Volume 4 - CH 5

Prince Amor Claydale.

I didn’t know much about the royal family, but from what I recalled in the lesson that Sera taught me before, the current king had seven siblings and including the king, four of them were male.

The female royalties were mostly sent to marry into duke house or other country that had been decided for them and lost their right to the throne. For the males, some of them also went to other country far away to marry, but I was told that the youngest brother didn’t have any fiancée and remained in the royal family as royal brother due to some reason.

So this was that person……. When I thought back of the present situation of the royal family that I heard from Sera, for the sake of the current king who placed a woman with low social status as his first queen and only had few children, Amor was kept behind as a member of royal family to act as “spare”.

Originally the post of『Royal Brother』 was to assist the king in political matter and at emergency he had an authority at the same level of an archduke to take command in the king’s place.

But, if the situation was like what I imagined, he wasn’t even given an authority that was equivalent to a duke. He was simply in a situation where he was living a freeloading life, kept around only for his status as royalty.

Considering that, he shouldn’t harbor any fondness for the crown prince who inherited the blood of the current king and the first queen. I guessed that was why he was feeling a twisted desire to protect Elena who was in a similar situation like him.

That Amor right now was glaring at me as though he was fearing something.

「You, don’t just stay quiet, say something!」

Amol fretted seeing me just standing quietly and pointed his short sword toward me. Sera made a tired look and mildly remonstrated him.

「Please stop, your highness. This person is a member of “Rainbow Sword” that will be cooperating with us this time. The leader Dalton is also a noble who have obtained the tile of baronet because of his achievements.」

「He’s just a commoner noble who can’t even pass down his title to his child. A dwarf noble who is an adventurer isn’t any different froma thug.」

Was he a slightly obstinate person……no, he might be trying to protect his niece Elena in his own way, but from his behavior, I presumed that he was scared that someone would die in this dungeon exploration which made him acted more aggressively than usual.

But, regardless of what kind of reason he might have, there was nobody who would be happy from getting looked down. Elena seemed to understand that. She made a slightly troubled look and looked at me before nodding stealthily.

We were able to reunite after so long. There were things that we wanted to talk about but, we didn’t have a “weak” relationship where we needed to lick each other’s wound.

It was enough just knowing that both of us were still alive. After confirming that with each other, I turned my back on Amor who was in an argument with Sera. He noticed that and flared up.

「You girl, where’re you going-」

「The enemies here are defeated. Sera and the knights are enough to be your guard, so you can do whatever you like. Just in case I will patrol the surrounding while linking up with my teammates. If you have any other complain, say it to our “employer”.」

「Wha-」

Amor was speechless by my speech. Originally using that kind of tone would be disrespectful to a royalty but, even Sera and the knights didn’t do anything while Elena looked aside while covering her mouth with her hand.

I heard that it was this country’s prime minister that made the request to Rainbow Sword. But, our job was to protect the royalties. Although the requester was the prime minister, our immediate employer was his majesty the king.

Amor was a royalty, but, it would be a defiance to the king’s command if I moved according to his will right now. Sera and the knights understood that, but I didn’t understand why they didn’t do anything about my disrespect. Perhaps it was because the knights who were in the profession of fighting harbored respect toward Rainbow Sword, and also because Amor’s behavior just now was too much and lacking dignity as a royalty.

Perhaps they also noticed that Elena and I were acquaintance, and the princess was feeling dissatisfied because she couldn’t even have a conversation with an acquaintance that she hadn’t met for a long time.

In short it was just as I assumed, the knights were prioritizing Elena’s feeling more because she still had the right to inherit the throne rather than Amor who was only being kept like a freeloader for his royal status.

Then see you later……Elena.

I lightly waved my hand at her. Elena too smiled at me without saying anything back.

.

I parted from them and returned to where I came from. There Feld had already finished annihilating the assailants. The knights were restraining the few surviving assailants.

When I showed myself, Feld who was talking with the knight who I helped at the beginning noticed me and lightly raised his hand in greeting.

「Aria, you’re safe. How’s the situation over there?」

「Oo, miss adventurer-, you’re alright. Is her highness safe?」

「No problem. I’ve also confirmed the target’s safety.」

Although I had gotten used getting scolded by Viro or Sera, I wasn’t used with someone feeling honestly worried for me, so it made me felt a bit itchy.

Sera was there with Elena’s group, so I didn’t think that there would be any problem. But as expected this knight was feeling worried for Elena. He sighed in relieve after hearing my report.

The knights here were royal guards, the elites who were guarding the royal family. Although they were ordered to prioritize annihilating and capturing the assailants, if I returned just even slightly later, the knight said that they planned to leave behind the wounded to check the situation. He was really grateful by my return.

I left the clean up to them and together with Feld who wasn’t injured or even tired, we returned to our carriage and reported about what happened. After that Viro got out of the carriage.

Sera who was related with our employer was here, so he must be going to greet her. I got the feeling that Viro would also get into trouble with Amor. As expected it seemed something really did happen when Viro later returned with a scowl. He wordlessly flicked my forehead with his finger.

As the result of Viro’s talk with Sera and others, our carriage would link up with Elena’s group where we would go together to the port city. But although we called it going together, we would ride ahead to clear the way so we wouldn’t really meet their group face to face.

In the first place, setting aside Elena, I  think Amor wouldn’t like it to see my face.

From what Viro heard from Sera, originally Amor was unrelated with the dungeon exploration this time, but apparently he forcefully shoved himself into participation.

I don’t think that a “spare” royalty like him wouldn’t be allowed to do something dangerous like entering a dungeon, but putting it the other way around, that was just how urgent it was for the royal family to quickly obtain definite power that they had to recognize Amor’s participation.

What was this thing that the royal family was seeking from the dungeon that they were going this far for it…….

***

「Clara……as expected, I should also come with you.」

「Onii-sama……you can’t. Father already told you no before this right?」

At the port city of Duke Fudale’s territory. Clara smiled wryly at her brother Rockwell who was accompanying her until this far.

Actually they already had similar conversation like this many times on the way here. An exploration of large scale dungeon by royal family. The elites of the royal guards and a rank 5 adventurer party were assigned to be their guard, even so all of them were still not of age and hadn’t even enrolled into the academy. There was also the possibly of death.

The royal family also judged that the possibility of the talented Elena and Carla obtaining Gift was high, so they carried out this dungeon exploration plan, but they were predicting that half of the guards wouldn’t come back alive.

Rockwell became informed of the dungeon exploration plan that was being kept under secret due to his status as Clara’s family, but even after getting chided already by his father Margrave Dandall, he was still insisting to accompany his little sister. That was because of Clara’s exploration that was filled with sorrow from participating.

「Rockwell……give up already. You’re making Lady Clara troubled.」

「But still, Mihail……how can I call myself a knight when I can’t even protect my little sister when she’s in danger……」

「We have our own role to play. His majesty himself has already declared that we aren’t permitted to participate.」

Mihail Melrose who was also here to see off the group as a friend of the crown prince began persuading Rockwell again for who knew how many times it had been.

Mihail were told about the detailed information by his grandfather the prime minister.

This dungeon exploration was carried out because of the royal family’s need of power and to test the resolve of this generation’s royal family whether they could put their life on the line or not.

Rockwell wanted to protect his little sister, but Rockwell and Mihail who were the eldest sons of the two powerful nobles of the kingdom were in the position of being protected, not protecting others. It was the job of the royal guards to become shield and die, but Mihail and Rockwell weren’t permitted to do that.

If the worst case really occurred and the group got annihilated, the two who would become the future prime minister and supreme knight commander would be needed in order to support the young second prince, and so even the king didn’t allow their participation.

.

Clara made a dark expression seeing the two’s exchange.

(……Even I want to be protected by Onii-sama if it’s allowed.)

Clara was just a high school student in her previous life. She didn’t has anything like the resolve to die.

Before regaining the memory of her previous life, Clara had her pride as a noble even though she wasn’t as perceptive as her current self. If it was the Clara who didn’t know anything in the past, she would be able to die as a noble, but the current Clara couldn’t recall the 『noble’s pride』 of that time no matter what.

「Clara……are you okay?」

「Ervan-sama……」

Ervan who was riding in the same carriage with them until here looked at his fiancée with concern.

Clara knew him even before becoming his fiancée. She had also met him often when she came to the castle as Elena’s playmate. Sometimes the three of them would also play together.

The Clara at that time was a haughty noble lady and she hit it off with the intelligent Elena, but Ervan was raised with freedom like a middle class noble and his sense of duty as a royalty was lacking, so the Clara at that time was looking down on him somewhere in her heart.

Even after regaining her past life’s memory, she was still looking at him as a child because of her memory of living until her teenage. It caused a bit of distance to be created between her and Ervan as his fiancée.

However recently her resolve as a fiancée of a royalty got questioned and she was also feeling how close “death” could be with the beginning of the otome game approaching. She had lost her pride as a noble from recalling her past life and her heart had become incomparably weaker. Clara showing such side of herself caused Ervan to start feeling concern toward her instead.

The distance between the two was shortened exactly because they both possessed “weakness” as a noble. Even though it was just a relationship between two weaklings licking each other’s wound, it was becoming a salvation for Clara.

Even if she got along with the otome game’s heroine Alicia, if Alicia got involved with the crown prince and became the Saint, the holy church and the people would want her to become the first queen without caring of all Clara’s efforts.

And for the heroine to become the first queen, the existence of Clara who was a princess of a former royal family would become an obstacle that needed to be removed. Even though in the otome game it was only displayed as a mere condemnation event, there was complicated political bargaining that got carried out behind the scene.

Clara would definitely become unable to be happy exactly because she had high status and position as the crown prince’s leading fiancée.

That was why her only choice to avoid such fate was to kill the heroine. She had made her resolve after worrying herself sick, but the heroine in question was being protected by Melrose House and the black ops. She was still being unable to even approach her.

(Is there no other way than to rely on “that”……)

「Clara?」

「No, it’s nothing. Ervan-sama……thank you very much.」

「Why are you suddenly thanking me……you’re strange Clara.」

There was something on her mind. But the fear of death tormented her even more the more she thought about it. In such state, Ervan’s smile that wasn’t befitting for a royalty was starting to become the only thing that she could rely on in this world.

***

Several days passed and we along with Elena’s group arrived safely at the port city of Duke Fudale’s territory. There wasn’t anymore attack since then.

I thought that Elena would need to rest for several days due to her weak body, but it seemed that the other group had arrived, so the surviving assailants were handed to the black ops that were standing by in the port city before we all immediately headed to the ship.

According to Viro’s report, it seemed the assailants were the underling of a baron house that was a dependent of a marquis who belonged to the “noble faction”.

Most likely that baron got abandoned like a lizard cutting off its tail, but it was unthinkable that a mere baron could gather that many assailants. Further investigation should discover a lot more clue, but it seemed that just being able to grasp the weakness of the marquis who was the caregiver of the baron was already considered a sufficient enough gain.

The butler grandpa and the carriage stayed behind in the port city’s middle class inn while the rest of us headed to the large ship that would take us to the island. With our arrival it was decided that the ship would set sail two days later.

That large ship was a military sailing ship that belonged to Duke Fudale. I heard it could be boarded by a thousand soldiers at maximum, but this time it was only boarded by 150 people that were made up from the dozens of people who would enter the dungeon, the knights of the duke territory, and the sailors.

That day Dalton and Viro went to greet the important people while at the next day there would be a dinner where everyone would meet and greet.

When the meet and greet was being held in the party hall of the ship, the boy was standing between Elena and Amor who was introduced as the crown prince looked slightly surprised when he saw me.

I was puzzled by his reaction. It was then Feld who was standing beside me told me the reason.

「Do you remember when we first met? That time, the boy called Er who Mira and I guarded was him. It looks like he also remember you Aria.」

「…………」

I remember when I first met Feld.

I see, so his name is Ervan and it got shortened to become Er. I finally remembered him after Feld told me, but I’m amazed that the crown prince of all people was permitted to go out to the city.

But, rather than the crown prince Ervan, I was more curious about “the girls” who were standing in a line beside Elena.

One of them was a girl called Clara who was the daughter of Margrave Dandall. Several years had passed since then and her appearance had growth to look like fourteen years old. She had already become a grown-up beautiful lady, but her complexion turned pale the moment she saw me.

And then the other one……when “she” caught sight of me, her sickly white face twisted into an adorable wide smile.

I already thought of the possibility but, as expected, Carla was a fiancée of the crown prince.

.

▼Carla Lester　Race：Human・Rank 4

【Magic Power : 440/450】△55UP【Stamina : 29/51】△4UP

【Overall Combat Strength : 749 (With Body Strengthening : 1123)】△426UP

.

……She had become terrifyingly stronger.

Only his stamina hadn’t increased as though she was cursed, but if it was just her magic power then it had grown until the same level or even higher than Samantha or master.

What kind of severe battle and training she had gone through to be able to obtain that much strength……. Most likely she had thrown herself into rigorous battles alone but, if Carla and I got into a fight, it would definitely become a “deathly battle” that would endanger even the lives around us.

.

The dinner of the meet and greet was in the form of banquet of buffet. It seemed that some of the participants also brought relatives with them here, but because the dungeon exploration was kept secret, only the true participants were joining this banquet.

The majority of the main participants were younger than twelve years old which was the age where they made appearance in high society, so the youngest like Carla and Elena returned to their room quickly after they finished eating.

I’m an adventurer so the distinction in that area for me was ambiguous, but Viro would turn into hopeless adult when alcohol got involved so I quickly left that place and went up to the deck to feel the night breeze.

「…………」

The night wind that was starting to become cold caressed my skin. Monster could also come out at sea, but the ship that was still inside the harbor was burning incense to repel monster so there was no danger even if I got out to the deck.

Even so Elena and others who need to be guarded wouldn’t come out to the deck at night, but I intentionally went up to the deck because I was on guard about the possibility of human attacker and because I had a “premonition”.

「As I thought, you’re here Aria.」

「If it’s you then nobody will care even if you go outside alone……Carla.」

The dangerous girl who I encountered two years ago……. She whose outer appearance and also her inside had been sickly since that time had grown without any change to that along with her abnormal mentality.

Perhaps it was because her weak life force, or perhaps because of the insanity inside her, she pursued her own objective straightforwardly even if nobody understood her. That way of living looked beautiful depending on how you saw it.

Carla unhurriedly approached me without even hiding her vast mana. She smiled sweetly while her hand was reaching toward me. Her pointy black nail traced along my cheek and left behind a line of wound. I too grabbed Carla’s thin neck with one hand and my finger dug into that white throat.

「Are we going to kill each other here?」

「Let’s not. This isn’t a worthy “stage” for us.」

My hand let go of Carla’s throat. Carla used a handkerchief to wipe the blood on my cheek and erased the wound with Cure.

「You look pretty with blood on you Aria……one day I want to dirty you with the blood spurting from my heart.」

「Go die on your own.」

「It’ll be lonely if it’s not you who kill me.」

Carla pressed the bloodstained handkerchief on her chest like it was a treasure. We walked until the edge of the deck and leaned on the handrail side by side.

「Why are you going into the dungeon Carla?」

「You still haven’t been told? Our objective of going into the dungeon is to receive “Gift” from the dungeon’s spirit.」

As I thought, the royal family’s objective was Gift.

It was said that power could even read human’s heart, or manipulate weather, or predict the future. It was also accompanied by limitation and price to be paid, but if the royal family could obtain useful power, it would be possible to develop the nation even more.

But……that wasn’t it.

「Carla……what’s your objective?」

「…………」

The smile instantly vanished from Carla’s lips when I asked her that.

「My objective is also “Gift”. There isn’t any human who won’t seek power when it’s right in front of you.」

「……Do you know the “meaning” of that?」

The Gift that a dungeon’s spirit bestowed had “trap” in them.

It was said that spirit would bestow Gift as reward for arriving at the lowest floor, but a power that was given from spirit, a being with no life span would become “poison” to being with life span.

「Of course I know. I don’t know about the carefree and adorable Er-sama or Dandall’s “little miss” but, “the princess” who actually bothered to investigate about it might not refuse to accept the Gift you know?」

Carla laughed off the older Clara as 『little miss』. I stared at her and talked about the continuation of this topic.

「Dungeon’s spirit can grant “wish”.」

「Yes.」

I too once heard about it from master and investigated it. Dungeon’s spirit could grant wish but not to everyone who reached its place. The spirit demanded a strong wish……someone with a personality that was worthy to obtain the Gift.

That wish could be granted in the form of Gift but, Gift wasn’t the only way the spirit could make a person’s wish came true.

「You aren’t going to ask……for your body to be cured?」

A powerful Gift would destroy its owner. That was because that wish was something self-serving. Human was foolish and that was why they received retribution. But wouldn’t a pure wish be surely granted?

I didn’t know what Elena would wish for. I guessed that it might be for her to be more healthy, which was also something that I wanted for her, but surely there was also something else that she needed as a royalty.

I respected Elena’s will. But what about Carla?

She narrowed her eyes just a little at my question.

「It’ll be lovely if I can obtain a Gift……surely it’ll allow me to live in a way that befit “me”.」

Carla looked up to the moonlit sky in ecstasy. She turned her head just slightly to look at me with her purple eyes and showed a thin smile.

「That moon is like you Aria……. That’s why we who are living in the night are reaching our hands toward you.」

「If you have a wish, I don’t mind helping you with it.」

I pushed off my back from the railing and started walking. Carla called out to me joyfully.

「You’re alright with me getting healed? Even though I might try to kill you?」

「That won’t be any different than now.」

I lightly turned toward her and replied like that. Carla burst out into a wild laughter and her small stamina value went down again.

And then dawn arrived. The ship departed to the island that was under the management of Duke Fudale with us aboard. Toward the “large scale dungeon” that was said to have a spirit in it.

***

「They finally depart……I hope they will return safely.」

「Yeah.」

Rockwell stared with a worried look at the ship that was sailing out from the harbor. Mihail gave him the appropriate comment but, he himself wasn’t really feeling anything about it.

They couldn’t participate in the banquet last night that also doubled as a departure ceremony because they were not of age and also outsiders, but they had finished saying farewell beforehand to the crown prince Ervan and his fiancée and also Rockwell’s little sister Clara.

Rockwell had built a good friendship with Ervan and he was also close with his little sister Clara, so he was genuinely worried for them, but Mihail had lived until now by drawing a line between himself and other people due to his standing as the heir of Melrose that was leading the black ops.

But that was only the outward appearance. At the outside he was acting like he was friendly toward everyone and because of that he wouldn’t get involved too deeply with other people, but Mihail was actually compassionate and scared that if he got too involved with someone it would cause him to be unable to make the rational decision. Rockwell knew about that side of Mihail and he sent a concerned gaze toward Mihail who was acting unconcerned despite actually feeling worried for Ervan.

「What, Rockwell……」

「No.」

Perhaps he was feeling embarrassed. Mihail unconsciously talked with the tone of a friend instead as a noble. Rockwell slightly smiled wryly and changed the topic.

「Come to think of it, are you still looking for that adventurer? This place should also have an adventurer guild. Do you want to try looking around there later?」

「Yeah, I guess……」

The adventurer guild that he met just once several years ago. It was just that one time……furthermore he was involved with her only for a brief time but, she left a strong impression in the heart of this boy Mihail.

After that he was searching for the “pink haired girl” not only in the capital’s adventurer guild, but to any adventurer guild of the places that he visited, but he was still unable to meet the girl again.

It was unusual for Mihail to be so fixated to one person. Seeing his expression that was somewhat brooding caused Rockwell to suddenly recall something.

「Also this morning I was able to meet with Ervan but, about the adventurers that his excellency requested……」

「You mean Rainbow Sword?」

「Yeah, that one, he mentioned something about being surprised seeing a “girl” he knew among them.」

「Eh……」

Those words caused Mihail to turn his gaze back to the departing ship. On its deck for an instant──he saw fluttering pink blond hair there.

「That girl……tsu!」

「O-oi」

Mihail was about to break out running toward the ship. Rockwell quickly grabbed his arm.

「Let go Rockwell-! It’s that girl!」

「Calm down, the ship already sailed away! We’ll attract attention if we go out there!」

Both Rockwell and Mihail were high ranked noble. With how the royal family’s dungeon exploration being kept under veil of secrecy they had to be careful even with just seeing off the group at the surface. Mihail remembered that after hearing Rockwell’s words and he had no choice but to stop struggling.

「……Sorry.」

「No, it’s fine. But, the girl that Ervan mentioned, it was that girl?」

「……I don’t know.」

He only saw for an instant. Only the pink hair and her face from the side……. He couldn’t conclude that she was really that girl just from that, even so he didn’t want to think that he saw wrong.

Mihail turned his gaze toward the sailing ship and prayed quietly in his heart for the girl’s return.

(Please……come back safely.)