“Ugh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll clean it up….”
Honestly, if you treat this kid just a little better, he’ll find a way to get into trouble…
‘I should be praised for instantly activating the Spirit barrier and avoiding the ink from getting on my clothes. I saved money.’
Of course, I felt a bit useless for using my skills in such a trivial situation.
“Be careful in the future. Hmm? Always pay attention to every little thing when you act. Your problem is that you act without thinking first.”
“Yes… I will be careful…”
I finished my reprimand by pinching Billy’s slightly chubby cheeks as hard as I could.
“I wonder if Sir Sein has arrived at our knights’ headquarters yet. I’ll have to check that later. You clean up the ink.”
“Yes….”
After working together, Sir Sein had returned home briefly to see Judy in the morning.
Afterward, he headed to our knights’ headquarters and decided to take on backup duties with Lionel. This task was urgent, but at the same time, we couldn’t afford any gaps to form in our knight order’s regular duties.
‘Once this matter is settled, I’ll have to send Sir Lan and Billy as well…’
As I was thinking that, there was a knock, and the door opened.
“Captain, I’m back… Huh, what happened?”
As soon as Lan, who had been working on the clean up duties with other knights, stepped in, she was taken aback by the floor and tables covered in ink.
I answered with bleary eyes.
“Yeah, Billy was careless….”
“I’ll help you!”
“No, no. Billy will handle it. Don’t worry about it.”
“Yes! Don’t worry! I’ll take care of it, Sir Lan!”
“Understood, Senior!”
It was amazing to see Lan still addressing Billy as ‘Senior’. If others saw it, they would probably think it was workplace bullying.
I patted Lan’s shoulder in an encouraging way and asked.
“How was the work?”
“There was nothing major. The additional materials needed were not urgent, so I was asked to organize them later.”
“There was nothing unusual?”
“Oh, Commander Geloic called for you. He asked you to drop by when you have time.”
“I see. Okay, thanks for letting me know.”
“And… I was asked to deliver a note to you from someone.”
Lan pulled out a small note from her pocket. I tilted my head in confusion.
“Who sent it?”
“This is from Lady Elisa Serphenne.”
“…Huh? The Lady is here?”
“Yes. Some of the civilians involved in this incident were sheltered at the city hall building last night. It seems the Lady was among them.”
It seemed that Elisa had gone to find the Ruby Knights, and she must have stumbled upon Lan and sent the note through her.
“Lady Serphenne… Was she alone? Did she have any companions with her?”
“Yes, she was alone.”
“Is that so….”
Where had the Second Prince, who usually stuck to her like gum, gone off to?
And why did the female protagonist end up staying as a refugee all by herself?
“It was morning, and arrangements for returning people were being made. Also, since the Captain was busy with the aftermath, I thought it would be difficult for you to meet with a civilian. So I just received the note instead.”
“I understand… Thank you. Oh, Sir Lan, could you please take a break and contact our knights’ office? Just check if Lionel needs any help.”
“I’ll do that!”
I sent Lan off and opened the note absentmindedly. As soon as I read through the contents, a sigh escaped me involuntarily.
It seemed like the two of them had gone out for a risky outing, but instead of returning to the palace early, they had stayed outside until late.
I didn’t know for sure… and I didn’t really want to know… But I suspect there might have been some romantic progress….
Nevertheless, they must have realized the seriousness of the situation and tried to return to the palace. However, while it might have been possible for the Spirit Master, Prince Alphonse, to return alone, sneaking back with Elisa made it impossible.
Alphonse wanted to stay behind to protect Elisa, but Elisa was worried that it would damage the Second Prince’s reputation (which was understandable since they had sneaked out without an escort and was met with an accident), so she insisted on staying behind alone.
Therefore, Alphonse secretly took Elisa to the place where the knights were, returned to the palace alone to create an alibi, and Elisa blended with the civilians to receive protection.
‘I can picture a desperate situation between the two of them.’
It was a compelling love story, but the conclusion remained unchanged.
On the note, she asked me to keep it a secret that Alphonse was accompanying her.
The note revealed her deep sincere feelings, about not wanting to block Alphonse’s path.
To be honest, I felt like it didn’t matter to me, but I had no reason to actively report on the Second Prince Alphonse’s misconduct (?) either.
Of course, if the higher-ups asked about it, I had no intention of lying.
“Captain, the ink won’t come off!”
“Hey…! You really…!”
As I smacked Billy, who was spreading ink everywhere while trying to clean it up, I decided, for now, to bury this matter as per Elisa’s request.
* * *
“Thank you for your hard work, Captain Clara.”
After resolving Billy’s accident, I went to the temporary Commander’s office, where Commander Geloic, who had worked harder than I had all night, greeted me with tired eyes and offered words of praise.
“No… I was just doing what I had to do. Besides, we still failed to capture the main target of our knight order, ‘The Thief Heilbronner’ in the end.”
“Haha, come on now. You know as well as I do that Heilbronner is not the real issue here.”
I let out a faint smile.
In fact, the reason we were able to resolve the situation without significant damage was not only due to the coordination between the knight orders but also because of Heilbronner’s influence.
About half of the monsters were dealt with by the knights, but the other half were taken care of by Heilbronner.
Heilbronner, who was already known as a righteous man, was now being hailed as a hero among the citizens. The uproar everyone was making while cleaning up was no joke.
‘Even if they downplay his achievements in the newspaper, it won’t matter since the words have already spread anyway.’
From the Royal Family’s perspective, it must be quite annoying. After all, Heilbronner is a criminal who disregards the law, which can be seen as an affront to the authority of the Royal Family.
Well, anyway, given the circumstances, it was only natural that the one who caught the impersonator, who had used Heilbronner’s name to tarnish his reputation and also responsible for this terrorist attack, would receive higher praise than actually catching the real Heilbronner.
“What about the impersonator?”
“He is still unconscious and hasn’t woken up…. I guess you weren’t very lenient.”
“Ha… haha. I suppose it wasn’t a situation where I could afford to be lenient.”
I couldn’t deny that I was irritated by the fact that Gustav and the impersonator had a strangely similar fighting style, which was why I was even less lenient with him.
“Just capturing him is already quite an achievement, so it’s fine.”
“Thank you for the generous words.”
“Still, it’s a bit disappointing that you fainted after using the Blue Sword previously. Anyway, once things settle down and you’re not so busy, come find me. I’ll train you.”
“……Yes.”
So that was the goal.
You really want to push your disciple to the limit don’t you, Teacher….
As I was responding vaguely, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in. What’s going on?”
“Yes! Vice Captain Gustav has woken up. He said he’ll be coming over right away. What should we do?”
“No, someone who just passed out shouldn’t be pushing themselves like that. Tell him it’s fine and that he should rest.”
Commander Geloic waved his hand at his subordinate knights, then turned to me.
“Sir Clara, would you mind going to see Sir Gustav? I understand there are some things that have piled up due to his absence.”
“Yes, I will. I’ll head there now.”
I didn’t want to see Gustav’s face, but there were matters that couldn’t be done without him, so I had no choice. I answered obediently and left the office.
We were currently using the city hall building near the central square as a temporary headquarters for cleanup purposes, and Gustav, who was unconscious and had just woken up, was in the medical building attached to the building.
I knocked on the medical room door and heard a voice from inside saying, “Come in.” I sighed and stepped inside.
“… Ah, Clara.”
“Mm. Is your head okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks for worrying about me.”
Gustav’s expression was unusually dark. Well, he must be embarrassed since he was knocked out before he could show his skills.
“Anyway, sorry to bother you right after you just woke up, but there are a few things I need you to check.”
I opened the documents I had brought with me before entering the medical room and got straight to the point.
Perhaps due to the aftermath of collapsing, Gustav seemed a bit dazed as he answered my questions.
He seemed absentminded, like his soul was partially absent. I had never seen him like this before, except when he used to pretend to be weak in front of me on purpose, and it left me with a somewhat uneasy feeling.
“Thank you for your cooperation. Well then, that’s all….”
“Clara.”
Just as I was about to leave, Gustav called out to me. Whenever this guy tried to hold me back, it was never for anything good, so I asked him sharply.
“What is it?”
