novelraw Chapter 134
Chapter 134
Chapter 134
“Ha-ha, it’s not really something to boast about, but our family has served the Holy Kingdom for several generations…….”
In the middle of the banquet, I smiled as I looked at the man who kept boasting to me over and over again with the same story.
If I had followed my heart, I would have poured the champagne I was holding over him and gone somewhere else, but there were too many eyes watching.
Moreover, hadn’t the exchange event, which had nearly been canceled due to an unexpected incident, only just barely been held again?
Because of that, in order to carry out the tasks Ostia had asked of me, I managed my expression while engraving the word ‘endure’ into my heart several times.
“Rather than this, why don’t we go somewhere quiet and have a proper talk?”
Then, the man subtly grabbed my shoulder and led me toward a corner.
The touch made my skin crawl, but instead, I thought this worked out well.
If I knocked him out with a chop to the back of the neck and dumped him somewhere, he wouldn’t be able to bother me anymore.
“To be honest, when I saw you, Miss Alice, I felt destiny at first sight.”
When we arrived at a secluded garden a short distance from the banquet hall, I let out a deep sigh at the greasy line he threw out right from the start. Then I downed the champagne I was holding in one gulp and slowly raised my hand.
‘I’ll end it in one go without pain.’
I planned to knock him out quickly and return to the banquet hall. However, my hand failed to achieve its purpose.
“…?!”
For an instant, I felt a dizzy spell as my vision wavered.
Staggering, I collapsed to the ground, my eyes widening. Judging from my experience back when I was an assassin, it seemed like I had been hit with a mild drug that dulled the mind.
‘I was too careless.’
Since it was a banquet in the Holy Kingdom, I hadn’t even considered that someone might try to pull something like this.
Just as I was about to tell the man in front of me that something was wrong with my body and ask him to call someone, I froze at the unfamiliar hands pulling me close.
“Miss Alice, are you all right? …Looks like the medicine worked well.”
At the vulgar smile creeping onto his lips, it felt as though I had been struck in the back of the head.
He was the one who had brought the champagne I had just drunk. Hadn’t he offered it to me and struck up a conversation?
If it was a mistake, it was accepting it without suspicion simply because my throat was dry. In a situation where a Majin could be hiding anywhere, I had let my guard down far too much.
“Heh heh heh, I’ll dote on you plenty.”
The man slowly stroked my cheek. Even as chills ran through my entire body, I suppressed my anger and slowly opened my mouth.
“What are you planning to do with me?”
“What do you mean, what am I planning? If it’s a matter between a man and a woman, isn’t it obvious?”
‘…Is that really all?’
At the very least, I had expected him to take me hostage to threaten Leios, or to kidnap me after finding out that I was a Hero. That was what I had thought.
But the only thing reflected in the man’s eyes was filthy lust.
“…Haah, of all the worthless things to get caught by, seriously.”
I let out a long sigh. Then I activated the mana inside my body.
I had been caught off guard, but as someone who possessed the power of a Hero, this level of poison was something I could detoxify in an instant.
I had endured that disgusting touch, wondering if there might be another purpose, but unfortunately, it seemed I had wasted my effort.
“Don’t be so disappointed. This will be a good experience for you as well.”
Whether he knew it or not, the man continued to grope my body with reddened eyes.
Just as my anger flared and I was about to move, someone grabbed the back of the man’s head from behind.
“A good experience, huh. Why don’t you let me have that experience too?”
“…W-who are you?!”
I swung my fist without holding anything back.
If I had acted this emotionally in Korea, it would have been a big problem, but this wasn’t Korea—and in terms of status and situation, everything here was in my favor.
“…Kgh!”
Along with several teeth, fresh blood scattered through the air. The man, struck square in the face, was sent flying backward and collapsed, clutching his nose as he retched several times before springing back up with a face smeared with tears.
“You bastard! Do you even know who I am—!”
“Who you are doesn’t matter.”
“……!”
The man spat out his rage with a face twisted in fury, but soon froze at the voice that came from behind us.
“To dare commit such an act in the sacred Holy Palace.”
“…Ah, Saintess, well, that is…….”
As Silvia fiercely berated the man, I approached Alice, who was sitting on the ground.
“…Ostia.”
“Are you okay?”
She carefully took my hand. Then she stood up and, seeing her dress stained with dirt, made a distressed face.
“I dressed up so nicely for once…….”
“[Clear.]”
With a light wave of my hand, a cluster of dazzling light settled over Alice’s entire body. Then it removed the dirt and dust, scattering into the air.
“Is your body all right?”
“Yeah. That’s why I came out.”
She slowly examined my body.
All of my wounds had been fully healed by the Saintess’s power, and even the remaining traces of demonic energy had been cleanly erased, perhaps thanks to Tyrfing.
She must have confirmed that I was truly fine, because she gave a small laugh and lightly pounded my chest with her fists.
“But why did you follow that guy out?”
“…Ah, well, he kept bothering me, so I was going to knock him out.”
She said she had never imagined that the champagne the man brought would be drugged. Just in case, I picked it up and approached Silvia, who was still pressing the man relentlessly.
“…We will hold you strictly accountable for this matter. Reflect on your actions.”
“Aah…….”
At her words, the man collapsed onto the floor and bowed low. It seemed like he was trying to evoke sympathy, but since he had laid hands on Alice, he deserved whatever he got.
No—if Silvia hadn’t stepped in, he would have ended up half-dead, so maybe he had barely escaped with his life.
“I’m sorry. I never imagined that someone from our side, not even a Majin, would do something like this…….”
Silvia lowered her head with an apologetic expression toward Alice.
“Well, it ended well, so it’s fine. Ostia landed a refreshing punch too.”
The two of them looked down at the man with cold eyes. Sensing their gaze, he flinched and only lowered his body even further.
“What is going on here?”
Soon, a Holy Knight on patrol noticed the commotion and approached. Silvia handed the man over, ordering a thorough investigation into the matter, and with that, the banquet came to an end without further incident.
After all the scheduled events in the Holy Kingdom were finished, we boarded the carriage once more.
Just like when we had departed from the Empire to the Holy Kingdom, the group split into three directions following each representative, and the journey continued without incident.
“Honestly, it all passed by much more anticlimactically than I expected.”
When we arrived at the Academy, Petra and the others nodded, saying that nothing much had happened compared to what they had anticipated.
“Of course, that’s excluding you. This time, you had it rough on your own.”
“True. This time, we didn’t even have a chance to move.”
Alice chimed in with a shrug.
“When we get back, it’s vacation in a few days, right? I really need to rest properly at the start of this break.”
I slumped back in my chair and let out a sigh.
Once vacation started, there was something I had to do again. I was planning to start looking over a territory where my influence could settle, so a trip down to the lower regions was already scheduled.
“What about you guys? What are you doing during vacation?”
I was about to suggest going together if they had no plans, but their eyes sparkled as they answered.
“This time, Silvia personally invited us. She asked us to come back to the Holy Kingdom once vacation starts. If we use the Teleport Gate, we’ll get there quickly, so we’re planning to go and have fun together.”
“…I didn’t hear about that.”
“Of course not. We decided it’d be just the girls.”
So that meant Werner and Diark were being left out in the cold too. It stung a little, but since they had decided to hang out among themselves, there was nothing to be done.
‘Then maybe I should grab Werner and take him along.’
Diark would be heading back to his family home, but Werner wasn’t in a position to return easily. Staying cooped up at the Academy would be stifling, so moving together wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Before I knew it, the carriage had come within half a day’s distance of the Academy.
As I was admiring the capital’s scenery for the first time in a while through the window, something suddenly came to mind.
“…I heard that Teacher Delke was the representative for this trip to the Holy Kingdom, but I didn’t see him?”
When I looked at the others as if asking whether they had seen him, they shook their heads as well. Before we departed for the Holy Kingdom, he had definitely said that he would be moving as the person in charge of the journey.
There had been so much to worry about that I hadn’t thought of it, but I hadn’t seen Delke anywhere in the Holy Kingdom.
‘Well, Carius or Darius probably did something about it.’
It wasn’t important enough to dwell on, so I pushed it out of my mind. There were plenty of other issues I needed to pay attention to.
Soon, the carriage arrived at the Academy. There was no grand welcoming ceremony like when we had left, but as soon as I stepped down from the carriage, gazes poured in from all directions. Petra leaned in and whispered to me.
“They say everything that happened in the Holy Kingdom has spread.”
“How much?”
“That you’re a Hero, and that you defeated the Demon race that appeared in the Holy Kingdom.”
So everything worth knowing had spread.
“…….”
Behind me, Alice grabbed the hem of my clothes with a stiff expression. Seeing that, I lightly tapped her shoulder and spoke.
“It’s fine. Given my status, there won’t be any trouble. No one will pick a fight, and at worst, I’ll just get summoned by my father.”
That was the biggest problem, admittedly, but the upside was that minor issues could be brushed aside with a single snort.
With the fact that I was an Imperial Prince already subtly known and drawing attention, having a bit more focus on me wouldn’t really be an issue.
Besides, I was already acquainted with all the important figures among them. There was no need to worry about insignificant extras like that.
“Then I’ll go up and give my report. You all go back to your lodgings and rest.”
After parting with the group, I headed alone to the Headmaster’s office. Since the others had apparently already arrived, I was probably the last. When I knocked on the door, a voice from inside told me to come in.
The space, unchanged in its gloomy atmosphere, greeted me. In the middle of it, Chris stroked her beard and looked at me with a tired face.
“You really do seem like calamity incarnate.”
“Hearing you call me ‘you’ with that face makes me feel weird.”
She let out a sigh at that, sealed off the room, and returned to her original form. The radiant-looking Elf sat down in front of me, lightly swinging her legs and looking at me as if telling me to go on.
“Well, like you heard from the others, nothing much. I had a bit of a clash with the Saintess, but we cleared that up. Petra got cursed, so we walked the Pilgrim’s Path to resolve it. And at the end, Agares, who called himself the lord of the Demonic Realm, showed up and tried to kill me.”
“…Every single one of those sounds ominous.”
Chris pressed her brow and let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded.
But what could I do? I was stuck with the protagonist. Getting caught up in incidents like these was something I had to accept.
“Still, it’s a shame I couldn’t capture Agares’s essence this time. Things were too urgent.”
“I heard. They said your injuries were severe.”
“I’m fine now. Completely healed.”
Shrugging, I submitted a formally written report. Chris accepted it with slightly widened eyes, as if she hadn’t even expected me to submit something like that.
However, it wasn’t meant as an official report.
It contained truly detailed accounts of me, Alice, and everything that had happened. We had laughed it off, but I thought it would be better to explain things properly to her, so I had written it in the carriage on the way back.
“…Alright, I’ve got a rough idea of the situation now.”
She soon conjured flames and burned it away. Then she clasped her hands together and looked at me.
“And this time, it’s a message from the Sword Saint.”
“…Master?”
“Yes. Apparently, he’s holding a Gathering of Sword Masters at his territory next week.”
“Already?”
I frowned slightly at that. The Sword Saint held a gathering among Sword Masters every year.
But it was usually held at the end of the year. Now, summer was only just coming to an end. I had expected it to happen this year as well, but it was far earlier than planned.
“Yeah. And he told me you’re to participate as well.”