How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 115

Episode 115

126. Meeting and Grace as Planned (7)

‘Surely they’re not judging adulthood based solely on how people treat you socially,’ I thought.

In this place, becoming independent around the age of 16 seems common.

‘It must be referring to relative age.’

‘Well, physically speaking, the youngest one here is definitely me.’

Princess Elenia is estimated to be 20 years old according to the original story.

Lucel is a whopping 48 years old according to the setting.

However, elves are naturally long-lived, and she is quite young even among elves.

‘But from a human perspective, it’s a subtle age!’

‘Great. I’m the youngest one here!’

It has nothing to do with the current situation, and it’s an element with absolutely no influence, but I feel a strange sense of intoxication.

I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve won.

Youth always triumphs.

And surprisingly, men are also conscious of their age.

“But does that mean you don’t suspect me?”

“Ah, that? I didn’t really suspect you. …Even if others do, that’s how I judged it.”

‘You should be grateful for my goodness.’

“Besides, even if we suspected Ailein, imprisoning you underground would be meaningless.”

“Yeah. I agreed with the princess on that.”

“What do you mean?”

‘Oh? Something about the meaning is strange.’

Lucel explained as if it were obvious.

“Even if we put a few soldiers on you, you could take them all out, right? Even if we locked you up, it wouldn’t be difficult to escape using spirit magic.”

Lucel pointed out as if it were natural.

I was speechless because it was true.

“Huh? But what if I really had something to hide and ran away?”

Even if you don’t suspect me, there’s no guarantee I won’t run.

Lucel scoffed as if it didn’t matter.

“Then I’d really know you were suspicious, and my colleagues and I would find you later and deal with you.”

In other words, they can handle it later anyway.

‘I was being watched less than I expected.’

My power is not ordinary by general standards, but from the perspective of the protagonist and main characters, it’s a level that can be dealt with later.

‘Well, importance is also a factor.’

I’m actually just ‘Extra B’ [a minor, insignificant character].

Indeed… I couldn’t get attention even if I tried.

‘Maybe the importance of a role is more significant than I thought.’

Is it better to be grateful for the low importance?

“By the way, you, the elf over there, are also a spirit mage, right?”

Since the topic came up, I pretended to be interested in Lucel and asked.

I need to hear information about her so I can pretend to know her later.

“Me? Yeah… I do use spirits.”

“Oh! I knew it! So, you were hired here? Your skills are extraordinary.”

“That’s not it.”

Princess Elenia answered instead of Lucel, who seemed a little uncomfortable with me.

“She is a friend of my grandfather’s guest.”

“A friend of the guest?”

“That’s how it is. Don’t try to know too much.”

There’s no reason to tell me.

Unexpectedly, she’s not as talkative as I thought.

But it doesn’t matter.

The friend is probably referring to the protagonist, Sylvester.

He’s probably on the battlefield with the Grand Duke right now.

That’s enough.

“Lucel was asked to stay by my side for personal reasons.”

“Ah, a bodyguard?”

“You can think of it that way.”

That’s not a bad choice either.

A skilled spirit mage has many options and abilities to handle emergency situations.

It’s more suitable for bodyguard work than an average knight running around.

…Hmm? Wait a minute?

“But even though you’re a bodyguard… back then… the princess was kidnapped?”

Does that mean Lucel was with her as a bodyguard, but she was still taken by the kidnappers that day?

‘Hey, you useless elf. Aren’t you working?’

You’re a complete freeloader.

When I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, Lucel couldn’t refute, and her shoulders trembled.

If you look closely, her ears are also slightly red.

Unexpectedly, this girl has pride, so I know she wouldn’t gloss over her mistakes with good humor.

I’ll poke at that shame.

“Oh, I couldn’t help it… I didn’t expect the maid who had worked for 10 years to betray me at that time.”

“…Is that the person who said the princess wasn’t suspicious enough back then?”

“…Ugh.”

“You were careless.”

“Ugh.”

“You were careless, right?”

This is just a petty act of spite.

“Ah ha~ So that’s why you misunderstood and hit me so urgently? Because you were flustered by your own mistake? Ah ha~ I see.”

I do have a grudge for being hit from behind back then.

Actually, that hurt quite a bit. I’ll get it out today.

Since I have the chance, should I tease her a little more?

“That’s enough, Ailein.”

However, Princess Elenia stopped me, so I couldn’t tease her any further, unfortunately.

“Don’t push Lucel too hard. It couldn’t be helped.”

The victim, Princess Elenia, doesn’t seem to mind. How cold.

“When you think about it, those who didn’t notice even though they had worked for much longer are also responsible. There’s a limit to what Lucel could have noticed.”

“Well, the princess is safe as a result. …Thanks to me, though.”

“Ugh…”

“Thanks to me, right!”

“Kuh!”

Thanks to that, I saw Lucel looking slightly resentful and unable to speak, so I felt a little better.

Okay. I’ll stop being petty and teasing that elf.

Besides, Princess Elenia doesn’t seem to want to bring up that topic anymore.

The investigation is their job, and they probably don’t have anything to tell me.

“More than that, I called you here not to talk about the past.”

I listened silently.

“As I said, the only thing I want to talk about is gratitude for that time. Nothing else matters.”

“In that case, the fact that you defended me the other day is enough.”

Pretending to be humble, and a little bit sincere.

There are many cases in the world where good deeds are unfairly buried.

Surprisingly few people remember that.

However, Princess Elenia shakes her head.

“Don’t say such nonsense. I can’t be that shameless. I will definitely repay the favor.”

That’s a relief. I was a little nervous that you might say, ‘Then that’s fine. Goodbye,’ and wave your hand elegantly.

In the end, it seemed safe to assume that the purpose was to repay me.

‘More than anything, making contact with such an excuse is the safest thing to do for now.’

From the beginning, I was convinced that Princess Elenia had another purpose.

I don’t assume that all actions are purely out of goodwill.

The problem is the reward.

“At first, there was a request to end things by giving you some gold coins.”

“Money, that’s not too bad either.”

“You’re saying something you don’t mean.”

Oh my, I’ve been caught.

In reality, I’m not satisfied with just that much.

“I also considered various things, but I couldn’t make a decision, so I looked into you a little.”

Investigating me is also within the expected range of actions.

However, the question is whether the information she knows about me is really true.

“In that case, do you also know why I’m still staying here?”

“Hmm? Wasn’t the deal already over? That’s what I heard.”

I knew it.

She completely misunderstands.

“Actually, the deal hasn’t even been made yet… I’m trying to figure out a solution because of a somewhat difficult situation.”

When I corrected her, Princess Elenia finally realized that something was misunderstood and narrowed her eyes.

“Come to think of it, I was wondering. Ailein, what kind of goods are you selling?”

“Whatever it is, if you asked Nelvis or his aides, they would have told you in detail… Didn’t you hear?”

“…From Uncle Nelvis? I didn’t hear such a report.”

Princess Elenia asks back with a somewhat troubled expression.

She has no idea at all.

I was sure of it then.

Someone deliberately misreported my actions.

However, it would be unnatural to report everything as false, so they glossed over the purpose and current status of my stay here.

Specifically, they hid the fact that Nelvis had interfered from her ears.

‘The reason for hiding it is obvious~.’

It’ll be a hassle if it gets to that lady’s ears.

Meanwhile, Princess Elenia seemed to be thinking alone and finally asked me again.

“Ailein, can you tell me directly from your mouth?”

She asks me directly instead of the other servants.

As expected, she has a sense of it.

I readily began to tell her the external reason for coming here as it was.

“Actually…”

It’s finally time to tattle [inform on someone].

I calmly began to talk about what had happened, as if nothing had happened.

* * *

Generally, the best way to tattle to a superior is to bring up the topic naturally and make the other person think about the true meaning on their own.

In other words, it feels like I wasn’t trying to tell on you, but you just noticed on your own.

That subtle feeling is important.

“…After that, Nelvis refused, so I was trying to figure out a solution, and my stay became a little longer.”

I explained as if I was only reporting on work, as if I was talking about someone else’s business.

The important point at times like this is not to exaggerate.

People have a habit of unconsciously exaggerating what they’ve been through.

So, I completely excluded personal feelings and only explained.

More than anything, that would be more convincing.

“…I see.”

Princess Elenia nodded after listening to my story.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem suspicious.

“That’s truly a shame… Uncle Nelvis must have had a different point of view. So don’t resent him.”

I can’t badmouth my relatives in front of her.

I have no choice but to protect him for now.

I don’t care about that either.

Around that point, she probably had a slight premonition of what I wanted.

“In that case, giving you some gold coins halfway doesn’t seem like a reward for you.”

“I’m grateful for anything you give me. Honestly, I’m not in a position to complain.”

“No, your merit is merit. More than anything, no one knows what would have happened to me if you hadn’t helped.”

That’s true, I don’t know either.

A hypothetical situation when Princess Elenia was successfully kidnapped.

I haven’t thought about it? I don’t need to, but.

‘In that case, her life would be a straight line to a bad ending.’

As a hostage, they would treat her politely at first, but what about after that?

If their goal is no different from the original story, the victim’s final fate might be miserable.

In that respect, it’s not exactly wrong to say that I’m a great benefactor to her.

“…By the way, you said earlier that you wanted to sell food to supply the military?”

“Yes. But this place may not need food. Nelvis refused. Surely there’s no shortage.”

Of course, I don’t sincerely believe that nonsense.

“It’s just that my judgment was wrong.”

I’m deliberately pretending not to know and being sarcastic.

Blaming others outright is only for third-raters [people of low quality or skill].

Rather, pretending to blame yourself is the most plausible.