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“What brings you girls here? You’re not from this country, are you? Did you come here to sight-see?”

The gate guards had stopped us. In Mephilad, we lived close to the castle and going in and out was easy on account of everyone knowing us. Though right now, we were in disguise, so it wasn’t that simple.

“Ah, no, we have been invited by King Rama.”
“Huh? You were invited by His Majesty…? It is true that he announced an invitation for Alim and Mika today, but…”
“It might be faster if we showed you our adventurer cards.”
“You look so young, but you have adventurer cards… no way!?”

At that point, the guard seemed to understand and could no longer hide his shock. Mika and I showed him our cards.

“Oh~, I s-s-see that you are Lady Alim Nariwei and Lady Mika Magarigi!!”
“…Don’t you need to take the cards to inspect them more closely?”
“S-Someone like me isn’t fit to touch your cards! Now, please go on through!”

The other guard who hadn’t talked helped open the gates with a somewhat excited expression.

“Is it alright if we remove the disguise now?”
“O-Of course! Even should someone make their way inside, we shall make sure that you won’t be harmed, My Ladies! Please go ahead and undo your disguises!”
“Thank you.”

Mika and I turned off the disguise and then walked through the gate into the palace grounds. The guards kept staring after us, though that was something we were used to.

As we traipsed through the palace gardens, an old man with dark skin and a white moustache appeared in front of us and have us a deep bow.

“Lady Alim Nariwei and Lady Mika Magarigi, I presume? We welcome you. I shall show you the way.”
“Nice to meet you!” I replied.
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance!” Mika said.
“L-Likewise!”

The old man’s eyes sparkled in apparent delight. It instantly ruined his dignified gentlemanly image.

“This might sound overly self-conscious, but it feels like we have an awful lot of fans in this country,” I mused, having sensed that this old gentleman was also one of said fans. “Is there a reason for that?”

As a matter of fact, while we’d walked through the city here, I’d seen enough posters of me to fill the Mephilad royal capital. It was one thing over there, seeing that was where I had become famous, but this place was far away.

“You are already acquainted with our king, aren’t you? As you no doubt learned, he is quite the fanatical fan of the two of you. Moreover, this started before you were declared the hero, Lady Alim.”

Huh, he was my fan even before I became the hero? I guess I should cherish this kind of devotion. Well, that still doesn’t mean I’ll go out with him or marry him.

“To be honest, it unsettled everyone at the beginning. For our ruler to be infatuated by some girl we knew nothing about… However, once posters and well-made realistic depictions of you started to circulate in our country, people changed their minds…”

I see, so at the start, they were suspicious of me, but once they saw my face, they were spellbound. The usual pattern.

“In other words, most people in this country have become your zealous fans. Including me.”
“Does that mean you want us to sign something?”
“Oh, are you talking about writing your name on an article to increase its value…? You don’t mind? It doesn’t have to be obvious…”
“Well, think of it more like something to remember our encounter. Is that fine for you?”
“Of course.”

On that note, it went without saying that the concept of signing things was also something I introduced.

The old gentleman happily spread out a poster. The moment he did, Mika and I put our signatures on it in a split second.

“Could you please… huh?”
“We have already signed it.”
“Are you happy with it like this?”
“I shall keep it as a family heirloom.” The old man gave us another deep bow.

While thinking that a simple signature wouldn’t make something an heirloom, I appraised it and learned that it was now treasure grade. The mere act of signing it was enough to elevate its value that much. That was worrying.

“Allow me to show you the way, then.”
“We are in your care.”

We followed our gentlemanly fan through the gardens into the palace. There, we were welcomed by a crowd of bowing maids and servants. Somehow, this gave me a feeling of déjà vu. Though hearing the squeals and excited voices didn’t feel bad.

“What do you think of the palace?” the old man asked us.
“Somehow it feels very Arabian!”
“Arabi…? Might that be some new dish?”

That word obviously didn’t make any sense to the people here. Though the maids also were wearing colorful red and yellow outfits made of fluttering fabric.

“Welcome and thank you for coming, Alim, Mika!”

Shortly later, we saw King Rama excitedly descend a staircase. My senior fan welcomed us with a radiant smile.

“Thank you for having us.”
“We wouldn’t mind if you stayed here permanently.”
“No, thank you.”
“…A pity.”

There was no need to look that dejected! I probably should’ve chosen my words more carefully.

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