The Marquis House’s Gate Was Jammed
There was a traffic jam in front of the marquis house’s gates.
The tea party had ended, and just as we were about to head back to the barony with my parents, there was a traffic jam in front of the marquis house’s gates.
Of course, not cars. A traffic jam of carriages.
“I wonder if something happened? Niichama, can you see?”
“Mmm… the carriage at the front looks tilted. Maybe a wheel broke or something. Chichiue, I’ll go take a look.”
“Dermont. Don’t use it too flashily.”
By “it,” he obviously meant my alchemy magic. Publicly, it was only supposed to be capable of “processing wood.” Well, carriage wheels were mostly wood anyway, so it should be fine.
“Margaret. Sorry, do we have any sturdy wood?”
I headed over to the carriage carrying the attendants and maids and called out to Margaret.
“Ah, yes. Only a small amount, though. I’ll bring it right away.”
“No, Margaret. I’ll go.”
“Sir Robert? Ah, yes, you’re right. Then please take this.”
Since something dangerous might happen, Sir Robert, who had been riding on horseback, dismounted and came with me.
On the way, we passed the Spanberg count house’s carriage, and Landfas poked his head out the window like he was about to say something, but the moment he saw Sir Robert, he hurriedly pulled back inside.
“What kind of face did you make when glaring at Landfas, Sir Robert? He runs away just from seeing you, so I’d like to learn from you.”
“Well, even if you ask me that… I merely let my feelings show a little. Something along the lines of, ‘You hateful little brat. If you were a goblin instead of a human, I wouldn’t let you die easily.’”
Yeah, that was definitely the face of a predator staring down prey.
Sir Robert was seven years older than Father and came from a long line of knights. Since he was the second son and couldn’t inherit the title, he apparently used to work as an adventurer when he was younger. So he had extensive knowledge about monsters and was an incredibly dependable man.
Well, if someone like that glared at you like you were a goblin, of course it’d be terrifying.
When we got close to the front carriage, knights were inexplicably blocking the road.
Sir Robert stepped forward and asked what was going on, and one of the knights grimaced before replying, “It’s nothing. It’ll be resolved shortly, so could you please wait?”
Yep. This was the kind of situation that would go nowhere.
“Umm, it looks like the carriage wheel broke. Am I correct?”
The moment I stepped forward, Sir Robert immediately introduced me.
“This is Dermont-sama, heir of the Spanberg baron house.”
“If the damaged part is made of wood, I may be able to repair it with my alchemy magic. Please confirm with your master.”
“A-alchemy magic… W-we have heard the rumors. Please wait a moment.”
The oldest knight turned around and walked away.
Still, there was quite a distance between where the knights were standing and the lead carriage.
Why were they stopping the following carriages from this far away?
After a short while, the knight returned and allowed Sir Robert and me through.
“The front right wheel was damaged. On the way here, it struck a large rock.”
“Ahh, then maybe it had already cracked.”
“Most likely… another wheel only broke recently as well, and we used our spare at that time…”
So they used the spare and then broke another wheel before preparing a new spare. Did they have a reckless driver or something?
When we approached the carriage, the front right wheel was indeed broken. The coachman was… nowhere to be seen.
Eh, whatever.
“Then excuse me, but we’ll need to remove the wheel, so please lift the carriage…”
“You.”
“Hmm?”
A girl’s voice. When I turned around, a blonde girl with red eyes was standing there with her hands on her hips.
This was the girl I saw earlier at the venue.
“You better fix it pwopewly.”
“Pwopewly”? Ah, right. She looked around Tiffany and Zeke’s age, so there were probably still sounds she couldn’t pronounce properly yet.
“Yeah, I think I can.”
“‘Think’ ain’t good enouf! Y-you’re making fun of me!”
“N-no, I’m not making fun of you, it’s just…wah!”
She suddenly swung her right hand at me, so instinctively I grabbed it.
“Wha…! You!”
Now the left hand too? I grabbed that one as well, and just as I thought, There, now you can’t hit me anymore, I suddenly remembered the rumors the children had been whispering earlier.
… She kicked him there.
… There.
… There…
A chill ran down my spine, and instantly I raised my right leg to guard.
And that turned out to be the correct answer.
The little girl in front of me had lifted her leg to kick my precious family jewels.
G-good thing I guarded.
“Owwww! W-why did you dodge!?”
“Why? …You’re a pretty outrageous girl, you know that? I came over because I thought you were in trouble with the broken wheel, and yet you try to slap and crotch-kick the person helping you?”
“Wha…! Y-you… are you trying to defy me!?”
Sigh… Let’s just repair this thing and go home. I can’t believe a girl this violent exists.
“Young master. I’ve removed the wheel. Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I’m perfectly fine. Maybe it helped that the knights trained me every now and then.”
Every two or three days, they’d also give me swordsmanship training with wooden swords.
I mean, this world had monsters. And someday I’d inherit the baron house. If I couldn’t fight monsters, that’d be pretty uncool.
“Well then, let’s get this done.”
I gathered the broken wheel, the shattered wood pieces, and the lumber Sir Robert had brought me, then concentrated my mana.
After touching the wheel and summoning the magic circle, I strongly envisioned the word [Repair] from the text floating in my mind.
Even though it was broken, more than half its original shape remained intact. Thanks to that, the magic automatically corrected the rest, which made things easy. If it had been blown completely to splinters, I would’ve had to measure the other wheel and recreate an identical one from scratch. That was honestly a pain.
The wheel glowed in seven colors and returned to its original form.
“There. It’ll run properly now. You just need to reattach it.”
“Th-thank you very much. Truly, it was repaired in an instant…”
“Hahaha. An instant, yes, though I can only use alchemy on wooden objects. And only large ones.”
Gotta sprinkle in some fake limitations.
Alright, time to head back. I needed to get away from that violent girl.
No matter how pretty her face was, I hated violent women. My mother in my previous life had been like that.
“W-wait!”
I really didn’t want to.
“Y-you! B-become my slave!”
“Huh? A-a slave!?”
“O-Ojousama! You mustn’t say such things!”
“Quiet! I’m Christina Rosemaine! I’m a marquis’s daughter, so you should do as I sa…”
“Ohohohohoho. Thank you for your hard work repairing our carriage, little baron. We shall properly repay this favor another day.”
“Mmmghhh!”
A blonde noblewoman suddenly cut in from the side. Probably this Christina girl’s mother.
Just what kind of upbringing did this girl have…?
“There’s no need for thanks. I only did it because everyone was stuck here and unable to return home. Now then, if you’ll excuse me.”
After giving a small bow, I quickly returned to my own carriage.
Sigh… She was completely like the female version of Landfas. I was exhausted.
~ Read Chapters 12-17 in Advance on Patreon ~
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