Volume 4 Chapter 13 - The old man goes out with the prince (2/2)
In the first place, he would had never prepared the parade if it wasn’t known that the attention between the public and Lutra was mutual…. Is this really the same person who was blinded by his ambition and greed?
Something feels off here.
Prince Aleck walked in front of me and lowered his head.
[It’s been a long time, Weakest Strongest Knight, Yuuya Grandwood. Not only have you saved our country in the past, but you have saved my younger sister. As the first prince of the Laluzulu Kingdom, thank you from the bottom of my heart.] (Aleck)
His movements were refined, displaying his position as a prince even in the form of a bow.
[… I only saved Lutra because I wanted to.] (Yuuya)
[Even so, I’m grateful. I’m certain that if you weren’t around, then Lutra would most certainly be dead. As expected of her knight. If it’s possible, I hope that you can continue to be by her side.] (Aleck)
[I’ll think about it.] (Yuuya)
[I look forward to a favourable response. We’ll prepare the appropriate honor as well as reward.] (Aleck)
[Prince Aleck. You don’t have to behave respectfully towards me. You are the prince of a country. If you don’t behave so, I’ll be in a bind on how I should behave towards you.] (Yuuya)
[Isn’t it natural for me to be respectful towards my sister’s benefactor? However, if you say so, I’ll refrain from it…. Now then, shall we head towards the carriage? I’ll be riding the carriage with you so I’ll behave as your guide during the parade since it’ll be travelling around the town. Our castle has enough rooms and plenty of food so please enjoy your stay here until the inheritance ceremony.] (Aleck)
And thus, without being able to come to a conclusion, we headed towards the carriage to begin the parade. The highways were secured by soldiers on both sides, whom illuminated the area with torches in their hands while controlling the crowds of people on the sidewalks.
Whenever Lutra raised her hands, numerous cheers could be heard from the public, displaying how popular she was as the icon of the legendary Renoir. Even I, who was standing next to her was receiving a warm welcome.
It seems that in this short amount of time, rumors were going about that I was one of the heroes who had saved the kingdom in the past and became a knight of the young Princess Lutra.
The rumors were definitely not wrong, however as rumors often did, it also spread the wrong information around, causing people to think that we were also in love or other things along that setting.
The parade continued until we arrived at a small hill covered with marble walls, the Laluzulu Castle. Although I had expected otherwise, the parade ended at the castle without any incidents. Afterwards, we were invited to dinner and Prince Aleck decided to join us as well.
Although the prince tried to invite the King to dine with us, he refused the invitation due to his ill health and was unable to attend. However, he expressed that he wanted to see to Lutra’s well-being.
As the sudden encounter with the vast public was unexpected, me and Lutra were completely drained as we just hung our heads down.
As if everyone had noticed that, the meal started immediately as some idle talk began.
After checking for any poison in the food, we received the highest form of hospitality at the dining table with Luna and Til’s manners, or lack-of were being tolerated.
In the midst of the casual chatting, Prince Aleck continued to inquire about the sword and listened attentively whenever I answered , which usually led to even more questions. He even went further as to ask for a sparring session after the ceremony was over. Throughout the conversation, I couldn’t help but feel that the feeling he gave off felt similar to Lutra, raising this uncomfortable feeling in me even higher.
Due to my profession, I’ve seen several dozens to hundreds of people from different backgrounds especially aristocrats as I’ve accepted numerous nominated quests in my previous parties. This in turn made me fairly confident in reading other people’s intentions, however I just couldn’t believe that this prince was actually a malicious person.
Although I didn’t doubt Lutra’s judgement, it still felt something was off.
Since Prince Aleck had taken steps to avoid encountering Lutra, Lutra had only heard of his antics through third parties… Would everything be fine if she just defeated the evil prince? It certainly didn’t feel that way to me, it was as if there was a conspiracy being concocted behind the scenes.
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< ??? POV>
It was in the middle of the night as a certain figure sat in one of the luxurious rooms available in the castle, holding a pile of documents. In front of it were people from an information agency. That person was reading the documents provided to it, spending several minutes before opening its mouth.
[How could this be? Lutra is still alive? Didn’t the report mention that she was eaten by the Starfish Larvae? Could it be that she had actually escaped instead?] (???)
Infuriated by the report, the person began reprimanding the informant.
[That isn’t the case. The fact that she was eaten by the monster is the truth. As Princess Lutra’s personal knights from her mother’s influence held her in high regard, it was difficult to trust them. We had someone from our department watch over Princess Lutra and witnessed the princess being eaten whole by the monster.]
[Based on what you’re saying, are you saying that Yuuya Greenwood cut open the monster’s belly and rescued her?]
[Exactly. If it’s that hero then its possible. According to our research, he was someone who had an extremely low status which was his only weakness. However he had discovered a way to overcome even that. On the other hand, his swordsmanship is first hand as he is speculated to be stronger than even the hero Leonard if he possessed an equally high status.]
The Laluzulu information department was exceptional. Once they knew about the alias of Selene, then it was easy for them to investigate everything that had happened from the beginning.
[… I have read their track record after Lutra changed her name to Selene. It looks like she has somehow obtained different abilities contrary to her disappearance.]
The pile of documents in its hands were in fact a list of achievements and quests that were completed by Yuuya’s party, Twilight Home that they received from the guild. Not just that, it also contained the estimates from the materials that their party had gathered from the dungeon.
There were even testimonies from other adventurers. Just by looking at them, their abilities were left completely unnoticed.
Of course this was due to the guild’s policy, preventing any personal information from leaking. However it even had the power to bypass this as the man from the information agency opened his mouth.
[What’s astounding isn’t the level of skill that party possessed based on their achievements alone. From various witnesses, it seems that she was being trained by that Yuuya Greenwood.]
[The Weakest Strongest Knight that trained the Hero Leonard. If she received his tutoring… Is it safe to assume that she is currently a completely different person?]
It instinctively turned to the pile of documents
[Yes. Not only is he the teacher of the hero Leonard, but even other adventurers who received his tutelage went on to become top tier adventurers. However, half way through his career he decided to retire, becoming an exclusive adventurer at Rekusa and raising several exceptional adventurers. He is most likely, undisputed in his ability to raising students. Princess Lutra was already exceptionally talented. It’s scary to think how powerful she has become, becoming a student of that person.]
[Good grief. It feels just like a bad joke, having the dropout from the ceremony turned into its number one candidate. The genius meeting a master, could now stand toe to toe to someone who had exclusive access to the castle’s dungeon. We will most likely lose if we fought them head on.]
It crushed the documents within its hands as it began to concoct a plan. It could not let the situation go on as Princess Lutra would be the king at this rate. It wasn’t enough to just work behind the shadows, making their next course of actions simple.
Elimination.
This time it’ll be done so perfectly that even a miracle won’t help.
There wasn’t time to wait as the ceremony was quickly approaching, they had to move fast however it was difficult to even hinder Princess Lutra right now. That Yuuya Greenwood was defending her.
On the other hand, the castle was it’s garden. It alone was more than enough to control Princess Lutra.
Now then, it’s time to begin.
In order to become the country’s ruler, and to fulfill its goal.
Hope you enjoy the start of Volume 4’s main arc. I’ll be releasing more chapters next week, most likely one chapter every two days or more if I can get them done in time. As always, do let me know if the chapters needs to be edited or if its sloppy.
I do apologise for the sudden change in theme as I was fooling around with wordpress’s settings and accidentally changed it. The site is long due for a revamp but I’ve been kinda avoiding it since I have zero knowledge of web design. It’ll probably happen sometime soon or I may just create a whole new site instead.