Chapter 329: My Circumstances

Why were Her Majesty and I in a place like this together? That question seemed to be included in Dee’s question too.

At a time like this you need to speak with a fair, open attitude so people do not think something odd. I have heard that. Even a lie, if you say it full of confidence, sounds like truth.

"When I was sleeping I felt something wrong outside. A small sound outside the room, and when I sharpened my sense I felt something happening on the floor above. So I jumped from the bed, opened the window, and something jumped down from the floor above."

I do not say Anouk was in my bed then.

"I knew at once that it was a person. And I knew those people were holding something. I took a sword at once and began to track them. I thought what they were holding might be a person. I thought it might be Her Majesty. Even if it was not, jumping down from above meant thieves or something, I thought, and I followed to take back what they were holding. Then I dropped the enemies who appeared while they fled, and arrived here. When I opened what the thieves were holding, Her Majesty was inside. Then I thought. If we moved from here we might be found by the thieves’ comrades. Then staying here protecting Her Majesty and waiting for allies to come searching would be better. I decided that and stayed here the whole time. And then Lord Dee and the others came."

At my explanation a kind of ooooh rose from the people listening.

Dee bowed his head deep.

"Lord Marie, thank you! Thank you truly!! I will not forget this debt for life!"

He thanked me in a voice like a scream.

"No. I have not done anything to be thanked for like that. I only did what was natural as Her Majesty’s guard. I only happened to notice the thieves’ attack. You could also say I was lucky. So after this please follow Her Majesty’s instruction."

I said, and,

"Hekkshoooii!!"

Old-man-smelling large sneezes had started to come out little by little.

A little too humble? I thought, but everyone, from the relief that Her Majesty was unhurt if nothing else, some were crying, and some sat on the ground and thanked me. You do not have to do that much. I have already received a reward from Her Majesty, that feeling, so,

"You do not have to thank me that much. More than that, is there a carriage for Her Majesty to return to the inn? Hekkshoooii!!"

An old-smelling sneeze.

"Lord Marie has been in that figure the whole time?"

Dee asked, so I nodded.

"That is why I was sleeping in this figure and jumped out as I was, so I am not wearing shoes either."

When I said that everyone looked at my feet. The feet were dirty, and from the cold they were turned inward, and I was raising and lowering toes and heels. They would not be able to see, but my thing had already gone from a child’s thing to a sack shrunk up, a baby thing. Enough that I wondered where the hero thing from a moment ago had gone.

"You all came properly dressed and in shoes, but I was in what I stood up in! Hekkshoooii!!"

Another old-man sneeze. Snot on top of it. At that timing Lily pushed through the crowd and came forward.

"Lord Robbie, how pitiful."

She said it and held out clothes and shoes.

"Thanks. That helps... hekkshoooii!!"

It would not stop... Unlike Her Majesty I dressed under everyone’s eyes.

"Hekkshooon!!"

Another sneeze. It had clearly started to become cold symptoms, maybe. I myself had started to think this is dangerous, and then Her Majesty finished changing and came out from the screen. Once she was properly in costume she was Her Majesty, and dignity overflowed naturally. Then the men bowed their heads to Her Majesty once more.

"Dee, thank you for coming to meet us. Now, let us return to the inn."

"Understood. I will guide you."

"He, he, hekkshooon!!"

My condition growing stranger little by little.

Dee walked first, Her Majesty walked after him, the maids walked behind that, and then I was allowed to walk. Lily stayed close to me. I had only been in a shirt and underwear for not that long a time, and still, had I truly been punished?

—-

"Hekkshooon!!"

There was one carriage prepared to return to the inn, and if so, when Her Majesty rode I could not. But everyone admitted the sneezes were bad, so I was allowed to sit on the driver’s box. I was keeping warm, but chills had started.

At times like this I am the type that puts a self-suggestion on myself, so if I think I have a cold I start to get chills and cough. After that, if I take my temperature and it is normal, I am the type that sleeps one night and is fine. At times like this, if I drink the highest L○in I can get through any black environment. But this world has neither a thermometer nor L○in. Lily kept saying,

"Lord Robbie, are you all right?"

and,

"Your brow is hot. You have a fever, yes?"

and I got still more in that mood. Lily’s hand on my brow felt good.

If Lily had been the one taken, they would not have searched with that many people. The one searching would surely have been only me. In a town with no sense of the land at all I would have been searching alone. Desperate, maybe searching while sniveling?

We arrived at the inn, I was held by Lily into my own room, and I was put to bed at once. I had a little chill, but maybe because Lily stayed at the pillow the whole time I fell asleep at once. In the night someone came to ask, and I felt they talked with Lily, but was it a dream or real? I felt that person said to Lily, will you not come? At that time I would have been of no use at all.

"Lord Robbie, please wake. It is morning. Please wake."

I woke to Lily’s voice. My eyelids were heavy, not because they were blocked with sleep in the eyes. I still had a chill. I cannot think it, but there is not a curse that if you do it with Her Majesty your condition goes bad and you die, right?

"Please wake. Even if Lord Robbie’s condition is bad the procession will depart, so please wake quickly and get ready."

Lily’s merciless voice rang in my head. Is there no priest somewhere? Is there no one with "Healing" magic? Does this world not have potions or hi-potions? Cold.

"How is Her Majesty?"

I asked, trying to sound well with voice alone.

"Ehh. I have heard nothing. So there was no such thing as feeling unwell, I think."

Lily said that, so last night may have been a dream.

"I see. Then that is good."

"But a person as high as Her Majesty hides it and acts even if she feels a little unwell. Unless it is someone who cares for her close, like Lady Anouk, I do not think you can know the true state of Her Majesty’s body."