“For the love of God, it’s the worst! Their stuff is so good, but no one’s giving them the attention they deserve! How did this even happen in the first place, anyway?!”
Betty let out an incessant rant as she walked, and Fuyu behind her clenched her fists.
Surely she’d felt a sense of responsibility toward the issue, what with her technically being employed by the Nation itself. And it’s not like she was ant to take it upon herself to do anything either…
By impulse, I patted Fuyu on her fist. She looked up, revealing her face with a mix of disturbance, self-condemnation, and… so other emotions I couldn’t identify. Sothing like being happy… appreciation? Hmm, I don’t get it.
“Um… thank you very much…”
“Ahahaha… I don’t know what that was for, but sure thing.”
“Hey, Asley! Are you even listening to ?!”
“Yeah yeah, I sure am!”
To recap, Betty had bought out all the throwing knives and daggers from the shop, and I had gotten myself a knife, as recomnded by Don, for self-defense purposes.
The transactions hadn’t scored them a fortune or anything, but Laeus’ look of great appreciation was good for the heart.
Ever since we left the place, Betty has been on that rant of hers.
And Pochi, well… I’m dragging her along right now.
She has quite a delighted expression, albeit one not good for my heart at all.
…She didn’t go to sleep because she’d anticipated that we would get in trouble again, did she?
“Asley, you should teach Fuyu how to use the Teleportation spell so ti soon!”
“Huh? Why?”
Perhaps irritated at my lack of participation, Betty pulled over by the collars of my shirt.
“Look here, if we’ve got access to it through you and Fuyu, it ans we’ve got a connection between Beilanea and Regalia! And so, we can bring over Blazer and Bruce and Haruhana – scratch that, let’s bring all of our warrior friends from the Beilanea Guild to fill the shop with business!”
“And pull business away from Beilanea’s weapon shops? Sure…”
“That is that, and this is this! It’s survival of the fittest! It’s a cri for the better weapons to go unbought!”
She’s technically not wrong, but… I an, should we really be doing this?
Perhaps we ought to consult Blazer and the others as well once we’re back in Beilanea.
Of course, it would undeniably be a good thing to have easy access to the Royal Capital in the future.
All right – the shop’s business aside for now, I’ll teach Fuyu the Teleportation spell when I can.
“Anyway, Betty… leave so personal space here? Okay?”
“Hmph!”
I hadn’t been able to complain about how my neck hurt during that, but it DID hurt, so thank God she agreed to release without hassle.
And imdiately after, I got grabbed on my collars again, this ti by Fuyu.
…Why?!
“You know the formula of the Teleportation spell, Sir Asley?!”
She’s shaking my head quite roughly.
The extraordinary strength of her pull made my field of vision to draw a semi-circle. Hmm? That sounded pretty nice. I’ll rember to write it in the ‘Principles of a Philosopher’ later.
Heh heh heh heh… I look forward to compiling all the famous quotes for the table of contents!
“‘Know doesn’t even cut it – he’s the one who MADE that formula, you know?”
“What-?! Is that true?!”
“Damn it! I thought you promised to not tell anyone!”
“Please, she’s already an adult, you know. I’m sure she understands… so there’s no problem in telling her, right? RIGHT? Okay, you agree. Good.”
She didn’t even give the ti to reply to that.
Seems like Betty’s quite a bit irritated by what we had co across today. She’s sensitive to things that she deems unreasonable, after all.
“I thought… the Teleportation spell was Miss Irene’s achievent…”
“Uh, well… I sold that ‘achievent’ to her, so to speak. Hahahaha…”
Hearing say just that, Fuyu looked as if she just realized sothing.
aning… she must have realized that the money had been used to help her and the others.
In a way, that was quite a reckless move I had taken back then. I must’ve llowed down after getting to et lchi and Tūs and receiving their guidance, though…
Speaking of which … I’m not quite sure about Natsu, but Haruhana hasn’t gotten to know this yet either. Wait, no, I guess Betty might have already told her about it… just like how she blurted out so unnecessary information today.
“…I see.”
Fuyu said, tears welling up in her eyes.
That, for whatever reason, prompted Betty to smile and hit my buttocks.
That. Hurt.
She sure is similar to her brother when it cos to this kind of thing…
Now she’s whispering sothing… With how fast she’s going, no one would get what she’s trying to say without the ability to lip read.
And as it would turn out, I CAN! Hah! Now, let’s see…? ‘B-E N-I-C-E,’ huh… You know that it turned out this way because of what you said, right?
Damn it, she’s hitting my butt again!
(Xemul: Welco Betty’s Social Skills Course!)
“Er… Fuyu? You don’t have to worry yourself about that! In a way, it was just a part of my job, so – ow-?!”
That hurt, Betty! What – ‘N-O-T L-I-K-E T-H-A-T’… Seriously?
You can’t just expect to have this kind of skill out of nowhere, damn it…
“…So at the end of the day, if everyone is – ow-?!”
What now?! ‘H-E-R!’… don’t be so nitpicky, damn it!
“Ngh… so, yeah… as long as you’re safe… then it’s all good! I an it, you know. So don’t cry, all right?”
How’s that, Betty?! That’s what you get when I go all out!
Although I had put up that performance with all my soul, Betty still seed dissatisfied… but with a certain degree of acceptance of it as well.
I swear, today has to be one of the most unlucky days I’ve ever had. Now I feel compelled to go ho soon, otherwise another catastrophic developnt might take place.
We were already done with shopping, more or less, so the only thing left is Fuyu’s stop. But wait… where’s the place again? And what does she even need to do there?
I rember her saying it was in the direction of the west gate, but since I have yet to acclimate myself to this city, it’s hard to imagine what it would actually be.
I mustered all of my soul to keep up with Fuyu as she kept walking on without stopping her tears. Along the way, Betty hit on my buttocks from ti to ti to try and get to do sothing.
It took a while, but Fuyu eventually did stop crying.
I swear, this might even be harder to deal with than S-ranked missions…
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
By the ti Fuyu wiped off her last tear, the sun has started to set.
“I understand now, Sir Asley. Why Sir Gaston has recognized your abilities, and why Miss Irene always talks about you-“
“Huh, you’ve t Miss Irene before?”
“Yes, most recently, just the other day in fact. She has co to Regalia in order to visit Sir Gaston at the Magic Guardians headquarters west of here.”
Wait, did she just say… ‘west’? Wouldn’t that an…?
“…Oh, I see.”
Irene had been here? What for?
I don’t think I’d ever heard of a Duodecad Conference assembly being held around here recently. Personal businesses, perhaps.
“And today, there is another person that would like to et you, Sir Asley, so-“
There it is.
No matter how I think about it, it’s definitely sothing that wouldn’t benefit . Moreover… I have an especially bad feeling about this particular instance.
How should I go about avoiding this?
“I see, I see. Best to not keep them waiting, then. Let’s hurry on our way.”
“Yes, of course”
Yes, of course, she said. Hah.
With being pulled along by Fuyu, whose mood had suddenly taken a hundred-eighty degree turn, we walked along the Royal Capital’s inner wall as we headed toward the west gate.
In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she was now more cheerful than normal.
So much so that Pochi even woke up from the ‘impact’. Right when she had reached our destination, no less.
Pochi read the letters on the signboard in front of us, and then promptly turned around to look at .
“Are you ssing with or what, Master?”
“See, Pochi, I’ll admit straight up that I didn’t want to co here either.”
“My, what a coincidence.”
“What a coincidence, indeed.”
The signboard had these imposing letters written on it:
Even from out here, I could feel the dense arcane energy drifting about the air and hear the energetic, soulful shouts coming from inside.
I feel oppressed. Surely everyone has known by now how bad I was at dealing with this sort of atmosphere.
It’s dangerous. I mustn’t go inside. That was what my instincts told .
Without a doubt, nothing good can co out of this.
Pochi and I swallowed nervously at the sa ti – with heavily considering the usage of the Teleportation spell right about now – but then Fuyu proceeded to speak to us with a beautiful smile:
“Sir Asley. That person there is Brigadier Viola, the one who had said she wanted to et you.”
The first thing that caught my attention was her deep violet eyes, made prominent as blazing flas by the costics around them.
Obviously, she wore the sa charming uniform as Fuyu was, but with the addition of a hefty mantle over her shoulders.
Estimating from her looks, she might be in her forties or fifties, but the aura of arcane energy drifting around her felt quite ‘young’.
So this is Brigadier Viola of the Royal Capital Magic Guardians, in the flesh.
Fuyu ran up to her and started talking about sothing – well, about my arrival, from the looks of it.
She looks quite a bit more nervous than when she was with Gaston, doesn’t she? Ah, now they’re looking at the rest of us.
“Please co on in.”
I’d rather not, ma’am.
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