I Am a Ruined Noble of a Ruined Kingdom

Chapter 4: To the Capital (1)

She asked gruffly.

"What are you going to do now?"

I retorted as if asking what was obvious.

"Aren't we going to the Imperial Palace? You just delivered the Imperial Order on behalf of the Emperor."

"I asked because I didn't want to believe it. If you say you'll kill me, I'll just fight."

Even as I watched Iruealfi sigh openly in my face, I couldn't say anything. It was instinct born of a ruthless law of the jungle.

'I really want to smack her upside the head.'

Iruealfi's hateful attitude aside, just moments ago, she was the executioner hacking my limbs and torso to pieces.

Even now, every time I recall that pain, goosebumps rise and I feel the ache as if it were happening again.

'It's unfair. It's so unfair...'

Netionpies, the Ruined Noble of a Ruined Country, is surely a bastard beyond compare, but that's not me. I'm just a purely good-natured ordinary person who was unfairly dragged into this world.

At least, I have no reason to be torn limb from limb by her, or to be treated so harshly. If the raid in the game hurt, then I'm sorry.

While I was lost in fantasies of revenge, she spoke, startling me.

"If you want to go to the Imperial Palace, do something about that fraudulence of yours. Ordinary people would be bleeding out just being near you."

"Fraudulence? Me? There's no such thing."

A sinister aura on someone as purely good as I am.

As I shook my head, I suddenly remembered something obvious.

'Ah, right, it's Netionpies's body, so that could be the case.'

Unable to withstand her chilling gaze, I cleared my throat and mumbled.

"... that was a joke. I've been locked up alone for too long, so I forgot how to manage my energy."

"What kind of nonsense is that... No, if you've been alone for hundreds of years, I suppose that could be true."

It was a hastily concocted excuse, but Iruealfi seemed to accept it in her own way. She approached me closely and made a sword-energy sign with her index and middle fingers, touching my forehead.

"Eek!"

The trauma resurfaced, and I fell on my ass in a panic. Iruealfi glared at me in annoyance.

"What is it? You're looking at me like I'm a monster! You're the real monster."

'The real monster? Ha, don't be ridiculous, and look at yourself objectively!'

The outcry in my heart never leaked out, but was merely suppressed.

"... your hand was too cold, so I played a prank."

"Don't make a fuss and come here."

At those words, my body moved on its own accord, heading toward her. Then, when Iruealfi's fingers touched my forehead, a blue and clear energy swirled around my outer layer, before vanishing.

"I can't control your energy, but I've contained it on the surface, so there shouldn't be any problems even if you come into contact with ordinary people."

"Uh, okay."

I knew this technique.

It was one of Iruealfi's guardian abilities, 'Holy Memory'. This technique was the reason why siege weapons, including improved battering rams, were needed to capture her.

I exclaimed in admiration without showing it.

'It sounds simple, but she instantly suppressed Netionpies's energy and squeezed it into a protective barrier.'

I might not know the specs of this body properly or have any experience as Netionpies, but the Ruined Noble of a Ruined Country is a truly incredible existence.

According to the diary I found, 's first protagonist and heroine fought a nine-day battle before barely managing to seal him, so I could fully imagine his status.

'The key point is that sealing was chosen as the second-best option because they couldn't kill him.'

To think that she was teaching me, who possessed the body of such a being, about helplessness, and so easily sealing my energy...

"Let's go now. If I see any unnecessary signs, I'll risk my life to pulverize you into grains of sand, so behave yourself."

"Ha, of course. How could I not?"

I was trying to maintain at least a semblance of bravado so as not to be looked down on.

◇

"Wow, this is really amazing!"

I kept spamming exclamations and looking around. Everything in sight made my heart pound.

That's because the scenery from my favorite game was actually unfolding before my eyes. It's an impossible requirement for me not to be excited.

"I know this place. It's Sitris Village."

"You're just pretending to know when it's written right there."

I asked her, who was reacting indifferently.

"Then do you know why the village is called Sitris?"

At the unexpected question, her pupils trembled as if she was flustered, and then her face reddened.

"There's no need... to know that."

"You probably just beat them until they told you, right?"

I muttered quietly. Fortunately, her hearing remained at a human level, so she didn't seem to hear me well.

"Huh?"

"No... it was a slip of the tongue."

We were having a simple meal at a small tavern. I didn't have to eat or drink at all, but she did.

She was an even greater monster than me, but she needed to eat and sleep, and she was a biological human who needed to excrete waste.

"I feel like I've become the subject of unpleasant thoughts."

"Socially, that's called paranoia."

'There shouldn't have been a pattern of reading the player's mind, right?'

I hid my thoughts with an even more brazen expression. Iruealfi seemed about to explode, but she quietly chewed on her bread.

It felt like she was chewing more aggressively than before, but I tried to ignore it.

"So?"

"So, what?"

"The village name... why is it Sitris?"

Perhaps she was ashamed that she couldn't suppress her curiosity, there was a faint trace of shame in Iruealfi's expression.

"Oh, that? It's because it's sheet(sit)-less. The village was too poor to afford them."

Iruealfi's reaction to my casual answer was a sight to behold.

"Ha, a joke that wouldn't even work in this day and age. It was my mistake to expect wisdom from you."

As Iruealfi said those words, her facial muscles contracted every moment, interfering with her breathing.

So much so that she couldn't even speak properly.

At that moment, an old woman sitting right next to us spoke.

"Hey, pretty miss. The young man is right. This village only had meals in the morning and evening even just a hundred years ago. We only had lunch when there was a special occasion."

"Th-that can't be. I didn't even know! I'm sorry..."

It seemed that I had unintentionally stirred up the village's unfortunate past. Iruealfi's complexion, which had seemed about to explode, darkened rapidly.

"Nonsense. The young man is knowledgeable, it's not the miss's fault. There are quite a few old men in the neighborhood who don't know that fact, so how did the young man know?"

"Um, is it because I'm older than the old men?"

It was an extremely factual statement, but I had to endure a tingling sensation all over my body.

Iruealfi, narrowing her eyes and staring at me, was emitting a sharp glint. She was effortlessly performing the formidable technique of controlling killing intent to inflict internal injuries.

"I'll apologize on his behalf, elder."

"Hehe, no. The knowledgeable young man's mind is a bit erratic."

The old woman left those words and wandered away.

Iruealfi soon withdrew her killing intent, and we returned to a quiet meal time again.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

It was the sound of me tapping my foot idly, as I wasn't eating or doing anything else.

"Iruealfi."

"Yes."

"You actually thought it was funny, didn't you?"

Iruealfi paused, trying to figure out what I was saying, and then stammered.

"N-no, I didn't?"

"Okay."

After those words, it was around the time when only the surrounding chatter could be heard especially loudly. I couldn't stand it any longer and finally asked.

"What do you call a god who flies?"

"What are you trying to do?"

"God-nanda." (Sounds like "exciting" in Korean.)

"..."

By the time I told her the answer, Iruealfi happened to have food in her mouth. She was desperately clamping her cheeks to avoid spitting out the contents.

"Okay, I get it. That's your taste."

"What...!"

"What do you call a king who moves right and left?"

"I don't want to know such things..."

"Kingy-Winging." (Sounds like "wavering" in Korean.)

"Cough!"

"So, you like that kind of thing?"

Iruealfi threw down her silverware, regardless of dining etiquette, and covered her mouth with both hands.

If you just looked at her, she would be a dazzling beauty, but now, to me, she was just a scary and pitiful woman.

"Stop it."

"Eum!"

What's funny is funny, and what's unpleasant is unpleasant, it seemed. Her forceful appearance revived my trauma, and I shut my mouth.

It was as Iruealfi was about to reach for her silverware again that she suddenly asked.

"By the way, you weren't like this at first, but why are you speaking informally? If you're a noble, I'd appreciate it if you would show the appropriate manners."

"Should I show respect to someone who cut off the limbs and torso of a defenseless person?"

"How can you say such a thing...!"

Iruealfi's eyes narrowed fiercely.

In fact, this was something she had a reason to feel wronged about. The fact that she was stubbornly using honorifics to me, the unforgivable Netionpies, itself represented her upright character.

But that was that, and while I was Netionpies, I wasn't the one who had caused the mess, so I felt unfairly treated. Therefore, my informal speech, close to rudeness as it was, was also my petty revenge as I walked the tightrope.

"If you don't like it, you can speak informally too."

Well, considering Iruealfi's nature, I doubt she could-

"Ah, really. Should I just give up on everything?"

"..."

"..."

Perhaps it was because she saw me widen my eyes in surprise as if I had witnessed a cataclysm.

Iruealfi cleared her throat and glanced at me furtively.

"Let's drop it."

"Oh... okay."

For a moment, I seemed to have seen Iruealfi's reckless side, her side as a DLC boss.

I had to spend a long time, several times more awkward than before, paying the price for my provocation.

◇

Even after passing Sitris Village, we walked for several more days. It was a bonus that I bought clothes that had been shredded to pieces by Iruealfi's swordsmanship with her money.

Since the Great Cavern where I was sealed was far away from the Imperial Palace in a remote location, we had to travel for a long time. Therefore, there were often times when we couldn't reach a village even when the sun went down, and today was one of those days.

"Let's prepare for an overnight stay."

"I don't have anything prepared?"

"Neither do I."

"Huh?"

My eyes met Iruealfi's. Unlike me, who was probably dyed with embarrassment, Iruealfi's eyes were calm and unwavering.

"Like something to cover ourselves with?"

"Is that necessary?"

"No."

Netionpies's body had endured hundreds of years in the cold and humid Great Cavern. It had long since transcended cold and heat.

"I don't care about cold or heat either."

'Isn't that unfair? The existence itself.'

It was the moment when Netionpies's centuries of adaptation were denied.

"Still, if we don't have any defenses, we might encounter something dangerous, right?"

"Who would?"

"...Me."

Seeing her ask back with a purely curious expression, I answered with difficulty. It was my great fault that I had thought of Iruealfi as a woman even for a moment.

Perhaps she dismissed my words as nonsense, Iruealfi didn't react and went into the forest.

A moment later, the sound of a tree falling with a thud! was heard, and Iruealfi reappeared.

In the end, all she had prepared was a bonfire made by cutting down a tree. That too was for the purpose of securing visibility, not for protection against the cold.

"This type of tree burns well for a long time."

That was why she didn't cut down just any nearby tree, but bothered to go into the forest.

It was a bit fascinating to see her, unlike a noble, memorizing the practical characteristics of tree types, and seeming accustomed to overnight stays.

"Oof..."

We each found a spot and lay down, and I admired the special night sky that I was seeing for the first time in both my past and present lives.

The sparkling stars, seemingly within reach if I stretched out my hand, sparkled as if about to pour down under the transparent sky.

For me, sleep was just a matter of preference, but I thought that I would be able to sleep soundly under such a sky.

That was my state of mind until I heard Iruealfi's sleep-talking in the late dawn.

"A god who flies... god-nanda... Uwang... jwawang... hehe..."

'I'm really going to wake her up.'

As a member of the opposite sex, no one would be able to guess that my evaluation of Iruealfi has been steeply declining since our first encounter.