Page 117

Dukk... Duukkk...

I cleaned my shoes which had make a muscular man to faint until his body went limp.

Several adventurers’ eyes were on me, and their gazes observed my every gesture.

"This is the first time I’ve seen someone who has a personal grudge like this pathetic man, did something happen before?" I asked one of the female staff of the Adventurer’s Guild who stood frozen after seeing me pressing the head of the Adventurer’s Guild Master.

"Ahh... T-That..." With a face full of hesitation as if something was holding her back from saying words, the female staff of the Adventurer’s Guild turned her head as if looking for something.

"C-Can I whisper something to you.. Uhmm... Miss...??" when she wanted to say a sentence directed at me, the female staff of the Adventurer’s Guild seemed to have difficulty finding a suitable nickname to address me properly.

"Lily Schwartz De Rommel," I said to introduce myself while showing the cape engraved with the Marquess Rommel family crest.

"Uhhmm... L-Lily-sama… I-It seems that our Adventurer Guild Master has a personal grudge against the noble girl who has been burdening some adventurers here with her financial and labor costs for the past few years," the female Adventurer Guild staff replied, glancing left and right while lowering her voice to a whisper.

"A personal grudge against a noble girl? Which noble family would dare to directly disrupt Marquess Rommel’s territory?" I asked without lowering my voice so that my words echoed clearly inside the Adventurer Guild building.

"Uuuhh… T-That’s because that noble girl has a higher authority than Marquess Rommel, so we can’t possibly act impolitely by refusing every strange request of hers… I guess?" as if trying to remember the burden that the Adventurer Guild Master had once received who had to submit to the noble girl, the female Adventurer Guild staff looked restless after telling me this information.

"Someone who is above Marquess Rommel’s nobility? Do you know about this, Earl Timoti?" I continued asking Earl Timoti.

My purpose in asking Earl Timoti was right on target. Before my family went on vacation, only Earl Timoti had prepared himself to guard our territory’s forest and control the monster population along with Marquess Rommel’s troops who were intentionally left behind to control the forest population so that there would be no wild monster invasions entering the nearby town.

"I think I know the noble girl that this bastard mentioned… I mean the Adventurer’s Guild Master mentioned, Lily-sama," replied Earl Timoti who called the Adventurer’s Guild Master a bastard.

"… Uhuh?" I replied patiently until Earl Timoti told me what he knew while my family was on vacation.

"It has something to do with the arrival of Princess Anastasia who had a complicated plan to settle in this town while building her own house so that she could find out information about your return from the family vacation, Lily-sama," said Earl Timoti while giving the answer that became the source of this problem.

"Then… what problem happened that this stupid muscle man had a personal grudge against a noble girl?" I asked Earl Timoti further.

"Let me think about it, Lily-sama. Remembering Princess Anastasia’s stubborn behavior in the Royal Palace and in this territory has a thin thread that is difficult to distinguish to be called... a problem," while stroking his chin and closing his eyes, Earl Timoti seemed to be struggling to remember Princess Anastasia’s behavior that caused someone to have a personal grudge against her.

"If I’m not mistaken, Princess Anastasia once hired several adventurers as construction workers who brought building materials to build her private house until the private house became the subject of a dispute between Princess Anastasia and the King," continued Earl Timoti who dug into his past timeline memories about Princess Anastasia’s behavior that caused someone to have a personal grudge against every noble girl.

"There was a case where Princess Anastasia hired several adventurers who were experts in carrying out stealthy Quests to break into Marquess Rommel’s residence that I was guarding."

"Fortunately, I managed to block her path from entering Marquess Rommel’s residence which had become my responsibility as the sword and shield of your family, Lily-sama."

I was stunned after hearing some of Princess Anastasia’s behavior while I was on vacation with my family.

"The biggest problem that happened was Princess Anastasia who tried to destroy the Adventurer’s Guild building because one of the Adventurer’s Guild staff wanted to reject her strange Quest request until the fight reached the legal institution of the Aurora Kingdom Capital."

"Uuhh… Wooow, I didn’t expect Princess Anastasia to be that crazy, did she win the trial?" asked Alyssa who seemed interested in this story.

"You could say that Princess Anastasia won like a landslide in the trial so that this stupid-looking man had to pay damages for violating several rules of the Adventurer’s Guild vows... that make the Adventurer’s Guild shouldn’t have rejected her Quest... as her Quest not violated any rules to be broken," replied Earl Timoti in answer to Alyssa’s question.

"Yup, Princess Anastasia is a crazy girl for a long time. I have to be more careful if Lily-nee is alone with her," said Alyssa with a smile at me.

Alyssa’s smile was directed at me with her cold gaze that was looking at the future accident with her girl’s intuition.

"Let’s just assume this is a misunderstanding," I said to stop this complicated problem from becoming a new problem.

"Ignore your weak Adventurer’s Guild Master, is there anyone who has the power to make my request for a Quest known to the adventurers here and elsewhere?" I asked the remaining Adventurer’s Guild staff in this place.

Swiilrr...

Poosshh...

"Considering that the enemy this time is the Golden King Bear, the Marquess Rommel family has responded to a major threat that could potentially become dire if not dealt with immediately…" using the magic circle formation of the Soul Tame of stealth slime number forty-seven, I showed them the emergency situation that had to be responded to properly.

My Soul Tame magic formation showed the courage of one of the stealth slimes hiding near the Golden King Bear who was trying to eat the magic cores of the King and Queen Slimes that looked hard in its mouth.

The hard magic cores made it seem like the Golden King Bear was having difficulty swallowing them raw.

Unlike magic cores processed with human Alchemist technology, monsters, and animals only have the knowledge to eat magic cores to digest the power of the magic energy possessed by the magic cores.

Kraaauukkk...

Crraasshhh...

"As you can see, the Golden King Bear has now become a serious threat that must be dealt with properly, right?" While letting out my cold and menacing grin, I showed the people who are still inside the Adventurer’s Guild building the threat and destruction of the Golden King Bear could cause.

Just by showing the silhouette of the Golden King Bear and the power of its raw magical energy that came out of its body, it had given the hunting difficulty level equal to a Calamity Disaster.

Baaaammm!!

Once again I stomped the heavy bag filled with gold coins.

"Can you take care of the Quest request to do this Golden King Bear hunting?"

"Ahh!! One more thing... it needs to be underlined that this will be a high-level Quest with a monster hunting scale equal to a Calamity Disaster!"

With a smile on my face, I emphasized every word I said until this abnormal Quest was able to attract the attention of all the civilians’ eyes and the adventurers’ eyes that were spread across every branch.

"Lily-sama, you seem to have forgotten one important thing," Earl Timoti chimed in, drawing everyone’s attention.

"This Golden King Bear hunting operation will be entirely under your command as the holder of the command baton representing Patriarch Marquess Rommel!" Earl Timoti’s words made my body jump.

"Eh? I have to lead this Golden King Bear hunting operation?" I whispered back to Earl Timoti.

"Don’t you want to continue the follow-up attack together with the stealth slime herd to take back their cave?"

Earl Timoti’s answer made my back break out in a cold sweat again.

The stealth slime herd and the group of adventurers who will hunt the Golden King Bear who are led in my direction?

Wouldn’t this be a difficult task for my amateurish ability to lead a large-scale attack operation?

"Ohh!! I understand now, Lily-sama. You must be talking about my soldiers working together with Marquess Rommel’s soldiers as the main attackers while being assisted by the stealth slime herd and the adventurers who are willing to contribute to this large-scale attack, right?" The question given by Earl Timoti has become a time bomb that exploded inside me.

Behind my expressionless face, I could feel the terrible workload when receiving the command baton given directly by my father as his replacement.

I swallowed my saliva to calm my rapidly beating heart.

My hand immediately pressed down my military cap until it covered my face with a black shadow.

"It seems that you realize the mistake that has occurred, Earl Timoti," I said to play my role as a military girl.

If my Goddess saw this, she might have gone crazy with my roleplay which suddenly increased the level of difficulty rapidly.

[ Is it wrong if I enjoy this too much, Lily-chan? ]

Hearing the reply from my Goddess, I was able to let out a heavy breath with my heartbeat calming down again.

"This freaky-heavy problem has become a responsibility that I must take as my father’s representative! Let us return home to plan our attack strategy!" I immediately stood up and headed towards the exit of the Adventurer’s Guild building.

My cape, which had the Marquess Rommel family crest carved into it, seemed to be waving as the cold wind managed to penetrate through the gaps in the door that was not completely closed.

My footsteps as I left the Adventurer’s Guild building felt like they were stabbing my already heavy back.

This invisible burden.

How can I reduce it?

This Matriarch’s burden... is so heavy!