Idle talk: The Duke’s Daughter VS The Kingdom’s Order of Imperial Knights & The Kingdom’s Knight Corps & Adventurers ① (閑話：公爵令嬢ＶＳ王国近衛騎士団・王国騎士団・冒険者達①)
A little while ago...
"Yo! You guys became quite the hot topic."
After completing the job request of hunting a one-horned rabbit, the three adventurers awaited the assessment of their prey to be finalized in the Adventurers Guild, where they were called out by an acquaintance.
"Huuh? Whaddya mean, 'topic'?"
The three adventurers were drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, practically exuding fatigue. Almost as if they've just returned from running through the town as fast as they can.
"Something about you three chasing a little five-year-old girl carrying a maid around half an hour ago. I don't really get it, though. What was that about?"
To hear "a little five-year-old girl carrying a maid" was already fairly absurd.
Adding that three agile adventurers renowned for being "proficient in the capture of quick prey" were chasing her around would surely raise more than a few eyebrows.
Not to mention, the little girl was the one who emerged victorious.
"Oh, that. Right... I guess we did stand out back there. It became a matter of pride at some point though..."
The three adventurers then explained their side of the story.
After capturing the requested prey and heading back to the guild, they were approached by some drunk adventurers, who blocked them from entering. In the midst of their scuffle, a maid from some estate tried to pass by, but her dress got stuck on their catch, sending it flying to the ground as she fell.
Because of that, the rabbit's horn crashed into the stone pavement, breaking it.
The man with the shortest temper among them, still angry from scuffle earlier, flew into a rage and was about to hit the maid. That's when it happened.
Just 60 meters behind the maid, stood the maid's master.
The rumoured "little five-year-old girl" radiated a tremendous amount of killing intent.
Neither the adventurer nor the onlookers could move under the overwhelming pressure, even the maid in question fainted from it.
In that stilling moment, the little girl closed the 60 meter gap between them in an instant, taking out a weapon which looked to be a "Mithril-made" dagger from under her frilly dress.
And gently impaled it deep within the stone pavement.
She then proceeded to say something, but with their body receiving the tremendous intimidation, they couldn't understand it well. The only thing they did understand was that the weapon she left, was to be a compensation for the one-horned rabbit the maid ruined.
Mithril weapons were not large, but often of fine craftsmanship.
In addition, from what they could see, the weapon before them appeared to be magically enchanted.
To put its value into words, it would easily be worth more than 500 one-horned rabbits.
They couldn't possibly accept such an item, and even if they did, who knows what the repercussions would be. But when they tried to return it...
The little grl had already picked up the maid with ease and made a run for it.
And with an unbelivable speed, to boot.
They chased after her in attempt to return the weapon, but couldn't quite catch up.
The three even used a pincer movement on her, but the girl would either rapidly change her direction, jump over them, or pull a feint over them. She was just too good.
Thus the original goal of chasing her to return the weapon had changed into recruiting her for their team.
However, they ultimately had to give up when The Fafnir of Rosereale, the Schneiver family interfered.
The Schneiver Company had branches in key locations across the Galphasia continent.
Not only were they the Adventurer Guild’s valuable client due to their large demand for raw materials, they were also the largest dealers in potion, recovery herbs and magic items, which are said to be an adventurer's lifeline.
They were the "No. 1 company an adventurer shouldn't mess with".
Thus, when the second son of the Schneiver Company personally appeared, they were floored.
When they laid eyes upon him, they quickly understood.
Although his appearance resembled his father, who had married into the Schneiver family, he undoubtably took after "that woman".
Making an enemy of him would bring nothing but trouble.
No one knew why the Schneiver Company had decided to interfere, but they immediately concluded that it was best to give up on the recruitment of the little girl, so they returned to the guild.
And that’s how their story went.
“There’s so many things I want to say about your story that I seriously can’t even right now.”
"We don't really get what happened either."
With such an incident happening that day, everyone thought it would be the last they'd see of the little girl.
At least that's what they thought, until a large scale search party composed of the kingdom’s Imperial Knights and Knight Corps began scouring the streets for a noble girl 2 hours later.
Rosereale Kingdom, Imperial Knight Barracks.
Those who aspire to be knights gather from all over the country to join the Imperial Knights. For that sake, many of them leave home and stay in the barracks instead.
There are some who get married and move into the city’s residential district, but as the knights often spend all day doing nothing but training, many have missed their opportunity at marriage, thus majority of the knights stay in the barracks.
The nearby Knight Corps’ barracks were in a similar position.
Rather than just some barracks, it might be more fitting to call it a small town.
At about 2 in the afternoon, a petite woman who seemed to exude a carefree personality, walked in.
She was the daughter of the Leader of the Imperial Knights, and fiancée of Daemon Zak Rottenstein, the Captain of the Imperial Knights First Unit.
As the knights panicked upon seeing a woman like her visit a stuffy man-cave like this, she explained she was here to relay a request from the Captain.
As for what that request entailed…
"It would seem that Daemon's near 6-year-old little sister is on the run around the city. Daemon is doing his best but... his little sister is proving to be far more nimble than he expected. Thus, he would like to solicit the aid of those who are off-duty. Also, as he can't quite catch up, he would like some horses to be prepared as well."
"Huh?! Are horses really necessary to chase a little 6-year-old girl?"
“That’s right. I also thought horses would be a little excessive, however…”
"But I mean... it has to be some kind of joke, right? Well, I suppose it’s dangerous for a young noble girl to be running around town on her own, so I can understand the need to ensure her safety as soon as possible. I'll round up those with nothing better to do and head there soon. Where do you need us to go?"
And that was how, for a start, 8 Imperial Knights who were off duty joined the fray.
────────── 2 Hours later
“Five horsemen have arrived!!”
“20 reinforcements from the Knight Corps have also arrived!!”
“The sun’s starting to go down!! Let’s aim to get this done before it sets!!”
""""Yeah!!""""
"I shall now inform you new arrivals of the current situation! The mission this time is to capture the Young Lady of House Rottenstein, Miss Isabella Ali Rottenstein! No—to "bring her to safety"!! Don’t underestimate her just because she’s six! At present, she has slipped through the hands of countless Imperial Knights, and continues to elude us!! Next report!! Give me the present information we have of the target!!"
"Reporting in, Sir! We currently know the following regarding the target, Isabella: she's thrown off the Lycanthrope Unit pursuing her, and has escaped into the city. Her stamina and leg strength are extraordinary, her jumps reaching a minimum of 2 meters in height, and is possible of reaching 8 meters in width. She has the capability to release vicious killing intent upon anything in her line of sight, enough to render normal horses into a state of frenzy. Because of that we will be switching to warhorses. It has thus been judged dangerous to enter the target's field of sight."
"And there you have it!! The rest of the intel will be with the officers at each of your stations! Information updates and new orders will be relayed to them too, so you better obey their instructions. Address any further questions or new information found there! Now go report to your units!!"
"""""Yes, sir!!"""""
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews!!
For some reason, there were many who liked what happened in the previous chapter. For what it's worth, this story is under the "Isekai Reincarnation Romance" tag, though (lol)
I initially planned on only writing about the 3 adventurers' circumstances, but some readers were curious about the Imperial Knights' and the Adventurers' side of the story during the chase, so I wrote that too.
When I did so, it kinda became too long (lol). The plan is to finish it within 2 chapters.
winter: double update! I'm trying to up my translation speed so we can catch up to the LN's amazing translations, but me being dumb = slow translations orz
P.S. any T/N are literally just notes, so there's no need to read them, but I've always felt it a shame when stuff gets lost in translation so...