29

 

“A revolt, huh, just what is the Duke thinking.”

Murmured Leon-sama.
It was probably a shock to him.
That they even came as far as to enter his room.

“Sorry, Leon. I never thought he would do even such a thing. When I noticed it was already too late. They likely also started a fight over where the King and Queen are ..”

“What? Where Father and Mother are? What is the guard doing?”

“This had been planned since a while ago, so it seems like there quite a number of Father’s subordinates have infiltrated the castle.”

Hm?
Even if that was the case wasn’t the defense still too shabby?
No matter how many could have infiltrated, would it really go that well, I wonder.
Honestly, I don’t know about the King but there is no way that Rachel-sama would overlook something like this.
Her intelligence corps is excellent.
Well, not like many people know about that.
But however that might be, if we stay here soldiers from the revolt might come again.

“Leon-sama, if we remain here more soldiers might be coming. What will you do? Escape the castle? Or ..”

“I want to save Father and Mother. It might be difficult but even if I run here, if they are made into hostages it’s all the same.”

Hearing those words I naturally broke out into a smile.
If there was someone who would run away at this point I’d gladly be the first in line to throw them out myself.

“Acknowledged. Leon-sama, I will absolutely protect you.”

“Ririina .. I’m glad about your feelings but that’s probably a line the guy should be saying, don’t you think.”

“Pu–”
Listening to our exchange Aren-sama exhaled.

“Haha, sorry for laughing. I just thought Ririina-sama hasn’t changed at all.”

Haven’t changed? Had we met somewhere before?
I’m afraid to say I don’t remember it at all.
Seeing that I was troubled over it Aren-sama told me.

“We have met once before. You had saved the lifes of me, my sister and mother. I really have nothing but feelings of gratitude for Ririina-sama. If possible, instead of a time like this, I had wanted to properly express my gratitude to you, but …”

Saved their lifes .. it is?
So then it would be related to my monster hunts back in the territory?
I didn’t act violently since coming to the capital, after all, so affecting people’s lifes and deaths I shouldn’t have done. ⁽¹⁾
Leon-sama reacted towards Aren-sama’s words.

“Aren, I hadn’t heard anything about you having met Ririina before.”

“Yeah, ’cause I didn’t tell you.”

I thought so since a little while ago but the two speak rather casually with each other.
They must be on good terms.
Aren-sama took a deep breath and said, directed at me.

“Ririina-sama, I apologize for talking about this at such a time, but could I have you hear me out please?” ^[1]

“I don’t know what you want to say, but as long as you make it short. Rachel-sama will be present so it’s surely alright, but I am still worried.”

“Yes, thank you very much. The truth is, I was the one who came up with the proposal to break off the engagement.”

I see.
The one Brother said had instigated it was Aren-sama.

“At first I was ordered to by Father. That is, to help make Anjiu become closer to Leon. He really intended to make Anjiu Leon’s wife. I thought that would be difficult since I knew from when we first met that Leon was bad with woman. However, Father declared that it was Anjiu’s fault that Leon wasn’t showing any interest in her and scolded her. That’s why I met Leon dressed up as a woman. Father didn’t realize that I was pretending to be Anjiu and was glad about us getting along.”

So the Duke wanted to turn Anjiu-sama into the proper Queen, huh.
Come to think of it, the Duke would make a displeased face when we came across each other in the castle.
That’s what it was about.

“Maa, this is one of the reasons, but there is still one more. That is, my very own selfishness. I wanted Ririina-sama to be free. That’s why, while I tempted Leon to declare a breaking off the engagement in order to test your affection, in truth because I knew of the attitude Leon had towards Ririina-sama I wanted to throw open those bindings that were the engagement for you. I really apologize for acting on my own accord!”

In that case, Aren-sama tried to realize the cancellation of the engagement for my sake?
Merely because I saved him once?

“Oi .. Aren.”

Uwah!
For some reason there was an incredibly low voice calling out Aren-sama.
Er, that’s Leon-sama.

“What is it? Leon.”

“‘What?’ ain’t what you got to say, is it? What is the meaning of this! Did you bring up that topic with me in order to truly break off our engagement?”

“Yep, that’s right. Just to make this clear but I properly said this in the begining, didn’t I? What would happen if you declared that. Moreover, even you, in truth, already knew, didn’t you? That at this rate even if you were to marry Ririina-sama it wouldn’t go well. Since we’re talking about Ririina-sam I am sure she would have performed her role as a Queen splendidly. But the relationship Leon wished to have with her wasn’t that, was it?”

” .. . Aah, that’s true.”

Somehow .. what should I do.
It’s difficult to interject them.
Still, it won’t do to have this sort of talk forever here.

“Yoshi! This talk ends here. Ririina-sama, I’m sorry for taking up so much time. Now, let’s go save them.”

Aren-sama cheerfully addressed me thus.
It seems he was trying to change the current mood for us.
That’s right, let’s go finish things. All sorts of.

 

 

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Translator’s notes

So, who correctly realised the identidy of the narrator of ???’s dream? Personally, the moment it became clear that he wasn’t the one attacking Ririina and Leon I grasped my head thinking ‘Arg, damn it, so obvious’ while lamenting that I didn’t notice earlier. In fact, every since Anjiu (Aren) last appeared and stiffled her laughs at Leon I realised that the twins were surely without ill intentions altogether. However, because reading Big Sister in ??? dream instead of Twin sister I didn’t make the connection until this chapter for whatever reason.
Also, I noticed while translating – lot of the words Aren uses in my translations are what I might be using for Chris as well. In the raws they both speak rather casually in a way, however Aren sounds a lot more .. proper I guess. Much more straightforward, and especially to Ririina much more polite. He’s got a really high opinion of her, after all.

[1] Aren is talking casually to Leon, but politely with Ririina.

(1) She’s talking about since she first came to the capital, not the trip a few days ago. Essentially, she hadn’t hunted monters in many years. Thinking of .. she’s still far stronger than properly trained warriors despite that. Imagine if she had spent her whole childhood and teenage years in the territory.