episode_0070

Cecilia, who was working in the guild office today, couldn’t help but doubt her ears.

It wasn’t all that surprising that Raoul would come looking for me, but what he said wasn’t.

“… I wish you would come with me.”

“Huh?!”

“I’ll be back in a week, so I hope you’ll be properly prepared by then. You can tell people around you. The more people who know, the better.”

“Uh, Uh, Uh, Wait a minute. This is so sudden, but…!”

“Isn’t that between you and me? This kind of talk…”

Graza Kyle shut his boss’s mouth with an annoyed expression. To be precise, it was as close as he could get to closing the door to disaster.

“Our first… no, Raul-nim spoke very strangely… no, he spoke strangely. I apologize on his behalf. He is someone who has a strange mouth.”

Kyle, one of the few high-level personnel who could interpret Raoul’s words, repeatedly bowed his head and apologized.

“Actually, Raul’s birthday is coming up soon, so he was going to treat me to a meal during the inauguration ceremony. But this twisted-tongued guy is talking like that…”

“Haa. It’s okay. I knew from the beginning that the Lord was a bit of a strange person.”

Cecilia knew that he was quite unusual, even if she couldn’t understand his speech.

Because of that attitude, he had many enemies, but because of his unique personality, most of the townspeople viewed him favorably.

The elders of the village said that he greeted the common old people in a way that was unusual for a nobleman, the common adults liked him because he helped people in a way that was unusual for a nobleman, and the children of the village were all fascinated by the fighting skills he taught them.

“By the way, it’s your birthday. I should prepare a small gift.”

“There’s no need for that. I didn’t call you to receive a gift in the first place.”

The original intention was to deceive the demons. Although Raoul was sincere in wanting to treat the residents to a meal, he didn’t pay much attention to his own birthday.

‘Birthday? If you have time to worry about such trivial things, you should at least read one more page of the book.’

His mother’s education may have played a role to some extent, but his innate personality did not consider his birthday special. He thought that a date that simply shared a number with the day he was born had no meaning.

The only people who celebrated his birthday were his father and close friends. Although his father was unable to give him a fancy gift because he was concerned about his mother’s feelings.

For him, his birthday was just another excuse to see his friends. The gifts his friends gave him were mostly things like alcohol or old books, and the empress would give him something rare and useless like whale gallstones.

“If there’s anything you want, I can do something similar…”

“It’s okay. Now my life doesn’t desire material things anymore.”

Even though Raoul grew up with his mother’s hatred, he grew up in material abundance. The only things that exist are things that can be bought at any time and things that cannot be bought even if you pay a billion dollars. There was no reason to be obsessed.

To him, everything was just a fruit that he could reach out and pick, or stars hanging in the sky. So there was no need to go out of his way to get them.

“It might not have any meaning anymore…”

“Yes…?”

“Ah! This guy ate breakfast well today and is talking nonsense. I’ll be going now hahaha…!”

Kyle covered Raul’s mouth again, fearing that if he found out that he had a limited time, something big would happen.

“Okay, then we’ll go now.”

“…”

What Cecilia felt when she saw Raoul being dragged away was a very small sense of discomfort.

A very small sense of discomfort that is too small and faint to be named, but whose existence is clear.

Cecilia saw Raoul with eyes that looked as if he had given up on something. No, to be exact, his eyes were filled with resignation and determination at the same time.

It was the same eyes that my father had shown me for the last time. It was the same sad eyes that he had seen holding farm tools and blocking the demons after evacuating his family.

“Your Majesty…”

It was not Raoul’s miserable mouth, but his miserable eyes that planted doubt in Cecilia.

What sprouted along with the suspicion was a tiny bit of pity and a red favor that could not be named.

“… Ha, no matter what, that’s a bit presumptuous.”

The person involved will actually try to deny that feeling.

“Are you crazy?! Why don’t you just advertise!”

Kyle grabbed Raoul by the collar and started shaking him as he almost made a slip of the tongue. It may be rude for a subordinate, but Raoul’s slip of the tongue could have been fatal.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, he’s usually the type who keeps his mouth shut… Sigh.”

“It seems like you’ve become emotional because you don’t have much time left to live. You’re really so foolish.”

“…… Well, I’ll just take care of the cleanup. That girl might have noticed. ”

Raoul sighed as he watched Kyle walk back towards the Adventurer’s Guild.

How could he have said something like that? Maybe it was a grumble. A grumble mixed with regret for a life of suppressed desires and resentment toward his mother, who was the cause of such a life.

All Raoul wanted was the destruction of the Demon King and his followers. No, perhaps that too was a wish born from a sense of duty. All Raoul really wanted was to breathe.

Since nothing was clear, I just kept sighing and trying to calm my anxious mind.

“… The ground is going to collapse.”

Raoul turned his head when he finally heard a familiar voice.

“Camilla.”

“I’m the one who’s in trouble, so why are you dead?”

Camilla stroked Raoul’s head.

“Just kidding. You must be having a hard time too.”

“Camilla. If I hadn’t been running wild there, your brother would have been…”

“Don’t bring up what-ifs in someone’s death. My brother is dead and that’s it.”

Camilla corrected Raul’s misbehavior by pinching his cheek.

If Leila was Raoul’s other half, Camila was the one who could hold Raoul.

“… Camilla.”

“Okay. Tell me anything.”

“It looks like you had a hard time too, so there’s no need to act tough. It seems like you gained some weight because you missed training.”

Of course, there were also statements that could not be tolerated.

While Camilla strangled Raoul, the two felt a strange sense of relief. It was so fortunate that he was still intact after going through such hardships.

That’s why the two of them envied each other. They were extremely envious of the fact that she could remain herself even after experiencing the death of her only brother, and that she could remain calm even after having her secret exposed.

After about five minutes, Camilla released Raoul with a somewhat serious expression on her face.

“… I heard the story roughly from Penelope on the way here.”

“Are you talking about the Queen?”

“Yeah. I’m not sure yet, but if that damn lizard is really here…!”

Raoul, who saw Camilla emitting more electricity than ever before, had no choice but to take a step back.

“I guess I’ll have to cut that thing off and stuff it.”

Camilla, of course, and other heroes including Leila also hated the Queen of Dragons.

All five of them had been defeated by her miserably. If she had just killed them, it would have been different. The queen of dragons had let them live several times, seemingly out of whim.

Of course, every time she saved them, she would take something they had. From cloaks, necklaces, badges, flags, to rings. She took all sorts of things as spoils of victory.

It was unnatural not to hate her, as she had piled up the shame of surviving defeat and the shame of having things taken away like a child.

“That lizard bitch, I stuck a spear between her legs…!”

“A child passing by will hear.”

“… I can’t sleep when I think about that motherfucker.”

“Then think about me.”

Raoul considered himself a boring man, so he recommended himself.

He asked me to think of myself as someone who gets sleepy when reading a hard, boring old book.

“I don’t think I can sleep any better when I think about your mouth…”

Raoul sighed at the thought that it might actually have the opposite effect.

I felt ashamed of myself for not having the same value as a mere old book, and I had no idea that my way of speaking would cause such anger.

“Well, aside from that, do you want anything for your birthday present?”

“You know best that I’m not interested in that kind of thing. I’m not really interested in material things.”

“He’s talking like he’s full.”

“Because birthday parties are just devices for trickery.”

Camilla ran her index finger over Raoul’s chin as he uttered such boring words.

“I’ll prepare the best gift for you.”

“I hope it’s not cooking.”

“Shall I cook for you?”

And the purple-haired pharmacist watched the scene from a distance, licking his tongue.

“… So cute.”

She washed her white feet with running water and muttered to herself something unknown.

“I want to cure that disease without leaving anything behind.”

She looked at the clear water and smiled coldly.

“I’ll be waiting for your birthday too.”