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Volume 7 Chapter 3 Part 3

Miria finishes eating her fill of the dish quickly, and starts staring at the pieces that
I was distributing to others as if she was indicating that she was ready to wolf it all down in a manner of seconds.

When the dish moves to left, Miria’s eyes follow it to the left. When it returns to right, Miria’s eyes return to the right, and she kept that up until I gave both Roxanne and Sherry their own portions of the sauted fish.

「…I don’t think I can eat any more fish even if I wanted to.」

「I think I have eaten enough as well. I won’t take even a single bite more.」

「Me too.」

I knew it would eventually come down to this, and so, I had already prepared the perfect thing to say.

「Miria, if you want, then you can go ahead and eat the rest of the fish for us, since we’re all pretty much stuffed.」

「Of course, desu!」

We were forced to concede to the fish dish once again today again.

The morning of the next day, that is to say, the morning of the day when I agreed to meet up with Cassia in Bode after giving her enough time to schedule an appointment with the Earl of Selmar. Once again assuming that what might happen once I’m going to make my way there is going to the worst-case scenario, I warped to Bode’s Adventurer’s Guild and made my way towards Bode’s castle from there.

Both Cassia and the Duke said that they wanted make this appointment happen so that the Earl of Selmar could personally thank me for taking care of Heinz the Bandit and his gang, but honestly, I have my fair share of worries about this meeting, since I doubt that introducing someone like me, a commoner of pretty much unknown origin to someone as important as the Earl of an entire region.

Since they don’t know pretty much anything about me, they might ask to inspect my Intelligence Card, and once that happens, then everything is going to be over, but no matter how hard I try, I just cannot come up with a decisive yet tactful way of declining the request to meet the Earl, especially since not only the Duke, but also Cassia were so insistent on me going through with this.

What would some good excuses be? Maybe I should say that my grandfather suddenly died and the entire family is being summoned for the reading of his last will and testament? But then I would probably also have to come up with what were the contents of his last will in case if they’d be grilling me about it the next time when we meet.

Then maybe so other formal occasion? Nah, that’s probably out of the question as well, because what occasion can be more formal and important than the meeting with a big shot of an entire region?
What about saying that one of my Party Members actually died during one of the Bandit ambushes, and that I’m grieving for their loss right now and so I don’t feel that it would be appropriate for me to be the only person to be receiving such honors? Oh crap, but didn’t I say to them myself that thankfully none of my Party Members were injured in the battle against the Bandits when literally everyone was asking me if I was okay? Glad I didn’t choose that one, because that would be a pitfall of my own making.

Okay, let’s not panic just yet. What else is there on the list of the potential excuses that I might use? If I cannot say that one of my Party Members died, then maybe I can go with something a little bit different, like perhaps that during those three days of waiting I have suffered a critical injury while fighting against the monsters in the Labyrinth, and as a result I have been stricken with a rare affliction that can only be cured by using special Recovery Medicine that can only be found in my hometown, and I have to make a lengthy journey back to obtain it and go through treatment?

Or if that won’t fly as well, then maybe I can use the variation of the first idea and say that my parents died and I have to go attend the funeral? But if I went with that, it would be pretty bad if they somehow found out that I was still going to the Labyrinth of Quratar, and since I already know that the information network of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy is not to be underestimated, I am well and truly aware that the possibility of something like that happening is higher than zero, which is plenty enough of a case for concern for me.

In that case, I think that the only thing left for me is to inform them that I have come down with a sudden illness, but that is going to only buy me a few days at best, but while we’re on that subject already, then I guess I have been feeling these kinda weird pains in my stomach for a few days now, so maybe I am actually getting sick but I just didn’t realize it yet?

Well, if everything else fails, then I guess there is always an option for me to run away without saying anything to anyone, that might be the option of last resort, the one that I don’t even want to consider using, because if I do end up using it, then I think that it’s going to spell the end of my adventuring days.

If I run away and be branded as a fugitive, the only option left to me will be to become an outlaw, but like I said, that is going to be the last resort thing for me to consider, but for now, nothing seems to be pointing towards the situation being so serious that I would have to flee and go undercover.

But I have already come this far, so it would be a real waste to just lose everything that I have managed to achieve thus far, so I guess there’s no helping it now. I just have to grit my teeth and go through with it while hoping for the best to happen instead of the worst.

If the worst really does come to pass, then I guess I can quit it later if need be, but for now I sort out my thoughts and enter the Bode’s castle while trying to maintain as positive of an attitude as possible.

When I got inside, I saw that the Duke and Cassia were already waiting for me in the lobby, and both of them were dressed up to the nines.

Cassia is wearing an elegant light purple dress with a hair accessory resembling a tiara. She really is beautiful no matter what she is wearing. The Duke is wearing formal clothes that are even flashier than the ones that he’s usually wearing, but that is about everything that I can say about him because I don’t pay to much attention to how guys are dressing. Since they’re both dressed like that, then I guess that means that we’re doing this thing after all, huh?

「Oh, if it isn’t Lord Michio. We have been waiting for you. But if I may be so bold as to ask, why did you come from outside?」

「Err… no, I was just, you know….」

「Well, it doesn’t matter now that you’re here. Well then, shall we get going now?」

How can you say it doesn’t matter? So there is no longer a need to hear anything that I have to say as long as I follow your orders around?

「Get going? Where?」

「We are going to go to the Earl of Selmar’s territory of course.」

「Right now?!」

「Yes. After all, That’s what we talked about three days ago, remember?」

No, no, no, didn’t you said that in three days time you will be informing me about the date of the meeting that you’d try to set? Because I remember it exactly like that! Nobody was saying anything about going to meet with the Earl of Selmar right away!

「I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, Lord Michio. I tried to arrange a more suitable date that wouldn’t be as abrupt, but unfortunately, the Earl of Selmar is a very busy person, and it just so happened that today is the only time where he could spare a moment out of his busy schedule in order to meet up with you.」

Cassia bows to me apologetically. And when she did, a faint fragrance drifted towards me. It definitely comes from her hair!