Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 72

The Day of Disaster (2) – Maybe Someone I don’t Know

We ended up meeting Zackhart-sama in the same room as last time.

But the situation was very different from last time. There was almost no 3rd Division’s Knight or rather, there was only one knight here. Zackhart-sama’s close aide, Baylues-san.

“Zackhart-sama will be arriving soon.”

Then, as if in response to Baylues-san’s words, a giant man with a long and beautiful beard slowly appeared.

“Grandpa Zack!”

When Rufa saw him, she ran towards Zackhart-sama. A truly shocking scene.

“Rufa! I missed you!” he said, smiling widely as he picked up Rufa…

Was he really Zackhart-sama? The Zackhart-sama that I knew? ? ? Not his twin brother!?

I wasn’t the only one who was surprised. Wickharlt and even Lapilia-sama froze with their mouths open. I could see that Baylues-san’s shoulder shook, as he tried to hold back his laughter.

Lapilia-sama looked at me and said, “Explain!”

I also didn’t know! Seriously, just what has happened between Rufa and Zackhart-sama!?

Zackhart-sama finally noticed us and cleared his throat with an “ahem” while putting Rufa on his shoulder. No, clearing your throat wouldn’t magically make our confusion disappear, alright?

While frowning, Zackhart-sama said, “I’m off duty today, so you both can relax.”

Then, he smiled at Rufa again and said, “Now then, Rufa. Where do you want to go? I’ll take you anywhere.” while walking deeper into the room.

After the two of them had completely disappeared, Lapilia-sama asked me in a low voice, “Just…How? What happened?”

 I answered, “I also don’t know!”

She then turned her gaze to Baylues-san.

 “I’ll explain later.’” Baylues-san said.

Since we arrived here around noon,  we decided to have lunch first.

Rufa wanted to go to the restaurant that we visited with Luluria, so we walked, or, to be more precise, we walked there while Rufa was riding on Zackhart-sama’s shoulder.

We followed from behind. The two of them look like a grandpa and granddaughter. Though the grandpa was about three times bigger than a normal human.

Along the way, Baylues explained to us what happened between the two.

After we left the town with Luluria, Rufa was in the care of the 3rd Division. Even Zackhart-sama couldn’t use the 3rd Division just to escort Rufa, who wasn’t even an important person, to the capital, so Rufa ended up staying with the 3rd Division while waiting for someone to have a business to the capital so she could go along with them.

During the time Rufa stayed in the 3rd Division, Rufa apparently volunteered to help manage the 3rd Division’s pantry, the reason being she didn’t feel comfortable just staying and being taken care of while doing nothing.

This caught the attention of Zackhart-sama, and when Rufa worked tirelessly and devotedly, apparently he commented It’s admirable for a girl that young to work that hard.

Then, after hearing that she regularly works for the 10th Division, he was extremely impressed, and at the same time, he got angry and commented, Rays is thoughtless to make a girl this young work! and when Rufa explained to him that Rays-sama has been kindly taking me in when I have nowhere to go, to which Zackhart-sama replied, You’re a strong girl 

Thus, Rufa became close with Zackhart-sama in just 3 days.

What’s more, Rufa herself seemed to have lost her grandfather when she was young, so she seemed to treat Zackhart-sama as her own grandfather. As a result, she was able to become this close with Zackhart-sama, who liked children but was forced to just watch them from a distance because he didn’t want to scare the children with his scary face. Rufa’s innocence was apparently the best weapon to handle Zackhart-sama.

With their eyes still wide in surprise, Wickharlt and Lapilia-sama said, “I still can’t believe that’s Zackhart-sama…”

The two must have known Zackhart-sama for a long time. That was why his earlier interaction with Rufa shocked them.

Still, Rufa was really good at getting into the good graces of people who were a little difficult, like Lapilia-sama and Zackhart-sama.

Regardless, we went and enjoyed exploring Gedland for about half a day.

Anyway, thanks to Zackhart-sama, who stood up like a sore thumb, people didn’t pay attention to Lapilia-sama and Wickharlt so they too enjoyed a good break.

Well, the 3rd Division was the most famous division in this town, and it could be said that there wasn’t a person in this town who didn’t know about Zackhart-sama. That Zackhart-sama was walking around with a smile on his face and a girl on his shoulder, so obviously people would focus on him and would ignore the beautiful man and woman who were walking behind him.

We planned to stay in Gedland for 3 days, 2 nights.

Other than the duty he couldn’t miss tomorrow morning, Zackhart-sama has cleared his schedule for the entire 3 days. Geez. Just how much he liked Rufa?

After spending half a day sightseeing, the day ended peacefully.

But the next day, which was supposed to be another fun trip, ended up as a disaster.

Because Rufa was kidnapped.