CH 53

The First Man

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

In the mansion, at the drawing room in the afternoon.

I was drinking tea alone with Hestia, who had come to visit me, and we were making a small chat.

Her manner was so elegant that you could almost mistake her for a queen, and her sex appeal was so strong that you couldn’t help but fall in love with her just by being in the same space.

She used to be one of the most famous prostitutes of her time, but suddenly, something caught my attention.

“Previous customers, you mean?”

“Ah. I’m no Or-specialist (Orthia expert) so I don’t know much about it, but ―― it’s rumored that the number one Orthia of this year, for example, has some Duke-sama who’s really into her. At your level, she had some great number of customers, ain’t she?”

“……You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

“It’s a genuine question. That Orthia fella, said I am second.”

“Fufu”

Hestia laughed, covering her mouth with her sleeve.

“What’s so funny”

“That is, it’s just a hearsay, you know?”

“Is that so, but why?”

“Whenever a customer asks such a question, we only tell them such things that they are second. Tell them they’re the second, then the first would be? Like that, at the point where they drew near, we would stare back at them silently. The trick would be to make our eyes a little moist.”

“……Haa”

I was a little impressed with Hestia’s explanation, understanding where it was going.

“You’re the best ―― kind of thing huh. That sounds good”

“I don’t know who were those that asked such child, but those who heard it would have made them feel better. They must have felt that they were better than the Viscount-sama.”

“I see. So, what about Hestia? Tell me I’m the second.”

I asked jokingly, then Hestia chuckled.

“I’m already retired, so I won’t use that. Since the real second one――”

Knock knock

Just as Hestia was about to speak, there was a knock on the drawing room door.

I don’t know who it was, but I could tell from the knocking that they were in a great hurry.

“I’m sorry―― what happened?”

“E,excuse me”

The door opened, and a maid came in in a hurry.

“Master! Yo,you have a visitor”

“I’m talking over here now, though.”

“That’s――”

The maid glanced at Hestia.

Hestia deliberately looked away and picked up the teacup on the table.

She put it in her mouth, but she doesn’t drink it.

It’s a declaration of intent that she won’t listen.

I beckoned the maid over.

The maid came over to my side and gave me an earful.

“It’s, His Majesty.”

“Eh?”

“His Majesty the King himself is here…….”

“Seriously?”

The maid’s face moved away from my ear, and she nodded her head with such force that she could have wrenched her neck.

The king is it, you mean Shou’s father?

Why at such a time……

As expected, it isn’t good to not meet the king.

“Sorry, Hestia, I’ll temporarily excuse myself.”

“As you wish.”

I got up from my seat and left the drawing room with the maid.

“Where is he”

“I have led him to another parlor.”

“Hmm”

The maid guided me down the hallway.

A carriage was parked in the garden of the mansion, which is visible from the window of the hallway.

Just one? Being mystified, when I arrived at the parlor and entered, I found a middle-aged man dressed in fine, but not flashy clothes sitting alone, with Mimis standing erect beside him.

The question of whether it was really His Majesty the King lingered in me until I opened the door, but it was suddenly wiped away the moment I saw Mimis’ gesture.

I got down on one knee and bowed to His Majesty the King in accordance with the Aegina style of etiquette.

“Is this your face time seeing my face, Lord Canoe?”

“Yes”

“I see”

His Majesty the King nodded.

There was no permission given to me.

Usually, when one gave a bow, His Majesty would say, “no problem” or “raise your face”, so that’s where one stands up, but he didn’t say that to me.

So when I was worried about what happened.

“I’ve heard a lot from Lina”

“……Yes”

This timing, is this about the matter with Mithril.

“How did you get into her?” (TN: Oh, so the father knows about it)

“Eh?”

What does he mean?

“That daughter of mine, I have faith in her. However, the appearance of Lina recently is strange. Lina, who was strict and fair, applied for two cross medals for your achievements in subduing the Slime Lord.”

“That is――”

I was wondering how to respond.

He’s saying something completely different from the recent rumors.

Rumor has it that the third cause of the Cross Medal was mithril, which already feels like an open secret.

Influenced by that, the previous two cross medals are rather misunderstood as being a major Mithril-class degree achievement.

However, from the way His Majesty the King talks, he doesn’t seem to know anything about the Mithril at all, as though he hasn’t heard any rumors.

He said that he only knew about me defeating the Slime Lord.

I thought about it for a moment, and decided to shrug it off once more and see what happened.

“I’m grateful for Her Highness Lina’s attention to me.”

When I said that, the king looked at me in a terribly unpleasant way as if he were looking at some kind of insect.

“Oh well, I’m not that stupid, I understand that there are all sorts of ties between aristocrats and royalty, and that gold and silver treasures come and go.”

“……”

This is, no way…… is he saying I bribed Lina to get it.

Is that what he was misunderstanding?

His Majesty the King continued even more confidently.

“I also know that such things are impossible to eradicate, so I’m not going to nag you about it. However, not Lina, don’t drag that girl’s fairness down with you.”

“……Yes”

I bowed my head and replied in an implied way that I understand.

The king’s face became more and more loathsome.

This…… may be a rare and good flow.

Because the other party is the king.

I was bribing her, but not too far.

It’s best if he can think of it that way.

I’ve gotten the gist of it from our brief exchange so far.

His Majesty the King is the type of person who makes strong assumptions.

Once he’s made up his mind that it’s the case, he’ll never bend.

To admit here ―― no, it’s dangerous for me to willingly admit.

Let’s keep it to the extent of going with the flow, and send it back as he had imagined.

That’s the best I can do this time.

So, in order to maintain this frosty, bug-looking eyes he has at me ―― hence, with such an idea.

Knock Knock.

Quietly, there was a knock on the door of the audience room.

Immediately after, the door slowly opened and Hestia came into the room.

“Dear me, it was His Majesty after all.”

Hestia walked into the room and used a nostalgic language, the language she used when she was a prostitute.

No, I mean――

“Yo,you’re, Hestia-san”

――Eh?

I was surprised.

His Majesty the King offered Hestia a very surprised look and gave her a “san”.

Middle-aged――a king who will soon enter the realm of elders and a mysterious former prostitute.

In terms of age difference, he looked like a father who couldn’t get his head around his daughter.

“I haven’t met His Majesty since the time you become His Majesty.”

“U,umu. Rather than that, Hestia-san, what are you doing here?”

“I’m under the care of Hermes-sama.”

Hestia said so, and leaned closer to me.

Just like a chaste wife.

“What!?”

His Majesty the King looked at me with a very surprised look on his face, even more so than before.

For some reason, there was a hint of respect mixed in his face.

Without knowing the reason for the look on his face, His Majesty the King hurriedly left.

☆

I asked Hestia, who was standing next to me, as I watched the carriage leave from the window in the corridor.

“Do you know his Majesty?”

“Something just happened by chance”

Hestia chuckled. Her wording was back.

“The second best customer in my life, was His Majesty’s father, the former king.”

“Is that so!?”

That’s surprising.

“The former king kept coming to my place. He once brought His Majesty, when he was still a prince, and said, 『Let me introduce a good woman to this guy』. It maybe, but …… he might have a motherly dislike for me.”

“Ah……”

I see, that makes sense.

She was her father’s woman, so in a sense, mother.

As I think of it as an awareness of dislike of one’s mother, that attitude makes sense.

“……Ah, perhaps I’ve done something unnecessary?”

“Eh? What is it?”

“When I was a prostitute, I was kind of selfish, I chose the customers of my own free will, sometimes refusing them all.”

“I know that.”

That’s was at the time Orthia asked me to give Hestia a “break”.

I know that, but why are you telling me about it now?

“It’s the same with His Majesty the former King. A woman even the king can’t see when he wants to see her …… Ironically, that made my value even higher.”

“I guess”

“That me…… what I mean is, I’m in here……”

“……………………Ah”

I could feel my face turning pale.

His Majesty the King’s expression was mixed with respect.

The man who made the woman, whom even his father, the former king, could not control, behave like his wife.

I may unintentionally have the king placed a glance at me……