Gather Divine Coins and Gacha! - Chapter 83

 Three days have passed since the kidnapping incident.

In that time, there are a few things that have become clear.

First, the building and village that the people who abducted me were using as their base.

The village itself wasn’t involved, but apparently it was one of the hunting grounds used to procure monsters for trade.

On the morning I returned, one unit from the Knight Order was dispatched, and they succeeded in capturing them on the spot.

They weren’t adventurers, but mercenaries from the west, and originally they had come to Mesaria as merchant escorts during the spring enrollment season.

After that, they captured monsters at several hunting grounds, brought them to the royal capital, and it seems they planned to return to the west again as escorts after the commemorative festival ended, but while capturing the monsters and bringing them to the royal capital went fine, the crucial monster deal ended up getting crushed, and with their schedule suddenly open, they were apparently commissioned by Loud Company to imprison me.

Capturing monsters itself isn’t a crime, but with bringing them into the royal capital and my case as well, they’ll likely be charged with some kind of offense.

Balgo and the others still haven’t been found.

As expected, it seems they didn’t come back and disappeared as they were.

It was decided that revealing 【Hideout】 and showing the recording might serve as evidence, but it would be better not to do that.

I don’t want to let anyone in there either, so I think that’s fine.

They probably got involved via the Church, but the Church didn’t seem particularly eager about this either and appears to be watching quietly, so they likely won’t come after me.

And then there’s the Rudo Kingdom.

Yeah.

All I can say is… they’ve had bad luck.

As for writing down my name, it seems someone under Loud Company’s influence certainly egged them on, but they found out that Seriana has been using me to deepen ties with nobles, and thinking it would support that, they apparently didn’t think too deeply about it.

The fourth prince’s fiancée hasn’t been announced yet, so it isn’t known that it has already been decided as Seriana, but the fact that she’s the most promising candidate is common knowledge.

Even if it didn’t turn out that way, they probably judged that forming a connection with the Müller family would be beneficial.

Well, there’s no way they could’ve imagined it would turn into this….

From Rudo Kingdom’s perspective, they don’t want to clash with the Müller family, of course, and they don’t want trouble with the Mesaria Kingdom either.

If, for example, they could’ve helped with searching for me, rescuing me, capturing the culprit, and so on, they could’ve at least saved face and made up for it.

But I returned on my own, and the Knight Order deployed at daybreak, so they couldn’t do anything.

Then all that’s left is to apologize profusely.

“Please, accept this.”

I was getting tired of the long words of apology, but it finally ended.

When I glanced at gramps, he was nodding.

Seems it’s fine to accept it.

The reception space in gramps’s office.

The table there was spread out with the apology gifts for me.

A dress, jewels, sweets, and a huge painting.

…There’s no cash?

“Our country has no intention of making an issue with yours. We’ll still have you cooperate with the investigation for quite a while, but, well, it probably won’t turn out badly.”

Gramps sits there, unruffled.

“Thank you very much. I won’t hesitate to cooperate in any way.”

The other party bows his head and answers at once.

That’s what you call abject humility.

I don’t know whether this person counts as an ambassador or a diplomat or which category they fall into, but apparently they’re someone with quite a high position back in their home country… yet even if gramps is the former head, his current rank is baron.

And despite that, this humility.

The gap in national power shows.

It makes me feel sorry instead.

Can’t this hurry up and end already~….

◇

“Are you not good with stiff formalities?”

“Not really…”

The apology ended, and the other party went home.

We didn’t even see them off, and just stayed in the room.

It’s apparently to clearly draw the line—up and down, or rather black and white—but stuff like this just…

If it were like the orphanage director, where I could have clear hostility, it wouldn’t bother me… my stomach hurts.

I’m surprisingly small-time.

“It’s not something that happens often. Still, that’s quite a haul. Rudo probably wanted to wrap this up before the matter became one between nations.”

“Adults have it rough~… We’ll all eat the sweets, but what do we do with the rest?”

As I rummage through the apology gifts, I think about how to use them.

“None of it’s perishable. 【Hideout】, then? Just store it there. If there were alcohol, I’d take it, though.”

Fertilizer for 【Hideout】 instead of a dresser, huh…

There’s no one to give it to, so what should I do.

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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