The Awkward Past and the Traitor in Our Midst
Thankfully, all three women agreed to help me. Maybe this whole ridiculous situation was Lorsha's way of making it easier to persuade them? If I had stayed in that childlike form, it would have been like a ten-year-old black-haired, blue-eyed loli showing up and saying, "Oppa, can you come with me to the capital?" How the hell was anyone supposed to refuse that?
Whoa, damn. So that's why the 3B theory exists in advertising. Beauty, Beast, Baby. Throw in one of those three and you basically can't miss. And with this young Werner's face, I probably hit two out of three. Luckily, the curse that had turned me into a child wore off after some time, and I returned to my usual appearance. While Werner's face was still handsome, a few of them looked visibly disappointed.
One of those disappointed people was Melissa, who asked her question while slicing into meat that was still dripping with blood.
"By the way, we're leaving tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah. I wanted to take it a little easy, but that damn... I mean, Lorsha sent people from the Ministry of Justice to come escort me."
Calling it an escort was one thing, but it felt no different from the authorities sending men to drag me in by force. Did they think I might try to run away in the middle of it? I already knew that running would force my body into an Allahu Akbar explosion, so I had zero desire to risk my life like that.
"Weren't you two super close when you were kids? You used to hold hands and go to festivals together, right?"
"Ah, that? I only held her hand because they gave all sorts of benefits to couples."
"...Did you actually tell her that? Her face turned bright red when you grabbed her hand back then."
"Yeah, she was so nervous... so I told her I was just holding her hand to get the couple's discount. Then she suddenly blasted me with magic and ran home. What a violent little brat."
"Maknae, you are seriously the most frustrating son of a bitch I've ever met in my entire life."
Yeah, I think so too. When I dig through Werner's memories about Lorsha, this guy was the king of all frustrating idiots. He was like the impotent male lead from a romantic comedy manga. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the Black Round Table guys turned out to be the good ones trying to protect the continent from actual villains or something.
"Really? I just didn't do the stupid thing of turning down a discount I could get. That's what you call rational decision-making."
A small blood bullet shot straight at my forehead.
Of course it didn't pierce my skull. It just felt like getting smacked with a disgustingly painful flick to the forehead.
"Maknae, we promised to call that playing the field... It's a social contract of language, you know."
I felt wronged. Werner—no, my past self—was the one who played the field. Why did I have to get scolded for it?
"She got that angry? How did you even fix it? If it were me, I wouldn't have looked at your face for the rest of my life."
"How did I fix it? I just followed exactly what Heavenly Demon Grandpa, our knight commander brother, and Squar noona told me to do."
This idiot Werner always asked the weirdest people for advice about romantic problems. Heavenly Demon, Squar, and that machine-like knight commander brother. I have no idea why this sucker skipped over the married people and went straight to them.
The question Werner asked back then was...
"There's a woman who's been making things difficult for me lately. How should I handle it?"
First, Heavenly Demon seemed to mistake it for a grudge rather than a romantic issue.
"Then send a letter and lure them to a deserted valley or mountain. When they arrive, give them a silver-glowing gift from your chest. If it's too difficult to face them directly, it's fine to strike from behind. It might be different for great warriors of the murim, but you're still young, so it should be okay."
What Heavenly Demon Grandpa recommended was basically luring the target to a secluded spot and stabbing them in the back. He had probably softened the wording a bit, but Werner interpreted it differently.
Our knight commander brother answered like this. He seemed to think some young noblewoman was stubbornly clinging to Werner.
"A woman making things difficult for you... I understand. No matter the relationship, etiquette is important. Lower your posture and apologize sincerely. That is the mutual duty between people."
In short, no matter how much you dislike someone, you should still reject them politely. Of course, Werner interpreted that differently too.
And finally, Phantom Thief Squar seemed to think Werner had a crush on someone.
"Ahahaha! Our maknae is already at that age? Then take her somewhere with a clear view of the stars, tell her she's prettier than the stars, and hand her a flower."
In truth, Squar was also hopeless at romance, so she probably just copied a confession scene from one of the romance novels she read.
The biggest problem was that Werner was the type who listened extremely well to his older brothers and sisters. And this is the catastrophe that happened the very next day.
Late at night, Lorsha had been suddenly summoned near the valley. She was kicking innocent stones in irritation.
"That bastard, that absolute bastard... What? You only held my hand to get a street food discount, so don't get nervous? And you don't even apologize before dragging me out here at night?"
At that moment, someone suddenly attacked her from behind.
Lorsha instantly assumed it was an assassin's ambush and prepared to fight back. Having grown up dealing with assassins, she was more than used to it. But it wasn't an assassin or an ambush.
Before she knew it, a shining silver necklace had been placed around her neck. Even if it was called silver, it was a crude thing made from cheap metal.
"Werner? Hey, what is this?"
"...It's a gift, you idiot."
Werner was sitting on a rock, grinning playfully at her.
"A gift out of nowhere?"
"You ran off in the middle of the festival. I was going to give it to you then, but you left first, so I'm giving it now."
"Th-th-that... I don't need it, okay? I'm still mad, you know?"
Lorsha lowered her gaze to hide her flushed face, staring at the ground. It would have been better if she had just turned her head to the side.
Werner remembered what the knight commander brother had said. However, he completely misunderstood the part about lowering his posture. Instead of bowing in apology, he thought it meant to bend down and look up at the other person from below.
"Lorsha."
"No..."
Lorsha's face grew even redder.
"...I'm sorry."
Apparently unable to resist that apologetic temptation, Lorsha reluctantly accepted the apology. Then Werner handed her the flower he had prepared in advance and repeated Squar's line exactly. The twelve-year-old girl couldn't handle the embarrassment and ran away.
"That's pretty much how I apologized."
After hearing my story, both Melissa and Melkior dropped their forks and knives.
"Wow, seriously... I really should have beaten some sense into you back then..."
"No, Werner, why the hell did you ask those romance-blind idiots for advice? You might as well have asked a beggar how to make money."
I know. This idiot Werner had unconsciously charmed a girl and then made her cry.
"They're all good memories, though."
"It might be a good memory for you, but I bet that girl is still cursing your name every time she remembers it."
Melissa pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. Honestly, I was the one who wanted to sigh. If we kept talking about this, they might start thinking I was some kind of playboy who went around seducing women.
"Anyway, it's been a while since we've talked about our older brothers, sisters, and Grandpa. I kind of miss them. Are they all doing well?"
"They're all doing fine."
"Too healthy, if anything. Every single one of them."
I already knew they were all healthy. I was just asking out of formality.
"They're all worried about your body, maknae."
"Haha... There's no need to worry that much."
"Your condition isn't exactly one that doesn't require worry."
The moment Melissa said that, the air suddenly grew heavy. I was fine as long as I didn't use Grand Magic. I didn't understand why they all had to worry this much.
"That Black Round Table or Black Socks or whatever those damn bastards are called... Even when we gather information to crush them, it's all useless crap..."
"I'll take care of that problem myself, so don't worry too much."
"Originally... it was supposed to be something we looked into on a personal level."
The way Melkior suddenly switched to past tense made me frown.
"Brother... why did you just use past tense?"
The DLC about the Black Round Table had been split and sold separately by those damn game developers, so even I didn't have perfect information. Melkior glanced around cautiously before speaking in a low voice.
"It seems one of our comrades is a rat who's been communicating with those Black Round Table bastards."