After that, I mixed with other merchants and nobles and fully completed the four merchants.
No, not all of them were bad merchants. Other than that reckless merchant and the merchant who used violence. They were calm, normal merchants, and the merchants themselves took the risk of going far to find a chance to make a profit. He was a highly motivated person who tried to take advantage of the situation. So, Marial talked to them normally. Two of my vassals also sent signs that there was no problem.
Then, as she treated some guests as she saw fit, formed friendships with others, and sold products from her territory. As she was handling guests such as aristocrats, merchants, and priests who were mixed in for some reason, I realized that has come.
...Yes, it's Matching Pump's aristocratic family. It's not the same faction as Viscount Reifel's family but seemed to be the head of a slightly larger faction. There was a connection with the temple...
"The first time we meet, this is Count Hart von Halleiral. I heard that she has a connection to the goddess, so by all means, I would like to form a friendship with my Halleiral family, which has strong ties to the temple, and meet the goddess. Let us enjoy grace and mercy together!"
...of course, I'd already heard, "It's this guy!" sign was posted. That's why…….
"Isn’t the connection strong with the bandit group, not the temple?" (Marial)
Marial, super fast ball to the middle!
Well, it's a waste of time to make small talk with someone like this.
"What..."
Well, I guess it's no wonder that he was at a loss for words and his face changed.
"W-what, are you saying something baseless…. Is there some kind of proof?"
His tone was getting rougher. Was he in a hurry?
But Marial didn't care about that.
"I heard it directly from the Goddess without any proof. Beyond that, what kind of proof do I need?
Besides, there's no point in telling you anything. After all, I 'know' the facts, so there's no way to deceive me. No matter how much you tried to beat me up, there's no point.
It's not like I'm asking anything of you, and no matter what you said, there's no way we would think that the words of the Goddess are a lie and what you say is correct, right? In other words, you are the one who let the bandits attacked us. That fact for me will never change. Of course, right?" (Marial)
There was no way to refute Marial's words.
There's no way Marial wouldn't believe it after hearing the name of the culprit directly from the goddess (me), and no matter how much this earl denies it, it's completely pointless.
In the first place, this Count seemed to be a temple fan, so why would he denied the words of the goddess?
Marial only pointed out that "attacked by thieves," and did not mention anything about "the cavalry soldiers who were prepared to save them from the thieves." So, in this case, the story was that this Count really tried to attack us.
...However, there was no way he could say, "Actually, I had prepared soldiers to help." In other words, letting the thieves attacked her was the same as Matching Pump's confession.
However, rather than saying, "tried to attack," "I wanted to use Match Pump as an opportunity to become friends." Maybe it's much better to say, "I never intended to cause any harm in the first place." Now that the thief incident had been completely revealed...
The Count was in trouble and was sweating heavily.
No, but didn't they receive a report from those soldiers? It was said that Marial was still protected by the birds and dogs who were servants of the goddess... If so, wasn't it normal to think that the goddess's eyes had not completely left Marial yet? But why hadn't I thought of that possibility?
...Maybe he didn't believe in Marial's "favor of the goddess"?
Did he think it was a fake and knowingly tried to get close to it in order to take advantage of it?
Yeah, unless he thought about it, there's no way a goddess would deceive or pick a fight with someone she had her eye on.
Also, I thought, "He probably didn't intend to harm Marial and the others, so he couldn't be that bad..." but when I thought about it, I realized that he was "An aristocrat who is friends with thieves."
Out!
Ouuuu~t!
He's definitely a villain!
I was sure they'd done a lot of things using thieves up until now!!
I wondered what I was thinking about...
"If I were to sue and desperately make up excuses in an attempt to escape my guilt, I would still understand. But what on earth would I do if I were to make excuses even though I know the facts?
Well, if you don't want other people to talk about this, just give up and go home!" (Marial)
Ah, I guess he gave up after hearing Marial's words that showed her discomfort. The Count obediently backed down and left...
And Marial...
"I told him to go home if he didn't want to be talked about, but I didn't say that I wouldn't talk if he went home, right? That person said, 'I didn't want to be talked about, so I went home.' That's all. And it has nothing to do with my actions!" (Marial)
Yeah, yeah, Marial had fallen into darkness in a good way....
And then, when I was dealing with some more visitors...
Surprise!
When someone came into the room and saw us, he seemed surprised.
It was only for a moment, but he looked clearly surprised and seemed to stiffen. His expression quickly returned to normal.
...Yeah, during that "momentary stiffness", he turned his gaze towards me.
"My name is Doboul, and I run a merchant house called the Banshee Company. Dear child of the goddess, Her Excellency Viscount Reifel..."
Marial treated the merchant lightly, just like the previous guests.
Then, I said to Marial, who pushed the merchant away even more persistently than ever before, without even trying to hide her discomfort, "I'm sorry! " he said, rushing out the other door from which the merchant had left.
Instead of going through the front door, I went out through another entrance and raised my right hand...
The one who was waiting next to this doorway came flying in. ...literally, "flying."
I ran around the inn building and pointed at a man. ...That's right, the merchant from earlier came out of the front door with an angry and displeased look on his face.
((Follow him!)) (Kaoru)
((Understood!)) (Bird)
After answering my instructions, it began to fly in a circle above the area a little distance away from the man.
...Yes, of course, it was one of the elite members of the "Bird Army" owned by Viscount Reifel's family.
No, of course, I knew the other party's name and store name from the previous meeting, but it would be faster to follow them than to find out the location of the store or the other person's residence based on the store name. If an outsider were to ask around and investigate things like that, there's a possibility that the guards or the other party would find out...
So, for the time being, I was going to find out the whereabouts of that man named Doboul on my own.
Right now, I didn't wear any disguises.
It was four years, from when my existence became known to everyone as the "Angel" and from when Celes appeared at the peace conference until I left the Kingdom of Balmore. During that time, it was thought that there were quite a few people who saw me or had hired artists draw pictures of me and took them back to other countries.
Therefore, it would not be surprising if there were people who knew my face even in this country far away from Balmore Kingdom.
But speaking of someone who was aware of me but didn't say anything about it and pretended not to notice...
Yes, it's "suspicious."
"Sorry I made you wait!" (Kaoru)
Then I hurried back to the room and resumed the interview with the guests. There were still customers waiting to meet.
Well then, let's resume the interview...
Piku!
Biku!
Biku biku!
"...eh?"
After that, many customers looked at me, froze for a moment, and then passed on as if nothing had happened.
What did it mean?
Then Roland, who seemed to notice that I was deep in thought, muttered to himself.
"...Aren't they just scared of the way Kaoru looks at them?" (Roland)
Damn it!!