Episode 135
'Damn you developer bastards. There was nothing about this!'
I trembled, flustered.
Of course, when Elaine ntioned being assigned to the Imperial Palace, I wasn't entirely free from the anxiety of running into Kassel.
But I figured it would be fine.
After all, he had seized real power in the palace, and I thought he'd be extrely busy as the Crown Prince of a nation.
There were hundreds of tournant participants besides Elaine, so I assud he wouldn't pay much attention to them until it was over.
'But a private audience... And so soon?!'
I had to face Kassel again after the tournant anyway, but not now.
With that thought, I opened my mouth anxiously.
"Other Heroes must be busy trying to conquer the dungeons right now. A private audience seems a bit much, doesn't it?"
"If one cos to the Imperial Palace, isn't it proper to first visit the master and pay respects?"
The Adjutant replied, his expression clearly displeased by my sudden words.
If he ant the master, shouldn't he see the Emperor, not that bastard Crown Prince?
But I wasn't foolish enough to say such a thing out loud.
"Still, being guided to the dungeon first..."
"Ahem! Are you not rely a healer employed by that Hero?"
Did my desperate attempts to avoid a private audience with the Crown Prince look like arrogant questioning?
The Adjutant even stopped walking and whirled around to face .
Only then did I realize I wasn't in a position to argue, and I felt a pang of regret, but it seed too late.
I thought he looked stern from the start. The Adjutant glared and pointed a finger at .
"You should be honored just to step foot in the Imperial Palace, how dare you...!"
"My apologies, sire!"
It was then.
Elaine quickly stepped between and the Adjutant and bowed his head low.
"My healer is rather arrogant and rude because she's uneducated!"
"What..."
"She doesn't even wash properly, and the wild beast sll is so strong, my nose hurts so much I can't sleep! So please don't get too close!"
"Ahem, hem!"
At the ntion of a sll, the Adjutant flinched and stepped back.
"Make sure you wash properly while inside the Imperial Palace!"
Then, after shooting one glare, he turned on his heel and started walking away quickly.
At the Adjutant's rather prim behavior, I just froze, dumbfounded.
"Let's go, Teacher Apothecary-noona."
Elaine nudged slightly and whispered.
Only then did I snap back to reality. I gauged the distance to the Adjutant and gritted my teeth.
"What. Are you crazy? What sll?"
"That's what you said to !"
He retorted, looking quite wronged.
No wonder what he said sounded familiar.
It was exactly what I had said to the organization mber at the black market about Elaine, who was pretending to be a raccoon slave.
"Is it a beastkin?"
"Yes. I bought him here, but he's impossibly arrogant. He doesn't even wash, and the wild beast sll is so strong, my nose hurts so much I can't sleep!"
'You petty little brat.'
To think he still rembered it perfectly, without missing a single word.
Recalling the trembling white beard, I clenched my fist and asked again.
"...So you're getting revenge now?"
"Am I you? Just wait. You'll be thanking soon."
"Didn't you say you were short on ti? Are you coming or not?!"
Just then, the Adjutant walking ahead abruptly turned his head and made a displeased sound at us bickering.
I shot Elaine one glare and gestured with my chin for him to walk.
And I mumbled under my breath.
"Yooou're goonna get beeten up by e soon."
Elaine, who was trying to walk ahead of , acting as my master now in a reversal of the black market situation, flinched as if he understood.
We headed toward the Crown Prince's palace in a subtly awkward silence.
Unlike that bastard Kassel's hair and army, the Crown Prince's palace, done in white, was splendid, yet seed extrely restrained.
Seeing the palace surrounded by security so tight it made the guards at the arena look like a joke, it truly hit that Kassel was the Crown Prince.
"You may enter."
Around the ti I was sitting in the neat reception room, looking around, the Adjutant, who had gone ahead to announce us to the Crown Prince's office, ca out and spoke.
"Yes."
Elaine, looking dapper like the only son of a wealthy rchant, stood up, looking slightly nervous.
I, too, reluctantly got to my feet.
'Hah... I don't want to go.'
Now that I had to face him, how much would I be picked on, how much would I be interrogated...
I felt like my vision was going dark.
'This ti I said I'm a healer, so should I try insisting I'm not her one more ti?'
For a mont, the desperate idea of vehently denying I was 'Shari Azrael' again reared its head.
But for so reason, I had a strong feeling it wouldn't work on that bastard Kassel this ti either.
Every ti he opened his mouth, he sang the tune of 'just a re commoner'.
Even though I was bundled up in a robe, I had no idea how he could so easily distinguish 'that' re commoner.
To , all the AIs except the main characters and a few others looked the sa.
anwhile, Elaine went out of the reception room first.
It was the mont I reluctantly took a step to follow him.
'...Huh?'
I stopped abruptly at the shadow blocking my path.
When I looked up, the Adjutant was blocking with a cold expression.
"You will wait here."
I don't have to see that bastard Kassel!
It was the best news I could have hoped for.
But seeing the Adjutant's rather unpleasant face, a pointless mischievousness arose.
"...Why?"
I deliberately took a step closer to the Adjutant and asked.
At that, he flinched and made a nasal sound.
"Ngh... Hith Highneth only athked for a private audienthe with the Green Mathk Hero! I-I have thothing elthe to do...!"
Then he hastily left the reception room.
Watching Crown Prince Adjutant Rosher Albert disappear down the corridor outside the door, I muttered quietly.
"Aargh, that guy."
The perception Elaine had planted was terrifying.
"I don't sll at all."
I grumbled, then grinned and happily sat back down in the waiting seat.
I don't know if the Adjutant blocked on his own, but in any case, not having to face that bastard Kassel was a stroke of luck.
Things are going smoothly.
'Good, let's keep going like this.'
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Elaine finished his private audience with the Crown Prince sooner than expected.
At the dungeon entrance the Adjutant guided us to, a small tent was prepared for us to stay in.
'It's certainly nice.'
Perhaps due to the special nature of the Imperial Palace, the treatnt was generous compared to other dungeons.
If it had been another dungeon, forget a tent.
We would have had to suffer for days, sleeping outdoors.
"Monsters will appear as soon as you enter this forest, so be careful. I'll see you in one week then."
The Adjutant, having finished explaining about the dungeon, left in a hurry, as if afraid soone would catch him.
[Forest Containing the Imperial Palace's Secret]
'Damn you developer bastards. Are you obsessed with secrets or sothing? Why are there so many damn secrets?'
Elaine and I scanned the signpost at the forest entrance and the surrounding area.
There were knights in black armor patrolling occasionally, both to monitor adherence to tournant rules and to prevent any unforeseen dangers.
But judging by their behavior, they didn't seem likely to co close to the entrance.
It would probably be the sa for the other dungeons.
After watching the knights and confirming the low possibility of being overheard, I pressed Elaine.
"What did the Crown Prince say?"
"He didn't say much. Just wanted to see my face."
"Really?"
"Wow. But being royalty, his presence was really sothing."
Elaine answered nonchalantly.
'Presence, my ass.'
While scoffing inwardly, I felt relieved.
The audience ti was indeed short for him to have said anything significant.
Just as I was nodding, recalling that bastard Kassel's shitty personality.
"However..."
Elaine suddenly narrowed his eyes and asked back.
"The Crown Prince didn't seem to know anything about the employnt contract?"
"Th-that's..."
My heart twinged for a mont at the sharp question.
I had completely forgotten. The Crown Prince employnt contract without the Crown Prince.
But I answered brazenly, trying my best not to show it.
"Of course. Did you forget you're still on probation until the tournant ends? People high up usually aren't curious about small cogs or processes."
"Well... I guess so."
When I put it indirectly that the Crown Prince didn't know about his existence yet, Elaine, who knew the ways of nobles well, fortunately accepted it quickly.
I hurriedly changed the subject.
"Was that the end of the conversation?"
"Yes. He really didn't say much."
Elaine, pouting as he replied, suddenly changed his expression as if rembering sothing.
"Ah! But when I said I hired a separate healer, he did say sothing cryptic."
"What? What did he say?"
"He asked where I got the money. Like he knew about my past."
"..."
"Hey, I can have money too! Co to think of it, he even looked up and down when I went in. And what else did he say. Sothing about making into a pretty boy...?"
"A pretty boy?"
"That annoying bastard! What's wrong with being a pretty boy? They're just cute! Does being handso and a Crown Prince make him all that?!"
Elaine kept grumbling, clearly displeased with that bastard Kassel who had blatantly ignored him.
Perhaps because he was still naive, he didn't seem to know the other aning of 'pretty boy' (gigolo/kept man).
I strongly agreed with the 'annoying bastard' part, but I remained silent.
Elaine seed completely unaware that the 'annoying noble' who helped liberate slaves at the black market was the Crown Prince.
"Anyway, other than that, he didn't really do anything else offensive. After that, he asked how I planned to conquer the dungeon."
"So what did you say?"
"Of course, I said I didn't know. How would I know what's in here?"
"Hah..."
My mind went blank at his utterly confident answer.
Even though he didn't pair him with Adam, assigning him alone without other Heroes ant he was paying attention to him to so extent.
And he gives an idiot-like answer like that.
I couldn't tell anymore whether sending him alone to the private audience with Kassel was misfortune or luck.
Seeing soone sigh right in his face, Elaine still remained perfectly cheerful. I looked at him with a complicated expression and turned away.
"...Let's wait until night first."
"Okay!"
And so, we entered the temporary tent and waited for night to fall.
A few hours later.
The sun set, and darkness arrived.
The forest, which had seed so peaceful and quiet during the day, exuded an eerie aura at night.
Waiting for midnight, I finally took out a potion bottle from my pocket.
And I t Elaine's eyes.
"Get ready."
He gave a single nod.
Pop!
I opened the potion and downed the contents.
A mont later.
Pop!
With a small popping sound, a black cloud enveloped my body.
Around the ti the dizzying smoke and mist cleared.
The previously cramped tent had suddenly beco tall, and Elaine beside had beco incredibly huge, like a giant.
That's right.
What I drank was an S-Grade Miniaturization Potion, which had the effect of shrinking one down to the size of a thumb.
This was the thod I devised because the knights were monitoring to prevent non-Heroes from entering the dungeon.
"Aweso. Noona, you look like an ant."
The giant Elaine muttered, looking at my shrunken form.
He had definitely spoken normally, but to my tiny ears, it sounded incredibly loud and booming.
"Wannaa die?! An' lower yer voithe, it'th loud!"
I shouted reflexively, then flinched in surprise at my own voice.
"Wha! Why ith my voithe...!"
It seed shrinking had affected my vocal cords as well.
Elaine, understanding my words, burst out laughing.
"You weren't an ant, you were a mosquito. Mosquito Teacher-noona!"
"Gh... Onthlaught!"
"Haha, that tickles!"
Furious, I threw a punch, but Elaine just scratched the spot I hit as if it tickled and laughed, clutching his stomach.
In the end, only after taking an S-Grade Miniaturization Antidote Potion, returning to normal size, and getting smacked a few tis did he approach the plan with a serious face.
Climbing onto his hand, which had beco huge again due to my miniaturization, I declared quite sternly.
"Let'th go!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)