Natsuki Subaru's Journey to Strategically Capture Reinhild

R8. Royal Capital Errands

After leaving the room, Reinhild looked left and right but found that Roswaal had already disappeared.

She truly hadn't expected that Roswaal's advice — to simply stay silent when facing various questions — would actually work.

Honestly, she herself thought it wouldn't be enough to fool anyone.

Catching her breath, Reinhild glanced at the clock.

She hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to first go and pay her respects to her father.

She walked to the office of the Vice-Captain of the Royal Guard and knocked on the door.

There was no response.

Reinhild sensed the room and could tell no one was inside.

Although waiting there was an option, her father had been known to spend entire days in a bar now and then.

Considering the other tasks she had left, Reinhild decided it was better to deal with her main business first.

Noticing Roswaal's carriage in the Karsten estate courtyard, Reinhild gave up on visiting Crusch right away.

She informed the Karsten family's gatekeeper that she hoped to visit Crusch tomorrow and then left the noble district.

After glancing up at the sky, Reinhild decided to check whether Otto's birthday gift — which she had ordered through the Kōfuku (Good Fortune) Merchant Guild — had arrived.

She deliberately did not entrust the gift to Otto's subordinates, so as to cooperate with the "surprise plan" concocted by the mansion residents.

Reinhild had chosen a so-called "shooting star" as Otto's birthday present — more specifically, a high-grade pendant that enhanced sleep quality and contained a one-time-use defensive barrier.

The enhancement was to help Otto sleep better since he always overworked and never got proper rest, and the barrier was to protect the ever-unlucky Otto from harm.

Such a luxurious item was far too extravagant as a servant's gift, but to Reinhild, this present still fell short in expressing her gratitude toward Otto.

Even to this day, she considered saving Otto one of the best things she had ever done.

Although Reinhild hadn't abandoned the management of her domain, manpower was always limited.

As the Sword of the King, just one of her inspection tours could take several weeks.

Most of her subordinates were muscle-heads, so the domain's condition was only mid-to-upper level until Otto appeared.

Only then did the Astrea estate's true potential begin to shine.

When Reinhild returned from an inspection in the north and learned that Otto had led the estate members to wipe out seven cunning bandit groups in one go, her shock was indescribable.

The martial arts-loving assistant had completely won over the respect of everyone in the estate — though, she later discovered it was actually all because Otto's bad luck had drawn the bandits together in the first place.

In an effort to keep Otto from being struck by lightning someday, Reinhild had once searched half the kingdom's forests and found a rare five-leaf clover said to bring good luck.

She turned it into a bookmark and gave it to Otto for his birthday.

But whether it was because Otto's misfortune was too strong or the legend was just a myth, Otto remained consistently unlucky.

.

.

.

"Um… have you found it yet?"

Reinhild asked nervously.

In truth, the shooting stars came in two colors: green (wind attribute) and blue (water attribute).

But because wind-type stones were much harder to imbue with sleep-enhancing properties than water-type ones, they were not only rarer but also several times more expensive.

Reinhild had hoped to get Otto his preferred color, green, but had only managed to buy the blue one months ago.

News of a green one only surfaced last week.

"Long time no see, Lady Reinhild. We've successfully located the item you requested. Please follow me."

The old shopkeeper led Reinhild into a room and handed her a box containing a green pendant.

"Thank you so much. Here."

Reinhild responded with satisfaction and placed a money pouch containing 61 Saint Gold coins on the table.

.

.

.

After confirming again that her father was not in his office, Reinhild returned to her own room assigned by the knight order.

She carefully began wrapping the necklace, then decorated the gift box with hand-drawn designs.

Finally satisfied, she placed the gift box on her desk and took a nap in the knights' dormitory.

The next day, Reinhild brought her homemade alcohol and went once more to visit her father.

Fortunately, this time there was a response when she knocked.

Entering, she saw her father slumped drunkenly at his desk, and the office was in complete disarray.

Frowning slightly in disbelief, Reinhild noted that ever since she began brewing alcohol for him with her "Blessing of Brewing," her father rarely ever got this drunk.

She placed the liquor on the table, then picked up one of the empty bottles from the floor — an expensive and well-known brand.

If it were this kind of liquor, it might just barely be acceptable to her father's now-spoiled palate.

But there were so many bottles…

Reinhild's frown deepened.

Her father probably didn't have the kind of friends who'd bring him drinks like this, and she couldn't understand why he'd suddenly drink so heavily out of sorrow.

Reinhild looked at her father slumped over the desk and sighed.

She draped a blanket over him, placed a pillow under his face, and began tidying up the room while mentally calculating the value of all the liquor — planning to investigate what had happened yesterday when she had the time.

Twenty minutes later, the room looked brand new.

Reinhild returned the last book to its place and picked up her father's mission file. Inside were numerous dangerous and troublesome tasks.

She frowned for the third time — everyone knew Heinkel's missions were completed by Reinhild herself, so she had no issue accepting the dangerous ones.

She didn't want her colleagues to be put in harm's way. But why was she being given so many tedious, non-dangerous tasks as well?

"Ugh…!"

"Father, you're awake? Here, drink some hangover soup. I'll go get you some food."

Reinhild, who had noticed her father stirring a few seconds ago, came back from the kitchen carrying her prepared hangover soup.

But the bowl was promptly knocked to the ground by Heinkel.

"Now you want to suck up to me? When you went and supported that Fel—whatever her name is—to be king, did you even think about your father?!!"

"I…"

"What do you mean 'you'? You look down on me too, don't you? You think it makes no difference whether I'm around or not, right? Well, let me tell you — that's impossible.

The Astrea family will never support some nobody from who-knows-where to be king, this is…"

In his rage, Heinkel knocked over the bottle of wine Reinhild had placed on the table.

He froze, quickly picked up the bottle, gave it a spin, and finally let out a breath of relief.

Reinhild, having silently witnessed this entire farce from the side, showed an expression tinged with sadness.