CH 58

The audience with His Majesty the King and Her Royal Highness the Queen was to be held not in the audience chamber but in the common room, and Cain was ushered into that.

Cain had never seen an audience room before, but from his previous life’s nerd knowledge, he had an image of the king and queen sitting on a throne on a high stage, and ordinary people kneeling on a carpet stretching out to the plaza below.

Cain thought he was saved because it would have been too stuffy to have a conversation with the king in such a place.

The common room had a round table with ten chairs lined up. The room was large enough that there was room to pull out the chairs, and there were only a few furnishings.

A soft carpet, ten chairs, a round table, and a writing desk and chair close to the wall.

I wondered if there was any meaning to the phrase, “Even in this world, let’s exchange opinions as equals without hierarchy. This table is…”

Cain, who had been shown into the common room and told to wait, muttered to himself as he looked at the round table set up.

However, he didn’t know where to sit at the round table. For the time being, he thought that the place closest to the entrance would be the lower seat, but he felt that it would be disrespectful to have his back to the king when he came in through the entrance, so he decided to stand and wait until the king arrived.

In the meantime, the maids who brought in the tea sets in wagons and the maids who put flowers in the middle of the round table began to come and go, so Cain leaned his back against the wall at the beginning of the room so as not to disturb them and watched the preparations go on.

There was no furniture in the room except for the round table, and the room seemed too large, but when the tea set and the men to fill it were waiting along the wall, and the knights of the Kingsguard who had come in to guard the room stood by the window and the door, the room seemed rather small.

“‘His Majesty the King, Her Royal Highness the Queen is entering.”

The knight at the entrance shouted, and the maid standing by the tea wagon bowed deeply. The knight kept his head down and lowered his eyes a little to protect his guard.

The knight did not lower his head for protection but lowered his eyes slightly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two adults pass in front of his lowered head. Then there was the sound of a chair being pulled and the scraping of clothes, and finally the words, “Raise your heads”.

When he looked up, he saw that His Majesty the King and Her Royal Highness were seated against the wall. Cain had only seen His Majesty in portraits here and there, and this was the first time he had met him in person.

(I think he’s fatter than his portrait…)

A person in a butler’s uniform who came in with His Majesty the King pulled out a chair that was exactly facing them. He was sure it meant to sit here so Cain took a seat.

“‘Are you  Cain Elgrandark?”

“Yes. The head of the Dukes of Elgrandark, the eldest son of Dismay. I am Cain Elgrandark. It is a pleasure to meet you. It is my great pleasure to appear before you today and see your face.”

Cain raises his right hand to his chest and his left hand to his side and bends his body to the left.

“I am Heinz Erglandis. I am also pleased to meet you. Now, sit down.”

King Heinz indicated the chair with his hand.

Cain bowed lightly and sat down in the chair.

As if on cue, the maids began to move in unison, laying out tea and tea cakes in front of the three sitting at the round table.

The woman in the white dress behind them sipped tea from the same teapot and ate the sweets one by one.

“No problem.”[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

The woman in the white dress bowed and sat down on a chair near the wall.

“Now, now! Cain, feel free to eat. Today I want you to tell me the story of Arundilano.”

Her Royal Highness then offered Cain some sweets, while she herself took a sip of tea.

The conversation between His Majesty the King and Her Royal Highness the Queen began with a thank you for encouraging Arundilano to visit the orphanage, and a report on how the visit had been effective.

While listening to the report, Cain was relieved to hear that Her Highness and Arundilano were able to perform their official duties on good terms, but Cain began to feel uncomfortable when she asked him about Arundilano’s daily life.

“How’s your sword training going with the Kingsguard? I hear Arundilano and Cain are having a brawl.”

“Yes. I have had knights watch me perform basic form and pretend to fight, but my physique is too different to be able to fight with them. That is why his Royal Highness, Crown Prince Arundilano, is my partner.”

“There is still a size difference between Arundilano and Cain right? And yet you two are having a solid exchange because you’re giving Arundilano a handicap, aren’t you, Cain? The knights also said that you are quite good.”

“No. I’ve heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has been instructed by the Knight Commander. At his age, I think he has a very strong core. I think it’s amazing that he can withstand a full-on collision without falling.”

“That’s right. The other day, Arundilano fainted from the bottom and took one from you, Cain.”

“But Arundilano lost in the ensuing sparring match, didn’t he?”

After a brief conversation about training at the Knights, we talked about Cain and Arundilano’s lunch.

“Arundirano doesn’t like tomatoes, but Cain forced him to eat them,”

“I don’t like tomatoes either. The slimy part…”

“Don’t be a picky eater. Cain, you’re like Arundilano’s big brother.”

“No, not at all……”

“You have lunch together and talk stories right. Have you happened to talk about girls?”

“You mean the future princess? Who did he say it was?!”

“He’s still just a child. It’s more of an aspiration. You’re exaggerating.”

(What is it? Something’s wrong.)

Cain resisted the urge to frown and responded with a smile.

The conversation itself was quite normal.　Cain and Arundilano learned sword fighting together, ate lunch together, went to the orphanage, and played together.

Looking back, they laughed, admired, praised, and got a little angry at the details of the episodes. That’s it.

When the queen asked this to Cain, he replied and answered yes.

When Cain brought up a story, His Majesty the King connected it with what happened afterward. 

There is nothing strange about this conversation if you consider that you are talking about your friend to his friends’ parents. However, something was bothering Cain, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bewildered.

After about an hour of chatting and laughing, the audience between Cain and the King and Queen was dismissed with a request to continue to be good friends with Arundilano and to express any opinions about his participation in public affairs.

Cain was given some tea cakes as a gift for his sister, and was driven home by the palace carriage to the duke’s house.

“Brother! You’re back! Something smells good!”

“‘Welcome back, Master Cain…Thank you for your hard work.”

As Dianna greeted him, she took his left arm and peered into the basket in his left hand.

Ilvalino raised an eyebrow after seeing its face.