Chapter 319: A Night Walk

The night I talked with the Prime Minister, I was on a roof in the noble quarter of the royal capital with Lily. The first time since coming to the Mainz Kingdom that Lily and I had gone out at night alone. Except for carrying medicine to Her Majesty, that is. Because if I went somewhere on my own I felt I would get caught, and going without a map was frightening.

Even so, compared with the Marie Kingdom there were many residences with lights on. In the Marie Kingdom, once night came almost no carriages ran the roads, but in the Mainz Kingdom many nobles were still stirring at night. Night entertainment must be rich. Taking theater alone, I do not think the Marie Kingdom had a theater that large. Even if it had, it might not have gathered enough guests to keep it. This kind of thing may be national power.

Lily and I alone, I said, but I could feel watching eyes. Another place different from the Marie Kingdom. In the Marie Kingdom it was not that they did not watch because I was a prince. There were not enough watching eyes.

So having Lily fellate me on the roof did not quite look possible. Even with watching eyes, wanting to do what you are told not to is human feeling. I took Lily’s hand and set it at my crotch. Lily said nothing, read my wish, and began to rub. Ah, good. It is true that when the environment changes, things change.

But I know well that good times do not last.

Far off I could tell someone had come up onto a roof. A sense of having seen it. That time it had been day, I had Stevie with me, and the one who came up was Section Chief Lake of garden maintenance. He would not be in the Mainz Kingdom, so this was someone else.

The one who came was Dee. People who get in the way of a person’s love path are something, they say, but this one had already had a very painful time once, so putting him through more pain felt pitiful.

"So it is Lord Robin Marie after all?"

Dee said it smooth, knowing already.

"No. It is Roy."

I do not want my real name used in a place like this. Somehow.

"That was only the name for that operation. Here I will call you Lord Marie."

"I see."

"I will do so. Then why is Lord Marie in a place like this at a time like this?"

Because having Lily fellate me on a roof feels good. There is no way I can say that. I want to say it, though.

"Yeah. I cannot sleep, so I am walking."

"Saying that again."

Ordinary people would not believe it.

"It is the truth."

I said it with feeling, but,

"No."

Dee does not seem to know that a person who doubts too much is not trusted by others.

"You cannot believe it?"

"Of course. There are too many things about Lord Marie that cannot be believed. Even recently, you filled the cathedral god-stone’s mana alone, they say. For an ordinary man like me it is past the range of understanding."

What part of Dee is ordinary? I set that feeling aside. I want him to stop talking about me as if I am not human.

"Then I must not go here and there? I feel that whatever I say I will not be believed."

Meeting in a place like this, not being trusted cannot be helped, I think.

"In daylight it would not matter, but moving over roofs at midnight you can only be taken for a bandit or a thief. That is ordinary sense. If you call that a walk, no one will believe it, will they? How is it?"

A guy moving over roofs in daylight is suspicious too, for sure! It is odd for me to say that. Lily pulled my sleeve and whispered.

"Lord Robbie, it is as Lord Dee says. Let us go back to the embassy at once."

"Right. Shall we go back today."

Dee smiled bitter.

"Please do not say ’today.’ From now on, do not walk out at night."

"Yes, yes. I understand. I will be careful."

"Please."

I turned my back on Dee and walked over the roofs.

"Lily, did you notice?"

"Yes. Many eyes were watching."

"Yeah. Only Dee came out. I did not think there would be that many watching eyes."

"Yes. Compared with the Marie Kingdom, the guard is terribly tight."

"Huh?"

I noticed something interesting rolling, no, moving. A seed of trouble was moving. My favorite kind.

"What is it? Ah!"

Lily noticed too.

We had been walking the roofs of residences facing the road, and there was a sense of people on the road below! A large number, ten plus. No lights on, advancing as if hiding from the streetlamps. A single file, at a short run.

"What is that?"

"That, surely."

We advanced over the roofs with that clump of people. Then Dee came around in front and blocked the way.

"This is a problem, Lord Marie. Please do not cause any more trouble."

His face said I just said that! as he complained.

"Look down and you will understand."

"What is it?"

Dee looked down and at once found the group advancing in the dark. Then,

"What is it?"

he asked, so I said,

"I want to ask that. But a group advancing together at midnight with no lights, I can only think bandit or thief."

"Mmm. That is true. Strange. Public order in the royal capital should have improved."

"Even if you say that, I cannot think they are about to do something good. Picking up the city’s trash?"

"That is so, but... shall we report it?"

"Where?"

"The guard."

"Then go. We will follow them."

"You must not!"

"What must I not?"

"Lord Marie following that. What if you meet danger again?"

Dee said something sound. No. He always says something sound.

"No. Only watching."

"I cannot believe it. The moment I take my eyes off you, you will do something reckless. I will be wrung by Her Majesty again!"

Behind me Lily was killing a laugh. Well, well. She knows well. He is sure enough to state it. About me.

"Then come with us. They may leave the noble quarter as they are. If so, I will go back to the embassy."

"Uuu. Understood. I will accompany you."

In the end Dee comes too, so he need not have said this and that.

As we went I started to feel we were heading into a residence street I had been on. The roofs of the houses stopped continuing, and it became a street of residences with vast gardens, so we left the group and walked the top of the wall.

"I feel I have been on this road."

"Lord Robbie, what are you saying? This is the road to Count von Kirchhoff’s residence."

"Ah. Right!"

Lily told me, and Dee did not react. He would know, but had he decided not to say extra things?

Then the group at last stopped in front of a certain residence. A residence I knew well too.

"House Schult?"

"It seems so."

"No mistake."

The suspicious group had business at an acquaintance’s residence.