Skeleton Knight, in Another World Vol 7 Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「Return to The Village」

In the open yard in front of Rhoden’s palace.

Various personnel had been lined up here.

“Dylan-dono, when can we expect a reply from Great Canada Forest?”

King Carlen asked Dylan that question.

Dylan placed his hand on his chin and pondered the question for a while.

His eyebrow rose slightly before he answered.

“……Around three days. It should take that long to explain the situation to the great elders and organize reinforcements.”

A little girl’s grey eyes became clouded by worry she heard Dylan answer.

“Three days…… I am to wait here for that long……”

Dylan’s sharp elven ears picked up on Lille mutters and he began to smile at her.

“I’m sorry. Having you come all this way only to have you wait for results. However, you’ve carried out the mission King Asparuf gave you magnificently.”

Behind the princess, Zahar and Nina nodded in agreement to his statement.

“His Majesty will surely rejoice. Princess, once we return the war preparations should be well underway.”

Zahar clenched his fist as he voiced his earnest opinion, while Nina gave her small master a calming smile.

“Princess Lille, there are things you can still do even if you stay here. Deeping your friends.h.i.+p with Princess Juliana and contributing to the post-war country contribution is still an amazing goal.”

Nina’s words seemed to revitalize Lille, as she rose her head and spiritedly clenched her fist.

When Princess Juliana saw this, she bent down to Lille’s level and looked her right in her eyes.

“Well, since you and I are cousins, why don’t we get to know each other better while you stay here? Personally, I would like to learn about your country.”

“I understand! Friends.h.i.+p? Strengthening ties?”

Lille replied to Juliana was smile and words with a smile of her own.

While watching their funny interactions brought a smile to my face, I was sitting a bit away from them drawing the location for future transfers.

When I came back to transfer the soldiers, my drawing booklet would compensate for shortcomings in my memory.

However, I would need a bit more time if I wanted to make a photorealistic representation of the palace.

Just as I’d finished the rough outlines of the  drawing and was about to start on the shading when someone called out to me.

“That’s rather impressive, do you enjoy drawing?”

When my eyes sought out the person who called out to me, I saw Prince Sect standing there.

His stature and smiling figure were befitting of a prince, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was hiding a cold and distant personality underneath.

Atop my helmet, Ponta jerked back a little.

“Hmm, perhaps my hobby is traveling?”

My attention returned to the incomplete drawing until the feeling of someone staring at me caused me to raise my head again.

However, Prince Sect nodded his head when I looked at him…… after a quick glance at Ponta his gaze fell on me again.

“Excuse me, I’ll look forward to an answer on a later date.”

Prince Sect left after saying that.

“Ky〜, Kyun!”

A top my helmet, Ponta let out a cautious bark towards the Prince Sect shrinking back, it seems that she had voiced her impression of the human prince.

Royalty that wore their hearts on their sleeves like Lille were a rarity after all.

Their true feelings were things that needed to be absent from their faces and placed in the back of their mind, but Ponta had a knack for sniffing out those

types of people.

However, in that regard, Chiome was also someone that didn’t put her emotions out there.

My gaze wandered over to the cat-eared girl in black ninja grabs as that thought occurred to me.

Her ears restlessly moved about in every direction as several sounds caught her attention, and her long tail wagged in long arcs.

While she didn’t emote with her human features, her animal features expressed her emotions clearly, perhaps Ponta picked up on those?

After that incident with Nina, it was obvious that Chiome wasn’t emotionless, it just took a lot to bring them to the surface.

In fact, she’s at her most expressive when she eating something delicious.

While I was in the middle of that thought a pair of voluptuous breast suddenly blocked my view.

“Why’d your hand stop?”

Ariane looked directly at my face when she asked that question.

For the time being, I began drawing were I had left off, shading the coat of arms engraved into the palace walls.

“Hm, I think it should be like like this, shouldn’t it?”

I placed the finished rough sketch of the transfer location in my bag before I addressed Ariane.

“Sorry, Ariane-dono. Thank you for bringing s.h.i.+den……”

“Giyuriin.”

s.h.i.+den let out a large yawn and shook his head when I mentioned him.

The sight of the guards, who’d been curious about the Dragon Mount, unintentionally flinching back got a chuckle out of me.

“This much is alright. So, are you ready to go?”

Ariane waved away my concerns and asked if we were ready to set off.

“There’s no problem, we can transfer to Rhoden’s palace anytime.”

I give her a brief reply.

However, it was only under the current state of emergency that transferring to the royal palace was viable.

Having a foreigner (?) frequently pop into the palace was a major security risk, which would only result in an increased sense of caution and distrust.

While the Hiruku situation turned us into allies for now, the elves’ transfer magic would be seen as a threat to them once this war settled.

It was a realistic expectation given that soldiers could be transported as well.

I’d heard that a few humans were already looking into the characteristics of transfer magic, but nothing seems to have come of it yet.

As I led s.h.i.+den to the center of the plaza, where Dylan, Ariane and Chiome had gathered, I stopped to say farewell to Lille.

“Lille-dono, we will be separated for a brief period. I will do everything within my power to return to you with good news.”

Lille nodded her head at my words before looking up at me.

“I am leaving it to you, Arc-dono! I’ll be waiting for your return!”

Behind Lille, both Zahar and Nina bowed their heads to me at their master’s words, so I nodded in return.

“I’ll be off then.”

“Kyun!”

Once I returned to Ariane’s side I invoked my magic.

The destination was Raratoia, in Great Canada Forest.

“【Transfer Gate】!”

A moment after the large magic formation appeared at our feet, the palace was replaced with a familiar location.

The house of Ariane’s parents, Dylan’s home, stood in front of me.

Sunlight filtered through the foliage and illuminated the mansion that was blended into the tree trunk itself.

A single dark-elf stood in the beautiful garden that spread out in front of the mysterious mansion.

When the woman noticed that we materialized, she smiled and waved at us.

“Welcome back, dear! Ari-chan!”

It was Ariane’s mother and Dylan’s wife Glenys waving towards us.

In addition to the high physical abilities of dark-elves, she was a master swordswoman in her own right and Ariane’s teacher, so when she embraced Dylan it knocked the wind out of him.

“Ga!”

While that hug was somewhat of a knockout-blow, Dylan managed to endure it and greeted a slightly suspicious Glenys.

Their daughter’s ears became a deep shade of crimson as she watched her parent’s couple moment.

“Don’t do stuff like that in public.”

Puffing out her cheeks, Ariane stormed into the mansion with Chiome following behind her.

After watching his daughter walk off, Dylan’s gaze returned to Glenys in his arms.

“You finished our task earlier than I thought. Can you finally relax for a while?”

When his wife asked him that question…… Dylan could only preface his answer with an apology.

“I’m sorry, Glenys. To tell you the truth, a troublesome situation has come up over there, Arc-kun’s power brought me here, but I need to consult the great elders in the capital……”

Dylan, who could navigate negotiations with human royalty and other n.o.bility with dignified grace, was at a loss for words.

All of the emotion drained from Glenys’ face when she heard his explanation, and without any intonation she looked at her husband and said: “Is that so”.

Glenys had the physique of a dark-elf and actually stood a little taller than her husband. With her standing as straight as she was, and Dylan slumping as he was, even I could make out the current power dynamic of the couple.

After a brief moment of silence, Glenys turned her back on Dylan and followed Ariane and Chiome into the mansion.

Dylan, on the other hand, held his stomach and sighed as his eyebrows lowered.

“Haa, my stomach hurts for some reason……”

Dylan spoke in a slightly miserable tone, but from my point of view getting any kind of response was better than not getting a response at all. Maybe he thought differently?

“Dylan-dono, it’s better to be met with love rather than indifference, isn’t it?”

Dylan seemed taken back when I spoke my opinion and smiled wryly afterward.

“That certainly is an unpleasant thought……”

His eyes narrowed as he looked in the direction Glenys had walked off in.

“In order not to make her mood worsen any further, we’d best bring an end to this crisis as soon as possible. Arc-kun, your power is essential to achieving that.”

He looked up at me as he said that.

I lightly beat my chest plate and nodded my head.

“I have a lot of home renovations I would like to work on…… I’ll do my utmost to end this endeavor.”

“Kyun! Kyun!”

Dylan seemed a bit relieved by my spirited reply and quietly breathed out a sigh.

“Then, I’ll be heading to Maple then. The entire council will probably have to convene on the matter, but having you attend should make the preceding go faster.  First, we need to get you permission to enter Maple, so we should be able to set off tomorrow at the earliest?”

Dylan sought my approval on the matter after laying out a potential timetable.

If I was able to enter Maple myself it would achieve many of my goals, so I nodded at his suggestions.

“I understand.”

“Then, I’ll be away for a little while.”

He began walking towards the small transfer shrine in the middle of the village after that.

“Giyuriiiin.”

While I watched Dylan back shrinking in the distance, s.h.i.+den’s suddenly cry caught my attention.

s.h.i.+den let out another yawn and began to shake the saddle on his back.

“Oh, right. s.h.i.+den let’s return to our home and replenish our hot spring water.”

s.h.i.+den barked happily as I combed his white mane with my hand.

“Ky〜un.”

Atop my head, Ponta was either getting hungry or complaining about something.

“Okay, Okay We’ll make it a quick stop.”

I invoked 【Transfer Gate】after saying that.