Chapter 97 Kinda

I stepped into the structure and was warmly greeted in by some humans, who, when they saw the "young and tender" human kid come in, all guffawed at "that kid who's barely got a thing to do here comin' with his sack o' heads so he gets his share!" and that was my entrance.

There were a few stools and tables with a higher counter, on one side of this empty room, and some other bland furniture on the other side with piles of documents and a clerk on duty scrambling away.

How did go my time out on the battlefield? Was it scary? Or did I only cower away and hide behind my seniors in order to stay safe and get away safely, rather? Questions from the men greeted me too after they waved their arms mockingly and burst out laughing.

I didn't answer any of them and stepped in laughing along with the boys. Exchanging words, I was seated in front of a desk. …But where was this going? I was simply here for the silver coins, I thought, after that I was going right back to my old advisor and see what we do next. From the looks of it, the simple task of trading your loot for coins seemed like a tedious one. The fact was, it wasn't really tedious, but I wasn't expecting any papers, so…

Yes. A sheet was promptly placed in front of me. Flat on the counter, my eyes jumped onto the sheet, and I analyzed it. Once, twice, then thrice. My name, my party's name, some details about my mana, other kinds of identifications, and wow, was I required to do anything with that? My eyes then swung to my right as I asked for help from the big man, and there you go.

Before long, the air grew tense with hostility and agitation, and the big person who got rather angry because of my many infractions gave some words to the people around so they could keep trading with the adventurers who came here, and now we were back to the present moment—

"What was that? Clicking your tongue again, are we? Hey, listen up, it's simple. And… tell you what—I'm gonna go about it again so that we all get this straight together, all good?"

When I frowned, the man repeated he was only here to help. After I said yes, the man slammed his palms as frantically as before onto the counter, I glared at him, then he laughed and turned to his colleagues. "We have to help the kid, right?! Troublesome kid's okay with that himself, after all!"

One guy was pacing back and forth in the room, with a hand on his chin, also cladded with a sparkly yet dark armor like his colleague. That man answered. "Don't turn to me for answers." The other guy, the young clerk, was still at his desk unmoving.

"Yeah?"

"I say we let the kid go. Who cares what fuck he's up to… Right now, we don't have time. But do as you wish."

"...Right. Yeah, no, you're dumb—let's rather ask our clerk boy, eh? What'd you think I"—a hand slammed again on the counter—"should do?" The man sat on the counter and peered down at me with a grin before he jerked his chin at the young clerk so he spoke.

"General, sir. According to our rules and regulations…" and a long-winded speech began. The boy—that was I—had certainly committed grave actions with what seemed to be the outcome of a rash, childish behavior. The boy had committed a crime. A very puny one, but it was still an infraction nonetheless. "Although while I would not, in fact, bring myself to, on my part, obviously, proceed and deal with such a 'criminal' according to the strict regulations of the State, since, and let us be reminded, we are not, by any means, having much time, due to the many events of right now, I would rather be pleased if you, Sir Lareneg, deal with and decide on punishing (or not) this kid, according to your own wisdom and knowledge with regards to what would seem to be our priorities down here on the battlefield… and let us be done with it at once, indeed. In short, since you do indeed think that we—"

"A'ight. Quiet," the general curtly said, jumping off the table. After he laughed and said he'd do as he pleased, for a minute, he conversed with his colleague, the same man wearing armor, before the two of them got angrier by the minute.

"To hell with that!" said the colleague. "I don't care. That's been clear to me. We've been given clear orders by her highness the princess." The colleague proclaimed, with emotions, that they couldn't make a failure of this one battle, saying it would be too grave and significant. Of course they wouldn't lose a war against the last remaining orcs in the country, but the better the results the better would both Her Highness' and the army's rewards be. "So you tell me, what's there for us to do? Soldiers've been reconditioned. In a few, we're going back at it. What's there for us to—"

"To hell with that, you say," did the general speak. According to him, the matter of the boy who didn't abide by the rules was no simple matter to dismiss. For many reasons—like, mostly, the fact that he didn't want the Guild's presence here on the battlefield, as he believed it was the army's place only—he insisted that my infraction required a punishment.

It was well obvious, to them, that I was illegally being here. I mean, they were right. I was a monster, so my presence here was not allowed, but they didn't know that. By "illegal," though I didn't really understand all of it, I could understand it was because my identity couldn't basically be confirmed by the Guild's services. So anyway, the general stood up and made it clear I should be punished.

"So that's your reasoning. Still, that's not the top priority here. We should serve Her Highness the princess and get the greatest results possible, not waste our time here."

"The shit's going great already. We got the results. The orc armies are never standing long when we fight, so we're all good. Aaah, you and your princess. What's up with the royalty so hungry for the army's business, these days? She must've gone cowering away back to her castles in the capital already, man."

"Whatever you say. As I earlier said, do what you will. I'm bound to duty with you, so I'll follow the orders."

"...Going back to it, then," my counter trembled and shrieked the cry of flat wood when it's slapped again, "why don't we, kid?"

In the end, was it all a mess or not? I didn't know anymore. If I did as the System indicated me to do, this shouldn't be a mess. Then again, maybe I had nothing under control, at the time. I could easily align ten of the deepest sighs I could muster, but even a thousand sighs couldn't get all my irritation and annoyance out.

My situation wasn't so desperate, but man, it was annoying to just have to "go on with the flow" as always. If I could, I'd want to have a detailed schedule of everything I went about beforehand.

Now, what must I do? Be waiting still? Escape? Slaughter all three human creatures here and take off? Call in for my old man's help? If I yelled loud enough, I was sure he could… well, probably not.

No, no. Let's wait and see, then. ❮ — Witness the general's fury. 0/1 ❯ No, no. It wasn't all a mess, in the end. As I inwardly debated what to do, having a big person sternly staring down at me from above, a big person's colleague pacing through the room, and a young clerk heeding none but his documents—a change occurred. A broad change.

A princess came into the game. A real princess, unlike the fallen elven one. A royal person that had the might and wealth to match her name. She was the charming and most beautiful young lady of her proud nation, the Roerden Kingdom, who for some reason found herself on the battlefield, playing at being the captain of the army, trying to gain her father, the King's, approval regarding some matter.

❮ — Witness the general's fury. 1/1 ❯

I didn't know any of her backstory, her problems, issues, worries, and all troublesome affairs that led the self-righteous human princess directly to the battlefield herself. If my old man was here, he who had commonsense would definitely be put off by such a high-ranking person's presence here. Let me tell you I wasn't.

Ring! ❮ — New instructions… ❯

"And what should be the ruckus about, soldiers?" Her voice was clearer than crystal water gushing forth right from a split rock in the mountains. Where did the lady come from? It didn't matter, and marking her entrance with the solitary sound of her heels, her soldiers jumped down on their knees at once, shouting two sharp and distinct "Your Highness!" in front of the noble lady.

On the battlefield, back when I was with the orcs, there was a certain prince among the prisoners I slaughtered who had said, "Behold me, I'm the fifth prince of my nation! We are to be saved—my sister, her army, and her heroes certainly will come to us! Also, we have a plan!" or something along those lines anyway, and that prince I put down an hour earlier happened to be the noble lady's kid brother.

When that noble lady entered the setting of the trading grounds… she promptly spotted the unique monster I was. Eh, my old man did warn me. Still, before I could be hunted down, that same noble lady, princess of the proud nation of Roerden… wait for it… adopted me, the hidden unique monster. Kinda.

I said her circumstances were complicated, and so, well, things happened. She had her own struggles and worries to grapple with, and that's how the unique monster was "adopted" by her.

Ha ha ha. What was amusing was the fact that both she and I, at the time, were ignorant of the fact that I had murdered, today, her kid brother. Well, she wasn't even acquainted with the fact that the boy died, so knowing the identity of her killer was still a long way from her.

But anyway. What a story.