Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely

Chapter 106: The Princess of Fezard

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Jend: “Princess……”

 

Ferris: “Cyrule…..?”

 

In disbelief, Jend and Ferris repeat Princess Eileen’s words.

 

Eileen: “OーOh? Is something the matter, everyone? Um, Princess Cyrule?” Princess Eileen senses the drastic change in atmosphere and begins to wonder herself.
Looks like she wasn’t expecting things to turn out like this.

 

Cyril: “HーHa ha ha, Miss Eileen, what are you saying all of a sudden? Me? A princessー? You’re jokingーー”

 

Eileen: “? What are you saying? There’s no way I’m mistaken.
11 years ago, when I visited the Fezard Kingdom, we spent a lot of time in each other’s company.
Well, you were only 5 at the time, so you may not remember but….”

 

I see.
So that’s how they know each other.
11 years ago would be after Lady Asteria married the Governor here.
What serendipitous timing….

 

Cyril: “NーNo no no.
Miss Eileen, you’re mistaken.
Right? Right?”

 

Eileen: “What do you……”

 

Though Princess Eileen looked at her confused, but the light bulb lit up suddenly, and her eyes gleamed knowingly…….or it looked like that to me at least.

 

Eileen: “Yes! I understand now.
Everyone! It was obviously my mistake.
Princess Cyrule of Fezard and Miss Cyril have nothing to do with one another!”

 

……….though she tries to rectify the situation, it’s already too late.
I mean, seriously, this Princess really sucks at lying or acting.

 

Cyril: “YーYes, that’s rightー Really, Miss Eileen, I can’t believe you would mistake me for…… well…….soー”

 

With all our stares concentrating on her, she frantically looked around for help, but here, it’s only us.
After a while, she seemed to finally surrender and sagged her shoulders.

 

Cyril: “WーWill you not believe me?”

 

Henry: “Yeahー um.
I think not.”

 

I let out a as I pat Cyril on the shoulders.
……yeah, there’s no way to fool anyone now.

 

Cyril: “HーHenry…..you’re not surprised?”

 

Henry: “……Ende Style.”

 

Cyril: “Excuse me?” Henry: “You told me you use the Ende Style Magic.
That style is actually only specifically passed down from the Royal bloodline of the Fezard Kingdom.
The originator of the Magic Style Lady Ende, married into the Royal Family after she established the Magic Style.”

 

It was actually quite a ways back.
It was noted in a [Magic Encyclopedia] when I was at the library.

 

With that, Teo let’s out a “OH!” as she realizes too.
Teo was also reading the same book which this fact was noted, but she didn’t know Cyril’s actual Magic Style so she never put two and two together.

 

After learning about that, I made just a tiny bit of effort to not bring up Cyril’s Magic Style in our conversations afterwards.

 

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Cyril: “IーIs that so?” Henry: “You didn’t know?” Cyril: “BーBut, I was only learning Magic at home until I was 6.
I secretly snuck out the Magic text and learned how to use it, but I haven’t studied that much of the details.
Besides, my sister didn’t learn Magic at all.”

 

……..sister, huh.

 

Henry: “I thought maybe you were part of an illegitimate line, but if you’re the younger sister of Lady Asteria, I guess you’re from the main Royal Bloodline.”

 

Cyril: “EEK?!”

 

The slip of the tongue smacked her in the face as Cyril froze.
…..but seriously, you’re letting it all slip on your own.
But I guess it’s also because things are happening too fast.

 

Henry: “Well, I had a guess and decided not to ask, but…..can you tell us what this is all about now?”

 

Because we went out to the southwest side of Lake Lukan to see the beautiful scenery, and besides us, no one else was here.

 

If that’s the case, we can just hear her out, and if needed, just forget what we heard tomorrow and move on as if nothing happened.

 

But yeah, I thought it was about time we talked about it.
I tried avoiding that subject, and now the distance between Cyril and I became too close.
So I originally thought about bringing it up before the end of the year.

 

………although it was abruptly revealed, I think this is a great opportunity.

 

Cyril: “UーUmmm, well…..so…..ummmm….”

 

Cyril’s expression is changing every second as she contemplates how to start.

 

Henry: “Calm down.”

 

I place a hand gently on her head and pat it.
She lets out a growl of frustration at being treated like a child, but allows me to continue.

 

……..well, most likely…….she probably worried how our relationship would drastically change if I found out, but unfortunately for her, I don’t plan on changing anything.
Too bad for you!

 

Cyril: “Ughー don’t touch a lady’s hair without permissionーー I’ll report youーー”

 

Henry: “Yeah, yeah.
Well, if you can’t talk about it, we won’t force it out of you.”

 

I meet her eyes and ask, “So what do you want to do?” wordlessly.

 

Cyril’s face brightened red, and after thinking about it for a while….

 

Cyril: “…………fine.”

 

She mumbled the word.

 

<<<<>>>>

 

Cyril: “As Miss Eileen said, my real name is Cyrule Fezard, and I was the second Princess of the Fezard Kingdom.”

 

We were back at the Governor’s mansion’s meeting room, and Cyril began to immediately speak.

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Princess Eileen and Ms.
Beatriz excused themselves because they felt that this was a private matter, and they are probably enjoying the drinks they bought on the way back.

 

Jend: “Cyrule…..but that means Cyril is a fake name? You met me when I was a kid.
I’m surprised that you didn’t let it slip once.”

 

Cyril: “No, my name is really hard to say, so I chose to be called Cyril since I was little in the first place.”

 

Jend: “…….got it….”

 

Jend is at a loss for words.

 

I thought since he’s a childhood friend, he would have known, but this news also took him by surprise.

 

Ferris: “I knew Cyril since she was young, but you never spoke about this once as a child.
That’s quite impressive to be honest.
Children are more prone to brag about these kinds of things.”

 

Cyril: “Wellー to be honest….I really didn’t understand what being a Princess really meant at the time.”

 

………ohhー the Fezard Kingdom was annihilated when Cyril was 6 years old.
I can imagine that most kids would be clueless about their status at that age.

 

Cyril: “So the reason why I kept my identity secret wasー wellー the Royal Family I come from has a high chance of someone being born with very high Magic Power, so even if the Kingdom is gone, we had a long history and had some political clout.
If we let the word slip, we thought some country would try and force an arranged marriage, so we kept the information confidential.”

 

Henry: “Is there stuff like that that goes on……?”

 

Even with the country gone, I guess the Royal Bloodline still has value.
It’s a world I’m not familiar with at all.

 

Ferris: “I see.
Cyril, you can rest assured.
We have no intention of speaking about this to anyone.”

 

Cyril: “Thank you.
Only the Governor, my sister, and the maids who are formerly from Fezard know about this.”

 

Wow, so they’ve really kept this under the rug tight.

 

Teo: “But really.
Why would you keep a secret like that from us? I thought you trusted us more than that.”

 

Ferris: “Hey, Teo, that’s not fair.
It’s better for less people to know about these kinds of things.
Just because we’re in the same Party doesn’t mean that we have to share all of our secrets with each other.”

 

Teo seemed a little bitter as Ferris chastises her attitude.

 

……..although she would never openly admit it, Teo is really attached to Cyril.
She’s probably upset at realizing that someone who she thought of as a sister was keeping a secret from her.

 

Cyril: “No, Miss Ferris.
It wasn’t absolutely something I needed to keep from the Party, and I could have told you all.
Besides, I do trust that no one here would betray my secret to anyone else.”

 

Ferris: “? Is that so? So is it just that you didn’t have an opportunity up until now?”

 

Cyril: “Wellーー it’s not like that either……”

 

Cyril steals a glance towards my way.

 

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Henry: “……I have a general idea of what’s going on so go ahead.”

 

Cyril: “SーSince when did you know?”

 

Henry: “Since I found out about the Ende Style, I had a pretty good guess.
It’s probably because of me that you didn’t share, right?” Unlike Lady Asteria who married another Noble from a different country, Cyril is still one of the members of the Royal Family.
Though the country itself is gone, for a former Knight of that country like myself, she’s not someone I can just ignore or forget.

 

Cyril: “……that’s right.
I didn’t want Henry to start treating me like that.
Besides…”

 

The reason Cyril wants to go to the front lines.

 

From what we know of her until now, it’s hard to imagine why should be so motivated towards that goal.

 

But if you consider her status, then a few ideas come up immediately.

 

Cyril: “I want to re-establish my country.
That’s why I wanted to pile up a lot of accomplishments and deeds so I can get my country’s territory back.”

 

……….out of all the options imaginable, she chose the one that’s hardest to achieve.

 

Our home country, the Fezard Kingdom, is actually on the other side of the Isthmus of Bifrost that ties the northern and southern continent together.
It is located on the northern parts of the southern continent.

 

They placed Ligaleo on the Isthmus of Bifrost because it’s easy to concentrate military power, goods, and resources, and the 3 major countries are currently working together to keep the point secure.
If you want to invade even further than that defensive point, you can’t just do it with overwhelming manpower alone.
The sheer density of the Corrupted Magic Power is off the charts in the Southern Continent, and the Magecraft Barrier Artifacts would be useless there.

 

So if you help with a successful invasion of the Southern Continent, you might be able to earn a territory the size of the former Fezard Kingdom.
With the backup of a Noble, they can push for an Adventurer who has taken the majority of the credit for the success and grant them territory ー it’s rare but it can happen.
Since she’s trying to revive her former Kingdom, she may not have to face as much opposition.

 

But it’s still an absurdly difficult task.
There’s no telling how long that would take.
The war with the Demon Race began 10 years ago.
If you want to tip the scales, it might take 10, no…
20 years.
You can spend even more time than that, and in the end, it might all end up being for nothing as the chances of failure are far greater.

 

Cyril: “ーーis my primary goal!”

 

Henry: “……okay, so that’s your primary.”

 

Cyril: “My secondary goal is to accomplish great deeds and gain notoriety, but the plan is to take over a former smaller country’s territory in the southern part of the continent.
Today, the 3 countries are running the territory as an alliance, but if I can accomplish enough, I might be able to take that territory for ourselves.
Sir Alvare is also planning on backing me up on this plan.”

 

……..around the Isthmus of Bifrost, there were countless small countries all around it.

 

At one point, the Demon Race Army invaded the southern portions of the Northern Continent, and the 3 Great Countries united as one to push them all the way back to Ligaleo at one point.

 

So because of that, the ownership of those territories in that area is extremely vague.
As a general rule, some ambassadors of one of the countries will run the place, but occasionally, I hear of some Great Noble’s second or third son in line who would purchase the land.

 

……..a former Kingdom’s Princess accomplishes a heroic deed and with the backing of the Alvenia Kingdom’s Count’s backing, receives a territory.
If she saves up all her earnings in Ligaleo, then she should also have the financial resources to make the purchase as well.

 

Or maybe? I wouldn’t be able to understand those kinds of details, but it seems possible.

 

Cyril: “And thirdlyーー”

 

Henry: “There’s more?!”

 

Cyril: “Miss Cyril is a woman who can tell the difference between fact and fiction.
I will not blindly charge at an unreasonable or impossible goal.”

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………well, that is a good way to think about things.

 

But if you ask me, “blindly charging in” fits your image perfectly.

 

Cyril: “My third goal isーー ……at the very least, give one to the Demon Race Army and tell them, ‘The Fezard Kingdom is still hereーー” and make that known.”

 

……………….I see.

 

Henry: “Well, I already did that.
You might have not seen it, but when Giverte was defeated, the Adventurer’s News had ‘Former Fezard Knight Avenges his Country!’ on the front page”

 

Cyril: “Yes, you’re rightー!”

 

Maybe she can only laugh about that now, and she laughs heartily.

 

Cyril: “But because of that, we have at least the bare minimal goal already accomplished! We can just take it easy from here then.”

 

Henry: “I see.”

Cyril: “Yes, that’s right.
That’s why Henry, since you worked so hard already, you can stay here and relax.”

 

…………if you think about it logically, well yeah, that is an option.

 

Our country no longer exists.
I already avenged for everyone there as much as I could, but there’s no reason for me to force myself to accompany Cyril.

 

But that still doesn’t mean that I can just send them off with a “Good luck～” and not feel any regrets.

 

……..but at the same time, I can’t help but feel some hesitation in going back to that constant, exhausting chaos.

 

Cyril: “Ohー I knew it.
That’s why I didn’t want to talk about this.
I don’t mean to trouble you at all about any of this.”

 

After a brief awkward silence, Cyril scratches her cheek.

 

Everyone else is also looking at me with concern.
I mean, I did tell them that I won’t go back to the frontlines many times……

 

Hmmmーー Okay!

 

Henry: “I’m going to table this discussion for now.
You’re not all going to Ligaleo today or tomorrow, so I want to think about this more.”

 

Teo: “……..Mr.
Henry, you can be pretty indecisive at times.”

 

Teo’s words pierced and weighed on my heart.

 

No, that’s not it.
It’s not indecisiveness.
It’s called being cautious.

 

And with more excuses flooding my mind, we ended the discussion.

 

……..afterwards, we all listened to Cyril’s childhood stories.