by Hiro Ainana
The attendant wore coral earrings on proud display.
Judging by the information in my AR display, this was from the large set of gifts I’d given the viceroy’s wife. She must have bequeathed some of them onto her staff.
Back where the coral accessories were made, I’d bought the earrings in bulk for a single copper coin each. But since there was no coral on the Shiga Kingdom coasts, their value had skyrocketed, and my “Estimation” skill told me that their market value was now anywhere between several silver to gold coins.
“This way, please.”
The friendly attendant opened the door, and I was greeted by a good deal more noblewomen than I’d expected. There were men, too, but not very many.
All of the women were wearing extravagant dresses and dazzling jewelry.
Blue gems seemed to be particularly in fashion; sapphires and blue-tinted Heaven’s Teardrops were quite popular.
Our hostess, the viceroy’s wife, was wearing a heavy-looking sapphire necklace and sparkling Heaven’s Teardrop rings and earrings.
“Welcome, Sir Pendragon.”
“I truly appreciate your invitation today.”
I gave an exaggerated noble bow to the extra-dressed-up viceroy’s wife.
“Sir Satou! It’s been so long since I have seen thee, no?”
Princess Meetia ran up to me with a bright greeting, wearing a very exotic dress.
That said, it had been only a few days since we had rescued her from the hands of the evil plunderers.
“Greetings, Princess Meetia.”
I gave a small bow and greeted the lovely young woman behind her as well.
“S-Sir Pendragon! P-please forgive my rudeness for not yet thanking you for saving me!”
“Oh, no, I didn’t do anything.”
This was Mary-Ann, Baronet Dyukeli’s daughter.
She was only about middle school age, so seeing her all dressed up gave her the charm of a preteen girl trying to seem older.
“You most certainly did!” Mary-Ann’s voice cracked. “The attack that drove off those soldier mantises came from the top of the cliff! It was you who rescued us, was it not, Sir Knight?”
Oh, I guess I sorta remember doing that.
“That was merely incidental. I was able to make it in time only because Sir Gerits was protecting you. If you must thank anyone, please thank him instead.”
“…Gerits did that for me?”
If I remembered right, the viceroy’s chubby third son, Gerits, had stayed behind to protect Miss Mary-Ann. That was probably what prompted me to chase the soldier mantis off with a pebble.
Gerits seemed to care a lot about Miss Mary-Ann, so I didn’t want to get between them.
Far be it from me to interfere in a budding young romance.
“Mary-Ann, you mustn’t bother Sir Knight before he’s been introduced properly to everyone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mother.”
Her mother was young enough that she could have passed for an older sister.
She was in her thirties but carried herself like a sad young girl.
According to my prior investigations, Miss Mary-Ann had an elder brother who was in poor health.
“Apologize to Sir Knight and Lady Reythel, not to me.”
Obediently, Mary-Ann bowed apologetically to the viceroy’s wife and me.
So Baronet Dyukeli’s wife was close enough with the viceroy’s wife to call her by name, then.
“Shall we, Sir Pendragon?”
The viceroy’s wife led me to the platform in the center of the hall, and the eyes of the nobles all gathered on us.
“Allow me to introduce my friend here. This young man is Sir Pendragon, a very dear guest of our family.”
She emphasized this last part most.
“He is a great man who saved the Muno Barony from an army of goblins being led by a demon, defeated several lesser demons in the Ougoch Duchy, and worked with the Hero of the Saga Empire to drive a black dragon out of the Lumork Kingdom.”
Damn, word travels fast.
It might have been Counselor Poputema (the “green-clad noble”) who investigated all this information, not the viceroy’s wife, but either way, I was amazed that they’d found out so much in just a few days.
“A demon?” “So he’s a dragon slayer?” “But he’s so young!”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up surprised murmurs from the nobles.
“Most of all, he saved the life of my son Rayleigh, who was adrift at sea on the sugar route.”
At that, there were more mutters in the crowd: “Is Sir Rayleigh okay?” “Let me care for him!”
Rayleigh seemed to be quite popular among the young ladies.
Incidentally, he had spent one night in Labyrinth City, then headed out for the royal capital.
According to the man himself, he had come only to get a letter of introduction from his mother, the viceroy’s wife, so that he could sell Heaven’s Teardrops in the royal capital for large sums of money.
“He has become an explorer here in Labyrinth City and in a short time has already earned a garnet badge, proof of a first-class explorer. And only a few days ago, he saved Her Highness Princess Meetia and some young noble children from grave peril in the labyrinth.”
With that, she gave me the formal curtsy of a noblewoman.
She had already thanked me before, so this was probably a performance for the other nobles.
I bowed to her in return, then introduced myself to the rest of the tea party.
“Thank you for the introduction. As you heard, I am Satou Pendragon, hereditary knight of the Muno Barony.”
Honestly, my instinct was to downplay the exaggerated praise she’d just heaped on me, but it would be an insult to the viceroy’s wife to follow her words with an immediate denial, so I decided to save that for individual conversations.
As the introduction ended, butlers and maids entered the room, pushing tea trolleys.
The trolleys were loaded with the pastries I’d brought for the tea party: In addition to plain and sugar-coated castellas, I’d prepared some Western-style variations with whipped cream and dried fruits on top.
I’d planned to bring only the standard kind originally, but Lulu made a rare error in the oven temperature that led to the sugar coating getting slightly darker than intended, which inspired the toppings.
As it turned out, this error worked out in my favor:
“My, are these castellas?”
“They’re even tastier than the pancakes I had in the royal capital.”
“This white topping is quite delicious.”
“These dried orange fruits are positively to die for. What are they, I wonder?”
“Mother, might I have a little more?”
The ladies of Labyrinth City were even more taken with them than the normal castellas.
“Oh my, everyone seems quite captivated by your pastries, Sir Pendragon.”
“I’m relieved that they’re to everyone’s liking.”
The young noblewomen probably dined on gourmet food all the time, so it was a pleasure to see them enjoying my pastries so wholeheartedly. I couldn’t help feeling a boost to my ego, even if I knew it was only because of my maxed-out skills.
Somehow, the viceroy’s wife seemed even prouder than I was, as if she was a foremost authority on castellas.
Once things had settled down a bit, I went around to greet people at each table.
Most of them were quite friendly and often inquired about how I’d befriended the viceroy’s wife in between praising my castellas.
There were a few barbed remarks among them, but I found that the hostility tended to come from fans of the handsome Sokell, a noble who had fallen from grace when I revealed his wrongdoings.
However, from what the friendlier noblewomen told me later, these were largely people whose families had financial ties to Sokell, so there wasn’t much steamy romance afoot.
I offered some gifts to try to make amen
ds. I didn’t want them resenting me, after all.
Because most of the families in question were low-ranking nobility, I was sure the viceroy’s wife could take care of them for me, but it was better to befriend people than crush them underfoot.
“Sir Pendragon, it seems you have a penchant for helping the less fortunate, hmm?”
The women at one table brought up the soup kitchen, which had only started today.
“Yes, it’s my hope to reduce the number of the hungry so that they might be of some help to Labyrinth City’s workforce.”
“My, it wasn’t simply out of compassion?”
“That, too, of course, but I also wish to ensure that every citizen can be of use to the Shiga Kingdom.”
This came out a little cold, but I was concerned that if I came across as too compassionate, people might try to take advantage of me.
“That reminds me,” said one of the noblewomen. “Wasn’t there some sort of fire in the commoners’ district?”
“Oh dear, how very frightening.”
“Yes, I saw the black smoke from my mansion.”
“I’m told the cause was people raising monsters known as ‘oil slimes’ within the city.”
Huh, really? …Wait, it hasn’t even been a day. How did word spread so quickly?
Maybe they just investigated because they were able to see the smoke, but still.
“It’s impressive that you heard about it so soon.”
“Well, my husband is a supervisor with the guard, you see…”
According to this woman, the guard received word that some people were attempting to illegally breed and raise oil slimes within the city, so they had been planning on tracking them down and arresting them within the next few days.
Maybe that investigation was why I had seen the green-clad noble heading downtown during the soup kitchen.
“I sent one of my servants to investigate, and he saw some pink slimes get defeated by garnet-badge explorers, only to regenerate and attack again.”
“My, how frightening! I suppose slimes do have that trait.”
…“Regenerate”?
“They must not have aimed for the cores when they defeated them.”
“Cores?”
“Yes, a core is a slime’s weak point. If you pierce the core, it’ll self-destruct and turn into ordinary liquid.”
I shared the information Liza had told me way back in the Seiryuu City labyrinth.
Maybe there were some slimes that could actually regenerate, but the oil slimes I saw in the upper stratum of the Celivera labyrinth didn’t have any such ability, so my hunch about the cores was probably right.
“I would have thee come here, Sir Satou.”
As I was finishing up my greetings to the tea party nobles, Princess Meetia waved me over to a table that was primarily populated by children.
Besides the princess herself, the rest of the group I’d rescued in the labyrinth were there, too, including Miss Mary-Ann of Baronet Dyukeli’s family; the viceroy’s third son, Gerits; and his friends.
There were also some kids I’d never formally met, like the viceroy’s third and fourth daughters, Miss Gohna and Miss Shina.
“Sit thee here!”
“All right. Thank you.”
Princess Meetia patted a free space next to her on the sofa, so I sat down.
This put Gohna and Shina next to me on my other side and Gerits across from me.
The viceroy’s fourth daughter, Shina, had once had the status conditions Goblin Disease: Chronic and Miasma Poisoning: Chronic, but now the latter had changed to Miasma Poisoning: Mild.
This was probably thanks to Princess Meetia’s Breath of Purification.
According to some of my documents, Goblin Disease was a lifestyle disease brought on by vitamin deficiency, so it would be better treated by a change in diet than a cure-all from my Storage.
“Sir Pendragon, there are no words sufficient enough to express my gratitude to you for saving us the other day.”
With that, the handsome young boy sitting next to Gerits stood and gave me a high-class noble’s bow, prompting Gerits and the others to thank me one by one.
Normally, being children from upper-class noble families, they wouldn’t need to be this polite to a lower-ranking noble like myself. A brief Thanks for saving us would have been more than enough.
It’s possible that their parents put them up to it, but I decided to take this as a sign that they had simply been raised very well.
“You brought the pastries today, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Miss Gohna, who looked a good deal like her mother, requested more pastries from one of the maids before turning a rather haughty gaze on me.
“They were rather delicious…”
A lady-in-waiting wiped away some crumbs from the corner of her lips, but she swatted the woman away impatiently and continued speaking.
“…so I’ll have your chef, thanks.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Goodness, you’re slow! I’m saying my family will employ your chef!”
What’s this kid’s problem?
“I’m terribly sorry, but I’m afraid I cannot fulfill your request.”
“And why not?”
“Because I baked these castellas myself.”
Lulu had made half of them, but I didn’t want to mention that, lest it complicate the situation any further.
“H-how dare you lie t—”
“Lady Gohna.”
Gohna’s lady-in-waiting leaned in and whispered in her ear; I caught phrases like “Miracle Chef” and “your mother’s orders.”
“…I apologize for my rudeness. Please do me the great honor of forgetting what I just said.”
I was a little concerned about why Gohna had turned so pale, but it was clearly because of whatever her chaperone had said, so I simply nodded.
Her elder sister seemed to be a light eater, as she had finished only about half her pastry.
Still, she was focused on it intently as she lifted her fork. It must have been to her liking. Her manners reminded me of a cute, little animal.
“Sir Pendragon, did you bring that famous sword of yours today?” Gerits inquired.
“No, I…”
I was going to say that it seemed improper to bring a weapon to a tea party, but I swallowed those words when I noticed that he and his friends had put their swords on a side table next to the sofa.
“Awww. I was hoping to see it, since Princess Meetia said the mithril was ever so pretty…”
Mary-Ann looked disappointed, as did the boys.
“I promise to bring it to the next tea party, then.”
I made an empty promise in the hopes of cheering up the disappointed children.
On that subject, the kids convinced me to tell them tales of my labyrinth exploration.
“Are areamasters really that big?!”
“A-and you defeated one?!”
“Level thirty? I wouldn’t even be able to defeat its spawn.”
I stuck to the truth as much as I could but omitted certain details like the fact that I’d defeated several areamasters by now.
“Someday, I want to try to beat an areamaster and even a floormaster, too, like a real hero!” Gerits said dreamily.
“Don’t say you ‘want to,’ Gerits. Say you will!”
“C’mon—we’re not cut out for that…”
“Shut up, Luram! Don’t ruin our hopes and dreams!”
The young boys’ dreams for the future were so bright that I could barely look at them.
Since they were near the back of the inheritance line, they probably wanted to make names for themselves as explorers instead.
That said, they didn’t appear to have done much physical training, and only one of them had any magical abilities to speak of.
Just then, a piercing shriek rose from a table near the entrance.
“Sir Jelil!”
“You aren’t we
aring your shining armor today, hmm?”
“Have you lost a bit of weight, good sir?”
It was Baronet Jelil, the garnet-badge explorer.
“I apologize for my lateness, Marchioness Ashinen.”
I guess he called the viceroy’s wife by her family name.
“It’s quite all right. How goes your conquest of the areamaster?”
“Thanks in no small part to your support, madam, we were able to defeat it just last night.”
Huh? Didn’t I see you getting ready to fight that thing more than a week ago?
But I appeared to be the only one with any such doubts.
“Already? That’s the Red Dragon’s Roar for you!”
“To think you were able to defeat it in less than a month!”
“Thank goodness he managed it without a scratch to that handsome face.”
The noblewomen chattered away.
“Sir Jelil is something, no? Let us go congratulate him, Sir Satou.”
Princess Meetia tugged my hand, leading me into the throng of young women.
Fortunately, the viceroy’s wife called me over, parting the crowd so that I didn’t suffer any incidents.
“Oh, hello again. Damn, it’s pretty impressive that you’ve already been invited to one of the marchioness’s famous tea parties.”
Mr. Jelil seemed to remember me and beckoned me over to sit next to him.
“Sir Jelil, hast thou brought thy mithril sword today?”
“A pleasure to see you again, Princess Meetia. Alas, it seems my swordsmanship was insufficient, as it broke in the battle against the areamaster.”
“What?! Even with thy skills, Sir Jelil? This areamaster must have had tough armor indeed, no?”
“Yes, even a sturdy mithril alloy war hammer was unable to dent it.”
That made sense for a beetle monster of around level 50.
High-level monsters also sometimes had multiple magic barriers around them, so they could easily be tougher than their appearances let on.
“But surely thou will challenge a floormaster next, no? Will thy new weapon be ready in time?”
“I will ask all my contacts, but it isn’t easy to come by a sword like…”
Jelil trailed off mid-sentence, looking at me.
You can’t have my fairy sword, okay?
