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Chapter 5
“Seems like you’re doing just fine, too, Lieze-chan, Seran-chan. Thanks for sticking with Kyle through all of that.”
After Seraia enjoyed a fulfilling hug, she then turned towards Kyle’s two childhood friends.
“He puts us through a lot, y’know. Without me around, he’d be helpless.” Seran rammed his shoulder into Kyle as he spoke boastfully.
Kyle’s face tensed up in pain and he wanted to disagree, but he opted to remain docile for now.
“When will the birth happen, Seraia-san?”
“The plan is next month.”
Meanwhile, Lieze’s gaze was solely focused on Seraia’s tummy, happy like it was her own child. She always loved children, and since Kyle’s family was like her own, this child must be like a little sibling to her.
“Will it be a boy or girl?”
“I would think it’s a girl.”
The one to answer Lieze’s question was the other woman present in the room. She seemed to be in her twenties, wearing typical priest robes, and the sigil of the Goddess Cairys hung down her neck. And even though she was a bit older, she seemed as friendly as could be.
“This person is Loretta-san. She regularly comes to check up on me. And she’ll be the one helping me during the childbirth.”
“Nice to meet you, everyone. I am a healing priest serving Cairys-sama, called Loretta. I’ll be assisting Seraia-sama’s birth. Even so, I’ve helped with over 100 births so far, so please rest assured.”
Seraia introduced the woman as she gently rubbed her stomach, to which Loretta showed a reassuring smile as she politely named herself. A healing priest was a specialist in any kind of magic in the category of healing magic, focusing on aiding the injured and wounded.
“I finished my check-up using [Body Reading] today, and there were no irregularities to mention.”
Body Reading was a magic used specifically for medical purposes, allowing the user to understand the current condition of the target’s body. Usually, it was used to figure out if there were any internal poisoning or injuries, but it also helped greatly to get a better view of a pregnant woman, and it even allowed one to figure out the gender. That’s probably how Seraia could figure that it would probably be a girl.
“Is that so…My mother will be in your care, so I hope everything works out,” Kyle was relieved as he returned a polite bow.
However, Loretta was almost shocked to see that.
“Please, raise your head. I’m only doing what is expected of me…And I should be the one to thank you. Your donations are what allow us to keep going, after all.”
Loretta was referring to the various donations Kyle made to the church as part of growing his fame as a hero. After obtaining the ridiculous fortune that the Magic King Shildonia had hidden, he could afford these kinds of expenses. And in that regard, it was all for the sake of his goal, which is why he didn’t feel any pride about it.
“No…I’m just doing what is expected of me.”
So being thanked like this just gave Kyle an uncomfortable feeling. In the end, Kyle couldn’t even look Loretta in the eyes as he gave vague responses.
After that, Loretta said “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of this family reunion” and left Kyle and the others alone.
“Just sit down and relax, everyone,” Roel prepared tea and snacks for everyone with skillful movement.
“I have to say…there’s a lot of girls I see.”
Seraia sat down facing Kyle and the others, as she gave the girls a good look with a dubious gaze. Her view wandered from Urza to Shildonia to Minagi, moving onward to Angela, only for her to tilt her head like she remembered something.
“Oh my, are you Princess Angela?”
“Oh, you know me?”
“Well, I was the candidate for the next seat of the court mage, after all.”
“Yes…I heard from Brother Konrad and Beadola. You were the youngest Court Mage in history, after all.”
“Well, that was only the case for half a year. I do remember teaching Prince Konrad during that time, at least.”
“In the entire empire, the name of Beadola’s successor as the young genius Seraia Mildolla spread like a wildfire. But to think you were Kyle-sama’s mother…How intriguing.”
Princess Angela smiled like she truly relished that fact, and Seraia joined along. As Kyle, Seran, and Lieze knew her since they were young, they had trouble believing that she was really someone as amazing as that. And yet, Roel even had a nostalgic gaze as he listened to that.
“Well…We happened to run into Princess Angela, so we escorted her here to the capital.”
“Oh my, really?” Seraia didn’t ask any further questions.
Instead, she looked at Urza and the others again.
“So…I heard you were traveling with an elf, but could you introduce the others to me, too?”
“S-Sure…?”
What’s this weird atmosphere?
Kyle started to feel like he was being interrogated, but he continued to introduce all the others except Seran and Lieze.
“Um…”
“I can do it myself. My name is Urza, and I’ve been traveling with Kyle for reasons,” she cut Kyle off and delivered an office-like explanation.
“What kind of relationship do you and Kyle have?”
“What kind of relationship…Well, we’re team members…” Urza began mumbling.
Being asked that question, she realized she didn’t have a proper answer. At first, she was just wrapped up in his mess, but now she went with him out of her own desire. The journey may be dangerous, but the reason for her journey was to escape the dull daily life in the forest, so she was actually enjoying this.
That being said, there is nothing going on between me and Kyle! Well…We have the applied contract, which is basically the same as being married, and we sometimes head somewhere as just the two of us, but…No, however!
Seraia silently watched Urza struggle with herself, seemingly satisfied with just that as she moved on to the next person.
“Who might this girl be?” Seraia seemed a bit perturbed as she looked at the young girl Shildonia.
“My name is Shildonia. I’m something like the guardian watching over Kyle and the others on their journey,” Shildonia nonchalantly introduced herself.
“Guardian?”
“Exactly. Without me around, Kyle is utterly hopeless,” Shildonia said with a genuine and serious expression, which sounded oddly valid.
If you ignored all the crumbs of the snacks she munched down still sticking to her mouth, that is. Seraia seemed a bit bewildered, but chose not to think about it too deeply and now turned toward Minagi.
“…I’m Minagi. Kyle has hired my skills, but…We’re not exactly team members,” she responded with a calm face on the outside, but the inside looked different.
When she denied them being team members, she realized she felt a bit dejected. To her surprise, she might have come to like working with this group. Seraia observed this reaction and muttered something to herself along the lines of “Not quite there yet, I see,” as she turned back toward Kyle.
“What interesting girls you’ve gathered.”
“I won’t deny that…But they’re all trustworthy allies of mine.”
Without a shadow of a doubt, it was thanks to these people that Kyle was still alive. And they also allowed him to move forward like he had been doing.
“Yes, I can see that.” Seraia smiled.
However, that smile quickly vanished, as she showed him a stern gaze.
“But, Kyle…You can’t neglect Lieze-chan and the other girls, okay?”
Kyle usually was never scolded by his father Roel, but his mother Seraia was a different story. He felt a different type of air around him than all these times before. He thought that his mother had nothing but books in her mind, but she had a resolute look at her surroundings if it mattered, which made Kyle feel a cold sweat run down his back.
“Y-You seem to have the wrong idea about this, but he and I are just traveling partners! Nothing more, nothing less!”
At least for now, is what Kyle added in his mind. Lieze and Urza were one thing, but he realized that Minagi was oddly conscious of him as of late. However, he swore that he wouldn’t let things proceed until everything else had been resolved. And yet, hearing this fierce denial only invited displeased glares from Lieze and Urza, which Kyle himself thankfully didn’t realize.
“Of course I trust you in that. I’m just a bit worried because I’ve heard rumors. As long as it’s just about all the scandals and romances with the women you meet during your journey…”
“What do you mean ‘As long as,’ huh?! And wait, these kinds of rumors were going around?!”
“Something about helping a young handsome lad who you’ve been chasing after you…But that must be exaggerated, right?”
“What in the world is even that?!” Kyle loudly protested.
“I mean…they are rumors, after all. Something about lending money to a young engineer, but you got rejected…And full of lingering attachment, you still send him money even now.”
“What a horrendous misunderstanding…” Kyle held his head in disbelief.
However, since he knew where that rumor originated from, he couldn’t argue against it. The origin of this rumor was most likely the magic engineer Gou located in the Mountain City Callan. It’s true that Kyle was adamant on buying Gou’s services, but this was to create the magic weapon called Golem, and he simply offered to pay the funds for this. These Golems are strong and highly effective against demons, but as they possessed immense strength to the point it could shatter a country’s defenses, Kyle wanted to keep their existence a secret at least until the blueprint was finished. That’s why he got the ambassador of Zilgus, Miranda, under his control so that she would help hide this fact.
However, even if the existence of those golems was kept secret, the flow of money was an entirely different story, and it was to be expected that talk about it had to come up at some point. Kyle agreed to Miranda’s offer that she would try and divert the true reason for the money into a different direction, but he did so without learning about the details or what she planned on doing.
It sounds convincing enough, sure…But there’s gotta be better ways of hiding that!
In short, she made it sound like Kyle fell for the charm of a man and opted to send him wealthy donations, diverting the interest of the citizens to that origin, and putting a lid of smoke over the true reason. It was probably a bit of a payback from Miranda after Kyle basically blackmailed her to assist them.
“Th-They’re all baseless rumors. Don’t mind them.”
“If you say so…But, don’t worry. Even if you find interest in that sort of stuff, we’ll always understand and be there for you. Just make sure to take responsibility.”
“That’s right, Kyle.”
“You don’t need to understand anything! It’s a complete misunderstanding! …And you guys, don’t look at me like that! We’ve been together this whole time, right?!”
“Anyway, please continue to look after our Kyle, everyone.”
“Thank you.”
Kyle’s parents completely ignored their own son as they turned towards his allies, who had also begun sending Kyle dubious gazes.
“Still, how long has it been since Kyle brought some new friends with him…When he was younger, he’d often get visited by girls, but eventually, it was just Lieze-chan, so I was a bit worried. In fact…”
“No more, please.”
Leaving aside his childhood friends Lieze and Seran, these were stories that he would rather not want Urza or Minagi to know.
“Anyway! Do you know when Court Mage Beadola will return?”
Kyle opted to not let his mother continue on blabbering, as he cleared his throat and brought up the main reason for their visit, as Seraia returned a dubious question.
“Teacher’s been holed up in the imperial palace for the past few days. What about her?”
Preferably, Kyle would have loved to see Beadola right this instant. He wondered how to bring up that, when he considered using Princess Angela’s name, as—
“Oh yeah, Kyle wanted to meet Beadola-sama.”
“You want to meet Teacher? I’ll go ask for her, then.”
Roel must have remembered their original reason for coming here, as Seraia didn’t even ask for the reason and just agreed. Kyle wasn’t given much time to think if this was a good idea, as Seraia placed her hands on the crystal ball in front of her, starting a chant. Shortly after, the crystal began glowing.
“Teacher? Do you have time right now?”
‘Seraia? My hands are bound right now, so leave that for later.’
Beadola’s familiar voice came from the crystal ball, but she clearly wasn’t too happy about being contacted like this. Yet, Seraia continued without a worry in the world.
“My son wants to meet you. Also, Princess Angela is with us.”
Before Kyle could even say another thing, his mother revealed the fact about Angela.
‘…I’ll come to you right now. Don’t you dare move,’ Beadola’s voice sounded a lot deeper and filled with gravity.
“Teacher’s gonna come meet you in a bit.”
“Good for you, Kyle.”
Hearing his parents’ nonchalant tones, Kyle could only flash a wry smile.
CClaw Translations 