After returning to the royal palace, we moved to a small meeting room that resembled a reception room. As it turned out, the morning meeting had originally been scheduled to take place in this very room. That only made me regret once again that we’d held it in that enormous conference hall instead.
“If he can go toe-to-toe with the Commander of the Knights without any trouble, then it would be wise to assume he’s at least an executive-level member of the dark organization. Even if we send the military to the House of Broker, we’ll need to assemble a force of considerable strength. In any case, we’ll have to wait for the results of the reconnaissance first.”
After hearing the reports from the Minister of Military Affairs, Gandof-sama, Tory-san and His Majesty wore a deeply troubled expression.
That said, there couldn’t be that many people capable of matching Gandof-sama in strength, could there?
“It can’t be helped. We’ll have to send Shun and the others along with the military. The Commander of the Knights will remain here to focus on defending the royal capital, while Tory and his unit will head to the site.”
“As you command!”
His Majesty probably didn’t want Sue to get caught up in another battle, but until we dealt with the House of Broker, there wasn’t much choice.
“Sue, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to endure this a little longer. I’d like to go with you myself, but my position as Crown Prince won’t allow it.”
“Thank you for worrying about me, Brother. I may not look it, but I have quite a bit of combat experience, so I’ll be fine.”
Sue’s older brother, the Crown Prince, was probably worried about her as well. They had only been reunited after a year apart, and now she had to leave for another territory all over again.
“Father, Brother, I have a proposal. Since I’m also an adventurer, I’d like to go to the Broker County ahead of the others and gather information.”
“As an adventurer, I doubt anyone would find me suspicious. Even just checking the available quests would give us a good idea of the situation in town.”
“Very well. I’ll leave it to you. We’ll have you coordinate with the reconnaissance unit as well.”
And so, we decided to head to the territory ourselves.
We were scheduled to meet Arisa-sama tomorrow, so I figured we might as well ask her for some advice while we had the chance.
That concluded the meeting. Gandof-sama still had plenty of work left to do, so the rest of us decided to return ahead of him. We also needed to pick up Fran and Horn, who had been staying in the Crown Princess’s care.
When the palace attendant showed us the way, I was surprised to find that we were being led to the Crown Prince’s private chambers.
“Oh, you’re finished? Welcome back.”
“Welcome back!”
(Dash, dash, Plop!)
“Yes, we’re back. Have you been good?”
“Yes!”
Fran and Horn have been quietly reading picture books. Along with little Jeff, they came running over to Sue.
“Your Highness, thank you so much for looking after them. Did Fran and Horn cause you any trouble?”
“Not at all! They even read picture books to Jeff and happily told him all about what happened during their journey.”
The Crown Princess replied with a gentle smile. Judging by how well the three children were getting along, it seemed everything had gone smoothly.
“All right, then. We’re going back to Sue’s family home today. There’ll probably be another meeting before long, so you can all play together again then.”
“Okay!”
The three of them answered in unison, sounding quite cheerful.
Now that they knew they’d get to play together again soon, they didn’t seem particularly upset about having to part ways.
“Bye-bye!”
“See you later!”
The three of them and Shiro exchange greetings and begin getting ready to leave. Since Ao is also accompanying Fran and Horn, there’s no need to worry about them leaving anything behind.
“Your Highness, I shall take my leave now.”
“Sister-in-law, I’ll come visit again!”
“Yes, please do—you’re welcome to drop by anytime.”
And so, we began our journey back from the royal castle.Once we return to the estate, there’s plenty of preparation to get started on right away.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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