Chapter 35
At the Crosswind Inn
-Clang.
The two of them opened the door to the inn, somehow feeling a little more distant than before.
"Welcome, young adulterous couple~! One room! Hot bathwater from the morning! Am I right?! Ah, rose-scented bath salts cost extra, what do you say~?"
A rather handsome boy with light green hair rattled off the words, causing the lower lip of the man whose face was hidden by the hood of his robe to drop open.
-Thwack!
"Agh! What are you doing to your son's pretty crown! That hurts!"
"Ren! What are you doing to the guests!"
"It's the truth! Adultery over there! Adultery here!! It's all adultery~!!"
At Ren's words, everyone in the first-floor tavern turned their backs and hid their faces.
"Oh, my. This kid! No. It's not like that. Our inn isn't that kind of place. Ahem. Go away and take care of your sibling!"
"……Hmph! Still, the extra money for the rose scent is mine! I made it!"
"You little!!"
The pretty boy Ren dodged and ran away as if he were used to it.
"Oh, I'm sorry. My son is still young. Hoho."
"No, it's alright. More than that……."
"Here. Here's the room key. The hot water will be up soon, and would you like the bath salts? I have lemon-scented ones too, hohoho!"
"Th, that! Ah, no!! We're definitely not like that!"
As the landlady slipped in an advertisement and handed over a room key, Leon was startled and waved his hands in refusal.
Lucia found his fussiness strange.
When she was on the battlefield before becoming the captain of the royal guard, they had stayed together in smaller tents than this.
Of course, it was during wartime, so they stayed together regardless of gender, and sometimes unpleasant things happened, but Leon wasn't the kind of person who would do such absurd things.
'He was so threatening when he was trying to blackmail me, so what's he so worried about? Does he think I'm going to do something?'
Leon's reaction to having to spend the night in an inn with a woman he liked, in the same room no less, was perhaps a very normal reaction, but she couldn't even begin to fathom such a thing.
"Oh, it's okay. Everyone's like that."
Lucia let out a short sigh and quietly approached the landlady, whispering.
"I've come to find Grancis."
It was the code written in the secret orders.
"Ah? Oh my, oh my! I don't know. It's confusing when such young people come together! I'm sorry. Sorry. This is the room key. Top floor."
The landlady was flustered and her ears turned red as she spoke, but as expected, she was holding only one key.
So, in the end, nothing had changed, it was still just one room.
Lucia took the key and went up the stairs without hesitation.
However, Leon, who was watching her leave, became serious.
He was the empire's greatest Saint, a walking legal code.
Even though it was an opportunity to be with a woman he liked, suddenly sharing a room like this was a shameless act that was completely beyond his common sense.
"Excuse me! Ma'am. There's only one key……!"
"Oh, I don't know. I've never been to that room, and I was just told to give you that key, so I don't know! I don't know! Hurry, hurry and go up."
"Th, then……!"
In a state of confusion, Leon was eventually forced to climb the stairs ahead of her amidst the landlady's scolding.
And on the third floor, in front of the door, Lucia was already trying to insert the key and turn it.
At that moment, Leon urgently grabbed her hand to stop her.
Lucia looked up at Leon, his large hand enveloping hers in an instant.
"I, I don't think this is right. Are you really okay with this? I hope you'll think about it some more."
"……? What's okay or not? It's a mission."
"Still, before that, you're a woman. A mother. If there's even a hint of scandal, you won't be able to bear it. ……I won't."
"……."
The word "woman" came out of his mouth again.
'Leon Luwins……. What on earth does this man think of me?'
From Lucia's point of view, his words were wrong.
Treating a colleague as a woman first was, rather, an act that tarnished the honor of a knight.
Was this why his consideration had been strangely bothering her since before?
As a strange silence flowed between them,
Two hands on the doorknob pulled and swayed, and someone came out of the opened door.
"……Captain Leon. Stop it. I'm embarrassed just listening."
It was Helbert, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial royal guard, with his wildly grown, grizzled hair.
Over his shoulder, looking at Leon with a pitiful expression, was a luxurious penthouse with several rooms that couldn't possibly be in such a small inn.
"……."
Leon's feelings upon confirming that were simply, he wanted to die.
*
Under the orange sunset sky, Nia and Ivanne were riding in a carriage into the wealthy district.
In the eastern part of the Eldarion Empire's capital, there was an area where nobles had second residences apart from their main estates, and Ivanne's family also had a second residence here.
Nia passed through the wide alleys, unable to close her mouth at the sight of the pretty and large mansions.
After a few small exclamations, the carriage stopped, and Nia thought they had finally arrived at Ivanne's house, but all she could see was a huge iron gate.
The gate opened, and the carriage went deep into the grounds, passing through a row of evergreen trees.
'……Ivanne lives in a house like this…….'
The child looked at Ivanne, who was sitting next to her with a nonchalant expression, in a new light.
She had always been a friend who said she didn't have any pocket money, so it was hard to see her as a young lady from such a large mansion.
Nia, intimidated by the grandeur of this large mansion, had actually been worried about one thing since last night.
It was about Ivanne's mother, Juliana.
She had run into her last time, but she was too busy with Gedarin's matter to even greet her properly.
But now, in Nia's imagination, she was a terrifying person who might attack her temples if she said even one wrong word.
Moreover, today was the day she would be spending the night at her house.
The carriage carrying the anxious Nia and Ivanne finally arrived at the front door of the mansion, where Julie and the servants were lined up to greet them.
Nia and Ivanne swallowed hard as they got out of the carriage.
"Welcome to the Berna family's second residence, Miss Nia."
All the servants except Julie bowed their heads in greeting.
Nia was surprised by the atmosphere and unfamiliar people, which were different from the orphanage and dormitory she had lived in until now, and hid behind Ivanne.
"Huh? Nia? What's wrong?"
"……."
Looking at Ivanne, who seemed unfazed compared to her, Nia felt another unexpected sense of alienation.
Was Ivanne also from another world like her mother?
Julie took a step closer to the intimidated Nia and bent down to bring her face closer.
"You seem surprised. Welcome, Nia."
"……!"
Oh no.
She should have greeted Ivanne's mother first, but she made a mistake from the start.
The child squeezed her eyes shut with trembling pupils, bracing herself for Juliana's approaching hand.
"I haven't had a proper conversation with you before, but I'm glad to have this opportunity. I hope you have a good time."
At that moment, Nia opened her closed eyes at the familiar sensation of something brushing against her forehead.
A rough and calloused palm, similar to her mother's.
Ivanne's family had become very successful through the combination of the Olivia family, which ran a dessert business, and the Berna family, which owned a trading company, and although their status was low, they were considered nouveau riche.
However, Juliana, who was from a noble family that had worked hard and was the eldest daughter, was not a woman who had simply taken bridal lessons before getting married.
Her rough hands gave Nia a sense of comfort, somehow similar to her mother's.
"Y-yes……! I'm Nia. Please take care of me!"
Now that the timid child smiled brightly and greeted her, the servants and Juliana smiled back at each other.
*
"If there's even a hint of scandal, I won't be able to bear it……. I won't! Hahaha!!! I won't! Hahaha!! I never thought I'd hear those words from your mouth!"
"……St, stop……."
Leon seemed to have been in a scalding bath alone, and was busy hiding his face, which looked like it was about to explode.
The one who kept teasing him was the commander-in-chief of the empire, Helbert Benham.
He was the same age as the prime minister, and he seemed to have been a handsome and dashing man in his youth, but he was a very lighthearted person, not befitting his age and position.
"Haha, now I can use this as a snack and drink five bottles with Federin! Thank you, Captain Leon."
As Helbert delivered the final blow, Leon was finally out of his mind.
"Please stop. More than that, why is the commander-in-chief here?"
When Lucia cut off the joke and asked what she was curious about,
"Tsk, tsk. You're like a block of wood. Even if I tease you so openly, you're always like this. Because of you, I don't feel like teasing you."
"……Commander-in-chief. I'm starting to not feel like carrying out the mission either."
When Leon, who had come to his senses, uncharacteristically complained, Helbert cleared his throat and finally became serious, opening his mouth.
"This is like a secret base that Federin and I have been using since we were young."
Hearing his words, the two of them had suspicious expressions that seemed to ask why they had to use a place like this.
"Hey! Get rid of those expressions! What a fun place this is! In the tavern on the first floor, there's always someone grabbing someone else's fist or hair at least once a day, so this Crosswind Inn is a place where you can watch more vivid fights than in a coliseum! Hahaha!"
Helbert's eyes sparkled as he talked about how much he had earned here from his bets with Prime Minister Federin.
It was a cheap hobby that was hard to believe was being done by the commander-in-chief of an empire.
"……Commander-in-chief. You don't mean to tell me that you've been away for the past few years because of that, do you?"
"Hahahaha……."
It was a strange laugh.
"……."
"……."
At the two of them's contemptuous gazes, Helbert cleared his throat and said,
"Ahem, of course not. Anyway. The reason I called you here is to find the Black Contamination crystal, as well as to subjugate Monsters."
"The Black Contamination crystal? Is there such a thing?"
"This is it. This is the crystal."
Helbert pointed to the glass bottle that had been on the table since earlier.
They had thought the glass bottle was a luxurious decoration, but when they looked closely inside, they saw something like a black stone floating weightlessly.
Leon turned the glass bottle up and down,
"I've been to quite a few Black Contamination areas, but I haven't seen anything like this, how……."
"Well, I can tell you that now. If a crystal about the size of a finger joint randomly appears in the forest, it takes a month to contaminate it, it's difficult to find the starting point, and even if you touch the crystal, it gasifies and disappears."
His words meant that the probability of finding it was almost zero.
But if so, why bother looking for it? Would the Black Contamination disappear if they got rid of it?
Like the question in Lucia's mind, Leon asked first.
"Then, if we get rid of this, will the Black Contamination disappear?"
"No. If you get rid of it, the contamination will slow down, but you can't stop it. But the hopeful thing is that if we find the crystal here, it's the second crystal, so we can do various experiments."
The commander-in-chief began to talk about how he had been traveling around the empire for the past few years to find Black Contamination and obtain crystals.
He said that he had found a few in the meantime, but the most recent one was when he put the crystal, which had gasified and been lost, in holy water.
According to his experience, there was a special Monster with this crystal, and it was quite difficult to deal with, so Lucia, a Sword Master, was needed.
And although research hasn't started properly because there's only one crystal, there seems to be hope that if they find the source of the crystal in the future, they can stop the Black Contamination.
But Lucia knew the future, and there was no such hope in the future she knew.
There was only the Saintess's sacrifice.
At this time, seeing Lucia with a thoughtful and skeptical look, Helbert said.
"Lucia. It's true that this continent is having a hard time right now. But if this becomes an opportunity for the people of the empire to live a little more abundantly until the Saintess appears, shouldn't we work together?"
Lucia looked into the eyes of her godfather, Helbert, who was always good at figuring out what was on her mind.
He was calmly persuading her, as he did when he was dealing with the young Lucia.
Seeing those eyes, Lucia suddenly wondered if there might be some hope that she had missed in the future that would change if she saved the Saintess.
In any case, unless the Saintess's life was sown on this land, it might take a century for the soil to recover.
"Well, then, shall I go back to the Imperial Palace now? I'm worried that Captain Leon might have strange thoughts again if I leave."
"Commander Helbert……!"
"Hahaha! Move out of the way so I don't tease you anymore. I have something to say to my daughter before I go."
He said it playfully, but his serious eyes showed that he had a lot to ask.
'……Has this moment finally come?'
Her godfather, Helbert, was the number one person who would come running if she had a child.
Lucia looked at him and, unlike her, began to rack her brains to figure out how to get through this moment as easily as possible.
