Verision Empire, the biggest country in the continent.
Within that country, resides the Imperial Capital Beorant, boasting with its size and home to 12.000 residents.
Right now, I am in the middle of audience — inside a place which is called as Beorant Castle, a place whose location is in the center of that Imperial Capital.
… In another words, right now I am present in the front of his majesty.
「Raise your head. Even this one doesn’t have a hobby to let a baby kneel down」
「Y-yes ……」
As I was bathed in sticky sweat, I slowly raised my head timidly.
In the front of me, at the end of the long red carpet, an extravagant throne was present, which I had never seen before except from an anime at my previous life.
And then, the one who was sitting over there glaring at me, with long black bristled hair just like a wolf, a young man who had golden pupils which could light even in the dark of night.
Yes, a young man ……!
He has an appearance which resembled a man in his twenties, the sixth emperor ・Velhazard・Bard・Beorant.[1]
Within this empire, he is the most influential man.
「But, I am surprised」
His Majesty Beorant’s golden eyes slowly narrowed, and then, he spoke with a calm voice which dominated throughout the place.
「At the time when this one heard the person who had annihilated that 『Midnight robber group』 was a baby, this one thought that this one’s ears had already gone weird, or perhaps Serlard had finally become an idiot, this one was really troubled.」
In response to His Majesty Beorant’s words, the white haired old man who was standing next to his majesty made a twitchy expression.
I think, he is the person who the Majesty referred to as Serlard. From his standing location, maybe his position is no less than something like a prime minister.
…… But, speaking about those small fries, they were actually a famous group to the extent that his majesty knows about them, eh~.
Because none of them said their names, I only recognized them as mob robber A to F, you know.
「On the top of that …… Oi, Serlard. Do you know the list of injuries that the robbers received?」
「Yes, I will read it out loud …… First, the leader Beria suffered with vision disability, had right arm and left foot lacerated, and also blunt trauma onto his head. His aide Jirai, got heavy beatings and bruises all over his upper half body especially on his face, with the addition of sprained neck. Screel suffered impaired vision, and his nasal cavity, oral cavity, throat, and bronchial tubes were burned. Hosta developed gangrene in both of his knees due to the extreme frostbite, as well as severe lacerations. Monteque received bone fractures on his spine, and beating all over his body, and then lastly, ……and the most severe was Ravalit, he got numerous bone fractures due to the beating all over his body, had both of his hands and feet got pierced, with the addition a shattered nose bone fracture, and also serious mental damage, especially toward seeing colours like 「Red」 and 「Silver」, or towards the word「Sefi」both induces bouts of insanity.」.[2]
…… Uuh~ …… eh.
Ple-please wait for a moment. The imperial guards who are lined up left and right! Could you not start gossiping!
Ah, Onii-San is vomiting over there! The people over there are also averting their eyes at the moment our eyes meet! Cruel!
「…… When this one saw the terrible state of those robbers, this one had suspected the villagers took had revenge by executing them. 」
Waa~, even his majesty is being taken aback ……
Ce-certainly, I might have gone a little too far ……
「Well, it is not a crime to kill robbers. Besides, it’s only natural to counter-attack the attackers, that is why, be relieved because this one doesn’t have any intention to give you any punishment.」
Then, why did you even bother to read out loud the list of injuries!? The gazes from everyone towards me were painful, you know!
Ah, was Onii-chan leaving the room for a while? Did he go to the toilet to vomit? I-is that so, take care of yourself, okay?
「While looking at the scars on those robbers, certainly, the brutality and the merciless were quite admirable things. But the truly surprising thing was, the versatility to use numerous elements at the battles, you truly had a good magician sense.」
Was the first part really needed? Couldn’t you have just skipped to the latter half, your Majesty?
「You, how did you learn magic in the first place?」
With his golden eyes, the glare of his majesty was piercing me.
Even though my body froze due to his gaze, I was still desperately searching for the best answer.
First of all, I couldn’t say something like “I couldn’t use something like magic, you know~”, because they had already known about it, so it would be completely NG[3]. The reason behind this was because everyone from the village probably blathered about my heroic story to the soldier from the empire already… Maybe, I should’ve forbidden them to speak about it after all ……
What if I answer something like, “Yes~, I just could use it recently, you know~”. If I say I wielded a magic that I had just remembered recently to annihilate the robber’s group, would they bear a strange expectation and make use of me for military purpose?
Or maybe, something like I learned it ahead of time, so it wouldn’t spur the Heroes Creed.
「….. About 2 ~ 3 months ago, I read the “gri-moire” in my house…..」[4]
In the end, I decided to honestly say about the truth.
「Grimoire, you said? Why does a small village have such a thing?」
「…… It seemed like to be a heritage, given by Otou-san’s friend 」
「You, do you know how to read or write?」
「No, I do not ……」
「Then, you shouldn’t be able to read that grimoire」
「By only looking at the pages containing the spells, when I tried to figure out by doing something like this~ , then, I was able to invoke it ……」
Once again the murmurs were spreading throughout the audience room.
Even beneath his majesty’s sharp gaze, I could see a somewhat bewildered expression.
The prime minister-like, Serlard, was plainly opening his mouth wide in surprise after all.
Iyaa~, even you could invoke the magics if you at the bit least knew what the word means, though I think it is not really a great technique to be able to wield magic …..
Well, when I tried to teach Onii-Chan and mother, they completely weren’t able to use it though.
His majesty was covering his eyes while rubbing his temple, in the end he took one long sigh and opened his mouth.
「This one also want to hear the opinions from you all. Come in 」
“You all” ……?
As I suddenly become perplexed, the sound of the massive door being opened could be heard from my behind.
When I turned around, over there were ……
「Perhaps, this guy would become the『the 4th』 following you guys. Let this one hears all of your open thoughts regarding this person」
In response to his majesty’s statement, I was surprised and ended up raising my voice with an 「Eh~! 」.
From behind the previously opened door, 3 people stood.
The word of 『the 4th』 coming from his majesty.
Their appearance coinciding with the conversation related to magic knowledge.
The number three.
Pe-perhaps …..
Over there, the ones who I had been longing to meet – the only 3 the wizard-samas within the empire were standing in line.