Chapter 17.1

Erich squared his shoulders back so far that his back felt a bit stiff. His voice even took on a regal note.

“What are you doing here at this time, Lady? Are you an employee of this inn?”

“No. I live in another village, but I came out here to sell some items. What are you here for, Sir Knight? You were really out of breath earlier—were you fighting off some villains?”

He had been suffering one-sidedly from a villain, that was true.

To be more specific, the villainous superior known as Franz Gerhart, who had nothing if you didn’t count his face and his household background and his money and his skills.

“The map of this city is as shown here. Shove this into your brains, and then divide the place into four districts and find His Highness Bertram.”

“Four districts? Then Sir Franz, you will….?”

“Am I not the head of this body, not the feet?”

The four soldiers had ran out immediately after that, and the largest region had fallen to Erich, who was the youngest and had the least experience out of them.

The places he could go on his horse were manageable. The problem was the narrow alleyways.

How embarrassing it had been, running around on his own two feet and asking every person he met, ‘have you seen a dingy giant around here’ like some kind of debtor.

But right now, he could act like a knight who had caught a villain.

With quite the confident voice, Erich asked Lara.

“I will also ask to the lady. By any chance, have you seen a tall man with black hair? He will be quite grubby.”

Lara did not think of Bertram right away.

It was partially because Bertram had become pretty clean while he lived at Anna’s house, but more than anything, it was because Bertram was not a “tall man” to Lara at all.

To her, he was something beyond the normal descriptions of ‘big’ or ‘small,’ but a mammoth figure instead. In fact, if he’d said ‘bear-like,’ she would have understood right away.

Lara slowly shook her head as she asked.

“I have no idea. What kind of person is he? A criminal?”

“No!”

“Whoa, that surprised me. But you’re looking for someone who’s not even a criminal?”

“…..There is a bit of a situation right now, so please understand that I cannot reveal much to you. But if you ever see him, then please let me know. I am residing at the inn in front of the city square.”

“Alright, I understand.”

Erich smiled bitterly.

Since he could not announce all over the place that he was looking for a prince, this investigation-that-wasn’t-an-investigation faced a lot of difficulties.

After playing the role of the ‘suspicious knight looking for a suspicious person,’ Erich elegantly bowed to the countryside lady. Lara stared at him with her jaw slackened.

“……The city square at the inn you said, right? I really, really hope to see you again.”

“The inn at the city square. I, too, will be waiting.”

“Oh, but, grubby and tall with black hair are so little to go off of. Don’t you have anything else?”

“You will know as soon as you see him. He’s very big, you see. Very wide shoulders as well.”

Within Lara’s imagination, the ‘Mr. Normal’ that had no characteristics grew much bigger. Thinking of someone that would be recognizable on sight, she thought of Bertram first.

Nervousness entering her heart, Lara asked.

“Do you not know his name, too? Is that also a secret?”

“…..If you promise that you won’t tell anyone else.”

“I promise!”

“Yes, then. The name of the person we are looking for is ‘Bertram.’”

Lara’s face stiffened.

However, Erich was in a hurry and did not recognize this change.

“I ask for your cooperation. Please remember the name ‘Erich.’”

After Erich left—

Lara ran up the stairs of the inn. Though there was still a minute left, this was not a situation to be considering those kinds of things anymore.

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“Anna, we’re in trouble! Someone suspicious is……”

Slamming the door open, Lara was once again astounded by the scene that met her inside.

“Anna, what are you doing….?”

Why was Bertram’s shirt off, and why was Anna reaching towards him there.

‘Was thirty minutes….. not enough?’

Anna froze at Lara’s scream of a question.

What was she doing?

From the way she asked it, she didn’t seem actually very curious about the answer.

Rather, she must have meant, ‘why are you doing that in front of me.’

At times like this, there was only one answer that could be given.

‘It’s not what it looks like!’.

Approximately five minutes ago.

Bertram had confessed that the source of his loss of emotions were not from a wound, but from a curse.

Though it was an explanation that made her suspect his mental health first, the blue gem in his chest that he showed her after stripping off his shirt was something that could not be explained as anything other than magic.

Studded straight into his chest, a beautiful gem that shone blue with every heartbeat, as if drops of blood were splashing into the blue ocean.

What she’d seen a few days earlier had not been an illusion.

Bertram further explained the details about his curse.

“The magician embedded this into my heart.”

“He said that it would take everything, all my tears and all my laughs, from me.”

“A while ago, when I heard you, Miss Anna, say that I was ‘adorable,’ this place here felt very ticklish. Even though it’s a part of my body in which I should not feel anything.”

When the words ‘ticklish’ fell from Bertram’s lips, the gem was awashed in red, and then….

The moment Anna had reached for it, unconsciously.

That had been when Lara had burst in.

Anna was about to say ‘you’re misunderstanding,’ but as always, honest Bertram spoke first.

“I was in the middle of asking for advice.”

“…..Huh?”

“Everything apart from that is personal, so it will be hard for me to tell you.”

Bertram slips his shirt back on. Lara was so busy staring at Anna with a bright red face, that she misses the gem studded in his chest.

Anna found her voice belatedly.

“It’s not what it looks like!”

With eyes now grown cold, Lara spoke.

“So it wasn’t an advice session?”

“…..No. It was. B-but rather than that, why did you come up here now when you said you’d give us time! And what were you expecting us to be doing?”

“I mean, if, if the t-two of you are in one room…. Then of course I should give you space…. W-wait a minute. Thirty minutes. What, what really can you do in that time?”

Lara’s eyes were spinning around dizzily. Her face was still bright red, and Anna, who now had unintentionally looked into what this younger child must have been thinking, also turned red.

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As misunderstandings begat more misunderstandings.

Bertram threw up nonsense that was even worse.

“It just happened that I was discussing with Miss Anna what we could do….”

“Stop! Enough! Mr. Bertram, you are not allowed to speak for the next minute!”

Anna took hold of a pillow and began hitting Bertram’s back with it rapidly. Bertram decided to keep his silence obediently.