The Encounter Between the Forsaken Healing Magic’s Beloved Child and the Betrayed Black Dragon Princess of Calamity - 20

Chapter 20: Taking Precautions

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“Grrr…! I never imagined such treacherous darkness was hiding behind the previous Royal Selection…!”

Conrad-san’s face turned bright red as he grinded his teeth together. He was absolutely seething with rage. However, no matter how angry he was, the fact remained the same. He had abandoned Mer-san. 

“I’m sure that Klaus guy is going to prepare some kind of a trap in the next Royal Selection as well. That’s why, please lend Mer-san your strength this time as a way for you to atone for the skin of abandoning her during the previous Royal Selection.”

“You don’t even have to tell me that! I, Conrad Gargouille, swear to protect the princess with my life! I’m ready to lose everything for the princess!”

Conrad-san stood up all of a sudden and hit his broad chest with a resounding thump as he said so. 

“Princess Mercedes, Gilbert-sama, please allow this lowly Elsa to dedicate her very life to your cause.”

Elsa-san also rose to her feet and placed a hand to her chest in an elegant curtsy. Her expression remained unchanged and she still carried herself elegantly, but there was a certain coldness in her movements. Also, her light purple eyes were burning with obvious anger. 

“U-Umm… Mer-san, I’m sorry for going ahead and deciding things on my own…”

I turned to Mer-san and apologized to her. I knew she hated Conrad-san and Elsa-san. She loathed them and yet, I disregarded her feelings and made the decision on my own…

“Well, since  you did it for my sake, there’s no way I could possibly say no, now could I?”

“Ah…”

Mer-san cupped my cheeks with both hands and offered me a bitter smile, but her face was so close that I could feel her breath. Her nose almost brushed against mine and I could feel my heart pounding wildly. 

“That said, it seems you will need to grant me another request.”

“A-Ahahaha… Well, if it’s something I can do, then sure…”

Mer-san’s smile seemed to be hiding something… Something darker and sinister. I could only respond with a nervous laugh while scratching my head awkwardly. But well, her requests so far were really adorable. I was more than happy to oblige. 

But…

“”….””

For some reason, Conrad-san and Elsa-san were staring intensely at me. Conrad-san was staring at me with an expression of pure astonishment while Elsa-san’s gaze… Could it be… Jealousy? Well, I should pretend I didn’t notice anything.

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“That means we’ll need to catch Klaus off guard when challenging him to the Royal Selection.”

Nighttime came and we were gathering around the fire to discuss our strategy for the upcoming Royal Selection against Klaus. By the way, the one who started the fire was Conrad-san. It turned out he was part of the dragonkin who could control fire. He could breathe fire… Or to be precise, he could do what most people call a “breath attack.” It seemed he was second to none when it came to fire, even among fellow dragonkin. On the other hand, Elsa-san, who once served as Mer-san’s handmaid, specialized in poison. If Conrad-san could do a fire breath attack, Elsa-san could do acid breath that could dissolve almost anything. The more I heard about her, the scarier she became. Not to mention, Elsa-san was still watching me intently. I couldn’t stop myself from feeling uneasy. It felt like she might kill me someday. 

“From what I’ve heard, that Klaus guy sounds like an incredibly cunning man. He must’ve already prepared some plans to counter Mer-san during the Royal Selection.”

“Grrr… How annoying.”

Conrad-san groaned in response to my words. The information from the two of them had been immensely helpful, but Klaus remained an enigma, making it hard for us to come up with our next step. 

“If only we had a little more information about him… It would make things much easier…”

“…Indeed. Perhaps we could just snatch up one or two of Dragroar’s soldiers and question them for information?”

“N-No, let’s not go that far…”

I quickly interjected, stopping Elsa-san from going forward with her rather unsettling suggestion. In the first place, low-ranking soldiers wouldn’t be useful for us. Even if we managed to capture them, we would only be able to gain menial information at best. The information from Conrad-san and Elsa-san might be much better than theirs. Besides, making a reckless move could have backfired and left us in a worse position than now. 

“U-Umm… Is something wrong?”

“Ah? Fufufu~ Well, even though Gil-kun is still a child, but you’re more thorough and meticulous than us. You’re really thinking your next steps carefully, more than us. It’s really impressive.”

“N-no, that’s not true…”

Mer-san praised me, causing me to scratch my head awkwardly in embarrassment. I used to spend most of my free time reading books in the imperial palace’s library. I was merely using the knowledge I had gained from them as reference and came up with various ideas that could help us, but…

Ehehe… I’m glad I could be of help. 

“Ah. B-But, at the very least, he won’t be able to poison Mer-san like he did in the last Royal Selection. After all, there’s no one among us who would poison Mer-san.”

“That’s true.”

Although Mer-san responded to me with a gentle smile, but she threw a sharp glare toward both Conrad-san and Elsa-san. 

This will do. Even if one—or both—of them were working for Klaus, they wouldn’t be able to make any careless moves now.

“Now then! Let’s think about what other moves he might make. There’s no harm in coming up with as many possibilities as we can, even if they turn out to be unnecessary.”

“Fufu~ Yes!”

As night deepened, we continued to take as many precautions as we possibly could.

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