--------- Natalia's POV
"I still ca.came here to warn you aunty... The villagers downstairs are ver...very perverted people, one of them even harassed me, luckil...y Yuto came on time "
"Hehhh? Is that so? Didn't I tell you to wait for Yuto to bring food?
"Tha...that's okay, let's go downstairs and watch Yuto pu... punish the perverts . Come on ... Pleaseee... Sniff.. "
Although she wants to make a stern face, her eyebrows are trembling and she already has tears in her eyes. Not to mention how her arms are shaking as she grabs my skirt and tries to pull it ... Huff
I know exactly how you feel, Shizune-chan. I had the same difficulties once. You're luckier than me though; at least your butler is someone you don't hesitate to ask for things from. I know you're worried that something might happen to him, but Yuto is more wonderful than you think, and I hope you'll realise that in the future.
Those pieces of rubbish! How unbelievable that just because a child is five years old, the burden of being a nobleman falls on that child! Poor Shizune... I know how you feel.
Unable to bear Shizune's appearance, I wrapped my arms around Shizune and held her against my warm chest . As a noble, I shouldn't be so intimate with another noble outside the family home, but I don't care . The path to nobility for me ended at that dinner table when I was only six years old.
The rules of nobility, etiquette, royal behaviour... It's all a big pile of rubbish. A physically developed child is a child even he's been touched by the goddesses, I'll talk to the king about it next time I'm in front of him. The age for receiving a blessing should be at least 12. It's cruel to allow children to be subjected to the torture of consecration at the first opportunity to fulfil their potential.
" Please...sniff... let's go watch Yuto, auntie.. sniff "
"Don't worry, Shizune, Yuto is fine"
-------
When Shizune looked up at her aunt, she saw that she had a magic circle floating in front of her one eye. She guessed that she could probably already see what was going on downstairs thanks to this circle.
Just like a builder who had been trying to carry a 100kg weight for a long time, but when he reached his limit, another person came and took the weight off his back and he fell heavily to the ground, Shizune lost the feeling in her legs and fell completely into the arms of her aunt.
The burden of "nobility" was indeed too heavy for a girl like her. Although she needed help, the feeling of asking for help openly was strongly engraved deep in her heart.
------
"On behalf of myself and my men, I apologise to you"
While I was expecting a sneak attack, the fact that this man suddenly bent down and apologised to me made me feel guilty for some reason.
"You do realise I just killed one of your men without hesitation. I admit you don't seem to be angry with me, but your men seem to have murderous intent in their eyes."
The young man turned round and gave a simple look that caused everyone to turn their heads away . A leader of the Red Wolf mercenaries was the kind of person that anyone would bully in normal times. But there were times when this man would suddenly act like a very different person and remind everyone why he was the leader.
One of those times was now. The mercenaries who saw their leader's usual tired and weary gaze turn into a stern gaze full of seriousness did not want to face the ruthless side of their leader, so they went back to their own business. Of course, some of them, like the dead man, were hired adventurers who had temporarily joined the group, not knowing why the leader acted the way he did. Some of these adventurers felt a little scared and a little wronged to see one of their own dead, and as a result, they continued to insist on their own thoughts and reached for their swords.
The leader, who was about to bow his head to continue apologising again, saw that some of the men were disobeying his orders and signalled with his eyes to his trusted assistant Maki. The next moment, Maki, who was sitting at the back of the tavern, took out his black stick with a bright blue stone on the end of it from under his raincoat-like clothes and pointed it at the men who intended to rebel against the leader, and two of the 5 different magical rings engraved on the stone on the stick glowed, causing seven fireballs to shoot out of the stick at the same time.
As the fireballs shot these men in the back and killed each of them at once due to internal injuries, the girl named Maki blinked her eyes and gave a provocative look at the boy in front of whom her leader was bowing . Even though she knew that the fireballs she was actually using were far inferior in power, speed and lethality to the fireball used by the boy in front of her, she involuntarily felt superior.
The smug look in her eyes was also noticed by Yuto. If Yuto hadn't felt the familiar mana fluctuations coming from upstairs until just now, he probably would have responded by throwing ten fireballs at the same time, passing within inches of the girl.
"Why are you so cruel to your own people? Or rather, do you want something from me?
"I don't want anything from you. Besides, those men were not my men, they were just some of the adventurers I hired temporarily, but I was already in my mind to get rid of them because we had many incidents such as the man on the ground harassing your lover. "
I noticed that there were a few other hired adventurers among the group who reacted differently than everyone else to what had just happened. Although I don't know why he executed only some of them and not all the hired adventurers, it seems that I didn't have to kill everyone in this room today. This is good...
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The next arc --->
An ordinary? day for the Ironblood family.
( Total 17 chapter )