Chapter 8

TMBRFNL Chapter 8: The Girl behind the Curtain

The next day, Kuro accompanied Syltina, who dragged along Alhart, to the castle . All along the way, Alhart whined, saying that he was tired, sluggish, didn’t want to do such a troublesome thing, didn’t want to go, and wanted to roll around on the bed .

“Ahh, what a pain . For the members, just me and Sylti and Kuro – the 3 of us alone are fine . The rest of them will just get in the way . ”

“Even if you say that, this country still at least has to put up some kind of appearance . It can’t be helped if there are one or two extra people accompanying us . ”

“Those one or two people are what will be a pain . It’s gonna be that Prince who spent a pointless amount of time glaring at you, and that willy-nilly second son that stinks of incompetence, right? And that one Saintess that somehow seems like she has the most bothersome personality of them all……say, it’s not a problem if we lose one of them during the journey by accident, right?”

“That’s right . It shouldn’t be a problem . ”

“The second son that stinks of incompetence, you say……well, the request was to be the ‘Saintess’ guard’ after all . Isn’t it fine if we just have our fellow travellers work hard with regards to their own self-defense? However, it’s forbidden for us to make a move on them, alright?”

“ “…………………” ”

“You can’t, alright?”

“……fine . ”

“……understood . ”

Seeing Alhart and Kuroitsu reluctantly nod, Syltina made a wry smile as she opened the door to the room they were guided to . Within the room, there were already two people who had arrived before them .

“Hmph, you finally came . You have some guts to make me wait . ”

“……who?”

“Wha-!?”

The one who immediately called out to them as the three entered the room, was a beautiful young man with blond hair and attractive blue eyes, sitting in the middle of a two-seater sofa alone . With but a single word from Kuroitsu, the beautiful young man’s jaw dropped in shock .

“Kuro……pff, Kuroitsu, that’s rude . Haha . He is, at the very least, this country’s, hehe, Prince, you know . ”

“Sylti, saying that while your shoulders are shaking and adding on ‘at the very least’ as a follow-up is pretty ‘rude’ in itself, isn’t it?”

“Hehe . But look, Kuro . That face . He was arbitrarily convinced that he was famous . I’m sure he’s never had anyone ask him ‘who are you’ before . What a stupid face . Hehe . ”

“You bastard!! Are you mocking me!?”

Seeing him stand up while simultaneously drawing out his sword, Syltina suddenly stopped laughing .

“Do excuse me . I didn’t think that a country’s prince would suddenly throw out those kind of words from before without even giving a proper greeting . I was rather confused . ”

“Confused, you say……? Shameless!!”

“Prince Fract!!”

At Syltina, who spoke without a single hint of hesitation, Fract raised his voice and attempted to draw closer . However, cutting in front of him was the other person who had been in the room, Tedla .

“Please restrain yourself, Prince Fract . Without their cooperation, this country will perish . ”

“Tedla……are you going to side with this woman? You know what she did 2 years ago, right!?

“……you do not understand anything . ”

“What?”

“Prince, please properly look at this country’s present state . The country is in chaos, the citizens are impoverished, the politics have stagnated, and the knights, nobles, and those who would be supporting the country have even abandoned their duties – please, look at the country right now . The country’s current state right now, is due to the mistake we made 2 years ago . ”

“What are you saying? That was because this woman……”

“Prince, there was no proof that Syltina-sama bullied Akari……not a single piece of evidence came out, did it not? Don’t you know that Syltina-sama didn’t even participate in the ball in which it was claimed she spilled her drink on Akari? Soon after Syltina-sama left the country, the Minister of Finance that left his post said that majority of the embezzled taxes were ‘related to Akari’, did he not? Didn’t he say that the reason why we were barely able to get by was because Syltina-sama was there? Why is it that you won’t listen to even a single one of these?”

“Shut up!! I should be asking you what it was that this woman made you eat(1)!? She made Akari cry, hurt her, but regardless still refused to apologize, you know!?”

“There’s no way she would apologize for something that she didn’t do . Prince, please listen . We were wrong . ”

“Shut up!!”

“-!?”

The raised sword was sent towards Tedla . The incoming blade came quicker than Tedla could pull out his own sword, but was unexpectedly blown upwards by a sudden gust that blasted it high out of Fract’s hands .

“Wha-!?”

“Please go elsewhere to squabble amongst yourselves . We do not have that much spare time . I would like to quickly finish with the troublesome tasks . If you aren’t going to introduce us to the ones we will be travelling with, then may we go back?”

“What did you-!?”

At the words of Syltina, the culprit whose activated wind magic deflected away his blade, Fract gnashed his teeth while raising his voice . Alhart went around behind him without a single sound and mercilessly chopped the back of his neck with his hand . Ignoring Fract as he collapsed with a thud, Alhart directed his gaze towards Tedla .

“With this the selfish young master will quiet for a while . So? Are you and this young master the only people that will be travelling with us?”

“Eh? Ah, no . There’s one more person . ”

Tedla was unable to keep up with the events happening before his eyes, but even so he managed to honestly answer .

“Has that person not come yet?”

“No, actually, they’ve been in this room from the beginning……”

“Hah?”

Finally managing to catch up with the current state of things a little, Tedla pointed towards the innermost window within the room . Following his finger, the moment everyone directed their attention towards the window, the curtain laying across it gave a small shake . After observing it for a period of time, a face came peeking out from behind the swaying curtain .

“………!!”

“……is it that?”

“It’s that . ”

Having realized that everyone was looking at them, the person once again hid back behind the curtain .

“She is this country’s greatest magician . Her name is Miliane Fruktor . She is one of the people who will be joining us on the purification journey . ”

Speaking of the Miliane in question, after peeking at them and then hurriedly drawing back several times, she said a single line with a very weak voice .

“I am Mi-Miliane . It’s nice to m-meet you……”

“……you stumbled on your words, didn’t you . ”

At Syltina’s retort, Miliane once again sunk back behind the curtain, causing everyone around her to give a bitter smile .