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I was currently together with Grom, the governor of Surfour, in a carriage heading straight to the capital. Together with us came two knights as the governor’s guards and one servant, making us five people inside. Of course, since it was the governor inside the carriage, there were more guards outside, mounted on small carriages.

And the reason for all of this? The letter I received yesterday, summoning me to the capital. Apparently, the king himself had called me so neither Grom nor I had the option to decline, and preparations were made quickly to transport us to the capital. That also had a large disrupting effect on the receptionists’ schedule in the guild, while many students also complained. I myself felt like complaining, but I was in no position to do so. I had no choice but to go.

(I had told Karin and Ciel we could go out together next time I had a break too…)

Though I still remembered how their eyes went round with surprise when I told them I was going to the capital.

§　§　§

“You got summoned by the king?! That’s really amazing!”
“Yeah! That means he noticed all you’ve been doing until now! I’m sure he wants to reward your efforts himself!”

The two ignored how I felt about it, even though I was the one being called, and they got hyped up instead. I was only dumbfounded seeing how excited they were.

“Calm down you two. I wasn’t told why I got summoned, so don’t just assume I’ll get rewarded or something like that.”
“But…why would you get called without a reason otherwise?”
“Exactly. It’s not like you did anything bad, so probably the king just heard about the Lich incident and how much you work in the training school. I can’t think of any different reason.”

Meanwhile, I felt more weighed down by that, completely opposite to the careless optimism of the two. I had started to stand out too much lately, though not as much as three hundred years ago when I defeated the Demon King. Most of those were like acts of nature, without a way to avoid them, but I still regretted not finding a different way that did not attract as much attention from others.

“I hope you bring us something nice too!”
“I’ll be waiting for souvenirs!”

§　§　§

“Lapis? Is something wrong?”
“Eh? Oh, it’s nothing.”

My face had turned into a sour smile as I recalled how the two girls smiled. Because of that, the two guards looked concerned at me, so I forced a smile and tried to gloss over it. We had been traveling in this carriage for almost a week by now. Surfour was a considerable distance away from the capital, a fast carriage would get there in a week, a regular one a few days more, while a heavily guarded one like ours would take two weeks. We had to renew our supplies after every few villages or cities, so we would spend a night there as well, and Grom wanted to meet the governors of all those places as well, so it was taking more time than I expected.

I had no problem if Grom and his guards went to those meetings, but I was ordered to go as well, so I could not even relax during the trip. At the same time, I pretty much forced myself to get used to the formal dress Grom had prepared on short notice for me to meet the king.

“I know it was His Majesty who summoned you…”

Assuming I was bored, Grom started a conversation to give me something to do.

“But do you have any ideas why he called you?”
“…Maybe because I defeated the Lich?”
“That’s probably the most likely reason. Not even one of the royal knights would’ve been able to defeat a Lich single-handedly. If I was the king, I’d want to keep someone like that close to me.”

I guess that was the only possible explanation, but it still sounded like a pain in the a̲s̲s̲. What if he told me to stay in the capital? I just bought a house and had enough work, I hated the idea of leaving that city. And more importantly, Ciel and Karin were there too. If I had to be away from them and build new relationships from the ground up, shutting myself away in mountains like before sounded like a better option.

“So if His Majesty were to tell me to live in the capital, would I be able to refuse?”
“…That would be complicated. We live under a monarchy, so His Majesty is our supreme ruler. If you refuse to follow his orders, things might not go too well for you. At the very least your lifestyle would get affected.”

So that’s impossible…Ahh, it’s so depressing. Why is it that every time I help people I end up like this? I really wish the king would get an upset stomach or something like that and let me go without speaking about anything.

Grom seemed to notice I was starting to feel down, so he added something more.

“But well… I think there will be some room for negotiating as well. I doubt His Majesty wants to incur your displeasure by telling you to live in the capital, so he probably won’t force you to do it straight away? Rather than refusing to move to the capital, maybe you can give him your conditions to do so? You might be able to get somewhere that way.”
“I see…you do have a point…”

Or in other words, there was no need for me to just keep silent about my discomfort. I had never thought about negotiating something like that, but I felt like Grom had just taken off my blindfold. Thanks to that I felt like I had a better chance and was able to spend the rest of the trip in a relatively calmer mood.

§　§　§

I had been to the capital before during the guild workshop trip, so it had lost the novelty. All I felt about it was how noisy and restless of a city it was. The streets were filled with people going everywhere, except when a noble’s carriage would pass. In those instances, the people would hurry to either side of the street and make room for the carriage, waiting like that until it passed. The same happened when we passed, and I could see the crowd returning to the streets as I looked through the rear window. I could see how much different the lifestyle was between here and the small city where I live.

Before entering the royal palace, we had to go through two gates, one before and one after a drawbridge. Following that, there were multiple guardposts at either side keeping heavy watch over the entrance, so it looked quite hard for someone to force their way through. Given that Grom was part of the nobility, the guards did not ask to check the inside of the carriage or anything of the sort. Once we were inside the palace, Grom’s subordinates split into two groups, one of which carried all the luggage while the rest continued as guards. Some servants also took the carriages away, and I could assume they were also going to feed the horses.

Grom and I were led further inside the palace, walking down a long hallway. The palace was a really large building, big enough to dwarf Grom’s palace. The hallways alone were wide enough for at least five people to walk side by side without problems.

(The architecture itself doesn’t seem to have changed that much though.)

As we continued walking, I kept looking around in all directions, seeing that it was not too different compared to the palace I visited three hundred years ago. Though I could not tell if maybe this palace had been in use for a really long time, or if construction techniques had not changed in three hundred years.

Even though we had arrived at the palace, we could not simply meet the king immediately. We had to wait for our turn, and more importantly, we still had to dress up. Because of that, we first were led to a waiting room befitting of our social status. Grom and his knights were taken to a large room, while I was led to one for women where I could change. I wore the unfamiliar formal dress after struggling to get my arms through the cuffs, then stood in front of a mirror to check there were no weird parts. This dress was not meant for a party or big gathering, so there were barely any ornaments on it.

“Alright.”

As far as I could tell, everything was in order. I remember seeing girls of low social status wearing similar dresses at the dinner parties I attended ages ago. Since I had taken longer than anticipated to change, I hurried to go out of the room and saw Grom with his knights ready for me outside.

“I’m really sorry for taking so long.”
“What, women always need time to get ready so don’t worry about it. Either way… you really do look good in that dress.”
“…That’s very kind of you.”