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Chapter 33: Just before reaching Clausel (Part one)
It was the morning of the day Baron Clausel was found guilty, twelve days after Ren was taken away.
At the same time, Ren was washing his clothes in a babbling brook he had stumbled upon in the forest.
These clothes had been bartered in the villages they had stopped at along the way, and were by no means the finest.
However, he couldn’t afford to change clothes, so he had Licia wear these cheap cloth clothes as well, although it was painful for him to do so.
However, Licia never complained.
She did feel a sense of shame at appearing in clothes covered with her own sweat, but she didn’t speak of this either.
(Is this the last time?)
After washing her clothes, Ren wrung them out, dried them off, and returned to his horse, which was waiting nearby.
There’s a large rock by the horse.
Licia, who until just a few minutes ago should have been sleeping with her back to it, was now awake and waiting for Ren to return.
“Thank you
..”
She thanked him shyly.
“No, no.”
“But, but let me do it next time!”
“No. It’s surprisingly tiring to squat, it’s a burden on the body.”
“No problem! I can handle that much!”
Although the words came out of her mouth were out of embarrassment, Ren didn’t feel bad because he could see that Licia was recovering.
He smiled and tied the washed clothes to the horse.
The horse’s smell would be a bit offensive, but that was unavoidable.
“But still, can’t we somehow get proof that Viscount Givens is the culprit?”
“

 It would be difficult. Especially while aiming for Clausel.”
“You’re right


 Hmmm
what to do?”
While the supreme goal was to send Licia to Clausel, I felt that it was also one-sided to not be able to do anything there.
Licia laughs at his hesitation.
“Don’t worry, I have an idea.”
“Eh
 really?”
“Thanks to you, I think I can manage if it comes to an emergency.”
“Thanks to me?”
Licia didn’t answer the question, but laughed a little.
Ren wanted to hear a clear answer, but when he learned that was unlikely, he changed his mind.
“—-We’ll take a little more rest and then we’ll leave.”
They weren’t going to take too much time to get to Clausel. They needed to hurry up.
As he unfolds one piece of clothing after the laundry, and then another, he thinks.
(Yes, we’re almost there.)
He was spreading out the laundry while thinking.
He had been absorbed in his thoughts, as if unconsciously, since the middle of the day.
Licia, on the other hand, her cheeks and neck were bright red.
(I have to keep my nerve and work hard until the end.)
Not only clothes.
Seeing Ren, who also had underwear in his hands, Licia thought back to the things she had found in that accessory box  before the raid on Ren’s mansion.
“Eh

 uh

 that’s right

 that

.”
But, since she’s still under Ren’s care, she can’t say anything strongly.
What should I do?
What was she remembering at such a difficult time!
Licia felt the urge to scold herself, but at the same time she was tormented by uncontrollable emotions.
I don’t think this is the time to talk about this.
But, perhaps influenced by the fact that her health was beginning to calm down, she thought she should talk a little.
(I wish I had raised the level of my magic sword, just in case
.. but there haven’t been any monsters around lately.)
Ren fished through his bag on his way to hang up some clothes and checked the contents at the same time.
Inside were packed the magic stone taken from White Hawk the other day, dried meat and other items.
Holding that magic stone in his hand, Ren stared at it and regretted that he hadn’t been able to raise the level of his magic sword.
“Hey.”
(It can’t be helped. There aren’t many demons here.)
“Hey, Hey!”
I don’t know what Licia was thinking when she called me loudly.
But when he turned his head in response to her call, Ren gasped when he saw that her cheeks and neck were bright red.
(Could it be that she was getting sick?)
Panicked, Ren approached Licia and put his hand on her forehead.
“Your body temperature seems to be fine.”
Ren suddenly moved closer and put his hand on Licia’s forehead, his face gentle with relief.
While Licia’s heart beat a fast bell when she saw this, she hurriedly raised her voice in denial.
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Eh, what’s wrong then?”
“Tell me one thing!”
Ren answered, “Yes,” wondering what was wrong all of a sudden.
Then Licia took another deep breath and opened her mouth when she had calmed down a bit.
“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”
She said, looking straight at him.
“But I’m not mad at you. Maybe I should be angry if it’s true, but you have helped me a lot, and I’ve caused you a lot of trouble
.”
(What’s going on all of a sudden?)
“But this is for your sake! I have to teach you what’s right and what’s not right
..”
The question that came here made him tilt his head a little.
What does she think I’m hiding?
(I don’t think it’s about that stuff all of a sudden, after all this time.)
Because I incinerated that thing.
I put it in the fireplace and made sure it was burning up.
There’s no way she’d be asking me now in the first place. It’s too out of context to be the case.
Ren, who concluded crossed his arms, unable to find an answer.
“So tell me the truth. If you think about what you were holding in your hand just now, you should be able to figure out the answer.”
The last-minute embarrassment caused Licia to slur her words.
But this was a mistake.
“What I was holding in my hand earlier
..?
“Oh, Don’t make me say any more! you would understand, right? I’m talking about the thing that was in your room too!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about
..”
But Ren wondered if it might be possible.
The thing that was in his hand earlier and also in his room.
That being said, there was one thing that came to mind.