Chapter 36
1918 Words
Chapter 36
The hanger-ons were all dumbfounded as Elliott began rolling around on the ground. Thankfully a couple of the guys noticed what had happened and helped in the firefighting effort, so it ended with just Elliott’s pants and underwear getting scorched. It’d be impossible to tell what damage was done to his butt without seeing a doctor tomorrow.
“Wha, What does your pet think it’s doing!?”
“Well Your Highness, your butt was ‘literally’ on fire there, so isn’t it a naughty joke on his part?”
“Am I supposed to laugh at this!? I thought I was going to die!”
“What a lukewarm claim coming from a bunch of people currently here to kill me..........”
With her monkey returned to her side, Rachel shared a look with her pet before shrugging her shoulders.
“Haley worked hard on this joke........but I guess a person can’t understand a monkey’s sense of humor.”
“Ooki!”
“Kill him! Kill the monkey first!”
While Elliott was screaming at his archers to switch targets, Haley climbed up the wooden crates and escaped out the ventilation window.
Looking stupid with a goofy hole right on his butt, Elliott’s shoulders started to shake as he broke out into a fit of insane laughter.
“Fu, fufufufufu.............Rachel. You, you’ve angered me!?”
“I think I might be more upset than you that Haley put his body on the line for such a small joke.”
“Don’t be stupid!?”
Getting more worked up, Elliott ordered his followers to take aim. Rachel raised the tip of her crossbow as well.
And then as Elliott was about to give the order to fire...........the son of a viscount who was the closest to the door let out a fearful voice.
“U, um..........”
“What!?”
The young man recoiled at Elliott’s enraged voice, but still he thought he had something that should be reported and pointed to the door leading outside.
“Um........since a little bit ago, there’s been some noise coming in from outside. Someone, some people are........”
“What? .........go take a look!”
“Y, Yes!”
The viscount’s son rushed up the stairs, and after being gone for only a second, he rushed back down with the same momentum.
“Y, Your Highness! The monkey, the monkey is shooting off a bunch of flashy fireworks outside!”
“.............huh?”
The men couldn’t understand what he was saying at first.
So the young son of a viscount had to repeat himself.
“Miss Rachel’s monkey, it’s been shooting off more of those rocket fireworks for a while now!”
From behind Elliott, the lazy son of an earl muttered something in blank amazement.
“Now that you mention it, why did he have that match from before to begin with............”
It happened just after everyone in the dungeon understood what the monkey’s actions meant.
“Everyone drop your weapons!”
A number of knights all rushed into the dungeon. Every single one of them had been on duty and so were already fully armed.
“Wh, what’s going on!?”
As Elliott shouted at the interlopers, the grim faced platoon leader answered in kind.
“That’s my line. Just what is going on in this dungeon?”
Already the other knights had surrounded Elliott’s group, disarming his men.
“Th, That’s confidential! There is no need to say anything to someone unrelated like you!”
“Is that so”
While Elliott was high-handedly bellowing, the knight leader easily withdrew. Only to then yell at his subordinates.
“Check their weapons!”
“What!?”
“Just recently, I found that some weapons I had left to air out had disappeared. I had hurriedly gathered up these people before when we found this uproar.”
One of the soldiers suddenly shouted.
“Everything is accounted for. They’re the stolen goods!”
“Got it. Take these guys to the knight station! We’ll be sure to listen to everything they have to say there.”
“Hiiiiiiii!?”
Elliott stood there dumbfounded as all of his followers were rounded up and dragged out of the room.
“..............wha................”
The knight commander then brought down a verdict on the open-mouthed Elliott.
“Your Highness. As a related party, we’d like to ask you some questions later as well. Is that fine?”
“..........understood. However!”
Elliott pointed to Rachel who had secluded herself further inside.
“That woman is already in prison, yet she has a weapon!”
The captain peeked over at Rachel.
“Your Highness, why is that young noblewoman carrying a weapon right now?”
“Why? Why are you asking me!?”
The knight gave an answer with obvious distrust in his eyes.
“As far as we know, this young noblewoman was suddenly arrested one night during a party, and you immediately put her in this prison.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Then, why does she have a weapon? Was she carrying a crossbow under her dress?”
“Uh, that is.......”
He was stabbing a sore spot.
“No........it was pre-arranged inside the prison.”
The captain’s gaze grew even more intense.
“In the prison? When you suddenly restrained her during a night party? A young noblewoman who didn’t even have a change of clothes on her?”
“No, you see! Doesn’t she have plenty of things in there with her!?”
Even when he looked inside the cell, the knight’s expression didn’t change.
“Of course. It’s a prison for nobles. Isn’t it natural that there would be at least the bear minimum of furniture in there? However I doubt there would be some crossbow as a wall ornament in a jail.”
“Y, You........!”
With Elliott unable to respond, the platoon leader turned to Rachel.
“Milady, why do you have a crossbow in there?”
Rachel was shaking as she gave a terrified response.
“H, His Highness is..........he suddenly barged in, he wanted to kill me before His Majesty returned......... After surrounding me, he said it would be bad to kill me for no reason and threw this at me........I didn’t want to let him just kill me, so I tried to fight back, but.........”
Rachel’s voice broke down as she tried to choke back the tears.
“Your Highness........I believe there’s another case I need to ask you some things about.”
The knight’s eyes were completely locked onto the self-centered Prince like the criminal had already been found. Elliott panicked.
“W, Wait!? That thing belongs to her! I didn’t bring it in!”
“Wouldn’t you have heard about such a thing earlier? And you still haven’t explained to me how a noblewoman who had been suddenly imprisoned like a bolt out of the blue would have a crossbow on her in the first place.”
But she did.
Elliott was getting pushed back more and more with questions that were difficult to answer..........but then a memory from back them struck him.
“That’s right! The night we put this woman in prison, the other knights on duty also saw that woman pull a crossbow from her luggage! Just ask one of them!”
“From three months ago? All of us knights work on a rotation, so the ones on duty then were moved to the front two months ago. They won’t be back for another four months.”
“Such a-!?”
Elliott, he had forgotten that his great uncle and the prime minister had also seen Rachel using her crossbow.
.........but in any case, this platoon leader under Rachel’s control would never accept Elliott’s explanation.
“A, Anyway isn’t it a problem that that woman has a weapon!?”
Elliott cried out in desperation, and so the platoon leader once again turned to look at Rachel.
“Pardon me Milady, I’ve already taken those men outside, so would you mind passing that over to me?”
“Sure”
“Um!?”
Right in front of a jaw-dropped Elliott.........Rachel really did just simply hand over her crossbow with no fuss.
“So then Your Highness. I’d like to ask you not to try to runaway. I’ll be waiting for you at the guard station.”
“I got it!”
The commanding officer was acting superficially polite as he put out his reminder before pulling out with the rest of on-duty knights.
“Damn, that bastard..........”
The Prince was fuming about how a knight who should work for the royal family was treating him.........when Elliott suddenly felt the arrival of an opportunity.
Right now I can stab Rachel from behind.........
Elliott still had his own personal saber. With all his followers gone, Rachel had dropped her guard. If he were to throw it at her when she wasn’t expecting it, he might be able to score a critical, fatal hit.
“Yosh........”
Keeping his eye on Rachel who still had her back to him, Elliott grasped the pommel of his saber and slowly started to unsheath it...........
“Heave-ho”
Rachel then suddenly pulled out a different crossbow from a nearby wooden crate.
“...........huh?”
Rachel adeptly pulled back the string, readying the firing mechanism, and loaded on a bolt.
“Preparations finished!”
“Y, You........you had another one of those things lying around!?”
“Your Highness........”
Rachel scratched her head as if she were truly amazed.
“Isn’t it a common rule that you should always prepare a backup in case of a breakdown.”
“I didn’t know!?”
Rachel was talking like she was a veteran mercenary now.
“So, shall we talk for a bit?”
Elliott’s saber was obviously inferior to Rachel’s projectile, and if it came down to it, he wouldn’t get a second shot like she would.
Elliott had suddenly found himself at a disadvantage.
“Well, it’s not like I really have anything to say to you.”
Rachel suddenly lowered the crossbow she was pointing at Elliott’s chest.
“?”
Elliott grew suspicious seeing her suddenly lower her weapon like this........but then he heard a door opening behind him followed by the sound of someone slowly walking down the steps.
“Welcome! Sorry, I know you only finished your honeymoon the other day.”
“No, it’s okay. I had some business to take care of here anyway.”
In response to Rachel’s cheerful welcome, an impossible voice echoed behind Elliott.
“...........no, way.......?”
As if he had been turned into a rusty door, you could just hear the creak as Elliott jerkily turned his head to look behind him.
“Yo Your Highness, long time no see.”
A girl with black hair tied into a ponytail was standing there staring at him.
“.........why is Martina here............?”
Hadn’t she been sent back to the frontier, dragging Sykes along with her?
“I, came back here because there was a little something I wanted to hear about from Your Highness.”
There was madness in those wide open eyes, and the original crazy girl broke out into a twisted smile.
“I’ve read this book ‘His Highness is Aiming for Me’.............the fact that Your Highness forced Sykes down and ‘ate’ him, is it true?”
“Eh? No, what.................a book?”
- Writer
