Chapter 562 – The Return and the Hidden

000

Beneath the tent fluttering in the wind, Cleon carefully put the box containing the documents Aaron had given him into his bag.

That document is a report in which she wrote down the details of this incident, and if this is delivered to the Beauty Painter, the procedure to demolish the base here will be followed.

If that happens, the soldiers who served here will have to move elsewhere.

That part was to be decided by the superiors of the East country, including the beauty flamesmith, but she regretted leaving the place where she had been living since childhood and parting with her subordinates who had shared and lived with her for decades. She seemed to be doing

“Okay. Please take good care of the delivery of the documents. Prince Cleon. Be careful on the way, Ms. Leah.”

Aaron bids farewell to Cleon on a horse and Leah, who is sitting in front of him.

Amelia didn’t know that there was a new life in her belly her, but she was n’t so insensitive that she did n’t know that the way she looked at Cleon had changed a little.

‘Could it be that he was sleeping…?’

No, no matter how many women favor Cleon, would he have such a relationship with a woman he had only known for less than a day?

And when I talk about it in my head, what naturally comes to mind are memories of the past…

‘It must be…!’

Amelia groaned while holding her head with both hands while uttering such a voice inwardly.

“Is Ms. Leah okay?”

“Ah… I’m at an age where I can do that these days…”

Actually, Amelia’s current age is slightly younger than that age, but mentally she is a few years older than children her age her…

Saying so, Cleon embraced her, thinking of her as a grown-up girl who still had a young part of her.

Without noticing that the cause was in her self.

“Now then, let’s start soon. When each other’s affairs are sorted out, again someday.”

As Cleon spoke, he took the reins of her horse, and Aaron covered his mouth and replied with a smile.

“Whoops. You might see it unexpectedly soon, right? Soon, the Five Elements Festival, the capital will need troops… If there are veteran officials who no longer need to be stationed outside, we can’t let them play during the Five Elements Festival.”

“…Is that too?”

If so, what will we see again next time?

Since it wasn’t long before the Five Elements Festival was held, Cleon nodded her head thinking that he would see it really soon.

“I’m already looking forward to that time.”

“…Ah.”

Having answered that, Cleon finally shook his arm holding the reins.

Then, after resting for the night, the horse that recovered her stamina began to move her legs her while crying.

Watching the slowly moving horse from behind her, Aaron smiled slightly.

“At that time, you must have been surrounded by many people.”

In the meantime, will she have a gap to dig into?

Aaron thinks so for a moment, then she shakes her head and turns her body around, and from a distance she sees her men watching her anxiously from a distance.

“Aaron… You’re not falling for that guy, are you?”

“Yes, yes. That adventurer looks like he has a strong flirtation… Meeting someone more serious… “

They come up to her and talk to her with her concerned face as one of hers.

All of them, Aaron had known her since she was young and her father worked as a government officer here, and to her her, they were her uncles her.

Her colleagues who have been here for a long time, keeping the promise she made with her father her that when she died, she took care of Aaron.

Watching her subordinates and colleagues like that, Aaron covers her mouth with her fingers while talking.

“Well? I guess I have similar tastes to her mother?”

After her laughing reply, Aaron walked towards her own tent.

Even if her base is shut down, what she has to do here does n’t change.

As these bases and their commanders, do everything in your power to protect them.

“Certainly, Aaron’s father was also cheating, but after getting married, he only looked at Aaron’s mother~”

And the soldiers following such a commander, telling him to think again.

I don’t know how long this daily life will last, but Aaron thought that she would cherish this little time she had left, and she went back to her job.

001

When Cleon returned to Asteris, the capital of the Orient, the sun passed over her head her and she slowly began to sink towards the horizon at sunset.

Unlike the time she left, there were no assassins when she returned, and there were no incidents like this, so she might have been a bit bored.

Anytime, peaceful was best.

If you show the soldiers at the gates proof of their identity, they will bow their heads and let Cleon and Amelia through.

Even if he proves his identity his, it was borrowed from the Dark Dragon Company, but to them, it would seem that Cleon is just a new executive of the company.

“I’m going to see the beauty dyer to deliver Aaron’s report… Amelia first-“

“I’ll go with you!”

“…Okay.”

Cleon tries to send her back first, but Amelia looks up at her Cleon her and sees her her powerful eyes her sent by her, Cleon agrees with a nod of her head as if she can’t help it.

No matter how much I rested enough before departure, it was a fairly long distance from the base to Asteris.

I thought it was harsh enough for her young body her, but she shook her head as if she could still walk.

Just like that, the moment I was about to walk through the castle gate toward the palace-

“Cleon!”

When Cleon and Amelia turned around at the voice calling them, they saw a woman wearing a parasol smiling and waving her hand to her.

“Pamela.”

Calling her her name her, Cleon lightly raises her hand to greet her.

Her silver hair, red eyes, and the clothes she wore as a vampire exuding an adult-like atmosphere were of the style of the Orient, but they gave off a slightly different atmosphere.

Her chest part her was a little hollowed out, and it was a black and red combination dress that was not often used in Eastern countries.

It was a little different from the dress she was wearing before, but walking around Asteris in the daytime wearing it would stand out in many ways, so it must be a new outfit prepared.

Even so, it will attract more people’s attention thanks to its unique appearance.

“Can I go around during the day?”

“Yes! There’s a parasol that’s this big, and it blocks the sunlight a bit!”

While saying that, Pamela turned around as if to look at it.

And next to her was a girl wearing unusual clothes and quietly sticking around like an attendant.

Her face is also familiar.

She was Dryne, the youngest of the three Banguidae sisters.

“Are you safe? Cleon-sama.”

Watching Dryane greet her by bowing her back in her polite manner, Cleon spoke with a slightly stiff smile.

“…It’s a different tension than last time.”

“That’s right, I’m at work right now. I tend to separate public and private affairs thoroughly.”

Dryne said so without changing her expression one bit, and Cleon nodded her head appreciatively.

“Hey… These guys…?”

At that time, when Amelia carefully asked Cleon by his side of her, Cleon let out an exclamation and remembered that no other teammate except Illenu had ever seen Pamela.

“This is… Pamela. She’s It’s a vampire I met through a strange connection.”

“Vampire…?”

At Cleon’s words her, Amelia looks at her with a little surprised face on her face, and Pamela comes closer to Amelia and her eyes twinkle.

“Golden~! Byeokan! Cute~!!”

Saying that, she hugged Amelia tightly into her arms.

Because of her height her, Amelia’s head her was lodged in her chest her.

“Oooooh…!?”

“Uh, hey… Suddenly something.”

As Cleon grabs and holds her parasol from falling, Pamela lets go of Amelia, scratching her head in disgrace.

“I’m sorry! I don’t know… I have a habit of wanting to hug something cute when I see it…”

At her words her, Cleon looked at Amelia with a small sigh.

“Amelia, are you okay?”

“Ah, yes…! I was a little surprised, but it seems like he did it out of favor…”

Amelia was a good kid who somehow managed to smile even as she calmed her heart.

“M-That’s right! It’s a favor! So…”

When Pamela hesitated while talking to Amelia, Amelia answered.

“Ah. Please call me… Lia.”

It was a bit clumsy to use it as her pseudonym her, but she seems to like what Cleon gave her, so she uses it as it is.

It was still difficult to determine what kind of person the woman in front of her was, given her her real name her, Amelia.

“Miss Leah! I’m Pamela!”

Pamela, who treats Amelia with her pure kindness, holds her hand her and talks.

Seeing her innocence of her, even though Amelia was a bit hesitant, she answered with a smile.

“——Yes, take care of me, Pamela!”

Even though she was clearly a woman who looked a few years older than herself, when she heard the story, she felt like she wasn’t that much older.

“Hehe…”

And at Amelia’s answer her, Pamela smiled shyly.

Her actual age her may be older than anyone else here, but she was asleep most of the time, and she’s actually a girl not that much older than Amelia.

Once again, Cleon lets out a sigh of relief, thinking that if she were, she would be able to build her good relationship with Amelia as well.

And the one who sighed like Cleon was Dryne, who turned her hand around her waist her.

What she took with her hand was the handle of her weapon.

‘It’s not just attached as an attendant or helper. Is it some kind of surveillance station?’

Considering that she was taking orders from Quartz, this must have been Quartz’s intention to her.

I wouldn’t have told Pamela what it was.

If Pamela can’t resist her her vampiric urges her and attacks her her humans, her her Dryne her must use her own life her to stop her.

Meanwhile, her role is to keep human damage to a minimum until reinforcements arrive who can hunt the vampires.

When Dryne noticed her gaze her towards herself and met her eyes her with her Klenon, it was her nodding head her that killed her expression her.

‘She must have suffered a lot from her too.’

Looking at Pamela while thinking that way, she is already in a state where she and Amelia are talking about flowers.

“Come to think of it, did you get a good house?”

When I took the opportunity to not interrupt her story of her and asked her a question, Pamela nodded her head in response to Cleon.

“Yes. Quartz helped me! Thanks to you, I think there will be no problem living in Asteris.”

“Yes. That’s fortunate. Soon there will be a festival called the Festival of the Five Elements. Until then, you’d better get used to Asteris a little more.”

When Cleon says that, Pamela tilts her head.

“Five Elements?”

“Yes. It’s a large-scale festival held in Asteris.”

“Ohh!”

Pamela raises her voice as if she is interested.

Pamela then turns to Drayne and asks a question.

“What kind of festival is the Five Elements Festival?”

Why did she say to herself… Dry Ne had the same expression for a while, but she answered while clearing her throat.

“The Festival of Five Elements is a festival dedicated to the divine tree in the middle of Asteris. It is also a day when the priests release the mana stored in the sacred tree to the ground and purify the organs spread across the land.”

“Hey- What a festival…”

Pamela nodded her head in admiration, then tilted her head again to ask a question.

“The priests purify the organs of the earth?”

Draine and Cleon cross their eyes at her words her as if they are curious about something, and Cleon asks Pamela a question.

“Yeah. Is something strange?”

“Oh, no. Should I say it’s strange… I should say it’s a little different from what I know.”

As Pamela says that, she pretends to be thinking about something.

“What’s the difference…? Did you know about the Five Elements system?”

“No. More than that… About these priests…”

And Pamela was talking.

“No… Originally, it’s not just people who purify this land… It’s the dragons who are in charge of the elemental power of the earth, as her mother said…”

“…?”

Cleon tilts his head at her words her.

Earth Dragon? Are you talking about the earth dragon among the five original small dragons that Luti talked about?

Come to think of it, did I mention that the Earth Dragon is missing?

“…But the great priestess doesn’t talk like that…”

When Cleon says that, Dryane nods her head as well.

“I have never heard of such a story. There are many legends about dragons in this land, but I have never heard that the earth dragon is related to the Five Elements system.”

When Cleon listens to Dryane’s words and nods her head, Pamela utters a troubled voice.

Did she hear herself wrong? It was what she thought, but there was no doubt that it was a worrying story.

Even if she wasn’t a person of this era, if she used the help of the Earth Dragon to purify this place in the past, she should have a record left by the shrine maidens and priests.

The only thing that was pointed out as a problem was the fact that the Holy Spirit was sick because of their lack of strength as the great priestesses.

‘Something seems to be hidden.’

Cleon decides so and nods his head and tells Pamela.

“I know someone who knows a lot about it, so I’ll ask.”

“Yes! I’m sure what I remember is correct!”

After Cleon nods her head at her confident attitude, she says goodbye to Pamela once there.

And then, if you walk towards the royal palace where Beauty Painter is-

“…Hey—Ong.”

It was the cry of a cat.

Those little shining eyes were looking straight at Cleon.