episode_0497

The journey from Iron Horde to Ermia was surprisingly pleasant.

I thought it would be awkward since there were only people I didn’t know, except for Mirif, but it wasn’t like that at all. Since the majority were priests, it felt like everyone I was with was considerate.

“So, Sister Lily, as soon as you learned the art of assassination when you were young, you immediately went to subdue Hook Fang?”

“… … Yeah.”

“You are truly amazing. Assassins usually have short weapons and are reluctant to fight large monsters, but Sister Lily seems to be quite skilled.”

“And Sister Lily can take down three goblins and other villains with just one swing of her sword!”

“If Sister had joined the Church of Aurelia, she might have had a knight’s seat by now, haha!”

“… … Yeah.”

… This kind of excessive kindness or showing off is a bit burdensome, but it’s still much better than having the conversation end awkwardly because you don’t know what to say.

Usually, the religious people who are rotten or have dirty backgrounds are either high-ranking nobles or such. These low-ranking priests basically have a service spirit as their foundation, so they don’t really have to worry about that.

As usual, I should have been pulling the Jeraon 2, but the Paladin Foldragun was pulling it with another horse tied to the carriage, and inside the carriage, I was leisurely moving around while eating cookies given by the senior priest Kiara and herbal teas given by the intermediate priest Berus. When I was bored, I would talk about adventure activities with Mirif alone.

I never thought that my relationship with the girl I met during the E-rank adventurer promotion match would continue like this. As expected, the fun in human affairs is that it is somewhat unpredictable.

‘What’s bothering me a little is that Sei hasn’t come back yet…’

The wind spirit who disappeared in the goblin cave in anger because I did not listen to him.

The only good thing was that my spirit contract with her was still valid. Compared to when I was around her every day, the amount had decreased slightly, but my magical power was still flowing to her little by little.

And it seemed like he only didn’t want to see me, but he kept talking to Sally. Sally seemed to know roughly where Say was, but since spirits have a stronger sense of loyalty to each other, she didn’t tell me.

‘… Well, I guess Sei will come back first in a month or two.’

In fact, if the spirit decides to run away or something, there is no way for me, a human, to find her. In such cases, rather than provoking her unnecessarily and making excuses to move away, I had no choice but to quietly bide my time and wait for her to return.

“Sister Lily.”

“Huh?”

“If you don’t have a place to go after arriving in Ermia, how about staying in the priestess’ quarters of the church for a while?”

“… … Huh?”

“There are a few private rooms left in Ermia’s church right now because there is a shortage of priests. Ermia is also a bit expensive, so I asked Sister Lily, the benefactor of Sister Mirif, if she would mind saving a little on accommodation costs.”

“… Is that okay? I’m not even a priest.”

“Yes. The Church of Aurelia always welcomes righteous people like Sister Lily.”

“I also think it would be good for Sister Lily to stay at the church. I still haven’t been able to repay the favor I received from you last time.”

“Hmm. I also think Sister Kiara’s opinion is correct.”

Kiara and Mirif were the first to suggest a training camp to me, and Berus nodded in agreement next to them.

I had already taken money from the Adventurer’s Guild a while ago, and I wasn’t in such dire straits that I didn’t even need accommodations… Well, there was no reason to refuse.

“Okay, then. I’ll take care of you for a while.”

“Yes, Sister Lily!”

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

A month has passed since the day Lilith left Blackwood Manor.

After nearly a month of touring the major locations of the empire, Prince Blackwood began his lonely journey home, having achieved nothing.

“Where the hell did you go, Lilith… .”

Traces of Lilith that disappeared so completely that it was hard to believe that she had actually evaporated, whether she had risen into the sky or fallen into the ground.

Ethan also knew very well how reckless it was to search the empire with only one word without any clues.

That’s why he knew deep down that he shouldn’t get impatient after only a month… .

“Wherever you are, please stay safe… .”

I wonder if Release is having a hard time in a place where he is not confident.

If she had encountered a dangerous monster, or if she had been wrongly caught up in a bad man and suffered, or if, considering her constitution that always got her involved in dangerous situations, she had been caught up in the schemes of evil warlocks.

All these thoughts plagued Ethan every night as he lay in bed, and eventually his reason inevitably gave way to his emotions.

It’s been just over a month since I last released the book.

Since the day we first got into a relationship.

Since the day we first kissed.

It was virtually the first time for Ethan to be away from her for this long since the day he first became her exclusive maid.

Because I never doubted that you would always be by my side.

Because I never imagined that one day, you would suddenly disappear without saying a word.

As if he had realized the value of water and air, Ethan’s body yearned for release more and more as each day passed.

“If I find you this time, I’ll lock you up so you can’t escape again… . Ah, no, I really shouldn’t do anything that Lilith would hate… .”

The way home was a journey that I had no choice but to climb, my head in confusion as two conflicting emotions clashed.

It had already been a month since he had left Blackwood Manor, so even if there had been no harvest, he needed to return to the estate once a month.

… because he couldn’t just dismiss the possibility that Lilith had a change of heart and was waiting for him at Blackwood Manor.

-Squeak.

“Your Majesty, have you returned home?”

“… I’m back.”

First, I need to get rid of the toxins that have built up in my body from riding a horse all day.

Ethan leaves his sword and coat to the butler Dietmeyer, who quickly comes out to greet him as soon as he returns, and then soaks himself in the bath alone to relieve his fatigue.

Ethan went to bed after having dinner with Sesin, thinking of taking a good rest for the day and setting out again the next morning.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

And then the next morning.

“To the Duke of Blackwood.

Iron Horde Adventurer’s Guild Master. Patrick.

“… … .”

Before leaving again tomorrow morning, Ethan sat in the office of the Blackwood mansion, thinking he would take some time to do some work while he had some free time. He silently tilted his head at the mysterious letter that had caught his eye since morning.

“… That’s strange.”

Iron Horde. It was probably a village that had no particular connection to the Blackwood family.

Of course, the letters that arrived at Blackwood Manor were not always from nobles or people associated with the family. Since you couldn’t tell who sent them until you received them, you had to accept all the letters that came.

First of all, letters are not only sent to the head of the Blackwood family, but also to subordinate families, and sometimes letters are delivered incorrectly, or to servants working at the mansion, so letters are sent to the mansion from various classes of people.

Then, among them, the head butler would filter out letters that looked like they were from nobles or contained important content, and the head maid would sort out the remaining letters that were intended for servants or were delivered incorrectly.

So, the fact that this letter was left on the desk in the office meant that the head butler, Dietmeyer, knew that it was an important letter and left it there, so Ethan called him in and asked him the whole story.

“What is this letter, Dietmire? Is there some connection between the Iron Horde Adventurer’s Guild and House Blackwood that I don’t know about?”

“No, but in the case of that letter, there was something that came with it.”

“… thing?”

“Yes, this is it.”

Dietmeyer, thinking that he would naturally ask about the existence of the letter, gives Ethan the items that were delivered along with it.

Ethan was rather puzzled by the sight of him placing a bag of gold coins on the desk, which made a jingling sound.

-Charuk.

“… Is that what came with it?”

“Yes. There were exactly ten gold coins in it.”

“Ten gold coins… ?”

Are you trying to bribe Blackwood Manor to get what you want? If so, why Blackwood, so far from the Iron Horde, and why the dukedom that you can easily provoke?

Ethan nodded, having had that doubt for a moment. He was planning to do some work and then move on anyway.

“I guess I should read the contents of the letter. Is the letter still in the same condition it arrived in?”

“Yes. None of the servants of our Blackwood family have confirmed the contents of the letter, and no one but me knows of the existence of the item that came with it.”

“… I didn’t really suspect anything. You always work hard.”

If you approached me like this to ask for something useless, I should respond in some way.

Ethan opened the dedicated letter with that thought in mind and checked the contents inside… .

“To Lord Blackwood, and the youngest daughter of the Blackwood family, ‘Assassin Lily’… ?”

As soon as he read the first sentence of the letter, Ethan’s confusion only grew.