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Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
“Are you okay, Gray? You aren’t under any strange influence from that Schwarz woman, are you?”
“I’m fine, Milady. I only showed her around Shiki.”
The next evening after Ms. Schwarz came to Shiki.
Yesterday Gray unusually stayed out to play until late (until midnight) and when he came back, he went to sleep in his room as if his batteries had run out. After waking up and having breakfast, showing Ms. Schwarz around Shiki and apologizing, he apparently went to play with the children of Shiki.
Ms. Schwarz seems to like children and in just one day she took such good care of the children, that they all got attached to her… Gray was also smiling so it seems she’s really good at that sort of thing.
“More importantly, what have you been doing today and yesterday, Lord Clo? It’s insane that you would trust Schwarz with Gray for the night…!”
“Um, Lord Clo. Why is Milady so wary of Lady Schwarz?”
I think Gray would also be wary of her if he had the same shocking encounter with her like we did. To him, she’s probably a gentle older sister who’s fun to play with though.
I told the innkeeper to be vigilant and Gray’s excellent at protection magic so there wasn’t much to worry about… No, the other person being what she is, it wasn’t like I had absolutely no worries. Plus I also had another business to take care of.
“Ms. Schwarz is a pretty serious person. From what I’ve heard, she gave out compensations as an apology for scaring people more rather than causing actual harm.”
It was to the point that the victim was troubled because Ms. Schwarz was trying to pay a lot. She seemed to have calmed down after being told that she could help with a different matter from tomorrow instead. I wonder what kind of talking techniques Ms. Schwarz used to make a total stranger go that far.
“You too, Lord Clo?! Is it because of yesterday’s encounter, after all? You-“
“Of course not.”
If I let her continue, I felt like Lady Violet would say something like ‘you didn’t show any interest when it was me’, so I cut her off before she managed to say it.
If she said that, even Gray would think that I was acting leniently because I’d been fascinated by Ms. Schwarz’s body. He looked like he didn’t understand what was going on, but I didn’t want to explain anything.
“Besides, as the Lord, I am always vigilant. There’s a chance that she’s a scammer who’s trying to blend into Shiki by taking control of the children’s hearts to commit fraud. I’m working on taking countermeasures and confirming her identity.”
“Oh, was today’s business related to that?”
“That’s right.”
Actually, there was another business I had to take care of, but I don’t need to mention that.
Besides, it’s true that I’m vigilant. There are people observing Lady Violet under the guise of travelers and merchants and the atmosphere in Shiki has been different recently.
Amidst all that, a person who’s troublesome even in Ring of Fire decided to stay in Shiki for a week. I have to be more careful than usual this week.
“… If she’s heading for the royal capital, His Highness might be in danger too.”
I murmured a small concern I had while wondering how to cook the vegetables in my hand.
That’s right. Even if Ms. Schwarz’s reason for coming to Shiki is purely recreational, if she heads for the royal capital, there’s a possibility that she might cause harm for His Highness and other people.
If she’s going to cause harm, I’d try to stop her even though I have no connections to His Highness. Though I don’t know what would stop her. I can’t prove her past crimes and I can’t mention anything about crimes that she may commit in the future. The only thing I can do as somebody who’ll be stopped by the military police if I go to the royal capital – is to protect Shiki’s peace so she won’t be able to threaten it.
“…”
“Hm, what’s wrong, Gray?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Gray was looking at me curiously. Did he hear me talking to myself just now? If he did, he probably wouldn’t understand what I meant and he wouldn’t connect it with Ms. Schwarz either. At least, Ms. Schwarz is just a ‘good person’ right now.
◆
“Clo, did you leer?”
“That came out of nowhere.”
The next morning. Cyan, who came to sponge off our breakfast using the absence of the Priest as an excuse and was eating with me, suddenly started treating me like a pervert. At least it’s not a line I want to hear from somebody who remodeled her habit to make it easier to move around when kicking and whose clothes have a deep slit that exposes her thighs a lot when she moves intensely.
“Sorry, I mean, did you hear? That Schwarz person is bad news. I can’t explain how exactly, but in any case, she’s dangerous”
“You definitely did that on purpose. Also, your vocabulary is no less bad news.”
As she ate the tomato that had been pierced with a fork, Cyan chewed and folded her arms mysteriously.
Looking at Cyan, Lady Violet was drinking her after-meal tea. She seems to have already gotten used to Cyan’s unsisterly behavior.
Though she was still surprised when Cyan opened the door suddenly this morning and demanded food.
“I got into a fight with that Schwarz person yesterday.”
“What the hell are you doing to a guest, dumbass?!”
Lady Violet almost choked on her tea after hearing what Cyan had just said.
“I mean, she had malice. When I talked to her, she said I wasn’t ‘beautiful’ and she also said stuff about my clothes so I couldn’t help it.”
“That’s not a valid excuse.”
But if Cyan actually felt malice, maybe Ms. Schwarz was trying to do something?
Cyan might be like this, but she’s pretty sensitive to the presence of evil and demonic monsters. Perhaps Ms. Schwarz was trying to do something in Shiki, after all?
“Wasn’t she just exposing herself to show off her beauty?”
“Haha, that couldn’t be it, Io… wait, why are you looking away, Clo?”
Because I can’t deny it.
“Anyway, when I tried to put her in check to exorcise the malice, she acted scared on purpose.
“On purpose?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how to put it well, but it felt like she took a defensive stance to act like an amateur despite being aware that I was keeping her in check.”
You’re also something else for recognizing that.
“Besides, her median line didn’t shift and the malice disappeared even though I didn’t exorcise anything. It might’ve been my imagination, but I thought it would be better to be careful, so I came here to warn you. Mhm, thanks for the meal.”
“Sister Cyan, there will be black tea from the eastern country after dinner. I remember you mentioned liking it before.”
“You’re as thoughtful as ever, Ray.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
After hearing this story, I was even more worried about what to do.
I can’t judge whether that malice was something brought by Ms. Schwarz’s past or if it had anything to do with something she tried to do here. What I do know is that Ms. Schwarz has become wary of Cyan now, so the chances of her acting openly… have decreased.
“Lord Clo, I’m also curious but it’s not good to have too much suspicion. There’s a possibility that you’re making her uncomfortable by treating her like a criminal even before she’s done any harm.”
“Those don’t sound like the words of a person who was so worried about Gray yesterday and wary of Ms. Schwarz.”
“Mm… that’s true but were you not the one who said that she was a serious person, Lord Clo?”
“You’re right.”
I nodded at Lady Violet’s words and decided to stop thinking about the countermeasures now.
It’s definitely not good to be too worried. Maybe the anxiety I felt yesterday was unfounded and it’s possible that Ms. Schwarz who was a character in Ring of Fire and Ms. Schwarz who’s staying here now are completely unrelated.
“Say, Ray, are those two always like that at home?”
“Yes. Is something wrong?”
“Mmh… just thought that they don’t look like a married couple.”
“Is that so?”
Silavin: Sorry about this. Reduction for the next few weeks.
Translators don’t have much time to do more chapters (mainly for the Patreon) and I don’t want to keep losing funds.
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