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Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
“This is black tea grown at the foot of the mountain in the east.”
“Thank you.”
Gray took Ash to the reception room and served him the tea he brewed.
After taking a sip, Ash looked a little surprised, telling Gray that found the tea delicious. Hearing this, Gray bowed, moved behind the sofa where I was sitting and stood with a beautiful posture.
“… Sir Ash, about what you saw a moment ago…”
“No, I simply came here to report and am simply partaking in some tea first. That is all.”
Ash was smiling and acting as if the incident from earlier hadn’t happened. I do appreciate his consideration, but I don’t want him to have any weird misunderstanding. Though, as long as he’s not breaching the subject, it would be better if I didn’t say anything either.
Besides, there are other things that I don’t know what to do about, compared to the prior incident.
“… I did not expect for you to be present as well. You have been avoiding us all this time, so what has brought this change of heart, Lady Valentine — nay, Baroness Heartfield?”
Yes, Lady Violet came with us to the room where Ash is.
The atmosphere is slightly awkward. At first I was planning to handle him together with Gray, but as per her request, we’re here together.
By the way, Lady Violet’s chills seemed to have been just her imagination.
I intend to take precautions later, but for now I want to respect her will to face Ash. I want to, but…
“You’re saying something strange, Austin. I have been put in charge of the actual work. Therefore, there is nothing strange in me listening to the reports about Shiki.”
“… Is that so? Certainly, you have always excelled at both classroom learning and at actual combat. I am sure you would be very adept at paperwork too. However, you have to listen to the voices of the people too.”
“Haha, you’re making it sound like I don’t listen to the requests of our citizens and can only do administrative work while locking myself in the mansion.”
“What might you be talking about? I said no such thing. It was merely my advice as somebody who is involved with business to some extent.”
“Really? That’s how it sounded to me though. Was it my imagination? Hahaha.”
“Yes, it must have been your imagination, Hahaha.”
What should I do? This is scary.
A few days ago she was saying that she’d be heartbroken if she met him, so I wonder why she can act so fearlessly today. It may be a welcome thing… but is it fever, after all? It must be her fever. Also, can’t those two do anything about their dry laughs?
“So, what kind of business has brought you here today? Was there any progress in the investigation?”
I coughed once to get Ash’s attention on me.
Even if there was progress with the investigation, at most they must’ve concluded that there were no abnormalities or it’s just an update of the information about the monsters’ habitat range.
I’d like to believe that’s not the case, but I’m hoping he didn’t come here under the pretext of making a report just to see Lady Violet and insult her.
“Yes. There have been reports of a strange sighting in the area recently.”
However, Ash’s report concerned something I wasn’t expecting.
…Eh, really?
“This is different from what we found out during the investigation, but according to my information network—“
According to Ash, it seems that monsters have started becoming more active around this area and some of them are moving away from their habitats. Although their number is small, it would be better to be cautious.
This information would normally be shared between the feudal lords, but since the information seems to be coming from the personal opinions of the Azalea Academy students who were investigating the area, as well as other travelers, the information seems to have went to Ash first, who has been spreading his personal informational network.
… Ms. Schwarz promised me to not touch anything in this area, so I don’t think she has anything to do with this.
“Come to think of it, Ms. Robot also received an emergency call. Perhaps it was related to that matter.”
Emergency call to Robot… Ah, there was a report about that, if I remember right. The report included that a wyvern was discovered at a distance where it could be seen with a naked eye, so some caution was required. I think Robot burnt that wyvern to a crisp with some amazing beam. RIP.
“Thank you for the information, Sir Ash.”
“No, I am the one who has to thank you for helping us so much during this investigation period. This was an emergency investigation at the request of the second prince, but thanks to you, it will end without damaging the school’s reputation.”
Rather than me helping them, I’m the one who’s sorry for all the trouble those guys caused… besides–
“…”
“Lord Clo…?”
Oops, that’s not good. Let’s not think about strange things right now.
Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of the Azalea academy student investigation and they will be heading home the day after tomorrow.
The closer you get to the end of this type of work, the more you become distracted and accidents are more likely to occur. I’ll also try to not relax prematurely.
“Lord Clo?”
“Huh?!”
I shook off my thoughts to not get distracted and opened my eyes to see Lady Violet looking at me with a concerned look on her face.
W-what? Isn’t she too close…?!
“Are you okay? If you’re feeling unwell, Gray and I will handle the rest.”
“I-I’m fine. I was just a little worried about Sir Ash’s report.”
“Really? Don’t push yourself too hard. It’ll be no good if you collapse from worrying about the people.”
Considering what happened earlier, she’s one to talk.
But looks like I made her worry. I’ll refrain from thinking about unnecessary things.
“… You’ve changed your mind quite quickly.”
Thinking of something while looking at us, Ash spoke up.
His tone was calm, but there was a hint of irritation and dismay in his gaze.
“You two seem to get along very well. You were so devoted to his Highness, but now that you’ve merely been accepted on the surface, you’ve become quite relaxed. I’m sure this place must be quite comfortable for you compared to the school we are at.”
That’s a lot of sarcasm I’m detecting.
Wasn’t he a soft-spoken character who did the dirty work behind the scenes and took care of the sparks that befell His Highness and the heroine? Was what Lady Violet did in the past so unforgivable for him? Maybe this is the reason why he came alone.
It’s a personal choice to forgive others or not and I have no intention of forcing the victim to forgive the perpetrator. But just like how he feels displeased about past actions of another person, I don’t think he can complain if we act dissatisfied with his actions either.
I grabbed a cup of tea in order to make a counterargument after calming down–
“Indeed, after all I am Lord Clo’s wife and I love him. It’s not surprising that you would think we get along.”
“—Gah, i-it’s hot!?”
“Lord Clo?!”
Hearing Lady Violet’s words, which she declared while leisurely drinking tea, I gripped my teacup too strongly and broke it, resulting in the tea inside scalding me and the fragments of the cup piercing my hand. Fortunately, it didn’t actually cut me, but it was still hot and painful.
But what’s with her so suddenly…?!
“Are you alright, Lord Clo? Did you get burnt or injured?! We must call Ivory right this moment to perform first aid—!”
“I-I’m fine, Lady Violet. It’s not that painful or hot, I simply exclaimed because the stimulus was too sudden.”
Lady Violet looked worried about whether I was lying. After she looked at my hand and confirmed that there were no injuries, she cooled it down slightly with the use of low-tier water magic and felt relieved after seeing that I was fine.
Kh, what’s this? It’s so abrupt that I can’t understand what’s happening.
“Still, it would be better to treat it. Let’s apply antibacterial ointment for the skin. Sorry, Austin, forgive my rude behavior, but I want to treat my husband. Are you fine with ending today’s conversation here?”
“… Yes, I don’t mind.”
Lady Violet told Gray to send Ash off and took me with her. It seemed like she wasn’t leaving the room to chase off Ash, but rather she was genuinely worried about me.
… I’m happy, but also embarrassed.
“… To think that you could make that kind of expression.”
I feel like Ash muttered something before he left, but I couldn’t quite catch it.
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