Chapter 184: I Accepted A Request From Damsel Scarlet!
Currently I have a Ryoku stand watch. I was wondering how Shadow might come at me, but since he was summoned by the king after his room blew up, he talked about his blunders, and requested his own dismissal and additional guards for the sake of the king\'s safety, but the king rejected all of it, declaring that he\'d personally apologize, if I should ever show up in front of him.
Shadow became ghastly pale when he heard that, and insisted on offering his head to me, but the king had him withdraw without hearing any of it.
Shadow wasn\'t dismissed nor imprisoned, but given that it was still a fact that he made a mistake (everyone should have heard my voice as I made sure that it\'d be played back very loudly before the letter would explode, if the letter should be burned), he was confined to his own quarters.
The part of him sitting on his chair with his shoulders slumped and his face covered by both hands in full despair was truly nice! As long as it wasn\'t him acting.
Because food couldn\'t pass through his throat either, it looks like he suffered quite a bit of damage.
I\'d like him to come up with a few more, elaborate schemes, but...well, whatever.
Let\'s send him another loud voice mail when he calms down a bit!
‘When I went to Damsel Scarlet to bid my farewell, since we\'d finally leave this place, she suddenly grasped my hands with her bowing deeply at me.
"Please! Consider it an act of mercy! With the end-of-term ball beforesummer vacation, the route for my downfall will be set!"
She frantically begged me to stay just a bit longer.
Because I was one of the people who could prove Damsel Scarlet\'s alibi and the only witness who wouldn\'t yield to the authority of the prince and his noble friends, she wanted me to become a witness stating that I was always with her, if the prince and his people should accuse her falsely.
"...If Lady Primrose has entered the prince or reverse harem route, it\'ll spell my bad end. In the case of the other routes, and especially the Cain route, it\'d develop into Lady Indra experiencing a bad end, but given that you\'ve enrolled here as male student, I can\'t believe that this will happen. In case of my bad end, they should attack me, aiming for me to break off the engagement. Otherwise, a marriage with Lady Primrose will be impossible, so..." Damsel Scarlet explained while looking pained.
"Hmm, I got it ...Well, I\'m an adventurer. If there\'s a request, I won\'t turn it down, depending on the request reward, you know?"
"I will shower you with money!" "No, I don\'t need any money. Let\'s see... We\'ve opened a restaurant at our base. You\'ll preferentially sell your black tea to that place at a cheap price."
Damsel Scarlet nodded with a prim face, "I understand! If that is the price to have you help me out, I will make it happen by any means necessary!" "I see. In that case I\'ll pitch in and help you."
With that said, I accepted a new request. And while at it, I secured myself a steady supply of delicious, black tea!
Once the end-of-term & graduation party is over, we\'ll head back to our base as I have to work on everything I neglected once again...ah, but before that, we\'ll head over to the sea! I gotta stock up on ingredients once
more!
Sword went to the guild and was currently absent. Maybe he ran away as he didn\'t want to attend the party.
When I looked around me, surveying the party venue, I spotted Smith who was being swarmed by chattering girls while donning a sad look. Once our eyes met, Smith grinned broadly and came over.
"Thanks for the advice."
He even thanked me, but I wonder why?
I tilted my head in confusion, "...Did I give you any advice worth mentioning?"
"You said that I don\'t like being popular with multiple members of the opposite sex like Lady Primrose, and you also mentioned that Lady Primrose and I share similar circumstances. ...In other words, I\'d be able to do the same as Lady Primrose."
Oh, I see!
I understood Smith\'s point, clapped my hands together, and said, "Now that you mention it."
"Once I actually tried it out, it went extremely well. ...But, could you keep it a secret?"
"It\'s not like I plan to gossip about you anyway. Rather, I\'ll gladly cheer you on as you stand on your own two feet, you know? I hate pampered brats, but I\'m able to kindly watch over those who are independent."
Smith laughed at my remark without answering, put on a sad expression again, and left.
Okay, I guess he\'ll be fine from now on. It\'s great to see that he\'s enjoying himself.
The one approaching me next was Swannyboy.
——Ever since having his true identity exposed, he\'d been suffering with his fear of me growing even worse, but he told me (with a quivering voice) that a letter had arrived, telling him to stop the investigation.
Afterwards, his parents visited for an emergency meeting, and talked with several people, resulting in his behavior normalizing.
"...I experienced various shocks after meeting with you, Indra. Looking at you, you seem very free as a commoner. I talked with my parents, and since we have some people in our family who became commoners and started their own business, we decided that I\'d go to their place after my graduation."
Swannyboy opened up to me about his life story, "...I\'m bad with social stuff, and my grades aren\'t overly good either. I was able to enter the special class thanks to Lord Shadow\'s influence, but I felt very out of place over there. That\'s why I\'ll be transferred to a class fitting my status and academic abilities during the next class change. I think I might be able to spend a more relaxed time from now on. ...Sorry for tricking you and investigating you behind your back."
——Swannyboy truly reminds me of the cockatrices living at our base. They also looked at me with such upturned, frightened eyes when we met for the first time.
"Why? I had fun with it. Your roommate being a spy is a very common story, after all!"
Swannyboy revealed an ambiguous smile at my cheerful answer.
"...I\'ve always been thinking so, but Indra, what you consider common isn\'t common at all, is it?"
"Don\'t mind the small stuff. Some of the Fthrilling storiesa I know simply go like that."
"...I see... Indra, you always looking for exciting things stems from you not understanding how exciting you are, right? I was very excited, always wondering what you might pull off next. But, in the end, I think I had fun."
"Oh! That\'s what being a man is about!"
As I laughed together with Swannyboy, the friendly chatters around us suddenly stopped, and the looks of everyone focused on the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please listen! I want to use this opportunity today to talk about a single, pitiful victim, the crimes done to her, and the criminal who committed those very crimes!"
When I turned my eyes in the same direction as everyone else, I saw the spoiled crybaby prince whining atop the stage.