An Ode to Divorce - Chapter 65

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#65

“Anyway, it’s a huge relief that you weren’t hurt. Honestly, even I wouldn’t have the confidence to face a frenzied golden-horned doe. If you hadn’t been here, it would have been a real disaster.”

Zyla said this while glancing at the mother deer who was pretending to be docile next to the baby deer beside me. Then she put her hands on her hips and scolded the mother deer.

“Oh my. I wondered where you suddenly went, and here you were causing all this chaos? It’s fortunate that no one was seriously hurt thanks to Orphea, otherwise do you know what a disaster this could have been?”

“Kiiiiing…”

The mother deer cried in a resentful, sulky voice. It was a cry that seemed to say she didn’t rampage because she wanted to.

After lecturing the divine beast for quite a while, Zyla turned to me and expressed her gratitude.

“Without your help, today would have been a real disaster. If there had been casualties, I don’t even want to think about it. For today’s events, Artume will reward you separately.”

“I’m fine. I wasn’t particularly hurt, and I didn’t lose anything.”

Having said that much, I paused for a moment. Then I soon added while glancing around cautiously.

“But I’d like compensation for the strings. These were valuable.”

“Haha, alright, alright. Just a few strands of thread, of course we should compensate you. I’ll personally compensate you for that.”

“You’ll regret it…”

To think of silk strings as just a few strands of thread. I was already curious how shocked Zyla would be when she received the bill later.

“By the way, where was this baby deer?”

Zyla asked while looking around. Then, someone nearby suddenly shouted.

“I saw it! That deer was being taken out of the instrument merchant’s warehouse!”

“Why would a baby deer be in an instrument merchant’s warehouse?”

“The mother appeared because the baby went missing? Then all of this is because of the instrument merchant.”

“Could it be that man kidnapped the baby deer?”

Suddenly the atmosphere took a strange turn. The instrument merchant, flustered by people’s murmuring, frantically waved his hands in denial.

“No, no, it wasn’t me! I didn’t know anything! How could I have brought such a precious baby divine beast? There’s no reason for it!”

“However it happened, there would be plenty of reasons!”

“Maybe you were trying to use the divine beast to make instruments? Hide, bones, tendons… They’re all perfect materials for instruments.”

People didn’t believe the instrument merchant’s excuses. The instrument merchant’s face immediately turned pale.

“It’s not the instrument merchant.”

Then, it was Princess Lairinne who stepped forward to defend the instrument merchant. Since the situation had been urgent until now, everyone seemed to have failed to notice, but Princess Lairinne was a striking beauty. People unconsciously held their breath at Princess Lairinne’s appearance.

Under people’s gazes, Princess Lairinne spoke confidently.

“The instrument merchant helped me search for the baby deer. If he had really been the one hiding the baby deer, he wouldn’t have guided me to the warehouse and helped so earnestly. I, Lairinne von Alphenheim, stake my name on proving his innocence!”

“Lairinne von Alphenheim? That’s the princess!”

“How did the princess end up here…”

When Princess Lairinne revealed her identity, people murmured. Since the princess had guaranteed the instrument merchant’s innocence, people no longer pressed the matter, but suspicion still lingered in their eyes.

But from what I could see, the instrument merchant wasn’t the culprit either. I also added a word in defense of the instrument merchant.

“That’s right. If the instrument merchant had really been the culprit who stole the baby deer, why would he hide the baby deer in his own shop’s warehouse? When the divine mother deer came looking for her baby, she would naturally come here like now, and he would be the first to be suspected.”

With both the high-ranking Princess Lairinne and me, who had calmed the deer, defending the instrument merchant, even those who had been raising their eyebrows began to withdraw their suspicions one by one and talk among themselves.

“That definitely makes sense. If he were the culprit, he would have hidden it in the outskirts or an abandoned warehouse instead.”

“Right. If he had stolen a divine beast’s baby, he couldn’t have not known the mother would come looking…”

“Then someone framed the instrument merchant? Even going so far as to kidnap a divine beast?”

Then Zyla clapped her hands and shouted.

“Now, now! We at Artume Temple will thoroughly investigate this matter, so everyone please don’t worry! We will also compensate for all damages caused by this incident!”

Ultimately, people were trying to find the cause to know who they should receive damage compensation from. Since Artume Temple stepped forward to investigate the situation and even offered to provide damage compensation, people no longer harbored complaints and began to disperse one by one.

In the quiet that followed, Zyla scratched her forehead with her thumb and sighed.

“Then we’ll need to investigate a bit more… Shopkeeper, could you cooperate with our investigation regarding where the baby deer was hidden?”

“Of course!”

The instrument merchant immediately nodded and led the way. The followers of Artume, except for a few escorting the golden-horned does, followed behind the instrument merchant along with Zyla.

‘It is definitely strange.’

Earlier, the atmosphere had been overheated and I was worried the instrument merchant might be wrongly blamed, so I didn’t say anything, but I also agreed with people’s suspicions.

Kidnapping a golden-horned doe’s baby was too risky an act to be done simply to frame an instrument merchant.

Just as I was pondering the mystery of this incident, Princess Lairinne and Helena, whom I thought had left with the followers of Artume when they vacated the area, suddenly grabbed me.

“Wait a moment!”

‘Ah, come to think of it, these two people came looking for me because they had business with me.’

I had completely forgotten.

What Princess Lairinne would call me to say was obviously something like release Gert, don’t bother Gert, you don’t suit Gert.

Honestly, I was quite tired too, so I didn’t want to experience this kind of emotional drain today, but anyway, I was grateful that she had searched for the baby deer while I was performing.

Normally I would have said let’s talk later and left, but this time I decided to make an exception and listen to what Princess Lairinne had to say.

After waiting for some time, Princess Lairinne, as if she had resolved herself to something, lowered her voice and carefully began to speak.

“I know the circumstances of this incident.”

***

Due to the golden-horned doe’s rampage, some people had their shop walls collapse, and others had goods displayed outside their shops damaged. Everyone began cleaning up the ruined items while sighing.

“Still, it’s something that no one was seriously hurt. Did you see the size of that deer? It was almost as tall as a two-story building!”

“Exactly. Even when several well-trained heroes rushed at it simultaneously, they were immediately thrown aside…”

People shuddered as if the thought alone was terrifying.

The man who had been one of the heroes who confidently stepped forward slightly turned his head as if to hide his face when his story came up.

Everyone only talked about the bard’s story, and regarding himself and other heroes stepping forward, they only repeatedly mentioned being hit by the deer and sent flying.

“Tsk.”

Of course, it was natural for the bard to receive attention, so he didn’t feel jealous. Still, couldn’t they say a few nice words about how they had courage, or thanks to them buying time?

‘But it certainly was an amazing ability.’

Until that bard stepped forward, he had thought it was just bravado. A young bard looking for material, recklessly interfering anywhere without knowing the danger.

But before long, he realized that it was he who had been reckless.

‘Calming the deer was one thing, but that sudden surge of courage…’

Thinking about it coldly, if it had been his usual self, he wouldn’t have gone to save the child in that situation.

They say heroes risk any danger for heroic tales, but that statement was half right and half wrong. Everyone was just gambling on the uncertainty that maybe it could work out, but no matter how heroic, no one would walk to their death in a place where death was certain.

And as a result of facing the deer, he keenly felt that clashing with that deer would certainly result in death.

But the moment he heard the bard’s song, an inexplicable protective instinct toward the child activated. When the hero came to his senses, he had already stepped forward without knowing it.

Come to think of it, he had heard before. That skilled bards could go beyond making listeners happy or sad, and could embed will into their songs.

‘I thought everyone was just bragging.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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