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Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
In the noisy church, while the students around me were organizing their luggage and being led to their rooms, I was talking with two students.
“— The above mentioned are the main facilities of Shiki and the natural situation in the surrounding area.”
“Thank you very much, Baron Heartfield.”
After relaying the information about Shiki to the student representative named Ash, who was dressed in a black school uniform, I bowed.
I’m older than him in terms of age and an alumni from his academy, but he outranks me in status, so I have to be courteous.
Ash Austin. He’s a childhood friend and a varlet of His Highness Vermillion, the main love interest in Ring of Fire.
Even though he’s a varlet, he himself is from a marquis family and has sufficient power within the Austin family.
He’s composed, gentle-mannered, kind to women and popular at Azalea Academy. However, as is typical for characters like him, he’s rather black-hearted and will do anything for His Highness. Also, I think one of the things that made him popular was his informal tone that he only used with people he was close to. I remember my younger sister rejoicing when watching that event.
“I’m sorry, Baron. Is there a blacksmith… or arms dealer here?”
“Yes, although if it’s a proper blacksmith you need, you would be out of luck. They’re a bit of a difficult person so would you like me to introduce you to them?”
“Can I leave it to you?”
Chartreuse, who was wearing a black uniform and also listening to the information about Shiki asked me with a slightly worried look on his face. After I told him about the location and that I would be escorting him tomorrow, he simply nodded with an ‘I see’.
Chartreuse Calvin.
Similarly, he’s also one of the love interests. He’s sometimes called Char by people close to him.
He’s the son of the current knight commander, who is hailed as the master swordsman.
He trains everyday with his Japanese sword (that exists in this world for some reason) while enduring the pressure from his master swordsman father. He’s unsociable. Straight-laced. He’s somewhat mentally fragile. And he secretly has a sweet tooth. He’s a person with a lot of characteristics for some reason.
I remember that when I criticized him for being calculating, my younger sister replied with ‘no, the girls in the games you play are like that too’. At that time, for the first time in my life, I learned how it feels to be shut up with a single sentence.
“Once again, I apologize for being late. Cher… him wanting to take care of his beloved sword is a part of it too, but we were attacked by monsters on the way.”
“No, I’m simply glad that you all were safe.”
The reason why they were late was because they were attacked by a horde of monsters on their way to Shiki. When I asked for the characteristics of those monsters, they all seemed to be local, so it’s not like it was an abnormal situation, but… haven’t monsters started to leave their dwellings and attack people a bit too often lately?
“By the way, are there other things we should be careful about? Like, local customs unique to this land or natural disasters?
“When you’re walking outside at night, an evil-looking mage might appear from the shadows while laughing suspiciously, you might see a sister climb to the top of this church with her bare hands, you might also see somebody sleeping while holding a long sword or somebody who vomits a lot because they prefer to eat poisonous herbs, but please don’t pay them any mind.”
“… You must be joking.”
“I wish I was.”
Unfortunately, it’s true.
From their perspective, Shiki, with the delusional girl they saw before and many others, would seem like a bizarre place.
They might have heard about Shiki before, but they look like their expectations were exceeded in the most unexpected way.
“… Incidentally, I might be acting out of line, but have you heard the stories?”
“Pardon?”
Just as I finished explaining and was going to wrap up the conversation by leaving the rest to the Father and preparing for tomorrow, Ash confirmed that nobody was paying attention to our trio and asked me in a voice more serious than before.
“Violet Valentine… she’s the woman who chased after that girl who spoke gibberish, together with the Sister.”
As expected, his question was about Lady Violet.
I feel like Chartreuse’s gaze became a bit sharper as well.
“What about my wife?”
“… Wife?”
“Yes.”
I knew that it would definitely be an annoying question, so I asked for the confirmation with a slightly strong voice before he managed to start anything. Then, their faces changed to a wondering expression.
This reaction… looks like they didn’t expect for me and Lady Violet to be married.
“She’s… your wife? I see. You must have it hard.”
What’s wrong with this guy? Do you want me to punch that pity-laden bitterly smiling face of yours? Not like I’d do it though.
“No, she’s a wonderful woman who’s wasted on me.”
“… I see.”
“…”
Hearing my words, both Ash and Chartreuse peered at my expression. They were probably trying to see if I was being genuine or not, but can’t they do it more discreetly? Is that so impossible? Okay, maybe it is.
Just like how in dating sim games for men, female characters are often self-assured, as if to say ‘you know that you have the advantage, right?’, male characters in otome games are also often overly confident. Yeah.
“Did you want to say something about my wife?”
“No, I just heard that she had become a nun. I was simply surprised by our unexpected encounter.”
If your default reaction to being surprised is contempt, you must have impressive guts… unfortunately I can’t say this out loud.
To them, she’s somebody who had to quit the academy because she was hostile towards His Highness and the others. If somebody like that suddenly appeared at their training site, it’s natural for them to wonder what she’s doing here… no, depending on the situation, she’s the enemy of the girl they like.
“Lord Ash! Lord Chartreuse!”
“I-I apologize. We are being called so we must excuse ourselves.”
“Yes, see you tomorrow then.”
Perhaps thinking that we had finished our conversation, the two were called by another student and had to leave.
Just as I was sighing while thinking about what a hassle the next day would be as I watched their receding backs,
“Um, I’m sorry. Do you have a moment?”
Suddenly somebody called out to me from behind.
It was a girl’s voice and also a voice I haven’t heard in Shiki, so I turned around, thinking that one of the students had spoken to me, I came face to face with a slightly short girl who was dressed in a white school uniform for commoners.
…? I’ve seen this girl somewhere.
“Hello…?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Is anything wrong? Is there anything you don’t understand?”
“Ah, no. There’s something I want to ask… I mean, I would like to ask.”
Despite feeling suspicious about the way I was looking at her, the girl hesitated a bit on how to word her sentence and finally asked.
“I’m looking for her… um, Vi… wait”
… I really feel like I’ve seen her somewhere. Don’t tell me she’s some kind of an underworld person… like Ms. Schwarz.
She had long fluffy golden colored hair with a tinge of red and distinctive, almost transparent eyes.
She seemed friendly and while she was pretty and beautiful, the word that suited her, above all, was ‘cute’.
She also looked like she would arouse protective instincts—
“Lady Valentine… wait, she’s not Valentine anymore, erm, oh, Lady Violet.”
… I remembered.
She’s a femme fatale in a way and an existence akin to a devil for Lady Violet.
“I would like to meet with her. Would that be okay?”
Isn’t this girl the heroine of the Ring of Fire?!
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