The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

“For the love of God, it’s the worst! Their stuff is so good, but no one’s giving them the attention they deserve! How did this even happen in the first place, anyway?!”

Betty let out an incessant rant as she walked, and Fuyu behind her clenched her fists.

Surely she’d felt a sense of responsibility toward the issue, what with her technically being employed by the Nation itself. And it’s not like she was meant to take it upon herself to do anything either…

By impulse, I patted Fuyu on her fist. She looked up, revealing her face with a mix of disturbance, self-condemnation, and… some other emotions I couldn’t identify. Something like being happy… appreciation? Hmm, I don’t get it.

“Um… thank you very much…”

“Ahahaha… I don’t know what that was for, but sure thing.”

“Hey, Asley! Are you even listening to me?!”

“Yeah yeah, I sure am!”

To recap, Betty had bought out all the throwing knives and daggers from the shop, and I had gotten myself a knife, as recommended by Don, for self-defense purposes.

The transactions hadn’t scored them a fortune or anything, but Laeus’ look of great appreciation was good for the heart.

Ever since we left the place, Betty has been on that rant of hers.

And Pochi, well… I’m dragging her along right now.

She has quite a delighted expression, albeit one not good for my heart at all.

…She didn’t go to sleep because she’d anticipated that we would get in trouble again, did she?

“Asley, you should teach Fuyu how to use the Teleportation spell some time soon!”

“Huh? Why?”

Perhaps irritated at my lack of participation, Betty pulled me over by the collars of my shirt.

“Look here, if we’ve got access to it through you and Fuyu, it means we’ve got a connection between Beilanea and Regalia! And so, we can bring over Blazer and Bruce and Haruhana – scratch that, let’s bring all of our warrior friends from the Beilanea Guild to fill the shop with business!”

“And pull business away from Beilanea’s weapon shops? Sure…”

“That is that, and this is this! It’s survival of the fittest! It’s a crime for the better weapons to go unbought!”

She’s technically not wrong, but… I mean, should we really be doing this?

Perhaps we ought to consult Blazer and the others as well once we’re back in Beilanea.

Of course, it would undeniably be a good thing to have easy access to the Royal Capital in the future.

All right – the shop’s business aside for now, I’ll teach Fuyu the Teleportation spell when I can.

“Anyway, Betty… leave me some personal space here? Okay?”

“Hmph!”

I hadn’t been able to complain about how my neck hurt during that, but it DID hurt, so thank God she agreed to release me without hassle.

And immediately after, I got grabbed on my collars again, this time by Fuyu.

…Why?!

“You know the formula of the Teleportation spell, Sir Asley?!”

She’s shaking my head quite roughly.

The extraordinary strength of her pull made my field of vision to draw a semi-circle. Hmm? That sounded pretty nice. I’ll remember to write it in the ‘Principles of a Philosopher’ later.

Heh heh heh heh… I look forward to compiling all the famous quotes for the table of contents!

“‘Know doesn’t even cut it – he’s the one who MADE that formula, you know?”

“What-?! Is that true?!”

“Damn it! I thought you promised to not tell anyone!”

“Please, she’s already an adult, you know. I’m sure she understands… so there’s no problem in telling her, right? RIGHT? Okay, you agree. Good.”

She didn’t even give me the time to reply to that.

Seems like Betty’s quite a bit irritated by what we had come across today. She’s sensitive to things that she deems unreasonable, after all.

“I thought… the Teleportation spell was Miss Irene’s achievement…”

“Uh, well… I sold that ‘achievement’ to her, so to speak. Hahahaha…”

Hearing me say just that, Fuyu looked as if she just realized something.

Meaning… she must have realized that the money had been used to help her and the others.

In a way, that was quite a reckless move I had taken back then. I must’ve mellowed down after getting to meet Melchi and Tūs and receiving their guidance, though…

Speaking of which … I’m not quite sure about Natsu, but Haruhana hasn’t gotten to know this yet either. Wait, no, I guess Betty might have already told her about it… just like how she blurted out some unnecessary information today.

“…I see.”

Fuyu said, tears welling up in her eyes.

That, for whatever reason, prompted Betty to smile and hit my buttocks.

That. Hurt.

She sure is similar to her brother when it comes to this kind of thing…

Now she’s whispering something… With how fast she’s going, no one would get what she’s trying to say without the ability to lip read.

And as it would turn out, I CAN! Hah! Now, let’s see…? ‘B-E N-I-C-E,’ huh… You know that it turned out this way because of what you said, right?

Damn it, she’s hitting my butt again!

(Xemul: Welcome Betty’s Social Skills Course!)

“Er… Fuyu? You don’t have to worry yourself about that! In a way, it was just a part of my job, so – ow-?!”

That hurt, Betty! What – ‘N-O-T L-I-K-E T-H-A-T’… Seriously?

You can’t just expect me to have this kind of skill out of nowhere, damn it…

“…So at the end of the day, if everyone is – ow-?!”

What now?! ‘H-E-R!’… don’t be so nitpicky, damn it!

“Ngh… so, yeah… as long as you’re safe… then it’s all good! I mean it, you know. So don’t cry, all right?”

How’s that, Betty?! That’s what you get when I go all out!

Although I had put up that performance with all my soul, Betty still seemed dissatisfied… but with a certain degree of acceptance of it as well.

I swear, today has to be one of the most unlucky days I’ve ever had. Now I feel compelled to go home soon, otherwise another catastrophic development might take place.

We were already done with shopping, more or less, so the only thing left is Fuyu’s stop. But wait… where’s the place again? And what does she even need to do there?

I remember her saying it was in the direction of the west gate, but since I have yet to acclimate myself to this city, it’s hard to imagine what it would actually be.

I mustered all of my soul to keep up with Fuyu as she kept walking on without stopping her tears. Along the way, Betty hit me on my buttocks from time to time to try and get me to do something.

It took a while, but Fuyu eventually did stop crying.

I swear, this might even be harder to deal with than S-ranked missions…

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

By the time Fuyu wiped off her last tear, the sun has started to set.

“I understand now, Sir Asley. Why Sir Gaston has recognized your abilities, and why Miss Irene always talks about you-“

“Huh, you’ve met Miss Irene before?”

“Yes, most recently, just the other day in fact. She has come to Regalia in order to visit Sir Gaston at the Magic Guardians headquarters west of here.”

Wait, did she just say… ‘west’? Wouldn’t that mean…?

“…Oh, I see.”

Irene had been here? What for?

I don’t think I’d ever heard of a Duodecad Conference assembly being held around here recently. Personal businesses, perhaps.

“And today, there is another person that would like to meet you, Sir Asley, so-“

There it is.

No matter how I think about it, it’s definitely something that wouldn’t benefit me. Moreover… I have an especially bad feeling about this particular instance.

How should I go about avoiding this?

“I see, I see. Best to not keep them waiting, then. Let’s hurry on our way.”

“Yes, of course”

Yes, of course, she said. Hah.

With me being pulled along by Fuyu, whose mood had suddenly taken a hundred-eighty degree turn, we walked along the Royal Capital’s inner wall as we headed toward the west gate.

In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she was now more cheerful than normal.

So much so that Pochi even woke up from the ‘impact’. Right when she had reached our destination, no less.

Pochi read the letters on the signboard in front of us, and then promptly turned around to look at me.

“Are you messing with me or what, Master?”

“See, Pochi, I’ll admit straight up that I didn’t want to come here either.”

“My, what a coincidence.”

“What a coincidence, indeed.”

The signboard had these imposing letters written on it:

Even from out here, I could feel the dense arcane energy drifting about the air and hear the energetic, soulful shouts coming from inside.

I feel oppressed. Surely everyone has known by now how bad I was at dealing with this sort of atmosphere.

It’s dangerous. I mustn’t go inside. That was what my instincts told me.

Without a doubt, nothing good can come out of this.

Pochi and I swallowed nervously at the same time – with me heavily considering the usage of the Teleportation spell right about now – but then Fuyu proceeded to speak to us with a beautiful smile:

“Sir Asley. That person there is Brigadier Viola, the one who had said she wanted to meet you.”

The first thing that caught my attention was her deep violet eyes, made prominent as blazing flames by the cosmetics around them.

Obviously, she wore the same charming uniform as Fuyu was, but with the addition of a hefty mantle over her shoulders.

Estimating from her looks, she might be in her forties or fifties, but the aura of arcane energy drifting around her felt quite ‘young’.

So this is Brigadier Viola of the Royal Capital Magic Guardians, in the flesh.

Fuyu ran up to her and started talking about something – well, about my arrival, from the looks of it.

She looks quite a bit more nervous than when she was with Gaston, doesn’t she? Ah, now they’re looking at the rest of us.

“Please come on in.”

I’d rather not, ma’am.

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