Volume 5 - CH 1.10

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist  Editor: Weasalopes

Are they not in the least bit afraid that I might be an assassin who was sent to kill the Duke? I mean, they really do not have anything to worry about because I am not an Assassin, but at the same time, even though they referred to me as 「Sir Adventurer」, that designation was not an entirely correct one as well, because I am not an Adventurer.

After a good while of going around the labyrinth of corridors and stairs, the Duke finally opened the door in the back of one of them and went inside. It was a not so large room with a luxurious-looking carpet placed on the floor. As for the other types of furniture, there was a desk with one chair placed behind it and two of them placed in the front, and under one of the walls there was leather sofa and a small table. I do not know if anyone else would have agreed with me if they saw this place, but it definitely has those 「Company President’s Room」vibes to it.

「This room is my personal office. Please, do make yourself at home while you are here.」

「Y-Yes Sir! W-Well then, pardon the intrusion.」

What the hell was that just now?! When we walked into the room, which actually turned out to be the Duke’s office, and he removed the hood from his head, I saw that he had such a beautiful face that it made me feel like I could not defy any of the words he was saying to me and that I felt like worshiping how sophisticatedly-handsome he was, and it made me feel extremely terrified for some reason! I guess this is actually the true power of the pretty boys, huh? They can force you into obedience just because they have a handsome face that you cannot look away from. All I could do was to agree with what he was saying, after which I just timidly sat in the corner of the sofa for the time being. After taking of his cloak entirely and hanging it on the coat rack in the corner behind his desk, the Duke sat on the chair behind his desk. Since he was an Elf then I knew that he would be good looking, but never in my wildest dreams would I have ever expected him to be such a hunk that even I would be enchanted by this hopelessly cool, handsome face of his that looked as if it has been chiseled from marble by the most talented sculptor in the entire world! I…… I am legitimately terrified to tell you that the longer I looked at him, the more I did not know where exactly I should be looking in order not to come off as some uncultured commoner who gets awed whenever he sees the figures in power who are much higher in the social hierarchy than they are, so I just chose a random point on the wall slightly above one of his shoulders and focused my eyes on that point and that point alone, hoping that my eyes will not end up being unnaturally drawn towards him. This just goes to show that all of the pretty boys in the world should really just go and die so that they could stop spreading their aura of handsomness all around them, captivating the vulnerable hearts of both damsels and gallants alike! Seriously, why having such a handsome face was not made to be a criminal offense punishable by law is completely and utterly beyond my comprehensive ability.

「Now then…. As I was saying, this office is my private room, and while in here, I do not care much about formality, protocols and etiquette, so I will not hold it against you if you continue speaking to me in a casual tone. Actually, I would prefer it to be that way, because it makes the conversation less suffocatingly boring.」

「U-Underst……….」

「What did I said just now? I do not like formality, and that includes polite speech, so you do not have to force yourself to be using it because of the difference in our social standing.」

「Okay. I will try to remember that.」

I certainly did not expect him to be an advocate of informality and equality between himself and those with whom he was engaging in a conversation. I only hope that my attempts at speaking in a casual manner are going to be properly translated by the game’s systems and that it will not result in some fatal miscommunication errors.

「Before anything else, let me offer you the words of my gratitude. I cannot thank you enough for lending your hand in the efforts to combat the damages that the floods have inflicted upon my territories.」

「No, no, no, there is no need for you to be thanking me, really. I was just doing what anyone else would have done.」

「This whole situation would not have happened if it was not for the leftover winter snow that ended up melting later than usual this year. Unfortunately for us, it ended up overlapping with the heavy rain season typical for the early period of spring around these parts, which led to the amount of water, and the damage it has caused, being far greater than we could have ever anticipated.」

I see. So that is why there was a flood in the first place. The Duke said that it is because the late melting of the snow overlapped with the rainy season, but I cannot help but to wonder if that was only a one-time occurrence, or is it something that happens more frequently every year? But that is probably why the relief supplies have been prepared properly and were ready for distribution. They must have anticipated that something like that might happen, and so they already had supplies prepared, but because they have been caught off guard by the amount of water that came in along with the downpours of rain, it ended up throwing quite the wrench in their operations, and that is why they had to result to asking the Adventurers from Quratar for help with the distribution of the supplies.

*Knock Knock*

「Pardon the intrusion, my Lord.」

As I was talking with the Duke, someone has knocked on the door and asked for the permission to enter. It turned out that this person was the leader of the Knight Order, Gozer. Oh yeah, that is right! I did not even noticed that he did not enter the room together with me and Duke, because I stopped paying attention to him once I went inside and saw how handsome the Duke actually was.

「Is that you, Gozer? Please, come on in and have a seat.」

「As you wish.」

The leader of the Knights, Gozer, entered the room and bowed before me once more.

「Thank you for your help with the distribution of the relief supplies. It is a favor that neither I nor the Knight Order of the Hartz Duchy will soon forget, you have my word for it.」

After raising his head back up, he then sat at the opposite sofa to the one on which I was sitting. So not only is he cool, but he can also be uber polite? Talk about a killer combination. Ladies must be fawning all over him for that, I am sure!

「I understand that you are both grateful for the help in dealing with this sudden crisis, but is it really okay for you to be inviting an Adventurer and an outsider like me to your office without any precautions? How can you know that I have not been sent here to try and kill you?」

Since he said that he does not like formalities, I decided that this would be as good of a moment as any to address that particular concern of mine that I had.

「A valid concern indeed, but not the one that you have to worry yourself with, young man. Now that we are in the castle, the guards and the Knights would immediately storm in if either of us called out for them or raised any kind of suspicious noise. Not to mention that both Duke and I are wearing Sacrificial Misangas, so even if you did managed to strike a blow that would normally kill us, then you would be in for quite an unpleasant surprise. We are well aware of the risk that is involved with our positions, and so we have done all that we possibly could to employ every safety measure possible to guard ourselves from any and all attempts at our lives that our would-be enemies might be plotting behind our backs.」

「I see. When you put it like that, it certainly makes a lot of sense.」