Chapter 1-13: Suspicions About the King, and the Investigation Begins

The story has reached 10th place in the daily rankings.

It is all thanks to everyone who has been reading. Thank you very much.

“Tenma, wanna do it?”

It was a refreshing morning.

Everyone had gathered around the table for breakfast when the king suddenly uttered those words.

For an instant, time seemed to stop for everyone around him.

I immediately stood up from my chair, careful not to turn my back on the king, and slowly backed away.

“No, thank you. I’m not interested in that kind of relationship…”

That answer seemed to restart time.

Mother rushed over and hugged me as though trying to hide me from the king’s gaze.

Father stepped in front of me, bow in hand, and began drawing the string.

Grandpa muttered:

“He wasn’t like this in the old days…”

Meanwhile, around the king, Mr. Clive said:

“Your Majesty, no matter how fond you are of him, inviting the boy into a homosexual relationship is rather… I suppose I’ll have to report this to Lady Maria.”

Chris stared at the king as though she were looking at something filthy.

Sigurd looked genuinely saddened.

“Your Majesty…”

Jack lamented:

“It’s not like relationships between men don’t exist, but going after your best friend’s son is a bit…”

Edgar was smiling.

But his eyes were not.

Incidentally, all the male guards were backing away from the king while protecting their rear ends.

“W-Wait! Hold on! I just didn’t explain myself properly! Ricardo, take your hand off that arrow! And Clive, please don’t go tattling to Maria! I’m begging you!”

The king desperately rattled off excuses at high speed, trying to clear up the misunderstanding.

Everyone seemed to accept his explanation for the time being.

Although they were still keeping their distance from him.

“Ricardo, Celia. I was talking about that thing we discussed yesterday.”

“Oh, that. Don’t phrase it in such a misleading way! I nearly shot you!”

When the king mentioned “that,” I noticed Mother react ever so slightly.

But even when our eyes met, she said nothing, so I decided not to worry about it.

Judging from Father and the king’s conversation, the king’s “wanna do it?” apparently had nothing to do with that sort of relationship.

Everyone returned to their seats.

Though I wouldn’t say all suspicion had been completely cleared!

“Father, what is ‘that’?”

Instead of Father, the king answered my question.

“Actually, last night I suggested to Ricardo and the others that you might become a royal guard for either my son or my grandson. So, what do you say? Wanna do it?”

This time, rather than me, the four guards other than Clive looked far more shocked.

“No, thank you. I refuse.”

And when I immediately turned him down, they looked even more astonished.

“Kid, it’s a tough job, but the pay is excellent, and you’d have more authority than an ordinary lower-ranking noble!”

Jack said.

“A commoner becoming a royal guard at the age of ten would make you the youngest in history!”

Chris added.

“If you were appointed to the Royal Guard at your age, you could eventually rise to an even higher position. If that happened, being granted a noble title would not be an impossible dream!”

Edgar continued.

As for Sigurd, he seemed so shocked that he had completely frozen.

“Can I ask why?”

Maybe rejecting him instantly had been a little too blunt.

The king asked me for an explanation.

So I answered honestly.

“I don’t find being a royal guard particularly appealing. And if I became one, I don’t think I’d be able to see my family whenever I wanted.”

Mother’s eyes grew watery when she heard that.

“I see… That’s unfortunate, but I suppose it can’t be helped.”

“But Tenma, if you ever change your mind, come and see me anytime. You’ll always be welcome!”

He said that sincerely.

Even if I was the son of his close friend, I felt it was a great honor that he would go that far for me.

“Well then, Celia went to all the trouble of preparing this breakfast for us. It’s gone cold now, but let’s eat.”

“Afterward, we’ll investigate both the village and the Great Ancient Forest.”

“Ricardo, I’ll be counting on you as our guide.”

“Yeah, leave it to me!”

The king began deciding the day’s plans.

I was about to join them when—

“Tenma, you’re staying home.”

Mother rejected the idea in a tone that allowed absolutely no argument.

“Celia, I already told you that being overly protective isn’t good.”

Grandpa tried to support me.

“If I let Tenma go with them, Lord Alex might make him do something reckless.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

Everyone except the king immediately agreed.

Also…

Was it just my imagination, or did the way Mother said “make him do something” sound suspiciously suggestive?

“A-Anyway, we’ll begin as soon as everyone finishes preparing.”

At those words, everyone resumed eating.

To conduct the investigation efficiently, the group heading into the forest would consist of Father as the guide, along with the king, Clive, Jean, and Sigurd.

The group investigating the village would consist of Mother as the guide, along with Edgar and Chris.

－－－－In the Great Ancient Forest－－－－

“Nothing particularly unusual around here.”

“We’ve only been inside for about thirty minutes. There usually isn’t much that changes around this area.”

Alex and Ricardo spoke while looking around.

Clive joined the conversation.

“That makes sense. If there were an obvious abnormality this close to what could practically be called the entrance to the forest, it would have become far more than a mere rumor by now.”

“But Ricardo, have there really been that many strange incidents?”

Jean asked.

He added that he was not accusing Ricardo of lying.

“That’s rather rude, Mr. Jean!”

Sigurd reprimanded him.

Ricardo, however, did not seem bothered.

“In the past year, nine B-Class monsters and two A-Class monsters have appeared.”

“And every one of them was within fifty kilometers of the village.”

“That many?!”

Alex’s surprise was understandable.

Normally, the Great Ancient Forest was filled with monsters above B-Class.

However, those creatures were supposed to live deep within the forest.

One generally had to travel two hundred to three hundred kilometers from the forest’s edge before encountering them in significant numbers.

There were various theories explaining this.

The leading theory was that the deeper one traveled into the Great Ancient Forest, the denser the magical energy became.

This created a more comfortable environment for powerful monsters, and there was also far more prey available as food.

Therefore, there was little reason for them to deliberately travel toward the shallower areas where food was scarcer.

In fact, until recently, the shallow area within fifty kilometers of the forest’s edge had mostly contained E- and D-Class monsters.

Even among the stronger creatures, one would only occasionally encounter a C-Class monster.

Even when it came to orcs, there had never been anything like an Orc King.

Their groups usually consisted of only around a dozen individuals.

As for B-Class monsters, perhaps one might wander into the area once every several years.

Even then, most soon returned deeper into the forest.

Excluding his adventuring years, Ricardo had lived in Kukuri Village for more than thirty years.

Other than this past year, he could count the number of B-Class monsters he had seen appear in the area on one hand.

“When you put it that way, it certainly is abnormal.”

“And what about the A-Class monsters?”

“According to Tenma, they were apparently being chased by a pack of Dragon Snakes.”

“And both of them belonged to the Fenrir species.”

“What?!”

The king’s surprise was only natural.

“Fenrir species” was the general term for the highest-ranking wolf-type monsters.

Their strength ranged from A to S Class.

It was said that even a pack of only four or five Fenrirs would require at least twenty to thirty first-rate adventurers to defeat.

Alex thought that even two Fenrirs should not have lost against eight Dragon Snakes.

“They were apparently a mated pair.”

“The female was pregnant, so their combat ability had been reduced when they were attacked.”

“After Tenma killed the Dragon Snakes, both wolves died. But the female somehow managed to give birth before she passed away.”

Hearing that, Alex reasoned that such a thing might indeed happen when one of them was heavily pregnant.

“I see… And what happened to the Fenrir pup?”

Alex asked.

“You’ve all already seen him.”

“He’s the one Tenma is raising.”

“You mean Shiroumaru, the one Chris was playing with?!”

Alex exclaimed in surprise.

As it happened, Chris absolutely loved dogs and cats.

However, because she was a member of the Royal Guard, she had no time to properly care for a pet and therefore could not keep one herself.

Putting that aside, even though Shiroumaru was still young, it was exceptionally rare for a Fenrir to become so attached to a human.

The group continued discussing such matters as they carried on with the investigation.

However, they found nothing significant.

Eventually, it became time to return to the village, so they called off the investigation.

－－－－At Tenma’s House－－－－

When the king and the others returned home, they began exchanging information with Edgar’s group, who had already returned.

“It appears that the village has also undergone sudden changes over the past several years.”

“Report.”

The king listened attentively to Edgar.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“It seems the number of people contracting illnesses has increased over the past few years.”

“At the same time, sightings of monsters around the village have also become more frequent.”

Chris continued the report.

“Regarding the illnesses, we spoke with the people responsible for medical care in the village.”

“They said that compared to ten years ago, the number of cases over the last four or five years has increased by roughly two to three times.”

“As for the monsters, most sightings involve creatures such as goblins and slimes.”

“Some villagers claim to have seen them extremely close to the village itself.”

After hearing the report, Jean asked:

“But Chris, couldn’t those two things simply be unrelated?”

Chris and the others answered:

“We thought the same thing at first.”

“However, many of the people who became ill were either individuals who frequently entered the forest or people who had previously killed monsters they encountered.”

“In other words, the overwhelming majority were people who had frequent opportunities to come into contact with monsters in one way or another.”

Edgar added:

“Furthermore, more men than women have contracted the illness.”

“That may simply be because men are more likely to engage in the activities Chris just described.”

“If that’s the case, then the likelihood that something abnormal is happening in the Great Ancient Forest becomes even greater…”

“We’ll inform Margrave Haust about this as well.”

“We’ll coordinate with the central government, conduct a more thorough investigation, and formulate countermeasures.”

“Good work, everyone.”

“Ricardo, Celia, thank you for your cooperation as well.”

“Don’t worry about it. This concerns us too.”

“Exactly, Lord Alex.”

“What my husband said is right. It’s only natural for us to take action when our own village is involved.”

They smiled at one another.

For the moment, the illness itself did not appear particularly serious.

However, it was undeniably true that the number of villagers complaining about poor health had increased.

All we could do was hope that the situation would not get any worse.

And with that, the meeting came to an end, and everyone dispersed for the day.

Apparently, they would depart for the royal capital sometime before noon tomorrow.

Along the way, they planned to stop at a town and reunite with the other members of the delegation who had gone ahead.

Or rather…

Who had been forced to go ahead.

As I thought sympathetically about all the people constantly being dragged around by this king, I became more convinced than ever that refusing the offer to join the Royal Guard had been the right decision.

As I mentioned in the opening note, this story reached 10th place in the daily rankings.

Perhaps because of that, the number of bookmarks has also increased dramatically and is now approaching 1,000.

(It may already have passed that number by the time this chapter is published.)

I have also been correcting typos, missing characters, grammatical mistakes, and similar issues here and there.

Thank you very much to everyone who has reported them.

Regarding the king’s inspection delegation:

There are actually several dozen members in total.

However, due to the king’s decision—or rather, selfish insistence—that bringing everyone into such a small village would be impractical, only a small group visited Kukuri Village while traveling incognito.

(And that is why they ended up being attacked by the pack of orcs.)

As for Din, the captain of the Royal Guard who has already been mentioned by name, he remained behind in the royal capital.

He is commanding the remaining members of the Royal Guard and keeping a close watch to prevent anyone from attempting anything suspicious.

The Royal Guards accompanying the king are being led by Jean, the vice-captain.

Yes.

He was actually the vice-captain all along.

The noble hierarchy in this world is as follows:

King → Grand Duke → Duke → Marquis → Count → Viscount → Baron → Knight

Counts, Viscounts, Barons, and Knights can also possess Honorary versions of their titles.

Viscounts, Barons, and Knights can additionally have Associate ranks.

Grand Duke and Honorary titles last for only one generation.

Those holding Honorary titles cannot possess territory.

A Margrave holds the same rank as a Marquis, but has greater political influence than an ordinary Marquis.

Below the rank of Knight, there is also the title of Knight Bachelor.

Anyone who becomes an officially recognized knight can receive this title, so it carries very little political authority.

That is roughly the setting I intend to use going forward, though it may change later.