Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Two: Karen’s Room
The room she was shown to was different from the one last time.
“Lady Karen, this will be your room.”
“It’s bigger than before. Is it because I became B-rank?”
Not only was it spacious, but the furnishings also looked quite fine. As a result of visiting various noble estates for commissions, Karen’s eye was becoming more discerning. Unlike the room where she had stayed at the Ehlertt mansion in the royal capital, she could somehow tell this was a room of noble grade rather than commoner grade.
Karen had been in Alise’s bedroom in the royal capital, and this room might be comparable even to that one. Perhaps her treatment had improved because Karen had been promoted to a B-rank alchemist. Or maybe it was the Ehlertt people’s sense of duty, and they had simply prepared this room out of gratitude to Karen.
At Karen’s speculation, Sara showed a meaningful smile.
“Yes, I suppose that’s part of it.”
“Huh, there’s something else? What? What is it?”
“You’ll find out eventually.”
Sara left the room quickly after setting down the luggage. She seemed to have gone to guide Sepl and Urte, who had come with Karen. They were apparently shown to a room nearby, as cheers could be heard from beyond the door of a room slightly ajar. It seemed they had prepared nice rooms for Karen’s adventurer escorts as well.
While smiling at the joyful voices, Karen looked around the room. But she couldn’t figure out what else there might be about this room. To begin with, the room she had stayed in before was in the East Wing, managed by Sieg. Then who in the Ehlertt household managed this West Wing—?
At that moment, Karen’s thoughts were interrupted by a sound she heard outside the window. Thinking she heard voices arguing, Karen opened the window and looked down. An open plaza was set up there. Seeing the target range, Karen deduced it was a training ground for the Ehlertt Earldom’s knights.
A moment later, perhaps because the wind direction changed, voices from the training ground reached Karen.
“Your concern is unnecessary! Your swordsmanship is not the kind knights should learn!”
The rough male voice that reached her ears received no rebuttal from the one being addressed. But Karen’s heart realized who was being subjected to those words even before seeing the figure.
—After seeing Karen off to her room, where had Julius gone?
Karen rushed out of the room and headed for the training ground. Just as she left the mansion, Sepl and Urte, who had jumped down from the window, caught up with her.
“Little Karen, if you’re going out, let us know.”
“Ah, sorry. I’m still not used to being guarded…”
“You can go wherever you want, Karen. We’ll make sure we can keep up.”
Karen headed to the training ground with Sepl and Urte. On the way, she met Julius returning from the training ground to the West Wing.
“Mr. Julius!”
“Karen, why the rush? There’s only the knights’ training ground ahead, you know?”
Julius, his eyes wide, looked as gentle-faced as always. But was it just Karen’s imagination that there seemed to be a shadow in those golden eyes?
“I heard voices. Mr. Julius, are you all right?”
“Are you perhaps talking about just now? How embarrassing that you heard. But it’s nothing serious.”
“Is that so? Didn’t it sound like something unpleasant was being said to you?”
“I heard they want to make the knight order stronger. I offered to instruct them, but my original swordsmanship is rather unique, so the captain who knows this simply declined.”
“That’s…”
Karen recalled the sight of Julius fighting Thor in the dungeon. Certainly, that wasn’t the kind of fighting style knights would emulate. At Karen’s hesitation, Julius smiled wryly.
“I have mastered knightly swordsmanship as well, but I’m not particularly strong when using it.”
“But you won the swordsmanship tournament in that state.”
“The truly strong are out fighting monsters in dungeons or beyond the influence zones. For a swordsmanship tournament meant to make a name for oneself, that level is enough to win.”
If Lyos, who had competed in the same tournament and been defeated, heard this, he would surely be furious, but Julius seemed to mean it seriously.
“There is no swordsmanship of mine worth learning, and if they were to adopt my personal style, it would likely trouble them as knights. They seemed desperate, so I tried to offer help, but it appears I only caused a disturbance.”
Julius said this calmly. As if it were nothing important. But the voice Karen had heard held no respect for Julius.
“—The owner of that voice just now was the captain of the Ehlertt knights, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. He’s been protecting the Ehlertt territory for a long time.”
Such a person had said that Julius’s swordsmanship was not what the knights should learn. Julius had called the form he showed in his battle with Thor his true form. That form, which he had said was different from what Karen believed in, the captain surely knew of it too.
Julius had believed that Karen would fear that form. Perhaps that was because he had already experienced being feared and shunned. Julius was widely known in the royal capital as the greatest marriage candidate among the three kingdoms. If he had experienced being disliked, the only place that could have happened was in the Ehlertt territory.
The fact that the man was still the captain of the knights meant he hadn’t been on Horst’s side. He must be an ally of Helfried’s. Even so, Karen couldn’t help but glare at the training ground. Looking down at such a Karen, Julius whispered:
“By the way, Karen, do you like your new room?”
“Huh? Yes. I thought it was a lovely room, but…”
Julius was obviously trying to change the subject, and Karen responded warily. He moved his face closer, and Karen braced herself.
She was no longer the Karen of before, whose brain would melt and be fooled by everything just because Julius’s beautiful face was brought close.
“Across the hallway from yours is my room."
“…Huh?”
At Karen’s blank expression, unable to grasp the meaning of his words, Julius narrowed his eyes.
“Your room is the room for the person who will become my wife, Karen.”
Julius looked down with an amused smile at Karen, who stood there dumbfounded.
Karen looked at the room on the second floor where the prepared room was, looked at Julius, looked at the room on the second floor again, and then screamed.
“Kyaaaa!”
Letting out a gleeful shriek, Karen broke into a run toward the room. She had been completely unaware that it was such a room and hadn’t looked at it properly at all. At the sight of Karen dashing off in a beeline to examine the room, Julius followed after her, laughing.
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