Chapter 127
Chapter 127 – It seems to be the Hero of the Northern Continent
“I’m called Albert, the hero of the dragonoids, who are the blood descendants of the Jade Dragon Berylprakeo. I give you, Your Excellency Margrave Kunugi, my utmost gratitude for granting me the honor of an audience on this occasion.” (Albert)
His green hair, without a single curl visible, is tightly gathered at his nape. Wearing an attire, that no matter how Renya looks at it appears to be a dark blue kinagashi 1 and a katana hanging at his waist. The young man, who had tekkou created out of some scale-like cloth equipped, bows his head courteously.
While listening to the greetings of the man called Albert as he sits, deeply sunken into the sofa in the parlor, Renya kept wondering “How did it turn out like this?” without knowing just how many times that particular sentiment assailed him since having arrived to this world.
The other day he reported to the archduchess, who was in the capital, that a handwritten letter from the emperor of the elven country had been delivered to him.
Without referring to the pointless encryption, he only informed her about the contents, but the reply from the archduchess was truly concise, telling him “Please take care of it as suitably as possible on your side~.”
Renya ended up wondering whether only doing that much was acceptable for the highest authority of the Principality, but as he obtained authorization for the time being, Renya wrote a reply addressed to elven emperor.
That letter was a bundle of paper numbering several times those of the letter received from the emperor. The content was composed of sentences conforming to the misspelling rules of the received letter, confirming the intention of including said errors and through them giving a detailed and thorough description of Renya’s thoughts regarding the subject.
Using expressions in elvish in several places of the document, it looked like an answer to the encrypted text sent by the emperor on first glance, like a text that would likely include some kind of message. But as a matter of fact, Renya hasn’t used any kind of encryption.
In short it’s a letter trying to have the emperor believe that the mixed-in elvish words have some kind of meaning, written as an answer to his own encoded letter, as long as he can decode it. Moreover, Renya pretended that he wasn’t able to decipher the encrypted text on top of it.
When Croire read the content of Renya’s letter, she looked at Renya with an expression that was rare for an elf – a faint smile, but Renya pretended to not have noticed that.
Renya felt indifferent saying that it’s a pretty bad move to not insert an encrypted message in a letter that might be classified as a diplomatic document, but then again he has no obligation to go along with that.
Furthermore, since Renya’s return letter is a proper reply towards the contents mentioned in the letter sent by the emperor, there’s also no reason for him to get criticized by anyone.
While revealing a malicious grin judging that it would be great if the emperor racked his brain to the utmost, Renya sent the letter to the elven country through the transfer gate.
Putting that aside; alongside the reply from the archduchess regarding his report of a handwritten letter having arrived from the elven emperor, a directive was delivered to Renya’s place.
Given that it was a message stating that a hero had been chosen from among the dragonoids ruling the northern continent and that they were requesting a meeting with the human hero, it was an official order from the archduchess, telling him to welcome the dragonoid hero on his side.
When he saw that, Renya dropped the directive from the archduchess on the table after being overwhelmed with surprise.
Rona, who happened to be present by coincidence, became flustered, wondering just what had happened for Renya to become so astonished. After obtaining permission with a few words, she gathers the documents scattered on the table and looks through them. Confirming that there’s no particularly surprising content written within, she looks at Renya, who was still frozen, with a puzzled expression.
“What was so shocking about it?” (Rona)
“T-There is a hero, who will arrive here after going through the proper channels…” (Renya)
“Pardon?” (Rona)
Apparently not having noticed Rona saying the words similar to asking “What’s this guy going on about?”, Renya continues as if reciting a monologue,
“No, I mean, he’s a hero, isn’t he? He’s one of those heroes, right? The ones who foolishly chase skirts and when they finally become unable to do so, come to force a war while being angry at the victim or those who come picking a fight with a noble after arriving at a human city all of a sudden. That person is a hero, a term that stands as a synonym for idiocy in my mind, you know?” (Renya)
“Umm, Renya…?” (Rona)
Rona tried to interrupt him timidly, but there was no sign for Renya being about to stop.
“Moreover, these guys are probably deeply related to dragons, seeing as they are called dragonoids, correct? Considering it normally, wouldn’t it be natural then for him to appear while riding a dragon, partially destroying the city, after spouting some bullshit along the lines Here I am~ with a smile as his dragon spits its fiery breath or such?” (Renya)
“No, umm… just a moment?” (Rona)
“It’s weird, don’t you think!? It’s strange, right? It’s definitely strange! That means, this guy is a weirdo.” (Renya)
“In this case, the weird one here is you.” (Rona)
As expected, even as Rona retorted calmly, she was unable to put up with this any longer.
Did her voice finally reach his ears? Renya looks at Rona with an expression full of shock.
“If there were only such heroes, you could expect them to get subjugated even before the demon king. Besides, you also couldn’t expect us to express any level of respect towards the existence referred to as hero.” (Rona)
“No…way…” (Renya)
Being at his wits’ end and feebly tottering, Renya suddenly lifts his head in the next instant, as if having recovered his vitality all of a sudden.
“I see! The matter of this guy seeming to be relatively decent is just a prelude to the arrival of an exceptionally insane elven hero…” (Renya)
Rona urgently blocks Renya’s mouth, who was starting to talk, with both her hands.
Due to Renya appearing to want to say something with him mumbling into her hands, Rona brought her face close to him with a serious expression and said,
“Please stop it. What do you plan to do if someone like that really came here?” (Rona)
From Rona’s viewpoint, the elves are a race she can’t develop any fondness for, despite Croire being nearby.
Even under normal circumstances elves seem to go as far as creating factions for various sizes of breasts. If now even an insane elf with the power-up of being a hero arrived here, it would become necessary for Rona to escape to the archduchess in the capital.
“Please think about the reply to the dragonoids without jinxing it unnecessarily.” (Rona)
“N…Nmu…” (Renya)
Due to Rona’s overpowering, threatening attitude, Renya had no option but to nod while still having his mouth blocked.
Such being the case, he asked Mayria and Rona to carefully teach him about a harmless and inoffensive way of writing a reply. Almost at the same time as Renya sent his answer to the dragonoids through the transfer gate, the dragonoid hero arrived through said transfer gate.
Since it was much too fast, Renya suspected him lying in wait on the other side of the gate, but that actually turned out to be the truth.
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The dragonoids, who should be deeply related to dragons, who pass their time suitably as they have basically a very long life, seem to actually have a strict way of thinking in regards to time and timing for some reason. It’s said that it’s their standard to regard making the other party wait for them as unreasonable.
Since it’s also said that they are not very concerned about being made to wait themselves in comparison, Renya considers them to be a strange race.
Moreover, it was only a single person that arrived in Klinge.
Since he’s tentatively a key figure of a country, Renya thought that he would always be accompanied by servants or comrades, resulting in him being surprised by the unexpected state of the visit.
It became apparent on Renya’s face that he was thinking, I wonder whether this guy is maybe a loner who doesn’t even have comrades or friends, considering that even that beastman hero had a proper priestess as a companion. Albert looked at Renya with a slightly suspicious expression.
“Your Excellency Margrave Kunugi, is there something on my face?” (Albert)
“No, nothing…though it’s not like I can say that either. It’s the first time I see a dragonoid, but I suppose except for your eyes, you aren’t any different from us humans.” (Renya)
No matter how long he stared, Renya was unable to discover any difference between the humans and dragonoids.
But once he very carefully observed Albert, he was able to perceive that the shape of his pupils wasn’t round like those of humans, but instead had a shape similar to an oblong rugby ball.
If he were to speak the unvarnished truth, Albert’s pupils have a shape similar to those of reptiles.
“I guess you’re right. What differentiates us from humans are the shape of our pupils and…the scales remaining on some parts of our bodies.” (Albert)
“Ah, so you do have scales.” (Renya)
After dismissing the discourtesy with a brief comment, Albert suddenly opens the neckband of his kinagashi.
As he apparently doesn’t wear an undershirt, his bare chest becomes exposed right away, but at the same time a cluster of scales growing around his solar plexus became visible.
“That’s how it has turned out.” (Albert)
“Are those hard?” (Renya)
“For the time being…if you consider us being descendants of dragons, quite hard.” (Albert)
Isn’t it strange to call them dragonoids although they are descendants of dragons? 2 Renya wonders, but there appear to be reasons for this as well.
The biggest reason is that they were apparently not deemed worthy enough to call themselves dragons as their strength had fallen quite a bit, despite being descendants, since they were treated as the lowest rank of dragons, somewhat below serpents, that are treated as beings below the noble dragons.
“So, Your Excellency Margrave Kunugi, where might I find hero-dono? Although it’s a honor to have an audience with you, I’d like to request an audience with hero-dono as hero of the dragonoids.” (Albert)
“I have fully grasped your wish. Given that I have sent for someone to call him, I think he will arrive shortly. For the time being, how about sitting down and, well, having a cup of tea?” (Renya)
To be frank, Renya himself has absolutely no clue about the normal behavior of nobles.
He’s aware that he might be handling some things differently, but there’s no way for him to fix that at this point. Even if he tried to feign friendliness, that being fake should get exposed quickly.
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Even while thinking that there’s certainly no noble who would offer tea to a hero with a feeling of friendship, Renya believed it to be wasteful to not have the hero taste the tecake that was specially prepared for his visit today as it was quite the work of art.
Due to the fact that he was being offered tea by a noble himself all of a sudden without any maid attending or any guard being on standby, Albert might have felt that it was slightly different from usual, but with the green tea releasing a highly aromatic steam and the pitch black clusters, that were loosely scattered on top of a plate placed next to his tea cup, Albert takes the seat opposite of Renya, obviously having his interest aroused.
Seeing Albert properly remove the katana from his waist and leaning it against the table at the time of sitting down, Renya breathed out in slight admiration of Albert.
“This is…red bean jam, I guess? Did the beastman hero arrive over here already?” (Albert)
“No, I don’t know. This is something I received as an apology from the companion of a criminal, who went on a rampage in the city, at the time when I handed the criminal over to said companion.” (Renya)
Even Renya was unable to do something like serving the red bean jam in its jam state.
If there was arrowroot, he would have considered making sweet bean jelly, but he was unable to find something similar within the short period of time. Renya regretted that he didn’t also rip off the ingredients for making sweets using red bean jam from the beastmen once he had received the ingredients for red bean jam, but it was too late now.
Since there’s wheat flour, he considered making steamed buns at first, but since they already existed as souvenir on the southern continent, it wasn’t an overly novel idea.
What Renya came up with after considering various options are the fake ohagi which are currently placed on the plate right in front of Albert.
Originally one must use glutinous rice for these, but currently that’s not an ingredient Renya has at hand.
Since he had a vague feeling that this specific type of rice existed on the southern continent, Renya was planning to have Lepard spit everything out when he comes to meet the human hero, but since there’s no point in worrying about something that isn’t available at the moment, he settled for fake ohagi, mixing lightly cooked rice and red beans, and rolling it all up together.
He couldn’t deny that the food’s texture was different after all, but since he felt like the taste had worked out reasonably well when he sampled the food, he decided to serve it as a treat for the hero.
“It’s a pastry of lightly crushed alos with a red bean jam coating. I don’t know whether it will be to your liking, but I can guarantee that it fits very well with green tea.” (Renya)
“Hoo…red bean jam itself is something that doesn’t appear on the market overly often.” (Albert)
Using the toothpick that was provided, Albert skillfully cuts up the fake ohagi. While looking at Albert, Renya throws a fleeting glance at the entrance to the parlor located behind Albert.
The entrance door has been faintly opened and only Frau’s head peeks through that gap. She told him “A little bit longer ~nano,” through the movements of her lips.
Albert carries the cut-up fake ohagi to his mouth – apparently not having noticed the shift in Renya’s sight, who’s thinking Bah, although it’s not like I have plenty of topics to talk about with him – and squints his eyes eyes happily as he slurps the green tea.
“Oh, you have a sweet tooth?” (Renya)
“I believe that to not be the case, but sweets are a treasure.” (Albert)
“Well, I guess that’s true as well…one can’t obtain the raw materials for sugar anywhere but in the south after all?” (Renya)
“Even our continent has produce that allows us to procure sugar, albeit a different one from the south, but it’s not cultivated much.” (Albert)
I’m sure it’s millet in the north and daikon in the south, Renya arbitrarily decides.
Although he didn’t know whether it might be procured from something slimy, sopping and really fantasy-like.
As Renya is harboring such selfish illusions the entrance door opens again slightly and this time only Frau’s hand is thrust through the gap while giving an OK sign.
It seems as if the person whom they awaited has arrived.
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Expressly knocking on the partly-opened door, Frau says,
“Master, he has arrived.” (Frau)
“I see. Please let him through.” (Renya)
Once the door is opened, light footsteps enter the room.
Albert, who rose half to his feet as the human hero apparently arrived, voiced out a slight surprise after seeing the owner of the footsteps.
“Your Excellency, is it alright for me to sit down next to you?”
“Of course, hero-dono. There are no other seats. Even Albert-dono has taken a seat, but I think that’s alright. Being too formal is nothing I or hero-dono like.” (Renya)
As he’s told by Renya, Albert lowered his waist again and fixedly stares at the person referred to as the human hero who sat down next to Renya.
He has snow white hair that was cut and evened out at the nape, but the skin below that is even whiter, as if transparent.
His body has been clad in a magician-like robe with a hood attached. The arms peeking out slightly from there are graceful and thin as if they had never done anything like physical labor until now.
The deep crimson eyes stand out in his calm expression on his slender, well-featured face.
He’s a person unifying conflicting colors such as white and black or white and red into one, but Albert is unable to judge whether the person in front of him is a man or a woman.
Even if he was told that it’s a little girl, he would be able to come to terms with that. Same applies if he was told that it’s a boy.
Albert was a swordsman before becoming a hero. He had the experience that allowed him to know the gender of his opponent, albeit only vaguely, going by their aura.
But the person in front of him, far from feeling any aura, their existence itself possesses a unsteadiness as if they will disappear like an empty dream. Due to them being a type he never met until now, Albert felt perplexed.
“T-The person over there is hero-dono, right?” (Albert)
That person nodded at the words Albert managed to squeeze out somehow.
Albert believes the other part to be a man due to such a behavior.
As strange as it might be, a woman being chosen as the hero has never been recorded in history across the large human continent.
All the heroes have always been men.
“I’m glad to meet you, hero-dono of the dragonoids. I’m the human hero, Kurz Verde.”