Seijo no Hazu ga, Douyara Nottoraremashita – Chapter 28

But even though I was desperately trying to find the best way to escape, there’s a man standing beside me with an indifferent look on his face.

“Well, this is an interesting development. Shall I follow you for a while?”

Hah? What are you saying? Do you understand? We’ll be heading straight to the centre of your enemy nation. Oh, is that why you want to go? I don’t know what the hell this top-secret military mission is but do it on your own if you can. Ah, but did he say he was coming with me, this guy?

Enough with your jokes.

“Hey, my life is at stake here. What are you thoughtlessly saying? I’m not going.”

But he said without a care, “Come on. You can just run away if you think things are getting bad. It’ll be alright. I’ll take care of it. I’m curious about what a royal envoy will say. If it’s just you, then I can protect you, so why don’t we follow them for a bit? Besides, I’m your employer right now.”

“Ah, yes…”

That’s right. I’m receiving compensation from him. I agreed with a smile.

Also, I can’t deny that I got carelessly happy to have a handsome man say, “I’ll protect you,” even if I’m used to his face now.

Eeh, I want to be protected by this handsome man.

I’m a girl after all.

So, I picked up Lolo and moved behind Lek.

If he said so, then of course I’m ready to be protected from the start. You’re strong, aren’t you?

But well, I’m holding onto the ultimate secret weapon and I’m sandwiched between a confident handsome man and a strong priest.

I feel like it’ll be alright.

Then, Director Sultana opened the door hesitantly after he had confirmed that it was alright.

As it turns out, this Lek, my employer, is very reliable.

As my employer, he was adamantly opposed to them taking me anywhere to the castle alone.

“I don’t want my employee to be taken away without my permission,” the way he said that and stood firmly in the line of fire to negotiate with them was quite dependable and intimidating.

But it didn’t seem to have much effect on the stubborn people from the royal castle of this kingdom.

“What are you saying, youngster? Watch your mouth. You can’t refuse a request from Prince Loire. The healer over there should respond to his summons as soon as possible. If you keep refusing, then you’ll be detained,” that’s what the messenger from the castle declared.

Well, I’m just a commoner with no status after all.

But that doesn’t mean they should be stubborn, authoritative, or selfish. Doesn’t this kingdom have any polite and elegant messengers? Or did that think that someone like this is enough for some random healer from the middle of nowhere?

“We’d love it if you came with us,” can’t you say something like that?

In short, they want the newly popular healer to be sent to the castle immediately. That’s it. I don’t know why.

But, hmm, I guess the rumour really did reach the capital.

But I was lucky to have made a connection with someone from the neighbouring kingdom before the messenger came. Otherwise, I would have to leave in a hurry and start my life over from scratch again, which would have cost me a lot of time even though it’s already late autumn.

After Lek and the messenger argued for a while, the messenger finally gave in as if he didn’t want to deal with this and the three of us were taken to the castle together, just as Lek had planned.

Hmm, Lek’s a good negotiator. So, it’ll end up like this.

But I don’t want to go…

I tried my best to plead with my eyes, but it seemed that he was determined to get into the castle from the beginning. Him using a fake name is proof of this. He said his name is Lek, but that’s not the name the big guy, Galleon, swore to, is it? His real name is Lector something, right? Lek is probably just a common name.

But Father Austin was in high spirits and said, “I wish carriages were more elderly-friendly. My waist has been hurting lately~.”

What? Don’t the two of you care about my life? Father, at least, knows about my situation, but why does he seem to be enjoying himself so much?

This isn’t a field trip, you know.

I don’t want to cross any dangerous bridges if I can help it.

However, I already calculated that it would be slightly easier to return from the castle by weighing the possibility that I’ll somehow manage to fool this group of people and return safely from the castle against the possibility of running away alone and meeting someone from the neighbouring kingdom who will promise to help me seek asylum.

I have a weapon now. It’s called ‘Reverse Heal’.

I don’t know Lek’s real strength, but he’s rich and he promised to take me to the neighbouring kingdom. On top of that, there’s Lolo, the self-proclaimed very strong magic beast, and a very strong priest who has the powerful ‘blessing’ ability.

If things really got dangerous, then I’m sure I can take Lolo and escape at any time. That’s what I believe. So, until then, I’ll stay with these people.

And so, the three of us obediently got onto the carriage to be escorted to the castle.

The same carriage again…? This is nostalgic…

This time, the carriage wasn’t carrying a criminal, so it looked a little more decent, but the model was basically the same.

This carriage will make my back hurt again…

Well, I’ll fix it myself this time.

I started thinking about other things.