Chapter 151
Chapter 151
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Promise
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Nice to see you again, Captain Delta.”
Lana bowed politely toward me, who had frozen dumbstruck in place at her unexpected appearance. It was her usual motion, brimming with charisma.
Except for the grass leaves stuck all over her body.
For now, the fact that Lana had shown up looking so nonchalant meant there was zero chance something bad had happened at the mansion. I completely erased my anxiety.
But that only made things more puzzling. What on earth had happened that the knights guarding the front gate had vanished somewhere, the door was wide open, and Lana had popped out from the bushes?
“Did the lord tell you to do this?”
“No way I’d tell her to do something insane like that.”
A vehement denial came back. It didn’t seem like Aurora had ordered this bizarre behavior. My doubts only grew.
“You’ve returned sooner than expected, Master.”
Lana opened her mouth calmly, unfazed by our reactions.
“There was a bit of an incident. Things just ended up like this.”
Since the person involved wore such a nonchalant expression, Aurora seemed to decide she had to give some kind of answer, replying in a voice that didn’t hide her lingering unease.
The girl who had been trembling in terror had, before I knew it, returned to being the city’s lord.
“How’s the mansion? Everything okay?”
“Yes. We’re all fine. What happened to you, Master?”
“Well…….”
Aurora’s lips twitched, then she abruptly stopped. She fell silent for a long while with her mouth shut, then loosened her grip around my neck.
“Delta. Put me down for a bit.”
“Can you walk?”
“Yeah. I think I’m okay now. Thanks for worrying.”
I did as she said, kneeling one knee on the ground to make it easy for her to get down, and relaxed the hand that had been supporting her thigh. The soft sensation of her thigh vanished. Cool air rushed into my palm.
Click. The high heel clad foot touched the marble. Aurora wobbled for a moment but soon steadied herself. Her slender fingers brushed off here and there on the dress shirt draped over her body.
Each time her body shook, the hem of the shirt lifted to reveal glimpses of her plump rear. Since she wasn’t wearing panties, even the straight, tightly clenched slit was fully visible.
After straightening her clothes in such an erotic display, Aurora walked over to Lana and whispered something softly into her ear.
Lana nodded repeatedly, listening intently to her master.
“……I see. Understood.”
The explanation seemed to end, and the lips pressed close to her ear pulled away. Lana stared straight at me with her jet-black eyes, while Aurora glanced furtively at me from the side.
I had no idea what she’d said to elicit that reaction.
“Captain Delta.”
Lana clasped her hands in front of her lower abdomen and bowed at a perfect ninety degrees.
“First, allow me to thank you for protecting my master.”
“It was just what I had to do.”
“There are countless examples in the empire’s centuries-long history where failing to do what was ‘just duty’ led to catastrophic results. Especially in urgent situations like the one Master described. We will provide compensation later for the action that saved her life.”
I wondered if what I did warranted that much, but there was no reason to refuse compensation. I nodded obediently.
“What will you do now, Captain? Return straight to the castle?”
Lana followed up with another question.
“Yeah. The issue isn’t fully resolved yet. There’s a lot I need to ask that woman.”
“I assumed she came looking for you, sir.”
“Right. But I still don’t know the reason. So I have to ask her myself.”
Even if Nix’s appearance turning into the stereotypical gloomy big-breasted shut-in girl was due to some appearance change mod, the only way to learn why she’d come all the way here to see me was to ask her directly.
It felt terribly sorry to leave Aurora like this, but I couldn’t just abandon Nix in that state at the castle. She was like a time bomb who might do anything.
“Please wait a moment, Delta.”
Lana stopped me just as I bowed to Aurora to signal my departure and turned to leave.
“You plan to continue what couldn’t be finished today at a later time?”
I thought for a moment about what she meant. It was probably referring to the outing with Aurora that had fizzled out. If so, of course I’d continue it. I nodded.
“Of course. I absolutely intend to.”
“Understood, Delta. My master will surely be counting the days.”
Satisfied with my answer, Aurora and Lana let me go without further comment, and I left the mansion with them seeing me off.
Since he left the mansion right away, Delta didn’t get to see their faces.
Lana’s face, wearing a contradictory expression of emotionless satisfaction, and Aurora’s face, blushing as she realized what her maid meant by “what couldn’t be done today.”
“Congratulations, Master. You’ve received a firm promise to continue what couldn’t be done today. You must be pleased.”
“……Should I be happy about this? Doesn’t it feel like I tricked Delta?”
“Hiding the truth isn’t the same as deceiving. Surely Master knows the difference.”
Aurora let out a small sigh. Of course she knew. But she’d never imagined a day would come when she’d use it like this.
“And women have a very powerful weapon.”
“A very powerful weapon? What’s that?”
“If Master confesses honestly that she lied because she likes Delta, he’ll surely forgive you. There are hardly any men who’d treat harshly a woman who says she likes them.”
Lana had picked it up from somewhere, so she didn’t know if it was true.
But most people couldn’t distinguish between acting confident out of ignorance and acting confident with knowledge.
It was especially effective for someone like Aurora, who had virtually no knowledge of relationships between men and women and thus couldn’t judge truth from falsehood.
“Wait. But what you just told Delta was about you, not me?”
Hearing that, Lana covered her slightly open mouth with her hand, letting out an “Oh?” without a change in expression.
“Then there’s no helping it. If I said I like Delta…… Just kidding.”
Lana checked Aurora’s expression and neatly stepped back. Aurora knew it was just a jest, so she let it slide without pressing.
Instead of interrogating her maid, who had gone from bold to downright brazen at some point, she turned her golden pupils—now shrunk smaller than a pinky nail—toward Delta’s retreating back.
“……He’s gone, right?”
“Yes, Master. Are you disappointed that Delta left like this?”
“It’d be a lie to say otherwise. The mood was pretty good until the incident. But…….”
Aurora scanned Lana up and down. She’d brushed it off, but the stains on her maid uniform’s skirt hadn’t fully disappeared. Faint brown and green spots remained here and there.
“What happened? The knights are gone, the door’s open. And why’d you pop out of the bushes?”
“It was for you, Master.”
At the answer that almost sounded absurd, Aurora crossed her arms, signaling she’d hear her out.
“If you’d achieved your initial goal and returned to the mansion with Delta, you’d have been overly conscious of us on the way to your room. Conversely, if you returned alone without achieving it, you’d have needed time to cool your head.”
“So either way, it was better with no one around, and you cleared out?”
“Yes. Of course, we didn’t neglect the mansion’s security, so rest assured. The knights are monitoring the garden from inside their quarters, through the gaps in the curtains.”
“Fine. I’ll buy that for the rest. But why were you in the bushes, Lana?”
“Is this an order to answer?”
Aurora was about to say it wasn’t an order, but changed her mind upon seeing Lana’s attitude. Something clicked.
“It’s an order.”
“Do you want a plausible answer, or the truth?”
“The truth.”
The same exchange repeated.
She immediately sensed it was Lana’s desperate plea not to ask further, but ignored it cleanly. This was the fault of the one who’d piqued her curiosity.
“……In case anything unfortunate happened, someone had to take the role of observer, and I volunteered.”
She’d worded it roundabout, but it boiled down to openly trying to watch her master’s affair.
As expected, like master, like maid.
“Where’s Nix?”
“As ordered, we put her in the captain’s room. And attached thorough surveillance.”
I returned to the castle as quickly as possible.
The people who’d fled here seemed to have calmed down and gone home, leaving only knights without their helmets wandering restlessly in uneasy faces.
They fiddled anxiously with their weapon hilts, uneasy about the witch inside the castle, but brightened upon seeing me return and bowed their heads.
“How many for surveillance?”
“Five. We intended more, but the space was too cramped; more would just hinder.”
“You attached overt surveillance, and no signs of displeasure?”
“I didn’t go in myself, so I don’t know for sure, but she said she’d follow since the captain ordered it, no complaints, don’t worry. She was docile up to entering the room, aside from the occasional creepy laugh.”
A faint crease formed on Rakshia’s forehead. Just recalling it seemed unpleasant.
The “kee-hee-hee” laugh she mentioned did feel off. Maybe the modders had tweaked the personality so gloomy characters had to laugh like that.
“Got it. And when I arrive at the room—”
I said that much, then paused.
Since I didn’t know how much Nix knew about me, the conversation had to be just between us. Worst case, she might even know I’d possessed this body.
But meeting Nix alone without guards felt a bit uneasy too.
“Captain? What’s wrong?”
Rakshia called out worriedly, as I’d suddenly clammed up mid-sentence.
“Nothing. I was just gonna say have the rest wait outside when I go in.”
“……Will you be alright?”
“No idea. That’s why I hesitated. But I have to, even if not. It might be info that could cause big trouble if it leaks.”
“Understood. Please be careful.”
Rakshia bowed politely to me.
Our first meeting was her acting aggressive toward me, then getting thoroughly thrashed with a broken straight sword while letting out those “ahn-ahn” moans, so first impressions were iffy. But as my adjutant, she was proving her competence without holding back.
She didn’t seem to mind suddenly being under my command either. Probably because the Golden Twilight Knights’ captain was such a twisted personality, making me look like a saint by comparison.
“Kroa. Open up. The captain’s here.”
Rakshia knocked upon reaching the door. It soon opened, revealing the room’s interior.
The captain’s room wasn’t much larger than the others’, so with five fully armored knights inside, the space was practically packed.
Swinging weapons properly would be tough like this.
“Ah, you’re here? Hehe.”
And the surveillance target, Nix, was lying on my bed, rolled up in the blankets like a cocoon, clutching the pillow tight.
“……?”
I froze in place, and Rakshia frowned, speaking up.
“Why’s she doing that?”
“The moment we entered, she jumped onto the captain’s bed before we could stop her. We tried pulling her out, but she clung so stubbornly that pushing harder might’ve torn the blankets first…… Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. If she insists, what can we do? Just leave her.”
I soothed the knights. If I let it slide here, Rakshia wouldn’t let them off easy.
“Rakshia. Take the others and wait outside.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Rakshia led the knights out. Click. The door shut.
Now alone in the room with me, Nix looked up with her characteristic creepy smile, face half-buried in the pillow. Her small stature made her look all scrunched up.
“Hey, you know what?”
Nix grinned.
“I’m naked right now?”