In the afternoon, time for the unarmed combat practice.
At the courtyard, ojousama and I were having a mock battle.
Ojousama, in rough garb with her hair tied, was lunging at me with all her strength.
She was of course using body strengthening to support her body.
I easily avoided her right straight by circling around sideways.
I stopped her with a left jab, and kicked her with a right side kick.
[tsu!?]
Ojousama guarded for the kick at a dangerous moment.
But she lost to the force and rolled down onto the ground.
“Ojousama, your attacks are too sloppy. You should’ve moved to anticipate the opponent’s next move. If it’s just hitting each other even a child could do it. Hurry up and stand.”
Ojousama supported herself with her hands on the ground, breathing roughly, and made no sign of moving.
Not minding that, I started to hurl insults at her.
“Seriously HOW long are you FUCKING going to lay down there? Get a hold of yourself MAGGOT!”
Ojousama, still breathing roughly, raised her face with a difficult expression.
“You are this world’s lowest lifeform. You’re not a demon race. You’re not even worth trash scrounged from amphibians! What is it? If you don’t like it then show me your guts!”
Ojousama picked herself up while gritting her teeth and braced herself.
“So you can stand! You’ve got guts. I’ll work you to the bone as your reward. I’ll work you till you drop dead! I’ll work you till you have to drink milk from your ass!”
“Hey——!”
I turned my head toward the angry voice, and there was one of ojousama’s childhood friend, the Demon race, Centaur clan Karen Bishop there.
Standing behind her is a maid carrying a large travelling bag that looks to be hers.
Karen squared up her shoulders and stepped up to me, her ponytail swinging.
“Lute! You’re a servant! What the hell are you saying to Chrisse! I don’t really get what it means but I know it’s something bad!”
“!? Welcome, Karen-sama! It looks like the letter safely—”
As I was about to give Karen a warm welcome, the owner of the place Meiya popped a vein and angrily interrupted me.
“How rude! A demon race saying something like that to the genius of all geniuses Lute-sama! Guards! What are you doing! Hurry up and kick this insolent one out! How did someone like this get inside my estate!”
“Calm down Meiya. She’s ojousama’s friend, the Centaur Karen Bishop-sama. I already told you that I sent a letter to explain our current situation and asked her to come, right?”
“…. She’s Chrisse-san’s friend, huh. Truthfully, I think she’s a lovely person. How do you do Karen-san. My name is Meiya Dragoon, Lute-sama’s number one disciple. Feel free to relax and think of this place like your own home.”
「こ、こちらこそよろしく」
“M, me too.”
Once I scolded Meiya, she became friendly as if she was a different person.
Karen was also surprised at her change in attitude and became nervous.
Karen cleared her throat and turned to me once again.
“Anyway, While you are fugitives, but what the hell are you saying to your master Chrisse.”
“Well, that was just part of training.”
“Training?”
“I already have ojousama’s consent. It’s a spartan military training. I would never say something like that to her otherwise, right, ojousama?”
[Yeah, it’s just as Lute-oniichan said.]
Ojousama wrote on the mini blackboard and showed it to Karen.
[Karen-chan, thanks for specifically coming for me. I’m very happy to see you again after so long.]
“You’re taking the words out of my mouth. I was surprised when a letter arrived at my home after I heard you went missing. It had a name I don’t recognize, but it was written in Chrisse-chan’s handwriting that I know very well.”
Karen stepped up to Ojousama and hugged her.
“Really, I’m glad you’re alright…. Not only me, but Barnie and Muir were also worried when we heard Chrisse went missing.”
The two were hugging each other, being glad for each other’s safety, almost like sisters.
Some time ago I asked for Meiya’s help to write a letter addressed to Karen.
I had actually wanted to send letters to the other two, but for all three of ojousama’s friends to receive a letter and have them move at the same time would stand out too much, so it can’t be helped.
After discussing it, I decided to send a letter to Karen, who was most acquainted with military matters.
Her family runs a large weapons and armor business.
Not just selling them, they practically do all kinds of work on them.
Karen’s family has their own mercenary army, and they are dispatched to various places with weapons and armors. It seems that they using their products on the battlefield to spread word of their brand, which promotes business. Furthermore after the battles, they would be able to make improvements from feedback on suggestions and ease of use regarding the weapons etc.
Having that kind of family situation, and consequently receiving strict military training, I decided to entrust her with calming the others down.
The fact that I called her to the Meiya estate in the Dragon Continent is also for no other reason.
It is to let her know about our situation, for new intelligence, and to inform her of our safety.
I asked ojousama, [wasn’t it forbidden to ask the help of another family in a family dispute?], but she said that it was okay, because it’s not like we were asking her for direct help. Therefore I was able to send the letter to Karen without hesitation.
Karen tore herself off of ojousama, and rubbed the tears in her eyes.
“It’s also good that Lute is safe. Really, thanks for protecting Chrisse.”
“Not at all, it’s the obvious thing to do as a butler of the Vlad house. Then, I’m sorry to ask this immediately after you just got here, but can you tell us about the current situation?”
“Well, since the weather is nice and all, why don’t we have some tea at the courtyard.”
As Meiya raised her hand, the maids have already arranged a table, chairs, a parasol, tea, and tea cakes at the courtyard, as if they had been prepared beforehand.
In under three minutes, a small but fashionable spot had been erected at the courtyard.
Temporarily stopping the unarmed combat practice, we listened to Karen’s story while sipping on the tea.
According to the news Karen brought us—
It seems that after master was captured, they put on a magic prevention collar to seal his magic and sold him as a slave.
She knew that he was sold not to the Demon Continent, but some other continent, though she didn’t know where.
Madam was locked up at the top of a tower in the Vlad castle.
She also had a magic prevention collar put on her, and was not able to escape on her own.
The castle seems to be occupied by the Vampire house’s head, the eldest son Pylkkänen Vlad and the second son Ravio Vlad.
They were being loud about plundering master’s business and even unreasonably resorting to violence to unfairly lower wages, so they faced considerable resistance from the workers. Thanks to that, the business seem to have become stagnated.
Merry-san and the other surviving servants escaped and hid in several places, but since they had little fighting power they were unable to do anything.
Now that they don’t have master, the difference in power was overwhelmingly against them.
Moreover, there were several of the Vampire house’s magicians besides Pylkkänen and Ravio standing watch at the castle. Because of that, they couldn’t do a thing.
The only blessing within the misfortune is that they guaranteed madam’s safety
As she was their only prisoner, if they somehow got her wounded or killed, Merry-san and the other houses with relations to the Vlad house won’t stay silent. They couldn’t protest about matter of master and his brothers, but madam is another matter entirely. If something happens to her her relatives won’t stay still.
If madam died it certainly would go beyond the limits of what can be settled as being a family dispute.
It will be a war to pay back blood with blood.
Of course, it was something they did not want. Therefore they guaranteed madam’s safety.
Furthermore, it was also the same reason why they searched every nook and cranny for ojousama.
If they had ojousama, were madam to pass away for some reason they could use ojousama as a new hostage to protect against Merry-san’s attacks.
Karen grit her teeth sorrowfully.
“I want to do something to help if I could, but another family can’t interfere in a family dispute. I’m sorry I can’t do anything besides providing information.”
“Not at all, this is helpful enough. But is it really alright? If it’s forbidden to interfere in a family dispute, doing all this, though it’s only providing information, would also count.”
Ojousama had already said [it’s okay], but just in case, I tried asking Karen.
In response, she put on a wicked smile.
“I’m only making sure that my dear friend is safe and have a chat with her. If she somehow got intelligence from that, that’s not my problem, right?”
In other words, it seems like this doesn’t count as [lending a hand].
I don’t know what standards they were using, but if it’s no problem then so be it.
“Karen-sama, thank you very much. Thanks to you I was able to get accurate information on the situation. This way, one of the strategies I thought up seems to be usable.”
“Hoo, what kind of strategy is that?”
I had the daughter of a military family who had mercenaries in their employ, Karen, listen to my plan, and asked for her opinion.
The contents of the plan is simple.
Get inside the castle with a small number of people using the escape route we used when we fled the castle.
Meet up with madam, and then leave the castle.
Meanwhile, in order to draw the eyes of the castle guards, I want to have Merry-san and the other servants do something flashy as a diversion. Though they have little fighting power, they should be able to do something once.
If they did that the Vampire house head would