.....
Walking outside of the mansion's main doors with Wilhelm and Beatrice, I see Frederica and Rem by a carriage talking to a familiar face.
Well I'm not too familiar to him 'yet'.
On the front carriage is the green robed man that goes by the name of Otto Suwen. I personally asked him to be the one to take us to the Sanctuary.
Luckily, he agreed to my request and is now here at the Roswaal mansion. Slowly making our way over, I noticed that they seemed to finish whatever the were talking about as Frederica turned around and started to walk towards us.
Rem however immediately turned and went inside of the carriage to where I assume Emilia to be silently waiting. Frederica just walked calmly over towards us before showing a intrigued expression as she saw Beatrice next to me.
"B-Beatrice?"
Beatrice who was currently holding my hand let out a hmph towards Frederica's shock before looking up at her with a frown.
"Yes what is it? I believe I have enough time to talk with you for a bit I suppose."
Frederica however just looked at her for a few seconds before noticing our hands locked together and looked at me with a lot of questions present inside her eyes. But as I could probably guess like 90% of those questions, I just let out a nod before secretly pointing towards the carriage with my left.
"I see, thank you Suburu." Frederica said as a look of understanding appeared on her face. She then took a soft smile as she looked towards Beatrice. "Have a good trip Beatrice, I hope to see you out and about more in the future."
Beatrice hearing her let go of my hand to cross then cross her arms over her chest.
"What do you mean by more? I think I am and will be doing perfectly fine with that."
Frederica seeing the small smile that betrayed the Loli-baba's words let out a giggle before turning back towards me with a smile.
"Take good care of her Suburu, Beatrice is a really nice girl deep inside after all."
Letting out a soft smile and chuckled as I proceeded to pat Beatrice on the head. "Don't worry about Beatrice, she's going to be just fine with me around to protect her."
Feeling my hand on top of her head, the loli-baba smacked it away before looking at me with a smirk. "Protect me how? Last time I checked, I was in fact the stronger one." She then looked towards Frederica. "So going by that logic, wouldn't that make 'me' the one who is protecting Suburu?"
Putting her hand up to her mouth and letting out another giggle Frederica looked between us one last time before starting to walk towards the front doors of the mansion. Beatrice seeing her suddenly leave let out a frown before speaking in an annoyed tone.
"Aren't you going to answer my question?"
Hearing her, Frederica just turned around on the steps and looked down at Beatrice with a smile.
"Beatrice is wrong and Suburu is wrong. But you're both also right. To make it clear, 'both' of you will probably protect each other's backs."
And with that, she looked towards me and mouthed a thank you before going inside of the mansion.
Watching her go back inside, I look towards the carriage before going to open it to check on both Rem and Emilia.
Looking inside the now open door of the carriage, I noticed Emilia talking to Petra happily. And as Emilia was technically a 14 year old mentally, they seemed to be enjoying themselves very much.
"That's a very nice thing to say Petra, but I can't say I am 'pretty'."
Rem was sitting next to them in silence and was looking at the two with a soft smile present on her face.
"But it's true! You are pret-... Suburu?"
Finally noticing me, Petra looked at me in confusion before letting out a smile and jumping off of Emilia's and straight into me.
"Hey wait a secon- , AH!"
Making me fall backwards, I landed roughly on my back as Petra bumped her head into my chest. Petra then rubbed her forehead a bit before sitting up and looking down at me with a smile.
"Suburu!"
Letting out a groan from the impact on my back, I looked up at her and sighed before patting her on the head. Feeling my hand on her head, she let out a bright and toothy smile before grabbing it.
Feeling her grab my arm and not let go, I looked up at her in confusion. "What is it now Petra?"
"One second...", she said to me as she unwrapped a piece of cloth off of her wrist before tying it onto mine. She then proceeded to play with the cuffs of my suit before smiling satisfaction and getting off.
"There! Now Suburu will have safe travels!"
Looking at my cuff, I feel at the price of cloth under it before letting out a smile. It seems I managed to get this treasure.
"Thank you Petra."
Getting up, I wiped the dust off the back of my cloths before looking around. And as I looked around I noticed a small and familiar figure trying to sneak towards the doors of the mansion.
Following my gaze, Petra also noticed Beatrice and proceeded to run towards the loli-baba.
"Betty! Let's go try out some clothes again!"
Beatrice hearing Petra, froze up at the familiarity of the little girls voice and turned around in panic and started to whisper in fear.
"N-No, a-anything but t-that!"
Sighing at Beatrice's fear of Petra, I used a bit of mana In my legs to make a quick burst to catch up to Petra and easily picked her by the neck.
"Petra, I'm afraid you can't play with Beatrice today. She is going on a trip with me and needs to have enough energy to make her way through it."
Putting her down, she looked up at me with a sad smile before nodding and turning towards Beatrice.
"I'm sorry Betty, it seems we won't be playing today..... Enjoy your trip....."
Beatrice hearing her visibly regained all of her life force as she shot straight up and looked towards me with a bright smile. Seeing her smile and Petra being sad, I decided to tease her a bit as I let out a demonic smirk towards Beatrice causing her to freeze and then pat Petra on the head.
"Well you can't play with her today, but you can definitely have plenty of time to play with her tomorrow and the day after that."
Petra then turned around and looked up at me with a look of mesmerization. "Really? I can do that?"
Laughing, I gave her a smile and threw a thumbs up towards her. "Yes, you certainly can. Anything is possible in YOUTH!"
*shine*
Seeing something behind me, Petra put her hands in front of her face before blinking in confusion, she then looked at it properly before wiping her eyes to make sure its real.
"Is that... a... sunset?"
"What sunset?"
I said In confusion as I looked behind me only to find nothing but a carriage. I even looked up into the sky and saw the Sun to be nearing only the center.
"Huh, probably nothing." Petra said before suddenly giving both me and Beatrice a hug before turning and skipping up the steps of the mansion.
And when she got near the doors of the mansion, she stopped her skips before waving towards us with a childish smile.
"Bye Beatrice, bye Suburu!"
Beatrice who was next to me sighed in relief and was about to turn to berate me but instead felt my hand giving her a head pat. Feeling it, she didn't whack right but instead chose to close her eyes and accept it before letting out a hmph and going inside the carriage.
"I'll forgive you for now. "But I'm definitely going to get you back later!"
Letting out a soft smile, I looked towards Emilia and Rem who witnessed the whole ordeal and pointed towards the front of the carriage.
"I'm going to be up front with the merchant. Please do me a favor and keep Beatrice busy."
Emilia and Rem just looked towards the two of us in confusion. This however only caused me to laugh as I closed the door of the carriage softly and turned towards Wilhelm with a expressionless face.
"Sir, you seem 'different' compared to when you are around them. Is their perhaps a reason why?"
Sighing, I put up my finger to shut him up and pointed the other towards the front of the carriage before looking at him with a serious expression. "I'll talk with you about this on a later date. But now is not it at all a good time for this, do you understand?"
"I understand." Wilhelm said calmly. "I assume you want me to 'watch' over the mansion like you asked me to?"
"Yes, But also pay close attention to the Arthur kid. He's got a knack for the sword and is young. If he meets your requirements, take him under your wing and teach him a bit after your 'job' is done."
"Also remember capture the target if possible. If it's not possible, simply kill them."
Wilhelm then took a bow. "Understood sir, I'll keep it in mind." He then raised himself up and asked. "May I now take my leave?"
"Yes you may."
And with my confirmation, Wilhelm turned around went back inside of then mansion. With him here, I'm completely sure that the mansion should be safe from its attack.
And even if the organization that Elsa is from decides to send a big shot, I'm confident in Wilhelm's ability to handle it. Checking my wrist, I let out a smile before walking towards the front of the carriage and hopping directly into the seat next to Otto.
"W-woah?! Mr. Suburu? What are you doing up here with me?!"
Surprised from my sudden appearance, Otto about fell off the whole carriage but luckily caught himself before doing so. He then straightened himself into a sitting position but was still a bit tense from what I could see.
"Don't tell me I'm in trouble now!"
And noticing how tense he was, I patted him on the shoulder a bit before leaning back to relax. "No need to be so tense around me Otto.... wait... that is your name right? And don't worry, you're not in trouble at all."
Singing in relief, Otto looked at me for a bit in silence before making a suspicious frown. "Yeah, that my name alright. But how do you know my name? And why am I even here in the first place?"
Hearing him, I leaned back and started to laugh before sending him one of my eyes while smirking. "Well to be honest about it, I about died laughing when I heard about an unfortunate merchant being mistaken as a witch cultist and decided to hire you for my amusement."
Flinching back in pain, Otto grasped his chest before leaning forward as tears streamed down his now closed eyes. "I-I see.... T-that is g-good... to know."
Patting him on the shoulder, I leaned down towards his ear and started to whisper.
"There there little Otto, the big bad bully cultists won't hurt you or steal your lunch money anymore."
Hearing me, he started to leak even more tears before calming down after a few moments. Now collected, he put on a stout expression which fit his handsome looks causing me to whistle.
"Maybe you would have a woman by now and not be kidnapped by cultists if you kept that expression up a bit more little Otto."
Visibly getting hurt by my words, Otto leaned forward as if someone had punched in the gut and spoke in a very forced tone.
"You're a very cruel man Suburu....."
.....