Chapter 29: Black Cloak, you say!? Identity Unknown, you say!?

Black cloak, you say!? Identity unknown, you say!?

“The dude over there, do you wanna party with me?”
“……eh, Me?”

The day after I started exterminating goblins by myself, a spritzy-looking guy invited me to form a party.

“To tell you the truth, I accepted a subjugation quest for the Goblin King but the guys I was meant to go with suddenly disappeared…… And then you came along with so many goblin ears. I’ve only just come to this town so I don’t really know my way around.”
“Ah, if you’re fine with me then okay.”

After all, the guys from the adventurer class won’t party with me anyway……

“Oh, really!? That really helps. I heard it’s hard to fight the Goblin king with just newbies so it really helps!”
“I’m also a new recruit who just registered yesterday though……”
“………Eh, but you defeated so many goblins yesterday though, right?”
“Yeah, I went to fight them right after registering yesterday.”
“Ehh……”

His voice was obviously filled with dejection.

“……I’m sorry?”

With this, there’ll probably be no more talk of forming a party. Even though I thought I would finally get to do a quest in a party……”
“Then we’ll need two, three more people.”
“……Are you still continuing the talk of partying by any chance?”

I was thinking about maybe taking the goblin quest again but the boy spoke in an extremely natural manner.

“Er… If it’s alright, I’d like your help.”

Come to think of it, he said he also just came to this town recently so as fellow rookies, I’d like to get along.

“I’m fine with that, so let’s go find a few more people.”
“Yeah!!”

We started to search for the remaining members of our party.

――――――[King POV]――――――――――――――――――――――――――

“Sigh.. Is there someone who can heal my wife and daughter anywhere……”

It’s been a few days since I summoned the top recovery magic users, and I have been continuously doing my job as King.
In the end, those people couldn’t heal my daughter, and I now have my subordinates searching for other recovery magic users.
However, I don’t believe someone else can heal a disease that my daughter wasn’t able to cure.
With a heavy hand, I grasp my pen and continue working again today.

 

*Knock Knock*

 

Suddenly, there is a knock at my door.

“……Who is it.”

I’m on guard against the one coming at such a late hour but I still call out anyway.
It could be that they found an excellent healer.
Filled with both uneasiness and hope, I await the response.

 

“――――Darling.”

 

“―――――――――――Huh?”

Just now.. Whose voice was that?
I’ve had her conversing beside me over the span of many years. Right, that voice was――

 

“―――――Father.”

 

Wait, am I hearing things?
It can’t be, I’m familiar with this one as well. This voice is――――――――

 

I rise from my seat and open the door with a trembling hand.

“Aaahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

I’ve been constantly worrying. About the possibility of the two of them dying as they were.

 

Right now, before my eyes were my beloved wife and daughter――.

 

“Wh-what happened!? Is your illness alright!?”

The two look to be in good health no matter what, but I still ask.

“Yes, it’s fine now, darling.”
“Right, as you can see, we’ve been cured.”
“That’s great!! That’s rea-lly great!!”

My vision blurs.
I can’t show my subordinates this appearance of mine but at least for today…. No, today I will allow it.
I embrace the two and continue crying in a loud voice――
Hearing my voice, the guards come running.
Seeing our figures and guessing that my daughter and wife were cured, everyone also starts crying and shouting together.

 

After a while, we finally manage to calm down.
The guards returned to their posts and only my wife, daughter, and I were left in the room.

“S-so how is it that your disease is cured? Did it go away naturally?”

Having shown them such a disgrace sight I was now a little embarrassed.

“No, it wasn’t cured naturally.”
“Then how was it cured?”
“It was [Recovery Magic].”
“……That’s.. your own?”

I can understand if the one who cured that was my daughter who was the best healer in the kingdom.

“No, it wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it? The healers I summoned all left.”

I think there was one person who remained, but he should have left in the end as well.

“Previously, there was an intruder in the castle, right?”
“Ah, yeah there was certainly an intruder. He somehow showed the guards an illusion of their arms being cut off so they couldn’t catch him though.”
“I’m afraid that person was the one who healed us.”
“……No, wait. That would mean you were healed a few days ago.”

The report about the intruder had come a few days ago.

“Yes, that’s right. However, we couldn’t be sure that there wouldn’t be a relapse so we waited for a few days in our room. In the end, we understood that we were completely recovered so we came here.”
“Hmm, in that case it couldn’t be helped. So, the one who healed you?”
“It seems that he left the castle right after healing us.”
“And this girl seems to have given him one of her earrings.”

My wife revealed what my daughter omitted.
The earring my daughter had was the one meant to be given when one wanted to marry.

“Wh-what did you say!? No, I did think of rewarding the one who healed you with something that but…… No, of course I would affirm your feelings first!?”

The two of them looked at me scornfully when I brought up the topic of marriage so I explained in a hurry.

“You see, it seems this girl didn’t know the significance of that earring and gave it to the one who healed us with the purpose of [meeting again].”
“……”

Seeing my daughter look down with embarrassment, I did not say any more. My wife probably made enough fun of her already.

“…… Well that’s fine. In the worst case, I’ll just have to prepare something else.”

That was something there had been passed down through our royal family for generations, but I still wanted to choose my daughter’s partner carefully.

“Come to think of it, who was the one who healed you?”

I couldn’t not thank him for healing the two.

“……I don’t know.”

But my daughter said something I did not expect. She was probably sworn to secrecy.

“You don’t really have to hide it, you know? Considering your circumstances, he could have infiltrated the castle to target you two. He did expose himself to danger to heal you.”
“No, that’s not it. He left without giving his name.”

What a surprise. I can’t even thank him.

“What was his appearance like? I can have everyone search for him.”

I suppose I can put up after a search request at the guild. He probably won’t be found immediately but they should be able to find him eventually.

“Well you see, he wore a black cloak and was covered with a hood so I don’t even know his face. His voice was male but……”
“W-wh-what……”
“F-father?”

H-he concealed his identity with a black cloak, and saved the princess, you say………?
T-that kind of――――――――――

 

“SO COOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!”
“Kya!”

My wife and daughter were somewhat surprised but I didn’t care about that!!

“BLACK CLOAAKKKKK! SOOOO PER-FEEECCTTTTTTTT!!”

That guy is a genius!! He understands a man’s romance perfectly!!!

“AAAhhhh!! I want to see him at least onceee!! I want to meet him and become his discipleee!!”
“P-please calm down, Father.”
“How can I calm down!! Black Cloak, you say!? Identity unknown, you say!? This won’t do!! I must get everyone to gather information on that Black Cloak immediately!!”

The guards come running again at my shout.

“Your Majesty!! Did you call us!?”
“Everyone!! Search for that [Black Cloaked Man] at once!! However, do not investigate his identity at all!! I only want information about where he is and what he is doing and such!!”
“Y-yes!! Understood!!”

With that said, I had them start immediately.
……Damn!! If only I knew about this sooner……
I didn’t realise because nothing was written in the reports. Who wrote this report!! I’ll demote you right now!!!