Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

"What do you think you are doing, Nelea?"

Banjay's shoulders dropped as he struggled to figure out how exactly he was supposed to react in this situation.

Thanks to all the acting thus far, the rioting group of traitors and dissidents stood in a perfect spot for Salicious to spring the trap, and the three units of royal guards to close it from all sides, leaving no traitor behind.

But Nelea didn't know how all of Banjay's words and actions were merely an act, a play designed to keep the rioting traitors in place, giving the royal forces enough time to close the trap.

And now that she stood at the front with a sword in her hand… Banjay had to do something about her. For if the fight were to erupt this very moment, the young princess would actually be in danger!

"That's why I always said brats shouldn't meddle with adults' business," Banjay sighed, dropping his sword again and moving up to the young girl…

Or rather, the girl that despite encroaching upon adulthood, still remained just a silly, little fart in Banjay's eyes.

"Wha… What are you doing?!" Nelea shouted through her trembling lips, not even sure where to point the tip of her classy blade.

As the youngest princess of the royal line, she was only ever allowed to carry a ceremonial sword around, used to seal deals rather than cutting open flesh.

Having no clue how to fight or duel, all Nelea could do was turn her sword towards her uncle… Only for Banjay to casually swat it to the side as he approached only to reach out, grab Nelea's waist, and then jerk the blade out of her hand.

"This is no place for brats," Banjay scolded the girl… Only to cut his words short when a dark thought appeared in his mind. "Or maybe I'm too soft…?"

"Kill her!" Someone from within the crowd behind dared to shout.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Banjay for the king! All hail the new patriarch!"

"KILL ALL THE FAKE ROYALS!"

With every passing moment, the voices of the crowd grew more and more agitated.

With those shouts in the background, Nelea raised her teary eyes up to Banjay's face, defiantly refusing to move from the spot even after her uncle disarmed her.

"If you want to kill us, then why don't you start with me?!" Nelea shouted out, opening up her arms and taking a step to the side as if to imply Banjay would have to go through her if he wanted to continue.

Nelea twitched when Banjay reached out with his hand…

Only to end up patting the girl's head.

"And where did you get the idea that I want to kill you or your family?" Banjay asked while rustling the girl's hair and savoring every tiniest bit of her shocked and baffled expression. "But seriously now," Banjay moved his hand down to Nelea's shoulder before pushing her slightly to the back… Right into the arms of the naive young guard, he dueled with before.

"It's about to get dangerous here, so go hide behind the guards."

By now, all the shouts from behind have dwindled, with those at the front of the crowd unable to rejoin the ideas of the riot and the sight of their leader casually rubbing the head of the youngest princess.

For them, this young woman was the weakest link of the royal family, the group of people all those traitors considered as nothing more but an obstacle to their desire to sell themselves off to the empire.

Given how many of the people in the crowd behind were spies and informants of the empire for the last two years Banjay helped nurture, cutting them down to the last of them was the last and absolutely necessary step of Banjay's strategy for the war with the empire.

An unprecedented culling of the nobles and important figures of the capital. An event two years in the making, necessary to cleanse the patriarchate from all the elements festering it from the inside.

But still…

'She's becoming an adult now,' Banjay thought, gritting his teeth when his sense of protectiveness over his cute cousin clashed with the mature awareness of the true, bloody nature of the world.

Banjay struggled to decide whether to order the guards to drag the princess away before it would be too late, or let her stay and witness the true horrors hiding behind the concept of power.

Yet, when the song of distant whistles reached Banjay's ears, he realized that he was now too late to make a decision, for fate did it in his stead.

"The royals are coming from the back!"

If the front of the rioting crowd was shocked by Banjay's display of affection for the princess, then the back of the crowd could only guess what made those at the front so silent.

Yet, when the news of the further units of royal guards closing at the riot from the back started to spread, the whole dynamic reversed, with those at the back being the only ones aware of what was going on while those closer to Banjay could only try to guess what was actually happening.

"I guess it's time," Banjay muttered to himself, only to have Nelea turn her head right as the noble royal guard dragged her back behind the line of the patriarchate's elites.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Yrven, the most important contact between Banjay's private intelligence and the royal cousin's former masters back within the imperial fifth division, stepped to the front of the crowd.

To his side, there were all sorts of lesser spies that Banjay personally helped get inside of the kingdom in a bid to build trust with the very people he was double-crossing from the very beginning.

Depending on his words and actions right now, two years' worth of puffing smoke in the fifth imperial division would go up said smoke, revealing Banjay for who he always was, a royal cousin assigned to the patriarchate's counterintelligence.

The lone successor of Salicious's brainchild allowed the patriarchate to oppose the imperial push for so long.

"Oh Yvern, you've known me for so long, and yet you still need to ask this question?" Banjay turned back towards the crowd, descending down the road's inclination and picking up the sword he dropped on his way to deal with Nelea.

"It's treason, then," Yvern squinted his eyes as he lowered down to his knees, making it seem like some sort of wild predator ready to pounce on its prey. To his side, the thugs that Banjay introduced to the kingdom himself assumed similar stances, ready to protect their assets with their lives.

"Treason?" Banjay opened his eyes wide, pretending to be surprised. "But it's you guys who were screaming treason all over, weren't you?" Banjay asked, resting his sword on his shoulder as he casually approached the crowd.

By now, quite a few of the rioters started to pick up on the clues.

With royal guards up at the exit of the narrow point and two more units encroaching on them from behind…

As people started to realize the truth of what was going on, more and more swords left their sheaths.

With just their mass, the rioting nobles could easily carry on with their insurrection all the way to the palace. And with most of the royal guards currently deployed all around them…

What was left to defend the patriarch?

"TREASON!" Yvern screamed out from the bottom of his lungs while pulling out two daggers to arm himself. "Kill Banjay the traitor! Kill all the royals!" he screamed out, hoping to rally the crowd as much as he could.

But Banjay only laughed.

"I think this is your cue, old man," he called out, lowering his sword from his shoulder to a stance that made him ready to engage.

Behind the crowd, the whistles sounded again, announcing the impending arrival of Hyvern and Assa's forces.

"I declare all of those men to be traitors to the crown and hereby order their execution!" Banjay screamed out before raising his sword and pointing its very tip at Yvern's face. "Kill them all, but save this midget," he called out while putting a devilish smile on his face in response to the shadows of Salicious disciples emerging from between the columns, their approach unnoticed by anyone else.

"His life is mine!"