Chapter 142 – The Hero Was Welcomed
“Karen, will I ride behind Ms. Genoa today?”
“Yes? Are you still okay?”
“Sure.”
Before leaving the Darius estate, Marian said that to Karen.
Marian and Karen were the only two in the party who didn’t know how to ride a horse anyway, and Marian gave her back seat to Karen with a pretty relaxed face.
Karen gave her a suspicious look, but Marian hummed her song and she only moved to Genoa’s side of her.
‘I’m going crazy, really.’
As I know why Marianne suddenly became relaxed, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated when I saw her.
It wasn’t even that she was thinking of cheating on her on purpose, because her circumstances had taken a strange turn.
She seems to be in a good mood now, but one day Marian will know the truth too.
And I was terrified of Marianne’s reaction when she found out the truth.
“Hero, are you leaving?”
I wasn’t the only one who felt Marianne’s strangeness to her.
Of course, seeing Marianne who was much more up than usual, her party started to feel doubts, and the end of their gaze was on me.
A gaze full of questions as to whether something had happened between the two.
But being unable to give any answer to that, I just kicked the poor horse in the side and said,
“Let’s go to the ecliptic.”
That’s how the party and I left Darius’ territory and started running to the ecliptic.
The absurd thing was that none of the horses he rode were tired and ran very fast.
I looked at Genoa at the appearance of horses running like a legendary horse, but it was the same that she did not understand.
“Ah, I bet my blessing.”
And it was none other than Marian who answered my question.
She, who had been smiling all day long, looked at me and replied that, and I asked her back with a look on her face that was astonished at her Marianne’s answer to her.
“Tell me?”
“Yes. It’s good to go to the ecliptic quickly.”
“Yes, but is it possible to bless animals?”
I asked Marianne, who was acting out of common sense.
At least as far as I know, there was no way to raise the ability by blessing an animal with holy magic.
“… Did you think it worked?”
I stared at Marianne as she answered casually, her mouth gaping open.
Maybe no one had the idea of blessing an animal, or maybe Marianne was the only one.
Whatever the truth, it is true that Marian’s abilities her are running amok.
More and more I began to worry about the aftermath of Marianne’s realization of her truth.
**
“A warrior, a warrior.”
The reaction of the citizens of Lydea, the imperial capital that arrived, was completely different from what I expected.
The people of Lydea, who had looked at me with a plain expression when I first entered the ecliptic with Marianne, began to cheer me and my party as if they were the main characters in a heroic story.
“Hey, that woman must be an elf. Really pretty.”
“They said that they saved the Dwarf city and the great forest following the Butler estate, so I guess they accepted the Elves as well?”
I looked at her, Isabella, and glanced at her chatter her, at her people’s reactions to her.
Certainly, Isabella had a striking appearance, and since elves were not a race that could be easily encountered, people’s attention was bound to be focused on her.
I wonder if Isabella, who considers her human being insignificant, would be uncomfortable with the attention of her imperial people her, but rather, she was making a haughty expression with her chin slightly raised as if enjoying the gaze of her .
“The reaction is very different from before.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what this is about.”
That’s how I answered the words of Genoa, who rode up next to me.
It was true that the eyes of the imperials were relatively focused on Isabella, but that didn’t stop her other party from paying attention.
Marian was a saint of the Guyana religion that had the most powerful influence within the empire, Genoa was the famous daughter of the Duke of Darius, and Karen was also a woman famous for being a genius of the Mage Tower.
Each of them was famous in their own way, and since they were women with beautiful appearances, the people who gathered to watch our party could hardly take their eyes off them.
As the party passed between the crowds of people who had come to watch, a group of soldiers appeared and blocked our way.
“What?”
When I asked the soldiers, a nobleman who appeared a little later among the soldiers spoke to me.
“Hero, I will take you to the imperial palace.”
I didn’t know if the change in the reaction of the people of the empire was due to the emperor’s influence or the opposite, but I couldn’t refuse the emperor’s request anyway.
Although the party’s travel was not yet resolved, and we were unable to get off the horse properly, we followed the soldiers’ guidance and headed straight to the emperor’s palace.
“A party of warriors has arrived.”
Upon arriving at the imperial palace, I saw the soldier guarding the entrance to the throne room shouting like that toward the back of the door.
Still, having been there a few times, I felt the palace was quite familiar to me, but Lucille, who was from a foreign country, had a tense expression on her face.
Of course, Isabella would also be meeting the emperor for the first time, but as an elven queen, she was too old to be intimidated by the emperor.
“Stop by.”
The door to the audience room opened, and I could see the old emperor sitting on the throne in front and the nobles of the empire lined up next to him.
The hateful prince Aaron was standing to the right of the emperor, glaring at me disapprovingly, and to the left of the emperor, I could see Mary, the princess, standing.
Around Mary, young nobles stood in a row, but judging from the many unfamiliar faces, it seemed that Mary herself was a new force she had gathered.
It was still an insignificant force compared to Aaron and other nobles, but considering the fact that he had not been seen in the emperor’s throne room until recently, he seemed to have put in quite a bit of effort.
Me and Mary exchanged a quick glance, and I saw Aaron biting his molars.
“Did the hero say he was friendly with our princess?”
Perhaps because I pretended to know Mary, the emperor showed her curiosity and asked me that.
It might have made him feel bad for pretending to know the princess before the emperor himself, but the emperor didn’t seem to care about the matter at all.
“Yes. You have helped me in many ways.”
I smiled at the emperor and answered that, and at the same time I saw Aaron’s expression contort.
I couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on, but seeing the citizens of Lydea cheering at me and my companions, it was only natural that the emperor would show me a sudden favor.
Because the emperor, who was only interested in prolonging his life, cared about the reputation of the citizens of the empire.
It might seem a little strange that an emperor who has all the power should care about public reputation, but the things that an old man who is not far from death will show his obsession his are not as many as he thought.
“Right. Well done Mary. I’ve done something crazy.”
“Go, thank you. Obama.”
The emperor directly praised Mary, the princess, and the effect was immediately apparent.
The eyes of most of the nobles gathered in the audience room were on Mary, and they were weighing the prince and the princess.
“By the way, are there any faces you haven’t seen before?”
Feeling a sense of danger as the atmosphere turned toward Mary, Aaron asked me that.
On the way to meet the emperor, he said in a scolding tone, “Why did you bring people with unknown identities?”
But before I could answer him, Isabella stepped forward.
“Nice to meet you, Your Majesty. My name is Isabella.”
“… If it’s Isabella, are you the Queen of the Elves?”
The Emperor asked, looking at Isabella with amazement.
It wasn’t the first time the elves had visited the empire, but it was the first time the queen of elves had visited the ecliptic in person.
“Yes. I am in a position to lead my own people, though lacking.”
At Isabella’s words her, the aristocrats of the Empire erupted in exclamation.
Some of the nobles, who had been salivating at her beautiful appearance and giving lustful glances, hurriedly lowered their heads and were busy hiding their lust.
Even though the Empire had a powerful position on the continent, it was not possible to look down on the leader of any one race or kingdom.
