After a while, the royal man spoke with a hint of disdain in his voice.

"To think the grand tales of Valour I had heard about the former heroes were nothing short of lies. I find it difficult to deliver the message I was entrusted with in good faith now."

Two men cringed at that, while a woman began to emit an oppressive presence. Noah got out of his chair to quickly appease Ariel, who was growing increasingly angry about seeing her husband and father disparaged. A short exchange of whispers later, Noah returned to his seat, with Ariel seemingly content, having understood the situation.

"Uncouth woman. To think such a person could be related to His Majesty, even if it is a distant relationship."

Now, it was the turn of the two men to flare up, while Ariel watched with a slight twinkle in her eye. It seemed like a fight was about to break out.

This was when Aeloria made a mysterious appearance behind the royal man, apparently appearing out of nowhere. Four people blinked in confusion.

'Oh yeah. Adventurer's guild, Odir branch guildmaster, Cedric's wife, and the mother of my wife. Completely forgot about her. Huh.'

Her sudden appearance created enough confusion for her to squeeze into the conversation, taking a seat on Cedric's lap, as she spoke while leaning forward and emphasizing her…womanly wiles.

'Wait. She's tried pulling this before. On me!'

Except this time, it worked. Noah watched with an expression of rapt attention and surprise at the person who had introduced himself as the royal messenger, trying to keep the lewd expression off his face and failing. Behind her, Cedric displayed a face of utter unamusement, while Ariel's eyes lost their twinkle when she realised no fight would be breaking out. Noah blinked. This... something wasn't making sense here.

"Royal sir, please excuse my family; they're just nervous around someone as great as you. You'd forgive them, right?"

Aeloria slightly wiggled her elbows, and the weighty…objects…that rested on them slightly moved in response, leading him to swiftly forgive them, opting to boast.

"Of, of course! This is only a matter of course! I have, in fact, been a royal messenger for years, and…"

Noah toned out his droning. Nothing he was currently saying had any value. While he bragged to Aeloria, Noah turned his head to look at Ariel, and he thought about how utterly unskilled she was when it came to noble etiquette. When they attended noble functions that were basically mandatory for social reasons, he had requested that she be silent or speak sparingly the whole occasion, since her stoic warrior aura would be broken if she spoke too much. He loved the woman, but when it came to matters unrelated to battle, he had to admit, she wasn't the brightest.

He then looked at Cedric. The man did not seem to be bothered that his wife was using her femininity to influence the royal messenger to his will. It seemed that Aeloria had either pulled this stuff before, with a high success rate, or that he was absolutely confident in their relationship, or maybe even both. Noah felt strongly inclined towards the latter. Which then led him to think about Aeloria. His eyes darted to her actions that were still as suggestive as ever while still on Cedric's lap, and he could help but wonder about her background.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

In the conversations that he had with Cedric, he knew that he had met her back when he tried out as an adventurer for a short while. They had been in the same party—rather, he would fight while she assisted him when he struggled, although the reverse had never once happened. Not once, in the full year of the time they spent adventuring together, did the woman get in trouble. Looking at the woman in her black bodysuit, with white hair and green eyes, Noah felt a sudden sense of danger when he tried to think of her combat strength.

'?!'

He hadn't felt this before. He recalled the first time they had met. At the time, he recalled almost punching her and fully feeling like she would have been flattened if he hadn't abruptly stopped. But now that he thought about it, she had been completely nonchalant about his attack. Additionally, he only felt threatened by her now that he had gotten stronger, and he still hadn't sensed her appear out of nowhere. His current strength was incomparable to himself before, but he was feeling danger now when he hadn't before? Had she...been too strong for him to detect her strength back then? No, that had to be impossible, right? It didn't make sense!

He blinked. There was a good chance her identity was not simple. Well, she didn't seem to have any ill intentions towards him, so he wouldn't antagonise her. People had their secrets.

He then directed his attention back to the messenger, who seemed to be finally wrapping up his bragging. He now seemed to be in a significantly better mood.

"I'll have to go now, but please have a good chat with each other, all right? For me?"

When Aeloria got up, moved closer to the messenger, and held her chest mere centimetres from his face, his brain seemed to short circuit, and his face immediately contorted to a perverse expression.

"Of-of course! I hope you have enjoyed our chat as much as I have!"

At the bumbling words of the messenger, Aeloria let out a fox-like smile before she disappeared. Once again, Noah didn't see her move. Truly mysterious. He looked at Cedric and Ariel, of whom the former did not stop his indifferent expression, and the latter was beginning to fall asleep. Honestly, he could relate. This messenger was supposed to only be here for the sake of a message from the palace, and he had troubled them to this extent. By now, Noah, who was tired from being awake for thirty hours, wanted to end this farce.

"What's the message."

The messenger, all smiles from Aeloria's intervention to save the conversation for Noah's sake, froze before coughing into his fist.

"Unlike that woman, you're simply so uncou-"

"Message."

Noah cut off the messenger, prompting him to send a sharp glare his way, which didn't affect Noah in the slightest. Seeing this, the messenger sighed and pulled out a piece of parchment, clearly generously adorned. Magic had made the creation of paper possible, and parchment was only still used on the Calysta continent as a form of grandeur. He was most likely holding the message from the throne.

After coughing into his fist once again, the messenger finally did what he came to do.