Chapter 78 – My Secret and Claude’s Secret

「The Skills I was bestowed with by Kami-sama are……」

As I said that, I felt all the members that were present gulped.
……Of course, I am also nervous that my throat dried up.

「【Appraisal・Complete】 and 【Cut & Paste】, these two Skills」

As I said that, everyone except for Aisha made expressions as if saying “Oh?”.

「……Fumu, it’s the same as the report we received from the temple, isn’t it?
If those two are the Skills you have been bestowed with, there isn’t any reason for Divine Beast-sama to be your backer, right?」

Brother-in-law-san inquired about that.

……Yes, certainly, if you look at these two separately, that’s how it is, huh.

「King-sama, King-sama is called the hero by society.
A big reason for that is said to be the combination of the Skills possessed, right?」

「Yeah, I certainly agreed with those who said that」

King-sama affirmed my words, and returned a reply.

「……My Skills can be joined together, and doing so, it exhibits an outrageous ability」

「Fumu, certainly, it can become a way greater power if the Skills are combined, but…….
The combination of the Skills Myne obtained……I can’t think of anything……」

Certainly, if you don’t understand precisely the ability of the individual Skills, you probably can’t think of anything.
That’s the natural response, huh.

「……I can cut the Skills of other people or monsters I’ve seen with Appraisal, and paste it somewhere else」

Even though I said that, everyone seemed like they didn’t quite understand.

……However, after Aisha and Sylphy thought for a while, they shouted.
They’ve seen my fight with the Orc King firsthand, after all, that’s probably why they could understand what I just said.

「Da, Danna-sama…… t, that’s…… don’t tell me……!?」
「Myne-kun!!?」

The others seem like they didn’t understand.

「Yes, that’s right.
I’ve 【Cut】 the Skills from the Orc King and the others and 【Paste】 them on myself.
The Skill I used to invite Fenrir-sama is a Skill I obtained from the Orc King」

 

！！！！！！

 

With those words, everyone present seem to have understood.
All of them showed dumbfounded expressions.

「……I see, that’s why you used so many Skills during the mock battle!」

Brother-in-law-san seem to have recalled the mock battle and expressed his understanding.

「……The reason I didn’t talk about my Skill, is because I thought people who will try to use me will appear if they know about this」

I explained why I kept silent and hid it up until now.
I talked about my fear of people who I would avoid in fear appearing so that I can avoid getting used, and everything I have thought about.

「I understand now, Myne.
……It’s certainly something Divine Beast-sama would mind……」

「Myne, during the mock battle, why didn’t you cut off my Skills?
If you did that, wouldn’t you have won against me?

Though Brother-in-law-san said that, my answer has already been decided from the start.

「When I cut off Skills from people…….
I’ve decided that it should only be when danger approaches my family, acquaintances or my own lives!
At that time, Brother-in-law-san was purely thinking for my sake and held the mock battle.
That is why, I responded fair and square!」

As I answered that, Brother-in-law-san smiled, and like when he came to my house, patted my back.
……The little Fenrir took the opportunity and patted my head as well.

Un, I’ve said this many times, but I’d like it if you stop it.

「……I see, I can trust those words, right?
Since you have Divine Beast-sama as your backer, I understand that I have no choice but to trust you, but this is an important matter.
Properly answer me with your own words」

I think King-sama is probably worrying about me stealing Skills indiscriminately.
This is probably the natural reaction as a statesman.

He doesn’t have the confidence to believe me, since I didn’t open up about my secret, which is the biggest reason.

That’s why, I had expected King-sama would ask me about this.
……That’s why to let him trust me, I prayed from my heart while I answered.

「Yes, I will absolutely not take Skills indiscriminately!」

Hearing my proclamation, King-sama’s visibly showed an expression of relief.

「……Understood…… I shall trust you.
However, it’s an ability I didn’t expect…….
I see, I can now understand you crushing an Orc King alone.
Honestly, even though I saw the Orc King’s remains, I couldn’t quite believe it」

After that, I received a few questions, and the discussion ended.
At any rate, Ou-sama and the others have the matter about the dragon’s children, and I’ve only just returned form the Divine Spirit Forest.

I have to take time to rest and King-sama has to pass down his judgment, after all.

 

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

 

Receiving Myne’s shocking confession, I had originally wanted to slowly collect my thoughts, but I have to first settle an urgent matter.
The place I am in is a room in the dungeon created underneath the royal castle to capture atrocious criminals.

Claude, the heir to the Roselia family who had been arrested because of his dishonesty in the previous game, is imprisoned here.
Accompanied by the knight leader, I who entered the prison asked the jailer a question.

「……How is it, has he confessed?」

「No, not yet」

Knitting my brows at the jailer’s words, I looked at Claude who was tied to the wall.
He was probably whipped quite a bit.

Tears can be seen here and there on his pointlessly extravagant clothes, and thin traces of blood oozing out from them.
Though he hasn’t been imprisoned for too long, but judging from his looks, he probably received quite a lot of interrogation.

I originally wanted to take more time to get him to confess, but this time, we don’t have much time.

Even at this moment, the adult dragon may show up in some town.
I absolutely do not want to see a dragon blinded by rage from its child stolen from it.

We have to release the child dragon no matter what it takes before any damage is inflicted.
This isn’t a situation where we can choose our means any more.

「……Claude, honestly tell us the hiding place of the child dragon」

「Your Majesty! Please listen to me! This is a conspiracy! I have been framed!
Yes, I have been framed by that commoner called Myne or something!!!」

I took a sidelong glance at the Claude who had become desperate and made up excuses, and took out something from my bosom.
As soon as he saw that thing, Claude who had been making excuses suddenly stopped moving, and abruptly became quiet.

Yes, this is the “Slave Collar” Myne entrusted me with.

 

「Your Majesty, I will hand this over.
These are “Slave Collars” which had been attached to the children.
These are thought to be carried by the adventurers Claude hired.
I thought it might be helpful so……」 (TLN: This is so different from what he actually said.)

Seeing the “Slave Collars” I received from Myne, my heart danced for joy.
There isn’t any physical evidence better than these collars.

I immediately summoned the knight leader, and had him infer the slave dealer registered with the royal family from the engraved serial number.

Then, before 30 minutes passed, the slave dealer was determined.

「Well done! Immediately arrest that slave dealer!
Then search whether the child dragon is within his store!
There isn’t much time, hurry!!」

 

I once again asked Claude who went silent.

「Claude. I’ll ask you once again, where did you hide the child dragon?」

「……」

I see, he’s still feigning ignorance.

「Jailer, cut off one of Claude’s finger」

「！！！！！」

As I emotionlessly issued the instruction to the jailer, Claude looked towards my face in a panic.

「……Please wait! Your Majesty!! Your Majesty!! I don’t know anything, I don’t know!!
Please stop, Hiii～」

There’s no helping it if he doesn’t this late in the game.
It’s just that, he’ll lose his hand if he doesn’t want to talk.

I silently signalled the jailer.

「Guoooooooooooooo!!!! Finger, my finger!!!!!」

The jailer who received my signal, silently cut off one of Claude’s finger.

「……How is it, do you feel like talking now?」

「Gu……Gu……Haa……Haa」

As expected, he’s stubborn.
Well, if he confessed to his crimes, it wouldn’t end with just his finger getting cut off.

He won’t confess easily, huh.

As I thought that, the knights dragged two men over.

One of them is the slave dealer who had registered the collar.
The other one is the Roselia family head, that is, Claude’s father.

「Your Majesty!? Why am I here…… C, Claude!!!!
What have you done to deserve this!!」

Discovering his own son restrained and receiving torture, Lord Roselia shouted loudly.

I explained to Lord Roselia all about the sequence of events.
Hearing my explanations, Lord Roselia who understood the situation had his complexion visibly deteriorate.

……That’s understandable.
If this was true…… No, since there was proof, it is true, the Roselia family would undoubtedly be shut down.

While I was talking with Lord Roselia, the slave dealer was bounded beside Claude.

「Now then, let me ask again.
Where did you hide the child dragon? It won’t end with just a finger this time.
Think carefully before you talk」

「……」
「……」

Hmph, both of them are not explaining huh.

「Lord Roselia, won’t you persuade your son?
If you can get information on where the child dragon is, I can allow your Roselia family to only shut down.
Well, it’ll be impossible to not be criticised at all, though」

Lord Roselia who heard my words became desperate and started persuading his son.
Just by seeing him persuading, there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that Lord Roselia isn’t related to this matter.

I watched over them for a while, but there was absolutely no progress, so I once again decided to signal the jailer.

「Jailer, cut off one of the slave dealer’s finger.
After that, cut off two of Claude’s」

The slave dealer who heard my words showed a desperate expression.
……Claude looked at me with eyes full of hatred.

「Let me ask you once again, where is the child dragon!」

「……I’ll talk! I’ll talk!!! I’ll talk so please let me go!!」

「……Wh, you bastard!!!」

Oh, the slave dealer gave in, huh.
Though that guy Claude was glaring at the slave dealer, I’ll somehow manage with this.

「Oh, that’s a good attitude. And, where did you hide it?」

「……It’s in the Town of Adol……」

Of all the places, it’s in Adol!!!!
Did they hide it in a town with so many people!?

This is bad, Adol’s also too far from the royal capital!!!

Kuh, isn’t there some kind of way!

---

AN:

Thank you very much for always reading.
Please take care of me from now on as well.

I am sorry for the late deciding of the little Fenrir’s name.
Somehow, I was delayed.

It will be decided in the next chapter, Chapter 79!
I have already written it, and submitted it in advance.
Those who are looking forward to it, please wait for a while longer!

TL: Izzy

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