And we finally arrived at the site two days later and several carriages can now be seen on the roadside in front of us.
(Sabine) 「Straight!」
Sabine-chan exposed her hand with full confidence.
(Colette) 「One pair…」
Colette-chan placed her cards on the table slovenly.
And, I…….
(Mitsuha) 「Kimen Flus.h.!.+」
Yes, my hand consists of five cards with the same suit and stronger than straight, that is a Flush. I naturally attached 『Kimen』 and did not regret it.
A flush seems to be easier to align and also stronger than a straight. Of course, it's also stronger than a three pair as well.
(TL Note: It's a reference of a manga called “Flas.h.!.+ Kimengumi” which is the sequel of “High School! Kimengumi” ; and…. I prefer Straight rather than Flush…. because the chance to destroy your own hands is high if you played a Flush imho…)I won!
When I thought so, a voice was heard next to me who is currently smiling broadly.
(Remia) 「FULL HOUSE, DESU WA!」
(TL Note: BUU BUU DESU WA!)EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH~~!?!
(Remia) 「KEKEKEKE!!」
Her Highness Princess' victory voice resounded in the carriage.
……that said, her laughing is unpleasant, though!
(Coachman) 「We have finally arrived!」
(Remia) 「Put us next to the Earl's carriage!」
Her Highness Princess switched her expression and voice in an instant and gave an instruction to the coachman.
……That's scary, though!
Normally, it supposed to be a two days travel where Her Highness Princess has to ride alongside the court ladies and maids, but this time, she spent the days together with us alone.
It looks like this was a fun travel for Her Highness Princess, but for us, that, umm….. well, it was somewhat interesting so that's fine.
Her Highness Princess, who seems to be almost broken, returned to her senses upon arrival,….probably…
Then, after the carriages stopped, the coachmen together with the escorts who have jumped out from their horses and other carriages took some time to guard the surroundings and we could finally get off the carriage. Of course, we were the first one to get off so that we could confirm the safety. After that, Her Highness Princess could finally come down.
Ministers, influential n.o.bles, military officials, etc. who had come down from other carriages also gathered around the princess.
(Remia) 「Where is the delegation at!?」
(Audyst) 「We are over here, Her Highness Princess Remia!」
A reply came back immediately and, along with that, the delegation leader, Earl Covemainne got off from the most luxurious delegation's carriage.
(Remia) 「Ooh, Earl! You seem to be safe, that's a relief! It was truly a hard time for having such unfortunate event, but this is a splendid thing to see…」
Her Highness Princess gave her words of grat.i.tude to the Earl.
Even though it's a 『grat.i.tude』, she can't afford to say any words of apology to him due to the fact that this case was the work of bandits.
Bandits are stateless. They do not pay taxes in this kingdom and they might also have come from another kingdom.
However, if the princess apologizes here, it means that her kingdom has accepted this matter as their own responsibility and would become a major political weakness for her kingdom.
Therefore, it's impossible to break the status that this is just an unfortunate event and it has nothing to do with the kingdom.
(Remia) 「So then, how's the damage!? Did the bandits run away!?」
Her Highness Princess asked so and the Earl replied while smiling.
(Audyst) 「There are no casualties nor physical damage on our part. In fact, we also have destroyed and captured the bandits. Hey, bring them here!」
The Earl ordered the rear guards and they immediately brought in three bandits who were tied up.
(Dalisson's People) 「「「「「Huh……?」」」」」
The people around the princess unintentionally leaked their voice and turned pale.
That is already an expected reaction as they could identify the bandits who are currently right in front of them.
They are wearing old clothes, a matching swords and boots, trimmed hair and cleanly shaved face, though it has grown a little in these past two days.
Even if they changed their clothing, they will still want to change into the expensive ones. They also used their usual swords and boots as they might already be accustomed to using those as well. Perhaps, the bandits thought that we don't know anything about another kingdom's equipment.
However, it was obvious from the eyes of their own kingdom's royal officials and soldiers.
((((Our… military personnel…)))))
(Audyst) 「We will bring these prisoners back to our kingdom, torture them and make them spit out all of the information they have. We will also inform all of it to this kingdom as well, therefore we would like to use them to eradicate all of the remaining bandits that are probably still in hiding.」
Everyone from Dalisson Kingdom was in turmoil, and among them, there were several people who were very shaken about what the Earl had said.
(Minister) 「I-in any case, we cannot trust what the bandits have to say! We should kill them now!」
Suddenly, one of the ministers began to say so.
(Military Official) 「Yeah, we can't be sure as the bandits could run away and kill more people! It's best to kill them here!」
While saying so, several military officials tried to pull out their sword, but the delegation escorts were standing in front of them.
Since the prisoners are all behind the Earl, it is an obvious reason for the escorts to act like such because another kingdom's military personnel are trying to pull out their swords against the Earl, who is the delegation leader.
(Remia) 「Stop this at once!」
Her Highness Princess' sharp rebuke flew and made the military officials back down as they were scorned by everyone including the princess who started it first.
(Remia) 「How dare you tried to pull your swords against another kingdom's envoys! Furthermore, the bandits treatment can only be judged by the people who caught them. So, what were you trying to do when you yourself should have known the fact that all of us are not related to this incident?……
Are you going to drop our kingdom's honor to the ground!? Or perhaps, are there some unpleasant information hiding within the bandits?」
Those who insisted on killing the prisoners were all flinched from princess' harsh words.
(Remia) 「By the way, fourth battalion commander…」
(4th Commander) 「Yes?」
Suddenly called by the princess, the captain made a puzzled look.
(Remia) 「Why are those bandits using our military supply's swords and boots?」
(4th Commander) 「Ah…., Uuh……」
A reply came from beside the commander who was sweating from his forehead.
(1st Company Leader) 「It's probably that our supplier have sold the non-standard products to them because it cannot be supplied to our military divisions…」
The 4th Batallion's 1st company leader replied so to Her Highness Princess who is staring intensely at him.
(Remia) 「Hohoo, so these three bandits incidentally, by chance, bought the swords and boots from the same supplier as us, was it? If that's the case, you are trying to say that perhaps all the bandits got the same swords and boots from our supplier, correct? That's a lot of mistakes for a workshop, I see…, well then, we shouldn't be doing business anymore with them, yes?」
(1st Company Leader) 「Uuh…」
The 1st company leader has sunk into silence.
(Remia) 「You aren't trying to say that these men are our army's soldiers, right?」
The 4th battalion commander answered in a panic to the princess' question.
(4th Commander) 「T-there's no such thing!」
(Remia) 「If so, then these people and their families, relatives, etc. shall be punished, hence there's no problem about it, yes?
So you're saying that these people are by no means from our army?”
(4th Commander) 「Of course! Such people are not from our 4th battalion!」
Her Highness Princess floated a dark smile towards the battalion commander who had said so with a red face.
(Remia) 「Hohoo? I only asked, 『You aren't trying to say that these men are our army's soldiers, right?』 and you denied it by saying, 『Such people are not from our 4th battalion”, yes』
It's as if you're saying that they came from the 4th battalion…」
(4th Commander) 「Eh……」
(Remia) 「And you declared that there's no one in the 4th battalion who is related to the bandits because you know every soldiers in there, correct?
So, we need to investigate the bandits and their relatives first, yes?」
(4th Commander) 「O-of course!」
And then, I called out to Earl's behind.
(Mitsuha) 「Please come out!」
With my voice, the door of the carriage, which was behind the Earl, was opened and one bandit came down.
(Mitsuha) 「…so they said, Mr. 3rd platoon leader of the 1st company of the 4th Battalion of Dalisson Army!」
(Dalisson Member) 「「「「「「Eh……?」」」」」」
Dalisson members other than the princess were stunned and speechless with their mouth opened.
And the battalion commander, company leader as well as one of the ministers scowled at the captured platoon leader with eyes full of anger and hatred.
Yes, we have said that we took some prisoners. However, no one said anything about only three people.
Perhaps the minister and commanders thought that the platoon leader who knows the details of the command has died and the three soldiers right in front of them did not know the details of it as they were only ordered to do so. Hence, they perhaps decided to desperately claimed that the three soldiers were not their subordinates until the end.
Certainly, if you have to choose who to believe between the bandits and military officials, no one would even want to believe in the bandits at all.
Besides, on the way to the royal capital, there will be a high possibility that 『the bandits tried to run away, so we killed them unwillingly』 or 『I suddenly started to worry….』.
n.o.body could know the face of the lower-rank soldiers from the 4th Battalion because they will only be accompanied by the Guard Forces along the way. Hence they could cutoff the bandits' faces, or hit them with a rock, or even set a fire to the carriage while camping…
If they want to kill the bandits, they need to do something until the bandit's face couldn't be identified.
Even so, just to be sure, they tried to kill the bandits here immediately before the bandits start to blabber all sorts of things. However, the escorts from the delegations side had prevented them from doing it.
(Neutson) 「Did you forget, battalion commander, company leader? I'm the 3rd platoon leader, Lieutenant Neutson.
The one who was ordered to take the secret weapon of a foreign kingdom and attack the delegation from a neighboring kingdom which also includes a princess, the leader, and the Lightning Princess Shrine Maiden as it was a special order from the Minister of Military Affairs, Maenholtz-sama, remember?」
His mouth was smiling but his eyes were completely different.
It was scary.
It was truly scary….
Chapter 103 >
