CH 21

Afternoon.

I finished lunch and got ready for my outing.

Putting some money in a small bag, I changed from my court clothes to casual clothes.

Once I was ready, I left my room and walked straight to the entrance of the royal castle.

As I approached the entrance, someone called out to me.

“Aria.”

“Yuren-kun?”

I turned around and saw him running towards me.

I stopped and waited for him to catch up.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah. I thought I’d go to the town for a bit.”

“Hmm, was today your day off? I saw you working in the morning.”

“No, it wasn’t my day off. I’m going to the city to gather materials for transmutation.”

As I answered, Yuren-kun tilted his head.

If I declared the transmutation materials I needed, I could have them prepared for me. I didn’t need to go gather them myself, but I had a different way of thinking.

“I’ve always gone to collect materials myself since I was young. While it’s nice to have them prepared, there are new discoveries and different ideas that come up when I go look for them myself.”

“Oh, I see. Does that mean you’re planning to go outside the city too?”

“Well, yeah. There’s also the forest, and I wanted to see for myself what’s out there.”

I have already received approval from Laura-san.

Irina-chan also has princess duties today and cannot come to help.

The request has been completed for now, and I have a bit of peace of mind.

So it’s a good timing.

“I’ll be back in the evening.”

“I see. Hmm, okay! Then, I’ll come with you.”

“Huh? You too, Yuren-kun?”

“What’s with that face? You don’t want me to come with you?”

Yuren-kun gave me a sullen look, and I shook my head vigorously.

“I don’t mind.”

I was just surprised.

After all, Yuren-kun is a prince, and can’t just leave the castle easily.

But then I remembered that he had frequently snuck out before.

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“It’s fine. My schedule was free anyway——”

“Yureeen! Where did you go?!”

I heard Hisui-san’s voice calling Yuren-kun loudly.

Yuren-kun flinched slightly and looked away with a displeased expression.

“They’re calling you?”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Let’s hurry up and head out to the city!”

“Huh, hey!”

“Just hurry up! It’ll be a hassle if he catches us.”

Catch us? Did he run away?

Before I could ask, Yuren-kun grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the royal castle.

We ran down the slope that led from the royal castle, feeling the wind in our faces until we reached the area where the town of the capital city was visible.

“Phew, he won’t be able to find us here.”

“Haa, haa…”

“Hm? Are you okay?”

“Yuren-kun, you, suddenly started running…”

I was out of breath.

Yuren-kun seemed fine, looking relaxed.

“Weren’t you fine when we used to run around the forest all day? Have you gotten soft from serving in the court?”

“Th-That might be true…but is it okay? Hisui-san were looking for you, right?”

“It’s fine. It’s always like this.”

“Always like what…”

In other words, the prince regularly sneaks out of the castle like this.

I couldn’t help but wonder if it was okay for a prince of a country to do that.

“Don’t you need an escort?”

“I have the skill of a sword, so I don’t need an escort. Rather, it’s Aria who needs one.”

“Huh?”

“If anything were to happen to the promising new Transmutation Master, it would be a problem, right? So today, I’ll be with you, Aria, to serve as your escort.”

With that said, Yuren-kun pats his right chest.

It’s a declaration of his will to protect, but I can’t help but feel it’s disrespectful to be escorted by a prince.

However, from this moment, I started to feel a… somewhat unpleasant gaze.

❂❂❂❂❂❂

After touring the city, we decided to explore the forest for the rest of the time.

By the way, we couldn’t find anything good in the city.

“There were some interesting materials, though.”

“Yeah. But they might not be suitable for wheat.”

“You’re already looking ahead to the next thing. Impressive.”

“It’s not like that. We’ve only completed one so far.”

We developed a new variety that is resistant to humidity five days ago.

Now we’ve planted the seeds in the actual environment and can only hope they grow well.

The experiment was successful, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

However, the development of other new varieties is difficult.

Today’s material collection was also meant to search for something that could be used for wheat making.

“There are other things to do. We have to keep working hard.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. It will be troublesome if you collapse.”

“Okay, I understand.”

“Really? You say that, but you seem to be pushing too hard without realizing it. You’ve always had the tendency to overwork yourself.”

Yuren-kun gave me a suspicious look.

When he said that, I felt a little weak.

I laughed and changed the subject, trying to distract myself.

“By the way, the people in the city seemed calm even though Yuren-kun was with us?”

“Well, that’s because it’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

“How often do you slip away?”

“About once every three days or so.”

It was a higher frequency than I thought.

Is Hisui-san also having a hard time with this?

“Why——”

I was about to ask why Yuren-kun slips away when suddenly I felt a freezing cold sensation down my back.

When I realized it was a killing intent, an arrow was already flying towards us.

“Huh——”

“Get down!”

Yuren-kun pushed my head down.

I instinctively crouched down as the arrow grazed over my head.

Yuren-kun unsheathed his sword and stood in front of me as if to protect me.

I couldn’t comprehend the situation.

Even in my state of confusion, I felt the fear of death.