CH 128

“The Real Purpose of the Meal and Claims Against the King.”

Translated by Dawn

“The Real Purpose of the Meal and Claims Against the King.”

“Phew, the confirmation has been completed for the time being… Two people, surprisingly few.”

After finishing the meal with the servants, I sat down on a chair in my office, which was used by the nobles for paperwork and other office work, and muttered to myself. The reason why I served the food to the servants that day was not only for the purpose of friendship but also for another purpose.

I wanted to check how many so-called spies from the royal court had infiltrated here. This time, I had this mansion and its servants arranged as a base for living in the royal capital, and I was not involved in any of the procedures. In other words, there was a possibility that there might be a dark side or spy lurking among the servants to find out more about me.

With this in mind, I checked with them when we first met and at the meal, we just had and found that there were two people who had titles and abilities that seemed to fit the eleven servants.

As I mentioned earlier, there were eleven servants, and the names of Sobas, the butler, Mia, the head maid, and Ruzzo, the chef, had already been mentioned, so I would like to talk about the remaining eight.

I was not sure if it was the king’s consideration or not, but Mia, the head maid, looked younger than her actual age, and many of the other servants were young maids in their teens and twenties. Whether this was the intention or whether I was chosen because I myself was a child who had not yet reached adulthood was beyond me, so I would have to question the king to find out

The remaining one was Dodris, a middle-aged man in his forties who is in charge of the maintenance of the large, useless grounds, a man with dark skin and a well-trained body who might be better suited to a blacksmith than a gardener.

Now that I had explained the details of my servants, here was the main question. If you asked me who in the world was the spy, it would be Stella, a regular maid, and surprisingly, Manya, an apprentice maid.

These two were the only ones with high skill levels such as [Stealth] and [Detection], and what could not be overlooked was that they possessed the [Assassination Technique]. And with the fact that their skill level was quite high, which I didn’t want to know.

As for the other two servants, it was a common practice to have Sobas, the butler, or Mia, the head maid, as spies in such cases, but since they had combat skills but only a level of self-defense in case of emergencies, they were left as white.

As for Dodris, the gardener, the details show that he was a former mercenary, and although he had high combat skills, he did not have the detection and assassination skills necessary for spying, so he was purely a combatant.

Also, this might be a complete digression, but among the skills possessed by the regular maids, Mylene and Liliana, were the skills of [Lasciviousness] and [Service], but what kind of service would a lascivious woman provide? I was not going to ask about that directly, as it might be a bit of a wild guess. Damn you, King…you like this

“Well, even if there was a spy, I wouldn’t have any problem with it.”

To tell the truth, I did not see spies as a particular problem. I understand that as the king who bears the burden of a country, he could not leave a person who was capable of fighting off the demons unchecked, and above all, I believe that surveillance was necessary as a ruler.

If they had not sent in even one spy, it would have been a situation that could only be described as a lack of peace, and I would be relieved to hear that.

Besides, these spies seem to specialize in espionage activities, and their abilities were not far behind mine, with an A+ grade at best in their parameters. Even if I were to be attacked in my sleep, I would not be a threat to them because their abilities were so different from mine that I could deal with them in my sleep without bothering to wake up.

“But it’s probably best to mention what I’ve noticed, just in case.”

Perhaps one of the reasons for sending a spy was to test whether or not I would recognize them. Even if you have the ability to fight off demons, the ability to understand the other party’s true identity and abilities was another thing, and if it was always the case, the person with higher abilities might be warier than you.

Besides, if the other party was testing my ability to search for enemies or other abilities, wouldn’t it be fun to take advantage of that?

While I was thinking about this, there was a knock at the door of the office. I motioned for them to come in, and the person who entered was Sobas, the butler. As a matter of fact, he was not here because he was taking care of the servants who had eaten too much lunch and were unable to move.

“Rolando-sama, here are our ten years’ wages. Please accept it.”

“Hmmm.”

Oh, come to think of it, we talked about that. I was so preoccupied with confirming the spy and teaching Ruzzo how to cook that I seemed to have left it out. However, I pretended that I had remembered it so as not to reveal it, and received the bag containing the paycheck.

“Sobas, I’m going out for a bit. Please look after things.”

“Understood. Have a good day.”

When I told Sobas that, I moved instantly from the mansion to an alley in front of the royal castle. Incidentally, I made sure that Sobas would not find me by leaving the mansion first. When the gatekeeper of the castle saw that I had appeared, he felt a tense atmosphere. Of course, if a being who could fight on equal terms with the demons suddenly appeared on the scene, they would at least be wary.

“How may I help you?”

“I’m here to see the king.”

“I beg your pardon, but do you have a prior appointment?”

“No, I have no such appointment, but it’s quick business, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Coming through.”

“W-wait! I would like to ask you to wait a moment until we get confirmation!”

Since it was my fault for suddenly coming here without any prior notice, I decided to wait for a while. After 20 minutes, I was finally allowed to enter the castle.

I went straight to the king’s office, and as soon as I entered the room, I said the following words immediately after entering the room.

“Hey, you look busy.”

“I’ve been busier than ever now since you came.”

I smiled back at the king, who chuckled at my sarcasm and then quickly went on to my main topic.

“I’ll get right to the point. These are the ten years’ wages of the servants you gave to Sobas and the others for their services in the mansion.”

“Why are you bringing it to me?”

“The mansion is where I’m going to live, even if only temporarily. Then don’t you think it makes sense that I myself should hire the servants to take care of it?”

“I see. So you are dissatisfied with the servants you have now?”

“No, the servants will remain as they are. I will pay their wages. That is what I came here today to say.”

The king responds to my offer with a raised eyebrow and a chin-stroking gesture, but his eyes narrow when he heard my additional words.

“You don’t need to change to a new servant?”

“Where’s the need for that?”

“I see… All right, I’ll take these.”

He seemed somewhat surprised, but he honestly accepted the salary I gave him back. However, I would like to say one thing to avoid any misunderstanding.

“Oh, by the way, there were a couple of rats in the mix, did you send them?”

“…I knew you’d noticed.”

“It’s only natural. It would be crazy to leave on the loose an existence that can repel the demons. Although you have been able to establish friendly relations with me, it is still only tentative. If that is the case, it is normal for you to try to find out what I’m up to through counterintelligence. If you hadn’t sent the spies, I would have had to yell at you about it, you know?”

“That’s a scary thought.”

He cowered his shoulders and made a coy gesture in response to my joking words. After a while of casual conversation, I remembered a matter that had been bothering me, so I decided to ask him about it.

“King, how did the case go?”

“…you’re right, there were traces of someone tampering with the place. Now we are looking for the culprit.”

“I knew it. So, what’s the timetable for reopening the case?”

“We’ll get to it as soon as we can, but it’s going to take a while to clean up the mess.”

“Then can I do as I please, just until then?”

I confirmed what I had previously pointed out to the king, and it seemed that someone had been involved, as I had expected. The culprit had not yet been found, and until the matter was settled, it seemed that I could not make any moves.

I decided to do some charity work to commemorate my rebirth in this world, and with the king’s approval, I decided to make my move.