Chapter 79: A Crazy Person’s Scale

The day after Margaret’s escape incident, peace seemingly returned to the Duke’s residence, at least on the surface.

Xavier was extremely busy catching up with his delayed territory work. Rexton went far away searching for Margaret’s whereabouts, while Wilhelm and Ethan took leave to return to their hometowns.

Despite his busy schedule, Xavier didn’t forget to commend Rosetta. He awarded her ten pouches of gold coins – enough to buy a small house if she wished. She also received an honorary medal from the prestigious House of Auguste.

“Here, Rosetta. The Duke asked me to give these to you. I’ll pin the medal on for you.”

“Ah, yes.”

The gold medal gleamed against her black maid uniform.

“Thank you, Rosetta. Without you, Xavier and I wouldn’t have survived.”

“I only did what needed to be done.”

Rosetta smiled softly while looking down at the medal.

Hm? Does she not like it?

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?”

“No, it’s just… it’s too much for someone like me.”

She smiled with crescent eyes.

“Just thinking about what to do with the gold coins makes me tremble with excitement!”

“Really?”

I’m glad she likes it.

At that moment, Maya spoke with a prim expression.

“I heard you brought Berg mountain honey tea? May I try some too?”

“Ah, that…”

As Rosetta hesitated to speak, suddenly the ground began to shake violently.

“Oh my, what’s this? My lady! It’s an earthquake!”

“Earthquake?”

“Aaack!”

We all dropped flat on the carpet. We stuck to the floor like cockroaches trying to survive.

Thump-thump-thump-thump—

This time the windows shook violently.

Wait, did this place have a rainy season? Is it a typhoon?

Then, a cheerful voice was heard from somewhere.

“Goddess, I followed you!”

Am I hearing things? Where is that voice coming from?

I tried to find the source of the sound while looking out the window.

But all I could see were servants in the garden scrambling to hold down their skirts and hats in the wind, and knights rushing toward the main building.

“Up there.”

“Pardon?”

Xavier, who had somehow entered my room, was looking up at the ceiling with twitching black eyebrows. I was about to ask when he had arrived but something else came out instead. That’s how out of it I was.

Sure enough, a shadow large enough to engulf the mansion fell over us. There was a massive object passing by the window.

Did I just see yellow animal eyes?

“An eagle?”

Xavier and I looked at each other before hurriedly leaving the room and going down the stairs.

When we reached the garden and looked up, a giant white-headed eagle was flying above the garden.

“Here! Over here!”

Someone riding on the giant eagle’s back waved their arms and shouted at us.

It was none other than that crazy person, Lucas.

He was smiling brightly with his round forehead exposed in the wildly blowing wind.

He appears like this from the sky?

We thought he had returned to his country when we couldn’t find him on the ground, but that was a huge miscalculation.

“……”

Xavier glared upward with a rigid face, grinding his teeth. He had already half-drawn his sword, ready to spring up at any moment.

This crazy person! He really came!

The eagle descended threateningly, swooping past us before soaring high into the sky.

In that instant, Lucas’s mischievous black eyes, smiling despite his dark circles, met Xavier’s frozen gaze before sliding past each other.

His laughter echoed all around.

Really, that crazy guy. Ms. Eaglin must have a strong stomach to carry the crown prince on her back.

The eagle that had shot upward flapped its wings widely as it attempted to land. Its wingbeats shook my body violently. The beautiful garden turned into chaos in an instant.

‘Ah, my beautiful summer roses…’

Xavier sheathed his sword that he had partially drawn.

Lucas jumped down from the eagle’s back, waving papers he claimed were treaties. Among them was an imperial tour permit.

Eaglin’s giant body gradually shrank until it was just slightly larger than a normal eagle. The eagle that gracefully landed on Lucas’s gauntleted forearm was both powerful and beautiful.

Dozens of pairs of eyes – mine, Xavier’s, and the servants who had rushed out of the mansion – all focused on Lucas at once.

Lucas Lacuni Moirai.

A beautiful man with 100% quirkiness, carrying a travel bag on his back.

‘But that’s one thing, and this is just crazy!’

“…Welcome Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

Xavier commanded the servants while looking around.

The servants who had gathered in the garden to watch all knelt to welcome the Crown Prince of the Beast Kingdom.

*

Since we couldn’t receive guests in the garden, we naturally moved to the first-floor reception room.

Eaglin and Crown Prince Lucas sat on the sofa facing Xavier and me. Behind them stood a sturdy man I had never seen before. He must have been at least 2-3 meters tall.

How fascinating. His skin is gray! What kind of beastman could he be?

That aside, I had a headache from the Crown Prince who had barged into the ducal residence.

Xavier was also glaring at Lucas with a stern face.

Though he wasn’t cursing, his face showed he wanted to chase him out immediately.

The gutsy Lucas spoke first.

“You told me not to follow, so I followed a day later. Good, right? I’m a man with at least minimal conscience.”

I almost blurted out ‘What conscience do you have?’, but since I couldn’t say that to a prince of a nation, I just curled my lips slightly.

“But why did you come here? Why not go back to your official residence?”

“The Crown Prince hates me. And I only brought two attendants as the Empire ordered. I’m starting to feel hurt.”

Xavier sneered at Lucas who was grinning, showing his pure white teeth.

“Why don’t you just stay hurt and quickly return to your official residence?”

“Don’t want to, why should I? I like it here. The garden is spacious. The property must have been quite expen— Ouch!”

Eaglin, sitting next to him, pinched and twisted the Crown Prince’s arm.

“Ow, ow! Why!”

Lucas shouted at Eaglin, frowning as if annoyed. Eaglin, who sighed deeply enough to sink into the ground, apologized instead.

“Haah. I’m so sorry to the Duke and Duchess. Please forgive us.”

Lucas muttered complaints about why she was apologizing, then smoothed his furrowed face and looked at me.

“The official residence is too cramped. So I had no choice.”

“No, what do you mean cramped?”

“This friend behind me is an elephant beastman.”

Lucas pointed behind him with his thumb and grinned.

What… phant?

Xavier’s face turned black. Eaglin’s turned ashen.

Looking at my pale face, the crazy person said with a sheepish expression:

“I heard the Duke’s residence has a very spacious backyard, you see. Actually, he… poops a lot.”

The gray cheeks of the man behind the sofa gradually turned red. He even bowed apologetically.

So gray skin can turn red too.

Finally, Xavier staggered greatly and grabbed the edge of the table.

“An… elephant?”

“Your Grace, I tried to stop him but… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Duchess.”

Eaglin kept apologizing and stood up, bowing her head. While looking at Eaglin’s white crown, Lucas continued speaking as if nothing was wrong.

“These days we’re really short on holy power supply, you know? You understand, right?”

Lucas’s argument was that the Duke’s residence with a saintess was better than the official residence provided by the Imperial Palace. Moreover, Lucas was even seeking my agreement, quite shamelessly.

“It’s better to have a saintess nearby, right?”

No, I’d rather pass on kissing an elephant.

My head was filled only with thoughts that we needed to quickly develop a holy power storage system. Looking at my eyes that were shaking and lost focus, Lucas called out sweetly.

“Goddess.”

Ugh, creepy.

This caused an incredible killing intent to emanate from Xavier. While rubbing my goosebump-covered arm, I said to Lucas.

“I’m Yuria Auguste. Could you please stop calling me that, Your Highness? It gives me the creeps.”

“You don’t like it?”

“No. Very much so.”

Still showing some last bit of conscience, Lucas glanced at the angry Xavier and said,

“Then, I’ll call you Duchess.”

“That’s fine.”

At those words, Xavier’s anger seemed to subside somewhat as he nodded.

“But ‘Duchess’ is also quite long… how about ‘wife’? Wife?”

“Ugh.”

Lucas starts getting shy by himself, repeating ‘wife, wife.’ Can’t he see how embarrassed Eaglin is?

“Crown Prince!”

Finally, Xavier’s hand moved toward his sword again. Lucas smiled even more slyly and met Xavier’s eyes directly. He wasn’t intimidated at all by Xavier’s murderous gaze.

“Whoa whoa, Duke, call me Lucas. I’ll specially allow you to use my name since we’ll be living under the same roof.”

“What?”

“You understand? Husband 2?”

“Me, Husband 2?”

“Yes. I’m the saintess’s Husband 1, you’re Husband 2. Polyandry is nice, isn’t it?”

He helpfully points at himself and Xavier with his index finger.

“You raccoon bastard! I won’t let this slide!”

It was the first time I saw Xavier grab the back of his neck.

“Xavier!”

I threw myself to stop him as he jumped up from his seat and finally tried to draw his sword.

Lucas stuck out his tongue and quickly fled out of the reception room.

“Huh?”

Is he doing this on purpose? He’s not called a crazy person for nothing.

Next to me, Xavier’s hand on the sword hilt trembles.

Ah, I can see the hard times ahead.