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Chapter 93 : Secrets
🕑 Added 2022-10-30 13:52:03 +0000 UTCTL:SummerPeanut
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20 July 2030.
Today is the day we depart to Marquis San Marina’s.
I got to school with my luggage for the trip.
I arrived at the classroom and waited for the other members to arrive. Baron, Dominic, and Minerva have already arrived but the important Reimei girls have not arrived yet.
I asked Minerva who lives with the girls.
“Have Clarice and the others not arrived yet?”
Minerva appeared troubled when I asked her.
“They said something along the lines of they’ll be late because they are not sure which swimsuit to bring. Like they had bought too many swimsuits or whether Mars will assault them if they go with night battle underwear every day and so on."
What fellas...they completely misunderstood it as a summer holiday...
In the end, the girl members arrived at 11:00.
Fortunately, Reimei was not treated as late because we are only officially accepting the quest today.
“S,sorry for the wait Mars. We’re late...”
Clarice apologized sheepishly.
It’s fine since I more or less expected this outcome I guess.
The girls, specifically Karen and Misha, had a lot of luggage.
Clarice and Ellie had a little more compared to mine.
This was also to be expected.
After all, Clarice and Ellie know that I can use quite the convenient magics.
And the three of us had dived the Almeria Labyrinth together so I think we're at least a little used to traveling.
When we dive into the labyrinths, we always use the safe zone as a base to sleep in if there's one.
But Karen and Misha don't know that I can use magic so it was inevitable.
I’ll probably have a ‘coming out’ bit by bit during this trip.
As soon as we are all assembled, we go to Duke Regan's place and finish greeting her before our departure.
Normally, the school will hire a carriage and escort for us but it turned out that I and Clarice are stronger than the escort so there’s no escort.
And the carriage was not prepared by the Lister Imperial School.
I was told that the carriage was prepared by an external party and when I went to the carriage and found that...
There was a luxurious and gorgeous carriage there, the kind that nobles would ride in.
It was a large and luxurious carriage pulled by two magnificent horses that’s basically raising the flag for whoever riding it will be robbed.
The carriage was apparently sent by Karen's father, the Duke of Fresvald, as he had asked her to at least use it if she would not return to the Fresvald territory.
The carriage was decorated with the fire emblem of the Fresvald Household crest and the book emblem of Duke Regan’s Household crest.
Duke Regan said that no one in the Lister Confederacy would be stupid enough to make an enemy of the First Duke Fresvald and Duke Regan at the same time so this carriage is absolutely safe.
Thank you for the grand flag...
We immediately got on the carriage and set off to Marquis of San Marina.
We are a bit late after all.
I hear the inside of the carriage is quite comfortable.
The reason for me saying that is, as usual, I'm playing the role of a coachman.
The inside of the carriage is hot because it is summer but it is equipped with magic tools that cool down the temperature when magic power is channeled into it.
It seems that Karen is unable to use it but Clarice and Misha can. Apparently, it lowers the temperature when Water-attribute magic is channeled through it. On the other hand, it is a magical tool that warms the surroundings if Fire-attribute magic power is channeled through it.
I use Water magic and Wind magic to keep the horse's speed up and cool air flowing around me. If the horse gets tired, I use Heal of course.
And these horses' speed is also extraordinary.
We set off at 12:00 and in five hours we traveled 75km... Even discounting that they were able to run in a comfortable environment with Heal, Wind magic, and Water magic, I thought 10km/h would be the limit considering there are five of us, five bags, and the needlessly luxurious carriage...
Perhaps we could even get rid of the people who have been tailing us from Regan...
As soon as we arrived at the inn where we were going to stay today, we decided to have a bath and then a meal.
Naturally, we are using the finest inn in town. It has a bath as well as shower facilities.
Because the daughter of the First Duke Fresvald is here.
But there is a problem, I have only booked one room... What should I do about the order of the baths…? If I go in first, the ladies might think the bathwater is disgusting.
If I go in last, they might still think it’s disgusting in a perverted way...
What should I do...and Clarice who read my thoughts and began to set things up in a crisp manner.
“First, Karen and Misha go in as usual, and when you both have finished washing yourselves, call us in. I and Ellie will go in too. After Karen and Misha get out of the bath, Mars can come in. I think it’ll be good for Ellie and I to wash Mars's back once in a while.”
Then Karen and Misha.
“Eh!? You guys had already...at the skin-to-skin relation!?"
They said angrily. Then Ellie replied.
“From...6 years old...bed too together...”
“N-no, she didn't mean it in that weird way, okay? I mean, certainly, we slept at the same bed together but there wasn't anything special. Right? Mars?"
Clarice desperately tried to clear up the misunderstanding and sought my agreement while blushing.
“A-ah, that’s right. It's just that we were very young... Now that we're both grown up, I’ll trouble you to wash my back when we're a bit older again.”
“Yea, yeah. It won’t be good to let any weird misunderstandings arise too...”
When Clarice said this, Ellie interjected.
"We're engaged......no problem."
“Well, well, I guess you're right... believe it or not, there are talks about some upper nobles having children at the age of eleven...”
Karen affirmed Ellie's words, albeit her face is bright red.
“...in beastmen ten years old too...”
“An-anyway, Karen and Misha, you go in first.”
When Clarice said that, Karen and Misha went into the bath.
Then Clarice opened her mouth.
“I'll wash your backs another time. Ellie gets angry if I wash your back alone so we'll both wash it together.”
“Yeah, I'll look forward to it.”
After safely finishing my bath, I went to the inn’s restaurant equivalent to eat.
The food was sumptuous and expensive-looking drinks were poured.
I've always wondered about this so I decided to ask Karen.
“Karen. How old do you have to be to drink alcohol?”
“Oh? There's no such thing as an age limit as far as I know. I've been drinking since I was six. But I usually only have a sip because it's not good to drink too much. My father says it's better to drink in small amounts, and I've been taught that it's embarrassing not to be able to drink in the noble’s society."
Meanwhile Ellie…
“...dwarfs drink them...as milk substitute...”
Seriously! I know dwarves were supposed to be good drinkers but not to that extent...
After everyone had enjoyed their meal with just one light drink of alcohol, we returned to our room.
Once back in the room, we all decided to have a chat.
We talked about how I and Clarice met, Ellie's upbringing, etc.
When it came to talking about dreams for the future, Clarice and Ellie dreamt of being my wife, Karen and Misha the same but there seemed to be a slight difference in passion.
They asked me what my dream was, and I told them honestly.
Putting aside the obvious fact that I will marry Clarice and Ellie, both of them cried out happily when I say I will protect them no matter what.
The power of alcohol is scary even if it's just one light cup...
I then told them about a dream I'd never told anyone.
“I guess my dream for the future is…to become the Lord of Rimurgarde. For that, I want to become an upper noble. An upper noble in both Zarkham and Balkus Kingdoms...”
Rimurgarde is the old capital of the border town between the kingdoms of Balkus and Zarkham that I and Clarice stopped by on the way from Grantham to Irgusia.
4 years ago we were told that the labyrinth overflow and stampede of magic beasts had not subsided and that a number of A and B-rank parties were holding off the said stampede.
The reason why I want to be the Lord of Rimurgarde is that I want to stop the war between the Kingdom of Balkus and the Kingdom of Zarkham. If I become Lord of Rimurgarde, which includes East Rimurgarde and West Rimurgarde there will be no war because Rimurgarde is the border.
I absolutely don't want to see the inhabitants of Grantham and the inhabitants of Almeria fighting each other.
When the four of them heard what I said, they froze.
After a little while, Clarice and Ellie believe in my strength so...
“Mars can definitely do it. I'll help you too”, but Karen and Misha who are still not confident with my strength and remained silent.”
“Karen, Misha. You don't have to believe in my strength right now. For now, I'm going to aim to be an A-level adventurer. Anyway, I've recently found out that I need to raise my adventurer rank if I want to get involved with Rimurgarde.”
Sasha had told me the other day that the magic beasts of Rimurgarde are likely to annihilate any party lower than B-rank therefore one needs a certain amount of achievement to receive Rimurgarde-related quests.
Incidentally, Sasha told me that she can accept Rimurgarde quests but not individually and as a result, she needs to form a party to do so.
Then Misha said.
“It's not that I don't believe in Mars's strength, four years ago my mother told me that the threat of the magic beast you fought when you saved me was B-. I can easily imagine you being stronger now that four years had passed... but I don't know the serious mode of you two are actually like... That’s why I hope you will trust me and Karen a little bit next time and show me a glimpse of your strength."
“Defeating B- threat at six years old? Doesn’t that mean you were already a B-rank adventurer at that age! ....even I'd like to see the real strength of not only Mars and Clarice but also Ellie’s. I knew that Mars is not normal but I didn't expect you are that much of an outlier..."
So...they knew we were hiding things from them...
“Okay. One of these days I'll show you a part of my, Clarice's, and Ellie's real strength.”
I said this because I really don't want to reveal Clarice's Holy magic until there’s no other way. There’s also the fact that I don't want to lie to them.
“Thank you. Shall we go to bed then?"
It was already 21:00.
I, Clarice, and Ellie had made a decision previously.
Regarding the time to sleep.
We had decided to arrange our bedtimes as it wasn't as safe as at Lister Imperial School.
I would sleep from 9 pm to midnight and the other two would sleep from midnight to 6 am.
“Right. I'm going to bed now. What about you guys?"
I asked Clarice.
“I and Ellie will go to bed at midnight. What about Karen and Misha?”
Clarice asked, and they both agreed to go to bed at midnight.
“Alright. See you tomorrow then. Staying up late is bad for your skin so go to bed early okay? Good night."
I said that and went to the room where I sleep alone.
Now I have to deplete my MP as fast as possible and go to sleep.
Well, I'm sure I can deplete it quickly since I used quite a bit of MP during the journey...
And then I went to sleep to welcome tomorrow.
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