The Royal Audience

I woke up in the morning to the sound of a knock on the guest room door. Did I oversleep…!? I jumped up and checked the clock, but it was exactly six, so I sighed in relief.

“Luca-sama, good morning. It is time for you to wake up, so I came to call on you.”

“Good morning. Thank you for waking me.”

When I opened the door and greeted the person who had called out, it was the same attendant as yesterday.

“May we begin your preparations now? Breakfast will be brought here in thirty minutes, so we would like to arrange your hair before then.”

“Understood. Thank you.”

After that, despite the ticklish feeling, I was helped with my grooming. After breakfast I rested a little, changed clothes, and the preparations were complete.

We moved to the waiting room before the audience, and all that remained was to wait for His Majesty to arrive. Rebecca sat beside me, stiff with tension.

“Luca, how many minutes do you think are left?”

“According to the schedule, thirty minutes, but it might be earlier depending on His Majesty’s circumstances…”

“Ugh, I’m getting really nervous. We’re going to be praised, right? We won’t get scolded, right?”

“We should be praised.”

We had saved the country, been recognized as First Rank and Third Rank adventurers, been given the overly grand party name Heroes Who Saved the Nation, and today we were receiving words of gratitude and rewards from the king.

So there should be no reason to be nervous—if anything we should be excited… but that was impossible. For someone like me, a commoner from a village, just being in the royal palace made me uneasy.

In stories, people sometimes get punished for forgetting their place in the social hierarchy… reading things like that inevitably makes kings and nobles seem frightening.

Part of it was probably because I didn’t know much about them. Until now I had assumed I would never interact with them, so I had never tried to learn about them in depth. Maybe from now on I should start reading books about noble society too.

“Thank you for waiting. His Majesty has arrived, so please proceed to the audience chamber.”

A palace official came to call us from the waiting room, and we were led to the audience chamber. When we knelt before the great doors, the knights standing there slowly opened them.

“Come forward.”

When the sound of the doors opening stopped, a commanding voice echoed through the hall. Rebecca and I stood up at the same time and proceeded forward into the audience chamber while keeping in mind everything we had been taught yesterday.

I felt so nervous that my body almost wavered, but somehow I managed to keep moving my feet through sheer determination.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally saw the mark on the floor. My body relaxed slightly as I knelt again. Honestly, kneeling felt easier than walking while feeling dizzy.

“Raise your heads.”

I slowly lifted my face, careful not to appear disrespectful and making sure not to look directly into His Majesty’s eyes… and I finally caught sight of him.

His Majesty was a slender middle-aged man. His blond hair was neatly styled, giving him a youthful appearance. He did look handsome.

“Your Majesty, the one on the right is Luca, and the one on the left is Rebecca. Luca is the one recognized as a First Rank adventurer.”

“I see. Luca, Rebecca, thank you for protecting our kingdom. I offer my gratitude on behalf of the nation.”

“We are honored by your words.”

When I responded with the phrase I had been taught yesterday, a brief silence followed before His Majesty leaned forward.

“Still, you two are quite young. Without you, my life might have been in danger. You should boast to everyone that you saved my life! It is an honor that will be praised for generations.”

His demeanor suddenly changed completely, and he spoke with a proud expression. This was probably his true personality… Just as Lady Seremees said, he might not be someone to admire very much.

And just like how he had apparently decided on the princess’s marriage to the Empire on his own, he seemed to place himself at the center of everything rather than those around him.

“Ahem. Your Majesty, let us proceed with granting the rewards.”

The Prime Minister beside him cleared his throat deliberately. Perhaps what the king had just said was not part of the planned remarks.

“Ah, yes. I had forgotten. —We shall grant you your rewards.”

“W-we are deeply grateful.”

The king suddenly shifting from childish enthusiasm back to seriousness almost made me laugh, but I somehow held it in and responded. It seemed he hadn’t noticed, and the Prime Minister began reading out the rewards.

We hadn’t been told about the rewards beforehand, but it seemed most of them were weapons and armor. A sword forged by a master craftsman, light and durable armor made from monster materials… every item sounded like something that would cost enough for an ordinary person to live for a year.

“Finally, we shall also grant two hundred platinum coins as part of the reward.”

…What!? Two hundred platinum coins!?

Seriously? That much? Well, if you added up the value of all the other rewards it might reach something close to that amount, but hearing that we would receive that much money directly was shocking.

With two hundred platinum coins, someone could live modestly for ten years. Maybe even longer if it was just one person.

“That concludes the rewards. Do you have any objections?”

“N-no… of course we have no objections. We are deeply grateful.”

“We expect you to continue serving the kingdom well using these rewards.”

“Understood.”

When I nodded firmly and lowered my head, I heard His Majesty’s satisfied voice saying “Very good, very good,” and then I was told to raise my head again.

“Now then, I would like to request a nomination task from you at once. My daughter, Henriette, will soon marry into the Empire, and we would like you to serve as her escorts. This is a request made personally by Henriette. Will you accept it?”

“If we can be of service to Her Highness the Princess, we would gladly accept.”

When I spoke the words we had prepared in advance, His Majesty smiled and clapped his hands. The royal entrance behind him opened, and the princess appeared, dressed in a magnificent gown.

I casually turned my gaze toward her—

The moment I saw her face, a strange sense of familiarity struck me, and a frown formed on my forehead without thinking.

It felt like she resembled someone… or rather, I had the feeling I had met the princess before. But that should have been impossible. There was no way someone like me would have any connection with royalty…

“…It’s Ann.”

At the small voice from beside me, I instantly remembered where I had met the person standing before me. She was Ann, the girl who had said she worked for a merchant company—the one I had shown around the city for a single day before.