Chapter 25

The world turned upside down, and a stinging pain shot up from the back of my head. I grew nauseously dizzy, and then, a chill of metal against my neck.

The guards above me had drawn their swords, aiming them at my throat.

“Vera.”

Barely registering the situation, a frigid voice echoed in my ears. The young lady intended to stain the cafe floor with blood, her expression unchanged.

“…From now on, it’s self-defense?”

I forced a bitter smile, looking up at the man holding the blade to my neck. Honestly, I hadn’t foreseen things escalating to a blade so close to my throat…

*Fssskk…!*

Well, they did initiate things, didn’t they… Meaning, the original goal was, more or less, achieved.

This fight from now on is between us and them. The cafe owner and his family are uninvolved.

Our meddling wouldn’t accidentally cause them any harm.

*Bang!*

Blinding light flooded the shop, and the man with the sword to my neck was instantly consumed by electricity.

Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the electric shock, he lost consciousness and collapsed onto the cafe floor.

“A mage!”

The remaining two guards belatedly screamed, staring at Lyre. They rushed towards her, but it was already too late.

*Pzzzzzzzzzzzik!*

Again, cold light filled the space. The two guards, charging at Lyre, suffered the same electric attack as the first and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Their heavy bodies fell, overturning tables and scattering napkins everywhere.

“What….”

Amidst the rapidly changing situation, the noble eldest daughter of the Guinere family could do nothing but stare, eyes wide.

I gripped the floor, rising slowly, my hand tracing the line where the blade had threatened my throat.

…Wait, did I just almost die?

Just like that?

“It doesn’t feel real.”

“Useless b*stards.”

Realizing the situation, the young lady massaged her forehead, frustration evident as she stomped the floor hard and stood. The chair that had cushioned her backside lost its balance and toppled sideways.

Her temper reaching its peak, the young lady, without any reason, overturned a nearby table. The various tableware upon it crashed down, creating a noisy chorus.

…What in the world is that crazy woman doing?

The cafe owner’s son, seated next to him, clutched his guitar tightly, trembling at the young lady’s insane behavior.

“Hey! You, that mage-thing!”

The young lady pointed a shaking finger at Lir, still gripping the chair she had struck the ground with.

…Mage-thing?

It felt strange to me, that word ‘thing’ tacked onto ‘mage’. In a time where people died daily, no one would dare disrespect a mage.

No matter how powerful a noble might be, anyone with a shred of sense knew that showing respect to mages and soldiers was the norm in this world.

But, a mage-thing, really… Had the young lady suffered a head injury or something?

Did they need to be reminded, in plain words, who exactly they owed their peaceful days to?

“You’ve messed with the wrong people. Even dukes don’t dare touch my family! If my father hears about this, he’ll have your heads, and the heads of your pathetic families too, you hear me?!”

Seeing her guard lying powerless, the young lady’s eyes rolled back and she began screaming loudly.

“Lir, couldn’t you knock that woman unconscious too?”

“I haven’t ever knocked out a young girl before, I’m not sure how much voltage to use, you know?”

Lir, hesitant to use magic on the young lady lest she accidentally kill her, answered carefully.

Even when dealing with someone so utterly repulsive, taking a life required a certain gravity of spirit.

“I’ll have you hanged in the square! If my father hears of this, your tiny brain can’t even begin to imagine the consequences! First…”

“Considering you started the argument, you certainly have a lot to say.”

“I started it? Preposterous! Some commoner dares speak so familiarly to a noble…and then has the audacity to say that?”

“What makes you think I’m a commoner?”

“Look at your clothes! Trying to pass yourself off as some backwater noble with those rags?! I am speechless!”

Just look at this girl, her head overflowing with prejudice and rigid thinking.

This is exactly why I love stories set in the medieval period.

In the medieval era, most members of society revealed their status through their clothing. Nobles announced their nobility through extravagant ornamentation and lace, while commoners proclaimed their insignificance with plain tunics and trousers.

It was a kind of social contract.

…And I, above all else, loathed such social contracts.

Just what kind of person am I, anyway?

“Just because I dress comfortably doesn’t mean I’m unimportant.”

The servants assigned to me had filled my closet with luxurious garments, but I stubbornly refused them all.

Having experienced the freedom of modern tracksuits, the clothes of a medieval noble felt far too cumbersome and restrictive.

“Your perspective is awfully narrow, don’t you think?”

I was born a vagabond, but I am now a high-ranking military officer within the royal family.

My social standing, granted by directly meeting with and reporting to the Emperor and the leaders of various races, was incomparably higher than that of most nobles in the capital.

“I’m someone who is *allowed* to speak casually to you.”

Therefore, me speaking informally to this no-name noble, one I’ve never even heard of, is, strictly speaking, not wrong in the slightest.

Must one use polite speech with someone they’re meeting for the first time?

I repeat, this is the Middle Ages, where the caste system lives and breathes. And not just any Middle Ages, but one where the continent’s very existence is threatened by war with the demonic horde.

Modern common sense and etiquette are nonexistent in this era of mankind… no, the continent’s dark age.

To apply modern standards, a hundred years after the caste system vanished, is itself a contradiction.

So, didn’t I also stand by silently when this young lady was striking the commoner family who operated their business in her building?

If she hadn’t crossed the line, severing the head of the household’s ankle in front of his family, I wouldn’t have escalated things this far either.

“This is laughable! I’ve never seen a face like yours at any ball! No, never mind. Someone dressed in rags like that wouldn’t…”

Unable to contain her anger, the young lady drew a small dagger, hidden within her dress, and began to point it at us.

One might wonder why a noble lady would carry something like that, but considering her atrocious personality in the short time I’ve known her, it didn’t seem all that strange.

“Lir. Can’t you quiet her down? Please, really.”

“…I’ll try to shoot her with only a quarter of my power.”

Lir, too, seemed unable to endure the little brat’s squawking any longer, changing her mind and gathering a small spark of electricity at the tip of her finger.

She wasn’t particularly patient either, it seemed.

“Isn’t a quarter too little? She’ll wake up quickly.”

“Still, it would be troublesome if she died…”

“You fiends! You dare lay a hand on me! Simply dying won’t be the end of it! I’ll have my torturer carve you up, you’ll beg for your heads…”

*Zzzt!*

A searing current pierced straight through the thin neck of the young lady, who was standing there shrieking at the top of her lungs. She collapsed to the floor, limp as a wooden doll, and the shop owner’s son, who was sitting nearby clutching his guitar, shrunk back in horror.

“Truly noisy.”

“Are nobles always this verbose?”

“I wouldn’t know. This is the first noble I’ve ever encountered. Maybe the Emperor’s like that too, though?”

“…I’ve never been presented before His Imperial Majesty.”

“Ah, he’s just, you know…gentle.”

“…Gentle?”

I brushed dust off my clothes, casually conveying my impression of the Emperor.

Lir gave me a scolding look, as if questioning whether the leader of the Allied Nations could be described with such a simple word, but… whatever.

“Gentle” isn’t a bad word, is it? Doesn’t matter, does it?

With a twinge in my back, I picked up the coin purse that had fallen to the floor and placed it back on the counter.

…Even with my already ailing health, this unforeseen shock has only worsened things, it seems.

“Excuse me, the bill.”

“…Um.”

The woman still seemed unable to distinguish whether the events unfolding before her eyes were a dream or reality.

“You’d be wise to flee quickly. You appear to be adventurers from the frontier… The Guinevere County family will absolutely not let this incident pass. Depart the capital as quickly as possible and hide in some remote border town…”

These people must be panicked, unable to hear Lir and I’s conversation.

If they had, they’d be fearing me, not that Countess Guinevere’s daughter lying there.

After all, I had casually mentioned the Emperor of the Allied Nations as if he was nothing…

“What have I done wrong to warrant an escape? Those thugs were the ones who tried to kill me first.”

I nudged the gold coin purse on the counter, as if urging them to settle the bill quickly.

“The Guinevere County’s elite soldiers are of an entirely different caliber than those bodyguards! I’m only advising you to flee swiftly out of gratitude for helping us…”

“I ‘helped’ you? Me?”

I countered, a nasty little laugh escaping me, laced with disbelief.

“I was just trying to pay, but they started the trouble over there. You must be mistaken, ma’am. Why on earth would I help your store?”

It wasn’t comfortable acting so impudent to people offering thanks, but drawing a clear line was the only way to keep the fire from spreading to them.

“That… son of a b*tch, he really would have laid hands on me.”

The voice, completely broken, traveled across the wood floor and tickled my ear.

Turning, I saw the young lady, jolted back to consciousness, crawling across the ground, as if struck by a surge of electricity.

“…one-quarter is a little too low, I told you.”

“But it’s my first time using magic against a young girl… what could I do? What if she really died?”

“Just crank up the power a bit and give her another shot. She’s going to start screeching again.”

“…You… fiends! How dare you…!”

At the tip of Rir’s finger, electricity, brighter than before, began to gather.

It seems she did increase the output, as I suggested…

“Eh, I think you can push it a little further than that.”

“Have you ever used magic on a young girl?”

“No? Do I look like such an unconscionable person to you?”

I answered with a brazen smile.

“Unconscionable…? Then, what does that make… me?”

“An unconscionable magician. Rir, you’re incredible. How can you use electric magic on such a young girl just because she’s being a little noisy? Next time, if a little kid asks you to play, you’ll just shock them unconscious to avoid the trouble, is that it?”

“No, no. Wait, no! Clearly, she threatened us first with a knife, so this is self-defense! And, Sir Bean told me to do it….”

“Were you someone so devoid of conviction, only acting as others commanded? Disappointing, Honorable Uncle-Master.”

“No… Th-this…!”

A rather intense reaction, coming from Lyr, stretched a wide grin across my face.

Whether she was unaccustomed to anger or simply never the target of such jest, the trembling of her fingers, brimming with electricity, was quite a sight.

*Thwack!*

While Lyr and I were exchanging banter, leaving the noble daughter twitching from shock forgotten on the floor, the shop’s front door burst open with a loud crash.

Reinforcements, perhaps?

I turned my gaze, cold, towards the smashed entrance, and standing there was someone I never would have imagined.

It was my personal servant.

“…What brings you here?”

“I heard you were here, Master Bin. I apologize for interrupting your day off, but they require your selection for a staff officer to accompany you on the next operation. I’m here to deliver the list…”

A staff officer? Ah. That thing the Grand Chieftain said he’d assign to me.

I assumed the higher-ups would just pick someone at random.

But I suppose, given my accomplishments…

Being a general myself, it seems the final choice of who I’d partner with for operations was left to me.

The Grand Chieftain’s thoughtful consideration in granting me the treatment due a general was rather touching…

“…Oh.”

The timing couldn’t be worse.

“What… what is the meaning of this?”

The shop was, to put it mildly, a complete disaster. The eldest daughter of the Guinere House was quivering like a freshly caught fish, and no less than three unconscious behemoths were strewn across the floor.

There, in the hands of the unconscious behemoths, were enormous swords that I wouldn’t dare to even lift, and the floor was littered haphazardly with splintered fragments of a shattered table, shards of glass, and scattered tableware.

…Hmm.

I’m truly in trouble now.

“Nothing happened. They just started a drunken brawl amongst themselves and then, well, collapsed like that.”

Like a cat who breaks a cup off the table and still brazenly demands food, I spouted such a blatant lie with unwavering nerve.

“Alcohol? Isn’t this a café?”

“…They brought outside food and drinks, you see. Normally that’s not allowed, haha, what a thing.”

“You’re saying all three of them entered the café with alcohol?”

“Never seen such a coincidence, huh?”

“…”

I didn’t want to escalate things any further, if possible.

It was the first day off I’d ever managed to get, and making more trouble than this was out of the question.

There were still so many things I wanted to do today.

They said there was a decent instrument shop near this place. So I wanted to stop by there, and I also wanted to watch the performance of the minstrel who performed in the square.

“…The crest on your shoulder, you’re from the Royal Family! Listen here, these commoners dared to use magic on a royal guard and a noble! Especially that woman over there, she directly shot electricity at me! This is high treason. Immediately imprison these wretches…!”

And yet.

This dim-witted woman.

She still hasn’t come to her senses, it seems.

Did she actually damage something in her head?

“…Pardon?”

Frowning, the manservant scanned the interior of the shop, assessing the situation before his gaze snapped to Lir.

I met Lir’s eyes and quietly raised a finger to my lips. Lir, as was his habit, tugged at the brim of his hat, shielding his face.

A magnificent defensive tactic, rivaling even a tortoise, but ultimately useless.

For there were others besides Lir and I who could explain what had happened here.

“Are you the owner of this establishment?”

“…Ah, yes. I am.”

The chef, with a dumbfounded expression, bowed deeply as he answered.

He began to recount every last detail of the incident to the manservant’s inquiry.

The chef was not a man bold enough to lie to someone bearing the royal crest upon his shoulder, nor did he have any reason to.

“…They held a blade to Vin-nim’s throat, you say? Merely for speaking informally? To a general of the Allied Forces?”

“N-nim? A general of the Allied Forces?”

Only then, realizing the grave error of her ways, the young lady, her body numb, crawled on the floor and uttered a bewildered sound.

I had merely intended to offer a light scolding to those acting unruly in the café…

“To draw a blade against a member of the Sword Saint’s party is tantamount to treason against the continent and a challenge to the Imperial Family. Surely, Lady Guinevere understands that this is not a matter that can be easily dismissed?”

This is getting too…

“I will need to pay a visit to the Earl.”

Too big, it seems…

“Let us return to the castle for now, Vin-nim. At this rate, even I might be punished.”