Volume 1 Chapter 23 The Inside Doesn't Match
"Why the hell do those guys always go and do stuff like this?! Damn ittt!!!"
Valzeil wasn't just fine... he was screaming his head off.
"Your Majesty, please calm down."
"You're way too calm! This is right after that damn press conference! How can you keep such a straight face?!"
The world conference has 2 kinds of waiting rooms.
Usually, it's split between 'rulers' and 'everybody else.'
Only high-ups come to the world conference anyway, so that split is enough.
At the 'Diamante Kingdom King's Waiting Room,' Valzeil had brought his usual men, but one guy was way too calm, and Valzeil didn't know where to put his wild feelings.
"No, sir, it's about Gai Gigant. Long ago, a dwarf sword saint beat it, and his hometown grew huge after that. So that means there's valuable metal there..."
"Horace will move then. That's what it means."
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
"Your Majesty, is it alright? Hero Rangella is here."
"Let them in."
"Yes!"
The door opened, and Rangella walked in with their usual blank face.
"Rangella, has your master already headed out?"
"You understand well."
"My men are sharp. Long ago, a dwarf sword saint beat Gai Gigant, and the hometown blew up from it. I'm guessing he want that rare metal."
Hearing that, Rangella glanced at Valzeil's men, then quickly looked back at Valzeil.
"I don't know all that, but yes... my master's already on the way."
"...We teleported here, but normally it'd take at least a week from here to the capital by the fastest route. Will he make it in time?"
"That week assumes a horse going about 20 kph, riding hard nonstop day and night, and if you count rough terrain, 2 weeks sounds more like it──about 3000 kilometers or a bit more."
"Well, that sounds pretty close."
"My master owns a golem that can fly at 300 kilometers per hour... No, wait, that was 5 years ago, so maybe now it can reach the speed of sound."
"What kinda tech is that?"
"Well, it should take about 3 hours to get there."
"Gai Gigant needs time for the energy inside him to get ready for battle. We'll probably make it on time. But who knows what'll happen after the fight for your master. We gotta use communication magic tools to evacuate the capital's people.Hmm, arrange it like that."
"Yes sir!"
The subordinate rushed out of the room.
Communication and teleportation magic tools are precious.
Even at the world conference headquarters, using ones made for super long distances takes a lot of hassle.
"...Hah, summoning stones, huh. Didn't expect to be hiding something like that."
"Sometimes you find stuff like that in dungeons. Also, cloth that can hide you from detecting magic if you keep it inside."
"I thought Diamante Kingdom's dungeons rarely had things like this, and were just 'hard-to-get dungeons', but nope. Better to assume everyone's hiding items like this."
"Yeah. But my master should have info about dungeons where 'almost no items come out'."
"So basically, the dungeon reports sent to the castle later will mostly say they only drop 'coins'."
Valzeil's only recently started walking the path of the 'wise king', and doesn't have a good system to gather the really needed info.
There aren't many chances to dig through mixed-up reports to find the truth.
"...Hah, already 42 but still missing so many things a king needs."
"I thought you were in your mid-fifties."
"..."
Valzeil's face twisted a little.
Getting told straight-up by a 17-year-old girl that he looks old is pretty rough.
"Yeah, yeah, my father had a young-looking face. When I turned 20, people mocked me saying I looked older than him."
"So the old face runs in the family, huh?"
"..."
Valzeil isn't a hero, but a king, so dignity matters a lot.
If anything, looking a bit older than youthful is better.
Youth is a factor that gets people all over it, that's just how the world works.
"My mother would say, 'Your father looks young, but it's hard on him.' She often mentioned, 'Valzeil was better off with an older face.'"
"Is that so?"
"By the way, they once mistook my mother for someone in her thirties when she was only 14."
"..."
Rangella refrained from saying, "Your dad must have weak genes, huh?"
As a joke about the male-line king, it's pretty harsh.
Then again, maybe the previous king suffered because he married a woman like that?
Rangella wonders, but would never say it out loud.
"In terms of presence and dignity, I've never had any trouble... but the inside doesn't match."
"The inside, not matching the outside. Well, I think that's fine."
"You think so?"
"Even my master looks like a teenager, but he's actually 27."
"Huh..."
A muffled gasp slipped out of Valzeil's mouth, shocked.
"Certainly, things aren't always as they appear. I've been working in the castle for nearly ten years. I didn't start when I was 5."
"Yeah, I guess not."
He knew about the long years of work, but it seemed he hadn't realized it was almost ten.
Valzeil felt something was still fuzzy, but maybe it was a pointless topic, so he decided to end the conversation.
"Enough about looks. If we leave the capital to Horace, it should be fine. The real question is, what to do with the nobles?"
"...I've heard there's a 'worst dungeon' in the basement of this headquarters. Will it be used?"
"Nah, for this issue, probably 'no victims' will apply. So, no dungeon."
"I see."
"Though, one thing's for sure, lifetime sentences in the dungeon aren't changing."
Calmly, with a look like he was patching something up, Valzeil said that.
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