Chapter 83 – Audience at the Castle Part 1
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Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
The next morning, the baron arrived at the inn we were staying in at nine A.M. sharp. Of course, I’ve already prepared the dragon fangs, loaded them onto our carriage, and assigned twenty of our people as escorts just in case.
Since the baron arrived on foot, I suppose he was planning on hitching a ride in our carriage then.
“Good morning, My Lord.”
“Good morning, Alan-dono.”
Since he wanted to talk to me about something first, I invited him over to the inn’s dining hall. We immediately got served with tea which I told the inn staff to prepare earlier.
“Alan-dono, are you going to the castle wearing those clothes?”
“Um… do they look strange?”
Since we were going to visit the castle, I’d probably get to meet with other nobles who were higher up in station than the baron, so I decided to wear my military uniform. From his reaction, was that actually not a good idea?
“Well, I suppose I should inform you right now. I didn’t manage to inform you before, but the noble we’ll be having an audience with today is actually this kingdom’s prime minister, Marquis Villis Burke.”
“Hou, I see.”
Since he’s the prime minister, he’s one of the people with the greatest authority in this country and was practically second only to the king huh. I didn’t think I’d immediately be able to meet up with such a bigshot.
“You, of course, are not aware of this Alan-dono, but the marquis is…… Let’s just say he doesn’t really hold commoners in much esteem and can often be unreasonable when dealing with them.”
So that’s what he’s worried about huh. In short, this prime minister guy was a major jerk.
I was told this uniform was viewed by the people of this planet as a very opulent and regal set of clothing. Well, that’s probably because of the great difference in the quality of the fabrics used compared to what’s available here as well as the technology used to make it.
What the baron’s probably trying to say was me wearing this uniform might invite unnecessary trouble from the other nobles since they’d think clothes this ‘grand’ don’t fit my status as a commoner.
“I see, so that’s the case huh. You probably found it hard to broach the topic. Thank you though. I also have some more normal clothing, so I’ll change into them later before we depart for the castle.”
Fortunately, I was able to buy some clothes more suitable for your average commoner yesterday. It’s all thanks to Cleria and the others who went shopping yesterday. They saw clothes that caught their eye and expressly went back to the inn in order to drag me with them to buy the stuff.
They weren’t made-to-order clothes, but they still seemed pretty high quality. Since Cleria and Elna, who were very knowledgeable when it comes to this planet’s latest fashion trends, totally approve of them, I guess there’s no problem.
I felt that it was pretty troublesome yesterday when I was accompanying them, but it looks like I better thank Cleria and the girls for dragging me to shop for clothes after all.
“The marquis might say some things that would sound somewhat offensive, so it would be best if you prepared yourself for the possibility.”
Yeah, okay. Just knowing this info beforehand would allow me to deal with that stuff better later on.
“The marquis is also doubtful that Alan-dono truly managed to tame a dragon. Or rather, he’s probably even doubting that you managed to slay a real dragon in the first place. Please try to maintain your calm later whatever happens.”
“I understand. Thank you very much for the warning, Baron.”
Am I the type who gets angry easily?
I believe I have a rather mild personality, actually. I’m pretty confident that I can put up with whatever happens later. ……Well, there probably will be no problems as long as they don’t involve my friends and subordinates in their antics.
That’s the gist of what the baron wanted to talk with me about. And so, I quickly changed from my military uniform into the clothes we bought yesterday, got on the carriage, and headed for the royal castle.
By the way, the baron and Adjutant Dalshim were sitting on the driver’s box together. Since the dragon’s fangs were more than a meter long, I thought it would be necessary to bring some people who will haul the things inside the castle later, but it looks like the castle staff would take care of it themselves.
We departed for the royal castle with Satellite Teams 1 and 2 as our escorts. I assigned escorts to guard our carriage in light of yesterday’s bandit ambush.
They acted like they were quite familiar with our actions, so I consulted with everyone and decided to assign guard escorts just in case.
Of course, the inn where we were storing the dragon’s magic stone had a total of forty people standing guard around it round the clock. I also have the drones monitoring the area from above, but there have been no suspicious movements so far.
The baron briefed me on what will be happening today while we were riding the carriage.
Basically, I will be officially handing over the dragon fangs to the kingdom and signing a contract agreement making it official. The king has probably signed the contract in advance so this was just a formality.
The baron said they might brief me about the title conferment and what will happen afterward as well.
After traveling for about twenty minutes, we finally arrived at the royal castle. The royal castle was situated in the center of the capital and was surrounded by seven meter-high walls from all sides. The wall’s total circumference should be more than a kilometer.
The Satellite teams could only accompany us up to here, and I told them to return to the inns ahead of us.
There were six soldiers guarding the castle gate, but we only stopped for a short while and started advancing again. I suppose the baron’s attendant showed them his master’s coat of arms.
After passing through the gate and advancing a little more, the carriage stopped in place. Dalshim opened the door of the carriage and we finally got off. It appears we didn’t pass through the main entrance but the rear entrance instead.
Ten men wearing similar-looking get-ups were waiting for us within. These guys are probably those so-called castle chamberlains huh.
“We’ve been awaiting you, My Lord. Are the dragon fangs loaded within the carriage?”
“That’s right. We’ll leave them to you.”
The doors of the carriage’s roof rack were quickly opened and the chamberlains began working on unloading the fangs. The cloth-wrapped fangs were carefully brought down, and soon, they were ready for transfer to the castle cellar. I don’t think they were that heavy, but it seems they were going to carry the fangs with five people each to ensure that they didn’t drop them accidentally.
It looks like our attendants couldn’t follow us inside the castle as well, so I had Dalshim wait outside together with the baron’s attendant.
“Well then, Alan-dono. Let us enter the castle proper.”
I entered the castle together with the baron while a chamberlain led the way for us. As expected, the castle was unlike most of the other buildings in the city and exuded a certain stately aura. It also looked to be fairly old. It had quite an imposing atmosphere.
The office of the marquis was located at the very back of the castle’s third floor. The chamberlain knocked on the large door of the office first before pushing it open and leading us inside. We found the marquis behind a big desk placed at the back of the spacious room.
Oops, I almost forgot that I shouldn’t look directly at someone as high-ranked as the marquis unless he permits me to look himself.
The baron started walking forward, so I looked down and followed after him. When the baron knelt on one knee, I followed suit.
“Raise your heads. So you are the one who purportedly slew a dragon?”
“Yes, Your Lordship. I am the adventurer called Alan.”
“You look awfully young. How old are you, exactly?”
“I am currently twenty-five years old, Your Lordship.”
The marquis got up from behind his desk, moved to the nearby sofa, and sat back down.
“Well then, let me hear how exactly you managed to defeat the dragon.”
Eh? He’s just gonna start the discussion while keeping us kneeling? It was gonna be a pretty lengthy story, but anyway, I started relating a slightly modified account of what happened that day.
Although I modified some parts, most of the account was unchanged. I recounted that I was able to witness two dragons battling and somehow managed to help one to defeat the other.
The dragon I aided felt grateful for my assistance and helped me carry the defeated dragon’s corpse back to Gantz.
Well, it was admittedly quite an absurd story, but since I omitted the drones and Nanom’s assistance, it just can’t be helped.
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