Chapter 692 – Salvation and Trust

(At the end of the previous episode, the part where Cleon talks about the dragon slayer elf’s blood relatives was unnatural, so some changes were made.)

000

She was standing in front of Cleon, with her long red hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a plain white long-sleeved shirt.

Her hands are covered with leather gloves that prevent the sword from slipping, and a bracelet decorated with bird’s tail feathers, which is said to bring good luck, around her wrist.

Also, on her leather belt tied around her small waist, she wore a sword in a nondescript scabbard.

Lastly, wearing beige long pants that covered his long, straight legs and long boots with iron plates on his feet, he walked with a feeling that was closer to ‘lightly’ than ‘jumpily’.

Compared to yesterday’s long coat and sunglasses fashion, it looks much less suspicious.

Somewhere, it was the fashion of a veteran adventurer with some experience, so it seemed like an unintentional couple look with Cleon, who was similarly wearing adventurer civilian clothes.

“It would have been better to wear it like that on a regular basis. “No one else knows your face anyway, right?”

When Cleon says that to Diora, who is looking at the goods being sold on her street, she hums and responds.

“Cleon may not have known it, but it was a magic tool with a magic effect that made it avoid people’s gaze. “My personal actions are a secret, so it’s better to avoid people’s attention, right?”

＂I guess I wasn’t just wearing it for the sake of the atmosphere…＂

I never thought it was something like that…

Looking at Cleon admiring ─, Diora smiles.

“Ah, you believe it, Cleon? So innocent~☆”

＂…＂

However, Diora immediately reveals that she was lying and sticks out her tongue.

There is no doubt that he is someone who likes to make fun of people, so in the end, the reason why he was dressed like that became a mystery.

… Actually, it was true that there seemed to be no real reason.

As she sighed while thinking that, she approached Cleon and tapped him on the shoulder.

Then, showing her own left ear, she asks:

“How is it? Does it suit you?”

Then, hanging there were earrings in the shape of a lotus flower, the same color as her hair.

When she asked that question, as if the thing she was just looking at was that guy, Cleon looked at her for a moment and then spoke.

“Wait a minute, I don’t know much about accessories like that.”

“Hey, where is that? Just looking at it, it suits you, no. Well, if you go a little further, it’s cute and pretty. If you add these words, all the girls will like it?”

When Diora shrugs her shoulders and says, ‘I don’t know how the girl feels~’, Cleon scratches her head and says.

“Then… I think it suits you well.”

“Really?! Then I’ll have to do this. Hey~”

Diora seemed to be purely delighted by Cleon’s compliment, and with a wide smile on her face, she approached the store owner and spoke as if she wanted to buy these earrings.

After a while, she returned with the store owner saying ‘Thank you!’ And talking to Cleon while stuffing her wallet into her pocket.

“As expected, there are many amazing things in Asteris. It’s my first time coming here in person, so I looked through several tourist brochures before coming.”

＂A big man full of thoughts of sightseeing.＂

“Well, my job is usually to stay in the palace and escort the royal family, so it’s really been the first time in several years that I’ve been outside the border.”

As she thinks so, she slowly turns her head and looks towards the western gateway, towards the kingdom beyond and its capital, El Querdo.

The role of the dragon knight Drake is to protect the royal family.

All knights and soldiers of the kingdom will take on that mission, but Drake is the only knight among knights who carry out that mission ‘full-time’.

Therefore, it usually follows the king like a shadow, or only the royal family exists above him, and it moves only by receiving their orders.

“Well, I didn’t know how things would turn out, but I was able to resolve the situation earlier than expected. This is also thanks to Cleon.☆”

“Thanks to Selena and you. Well, like Miyeom-gong said, it hasn’t been completely resolved yet.”

When Cleon says that, she smiles and scratches her cheek, saying ‘Ahaha~’.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! Because it will work out somehow!”

Diora smiled and walked in front of her, but suddenly stopped and turned her head.

＂…＂

And the mischievous smile that had been on her face until now was erased, and her face became quietly and somewhat kind, and she fixed her gaze there.

Then, before Cleon could ask why, he followed her gaze and found a girl with a sullen face crouching on the side of the road where she wouldn’t be disturbed by people passing by.

She must have been about five or six years old, and from the clothes she was wearing, I could tell that she came from another country, not from the East.

Is it a girl from the kingdom or another ally?

However, since she was alone without her guardian, she was able to sense her situation to some extent, so when Cleon came by Diora’s side and tried to talk to her-

＂Huh? It’s rare for a young lady to be sitting alone in a place like this~”

And Diora approached her, exaggerating her movements and her voice.

Then, the girl raises her head and makes eye contact with Diora.

＂…?＂

She may have been a little embarrassed by Diora’s sudden appearance, but her shaking pupils were noticeable to her, but Diora did not get discouraged and continued to speak in an acting-like tone.

“There was a very cute lady alone, so I started talking to her without realizing it… What is she doing in a place like this?”

＂… She fell out with her mother… So… In times like this, it’s better for her not to move from that spot, she said her mother used to be… ＂

As she spoke, her voice became quieter due to her anxiety that she might not be able to see her mother again.

“Hmm. In other words, the young lady is a lost princess. Also, she is a good princess who does not cry and listens well to her mother. Okay, then this girl will stay with you.”

＂Eh…?＂

After Diora said that, she looked around her on purpose, bent her knees in front of her, made eye contact with her, and spoke quietly in a voice that only she could hear.

“In fact, her older sister is a knight of the kingdom.”

＂Knight…?＂

It seems that she too belongs to the kingdom, and when the title of her knight was mentioned, her face instantly brightened, and she showed Diora her face of trust.

“Okay! And, speaking of a knight’s job, it’s also about protecting the princess. Is it okay for me to be next to the princess?”

As she said that, she looked at Diora, who was holding the girl’s hand, and the girl nodded her head.

Cleon stands at a little distance, looking at her, who knows that he likes girls, but he also seems to know how to deal with children.

She said that if she got close, the cold impression of her dark clan might scare her.

However, it may be necessary to keep an eye on Diora to see if she goes against her girl.

“You know, Mr. Knight, why are you in the Eastern Country?”

“Huh-? That’s right, he came to catch the bad villain who disappeared with the girl~”

＂…＂

By any chance, is that villain referring to himself?

Cleon thought so for a moment, but then he shook his head and decided to look for the girl’s mother.

001

After a while, Cleon found a woman desperately wandering around looking for someone, and spoke to a nearby government soldier who was helping and searching for the woman, and told them the place where Diora was protecting the girl.

If she is the mother of a girl from the Kingdom, then of course she is from the Kingdom, so she thought that if she spoke directly, she might be viewed as suspicious, so she left the place immediately. Br〉

And, if you turn around a little later and return to where Diora was, you can see her waving her hand and saying hello to the girl walking with her mother.

“Oh. I’m back, another knight☆”

＂You said you were a villain earlier?＂

＂I don’t really know what you’re talking about~＂

At Cleon’s point, Diora whistled, and I guess I should say she was good at getting away.

Then Cleon had no choice but to sigh and shake his head.

However, while Diora was smiling like that, she watched the direction the girl walked a little longer and suddenly said this.

“… He was a strong kid, that kid.”

＂… Really?＂

Cleon speaks as if he doesn’t know, but Diora nods her head and speaks.

“Then. “Her mother kept her word, and it’s great that she didn’t move from that spot, but on top of that, she didn’t even cry, right?”

Of course, there would be many cases where young children would panic and leave their original spot, but she faithfully kept her promise to her mother and did not leave.

“If Cleon had encountered the same situation… What would he have done?”

“Well… She’s never experienced something like that herself, so she can’t say anything.”

In response to Diora’s question, Cleon shrugs her shoulders.

However, after thinking for a while, she shook her head and answered.

“No, I guess I might have been the one to cry.”

“Ahaha, Cleon? It’s a little bit unimaginable~”

In response to Diora’s teasing words, Cleon speaks with a bitter smile.

“Well, when I was young, I was a crybaby that everyone recognized…”

＂Hehe… It’s completely different from what it looks like now☆＂

＂And you?＂

When Cleon questions her, as if it would be unfair to only talk about her, Diora answers without even showing her concern.

“I cried. And that too, quite loudly and crying. I left my seat and walked around.”

Her tone of voice was not hypothetical, but as if she was reminiscing about her past.

＂… That is…＂

When Cleon says that, Diora looks back at Cleon with a bitter smile.

“That’s right. It actually happened. Actually, the reason I asked to come out today was because I wanted to take the opportunity to tell my story.”

And she speaks to Cleon with a sincere expression, not her usual playful face.

“Cleon doesn’t completely trust me yet, right?”

＂…＂

Then, Cleon did not answer her directly.

It may be that the silence was a substitute for an answer, but the fact that she could not immediately deny what she said must have been surprising to Cleon himself.

“I understand. I haven’t told you everything about myself yet, and I can’t help it if I seem like a person who has a lot to hide. Plus, there’s something about Babel.”

Diora speaks as if she is aware that she still lacks the ingredients to trust Cleon.

“But… It’s not a lie to think that I want to protect Amelia. This heart is 100% pure truth. So, I want you to listen to the origin of this heart.”

Cleon slowly nods her head at Diora’s request.

And, she started walking down the streets of Asteris once again, sharing her story with her.

002

Fifteen years have passed since the war between the empire and the kingdom ended.

In El Querdo, the capital of the kingdom, restoration has progressed to the point that almost no traces of the war remain, and there are no collapsed castle walls or burned down mansions.

There were still many villages in various parts of the kingdom suffering from famine as the vitality of the land had not been restored due to the aftereffects of the weapons used by the empire.

The people living in such villages had to somehow survive the winter with food provided by the central government of the kingdom, but they were living in such a precarious situation that if their mouths expanded too much, that alone would not be enough.

The village where Diora was born was also such a place.

At that time, when a child was born into a family with poor circumstances, it was common to leave the child in a church that also served as an orphanage.

The cathedral, which could not reject orphans according to its doctrine, became a place to take care of many orphans who did not know who their parents were.

Of course, because of Diora’s red hair, identifying her parents may have been surprisingly simple –

At least according to what Diora secretly heard from her nuns, they did not recognize her as their own child.

In any case, growing up with other children in her orphanage, she is said to have taken on the role of her eldest sister, taking care of her younger children before her, while nurturing the dream of one day becoming a nun.

Now that I think about it – wasn’t it an unconscious self-appeal that she did because she wanted to somehow make her nuns think that her presence was helpful?
Diora mocked herself.

But those efforts were in vain when, in the winter of the year she turned six, her nuns had to travel a long distance to El Querdo, the capital of the kingdom, to ask for additional food assistance.

Diora followed the suggestions of her nuns.

That year, the harvest was particularly poor, and she said that not only her children, but also her adults, often collapsed and could not get up, so she had to receive support in some way from the nuns.

When the nuns arrived at El Querdo, they gave Diora her blanket and told her to sit on a bench in the square and wait for their return.

It was perhaps natural that she could not join in on the conversation among her elders, so she nodded and sat in the cold winter square waiting for the nuns to return.

One hour, two hours.

No matter how much she covered herself with a blanket, as the cold air slowly began to cool as the sun set, she became anxious.

Now that I think about it, I think of the youngest nun looking back at herself several times and walking away, being led by her superior’s hand.

She couldn’t stop the tears from bursting out at once.

She walked down the street with a blanket bigger than her body wrapped around her.

As her cries echo down her street, people passing by her take a quick glance at her, tsk at her, click her tongue, and no one talks to her. It was just passing by her.

I learned later that it was not uncommon for a local person to come all the way to the capital and abandon her child.

At least in the royal capital, there was no shortage of food like in the countryside.

However, if something like this happens again and again, even those who initially did good deeds will no longer be able to cover everything.

No monastery, temple, orphanage, or store that needed help could look upon abandoned children with favor.

So, Diora cried as she passed by the people, walked as long as she could, walked around the royal road, and returned to that place in Sanga Square.

However, the only thing that changed while she was gone was that there was snow piled up where she was sitting.

The tattered blanket was dirty from being dragged across the floor and heavy from being wet with snow.

Diora, who thought she couldn’t move anymore because her feet hurt, cleared the snow off her bench and somehow sat down on it.

She was finally forced to admit that she had been abandoned.

Diora, who had experienced being abandoned by someone twice in her life, felt like there would no longer be any feelings left in her heart.

If it had been even a little late – a girl who resented the world would have been born.

“Aurelia. Over there.”

At that time, when she thought she heard someone’s voice, Diora raised her head.

There – a woman in a dress with her platinum hair, holding her umbrella, was approaching her.

＂Huh? It’s rare for a young lady to be sitting alone in a place like this~”

She made eye contact with Diora and smiled while making a cute voice.

When her blue eyes, like the deep sea, sparkled, Diora was unconsciously enchanted by her beauty.

Diora did not know at the time that the tiara she wore on her head was a symbol of her queendom.