Chapter 49. Was Invited to the Mansion.

The next morning.

My face was stiff, and when I moved my jaw, the dried medicinal paste on my skin crumbled and fell off.

After washing my face with lukewarm water, my skin, which had clearly subsided compared to yesterday, was revealed.

I was worried about what to do if the medicine had no effect.

Fortunately, the effect was visible.

Though traces remained here and there, I would likely recover completely in a day or two.

“Brother, the rat is still showing no reaction.”

Pol, who had been checking the rat's condition as soon as he woke up, said.

It seemed the Arachne Queen had no poison.

Rats and humans were different, so it wasn't 100%, but I could probably rest assured about 90%, right?

Pol took the rat out of the pouch and asked.

“Can I keep this one?”

“Do you have to?”

I had heard stories about people raising rats as pets, but this one was just a stray rat he had caught.

It was dirty, and since it hadn't been handled by people since it was young, it would be difficult to tame.

“It's cute, the more I look at it.”

Jjiiik-

The rat was energetic despite having spent the whole night trapped in a pouch.

Bread crumbs and the like, likely given as food, were scattered around it.

“I also feel a bit sorry for it.”

“Do as you please.”

It was just one rat.

It would probably run away or get caught by a cat before long anyway.

Besides, I too was raising a monster in a corner of the room, so I had no room to talk.

“Get ready. We need to move quickly.”

I had told the Queen that meeting Simon today was a certainty, but in truth, it wasn't certain whether I could meet Simon right away.

It was because I had only said I would meet him and hadn't set an exact date.

‘It would have been nice if I could have arranged it in advance, but it can't be helped.’

It wasn't easy to even get a message to someone as high-ranking as a member of the Imperial Central Knight Order.

Even if I had sent a letter in advance using someone, it probably wouldn't have reached Simon.

In the end, I had no choice but to move myself.

‘It would be nice if Simon is at the Knight Order headquarters.’

He had complained a lot about having to use his precious vacation to follow the Sword Saint's orders.

That meant his vacation was short, and there was a high possibility that he was back at the Knight Order headquarters by now.

Even if Simon wasn't at the Knight Order headquarters right now, asking at the headquarters was also the fastest and most certain way to find out his location.

I packed my simple luggage and finally picked up the pouch containing the Queen.

“……!!!”

The Queen thrashed about violently.

A muffled sound leaked out from within the leather pouch where she was trapped.

She hadn't eaten a single thing for a whole day, yet she was truly full of energy.

In a noisy place, it wouldn't be a problem even if the Queen caused a ruckus, but it could become troublesome in a quiet place.

‘Should I stuff it with some sound-absorbing material.’

It seemed she really did not want to meet Simon.

“Let's go.”

Jjiik-

The one that answered my words was not Pol, but the rat.

The rat was peeking its head out from the mouth of the pouch that Pol was hugging dearly.

The calmly settled rat and the still-rampaging Queen were somehow comparable.

‘The rat might be smarter than the Arachne Queen-’

Feeling a sense of pity, I stepped out of the inn and immediately stopped dead in my tracks.

That was because a splendid carriage was stopped in front of the inn.

Even the coachman was wearing neat clothes that were hard to come by, giving off a tremendous sense of pressure.

That coachman scanned Pol and me once and then opened his mouth.

“Are you Sir ‘Green Snake Ben’, and Sir ‘Bloodstained Pol’?”

When I gave a slight nod, the coachman bowed his waist in a greeting.

“Sir Simon Liatro has sent me. I will escort you to the mansion.”

Come to think of it, there was no one other than Simon who would send a carriage for me.

“Hmm.”

I didn't know how he knew we had arrived, but it wasn't strange for someone of Simon's status to get news from here and there.

‘That saved me the trouble of going to find him.’

Pol and I boarded the carriage without hesitation.

He said we were going to the mansion.

If we had gone to the Knight Order headquarters, we would have made a wasted trip.

I could feel a great number of gazes from the surroundings.

Of course, it was a carriage that felt out of place even on the street. Moreover, the fact that it had come to pick up two shabby-looking mercenaries was an element sufficient to draw attention.

A normal carriage would have been enough to pick us up.

‘Is he an attention seeker.’

The way he wore the armor of the Central Knight Order while saying he was on vacation was also like that.

I felt a strangely twisted desire.

* * *

The place where the carriage stopped was the very picture of a noble's mansion.

Of course, since space was limited in the Imperial Capital, the area itself wasn't all that large.

Compared to the streets where buildings were packed tightly together in an effort to build even one more, the sight of this huge mansion, built while wasting space on a garden, literally made one feel the difference in class.

“Welcome.”

Simon, wearing something like a flowing gown, greeted us.

“It hasn't been that long, has it. Greetings. You're not in your armor today.”

“I also rest when I’m resting.”

Simon smiled pleasantly and guided us inside the mansion.

The interior of the mansion was even more spacious than it looked from the outside, and there were just as many people managing it.

Servants coming and going everywhere.

They glanced this way with strangely tense movements.

Did they not like that Pol and I had entered the mansion?

“...Somehow, it feels like everyone is looking this way. Did we do something wrong?”

The clueless Pol whispered to me.

He must have thought he was lowering his voice, but because the mansion was so quiet, it was heard clearly.

Simon must have heard him too, as he turned his head and smiled brightly.

“It's because of me.”

“Yes?”

“Normally, the owner of the house only goes out to greet people of the same or higher status.”

In other words, this situation where the owner himself had come out to greet people who were, by all appearances, of low status, was bound to be confusing.

“It's the etiquette of the nobility. People are so obsessed with useless things.”

It meant that he had deliberately guided us himself, knowing full well that this would happen.

In other words, he seemed to be enjoying confusing the servants.

His personality was really…….

“Now. Please sit.”

Upon arriving at the drawing-room, Simon offered us seats.

They were obviously luxurious pieces of furniture.

And they were all pure white.

The state of my clothes, which I hadn't cared about as I had grown accustomed to dirt, came into view anew.

The armor that had rolled around with me here and there.

It was already stained in every nook and cranny and would never be completely clean no matter how much I cleaned it.

If I sat down like this, it was a given that the furniture would get dirty.

‘This is intentional, isn't it?’

Look at that smirking face of Simon's.

After putting a person in a difficult situation.

A surge of irritation welled up, and I sat down roughly.

So what if it gets dirty.

He can ask me to pay for it.

“Now, now. You too, Mr. Pol.”

Unlike me, Pol sat down cautiously.

The rat in his pouch, with a face full of curiosity, attempted to escape from the pouch, but Pol quickly pushed the rat back inside the pouch and tightened the opening.

Well done.

It would have been terrible if the rat had escaped now and run wild through the mansion.

“It took you quite a while to come to the Imperial Capital.”

“Didn't you say it was fine to come slowly?”

Although we had spent about two days on various tasks, it wasn't to the extent that we should be reprimanded for being late.

“Then it would have been better if you had come late altogether.”

“Yes?”

“Today is the last day of my vacation. I was planning to rest fully without thinking about anything, but I didn't expect to have an appointment like this.”

Simon said, as if complaining, and with a light wave of his hand, even the servants who had been on standby rushed out of the drawing-room.

“If it had been after my vacation was over, I could have used you all as an excuse to run away from work. It’s a shame.”

Wasn't the Imperial Central Knight Order the empire's strongest military force?

He sounded unfittingly like an ordinary office worker.

“In any case, welcome.”

In the deepened silence, Simon took a sip of tea and continued speaking.

“You look quite flashy. You even changed your nickname.”

“It wasn't something I wanted.”

“Ahaha. I thought our tastes had aligned, but that’s a shame.”

Was he joking?

Or was he serious?

I didn't know.

This human was difficult.

“At any rate, now that you're in the Imperial Capital, please stay at my mansion until Master comes out of prison. You can make yourselves comfortable as if it's your own home.”

“Wow! Really!?”

“Get a clue!”

I smacked the back of the head of Pol, who was innocently delighted by Simon's offer.

“I appreciate the thought, but I must refuse.”

“Hmm. That’s a shame. Is there a reason?”

Simon said it as if he were genuinely disappointed.

But the reason for that was probably not because I had refused his goodwill.

“We find it uncomfortable here.”

“Are you saying that without even having experienced it?”

“We are experiencing it right now, are we not.”

I was anxious about everything, whether the expensive furniture would get stained or scratched.

And what about the gazes of the servants.

That human, Simon, would probably enjoy watching us fret and worry.

“I’m not uncomfortable though.”

Pol mumbled while rubbing the back of his head.

I stand corrected.

Simon would watch ‘me’ sitting on pins and needles.

As for Pol, perhaps because he was completely thoughtless, he was immune to such tricks.

Not that I was envious.

“Huhu. I understand. Since you find my mansion uncomfortable, let’s finish all our business today so you don't have to come many times.”

Simon gave up cleanly and changed the subject.

“Shall we go for Master’s visitation first-”

“Before that, I have something to tell you. It's about the Arachne Queen.”

I stopped Simon's words.

These were matters that would be better to inform the Sword Saint about as well, but the Sword Saint was in prison right now.

Even if visitation was allowed, surveillance could not be ruled out.

Since it was all information that would be troublesome if it leaked, it was better to tell at least Simon in advance.

“That thing, it didn't die?”

“H-How did you know?”

Pol was startled by Simon's calm reaction.

In truth, it wasn't that big of a deal.

There were only a few possibilities for speaking seriously about a monster that had been dealt with.

“Here.”

I took out the pouch containing the Queen and opened it.

The Queen, as if she had been listening to the conversation from inside the pouch, revealed herself very demurely.

Of course, being tied up tightly with a rope, she did look like a criminal.

“Hmm. She's become a cute young lady. So this was that queen? Looking at her like this, she also looks like a baby arachne.”

Without a hint of surprise, Simon poked the Queen with his finger.

Badeulbadeul.

If Pol or I had done that, she would have immediately started biting and rampaging, but perhaps because she was terrified of Simon, she was quietly accepting his touch.

“When Sir Liatro cut the Arachne Queen's neck, it seems she was already in the middle of evolving. Even after her neck fell, she held on in a crystal form inside her head, and after arriving in the Imperial Capital, she broke out of the crystal.”

“Aha. So this is the result of an evolution that adapted to the changed environment during the process of evolution.”

Simon's gaze briefly swept over the Queen.

“It seems to be the result of trying to minimize consumption and somehow take the form of a living creature. Because even if it means consuming a precious opportunity for evolution, surviving comes first.”

Indeed.

Simon's knowledge and insight were extraordinary.

He had grasped the Arachne Queen's state just by looking at her for a moment.

“Anyway, that's amazing. Even an Arachne Queen is a rare sight. To think it almost evolved one more time.”

“That is precisely the problem.”

The probability of an Arachne Queen evolving was extremely low.

Therefore.

“I discovered evidence that someone was artificially breeding the Arachne to induce their evolution.”

“...Can you take responsibility for those words?”

Simon's gaze turned cold.

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