The setting hasn't changed, but this serves as a new chapter to mark a natural break.
"So it's this noisy, huh... That must be rough, Tenma."
"Good work out there, Tenma."
I could only smile wryly as Duke Sanga and Primera, who had arrived as guests, commiserated with me.
It had all started with a single remark from Amour that sparked an argument with the three girls, which Aura then jumped on to provoke Jeanne, and the residents of Kukuri Village seized on the whole thing as an excuse to start partying.
On top of that, Marquis Samons showed up afterward.
The marquis had intended to express his gratitude for Garibar's treatment and offer congratulations before leaving, but when I told him Duke Sanga was also supposed to come and invited him to the party, he accepted with obvious delight. It seemed he'd been looking forward to it a little.
I had Garibar brought out on the spot to check on his injuries, but he showed no fear toward me. Quite the opposite—he knelt down and expressed his gratitude.
"Oh my, it appears Garibar feels deeply indebted to Lord Tenma! He even seems to hold you in great respect!"
This surprised even Marquis Samons, but he quickly laughed and said something along the lines of, "I've never once shown even this much formality toward my own sons!"
"Before I could even get him to warm up to me, he went and started respecting me..."
Personally, I would have preferred for Garibar to warm up to me rather than respect me, but things were better than before, at least.
The argument between Amour and the three girls that had been going on nearby had been settled by Aina's intervention. Aura was crouching behind Aina, holding her head.
That was when Duke Sanga and his son arrived, so I went to greet them and explained the situation, which prompted them to commiserate with me as well.
And so the party continued on...
Whenever someone from Kukuri Village got drunk and started dancing, the party naturally turned into a dance hall, and whenever someone started singing, it became a concert. And during the concerts, the Familiars would get excited and start making noise with their respective cries.
At first it was just noise, but gradually they fell into harmony and it transformed into a proper concert.
"Hey, Tenma. Got a minute?"
Around the time the Familiars' concert ended, Jin approached with Garat.
"Hey, Tenma. You've got nothing to do until the auction starts, right? So how about we go hunting in the meantime?"
According to Jin, this time of year always saw a shortage of meat for stalls and such, and requests to procure more had been pouring in.
So he was suggesting they go hunting as a way to kill two birds with one stone — get some exercise and earn a bit of pocket money.
"This time of year, anything meat-related sells like hotcakes... though obviously goblins are out of the question. So how about it? There's a forest about half a day's trip from the Royal Capital that's just right."
"So, what do you say, Tenma? Want to go, just the guys?"
It was the words "just the guys" from Garat that decided me. I'd been wanting to get away from that chaos for a while.
Behind me, Amour and the three girls were still locked in a standoff... or rather, it was more like the three girls were ganging up on him. Amour was calmly gnawing on a hunk of meat as if nothing were wrong.
"Sure, I'd be happy to... but by 'just the guys,' is it just the three of us?"
Even if he said just the guys, there was no way Menace and Lina would stay quiet about the three of them going off alone.
"That's the thing... I tried asking Branca too, but he turned me down, said he had to find a souvenir for his wife..."
As Jin was fretting, a man approached them.
"Then would it be all right if I joined?"
The man was a warrior from Agri's team.
"Let me think... Agri's team... what was your name again?"
Jin and the others nodded in agreement at my words. The man looked deflated at having been forgotten, but hurriedly introduced himself.
"Oh, sorry about that! I'm Ricky Monacart. Agri Monacart's grandson."
Ricky was practically buzzing with enthusiasm, and after Jin and Garat exchanged a few words...
"We don't mind, but first go get the leader's permission."
That's what they said, and at those words, Ricky cocked his head in confusion. I had a pretty good idea of what Jin was thinking.
"The leader's right over there. That guy — Tenma."
Garat pointed at me with a grin.
Just as I figured — "called it" — while Ricky tilted his head, confused. "Why?" he wondered.
"That's only natural. Think about it, Ricky — who's the strongest person here? Tenma. And who's the weakest? You."
Ricky bristled at those words, but when he turned around and confirmed who had spoken, his anger seemed to subside.
"No way, Gramps!"
"Am I wrong?"
Agri — whom Ricky called "Gramps" — arrived alongside the old man.
"Well, I mean, that's true, but... when it comes to years of hunting experience, Jin and the rest of us have been at it longer, right?"
"That's exactly why you can't rank up to B! I heard from Merlin that Tenma was entering the Great Old Forest alone at five or six years old, hunting and playing! Even counting from then, Tenma has nearly ten years of experience under his belt!
Plenty of adventurers have judged people by appearances
and quietly vanished without a trace... Don't tell me you're going to say the same thing?"
"Bwah!"
At Agri's words, Jin and Garat burst out laughing. They probably knew about my exploits at Seigen.
"It's nothing to be proud of, now... You were Ricky, right? Tenma may be younger than you, but you'd best think of him as something else entirely. After all, even his father — the best hunter in the village — couldn't match his skill."
"Oh my, this is the first I've heard of it! If I recall, Tenma's father would be Ricardo, who served as leader when His Majesty won the Team Battle, yes?"
Joining the old man's conversation was Duke Sanga. Marquis Samons stood beside him.
"I'd heard Ricardo was a skilled hunter, so to think Tenma has surpassed him... Just how extraordinary a child was he? I can hardly fathom it!"
Marquis Samons laughed with glass in hand. As it happened, these two were pillars of the Royalist Faction, having supported the King since their youth, and through that connection, they had apparently looked into Father and Mother's backgrounds. They had never met them in person, however.
Even with two great nobles present, Agri's lecture continued. He appeared to be drunk.
Now that I looked more closely, the old man's face was red too.
It was starting to look like the situation would eventually blow back on me, so I decided to take the initiative.
"Ricky, you can join in! Grandpa, I haven't eaten much, so I'm gonna go grab some food!"
With that, I slipped away from the spot in a hurry. Everyone who had been there, leaving behind Ricky, Agri, and Grandpa, casually followed after me.
The two drunkards didn't even notice we'd gone.
"By the way, Tenma, will you be attending the party at the royal castle?"
After we'd moved a fair distance from Grandpa and the others, Duke Sanga came and asked.
"Yes, I don't think I can very well decline, and besides, I've been personally invited by Lady Maria..."
To be honest, Lady Maria's words were harder for me to refuse than even the King's. Was I a mama's boy or something?
"Then, Lord Tenma,
who
will you be attending with?"
Duke Sanga seemed interested in my response to Marquis Samons as well, silently watching me.
At parties like these, having a companion of the opposite sex was the standard, so he probably wanted to know who I'd choose.
"I'll be going alone. Well, technically I'll be bringing Slarin and the others along, but I don't think I'll need to take them out of the bag."
After hearing my answer, Duke Sanga briefly glanced toward Primera. It seemed that if I'd been wavering, he'd intended to force Primera on me as my partner.
It appeared that Marquis Samons had asked in order to back up Duke Sanga.
"However, at parties of that nature, it is customary to bring a companion of the opposite sex."
Marquis Samons pressed on.
"Yes,
as nobles...
Well, that may be the usual approach, but I'm just a commoner without any noble title... and besides, I don't need anyone
to play the part of my fiancée — I can manage on my own."
When he emphasized the part about the fiancée, Duke Sanga and Marquis Samons seemed to concede the point.
"Sorry for pushing so hard about it."
"Not at all — I appreciate the concern from both of you. Besides, there's probably someone even more determined about this than either of you..."
Nine times out of ten, Maria was keeping a close watch on my behavior at the venue — or rather, on anyone who tried to approach me. She had apparently declared that anyone who wanted to be my marriage partner needed her permission first. Annoying as it was, in situations like this, it actually came in handy.
Hearing my words, the two seemed satisfied.
"Well, that's true enough. She wouldn't just let that slide, would she..."
"Indeed. Oh my, it looks like they're bringing out new dishes. Your Grace, shall we go have a look?"
Duke Sanga nodded at Marquis Samons' words, and the two of them excused themselves from the area.
"That was close, Duke Sanga. Just a little more and Lady Primera might have taken the lead... As expected of Lord Tenma — would that be the right way to put it?"
From a fair distance away from Tenma, Marquis Samons spoke to Duke Sanga.
"It can't be helped. Pushing Primera onto him when he has no interest would only backfire. Besides, it was a long shot from the start. Let's count it as a win that we at least got across that we're interested."
As expected of two who were counted among the great nobles, they had the good sense to pull back right before the point where Tenma would have grown annoyed.
Of course, if it had been anyone other than these two, Tenma would have lost his patience long ago — or rather, they wouldn't have even been allowed to attend this banquet.
"Still, it is a shame he won't call me
'father-in-law,'
isn't it?"
The Duke hadn't been trying to pair Primera with Tenma purely for his own benefit, either.
That's how fond Tenma was of her, and how much he cherished Primera.
"The Duke is one thing, I suppose. After all, there's nothing but men in our house... Besides, the lower-ranked ones are probably disliked by Lord Tenma... Why didn't I try harder to have a daughter..."
Marquis Samons, too, had taken such a liking to Tenma that he wished he could make him his son-in-law.
Incidentally, Tenma didn't dislike the idea of a "son-in-law" nearly as much as the Marquis imagined. Not that the Marquis could have known that...
"So, when are we heading out for the hunt?"
"If we leave early, we could depart the Royal Capital by noon tomorrow and be back sometime after noon the day after. I'd also like to start processing the meat as soon as we can!"
It felt a bit rushed, but according to Jin, "If we don't move quickly, there'll be plenty of others with the same idea," and Garat apparently agreed with that assessment.
"Since it's only for a day, we won't need much luggage. The prep we've done for the tournament should be enough. That said, if we could use Tenma's Magic Bag, we could head out right now!"
"Well, storing the hunt's spoils in it is fine, but I'd rather not leave right now. Also, how are we splitting the profits?"
That was the biggest issue. After all, stories of joint hunts nearly devolving into fights to the death over the division of spoils weren't uncommon, and sometimes even parties that always worked together would end up squabbling.
It was, in fact, one of the most common adventurer war stories.
"Ah, about that. There's a method the Guild recommends, so I was thinking we'd try it. First, we set a time limit and hunt together as a group. Everything we catch during that time gets split evenly. After that, we switch to individual hunting, and whatever you catch on your own is yours. We repeat that a few times."
"It's a bit of a hassle, but since we set aside both group and solo hunting time, no one ends up with nothing. You can use the solo time to rest, or pair up with someone if you want. If you hunt together during that time, you split evenly. Well, even with this, people will still argue sometimes."
However, there weren't any better ideas, and since I rarely hunted with others in the first place, I had no grounds to object.
"That sounds fine to me. It's not like we're heading out with complete strangers."
If anything came up, they could just talk it out. I wasn't too sure about Ricky, but I felt I knew Jin and the others well enough.
"Then it's settled. We'll probably end up sleeping in until noon tomorrow anyway, and looking at this, gathering up shouldn't be a problem. Looks like people are planning to crash right here."
Listening to Jin's words, I looked around and saw groups of drunks scattered everywhere.
Most of them were residents of Kukuri Village.
The banquet had only started that evening — barely two or three hours ago — yet there were already people who had drunk themselves into oblivion and passed out.
"Well then, the plan's decided — let's get going!"
"Yeah!"
Jin and Garat pumped themselves up and headed for the table where the drinks were set out.
I went looking for Ricky to tell him about the plan, but he was still stuck with Agri. The light was slowly draining from Ricky's eyes.
It was about an hour later that Ricky was finally freed from Agri's grip.
After that, the banquet carried on late into the night, but once most participants had drunk themselves into a stupor and collapsed where they stood, the whole affair wound down naturally.
Duke Sanga and his group managed to leave without passing out, though Primera was in a rather precarious state.
— Back at the royal palace, a short time earlier —
"Time to go, then..."
Having confirmed that no one was around, the man slipped quietly out of his room and made his way toward the waiting carriage.
"Who goes there?!"
As the man turned the corner, he noticed someone following behind him.
"It's me, Uncle — Luna."
Stepping out from the shadows was a small figure... the youngest royal in the castle, Princess Luna von Blue Mail Christin.
Luna popped into view with a cheerful smile.
"Oh, it's you, Luna... What brings you here?"
The man she called "Uncle" was the nation's Minister of War and a royal in his own right — Lyle von Blue Mail Christin.
"Just heading out for a bit..."
"Well, how about that — I'm heading out myself. I know a place that serves great food. Want me to take you along?"
"Yes, please!"
The two proceeded down the hallway while keeping watch, arriving just a short distance from their destination.
"Luna, stop... Someone's here."
Tension ran between the two. When Lyle peeked cautiously toward the source of the presence, he found two men there.
"Luna, it's fine. They seem to be acquaintances... Ahem! What might you two be doing here?"
At Lyle's theatrical line, the two men scrambled to hide themselves, but quickly realized it was Lyle, and seemed to guess his purpose, their faces settling into expressions of relief.
"Oh, it's you... Don't scare us like that. Well, we were just about to go inspect the town."
"Your Majesty yourself... and with the Grand Duke, no less?"
The pair standing there were headed by the country's top figure and Lyle's father — Alex von Blue Mail Christin. The people called him King.
And beside the King stood Ernest von Blue Mail Christin — the eldest of the royal family, the previous King's younger brother, and the man who held the title of Grand Duke in this country.
"Indeed. The King and I planned to inspect the festival ourselves to identify its successes and shortcomings. We couldn't very well arrive with a grand entourage, so we intended to look around on our own."
"That's exactly as the Grand Duke says... By the way, where were you planning to take Luna?"
After the Grand Duke and the King recited what seemed to be pre-rehearsed excuses, they tried to find out what Lyle and Luna were up to.
"Well, we had the same idea as Your Majesty. I thought it would be good to hear a young person's perspective on such matters, which is why Luna is with me. After the inspection, we were thinking of grabbing a good meal..."
At Lyle's words, the King and the Grand Duke both smiled.
"Oh, is that so? What a coincidence. We were also thinking of having a good meal after the inspection."
"I happen to know a place that serves great food at this time of day... I was thinking we'd just stop by and show our faces. Very well! Both of you, come along!"
At the King's words, the three nodded and climbed into the carriage.
"Sorry about this, but just drive around the town for a while. I'll give you further instructions later. Here's your payment. And above all, keep this absolutely confidential..."
"Yes, sir."
The Grand Duke, the last to board the carriage, gave instructions to the coachman — who wore his hat pulled low — and pressed several coins into his hand.
Once the coachman confirmed everyone was aboard, he set the carriage in slow motion.
"This is going to be exciting! I wonder what delicious food they'll have!"
"I hope there's something sweet!"
"I wouldn't mind some good spirits, either."
"Now, now, everyone calm down. At the very least, we have to go through the motions of an inspection."
Chatting away like this, the four of them enjoyed their conversation inside the carriage.
The carriage continued on, turning at times, stopping at times, and slowing its pace at others.
"We should be reaching the town soon — wait, this is still the estate grounds! What's going on?!"
"Could we have been tricked?!"
The Grand Duke was alarmed, and Lyle placed a hand on the sword at his hip, ready to draw at a moment's notice.
"No need for concern — this is your destination."
No sooner had the coachman answered than the door was opened from outside.
The instant Lyle moved to draw his sword —
"Leaving your duties behind and heading off to who knows where — what exactly do you think you're doing, gentlemen? The Minister of War, the Grand Duke, and even His Majesty the King?"
Standing there were the kingdom's next king, Crown Prince Caesar von Blue Mail Christin, and — in terms of official rank,
equal to the Minister of War,
yet of slightly higher standing among the royal family — Zain von Blue Mail Christin, the Finance Minister.
And on top of that —
"Luna! Cutting class and running off — just where do you think you're going?!"
The boy expected to become king two generations hence, second in the line of succession — Tida von Blue Mail Christin.
The Prince
...this far.
And on top of that—
"You... you should at least know what's going to happen if you go running to Tenma right now, right?"
A bone-chilling voice rang out from the driver's seat.
"M-Maria! What are you doing there?!"
The one who had been posing as a coachman and steering the carriage for a time was none other than the King's wife — and in a sense, the most powerful figure among the royals — Queen Maria von Blue Mail Christin.
Normally, the Duke, who had been sitting right beside the driver, should have noticed the coachman's true identity. But he'd been too caught up in the thrill of outsmarting the other royals to drink fine wine, so it had never once crossed his mind that Maria was the one playing coachman.
"Well, now, whyever could that be? Let's be going, my dear. And Your Excellency the Duke as well..."
The King and the Duke were dragged away from the scene by Maria.
"Hm. In that case, we need to have a proper talk with the Minister of Military Affairs. Right, Minister of Finance?"
"Indeed, Your Highness the Crown Prince. You could not be more correct. Then, shall we go, Minister of Military Affairs?"
Lyle was restrained by his two elder brothers and hauled away.
"Oh right, I still haven't finished my studies! I need to hurry!"
While her fellow conspirators were being rounded up one after another, Luna tried to make a break for it on her own.
But the moment she bolted, her collar was grabbed from behind, and her escape attempt failed.
"I'm so glad you noticed, Luna! Since you're so fired up, I'll start teaching you right now!"
Tida grinned as she tried to drag Luna away. And just then—
"Tida, you wait right there!"
A woman's voice rang out from directly ahead of Tida and the others.
"Mother..."
Luna reached out her hand, seeking help.
The woman whose hand she reached for — Crown Princess Isabella von Blue Mail Christin — gripped Luna's hand and tucked it firmly under her arm so she couldn't escape.
"Mother?"
"Tida, you can't very well supervise studying all by yourself until morning. I'll help too, so go ahead and explain the situation to the maids... If only Aina were here for something like this, honestly!"
In that moment, Luna understood what Isabella's appearance truly meant. Not to help her — but to become her enemy...
Tonight in the royal castle, there would be no
sleep...
...