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Chapter 90
After he successfully took care of - or rather, gotten taken care of one of the 7 Luminaries, Sei and his party returned to the yurts and were receiving praises.
However, personally, Sei thought that he could not enjoy the victory as he felt that they had somewhat stolen the credit away.
No, let's stop with vague expressions like "somewhat". After all, Sei and his group had literally stepped in to steal the credit from Ruphas.
In fact, aside from Virgo, there was no one from Ruphas's group currently present. As they did not want to unnecessarily cause any disturbances, they went back to their mobile golem which could be called their base of operations.
In regards to the matter about the credit, Ruphas herself said, "I don't need something like that, so just split it equally with Virgo." Although the act of "stealing" the credit was done with the consent of the person herself, Sei still could not feel good about it.
In regards to the matter about the reward, he decided to assign a bigger proportion of it to Virgo. However, because his side was still taking the entire portion of the elixir, which was undoubtedly the most important part of the reward, he could not feel good about it in that regard either.
Nevertheless, even in relation to the elixir, Ruphas had simply said, "Don't need it." Thus, when one just looked at the outcome, Sei and his group had ended up with all the honour and credit even though they had done next to nothing.
Sei almost questioned whether there was an ulterior motive or not because Ruphas was being overly generous.
"Heroes, you have done well for us. Know that your party has saved this country. Allow me to represent this country and thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Here therein, your names shall forever be carved in this country's history."
After safely getting his hands on the elixir, Kaineko was in a brilliant mood and showered Sei's group with praise.
When he finished praising them, he raised his hand as a signal. Matching this motion, many beastkin who were on standby behind him came and started setting down gold ingots one after another.
Beholding all of this in front of them, the eyes of Jean and his adventurers' party were glistering. However, since Sei did not know the true value of this, he was confused.
"Please check the amount. There should be five million eru worth in total."
"Umm... Isn't this too much?"
When Sei originally accepted the request, it was promised that the reward for participation was one thousand eru, and the reward for completing the request was five hundred thousand eru.
However, now that they had actually completed the quest and received the reward, it was ten times the amount of the promised reward.
Although it was the tiniest portion, they had also received the elixir as a reward, thus the overall value of their rewards was enormous.
In response to this query, Kaineko answered as if it was something obvious.
"Your group is an officially recognised party of the Hero from Laevateinn. Now that we have made you work, if we were to only reward you with the same amount as adventurers would have received, the other countries would question our country's common sense. This is just the right amount of rewards that you should be receiving. You have no need to be reserved."
Kaineko's answer was something that no individual of this world would raise an eyebrow about.
Adventurers were exactly just that - they were individuals who had the lowest social standing in this world.
A payment to them valued at five hundred thousand could already be considered over the top.
The only reason Sei felt a sense of unease was because he originated from Japan where labourers were blessed.
Sensing Sei's feelings, Jean patted his shoulders and told him to not worry about all of this.
"Furthermore, the Hero Sei-dono. After hearing about your work this time, our country's emperor and empress have expressed their interests in meeting with you. The emperor has stated that, if you do not mind, he would like to welcome you into the royal family by having you become our princess's fiancé. What do you think?"
The moment Kaineko finished proposing something outrageous whilst smiling, Cruz's eyes instantly sharpened.
As expected, it happened - thinking as such, Cruz stepped forward.
It was predictable that there might be some royalties or nobles who would propose something like this when the name of the Hero started to spread.
In that case, the one who made the first move would be the winner. Once the Hero was engaged to the princess, it would become almost impossible for others to start probing him. Additionally, any achievements of the Hero in the future would all be credited to Draupnir's royal family.
In all likelihood, after looking at the feats from this time, Draupnir's royal family had probably judged Sei to have promise.
At the very least, to the extent that they believed it would be fit to engage one of the however many princesses they had.
"Please hold it, Kaineko-dono. That is what you call "too hasty". Sei-dono has things he must do, as well as a home to return to after everything is done. We appreciate your offer, but it is not right to restrict him in this way."
"Yes, of course, we are well aware of that. That was why we said if Sei-dono does not mind. What do you think, Sei-dono? Would you please at least meet the princess once? Even the princess herself said that she would like to meet the Hero."
After hearing Kaineko's rebuttal, Cruz could do nothing but grit his teeth together as Kaineko grinned victoriously.
That grin was exactly the kind of smile that would be seen on a cat that had successfully cornered a mouse.
This shitty cat... with a face that looks harmless to a human, he's blocking off Sei's escape routes!
Cruz was convinced of this and tightly clenched his fist.
The royal family wants to meet you - being told such a thing, it was impossible for them to refuse the request.
"The princess, huh?"
Problematically, Sei was not dissatisfied with all of this.
After all, everything up until this point had been rough. It could not be helped that he was feeling a little warm for the fantasy-like event which he had encountered.
The Hero and the Princess. It was a very mainstream storyline used from ancient times, however, to say that he did not admire such a thing at all would be a lie.
"Fufufu, are you curious about the princess?"
"Aah, no, umm..."
"There is no need to hide it. It is only a natural thing as a man. And you should rejoice, the fourth princess, Lechwe-sama, that you are about to meet is famous for being beautiful. [1] She has large eyes, snow white skin, and a cute face. On top of that, she is tolerant and easily accepts others. There's no doubt that all the men in the country would be jealous of you."
Listening to Kaineko's pitch on the princess's appeal, Sei wavered.
Although he believed there were some exaggerations to the description because of her position as a princess, if she was raised up to such a degree, Sei wanted to at least see what she looked like.
Furthermore, because he had already met Ruphas and Virgo, he was already well aware that the beauties of this world were unreasonably beautiful without comparison.
Even without any makeup or Photoshop enhancements whatsoever, it was still hard for him to believe those kinds of beauties would be casually walking around here and there.
"I - if it's just to meet with them!"
"Good, then it's decided!"
Hearing Sei's response, Kaineko laughed in his heart as he confirmed his victory.
The only remaining question was whether Sei would be interested in the princess or not. However, he was convinced that Sei would be.
He only had to look at her once and he would not be able to look away.
Kaineko was sure that Sei would even forget about his desire to return to his original world and decide to stay in this country forever.
Lechwe was simply that beautiful. In fact, so beautiful that even Kaineko felt a sense of jealousy towards Sei.
"Now that it's decided, let us hurry towards the yurt where His Majesty the Emperor resides."
Kaineko quickly hurried the conversation along before the Hero could change his mind and stepped outside.
The preparations had all been completed beforehand and a horse carriage was already waiting outside. Looking at this, Cruz grimaced again.
This shitty cat... he already prepared everything beforehand.... . !
Now, if Sei became captivated by the princess, everything would be over.
The Hero would be stolen by Draupnir.
Furthermore, there was nothing that Cruz could do. To begin with, if he took a misstep, it would be deemed as disrespect towards the royal family.
As such, Cruz could not say anything in the end and could only tag along with them.
The yurt that Sei and the party were brought to was so extravagant that they did not know if it could still be called a yurt.
First of all, it was simply too big. It probably had multiple floors and a very strong foundation.
On the floor was a red carpet and from the ceiling hung a chandelier.
With how extravagant it was, it was no longer a tent but a palace.
In fact, Sei thought they should have just made a palace normally instead of unreasonably upgrading a tent to this degree.
On what looked to be a throne too big for a human sat a white bear wrapped around in clothing which looked to be something that a Mongolian might have worn. On the top of his head was a shiny crown.
At this moment, Sei was filled with nothing but a bad feeling for what was to come.
"Hero, you have done well to come so far. Your work has truly been impressive thus far."
The one who was speaking in a haughty tone was a bear in every sense, however one looked at him.
Bear beastkin - was how he would be categorised, it was a species of bipedal creature that was originally a bear.
Unlike a real bear, the claws on their fingers could be retracted, thus they were somewhat close to a human's fingertips. Nevertheless, as they were still far thicker than normal and were covered in fur, it was a bit hard to see the differences.
In other words, other than the fact that it was wearing clothes and was able to speak, it was impossible to distinguish him from a real bear.
Furthermore, next to the throne was another chair which was occupied by a polar bear wearing a dress.
.... Yep, I already know what's going to happen. I can already see the punch line.
Indeed, she has large eyes, snow white skin (or rather... fur), and a cute face...
Tolerant and accepting of people? Well yeah, she definitely looks like she's big enough to bear hug other people.
There's no mistaking it, she must be the princess.
What the hell, I knew she would be a beastkin - having such a thought, Sei wanted to start crying.
Of course, it is. I already knew this is a country of beastkin. Of course, the princess is also a beastkin. But I just wanted to dream a little...
"Now then, Hero. If you would like, with our daughter..."
"Y - Your Majesty. Please excuse me, but I am still someone who is inexperienced and immature. I'm afraid I'm unworthy of taking care of your precious daughter."
"Is, is that so? We do not really mind that."
"N, no! Even if Your Majesty does not mind such a thing, I would not be able to forgive myself if I do so!"
The bear king quickly brought up the topic about the marriage with his daughter, however, Sei respectfully turned him down.
Impossible, definitely impossible. It's not even a question about being racist or whatnot, it's just impossible to think of having a bear as fiancée.
I might even end up dying if she pokes me a little, and most of all, there's simply too much of a difference in our standards of beauty.
I mean, there's no mistake that she's cute, it's a fact.
But I feel like there's just too much of a difference in the way "cute" is being used. I mean, looking at dogs and cats and thinking they're "cute" and looking at a person of the opposite sex like Virgo and thinking she's "cute" is completely different.
At the very least, I can't think of that princess as a member of the opposite sex. Or more like, I only figured it out because of their clothing, but if they weren't wearing anything, I wouldn't even know which gender they were. Heck, I wouldn't even be able to tell the two apart.
"Th - that's right! We have to give the elixir to the guardian dragon-sama! Yeah, let's go, Kaineko-san!"
"Eh? No, but..."
"If the guardian dragon-sama dies due to the poison while we're speaking here, it'll be a big problem! Let's go now!"
".... Can't.. - 🅽🅽novelprehend."
Sei said whatever he wanted to and quickly jumped out of the tent as if he was running away.
Needless to say, it was clearly a rude action by him. Nevertheless, the bear king did not seem to mind what had happened at all.
Perhaps it was to be expected from the king of the beastkin. He personally did not care about small issues in regard to etiquette. However, his ears were drooping a little and it was evident that he was somewhat depressed.
".... . Did We do something bad?"[2]
"N - no, nothing at all! We'll strictly scold the Hero after all of this!"
"Hmm? Ahh, there is no need. We called on the Hero to give him praise, not to scold him. We shall annul any issues raised by this incident."
Whilst Cruz frantically bowed his head, he was feeling relieved inside.
Thank goodness Sei was not won over by this country's princess.
Although Sei acting with such an attitude in front of the Emperor was somewhat problematic, from what Cruz had been informed, Sei had grown up in a country where he would very rarely be able to meet with royalty face-to-face, thus it might have been an inevitable incident.
Furthermore, Cruz could not say he could not understand Sei's action. After all, anyone would want to avoid getting wedded to a bear.
As Cruz was thinking such a thing, from the back room came out a young girl.
She had pure snow white skin and white hair.
Large round eyes, a gentle and tender countenance, a plump chest, and the ears of a bear on the sides of her face.
There was no arguing that she was a beauty.
Not only that, against all odds, she was an extreme beauty born as a result of a beastkin and human couple, making her a figurative "endangered species" and befitting to be called a [Beastkin's Beauty].
Ha - half beastkin!? And beautiful to the point where it could be called miraculous!?
At this moment, the young half-beastkin girl asked a question to the bear king in front of the astonished Cruz.
"Father, I apologise for being late. Umm, may I know where the Hero is?"
"Ahh, about that Lechwe... sorry, it seems the approach We had taken had some issues. Unfortunately, the Hero left this place just now."
Listening to the conversation between the two, Cruz unconsciously wanted to say,
She's the princess!? The princess is this girl?!
Then who's the bear that's sitting in the dress next to you!?
Cruz frantically held that retort from coming out and raised a query to the bear king whilst somewhat maintaining his composure.
"Um, umm... Is this lady the Princess Lechwe?"
"Yes, that's right. She's lovely and resembles Us, does she not?"
"I - I had wrongly assumed it was the lady who was sitting next to you..."
"Hmm? Ahh, the one sitting next to me is the First Royal Consort Kumaaru. [3]Isn't she beautiful?...... Ahh, I see. You must be wondering why we have a princess who is half-beastkin even though both of us are full. The answer to that is because Lechwe is the child of the fourth royal consort."
- Even though you're a bear, you're into polygamy!?
Notwithstanding that Cruz wanted to retort in such a way, he pushed it back down with his iron will.
So in summary, it's that? That this bear king is quite vigorous and has many wives? And this Princess Lechwe was probably born from the human wife.
Having deduced this much, it was time for Cruz to really feel relieved in his heart.
Thank goodness... thank goodness that Sei and Princess Lechwe didn't end up meeting.... So fortunate... !
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