Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy
Reiji
“All illegal immigrants have been purged from Nordglacier soil. We shall now proceed with our duty as Her Highness’ guards.”
When the elderly knight sternly gave his command, the knights around him, who had been kneeling before Iris, all stood up and returned a salute in an orderly fashion.
As I watched them moving about in amazement… I suddenly felt someone’s gaze on me.
I turned around and see the elderly knight staring at me.
His pure-white hair and moustache tells me he’s already in old age, but his lean and sturdy physique showed no signs of decline.
His eyes were so sharp and all-seeing that I could feel the sheer pressure from just his gaze alone.
Did I just land myself in hot water?
Come to think of it, I’d been carrying the princess of this country in my arm the entire time… Yikes, I don’t know how aristocratic society works, but what they saw me doing that as a sign of disrespect to royalty?
Cold sweat broke out all over my body.
“Mmm… It’s just like he said, you seem to be a fine youngster. Don’t be so nervous, I can see that you mean no harm.”
His stern expression was replaced by a broad smile, as if he were just a simple old gentleman. I finally relaxed my shoulder.
“…Couldn’t you have said that sooner? I think I just lost a few years off my life…”
“I beg your pardon. For all your effort in rescuing and protecting the Princess up until this point, you have my gratitude, young swordsman.”
“Do you already know me or something?”
“I’ve been in touch with young Walter recently, and I have a general idea of what’s going on, so be at ease. Though, I still can’t believe that the prince and princess traveling with you have lost their memories…”
So that old man Walter was still “young” in the eyes of this even older man.
Somehow I wasn’t even surprised that he was acquainted with such a big shot.
“…Long ago, the Princess lived with me for a while, and with all due respect, I did think of her as my own granddaughter… I really appreciate you protecting her all this time.”
“O-Oh come on, you don’t have to make it such a big deal… There’s no way I can abandon her, that’s all.”
Scratching my head, I asked him to look up.
We’re just best friends, and best friends are supposed to look out for each other, right? To be honest, I don’t feel comfortable being treated like a knight saving a princess.
In my distress, help came from behind.
“It’s been a while, Ashley-sama.”
“If it isn’t Lady Aini. I’m glad to see you still alive and well. Nevertheless, I’ve heard about you acting as a secret agent. You must be carrying out an extremely important mission in this remote region.”
The elderly former Knight Commander bowed his head and spoke to Aini-san with reverence.
Just who’s this woman? With her good luck, I expected her to be another noblewoman or something.
“Uh… You two know each other?”
“Well, let’s just say he’s an acquaintance of my family…”
“Lady Aini is the granddaughter of the king two generations ago’s consort’s sister… In short, she’s the previous king’s niece.”
“…Excuse me?!”
She’s royalty?!
“Even if you call it that, my connection to the royal family is very distant. I myself identify as neither royalty nor aristocrat.”
“Still… that’s an amazing family tree you’ve got there.”
At this rate, my head’s gonna burst with just how over the top things have been today.
It’s not even a full day since that mayor called us in this morning… Seriously, what an intense day it’s been.
“In any case… we can’t let the Princess exposed to the night wind any further. You must be exhausted by now, so make use of that wagon, by all means. One of my men will take the reins.”
“Thanks for the offer, but…”
To be honest, I’m dead tired from all that running and using “Form is Emptiness”.
“Leaving Hayato, who’s passed out, and Aini-san, who’s female, aside, is it fine for a commoner like me to sit in the same wagon as your royal Princess?”
“I agree that it’s not the most ideal… but since Lady Aini is here, we’ll pretend that we didn’t see anything, that a wandering healer is traveling with you, and the Princess is still missing.”
“That’s very generous of you.”
I thought a former Knight Commander to be a disciplined and rigid man, but he’s surprisingly broad-minded, despite his appearance.
“I’m a bit ashamed to say this, but it seems she’ll be safer with you around, so it can’t be helped…”
He put his hand on my shoulder.
“I can entrust her to you, right? Yes, I’ll be counting on you in the future as well.”
“Yes, I understand, I’ll do my best, ahahaha…”
I somehow managed to blurt out a few words while in pain from having my shoulder gripped.
Forget everything I said about him before, this old man is frighteningly overprotective to his precious granddaughter.
Let’s not do anything rash in front of him, lest his sword cuts me into mincemeat.
In the end, the mayor had “gracefully” lent us his escape wagon since he wasn’t in any condition to use it, and we were going to make full use of that.
“Good grief… Ashley-ojisama is a bit much, isn’t he?”
Aini-san, who boarded the wagon while grumbling and complaining, immediately began to check on Iris’ condition.
Her expression darkened. Iris’ condition must have worsened.
“When we get back, she must absolutely stay in bed for a few days.”
“Sorry for troubling you again…”
I brushed away my hair that’s stuck to my forehead from sweat and looked at Aini-san again, with Hayato on her lap.
“You sure get along well with Hayato.”
“I know right? We’ve been together for only a month, but I can’t imagine life without him anymore.”
Aini-san gazed at the sleeping Hayato with the expression of a gentle older sister watching over her younger brother, who is a handful. The way she wiped his wound with a damp handkerchief was so gentle…
“…You have taste like that?”
The temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
Shit, my tongue slipped.
“My, it’s actually kind of funny when you of all people say that.”
…Ah. I just stepped on a minefield.
While she didn’t tell me “Shut up, lolicon” or anything like that outright, I couldn’t stop shaking when I looked at her supposed-to-be-smiling face. What a scary woman.
“You know, Reiji-san… When you fought earlier, you were so passionate that I got a little envious of you.”
“Huh? What do you mean-”
“Um… ‘She’s mine’, was it?”
“D-Did I really say that?!”
“What about ‘keep your dirty hand out of my woman you son of a bitch’?”
“W-W-Wait a minute! It was just a spur of the moment thing!”
“No need to be so shy… I, for one, would love to be told something like that too.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please forgive me for what I said earlier!”
Oh my god, I might need a deep hole to jump in if Iris was awake to hear all of that crap!
“I beg you, please don’t tell Iris about this…”
“Hehe, she might be pleased if I do, though.”
“Give me a break already…”
Just imagine how she would feel when her best friend, with whom she used to be the same sex, said that to her… I’m afraid our relationship would change irreversibly.
“Well, I can promise that ‘I won’t tell her’.”
“What did you just say?”
“Nevermind then. More importantly…”
Aini-san suddenly straightened her posture. I felt something important was about to be discussed, so I followed suit.
“Let me ask you something… Is this girl unmistakably a child of the Lightwing race?”
“…?! How did you-”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Apparently, she was already convinced of this and was just asking me for confirmation.
Seemingly unfazed by my answer, she continued.
“Then I have another question. Have you ever seen a book with a splendid cover but has absolutely no writing inside?”
“What?!”
“…It seems that you know about it.”
“Well, no, but actually kind of…”
I remembered now. I’d indeed seen it exactly once.
Back in “Worldgate Online”… during the reincarnation event.
At that time, I only thought of it as “a part of the game’s graphic”. But what if it wasn’t?
“…Actually, that was probably my imagination. Is the book really important?”
“Yes, it’s the entire reason why I left the village where I was born to partake in this secret agent business.”
She seemed hesitant to speak… was she worried about being eavesdropped upon?
“Its name is simply the ‘White Book’. But the thing is, it’s been stolen from where it was tightly sealed in our village, twenty-five years ago. Not to mention… the previous king, His Majesty Aureolus the ‘Sorcerer King’ mysteriously disappeared a few days after.”
Twenty-five years ago.
That was the year before I, no Iris… Yanagi was born.
It’d be fine if it’s simply a coincidence, but something felt off about all this. The year before we were born, there must have been some big event, but I couldn’t remember what it was.
The next words she said blew away any likelihood of a coincidence.
“It’s said that the soul of the last ‘Sacred Daughter’, who’s the final surviving bloodline of the Lightwing, is sealed within the book… and the book itself is a magical device used to recreate the Lightwing race.”
(TL: The reverse shall be clarified…)
APM - Translation 