his stiffened expression loosened up slightly.
As the only king not to have seen the Hero's photo, he was completely unaware of Alice's true identity.
So, when he previously saw Alice's carefree behavior, he had, in reality, wanted to educate this carefree princess on Hatter's behalf and have her pay more attention to her etiquette.
Fortunately, he had made the correct move to keep his mouth shut.

It was publicly recognized that the Hero was of greater importance than a king.
After all, if a country lost its ruler, it could simply elect a new one.
However, if the human realm lost its Hero, the Demon King could single-handedly flatten the human realm.
At that time, it wouldn't matter even if the human realm's rulers stayed alive.

Meanwhile, Alice had also noticed the change in everyone's expressions.
Although she wasn't an expert at reading facial expressions, she still noticed some clues when she paid close attention.

For example, the change in Prince Etoria's expression was quite significant when he heard about her identity.
Although Alice couldn't tell what this change represented, it still showed that there were fluctuations in his heart.

Ha… How I wish I could read facial expressions like the protagonists in novels… Alice inwardly lamented.

However, while Alice might not have the ability to read facial expressions, her maid, in addition to being a powerful dark magician, was also a powerful mind magician.
With Luna's abilities, she could easily read a young prince's mind without attracting anyone's attention.
Even a mind magician like Hatter wouldn't notice it.

After the silence in the room continued for a while, Alice walked over to the Gryffin Kingdom's side and sat beside Hatter.
Meanwhile, Luna stood beside Alice and placed her gaze on Prince Etoria.
Then, she secretly began casting her mind magic to invade Prince Etoria's mind.

If Etoria was a normal person, Luna could even brainwash him into her puppet without anyone in this room being the wiser.
Unfortunately, anyone who had received compulsory education in this world would have more or less refined their mana.
So, aside from those who had not received a formal education, everyone else in this world couldn't be considered a normal person.
Naturally, this was also the case for Prince Etoria.

“Well, let's set the tariff issue aside for now and get to the main topic of this conference.”

After Alice took her seat, the first to speak up was the Rhine Kingdom's King Haydn.
Although this middle-aged man with a shadowy expression had tried his best to squeeze out a smile, Alice felt that he was better off sticking with his shadowy expression.
He looked much more handsome that way.

“Regarding the matter of Lord Hero… Although Hatter has previously shared photos with us already, we still wish to verify Lord Hero's power with our own eyes,”

—In other words, take out the Hero's Sword and show us that you can wield it.

The Hero's Sword was one of the natural laws of this world.
The idea that only the Hero could wield the Hero's Sword had already been deeply rooted in everyone's minds.
Thus, so long as Alice could wield the Hero's Sword normally, it would resolve most of everyone's suspicions.