Chapter 312: 164. The Ariana Family -2 (Part Two)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

The passersby on the same avenue began paying us more of their attention at her theatrical display. I pulled my hood even deeper, while the bright grin on Seran’s face grew even brighter.

[Name: Seran Ariana.

Age: 23

Attributes: Benevolent, can be very mischievous, a high degree of empathy, outstanding swordsmanship, Foresight.

+ The end of the world is approaching us.]

Now those were rather concerning attributes, alright. Foresight and the end of the world?

Those two bits weren’t included in the characteristics of Seran that Harman had told me in the past. Even the story with these twin older brothers of mine were in the same vein as well.

Marvel and Marcel. These two looked way younger than me, and they boasted several rather unique attributes on top of their odd appearances.

Never mind the ‘Outstanding Swordsmanship’ bit found on both of their attributes, they also possessed [Visual Hallucination] and [Auditory Hallucination], plus the [Elf’s Protection].

I quickly waved my hand at Seran. “You don’t have to mind the etiquette when we’re not acting in an official capacity. That will only make me rather uncomfortable, actually.”

“You see? I got his permission.” Seran brushed Charlotte hair all of a sudden, only to gasp out in surprise, then began earnestly stroking the latter’s silver hair. “Oh my goodness me! Look how beautiful your hair is. I want to brush it like Sister Hilda’s!”

“Sister, let’s just go back to the Imperial Palace.”

“He’s right, sister. It’s dangerous outside, and we don’t even have any escorts with us,” Marcel and Marvel chimed in just then.

Wowsers, these two… They looked and acted exactly the same. Sure, they might be twins, but even then they didn’t show any hint of individual personalities. Like, none at all.

“If you’re worried about escorts, don’t we already have this lady knight with us?” Seran replied while still stroking Charlotte’s hair, and the latter was now looking at me with the slightly flustered expression of someone who couldn’t figure out how to respond in a situation like this one.

“More than anything else…” Seran then locked her gaze on me. “We have the most secure escort in His Majesty the Holy King, don’t we?”

The twins shot a pair of sharp glares in my way when she brought me up.

“What can a mangnani like him even do?”

“Sure, there are lots of rumours about him, but is he really that strong, anyway?”

From the look of it, the twins seemed to find me as an eyesore.

I shrugged my shoulders, then looked back at the two shorties and retorted, “At the very least, I’m stronger than you two older brothers.”

“What was that?!”

“This punk, is he trying to pick a fight just because he’s now the Holy King?”

The twins instantly exploded in dissatisfaction.

“Don’t get too cocky just because you’re the Holy King, got that?!”

“We also are eligible to become the next Holy Emperor if we want to. Don’t you forget that!”

I lightly patted the two on their shoulders, then looked to my left. “Please do that for me, Brother Marcel.” And then, I turned my head to my right. “You too, Brother Marvel. Honestly speaking, I’m more than satisfied by my current position of the Holy King, you see.”

Marvel and Marcel flinched noticeably.

Seran stared at me with a shocked face. “You can actually tell them apart?”

“I’m just relying on my gut feeling.”

The twins piped up at the same time, “It has to be a coincidence!”

“That’s right. There’s no way he can accurately tell. Hey, you. Try to guess who’s Marvel and Marcel again. If you get it right, we’ll give you a present.”

“A present, you say?”

That sure pricked my curiosity just then.

The twins heroically nodded away.

“That’s right. We’ll show you a visual hallucination.”

“And we can even let you hear an auditory hallucination, too.”

Holy cow, really? Just looking at them like this was already making my head spin, yet what else did they have in store?

Seran was giggling away behind us as if she too found this scene rather amusing.

“Alright, now. Close your eyes.”

I groaned, then closed both of my eyes. The sounds of shuffling footsteps came to me next. Yup, they were switching positions, weren’t they?

“All done.”

I heard one of the twins speak, so I opened my eyes.

The twins were silently, intently staring back at me. But why did they look so expectant for some reason?

I dismissively pointed to right, then left, while speaking up. “Brother Marvel, then Brother Marcel. The end.”

The expressions of the twins stiffened up, because it was the correct answer.

“…It’s a coincidence.”

“R-right. It has to be. A coincidence.”

I drilled my knuckles on top of their heads. “Please stop behaving like kids.”

“Who you calling kids here?!”

“Us two are perfectly fine adults, we’ll have you know!”

“But don’t you two act and speak like a couple of kids all the time?” I continued to drill my knuckles on their noggins while chuckling away.

Seran looked even more impressed. “That’s amazing. Neither mother nor I can tell them apart, you know?”

I looked back at her. “Even though you are family?”

“Yes. Despite us being family, we just can’t. I mean, they are far too similar to each other, aren’t they? Their personalities, manner of speech, even their actions. I can perceive who’s who to a degree, but even then, I get it wrong plenty of times.”

“…”

Well, that’s not that surprising, since I cheated a bit and figured it out through my [Mind’s Eye].

I groaned at length again and replied to her, “In any case, let’s keep going. Let me introduce to you a rather nice little eatery.”

“Thanks!” Seran replied with that trademark bright smile of hers.

The location I took the Ariana trio to was a bakery that happened to be quite famous in the capital.

We settled down around a table. Charlotte wanted to stand next to us, but I forced her to sit down, then ordered a round of soup and some bread.

Not too long after that, loaves of freshly baked savoury bread were brought out, and the scent of warm soup tickled our nostrils enticingly.

Seran tasted the soup, then gave her impression, “It’s really good! I need to tell Sister Hilda later about this place.”

She sounded quite impressed, but the twins were still shooting me some fierce glares even now.

“Try to guess again.”

“Yeah, who’s Marvel and Marcel? Can you tell?”

“…Right is Marvel, left is Marcel.” I replied, causing the twins to clamp their mouths shut.

I also noticed that their sharp glares had gotten a tad softer as well.

Seran seemed to be amused by something, because with a warm smile, she began stroking the heads of the twins. “Looks like your moods have improved a little. You were pouting so much at the prospect of meeting Allen again, too.”

Huh. These two hated me that much?

Charlotte leaned in and whispered quietly in my ear, “Apparently, Your Majesty used to kick them and rough them up in the past. While saying that since they were so small, it was easy to bully them.”

I keep thinking that all the time, but uh, Charlotte is one seriously quick-witted girl, isn’t she?

“…These two. Are they really my older brothers? I mean, they are really small and all.”

Everyone in the Imperial Family had accepted the story of me losing all of my memories by now. Asking a question like this shouldn’t seem unnatural.

“From what I investigated, the twins have received the Elf’s Protection, sire.”

“What’s that?”

The ‘Elf’s Protection’.

Apparently, the twins had freed an enslaved High Elf when they were much younger. As a sign of gratitude, the High Elf bestowed this Protection thing, which turned out to be the gift of extended youth.

Huh. Nominally it was the ‘gift’ of youth, but to me, that sounded much closer to ‘curse’, instead.

The physical and mental growth might slow down like an Elf’s, but that didn’t actually mean their lifespan had been extended or anything like that.

The High Elf probably considered humanity’s trait of seeking out ‘youth’ when handing out this gift, but to these two young ones, this was practically the same thing as returning kindness with a sucker punch to their guts, instead.

I slowly rubbed my chin. Was that the reason why they looked and acted like children?

By the way, why did Charlotte mean when I ‘kicked and roughed’ them up? “Huh. What did I do to Sister Seran, then?”

“Apparently, there were incidents of Your Majesty trying to douse her with water, or knock the teacup out of her hands while she was trying to enjoy her tea.”

“I guess I really was a bastard back then.”

Even then, I didn’t sense one iota of animosity coming from Seran. Could she have treated all those terrible actions of her younger brother as nothing more than just some childish pranks?

If true, then her attributes of ‘Benevolence’ and ‘Empathy’ made a lot of sense.

It was right then that Charlotte continued with her explanation, “I heard that she took that as an attempt at a prank, and got her revenge on you, Your Majesty. Like, uhm… dumping you into a river, or lacing your tea with laxative, and…”

“…”

Ah. So she was the type to get you back two or three times worse. As expected of Hilda’s younger sister, I guess.

While thinking that, I glanced at Charlotte. This kid, just how much did she investigate about me?

Sure, it was fine to do a thorough investigation on all personnel for the sake of the Imperial Family’s safety, but I was getting a bit scared by how excellent she was as a retainer.

I shifted my gaze back to Seran while mulling on some of my petty dissatisfaction. “May I ask the reason why you came to see me?”

“Ng? We just came to hang out with you, that’s all.”

Really?

I was still thinking back to the [Foresight] and the [end of the world] bit from her Attribute Window. There was also the matter of the current grave atmosphere in the Imperial Palace to consider as well, which didn’t seem to gel with the claim of the Ariana family coming here for a spot of fun.

I decided to ask her directly. “Could it be that you came to see me after something has happened in the Kingdom of Frants?”

Seran visibly flinched. A bitter smile crept up on her lips next. “Yes, that’s correct. Actually, my mother came here for a specific reason, but my reason for seeking you out is wholly separate. We need your help.”

“When you say my help, does it concern the vampires?”

“Correct, but that is also a little bit wrong, too.” Seran put down the loaf of bread she had been chewing, then wordlessly stared at me for a long while. Then she bowed her head as her manner of speech suddenly changed, “Seran Ariana, from the Ducal House Ariana affiliated with the Kingdom of Frants, officially requests the assistance of Your Majesty the Holy King.”

Her head slowly rose back up.

“I beg of you to hunt the one abducting our subjects every night. The one referred to as The Farmer.”

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