We were followed? I really didn't notice it but looks like Captain Jullius knew. Hmm, my intuition seems to weaken drastically. It's inevitable now that I had different body…
"Duh… but I'm really sleepy. How about we enter seperately?"
Before Captain Jullius could answered, Clauen beat him to answer. "If you guys have no place to sleep, then let's just come over to my place! There're many unoccupied rooms in my place."
He left the alley first with exhausted face.
The place we visited by following Clauen was a vast residence in western style with many people passing by. The western-styled house was connected with other smaller buildings that has one to two-story with three-story tall as the highest buildings. They were connected by many long corridors with a lot of turns like a complicated maze. This buildings construction must be the biggest among others and was one of a kind to be built inside the Capital city which has the highest land price. In short, this grand residence already had high value just by appraised its land price. If this residence is really his house, then that brat Clauen… is filthy rich.
Other than people passing by, there're also many horse-carriages for transporting goods come and go through the big gate. Judging from the buildings' construction, looks like this place wasn't just a living place, could this place be a merchant guild? I've heard before about the existence of the Western merchant association in the Capital. It's said that that merchant association donated a large sum of money to the church.
"Clauen, are you a merchant?"
Clauen who was walking in the front while pulling the rein, turned his head around when he heard my question.
"I'm not but I've some connections here."
Could he be the insider here? The insider at the merchant association is a member of Special Task Squad?! This fact is pretty interesting. Honestly, except for the Captain who was directly appointed by His Majesty the Emperor, other members of Special Task Squad didn't have good reputation in public. For the commoners, the Special Task Squad was just seen as a squad with exceptional abilities. Meanwhile for the nobles, the Special Task Squad was an eyesore because it's consisted of a bunch of low-borns and criminals. And on top of that, the current Captain has unclear origin.
That being said, someone from the merchant guild who had a good reputation would have his reputation damaged by joining the Special Task Squad. Unless if he had thoughts to be a hero for commoners or something along the lines. Anyway, as long as you're capable enough, becoming a member of Special Task Squad indeed was one of the easiest way to obtain a low-rank noble.
But still, it would be better to live a wealthy life but not forgetting to share for those in needs.
A low-rank noble is no different to any other non-noble honorable position without getting any income from fiefs. It could be obtained just by give in a large sum of money to the Palace. I'm getting more and more curious about his true motives for joining the Special Task Squad. But… that's not something I could ask.
(T/N: backthen most nobles owned some fiefs and the got their income from collecting taxes, rents, etc. But there're some who didn't have any fiefs. Google it for more info)
As we went deeper into the residence after handed over the horse to a servant, there's less people passing by. At the same time, the path we're taking is getting more twisted and there could be seen some guards on several places. As soon as we entered a two-story building, there're some maids who were swiftly coming towards us.
"You've returned, Sir?"
"Prepare two baths and bedrooms."
"Yes, Sir."
Clauen looked like he's already used to give orders to those maids. Seems like he's not a normal 'insider'. The maids quickly dispersed to do their jobs and left behind a maid in front of us. The maid lead us the way while smiling widely like a blooming flower.
"The bedroom is over here. The bath should be ready soon. Should we also prepare some food?"
"Are you hungry?"
Clauen turned around and asked us, to be exact, he was asking Captain Jullius.
Captain Jullius shoke his head a bit in refusal. I also need sleep more than food.
As we arrived in front of row of bedrooms, the maid from before appeared. She said, "The bath is ready."
That's pretty quick.
"You should take a bath first."
Captain Jullius tilted his head when he heard Clauen words.
"But, at the headquarters I–"
"You will sleep better after taking a bath in hot water!"
Captain Jullius mumbled softly about not wanting to take a bath and will just washed his face, but Clauen forcely pushed him inside the bathroom. Being clean is indeed necessary, but isn't this too exaggerated? Does this guy have an obsession towards cleanliness?
"Now, Miss Epheria…"
"Huh?"
As soon as Captain Jullius left for a bath, his red eyes that looked similar to those white rabbits, fiercely glared at me. Perhaps because of his red eyes, I felt like he was looking down on me.
"How about we chat a little?"
"Alright?"
He couldn't possibly wanted to apologize for his behavior yesterday, could he? Or, perhaps there's a message from assistant Ortzen? When we entered a bedroom, Clauen closed the door until it made a loud noise. Then…
"Actually, what do you want by getting closer to Captain?"
He said the words I used to hear in the past. Sigh… it had been a long time since the last time I heard of it. I glared sharply at the brat who said something similar to those men whose girls they admired, taken a liking to me. In the past, those men would just back off after I politely told them, "I'm a woman, you dumbass!"… but it's not possible in current situation, right? Right now my appearance is clearly a woman.
"Didn't assistant Ortzen tell you anything?"
"I heard you're the one who asked to be engaged to Captain!"
"That's right, but it's just a fake engagement. So you need to calm down."
Besides…
"And even if we got engaged for real, that's none of your business."
Two adults man and woman falling in love with each other by their own will. Why do many unrelated people try to intervene in this matter?
There's a deep frown on Clauen's forehead after he heard my words.
"Although you could use holy power, but what could be trusted from a lady of Epheria's household?"
"They didn't trust me as much as you think, so you don't have to be worried! Assistant Ortzen indeed asked me to be his spy, but on the other hand he didn't give me any useful information."
If he really trust me, he would have already told me the identity of the other spy inside the Count's mansion and had us worked together. Well, it would be strange if he trust me easily when we didn't know of each other before. I have already given my honest explanations but that brat Clauen still had dissatisfaction written all over his face.
"I'm not worried about Ortzen. That person is capable enough to save himself when he was being locked up inside a burning house even though his arms and legs were tied. What I'm concerned about is Captain!"
Hmm, turns out assistant Ortzen was quite impressive. He could do something I'm not capable of… wait, maybe my old self could do it. As long as the fire weren't big, I would be able to resist and moved my body while crawling with tied arms and legs…
"…, are you listening?"
"Of course."
The silly brat suspiciously looked at me, then continued talking.
"In fact, Captain is a simple-minded person."
… he clearly talking about Captain Jullius, but I don't know why I feel like he's talking about me. Is it because he keep mention the word 'Captain'?
"If not for his fierce looks, he would surely got scammed for countless times."
I'd never got scammed. Really.
"There're many cockroaches approached him to take advantage of him."
No worries. The assistant will do his jobs to repel those cockroaches.
"There's once a bad guy who had an evil plan towards the Emperor and he approached Captain at the beginning."
Hmm, there were many people who wished to meet the High Priest.
"I couldn't help but worried about Captain when he suddenly said he was engaged to a weird woman!"
"I've said it repeatedly that this engagement is fake. And if we were to be engaged for real, then so what? There's nothing wrong with me to be Captain Jullius' fiancee."
You are being too rude to Silla here.
"Based on the current situation, Captain is the one who suffered a loss!"
(T/N: so…. for anyone who got confused with the exchange in the last banter between Silla and Clauen, when Clauen said something, Silla always answered it in her minds.)