Because the rattling of the carriage grew to become extra intense, I started to develop stressed. I glanced over on the stretched-out window and requested Liel if he had seen my unease.

“Sorry, however isn’t it a bit far?”

We’d been transferring for almost an hour, so it wasn’t shut.

Nonetheless, given the course we have been going, it was solely a brief distance from the academy, not that removed from my home.

We’d need to see as soon as we bought there, however…….

“No, that’s not the issue…….”

The gap from my home to the academy was fairly a bit, so the gap wasn’t an issue. My concern was that the highway was rougher than I anticipated.

“Are we heading in the right direction……?”

“Yeah, we’re nearly there.”

Liel replied, not even looking the window to see if he might make a tough estimate of the time, and shortly, true to his phrase, the carriage screeched to a halt.

“Marquis! Sir Liel, we’ve arrived!”

On the sound of the coachman’s cheerful voice, Liel opened the door with a leisurely motion and slipped out of the carriage.

As an alternative of following him out, I poked my head out to soak up the environment.

“I, uh, don’t see the slightest trace of a mansion……?”

So far as I might see, there was nothing however dense forest and a low mountainside, with a small path main as much as it.

Are we on the unsuitable path?

“It’s up there.”

Liel pointed to a small path that led up a hill or mountain.

“You’ll need to stroll from right here. It’s tough.”

How might or not it’s harder? Why did he select this one out of all of the mansions?

I checked out Liel as if to query his style, and he grinned in embarrassment.

“It’s price residing in.”

With a appear to be that on his face, there’s no method I might have believed him. I even questioned if he’d been scammed into shopping for the home.

However then once more, Liel knew extra about cash transactions than I did and was extra cautious.

“Yeah……. If that’s your factor, who am I to argue…….”

I replied, haphazardly brushing again a stray strand of hair that had fallen after I leaned ahead.

“How far is it from right here?”

“Um……. Ten minutes at my tempo? At your tempo…… it will take about 20 minutes.”

I don’t know why he was counting my steps, however he was saying it will take 20 minutes at a traditional human tempo.

What a ache.

“It’s only a straight ahead path up from right here. Thanks for the journey.”

As I checked out him with a pitiful gaze, Liel all of the sudden expressed his gratitude. Might this imply it’s now okay for me to go?

I nodded and turned again to take a seat down, if not for Liel, who all of the sudden spoke once more.

“Lucy, please don’t inform anybody the place I stay.”

“Huh? Why?”

“As a result of it’s not such as you’re going to be right here usually anyway…… and also you may come over to hang around on occasion, and so they’ll get the unsuitable thought.”

“Oh…….”

Grown women and men going forwards and backwards between one another’s houses might be a supply of confusion among the many the Aristocracy. Simply as I’d been caught up in rumors with Liel on the Academy.

However right here, I don’t assume I’ll be seen by many individuals, a lot much less dare to assume somebody has a house right here.

The world round it was abandoned.

“I actually don’t thoughts a rumor or two, however Lucy, you don’t.”

Liel mentioned, simply as I used to be questioning if human eyes would ever see this place.

I turned to have a look at Liel’s face to get again on observe, and he was smiling in a method that belied the bitterness in his voice.

I stared on the upturned corners of his mouth, considering.

“You must actually go now. It’s getting darkish. It will get darkish in right here.”

After one other farewell, Liel closed the carriage door together with his hand. Whilst I watched the door shut with a squeak, I didn’t come to a simple conclusion.

Thud—

Solely after the carriage door was utterly closed did I hear Liel’s voice calling for us to depart. The coachman reined within the horses at Liel’s sign.

“I don’t thoughts, however…….”

I muttered because the carriage rattled and started to maneuver.

In hindsight, I didn’t thoughts the rumors being unfold about Liel and I.

I simply didn’t assume it will do a lot good for both of us.

Within the old style sense of the phrase, it was extra of an inconvenience than a dislike.

“However simply in case…….”

I swiveled round and poked my head out the window the place the coachman was sitting.

“……?”

The coachman’s shoulders jerked up barely in shock at my sudden look.

“You heard what Liel mentioned earlier, didn’t you? For the sake of Liel’s fame, I want you to maintain the placement of the home a secret.”

“What? Ah, sure. I’ll.”

The coachman replied coolly, as if it have been a troublesome job. After all, it was a ineffective promise if Liel’s household already knew the place he lived.

I used to be about to shut the window with a happy look on my face when the coachman paused, as if he nonetheless had one thing to say.

“Why?”

“Uh……. Not that it issues…… however I assumed I might see with my very own eyes why the late Marquis Anise was so annoyed.”

Why does my grandmother all of the sudden come up right here?

I paused, questioning if I’d given him a purpose to recollect my grandmother.

“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s harmful, so simply go inside and sit down.”

The coachman will need to have seen me flinch as a result of he shook his head rapidly and stuck the reins, and I closed the window and sat again down.

I felt a tingling sensation that I had felt as soon as earlier than, however I don’t know when.

⁂

Liel’s home was situated on the fringes of the Empire, the closest factor to the outer partitions. In actual fact, half a 12 months in the past, he’d been on the lookout for a spot nearer to Lucy’s mansion.

He’d picked the most effective of the bunch, however he’d needed to reverse his determination shortly afterward.

Kkaakk—

As he made his method up the hill, he felt eyes on him. Not human, however animal, demonic gazes.

Liel rubbed the again of his neck in annoyance.

“Why do you look to me in your king.”

He was sick of it.

The demons have been getting bolder by the day, extra insistent than ever, even climbing over the outer wall to seek out him.

That’s why he’d taken up residence in a clearing near the outer wall.

“If you may get inside, why don’t you discover him your self?”

Liel mentioned, not bothering to acknowledge my stare. The birds’ beaks opened barely.

[We can’t find him].

[The king has hidden himself so that we cannot find him].

[We cannot enter without the king’s command].

The birds started to clarify, as if mesmerized. Liel narrowed his eyes like a person listening to a boring story.

“Not now that you simply’re already right here.”

A reflexive snort escaped Liel’s lips, and his voice was tinged with bewilderment.

[Only you can find the king].

Nicely.

If I might, I’d wish to see the face of this man referred to as the King. The best way the demons are reacting to me, the tattoo on my ankle will need to have one thing to do with him.

However Liel’s guess was a mix of certainty and denial.

For the world knew the King of Demons to be useless.

“Get misplaced.”

Liel stopped his pointless musings and turned to the birds. The birds started to flap their wings in unison at his command.

One after the other, their toes slipped off the branches, and the branches shook with the recoil.

The birds hovered above Liel’s head for some time earlier than flying away.

⁂

Dailor was in fairly the predicament now.

“You continue to haven’t discovered it?”

His grasp’s endurance was carrying skinny, because it had been greater than a 12 months since he’d made the declare that he’d discovered it.

She has a delicate mood, and if he dragged it out any longer, his eyes would roll again in his head.

As we walked by way of the streets, mixing in with the knights, Dailor made grunting noises.

In the meantime, the opposite members of the troupe, oblivious to his scenario, have been busy chattering away.

“So that you’re saying you bought dumped?”

“So what……. He mentioned I wasn’t his kind.”

“Haven’t you had a crush for over three years already, simply cease it and marry whoever they resolve for you at house.”

Since they have been all of their prime, the subjects of dialog have been flowery.

One of many paladins turned to Dailor, who wasn’t engaged within the dialog, and requested him if he was fearful.

“Is one thing bothering you?”

Dailor shook his head, saying it was nothing, after which he heard a girl’s voice.

“No, didn’t I inform you that I don’t swimsuit white?”

“Actually? I believe it’ll be superb in the event you design it proper…….”

One other acquainted voice adopted. Dailor turned rapidly towards the supply of the sound, considering, lastly, the Goddess Ophelia is giving him a good likelihood.

Lucy and Liel have been having a small argument.

“……Sure, it’s yours to put on, so do what you need.”

Lucy had been deciding on the colours of the material, and her handheld a bundle of black and navy blue cloth.

“And I’ve been doing a little analysis on how I could make the uniform extra sensible…….”

Lucy quickly introduced up one other subject. It gave the impression to be about tailoring the uniforms. Dailor’s eyes flicked forwards and backwards between Liel and Lucy.

This was why he hadn’t made a lot progress thus far. There was a wall between them that he couldn’t break by way of.

Nevertheless it wasn’t essentially with Liel, and it wasn’t with the Marquis, Lucy Seywint, both.

“Is there any good justification?”

The knight’s sobbing voice rang in Dailor’s ears as he questioned if he ought to simply go over and speak to her.

“I used to be aiming for a love marriage!”

“Your loved ones is sort of conservative, isn’t it? Possibly it was by no means meant to be within the first place.”

“No romance…….”

“Nicely, I’m a realist, and I simply despatched off a wedding proposal to a girl from the following nation over. You’d higher get your act collectively earlier than you’re dropped from the wedding market.”

As quickly as he heard these phrases, a single thought popped into Dailor’s head.

Lucy Seywint, who had risen to the rank of Marquis and had no fiancé.

“Marriage…….”

Now that he thought of it, it wasn’t like there wasn’t a technique to strategy her.

A smile unfold throughout his face as he considered a believable, if barely outlandish, thought.