Chapter 252: Chapter 236: Standing out?

The curry was greatly received and a large amount of curry disappeared in no time.

Austin-sama seemed to like it very much and asked me to make it again for some reason. Does he mean to make it when accompanying him to Creta? Well, my reply has been muddy for the time being~

“I just thought about this, but... even if I wear the knight’s uniform, won’t I stand out if the kids are with me?”

We are going to Creta on a mission, right? Is it really fine for the children to be with us?

“Oh my, you have noticed?”

“... Eh?”

“Well, we don’t have another choice other than to bring them along, so don’t pay attention to that.”

It appears that he was lacking a plan regarding Allen and Elena’s company.

In fact, having children accompany us would be unnatural in the first place, so we are going to get attention even if we don’t try.

Austin-sama, I would have liked if you told me about it sooner if you knew. Wouldn’t it cause great trouble if we had to come up with something in a hurry inside the Creta Kingdom’s royal castle!?

“Austin-sama, if there are any important things or manners of Creta to memorize, please teach us in advance.”

“Alright. I will summarize it for you later.”

“Please do that. Still, what were you planning to do if I didn’t notice?”

“I would have you accompany me just like that, you know? I was intending to observe your situation when we arrive in the Creta castle, Takumi.”

“......”

Heartless. Was he planning to enjoy seeing me panicking?

“Allen, Elena, let’s keep quiet so we don’t stand out once we are at the castle.”

“”Shh~?””

“Yup, that’s right.”

Thinking that we might become targets of observations, I informed children to be prepared.

Then, the children placed their index fingers to their mouths and gestured silence. They don’t need to keep quiet here, but it seems they understood the meaning.

“Infiltration?”

“Sneaking in?”

“Stop right there!! That would be different!?”

They didn’t understand!

Rather, where did they learn about things like “Infiltration” and “Sneaking in”!!

“Infiltration and sneaking in aren’t things you should be talking about!”

“”Is not good~?””

“Not good, not good at all!”

“”No sneaky beaky?””

“Sneaking in a castle would be really bad, okay!?”

“”I see~ Too bad~””

It would be a big problem if you got found out!

“Fufu. Takumi, are you intending to sneak into the Creta castle? That would certainly be a problem, so I would prefer if you didn’t.”

“I won’t!?”

Austin-sama, what are you saying!? I was just desperately trying to stop them, though!

“Well, I wouldn’t mind if you do it in our castle, though.”

“Please mind that! We absolutely won’t sneak in, okay!?”

“”We won’t?””

“We won’t, alright!?”

“Is that so? I thought it would serve as a good practice for our knights~”

A training against intruders? Rather, stop creating a premise for us to sneak into the castle!!

“We have no such skills, so it would end with us being discovered at the castle’s gate! It would serve as no practice!”

“Is that really so? I feel that you guys would be able to sneak deep to the royalty’s private rooms quite easily, though~”

“Nono! I’m telling you that wouldn’t be possible! Rather, why are you saying that all of sudden!?”

“See, it’s that. The first time you came to the castle, you discovered people sneaking in the audience hall, right? Although the audience hall isn’t that deep into the castle, it would be problematic if it’s so easy to sneak inside.”

... Oh, which reminds me that something like that had happened.

Uhh, there was one intruder behind His Majesty and two intruders hiding in the ceiling if I recall correctly.

“Something like that happened, didn’t it~ What happened to the three you captured?”

“You didn’t hear? Rather than spies, they were operatives working under Granduncle.”

“... Under Lionel-sama?”

“He was curious about you. He gave them orders half in jest and they were able to easily infiltrate the hall.”

“......”

Lionel-sama, what the hell are you doing!!

“Granduncle seemed to be even more interested in you when you discovered his operatives. Aren’t you glad, Takumi~”

... That’s a bit complicated. I’m not happy at all~

“Fufu, your reaction is different from usual, Takumi. There are still many people who want to get to Granduncle’s good side, you know?”

Perhaps it showed on my face as Austin-sama giggled amusingly.

Well, there must be quite a lot of people trying to curry favor with the royal family. But, I believe there are also many people like me who try not to get involved as much as possible.

“I’m sure I would be led around by the nose otherwise, after all~”

“Like Alfried? I can’t deny that, but I think you would be able to deflect him properly.”

“You think so?”

There were times I was able to deflect him skillfully, but they were mostly frightening experiences.

“Well, I like things in moderation.”

“My, oh my, that’s not good~ Well, that’s so like you, though.”

Austin-sama giggled to himself again.

“And so, when are you going to sneak into our castle?”

“Nonono! I’m telling you that we won’t!”

“I ask you to do it to train our knights.”

“Ask the people under Lionel-sama to do that.”

“Is this a lost cause then?”

“Absolutely.”

Austin-sama encouraged us to sneak in again.

I wonder why the topic returned to that!?

“Say, Allen, Elena. Sneaking into a castle sounds really fun, doesn’t it?”

“”Yea, sounds fun~””

“Allen, Elena, you mustn’t, okay!?——Austin-sama, stop trying to tempt the children, okay!?”

“To make you give up, one should attack from this side.”

Austin-sama and I kept repeating “Do it” and “Won’t do it.” for a while after that.