15-Chapter 1-13: Suspicion of King and Investigation

Tenma, can we f*ck?

It was a crisp morning, a moment when time stopped around us due to the King's sudden statement during breakfast with a large group of people.

Then I stood up from my chair, trying not to look back at the king.

No, I'm not interested in the Way of the People...

I stepped back and time began to flow with this answer.

Mom came hugging me to hide from the king's gaze.

My father stands in front of me, takes his bow and strings it.

Grandpa is muttering to himself, "He wasn't like that once...

"He wasn't the man he used to be," he says.

Your Majesty, no matter how much I like you, I must inform Lady Maria that I'm not going to invite you to join me in the streets...

I said.

Chris-san is looking at the king with a dirty look in his eyes as if he is looking at something dirty.

Mr. Sigurd looks sad, "Your Majesty........

Mr. Jack laments, "It's not that I don't have a popular path itself, but I'm not sure I'd go after my best friend's son...

Mr. Edgar's face is smiling, but his eyes are not smiling.

By the way, the men in the guards are keeping their distance from the king while guarding their asses.

'Wait, wait a minute! I just didn't have the words for it! Ricardo, don't touch that arrow! And don't give that crap about Cleif reporting to Maria! Please!

The king tries to clear up the misunderstanding by talking quickly. Everyone seems to agree for now, but they remain at a distance.

''Ricardo, Ciria, that 'thing' you were talking about yesterday.

'Oh, you mean "that". Don't get me confused! I almost shot you.

I noticed that my mom's body reacted slightly when the king said 'that', but I decided not to worry about it, since she didn't say anything in particular when our gazes met.

Dad and the king said, 'Won't you f*ck me! but it doesn't seem to be a matter of public roads, so everyone re-settled into their seats.

I'm not completely cleared of suspicion yet, though!

"Dad, what's 'that'?

I asked him a question, but the king replied.

"As a matter of fact, I suggested to Ricardo and the others last night that Temma be a member of my son or grandson's Kingsguard. So, what do you say we f*ck?

These words surprised the four of my guards, except for Mr. Cleif, more than me, but

No, I'm afraid not.

He was even more surprised when I refused to answer immediately.

'Monk, it's a tough job, but it pays a lot of money and you have more power than the average lowly nobleman!

And Mr. Jack.

At ten years old, the Konoe is the fastest thing in the history of the world to be born of a commoner!

And Chris, you know what?

If you're hired into the Kingsguard at your age, you'll be able to assume a higher office in the future. If that happens, you can even dream of being knighted by a nobleman!

And Mr. Edgar follows. Incidentally, Mr. Sigurd seems to be too surprised to freeze up.

'Can I ask you for a translation?

Was it still a bad idea to give a quick answer, the king asks me.

I'm going to be honest with you.

'I'm not attracted to Konoe. Besides, I don't think I'll be able to see my family casually as a konoe.

I replied. Mom's eyes welled up at those words.

'Well that's too bad, but it can't be helped. But Temma, if you change your mind, you can always come visit me. And when you do, I'll welcome you!

He said.

I felt honored that he would say that much, no matter how much he was my best friend's son.

Now, here's the breakfast that Shelia has prepared for us. It's now cold, but we'll have it. The next step is to investigate the village and the Grand Old Man's forest. Ricardo, take care of the guide.

I'll handle it.

And the king makes plans with them. I was going with him.

I guess Temma isn't here.

He dismissed it with the presence or absence of his mother's words.

'I told you, Shelia, it's not good to be overprotective.

And Grandpa will cover you, but...

If I let you go with them, Master Alex is going to do something crazy.

I see.

I was told that I was going to do it, and all but the king agreed.

Also, was it my imagination that 'likely' sounded like a different meaning?

'And anyway, let's get started as soon as we're ready.

Everyone resumed eating.

In order to investigate efficiently, we headed to the forest with my father, who was the guide, the king, Mr. Cliffe, Mr. Jean and Mr. Sigurd, while inside the village it was my mother, Mr. Edgar and Mr. Chris who were the guides.

----At the Grand Old Man's Forest

I don't see anything unusual around here.

'We're only about half an hour in, so there's not much change around here.

To Alex and Ricardo with

Well, if there's an easily recognizable anomaly in this kind of entrance area, it would be much more than a rumor, wouldn't it?

With the addition of Cliffe.

But, Master Ricardo. Was there ever a time when anything was so unusual?

'I don't think you're lying, though,' asks Jean, adding.

'That's rude, Jean!

And Sigurd flirted with the idea, but Ricardo didn't care.

Nine B-class demons and two A-class demons have appeared in the past year. All within 50 kilometers of the village.

I replied.

'Not so much!'

No wonder Alex was surprised.

Originally, there were a lot of demons that exceeded the B class in the Grand Old Man's Forest. However, they are rarely found until they enter deep into the forest, at least 200 to 300km from the entrance.

There are various theories, but the most popular one is that the deeper you go into the forest, the more powerful the demons become and the more comfortable they are and the more food they can find, so it is inefficient to come out to shallow areas where there is little food.

In fact, up until now, there have been many E to D classes in shallow areas within a 50km radius, and even the strongest ones have been the occasional C class.

There had been no kings or or orcs, and only a dozen or so in a school.

Most of the B-class ones would wander out every few years, and even then, most of them would soon return to the depths of the forest.

In fact, Ricardo had lived in Kukri Village for more than thirty years, except for his adventurer days, but he could only count on one hand the number of instances of B-class appearances outside of this one year.

''That's unusual when you think about it. So, what about A-class demons?''

'Temma says that they were apparently being chased by a pack of Dragon Snakes. And both of them are of the 'Fenrir species'.

What?

The king's surprise was natural.

The Fenrir species is the generic term for the highest species of wolf-type demons with A-S class power, and even a pack of four or five of them is said to be difficult to defeat without gathering at least two to thirty top-notch adventurers.

If there are two of them, there's no way that even eight dragon snakes can be defeated, Alex thought, but

It seems that they were a couple, and the female had a baby in her belly, and that's why she was attacked when her strength was low. After Tenma killed the dragon snake, both animals died, but the female managed to give birth to a baby.

He figured that might be the case with his body weight.

'Well... what about this Fenrir kid?'

In response to Alex's question.

'We all saw that already, didn't we? That's the one Temma's growing.

I say.

'You mean the Shiroumaru that Chris was bothering with!

He was surprised.

In fact, Chris loved dogs and cats, but he couldn't keep them himself because he was the king's kinsman and didn't have time to take care of them.

But it was unusual for Fenrir to be friendly to people, even though he was still small.

In the meantime, the group continued to investigate while talking about such things, but without success, the time came for them to return to the village, so they ended the investigation.

----At the Temma's home

When the kings returned home, they began to exchange information with Edgar and the others who had returned earlier.

''After all, there seems to have been a sudden change in the village over the past few years.

Tell me.

The king listened to Edgar's report.

'Ha, it seems that the number of people infected with the disease has been increasing over the past few years. Along with that, there has been an increase in the number of sightings of demons in the vicinity of the village.

Chris is going to take over.

As for the illnesses, the medical staff in the village have told me that the number of illnesses has doubled or tripled in the last four or five years compared to ten years ago. The demons include goblins and slimes, and some of them have been seen very close to the village.

I reported.

In response to this report, Jean said

'But Chris, aren't those two things related?'

He asked, "What do you think?" but Chris and the others

'At first we thought so too, but the majority of those who were sick were those who had frequent contact with demons in one way or another, many of whom had frequented the forest or had killed the demons they had witnessed.

'Furthermore, the illness was more common in men, although this may be because men are more likely to do what Chris said,'

He reported.

''In that case, the possibility of something strange happening in the Grand Old Man's Forest is high.... I will let the Count of the Hoost Frontier know about this and cooperate with the central government to investigate and come up with a countermeasure. Everyone did a great job. Ricardo and Ciria would also like to thank you for your cooperation.

Don't worry about it. We're doing this for our own good.

'Yes, Master Alex, he's right. It's only natural for us to work for our own village.

They were laughing at each other.

The sickness itself is nothing serious at the moment, but the number of people in the village complaining of ill health has increased. Let's hope it doesn't get worse.

The debriefing ended in this way, and today's meeting was dismissed.

We were told that we would leave for the capital before noon tomorrow. They're going to stop at a city on the way there to meet up with the others who preceded them (and forced them to).

While feeling sorry for the people who are being pushed around by this king, I think it was a good decision to refuse the story of the konoe.