Chapter 1 – 11
Ten years after being reincarnated into this world, the first n.o.ble I encountered was none other than the king! In my previous world, I had only known n.o.bles from TV shows or books. To put how I felt honestly,
(Ah, this seems annoying… can I get out of here…)
"Most importantly, there were no injuries. Well then, I should get going."
And with that, I turned around and started to leave.
“Hey now, wait a minute.”
The king grabbed my shoulder from behind!
Although the king was smiling quite hard, it somehow felt like he really wanted to say, “You seem quite interesting, so don"t run away!”
He was clearly giving me a warning.
“I"m really sorry King, but my mother will worry if I don"t go home quickly.”
“What? I will have a word with your mother. An apology from the king himself should clear up any objections.”
The king was scary. Although he was beaming, he wasn"t smiling with his eyes at all. Also, his tone of voice had changed considerably.
A person standing in the back, a woman with chestnut colored hair reaching halfway down her back, seemed to sense my feelings. She gently placed her hand on the king"s shoulder.
“Please give it up. When it"s like this, His Majesty won"t stop.” she said.
The king heard this and replied,
“You know me too well!”
and laughed heartily…so heartily that tears spilled out.
“Your Majesty, please calm down. You"re bothering the boy.”
“That"s right, Your Majesty. He has saved our lives after all, so bothering him is rude.”
First spoke a man resembling a bandit, with short brown hair and a bandana wrapped around his head, followed by a cool looking man with blonde, silky hair.
“I know, I know! Come to think of it, I haven"t mentioned my name yet. I am Alex von Bloomel Klostin, the King of this country. You may refer to me as you like.”
[TN: the royal We is completely dropped, and he speaks quite plainly]
Because he said so, I suddenly burst out,
“Well then… uncle?”
I had been taken in by the king"s way of speaking. Everyone, save for me and the king, tensed up after hearing the words that I suddenly blurted out.
“Ahahaha, you really do say interesting things, boy! I like you! It"s been quite some time since someone"s. .h.i.t me, of all people, with such casual words!”
It seems that he"s taken a liking to me.
“I apologize. Using those words was a bit much, Your Highness.”
I said, apologizing first. Just as I expected, calling him uncle is unacceptable.
“Even if it"s uncle, I don"t mind?”
I apologize from the bottom of my heart, so please forgive me uncl– …king.
“Use something worthy of a king, please.”
A man who hadn"t spoken yet chimed in,
(I"ve been saved!)
“No matter how you look at it, not even a drunk child would call our current king ‘uncle"! The nerve of this boy to refer to him like that, I won"t stand for it! If he"s a king, treat him with the respect he deserves, please! How terrible… Isn"t that right, boy!?”
(…I"ve not been saved in the slightest.)
The waves of verbal a.s.sault seemed to hurt even the king. Although, he seems to have held up despite it. Somehow, I"m glad he"s able to do so. He"s stopped without going into the typical “Oh enough you guys, the life of a king doesn"t make me special~”
“As usual, His Majesty always, always gets carried away, so it falls to me to set things straight afterwards. Are you listening, Your Majesty?!”
Whaat, it"s still not over yetttttt! Just how long will these verbal attacks continue?
“As it"s come this far, Your Majesty–"
“Now, now, calm yourself Cruyff-san. I"m already sorry, so…”
"–That"s quite enough for today, don"t you think? Even considering Edgar-sama"s misstep earlier, we should forgive him.”
He"s cutting him short!
“Oh, I haven"t introduced myself just yet. I am named Cruyff Sebas Tian. I serve as Grand Chamberlain to the royal family. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“My name is Edgar von Valentine. Thank you very much for earlier.”
The man who was needling the king earlier was his butler? Or should I say the butler was named Sebastian?
“Ah, Sebas Tian is a name that has been inherited by the Grand Chamberlain for generations.”
What, he can read minds?!
“I cannot read minds, but due to my profession I am exceptionally strong at reading thoughts based on facial expressions.”
This guy is an amazing butler!
“I"m John Jack Bauer. You really saved us back there!"
That name is suspiciously similar to the main character of a drama with stories completed in 24 hours. By the way, in this world, one day has 24 hours, one month 30 days, and there are 12 months a year, making 360 days total.
“I am Sigurd. For saving us earlier, I thank you. I apologize for that business from before, too. Even though you saved us from such a dangerous situation, I turned my sword on you…”
“Thank you for saving us while we were in distress. I"m Kris, it"s nice to finally meet you. Also, those… things over there that appeared, could you do something about them?”
The woman named Kris spoke apologetically, pointing at the golems.
“Oh right, yeah, I can. Good work golems, now release!”
As I said so, the golems melted into the ground and vanished, leaving behind only the magic stones.
“Golems? Being able to use them here was truly wonderful. Might I ask for your name?”
Cruyff politely asked while I collected the magic stones,
“I"m Tenma. I live in Kukuri Village, a little ways from here.”
“Oh, Kukuri Village, what a coincidence! We had some business there and were heading that way as well.”
The king seemed invigorated and suddenly rejoined the conversation,
“Okay! Onwards to Kukuri Village! Cruyff! There"s nothing wrong with either the horses or the coach, is there?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. During the conversation about how best to address Your Highness, I took the liberty of confirming their condition.”
“I, I see… Well, anyways, we depart for Kukuri Village! Come on, everyone aboard the coach, quickly!”
The king who suddenly seemed energetic for some reason urged everyone along.
“Hey, Tenma hurry up and get in!”
(Riding together with the king seems annoying and time consuming…)
“No thanks, I can use my magic to fly, so I"ll go on ahead.”
As I said so, I tried to activate my magic. But when I turned around, I was grabbed by the shoulder again.
“Don"t tell me you don"t want to come with us, Tenma. I"m making a generous offer, so we should go together. Why, these two horses have been selected as the best among the royal stock! Two fine specimens of speed and power. Furthermore, we"ve specially trained them, so compared to ordinary horses they"re remarkably fast!"
Flying would be even faster… But I won"t bring that up. There"s no way I could win against the enthusiastic king, who was giving a thumbs up while talking to me.
[Author"s Note]
The king"s character has changed considerably. It seemed easy to get stuck while writing for him later on, so I changed the character.
Just last time I had written that the series had surpa.s.sed 100 bookmarks, but this time it"s gone past 200.
Everyone, thank you very much.
[Translator"s Note]
Thank you for reading this far! I didn"t expect this much interest this quickly, so I ‘ve been scrambling to quickly organize things better in the background.
I"m going to try to release 2 chapters a week, Mondays and Thursdays. I"ll see if I can keep this pace up when the chapters become longer (twice as long!) from chapter 2 onwards.
I"ve also set up a discord server for Four Slimes, which you can , there is also a link in the sidebar (at the very bottom if on mobile). I"ve uploaded some of the novel"s art there, very helpful for visualizing the many characters introduced this chapter. If you have questions, corrections or just would like to chat, either with fellow readers or myself (Refulgent) feel free to drop by!