Chapter 56: Fortress 05

Translator: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ

“Harold, keep an eye on the messenger,” Lector said as he looked forward after he had driven the Origlow messenger from the parlour.

But nothing happened at a glance except for Lector’s words fading into the air.

But now I know that at that very moment, Harold had moved from this place to where the messenger was.

If I hadn’t consciously searched for this movement of magic, then I wouldn’t have been able to find even a single trace of it.

Jin and Harold; these two men were General Lector’s shadows.

They are brilliant shadow guards.

They had been there at the beginning of my acquaintance with General Lector, and yet I had no idea who they were.

It seemed that if someone with the highest level of ‘Covert’ really put their mind to it, their existence wouldn’t be detected by others unless someone with high magic power tries hard to find them.

I had no idea that there were people like that around us.

By the way, I also have a female shadow named Alice following me around.

General Lector assigned her to me.

She’s a versatile woman who also serves as my tutor.

She not only protects me from the shadows, but also teaches me the mannerism and behaviours of a noble woman. Yes, she’s judging every move I make. She said that I am far from graceful.

I can only hear her voice in my ear.

But no matter how much I beg, I can’t seem to catch a glimpse of her.

Apparently, she has always been really reclusive and shy.

She really didn’t want people to see her.

I heard that most people with the ‘Covert’ skill are like that.

Therefore, no one has ever seen Jin, Harold or Alice, not even Lector.

Of course, they were all recruited by Lector, but when I heard about them the first time, I was amazed that he was able to find them.

My (temporary) husband has a lot of talented people around him.

 

A few days later, Garwin came to give his report with sparrows, pigeons and crows on his head and shoulders, “It seems that the Origlow messenger has quietly left the kingdom. I just heard about this from Harold.”

This person is also a first-class tamer. He can tame and use a variety of magic beasts, especially birds. Every time I see him, he has a variety of birds on his head and shoulders; apparently, they were all his magic beasts. His main job is to use his magic beasts to gather all kinds of information, and relay information.

He didn’t have birds attached to his body because it was his hobby to have them with him, they were attached to him, so they rode on his body by themselves.

Birds, you’re so free.

His surroundings are always noisy with chirps and cries of birds because of that.

The birds seem to like to talk a lot, and their chatter is mostly charming.

『The gardener in the back garden is lazy, so we can get all the bugs we want!』

『I’m telling you the glass that the crows collect is in the way! Don’t take them out of your nests! It’s sticking out of your nests!』

『Shut up! The glass is pretty, isn’t it? It’s sad that you don’t understand its elegance.』

『You know, ripe persimmons are delicious. There’s so many now! They’re dangling from the tree. Ufufufu~.』

They always talk about things like that, so I feel envious of them, but also not at the same time.

It’s surprisingly annoying to be able to understand what they say…

But come to think of it, Lolo is also a magic beast, so maybe Lolo might like Garwin better? I thought, but he said, “Lolo-san is special. She’s not a magic beast that can be tamed. How did you get her to obey you?”

Huh? Magic beasts have levels too? Eeh.

Well, it’s not that I’m amazing, the magician who made her promise to obey the person who healed her eyes was amazing…

Lately, Lolo has been sleeping beside me again, and when she wakes up, she asks, “Where’s my food~?” which made me forget that she’s a magic beast. She’s not that different from a normal cat.

She’s been following me everywhere I go lately, and it’s very cute. She wakes up from her sleep every time I move from one room to another and follows me. How cute is she~? I also pick her up and try to rub her cheeks whenever this happens, but she hates it. But it doesn’t matter, she’s cute.

“Anise-sama… it would be really troublesome if your magic beast fights seriously. It’s the opposite of cute,” Garwin always says this whenever I say that Lolo is cute, but even if he says that…

But this kitten is… well, she certainly wasn’t a normal cat when I saw her movements at Origlow’s castle, but she didn’t look belligerent either.

Lolo looks so peaceful and well-behaved whenever she comes to my feet and curls up to sleep.

“But we’re really lucky that this Saint with such a dangerous weapon wasn’t secured by Origlow! Well done, Lek. Anyway, getting married to her is the best way to prevent her from being taken by them. You’re a great Prince, you’re doing a great job for your kingdom.”

Gahaha. The Vice-General laughed. He was the person who was doing all the work I imagined a General would do. Of course, he was also recruited by Lector, so his skills are top-notch.

The Vice-General’s name is Jouvence. He’s a middle-aged man with a lot of muscles and looks exactly like the general I had imagined. He’s well-liked by the soldiers and was said to be unbeatable with a sword. His appearance made those rumours completely believable.

Getting married for the kingdom… well yes. It does look like he got married for his kingdom. Of course, I have no complaints about this. I mean, I don’t have any input in this. After all, that’s the most convincing reason.

“I won’t get married just for my kingdom,” Lector said.

 From the Vice-General’s perspective, it clearly looks like a political move.

Right now, I’m being ‘protected’ by the Farglow royal family.

When I hear the words ‘for the kingdom’, I believe that I might still not be familiar with the status of a ‘Saint’, or maybe I’m just thinking about it too lightly. At any rate, in my mind, I’m still a person from another world who doesn’t have a single relative here.

That’s why I didn’t expect Origlow to easily change their mind and want me as a Saint.

I was extremely surprised that the same people who treated me as useless and threw me away would now add -sama to my name and say that they will take care of me.

Is the ‘Saint’ really that important?

When I asked Lector about this, he replied, “Well, there’s only one person who appears with your level of ‘Saintness’ and being able to heal people gives one a lot of influence.”

In other words, I felt like they were rare animals.

Still, I think having a lot of influence is the important part.

From what I heard later, ‘General Lector married the Saint’ was celebrated by most people in the kingdom. What a surprise.

Whether it was a simple wedding or an elopement, the fact that the royal family has ‘custody’ of the ‘Saint’ by marriage was generally perceived as a good thing.

Everyone I met had complimented General Lector for doing a good job.

However, they didn’t mention at all that the ‘Saint’ was a plain woman with not much to offer.

The people just complimented the General for ‘marrying the Saint’.

What am I, an expensive prize?

Oh, I’m a rare animal?

Well, whatever. I’ll just make the most of my position and grab hold of my life.

My original goal of gaining favours and obtaining a bright future hasn’t changed.

The only thing I hadn’t expected was that Origlow would persistently demand the return of said rare animal. What’s with their obsession? They already have a Saint, don’t they?

Origlow’s obsession was so strong that the General’s aides even suggested that I should have more guards.

They began suggesting that Origlow might take me back even by force.

Hey, isn’t that called kidnapping?