New Friends

Kneeling, Deagan Granbia continued to deeply lower his head.

「Deagan. Do you also understand that you are not innocent too?」

「Yes. I am prepared. I believe I am ready to face all consequences.」

Without even raising his head, Deagan answered in a collected voice, while Joruto kept staring at him, and called out to his father.

「Lord Granbia. In the Granbia household, there was another son except him, correct?」

「Yes, Your Highness. He is not of age yet, but there is another son in my household.」

「In that case, Lord Granbia. As the present head of the Granbia family, I recommend immediately disowning Deagan.」

「…. I have received your kind consideration, and I thank you very much, Your Highness Jortlion.」

Joruto recommended Deagan’s disownment to Laikam.

If Deagan was to be immediately disowned, he would take on the crimes he had committed by himself, that was Jourto’s kindness.

Even so, losing their first son, Deagan, the Granbia household, even if not being directly punished, would receive something equal to a punishment.

Suddenly disowning your eldest son, in the society of n.o.bles, it would not be a small amount of damage. Even so, it would be a lot better than directly receiving some kind of punishment directly.

Laikam, who was a father of one before he was the head of the Granbia household, understood the meaning of Joruto’s words and decided to take that in. Actually, there wasn’t much else to choose, though.

「Deagan. From today, from here on, you and I are neither father nor son to one another. Okay?」

「Understood, Father… No, Your Excellency Granbia. Thank you for taking care of me until today.」

Deagan and Laikam exchanged their last words as father and son.

After facing toward Laikam and bowing one last time, he turns back toward Joruto and kneels before him.

「Now, Deagan. With this you are no longer a n.o.ble. From now on, I will now judge you as not a n.o.ble but a commoner. That’s okay?」

「Yes. I understand.」

Already preparing himself, Deagan for the first time looked up at Joruto.

That face was that of a composed and quiet facial expression.

「Deagan. The punishment I bestow you is…. To make this village richer than it is now.」

「……….. Yes?」

Being unable to understand what Joruto is saying, Deagan’s face changes to that of a blank expression.

「As you know, the village chief and his son in this village had cause big problems and were charged with crimes. For that reason, there is n.o.body more fitting for this job than you. Then, you will become the village chief of this village, and will continue the development of this village. I will give you 10 years to do so. After the 10 years pa.s.ses, if this village is not more developed than it is now…. At that time I will once again take your head.」

「…… I have surely been honored with your command, Your Highness. And with that I shall gamble my life to the effort of developing this village.」

「Don’t forget it even a little bit? If the condition of this village in ten years…. No, if you don’t help at least one of the villagers with a justifiable complaint, your head and body will go far apart I think.」

「As you wis.h.!.+」

「Lord Granbia.」

「Yes!」

「As you are the governor of this land, again, and the senior figure of his life, make sure to lead this young village chief well. I might be older than him, but I am still very young. He probably needs some help from one more experienced. These two may not be father and son anymore, but they will still watch over each other as a young village chief and an experienced governor.」

「….. I understand, Your Highness. And, I thank Your Highness for his highest kindness.」

They cannot exchange as father and child anymore, but they can exchange as a governor and a village chief from now on.

As Joruto had left it unspoken but implied, the two, Deagan and Laikam, once again bow very deeply. Joruto remained silent and faced toward their backs.

Tatsumi congradulates Joruto on a job well done by nodding once at him, and in his mind he thought「That’s one issue settled.」.

「…… So after that, what happened?」

「The Granbia household decided to pay the corresponding fee for the problems big idiot-kun had caused for them. Well, even if the person himself didn’t notice, the Granbia household’s eldest son was mixed up in it. The Granbia household has to take responsibility for that. But, in the end Big Idiot-kun is a small fry? It seems he didn’t cause that big of a problem. 」

「I see…. Then, Garudo himself, what is he doing right now?」

「If it’s Big Idiot-kun, then he would be in Toga city’s jail meekly sitting there. At first, he was crying out loudly, but now he’s just meekly sitting there, in the corner of the prison, holding his knees, shaking and trembling every day.」

Several days had pa.s.sed since Garudo had met his downfall.

During that time, Joruto had at first worked at helping out Yerimao in Toga city.

Although it was a little late for that now, since this was the original purpose this time, we couldn’t just pull out there.

Tatsumi and Morgan stayed with Joruto in Toga city as his guards during his investigation, but just Calsedonia remained in Lagine Village in order to observe the progression of her younger sister’s condition.

However, every day when the sun set, Tatsumi visited Lagine Village.

If you combined both《Amaka (Sky Soarer)》and《Accelerator》, it didn’t take that long to get from Toga to Lagine Village.

Tatsumi’s figure, flying at high speeds in the mornings and evenings became a well-known spectacle during those few days in both the city of Toga and Lagine Village.

「Rather than that, should we make Big Idiot-kun Tatsumi’s slave? You could use him as a decoy for protection against magical beasts or something?」

「Don’t joke around. Why should I have to provide his basic necessities? At least, making him my slave would be something I would never do.」

Joruto proposed it half for fun, and Tatsumi plainly declined while shrugging.

And, both of them looking at each other, they laugh without any concern over it.

「But, this time’s events starting out very differently turned out to be a good study, in a different meaning than the events. Just as I thought, learning from books and textbooks in a castle is a lot less profound then actual experience.」(TL:His first sentence there just means it turned out to be a good study material, and not in a slavery way.)

「As they say in my homeland,『Hearing something 100 times is worse than seeing it once』, that seeing it for yourself is more important than hearing it from other people.」

「Fuuun. Your homeland, huh. Isn’t that in a different world?」

Joruto casually states. But Tatsumi gets unknowingly firm.

「….. Since when did you know that?」

After Tatsumi asks as if squeezing it out, Joruto finally smiles well.

「That would be, from the very start. Since, me and Calse are childhood friends right? Every time I met her a long time ago she would always talk about 『The Young Man in Her Dreams』. After she got engaged to you…. Who you were, after knowing that Calse knew who you were wasn’t a hard guess.」

What’s more is that after Tatsumi questioned more from Joruto, the Bard Kingdom’s royal family knew about Tatsumi’s early life, too.

Of course, who had told the royal family about this was a certain Highest Priest.

「I have no intention of spreading your early life’s story around here and there, so relax, okay? In the first place, if you told someone that you were from a different world, they wouldn’t normally believe you, right?」

Joruto answered Tatsumi, and continued to say that he would like to see Tatsumi’s world sometime.

「That’s right. I do have to show my close friend my homeland at some point.」

「Eh?」

Now it was Joruto’s turn to be surprised.

When Tatsumi saw Joruto’s confused face, he bent his lips into the shape of a smile.

「Weren’t you the person who had called me your close friend earlier? Yeah, when you had made a big pose finis.h.i.+ng off Garudo.」

「A…. Ah, ye, Yeah, that’s right.」

Remembering the events of a few days ago, Joruto becomes bashful while boisterously rubbing his head, his gaze wandering here and there.

「Well, let’s stay this way from here on, close friend.」

「Same here, close friend.」

Tatsumi offers his fist to Joruto, who takes his own fist and happily knocks them together.

Looking at the state of the two, Calsedonia’s family made blank faces and stared at them.

Right now, Tatsumi and co. were in Calsedonia’s parent’s house.

It was surprising that one from the royal family is staying in such a broken-down house, and that their son-in-law was talking so closely to him, too.

Calsedonia’s family sees the royal family in such a superior respect that they couldn’t come close to Tatsumi. For that reason, they did not know what the two were talking about, but they did realize that the two seemed to be happily talking.

「Hey, Nee-san….. Who exactly is your husband….. Tatsumi-brother-in-law-san?」

Lilinalia, who has finally become able to walk, asks her elder sister dumbfoundedly.

And, Bikkuri and Namea thought the same thing.

Looking at it from their perspective, it was unbelievable to be able to talk closely with the royal family.

「……. Perhaps, the man who has become your son in law is….. Some kind of illegitimate child of a great n.o.ble family…?」

Calsedonia, to the shaky voice of her father’s question, turns her head sideways quietly.

「Danna-sama isn’t some kind of n.o.ble, and has a normal birth. But….」

The priest that serves the Savaiv G.o.d. The successor of the legendary〈Sky〉Magic. And, the hero that defeated a dragon.

There were many things on her mind, ‘but none of them fully expressed her spouse’, so she determines.

Therefore, Calsedonia faces her father and smiles.

「…… My husband is the best person in the world.」

At his daughter who is smiling as if it would burst open, declaring so plainly, Bikkuri takes it in a different meaning and is taken aback.

By the way.

If someone were to ask why Tatsumi was in Calsedonia’s parents’ house, it would be because he is waiting right now.

Calsedonia’s younger sister Lilinalia. The stoned rat, the magical beast who had inserted poison into her legs.

Joruto ordered Deagan, the newly appointed village chief to investigate whether or not there was other victims of the stoned rat in the village.

Deagan would probably bring the results of this investigation shortly.

Normally it would be undoubtedly the village chief’s house and not Calsedonia’s parent’s house which would be used to give the report.

But, Joruto chooses Calsedonia’s parent’s house to wait in instead.

The reason was that he very plainly just wanted to go into the house.

From the view of the royal family, stepping foot into such a hut of a house, is a new experience.

Saying it out loud feels like selfishness out of curiosity, but Calsedonia will be here too, and it’s not just some stranger’s house to Tatsumi, either.

With the situation of《Sky Soarer》and《Holy Maiden》nearby, there is no safer place in the village.

From Bikkuri and co’s perspective, if the royal family is in your house you can’t be at ease at all, but from the selfish perspective of a powerful person, it’s certainly a cute reaction.

Incidentally, Yerimao had packed into Deagan’s house in order to help him as the village chief, and Morgan is in the middle of searching the surroundings of the house for traces of the stoned rat.

As a matter of fact, Tatsumi was also searching the surroundings of the house a while ago, but without finding anything he came back.

And as Joruto and Tatsumi were enjoying the foolish conversation, Calsedonia was serving them tea, and at some point, Lilinalia got curious and joined into the circle, with Bikkuri and Namea concerned that their daughters would not say anything careless around the royalty and watching them, and someone from outside knocked on the badly fitting front door.

「It’s Deagan. May I enter?」

Joruto, answering in replacement of a family member, and with a creaking sound and a little effort, Deagan wearing plain clothes like a commoner opened the bad fitting front door and stepped in.

Behind him was Morgan’s figure, too. It seemed they had met up near the house.

「After hearing from the villagers, it seems n.o.body except for the daughter of this house has received the magical beast’s poison.」

「I see. It seems it went exactly as Calse’s and Morga’s prediction.」

Listening to Deagan’s report, Joruto nodded as to agree.

From now on, they will begin their last job.

That’s right.

They must exterminate the stoned rats to be thought hiding in the vicinity of this village.