Gather Divine Coins and Gacha! - Chapter 75

“Mm… it’s a splendid thing.”

A half-naked old man was looking at his own reflection in the mirror with a satisfied expression.

“Literally, it’s like you’re a different person.”

“I have to intimidate those western pigs. It won’t do if I’m the pig, will it?”

I shot back at the old man’s teasing words, and the two of us burst into laughter.

He was an old man’s friend from his academy days—Count Robert Bazel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He didn’t hold any territory himself, but he was an important man who handled negotiations with the western countries, starting with the Empire.

With his round build and that gentle atmosphere, he normally seemed to serve as the mediator between the western nations and the warlord nobles who made no effort to hide their belligerent attitude toward them.

Unlike the spring enrollment season, the upcoming Commemorative Festival wouldn’t draw that many commoners, but it would bring in many foreign VIPs attending the ceremony.

In line with that, various negotiations would be held, starting with the conclusion of treaties, but this year—with the recent illegal monster trade incident and all—he, who had previously stayed in the role of coordinator, needed to show a strong, aggressive posture.

The old man had learned that, and told him about me.

Among the madams in the royal capital, it was treated as “those who know, know,” but to think it finally got around even to the old guys….

There wasn’t time to do the whole body, so we focused on the torso, but it was fortunate that my face and limbs didn’t have much flesh on them.

It wasn’t quite an inverted triangle, but compared to that gourd-like body shape at the start, it was a lot cleaner.

“Looks like you’re satisfied.”

“You saved me. Thank you.”

Mm-hm, mm-hm.

“Then, I’ll be going now…”

“Hm? What’s this, I had sweets prepared, and you don’t want any?”

Come to think of it, he’d called for a maid earlier.

“I’ll get drunk just from the smell of alcohol.”

The alcohol he’d kept pouring and gulping down without even drinking water during the treatment.

It was amber-colored and looked like whiskey at first glance, but the aroma was like fruit, more like brandy.

I was curious what it tasted like.

If I drank with this body, I’d probably keel over, but I did want to try at least licking a little, but….

“Oho! Then Seriana will scold me. Got it, you can go.”

“Okaaay.”

I’d gotten the old man’s permission too, so I’d better make myself scarce.

◇

“Man—this is rough, huh?”

I was sprawled sloppily on the sofa in the living room of the 【Hideout】.

What was rough was that at first it was about the guests who would attend the Commemorative Festival ceremony, but then it turned into stuff like how some noble house in some country might be about to fall from power, or how they were having trouble with so-and-so, or how they were gathering troops, and…

The content of the old man’s conversation just kept getting more and more dangerous.

It was fine for them to talk about something that sounded like secrets.

It was reassuring.

But I wanted them to do it somewhere I wasn’t.

I wasn’t going to leak it to anyone, but if I could get by without knowing, I didn’t want to know.

“…aahf.”

A huge yawn escaped me.

I thought I’d been sleeping properly, but… maybe I was tired?

It was already past noon.

There was still a little while until Seriana and the others got back, so maybe I’d take a nap.

◇

“A party?”

At night, we were having our usual lazy report meeting inside the 【Hideout】.

This was something we set up to cross-check information with each other, because Seriana and Elena were often together, but Alec and I were split up.

Though lately, with that mysterious surveillance issue, I’d been holed up in the mansion, so there wasn’t really anything for me to report—I mostly just listened.

“Yes. It’s a party hosted by students from the Rudo Kingdom, and it’s as attendants, but your name is on the invitation too.”

“…Just me?”

“No. Elena’s, and Alec’s as an escort, too. Probably someone who came from the home country for the Commemorative Festival heard about you and got interested, don’t you think?”

So the two of them were going too.

Still, a nobles’ party……

“Since your name is on it, unless there’s a reason, you can’t refuse. It’s student-hosted, there won’t be alcohol, and it won’t run late, so you come too.”

So I had no choice but to go.

“Okaaay.”

Well, there’ll probably be a waiting room or something anyway, so I guess I can just stay quiet there.

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Sera・【Hideout】【Prayer】【Mira's Blessing】・【Floating Orb】【Shadow Sword】【Scarlet Bee Needle】・7 cards

Seriana・【Range Identification】・【】・19 cards

Elena・【】・【Green Fang】・1 card

Alec・【】・【Red Shield】・2 cards