How am I going to do that? I don't even know what noble woman usually do.
"At least you won't betray the Captain. You also said that you like him, and…"
Ortzen hesitated for a while and then frankly told me.
"Miss Epheria doesn't have any support so it'll be easy to handle you later."
"You're too much."
"You don't even care about that kind of threats anyway."
That might be true, but still…
"Miss said that you wish to join the church as a clergywoman, but that place will be too boring for a young lady like you. Besides, Miss also can't stay forever in the Count's mansion. Furthermore, it will be hard for Miss to find a good husband if the Count Epheria family's crime get exposed later."
Emm, the church isn't really such a boring place. Especially in my case, I was a holy knight so I often went outside. Well, although if I ever return back, then in the first year I'll become a freshman again.
"I think this is not a bad offer for you, Miss."
Suddenly I recalled what Clauen said to me before. He suspected that I would get married for real to Captain after our fake engagement. That being said, now Ortzen is the one who propose that idea.
"What do you think?"
I didn't take much time to think about it and gave him the answer.
"I don't know. Honestly, I have never imagined myself getting married."
Let alone getting married, I haven't even thought about dating someone. The reason was because a clergy can't get married, but actually I also never took an interest on someone because I was the most handsome and strong among other men. Additionally, I was mistaken as a man instead of a woman by all the men who approached me first. Right after I got into this body, I've considered about living a normal life, but seems like it was impossible.
"…, you even never imagined it?"
"Mhm. Will I live together with Captain after we get married? That's fine too. Can we stay within the Special Task Squad's headquarters?"
"That… nothing."
Ortzen seemed like he wanted to say more but he chose to keep his mouth shut in the end. If you have anything to say, just say it instead of having a face that looks like you want to cry.
"… I think I've commited a great sin."
"You're a death-row criminal anyways, there's nothing new. Didn't you kill a lot of people?"
"I never killed anyone directly by myself."
He went back and forth several times in the room and came back to where I was sitting.
"Let me ask you for one last time. If Captain said that he wants to marry Miss Epheria, will you agree?"
"Yes."
There's no reason for me to refuse. There are no other marriage partners, nor do I have to be a clergy either. Ortzen had a defeated looks on his face for no reason but he still nodded.
"Then that's it. Let's have both of you formally engaged first. Captain also has long reached marriageable age where His Majesty could arrange his marriage anytime."
"Alright."
For men, due to the issue of family inheritance, most of the time the second son and even younger sons have a late marriage. But if your age already reached mid-twenties, then it's recommended to at least have a fiancee. Meanwhile, the only son is mostly getting married early. Captain Jullius can be considered having a late marriage when he doesn't even have any brothers.
"Ah, I also have something to say."
I stopped Ortzen who was about to leave the room after settled down the matter. He turned around and asked.
"Is there any problem?"
"It's about my meeting with the High Priest. I want to make sure whether you'll really let me meet with the High Priest."
I know that I'm supposed to get engaged to Captain, but this is also an important matter. Ortzen slightly smiled and opened his mouth.
"Didn't I already promise you to let you meet with the High Priest?"
"Isn't there's only a week left? Then it means that I've to get engaged before that."
For a moment Ortzen seemed flinched in surprise and he had a frown on his forehead.
"… about that, did Captain tell you?"
"Yeah. Or could it be that you told him not to say anything to me?"
"That's not it. But, Captain used to never care about such a day. Usually I told him a day or two days before."
Oh… so that's how it is…
Ortzen briefly sighed and continued to talk.
"Perhaps Captain cares about things related to Miss Epheria that's why he tried to look into it by himself. He also knew about it through someone else, not me."
"I-Is that so?"
"Yes. Otherwise, there's no reason for him to do that."
Captain Jullius, for me you deliberately–
"And what else did he tell you?"
Uh…
"Only the date."
(T/N: the date Captain meets with the High Priest.)
"I can roughly guess so you should just tell me."
"… also said, you doubted my purpose for meeting with the High Priest."
I'm sorry, Captain Jullius. The pressure is too much for me to handle. Unexpectedly, Ortzen just nodded without any slightest change of expression.
"Is that so? Actually I'm not sure about your reason on why you insisted to meet with the High Priest to the point that you're fine to have yourself getting engaged. To tell you the truth, I'm not convinced even until now. But anyway, I'm not going to stop you from meeting with the High Priest. You'll be accompanied by Captain when you meet with the High Priest so you won't be able to do any harm."
"Even without Captain Jullius by my side, it's impossible to harm the High Priest. As long as I'm inside the church, there isn't anyone who can harm the High Priest."
"… you know it very well, huh?"
"I heard it from Sir Roel."
Didn't anyone know about it? Well, if it wasn't supposed to be known, my deputy would have told me so.
"I think to have the engagement done within a week is too early…"
"There's no difference between a month or a week. You will still let me meet with the High Priest in the end anyway."
"No, it's totally different. One month is enough for me to learn more about Miss Epheria."
"I can't wait for another month. If that being the case, then I will just become a clergy and look for any chance to meet the High Priest myself."
The Holy Blessings Day is still three months away, but there's nothing wrong for me to threaten Ortzen a bit. Becoming a clergy means you can't get engaged or even get married. In response to my words, Ortzen had a helpless look on his face.
"Then would you give up from becoming a clergy in return?"
"If you let me meet with the High Priest in a week."
"Alright. I'll try my best. If you can't get the permission from Count Epheria, I still have other ways."
(T/N: permission to get engaged)
Oh? It can't be real right? I just tried my luck when I threatened him. Am I really going to meet with everyone again in a week? Everyone would be surprised to see that I'm still alive when they all thought I've already died. I'm still alive, though my current life is a bit peculiar.
***
"Are you listening to me right now?!"
When Ortzen and I returned to the dining hall, an unfamiliar voice rang out from inside. It's a male voice, is he one of Special Task Squad's member? As soon as Ortzen heard the voice, I thought I saw Ortzen frowned but in the next seconds I didn't see it anymore. I glanced at Ortzen and quickened my pace.
"An intruder?"
"Well, he's part of Special Task Squad though, but …"
It appeared like he's much more fitted to be deemed as intruder.
When we entered the dining hall, I saw Captain Jullius disregarded the angry man besides him. The unfamiliar man seemed to be in his mid-twenties and he glared daggers on Captain Jullius as if he was about to kill him, then he shifted his gaze toward us.
"Hey, Ortzen! You told this guy to ignore me, didn't you?!"
What's this bastard screaming at my Captain Jullius for? I don't have any recollections of him in my memory, so that means that he's just an insignificant person. I'm annoyed by his attitude of looking down on Captain Jullius, but I'm still not clear about the situation yet so I can only put up with his attitude and not do something rash. Even if his outer appearance looked young, it's actually possible that the man in front of you might be a sixty year old man. Captain Jullius walked straight towards us without sparing even a glance to the man who seemingly fumed with anger. He stopped right in front of me and looked down to see me.
"You must be very sleepy, did you wait too long?"
"Not really."
"By the way, why did that person make a fuss by himself?"
Perhaps he heard what I said, so the noisy guy approached us. With an irritated look on his face, he shouted again.
"Are you deaf? Why do you keep ignoring me?!"
Captain Jullius paid no heed on him, so did I, and thus only Ortzen left to respond him.
"Looks like it's because you don't talk human."
"…, what?"
"Captain can only understand human language. Seeing him ignored you means that you didn't speak in human language. Do you get what I mean now?"
"Heyy, you!!"
"You only need to answer yes or no. It's easy, give it a try."
Ortzen talked in a smooth and friendly manner as if he was teaching a child on how to spell.
The man's face turned red and seems like he was ready to draw his sword right at that very moment, but in the next seconds he let out a long breath to calm himself down.
"…, It's my fault. I shouldn't have mingled myself to you lot, bunch of lowly things."
"Now you can admit your fault, you've grown a lot since the last time we met. That's really impressive."
Ortzen said it while giving applause to him. I bet that guy would have a hard time to endure Ortzen's action. And just as I expected, suddenly I noticed his veins buldged out, indicating he got angry again.
"You bastard!! Do you wish to die?!"
"Unfortunately, the one who has the right to decide my life is His Majesty. For Sir Luth who is just a vice-captain of Special Task Squad, I can't give it to you. That's too bad, isn't it?"
What, that bastard is the vice-captain of Special Task Squad? I stared at that guy with scrutinizing eyes. From his outer appearance, he seemed weaker than Clauen. Wasn't Special Task Squad mainly based on someone's skills? It's very obvious that he's weaker than Captain Jullius. If he's strong or at least on similar level of ability with Captain Jullius, instead of shouting here and there, he should have asked for a duel. Any weak guys are tend to be noisy.
"Let's end our greetings here. What wind blew up that brought you here?"
That was greetings? If that was the case, then I would rather not to share any greetings with Ortzen. The noisy man named Sir Luth has been looking at me with an unrestrained look. Huh? Why me?