Chapter 984 – Heroines in El Querdo-I Forget How Many Times!-

000

The big and small incidents that occurred during the Five Elements Festival were spread through rumors and newspapers even in kingdoms far away from the Eastern countries.

The appearance of a scoundrel who attacked the royal palace of an eastern country, and terrorist acts that occurred simultaneously.

The fact that there were beings who tried to overthrow the kingdom’s ally, the Eastern Kingdom, must have been shocking in many ways to the kingdom’s citizens.

However, the situation was concluded safely, and in the end, the sacred trees of the Eastern countries bloomed for the first time in decades, and the Five Elements Festival was completed safely, although there were many difficulties.

Aruru Tromeia was sipping tea while sitting in front of her desk while reading this in the newspaper.

In the morning, I stopped by my father’s bedroom, and when he told me that he was going to go outside now that his wounds had fully recovered, I was tired of trying to stop him along with the doctor.

It’s good to be healthy, but as you get older, you need to get enough rest when you can.

Fortunately, the work of the Minister of Defense has reached a point where, if many people, including Aruru, work together, they can handle it with a bit more ease than if her father was handling her affairs alone.

Of course, Aruru herself, as the next head of the family, had to check documents related to various facilities operated by her family, and there was a lot of work to do in many ways, so she could not easily leave the mansion’s office.

She missed the days when she was the student council member at the academy, swinging a sword and doing a little paperwork.

As she was leafing through her newspaper, she thought that only when her father fully recovered and Cleon and Amelia were able to safely return to the kingdom would her normal life return.

There was a place where the end of her gaze stopped.

“… This…”

A picture of a man wearing a mask fighting against a monster unique to the Eastern countries called a ghost was posted in the newspaper.

In the citation, there was a name written that appeared to be from an Eastern country newspaper.

She was wearing a mask and her attire was different from what she remembered, but considering the shape of the sword sheath hanging on her belt in her hand, it was Cleon wherever she looked.

[The protagonist of exorcism who subdues ghosts. Activity over those three days]

In the article with this title, it was written that in order to suppress the ghosts that appear at a particularly high rate during the Five Elements Festival, a skilled swordsman appointed by the temple is assigned the role of Tyuma’s protagonist.

“You attract people’s attention wherever you go, Cleon.”

Although she felt fortunate that he seemed to be healthy, Aruru let out a lonely voice, as if she was a little worried that he might have forgotten her.

That’s because attractive women tend to appear and stand by his side as if they were led by fate.

People like yourself, who are all about holding and swinging a sword, may be quickly forgotten.

Aruru looked at the article and her photo in silence for a moment, then moved her hand to the drawer of her office desk.

Inside, it opened with a click, and there were various tools arranged neatly…

“… Where is the proud sword here…”

Aruru looks for the necessary tools with the intention of scrapping the article.

On a neatly organized desk, it wasn’t that difficult to find the desired tool.

Place a ruler and draw a line with a small knife.

How much easier is it than swinging a holy sword?

After cutting out the photo with Cleon neatly drawn, I carefully hold it with both hands and look at it.

Seeing Cleon’s appearance beyond the photo, Aruru looked at it for a moment and then-

Soon, even though she knew she shouldn’t, she carefully put the cropped photo into her mouth-

“Miss Aruru. A guest has arrived.”

Suddenly.

The door opened without knocking.

Then, Aruru looked surprised and looked at the door of her office with her eyes wide open. She looked in this direction and made eye contact with Rubera, who had a shocked expression.

Then, she hastily removes the photo from her mouth and puts it back on her desk.

“Lu, Rubera. At least knock…”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to be having a good time alone…”

Rubera lowered her head, spitting out her slightly sharp words as if she was doing it on purpose.

“Hmm… So, a guest came to visit? I remember there was no such schedule today…”

In response to Aruru’s question, Rubera raises her head and then gently retreats behind her.

“I’m sorry for suddenly coming to you without contacting you~ Ms. Aruru.”

And, the voice came not from Rubera, but from the guest Rubera brought.

Aruru knew that voice well.

It’s a voice I’ve heard in the capital recently.

“Namiri… Regent.”

She walks out of the hallway and waves her hand as if she is happy to see you.

Her eyes, curved like a crescent moon, were smiling innocently, but considering that was her usual expression-

Indeed, is he still smiling?

Or is she, as a human from the Regent Gate, mocking Aruru of the Tromeia family?

Aruru is difficult to deal with because he cannot read the emotions on her face.

Of course, that is not the only reason-

“Oh my. Can I call you Aunt Namiri like in the old days? I can give you special permission. Hehe…”

At least when Aruru was young, the conflict between the two families was not revealed to the surface, so they interacted as members of the same dukedom.

At that time, Aruru was much younger and immature than she is now, and she was what was called a ‘cheeky little girl.’

Thanks to this, the title ‘Auntie’ was used for the duchess rather than her mother, whom she met for the first time.

It was the first and last time she experienced everything around her, and perhaps even time, freezing because of her.

To be honest, it was so scary that she never wanted to experience it again.

When Aruru stands with a stiff expression, unable to relax at Namiri’s words, Namiri takes one side of her face in her hand and sighs briefly.

“I’m just kidding. Isn’t it okay to not be so vigilant? Of course, right now, I’m at odds with the Regent and Tromeia, but originally, I’m a person who is doing my best to protect the kingdom together.”

When Namiri spoke soothingly, Aruru didn’t say anything for a moment, but then she nodded.

“… I see. I was sorry. Furthermore, I should say I was a little surprised by your sudden visit… First, please sit down. Rubera, please give me some tea.”

“… Yes.”

After bowing her head to Aruru’s words, Rubera carefully closed the door to her office and walked across the hallway.

Before she left, her gaze was fixed on the ‘picture’ that Aruru had been holding in her hand just a moment ago.

… You might have to be prepared to be made fun of for a few more days.

Even as Aruru thought so, she got up and sat across from Miri, who was sitting on the sofa in the office.

“What happened today-“

“Is the photo you were touching earlier of the ‘demon swordsman’ with whom you have a ‘pink rumor’?”

“Huh!?”

A strange voice came out spontaneously.

There was a reason why she spoke so loudly that even Aruru herself was surprised.

If it’s Aruru Tromeia, she usually doesn’t react that surprised even when she hears such stories.

It may have been Aruru that she usually didn’t confidently say ‘yes’.

In front of her, someone like a duchess would make a circle with the index finger and thumb of her left hand, and then repeat the motion of inserting and pulling out the center of the circle with the index finger of her right hand.

Even if it were anyone else and not Aruru, she would have been so startled that she would have fallen on her back.

“Me, Namiri!? What!”

“Oh my, you, Aruru, who normally doesn’t hide anything and are so confident, can’t believe you are this embarrassed.”

“Ugh…”

Namiri nods her head, smiling as if Aruru enjoys her teasing.

“Well, thanks to not hiding it that much, the ‘Tromeia family’ had almost no say in his treatment.”

“…”

At Namiri’s words, Aruru Tromeia closed his mouth.

As she said.

While Cleon and his party were active in the royal capital, they were able to go in and out of the Tromeia family and even join the royal castle’s party, thanks to the Tromeia family guaranteeing Cleon’s identity to some extent.

Even if it was not said outright that it was a collusive relationship, anyone could have known that there was a relationship between Cleon and Aruru that went beyond that of an ordinary student and instructor.

Among them, there may have been people who said that the young instructor was playing tricks on Aruru, the duke’s daughter and the next head of the family.

If Cleon had repeatedly done helpful things in the royal capital, there would have been no problem.

For example, helping the Intelligence Knights handle requests or retrieving the Holy Sword from the Desert Kingdom.

At the moment, based on the reputation he had built at the Academy, the number of people recognizing Cleon little by little was increasing.

Because of the incident that occurred during the victory march, such public opinion was completely overturned.

After all, it was wrong to trust the black magician’s clan.

If you leave these guys talking the way they want, the bad rumors will only grow bigger.

Because the person who should be denied disappeared from the royal capital, no, from the kingdom, and disappeared together with Princess Amelia.

In this kingdom, the only ones who had the right to speak out in defense of Cleon were the ‘Tromeia’ family –

The problem is that, because he always made his relationship with Cleon public, his attitude was only seen as protecting his own person.

Some said that if Cleon was punished, the Tromeia family also needed to be punished.

Because it was the Tromeia family that brought that magic swordsman to this royal capital.

“As a result, the Tromeia family is also facing a significant threat to its position within the kingdom. Isn’t it?”

“… It’s a shameful story.”

Aruru does not deny Namiri’s words.

“Still, she won’t deny her relationship with him?”

“Of course. I have to protect Cleon.”

To Namiri’s question, Aruru answered immediately with an unwavering attitude.

Then, Miri looks a little surprised by the answer, but then a smile appears on her face again.

“Wow. Is this Aurelia’s inheritance? Or… Sir Percy’s side?”

“… What is that…?”

“No. Your parents, too, when I took a peek before we got married…”

[I will protect Sir Percy.]

[Aurelia is the woman I must protect.]

“…”

“…”

Upon hearing her parents’ love story, Aruru blushed as if she was a little embarrassed, but she looked at Namiri without losing her stern expression.

“I’ll stop talking about my grumpy attitude here. Looking at your attitude, I don’t think anything I say here will change your mind.”

“… You were aware that you were being grumpy.”

“Oh, if you don’t do that, you’ll just become a strange person who torments people without knowing how they feel.”

Wasn’t it…

The word ‘her’ was a word that could never be said out of her mouth.

“The defense of Cleon. Our Regent family has also agreed to help. As a bonus, we will also defend Princess Amelia, who is with him.”

“…”

When Aruru heard her words, she stared at her blankly for a moment, not understanding what she meant.

“Yes!?”

And after a few seconds, her mind accepted the meaning.

“Oh my, is it that surprising?”

“Yeah, that’s right! Until now, the Regent has been telling us that he needs to confront us and capture Cleon…”

“That’s his opinion. Me and my daughter are different.”

Namiri laughed and told the story of how she went to the Eastern Kingdom, where she met Cleon, and how she made a deal with Cleon by pledging his request to capture the devil.

“… Indeed. A cooperative relationship with Miss Selena.”

“That young man. He was resourceful.”

Yes, Aruru nods her head as if she is happy.

Cleon’s reaction when he met Namiri played in her mind.

“Without even realizing it, I thought it would be okay for this person to entrust her daughter to him.”

“Huh… Huh?”

Did I just hear something wrong?

“Over there!”

“Anyway, we are on the same side from now on. Please take good care of me. ‘Cult’, ‘Devil Organization’, ‘Saint Princess’… I think there were a lot of things I didn’t know until now.”

“Oh, yes! That’s true, but just now…!”

Before Aruru could finish speaking, Namiri stood up from her seat.

“I came here to talk about this today. So that Cleon’s group can be officially pardoned. Let’s work together starting tomorrow?”

“This is the place to take good care of you, no, more than that!”

“Oh, and…”

Aruru gets caught up in Namiri’s unstoppable pace.

The last thing that drove the wedge was these words.

“Maybe Mr. Cleon and Princess Amelia could become a couple.”

“Huh? ────”

With an expression as if she had been hit hard on the head, Aruru stopped in her place and could not stop her.

“Tea… Ah, ma’am.”

As Namiri approaches the door, she runs into Rubera, who has prepared tea.

Then, Namiri lifts the teacup on the plate Rubera is holding in her hand, and she lightly empties its contents and smiles.

“It was a good drink. It’s a great tea.”

“Ah, yes… Thank you…”

… It must have been a hot car.

She handed over her hat and walked out into the hallway with her light steps, even humming.

“… Aruru?”

Rubera looked like she had seen something strange, so she turned to Aruru and called the name.

Then there-

Aruru, who had ‘a look on her face as if all her money had been melted down into stocks’, was half-standing up from the sofa, frozen like a stone statue.

Rubera looked at Aruru like that.

After sighing, “Ha,” I quietly walked closer to the desk in her office.

Then, I took a quick look at her newspaper article that she had cut out.

She carefully put it in her pocket and left her room.

By the time Aruru found her photo after escaping from her mental attack, the phantom thief Luvera had already left.