SWNOVELXO Chapter 413
No, precisely, Albus’s gaze wasn’t fixed on the adventurer party that included the Lizardman, but rather on a single person among them.
It was a woman intently observing an item displayed in the shop.
And what was more important than the woman was the item she was looking at.
It was the tabletop strategy simulation card game “Battle of Worlds,” the greatest invention since the Ancient Empire, intellectual, cultured, philosophical, and modern (by Albus’s extremely subjective standards)!
Usually, women would look down on and fail to understand Battle of Worlds, the cutting-edge intellectual sport of gentlemen. Even the mother, the ruler of the Dragon Kingdom, was no exception!
But this woman was examining “Battle of Worlds” displayed in the shop with very excited eyes.
‘I was just wondering how to pass the time, and a perfect distraction has appeared.’
After all, he hadn’t come out with any particular business. In the midst of that, the woman who caught his eye was enough to pique Albus’s interest.
Having found a way to kill time, Albus approached the woman with an intrigued smile and asked,
“Hey, miss. Are you by any chance a BOW player?”
“Huh? Wrong. I use my fists?”
“…?”
“…?”
“I mean, are you a Battle of Worlds player? BOW is a sleek abbreviation for Battle of Worlds.”
“Ah, you mean this card game. No, I’ve heard it’s been popular lately, but I’ve been too busy to try it.”
“Is that so? You seemed interested in BOW, so I thought I’d ask.”
“That’s true… By the way, who are you?”
The woman, who had been talking with Albus for a while, finally asked, and Albus confidently replied.
Of course, to elicit a dramatic reaction from the woman, he casually dropped his proud identity as an extra.
“My name is Albert. Just a passing BOW player. It’s not much, but I made it to the top 8 in the last regional tournament.”
“Ah… okay.”
But despite revealing his skills, the woman’s reaction was lukewarm at best.
By the way, Albert was the alias Albus used when he polymorphed into a human and wandered around.
‘As expected, ordinary people who aren’t BOW players don’t understand the greatness of being in the top 8 of a regional tournament…’
“My name is Yuri Blo… no, just Yuri.”
“Hmm. Yuri, is it? You seem quite interested in BOW. Would you like me to teach you about it?”
“Suddenly?”
“BOW players are always welcome. As someone who made it to the top 8 in a regional tournament, helping a beginner is a kind of social duty.”
Though he had no interest in social duties as a royal, Albus, deeply interested in social duties as a BOW player, expounded on the spirit of noblesse oblige, and Yuri, who had always been interested in BOW, seemed intrigued.
“Hmm. That’s really interesting. But…”
Yuri, however, seemed to have something on her mind, glancing back. At the end of her gaze was the adventurer party that included the Lizardman she had seen earlier.
Now it seemed Yuri was part of that adventurer party.
The adventurer party was talking with a government office employee with serious expressions, and in such a serious atmosphere, Yuri seemed uncomfortable with the idea of going off to play a card game, so she couldn’t readily accept Albus’s offer.
‘Government office… If I reveal my identity, I could solve this minor issue quickly… But I can’t discard my human disguise just to help a playmate I just met today. What a pity.’
The petty squabble between the government office and the adventurers was a minor issue that could be resolved with a word from him, the prince of the Dragon Kingdom, but doing so would mean he could never use the Albert identity again.
The Albert identity was created for fun, and discarding it would be putting the cart before the horse.
Though women who enjoy BOW are rare, it’s not worth discarding the Albert name for.
So Albus began to lean towards giving up on spending time teaching Yuri BOW and finding another way.
“It’s okay, Miss Yuri. Once the travel permit comes through, I’ll come find you, so you can go play in the meantime.”
“Da, Daria? Is that really okay?”
“Anyway, Miss Yuri has nothing to do, so it’s a shame to keep her here. Arisa and Liche also say it’s fine.”
Surprisingly, it was Yuri’s party who let her go.
Her party, in the midst of a serious atmosphere, secretly glanced at the card game, wanting to play, but showed no sign of it and even pushed Yuri to go, saying she didn’t need to feel sorry.
‘Hmm. She has good friends.’
At first, Yuri hesitated, but after repeatedly being told it was okay, she reluctantly accepted her party’s consideration.
“Ah, okay. If you all say so, I’ll gratefully accept your kindness. Now, Mr. Albert? You said you’d teach me about BOW?”
Yuri said, adopting a noble-like posture, and looked back at Albus.
As she looked at Albus, her eyes were filled with an undeniable interest in BOW, despite having repeatedly refused her party’s urging just moments before.
.
.
.
“Attack with the Red Dragon of the Golden Leg! At this time, activate the Red Dragon of the Golden Leg’s effect! Create two expensive treasures! And these expensive treasures can be used as cost instead of mana! Finish it! Fire attribute magic card, Hellfire Eruption!”
“Ugh! So frustrating!”
“Hahaha! I won again. But don’t feel bad. I’m a top 8 regional tournament player, after all. Just lasting this long is impressive for a beginner.”
“Ugh… It’s really not easy.”
Several days had passed since Albus started teaching Yuri BOW.
And surprisingly.
The past few days had been incredibly fulfilling for Albus.
First, teaching a beginner who knew nothing about BOW was… no, turning a beginner into a proper BOW player was always a rewarding task.
But Albus felt fulfilled not just because of that.
Despite her strange way of speaking, Yuri had a straightforward personality, communicated well, and shared similar interests.
But that didn’t mean she was uncultured or rude.
Her actions were casual, yet her gestures exuded a sense of refinement, as if she had received high-class education, and while she approached without hesitation, she never crossed lines that would make others uncomfortable.
Also, like him, she had little interest in studies and enjoyed fantasy novels and card games, creating a sense of camaraderie, and when he talked about BOW, she listened with sparkling eyes, showing no sign of dislike.
She was the complete opposite of the stuffy noblewomen Albus had known.
‘But because of that…’
“What are you doing? Let’s move on to the next game!”
“Huh? Ah, right.”
But because of that.
Albus was preventing Yuri’s party from leaving the Dragon Kingdom’s Dragma.
No, to be precise, Albus wasn’t stopping them; they were originally unable to leave the Dragon Kingdom.
Albus was just turning a blind eye, though he could solve the problem with his power.
Over the past few days, Albus learned why Yuri’s party had been arguing with the government office.
It wasn’t that he intentionally pried. It just came up naturally while chatting during BOW games.
The reason Yuri’s party had been arguing with the government office for days was that they couldn’t leave the Dragon Kingdom because they weren’t being issued travel permits.
The reason was none other than the two nuns in their party.
The Dragon Kingdom, ruled by dragons, had a history of being purged by the Holy Kingdom several times. Of course, those purges were because they had crossed the line with meaningless massacres and atrocities…
Because of that, even in modern times, with the Dragon Kingdom starting to rule soundly and the Holy Kingdom no longer intervening, the Dragon Kingdom still held no good feelings towards the Holy Kingdom and would often pick fights and disrupt their events.
From the Holy Kingdom’s perspective, it was unpleasant, but there was little they could do.
When dragons exploited human races like livestock, it was one thing, but the current Dragon Kingdom, by other nations’ standards, was running a moderate government, making military intervention impossible.
What Yuri was experiencing was an extension of that. Yuri’s party desperately pleaded to head to the Spine Empire as soon as possible, but the government office kept delaying their journey with various excuses.
It was a petty act of retaliation.
But sometimes, such petty methods were the most effective, and so Yuri’s party had been stuck in Dragma for days, arguing with government office employees every day, waiting for their travel permits.
In fact, when Albus first heard the story, he planned to casually spend time with Yuri and, once he got bored, secretly use his influence to arrange travel permits for her party.
But now, several days later,
‘Hmm… Just one more day. Let’s spend one more day together and then send them off. Tomorrow, for sure…!’
He kept repeating this to himself, postponing it day by day.