Chapter 079 - Request
"Luton!"
"Owaa!"
After lunch, to digest the food, I went shopping alone and buy things that I was asked to, when suddenly an arm vigorously linked with mine from behind.
I was dangerously close to dropping the things I bought.
The person suddenly clinging to my arm was the Third Princess of the High Elf Kingdom Enol, Luna Enol Meméa.
She had her usual twintails untied, and was wearing the pendant that shrunk her ears and erased the green color from her eyes.
She called me out so candidly that you wouldn"t think she"s a royal princess.
"Fancy meeting you out here, Luton."
"Don"t cling to me so suddenly, it"s dangerous."
She"s a royal princess, but since she"s a girl (in appearance only) who tried to seduce someone"s wife. I have no intent to mind my words around her. Once I pointed things out to her she puffed her cheeks.
"Sheesh, Luton says the same things as Onee-chan. Boooring."
"Then pay attention so I don"t have to say it. That and get your hands off my arm already."
"Whatcha you doing out here, Luton?"
She ignored what I said and gripped my arm stronger.
Since I was carrying stuff, I couldn’t shake her off by force.
I sighed and answered.
"Shopping. It"s too depressing to stay cooped up at home all the time. Like that, Luna— wait, you don"t even need to ask, do you?"
"Huhum, you know, right?"
Her goal was most likely afternoon snack with Chrisse at the mansion.
It"s hard to refuse her now that Chrisse"s given her a warm welcome.
She finally made a friend out here.
I can"t just bluntly reject her.
"Which reminds me, I"ve been wanting to ask, how did you cross over that lake, Luna? You have a private boat or something?"
"No way, boats are too slow, I"ll get found out as soon as I got over the lake."
"Then how?"
"Ah, spit roasts. Looks tasty"
We were moving in between carts, but since Luna stopped while her arm was still linked with mine, I inevitably stopped as well.
"I already had lunch but these things go to a different stomach, I want to try one once in a while."
"........ uncle, one spit roast please!"
"Thanks!"
I handed two coppers and received a spit roast, which I gave to Luna.
She smeared it in salt and spices and sank her teeth into the roast.
"Mmmmm, delicious♪ why do these things taste better than the food we get at the castle"
"Glad you liked it (monotone voice). So, how did you cross that lake?"
"I got Lexy to cross me over. He"s faster than a boat so it"s convenient"
Lexy? That Saberwolf she was riding, huh?
Getting on the back of that huge thing and having it doggy paddle is definitely faster than a boat.
Rather, she even abuses Lexy….
I recalled the Saberwolf I only ever met once and teared up.
"Luton, you still have shopping to do?"
"Yeah, there are 2 more things they asked me to buy."
"I see. Then, I"ll go to the mansion first, kay."
Luna finished eating her spit roast and let go of my arm.
"Then I"ll be waiting at the mansion, Onii-chan♪ Thanks for the spit roast!"
Who are you calling Onii-chan.
Luna made an impersonation of Chrisse and disappeared into the crowds.
All things considered, Luna had her charms, so I can"t hate her. Maybe that"s what"s called a personal virtue, I guess?
I parted ways with Luna and once again went to get the requested shopping over with.
Thus — today was the last day anyone saw anything of Luna.
TL Note : dun dun dun dun - larvyde
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"I"m home–"
I put the things I bought in the fridge and turned up at the living room.
The fridge was what in the old world was called an old type, having a block of ice put at its very top, cooling the entire box.
I had Snow make the ice so we don"t need to deliberately spend lots of money to buy any.
"Thanks for the trouble, Lute-kun. Sorry for making you go shopping"
"I went because I wanted a change of scenery, don"t mind it."
I looked over the room.
Snow and Chrisse were in the middle of a round of oth.e.l.lo.
"Did Luna come yet?"
"Luna-chan? Nope, she didn"t come."
"I saw her near the food stands, she said she was going to come to the mansion today."
Was she eating gra.s.s by the roadside somewhere?
v2 Was she loitering around somewhere?
TL Note : For some odd reason, i cannot delete the 1st version. I’m sorry - rei_hunter
[I"m glad Luna-chan’s gonna come today, too]
"Good for you, Chrisse."
I gently pat my wife"s head, to which she became bashful.
Really, how cute.
"Aaaah, not fair Lute-kun! Pat me too, pat me!"
"Yes yes, got it."
I pet Snow, who was clinging to me tightly, on the head. She said to me as her nose busily moved, sniffing my scent.
"Being pet on the head while [fugafuga]-ing is the best happiness."
[Oniichan, me too, please!]
"Okay, leave it to me."
Chrisse put her mini blackboard forward and asked.
I picked the pair up and sat down on the sofa, setting them on my knees.
My wives are waiting on me on either side.
The weight on both my knees.
The weight didn"t feel heavy at all. In fact, I wanted them to sit on my knees forever. This is probably what a blissful weight is.
"………"
I nonchalantly groped Snow"s breast with my right hand, while my left rolled up Chrisse"s skirt and felt up her a.s.s.
"Geez, Lute-kun is a pervert."
[It"s still light out so no mischief.]
They chided me but they didn"t show any signs of disliking it. Of course, if they really disliked it I"d stop my hands but they"ll excuse this much as husband and wife’s skinship.
Having finished flirting, I stopped at a good point and went back to the workroom where Meiya was waiting.
――While I was immersed in work the door to the room was knocked.
In reply I opened the door and Snow"s face appeared.
I thought it was snack time already but she"s being unusual this time.
Her face looked uneasy.
"What"s wrong, did something happen?"
"Yes, a little. Lyss-chan and Shia-san came just now, but … can I borrow you two for a moment?"
Meiya and I looked at each other, this doesn"t look like a trivial matter so we stopped our work mid-way.
As we followed Snow to the living room, there was Lyss sitting on the sofa with a sickly pale complexion. Shia was sitting next to her to take care of her and was rubbing her back.
"Did something happen?"
"Lute-kun, please read this."
I was handed a letter by Snow.
It was in a plain envelope with no address written on it.
The contents of the letter was this: [We have Chrisse in custody. If you want her back safely get out of Enol immediately]
Along with the letter there was a strand of golden hair.
I reflexively turned to look at Chrisse who was consoling Lyss together with Shia.
"… what"s the meaning of this? This is too mean for a prank."
Chrisse was right in front of my eyes.
There"s no chance that the Chrisse before me was a fake. The reason being that she never even once left the house all day today. There was no chance to swap the real her with a fake.
Did Lyss get sick from seeing this letter and hair?
But she"s not so sensitive to go that pale from just that.
As I was confused with what"s happening, Lyss herself told me.
"This hair belongs to Luna …"
"Luna?"
"Probably, Luna was mistaken for Chrisse and was kidnapped …"
"Eh, wha!?"
It was so out of left field I let out a weird sound.
Snow explained things from start to end.
"Since Luna-chan snuck out of the castle as usual, Lyss-chan and Shia-san came to the mansion to pick her up but we told her that she hasn"t come today."
"When I went to investigate, there was mail in the mailbox, Madam Chrisse opened it and there was that letter and hair …"
"When Lute-kun came back from shopping you said so, right? You met Luna-chan outside. I remembered that and it clicked. It might have been possible that Luna-chan was mistaken for Chrisse-chan and got kidnapped"
Now that she"s told me I understood.
It"s true that Chrisse and Luna had the same stature and long golden hair. She was getting all friendly with me, linking arms while going shopping. When we parted ways, she called me [Onii-chan] like Chrisse did.
She said she"ll come to the mansion to play after we parted but she hasn"t showed up.
With all the facts put together, it made sense.
It seems that Lyss turned pale and fell to the floor when she heard that from Snow and they put her to sit on the sofa.
"But why did they target Chrisse? Didn"t look like they wanted ransom, either, and even though they knew the name and appearance they still mistook their target."
It"s too out of balance, was it thoroughly prepared or suddenly decided.
"...... Most likely, the bunch of high elves that don"t think highly of us asked someone to do the actual kidnapping. The reason Chrisse-san was targeted was because she seemed like the easiest one to take away."
I agreed with Lyss" point.
To summarize, the faction of high elves that don"t feel comfortable with us planned to kidnap the weakest-looking Chrisse in order to get us to not meddle with the barrier stone affair. However, with only the target Chrisse"s features (golden long hair, slender, my wife, short stature, calls me [onii-chan]), they mistakenly kidnapped Luna who coincidentally had a similar appearance. The reason they didn"t recognize her despite being the princess was probably because they wrapped her in something right after putting her to sleep.
And of all things, they kidnapped the High Elf Kingdom Enol"s third princess Luna Enol Meméa!
"What do we do? Should we report this to the soldiers and have them search?"
".... No, let"s tell Father first."
Said Lyss, still pale in the face.
But if that King knew that [Luna was mistaken for Chrisse and kidnapped] —
"He will almost certainly order Lute-san out of the country, I think."
"He would, wouldn"t he …"
His eldest daughter the first princess Lala Enol Meméa disappeared, his beloved wife was bedridden, and as he was becoming oversensitive with family problems, Luna was kidnapped.
The fact that we"re innocent had nothing to do with it, he"ll surely order the reason for the disaster out of the country.
"But the day written in the record book is soon, right?"
"Yes, probably any day now."
This time, the date for the barrier stone destruction wasn"t exactly written in the record book. Only that it"ll happen sometime about now. It could be today, or it could be tomorrow.
The range was at most several days, no more than a month.
"....... Lute-san, everyone, I have a request."
Lyss who was sitting down pale-faced suddenly stood up.
There was no fear in her eyes, only a light of resolution.
"Please, would you somehow — save both my motherland and my sister."
Lyss straightforwardly made an unreasonable request to us.