Chapter 19: What's in your pocket, brat?

Finishing his long… but very long flashback about the situation on the way home, Thadeus just sighed as he thought to himself “Canelia-san really can be so terrifying with just her presence~ Is this what senior nobles are like?”

Anyway, the young man crossed his arms behind his neck as if to stretch while looking at the sky where the majestic Wyrvens had recently flown, thinking about Maru's situation and his strange behavior.

As he walked with deliberately slow steps, he was greeted by the few villagers around, who were also chatting among themselves about how exciting the sight of the Wyrvens was even now.

Wyrvens were symbols of the Knights of Heaven, admired even by people in the Arswerdian Empire, and were also very rare and impressive magical beasts for the commoners. Naturally, it wasn't surprising that there was a small fuss, even in an age where everyone was busy working early.

If things were normal, Thadeus would certainly have talked for hours with Maru about how amazing that sight was and how he himself planned to tame one, proudly saying “Someday I will stand before you as a worthy Knight of Heaven!” with the smugness of a boy his age.

However, the current disconcerting situation didn't allow him to do such a thing. He still didn't know what was happening to Maru, and that worried him greatly, since she was an important family member and friend. Besides...

“Maru’s reactions…. Were they that cute before?”

He couldn't help but mutter as he scratched his cheek in embarrassment at what he'd just thought. At some point, the image of an extremely flushed and flustered Maru was stuck in his head, unable to get out...

"Hey...boy, saying things like that on the street; maybe you've already discovered you're completely in love with that girl, or something? I bet those chatty old ladies would be furious to know, haha."

“Huh?”

A deep, slightly coarse voice suddenly spoke to him in a shout, and Thadeus, quite surprised that someone had heard what he said, turned in the direction of the voice. There, where his eyes had been drawn, was a man with disheveled crimson hair, sitting listlessly near the door to what was clearly a small armory.

…which was 10 meters to the left of where Thadeus was.

What the fuck!? Huh!?

Although Thadeus knew beforehand that this man wasn't normal. How the hell do you hear someone's whispers from that distance? Was it a misunderstanding?

No…the other part was staring at him. There was no doubt that she was talking to him and listening, as if she'd used some kind of magic to spy on people. And as if to confirm it, he said out loud, "Yeah, you, I'm talking to you. Do you see another brat like you around here or something?"

“…”

Thadeus wrinkled his face a little. What does the famous ex-gentleman and number one drunk in town want?

Were you so bored that you wanted little kids' gossip?

“What do you mean by “in love”? If you mean considering another person as a marriage partner, you’re very wrong,” he replied cautiously, not getting any closer. He didn’t feel comfortable ignoring someone who was talking to him, nor did he want to be around someone who was rumored to be as violent as some adventurers and smelled of alcohol all the time, like them.

His only clients were adventurers, by the way.

The other side, who insisted on being called 'Sir Valeni' — as if to reject his disgrace as a knight — simply scrunched his face into a sneer, raising his eyebrow as he openly said, “Doesn’t he even know what it means to be in love? Come on, man, you’re only two years away from being a damn adult…though to me you’re just a kid even with that, but even a little 7-year-old should understand what I mean, damn it.”

“Does it matter?”

By that I meant as politely as possible: What's it to you, you weird old man?

Grasping the meaning of her words from her voice alone, the elderly weapons dealer only smiled sarcastically. “Kid, let this old man teach you a lesson; if you constantly think about a girl and think her every little action is cute, it’s because you’re in love with her. And by love, I mean wanting her for yourself and no one else; it’s pure instinct for us men. As such, if you’re close, instead of acting like a clueless Orkus, you should do everything you can to make her feel the same way about you, and finally…Tatan, marriage and children! Happy life with a lovely wife!”

“…” Thadeus felt that the other party was trying to teach him something very bad by the way he was relating the thing, as such, against his principles, he decided to ignore it and continue on his way quickly towards his house, looking straight ahead.

I didn't even want to think deeply about that person's words.

Clearly noticing that the silver-haired boy was determined to ignore him, Sir Valeni, who was about to say something outrageous like “If I were your age, I would have secured that little beauty as my future wife~” just chuckled in amusement, not taking offense at all.

However…when Thadeus walked past his tent, staring straight ahead, the gunsmith's expression changed, and he gave the boy a puzzled look. He immediately placed his hands on his metal chair (quite extravagant for a commoner) while raising his upper back, barking, "Wait a minute, kid!"

“Huh?” Thadeus stopped at Sir Valeni’s call, stopping in his tracks at his unexpectedly serious and authoritative tone without stopping himself.

Turning his gaze, he saw that the man had approached him at some point, and Thadeus found himself staring into the man's imposing presence. He was looking at him...or rather, looking somewhere in his pants...

"What's that in your pocket? I smell the power of a very unusual Magic on your body."

“Unusual magic?” Surprised by those unexpected words, he instinctively pulled out what he had in his pockets and froze. The thing in his hand was shaped like a small shield, a brooch with a drawing of a dragon impaled on a spear.

It was the heraldry of Aragon, the one that belonged to Maru and should have been in her room... Thadeus's face turned pale when he realized that he had taken something that could reveal his friend's secret by mistake, and he tried to quickly put it in his pocket.

But the expelled Knight was faster than him. With almost undetectable speed and without regard for the property of others, he took the heraldry from his hands and examined it closely with his fierce green eyes.

“…. Kid, what were you doing carrying a magical object that serves both as an identification and protection for a noble family? Let alone that Grand Duchy of the Empire, of all things?”

He asked, with almost no expression on his intimidating face.