Chapter 17

Chapter 17. We Are Going on an Outing (1)

A carriage was waiting in front of the entrance.

It was a carriage emblazoned with the family crest in splendid fashion.

Two soldiers in leather armor sat on the driver’s bench, while servants were loading various items onto the back of the carriage.

And there was a knight calming the horses.

'As expected of a ducal house.'

It was only a short outing, but the preparations were thorough.

Living nothing but a squirrel-wheel life inside the mansion, I had not truly felt it, but the ducal house of Gresia was one of the most distinguished families in the kingdom.

Even now, it was a great noble house that wielded immense power. If the eldest son of such a family was going on an outing, there was no way they would prepare carelessly.

'Though for something like that, perhaps this is rather modest instead?'

Still, since we were not going far, it would have been strange to arrange an excessively heavy escort.

'But there is more than one strange thing about this.'

After bidding Flora farewell, I boarded the carriage, and the people already inside turned to look at me.

Inside sat Brother Simon, his fiancée Adria, and Adria’s maid.

"Are there no other servants coming?"

Strangely, though, the attendants Brother Simon always kept by his side were nowhere to be seen.

"...The escort is sufficient, and I told them not to come."

Brother Simon answered with a stiff expression. As expected, he still did not seem to want to speak with me.

It was an odd answer, but there was nothing I could really say about it. I set my sword beside me and took my seat.

"Then where are we going today?"

When I asked her, Adria answered eagerly.

"To Mallorca Fortress! And I want to see the defensive walls too!"

It was an unexpected request, but it did sound like the sort of thing Adria would say.

"There is also a large market in Metena City, as well as beautiful temples. The plaza in the center of the city is splendid, and the sunset over the city from the temple spire is beautiful as well..."

Brother Simon spoke with a regretful expression, but Adria bowed her head apologetically.

"I am sorry. I want to see the ruins of the Great War first."

Brother Simon could only let out a disappointed sigh at her words.

It seemed the eldest son of the ducal house of Gresia was quite thoroughly led around by his fiancée.

'Ah, youth.'

Listening to the conversation of those fresh young adolescents, I felt a faint ticklishness stir inside me.

Just then, Adria glared at me.

"Why are you smiling like that? That looks just like the smile Father makes. You are strange!"

It seemed the thought that had crossed my mind had shown plainly on my face.

"I was distracted for a moment. My apologies."

"No, it is not that you need to apologize..."

She faltered awkwardly at my apology.

As I spoke with her, Brother Simon suddenly cut in from the side.

"Why is it that you speak casually only to him? This is the first time I have ever seen that."

Right. That had happened.

Since she had spoken casually from the very first time we met, I had not thought it particularly strange.

But now that I looked again, she was speaking politely to everyone else! Why was she using casual speech only with me?

"Ah! You are right."

Adria’s eyes widened in surprise.

Surely she had not been unaware of it herself?

"Why did I do that? Hmm... Because he is younger than I am? No, perhaps because I heard so much about him back home? He did not feel unfamiliar to me from the very first moment I saw him, so I think that may be why..."

Adria lowered her head with an apologetic expression.

"I am sorry... no, I mean, I apologize. I hope you are not upset."

An apology the moment she realized it. Her nature truly did not seem bad. If only she had nothing to do with me, I might even have called her an angel.

"No, it is all right."

I accepted her apology as well. I thought it had ended nicely, but unfortunately, Brother Simon interrupted again.

"Ahem, even so, I do not think there is any need to start speaking so formally right away..."

He had cut in because we were speaking familiarly, and now that she had begun speaking more politely, that did not please him either.

A storm-and-stress phase, was it? Dealing with children truly was not easy.

Adria was also looking at me with bright, expectant eyes.

I let out a sigh inwardly and opened my mouth.

"You may treat me comfortably, as before."

"Mm!"

Adria beamed brightly, while Simon looked at her with an exceedingly complicated expression.

Once the carriage passed through the front gates of the mansion, it headed straight toward the city.

The mansion stood to the north of Metena, the central city of the territory.

To the north of the mansion, a vast stretch of forest and mountain ranges shielded it from enemies, while to the south spread the broad urban district of Metena City.

Beyond the city proper, I could see the high walls that encircled it. Those were the outer walls that protected Metena City.

We passed through the high-class residential district in the northern part of the city and then by the central plaza Brother Simon had mentioned.

"This plaza was built when the territory was first founded... To the west lies the central market, and that beautiful building with the spire you can see to the east is a temple. Even His Grace the Archbishop was greatly moved by its beauty..."

Brother Simon was always dignified and courteous, but now he was nothing more than an excited boy.

He enthusiastically chattered on about the scenery passing by the carriage, and Adria’s maid and I turned our heads diligently at his explanations like tourists listening to a guide.

Unfortunately, Adria seemed utterly uninterested.

After talking for quite some time, Brother Simon finally fell silent.

A pity. She might have pretended to listen just a little. It could not have been easy to find such a guide.

Since I had scarcely ever gone outside the mansion, the sight of the streets felt entirely new to me.

Perhaps because this was not some back alley, the city was cleaner and livelier than I had expected.

Well, it was not clean in the way of a modern city from my previous life, but fortunately, neither was it the sort of medieval city covered in horse dung that I had read about in books.

Moreover, it seemed the ducal house was fairly well regarded by the people of this city.

As the carriage passed, people recognized the crest on it, stepped aside, and immediately lowered their heads.

Many bowed in fear, but quite a few offered their greetings with genuine sincerity.

It was natural for the people of a territory to feel fear toward its lord. Even so, the fact that some greeted him sincerely suggested that the duke had earned considerable respect among his subjects.

So what?

Even in my previous life, there had been many great men who abandoned their families and yet were still admired.

Whether he was a great man or not, I had not the slightest intention of acknowledging or forgiving the duke.

Once we passed the plaza and crossed the main avenue, the high walls drew near.

Perhaps because it was daytime, the gates stood open, and on one side a long line of people was waiting to enter the city.

The soldiers organizing the queue snapped to attention the moment they saw the ducal carriage, and the people standing in line hurriedly lowered their heads.

Naturally, there was no inspection. After confirming the face of the knight, the soldiers stepped aside, and the carriage passed through the gate and out beyond the walls.

Mallorca Fortress lay about thirty minutes away by carriage beyond the southern wall.

After passing along a road that wound between pastures and climbing a low hill, a half-collapsed structure came into view.

Mallorca Fortress.

A ruin from the Great War, when the Heroes had fought the Demon King to save the world.

It was here that the Heroes and the allied forces had fought a desperate and decisive battle against the Demon King’s army, and after their victory, two of the Heroes were said to have returned and founded nations. It was the very setting of the kingdom’s founding myth.

Well, now it was nothing but a desolate ruin bearing only the traces of war.

This was not a world that preserved cultural heritage, so all that remained of the ruins was ruin itself.

The soldiers halted the carriage below the ruins.

The knight rode off on horseback to survey the area around the fortress, and the rest of the party disembarked and headed toward the ruins.

Watching the soldiers remain behind to guard the carriage, I tilted my head.

The duke’s territory was indeed known as one of the safest in the kingdom, but even with Simon present, it felt as though far too little attention was being paid to security.

Though, to be fair, everyone moving together with us seemed to possess respectable skill, so it did not look like much of a problem.

"Wow! So this is truly the fortress where the great Battle of Mallorca took place?"

With an enraptured expression, Adria stepped deeper into the ruins.

Brother Simon seemed to have come here many times before. Watching the surroundings interested him less than staying beside his fiancée.

Unlike when she had been in the carriage, Adria’s maid was scanning the area with a hardened expression.

Though she was looking at the ruined site, she did not look like a tourist in the slightest.

As I thought, she was no maid, but a bodyguard. No, perhaps she was both a bodyguard and a maid, since she seemed quite competent at maidly duties as well.

As we made our way inward, avoiding heaps of collapsed stone, the remaining walls and fragments came into view.

Almost nothing of the place’s former appearance remained, but apparently Adria did not see it that way.

"Oh, there are traces of a mural left on this wall."

"Ah, about that. Originally, this fortress was..."

To me, it looked like nothing more than a scraped mark, but Brother Simon immediately began explaining with great enthusiasm.

He truly was the heir to the ducal house. He possessed not only swordsmanship, but considerable knowledge and refinement as well.

At present, he was pouring all of that power into his romantic enterprise, but the future of the ducal house looked exceedingly bright.

'It is about time I stepped back.'

Seeing him exert himself so earnestly, I felt I ought to give them some space.

I signaled to Adria’s maid with my eyes.

Far enough that it would not pose a problem for security. Let us step back.

She understood at once, and the two of us carefully widened the distance.

Far enough that collapsed walls obscured the line of sight, and Simon’s voice could only be heard faintly.

Then the two of us climbed up onto a wall from which we could clearly see the surroundings.

"We can see the area around the fortress well enough from here, so this should be all right, yes?"

At my words, the maid lowered her head.

"But I have not yet heard your name."

"It is Bianca. I am only a maid. You may speak casually to me."

"Are you truly only a maid?"

At my words, Bianca turned her head slightly away.

"Then can you at least tell me what exactly is going on here?"

Since my plan to buy time had come to nothing, I had no choice but to ask directly.

Bianca looked at me with an expression of surprise. Had I spoken in a manner unbecoming of my age again?

"So they say you are a genius, but you are even more than I had heard."

No, just what sort of rumors had been going around about me?

"You will know soon enough. And the task you must always perform does not change."

"You mean guarding them?"

"Yes. I am counting on you."

Even if I knew more, the bodyguard duty would remain the same... In that case—

"Does that mean Miss Adria, the one under protection, is in danger? If so, the security here is far too lax, is it not?"

At my words, Bianca’s lips parted little by little.

It seemed my thoughts were not mistaken.

My next thought followed, the gears beginning to click into place, and something was just about to surface in my mind.

Unfortunately, I was interrupted at the final moment.

Ssssss.

A cold wind slipped past my body.

At the same time, the dreary atmosphere of the ruins seemed to sink even lower.

It felt as though something were slowly creeping up my spine.

That sensation I had felt so many times before dying began to grow stronger.

'The air has changed!'

That was exactly the sort of moment for which such words existed.

I hurriedly looked around.

Then my eyes met Bianca’s.

Bianca too was scanning the surroundings with a rigid expression.

She was thinking the same thing I was.

The two of us ran toward Simon and Adria.

The two of them had been talking while looking at a half-broken statue.

Had things been going well between them? At the sudden intrusion of the two of us, Simon’s brows twitched.

But helping Brother Simon’s romantic endeavors would have to wait.

Before I could speak, Bianca addressed Simon first.

"Where are the knights assigned to protect you, Young Master?"

"Protect me? What are you talking about?"

Bianca frowned at Simon’s response. Then, as if recalling something, she hurriedly asked again,

"There were no attendants with us either... Surely you did not come here without telling anyone else?"

Surely not? Impossible. There was no way Simon would have come here in secret from everyone else...

"...Why does that matter?"

So he had come in secret?!

"They would have seen us when we boarded the carriage. There was the knight as well, and the soldiers too."

At my words, Bianca shook her head.

"We boarded before they arrived. No one else would have seen us."

I could only stare in disbelief.

Perhaps he saw my expression, because Simon’s face flushed red.

"It does not matter! I could not simply let my fiancée go out on an outing by herself!"

The splendidly raised eldest son of the ducal house had apparently still not overcome the wall of adolescence.

So this outing had originally been meant for Adria alone.

Huh? Then why had they sent her out alone? Why had they even gone so far as to separate Simon from her on purpose?

While that question was still rising in my mind, Adria spoke.

"What is going on?"

"There may be an attack."

At those words, Adria drew her sword.

"So there really is something I was not told?"

"My apologies."

"It is all right. Father told me that it might be dangerous."

She looked Bianca straight in the eye.

"So now you can tell me, can you not?"

I very much wanted to hear it too.

"I will explain after this is over. For now, you must return to the mansion at once. Things have become somewhat complicated."

Bianca did not look at Simon, but there was no one here who could fail to understand whom she meant.

"Do not speak as though I am baggage!"

It seemed her words had struck Simon’s pride.

Simon drew his sword with a flushed face, and I too let out a sigh as I gripped mine.

I had become entangled in some incomprehensible matter, and now things had even grown more complicated.

After living safely for several years, it seemed my hardships were about to begin again.