213 8-23 Ains Hale Memorial Festival Kingdom Sickness

We walked past a drunkard who had probably been drinking until morning, sleeping on the side of the road with a bottle of liquor carefully in his arms, and after cleaning up we were on our way home.

It's already past noon, but I can't help but feel a little sad as we return to our daily lives, as if the vibrancy of yesterday was a lie.

After that, it's business as usual.

Aina and the others were preparing for their quests, Wendy and Mizzella were doing housework, White went for a walk somewhere, and I was in the alchemy room doing my work when a visitor came by.

'Brother, are you coming in?'

'Hmm?　Go ahead.

Hey. Oh, were you at work?　Sorry?

No, I was going to take a break soon, so it's just as well.

When I was thinking that Oligor was the only one who would call me big brother without checking who it was, sure enough, Oligor came over with his backpack.

You can hear a rumbling sound as he stretches himself out, loosening the muscles that have been frozen because he was in the same position.

You've been so busy until yesterday, you should take a break today.

'I would have loved to, but Yarsis won't let me rest...'

The production of vibrators had been stopped during the festival.

It seems that customers from other territories came all the way to pick them up, and they were about to run out of stock.

If it's an existing one, I can make it right away using forgeries (multi-copies) and the known magic circle 《experience circle》, but I was asked to make a new one soon, so that's why it's currently under development.

By the way, I heard that people prefer the ones with a strong massage function, which I need right now, so I'm developing one for myself as well.

I'm developing one for myself as well. But I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I have to tell you that it's about my job. Mayra told me that you're happy to let me run the shop?

Yeah. If it makes this city a better place, so be it.

Hmm. What do you really mean?

It's a pain in the ass to do it yourself.

Hahaha. Hahaha, same old, same old. But we'd be happy to have more jobs.

He ties his hands together behind his back in amusement and slowly comes forward to me with a slow, steady pace, then spins around to face me backwards, lifting the backpack he's been carrying forward.

Sensing my intentions, I lean back in my chair and gently hug her waist as she gets on my lap to jump in from the hip.

'Hmmm. Thanks.

No, no. You're tired, huh?

Yeah. I'm so tired...

I lightly touched the shoulder of Origor, who put his weight on me, and it seems he is still very stiff.

Since it's a good time to listen to what he has to say, while lightly relaxing him.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that it is a good skill....... She's a technician.

I can't help but feel that he has some other agenda, but he is an adult despite his small body, so he must be easily fatigued.

Fatigue is building up from everywhere as I touch my body!　He was very assertive.

'So you're here to check that?'

'Yes. And I'm here to keep my promise. When I asked you to do the job, you said you'd pay me back, didn't you?

'Uh ... was it?'

I did. I'll get back to you. So, what would you like?　That's what I thought.

When you open the contents of your backpack, you take out a very old book about the thickness of a thin magazine, Origor.

What kind of book is this.........

You've been going to the library a lot lately, haven't you?　If you look at the lending history with the authority of the lord, you can at least find out what he was asking for.

You, this...

'Yes. It's the black past of this country, with the truth that you won't find in the library.

Then he handed me a book.

The title of the book is The Truth About Half Elves.

No matter how you look at it, the title was straightforward, and I read it slowly, my throat clearing slightly from nervousness.

''A story that isn't funny......... Really..........''

As I read on, the characters were reduced to three.

A competent baronet's man and his wife, a half-elf, who supports the baron.

And the young royal man who fell in love with the half-elf's beauty and brilliance at first sight.

【They met at a party at the Marquis' house, a close relative of the Baron.

There, a royal man falls in love with the baron's wife and makes many advances, but the half-elf with her husband fends off the advances with the ease of a nobleman's wife.

The baron eventually becomes a viscount with the help of his wife.

He's so capable that he could eventually become an earl in a single generation, and he's a man who is loved by his subjects, but whose tax payments increase year after year, which is beneficial to the country.

But no matter how many times he approached the half-elf, he would not be dominated, and a royal man who had grown numb to the half-elf turned his hand to him.

The half-elf had one characteristic.

Their lifespan was about twice as long as a human's, and their skill growth was slow.

He didn't mention the advantage of high skill resistance and declared that it was a good thing those things weren't so prevalent.

''Half-elves are an inferior species with poor skill growth compared to the human race. The half-elf is an inferior breed with less skill development than their human counterparts, and their good looks are used to seduce and exploit other talented species. Therefore, the nobles of my kingdom forbid them to be taken as wives or used for any purpose.

This way, he thought, the husband would be forced to abandon his wife.

And he was going to make her fall in love with the half-elven woman who had lost her way, in a way that would save her from herself.

He thought he could easily pretend it didn't happen, such as declaring it afterwards.

It was a shallow idea.

It was never going to happen, but does it mean that love is the worst kind of blindness?

Of course, the dream of a royal man did not come true.

The Viscount had taken his wife rather than his country.

He decides to flee to another country, but he decides to tell his dearly beloved fiefdoms his true intentions.

Then many of his loyal followers abandoned their familiar homes and said they would follow him.

That thought........the Viscount and his wife responded.

If they were alone, they could have escaped.

Even though they knew that fleeing out of the country with so many people would slow them down, they couldn't abandon the people who adored them.

And when news came to the royal man from the scouts who were watching the Viscount and his wife, the royal man used his power and sent his army.

When the viscount noticed this, he went to the army to get his people out of there.

There were soldiers who followed the viscount to intercept the army, but they were outnumbered....

Their numbers were understandable, but the country guards and the knights trained in the royal capital couldn't help, and the Viscount and his half-elf wife were captured.

Although the people of the realm were scattered, many of them seemed to have managed to escape.

Then the Viscount was executed.

His last words were........

'The people will live happily in a new land, looking to their new Lord........ I was a good wife and a man adored by the people. I was happy.

The viscount was beheaded in peace.

The royal man then took the viscount's head and brought it before the half-elf's wife.

'This is the last time. Be mine. If you refuse I will make you mine by force.''

She held her husband's head in front of his wife, probably intending to break her heart.

But when she saw her husband who had passed away with a peaceful face, she hugged his neck and replied emphatically, "I refuse.

I refuse. There is only one man I have ever loved in my life. For the pride of my husband and I I have nothing to offer you. I, too ... will take my own life at once for my husband.'

Hearing those words, the royal man abandoned the weakness he had fallen in love with and changed to his usual ruthless eyes.

Then he forced the half-elf to assemble himself.

But then a miracle happened.

The half-elf's body was clothed in light, and his hand flew off the royal hand.

It was truly a miracle.

It was a miracle, a blessing from God.

A lifelong vow, "The Only One.

You will no longer allow your body to be used for anything other than the man you have loved all your life.

The one who has the power to eliminate anything that holds evil thoughts.

When the royal family realizes that they can no longer touch him, they kill the half-elf in anger.

Next to her husband's head, the half-elf was laid to rest in peace for the rest of her life.

No one was supposed to know the story of the royal man's conceit, as he had been working in secret.

It was just going to end with the Viscount rebelling and killing both his wife and his wife on the blame.

The miscalculation was that I, the author, had seen it all.

And that I was an adversary of that royal family.

I quickly spread the rumor.

For the benefit of my own camp.

And then ... a civil war ensued.

The miracle of the half-elf was apparently added to all of its species.

From that fact, the rumor was spread to be true.

That civil war engulfed even the smaller surrounding countries and sparked a great battle.

After a fierce battle, we were victorious, and a gentle and wise royal was crowned king.

Of course, we expected to have the man executed for his crime, but our king was too kind.

"That house will be a curse to your land. It must be removed before it is too late!

"...I don't want any more conflict among my people. I do not wish to shed any more blood. If you can't even protect your family, how can you protect your people? And so I will cut the little guy down.

From there, the king imposed good government and won the trust of his people.

The peace with the empire, which had been fought over year after year for so long, was made.

Taxes were eased, trade was expanded, and the country was enriched.

But the king who cut down the small was a king to all intents and purposes.

Determined to protect his family, the king stripped the land of all mention of the half-elf and banned it as a mortal sin just for possessing it.

All that remained was a book kept in a church that could not be touched, saying that if you destroyed the book of God's miracles, you would be punished by heaven.

But the king took action against that church as well.

The church was stubborn that it could not be destroyed, so the books could be preserved, but they would not be made public.

In return, they were promised unparalleled privileges, including free missionary work within the kingdom and overwhelming support from the kingdom.

In a peaceful world, a happy life, the rumors would subside and the result would be exactly what the king had planned.

But now the damage is beginning to spread to unrelated half-breeds.

The rumor that half-breeds are evil is growing and spreading for no apparent reason from the royal capital to the countryside.

........I don't know if this is a good thing.

Many of the people are now living happily, our ideals have certainly been fulfilled.

We wanted a world where people would laugh and no one would starve, and we've achieved a great deal.

But ... is the happiness that is built upon the persecution of innocent half-elves really the ideal that we set out to achieve?

........This book will eventually be found and destroyed.

But we can't let the truth disappear.

I have decided to keep the book just in case.

I regret and apologize for leaving the consequences to an as-yet-unseen future]

".....

I slowly closed the book.

'Well how did it go?　How does it feel to know the truth?

This is the truth...?

Yes. This city was built by people who lost their villages to fire and had no place to live. In other words, this city is the proof.

'But ... is it possible that the author made up the story?

Of course I can't be sure. But I don't think so. But I don't think so, because my father wrote it.

Hearing that, I found myself feeling strangely satisfied.

I thought of Origor's blissful seriousness in his work as a lord, and I felt that he deserved credit.

''Well it's been decades, you know?　 How heartless people are before their own happiness...

''Well that's really not a funny story. Doesn't the king think anything of it now?

'I don't know. The current king was just a small child at the time, and perhaps he only saw the good things about the former king that the country was improving. It's also possible that if he had grown up in the castle, he wouldn't have noticed the history that was being erased.... The current king's brother noticed this and was targeted by the duke and forced to leave the royal family.

The current king's brother is, I believe, Iris's father, right?

He threw away his claim to the throne and went into hiding with his family....

He's not a bad king. The people love him for taking over the politics of the previous king, and his taxes are low. He also spends a lot of money on defense, and he's doing a lot of work on improving the slums. In fact, the number of people dying of hunger has decreased dramatically, and our relations with other countries are not bad.

I'm sure that's all you need to know about the good king who will be remembered for years to come.

'Well that's why I want you to notice the disease.... I don't have anyone to make them aware of it. The duke's breath is on the center of the center, and the only knight commander who seemed to be able to advise him is now gone.

But," continues Oligor, "we can't just wait for a little hope.

"Well, we're not just going to wait around with our fingers in our mouths for a little bit of hope. If there's no one to remind you, I'll do it. Misela and the half-elf who will suffer from now on, I will save them all.

You ... are you trying to start a war?

'Hahaha. That's not the way it works. I'm not going to waste blood. There is a possibility that they may try to attack us, but we'll still have to settle this matter peacefully.

When Oligor's face gets a serious devious look on it, I think he looks like Darwin.

But I let out a breath of relief when I heard that.

I don't even want to think about this city ... anyone I know dying.

We are not going to abandon our people. We're not going to let them die. We always have and always will. Now, this is my treasure. I'm going to take it home with me. I don't want to be found at my brother's house, or he'd be punished for it.

Oligor gets off my lap with a bang and puts the book away in his backpack at the same time.

Are you okay with this?

'Hahaha. I'll stash it away with the naughty books and you'll be fine!　Because my cover-up is perfect!

It's........maybe Walkas-san and Soma-san will know.

Thinking that, I looked up at the ceiling after seeing Origor leave, let out a big sigh and meditated on my eyes.

The cause is the royal dukes........

........the two who made love to each other were at peace in the end, they were said to be happy, but.......it's a shame......

Were they really happy with such an ending........

''.........Master?''

What's the matter?　Mizella.

''No, my lord told me you looked somewhat pale, and I came because I was worried... are you okay?''

As soon as she sees the color of my face, Mizzella comes to the side and puts her hand on my forehead.

''The fever....doesn't seem to be there, yikes.''

Without a second thought, he sat down and hugged Mizella tightly.

''Hey, hey ... what's going on?''

I'm sorry. Let's just stay on for a minute.

Well it's fine. Just for a second...?

'Oh...'

Misela also gently wraps her hands around my back and hugs me back.

When I put my face to her chest, I can clearly hear her slightly restless heartbeat.

Somehow it was........very, very comforting.

''Already........what's really going on?''

Mizera I swear to you that I'm going to make you happy again.

Again, from the heart.

"...it doesn't matter. You don't have to say it.

Yeah. But I just had to say it.

'Well..... But hey, you don't have to get so worked up about it.

What...?

I looked up as Misela took her hand away from me........

Ch-chu.

I'm so happy.

A hand is placed on my cheek and for a moment, just when I thought our lips were touching, we pull apart, and then Mizzella smiles at me, her face flushing a bit.

I was a little dumbfounded, then stood up and hugged Mizella tightly.

'What?　Hey, sshhhh....

As it was, I held Mizella in my arms and gently lowered her to the couch, bringing her face close to mine and returning the kiss from me.

When I let go of her lips, Mizella's body is still tense and tense.

I press my lips to hers once more, loving the sight of her, and she takes it firmly.

A sweet breath leaked out between kisses, and her slanted eyes stared back at me without force.

'....Mizella. May I?

Oh..... Well that's fine. Make me happy.

I locked myself in the alchemy room and slowly and gently draped myself over Mizella.