Chapter 5
At the same time.
Luare, the Imperial Capital. District 1, Lot 1.
“Hard to catch a glimpse of your face?”
“……”
“Did you come from that boarding house again today?”
“……”
“My son, who am I talking to?”
Look over here. The woman shook the fishing rod she held.
The ‘son’ stood still, but the innocent cat reacted. Arden glanced at the grey cat standing on two legs and flailing, then replied with an annoyed look.
“Yes.”
“Is that an answer?”
“Yes.”
“Hmph.”
The woman hit her chest.
The room was bright even though it was well past midnight.
Documents piled up everywhere like mountains, an enormous central table with a map of the Empire on it, countless flags stuck into the map.
Ancient magic spells etched in blue on the glass window.
This was District 1, Lot 1, the Imperial Palace. Specifically, the Empress office.
The Empress asked her son.
“Why are you still holding out there? It’s been nearly three months since you graduated from the academy.”
“……”
“Are you not going to answer?”
“…It is my wish.”
“Is it only your wish? I have a wish too.”
It was a childish line for an Empress, but Arden paid no attention.
“Isn’t it time to clean up and move
back in?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Then why!”
“……”
“Son, let’s be reasonable.”
The Empress slammed the desk. A finger, misshapen from a lifetime of holding pens and swords, pointed at her son.
“You are the Crown Prince. You haven’t had the coronation ceremony yet, but since you are my only child, you soon will. But how long do you intend to hide your identity and live outside pretending to be an ordinary knight?”
“You instructed me to do so.”
“That was only until you graduated from the academy!”
I told you to graduate from the academy, when did I tell you to apply for the Knights! The Empress beat her chest.
“Yes, I told you to graduate from the academy based on your own merit. To mingle among the Empire’s people as a commoner, without the halo of being the Crown Prince. So, what, are you rebelling now?”
“……”
“What I gave you was a kind of free time. Since you’ll be working for the rest of your life once you become the Emperor, I wanted you to live freely until then. But this…”
Do you think it makes sense for the sole successor to the throne to be roughing it at the bottom of the Knights! The Empress was indignant.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have revealed your face to the Imperial people a long time ago!”
Sge had hidden him only child’s face because she feared assassination attempts, and now her child was using it for his own benefit like this!
“Why on earth are you enduring that filthy place? You, with your fastidiousness!”
Did you hide some treasure there?
Even as she said it, the Empress didn’t believe his own words.
Where would that guy have any treasure? At most, it would be a bathtub with plenty of hot water and soap that doesn’t wear down.
She focused her eyes, intending to tell the cat to bite him if he spoke nonsense.
But the disposition of her son, who was usually just sullen and expressionless no matter what his mother said, was strange.
Arden’s ears were red as he fiddled with his already neatly tied tie, looking away.
“My son?”
When she urged him.
“The room…”
“The room?”
The room what?
“You don’t clean the room.”
“What did you say?”
“You lives in a pigsty. It’s distracting.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll be leaving.”
Arden disappeared before she could question him further.
“Did that boy just say something?”
She asked the Head Chamberlain standing next to her, but the Chamberlain only tilted his head.
The Empress lamented in the spot where her taciturn son had just left.
“With that temper of his, which woman on earth will take him?”
He’s fastidious, he has no charm, he’s sensitivity personified, he shows no interest in the opposite sex at his age, and he barely speaks!
“I hope I can see him initiating a conversation with a woman before I die…”
The cat yawned wide in the office of the Empress, who was fretting with worry.
☆☆☆
Arden, who had left the palace, thought.
‘What might she be doing now?’
She looked tired when I went to buy a handkerchief earlier today. One employee had quit, she said.
Just looking at that senior working at the tailor shop irritated him.
It wasn’t that her working at the tailor shop irritated him. Seeing her do work she didn’t want to do irritated him.
It irritated him that the academy,
despite having been paid tuition in full while she was attending, demanded money again upon graduation, and it irritated him that the Imperial Law prevented even the Imperial Family from interfering with a university, and it irritated him that the law also made sense…
In short, everything irritated him.
Arden’s steps quickened toward the boarding house.
‘What is she really doing?’
I’m not exactly curious, but I want to know.
Meanwhile, at that moment.
The senior Arden was curious about was…
☆☆☆
Transforming.
Her hair, which had been tied back tightly so as not to hinder her movements, came undone.
Her jet-black hair changed to a blonde similar to Arden’s.
The clothes she was wearing also changed.
In place of a black shirt, a pure white blouse with cotton candy-like sleeves, and in place of dark long pants, a red lace skirt that went up to her thighs.
A large bow of the same color was on her chest.
Flutter.
Pink petals fell from the air.
Her body, which had been spinning slowly since she cast the spell, gradually stopped.
“Transformation complete!”
The Maltese clapped next to her.
I was flustered.
“What is this!”
It takes a good minute to transform!
I’ll get shot while transforming!
I glanced sideways at the adulterer, whose mouth was simply hanging open. He must have been so flustered that he didn’t even think to shoot.
Only the Maltese, beside the two dumbfounded humans, was excited.
“Now move with confidence, bark! The Magical Saintess’s battle uniform has a face-blindness spell on it!”
“What kind of spell?!”
“A spell that makes people who know the Magical Saintess unable to recognize her, even if they see her face right up close!”
“Honestly!”
At least it saves my dignity!
If the people who know me found out I was running around outside in clothes like this!
I couldn’t live with the embarrassment!
“Bad guy! Now don’t move! The Guardian of Justice, the Magical Saintess, has arrived!”
The Maltese, looking triumphant even though it wasn’t the one who transformed, pointed its short front paw straight at the adulterer. The dazed adulterer finally reacted with horror.
“The dog talks?!”
It must not be surprising that a person transformed!
“I’m not a dog!”
“Eek! It’s a ghost!”
“I’m not a ghost! I’m a divine beast!”
“Aargh!”
“Haha! You must fear the judgment of justice!”
“Aaaargh! Whatever you are, die!”
Bang!
“No…!”
I hugged the dog and ducked behind the desk.
Bang! Bang!
I violently shook the front paws of the dog, which had instantly gone quiet with fear.
“Wake up, doggy!”.
You’re the Magical Saintess!
“Is this really all there is?!”
This childish outfit and the face-blindness spell?!
“Is there no weapon or anything?!”
Am I really going to block bullets with a mirror?!
“Dieee!”
Bang! Bang!
“Ow!”
It’s too narrow here, nowhere to run!
“Do something, doggy!”
“A, a precious item! Seraphina must have a precious item, bark!”
“This is precious!”
I pointed to the brooch that had remained after my clothes changed, the one I used to open the door earlier.
“This is what I received as an outstanding student when I was at the academy! It’s proof that I achieved something through effort! Whenever rude customers step on me, seeing this boosts my self-esteem! When I feel like I’m a nobody! When people treat me like a maid they can boss around according to their mood! I am a person far more valuable than them…”
That’s a lie, it’s just the most expensive thing I own!
“It’s really the most precious thing!”
So do something about it, pleaseeeeee!
At that moment, the brooch stretched out long.
What I held in my hand soon after was.
A cherry-colored, winged squeaky toy hammer.
“?!”
Pang! Pang!
The giant inflated hammer moved on its own, deflecting the bullets. The bullets hit by the hammer transformed into colorful star-shaped sugar candies and rained down.
“Oh my!”
How did it know I always wished I could hit rude customers with a squeaky toy hammer!
Bang!
“Gasp!”
No time to marvel.
I charged straight at the adulterer.
Bang!
“Thank you for waiting, customer! I apologize for the inconvenience!”
Bling!
“That is! Difficult!”
Bling Bling!
“Yes! That means no!”
Bling Bling Bling!
“You’re in a hurry?! Then! Why! Didn’t! You! Come! Earlier!”
Bling Bling Bling!
Embodying the resentment of every employee in this world!
Rude Customer Repel-Hammering!
Thwack!
“Cough!”
Thud.
The adulterer, whose head had been repeatedly struck by the giant squeaky toy hammer, collapsed.
“Hah, hah…”
I lowered the squeaky toy hammer and gasped for breath.
“……”
The wave of shame…
‘A lace skirt and a squeaky toy hammer.’
Is the Magical Saintess…
…gaining power in exchange for shame? Like how you can run faster if you recall embarrassing past events while running?
“Well done! Seraphina! Victory is ours!”
The Maltese, which had been busy picking up and eating the star-shaped candies that had fallen to the floor while I was punishing the adulterer, finally cheered.
“……”
It doesn’t seem to care about my feelings.
As I glared at the Maltese, which cautiously lifted a front paw to take the last star-shaped candy on the floor, seemingly worried I might snatch it.
“Hmm. Humm-humm~”
The sound of Madam Scrooge humming as she returned, unaware of the chaos of the shooting and hammering upstairs.
“……”
The adulterer. The adulteress. And Madam Scrooge.
The people who cut off the livelihood of Ellie, who was just working.
‘Alright. Since I’ve started, I might as well finish this properly.’
“Doggy.”
I called the Maltese, which was stealthily lifting its front paw to grab a star-shaped candy while I was distracted.
“We said we would enact justice, didn’t we?”
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