CH 86

After the battlefield memorial ceremony (or whatever it was called) ended, I was called into one of the rooms in the Great Temple. Fyuuh… Finally, we could have a relaxed chat.

“Big bro! It’s been a while!”

“Stop calling me that. Anyway, Feli, you did it.”

The second I entered the room, Feli greeted me cheerfully and I responded to his greeting with a wry smile.  I bumped my fist with Mazell who was also in the room.

“As expected, I can count on you, Mazell. Thanks.”

“Nah, I should be the one to thank you for your advice about the rewards.”

Even if Mazell’s success in killing Beliulace might be a part of the game’s correction, if he had really failed to kill Beliulace, my plan would have gone down the drain so it was only right for me to thank him.

In the room, there was also that person present… Ah, wait, let me start by greeting the two other men in this room.

“Luguentz, Elrich. It’s been a while.”

“You sure did a great job of baiting that stinky bastard to the trap.”

“He is right. Thanks to you, the plan succeeded.”

I felt embarrassed by their praises. In any case, I gestured to two of them that they didn’t need to mind their manners. Next up, I turned my attention to the person who had been bothering me. I mean, why was Laura here?

“Your Highness, the Second Princess, may I ask the reason you came all the way to this place?”

“You do not need to call me as such, Sir Welner. Please, be at ease.”

I knew that she would say something like that but still, how could I be at ease when she was radiating that regal aura?

Let’s just maintain a basic manner with her, not excessive to make her feel uncomfortable but not rude either. I asked for Laura’s permission to sit in front of Mazell and after she said yes, I sat down.

Elrich skillfully prepared tea for me. I thanked him and took the tea. All the ceremonial procedures since this morning had made me tired. After I took a sip of tea, Laura started the conversation.

“First of all, please allow me to extend my gratitude for your help, Sir Welner.”

“No, I did nothing.”

That was why please stop bowing your head! This time, I let my guard down, causing us to lose the initiative to the demons so I honestly felt that I did nothing great. However, Laura shook her head.

“I heard that those demons’ aim was me. If Mazell-sama and his companions did not arrive in time, I don’t know what my fate was going to be…”

No, since Mazell was the main character, his plot armor would have probably kept you safe even if I did nothing. In any case, just like in the game, Laura still used sama to call Mazell but they seemed closer than before, probably thanks to the siege. Good.

I needed to wait until the next event if I wanted to hear Laura get rid of -sama in Mazell’s name. I didn’t think I would be able to witness that event myself though. Well, that was not important now.

“Then, the people who saved you are Mazell and his companions, there is no need for you to thank me.”

“You are being too humble. If you have not warned Mazell-sama to be on guard against Finnoi, he might not have made it on time, you know?”

I told Mazell to make Finnoi his destination since I knew that Laura would be his next companion so the whole Mazell saved Laura in time was just a huge coincidence. I couldn’t say that here though.

Still, it would be impolite to keep denying a royalty’s words. Let’s just change the subject here since I had another important matter to talk about.

“I shall gratefully accept your gratitude then. In any case, Mazell, I need to apologize to you.

“Huh?”

Mazell looked confused after being suddenly apologized. Knowing that he didn’t know what happened in the Alea village, I explained it step by step.

“Welner… Thank you.”

“I don’t deserve your thanks. Sorry for not being able to do anything sooner.”

Mazell thanked me but I felt that I didn’t deserve it. He entrusted his family to me but I let his home get destroyed by fire and let his sister almost get kidnapped.

Whoa, Laura stayed silent but her expression was really scary. At least, I was glad that she wasn’t mad at me. Unlike Laura, Luguentz opened his mouth.

“After that, what happened to that village chief?”

“I don’t know. Since I needed to rush here, I decided to just let him be.”

“Why didn’t you do anything?”

“The battlefield was more urgent. Those idiots surely pissed me off but defeating the demon commander was more important.”

“Can’t you be more severe to them?”

“I understand your sentiment but I only have one body so I prioritized the demon commander.”

I didn’t think that punishing them would be a good move. I didn’t have any hobby of punishing people and giving people punishment was actually pretty complicated.

Nobles did have the right to punish rude commoners but if that commoner was a citizen of another noble’s territory, punishing that commoner was the same as slapping that noble’s territory. That noble might even question you whether there was really no other way than to punish his citizen and you could even get a notorious reputation of having a short temper.

In any case, it would be better if you stopped talking to me as if you would have beaten them all to a pulp if you were there. Elrich was silent, but I got a feeling that he would have said far worse things than me if he was the one that confronted the villagers.

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning to leave them alone for long.  I’m sorry for not doing anything earlier and causing your family to fall into danger.”

“Welner, I’m going to be a villain if I blame you for that.”

Mazell gave me a bitter smile. You damn good guy. Are you actually a saint, not a hero? And, Your Highness, why are you mumbling ‘I will also.. to Father..’?

Come to think of it, Laura could be playful but she was really scary when she got angry. In the game, there was a scene… Ah, let’s just pretend I didn’t hear anything!

“So my family is currently in the capital?”

“Yeah.”

Well, I needed to move them out of the capital before the attack on the capital happened. Luckily, I knew a perfect place to send them to. I could just make a reasonable excuse and send them to participate in Veritza Fortress’s renovation. Ah, right, there was another thing I wanted to ask.

“Feli, what happened to the suspicious people you told me about before?”

“Ah, those guys?”

When Feli was meeting up with Mazell and his other companions, the anti-demon potion Feli used was still in effect. So the second they entered the room where the suspicious pilgrims were, suspicious pilgrims began to feel immense pain. Their fake skin cracked and broke, revealing their true identity. Anti-demon potion actually worked like divine protection, huh?

The demons panicked a bit when their true identities were revealed. Fortunately, they didn’t kill anyone. After that, Mazell’s party battled those demons and that battle was also the reason Laura became close to them.

“It was really dangerous.”

“The second they noticed that their disguise was exposed, they tried to take Laura who was coincidentally also in that room as their hostage.”

“…Your Highness, I am sorry for that.”

“No need to apologize. It was only an accident.”

But Mazell protected Laura. Anyway, was it fine for you to casually call the second princess ‘Laura’? Well, he also called her that in the game though. I let out a bitter smile in my heart.

“By the way, Sir Welner, what do you think we should do after this?” (Elrich)

“Hmm… I think…”

In the game, the hero’s party went to the Alea Village to level up, then they conquered the Counting Star Tower. However, after the recent events, would Mazell still be willing to go to the Alea Village? No, he probably wouldn’t. At least, if it was me, I wouldn’t.

Well, I also needed to investigate why everything became vastly different compared to the game but for now… let me see… the game’s information about Alea Village was…

“Your Highness. Do you know a person named Uwe Almsick?”

“Of course, I know about him, but where did you hear that name?”

Well, from the game. He was the last member of the hero’s party. He was the teacher of the current king, an old man called a legendary great mage. He suddenly disappeared a few years ago. His character design was obviously influenced by Ga*dalf. Well, the game was launched back when Lord of the Ri** was the craze.

Let’s ignore that borderline copyright infringement for now. In the game, he learned about the demon king’s resurrection a few years ago so he went to investigate this matter on his own but only the upper echelons of the kingdom knew about this. In the current timeline, the kingdom must have lost contact with him.

Like any typical game, when he entered the hero’s party, he became a level 1 character even though he was called the Great Mage. Moreover, although he was an old man, he had a short temper. In the game, there was a scene where he attacked the demons who remained in the ruined capital with his magic and killed them. For an event involving some random demon mobs, it was rare that the human actually won.

“I happened to come across the information about where the elder was last seen.”

I took out the map I’d bought and opened it on the table. Both Laura and Elrich looked surprised. Elrich must be surprised because it was the first time he saw a continent map, not because of my awful drawing… right? I knew that I had zero talent in drawing…

“Here. This is the tower where I heard he was last seen. There are a lot of demons in this place so maybe he went there for research. Perhaps it would be good to head to this place next.”

“Hmm…”

Laura probably knew that Uwe disappeared to prepare for the demon king’s revival. The kingdom lost contact with him so she and the kingdom must be worried by now. If my memories serve me right, an ancient magic device was on the verge of going berserk so Uwe went to stop it, that was why he was currently stuck.

But really, the damage of the scene of Laura tilting her head to think was too powerful! As expected of the main heroine.

“It is true that Teacher might be able to give us good advice so looking for him would be a good choice.”

So things were finally proceeding according to the game’s storyline, I was glad. Now, they needed to get to the top floor of the Counting Star Tower to get the astrolabe that would guide them to Emdea Ruin where that old man Uwe was. Well, I couldn’t tell them this though.

“Let’s go to that tower then.”

“I will also go. I am the only person here that knows the Teacher’s face, right?”

The same conversation as the game, right in front of my face! Though I was worried if her grandfather, Duke Grunding, would allow her to go.

Well, let’s stop thinking about that and leave everything to fate! What I did was escape reality, you said? So what?