Chapter 52

Some time later.

Derek, who had not dared to come the whole time Benjamin was here, reappeared in fear of his disappearance.

“It’s a gift, Yves.”

A white envelope was in his hand. And in it… …

“The Squirrel Warrior Jericho?”

There was an invitation to the performance of Erwin’s favorite <Squirrel Warrior>.

“Yes, Yves. The performance team of “Squirrel Warrior” will visit the city of Arbela this weekend. Erwin and Odelia will love it.”

“You have four tickets?”

“Yeah! I’ve got four very hard-to-find invitations.”

“Ha…four….”

I looked at the four invitations and pondered.

“Then me, Erwin, and Lia………and there’s one left………”

“Yeah, if the three of you watch the show, there’s one seat left!”

Derek’s eyes were shining brightly as he stared at me.

I smiled at him and said.

“We can go with Laura. That’s four! Thanks, Derek.”

For a moment, Derek shrank his shoulders, giving him a gloomy expression.

I raised my eyes sharply at his noticeable change.

“Why are you crying? Is it a waste of a ticket now?”

<Squirrel Warrior> was a performance that Erwin had been wanting to see for a long time.

He wasn’t taunting people, and when Derek tried to give and take away, I glared at him, and he waved his hand.

“Oh, it can’t be. Please come and have a nice outing.”

But contrary to the words, Derek’s gaze at the four invitation cards in my hand was very tenacious and painful.

I smiled and quickly put the invitation back into the envelope before he changed his words.

“Okay. Erwin and Odelia will thank you too. I’ll buy you a present when we come back.”

Derek smiled ‘haha’ with a strange expression on his face, not sure if he was happy or sad.

And that weekend. We went out to the city for the first time in a long time.

It was the first outing to the city since Erwin and Odelia’s birthdays last fall.

The children were very excited at the news that they were going out after such a long time.

“I miss Tturaego (Dragon)!”

“We’re not going to the stupid Tturaego (Dragon), it’s the Yonza Jelriko!”

“It’s not stupid Tturaego (Dragon)! You stupid Er!”

Erwin and Odelia just got on the carriage and started fighting.

“Lia, you shouldn’t say such bad things to your family.”

“Yes. But Er said Tturaego (Dragon) is stupid.”

Odelia hugged the pink dragon doll that Derek had given her and puffed up her cheeks.

She was as adorable as an angry baby squirrel.

“Er, Lia must be upset about what you said.”

“Lia, are you mad?”

Erwin asked Odelia, tilting his head.

In the meantime, I sat the children side by side in the right direction to avoid motion sickness, and sat across from them with Laura.

In the past, horses were preferred over carriages, but after the birth of the children, they enjoyed riding in spacious and comfortable carriages.

The lake mansion was in the most secluded corner of Arbela, so it took a little time to get to the city center.

“Er is bad. Are you going to go out to play (to tease) Lia?”

Odelia didn’t even look at Erwin as she buried the tip of her chin over the dragon doll.

Fidgeting, Erwin then looked at Odelia.

“Oh no, it’s not stupid.”

“….”

“I just want to tell you about Jelriko….”

“…”

“Lia…?”

“…”

“Lia, are you mad?”

“…”

When Odelia didn’t respond in the end, Erwin started crying.

“Lia, Lia. huh?”

Erwin began to act cute like a cute puppy, rubbing his face against Odelia’s arm.

“Er is wrong.”

“….”

“Tturaego (Dragon) is the strongest in the world!”

“…”

“No, Lia is the strongest in the world!”

“…Is Lia the strongest in the world?”

Only then did Odelia begin to respond to Erwin’s words.

Erwin smiled broadly with a blushing face and nodded his head vigorously.

“Ah yes! Lia is the strongest in the world! Lia is a secret powerhouse… not Tturaego (Dragon)!”

At first glance, it sounded like a random word that came out of his mouth, but Odelia flashed her eyes and followed Erwin with her hearty smile.

“Ja! It’s Lia’s strong-willed Tturaego! Tturaego Breathe (Dragon Breath)! Boo woo woo!”

“It’s great, Lia! Strong Tturaego! Boo woo woo woo!”

Erwin and Odelia moved violently in the carriage as if they didn’t feel motion sickness.

It was an added bonus to flap the dragon’s wings with both short arms along with the bizarre cry of ‘Puuuuu’.

“If we don’t sit quietly and go, the horses will get lost in surprise, and then we’ll be late for the <Squirrel Warrior> performance.”

Finally, after hearing a word from me, the two children sat quietly, wiggling their hands.

Seeing this, Laura covered her mouth with her hand and smiled.

The carriage gently stopped in the square of the town.

The lively town of Arbela welcomed us.

The colorful cotton candy on the stand caught the attention of the children.

“Mother, Lia wants to eat sosata (cotton candy)!”

“Er too, Mother.”

“Okay. You wait here with Laura.”

I left the kids with Laura and went to buy the cotton candy.

“There are more armed knights than usual.”

While the cotton candy was being prepared, he looked around and muttered indifferently.

Then the owner of the stand shook his head and sighed.

“Oh, don’t talk. Some time ago, monsters appeared in the city of Arbela and they had a hard time suppressing them.”

“Monsters?”

I asked with my eyes wide open.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to worry too much. It’s a little too much for Arbela knights alone, so the lord is looking for mercenaries.”

I turned around, holding chocolate and strawberry-flavored cotton candy in each hand.

In the end, monsters appeared even in Arbela.

Recalling the story Benjamin had told me a while ago, I thought that the security of the lake mansion should also be strengthened.

Erwin, who found the cotton candy in my hands in the distance, waved his arms.

I smiled softly at the children and walked towards them.

At that moment, the sound of people’s voices turned my head back on its own.

“The mad Emperor of Albrecht who started war wins wherever he goes.”

“It is said that the King of Kerbel also fell on his knees ……”

The news of Theodore’s winning streak came from day to day here in Arbela.

“I heard that the Emperor is the embodiment of the ancient darkness….”

“His eyes turn and he has been holding a corpse.”

“The mad Emperor is gathering ancient dark relics.”

“The reason for the war was to usurp the ancient dark relics…”

‘Theodore is collecting ancient dark relics?’

I laughed out loud at the absurd sound.

People seemed to think of Theodore as some kind of devil.

Although he possessed a devilish personality, he was not really a devil.

So, collecting the Dark Relics must be a false rumor.

Maybe…

Maybe…… ?