Chapter 156: So Now It’s Settled?
Chapter 156: So Now It’s Settled?
「Those two ruffians over there!」
After stepping forward in front of Irvine and Mort, Haru aggressively yelled at them.
「What now! More swordsmen, huh! We’re just standing here as guards for Toriela’s Company――eh, what the heck is with this kid?」
「Oi, there’s also Alfried-sama?」
Irvine and Mort curiously looked at me standing near Haru - who is yelling at them.
Well, it’s natural for you to be puzzled if you don’t really understand the situation.
Rather, ‘more swordsmen’ he said, I wonder how many times have they’ve been called out by the patrolling swordsmen.
Irvine - who was puzzled with the situation - turned his gaze to me when I’m still astonished by that.
「……oi, Alfried-sama. What’s with this kid and the swordsmen behind you?」
「What do you mean ‘kid’! I have a name, it’s Haru!」
Even when Haru protested to him while puffing her cheeks, Irvine carelessly answer with 「Ahー, yeah yeah. Alright, alright」as he didn't know the other party’s background as Daimyo's daughter.
「So, what’s with these guys Alfried-sama?」
「Al, do you know these ruffians?」
They called me ‘Alfried-sama Alfried-sama’ over and over, so Haru turn around and asked me, perhaps she’s bothered by it.
Then, even Kaku-san and Suke-san who are close to her also looked at me suspiciously.
It was a gaze that says, could it be that you know these guys? I felt that something like contempt is also mixed in their gazes.
I don’t even need to consider it. Whether I am acting to follow the game as one of the Grandfather’s group or to stand up for the guards - Irvine and Mort………
「Nope, I don’t know them」
「「Haa!?」」
When I flatly denied their claim, Irvine and Mort stared at me with their mouth wide open.
「What are you talking about, Alfried-sama!」
「I don’t know from where did you got my name, but please don’t call me in such an overfamiliar manner」
「Wai, you! Stop joking around! You abandoned us since you thought that it’s going to be troublesome to cover for us, right!」
Mort shouted at me while stamping his foot on the ground when I said that as though I was casting them aside.
If you know what I feel, then I wish you’d leave me alone.
Yeah, that’s right. I don’t want Haru and the others to think of me as the same kind of people as Irvine and Mort.
「I knew it! If Al was also a bad guy then I also have to punish Al!」
Haru said that while smiling brightly.
I’m really glad I didn’t hesitate to abandon them.
Just as I was feeling relieved, I can hear the sound of Kaku-san and Suke-san loosening their swords in their sheaths.
「……the friends of villains are also villains, but if it’s not, then Alfried-dono is our ally…… It’s a bit regrettable though」
「……I thought I would be able to make some achievement as Kaku-san by uncovering a spy who had infiltrated our group, such a shame.」
You guys, you’re actually bearing a grudge against me because I taught Haru about Mito Kougane, aren’t you?
Let’s not get too close to Suke-san and Kaku-san.
「You people, you’re being a nuisance by standing in the middle of the street like that and blocking people! You’re making trouble for everyone, move further to the edge! 」
「No, we’re not blocking anyone. We’re just standing guard here to watch here so that some suspicious bugs that won’t approach the goods, merchants, and the Daimyo in this mansion」
It’s like the situation where the president is scolding the delinquents that were gathering in the hallway.
「Even if you want to stand guard over them, there are other places, isn’t it! Move closer to the edge! And don’t glare at the people in the surroundings! The people are scared because of that!」
「What’s with this niggling kid! And we’re not glaring at people!」
Irvine scratched his head as he was being lectured by Haru and found it to be bothersome.
As usual, he’s a man who said something that suits a delinquent.
Just by looking at the situation, you can understand which one of them is the villain and which of them is on the right.
「I’m not a kid, my name is Haru! Also, don’t you humiliate women by pointing your fingers at them in broad daylight!」
「Oi oi, ‘humiliate’ is such an ugly word, don’t you think. Now tell me, how do we humiliate them then? How about you explain it to us in specific about how we did that? 」
Uwaaー, this Irvine is so dirty. You’re trying to make such a small girl explain something like that?
Even I was left speechless by Irvine’s line.
Hearing Irvine’s question, there are question marks above Haru’s head and she says,
「Nn? Ooh? Now that you mention it, what exactly does humiliating someone mean?」
Oh well, I guess it’s going to be a bit hard for an innocent girl who doesn’t even know how to make a child explain it. And since Suke-san and Kaku-san were using the words like that, I guess she’s just imitating them
「Say, Al?」
「Who knows? I also don’t understand. It looks like Suke-san and Kaku-san knows about it, let’s try asking them」
「「Eh?」」
Looking at Haru who turned to me, I pretend to not know anything and made a killer pass2 to Suke-san and Kaku-san.
Receiving the unexpected pass, Suke-san and Kaku-san are flustered.
Even if you know the correct meaning and way to use that word, it’s a word that also contains a lot of negative meaning. It’s not a word you would teach to an eight years old girl.
And yet, the two of them were talking about them humiliating women in specific a short while ago. Now they can’t talk their way out of this.
They groaned in anguish, and then Suke-san nudged Kaku-san’s side.
「……oi」
「Suke-senpai, you’re throwing this to me!? I don’t know what Kaede-sama and Haru-sama’s mother will do to me if I were to teach her something thoughtlessly!」
Even for Kaku-san who always has a smile on his face, he looked pale now.
His superior said something like Haru not needing any man with a straight face. So if they taught some careless remarks to Haru, then I can’t imagine what would happen later.
「Mumumu, then how do we explain it………ah!」
Suke-san was already impatient, but perhaps he came up with a solution as he immediately calm down.
「Haru-sama! Please don’t listen to the words of some villain! They can make you unsure about their own wrongdoing as they will divert the issues and conversation! That’s their trick in doing things!」
「What!? So it’s like that!? I was almost fooled by them!」
「Oi oi, what the heck was that!? That’s absurd!」
Suke-san, just because you thought that it’s kinda dangerous for yourselves, do you really think it’s okay to use such extreme logic to convince Haru?
Oh well, it’s true that Irvine was trying to make the conversation vague and shift the attention away though.
「Admit your own wrongdoings and kneel, you ruffians!」
「Why did we have to kneel just because we were standing in the middle of the road!?」
「But you guys were humiliating women!」
「Wait a minute! Your way of putting it would make the surrounding people misunderstand!」
「We were just talking about it, all right!?」
Though Irvine and Mort were making excuses, Haru doesn’t listen to what they’re saying. Rather than listening to them, Haru probably assumed Irvine and Mort as the bad guys in Mito Kougane’s play.
I feel like we’re making them the bad guys by making a false charge to them somehow, but I’m going to keep an eye on the development of this situation since it’s interesting.
「You stubborn people who won't admit their wrongdoings!」
「The stubborn one is you, ain't it!」
Though Haru appears to be yelling and getting worked up, she looks to be having a lot of fun.
That’s because she can finally find some villain-like guys right after walking around the city of Kagura, and now the next line is probably the words she had always wanted to say.
And while Haru’s eyes are shining brightly like never before,
「Eeii! Suke-san, Kaku-san! Punish these people who don’t realize their own wrongdoings――」
「Hey Irvine, Mort! You’re being so noisy! Just what are you guys doing!?」
「It’s been so noisy since a while ago, what’s this all about?」
Haru was about to say the famous line, but then Aleutia and Tori came out from the mansion as if to cut her off.
They probably came out because the dispute between Haru with Irvine and Mort had become too loud.
With her famous line interrupted, Haru's eyes were wet with tears as she puffed her cheeks.
「Just what the heck the both of you are doing?」
「No wait, please listen to us Toriela-san. This small kid here was acting bossy along with that traitor and those swordsmen over there and telling us to move aside since we’re in the way, blaming us for something like glaring at the people and in the end, even though we were just talking about women among ourselves, they said that we’re humiliating them!」
「That’s right!」
Irvine and Mort - who were nearly framed as due to Haru’s false accusation - are talking on and on, as if trying to release the pent-up anger they kept holding until now.
Rather, they called me ‘traitor’, huh.
「Eh, eeh? Just how could such a thing happen? There is also Alfried-sama over there……」
「Like I said! They’re completely accusing us!」
「The two of you didn’t do something stupid again, right?」
「We didn’t!」
Well, even if they didn’t do something stupid, the situation wouldn’t become this big.
「If it’s what happened it’s actually simple! These people didn't admit their own wrongdoings, so I was trying to punish them for it! You people were making a disturbance――」
「Okay okay, please step back a little, okay. We adults are currently talking about something important」
Haru was trying to confidently explain it all, but Tori quickly ignored her due to her being a child.
Haru - who is cherished by Kaede-san, and originally having a certain status - probably had never been treated in such a rude manner.
She has this puzzled look on her face, perhaps she doesn’t understand what just happened.
Looking at such Haru, Suke-san and Kaku-san are also in a fluster.
It appears that they are worried, whether they should call him ‘rude person’, or maybe they thought of leaving them alone or settling the issue for now.
「Uーuhh, swordmen-sans, Alfried-sama. Just what in the world is this situation?」
Rather than asking from the people who were arguing, Tori decided to ask a third party - namely, us - about what really happened since he probably thought it would be a better option.
After being dumbfounded as her famous line she wanted to say got interrupted and she got ignored when she tried to explain because she was a child, Haru suddenly got teary-eyed and she took out a golden seal case from her bosom.
「Eeii! Don’t ignore me! Can’t you people see this! I’m the daughter of the Shogun’s family!」
「Alright alright, children should― ah, Shogun’s family!?」
The seal case that Haru took out was not the Water Dragon one, it’s the first and luxurious seal case she took out previously.
Eh, Shogun family’s daughter? That Haru, didn’t she say that her status was just ‘so-so’ when we first met?
「Aah, she did it」
「It can’t be helped it turns out like this」
Ignoring me - who was surprised -, Suke-san and Kaku-san muttered while sighing.
So that means, Haru’s guards - Kaede-san and these two people - are swordsmen who serve the Shogun’s family?
It’s like the Elite Royal Guard in the Kingdom then.
「Ehh!? This kid is the daughter of that personage who is the Shogun!?」
「Wa, stop calling her ‘kid’! She’s like a princess in the Kingdom! In any case, we need to put both of our knees on the ground and lower our heads here!」
Tori got down on his knees and lowered his head while saying that in a panicked voice.
Looking at Tori doing that, Irvine and Mort - along with the curious onlookers and the citizens around - also start to kneel down and lower their heads despite being surprised.
「So you’ve given up, huh! You villains!」
Haru looks satisfied after seeing Irvine and Mort’s appearance - who are now prostrating before her.
Somehow, rather than punishing some villains and reforming them, it’s more like making them submit to you by simply showing off your own authority, was that okay I wonder?
Just when I was having such doubts in my mind, Haru turned towards me and looked at me with a gaze full of expectation.
「Al! Say that line!」
「With this, now the case is settled」
As I announce that, Haru broadly smiles and laughs 「Ahaha!」.
It became something important for her somehow, though it’s fine since Haru is having fun I guess. I also enjoyed it after all.
There might be some confusion about Haru's status. Just as explained in the previous chapter, her family is a family that accedes to the Shogunate. It could be the Shogun's family himself or the kind of family that agrees to or under the Shogun. For now, just think of her family as close to the Shogun since it's currently not explained in the raws specifically. Though she might be the Shogun's daughter herself since she's holding the Shogun's seal case.