Chapter 46

The next day, Carusien—who had somehow tracked us down—quickly contacted the Dukes, and we found ourselves surrounded by knights who had galloped in on horseback as we were escorted back home. I had half a mind to throw a tantrum and put up a fight, but upon hearing that an emergency alert had actually been declared, I had no choice but to give up. And just like that, our runaway adventure came to a very anticlimactic end.

Even so, Miel seemed to be in much better spirits than when she first ran away, likely because a single day was just enough to let off some steam.

I never did find out why she ran away, though.

It wasn’t like I forgot to ask because I was too busy having fun. I had been waiting for Miel to bring it up of her own accord. Honestly.

“Well, maybe her dad cut her allowance or something?”

Convinced it was a plausible reason, I climbed into the carriage heading back home and tried to reassemble the events of yesterday in my head. But I couldn’t remember a single thing.

I had only downed a single shot for the very first time, yet all my memories after that were wiped completely clean. Realizing I couldn’t even recall fragments of the night filled me with a creeping sense of dread that I must have pulled off some kind of stunt again, but hey, Yul probably handled everything properly.

“Huu, it wasn’t a bad plan, but misjudging my own tolerance was definitely the real issue here.”

I genuinely never expected to go down from a single drink. I thought for sure I’d last longer than Miel, at the very least. This was all because of the hot springs. But now that I was thinking about the springs again, I suddenly wanted to go back.

“Hot springs… those were nice.”

I briefly wondered if developed hot springs like that even existed back in the Middle Ages, but since this was inside a romance fantasy novel, I figured it was just the heavy projection of a hot-spring-loving author’s inner desires.

“I’ll have to be more careful around perverts from now on.”

A pervert—the absolute lowest category of human being in my book. Sure, I wasn’t particularly popular and had never dated in my life, but not once in my entire existence had I ever thought of becoming a pervert. I honestly wanted to track down whoever came up with that kind of thinking and just see what they looked like. Mostly so I could slap them across the cheek.

“Anyway, where did Ahel run off to without even cleaning up his mess? Aria, you mustn’t grow up to be an irresponsible dragon like that.”

At my words, Aria traced the raw fish sashimi we ate yesterday on her palm, popped it into her mouth, and gave an energetic reply.

“Yes! Aria’s a good dragon, so it’s okayyy.”

“Right, right. I wonder who she takes after to be so smart and good. And you mustn’t go around telling other people you’re a dragon, okay?”

Of course, Aria was definitely a bit of an idiot, and whether she was truly “good” was always up for debate, but as Aria’s parent, I was unconditionally on her side.

“Hehe, Aria will never reveal her true identityyy.”

Hearing her answer with even more cuteness than usual oddly filled me with trust. Perhaps the parenting methods I’d slowly started implementing lately were finally kicking in. Maybe I had a hidden talent for becoming a parent after all.

For the sake of a now-smarter Aria, I’d have to ask them to make some more raw fish sashimi once we got back home.

Whinny-!

Jolt!

Right then, the carriage came to a sudden, screeching halt. Thanks to the driver’s astonishing skill, we didn’t suffer any real impact despite the abrupt stop and remained safely seated inside the carriage. It was truly a miraculous level of driving.

Could this driver secretly be a hidden Master-class coachman?

Knock, knock.

“Young Lady. It’s Charles, a knight.”

Clearly, something was actually happening, as Charles—one of the knights I had seen at the training grounds last time—spoke up from outside.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Bandits have appeared up ahead. How should we handle them? We can simply ride past them, or wipe them all out—both options are entirely viable. Or, would you care to step outside and have a look?”

“Bandits?”

I paused for a moment to think over Charles’s words.

Is this the kind of thing they normally ask for my permission to decide?

Usually, knights belonging to a ducal household weren’t the type to back down from anyone, and minor issues like this could easily be brushed aside. In other words, since they were fully capable of handling it subjectively, asking for my input meant either the situation was genuinely urgent or they wanted something from me.

Judging by Charles’s calm tone, however, it certainly didn’t sound urgent. That meant he probably wanted me to take a look at them myself.

“Well, I suppose I’ll go check it out and decide.”

To be completely honest, a part of me was actually curious. Tsk, if they were going to show up, they should have appeared when I was traveling with Carusien, but back then they were nowhere to be found, only to show up now of all times.

What a missed opportunity.

Right now, I was heavily escorted by a bunch of hyper-competent knights, so I couldn’t really expect any thrilling twists or dangerous developments.

“Keep a good eye on Aria. I’ll be right back.”

“Understood, Young Lady.”

Ugh, wait a minute. That line sounded like an absolute death flag. I was definitely never using that one again.

Entrusting Aria to Yul, I pushed open the carriage door and walked over to the spot where they were standing face-to-face with the bandits. In the distance, figures appearing to be bandits and our knights were staring each other down in a standoff, though the situation looked slightly strange since the knights hadn’t even bothered to draw their swords.

As I drew closer, I could finally hear the voices of the bandits.

“Hahaha! We are the peace-loving Peace Bandits. If you just lay down whatever food you have and go, I’ll graciously let you pass without a single drop of blood being shed.”

I let out a snort of laughter upon hearing those words. To think a peace-loving band of bandits could exist in this world—does that mean pirates are defenders of justice, too? On top of that, if they were going to demand something, they should have asked for everything we had instead of just food.

Besides, unfortunately, there wasn’t a single scrap of food left in our carriage. If there had been any food lying around, Aria would have eaten it all already.

“What a ridiculous bunch.”

Hmm, but listening closer, their voices sounded a bit thin. How should I put it, they didn’t really sound like grown men…

Curious, I naturally stepped through the path cleared by the knights and checked the bandits’ faces. Then I let out a sigh and spoke. There was no way we could run into bandits here when we hadn’t even encountered any while traveling with just the two of us.

Did characters like burly, foul-tempered bandits even exist in this peaceful romance fantasy novel to begin with?

“Hah, they’re just kids.”

They were wearing tattered clothes riddled with holes, covered in scratches left and right, and glaring at us as if they hadn’t eaten in days. They looked like they might keel over on the spot if a gust of wind blew past. Only the little runt shouting at the very front had dark circles hollowed out beneath his eyes as he kept demanding food from us.

Seeing that face, hearing him shout “Hahaha” sounded more like he was crying.

“Yes. That is correct.”

Thinking my sigh meant I was displeased, Charles hurriedly bowed his head. He seemed worried that I might do something cruel to the kids.

Ugh, at that sight, I couldn’t even muster up any real anger and just worried instead. After all, since I carried the reputation of a villainess, having people think that way of me wasn’t entirely wrong.

And to be completely honest, those kids were damn pitiful. Even without looking at it from the perspective of a parent raising Aria, what kind of human being could look at a scene like this and get angry?

Well, Heinel might, for all I know. Or my mom… um. Let’s just not bring my mom into this.

The knights must have felt sorry for them, too, which was why they called me over. If there had actually been any food left in the carriage, we would have handed over everything and set off, but there was no rations left in our luggage. No, wait, there had been a little bit, but Aria had devoured every last bite.

Damn it, once again my plans were getting derailed because of Aria’s appetite. When we got back home, I was definitely going to put her on a strict diet.

I decided to do as the knights wanted. Well, it was a good excuse to polish up my image a little bit, too. Having the reputation of a villainess wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but living like this meant I had to break out of it eventually.

“Hey, the kid doing all the shouting.”

True to one of the absolute laws of children everywhere—that when called a kid, they will adamantly refuse to admit they are a kid—the boy bristled and shot back.

“Grr, I am not a kid! I’m a bandit! And don’t go trying to ask us anything. Even if you ask, we aren’t telling you a thing.”

As if you even had the strength left to answer.

“Right, bandit kid. How many of you are there in total?”

I needed to know the head count at the very least to figure out how much money to hand over or how else to help. But the moment I heard the number, I slapped a hand against my forehead. The boy who claimed just moments ago that he wouldn’t answer me blurted out an answer with absolute confidence.

“There are 101 of us.”

Good grief, what is this, a hundred and one Dalmatians? Why are there so many? But a second later, I realized the number visible to my naked eyes wasn’t even half of that. Heh, thinking they could pull a fast one and fool me—fat chance. Even if you look at me like this, I’m actually good at math.

“Phew, I happen to be a pretty scary big sister, you know. Lie to me one more time and I’ll smack your palm.”

Even Aria cries and wails when she gets her palms swatted by me. The boy lowered his head and shook it side to side.

“It’s not a lie. It’s just that the others can’t move because they’re sick. Some of them have already died.”

“…What?”

I asked back in shock, caught completely off guard by the unexpected words. Did a plotline like this even exist in this peaceful romance fantasy novel?

“I don’t know. The kids suddenly started getting sick and now they can’t even move.”

Ugh, the situation had escalated. This was getting a bit too strange to brush off as a mere prank anymore.

I quickly spoke to the boy. If several of them had already died, it was practically equivalent to saying the remaining kids were in a state where they could drop dead at any moment. Shit, I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d run into a situation like this.

“Lead the way.”

“N-No way.”

Seeing the boy refuse out of fear that I might do something harmful to them, I opened my mouth once more.

“Phew, I said lead the way.”

Of course, the probability that anything would actually get solved just because I tagged along was pretty low. Because this was an issue completely outside my area of expertise. Lacking any special abilities, the absolute most someone like me could do might just end up being a pointless prayer.

To be completely honest, the thought of just turning a blind eye and driving right past hadn’t crossed my mind. But charging blindly into a situation without knowing what it truly was could end up blowing things completely out of proportion.

Besides, even if I ignored them and left, it wouldn’t change my reputation by a single bit. I wasn’t the kind-hearted Lady Harmiel, after all; I was Armienne, the villainess.

Still, wouldn’t it be okay to go all-out on something like this just for one day out of all the days in the year, even if it didn’t amount to much?

Just for today.

That was what I thought to myself.

“Phew, if you really don’t want to die by my hands right here, shut your trap and move. And guide me to where the other kids are. Right now!”

At my words, the boy finally nodded and started running. As I moved to follow the boy, the knights and the other children—all of them utterly startled by my erratic behavior—rushed along behind us.

Just a few hours ago, I was chatting happily with Miel, and now what on earth was this?

Hah, this world definitely had it out for me.

Seriously.