In a World of Reversed Chastity, I Strive to Become an Honorable Male Knight, but Lustful Women Keep Targeting My Body - 246

Chapter 246: The Kukkoro Male Knight and the Starving Ninjas

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Since we had been attacked and had even ended up taking prisoners, there was no way we could continue the date as planned. It was deeply disappointing, but we decided to return to the city of Carrera.

We left the prisoners we had brought back in the care of our subordinates and sat down to eat. After all, those idiot elves had launched their attack right in the middle of breakfast. The carefully prepared food had been completely ruined by the aftermath of the fighting. We were all thoroughly starving.

“Delicious! So good!”

“Oh! There’s meat in this, isn’t there? This is amazing!”

And so we were eating a meal that was hard to tell whether it was breakfast or lunch in the dining room of the lord’s residence. Among us were those elf ninjas as well. As thanks for their assistance—though, to be precise, the komusō elves had essentially been defeated by those women on their own—we had offered them food.

It was obvious at a glance that they were members of an elite unit, and they too belonged to Elfenia. Naturally, they had been skipping meals, so they were delighted by the offer.

“I see. So you were secretly assigned to protect me under orders from Dalaiya-sama…”

I said this while glancing at the elf ninjas as they enthusiastically stuffed themselves with bread and soup. The unexpected attack had left me especially fatigued. Frankly, I felt like mindlessly shoveling food into my mouth the way they were doing, but that kind of indulgence was only permitted to soldiers, or at most noncommissioned officers. As an officer, I did not have that freedom.

I had already been told that these ninjas were subordinates of Dalaiya-sama, but given how suspicious they were, I needed to hear the details directly. Fortunately, the ninja leader answered my questions readily. It seemed she had been instructed by Dalaiya-sama to actively disclose information to me.

“That’s right. Granny Dalaiya took that incident in the village of the rebels very seriously, and to make sure nothin’ like that ever happens again, she ordered us to protect Albert-dono.”

At the ninja leader’s explanation, I gave a small grunt. I see. By eliminating extremist assassins with their own hands, the conciliatory faction intended to demonstrate their sincerity.

I couldn’t help thinking it would have been better if they had just shown themselves from the start and provided overt protection, but ninjas had difficulty defeating samurai in direct combat. The same apparently held true for elf-style ninjas, and they had remained hidden in order to ambush any attackers. …Even so, I really wish they had at least informed me.

Well, there was no point complaining about it now. I would direct my grievances to Dalaiya-sama later. For the moment, I decided to pose another question to the ninja leader.

“In the end, your concerns turned out to be correct…But was this attack really orchestrated by members of the ‘New’ anti-‘Legitimate’ faction?”

“Most likely. Though, well, there’s also the chance they were just rogue bandit elves.”

The ninja leader said this while repeatedly glancing at the food. It seemed that officers needing to keep up appearances was the same in both Galea and Elfenia.

“But right now there’s an order sayin’ the people and property of Liseben mustn’t be harmed. Even thieves, if they were gonna steal, oughta head over to the neighboring country…What was it again? Zudenberg, right?”

“You even operate as far as Zudenberg…?”

I couldn’t help but be astonished. Crossing mountains just to commit acts like banditry… What pointless determination. If the flow of goods in Zudenberg territory was disrupted, it would cause problems for us as well, so at the next meeting I would have to request that robbery itself be prohibited…

“Well, the reason those elves resorted to such an outrageous act will become clear eventually. After all, we have four prisoners.”

Sonia said this while holding a cup of herbal tea. Her complexion looked strangely poor. Apparently, she was suffering from a hangover. I had never seen her get a hangover before, so it genuinely surprised me.

Still, as she said, we did have prisoners. If we interrogated them properly, we should be able to learn something. …That said, they were apparently young, half-trained elves, so in reality they probably didn’t have much useful information. They were disposable pawns, after all.

“However, putting that aside…The fact that Al-sama himself was clearly targeted is the real issue. As a result, we have no choice but to lodge a protest with the ‘New’ faction, and we’ll need to reassess our security arrangements going forward.”

“I offer my sincerest apologies.”

The ninja leader bowed deeply. …Ever since they came to our aid, she hadn’t stopped bowing. I almost felt sorry for her, even though it wasn’t my problem.

“……”

However, there was someone else here who was truly pitiful—Gilberto. At first glance, she appeared to be behaving as usual, but if one looked closely, her movements and remarks lacked their usual sharpness. Truly capable commanders were often excellent actors, and Gilberto was no exception. For her to be visibly shaken like this meant she was taking it quite hard.

Was it because her confession had been interrupted? No matter how you looked at it, that had been a declaration of love… I was very curious myself about what she had been about to say next. Well, she was a Dragonewt, and I was in a position where I had to take a hume bride, so there were…Complications. Ugh, this was a difficult situation.

In any case, I should make time later for the two of us to talk alone. Even someone like me, whose experience with romance was below that of ordinary boys and girls, understood that leaving a situation like this unresolved was a bad idea…

“…It’s true that this incident has thrown cold water on our conciliatory approach toward the elves.”

While I was thinking about that, Gilberto herself spoke up. Her voice was tightly controlled.

“However, if this was a scheme by forces claiming to be anti-Legitimate, then going along with their intentions would be undesirable. Regarding our policy toward the elves, I humbly believe we should maintain the status quo.”

“That’s certainly true. If we flinch here, we’d be playing right into their hands.”

At present, our strategy was to drive a wedge between the conciliatory faction and the hardliners within the ‘New’ group. Naturally, the hardliners wouldn’t find this situation amusing. It was only to be expected that they would see us as enemies. If we intended to carry through with our original plan, we couldn’t afford to ease our stance toward the elves over harassment of this level.

Still…Why did we have to discuss something this unfun on what was supposed to be a day off? It was starting to genuinely irritate me. 

…No, no, that won’t do. A commander must always remain calm. I should follow Gilberto’s example and settle myself down.

“…Speaking of potatoes, what do you think of our potato dish? I hope it suits your tastes.”

To change the mood, I said this to the elf ninjas. Today’s menu was nothing more than our usual military stew with elf potatoes imported from the ‘New’ faction thrown in. In other words, Galea-style potato soup.

“It’s mighty, terribly delicious. I could eat this every single day.”

Holding up a potato speared on her fork, the ninja leader smiled. …A ninja eating sweet potatoes… Satsuma ninja for short. Such a stupid thought floated through my mind. A ninja who had their power boosted three times over. What would they be, I wonder? They could quickly go straight into battle while yelling “CHESTO”? …At that point, they’d basically be a fully automatic slaughter machine.

No, no, my brain was turning stupid. Was it stress? The whole point of this day off was to relieve that stress, and yet here we were… this was unbearable, honestly…

“I’m glad to hear that. There’s plenty more, so I’d be happy if you ate until you’re full.”

Even as I smiled at the ninja leader, my inner thoughts were gloomy. Elf assassins probably wouldn’t infiltrate the city of Carrera itself…Once this meal was over, maybe I should go somewhere with Gilberto? I wanted to get to the bottom of what she had meant by those confession-like words as soon as possible.

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