Chapter 243
“Last time, Arel, you said that I couldn’t cook like that.”
“I don’t know, I don’t remember.”
“I remember?”
“Because I don’t remember.”
I don\'t remember.
It is an ambassador of the privilege of a noble status.
I don\'t remember. I do not know. That\'s what my house griffon said. Etc.....
Maybe you said that I\'m better at cooking than you?
Actually, I remember, but it\'s annoying, so I\'ll have to hold on to it until the end.
“It was so long ago that I forgot.”
As if I was joking, I took it off, and Pena smiled strangely.
“I’ll take this opportunity to show you that I really can’t do it.”
“Is that now?”
“huh! now!”
Could it be that it hurt your pride enough to remain in your memory?
Well I don\'t really care
After all, I just give orders and the rest of the time I\'m in a position to play.
“Just sit there and wait.”
“Yeah-yeah-”
Following Pena\'s instructions, I quietly sat down on a chair next to the table and waited.
Come to think of it, this is a completely opposite composition from last time.
Previously, I called her to sit down here to calm down Pena, who was in the midst of confusion.
And is it the other way around this time?
....Well, let\'s not bother to ask whether he ordered it knowingly or not.
Because that\'s manners.
For now, Pena was busily preparing something in front of me, who watched with her chin resting on her chin.
how long did you wait
A faint sweetness was felt on the tip of the nose.
Um, isn\'t it normal cooking?
After a while, it became possible to know the identity of what she was trying to create.
What Pena brought was a type of tea that the Empire often enjoys drinking, and a snack she had never seen before.
” snack\'?”
“Imperial nobles often eat it. I also ate it often when I was young.”
aha that\'s right
It looks roughly like a scone.
Is it just subtly different?
“I’ve been thinking about other things for a while, but I wondered if Arel would like this one more. What do you think?”
“Certainly an appropriate choice.”
Everyone knows that I like sweet things.
If you hear rumors that there is even a little bit of sweetness in Ernesia Kingdom, you will hear rumors that there will soon be people who witnessed my appearance.
I won\'t bother mentioning the truth of the rumor.
yes, that\'s the truth
“Originally, the dough and berries make it sweet, but wouldn’t that suit Arel’s taste?”
Saying that, Fena deliberately poured melted chocolate into the cookies she had brought.
“Ugh… I think I’m going to gain weight.”
“What if the person who made it said that?”
Watch me eat and get fat?
Well, once you give it, you eat it.
It\'s really punishing to turn away from the party in front of it.
Once I tried it, the taste was good.
It feels like it was made with the chocolate in mind.
The tea is also quite high-quality, so the fragrance is deep.
“how is it?”
“It’s delicious.”
“oh? For some reason, I thought that Arell would speak more grumpily?”
Tsk tsk, it\'s funny.
I clicked my tongue.
“You don’t know me yet? I never lie in front of you.”
“…Oh so?”
Conversely, it is that they lie like they are eating anything other than sugar, but let\'s just skip that.
First of all, it was given out for a long time, so I ate it well.
I really didn\'t have any reason to complain.
“so? Did you come back like this to give me this?”
“That\'s not all. I really had something to say.”
It\'s just that I have something to say, but I can\'t get it out easily.
“???? Arell.”
Pena suddenly called my name.
yes my name is arel
However, Pena was silent for a moment.
Why are you rolling your eyes because you want to say something?
“If you can’t think of anything to say, do it later. I am busy.”
First of all, when I pretended to get up, Pena panicked.
“I will! I will!”
“Then tell me.”
When I sat down again and stared at her face, Fena couldn\'t meet my eyes at all.
Then, after wasting some time again, she managed to get these words out.
“....thank you.”
“hmm\'?”
“You said it before Arel, right? I will prove to you that my spiritual skills are not an ugly quality.”
“Remember.”
Since I said it, I can\'t forget it.
I casually nodded.
“Could you say thank you for keeping that promise or did you just want to say that?”
“why? Then why not?”
“…It’s okay. It\'s nothing to be thankful for.”
It\'s not like being humble.
It\'s true.
To the end, I chose Pena as a means to put a dent in their name in case there would be a conflict with the Holy Kingdom, and there was no other reason.
“You must have overheard it too? I didn’t have to help just for you.”
There is no reason to be grateful again.
Rather, the chicken meat grows.
Look at this.
But Pena shook her head slowly. Not even stubborn
“Arel, no matter what you think, I am grateful to you.”
“It is different from that. And I might thoroughly suck up the commercial district or other things after that. If you said that now, you might regret it?”
“don\'t worry. Because I have no regrets.”
Only this is said with certainty.
As if I\'m sure I\'ll never regret it.
“I have no regrets.”
For the first time, Fena smiled like a flower, like a girl of her age.
On the contrary, this time I was at a loss for words.
“I’m not stupid enough to say thank you and regret it. and.”
Pena continued without losing her smile.
“You were the only one who recognized my qualities and never frowned upon them, Arell Ernesia. That alone is enough for me to thank you.”
“.. is that so?”
“Perhaps Arel doesn’t know. The feeling of not being acknowledged for reasons you don’t understand even though you want to be recognized.”
“…well. how about that?”
On purpose, I just skipped it.
“You are the only one who recognized me as an individual before I took the position of the princess. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
When she said this, Pena really didn\'t lie to herself.
“This is a huge debt to me.”
“Oh, you mean you might have to pay it someday’?”
I jokingly said that, but she didn\'t budge.
“Yeah, I guess. So, one day... No matter what happens, I will definitely pay this price. It’s not about interests or anything, but as an individual.”
“Pena as an individual?”
“huh. As an individual, to the end.”
For some reason, I got a strange feeling from that resolute and upright will, so I smiled and stood up evasively.
The conversation with her soon came to an end.
Coincidentally, a servant came to call me on some business.
It was because Pena stood proudly as if she had said everything.
“So see you next time, Arell.”
Even though there was no need to come back, Pena said so.
I deliberately tried not to think about what that meant this time.
“...Don\'t expect anything.”
And the next day, Pena left for the Empire again.
I was really just saying what I had to say.
After sending Pena back to the Empire, he hurriedly prepared for the dispatch in earnest.
After dispatching troops according to schedule, the 50,000-strong territory army led by me marched to join the kingdom\'s army that was on the battlefield first.
It will continue like this until it joins the army of the other lords and arrives.
Combined, it will become a large army of 200,000 and head to the front.
As for the current situation of the war, it seemed that no significant news had been delivered yet.
First of all, I told you to contact me immediately if anything happens, so there will be no big deal.
‘...Well, we haven\'t even had a proper fight yet.\'
Currently, the advance party was in a confrontation to break through the border fortress of the Zelnian Castle.
It seems that the siege was fought to see the liver several times.
So far, it hasn\'t done much damage and hasn\'t been counterattacked.
Are you saying it\'s still far from the start of a full-scale battle?
First of all, in order to think about the detailed situation and countermeasures, it is necessary to go all the way to the site, even from the rear.
Whoa.... I\'m going to die of boredom.
It\'s just that while I\'m not there, someone says ‘Yap!\' I also hoped that it would end the war.
Reality can\'t be that convenient.
Worst case, ‘yap!\' And the end of the war could be a defeat on our side, so we can\'t just ignore it.
If you get it wrong, this is ‘Yap!\' that you might get hit.
that would make me feel bad
Inside the carriage, I peeked out the window.
The atmosphere of the soldiers who followed was tense, but compared to the previous war, it was not so heavy.
“You look full of confidence?”
Because the training and the weapons he brought with him were better than before.
Can you gain a little confidence?
“Everyone has high morale.”
Asha, who was escorting the wagon near the carriage, spoke as she approached the horse\'s head.
“Because no one dares to lose.”
“...well, it\'s better than not being confident. Still, take good command so that you don\'t do anything stupid.”
After paying attention, I lay down on the seat as it was.
When a person is overconfident, he quickly becomes arrogant.
The military is by no means an exception.
“Hmm, what I\'m more worried about than them... is over there.”
I murmured as I looked in the direction we were heading.
“Are you talking about the advance party?”
Similarly, Dia, who was riding in the carriage for escort, heard my muttering and asked a question.
“I just heard that you\'re fighting the enemy?”
“That’s because, until I joined, I was very careful not to engage in battle if nothing happened.”
First of all, the purpose is to win at once by overpowering after equipping more reliable troops.
another one.
It was to give the Holy Kingdom a reprieve for now.
We did not raise an army to invade.
In any case, they want to hold Seongguk responsible for the provocation that they made first.
“The meaning of the vanguard’s existence right now is to confront the Seongguk and check their strength, and we didn’t send them alone to capture it.”
Currently, the number of advance units is about 150,000.
If you push hard enough, you might be able to take away only the border.
However, before I even gave advice, most of the generals, including the oldest brother, decided to play more carefully.
First of all, give me a grace period until the main unit joins.
When the Seongguk does not reply by the deadline, it is to prepare the appearance of striking out at that time.
“How long will it take to arrive?”
“It will take about ten days.”
Checking the map, Dia said roughly how long it would take to march.
ten days... What do you mean there\'s no problem?
but.
“I hope you don’t get into an accident.”
I leaned back in my seat and murmured.
“I don\'t think they\'ll get into any trouble, no matter what.”
“No, not necessarily. Dia, you don’t know people very well yet.”
Tsk tsk You don\'t know the world well yet either.
Dia, who gave a wait-and-see answer as if she didn\'t know much about humans yet, I denied it with a slightly empty smile.
“I don’t think so, but it’s human beings who make accidents.”
“…is that so?”
“Yes, humans are creatures that always have accidents.”
In fact, I\'m half-sure.
It\'s not just us, Pahilia, who have high morale.
Due to the great victory in the last war, the whole kingdom army is a bit arrogant.
It was as if they were mistaken for an invincible army.
As I said before, humans become arrogant when they are excited more than necessary.
Especially, there\'s no way a noble who is blinded by the ball can be calm, right?
That\'s one of the most crucial reasons why I have to go myself - at least by now
...
Because humans are always stupid.