Chapter 215 (1/2)
Volume 3
The Simple Job of Only Perishing to the Hero Volume 6 Chapter 29
– 107.167.229.84
「Welcome, to the Temple of Wind. Well, it’s not like I myself don’t welcome you.」
The one who greeted Seira’s group when they arrived at the Temple of Wind was Nefas who made a truly complicated looking face.
If it had to be described, it was an expression that looked like a wry smile was mixed together with sympathy.
Seira’s pain of being in a position of having to do things that she didn’t want to do due to being a duty as a noble was something that Nefas also understood very well.
The current Nefas had been released from the responsibilities as a noble of the St. Altlis Kingdom, but this time, the thing called a Temple Knight of Wind had become an invisible chain and bound Nefas down.
To end up in a position where he had to take responsibility for an entire faith, that wouldn’t even be a funny story.
Rather, even if he was depraved, how Nefas was up until now where he himself would finish things with just him biting back, it was enough to think that that might have been him being at ease.
Thanks to that, even if he wanted to chase after his loved ones, he wouldn’t even be able to go out freely.
「Thank you. You’re making a pretty funny face, aren’t you?」
「Is that so. And you’re making a bored-looking face.」
Nefas replied like that to Seira’s words.
「It’s because this truly is boring.」
Contrary to Ietta, who was making a bitter face, Nefas raised the corners of his mouth and expressed a smile.
「Is that so. It is good to see that you’re the same as always. Well, come on in. The public gaze are a bit much if we stay here after all.」
While following after Nefas who turned around and entered the temple, Seira muttered.
「Nefas……you’ve, changed somehow, haven’t you.」
「Is that so?」
「Un. How should I put it. It’s like……you lost your competitiveness, maybe.」
While saying that, Seira thought about the reason for her own words.
Most likely……the cause wasn’t Nefas, but Seira herself.
The Nefas who she one-sidedly hated from the bottom of her heart and was also her rival, she felt like he somehow became distant.
And then, the cause of that was surely the atmosphere that Nefas was clad in.
「……It’s like, you’ve become an adult on your own.」
Seira felt that expression to be the most fitting one.
The Nefas who would only say insults whenever they saw each other was now clad in a terrifyingly calm air.
Even his martial arts skills, they probably skyrocketed by several levels when compared to the last time they met.
She couldn’t find a single opening in his bearing.
「That’s……It couldn’t be helped. I had no choice but to do so, and I also worked hard to be like that.」
「It’s that.」
「Nn?」
「The Nefas that I know would say that working hard is something that guys without talent would do.」
Being told that by Seira, Nefas came to a stop in the middle of the hallway, and tilted his head as if to try and remember something.
After falling into silence for an ample several seconds like that, Nefas turned around to Seira.
「Sorry, I don’t remember that.」
「To begin with, from our first greeting, if it was the Nefas that I know, he should have gotten angry the moment I said that you had a funny face.」
「……Nn, well. For that, it’s that. There is a pro at abusive language among my acquaintances……it’s probably an effect from that.」
Seeing Nefas remember something and express a smile, Seira reflexively backed away.
This was her first time seeing Nefas’s smiling face without a single trace of maliciousness.
When speaking of the smiling face that Nefas had that Seira knew, it was the face that he made when he thought of something bad, and the face he made when he was looking down on people.
「Ahー……un. You’ve really changed.」
「That might be true. Ahh, the second floor is off limits to anyone other than those concerned. Sorry but I would like it if you had all of your followers, including your attendants, be on standby in the room on the first floor.」
He started walking once again, and once they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Nefas turned around and said that.
In other words, the one who could go through beyond this point was only Seira who was his guest.
Ietta, who pretended to be her attendant, naturally objected to this.
「H, however……I cannot separate from Ojou-sama.」
「……Ietta-dono. I understand your circumstances, but for me, I do not want to make any dissension. So I would like it if you could understand.」
「……っ」
Having her name called out by Nefas despite having not introduced herself yet, Ietta’s body stiffened.
She had no choice but to think that the fact that she wasn’t an attendant was exposed.
But, this should have been her first time meeting with Nefas.
Even while thinking that, a cold sweat ran down Ietta’s back.
「I believe you should know this, but I was once the heir to a Duke House. The faces of the people I should remember have been memorized.」
「……I have done something out of line.」
Hearing those words that made the finishing blow, Ietta had no choice but to withdraw.
How could this be.
She had heard that Nefas, the eldest son of the Albania Duke House, was a profligate son who wallowed in talent, and was just a man who the God of Wind who had coincidentally taken a liking to, but this was unexpected.
Being a royal palace knight, it wasn’t like Ietta’s face was well known like a justice knight or an imperial guard knight.
Moreover, having been in charge of the princess’s room, a majority of the nobles probably didn’t even know of her existence.
Even though she was selected this time due to that, Nefas had called her a 「person I should remember」.