Chapter 133 – [Part 4] Invitation

000

After safely passing through the kingdom’s checkpoint, the carriage carrying the party passes without hesitation on the well-maintained large roads of the kingdom’s capital.

Since people do not walk on the road in the first place, there is less risk of accidents. It was just that every time a fancy carriage passed by, I lowered my head to think that a nobleman was passing by.

Looking out the window, Cleon’s eyes met that of a girl who was less than ten years old. Cleon raises her arm, contemplating whether to wave her hand her at her face her as if responding to the girl waving her hand at him, but-

“Stop”

As if asking what she was doing, Lila restrained her, and she stopped her hand her awkwardly and scratched her head.

“Why. It’s okay. I might become Cleon Tromeia in the future.”

At that time, Aruru talking from the side, Laila looked at Aruru and let out a big sigh.

“When commoners wave, the only ones who respond are the vassals of the kingdom or those from aristocratic families. Waving from a wagon to someone outside is treated as impersonating one of the two.”

“And. Impersonation of a nobleman or impersonation of a public official is dealt with severely even in this country. There is also a magic on this road that can inspect quite such things one by one.”

Looking at Aruru, who is talking as if to elaborate on Layla’s explanation, Cleon lowers her hand and speaks quietly.

“It wasn’t okay at all…”

Then Aruru shrugged her shoulders as if there was no problem and answered Cleon.

“Well. Even if it’s a severe punishment, if the nobles allow it, they won’t give you that much of a punishment. At most, a fine?”

“Bur, even if it’s a fine, it’s still a crime…”

In response to Sasha’s answer her, Laila sighed and looked out her window. I could still see many citizens waving at the wagon.

“It’s not even a funny law invented by nobles and wealthy people for petty self-satisfaction. Among humans outside, there are probably few people who sincerely wave to the nobles.”

“…That’s what-“

When Cleon said that, Aruru answered once again.

“According to the laws of the kingdom, if a carriage on the road is rated 4 stars or higher, commoners must pay respect to it.”

It was quite a clumsy, yet absurd law.

“Isn’t it absurd? Even if you don’t have a noble family crest, if the quality of the carriage is high, you should say hello just for that. It was originally a law advocated by nobles, but their patrons, rich people – for example, merchants who accumulated enormous wealth, etc. It’s done with Gaga’s spoon.”

“What kind of guys make up stupid laws like that?”

When Cleon said that, Aruru and Layla also shut her mouth for a moment, then she looked outside the window – the center of the royal road, which could be seen even from the street. Visit the palace

“They live right there.”

001

The carriage stopped at a small mansion on the vague boundary between the luxurious residential area where nobles lived in the capital and the ordinary residential area where ordinary people lived.

In terms of size, it was quite small compared to Layla’s mansion or the mansion that Elessia used without permission.

Even so, compared to the homes of ordinary people, it was larger than that, and it was a mid-sized building, just like the place where the mansion is located.

When Cleon and his party stopped at the carriage, about seven attendants walked out of the entrance of the mansion and bowed their heads to Aruru.

“Aruru-sama. And, Cleon-sama. Welcome. To the ‘Palanatia Coffin’. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Palanatia’s coffin?”

When Cleon looks at Aruru and talks about the name he hears for the first time, Aruru nods her head.

“Yeah. Originally, this place was inhabited by a person who was acquainted with Mr. Palanata’s mother. Just like his father, he was a war hero, but he was a commoner. He passed away from a chronic disease. She had no family , so she handed over the mansion and the rest of her property to her mother.”

“Hey…”

In response to Cleon’s reaction, Layla looks at Cleon and speaks in a quiet voice.

“Palanatia is quite a famous person, so remember it. Although she was a woman, she jumped into the frontlines with a sword and shield, but she was neither a hero nor a saint, but an ordinary adventurer, leading the ‘Volunteer Corps’, a unit of commoners who were not conscripted. Because she was a person who fought. Even in the kingdom, her achievements were acknowledged, and after the war, she thought of giving her aristocratic status, but she refused. The fact that this mansion is located in a place like this. After the war, she claimed to be the protector of the common people. It’s because.”

“He’s a wonderful person. Even without a holy sword, he deserves to be called a hero… But can we stay in the mansion where such a person lived?”

After Cleon answered, Aruru nodded her head once more and looked at her mansion her.

“Of course. According to Mr. Palanataia’s will, if the Tromeia family has anything to do to entertain adventurers, it seems that the condition for inheriting the legacy is that the Tromeia family should stay at her mansion. The fact that adventurers are called by the name means that some kind of threat is approaching the kingdom.”

To nobles and even commoners. Considering that she was treated as a kind of mercenary and had left her mansion for the sake of her adventurers, a job that could easily be treated badly, she could tell that her thoughtfulness of her was quite deep.

Most adventurers are commoners, not nobles, and among them, most of them are homeless, so there was a high possibility that they would feel awkward and uncomfortable even if they entered a luxurious mansion on the aristocratic street.

And rather than building conflicts with aristocrats whose lifestyles did not match, it provided a place to rest comfortably and spaciously, and prevented unnecessary conflicts and discrepancies with aristocrats.

“All furniture and rooms have been tidied up so that you can stay. While you are staying in this mansion, please leave the management of the mansion to us. It is Mrs. Tromeia’s order that you do not cause any inconvenience. Every morning you will go to work at this mansion and return home in the evening.”

At those words, Quon and Sasha looked a little surprised. It was because of the scale of having seven attendants attached to this small mansion.

“Ah- I’m sorry. You don’t have to go that far-“

Cleon feels a bit pressured and tries to tell the maids something, but this time too Layla stops him.

“Okay, but there is one condition. Our private space- so, don’t come into each of our rooms. Especially since I’m a wizard, I’m going to decorate my room like a workshop. If you come in and arrange something, the next thing will happen. I can’t be sure.”

When Layla said that, the maids answered politely, saying, “I understand.”

“Hey Laila.”

“…Aruru. Those maids aren’t normal servants of the Tromeia family.”

When Layla says so, Aruru nods her head.

“That’s right. The Battle Maid of the Tromeia family. It’s more like the private unit that her mother hired and brought with her.”

“Can you think of it as surveillance?”

Cleon is slightly taken aback by Lyla’s direct expression of her without going through the filter, but rather, Aruru does not waver and answers while shaking her head.

She had no ill will towards Layla, but she had her suspicions of her. Aruru replied honestly, without embellishment, in order to erase her doubts of her.

“It’s not that nasty. Mother really needs your help, so think of her as just trying to get a little bit safer.”

Layla looks into Aruru’s eyes for a moment, then she sighs and nods her head.

“Well. If Aruru says so. It must be so. Sorry, I’m too sensitive.”

“I think it’s a natural suspicion. Considering the evaluation of the kingdom’s nobles…”

The atmosphere somehow managed well without becoming a big deal. Others, seeing the sight, wiped their hearts out and moved their feet to enter the mansion.

Suddenly, Cleon turned to Aruru as if there was something he was worried about.

“Come to think of it. Why did the Minister of Defense not Sir Percys, but his wife, Mrs. Tromeia, called us? If there is a problem to be resolved in the capital, isn’t it originally Sir Percys’s task instead of Defense Minister?”

Aruru scratches Cleon’s cheek and smiles bitterly at Cleon’s question her. It just didn’t seem like a conversation worth having here.

“That’s… I think it’s better to hear it directly from your mother. It’s a little secret anyway.”

Cleon still had doubts about such an ambiguous answer, but he nodded his head knowingly and stepped into the mansion.

Considering each person’s living space, it’s not that wide or narrow, just the right size.

And in the living room seen through the front door, a portrait of a woman hanging on the wall stood out.

She was a beautiful woman with orange hair, and her golden eyes were so brilliant that even in the picture it could be seen sparkling.

Probably around the age of 20.

“The person in this painting is… Palanataya?”

When Cleon said that, Aruru nodded her head.

“That’s her. It is said that she was painted right before her death. To honor her, her mother her asked her her court painter.”

“Is it.”

Cleon feels a little bit of magical energy in her portrait and puts his hand on the picture frame.

“… Take care of me for a while.”

Even if I talked like that, no one’s answer came back.

According to what I heard earlier, she was a person who deserved respect from everyone.

Her greeting her was more like a prayer mixed with a wish for her companions to be safe in their work her in the capital.

“Everyone, after unpacking, come to the Tromeia mansion in the evening. It’s my mother’s invitation.”

“…Do I have to wear a suit again…”

Cleon sighs as if he still has n’t gotten used to her suit her, but Aruru smiles while stroking Cleon’s hair.

“Whoops. Dress up as cool as you can and come.”

002

The four members of the party, including Cleon, each dressed as politely as possible. Following the attendant who came to guide them, they walk through the aristocratic residential area.

The characters passing by are all nobles, but most of the men look at the party in amazement as they see Quon in a dress that is slightly clinging to the body of her.

Quon tries to cover the lines of her body her somehow, as if such a gaze is burdensome, and Lila stands next to her and tries to cover her body her with her own body her as if she were an escort.

Also, the space was absurdly lacking.

Either that or not, Sasha’s eyes widened at the array of large buildings around her.

The mansions of the nobles were all huge, and there were many mansions that were much larger than the residences of the chiefs and sons of the nobles, where Laila’s mansion had been located at the academy.

“Guy, the nobles’ houses are really big… Even if there were only 4 mansions like this, it would be about the same size as the mountain village I lived in.”

“The size of the mansion is, after all, a symbol of the wealth of nobles. The population difference between nobles and commoners is 10 times. Even so, the ratio of the land occupied by commoners and nobles in the capital is almost the same. .”

Cleon answered Layla’s explanation as if he was slightly fed up.

“Waste of space.”

As we walked while having such trivial conversations, the attendant’s feet stopped in front of the largest mansion in the residential area.

In front of him, Aruru, wearing the red dress she had seen before, was waiting for Cleon and his party her.

“…To hear the duke’s daughter come out to meet you. It’s an honor.”

When Cleon said that, Aruru answered Cleon with a shy smile.

“My mother told me to wait calmly. I just got restless for no reason. I was waiting outside.”

Seeing each other in suits for the first time in a long time, Cleon and Aruru can no longer speak in their first greeting. When the slightly unsettling quiet that I felt at the academy flowed between the two again-

“Come in quickly. Aruru-sama. And, Cleon.”

A low voice heard in Cleon’s ears after a long time.

When two people turn their heads toward that direction at the same time.

A black-haired, black-faced woman frowning as if asking what she was doing in front of the mansion’s main gate.

Together with Cleon, he is one of the few remaining magic swordsmen of the dark horse clan.

What she was wearing was a maid outfit with more frills and white parts than the previous Wood Knocker family maid outfit.

A girl who previously fought Talchek with Cleon to stop the Beast Beast, Shradsel. It was Ruba.

“Still ticking. Rubera.”

“…Heh. Your wife is waiting for you.”

Cleon greets her with some kind of welcome intention, but Lubera looks at Cleon for a while and then turns away from her.

“Are you not okay?”

When Aruru said that, Cleon only smiled bitterly.

003

Passing through the front gate, passing through the long garden, and entering the building of the mansion, I saw the inside of the mansion, which was not so luxuriously decorated, unlike the size of the enormous mansion.

The decorations are so practical that they are not suitable for viewing.

And, while the design itself is sober, the walls and ceiling are made of materials that exude elegance.

I could feel the personality of Mrs. Tromeia, who practically rules this mansion.

“Welcome. Adventurer Cleon. And, everyone in the party. I am the hostess of this mansion, and the mother of Aruru. My name is ‘Aurelia Tromeia’.”

She, too, was dressed in a modest dress, polite enough to greet her guests.

A mother of a child- to the extent that it is hard to believe that she is a woman with a daughter of the same age as Cleon.

Believed even though she was still in her thirties or late twenties, her appearance somehow resembled her Aruru, but with a slightly more feminine side.

However, her eyes her were even sharper than Aruru’s, and even though she had a smile on her face her, Cleon swallowed her saliva with a gaze that she seemed to see through them.

Braided Bun’s blonde hair and clear, clear blue eyes were the symbol of her nobility her, but she felt it a little different from Lesia.

Like Aruru, she is a woman with strong golden light.

“…My name is Cleon. Thank you very much for inviting me today. Miss Aurelia.”

When Cleon bowed her slightly and greeted her with the same courtesy, she only nodded her head, still smiling.

“There are so many stories I want to share with you. The story of saving my daughter at the academy. And- about what’s happening right now in this royal capital.”

“It sounds like it’s going to be a bit long.”

As Cleon spoke similarly to her joke her, Aurelia nodded her head once more.

“Whoops. I’ll have to be careful not to get bored. Now, I’ll have to serve you a meal. I’ll guide you to the restaurant.”

As Aurelia says so, she leads the party along with her attendants her.

“…Whew. Well done Cleon. I don’t think the first impression is bad.”

When Lyla sighed from behind her and told her Cleon her, as soon as he put her in front of her, Cleon, feeling her tension her, sighed as well.

“Aruru. Is Aurelia-sama usually like that?”

Then Aruru nodded her head with her wry smile.

“Of course he’s a bit strict, but I think flexibility is the best among nobles. So don’t be so nervous.”

“Aruru. Chatting in the hallway of the mansion is a duke’s woman-“

“I’m sorry!”

Looking at her mother her, who tolerates the adventurer Cleons, but urges her daughter her, Aruru, to keep her duty her as a noble.

Cleon and his party felt a little worried.