I Put all my Stats into Charm - Chapter 71

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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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I Put All My Stats Into Charm Episode 071

“This won’t do. From now on, you’d better stick close to my side.”

Feeling awkward from Calliton’s touch, I unnecessarily brushed my cheek with the back of my hand.

“What do you mean stick close? I’m not a child.”

“Says someone who keeps collapsing. Aren’t you being too overconfident?”

He tilted his head sideways and twisted up one corner of his mouth.

“Or maybe. Do you want to be held in the Duke’s arms?”

“N-no, I don’t!”

After shouting indignantly, embarrassment washed over me.

Jerome is here too!

When I glanced at Jerome, he was watching me with his usual calm expression that revealed nothing.

Something about that gaze made me feel inexplicably melancholy, so I avoided his eyes.

“It’s not like that at all…”

Calliton grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him.

“Then stay by my side. Don’t be stubborn for no reason.”

Then he shifted his gaze to Jerome.

“Duke, you don’t need to worry about this one. I’ll take care of the Imperial person.”

“I appreciate your words, but that’s not necessary.”

Jerome continued in a low, calm voice.

“This is my jurisdiction. Protecting guests is my duty, so Your Highness need not concern yourself.”

Calliton narrowed his eyes.

“Does someone who claims to protect guests also make them cry?”

Jerome hesitated.

“…What do you mean?”

“I mean your guest hospitality is quite unreliable.”

Jerome turned his head toward me.

As soon as I saw his calm face harden, I hurriedly stepped between the two men.

“I’m perfectly fine, so both of you stop it.”

Then I turned my gaze to Jerome and continued in a firm tone.

“I’m an Imperial person, so it’s right for me to receive Imperial protection. You don’t need to concern yourself, Duke.”

Jerome’s lips trembled slightly before closing again.

He slowly took a breath and opened his mouth again.

“…I apologize. That was unnecessary interference.”

Just as an awkward atmosphere was settling in.

Lowell clapped his hands together, clearing the mood.

“Well, we’ve finished cleaning up the area and we have a long way to go, so shall we move on to the next location?”

The awkward atmosphere naturally dispersed.

Jerome walked toward the Duke’s Palace knights.

I also moved toward the Imperial Knights, following Lowell and Calliton.

‘Did I speak too harshly…’

I was the one who drew the line, yet I was also the one worrying about it—how contradictory.

I glanced at Calliton.

“How could you say yesterday’s incident like that in front of the Duke? It makes it seem like the Duke made me cry.”

Calliton shrugged.

“Did I say anything wrong? It wasn’t because dust got in your eyes, was it?”

“Did you cry, Lady?”

Oh, right.

Lowell doesn’t know about yesterday’s events.

I rolled my eyes to avoid Lowell’s persistent gaze.

What should I answer?

I didn’t want to explain in detail about confessing to Jerome last night and getting rejected.

“It seems something happened during the night that I’m unaware of.”

Lowell’s tone became slightly heavier.

“Uh, well, you see…”

As I hesitated, Calliton spoke up.

“Last night Aisha Emmerbier brought honey cakes.”

“Honey cakes?”

“Yeah. She asked everyone to try a bite, so we ate some, but the Duke refused. She was so upset about it that she cried buckets. We were exhausted trying to comfort her. Right?”

Wait, he’s making me out to be someone who cries over cake rejection?

But I couldn’t think of any other excuse. Since I couldn’t honestly say I cried because Jerome rejected me, I nodded as if surrendering.

“…Yes.”

Fine, let’s go with this excuse.

But would Lowell believe such an absurd story?

Especially Lowell, who’s so perceptive?

Lowell looked back and forth between me and Calliton, then spoke.

“What about my honey cake?”

He believes it.

This actually worked.

Lowell said in a voice full of hurt feelings.

“Lady. Why didn’t you offer any to me? I have a mouth that can eat too.”

Calliton answered in a nonchalant voice.

“You don’t like sweet foods.”

“Still, if it’s honey cake from Lady, I could eat it.”

“Think about your age. No matter how young you look, if you keep eating such sweet foods, you’ll be joining that god you hate in no time.”

“This body has endured for longer than Your Highness has lived. It won’t break down so easily.”

While chatting, we arrived in front of the carriage before we knew it.

Standing in front of the carriage, Lowell continued.

“And strictly speaking, Lady belongs to the Mage Tower.”

Then he pulled me toward him.

“So it’s right for her to stay by my side, not Your Highness’s.”

Calliton waved his hand as if fed up.

“Whatever.”

Then he lightly mounted his saddle and rode off, leading his horse.

Lowell smiled as if in victory.

“Shall we get in as well?”

I nodded and followed Lowell into the carriage. The carriage carrying us departed immediately.

“Lady.”

“Yes?”

I was looking out the window when I turned my head at Lowell’s call.

Lowell had his hands neatly placed on his knees, his gaze fixed on me.

His deep purple eyes seemed to see right through me.

“If there’s something you don’t want to talk about, you don’t have to. But…”

He paused briefly, then continued.

“I’d prefer if you didn’t lie.”

“…”

As expected.

Lowell isn’t a fool. There’s no way he’d believe such a ridiculous lie.

Feeling caught, I pressed my lips tightly together.

“…I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to feel sorry, Lady.”

Lowell’s hand gently covered the back of my hand.

“I just hope we can be a little more honest with each other.”

I stared at Lowell again. The gaze that met mine held warmth. The overlapping hands were also warm.

But that warmth strangely seemed to constrict my breathing.

“You can keep that promise, right?”

Even though it was a gentle, enveloping touch, I felt as if I was entangled in something I couldn’t escape from.

Unable to shake off that feeling, I nodded.

“…Yes. I promise.”

A gentle smile spread across Lowell’s lips.

As the suffocating pressure in the air loosened, I let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

‘Phew, I thought I was being interrogated.’

If I ever have to lie to Lowell again, I’ll need to be more meticulous about it.

The carriage, with its strange tension now settled, moved toward the next location.

Shortly after, we arrived in front of a cave. The cave exuded an ominous aura from its very entrance.

Not long after entering the cave, Calliton and Jerome drew their swords from their waists.

Lowell also cast a defensive spell while pulling me toward him.

“Be careful, Lady. There are monsters nearby.”

As soon as those words ended.

A sharp woman’s scream like scraping metal was heard.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

At the same time, large birds burst out from the darkness.

“Kyaaak!”

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

No, these weren’t birds.

‘What are those?!’

A flock of harpies with women’s torsos attached to giant wings and sharp talons flapped their wings as they charged at us.

“Lux Ruptura.”

As Lowell quickly chanted the spell, a strong light flashed briefly like an explosion.

The flash scattered in all directions, disrupting the harpies’ vision, causing the monsters to retreat.

Taking advantage of that gap, our party began to eliminate the harpy flock.

As I stood close beside Lowell, watching the battle.

“Kiaaaak!”

One small harpy with white hair rushed toward me.

“Silentia Ventus.”

At Lowell’s spell, the flying harpy seemed to lose its strength and crashed right in front of me.

The harpy trembled all over and then collapsed limply.

Seeing this, Lowell frowned.

“Harpies should only have female forms, shouldn’t they?”

Harpies were magical beasts with female human heads and bird bodies.

In contrast, the small harpy that had fallen before us had the body of a boy around ten years old.

Then, something on the back of the small harpy’s neck caught my eye.

The same pattern that was on my body was clearly engraved on the harpy’s nape.

“…This is?”

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

Without time to examine it closely, one adult harpy with white hair let out a shriek and charged at terrifying speed.

As Lowell reached out to cast a spell.

The flash of Calliton’s razor-sharp blade passed before my eyes.

As the harpy with its wing severed lost balance and fell to the ground, Calliton pressed down on the fallen harpy’s wing with his boot heel.

“Kyaak! Kyaaaaaaak!”

The harpy writhed while making metallic sounds. The monster also had a pattern drawn on its nape.

“Hmm.”

Calliton tilted his head sideways.

“I’ve seen that face somewhere.”

That’s when it happened.

“Ma…”

The small harpy I thought had fainted opened and closed its mouth while looking at the harpy pinned under Calliton’s foot.

“…Mom… Ma, Mom…”

Calliton’s face hardened.

“Duke.”

Jerome, who had been eliminating harpies nearby, turned his head toward Calliton.

Calliton asked with a darkened expression.

“Were there any mother and child among the missing persons from Bramshut Village?”

Jerome looked down at the harpies on the ground.

The moment his gaze reached their napes.

Jerome urgently raised his head toward the knights.

“Don’t kill them!”

His command echoed dominantly off the cave walls.

“Capture all the harpies alive!”

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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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