Volume 4 Chapter 14 - The old man meets the princess. (1/2)

We were invited to dinner in the Laluzulu Castle and I was currently in my guest room. The guest room was large enough to allow any visitor or employee to invite their family in and spend their time comfortably.

[Se… Lutra, is it alright for you to be here? Shouldn’t you be in your own room?] (Yuuya)

In the spur of the moment, I nearly forgot to address her correctly.

Although the castle was supposed to be her home, for some reason, she was currently in my room.

[This is just a precaution. It’s true that the castle is my home, but at the same time, it is also my brother’s playing ground. Even the servants here can’t be trusted.] (Lutra)

[That is true. Sorry for asking such a redundant question.] (Yuuya)

Lutra has been on edge ever since we returned to the castle. To her, this place was the lion’s den.

[Shouldn’t you be visiting your sister? You must be hoping to see her.] (Yuuya)

She did mention that her intention was to win the ceremony and pass the crown to her sister. She held her sister in such a high regard that she trusted her enough with the crown.

[I’ve already contacted her. She intends to meet up tomorrow morning. Yuuya-ojisama why don’t you come along with me? I’ll introduce you to my sister. I wanted to invite the Luna and the rest along however it’ll likely become too loud.] (Lutra)

[I look forward to that. It’s your favourite person and a capable one too.] (Yuuya)

[Yes. She’s physically weak unlike me and my brother, but in return she has a heart more caring than others and a mind sharper than a blade. I truly believe that she should become the ruler.] (Lutra)

Lutra began boasting about her sister. However, I still couldn’t get rid of the discomfort I felt around Lutra’s brother, Prince Aleck.

If he was exactly as how Lutra mentioned, then why would he appear personally to confirm Lutra’s identity? In fact, he was the first person who went out of his way to do so. Since Lutra’s elder sister was a princess, I’m sure that she must be busy, but is there anything more important than your own family? The moment you are able to, you should be rushing to your presumed dead sister to confirm her safety, especially since she was in the castle.

Actually, isn’t she speaking out too much against Prince Aleck in the first place since Lutra was extremely long trusting of her?

Sigh this is turning into a bad habit. If I begin to suspect too much then there will never be an end to this. I should just relax and take a break for today.

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It was currently in the middle of the night.

Sensing a person’s gaze and bloodlust, I immediately pulled myself out of the bed, grabbed the knife that I brought with me to sleep every night and began scanning my surroundings.

Being an adventurer for several decades, I developed the ability to keep myself semi-conscious while sleeping, allowing me to react instantly to any changes in the surroundings.

Only a handful number of people were capable of procuring a safe bed. Without this ability my life would had already been long gone.

I threw my knife towards the ceiling without hesitation as I heard the sound of a muffled shriek.

[He ran away huh…] (Yuuya)

Looks like Lutra’s conjecture was spot on, this place was indeed the enemy’s playground. Since this was a castle, you couldn’t reliably send an assassin unless it was a top tier assassin. Thus, in order to confirm it, I threw my knife towards the ceiling, knowing that an expert assassin would dodge it. If the assassin couldn’t dodge something at this level, then it certainly wouldn’t be able to sneak into the castle unnoticed. In other words, the assassin received guidance from the inside.

Even though Prince Aleck seems suspicious, he was without a doubt a first-class swordsman who could understand the extent of Phil and my abilities. He would had judged that an assassin of such level would not be effective. In other words, there was another existence in the castle that was trying to eliminate Lutra.

[I’m starting to get worried for her safety.] (Yuuya)

Thanks to the sudden encounter, blood was rushing to my head causing me to be wide awake. Deciding to cool my head down, I grabbed my coat on the side of the bed and headed towards the veranda.

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After entering the veranda, I immersed myself in the view from the castle. Although I was only on the third floor, the castle itself was situated on a hill, providing beautiful scenery as the sun rose from the horizon.

[Yuuya, seems like we encountered some trouble right from the beginning.] (Phil)

[Yeah.] (Yuuya)

I wasn’t the only one who was woken up by the bloodlust earlier as I looked back into the room. Luna and Til were still sleeping soundly with satisfied grins as Selene continued to sleep with a stiff expression. They were still far too inexperienced.

[Who do you think is the mastermind behind this?] (Yuuya)

[I can’t draw any conclusions this early yet. I do think that it can’t be the prince. I agree that the wind that he carried wasn’t malicious in any way and I highly doubt he was lying when he said that he cared about Lutra.] (Phil)

[I agree completely…. good grief. It would be so much simpler if he was the mastermind behind this.] (Yuuya)

Nothing is more troubling than not knowing the identity of your enemy.

[I feel so too. Yuuya, let’s head back in. It’s getting chilly out here.] (Phil)

[You’re right.] (Yuuya)

As usual, Phil leaned over for a kiss as there were rarely moments when we were alone. Although my reaction was slightly cold, I couldn’t deny that this was nice too.

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The next morning, after enjoying my breakfast in the room, I headed towards the courtyard where I would be meeting Lutra’s elder sister, Aure.

Princess Aure, just like Prince Aleck were the legitimate children of the king and queen which granted them significant influence in the kingdom.

The number of princes and princesses were 6 in total. There were three legitimate children, Prince Aleck, Princess Aure and Prince Atra. However, the other three were children born and raised by the king’s concubines, Princess Lutra, Prince Nakura and Prince Soruha with each child being born from a different mother. According to Lutra, both Prince Nakura and Prince Soruha have already withdrawn from the ceremony. Since they were illegitimate children, they had little to no support for the throne and without innate talent like Lutra, they had zero chance of vying for the throne in the first place, reducing the number of participants to 4, Princess Aure, Princess Lutra, Prince Aleck and Prince Atra.

Just as we agreed on, only me and Lutra, would be meeting with Princess Aure.

[This is a beautiful garden.] (Yuuya)

[That’s what I think too. Our gardener tends to the garden every season, decorating it with the most beautiful flowers. This is my favourite place in the castle.] (Selene)

Even without asking I could tell that Selene was proud of this garden. Even someone like me who had zero interest in flowers could recognize how beautiful this place was. It was a shame that we couldn’t bring Luna and the other girls along with us.

In the middle of the garden was a small shelter with a desk and several chairs for tea parties. Sitting on one of those chairs was a beautiful person with luscious golden hair and a smile as warm as the sun. Although she was in her late teens, she gave off the feeling of a loving mother.

She was Princess Aure.

This was my first time seeing her face, however judging from Luta’s reaction I could tell that this was her.

[You did well returning safely. I was relieved when I heard that you were still alive.] (Aure)