Chapter 31 – Turchen Castle (8)
“Ah, are you awake, Jinu?”
Ellie, who was talking to Princess Aria, found me and said.
“Good morning, Ellie. What were you talking about?”
“Aria asked me about Jinu and I was answering.”
Oh~. Aria asked about me.
Huh?
“Ellie? I thought you just called the princess’s name?”
“Yes. I gave you permission to call me that.”
As Ellie was confused by his behavior, Princess Aria approached him and said,
“Anyway, we have to go to Turchen Castle together, and if you want to resolve matters related to me, I thought we would see each other for quite some time, so I said I could let things go.”
“Is that so? If the princess gave permission…”
This princess has a way of thinking that does not fit her true status.
In my head, the imaginary royal family was someone with a strong sense of pride, an old-fashioned way of thinking, and a strong sense of privilege.
So I’m surprised that they even let the horse go.
“Jinu, you can talk comfortably too. If Ellie stops talking and Jinu is respectful, I’m uncomfortable too, right?”
Princess Aria said with a refreshing smile.
I signaled Ellie to come closer by clawing with her hand.
Ellie looked at my hand and whispered softly into her ear.
“Ellie, you didn’t threaten me, did you?”
Ellie shook her head after hearing what I said.
Ellie didn’t threaten her, but she came out like that. She really doesn’t know.
“Then… I’ll call you Aria…”
“By the way, I said you can speak comfortably… But you will gradually get used to it. Please take care of me~ Jinu.”
Ms. Aria answered and she held out her hand to me and I shook hands with hers.
“I’m asking you to take care of me. I think I’ll be more comfortable with this.”
Looking around, it looked like they were almost ready to move.
I think I was the last one to wake up, perhaps because I was called by God.
At that moment, I felt a light shock and a crunching sensation behind my back.
“Jinuni~~. Are you awake?”
Side!
I received Yuria’s morning greeting hug and a light kiss on my cheek.
Yuria really seems to like hugs.
“Good morning Yuria. Where has she been?”
“Yes. Mine and I checked to see if there were any bugs around! I don’t want to bother you while moving.”
It seems like they took care of all the monsters around them before moving on.
“Good job, Yuria.”
I was now accustomed to stroking Yuria’s head, and Yuria naturally held out her head and accepted it.
“Princess Aria! We are ready to move.”
I feel like I slept for a really long time.
It looks like we’re already ready to leave.
I thought about taking the Minercia when moving, but I thought it would be difficult to move with all the people here.
With the three of me, Ellie, and Yuria riding, there was no room for additional people.
So, we had no choice but to travel in the carriage that the princess was riding.
Ellie and I rode in the carriage with the princess, and Yuria piloted Minercia while preparing for any sudden attack.
It was very difficult to soothe Yuria from her tantrums, saying that she would also ride in the carriage.
She later said that she would grant him one wish, and she reluctantly agreed with a sour expression.
She also said that she would ride in the carriage with Aria, and the knight who was making a fuss yesterday started making a fuss along the way, saying that he could not ride in the same carriage as the princess, but she just passed by Aria’s scolding.
So three people, Eli and Aria, entered the carriage, with Aria sitting in front of me and Ellie sitting next to me.
As we got into the carriage, Aria started talking.
“Jinu and Ellie are really great.”
“What do you mean?”
Aria said, crossing her arms under her chest, almost on par with Ellie’s.
It’s hard to believe that there’s another breast like Ellie’s.
“The strength Ellie and Yuria showed yesterday was unbelievable to me. I’ve never heard of a group of trolls being able to be taken down by just two people.”
It’s definitely an incredible strength to the people here.
“Are you affiliated somewhere? Or an adventurer?”
“Currently, I am an adventurer. I am F-class, Ellie is C-class, and Yuria does not even have an adventurer ID card yet.”
“Huh? C-level? I think I heard that you have to be at least B-level to deal with trolls…”
Aria was very surprised when she heard what I said.
It’s natural to be surprised.
With Elina Yuria’s power, even the current highest rank, S rank, would not be enough.
“It’s because it hasn’t been long since I became an adventurer. To be honest, I’m not particularly greedy about the level.”
“After hearing this story, I’m more curious about the relationship between Jinu and Ellie.”
I didn’t respond to Aria’s words.
In fact, it is difficult to explain our relationship.
“They never treated Jinu poorly or stopped talking to him. There must be a reason why these two strong people act like that, but I’m really curious about what kind of person Jinu is.”
Aria said with a grin.
“Of course. The reason Yuria and I are here is only because of Jinu.”
“Hmm? What does that mean?”
“It is none other than Jinu-nim’s power that gave me the driving force to exert my power like I do now. The same goes for Yuria. So, it is a natural action.”
Ellie seems very proud when she talks about me.
It is expressed with the whole body.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you everything about that, Aria.”
In case Ellie might even tell her internal affairs, she blocked it in advance.
“Hmm… That’s a shame. I’d like to know what the story is about, too.”
“Rather than that, let’s talk about the future. I think it would be no problem to escort her to Turchen Castle like this. Aside from that, please explain Aria’s situation.”
After hearing my words, Aria’s expression suddenly darkened.
It seems like there are very complicated circumstances.
“Yes… I will explain in detail because I need a lot of help from Jinu. Did I tell you that I am the third princess?”
I nodded my head in the affirmative to Aria’s words.
“Right now, my father is in a very bad state. Fortunately, he is not at the point where he collapses, but I can see him getting worse as the days go by.”
Aria said with a sad expression, as if she was about to shed tears.
“In the meantime, I heard that my brother James, the current second prince, is aiming for the throne.”
A king with a weakened body, and a prince plotting a treason.
It’s a common story.
“I heard it late at night when I happened to be passing by Brother James’ room. I couldn’t believe it at first, but I instinctively felt it was dangerous.”
“Were you caught and running away like you are now?”
“Yes. As soon as he found out that I heard it, he tried to kill me to destroy the evidence. Without even being able to tell my father that this had happened, he ran away with the knights who trusted me…”
In that case, what you are asking me to do is clearly visible.
“I understand the situation roughly. I think you would like Aria to go back to the castle and help stop the second prince who is plotting against her.”
“Yes. Otherwise, I think something scary will happen.”
Scary thing?
“What does that mean?”
“Originally, Brother James was not very interested in the throne. He was actually someone who tried to help First Prince Larks take over the throne…”
Aria’s body trembled slightly as if she was scared.
“The person I heard from Brother James that day was very different from usual. I don’t think there was anyone in the room, but it felt like someone was talking, and he spoke in a completely different way.”
“Does that mean… It feels like someone is controlling it?”
Aria nodded her head.
“Otherwise, there is no way Brother James would change so suddenly. It seems like someone else is clearly controlling and manipulating his mind.”
“Is it possible that the time when Aria’s father became unwell coincided with the time when her prince became strange?”
After hearing what I said, Aria thought deeply and clenched her chin.
“It’s not exact, but I think it’s similar… Does Jinu think that the person who harmed her father and brother James is the same person?”
“It’s such a contrived situation. There’s someone manipulating Prince James, and the King just happens to be unwell? Isn’t this a very nice situation to see?”
Not only can it occur in any novel, comic, or movie, but it is also likely to occur in actual history.
Moreover, if a person who originally had no interest in the throne suddenly wanted to seize the throne, it would not be possible without the intervention of another being.
“You’ll have to go there to know for sure, but just hearing about it now, I think it’s almost like that.”
“Then I must return to the castle as soon as possible. First, I must go to Turchen Castle for maintenance and then go to where my father is.”
While Aria is doing maintenance, I’ll have to take a quick look at Turchen Castle for traces of the game characters.
It would have been nice if God had at least told us the location of the item that could be used as a summoning material.
So we traveled by carriage.
Perhaps because Yuria had cleared out the monsters on her way in advance, she did not encounter any monsters while moving.
Perhaps because we moved as fast as possible, we were able to arrive at Turchen Castle in 3 days.
There is a possibility that Prince James is looking for Aria, so when he entered Turchen Castle, he went in hiding Mr. Aria’s identity.
Also, since it was noticeable that he went in with the knights, we decided that Aria and I would go in together and the rest of the knights would go into Turchen Castle.
We stayed with Aria and tried to get her two rooms, but she insisted that she couldn’t sleep apart from me, so we had no choice but to stay in one room as a group of four.
At first Aria blushed at the fact that they were sharing the same room, but she did not object.
Still, all four of us couldn’t sleep in one bed, so we chose a room with two double beds among the remaining rooms.
There was an argument between Ellie and Yuria over who would share the same bed with me, but before coming to Turchen Castle, she agreed to grant Yuria one wish, so she ended up sleeping with Yuria.
When I lay down on the bed, Yuria followed me and snuggled into my arms.
I hugged Yuria and closed her eyes.
