Master’s Smile

Volume 5 – Kingdom Arc

C95 – Princess

It was the morning after Ritter asked me to go out with her.

It had been a while since she had invited me, so obviously I wouldn’t say no to her, and immediately agreed.

Vampir was making a ruckus behind Ritter, but Limil, who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, was using some kind of magic, so her voice didn’t reach us.

I let out a wry smile from Limil’s mischievous wink.

(TLN: She appeared in Chapter 1, 16, 51 (for her description) in case you forgot like me)

Hence, Ritter and I were now outside the guild headquarters….

Ritter twined her arm around mine and pulled me along.

She was not very good at expressing her emotions, thus she used a lot of skinship to make up for her lack of words.

Even now, my arm was wrapped around her soft body.

Of course, I had no such impure feelings, but as a father, it made me worry about her.

I’m sure there are a lot of men who would get the wrong idea.

For now, I’ll just ask her where we’re heading.

“…Workplace? Where I work.”

Ritter listened to my question and replied while suddenly standing still.

Hohou! As I recall, she was supposed to be a knight of Evans Kingdom.

It was the kind of place where someone from a dark guild would never be allowed to work, yet the kingdom knights were surprisingly inattentive when it came to collecting evidence.

If I were to disguise myself as Ritter’s relative, I could easily join the order.

Now then, Ritter was guiding a guildmaster of a dark guild, me, to such knights….

…Is she planning to kill me?

I was aghast to find out that Ritter hated me so much.

While still keeping a smile on my face, though.

“I want to work together with you, Master. I want you to look at me.”

Ritter stared into my eyes and pleaded so.

Hearing those words, I knew that it was just my misunderstanding.

I-I see, so you’re not going to turn me in to the knights because you don’t like me, are you?

But still, wanting to be looked at, huh…?

She meant to say she wants me to see how well she’s working…, right?

I also thought that I might have not been communicating with Ritter as much lately.

I would like to listen to her wishes…, but the problem was that she works for the kingdom knights.

If I were to go out with her nonchalantly, wouldn’t I be caught and executed?

Well, we’re a little-known dark guild, so I’m sure everything will be just fine, though….

“It’s okay. Neena will listen to what I have to say.”

N-Neena…? Is that the name of Ritter’s boss?

Apparently, she had a certain amount of trust in this Neena person.

Hmmm…, well, I’m the only one who might be in danger, and it seems like Ritter and the others won’t be bothered by them, so I guess it’s fine?

If Ritter tried to do something crazy to save me, I would just teleport her to the guild headquarters.

With that in mind, I nodded and told Ritter that I would follow her.

“…….”

Ritter’s face remained expressionless, but her mood brightened.

I heard that her emotional ups and downs were difficult to read by others, even for Yelquchira members, but from my point of view, it was very easy to understand.

“Ahh, she’s so cute…”, Ritter cheerfully tugged on my arm while I was bathed in warm thoughts.

And with that, Ritter and I walked through a fairly large city.

It was a bustling city with lots of people, and I could tell that it was a very developed city.

“Oh, ain’t that Ritter-sama!?”

“What’s with the handsome guy she’s dragging along!?”

“Onee-samaaaaa!!!”

Such words were heard from the people passing by.

I was deeply moved by what I heard.

R-Ritter is being adored by the people…!!!

Ritter did not respond to the friendly voices that came towards her.

At most, she would make eye contact or bow slightly.

Even so, the people didn’t seem to be unhappy being treated like this and accepted Ritter.

I-I never thought that she, who has one of the most difficult personalities among the members of our guild, would have people who adored her so much….

I cried a little.

“…What’s wrong? Someone said something nasty? Kill them?”

Ritter tilted her head and asked in rapid succession.

No, I’m fine.

…She asked me if I wanted to kill the people who adored her without any hesitation.

As expected, our guild members are a little off, aren’t they?

Ritter was staring at my smile, trying to figure out if I was really okay, but it seemed like she thought I wasn’t lying and started dragging me along again.

However, she seemed to have grown tired of staying here for so long, and dexterously slipped through the crowds, moving faster and faster.

In doing so, we went past a large building of what seemed to be the knights’ garrison.

Not that I doubted Ritter, but I was a little relieved to see that we passed it by.

We continued walking and finally found ourselves outside the city.

There were no buildings in sight, just smooth hills.

There, overlooking the city, was a magnificent estate that could never be seen from the city.

T-This is where Ritter wanted to bring me…?

“…Yes. This is where I work.”

…It was a place that I would never be allowed to enter, though.

Rather, it was even more of a dangerous place than that knight’s garrison.

There were two knights standing at the large and magnificent gate to eliminate any intruders.

“Ooh! Ritter-sama!”

“You’ve returned!”

“Yes.”

They began talking to Ritter, who had pulled me to the gate.

These two seemed to idolize Ritter as well, just like the people of the city.

“Oya? Who’s the man behind you?”

One of the knights noticed me and asked her.

Yeah, I’m suspicious, right? A grinning man is following a very pretty girl from behind.

“Looks like he’s… not a suspicious person, is he? And if he was, Ritter-sama would have cut him off already.”

Ritter’s credibility was amazing.

You, how have you been working?

At the knight’s words, Ritter nodded and hugged me in her arms.

She introduced me as follows.

“Master. My cherished master.”

…That wouldn’t get the message across, would it?

Rather, she just said “Master”, didn’t she? I remembered asking Ritter not to say it, and she nodded.

“Master?”

The gatekeepers were all tilting their heads.

If someone suddenly said it was their master, you would obviously be confused, right?

“…Well, I’m sure Ritter-sama’s precious ones will be fine. I’ll open the gate now.”

“Okay.”

The gatekeepers did not seem to think too much about it, and began to open the heavy gate.

…You’re fine with that?

No, it must be that Ritter was very trusted by her colleagues.

Once again, I was a little happy.

With Ritter coiled around my arm, we walked through the gate and into the grounds of the estate.

Upon entering, was a very wide garden with lots of trees and blooming flowers.

Ritter did not head straight for the estate, but veered off the path.

As I followed her, I gradually heard a buzzing sound that rippled through the air.

It sounded as if someone was swinging something heavy.

Then, as Ritter pulled me by the arm, the person waving the heavy object came into view.

As I expected, the person was holding an iron sword and swinging it down repeatedly, making a heavy sound.

She didn’t seem to notice us coming over and was still swinging her sword fervently while beads of sweat emerged from her face.

“…Neena.”

“Ooh!! It’s you, Ritter!”

However, she quickly responded to Ritter’s call, which was only a faint mumbling.

The womanーーーNeena-san’s face lit up and she stopped swinging her sword for her to come closer to us.

She stopped in front of me…, or rather, Ritter, wiping off her sweat with a towel she had received from a maid who came up to her.

“Oya, that person over there is…?”

Neena-san looked at me as if she was assessing me.

…Ah, does this mean I have to introduce myself?

W-What to do? Should I tell her my real name? No, no, that’s a bit… she might go crazy if I told her.

Obviously, if I said I’m a guildmaster and they dug up my information, they would find out that I’m the master of the dark guild, “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)”, and consequently, bad things would happen to Ritter.

…I think I should use a pseudonym here, just like what I did when I first met the guild members.

As I was thinking so with a smile on my face, Neena-san waved her hand ahead of time.

“Wait, I’m sorry. When you ask for someone’s name, you have to say yours first, right?”

Neena-san said so and looked at me.

“My name is Neena Evans. I am the first princess of Evans Kingdom.”

…As expected, am I being hated by Ritter?