Episode 142
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In any case, I had obtained the 'Queen Siren's Essence,' so I spent a day in Dover Village with a relaxed mind.
The next morning.
"Noona!"
When I arrived at the alleyway in front of the Imperial Palace, Elaine, who was out to et , greeted with wide eyes.
Sadly, the Imperial Palace was not a place just anyone could enter.
Only Elaine, who had an entry pass as a tournant participant, could get in, so I had used the 'Communication Crystal' to tell him to co get .
"Why on earth did you go all the way to Dover Village? Don't tell you didn't have a teleport scroll? Do you know how surprised I was when I ca back and you weren't there, noona?"
He must have been quite surprised by suddenly saying I was in Dover Village, as Elaine poured out a stream of questions.
From his perspective, knowing nothing about 'forced summon,' my travel path must have been hard to understand.
"It just... happened."
But I didn't want to explain it further, nor did I have the energy to, so I just brushed it off.
"What's that supposed to an? You're really weird."
I thoroughly ignored the familiar line and system window, scanned Elaine, whom I was seeing again after just a day, and asked.
"More importantly, are you hurt anywhere?"
"Nope. My recovery was fast because you gave a healing potion in the middle, noona."
He, answering with a smooth face, looked perfectly fine, just as he said.
Getting attacked by monsters, pierced by arrows...
It seed I was the only one who had gone through all that shit.
"I'm the only one who's fucked. The only one..."
"Noona, are you hurt? Let see."
At my muttering, Elaine's expression changed in an instant, and he grabbed the shoulder of my back as I was turning away.
"What are you doing?"
"Ah, just hold still."
It was a rather awkward mont between us, so I tried to imdiately pull away from that bastard's grasp.
However, the eyes that held and scanned were quite serious.
That side of Elaine was a little unfamiliar.
'Co to think of it, he seems to have gotten a bit taller lately...'
They say other people's kids grow up in the blink of an eye.
I don't know when this bastard, who seed like just a snot-nosed kid, grew up so much.
On top of that, his hair, which resembled a deeper green forest than when I first saw him.
I, who had been leisurely scanning Elaine, who had beco noticeably more mature, finally opened my mouth.
"You think you'll burn a hole through it by looking like that? Glare harder."
No matter how he looked, he wouldn't be able to find a single scratch.
I had no idea what he was trying to see when I was wrapped in a robe from head to toe.
"Ah! You're really the best at ruining the mood."
At my scolding, Elaine stomped his foot like a child and shouted.
[Elaine Griselda strongly doubts your ability to empathize.]
Seeing the system window that popped up at the sa ti, I snorted and muttered.
"The blood on your head hasn't even dried, and you're talking about mood."
"If the blood on your head dries, you're dead, you know?!"
Elaine, who bristled at my words, stomped his foot hard on the ground once more and added.
"And can't you take off that damn robe? You're not a witch, so why are you always wrapped up so tightly?"
"I'd like to take it off, too..."
I half-listened to Elaine's grumbling and swallowed the tear that was welling up.
Where did things go so wrong?
'This definitely wasn't my original intention...'
I had now reached a point where I couldn't take off the robe even if I wanted to.
Thinking of that Adam-bastard, who was probably sharpening his blade for right now, I felt a chill despite the warm sunlight.
Thinking of Adam, I rembered sothing I had briefly forgotten.
"Oh! You still have the Queen Siren's Essence, right?"
"Of course."
At my urgent question, Elaine pulled sothing out from his breast with a triumphant look.
A sigh of relief escaped at the sight of the brilliant blue orb in his hand.
Now that I had the Queen Siren's Essence, that was it for defending our tournant rank.
Thinking that, all the shit I went through yesterday, which had been so grueling, felt like glorious wounds.
'Right. Who cares if that Adam-bastard is looking for .'
How was he going to find an unidentified person who wasn't even an official participant in the tournant?
Even if he grilled Elaine, there was no way he, who held deep anger and hostility toward Imperial citizens, especially nobles, would tell him straight.
Rembering that, Elaine suddenly felt reliable.
I thought that it was a good thing I had saved him and kept him by my side early on.
"You worked hard, Green Mask. Thanks to you pulling off that big move at the end, we were able to wrap up our plan safely."
I ant it as a complint filled with gratitude, but for so reason, his face turned odd, as if he'd heard sothing he shouldn't have.
"Uh..."
He gaped at blankly, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish, and I couldn't guess the reason.
"Why that expression?"
"Did you just... complint ?"
"What, did it sound like I was cursing you?"
When I asked back in an incredulous voice, his face gradually turned a peachy color.
Just as I was tilting my head at that incomprehensible change.
He muttered timidly, unlike him.
"Do you know... that's the first ti you've complinted ?"
"What? No way."
I shook my head and quickly tried to recall a mory of complinting Elaine.
I was confident I could list several anecdotes right away.
But no matter how much I searched my mind, I had no mory of complinting Elaine.
Even the few scenes that vaguely ca to mind were only of Lucy, or Elena, or the other elves...
'I've been that stingy with complints...?!'
I was shocked anew, realizing that I had never once given Elaine a direct complint.
"I'm doing a good job, right?"
In the anti, Elaine asked with a slightly shy expression.
While thinking, 'What's with him,' I mumbled evasively in a flat voice.
"Well... better than I thought..."
When he got caught by Ballakk and dragged to the auction house, or when he was carried on Adam's shoulder, I honestly wanted to turn back ti to right before I rescued him.
But in the black market, and at the tournant opening ceremony, and this ti with the Queen Siren's Essence...
It was also true that thanks to Elaine, I had broken through situations in unexpected ways.
When my thoughts reached that point, a question suddenly arose.
According to the original ga scenario, Elaine acts solely for his family's revenge.
He needed wealth and power for revenge, which is why he raised his rank in the tournant using despicable thods.
But the current Elaine...
"By the way, what are you going to do if you get into the rankings and beco a final party mber?"
I suddenly asked Elaine, who was grinning like an idiot over a single complint.
At that, he looked back at , puzzled.
"What do you an? You told to contract with the Crown Prince and subjugate monsters, noona."
"No. I an, if you gain wealth and power by doing that, what will you do then. You must have a goal, right."
"I don't?"
"What?"
At that bastard's utterly baffling reply, I shouted.
"Are you kidding ? Who doesn't have a goal!"
"Um... I haven't thought about it."
As if he really hadn't ever thought about it, Elaine replied with a bright face.
I, who had been clicking my tongue, dumbfounded, suppressed my rising emotions and asked again.
"Then what on earth were you thinking when you signed the employnt contract?"
"Tch! I did it because I thought it would be fun to work with you, noona. You give regular als, so I figured I wouldn't starve."
A truly carefree and sigh-inducing reason.
I was speechless, staring blankly at his pale face, when he suddenly shouted as if he'd rembered sothing.
"Ah! But if I get a lot of money, I'm going to build a house for my family to live in first. If there's still so left over..."
He wasn't living completely brainlessly after all, but my brief brightening at his sowhat constructive plan was short-lived.
"I'll give the rest to you, noona."
I scowled at that bastard's following words.
"What? That was going well, so why are you giving it to . Are you stupid?"
"You're better at managing money than I am, noona. Like how you took all the village land with high-interest loans."
"High-interest loans? That was a perfectly legitimate financial transaction."
I, who had been seriously correcting that bastard's exaggeration, finally let out a deep sigh.
"What will you do if I end up running off with all your money? Get your head on straight and start setting a goal for how you'll live later, starting now."
"Then I'll just follow you to the ends of hell, noona."
"Stop talking nonsense."
I couldn't listen anymore, so I shook my head and turned away, but Elaine suddenly stuck out his lower lip and mumbled in displeasure.
"Sheesh... Why do you say it so hurtfully. As if we'll never see each other again after the subjugation is over."
[Elaine Griselda feels a glimr of disappointnt at your words and actions.]
[Elaine Griselda holds a slight respect for your heartlessness.]
Looking at the system windows that popped up in succession, so typical of him, I couldn't bring myself to say it.
That once the monster subjugation was over, we would be people who would never see each other again.
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"What?! Why are you telling that now!"
The temporary tent in front of the Imperial Palace Dungeon was filled with my shocked voice.
"Did you even give ti to talk, noona? You just said your piece about coming to the front of the Imperial Palace tomorrow and then hung up."
Elaine retorted peevishly.
Of course, that was true, but...
If it was this important, shouldn't he have called back to tell !
The situation he confessed, after escaping the Siren dungeon, was this.
Elaine, who had returned to the Imperial Palace Dungeon using a teleport scroll, had run into the Emperor, who was leading a group of mages in front of the lake.
The Emperor showed interest in the suddenly-appearing hero, and...
It was then.
"Ahem! Hero Green Mask, are you in there?"
Suddenly, a presence was heard from outside the tent.
Elaine and I looked at each other in surprise.
"His Majesty the Emperor has ordered to bring you to the banquet hall. Prepare quickly and co out!"
It seed to be the Emperor's attendant.
I couldn't understand the Emperor's ulterior motive in suddenly inviting Elaine to a luncheon.
Why would he invite Elaine, who was just a re tournant participant?
Besides, an episode like this didn't even exist during the tournant in the original scenario.
I wanted to ask the developers right away why this was happening, but there was no ti.
"What do we do, noona?"
Elaine whispered to , his face quite tense.
"What do you an, 'what do we do.' Answer that you're coming out now."
I replied, jerking my chin toward the tent entrance.
And I quickly pulled out a miniaturization potion.
Because there was no way I could send that idiot in front of the Emperor alone.
Poof!
I, who had beco thumb-sized with a small explosion, hurriedly gave him instructions.
"Hey! Lister properly! If the Emperor ask you anything, just play dumb about everything! Like I told you before, even if you have fuck-all, act like you have sothing...!"
And then, I slid, quite familiarly, into Elaine's front pocket.
Thanks to raising hell, that bastard no longer put onions in the pocket I went into.
"Let's go."
Around the ti we arrived at the banquet hall, after following the attendant for a long walk.
I was continuously hiding in the dark pocket, so I could only guess at the eting between the Emperor and Elaine based on the sounds I heard.
"Oh, hero. Welco! I'm very glad to see you again."
"I greet the Sun of the Empire. I was not in a state to greet you properly yesterday. I am called Green Mask."
"Aha, so that was the na. Green Mask... Haha, what an amusing alias!"
Unlike my anxiety, Elaine answered quite smoothly.
Just as I was about to relax.
Fling.
Suddenly, the tightly closed banquet hall doors opened, and at the sa ti, soone strode in without hesitation.
Screech!
Following that, the sound of soone carelessly sitting in the chair opposite Elaine was heard.
"I'm a bit late."
"Th, this insolence... How dare you co here!"
The Emperor fully revealed his displeasure at the uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared in the banquet hall.
"And why can't I co?"
However, the other person retorted, not intimidated at all.
"Thanks to soone who's thrown away state affairs and only thinks about shoving chunks of at down a monster's throat, I'm working like a dog day and night. I have to eat to live, don't I."
"Th, that wretched bastard...!"
The Emperor wasn't the only one shocked by that brazen voice.
'Fuck, there was no ntion that the Kassel-bastard was coming too...!'
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