10-18 Unforeseen Incident
“Onii-chaan.”
Hearing Jin’s footsteps in the corridor, Hanna also stepped out. She was wearing a different dress yet again.
This one had no sleeves. The type which hangs from the shoulder.
The skirt spread out and made fluttering noises every time she walked.
“How is it coming along, Jin? Are you maybe done with half of it?”
Princess Lieschen asked with somewhat impish eyes. Jin smiled and replied shortly,
“I am done with all of it.”
Not expecting such a reply the slightest, the princess asked with wide eyes,
“Really?!”
The princess had not really known what a Magi Craft Man would actually be like but she had her own thoughts about it. But that was all betrayed in a good way.
“It is true, princess. Jin-sama is a wonderful person. He also fixed me completely.” said Tia.
“T-Tia! You can walk now?!”
“Yes, thanks to you and Jin-sama, I was completely fixed. Just like before — No, I have been fixed to an even better version of me than before. With this, I can always serve you properly.”
“I see, I see…!”
The princess said while jumping towards her and Tia properly grabbed her. Till now, Tia probably had some difficulty freely using her feet so this was probably the first time she was able to do something like this.
“As you can see, I am completely fine now.”
Saying that, Tia held the princess up in her arms. This was the genuine princess carry.
“I am glad.. I am glad…”
Seeing the princess become even happier than yesterday when they had restarted Tia, it made all three of them smile.
——————————————————-
“I really wanted to introduce you to my father, the King but…”
After having lunch, Jin informed the princess that they were leaving.
The princess nodded even though she was a little reluctant. She might have thought that it would not be nice to forcibly make them stay.
At that moment,
“Excuse me.”
Along with the voice, the Imperial Guard Knight captain, Jessica Norton, came in with the vice captain, Gloria Orstat.
“Oh, you are here too, Jin-dono.”
Seeing Jin and the others, Jessica looked like she was relieved.
“The analysis details of yesterday’s golem came in so I came to report to the princess. You guys have also helped, so you have a right to listen.”
And so, they shifted locations to the reception room. Seeing all the automatas moving around energetically, Jessica was left dumbfounded.
“Ohh, it’s like they are completely different from yesterday. Was it you, Jin-dono?”
“Yes. Jin fixed every single automata here.”
“Oohhh, as I thought! He was also a first class Magi craft man, huh? Not only being good at swordsmanship but at automatas too… Ahh, now that I think about it, you had a wonderful automata beside you, didn’t you? As expected of Egelia kingdom’s honorary Magi craft man!” said Gloria.
She had already equipped the short sword Jin had made for her.
Automata — no, Tia came in with tea.
“Pr-princess, th-this is?!”
Seeing Tia, who was barely able to move yesterday move better than ever before, Jessica was again staring in wonder.
“Fufu, were you surprised? Jin also fixed Tia today!”
Taking a sip of the tea, the princess said proudly.
“More importantly, let me hear the report.”
“Ye-yes….”
Wiping off her sweat, Jessica fixed her posture and started her report. One could feel the dignity worthy of the Imperial Knights’ captain from that form.
According to the report, the two captured golems were brought in secretly by the Unifiers.
It seems their aim was to cause chaos at Alban during the afternoon on the 27th.
Hearing that, Jin thought to himself, that the time they were brought in, Unifiers were pushing forward with their world conquest and Joule and the others couldn’t probably do much.
“The 3 in question were spies of Unifiers as expected. However, about the earlier notice, hypno, was it? There were no signs of such manipulation.”
It was because even the normal members who were not part of the higher ups would cooperate with the world conquest even without brainwashing. Jin had heard that too from Joule through Laojun.
“Unifiers, eh… that is troublesome.”
The princess said with a grim face. Jin had to hold back his urge to tell the princess that the Unifiers were harmless now.
“Good job on the report. Ah, right — I was thinking of seeing off Jin and the others to the castle gate. Would you guys like to come as well?”
“Yes, if it is the princess’ order.”
“Eh, Jin-dono, are you already going back?”
Jessica agreed immediately but Gloria looked a bit sad.
“I shall come again someday.”
Saying that, Jin stood up. Following him, Elsa and Hanna also stood up. Reiko was holding the bag, which was almost empty now. For some reason, there was something packed in it.
They headed towards the south gate on the princess’ carriage. The ones riding on the carriage were Jin, Lieschen princess, Tia, Elsa and Reiko. Jessica and Gloria were riding horses, escorting the carriage.
Hanna was still wearing the princess’ dress. Who knows how many more clothing she had received. In fact, the dresses she got were packed in the bag Reiko was carrying.
“Right, I should give you this. I had requested for it yesterday.”
The princess handed over a castle entry permit to Jin.
It was of silver color, only given to people the royalty had acknowledged. Who knows when they had it made but it properly had Jin, Elsa and Hanna’s portraits engraved in it, making it useless to other people.
“With this, you can come to the castle anytime.”
The general public can only enter the castle when the gates are open, meaning from 7 am to 6 pm. But with this silver permit, they can enter anytime except of emergency times such as war periods.
“Thank you very much.”
Jin gratefully accepted it. The portrait was black and white so he could possibly come in with a different hair color as well.
“Also, this is my thanks.”
Saying that, the princess handed over a heavy bag to Jin.
“It has 50 gold coins in it. I do not know if it is enough but it is the best I can do. Please forgive me.”
500,000 toll, approximately 5,000,000 yen. Jin refused to accept it.
“Princess, this is too much.”
“Mu-I-Is that so? But, I would like to…”
“No, that money is the tax from the people, right? It won’t be good to use it like this.”
Jin tried persuading her with that.
“Mmm, then how much would you be willing to accept?”
Being asked that in return, Jin was at a loss for words.
“Ri-right. 2 gold coins would probably be enough..”
Hearing that, the princess brought out 5 gold coins from the bag and handed them over.
“The things you have done is much more valuable to me than 50 gold coins. Please understand that. And also, I know how you feel but do not be so modest. That would be decreasing the value of the things you did.
It was really fun getting to know you guys. If it is okay, won’t you be my friend?”
Jin, and Elsa too, understood the princess’ feelings and Hanna as well, kindly said,
“Yes, with pleasure.”
“Happily.”
“Princess, you will become my friend? Yayy!”
There was no way they would refuse.
“Hmm, I am grateful. Then, from now on, I would like you all to call me Lies.”
“Yes, Lies-sama.”
“Is it okay to call you Lies-sama?”
“Lies-onee-chan!”
“Yes, that is fine. Ahh, today is a good day.”
Meanwhile, the carriage had reached outside the gate and stopped. To check if there were any suspicious beings in the surroundings, Jessica and Gloria galloped with the horse a little further.
Jin had said it was fine to drop them off at the gate but the princess was reluctant on parting and so made the carriage go past the gate.
Looking outside through the window of the parked carriage, the princess asked,
“Is your carriage outside?”
To that, Jin had no choice but to give an ambiguous answer, ‘Well, yes.’.
“Well, that is fine. I do not want to pry into it….. Well, then. Come visit again someday.”
Saying that, the Lies princess shook their hands one by one.
And then the door was opened.
Even before the stepping stone was placed, Hanna got off as she was closest to the door.
At that moment, someone appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Hanna and held a dagger to her neck.
As always, Jin had no sense of how to use money. Saying that it was the tax money and decreasing the amount… was that really a good thing to do?
The SP dedicated to Hanna were also late due to the carriage’s speed…