Chapter 193: Finally, the Time for the Audience
The day of the audience was clear and sunny from the morning, as if explicitly showing the brightness of the future.
The ceremony of meeting His Majesty the King took the form of a high-ranking noble of this country introducing me to the king. This time, it would be the husband of Duchess Veles herself—the duke in person—who would introduce me. This person seemed to hold no particularly bad feelings toward me, so from my perspective he was someone I was grateful for.
Still, the royal palace is wide, isn’t it!? Wide and tall, isn’t it!? That was the impression I had. I must have looked completely like a country bumpkin, my eyes darting around as I was led by the duke down the corridor. There was none of that thing I once read about—knights in armor holding swords standing on both sides of the corridor applying pressure. Instead, it was just an endless walk down a corridor where bureaucrats and maids occasionally passed by.
To the duke walking ahead, I asked,
“Will there be many people present today?”
He replied,
“Many people? Ah, you mean those attending the ceremony? Besides His Majesty the King, I think only a few. Probably just His Majesty’s secretary and guards.”
“Is it that few?”
At my question the duke chuckled “fufufu” and asked,
“Did you think the hall would be filled with people?”
“No, I wasn’t expecting anything that exaggerated. Fewer is better, so I feel relieved.”
“Is that so? That’s good. There’s nothing good about being too tense. That said, being too relaxed isn’t good either.”
The duke was stating the completely obvious. But I revised my opinion of him as someone who could say such things. Wait—if that alone makes me revise my evaluation of the duke, then my evaluation of him must have been incredibly low.
At the end of the corridor sat a door of such height that I wanted to retort, “Is this a giant’s country?!”
When the duke stood in front of that door, it opened inward without any announcement.
Beyond it was what could truly be called a great hall. The far end of the room was raised one step higher, with two seats arranged there, and a man and a woman were sitting side by side. Even from a distance I could tell they wore crowns on their heads, so that must be His Majesty the King, and the woman beside him the Queen. Wait—though I’m not confident from this distance, that mage who came as an envoy to the embassy is standing beside the king. He’s frowning again. Honestly. If he hates it that much, he didn’t have to come out, right? While thinking that and walking forward, the duke said in a low voice,
“Hmm? Hütter is here. What’s that guy doing? It’s rare for him to show up in a place like this. Ambassador Marie, do you know him?”
This duke has abnormally good eyesight, doesn’t he? While thinking that, I answered,
“Yes, only to the extent that the other day he came to the embassy and brought the invitation for an audience with His Majesty.”
The duke was a little surprised at my reply.
“Eh, that guy did something like that? I can hardly believe he would act as His Majesty’s messenger. He’s bad with people and rarely appears at official occasions. What could be interesting enough for him to come out? When you met him before, did he say anything?”
“Yes, he said I smelled.”
Smell… smell harassment…
Because we were advancing slowly one step at a time, the conversation progressed instead.
“He said you smelled? Really?”
“He repeated ’smelly, smelly’ many times. I didn’t ask what smelled, so I don’t know, but surely he meant I smelled like the countryside?”
Since I was facing forward I couldn’t see the duke’s expression, but I felt he let out a small chuckle. Is this a laugh of agreement that I smell like the countryside…?
“Even if he said countryside smell… that guy himself came from the mountains of the Mainz Kingdom, so he has no right to speak high and mighty about others. First of all, his accent is terrible. He thinks he’s speaking standard Mainz Kingdom language, but the mountain accent hasn’t left him. So he’s far more countryside-smelling. Come to think of it, you speak beautiful aristocratic language. Even my wife had a terrible accent when she married into my house, yet you speak beautiful aristocratic language from the start. I don’t know who taught you, but you must have had a good teacher. I’ll praise your teacher for you.”
“Thank you very much. The person who taught me will be happy if she hears it. I would like to let her hear Your Grace’s words.”
“Fufufu, words have power, so they will surely reach the person herself.”
“Um.”
“What is it?”
“If words have power, then wouldn’t the things Your Grace just said about Hütter-sama also reach Hütter-sama?”
“Un, that’s fine. Everyone says it, and there are even people who say it to his face. Compared to that, saying it from this far away like me is kind.”
“Is that so…”
“You can’t accept it? Am I not being this kind to my family and to you?”
“Yes, I am grateful for the kindness you have shown me. However, I have a small, tiny doubt.”
“What is it?”
“Um, why does the Duchess seem to hold a bit of dissatisfaction toward Your Grace? I wondered why Your Grace’s kindness and consideration do not reach the Duchess.”
I didn’t actually think that, but I decided to earn points when I could.
“Oh! What a good child you are!! My desire to protect you wells up even more. Putting that aside, the reason she shows anger or cold feelings toward me is because she loves me. If she didn’t love her husband, such feelings wouldn’t arise, would they?”
Indeed, that might be true? Is that the subtlety only a married couple can understand?
“Indeed.”
I agreed for now.
“That’s why she tries to become younger and more beautiful for my sake, and that feeling turns into action—trying to buy medicine that costs twenty gold coins, hahaha.”
“Exactly.”
I felt it was a little different, but I agreed here. The source of the gold coins is this person, after all.
“However, as a high-ranking noble, one cannot be satisfied with only one wife. For example, if one compares women to rose flowers, the wife is red, isn’t she? But there also exist yellow, white, pink, blue, and purple flowers of various colors. Loving only red and not loving the other colors is strange, right? Looking at various colors is only natural as a man, don’t you think?”
I seeeeee! As expected, what he says is different. As a man I can agree!
“Do blue and purple roses exist…?”
That part bothered me more…
“Oh, you didn’t know? I like deep blue and purple roses. Of course a true crimson rose is wonderful too. There are even roses that are white during the day and turn pink at night. Isn’t it amazing that the color of the flower changes depending on the color of the light!? Women are the same! A lady by day and a prostitute by night! No, it was still too early for you? I’ll take you along sometime—to such a shop! Everything is life experience!”
Your Grace, it is indeed life experience, but I think the previous ambassador ruined himself with that.
In any case, we arrived in front of His Majesty the King. The Queen was properly seated beside him as well. Of course, Scarlett-sama. A queen completely different from the Scarlett-sama of that time was seated there in state.
The duke went down on one knee and lowered his head, so I followed suit.
“Your Majesty the King, by a twist of fate, I introduce to you Robin Marie, the newly appointed Ambassador of the Marie Kingdom to the Mainz Kingdom.”
The duke began introducing me, but how magnificently he spoke! I had underestimated this person. In front of his wife I had thought of him as a rather playboyish, unreliable man, but when it counted he was a man who could deliver. I wanted his wife to see this figure.
After that it was praise for how excellent and outstanding a person I had been since birth, and while listening I wondered whose story this was. After all, the content the duke was talking about was from before I came to this world—the time when I was the useless Robin.
While thinking how well he could tell such made-up stories, I was also surprised that the duke had memorized that much text. Is this person’s flashy appearance also just a pose?
“Ambassador Marie, raise your face.”
When the voice came and I raised my head, the His Majesty I saw was an ordinary middle-aged man. There was none of the atmosphere of the Marie Kingdom’s king, who was like a wild arrow of debauchery; he was a very healthy-looking, serious person. What left an impression was the Queen beside him looking at me with an excessively smiling face.
Tense and remembering nothing else, the audience ended… I had simply sweated the whole time.