Chapter 97 : Chapter 97
Chapter 97 Is it a Benefit? Or a Punishment?
“Since you saved everyone, I must give a reward. What do you desire?”
After the situation was organized, the winner’s award ceremony proceeded in front of everyone. In previous years, it is said that medals and prizes were awarded to all semifinalists, but this year…….
“There isn’t anything separate, but I shall grant what you desire.”
Perhaps because it was immediately after a mess, there was nothing given separately. I was the only winner too. Anyway, what should I ask for?
Money? I can get that anytime if needed. I can start something through Odekerkh. Or connect with the bank through Adellian.
Military power? No way he’d give it. If I ask for troops after showing power, it’s good for creating needless misunderstanding. If I make my people one by one and prove myself, military power will naturally form. If worst comes to worst, I can gather wandering knights and set up a mercenary group.
Should I ask for a house with a training ground? No. To grow power and raise the rank of the soul, I must find a battlefield. It doesn’t work just by swinging a sword at home.
“Do you have nothing you desire?”
I looked into Louis I’s eyes. Sorrow was conveyed. He is not looking at me. Through me, he is looking at the one he loved.
Right, the answer might have been decided from the start.
“Please investigate my mother’s death.”
“…….”
I looked at Louis I’s shaking pupils.
“Do you not trust the investigation results?”
“Are you certain it was a proper investigation?”
Louis I swallowed bitterness and scratched his eyebrow several times.
“I hope you reveal it and resolve the grievance. I implore you.”
“……Alright, I will do so.”
It seems painful to recall the death of the woman he loved most.
So irritation surged. If he loved her that much, he should have investigated more thoroughly and found the culprit. Put them on the judgment stand so the dead wouldn’t be sad anymore…… he should have done that.
‘What on earth was he afraid of to clear it away as if running away?’
Louis I swallowed a breath and nodded as if he understood.
“Today is a joyful day. It is the day the country was saved from the danger of Uresra. Among that is my 5th Prince, so my heart is overwhelmed. Now! Enjoy today. Forget the confusion and leave only joy. Get thoroughly drunk! I gladly permit it!”
At Louis I’s words, the spectators shouted cheers with all their might.
Anyway, I feel some strange gazes.
“N, now?”
“Lift immediately.”
“Can’t miss it. Lift.”
Odekerkh has a flustered face. And Adellian and Piontek are saying something to Egbaldo.
This feeling is…….
“Huh?”
Egbaldo grabbed my torso and lifted me with force. Then Odekerkh and Piontek attached themselves.
“Maxim!”
Along with Adellian’s shout, my body floated into the sky.
The spectators also shouted ‘Maxim! Maxim! Maxim!’ at the top of their lungs.
If they were going to toss me in the air, they should just do it, why like this…….
“Hehehe.”
Still, the feeling isn’t bad.
***
No.
I think I feel a bit bad.
“You should have told me where we were going beforehand. Then when asked what I wanted, I would have said a top-class carriage.”
The carriage I am riding right now is…….
“Is this a carriage? It’s a cart.”
Good carriages have suspension and such, but this is at the level of a cargo bed with a roof and wheels attached.
Rattle.
Stepping on a slightly large stone, my head feels like it will touch the ceiling. Anyway, why are those humans here?
“What?”
Adellian narrowed her eyes as if asking what I was looking at.
“You have a lot of money at home, so why are you riding this?”
“My choice. Why pick on only me? Everyone else is here too.”
Exactly.
Michelle moves following me, so let’s say that’s that. Why are Piontek and Odekerkh leaving perfectly good carriages and riding this? And that human…….
“There is much to learn from you.”
Egbaldo has a firm face as if telling me not to harbor questions.
Fine. Let’s say Egbaldo is like that.
“I got kicked out of the house.”
“No, why make the kid cry?”
As Barthe made a crying face, Adellian scolded me.
Right, I am the sinner. I am the sinner.
But.
“Why do you insist on going to the border? They said you could get guided to a good position.”
“Then why are you going to the border when you are a Prince?”
Piontek countered a question with a question.
“Because the King told me to go to the border.”
“You could have refused.”
“Hey, the winner should set an example. Royal Guard? What would I do there. Just rot in a place where nothing happens?”
Chasing only comfort is not a knight. It’s what neighborhood thugs do.
“By the way, are you guys really going to the border? You could die if you go.”
“Is it just once or twice we almost died hanging around you?”
“Right. Almost died with everything we did.”
“Wa, wasn’t it two times?”
At Odekerkh’s words, Adellian and Piontek glared at him.
“I think it’s about three times.”
Michelle organized the situation.
Adellian and Piontek did not spare abuse toward Odekerkh saying, ‘She says it’s three times.’, ‘Numbers are sensitive. Don’t reduce them.’
By the way, was it three times? It seems roughly so…….
“We can become strong.”
That Egbaldo, definitely not only his body is muscle, but his brain is muscle too.
“If we go…… there is a place to sleep…… right?”
Piontek stepped up and soothed Barthe saying, ‘There is everything. Don’t worry.’
Rattle.
Thump.
Damn carriage.
Once we arrive, I will set fire to it.
“Your Highness, we will stop for a moment.”
The coachman stopped the carriage before even hearing an answer.
I opened the window and looked outside. Trees were all I could see around.
“Why stop?”
No sound came from the coachman’s seat.
Something is strange.
I grabbed Dawn which I had hung behind the seat.
At that moment.
Clack.
“Suddenly…….”
The door of the carriage opened, and the person who thrust his face in was Adellian’s father, Darion von Rosenberg.
“……I came out to meet you…… but. Why are you all like this?”
At Rosenberg’s words, we put down the weapons we were holding and showed awkward smiles.
“Dad! Suddenly……. No, how did you know and come?”
“I know everywhere my daughter goes.”
Rosenberg’s face, which had been smiling brightly, hardened rapidly.
I checked Adellian’s expression. The feeling of ‘Oops!’, the emotion of worrying about getting scolded for being caught lying was felt intact.
“Adellian. You! I really! Are you going to keep acting as you please?”
“No, Father…….”
“I told you not to call me Father!”
“No, Dad…….”
“You rascal!”
The specific content of why he was doing that didn’t come out, but I could roughly guess.
‘She didn’t tell him she was going to the border.’
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
I wondered why she left a good carriage and rode this junk carriage.
‘I would do the same if I were her dad.’
Since his daughter, whom he raised with utmost care, says she is going to a place notorious for being rough and dangerous, Rosenberg’s reaction is not strange.
“By whose permission do you say you are going to the border?”
As expected.
“No, that is…….”
“Stop saying no. No, did I make you upset? What was so upsetting?”
Seeing their similar speech habits, they can’t claim to be strangers anywhere.
“Dad.”
Adellian, who had been cowed, made a determined face as if she decided something.
“Right, if you have something to say, say it.”
“I will prove that I am the person to inherit the name Rosenberg, the family.”
“You don’t have to. Whoever says what, you are Rosenberg’s daughter. What do you mean prove?”
“No. I mean I will succeed the family. With Oppa being like that, who would do it if not me?
Please, don’t say you will bring in an adopted son. That is giving the family to a stranger.”
“Adellian!”
“Dad!”
Each other’s hearts didn’t reach at all. It was even more so because their stubbornness resembled each other.
“Excuse me…….”
Michelle raised her hand slightly.
Adellian and Rosenberg, who were glaring with the exact same appearance, looked at Michelle.
“I’m hungry, can’t we do this after eating?”
Growl.
Barthe, whose face turned red, bowed his head deeply.
“A father-daughter lovers’ quarrel is nice too, but let’s eat first?”
Since I’m getting hungry too.
***
We headed to the Rosenberg family’s house.
Rosenberg’s house wasn’t that far from where we stopped.
“To go to the border, one must pass through our territory.”
Rosenberg revealed his pride saying he is the head of the first family protecting Poinus from foreign countries.
So it seems he was agonizing over the successor issue. Adellian also felt pride, so she is making a fuss about doing it herself.
Then, even if it’s uncomfortable, I should ask a question.
“How many children do you have?”
Rosenberg, receiving the question, made an expression asking why I was asking such a question.
“Two. One son, and one daughter who acts as she pleases.”
“Dad!”
“What? Did I say anything wrong?”
Adellian twitched her nose wings as if to refute.
I raised my hand to tell Adellian to stop speaking.
“Ha! When I speak, she doesn’t even listen with the back of her ear.”
“Dad!”
“What? Did I say wrong?”
It is very regrettable that there aren’t two carriages.
“Stop fighting, both of you. I will ask the next question.”
“……Please do so.”
Since he’s going to answer anyway, he should stop making that disapproving face. Why does that human hate me? What wrong did I do? That thing with his daughter, it was a martial arts tournament. Because I had to win. So it couldn’t be helped.
“Aren’t you asking?”
“I am. I am. That, son is Isaac von Rosenberg, right?”
“Yes, well. Correct. Why do you ask that?”
“Because I heard he is sick. I intend to hear where he hurts.”
“I can tell you, but what will you do after hearing? Hearing about my son being sick won’t do you any good.”
Although my forehead muscles feel like bursting at the strange sarcasm, I laughed it off exercising extreme patience. Later, if there is a chance, I will burst that human’s forehead.
“Do you know? If I might be of help?”
“Hmm, help.”
Ah, I really want to hit him.
“Did you forget? When Uresra’s spy tried to kill everyone with Devil’s Fire, I solved it. If not for me, everyone here would have died.”
“That is true. They said there was no way to extinguish the Black Fire, but Maxim extinguished it. How did you really extinguish it?”
Piontek said as if amazed.
Egbaldo sitting next to him nodded and said, ‘As expected, much to learn.’
“I know quite a lot of things.”
‘Devil’s Fire’ is created by borrowing the power of the God of Darkness, Tenebris.
‘Not just simply. It is created by offering one’s own heart as a sacrifice.’
Thinking about it again, Tenebris is a god that must be annihilated. Offering a heart as a sacrifice.
Anyway, the only way to extinguish Devil’s Fire is to burst the heart itself. So I cut off his arm and stuck it into his heart. Since the same blood flows, it is no different from bursting it himself.
“I admit Your Highness is unique. Still, this case is too different.”
“I mean to listen just in case. No need to feel burdened. It’s not like I’m asking for money selling drugs from the Black Market that you can’t tell if they are real or fake, like someone. Comfortably, comfortably.”
Rosenberg made a loud noise clearing his throat, ‘Hmm!’.
Adellian, seeing this, sighed and shook her head.
“Not me, you can hear it from that bad-tempered girl. Since she is the one who ran away from home making a fuss about curing her brother. Cheeky. What? Going to the border to prove herself? What father in the world would watch that sight? When Uresra is growling right under our noses. When war might break out anytime, go there? This damn…….”
Rosenberg, feeling everyone’s gaze, hurriedly shut his mouth. But perhaps because he didn’t feel relieved, he spat out rough breaths repeatedly.
Adellian also huffed and puffed turning her head as if disapproving of Rosenberg.
No, you people. You should answer the question asked. What are you going to do if you just fight?