Afterstory 5

In the end we barely spoke much to each other on the way until we finally reached the royal castle that stood tall overlooking the capital.

I had talked with Charlotte many times before but, this was my first time actually coming to the castle itself.

To be honest, I don’t even know if we can just walk in to a place like this either but, with Klaus now gone, I don’t think we should run into any real problems.

“……….Drake, have you been to the castle before?”

Stuck in a heavy silence, I decided to break it by asking Drake a question.

If he has been here before even once, I could just ask him to lead me around. That’s make this go a lot faster after all.

“Yeah, many times in fact. It was mostly while following Klaus though but I still know the place pretty well from the inside.”

“Then, lead the way. I haven’t been here before so I have no idea where to even start to look for people.”

“I thought you had the princess’ support? And yet, you never came to the castle even once?”

“Well, things would have gone to shit if Klaus found out about me after all. From the way we attacked you guys in [Foro Neem] I think you probably understand already, but I wanted to make sure to get him precisely in a place where he would be lacking support.”

“That makes sense I suppose. Klaus was indeed always frantically searching for you, Chris………..but, I think even if he had found you, he would have still faced you one-on-one head on I think.”

He said that but, I didn’t really believe that.

Well, it’s all over now anyway so this talk was a waste of time.

“No point in discussing what ifs. Just lead the way.”

“………Sure. Where do you want to go?”

“To Charlotte herself preferably. If not, to someone who could get me in touch with her instead. Can you?”

“The princess doesn’t let anyone just walk into her room obviously so we should go talk to the butler instead. I can take you to him.”

“Then, lead the way please.”

After that, both of us turned silent again and I entered the castle following after Drake.

The number of soldiers inside were a lot more than I thought there’d be, and most of them seemed to be part of the royal knights, like Alexandria.

I felt people gaze focusing on me but, they seemed to obviously recognize Drake so they didn’t stop us and we headed uninterrupted straight to the butler’s room.

“Got a minute? Is the head butler here. We’d like to talk with him.”

He knocked on the door, before entering the room and spoke that out loud.

As soon as we entered the room, a bunch of very aptly dressed butlers looked towards me, and one amongst them, a distinctly fresh looking old man walked towards me.

He must be above 60 in age but, both his life energy and mana was exceptionally high.

I could also sense a slight tinge of hostility towards me, and with my current depleted state I was not going to be able to take him on so I felt a little scared.

“I am the Head Butler, Sebas. How may I help you gentlemen?”

“I would like to talk to the princess, Charlotte. Can you please call her?”

“My deepest apologies but Lady Charlotte is currently not in the capital.”

With a perfect bow, the butler named Sebas said that to me in a very matter-of-fact tone.

I can tell he’s probably lying because he thinks I might be someone suspicious but, with how tired I am right now, all this roundabout bullshit only annoyed me.

“Fine. Then, can you at least call the commander of the Royal knights, 3rd squad, Alexandra? That should be fine right?”

“………very well. Lady Alexandra correct? I can call her so please wait here.”

It was an indirect way but, Alexandra was the best way to connect to Charlotte right now.

10 minutes after waiting inside the room alongside Sebas who sent out a different butler to call her——Alexandra finally appeared.

“Ah! Chris-san!”

“Sorry to bother you when busy. But I have some important things to talk about.”

“Please, don’t worry about it! If you’re here in the castle, then that means——it’s done, right?”

I didn’t say anything specific but Alexandra had already guessed what all had happened.

Since talking to Sebas took unnecessary time, seeing her instantly get to the point made her look like a goddess honestly.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Understood. Then please, follow after me!………Sebas-san, thank you for calling me here.”

“My apologies for bothering you mid work.”

“Pay it no heed. Now then, allow us to take our leave.”

For a moment, Sebas looked genuinely shocked that I really was Alexandra’s acquaintence but I decided to simply ignore it.

Since we came here right after a literal deathmatch, I’m hardly in a presentable state right now so it was only natural for him to be a bit suspicious of me.

As I mused over such things, me and Drake followed after Alexandra and made our way to Charlotte’s room.

Her room was on the third floor, and this entire floor had a completely different feel and aura compared to the first floor where the butler’s room was.

Feeling a bit in awe of the grandiose atmosphere of this place, we finally stopped in front of a beautifully decorated door.

This must be her room as Alexandra knocked a couple times and called out and then waited for a response from inside.

“You may enter.”

Once the reply from Charlotte came from the inside, she opened the door and let me in.

Unlike her usual adventurer-esque attire, right now Charlotte was in a more princess-like elaborate dress instead.

The gap between the two looks was so big that for a moment I lost my words but, once I confirmed that it was indeed Charlotte, I decided to not even bring her attire up.

“Eh? Chris, you!? You’re already back?”

“Yeah, it’s all finished. For good.”

“If you’re still alive then, Klaus is…….?”

“Exactly as you are imagining right now, Charlotte.”

“Well, that’s a relief——-is that the right phrasing? You certainly don’t seem very happy.”

“I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Are Ralf and Esta okay? I don’t see them with you.”

“I had them return first and get some rest. It really was a battle to the death after all. Well, I say that but ironically, I did end up bringing someone back with me though.”

Saying that, I asked Drake who was waiting outside to come inside as well.

Seeing Drake’s face, Charlotte looked terribly surprised but, after noticing that he held no hostility towards her, she gave a nod and then positioned herself to properly listen to the entire story.

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