Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 134

The Royal Ceremony (3) – The Commander Who Made Me Worry

Because Prince Zeland explained my conversation with Dentacruz to King Zeurasia and Rays-sama, I wasn’t scolded.

After that, the King and Rays-sama disappeared back into the crowd as if nothing had happened leaving only Lapilia-sama who approached me and flicked my forehead.

“Lapilia-sama, that’s hurt!”

When I complained, Lapilia-sama, who was dressed in an extravagant banquet attire, glared at me with one hand on her hip.

“His Majesty didn’t say anything but…you went a bit too far. You can’t complain if Dentacruz stabbed you in the back after what you did!” Lapilia-sama scolded me.

To be honest, I do think I went a bit too far, but…

“I can’t forgive the way he treated Prince Zeland, so no, I don’t think I went too far,” I retorted.

Prince Zeland was one of my friends who often came to visit me in my room, though I knew his main goal was to see Rufa. I couldn’t allow anyone to hurt my friends with their words.

“Roa-dono…” Prince Zeland seemed to be moved by my words.

Prince Zeland was a prince so his position was way above me but personally, I thought of him as a precious little brother.

“Well, I do understand your feelings. Anyway, to treat that idiotic son of the Belosa family like that, you’re quite something. Even nobles will hesitate when hearing the Belosa name, you know?”

After having seen real heroes like Rays-sama and Zackhart-sama, there’s no way I would get intimidated by a small fry like him.

Though it’s not like I could say something like that to her so I just replied, “You think so?”

Then, Lapilia-sama’s angry expression disappeared and she smiled.

“You do look pretty dashing when you don’t back down against that Belosa. I might admire you a little now.”

When Lapilia-sama, who wore such gorgeous attire smiled like that, she looked incredibly charming. I would keep the fact she made my heart racing a secret.

***

The conversation between me and Dentacruz was witnessed by almost everyone in the banquet so I thought that all members of the 9th Division would become hostile toward me but in reality, that didn’t happen.

Shortly after the commotion, as Dentacruz made a quick exit followed by several dozens of his entourage, I felt like I received more and more friendly gazes.

After Dentacruz finally left, many members of the 9th Division started to greet me, and even the ones who didn’t come to greet me looked at me with approval, as if saying, ‘Good job for saying that!’ If this was how they acted after one of their captains got told off by me, Dentacruz must be quite hated.

One of the most impressive things that happened was when Griez-san approached me.

Griez-san was also a captain of the 9th Division and one of the few commoner captains in the 9th Division. In other words, he had the actual skill to be a captain.

I don’t know much about him, as he had almost no record of achievement in battle. But after approaching me, he bowed his head and said, “Sorry for the trouble caused by our idiot.”

As Lapilia-sama had said, the Belosa family was quite influential. I feel like as someone from the same division, the backlash that Griez-san might receive for calling Dentacruz an idiot would be bigger than what I would receive, but none of the members of the 9th Division criticize Griez-san’s action.

Did this mean Griez-san was the real person in charge of the 9th Division in this mission?

I think that at least in public, Dentacruz would be in charge. If Dentacruz and his people were planning something, how many members of the 9th Division were involved in it?

If Griez-san was acting right now, it would be quite an impressive act. If not…

In any case, although there were some minor troubles, the departure banquet came to a close.

***

As planned, we set off in the morning.

On the way, I thought Dentacruz would be spotting nonsense like ‘We should be the Prince’s main escort!’ but he was surprisingly quiet. He instead followed us, the 10th Division and the Prince from a certain distance.

He was way too quiet that it was suspicious.

“It’s a royal ceremony but the Commander of the 9th Division isn’t here.”

When I mentioned that, Nelifia replied, “It’s because Humet-sama is too old.”

Was it fine for a Division Commander to be so old that he can’t even participate in things like this? Or maybe the rumor that the 9th Division was created to quell opposition was right, so the 9th Division Commander was just a figurehead?

By the way, Sazabi was also coming with us this time.

Sazabi was participating in the mission as my subordinate, while Nelifa was here as the King’s secretary. I don’t really understand the difference.

“Has he gotten so old that it’s getting difficult for him to move?”

“No, it’s not that bad. It’s just he rarely shows himself to the public these days and he also rarely interferes in the affairs of the 9th Division.”

“…He’s the Commander, right? Is it fine for him to act like that?”

“…What do you think?”

While I was feeling uneasy about the future of 9th Division because of Nelfia’s words, we continued our journey.