Evade The Hero and Flee!

Chapter 261

Side Story – Memories of a Princess (36)

#47 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of a Certain Villain

The sound of horses’ hooves clattering and the army moving together. 

The large-scale deployment ceremony where all the Princess’s troops were deployed has ended.

Although I moved quite hard… What could powerless me have done?

Of course nothing. 

I just got dragged out powerlessly and ended up participating in the war with the Princess.

The good thing is that we’re going to a region where full-scale war hasn’t started yet and that we’re going to support General Pelstein, one of the most renowned commanders in the empire. Isn’t that right?

Just by not acting alone, the danger has reduced a lot.

However, there was something awkward,

“It’s amazing, Senior!”  

“Is it?”

“Yes!”

It was the existence of the young man next to me, looking at me with twinkling eyes.

“You look happy.”

“Of course! I get to serve the respected Sir Ast and her Highness together!”

If I were to bring 10 random passersby and ask them how this guy looks, whether men or women, they would all answer that he looks appealing.  

That’s how good looking he is, and how nicely he smiles.

When a good looking guy beams brightly, it can look ill-fated to men’s eyes, but with this guy I just felt that’s so him.

However, 

“Hey, who the hell are you?”

“Huh?”  

He was so appealing that it felt strange.

“People can’t be perfect, you know.”  

“What do you mean by that?”

“A guy with a good family background, good looks, and even good personality?  Do you think that makes sense?”

“Ah, Sir Ast?”

I understand him having good looks and family status since he just arrived not long ago. But good personality as well.  

And how good? He looks favorably upon me, despite being the youngest son of a Count family, far removed from the line of succession!  

There’s no way nobles like that would do so!  

If there’s a noble risen from commoner status, don’t all nobles want to mercilessly step on them?

Respect? There’s no way someone with such naive feelings could survive the noble world full of machinations!  

It is a world of thorough survival of the fittest, a jungle even harder to survive than a jungle.  

There is no way the dangerous offspring of a top noble from such a world can be so perfect!

“Where are you from?”

“What, what do you mean?”  

“You were sent by some organization, weren’t you?”

“How could that be!”

The guy shouted in a squeaky voice, drawing looks from those around us.

They all had expressions wondering what was going on.

“Ugh….”  

As countless gazes gathered on him, the embarrassed junior blushed and bowed his head before reproaching me in an aggrieved voice.

“Sir Ast, do you dislike me?”

Dislike? The problem was you being too perfect.

My junior attendant, being such a perfect guy.

It doesn’t make sense, does it?  

Think about it. A picture with the Princess, Renia, me, and this guy.

Hmm… looks pretty matching, huh?

The Princess is beautiful when she shuts her mouth. And Renia, also beautiful when just standing still quietly once seen from the outside.  

And then the newcomer, the youngest son Maref Cesar of the prestigious Count Cesar family!

Ah, I see. You all match… except me!  

Why do only good looking and beautiful humans gather around me?!  

Me, I’m pretty decent looking too!  

Not the best looking but not the ugliest either!  

Just ordinary looks, it’s just that the specs around me are too high!

“Damn…!”

“Yes?”  

“You’re a spy. A spy. You must be a spy!”  

“Wha, what are you suddenly saying?”

I kept pressing the flustered junior.  

He must be a spy for sure.

There’s no way such a perfect guy could be my junior!  

He must have been dispatched from some organization for sure.

“Don’t you like me, Sir Ast?”

Hurt by my words, his crestfallen appearance looked even more spy-like.  

Hmph! This shabby spy!  

If he was truly the child of a prestigious Count house as his background claimed, he should have shouted ‘How dare you insult me, child of the prestigious Count Cesar family!’ and challenged me to a duel.

As I said again, the noble world is a terrifying place full of machinations!  

A guy making such an aggrieved voice and sorrowful expression could not survive that world.

Because showing weakness means you get eaten!

“Oh no… What are you doing again, Ast?”

I realized the Princess had stuck her head out the carriage window, which had opened without me noticing, glaring at me.

“I, I mean, I was just talking with my junior.”  

I almost unconsciously answered that I was interrogating a spy.  

Got too excited and almost made a dangerous slip of the tongue.

Judging the guy submitted by the Count Cesar family as their child to be a spy.

Even if he really was a spy, the Count Cesar family wouldn’t have sat still.

“Your Highness….”

As my nagging stopped, the junior looked at the Princess who had saved him with teary eyes.

“Hmm… You said your name was Maref?”  

“Yes. I am Maref Cesar, the youngest son of Cesar Count family.”

“Well, I don’t care about family background. What I want is that person’s uniqueness and ability. You understand what I mean?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”  

“I see. Although that guy looks like that… his ability is pretty…”

The Princess who had been looking at me tilted her head.  

“Decent?”

Hey, why does it end with a question mark?

“Your Highness?”

“Hmm… Ast’s ability… hmm… Does he have it? Have it? Even if those things could be called ability as well, raising destiny, if those things could be called ability…”

The sight of him muttering to himself was so pitiful.  

Of course, given the content, I didn’t actually feel sorry for him.

“There’s probably…probably something.”

After thinking hard for a while, Her Highness gave a vague answer.

“You’re not even saying there is something, just that there’s probably something. Do you have to add ‘probably’?”

“Then what? I really can’t think of anything.”

“Then just say there isn’t any.”

“I said I only use people with special talents and abilities. It would be strange for me to say there isn’t any.”

“I have no special talents. No abilities either. So I’m an existence that needs to be cut away for Your Highness sake, no, even for His Majesty the Emperor sake.!”  

I seized the opportunity.

Since the Princess herself brought it up first, she can’t say no.  

As royalty, she can’t easily take back what she already said out loud!

So go ahead and cut me off!  

Cut off this incompetent attendant lacking any special talents or abilities!

“Sir Ast, there’s no way you lack abilities!”

Just then, the spy, no, the junior attendant who was listening in shouted.

…I’m saying I have no abilities, so why are you making a fuss?

“All the imperial attendants know just how outstanding Sir Ast is.”

“R-really?”

There were rumors spreading among the imperial attendants that even I didn’t know about.  

Was it because I had so little contact with the imperial attendants that I was the only one unaware?

“Sir Ast became the exclusive attendant to the Princess despite being a commoner, and achieved nobility in the Imperial Family in record time!”

“Well, that’s true.”

The Princess nodded as if she too was hearing this story for the first time and listened closely to the junior attendant’s words.  

“On top of that, together with Marquis Maurees, you uncovered the truth behind the assassination attempt on the envoy delegation in the Pelleos Kingdom, and exposed the Merdeah Kingdom’s wicked conspiracy to the world!”

I couldn’t help but shyly avert my gaze from the praise about my tremendous deductive and responsive abilities.  

Now didn’t seem to be the right timing to say I just made a lucky guess.

“Rumors of his deductive abilities and insight have already spread throughout the palace. On my way here, I even heard he rescued an elf that fell victim to an evil plot and elves have come to the palace to find him.”

“There are rumors?”

I tried to keep it a secret, but there was no way rumors wouldn’t spread.  

The elves who came to give their thanks–no, who actually came to take away the high elf with no clue what she might do–were seen by quite a lot of people after all.

No, even before that, there was no way rumors wouldn’t spread among the imperial staff about an elf napping in the gardens. That was a rumor I heard too.

“With Sir Ast’s abilities, which imperial attendant could possibly have more talents than you?”  

Ah, this gilding of my face feels so nice!

“Is that so?”

Seeing the pleased look on Her Highness’s face, I could only deeply bow my head.

“Is it?”

It was a chance to get cut off, but I let it slip away.  

And the conclusion of missing that chance was,

“What is this?”

The demolished encampment and the dead General Pelstein.

#48 Their Case: The Case of a Certain Spy.

-What is that human doing!

As he walked away, the imperial princess could not help but yell. 

-Hmm…a person…?

-Whether it’s a person or not, why can’t you be so sure?

-Because I don’t know the reason why he took the fragment of evil. How could I possibly know something even the dragons don’t know?

It is too disrespectful to say to us who are called the great clan.

If he was an ordinary human, he could be punished for that sin, but this child is a human who has inherited our blood thickly. He was an existence who came to possess the fragment of evil on behalf of our clan.

We promised him that we would listen to any word as long as it did not threaten the balance of the world, and that promise was still valid now that he did not possess the fragment of evil.

So we couldn’t deal with it lightly.

-That human has noticed me!

But since there was no one but the Princess who knew my identity, there was no one but the Princess to express this anger to.

-What do you mean?

-He knows I’m a spy. He’s openly saying I’m a spy! You didn’t happen to reveal my identity to him, did you?

-Why would I have any reason to do that?

I shouldn’t have.

The Empire also kept the fragments of evil top secret. 

There was no reason to inform a commoner servant of such things.

-Then how?

I’ve lived as a human for a long time through play.

Didn’t the lords tell me that the reason they chose me as a monitor was because I could easily blend in with the human world!

To uncover me in an instant and find out that I am a spy!

I thought I wouldn’t get caught until the investigation into the fragments of evil was over, but to be caught in just 2 months after I got in!

I couldn’t even imagine it.

-Could Ast really have noticed?

-If not, why would he say I’m a spy!

-It could just be something he said.

-A commoner accuses the son of a noble family of being a spy? Is that something that can be thought of sensibly?

Even if nobles said it to each other, they would at least get a duel request. 

To say someone is a spy when his family is there? Where is there such an insult?

-That’s true.

-Yes! That human has noticed! Now he will check me, what should I do!

He will not realize that I am a dragon.

There cannot be a human who can openly say a dragon is a spy.

Surely he will think that although I am human, I am a spy who has entered the imperial family for some other reason.

-I have to distract his gaze.

-It won’t be easy. That guy is…

A fairly long silence flowed.

It was the look of wrinkling his brow, wondering what to say.

-He’s crazy.

-Is that so…?

At the words the princess spat out after grumbling for a long time, I was at a loss for words. It was because I did not know much about humans.

Wasn’t the reason I came here in the first place to find out about Ast and the fragments of evil on behalf of the clan?

And shortly after,

“This is…”

“Let me write a letter.”

Upon confirming that the letter to the general of the Merdeah Kingdom, who attacked without even declaring war, began by asking <How are your parents?>, I picked up my pen and wrote the first regular report to the clan.

<This bastard is crazy.>

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