Chapter 92: The Festival

The two nobles were stunned when they heard the verdict, the fear in their eyes disappeared for a moment and frenzy took over as they shouted.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!? DO YOU THINK OUR KING WILL LET YOU GO WHEN YOU KILL HIS MOST LOYAL RETAINERS!?"

"WHY DO YOU STRONG PEOPLE THINK THAT YOU CAN JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT AND GET AWAY WITH IT!?"

Urduja looked at the two fallen nobles before her, her head resting on her fist.

"Well, of course, I will get away with it, and not only that, tomorrow before the festival, someone will assassinate the two of you, give me an apology letter gift me your territories, and invite Sophia to the Royal Palace as an apology of his incompetent subordinates' rash actions, you know the usual, strong people privilege."

The two fallen nobles stopped gritting their teeth, for they knew that what Urduja just said was true, it is always like that, in the history of Gjallarhorn, Urduja, is a blessing that they cannot live without but for the Royal family, she is a curse that will haunt them for all eternity, seeing that the two nobles have fallen into despair, never to recover, Urduja looked at the door.

"Come in."

The door creaked as the knob twisted and all the people inside saw the only soldier of Sophia present in her state visit, Bakunawa.

"Urduja, if you are not busy, I... want an old woman's knowledge about something."

_Old Woman?_

That was Urduja's thoughts as she nodded, indicating the start of a long conversation.

[Sophia's POV]

"Urgh..."

Eleanor's eye bags are evident all over her eyes as she watched different performances with her eyes half open, even though I am not in my best shape today for we celebrated too hard last night and forgot about the festival.

[Yes, even your bed was destroyed.]

I don't have the energy to bullshit around with you, but anyway, we are waiting on a theater for Urduja, apparently it was because of the turning over of the territory of the two nobles who attacked my nation as well as the apology letter and an invitation by the monarch of Gjallarhorn to me, they are quite shy on giving it to me or more likely nervous that I will not accept anything that came from an assassin, you know prestige and all of that.

We waited for several hours and my ass hurts so much that I don't want to seat for a long time, fortunately, Urduja finally arrived in a dress together with Momoiro who went to my left side seat that is empty while Eleanor is in the right side, starting to snore, she doesn't look like a girl who just murdered someone in front of all nobles in the Urdujan territory, it's amazing.

The show then finally started, it all started when Urduja is nothing but a teenage girl who is working as a private guard of a certain noble, however, that was just heard because of the narration, my attention is actually on Momoiro who is unusually tense, I tough she still wears her usual nonchalant look.

_Oh, is it about her invitation to a tour with me?_

I started to pay attention to the theater performance too, I can say that this performance is fabricated as Urduja did not even cringe at the things she "has done", obviously knowing that the original will be too gory and not suitable to the people who looks up to her, she permitted the great fabrication of "The Legend of Urduja" the title of the theater play. With the presence of magic, theater plays in this world is way better than in my world. Makes me bitter for some reason and just as the theater play was about to be over, Momoiro suddenly tugged into my dress, it is provided by Urduja because of reasons I think you already know.

The lady with numerous eyes looked at me with intensity, but words aren't coming out of her mouth, it seems like she is mustering some courage, Eleanor who was already jolted awake because of the show looked at the two of us grinning.

Well, I shall not take the initiative, given that Momoiro took a lot of effort to conquer her nervousness to arrive at this point, I am not dense just because I am the protagonist.

[3rd Person POV]

As the whole Urdujan territory is being engulfed by festivity and forgot about the news of the fight between Duchess Urduja and Queen Sophia or the sudden murder of the heir of a certain noblehouse, in a putrid sewer with critters feasting on the wastes circulating in a shithole, a man with three pair of eyes is walking casually with a cage on his hand, on his face is a gray mask that only has holes for his eyes, well it is not really a design malfunction because Kabuto, Sophia's shinobi doesn't require any air to live.

"Hmm... Lady Sophia is quite busy, but according to her, just be sure that there is no manhole in the immediate vicinity of the place in which I will plant these rats..."

Since having a wife, his lady seem to not pay attention to him compare to when the great forest is yet to be her property and just like Wokung, it made Kabuto quite grumpy, that is why, any mission given to him is completed by the shinobi with delicate care, just like this one, a mission that was announce to him way before this state visit, he already contacted the "king" and "queen" of the undead rats in the Queendom and made them agree to become Sophia's assassins, by "made" of course all means, including violence.

As Kabuto recounted all of his hardships to please his lady, he finally halted on his tracks, he found a certain cross section of the sewer in which the number of critters are the lowest and deem it suitable for the two monarchs to establish their "territory" properly.

When he thought of such, Kabuto placed the cage on the ground and opened it, immediately, the rodents emerged, they walked as if looking around their new domains, though the numerous tattoos on their body can be seen as weird, they continued to look around, one is a rat that have a rather curvaceous body despite being a rodent and a king who have a crown on his head, also quite muscular despite what is biologically possible of his race's anatomy.

"Hmph, we are quite satisfied with this place, we shall carry our lady's missions with this place as a base."

Kabuto looked at the tattoo filled husband and wife, the tattoos are not made by Sophia because she is cramming all things she have to do in her three day preparation and have to attend a ball and attend to the need of flesh of her wife and herself, [Guide] can only substitute on her master's rare shortcoming and create a general anti-detection spell that will be imbedded to all of the rats and Arachne's spiders, Kabuto also had them for further anti-detection to his already very capable self.

"I am glad that you are satisfied, this will be the base of operations in Gjallarhorn and there is also a base in all of our cities and Indio, as you know, this place is Urduja's territory, so you have to be discrete and don't murder any bipedal without the order of our lady, the only thing you will do if there are no mission is to expand your territory and overtake the sewers, do you understand?"

Kabuto briefed the two monarchs that already started to crawl around, the two immediately stood up and then nodded with seriousness, they do not want to experience the cruelty of the assassin in front of them, Kabuto nodded in satisfaction but before he can even say anything, his head snapped to the left alongside it are the head of the rodents that looked so suddenly in the similar direction, the trio immediately submerged in the shadow with Kabuto, a man then appeared so suddenly, his face is not concealed and that is all he needed to report this matter to his lady.

Like he said, he is a master in concealment and will not engage in battle unless Sophia ordered him, or unless he deemed a fight beneficial for Sophia. Kabuto made a call for Sophia in the hivemind and reported the face of the man who seemingly tailed Kabuto so closely.

Sophia has one response.

"Oh ho, I see, you follow him after you complete my order."

[Sophia's POV]

I am quite surprised on how nervous Momoiro really is, so nervous she is that Kabuto's report about the person who tailed him came first before she can even officially invite me to a tour that she will most probably treat as a date. All of the people started to scatter away but I, Momoiro, Eleanor (who is grinning) and Urduja who is looking at me with interest are the only people sitting, I wonder what did Bakunawa and Urduja spoke off last night that I cannot find her anywhere today.

_I am starting to get irritated._

I cannot help but want to just be the one to invite her on a date, but that is forbidden in front of my wife, who the hell does that, right? So I still waited.

[Who the hell waits for an invitation in front of their wife?]

Didn't hear, didn't care.

Just as I and [Guide] started to banter, Momoiro finally spoke.

"I want to ask permission to borrow Eleanor's wife for a tour."

I can see the evident freeze of all the people around us and their hastened scrambling towards the exit, thinking that an ugly love triangle battle will ensue, but unfortunately such drama will not happen for instead of anger, Eleanor's smile brightened, for a moment even the radiance of the hero of the sun was surpassed by her smile.

"Of course you can! In fact I also want to bring Mother to a date!"

My wife immediately stood up and princess carried Urduja, the hero of the sun's cheeks reddened a little as she caressed Eleanor's shoulder with her palm.

"Aww, I didn't know that you have grown to become so manly."

Eleanor did not even answered and immediately dashed out, and just as I was pondering on what the hell did I just watched, Momoiro tugged on my arm, burying it on her chest that is quite disproportionate for her height.

"So, will you accept it?"

I can only smile awkwardly on how did I got set up by my wife, does she want to have a metamour that much? And thinking about it, I have a lot of reasons and ways to decline, but I don't really feel the urge to do so, it is just like what [Guide] said, I have to understand who I am myself.

"I will."

If I really ended up as being "that" kind of person, then my super brain can handle it for me.

_Though I really wonder if Eleanor will be okay, this might become the start of a troublesome kink._

_____

The two of us started to walk in the opposite direction in which Urduja and Eleanor went, in this direction are the streetdance, the cathedral of the god of the sun, and the culture and arts building as well as the museum that highlights Urduja's achievements, that is what Momoiro said to me, we stopped by every stall and used my country's own currency that is already accepted by the Urdujan territory, the duchess will just make an official announcement after the festival, because of that, one of my coins make us sweep all over the stall in this direction, with a lot to spare.

With roasted squid, corn and candied apple on her hands, Momoiro suddenly spoked.

"You're really reach, it feels like you can buy me using a single Coin."

Momoiro seem to not notice what she have just said, but I unconsciously made space between the two of us, the unnoticeable one.

_Who the hell says that on the first date?_

While thinking that, I casually replied.

"I would rather make you mine using my hands though."

This time, it is Momoiro's time to flinch, yeah that's how it feels if you say stupid things like that. As I started to be smug, I suddenly squinted my eyes for I can see from afar are dancing paper mache of giants that has european worker dresses, Momoiro who tried to divert her attention to discuss the event looked at me with wonder.

_Higantes..._

Momoiro seem to misunderstand my intense stare at the streetdance, thus she smiled and explained.

"This is called the parade of giants, historically, it is invented by my mother, Lady Urduja and is now a staple in the culture of Gjallarhorn, as you can see, it is a very hard dance because of the weight of paper mache."

Hearing that explanation I nodded as a grin spread out in my face.

"Yes I see, this state visit is really, REALLY interesting."