CH 41

“Excuse me, Desu!”

Brad’s personal maid, Rosie, whispered and went into the room.

This is Brad’s private room in the royal palace.

It’s a very simple room. The room used to be lavishly decorated with fancy furnishings, but since Brad sold most of the furniture, it now has only the bare minimum.

In the center of the room sat an opulent bed.

While almost all the furnishings had been replaced with cheaper ones, this bed was the only expensive thing that was still in use.

When Rosie asked Brad why, he replied, “A bed is where you spend a third of your day, or a third of your life. I can’t compromise a good night’s sleep. I want to use the best one I can find.”

As a poor aristocrat, Rosie had thought that a bed would be enough as long as she could lie down, but now she was convinced. Sleep is often forgotten, but it’s very important. As expected of my master, he has a different point of view.

And now, in such a top-quality bed, my esteemed Lord was sleeping.

(…… Oh my, you’re really tired, aren’t you?)

Rosie smiles as she watches Brad who breathes calmly while sleeping.

Brad survived after saving the capital of Fall Flat and its people from the conspiracy of one of the Four Demon Generals, Lionetta.

Last night, after explaining the situation to everyone in the audience room, he suddenly collapsed and it was already past noon the next day, but he was still sleeping.

He was still asleep.

When he collapsed, Brad was completely depleted of magic power. It’s not uncommon for people who have been depleted their magic by overuse to sleep for a long time like this. It was understandable that he would be like this if he had been working hard with Lionetta afterwards.

It might take a long time for even Brad to recover from that state.

In fact, there seems to be no sign of him waking up yet.

So that means–

(I can watch him sleeping for a while desu!)

Rosie’s mouth widens into a smile.

The maids take turns keeping watch in this room so that Brad can wake up at any time, but from now until nightfall, it’s Rosie’s turn.

The other maids had all applied to be on Brad’s watch, and the competition was fierce, but Rosie had the privilege of being the exclusive maid and had forcefully taken one of the slots. She is proud of the fact that she’s been doing more for Brad than anyone else, so she deserves it.

(A really beautiful face desu!)

Normally, I’m too afraid to look at his face, but when I looked at it again, it’s really beautiful.

First of all, his eyelashes were incredibly long and there were many of them, making them dry.

His nose is straight and his contours are sharp. The beauty of his face is such that you would think that he is well-rounded no matter where you look at his face from. Just by looking at him, I felt as if I was looking at a work of art that had been carefully created by one of the world’s greatest artists – or even more satisfying.

Rosie, with an enraptured expression, monopolized Brad’s sleeping face for a while.

But then….

“I forgot to wash it.”

I looked at the side of the bed and saw the cloak that had been left soiled.

I took it off yesterday when Brad fell and forgot to wash it. It would be better to wash it and get a replacement.

Rosie picked up the cloak.

“……”

But then she stopped and hesitated.

She stares at the cloak and salivates.

She glanced at Brad to make sure he wasn’t awake, and then, with a growing sense of guilt, brought the cloak to her face.

And…

–sniff, sniff, sniff–

She took a quick sniff.

(This is the smell of Brad-sama!)

Her eyes widen.

It’s just something that had been left unwashed. She’s not sure if it’s a good smell or not.

(But ……)

Rosie liked the smell.

It was strangely calming.

Thinking that it was Brad-sama’s scent in the first place made it more irresistible and lovable.

And while enjoying Brad’s scent with each breath, Rosie comes up with a crazy idea.

(Yes Desu ……, if I do this!)

She wrapped herself in a dirty cloak, blushed, and began to wriggle around.

(Fuhihihihihi… this is actually the same as being hugged by Brad-sama desu!)

And then, she revealed her true face…

“I’m just a poor aristocrat. I’m just a maid from a poor noble family desu!　　 I’m not good enough for you, Brad-sama …… I’m a woman you’ll never marry desu!　　That’s why I’m going to stop doing this ……!　　No, of course I don’t hate you ……, in fact I love you! But it’s still a relationship between a lord and his maidservant. ♡ What does that have to do with it……? I love you so much desu!”

Rosie who is completely lost in her own fantasy world collapses on the sofa while having a delusion of being forcibly pushed down by Brad.

She was so excited by the situation that she wrapped herself in his cloak and rolled around while making strange noises.

But just when the Brad of her imagination was about to cross the line.

“Crap, Brad-sama… you can’t do that–“

“Can’t do what?”

A familiar voice reaches her ears from the sidelines.

She wondered if the Brad from her delusion had said it, but the direction it came from was strange and she stiffened.

“……?”

She looked in the direction more cautiously. When she saw the person sitting on the bed staring at her. She yelped in a squeaky voice, “Ah!…”

Brad who should have been sleeping a moment ago was looking at her with a dumbfounded expression.

A moment later. A waterfall of moist, unpleasant sweat poured from Rosie’s body.

She panicked.

“Oh, no, this is…! I forgot to wash your dirty cloak, so I just tried to wash it now! And then I thought I’d like to wrap myself in the cloak and play with it for a bit. ……! It’s not that I thought that now that Brad is asleep is the perfect time to enjoy his scent to my heart’s content…!　　I didn’t think that wrapping myself in this cloak would be practically the same as being hugged by Brad-sama!”

Suddenly confused with the turn of events, Rosie confessed without being asked.

She didn’t know what she was saying anymore.

But she knew she had to apologize anyway, so she said, “I’m so sorry desu!” she bowed her head with vigor.

Brad glared at Rosie who was so jumpy fearing he might get offended.

But then, as if he couldn’t stand the atmosphere any longer, he blew up and said.

“Baka! (idiot), what are you doing soiling your own clothes like that?”

He chuckled.

It was a gentle way of reassuring Rosie that he wasn’t mad at her, even though at first glance it sounded like he was scolding her.

In addition, Brad took the trouble to gently dust off Rosie’s maidservant clothes, which were covered with dirt from his cloak, with his precious hands.

(What? What is this person…? Why is he so kind? I’m going to like him! No, I already like him, but!)

Rosie was again struck by the generosity of her master’s heart, or rather, the size of his capacity, and fell even more in love with him.

Incidentally, Rosie was ranting and raving about her love for her master, but in reality, she became a clod who could only turn her cheeks down in front of Brad.

****

“…… So, no luck in locating him, huh?”

–A few moments later.

Brad groans with a disappointed face as he digests Rosie’s story.

There was a carriage running on the highway of the royal capital.

After getting ready and eating a light meal, he was heading for the Luran Forest near the royal capital in his carriage.

The battalion of the Demon King’s army that Lionetta had brought with her, the battalion of 1000 monsters who succumbed to Glace and Merlin and became prisoners of war were now waiting in the woods.

According to Rosie, Merlin is monitoring them, so he thought he should give top priority to it.

“The search range seems to have been expanded and other countries are being asked for cooperation… at least he’s not in this area.”

“It seems finding him will be difficult, even if I move quickly.”

It seems Albert is still missing.

When I first heard the report of him missing during the audience, I felt a strange chill. But apparently, it wasn’t my fault.

(I want to find out what happened to Albert first…….)

As soon as he woke up, Brad contacted Lionetta, who seemed to know what was going on, to ask about Albert.

But she said she didn’t know anything about Albert because Brad had solved the problem before she had a chance to turn him into a puppet.

(Whether he was taken by someone other than Lionetta, or left of his own volition, is still a matter of speculation.

In “Final Quest”, as far as I can recall, there is no mention of Albert being lost in the past.

Perhaps this was not a historical fact.

The attack by Lionetta at the Sword Dance Festival this time was the result of Brad defeating the Cyclops and being spotted by the Demon King’s army. In other words, it is natural to think that the series of changes in historical facts that Brad caused also triggered the incident with Albert this time.

In any case, he might have put Albert in danger because of his own fault. He had to do something about it as soon as possible.

(…… There is too little information, but Merlin might have something to go on. I’m sorry to bother him, but I think I’ll ask him.)

It’s still unclear how much is possible with magic in this world, but Merlin may be able to locate Albert. After all, he is undoubtedly one of the best wizards in the world.

(As well as Albert, I’ll have to tell Carol about the incident. ……)

In addition, he needed to talk to the princess about the situation in Dastoria. If they don’t take action soon, it may be too late.

There are a lot of things that need to be done.

After some time of pondering, the carriage finally arrived at Luran forest.

“wait here.” Speaking to the coachman, he stepped into the interior part of the forest with Rosie.

It was a vast forest.

The tall trees are lined up endlessly as long as they can be seen and it looked like a sea of trees. On the other hand, although it’s large, there are few monsters and residents of the royal capital and neighboring town often visit for herb collection and hunting.

Brad also visited this forest several times during his childhood to practice riding horses and his dragon, Gilgard. It’s a forest with lots of memories.

(He often came with Albert as well.)

I miss him

I should have been on good terms with him.

Reminiscing about the past and tracing his memories, Brad walks to the place where Merlin and the monsters are waiting.

–After a while—

In an open space where trees shaded them like a roof, a hoard of monsters were waiting.

A place that can be called a forest square.

In addition to Lizardmen and Ghouls, there were many troublesome monsters such as the winged monster Pazuzu and giant poisonous snake, Basilisk.

Many of them are monsters that live in the desert area to the south. These monsters must be the battalion brought together by Lionetta.

(it’s more than I imagined)

The cyclops that occupied sky mountain was probably a leader of a battalion of the demon king’s army, but these are one step higher.

Lizardmen and Ghouls are not that much different from sky mountain monsters, but Pazuzu and Basilisk are over level 30 in “Final Quest”. Since there are many of them, it can be seen that Lionetta was seriously trying to destroy this royal capital.

Even if the Magic knights were prepared for them, they would have still suffered a considerable amount of damage. It would have been scary if that was the case.

And what’s even scarier is that these evil monsters are waiting in an orderly formation as if they were kingdom soldiers.

(What kind of situation would make a monster so obedient …?)

Although monsters also have intelligence, it can be said that they are basically lower than humans. It’s a different story when it comes to the higher-ranking “Majin”, but I don’t think that ordinary monsters originally had such disciplined behavior. 

In other words, they instinctively lost their fighting spirit when they were faced with Glace and Merlin whose eyes made them want to behave obediently. 

(Yeah, I know. It’s scary)

If they were being treated this way, even he would begin to feel sympathy for them.

Glace is usually laid back, but he has an unforgiving and ruthless side to those who disturb him or make him uncomfortable. He was really angry only once in final quest, but it’s scary if that anger is directed at you.

Merlin also showed a compassionate side during the production of “Final Quest”, but he is a person who can be ruthless to those who are judged to be enemies. He’s also a mad scientist with a mastery of magic, so he loves turning monsters into experimental guinea pigs and torturing them with a smile. 

(Well there isn’t a problem with them being obedient, is there? After all, it makes them easier to tame)

Furthermore, if he can acquire this force, his future strategy can be further expanded.

Especially in the case of Dastoria, brute force may be required. The Brad Corps (provisional), whose name has not yet been decided, has a good chance of becoming his first team. It’s unclear how they will participate in the war, but he would like to increase their strength as much as possible.

(Where’s Merlin, by the way?)

Thinking about that, he was looking for Merlin in the group of monsters, but he couldn’t find him.

But then…

He feels a particularly strong presence from behind.

When he turns around to look, it wasn’t the Great Wiseman Sage, but a monster.

It was the demon leader of the Demon King’s army, the chief of this battalion, and the half-human half-snake monster “Lamia” with the upper body of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a snake.