CH 42

"Um..... My mother's an..... adventurer? .....Even though she's the queen?......"

The second prince tilted his head with an expressionless face and half-lidded eyes.

Indeed, it's strange for the queen to be an adventurer.

She originally came from a county, so it would have been difficult for her to become an adventurer even when she was single. Because she was a count’s daughter.

I can't explain that part either, so I looked towards Ursch-kun.

Since he was the one who brought it up, he must know something about it, right?

Catching my gaze, Ursch-kun smiled and nodded.

It seems he does know, and was going to explain now.

"Did you know that the Queen was originally from the Lambert County? What about their territory?"

No, I don't know about the territory. I only knew she was from the Lambert household because of the appraisal.

It was the prince who answered the question instead.

"......It's the land where the country's largest dungeon is located...... My grandfather, Count Lambert, is in charge of managing the dungeon city as part of their territory.......Right?...."

Ooh~ So there was a dungeon in the queen's hometown.

And if it's our country's largest, does that mean there are others?

I should look into that later.

"But what does that have to do with the queen?"

Even if there was a dungeon in the territory, it is unlikely for the Count's daughter to be allowed to enter it, let alone become an adventurer.

Allis-chan must have thought the same, and nodded repeatedly.

"About that. There's this 'Monster Tempest' where demons overflow in large numbers, and historically the dungeon in the Lambert territory have had many of them. The task of stopping those demons from escaping the dungeon falls on the Lambert County and five other associated households. The Lambert Household is said to fight at the frontlines."

"So in other words, before the queen married into the royal family, she was trained to fight the demons as a member of the Lambert household?"

And if the need arises, they planned on sending a noble lady to fend off the demons?

The Lambert house is friggin cool.

"That's right. Children born in the Lambert family and the five associated with it, regardless of gender, are moved to a different house in the dungeon city at a very young age. After registering as trainee adventurers at the age of 5, they are able to collect herbs and other materials at the dungeon's first floor, and by the age of 8, they'll be thrown into the dungeon on a monthly basis~ It seems there are guards assigned to them, but half ends up dropping out before they reach adulthood~"

I'm too afraid to ask what he means by dropping out, but I do understand that the queen came from an abnormally spartan, battle-orientated household.

Come on, Child Welfare Act. This was abuse in a way.

"Fueeh... why do they have to go that far~?"

The Lambert family was so spartan that

Even Allis-chan, the wurm exterminator, was turned off.

"The dungeon there is special, see~ It's the only one on this continent where the first floor of the labyrinth is exposed above ground~ That's why it's easy for demons to escape, and the dungeon is surrounded with high walls and shields."

"The first floor is exposed above ground"? What does he mean by that?

I was confused because I couldn't imagine it, and it must have shown on my face.

Ursch-kun supplemented more information about dungeons.

"You see, normally dungeons begin with a cave-like entrance, and the first floor is underground, or buried in the ground, more like. But the dungeon in the Lambert territory takes the shape of a crater aboveground, which serves as the first floor and the entrance. Incidentally, it can be classified as a labyrinth type, but it's more of forests or ruins that are easy to get lost in. There is no roof or ceiling, so demons escape into the territory unlike in other dungeons~"

Isn't that a huge problem?

This means the people in that territory are constantly living with the danger from demons, right?

"Thanks to that, the citizens of the Lambert territory are also fairly strong...... The soldiers from that territory are especially strong even within this country~ If they decided to rebel, it could spell the end of the country, and so the royal family wanted to keep strong ties with the Lambert family. That led to the marriage between the current king and queen. The queen wanted to continue being an adventurer, so she absolutely didn't want to marry into the royal family at first~"

I guess the citizens were trained by the environment...

Also, as I thought, marriage between royalty and aristocrats involved various circumstances like this.

"Ooh~ But now, His Majesty the King and the Queen are getting along very well, aren't they?"

"Yup. It may be disrespectful to say this, but.... His Majesty is..... somewhat eccentric. It seems he allowed the queen to continue her adventurer activities, and recently the kingdom's knights have adopted the Lambert-style training, with the new recruits being thrown into the dungeon..... This was probably the queen's suggestion and His Majesty approved it. It seems they had hit it off in that direction?"

Come to think of it, my mother, the former princess, is a bit of an eccentric too....

Well, for a political marriage, I'm glad that it turned out so well.

The only thing I'm concerned about is....

"Ursch-kun....The queen is still an adventurer? An active one?"

"Yeah, though not doing anything too big. She's working in secret, or rather, working while hiding her identity. She wears a mask and puts on men's clothes. I guess it's supposed to be her disguise, but it's super obvious.... because of her Lambert family's unique hair color."

Yes. The queen's hair was a rare and beautiful pink-gold color.

I see, so that hair color was unique to the Lambert family.

Hm? Come to think of it, I feel like I've heard about someone wearing a mask and in men's clothes... What was it? Oh well.

"And that's why I thought the prince would be instructed by the queen before joining the knights~"

I see. Surely the queen, who seems to have a hand in the current knights training, would also train the second prince? Lambert family style too.

But a dungeon, huh~ Since I'm in a fantasy world now, I'd love to visit one.

I want to see dragons, and other monsters than just slimes and worms.

Alright, I'll invite Ursch-kun.

"Ursch-kun. Let's have a dungeon date someday."

"Sure. Think we'll find any good item materials there?"

"It's be great if we could try some dungeon gourmet that can only be found in dungeons!!"

As Ursch-kun and I were planning our dungeon date, Marcus-san and Paul-san returned.

"We're back~ Hey Lady Isabella, that amount of wurms was really impossible. I couldn't handle them all, so I burned most of them. Here's the magic stone you missed."

As soon as Marcus-san came in, he threw a bag of magic stones over to me.

Allis-chan and I also got sick of the wurms midway through and gave up on the magic stones collection, but...

I see, I could've just burned them.

After thanking Marcus-san for the magic stones, Paul-san approached us.

"Young Master Ursch....if you don't mind, could you please heal me?"

"Heal you? Sure. Are you hurt? What's wrong?"

Paul-san was holding the right side of his chest...

Oh, come to think of it, I sent Paul-san flying, didn't I? For about 30 meters...

"Uwaah!! That's right! Paul-san I'm so sorry!! Are you okay?! No, you wouldn't need healing if you were okay!! How bad is it?"

Paul-san waved his hand with a bitter smile.

"No, I braced myself during the impact so there's nothing to worry about. If you hadn't done that, the wurm would have swallowed me whole, so thank you for saving me."

"Hm? Isabella, did something happen between you and Paul?"

I explained how I kicked Paul-san away to the confused Ursch-kun.

"Isabella, you're lucky that Paul-san can protect himself on the fly despite not being a combat personnel. An ordinary person probably wouldn’t get off with just an injury."

"I'm really, truly sorry."

I took responsibility and casted healing magic on Paul-san.

He had four broken ribs. I really am so sorry, Paul-san.

Towards the end of the treatment, Paul-san suddenly remembered something and asked me a question.

"By the way, Miss Isabella, did you... throw a carriage from inside the city walls to the outside yesterday?"

"Huh? I did... why?"

Hearing my reply, Paul-san held his head and groaned: so the lady in question really was Lady Isabella.

If we're talking about a carriage throwing done yesterday, then it was probably the one during the second prince's kidnapping, right?

I say "kidnapping", but the queen gave her cooperation too, so in a sense the prince was just sneaking out?

After regaining his composure, Paul-san raised his face and began to speak.

"We've just received a call from the Madam, saying that there was a kidnapping incident at the royal palace's tea party yesterday. And, there was a bit of an uproar over it,"

"Don't tell me.. over the second prince?"

My question accidentally overlapped with Paul-san's words, but I can't be bothered about that right now!!

How could this be!! The queen said she would lend a hand with the kidnapping, and that she would cover up the rest, so I was assured, but.... did the carriage throwing stand out too much?!

Thinking back, when we were stopped by the Imperial knights, they probably saw the sack with the prince in it.....

Crap, what now. Kidnapping royalty is a major crime!!

However, indifferent to my inner panic, Paul-san's reply was unexpected.

"Huh? No, the one who was kidnapped is the son of the Mage's Order, Gijs-sama. He had disappeared from the middle of the tea party. But please do not worry, everything will be fine. So, about the carriage..."

The son of the Order of Mages, Gijs?

He had gone somewhere in the middle of the tea party with an encyclopedia in hand, you know?

Hm? Come to think of it..... I guess he didn't come back after....