Chapter 155

Chapter 155

It was currently a little before seven o’clock in the evening .

The place I was in was the fort’s guest room . It was a room I was allowed to do whatever I pleased with during my stay .

Sir Leonhard, who came in exactly on the time we agreed on, had a volatile expression on his face—he seemed both shocked and troubled .

“Are you surprised by what I did…?”

“Do you have an idea on what that could be?”

Actually, there’s a lot of things I’ve done he can be flabbergasted about; too many to count, in fact .

The fact that an unmarried lady is inviting a man into her room at night is one thing…

And how I not only made lunch for the knights but also their dinner as well .

Sir Leonhard smiled bitterly when he saw me turn pale .

“I’m not at all surprised . Considering the situation at the time, I believe your judgement to be correct . ”

Although he said it was correct, his expression remained unclear .  Are you uncomfortable with the fact that I also cooked dinner? If I asked him in a roundabout way, I’m sure it would just trouble Sir Leonhard further .

“If you thought they were in trouble, it would be the best course of action to lend them a hand . I’m not upset, just…”

“…Just?”

“…It’s nothing . ”

He gave me a lousy excuse, completely unlike the Sir Leonhard I know .

Even a dull-headed princess like me knew it wasn’t just “nothing,” but because he clearly didn’t want me to pry any further, I had no choice but to give up on it .

When it was my turn to ask him not to interfere, he did as I asked and only observed from afar . I will endure, even if I have to grit my teeth to do it .

I decided to go against the flow and change the subject that was about to steer us away from the main reason I called him over tonight .

I took out the maps and materials that Vice-Commander Walter lent me and spread it out on the desk, before giving Sir Leonhard a brief explanation of the relationship between the two .

“I see, that truly is an interesting hobby . ”

Sir Leonhard surveyed the map with interest .

“I believe some folktales have the intention of scaring children away from dangers and deterring certain acts as taboos . ”

The tales I was referring to had common themes: children who don’t go to bed will be kidnapped by the Demon Lord, get pulled into the sea by a monster, etc . Most of the time, they were cautionary tales, warning the audience not to approach dangerous places or reminding them to be more careful in certain situations .

“If the Demon King really was sealed in this area, I thought there would be more stories that included him, but…”

“With the way you said that, were you perhaps not finding what you were looking for?”

“Well, there was none to be found, would be the best way to describe it . ”

Sir Leonhard gave a suspicious frown .

“That is… certainly peculiar . ”

I replied with a vigorous nod .

“There are a plentiful amount of fairy tales about the Demon Lord, not only in Nebel, but all around the world . If that’s the case, why isn’t there any around here at all? This is just a wild guess, but perhaps it was a purposeful move to erase the existence of ‘the Demon Lord’ from the people’s mind as much as possible?”

At first, I’d thought that since the Demon Lord was sealed around here, there would be an abundance of folklore left behind about him, but it was the exact opposite .  Precisely because that unholy place was in this area, it was best to diminish the concept of the “Demon Lord” from the people as much as possible .  ‘Don’t get interested in this topic . Don’t give any ideas to those seeking his resurrection . ’

“I don’t know if this is a substitute for it, but ‘evil spirits’ came up very often . For instance: ‘A child who doesn’t do what their parents say won’t be able to come home because of deceitful evil spirits . ’”

There were also various types of spirits, including fire spirits, tree spirits, and dark spirits . Their appearances were usually not consistent with each other—their descriptions ranged from beautiful women to young boys—but every story followed a similar script .

A child who gets lost in the forest at night because of a spirit’s trickery will forever be unable to return home . And that spirit would take on the child’s appearance and return home in their place .

When I first started reading these stories, it reminded me of those European folktales about changelings . But, putting two and two together, these folktales seemed really close to that of the Demon Lord’s .  Could that story of someone who appeared the same as ever on the outside while actually being someone completely different on the inside tie back to the Demon Lord? Or am I totally overthinking this?

“In order to erase the ‘Demon Lord’ from the citizens’ minds, and also to deter anyone from approaching the site he was sealed, the concept of ‘evil spirits’ was created?”

“Yes, but there are so many folktales centred around these evil spirits that made it difficult for me to narrow down to a specific area . ”

I thought it would be nice if I could discern the temple’s location from the map alone, but it didn’t work out in the end . Of course, if it was that easy to find, there wouldn’t be any point in spending all this effort hiding it in the first place .

Then again, I’ve only skimmed the simplified reports so far, so there is a good chance I might still find something else as well .

“However, there are many stories about getting lost in the forest . Perhaps the temple…”

“‘Perhaps the temple is also in the forest,’ right?”

Nodding at his words, I pointed to a spot on the map .

“When I checked with Sir Walter earlier, this town here… Of the three probable villages, the one farthest from the fort should be close to a forest . ”

“Then let’s investigate that place first . We will leave as soon as the weather improves, so please be prepared . ”

“I understand . ”

When I agreed, Sir Leonhard lifted himself from the sofa seat .

“See you tomorrow . ”

“Ah! Please wait! I still have something to talk to you about . ”

I asked Sir Leonhard, who was about to leave as soon as our discussion was over, to stay .

As he had only just stood up, he sat himself back down on the sofa again and tilted his head as a sign for me to continue .

“Um… It’s about the person we met at that restaurant in the village that we visited earlier today . ”

When I paused, Sir Leonhard’s expression turned grim .

“A man named Latte, yes?”

“…Yes . ”

I straightened my back, took a deep breath, and nodded .

I’m not confident if I can explain this well, but if I don’t talk now, I will surely regret it later on .

“I actually knew him before our meeting on that day . ”

“What…do you mean by that? Is that man perhaps an acquaintance of yours?”

I shook my head at Sir Leonhard’s puzzled question .

“I have actually never met him in person . Our first meeting was in my dream . ”

“!”

Sir Leonhard’s eyes opened wide .

He seemed to understand what ‘in my dream’ meant .

From there, I told Sir Leonhard everything I knew about the man called Latte .

The Latte I knew worked in a restaurant in the royal capital and used to be an assassin . He was an old acquaintance of another former Raptorian assassin currently working under Father in Nebel .

I tried to tell him the facts as much as possible to keep him from doing any guess work .

Maybe it was too confusing to understand . It was such a crazy story that even made me want to stop myself .

Still, Sir Leonhard stayed quiet until I finished .

“…That’s all I know of him . ”

My heart was racing to its limits after I was done . It was beating so fast, almost as if I’d done a sprint at full speed, to the point that I felt suffocated .

After a brief period of silence had passed, Sir Leonhard muttered, ‘I see . ’

“I already thought that his movements didn’t suit an average person, but to think he was a former assassin… However, there is still something that I don’t understand . ”

“What would that be?”

“Perhaps I’m giving this too much thought, but even back then, without a doubt, I felt like that man was overly suspicious . ”

‘Overly suspicious?’

When I repeated his words like a parrot, Sir Leonhard showed a bit of hesitation .

“That man is likely highly skilled . If he really was looking for us, then he should be doing a better job than he did . ”

If you ask me, if we were the target, I wouldn’t even mention looking for old temples together . That would just make the targets wary .

I also wouldn’t catch a handwipe with such speed while also exposing my ambidexterity at the same time .

“But if you compare him to a normal villager, he sticks out too much . ”

He’s too shady to be your average person .

But also too careless to be an assassin .

What if he’s currently on a spy mission for Raptor, then?

Assuming he didn’t know our true identities and assumed we were just mere travellers with clues relating to the temple, his actions weren’t that unbelievable… right?

The more I put my thoughts into it, the less I understood .

“Even if we think about it, we wouldn’t get any answers, so let’s stop here for today . ”

My head already a scrambled mess, I accepted Sir Leonhard’s suggestion .

He stood up again, finally intending to leave this time, but stopped as if he had remembered something .

When I raised my face to his call, Sir Leonhard had a gentle look on his face .

“Thank you very much for talking to me about this . ”

“Eh…?”

“You are always bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders alone, so it made me happy that you confided in me . ”

Sir Leonhard said before giving a shy laugh .

“I’ll be off then… Good night . ”

He left the room, leaving me, who was paralyzed in shock, behind .

I was stiff for a while before the realisation set in, and heat started gathering on my face . I threw myself on the sofa and tried my hardest to refrain myself from making weird noises .

Sneak attacks are too unfair…!

Not to mention, he said, ‘Good night’ with that sexy voice… I don’t care anymore! Thanks for the meal!!

It took me a whole half an hour to calm down, my face still buried deep into the sofa . But whenever I thought I had, that scene would always pop back in my head and replay itself . I ended up getting no sleep at all that night .