BXBX NOVEL Chapter 101.2: Queen Maker (1)
However, he was not fully healed, and needed rest.
Originally, it would have been better to take him to the church, but the church was already a flurry of injured folks.
Just when they were musing on solutions, Eri and Neria belatedly joined them, seeing them worried.
After hearing about the situation, Eri suggested moving him to the inn she had rented out, and the girls complied.
After ushering Cloud to a room on the second floor, all the girls except Ophelia, who stayed behind to nurse him, came down to the first floor.
Eri, Neria, Katarina, and Leslie.
An awkward silence descended at the table, the four women seated across from each other.
In the trail of the situation, they coordinated deftly and with aptness, but now was the moment of awkward introductions.
In the minutes of awkward silence that continued, it was Katarina who was most nervous.
‘You’re pretty! Yeah, you good!!’
Since Cloud had stated he hadn’t even held their hands, she honestly thought their appearances to be just good or average.
However, the Saintess Candidate she met moments ago, as well as the two in front of her, Cloud’s colleagues were much prettier than she had supposed.
And it squirmed like a worm in her stomach.
‘Didn’t hold hands? More like attacked in less than a month!’
He apparently hadn’t laid a single finger on the beauties, with all the time in the world he had?
No matter how she peered, it was bullshit.
‘Maybe, really not? No one would spout a lie that would be torn off that quickly. Perhaps it’s the truth.’
Her hope circuits rescued her from falling into despair.
She decided to gauge if Cloud’s words were true or false.
“Hey… nice meeting you. Are you two Cloud colleagues, Neria-san and Eri-san?”
Eri tilted her head.
“Do you know us?”
“Yes. Cloud often talked about you all. A pair of an excellent wizard and a knight among his colleagues here in the capital.”
Neria’s and Eri’s eyes shot wide.
They were surprised that Cloud had secretly praised them.
“Did he really say that? Excellent wizard?”
“Did he talk about me too?”
“…yes, he did.”
Neria and Eri’s faces turned red.
Two emotions coexisted on their faces: joy and shame.
‘Calm down, Katarina. Don’t be so quick to judge. You have to pry apart the layers.’
Katarina pinched her thigh, trying to keep her smile.
Unaware of her feelings, the smiles on Eri and Neria’s faces did not disappear.
After a while, Eri came back to her senses and cleared her throat.
“Ehum, as you already know, I am Eri and this is Neria. Cloud has already talked about us, so we don’t ought to introduce ourselves. Our introduction is over, now it’s your turn. Who are you and how did you get to know Cloud?”
As if waiting for this moment, Katarina quickly opened her mouth.
“I am Katarina, and I was a dancer who worked in the Kingdom of Alitia. I met Cloud by chance, and with time, our friendship developed into a romantic relationship.”
“So you are from the Kingdom of Alitia. Romantic relationship with Cl…oud?”
Eri and Neria’s smiles hardened awkwardly.
Katarina swallowed her saliva.
The moment of the leap of faith.
Their reactions would tell everything!
“You… in a relationship with Cloud… what do you mean… that…”
Neria, her complexion pale, stammered to structure her sentence.
“…don’t be kidding.”
A drop of cold sweat dripped down Eri’s forehead, who was perplexed.
Seeing the two people’s reactions, Katarina realized.
That Cloud was indeed telling the truth.
If they had been his lovers, they would have grabbed her by the collar, not look so soul-stricken!
Katarina’s expression softened.
“I’m not kidding. It’s true that I’m dating Cloud.”
No, she went beyond lightly loosening up and started spilling facts.
If she had seen the two women’s expressions across her, she would have stopped short, but the released pent-up pressure considerably worked like euphoria.
Leslie raised her voice while Neria and Eri’s expressions were getting serious.
“My name is Leslie, the Grand Duchess of the Principality of Polycia. I’m going to be Cloud’s wife someday. Please don’t worry, I won’t oppress any of you on the virtue of my status, never.”
“You want to be his wife? You think I would let you?”
“You will, of course. No, actually, you don’t have to trouble yourself. Of course, in that case, an unfortunate ‘accident’ will happen.”
“Watch your tongue, do you think I’ll let it slip that you’re threatening me!? The more you do, the more I will stick to Cloud.”
“Are you certain? They say men get tired of such women surprisingly quickly.”
“You, you..!”
“Stop playing on us!!”
Eri shouted and interrupted Katarina and Leslie’s banter.
The gazes of the two women turned to Eri.
“A girlfriend or a wife, such childish pranks and jokes are not as fun as they look to be! In the first place, Cloud has no interest in such matters!”
Neria nodded her head frantically.
“Uh… well, it’s really not. I… we… are already, you know…
Katarina, her face flushed, wiggled her fingers.
Pluck!
The string of rationality that supported Eri snapped.
“There’s no stopping you!”
She grabbed her staff and jumped to her feet. Just when the jewel on her wand was about to glow red.
A cool blade sensation touched the nape of her neck.
“If you move, you die.”
Shedia warned in a cold tone.
Eri turned her eyes to the side.
“So will you.”
Neria placed her hand at the hilt of her sword.
The noisy inn became dead quiet.
Eri and Neria, as well as Katarina and Leslie, restrained moving hastily.
Nobody could any longer spot in Shedia the clumsy girl who wore a blank expression or laughed at little trinkets.
She was a well-forged sword, and her sharpness made even Katarina and Leslie leery.
Shedia suddenly turned to them and smiled.
As if asking for an encouraging pat, as would a dog.
Katarina and Leslie were at a loss for words.
– Kiik.
There was a sound of the door opening upstairs, and after a while Cloud appeared.
He looked at the situation on the first floor and frowned.
‘What the hell?’
He wanted to question, but for that, he would first have to placate the atmosphere.
“Put down the sword, Shedia.”
“She threatened noonas first.”
“Yeah, alright, stand down. If you don’t, one moonstone piece will be confiscated.”
“…”
Shedia pursed her lips and lowered the sword she had steadied at Eri’s neck.