Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Victory Celebration Party
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As the morning sun rose, unfamiliar corpses had joined the Great Chieftain's body, but no one noticed anything amiss.
"Could it be leftovers from what the Great Chieftain ate?"
"Who knows. Still, if we leave them like this, they might turn into undead, so let's cremate them."
Perhaps it was a small mercy, but they received a funeral far more lavish than their deeds warranted.
Duke's invisible hand had thus restored normalcy without anyone being the wiser.
The expedition greeted a peaceful morning in this manner.
"What about the prisoners?"
In response to an adventurer's question, Ari explained the next plan (on Rex's behalf).
"It'll be tough moving this many at once, so instead, stay in the nearby village we spotted on the way here."
Money had already been discussed with a senior knight, so there was no worry there.
Duke, listening to Rex's plan, got excited to himself that this part matched the original story.
'In the original, they only saved half the people.'
In the original story, there was no rescue team or assault team.
Realizing the Great Chieftain had been assassinated, the demons devoured the prisoners in a desperate frenzy, resulting in only half surviving.
Rex's main goal had been assassinating the Rank 4 demon anyway, so the operation succeeded, but it was an episode that left a bad taste.
Compared to the original, this perfectly successful operation had Duke nodding vigorously.
Then, a girl approached him.
"Knight sir!"
Duke had to bow his head even lower than usual at the little child's call.
"What is it?"
His voice maintained its usual gravity and sternness, but he chose softer words than normal.
'Even for the sake of the concept, I can't scare a kid.'
Rex, Ari, and even the adventurers with Duke were shocked by the uncharacteristically gentle tone, but Duke paid it no mind.
The girl, apparently still lacking big data on this world's knights, reached out with sparkling eyes.
As Duke silently admired her smile, she pulled a red flower ornament from her pocket with a beaming grin.
"Knight sir! I made this flower with Mommy!"
At those words, Duke looked up briefly.
Fortunately, a woman who seemed to be the girl's mother was among the prisoners.
She looked like she wanted to stop her child but was too scared to act.
However, seeing this, Duke felt something different.
'No need to worry about slip-ups.'
If it turned out to be a memento from her late mother, a slip of the tongue might make her snap.
Of course, the risk of her snapping still lingered, but it wasn't as bad as he'd feared.
Duke subtly raised a hand to signal the mother to relax, then focused on the girl again.
For whatever reason, she grinned widely and stood on tiptoes to hold up the flower.
"Here! For you, Knight sir!"
Duke silently looked down at the flower she'd made.
It was a red camellia fashioned from knitting(?).
Crude compared to a craftsman's meticulous work, but that hardly mattered.
Maintaining his silence, Duke took a step back from the girl.
And his next action was something no one present could have imagined.
Swish.
Duke knelt before the girl, deep enough that the hem of his cloak touched the mud.
"Gasp."
Duke wondered who had gasped, but he couldn't turn his head in this moment—he focused solely on the girl before him.
She, too, tilted her head, not yet understanding his action.
Duke spoke to her in a slightly gentler voice.
"Little one. Would you pin this badge on my cloak for me?"
Realizing the meaning, she replied,
"Yes!"
With a pure, innocent smile, she attached the red camellia to Duke's left chest.
The girl smiled.
"Pretty!"
"I'll treasure it."
Duke stroked her head with his gloveless hand and sent her back to her mother.
When he returned to the group afterward, Ari looked worriedly at his cloak.
"It'll take days to find a place to launder it—is that okay?"
She was surely pointing at the mud on the hem.
But Duke didn't mind.
"Worn boots and a muddied cloak hem are a knight's true badges of honor. Pay it no mind."
Hearing that line, she exclaimed in admiration, 'As expected...!'
Nearby adventurers were impressed too.
"Ugh...!"
Some even clutched their chests and collapsed from a lethal dose of romantic shock.
Duke, basking in the respectful gazes drawn to the camellia, proudly puffed out his chest.
Among the prisoners, he spotted the girl waving brightly.
"Knight sir! I'll grow up to be a knight too!"
Duke saluted the pure girl and thought,
'Tch. Maybe I let those demons die too painlessly.'
On the road back to the territory's capital(?).
Duke enhanced his hearing inside the carriage to eavesdrop on the adventurers' chatter.
"I mean, he just whoosh!boom! swept away the demons like that!"
"You guys should've seen it!"
Duke's lips under his helmet never stopped curling upward as he listened.
'Yes. Spread tales of my exploits far and wide.'
This was precisely why he'd 'insisted' on including a few adventurer parties in the assault team.
Someone had to witness his one-man army to spread the legends.
(Of course, he'd framed it to Rex as caution, providing combat support and a reserve force just in case.)
Legends for the Final Boss known as the Empire's Sword were forged this way, one by one.
During the journey back to the capital, Duke napped briefly, lulled by tales of his own heroism.
Over the next few days, they entrusted the prisoners to the nearby village,
returned to the capital to claim their rewards,
and spent a few days catching up with fellow adventurers.
As Rex handled various matters, a letter arrived before him.
[The lord has invited us to a party. It's to express thanks for rescuing the citizens this time.]
The envelope contained four invitations enclosed.
Ari and Duke had different reactions to Rex's telepathic voice in their heads and the message floating before their eyes.
'Finally, Sir Rex is getting the recognition he deserves and rising in the ranks!'
'That old coot's finally going all-in on the desperate plays.'
Duke easily guessed the lord's intent from the letter.
Having slain the demon he'd carefully(?) nurtured—and without even bringing back the heart—the man's eyes must finally be rolling properly.
With little life left anyway, he was probably plotting some desperate move against Rex.
'The original party was thrown for the same reason.'
It was an event already predicted from the original story's party.
However, the count had one unfortunate fact working against him.
'Rex isn't the type to misread situations for nothing.'
In that party, Rex survived somehow.
The count underestimated Rex's combat prowess and planned to poison his wine to weaken him for assassination.
But Rex claimed he was weak to alcohol and abstained, and he'd even invited another lord, blocking the vassals' group ambush plan entirely.
'Who'd believe a superhuman is weak to booze or invites another territory's lord to a party just because they met on the road.'
Naturally, to outsiders, it looked like the count's moves were read and he'd been played by Rex.
Of course, all this happened without Rex even realizing.
The party ended up gifting the already balding count even more stress-induced hair loss.
'So I could just attend the party and enjoy without normalizing anything.'
With Duke there this time too, any shady tactics would be limited.
Finishing his thoughts, Duke feigned nonchalance and suggested to Rex,
"We should get formal attire tailored before the party."
Rex naturally recoiled.
For a shut-in asocialite, getting fitted for clothes was brutal torture.
[Can't we go tomorrow?]
Absolutely not.
Ari, now accustomed to Rex's personality, dragged her master out of his room.
"Come on, let's get fitted, Master."
If hauling Rex over her shoulder to the tailor looked like a kidnapping, it was surely just his imagination.
Thus, Duke headed to the now-familiar clothing shop with the two.
Ding.
A kindly dwarf woman greeted them warmly as the door chime rang upon entry.
"Welcome! What can I do for you?"
"We've come for tailoring."
Duke stated their purpose as the group's representative.
She couldn't hide her troubled expression.
"Oh dear. Off-the-rack purchases are fine, but tailoring today will be difficult."
"Hm? Why is that?"
"Someone reserved the shop earlier today."
"I see."
If Duke were an ordinary knight of this world, he might have thrown a tantrum about prioritizing someone else, but he was different.
"Understood. We'll come back tomorrow then."
The shop owner knew Duke's character well by now, which was why she'd said it.
Duke was about to leave with a disappointed Ari and relieved Rex.
But before he opened the door, someone rang the bell and entered.
"I've been waiting! Welcome!"
The owner greeted the entering guest in an excited high tone.
As Duke confirmed the newcomer's face, the owner's cheerful voice seemed to slow.
Black bobbed hair and obsidian eyes.
It was her—the one Duke had longed to meet.
And she, upon entering, seemed to live in the same slowed time as Duke.
"You are..."
"Sir..."
Duke and she—Hana—parted their lips simultaneously.
They closed their mouths, yielding the chance to speak to the other.
Realizing they'd been yielded to, they opened their mouths again at the same time.
"It's been a while."
"I never expected to see you here."
Confirming their words overlapped again, they burst into light chuckles.
The knight so exemplary he seemed inhuman,
and the queen so perfect she was unapproachable—
showed such human exchange that their retinues were stunned.
'He/She has this side too.'
As the groups harbored such sentiments, the two slipped into their own world.
"What brings you here, sir?"
"Tailoring for my companions."
Duke subtly stepped aside to introduce his group.
She instantly recognized the man and woman behind him as Duke's liege and maid.
"My apologies. I got carried away seeing a familiar face. May I introduce myself belatedly?"
Rex nodded.
"I am Lord Sneria, who governs the territory to the east of this one."
Duke unwittingly sighed in relief at how she introduced herself to Rex with a brushstroke rather than a whip.
Then, noticing his own reaction, he stiffened his cheeks.
'Was I jealous?'
Duke panicked briefly but soon admitted it.
So what if he was jealous?
Having finished introductions with the group, Hana turned her gaze to Duke.
With a faint smile she never showed her vassals, she said,
"Sir. If it's alright, shall we get fitted together?"
Rex shook his head at 250Hz from behind Duke at her invitation to join, but Duke ignored it lightly and nodded.
"I'll gladly accept your kind offer."
Gyaack—
The sound of Rex melting like slime came from behind, but it was of no concern to Duke.
In the fateful meeting at the clothing shop, the two groups chatted while getting fitted.
"Sir Duke and I met like this..."
"Hehe. I see."
The conversation centered mainly on Ari and Hana.
Duke gave appropriate responses for his image but wasn't one for chit-chat,
and Rex simply couldn't converse.
As a result, Hana quickly bonded with Ari.
During their talk, Hana attempted to build rapport with Rex too.
Her first step: permitting informal speech.
"You needn't use honorifics with me either, Sir Rex."
If Duke addressed her informally, then his liege Rex ought to do the same.
However,
No no no!
Her attempt failed against Rex's vigorous head-shaking aura.
Thus was born the ultimate rock-paper-scissors mismatch: Rex formal with Hana, Hana formal with Duke, Duke formal with Rex.
Ari and the vassals were confused by this odd hierarchy, but the parties involved chatted on unconcerned.
"By the way, what are your thoughts on a ruler's duties, Sir Rex?"
Amid this, she posed a question she'd long pondered.
What philosophy did the man Duke served hold?
Rex answered haltingly despite his speechlessness.
"I think... a ruler is someone who takes responsibility proportional to their power."
Hana brightened and agreed with Rex's ideals.
But Duke, listening to their exchange, thought differently.
'Subtly different.'
Rex didn't want the throne because rulers must bear responsibility.
Conversely, she clung to it believing only she could fulfill a ruler's duties.
Yet...
'Ironically, Rex suits being a ruler more than Hana.'
To put it harshly, she lacked the ability to realize her ruler's ideals.
Her character was upright, and her talents exceptional by this world's standards.
However, to achieve her ideals, her abilities remained at a medieval level.
Devising welfare and reinvestment without precedent caused backlash everywhere,
and she even had to abandon strength as a lord to pursue it.
'Rex could balance both.'
In contrast, Rex's administrative skills surpassed hers.
Operating not just territories but kingdoms—even empires—in administration; comparing was absurd.
'Dreams are noble, but reality is so harsh.'
Duke gave a wry smile watching Hana delight in meeting a kindred spirit for the first time.
Once the conversation with Rex ended, Duke called to her.
"What is it, sir?"
Duke hesitated looking at her face but soon decided.
'Eh, this little variation should be fine.'
In the original, the other territory's lord Rex pitied and invited to the party was none other than Hana.
Rex, thinking a lord being uninvited felt like bullying, transferred an invitation out of sympathy.
However, Duke decided to indulge in a tiny whim in this world.
"Might you have time free next week?"
"Pardon?"
"Lord Karognar has invited me and my liege. I have one invitation allowing a partner, and you came to mind."
"Why this..."
Duke recalled a line she often said in the original.
"There's a saying in the East: once is chance, twice is fate, thrice is destiny."
Hana gasped at Duke's words.
Duke drew the letter envelope from inside his cloak.
"Will you grant me the honor of escorting you?"
At his question, Hana nodded and took the envelope he offered.
Watching her shyly accept the letter, Duke mulled over his own words.
Once is chance.
'We met by chance in this territory,'
Twice is fate.
'Fatefully in this clothing shop,'
Thrice is destiny.
'I'll make it destiny at the party. Hehe.'
As he thought this, Hana's thoughts diverged slightly.
'Once on the battlefield.'
'Twice in this territory.'
'Then, this time...!'
If she were a beastkin, her tail would be spinning like a propeller right now.
Thus, the two smiled at each other, each harboring different thoughts.
A subtle misunderstanding lay between them, but it was trivial, like everyday occurrences.
That subtle difference mattered little to the parties involved.
'Destiny is mine to forge.'
'That line too—this must be fated love.'
In the end, result-wise, it was truly, truly just a minor discrepancy.