DAR Vol. 6 Chapter 22 Part 3

“…If you lay a finger on Roa, I won’t forgive you!”

Dietrich spat it out like he was dragging it from the bottom of his gut.

“Roa? Ah, the young alchemist. That child, then. Pleased to meet you. I am Emilia Mercurio. I serve as vice-captain of the Royal Guard Knights.”

As if noticing for the first time, Emilia addressed Roa, who was still bowed.

“Your familiars also seem well-trained. To keep even a Gryphon under you and this docile… you must be quite an accomplished tamer. I look forward to working with you.”

<Praising the brat, are you? You’ve got a good eye.>

<Roa amaaazing.> 

<Of course Roa’s amazing!!>

Hearing the carefree voices of the familiars, Dietrich lightly cradled his head.

To Emilia, who couldn’t hear them, Uncle Gry simply looked obedient. She’d never guess that his laziness was the only reason he wasn’t moving, or that he’d been entertaining himself by verbally tearing Dietrich apart. Roo and Phi, thrilled that Roa had been praised, wagged their tails so hard they looked ready to take off.

As for Roa, being spoken to by a noble he’d just met left him too flustered to answer. All he could manage was lowering his head even further.

“And you, merchant. You’re likely being tossed around by the lout of our country as well, and suffering for it, yes? You have my thanks. It seems you’re having trouble finding lodging thanks to Dietrich, but as I said earlier, stay at my estate. We have a guest annex, so you shouldn’t have to endure cramped quarters.”

“Thank you very much. I’m grateful for your kindness.”

Coralde, addressed as if it were an afterthought, offered his thanks with the easy poise of a seasoned businessman.

“So then, what is it with this boy?”

“What is it with him?! You’re the one who said ‘greeting and surveillance’! The Queen told you to come snatch Roa away, didn’t she?! I’ll stop you no matter what!!”

Because of his own blunder, Dietrich had ended up bringing Roa to the Kingdom of Nereus under royal command. Coralde’s request had been the trigger for this journey, but that fact didn’t change. For the sake of his companions’ standing, he intended to obey that royal order, but that didn’t mean he would hand Roa over without a fight.

If the country absorbed Roa, he would be made to work for the kingdom as an alchemist indefinitely. They might treat him well, but his freedom would vanish. For someone aiming to become an adventurer, that would be nothing but torment. Dietrich was determined to prevent that at all costs.

“Big Sis! Please don’t take away Roa’s freedom! He’s an alchemist of rare genius, but he’s still a child. Please…”

Cornelia seemed to share the same fear. She bowed low and pleaded, her voice tight with strain as she appealed with all sincerity. Emilia watched her with a furrowed brow.

“Um… what’s going on with me?”

In the tense air, the one who spoke in a carefree tone was Roa.

Roa didn’t know Nostalgia’s circumstances, much less the Kingdom of Nereus’s intentions. He had only come here because he accepted Coralde’s request. There was no way he could understand why his name had suddenly become the center of the discussion.

He hadn’t planned on interrupting a conversation between nobles, especially one that sounded like family matters, but being the topic made it impossible not to worry.

Emilia slowly turned toward Roa and tilted her head with a little bob.

“…No, I don’t know either. Dietrich the idiot spouting incomprehensible nonsense is business as usual, but it seems his idiocy has rubbed off on my precious little sister as well.”

“Quit playing dumb!”

Dietrich crowded up on her.

“I’m not playing dumb. What have you been saying this whole time? The one I was ordered to greet and keep under surveillance is you.”

“Huh? What? But the Queen ordered me to bring Roa…”

Caught off guard, Dietrich instantly lost his bluster.

Thinking about it, he had been ordered to bring Roa, but he’d never been told the purpose. Dietrich and the others had simply assumed that the Queen, that the Kingdom of Nereus, must want to claim a capable alchemist like Roa.

“How many years has it been since you last attended an audience? Even when an order comes for you to present yourself at the royal castle, you show up and then flee as if that alone fulfills your duty, returning without ever facing Her Majesty the Queen. In the capital, you do nothing but run. Even when I order the guards to seize you, no one can catch you. Then you declare it a training journey and run off to other countries. At long last, Her Majesty has issued an order to monitor you until the very moment you proceed to your audience.”

“…”

“You’re strangely well-versed in the capital. Once you slip into the city, capturing you would be impossible. That is why I waited in ambush at the gate you were certain to pass through. I predicted your arrival and waited for three days, you know. Monitoring you could not be entrusted to someone with mediocre skill, so one squad of the Royal Guard and I were assigned to the duty.”

Dietrich dropped to his knees as if his legs had given out, listening to Emilia’s lecture with his head bowed. Realizing he’d snapped at her over a misunderstanding had knocked the wind out of him.

And of course, everything she said hit home. Worse, he’d only been running because he didn’t want to see the Queen, so there was no excuse he could offer.

Beside him, Cornelia was slumped in the same way. She was probably too embarrassed to lift her face after desperately pleading with her sister over a misunderstanding.

“Lady Emilia… earlier, the reason you tried to dodge the question…”

Leaving the mortified Dietrich and Cornelia as they were, Kristoff asked. He meant why Emilia had said things that would rile Dietrich up, refused to answer his questions, and avoided stating her true purpose.

As he asked, Kristoff felt a quiet wave of relief. Truthfully, he had planned to add his own plea after the other two, to protect Roa. But loyalty to the country had warred with that impulse, and he’d hesitated. Thanks to that hesitation, at least, he’d avoided making a fool of himself.

“If I told the truth before preparations were complete, this lout would run, would he not? I was stalling until surveillance could be properly positioned. We set our arrangement on the assumption you would use the nobles’ gate.”

“I see…”

It was an extremely simple and entirely reasonable explanation.

Since she was saying it now, it was safe to assume the positioning had already been completed in this brief span. Though no one could see them, around ten members of the Royal Guard squad should now be in place.

Kristoff still felt a small snag of doubt, but for the moment, he accepted Emilia’s reasoning.

“However, Roa’s name…”

“The accompanying boy and the merchant have been ordered to receive the highest possible accommodations. That is when I heard his name. It is Her Majesty’s consideration, as Dietrich is likely causing you trouble. During your stay in the capital, you are permitted to tour any location that is not confidential. An alchemist would naturally have interest in the library and technical facilities, so I intended to have you visit such places until the festival begins. Was that not agreeable?”

At Emilia’s words, Roa’s eyes lit up.

“The library!”

So happy he forgot he was speaking to a noble, Roa blurted it out. To him, it was a mountain of treasure.

In any country, libraries were state-managed institutions. Nobles could use them at will, but for commoners there were restrictions even to enter, and they had to deposit an exorbitant security bond beforehand.

It was a measure meant to prevent people without guaranteed identities from vandalizing the library.

Occasionally, in cities ruled by unusually benevolent lords, smaller libraries were opened to the public, but their collections were unimpressive, filled with books that could be obtained by commoners as long as they paid.

For Roa, visiting a national library had been a dream.

“You may also tour schools.”

“Yes, please!”

The Kingdom of Nereus had a school system for commoners. It was an unknown culture to Roa, and he desperately wanted to see it.

“And ship tours as well…”

“That one’s on me!”

Dietrich shouted over her mid-sentence. A ship tour had been his promise to Roa. He wasn’t about to give it up.

“There will be surveillance attached. Do not run.”

“…Yeah.”

Dietrich answered weakly at the mention of surveillance, but he quickly revived and forced a grin.

“Still, I’m glad you weren’t actually here to do something to Roa. I wasted time thinking about what I’d do if it came to that!”

He laughed as if it were nothing, but Nostalgia’s members wore strained smiles.

Whatever Dietrich would do “if it came to that” was guaranteed to be something terrible. No one knew what he had in mind, but it certainly wouldn’t be normal.

In truth, Dietrich had only planned to flee with Roa, with the help of Uncle Gry and the others. Considering his companions’ future, he’d even formed a plan where only he would become the villain.

To begin with, the reason he’d decided to bring Roa to the Kingdom of Nereus at all was because he was thinking about Nostalgia’s members, their livelihoods, and their standing. He had no intention whatsoever of doing anything that would put them, or their precious families, at a disadvantage.

That was nonnegotiable to Dietrich.

And now that he knew Emilia and the Royal Guard had received no order concerning Roa, Dietrich concluded that the Queen wanting to claim Roa had been nothing but his own assumption. For the moment, he felt relieved, convinced it had all been needless worry.

But there were those in the room who did not see it that way.

<…Honestly, the meathead trio is so carefree. Are the mice surveillance for the sleepyhead? Or are they a separate matter? Either way, that is the real objective.>

At some point, Uncle Gry and the twin magic wolves had slipped to the corner of the room, out of the humans’ direct view. All three wore loosened, amused expressions, clearly enjoying the situation.

<How dull. Even head-on, they do not try to take the brat. Did they decide that because I am here, they cannot crush him with force or authority? …If they are laying schemes, then we must be cautious as well.>

<If they do something bad, we’ll go bam and clean it up.>

<We’ll get to play and play and play.>

<Though if we end up moving to this country, I would not particularly mind.>

No human noticed the familiars whispering among themselves in low, conspiratorial voices.

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After that, Roa and the others were more or less forced to relocate to a marquis’s estate inside the royal capital.

They traveled by carriage.

Even the familiars, who would normally run alongside on their own legs, were made to ride. Uncle Gry stood out too much, so Emilia, who clearly disliked that, shoved him in by sheer force. The carriage itself was a large covered wagon meant for hauling cargo, roomy enough that even with Uncle Gry inside, there was still space to spare.

“It’s kind of a shame… In a covered wagon like this, we can’t really see the city.”

Peering out through a gap in the canvas, Roa murmured the complaint.

He was fascinated by the street scene he could catch in glimpses. The buildings were white, and since the weather was still warm, the people walking around were lightly dressed. Even in the middle of the city, he spotted men strolling about bare-chested.

Whether it was the temperament of the Kingdom of Nereus or something deeper in their culture, the people here seemed to favor open, uninhibited clothing. Nostalgia’s members were like that too, there were plenty of sleeveless outfits and fluttering, thin fabric. Even the women wore skirts short enough to show their legs, or pants that only came down to about the knee.

“I’ll show you around tomorrow or the day after,” Kristoff replied to Roa’s mutter.

In Roa’s wagon, along with the familiars, Kristoff had unusually joined them. Right when they were splitting up to board, he’d looked as if something had suddenly occurred to him and hurriedly climbed into Roa’s wagon instead.

Coralde’s people were following behind in the same carriage they’d ridden to reach this country.

“That carriage Dietrich and the others got shoved into looked… insanely secure.”

The rest of Nostalgia, aside from Kristoff, were riding with Emilia in a large, boxy carriage. No, “riding with” was too generous. They’d practically been forced in.

It was a stoutly built carriage without windows. Even as they loaded him, thick-set knights, bigger than Dietrich himself, had surrounded him, and every last one of them kept their eyes locked on him without looking away. It was practically a prisoner transport.

Roa could only stare in disbelief. They were really going that far just to keep him from escaping…

Even now, the carriage ahead of them was bracketed by mounted knights on all sides.

“Well, the Leader is strong, even by this country’s standards,” Kristoff said. “If they didn’t care about hurting him, it’d be different, but if they’re trying to restrain him without a scratch, they need security on that level.”

<So even that fellow counts as “strong,” does he…?>

Uncle Gry lifted his head to ask Kristoff. Since this was a cargo wagon without seats, Roa and the others were leaning against Uncle Gry as he lay sprawled inside, using him like a cushion or a rolled-up bedding mat.

“He might not look it, but he’s a Sword Saint’s pupil,” Kristoff went on. “If you want to pin him down without letting him resist, you need someone stronger than the Leader, like Lady Emilia, and at least a full contingent of knights.”

“…A Sword Saint’s pupil?”

Roa’s eyes widened at Kristoff’s offhand remark.

“Huh? I never told you? The Leader was taught by a Sword Saint. For the record, he’s a pupil, not a disciple. He received the Sword Saint’s instruction, but his swordsmanship is pretty self-styled, so apparently he wasn’t acknowledged as a proper disciple.”

A Sword Saint, like “Hero” or “Sage,” was a title bestowed on those of exceptional ability.

It was granted to someone who had mastered the sword, the highest title possible if you limited the field strictly to swordplay. For those who sought the blade’s pinnacle, it was even more pride-worthy than being called a Hero.

Because it meant no one surpassed them in swordsmanship, a person often became Sword Saint only after other Sword Saints recognized them as an equal.

<I see! So when the sleepyhead finally stops being stubborn, the techniques that slip out are Sword Saint techniques!>

Uncle Gry sounded as if he’d just put two and two together.

“When he stops being… stubborn?”

<From time to time, that sleepyhead has shown an oddly clean, trained blade line, has he not? He seemed unaware of it himself, but still.>

Even so, nothing came to Roa’s mind. He understood Dietrich’s skill was high, but he couldn’t distinguish such fine differences.

If he tried to recall anything, the best he could come up with was the time in the magic beast forest when Dietrich delivered the finishing blow to the mithril golem, Uncle Gry had said something along those lines then.

Back then, Uncle Gry had claimed Dietrich was someone taught by a sword master or a Hero. A sword master ranked below a Sword Saint, but the broad strokes had been right.

Truthfully, Roa had only seen it that one time.

But after meeting Roa, Dietrich had displayed it once more inside the Citadel Dungeon, when he fought a Gryphon that used dark magic. Uncle Gry had apparently been watching from afar, though Roa didn’t know that.

<What the sleepyhead uses normally are the techniques of unaffiliated fighters or adventurer tricks, the sort that prioritize survival and allow anything. But at times he used knightly technique instead. Swordsmanship refined to wring maximum results from minimum movement, the kind of art born from mastery.>

Roa tilted his head. Kristoff, on the other hand, seemed to find it convincing, nodding emphatically.

“The Leader always thought ‘mastering’ that sort of technique was stupid, so he kept rebelling against the Sword Saint,” Kristoff said. “But he was hammered into shape for years without any room for argument, so I guess it comes out in an emergency. Ironically, the fact that he wasn’t ‘straightforward’ is why the Sword Saint ended up liking him.”

<Pushing back when something’s forced on him—how very sleepyhead. Maybe it’s that saying about how the most troublesome children are the cutest.>

That comparison fit Dietrich a little too perfectly, especially since Cornelia was always calling him a kid, so both Roa and Kristoff couldn’t help laughing.

<Still, that handsome woman is stronger than the sleepyhead, hm?>

At “handsome woman,” Kristoff immediately pictured Emilia in her knight’s uniform and remembered he’d just said she was stronger than the Leader.

She really was… strikingly handsome.

“Curious?” Kristoff asked.

<You said the sleepyhead is among the stronger in this country, yet she’s stronger than him. Of course I’m curious, no?>

Uncle Gry narrowed his eyes with obvious amusement. At his core, he was still a magic beast; anything described as “strong” naturally drew his interest.

“Lady Emilia is a Sword Saint’s disciple,” Kristoff said. “She’s considered the Sword Saint’s successor. She inherited the legitimate Sword Saint style.”

For some reason, he sounded faintly resentful, maybe admitting someone was stronger than Dietrich irked him.

“She’s still young, so she’s ‘vice-captain’ for now, but it’s basically guaranteed she’ll become captain of the Royal Guard Knights. And… actually, I haven’t said this yet. The marquis who became her adoptive father is the Sword Saint’s son. Lady Emilia was recognized by the Sword Saint, to the point he took her as his adoptive granddaughter.”

“Wait… then the place we’re heading to now is the Sword Saint’s estate?”

“You catch on fast. That’s exactly it.”

“Isn’t that… kind of unbelievable…?”

Roa didn’t know the name or even the existence of the Sword Saint of the Kingdom of Nereus, but he understood enough to know it meant someone extraordinary.

A noble’s estate alone was already far beyond Roa’s station. Add “the Sword Saint’s estate,” and suddenly he felt anxious; was it really all right for someone like him to stay there?

“Well, he’s a good-natured old man,” Kristoff said. “Easier to deal with than Lady Emilia, at least.”

“You know him?”

“Because of the Leader, yeah. Cornelia meeting us in the first place started with her tagging along with Lady Emilia to train under the Sword Saint. Cornelia isn’t exactly a formal disciple either, though—she liked using all sorts of weapons too much and couldn’t bring herself to focus on just the sword.”

Cornelia really did wield a wide range. Swords, of course, but she was also highly proficient with a warhammer and a spear. She’d taught Roa how to fight with a knife, and Roa had no doubt she could handle plenty more besides.

She wasn’t just weapon-skilled, either—her unarmed movement alone was faster than Dietrich’s.

Watching Cornelia now, it was easy to see she genuinely enjoyed using different weapons, so Roa found Kristoff’s explanation entirely believable.

<…So, flashy playboy. You hopped into this wagon because you have something you want to ask, yes? Don’t tell me you just didn’t want to ride in the sleepyhead’s wagon.>

Uncle Gry waited for a brief lull, then cut in as if to say, Now we’re getting to the point.

Normally, Kristoff would have ridden with the rest of Nostalgia. More than that, he’d only jumped into Roa’s wagon at the last second, in a hurry.

It was hard to believe he had no purpose.

“Well… I won’t deny I didn’t want to ride in the wagon that looks like it’s headed to a prison,” Kristoff admitted. “The atmosphere in there’s probably awful. But, you know—those ‘mice’ you mentioned. That got under my skin.”

<The mice are already gone.> 

<About half of them seemed to be that scary big sister’s people. The other half went somewhere else!>

Before Uncle Gry could answer, Roo and Phi chimed in.

The twins were completely at ease now that they could stay pressed close to Roa. With their eyes half-lidded in contentment, they leaned into Uncle Gry while burying their muzzles from both sides into Roa’s stomach.

Roa had assumed they were asleep, but apparently they’d been awake, listening.

“Ah—so the ‘mice’ really were people hiding and watching,” Kristoff said. “If half were knights Lady Emilia brought along, then the other half are the Queen’s spies?”

<How would we possibly know that? The best we can infer is that the ones who left moved without hesitation, which suggests they already knew where the carriage was headed and went ahead to get there first. That’s all.>

Kristoff covered his mouth with a hand and thought for a moment.

“If they already knew the destination, maybe they’re ‘inside’ people, then. In that case, there’s no point overthinking it.”

<In the end, playboy, you’re muscleheaded too. Thinking is a waste.>

“That’s cruel, you nasty Gryphon…”

Kristoff had started to warm to Uncle Gry as well. He couldn’t pick playful fights the way Dietrich did, but he could at least toss back barbs.

<Either way, we’ll do as we please. If the brat doesn’t want it, we’ll obstruct them with everything we’ve got.>

“Huh? Me? What?”

The sudden line threw Roa off.

To Roa, all this talk of “mice” and “surveillance” was just about keeping Dietrich from escaping. He hadn’t realized Uncle Gry and Kristoff were also hinting at the possibility that someone might be watching Roa.

Of course, Uncle Gry and Nostalgia had been deliberately avoiding such talk around Roa to keep him from worrying.

“Just… go easy on us,” Kristoff said, not answering Roa’s question. His voice was faintly lonely. “This is our home.”

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