As though to sweep away the atmosphere which was a little heavy, Juno changed the topic .
ăBy the way Erika-sama, what do you plan to do for the date tomorrow ď˝?ă
ăNaturally, Iâll go . Since it is the perfect chance to get into contact with Harold-samaă
Erika showed her spirit by clenching both her fists with a ăMun!ă near her torso . When Harold told them not to approach him as soon as they met, she was flustered as to what she had to do, but a chance came her way due to Haydenâs statement . Although Erika didnât feel good to get on with Haydenâs proposal, she couldnât let it get away .
ăThen, it is a must for you to dress up ď˝ . And in that case, how about wearing Western-style clothes which you rarely wear ď˝ă
ăThereâs no reason to be so enthusiastic about itâŚâŚâŚ . . ă
Juno was cheering her on since this was a date, but the partner was that Harold . It was hard to think that the situation would turn out to be that romantic .
Practically, it would just be to the level of lightly going around the inner district . More than a date, it would be more fitting to call it an inspection .
ăThat wonât do ď˝ . A maiden should be charming no matter what the time ď˝ă
Like an elder sister, Juno was advocating about how a maiden should be, but rather those words should have come from Erika .
Even though it couldnât be helped during work, spending even the day off in cooking wear, Erika couldnât help but think how a young maiden could dress like that . In Erikaâs memories, there wasnât a single time where Juno wasnât wearing cooking wear .
If she wanted to remonstrate her about how maiden should be, the persuasiveness was almost non-existent .
(TL â Cooking wear â kappĹgi , you know, sheâs wearing it on the cover)
ăHow about you yourself dressing fashionably once in a while? Even though youâre beautiful, itâs such a wasteă
ăFu Fu Fu ď˝, that is a strategy ď˝ . At the critical moment, with the appeal of me being different from normal, Iâll catch the other partyâs heart ď˝ă
ăThen, even Iâll keep it in reserve until the critical momentă
ăEeeh ď˝, itâs your first date, alright ď˝? If it goes well, you might be able to make Harold-sama fall for you , alright ď˝?ă
ăHe shouldnât be a person who would bend down to another by something of that levelă
No matter what, Erika couldnât imagine a Harold who would be soft on a girl . But it was easy to imagine him hurling abusive words at her without any mercy, even if she went all dressed up .
ăYesterday, I found such a cute one piece dress ď˝ . Wear it, Erika-sama ď˝!ă
ăWhen did you buy such a thingâŚâŚ . . ă
Juno took out a one piece dress with frills from inside the luggage, and asked Erika . That appeal went past wanting to maintain a maidenâs dignity or ensnaring Harold, and it was just her personal wish to see Erika wear the dress .
ăJuno, we havenât come here to play around . Even you should know that, right?ă
ăMmmm, itâs a pity ď˝ă
Deciding that there was no more room for negotiations, Juno returned the dress to the luggage .
Of course, it wasnât a serious exchange . Juno did it intentionally to break the mood, so as to reduce Erikaâs nervousness .
And because she had guessed that, even Erika didnât show too strong an interest in it, but there was no way she could keep on being relaxed .
ăThen, let us return to the real issue ď˝ . Iâll tell you about the points you need to keep in mind when in contact with Harold-sama ď˝ă
Under a single roof, the twoâs motives intersect . Probing around for each otherâs true intentions, the lock on the gun was removed .
Kazuki was forcefully asked to play the role of a guide for Erika, but to accomplish this mission, he had a huge flaw . It was that he hardly knew anything about the town, where he needed to act as the guide .
In the first place, the Stokes territory was only described in a part of some conversation and in an event scene, and since in the actual game it wasnât even inscribed on the map, if Norman hadnât given him the map he wouldnât have been able to grasp the accurate position of it .
And since Kazuki had been spending all his time on avoiding the flag for the past 3 months, the number of times he had gone out to the town could be counted on the fingers of a single hand . That too, his travel had only been stopping by the temple, and he had never gone even once for shopping or sightseeing .
Rather, it was at the level where he himself wanted to be guided around .
However, Kazuki decided to treat it as a chance .
Kazuki didnât know anything about the town, but it wasnât known whether Harold knew anything about it or not . If there were any places Harold frequented, and if it became that he didnât know about them, it would be suspicious .
But this time, he had the excuse of being restricted to âShowing Erika around the townâ . It wouldnât be unnatural for him to ask about the town, if he took the stance of wanting to know about places suitable to guide someone to rather than for his own enjoyment . Thinking that his hypothesis might be correct, Kazuki successfully procured information from the people in the mansion, indirectly .
(Well, itâs not like I can make use of it thoughâŚâŚâŚ . . )
From the start, he had no intention to guide Erika properly since he didnât want to raise her affection points . It was just about how he would be able to firmly secure the chance of obtaining information which might become useful in the future .
Even so, this situation was a little off of his anticipation .
ăUh, um Harold-samaâŚâŚâŚ . ă
Erika awkwardly called out to Kazuki (Harold) .
She was genuinely confused .
ăâŚâŚâŚ . No, itâs nothingă
To Haroldâs reply, which seemed as though he was fed up, Erika kept quiet without another word . The insides of the carriage was dominated by an awkward atmosphere .
The cause of it was outside the carriage, due to the residents of the town .
She noticed the abnormality when they first got down from the carriage .
No, the atmosphere had probably changed as soon as they had entered the town .
The thing that was there was silence, quiet enough to hurt their ears .
If Kazuki had to pick a situation similar to this from his memories, it came close to the moment when he had frozen up in junior high school, when the guidance counsellor, who was the gym teacher and who was feared by all the students, had found items banned by school regulations spread out in the classroom after school .
And in the gym teacher in this case was Harold .
As soon as Haroldâs figure appeared, people stopped moving, and when he walked, as though to avoid him, the crowd split . The faces of shopkeepers who were called out became pale due to fear, and the looks of the residents who were examining the situation from afar, were filled with clear hostility .
Anyway, the town wrapped up in a bizarre silence was uncomfortable . That attitude started completely scraping away Kazukiâs mental state .
(Neglecting the rumor that I killed Clara became a disadvantageâŚâŚâŚ . )
Regarding that, even Kazuki had thought of doing something . But ensuring the safety of Clara and Colette, and also wanting to avoid the problematic situation of discord rising up with his parents, he couldnât think of any measures which would be effective .
Looking at how much Harold, and also the Stokes house was loathed in front of her own eyes, Erika was also left speechless .
Since they didnât know about Erika, it could be said that their reaction was obvious since she was together with Kazuki (Harold) . Well, since it would soon be officially announced that Erika was Haroldâs fiancĂŠe, their looks would change to be like the ones from the servants, filled with pity .
That said, if they strolled around the city any more than this, he felt that he would lose more than what he would gain . Mainly, the mental portion .
They had gone around the town for about a little more than an hour, and Kazuki was almost at his limits .
ăThis is enough already . Weâre going backă
ăâŚâŚâŚ . . Alrightă
Looking to be somewhat in low spirits, Erika nods . Her face expressed a weariness which wasnât small .
The cause was that she was continuously exposed to the looks containing hostility from the townfolk .
Receiving affection from her parents, and also receiving affection and respect from the people near her and the people of the Sumeragi territory, it was the first time in her life that she experienced being showered with feelings of disgust and hate .
She didnât even think that it would be such a powerful feeling .
Therefore, she didnât even have the will to resist Haroldâs words . She chose to head back as she was told .
There were no conversations between the 2 as they went back towards the Stokesâ mansion .
ăYou came back fast ď˝ă
Juno called out to Erika, who had returned very fast .
But she didnât inquire about it .
Because, Juno had been observing the whole time from a different location .
And so, she grasped the general circumstances .
ăI had heard that the support for the Stokes house from the populace was low, but I didnât think that it was to such an extentă
In a tired voice, Erika spilled that out .
Speaking honestly, although it was little, she felt that she was in danger .
ăCertainly, that type of hate isnât normal ď˝ . Well, as far as the talks are concerned, it is obvious ď˝ă
The talks Juno had heard from the servants and the rumors flowing around in the district were pretty awful . Especially, almost all the profits of the populace was being extorted as tax, and the amount of people who were being made to forcefully work until they could just maintain their livelihood werenât less .
They were even robbed of their energy to cause a revolt, and conversely compared to the nobles with the same level of territory and economic power, the Stokes had huge investments in their military . And due to that, the lives of the populace were becoming even more severe . With this, even if they were to cause a rebellion, it was apparent that they would be dying in vain .
ăBy the looks of it, it seems as though investigating the internal affairs went wellă
ăThat is, obviously ď˝ă
If the people of the mansion were asked about a single thing, 10 or 20 topics would come back . They seemed to be hated to quite an extent .
But, included within those, was information which couldnât be ignored no matter what .
ăItâs just that, thereâs some worrying information ď˝ă
ăInformation which is worrying, is it?ă
That was something where she couldnât help but doubt her own ears, and without even thinking she had asked â ăIsnât it some kind of mistake ď˝?ă . But she had gotten enough evidence for her to believe it .
She had some scruples about telling it to Erika, but by doing so, she couldnât ignore the possibility of exposing her to danger, so Juno opened her mouth .
ăActually, it seems recently, Harold-sama burnt a servant and their family to death, using magic ď˝ă
Without being able to process the words conveyed by Juno, Erika leaked out her breath in a daze .
ăIt seems that the people who were killed were a woman named Clara, who was a servant of the mansion, and her daughter, Colette-chan ď˝ă
ăW, wait, Juno! Is that the truth? Isnât it just a rumorâŚâŚâŚâŚ . ă
ăThere is a possibility of that, but when different people were asked separately, almost identical testimonies were obtained ď˝ . It doesnât seem to be totally unfounded gossip ď˝ă
ăSuch aâŚâŚâŚâŚ . ă
Haroldâs mouth was bad, and even his attitude was oppressive . Erika herself felt that he looked down on others, held prejudice against them and avoided them himself .
And yet, Harold showed them the hope to save the people of the Sumeragi territory .
Even if he had had his own intentions in doing so, that fact wouldnât shake .
That was why, deep down, Erika had thought that Harold was different from his parents .
To the extent that Junoâs words brought about not a small amount of shock . Both of Erikaâs hands which were covering her mouth, started trembling .
ăIâll continue investigating secretly, but refrain from being with Harold-sama alone from now on ď˝ . Since we donât know what might happen ď˝ă
ăâŚâŚâŚ . . Okay, Iâll be carefulă
ăItâs alright Erika-sama ď˝ . Iâm here ď˝ă
As though comforting a baby, in a gentle voice, Juno cheered Erika up . As though persuading that as long as she was there, Erika would be absolutely safe .
But still, Erikaâs quivering didnât stop for a while .