The Same Goes for Every World
This time, those accompanying us to the Duchy of Clondale are Father, Raul, Natalia, four of my personal knight escorts, plus Atre and Ciel.
Atre sleeps either on my lap or on a cushion placed on the seat. Ciel is resting inside the train or flying outside.
Brother Gerald stayed behind to take care of the house, since we have Alraune and beastkin at our house, and since Father is going this time.
If it comes to business talks with the ducal house, only Father can move things forward.
Instead of stopping by the royal capital, we're heading directly to the duchy's mansion. Apparently, both the Duke and Raphael are currently staying at the mansion there.
Still, Father said that if business discussions come up, we might have to stop by the capital after all.
He didn’t go into details, but something must be going on.
As we get off the train, I heard a voice saying, “Father, Hardt, over here.” It was Brother Chris.
Huh? What about school? Is it really okay for him to skip school?
“It can’t be helped—this takes priority. Gerald isn’t here, and someone has to keep an eye on you,” he said.
Well… after what I did, I have no argument.
I suppose that explains why we had fewer escorts—Brother Chris was bringing his own.
A welcome party from the Clondale Ducal Household was waiting, and we split into three carriages. Since this is Ciel and Bianca’s first meeting, I introduced them to each other.
“But about the curry powder, right? When I returned to the domain's capital, I didn’t hear anything about it, and I didn’t get to try it either. I thought everything had been covered in your action report...”
“There was no curry powder left. We used everything we received from the World Tree through Raul and the others. We were planning to debut it when this year’s harvest came in, but if the spices that serve as the base for curry powder grew in the dungeon, then we can serve it this time.”
“So Father and Gerald got to eat it, but Mother and I didn’t. I see—that’s why Gerald didn’t mention it during the report.”
They say that food grudges are scary, even in my past life, but apparently it’s the same in this world.
Even just a little would be fine—I should get some curry powder to bring back as a souvenir for Mother.
I'm scared of what might happen otherwise...
Also, sorry, Brother Gerald. I mentally apologized, thinking there might be some kind of retaliation from Brother Chris.
We arrived at the Clondale Ducal House.
Compared to the mansion in the royal capital, it’s smaller, but since there are buildings extending further back, the scale might be about the same.
In front of the mansion is a garden with a fountain, making for an impressive view.
It has a different atmosphere than the royal capital, but as expected of a duke’s house.
Raphael came out to greet us at the entrance. After the greetings:
“Originally, we would have had you rest before meeting with my father, but I’d like to take you straight to him now. Although we’re the ones who requested this meeting, unfortunately my father has very little time today. My apologies.”
“It was a sudden matter, so it can’t be helped. It’s fine,” Father said.
As a duke’s son, his handling of Father and the others was impressively smooth.
He’s also eight years old, same as me, but… what is this difference?
Even though I have memories from my past life, I still get swept up in the emotions of a child, you know? That’s why it makes him seem all the more amazing.
Since we were told to accompany them, we followed along. The knights who had come with Brother Chris stepped back.
The room we were shown into was a luxurious reception room.
There was a large oval table in the center, surrounded by single-seat and three- to four-seat sofas, placed with good spacing.
Father was offered a single-seat sofa, and Ciel perched on his shoulder. Brother Chris and I were shown to a larger sofa—probably to accommodate Atre and Bianca as well.
Meyer and Hamilton, Raul and Natalia stood behind the sofa.
Wilson and Kamuela waited outside the reception room.
Then, Duke Clondale himself entered the room.
“Sorry to trouble you after your long journey. We had considered gathering the spices from the dungeon ourselves, but since we don’t know how to collect them properly, we must ask you to go down to the fifth floor. Also, we’d like your chef to teach our chef how to cook using these spices. Once we’ve tried the food, we’ll proceed to discuss the new business. Is that all right?”
Father responded, “Yes, that’s fine. Those who will accompany me into the dungeon are the ones here in this reception room and the two waiting outside—eight in total. Our tamed beasts will of course accompany us.”
“From the ducal side, I’ll assign five discreet knights to accompany you as Raphael’s guards so we can learn how to harvest the spices. If the two beastkin don’t want to attract attention, we can prepare hooded cloaks. What do you say?”
Raul and Natalia said they didn’t need hooded cloaks.
They haven’t worn any up until now either, and since they’re dressed in the knight and maid uniforms of the Westland household, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Wearing cloaks might actually draw more attention and seem suspicious.
The Duke left, saying to speak with Raphael for more details.
He really did seem busy. If he weren’t, Raphael would probably be restless, after all.
We then heard the schedule from Raphael.
Starting tomorrow, we’ll make a one-night, two-day trip to the dungeon.
From here, it takes about two hours one way to reach the dungeon.
Since the goal is to reach the fifth floor, they’ll go straight through the first to fourth floors using the shortest route and minimal combat.
However, since some of us are entering this dungeon for the first time, we’ll start from the first floor regardless.
So today, we were told to rest and recover, and then we were shown to our rooms.
What do you think about this chapter?
