V2C25

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Next morning, we parted ways with the troupe of traveling entertainers, and departed once again for our destination, the manor.\n

There were four people inside the carriage: me, the maid sisters Auxo and Alice, and the elf Parthenos.\n

The female knight Ceres was taking the coachman seat, doubling as an escort or guard.\n

“We’re sorry to have kept you waiting, Yuuto-sama.”\n

“Kept you waiting.”\n

Inside the carriage that’s just like a living room, Parthenos and I were sitting at the dining table in the center.\n

There, the sisters Auxo and Alice were doing a maid’s work, serving breakfast.\n

“Ooh, that’s impressive. I didn’t expect a warm soup would come out.” Looking at the dishes lined up on the table, I was honestly impressed.\n

The dish was simple: a warm soup with meat and vegetables, served with well-browned bread.\n

Bread was to be expected, but in the middle of a journey, it was unexpected to see meat and vegetables.\n

“Is it really that surprising?” The exact opposite to my surprise, Parthenos seemed to not really understand it.\n

From her puzzled look, she seemed to really not understand it, and not as a joke or sarcasm.\n

“I see, elves don’t travel, huh.”\n

“Y-Yeah… I’m sorry.” Parthenos felt down.\n

I placed my hand on her head—pom pom—and patted it.\n

“I’m not angry nor I’m reproaching you; it’s only natural to not know things you haven’t come across with in your life. The same for me, if I were asked if I know the true meaning of the reality of the oppression of elves, I don’t understand it that well.”\n

“That’s not true! You are trying to understand it!”\n

“Then it’s fine for you to also understand things by listening from now on,” I said while sweetly smiling.\n

“Ah…” Parthenos looked surprised and pointed her face downwards, however, she looked at me with happy, upturned eyes.\n

“It depends on the length of the trip, but the longer it is, the more food supply you’re going to need, tight?”\n

“Yeah.”\n

“Then that also means more luggage. Food supply is heavy, you see; rather, things that hold water are heavy in general, though. That’s why normally you’d bring things like dried meat or dried vegetables.”\n

“Can’t you just rehydrate that with water?”\n

“If you bring water, you will end up increasing the weight and getting your priorities backwards, right?”\n

“Ah…”\n

Strictly speaking, drying both meat and vegetables makes them last longer, so it’s not completely getting the priorities backwards, but the talk would get complicated if I said it so I dropped it.\n

“So that’s how it is… Then this must be incredible, isn’t it?”\n

“You’re right. What’s this about? There wasn’t this much water in the luggage, right?”\n

When I asked, “Yes,” Auxo answered with a smile. “I made the water.”\n

“Made?”\n

“That’s right, I’ve been preparing since last evening. And I woke up in the morning to collect morning dews.”\n

“Ooh, that’s impressive.”\n

“Morning dews? You mean those morning dews?” Parthenos asked.\n

For an elf who was born and raised in the forest, ‘morning dew’ itself seemed to be something she knew.\n

“Errr, probably…?” Auxo vaguely acknowledged it.\n

“You must be lying, aren’t those just tiny drops?”\n

“That was why Onee-chan collected them a bit at a time.” Having been silent until then, Alice opened her mouth; for some reason, looking at her own older sister with slightly amazed eyes. “She woke up early in the morning and went into the woods, and collected them a bit at a time, saying it’s for Yuuto-sama.”\n

“No way…”\n

“Alice!!”\n

Parthenos was shocked.\n

Meanwhile, Auxo shouted and glared at her sister.\n

“Ahaha, so scary.” Alice smiled mischievously and brushed off her sister’s anger easily.\n

It was a smile I hadn’t seen much so far.\n

A smile without any malice, one she would only show when dealing with her older sister.\n

“Di-Did you really go collect morning dews bit by bit?”\n

“Y-Yes…”\n

“Wow…” murmured Parthenos, but then went to look at me.\n

“Nn?”\n

For some reason Parthenos was looking at me with respectful eyes.\n

Those eyes were somewhat moist, and filled with fervor.\n

According to the talk now, it was Auxo who’d collected the morning dews.\n

There might be respect and all that, but that kind of gaze should be one that should be directed at Auxo.\n

And yet for some reason, Parthenos was looking at me with those eyes.\n

I wonder why……………………… Ah.\n

After thinking about it a little, and even prying into the variety of knowledge in my brain that I wouldn’t usually use, I finally understood.\n

There are several criteria on which a woman would evaluate a man, though, ‘whether he belongs to someone else’ is one of those.\n

It’s that thing people would often say, about how other people’s boyfriends look great.\n

I totally have no interest in the right and wrong of that, but it took me time to realize it because I remembered simply that ‘such a criteria also exists.’\n

And there’s also an evaluation criteria of ‘a man so good he could get that woman to do that much for him,’ which is a variant to that.\n

This was exactly it right now.\n

Simply for my breakfast, for the water to be used for that, Auxo had gone to collect morning dews bit by bit from leaves.\n

There was no river nor water source near where we slept outdoors yesterday, so probably the only way for her to be able to get a decent amount of water was to do that, but still, it was the kind of effort where you would ask ‘you’re going that far?’\n

Parthenos was surprised by that, and my evaluation went up accidentally.\n

Anyway, I thought I have to reward Auxo’s praiseworthiness for having gone that far.\n

“Auxo.”\n

“Yes.”\n

“Be my partner after breakfast.”\n

“Partner… Y-Yes!” Auxo understood after a short delay. Afterwards, she nodded with great delight despite her face turning bright red.\n

Alice looked at her with a smile like saying ‘I’m happy for you, Onee-chan,’ and Parthenos looked at her enviously.\n\n

☆\n\n

I got out of the car and hopped into the coachman’s seat.\n

I remembered being overwhelmed by the sight that could be seen when I first got here on this carriage.\n

The one pulling the huge carriage that’s like a camper van was multiple huge horses.\n

I wonder if it’s draft horses, one I’d most often see in my former world—although I said that, it’s through the screen, but it has a huge body about twice the size of the thoroughbreds I’d often see.\n

What would instantly get into view is about the two of them; moreover, its enormousness that’s looking just like a wall was truly overwhelming the first time.\n

And those horses are pulling the carriage easily.\n

“You’re done?” holding the whip and reins, Ceres asked when I sat down beside her.\n

Dressed as a female knight, Ceres was sitting with a straightened back, and handling the horses while keeping her eyes straight ahead.\n

“Yeah. Want to switch?”\n

“It’s all right. But I see, when I thought you were off somewhere since morning, that’s what you were doing, huh.”\n

It seemed the exchange earlier was heard by Ceres as well.\n

“So you knew.”\n

“Yeah.”\n

“I see… Thanks.”\n

“Mmh? What for?”\n

“You were being vigilant for me right?” I said, and Ceres’ cheeks turned a little red.\n

Since some time ago she was sitting with a straightened back and keeping her eyes straight ahead, but upon a closer look, I could tell that she was constantly keeping an eye on the surroundings and being vigilant.\n

It wasn’t that much of a trip, so I wasn’t being vigilant more than necessary, but it seemed Ceres was doing it in my stead.\n

On closer look, a spare longsword was also placed on the coachman seat in addition to the sword that she herself was wearing on her waist as a set with her armor.\n

“I was just⸻nmh!” I picked her chin, turned her face from looking straight ahead to face me, and kissed her.\n

When kissing, there are women whose inside of the mouth is wet, and those that are dry.\n

It’s not like I investigated it in detail so it’s just experiences, but a woman who usually breathes through their mouth, or opens their mouth blankly when nothing is going on does have a high probability of having the inside of their mouth dry.\n

And then—Kissing, it is also more pleasant when it’s wet.\n

A female knight who is usually stiff, and has her mouth shut in a straight line when she’s not speaking is so wet inside the mouth, and intertwining tongues felt really good.\n

I thoroughly enjoyed the inside of Ceres’ mouth.\n

“W-What’re you doing suddenly.”\n

“My bad, I couldn’t resist since you’re too cute.”\n

“…Sheesh.” Ceres looked a little sulky, but not as dissatisfied as it seemed. She immediately looked forward again and re-gripped the rains. “…Mmh?”\n

“What’s wrong?”\n

“Something’s coming.”\n

“Nn? That cloud of sand… Are they people riding horses?”\n

Ceres nodded.\n

We looked down the road.\n

From a distance almost as far reaching the horizon, there was a group of people coming towards us while creating a cloud of dust. As for the cloud of dust… I suppose there’s about ten.\n

Those were approaching us.\n

The color of vigilance appeared in Ceres’ beautiful profile.\n

I thought, I guess she’s always been like this since yesterday, and Ceres was beginning to look even more and more lovely.\n

I’d just given Auxo love earlier, but I was getting turned on again.\n

The moment I thought, Guess I’ll wait until night, no right here right now—\n

A group of people on horseback, having passed by our carriage, came to a stop.\n

Reins were pulled one after another, and horses simultaneously stopped to the side, neighing while flapping their forelegs.\n

“Whoa, what’s this? Carriage?”\n

“Never seen anythin’ like this before.”\n

“How’s the inside?”\n

The men saw the carriage and had such an exchange in unison.\n

It wasn’t as if they couldn’t see us, but they were saying whatever they pleased as if they couldn’t see us at all.\n

“Hey, y’all don’t want this one?” a man said, and Ceres’ brows twitched up.\n

“Let’s do it after looking inside.”\n

“Aye, I wonder what’s inside a carriage this huge.”\n

“…Hey,” Ceres spoke up, after having been silent despite showing signs of anger to that extent.\n

Then the men all turned to us at once.\n

Looking closely, they were all grinning.\n

“Be gone now, or else.”\n

“What you gonna do? Hmm?” grinning even more, a man said to Ceres.\n

I don’t know the reason, but they seemed to be provoking on purpose.\n

“I will cut all of you down.”\n

“Ooh, so scary.”\n

“I like getting stabbed better than cut.”\n

“You’re the one stabbing man, don’t get it mixed up.”\n

“Nah, this guy just also likes getting stabbed.”\n

While clearly exchanging dirty talk, the men vulgarly laughed to their heart’s content.\n

They’re skillful; while running parallel on horseback, they were having dirty talk and cracking jokes.\n

Ceres, on the other hand—she was trembling, shaking with rage while gripping the reins tightly.\n

I could care less about this kind of group, but it would be a disaster if a blood vessel bursts in Ceres’ head.\n

“Ceres… Kill them all.”\n

“—!! Yes!!” As soon as my order came, Ceres got up looking extremely happy.\n

Standing up on the coachman seat, she pulled the reins and stopped the horses.\n

After letting go of the reins, she unsheated the sword on her waist and went to slash the men.\n

As for that movement of hers leaping from the coachman seat—\n

“Ho-Howaah!?”\n

“What’s with this woman!!”\n

The men were all surprised all at once, and drew the swords to fight back.\n

Ceres’ leaping, initial attack was just barely blocked, but having landed, Ceres slashed further without any pause.\n

The men panicked on top of their horses from being closed in like a dance of a butterfly.\n

Knight Armor Mastery.\n\nIt’s Ceres’ skill I had awakened with Noblesse Oblige from sleeping with her.\n

The effect is simple: if the wearer is wearing a ‘knight’s armor,’ the effect would make the wearer able to move agilely without feeling any weight at all.\n

The men seemed to have drawn an ordinary prediction from seeing Ceres’ heavy-looking knight’s armor, but they were taken aback as Ceres’ speed completely exceeded their expectations.\n

“Yu-Yuuto-sama? What is—”\n

“Don’t worry, stay inside.”\n

“Y-Yes! I will!”\n

Hearing the start of the battle, Auxo anxiously came to stick her face out.\n

Alice and Parthenos could also be seen behind her, and they looked similarly anxious.\n

And in order to put these girls at ease, I strongly spoke up while acting as if there was nothing going on.\n

And so Auxo obediently nodded her head and pulled back into the carriage.\n

“Wait Onee-chan, what’re you pulling back so quickly for?”\n

“It’s okay, Yuuto-sama says it’s all right.”\n

“Eeh?”\n

“Everything’s all right.”\n

Voices continued to come out from inside the carriage, but Auxo was calming them down.\n

If she’s trusting me without me even saying any reason or anything, then I can leave the inside to her just fine—I thought and shifted my focus to the battle.\n

Ceres’ ‘surprise attack’ had succeeded at first, and the men had been greatly flustered, but there was still a difference in numbers.\n

Gradually, the men regained their composure.\n

“Scatter! Surround the woman!”\n

“Aye!!”\n

In response to the given order, the men pulled the reins and scattered.\n

“…”\n

I slowly stood up.\n

And then, I unsheathed the longsword Ceres had kept as a spare.\n

Flowing Longsword Mastery.\n

A skill I’d obtained with Noblesse Oblige from sleeping with Alice.\n

With this, you can easily understand how to swing a longsword when you hold one in your hand.\n

It’s not something that you’d think, but something your body somehow remembers.\n

In terms of sensation, it’s similar to how you ride a bicycle.\n

To ‘fall on purpose’ on a bicycle is harder; it’s something like that.\n

I swung the longsword, anticipating the men trying to scatter by riding their horses.\n

“Uwaah!” The horses were startled by the sharp slash ‘left’ in the direction of its travel, and the man had no choice but to turn back.\n

I kept on doing so.\n

Like a birdcage, I was sending slashes at the outskirts of those trying to escape on horseback.\n

Repelling those trying to escape.\n

Cornering the men so they’d have no choice but to clump up around Ceres.\n

“GYAAAAAA!”\n

The prolonged balance was broken.\n

A man repelled by me suddenly bumped into Ceres, and was cut down without being able to avoid it.\n

The man fell from the horse, and the horse neighed and ran away.\n

I let the horse go.\n

I narrowed the Flowing Longsword Mastery’s birdcage for the reduced one man.\n

And then, one after another, the men were cut down by Ceres.\n

I was giving Ceres support, narrowing the birdcage for each man being cut down.\n

“P-Please wait, it’s our fau—”\n

“Kill everyone.”\n

“Yes!!”\n

Before long, every last one of them was cut down by Ceres.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide">\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide">\nTL notes:\n

I just realized the way I translate this volume is pretty different from the way I did volume 1. Oh well.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide">\nSupport the author by buying the book here!\n

Like this:Like Loading...\n Related

\n