Chapter 48 - The Prince of the Beastly Kingdom is Supposed to Have a Harem…13
When Ruth parted ways with Wonok and went to the living room of the main house with his luggage, he found Celine and Julia sitting next to each other on the sofa. Rossa was in front of him, and Clark was standing at the end of the room. Ruth quietly stood next to Clark. It looked like Rossa was checking on Herald's actions from Julia, who had calmed down a little.
"Julia... So there's a possibility that Herald did something like that, right?"
"I'm sorry, Rossa..."
“Did you come to my inn with the intention of stealing from the start?”
“N-no...!"
When Rossa asked with a grim look on his face, Julia shook her head with tears streaming down her cheeks.
According to her words, Julia and Herald were planning to get married soon after ending their long standing, troubled relationship. However, it seemed that they had accumulated debts while living in the neighboring country Ziltania and had difficulty making ends meet. It seemed that she wanted to clear her debts in order to get married, so she went on an adventure to earn money and ended up in this village where her old friend Rossa lived.
"To be honest, I was hoping you’d lend us some money. But I had no intention of stealing! I just wanted to see your face, really. And Herald never said anything about that... so I'd like to think there was some other reason."
"There's evidence that someone entered my son’s room and searched through it… If there is another reason, I'd like to hear it."
"...Mm, you’re right. I'm sorry."
Ruth could see that Julia's ears were drooping and sunken deeply. She herself seemed surprised by Herald's behavior. Celine gently touched Julia's shoulder without saying a word, and Rossa let out a deep sigh.
"...My bad, Julia. He’s already been through so much, and now I’m blaming you. I'm a bit confused too..."
Although not to the same extent as Julia, Rossa also couldn’t keep his cool after he lost an old friend, and what’s more, it was an accident that occurred after rummaging through his son’s room. He didn’t want to believe it.
(...It's frustrating that I can't tell them.)
Ruth watched them in silence, remembering what Wonok had said.
Herald was alive. As far as Wonok was concerned, he was injured but not dead due to his ability as a beastman. And given the situation in that room, there was a high possibility that his near death was not an accident.
(If I tell my parents, they'd probably be happy, but then Mr. Herald might be targeted again.)
Even if he informed them of the situation and tried to hide it, Rossa was an honest person, so it was likely the people around them will find out if his attitude changed. If that happened, the Herald will be in real danger this time.
In any case, it seemed that Herald couldn’t be awakened unless someone had the ability to use healing magic on him. So, it would be best to pretend he was dead and not make a big fuss about it now to ensure his safety.
(But the biggest question is, who would do such a thing?)
The people currently staying at the inn were Seju, Nikola, Julia, and Wonok. Excluding his three family members, it was hard to say that Julia, who was a transient, and Wonok, who gave Ruth advice, could be completely trusted. Wonok's reasoning for why it wasn't an accident was logical and he could understand it, but he also didn't understand why he only told Ruth about it.
(It’s sad, but there's a possibility that the incident happened because of an internal conflict with Julia... I also can't rule out the possibility that Wonok had an ulterior motive. In the first place, I only heard from Wonok that he’s alive. I can't judge for myself whether he’s really alive or not unless I enter the room.)
Ruth was basically the type of person who trusted and wanted to trust others. This was probably due to the peaceful atmosphere of the village where people’s livelihoods were made from hunting and small dungeons. If it was true, he didn't even want to think about it. However, given the severity of this incident, it was impossible to maintain such pure emotions. This was surely greatly influenced by his past life experiences. In an effort to protect himself, the usually sealed memories of his previous life involuntarily opened up.
In his previous life, he lived till the age of thirty. In that other world, people's emotions were more complex, with plenty of purity and kindness, but also malice, betrayal, and fear. He not only experienced these things but also saw and heard about them through communication devices and broadcasts. He remembers many horrifying incidents that someone like Ruth, who grew up in a peaceful village like Hashi*, couldn't even imagine. That was why Ruth's sense of caution has involuntarily increased.
*Name of Ruth’s village
(Anyway, right now I have no choice but to pretend to be a clueless nineteen-year-old boy and act normal. And if possible, I have to secretly find out the truth about this matter... I have to protect the three of them.)
Ruth's family was kind-hearted and simple. Ruth strongly engraved in his heart that he was the only one who could protect his precious family, who in a good way, had little caution against human malice.
After a while, Julia seemed to have calmed down, took a deep breath, and looked up. Her face looked red, swollen, and painful.
"...Rossa, I'm sorry that I couldn't stop the Herald. I’m also sorry for causing trouble at your inn..."
"Alright, I understand. Let's stop this. In any case, Herald, the person involved, isn't here. I’ll take your word that this wasn’t your intention."
“Mm…"
Perhaps because Rossa's words calmed her down, Julia blew her nose with the handkerchief Celine had given her and let out a deep sigh. Celine called out to her with a gentle expression on her face.
"We can think about what to do with Herald once the blizzard calms down. We can bury him here, or if you'd like, we can take him to Ziltania..."
"No, Ziltania is a bit..."
Julia reacted immediately to Celine's words. Celine had only meant to say, "Take your time," but she was surprised by how quickly Julia reacted, and tilted her head with a slightly suspicious look.
"Eh, why? You've been living there for a long time, haven't you?"
"...Right now, it's a bit hectic in that country, so I thought it would be best not to take you there."
“Is Ziltania in trouble?”
"Is that what’s happening, Clark?"
Clark put his hand on his chin thoughtfully as his entire family looked at him, but he slowly tilted his head to the side. Out of everyone in the family, Clark had the most opportunities to go to the royal capital and was in a position where he could easily get the latest information, but it seemed like he had never heard of such a thing.
"...This is a problem. I don't think this has spread to Deodart yet."
"What happened?"
"...The prince of the Kingdom of Ziltania is missing."
“The prince is missing? ”
The voices of the four family members overlapped.
(There is a prince after all...)
Though Ruth had used the word 'prince' as an adjective before, he had never heard of an actual prince. It surprised him a little. In Ruth's mind, the word 'prince' suited Alec, but he was curious in what a real prince might be like.
“It seems the prince was originally a bit mischievous and good at causing trouble for those around him. But a few weeks ago, about two months since we left Ziltania, he suddenly disappeared. At first, they thought he’d just run away from home, but since his whereabouts are completely unknown, there's also talk that he might have been kidnapped...''
“So that’s what happened.”
"The truth is, the reason we came to this country was to search for him. There was talk of a search within the guild for high-ranking adventurers. If we could find him and bring him back, the bounty would be 100 million gold."
“100 million gold?! ”
The amount of money was so large that screams rose. Even if there were jewels or knives worth enough to buy an inn, the actual amount was twice as surprising. 'Godos' seemed to be a universal currency, with Ruth roughly estimating one Godo to be about one yen. In other words, it was one hundred million yen. When it came to searching for a prince, it might actually be considered cheap.
“Other than that, it comes with the right to petition the king directly… Now do you understand why we came all the way to this village?”
“Indeed, if you knew about this village, this is where you would first suspect someone to hide.”
Ziltania was a separate country from the Deodart Kingdom, but Hashi Village was only about three mountains away from it in a straight line, so it wasn’t that far. If you walked straight, you could probably reach it in about ten days. However, in reality, the mountains were steep, and not many beastmen even with superior physical abilities could cross them. Therefore, the usual detour route from the direction of the capital took over a month to reach Hashi Village. And globally speaking, Hashi Village was relatively unknown, despite having a dungeon, so it was often not considered by many people who didn't know it.
"Prince Kia was an Ocal-type beastman, so crossing the mountains won’t be difficult for him. That's why I think this village would be a hidden gem."
"Hmm... but you know, we haven’t had any Ocal-type beastmen come to the village these past two months."
“So it’s a miss…”
Julia sighed deeply. It seemed they had come to this village because all other places she could think of had already been searched, but it appeared their guess was off.
(Hmm...wait a minute, Ocal?)
At the end of that conversation, Ruth's mind flashed back to the pure white Ocal he had brought home. Its fur was immaculate, and it carried an air distinctly different from other giant creatures.
(No way... That was just a normal Ocal, not a beastman. No, no...)
While thinking about this, he glanced sideways at Clark and saw that the other person was also looking at him.
"...Ruth...that Ocal."
"There’s no way. It was just a normal Ocal. He wasn't a beastman, right?"
"Well...the thing is, I heard from a fellow beastman merchant a long time ago that beastmen with fairly high magic power can change their appearance, though it’s not limited to beastmen, apparently."
“B-but it had a slave crest on it...”
"...It could be that the prince ran away from home and accidentally became a slave in another country."
It was the moment Ruth broke into a sweat at Clark's unsettling mutter. Suddenly, a sound like someone pounding on a wall reached Ruth's ears. Clark seemed to hear it too, as he looked around with a surprised expression. It wasn't clear where the sound was coming from, but Ruth immediately recognized its source.
"What's that sound?"
"Over there..."
“Oh, I, uh, left my stuff in the storage room, maybe something fell??”
Julia, who also seemed to have figured out the source of the sound, tried to point towards the storage room, but Ruth hurriedly interrupted her and began to explain something. If they decided to check it out and opened the storage room – the room where Ocal was – it would be terrible.
“Ruth, make sure you clean up properly.”
“Okay, then I’ll clean up a bit! Wait, Nikola!?”
When Ruth hurriedly opened the door to the living room, Nikola, the silent swordsman traveler, was standing in front of the door. He seemed surprised that Ruth had opened the door, which was a bit strange.
"What’s wrong?"
"...No, I was just... hungry... it's an odd time, but what about breakfast..."
"Oh my, is it that time already?! I'm sorry!"
He opened and closed his mouth as if confused, but eventually explained why he came to the main house. The way he spoke sounded a bit like an excuse, but Nikola's facial expressions didn't change much, so Ruth couldn't tell what he was thinking.
Celine was surprised by Nikola's words and started moving. It was hard to tell the time because the windows were covered, but it felt like it was probably time for breakfast. Despite the incident in the house, they couldn't skip breakfast, as hunger persisted regardless of circumstances, so it couldn’t be helped.
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T/N: This chapter was long but seeing Clark and Ruth’s reactions was funny. I just know they were sweating haha. Btw feel free to point out any typos!
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