The Initial Skill Is Too Convenient and Life in the Otherworld Is Too Fun! - Chapter 9.1
The soldier guided us to a room where we would be staying overnight. It was a fairly spacious bedroom with a large bed for adults and a small bed for children.
“Wow, they really prepared well,” I said.
“Originally, Ars was trying to keep us here, so they probably prepared in advance,” Guldo-san sat down in a chair and checked his prosthetic leg.
Thinking it was a good time to ask a question i had been curious about for a while, I spoke up, “Excuse me, Guldo-san, how did you get to know Ars-san and the others?”
Guldo-san began to ponder. “Hmm… Even if you ask me how…I just accepted a request with them when they were adventurers and we became friends from there. Oh, and by the way, Emma was also an adventurer,” he replied.
“What!? Queen Emma was an adventurer too, not just Ars-san!?” I exclaimed in surprise.
Guldo-san chuckled and explained about Emma. “Emma was the daughter of a certain noble family and was Ars’ fiance. When Ars said he was going to become an adventurer, she said she would follow him. She was a genius like Ars, and was quite hard to handle… Haha.”
“They’re kind of a match made in heaven… but don’t you get nervous being around members of the royal family?”
“Well, they’re like friends of mine who happen to be important people, so I don’t get nervous. Besides, it would be disrespectful to recognize them as royalty, haha.” Just as Guldo-san made a joke, the door to the room creaked open.
The Queen entered with a smile on her face. “Oh my, that’s disappointing. Ars aside, I am a decent person, you know?” The queen smiled but there was an eerie atmosphere about her.
In return, Guldo-san gave a wry smile and said to the Queen, “Did you hear us talking? But if you’re a proper Queen, you shouldn’t show such a murderous intent.”
It’s because you’re whispering weird things in Lark’s ear. By the way, Lark-kun, do you happen to have the highest level of camouflage skill?” the Queen suddenly asked as she bent down in front of me.
“Huh? W-why do you think that?” I asked.
“Guldo-san probably knows, but I have a pretty high level appraisal skill. I’ve been able to find bad people with it before, but it doesn’t show anything when I use it on you. That’s why I thought you might have that kind of skill,” she confidently stated.
I explained about “God’s Veil” because I didn’t want to lie, but I also thought it was not good to reveal my skills and special abilities carelessly. However, I thought it would be okay to talk about it with someone I could trust. When she heard the effect of the skill, the queen was impressed, saying, ” The world is wide, isn’t it?”
After chatting for a while, we received a message from a maid that lunch was ready, so we all moved to the dining hall together. There, we saw the prince who had just lost to Guldo-san earlier. When he noticed us, he stood up and approached us.
“Guldo-san, that’s not fair. You were going to leave while I was unconscious, weren’t you?”
“There’s no helping it. If we stayed here, we’d be bothered by Ars. And it’s Rio’s fault for not taking the fall properly and getting knocked out.”
” Hey, that’s not fair. It’s impossible to take a defensive stance against Guldo-san’s attacks……,” said the prince, feeling down.
“Well, you have improved since the old days, I’m impressed,” he added.
Encouraged by Guldo-sam’s words, the prince regained his composure and turned to me, asking, “How about your swordsmanship, Lark? Would you like to spar with me sometime?”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve only recently become an adventurer, so I don’t think I can be your opponent, Your Highness,” I replied.
Upon hearing my answer, the prince lowered his head in thought. I wondered if I had said something wrong, but then he raised his head and said, “Lark, please call me ‘Rio-kun’ or ‘Riolas-kun.’”
“No, no, I can’t possibly call Your Highness by a nickname!” I protested. Since it was such a sudden request, I shook my head vigorously to refuse, but then the prince continued, “It’s not appropriate in public, but you can call me that in private. It suits me better,” the prince insisted.
He didn’t back down, and even the queen, who had already taken her seat, joined the conversation. “Oh, then please call me ‘Emma-san’ too,” she said, teasingly.
I was taken aback by this sudden turn of events and looked to Guldo-san for help, but he just nodded in agreement. “It’s not a big deal. Besides, you already call Ars by his first name with ‘san’ attached, instead of ‘His Majesty’,” he said.
“Well, Ars-san doesn’t seem very royal-like anyway,” I replied.
“That’s true for these two as well,” Guldo-san added.
‘Well, if they insist, it would be rude to refuse.’ “Okay, Rio-kun.”
Then the queen asked teasingly, “And what about me?”
“I understand now, Emma-san!”
Finally, Rio-kun and Emma-san both smiled.
The rest of the meal proceeded in a peaceful manner. In addition to myself, Guldo-san, Emma-san, and Rio-kun, there were also two children at the dining table. One was a girl who resembled Emma-san, and the other was a boy who looked like Ars-san who had been reading a book throughout the meal. They were probably Rio-kun’s siblings. We didn’t have a chance to talk during the meal, but I hope to properly introduce myself to them someday.
◈◈◈
After finishing the meal, I returned to the room prepared for me and Guldo-san with Guldo-san.
“Oh, come to think of it, didn’t Fia-san give me homework yesterday, didn’t she?”
Right, she gave me a reference book after our study session. Remembering this I took out the reference book from ‘Useful Box’ and spread it out on the desk. The reference book had a series of addition and subtraction problems lined up. In my past life, it was at the level of elementary school. Since I was a high school student then, this level of questions was a piece of cake.
As I continued to solve the problems for a while, Guldo-san, who had been dozing off on the sofa, stood up and peered over my shoulder. “Hmm? Lark, are you studying?”
“Yes, Fia-san gave me an arithmetic reference book the other day.”
“Oh, you’re so diligent with your studies…,” Guldo-san said with a yawn and lay down on the bed. “I’m going to take a nap for a little while, so please wake me up if anyone comes.”
“Understood.”
Guldo-san began to snore within a few minutes. Surprised by how quickly he fell asleep, I continued to work on the problems. The first fifteen pages were just addition and subtraction, but about a quarter of the way through, it turned into multiplication. It wasn’t particularly difficult, so I solved the problems in my head and wrote down the answers. After solving them for a while, division came up. When I glanced at the last page, the final section had a series of compound problems using the four operations.
“Hmm…this reference book doesn’t seem to be very useful.”
‘Well, I have nothing else to do, so let’s finish it for now. If I finish all of it, Fia-san will probably give me a new one.’
I finished solving everything in about 30 minutes. Just when I was thinking of reviewing it, there was a knock on the door. I answered and opened the door, and a maid was there, bowing gracefully.
“The bath is ready, so I have come to call you.”
“The bath!?” I couldn’t help but shout out.
I had learned that only nobles had baths, but since this place is a castle, of course, there would be a bath!
I quickly ran to the bed and urged Guldo-san to get ready, shaking his body. Although, he had been sleeping for a while, Guldo-san woke up and started getting ready.
Afterward, we both headed towards the dressing room and as for Guldo-san, he checked the condition of the bath before taking off his clothes. It was a vast space like a gymnasium, with a huge bathtub like a pool, and it was filled to the brim with hot water. It was clearly an overkill.
“…It’s spacious.”
“Well, Ars had it custom made. He loves baths, you know.”
Ignoring my astonishment, Guldo-san started taking off his clothes calmly. I also quickly undressed and washed my body before soaking in the hot water. It felt great to be immersed in the slightly hot water, which enveloped my whole body.
“Phew~ I’m tired from everything today, so I’ll get out early and go back to my room.”
“Understood,” I gave a perfunctory reply to Guldo-san, who still looked sleepy. Although I told him that, it was my first bath since coming to this world, so I wanted to soak as long as possible. with the body of a child, I couldn’t stay in the bath for too long, and my endurance quickly reached its limit in less than five minutes. In the end, I got out of the bath before Guldo-san and went back to the dressing room feeling dizzy.
“Ah, it’s hot…”
After wiping my body and changing into my nightclothes, I lay down on the bench in the dressing room to cool off for a few minutes. Then, Ars-san came into the dressing room. “Hmm? Did you get heatstroke, Lark-kun?” he said.
“Oh, Ars-san. Sorry, I’m in this position right now.”
I tried to get up, but Ars stopped me with a laugh, “It’s fine to lie down. So, how was the bath?”
“It was very nice. I wanted to stay in longer, but it was too hot to endure…”
“True, the temperature is adjusted for adults to enjoy. Rio and others seem to be used to it, but it might have been a bit too hot for first-timer Lark-kun.”
“No, it’s okay.”
While talking with Ars-san, Guldo-san returned to the dressing room. “Lark, are you okay? Oh, Ars is here too…”
Ars-san then protested after witnessing Guldo-san’s obvious displeasure upon seeing him, “Hey, Guldo. Why are you looking at me like that and bringing down the mood? That’s not cool.”
“Have you forgotten all the trouble you caused us today? I thought you’d be punished by Emma all day for it…”
“Well, the lecture wasn’t too long thanks to you guys. Phew, that was lucky.”
“Yeah, but let’s hope there won’t be a second punishment after we leave,” he grumbled while drying himself off.
However, hearing Guldo-san’s statement suddenly caused Ars to feel nervous. “T-That’s not going to happen… But, if it’s Emma…”
“Let’s go back to the room, Lark.”
“Yes.”
Leaving Ars-san behind muttering to himself, Guldo-san and I left the dressing room. As soon as we got back to our room, Guldo-san immediately lay down on his bed and fell asleep.
I might as well go to bed too. After saying my prayers to the gods, as was my habit before sleeping, I slipped into bed.