She Becomes The Hero In Another World 21 She Already Knew

Upon their return to the half-destroyed Kelly Village, everyone present let out a great cheer. The maiden's mother wept with joy, and the maiden also wept tears of relief upon seeing her mother. The villagers, although still in the beginnings of rebuilding their village, came to gather around, a heartfelt smile upon their faces.

Looking around, Robin noticed that the townsfolk were nowhere to be seen. Upon asking, she found out that they had returned to Kinsward town to report that the demons had perished. The village chief had also asked them to post a quest up to help rebuild the village, using three of the orc corpses as collateral.

Christian watched over the smiling faces of the villagers, a similar smile tugging at his mouth. It felt good to finally go out and DO something, as opposed to spending his days inside the capital chatting about empty things at the numerous court functions and b.a.l.l.s that were happening at this time of the year.

"Everything seems to be in order here." Christian observed. "Shall we return to the town, now?" He asked Robin.

"My apologies, Your Highness. His Highness, King Zephron sent a message to us saying that you must return before the end of today to report to him." The Marshal said, handing Christian a parchment scroll.

Christian glared at him. "He said that, did he? I wonder how he knew I was here, Hmmm?"

The Marshall, ignoring Christian's death glare, easily replied.

"Oh, that? I told him. You took far too long to finish this up, and so, once everything seemed to be calmed down, I wrote him a report based upon the eyewitnesses of the villagers. The message arrived this morning at dawn."

Christian's glare deepened into a frown. "And what if I accidentally didn't return to the village at all during this time, and ended up missing the message?"

The Marshall grinned. "That's no problem. I had a messenger leave at his fastest pace for the capital the moment you arrived. It is now impossible to stop him."

Christian's frown turned into a glum expression. "You really do prepare well for these situations. How thorough of you." His last four words were emphasized to express his utmost displeasure.

"I'm just doing my job, Your Highness." The Marshall waved his arm dismissively, as if there was no need for compliments. "But, you really should get the King's permission before leaving the capital."

"What? And have a huge ensemble of knights follow me around wherever I go? You know, I might be royal, but possessing a tail THAT long becomes maddening after a while!" Christian frowned. "I can protect myself without needing a thousand metal-clad infantry marching out behind me every time I step out the gates for a bit, and you know it!"

The Marshall shrugged. "I know it. You know it. The entire kingdom knows it. But only the king can change that order. I'm afraid you'll have to take your argument up with him."

Christian turned his head aside to mutter about stubborn old fogeys. The Marshall pretended that he hadn't heard a thing.

Robin, of course, had witnessed the whole exchange, and nodded to herself once, before heading to ready the horse that had been lent to her. Keith followed behind her.

"What is it?" She asked after entering the loosely-built corral for the horses.

"You're not surprised?" He asked.

Robin paused, then asked. "Honestly? I somewhat guessed it ever since yesterday."

Keith's head jerked in surprise. "What!? How did you know about it?"

"One, you were the person presiding over the sword-pulling event yesterday." Briar reminded him. "Only an official of the kingdom could do such a thing. And a true official would not easily become a guard for the son of a mere merchant. Thus, I presumed that both of you had rather special ident.i.ties that you wished to keep hidden."

She continued. "Two, you were familiar with the Marshall, who acted as a loyal subordinate to you, so you should be someone of higher rank than a Marshall...possibly a general.

In that case, it became quite clear to me that if you were a general, then there were only a limited amount of people who would be in a position over you. I asked myself, 'who would be in a position of authority over a general?' and there it was: the Royal Family. But, since you didn't want to tell me, I declined to ask."

She smiled wryly. "You must have suffered, putting up with the Prince's antics so far."

Keith's heart shuddered. For this young man to pick up that much information only using two circ.u.mstantial clues, meant that he was highly intelligent. Dealing with these kinds of people, one could only be up front with them.

Keith bowed his head. "I heartily apologize for not telling you sooner." He said.

"No worries. It was probably all that fluff-for-brains, Prince Christian's fault, anyways." Robin surmised.

Keith rolled his eyes with apparent agreement. "Well, he does get stubborn about the strangest things."

"What's this, what's this? Are you badmouthing His Highness, the Prince behind his back?" Christian asked upon hearing that last sentence.

"What? Would you prefer we did it to your face?" Robin raised an eyebrow, her reply doubling as a counter attack.

"My heart is wounded. My best friend is speaking ill of me! Besmirching my good name!" He shook his head in mock sadness. "I'm not sure if I can ever recover."

"It's not slander if it's the truth." Robin pointed out.

"I've been doubly hit! Et tu, Brute?" Christian raised a hand in mock despair at the sky, before pretending to collapse backwards.

Robin, ignoring the lump on the ground, turned to Keith. "They have Shakespeare here, too?"

Keith looked confused. "Who's Shakespeare? What the Prince was quoting came from a doc.u.ment that recorded a conversation from a famous past Hero. but his name wasn't Shakespeare. It was Xavier."

"Ah. that makes sense, then." Robin nodded.

"What are your plans?" Keith asked.

"I think I'll return to town. I need to reclaim the remainder of that gold coin I put up. After that...I might go and see the capital for a bit. Perhaps it'll help me understand how someone like him-" She aimed a thumb at the lump on the ground.

"-got to be this way."

At that point, a small voice behind the two-and the lump on the ground-spoke up. "Hey! What about me!?"