The Tanaka Family Reincarnates

Chapter 380

The Countess’ Counters [Part 2]

“Ohh uh-oh? Ohhhh?”

Like the king he was, he was surprised by the changes to the campsite before he departed and after he returned.

“Ahem. Welcome back, Your Majesty. Are you by yourself?”

At that moment, Melsa cleared her throat and welcomed the king with a vassal bow. To others, her face would appear expressionless or indifferent, but if her family saw her now, they would be able to tell that she was a little angry.

Appearing without even a single Royal Guard beside him… She really hoped the king would stop this kind of behavior.

“Countess Stuart… Hm? Oh, don’t worry. Everyone’s safe. The others will come soon.”

“…Your Majestyyy… That’s not… what she meant when asking thattt.”

Several knights who stayed behind in the campsite slumped their shoulders with a jerk.

‘As expected…’ Melsa sighed while hiding her tiredness and resignation with a poker face. ‘So this king… His old bad habit came out again… It’s not about everything’s fine if everyone’s safe. It’s about what comes before that.’

“Rather than that, just what on earth…”

The king interrupted the bitter-faced knights and hunters and told them he would listen to their nagging later as he looked around the now-empty campsite.

The extracurricular lesson students who should have been at the campsite were now gone along with their carriages and guardians.

‘Did something happen?

Was it a monster? Or…?’

“No need to worry about our side. Pardon my insolence, but I have let the noble sons participating in the extracurricular lesson return to the Royal Capital after they have finished packing up out of my own discretion.”

The one who answered the king’s question was, of course, not the knights but Melsa.

“An unexpected instruction… from Countess Stuart?”

Again, she was someone from the borderland Palace.

Restlessness started to fill the campsite since the king entered the forest roamed by monsters and returned much later than expected.

Truthfully, everyone wanted to go home. But as they weighed their own safety and all sorts of responsibilities back and forth, they didn’t dare to take action. Their lives onwards would be full of thorns if they survived while abandoning their king.

Melsa told these hesitating people that she would bear all the responsibilities and permitted them to withdraw. And she reported that now to the king without showing any fear even though what she did might be taken as disobedience to the king’s orders.

The king admired that brazen Melsa for her nerve of steel.

Compared to Countess Stuart, the knights left at the campsite seemed anxious about whether they would be punished for taking arbitrary action.

“I deeply apologize for giving orders on my own accord. I did that to prepare for the unexpected out of consideration for the sealing wax on Her Majesty the Queen’s letter and Your Majesty’s party’s extended stay in the forest.”

From Melsa’s point of view, no matter what was written on the letter with the black with red dot sealing wax, it was clear that the king must head to the Royal Capital in a hurry. And if he didn’t return despite that, then something must have happened in the forest.

When an unexpected situation occurred in the borderland, the first thing to do was to quickly get all laymen away from places that might turn into hunting grounds. For a borderland countess who had mastered the highest level of difficulty in Monster Science, the [Advanced] class, and faced different kinds of troubles on a daily basis, this was an obvious step or instruction to stir away from danger.

Be that as it may, it would be a lie if the prideful academy students and knights said they didn’t feel any desire to rebel after Melsa, the Countess, took over the right to command. But the indescribable pressure Melsa had when she issued instructions was a familiar pressure everyone in the aristocratic society had experienced.

If you were stared at in the exact same way as Duke Hilda Sullivan, the feared [Manner Demon] in high society, did, be it an aristocrat’s pride or whatnot, you would be unable to mutter any resistance.

No one disobeyed.

“I-I see…”

The king was also slightly intimidated when seeing the [Manner Demon]’s glint in Melsa’s eyes.