18-2 The Armor Of Ruin

I attacked Prince Michael.

No, he was drinking tea in his room, so I entered with teleportation magic while watching the radar, approached him smoothly in invisible mode, and merely startled him from behind.

It was not often that one could see a noble young man who looked every inch a prince spray tea with all his might.

I got a rather good image.

“You! Don’t scare me like that.”

Recently, he had started treating me as “you” in a rougher way instead of “you” politely.

Even though I should be treated as an honorary duke in this country.

“Ahaha, sorry, sorry. Hey, there’s one thing I want to ask. Do you know about Demon Realm Armor?”

The prince sprayed tea again.

This person might actually be unexpectedly entertaining.

Of course, I had timed it for him.

“W-where did you hear that name?

It should not be something seen anywhere except the forbidden library.”

Ah, he was shaken.

I waited for the timing when he tried to calm down and put tea in his mouth again, then said it.

“In my skill list.”

This time, the prince did not spray tea, but let it dribble from the corner of his mouth.

This person really was entertaining.

“Where?”

Oh, he bit.

“Where in the world did you obtain such a dangerous thing?”

“Nielsen used it. Thanks to that, I nearly died. If Fal hadn’t been there, it might have been bad. When I woke up, I had learned it as a skill. The butler from House Orston told me never to use it. And that this was a skill that devoured the soul.”

“I-I see. That Flash-God…”

Then he looked at me meaningfully and declared.

“Normally, I would have to imprison you, or if that was not possible, kill you. That is how dangerous it is. Please do not forget that much.”

This guy was saying something pretty outrageous again.

So, what now?

Are we doing this?

“I trust you, Lord Granburst.”

Ahahaha, so that means it is impossible.

“What happened in the past?”

“Let me only say that the world nearly perished once because of that calamity.”

Ugh!

This was a much worse matter than I had expected.

“For now, I thought it would be better to have you investigate it.”

“Yes, thank you for informing me. If anything happens to you as well, tell me immediately.”

Hm? Did something happen even without using it?

I became worried and asked without thinking.

“Is something going to happen?”

“No, it is just that when people possess strong power, it is difficult for them to resist the temptation to use it. Not everyone is special like you. There are far more people who wish to obtain power even if they must sell their soul to a devil than you think. The one who can obtain such power and remain calm, ‘y-o-u,’ are the strange one!”

“H-how rude. This principal is busy. There’s the school play, Christmas, New Year’s, preparations for opening the elementary school. And the first graduation ceremony, so there are already events packed one after another. I don’t have even one second to spare for a weird skill like that. If I only have to not use it, then there’s no problem! Ah, starting next spring, call me Academy Head instead of Principal, okay? Because the safe house, the Beast-Ear Kindergarten, and the Beast-Ear Elementary School, those three facilities together will be renamed Beast-Ear Academy. Oh, we’re arranging to invite His Highness Emilio to the school play, so keep that in mind.”

I left His Highness Michael behind, wearing a sullen expression as if I had stolen his specialty by rattling on like that, and returned to the Beast-Ear Garden.

I teased Remi’s ears while she still looked worried, and poured mana into Fal, who had attached herself to me from behind.

It was just about snack time.

Recently, thanks to Yamamoto-san, our Beast-Ear Garden was experiencing an unprecedented Japanese confectionery boom.

Since Japanese sweets were Takeshi’s favorite, even Mari, who normally did not eat snacks, was deeply interested.

Today’s snack was also a water confectionery with vivid colors wrapped in a transparent arrowroot jelly coating.

Every time the sweet that they poked with cute fingertips trembled, the children’s eyes trembled too.

Personally, I preferred the ones with chunky bean paste inside.

Takeshi Funabashi probably did too.

Yesterday, I had gone to visit the grave with Mari.

I had also invited the royal family.

Since it was a good opportunity, I had Aoi-chan prepare tea, and everyone enjoyed a small garden party.

His Highness the Crown Prince had unusually come too, so I exercised the bracelet’s administrator authority and forcibly teleported His Highness Michael as well.

He got angry and told me to say one word beforehand before teleporting him.

Come to think of it, it would be bad if he had been in the middle of using the toilet.

Everyone seemed to like bean-paste sweets quite a bit.

They really were Takeshi Funabashi’s direct descendants.

Since it was a good opportunity, I also presented them with teleportation bracelets equipped with item boxes.

While I was at it, I gave them smartphones too.

I thought it was fine to give them to the royal family already.

In truth, my honorary dukedom was something impossible under normal circumstances, treated as a regular bloodline dukedom.

In other words, that meant I was treated as royalty.

No matter what, they probably wanted to keep me treated as family.

Since the other party was Takeshi’s descendants, I had no objection either.

As long as they were not like that Duke Bighton.

For the most part, my home was in this country, so it would probably be more convenient to be treated as family by these people.

That night, the barrage of phone calls from the people who had received smartphones for the first time continued until late at night.