Refuse Harem
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Prius
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 210 – The Young Lady Named Sophie Linier ~Rumors of the Town~
“Hm, what is this? The square seems awfully lively today.”
Two miners had just finished work and were discussing having a late lunch at a food stall when one of them stopped and tilted his head in confusion when he heard a voice carried in the wind.
Seeing this, the other man suddenly spoke as if he had recalled something.
“Aah, it must be that, the once a month ‘tea party’.”
“Tea party?”
“You see, it was around a year ago. The daughter of the famous and wealthy merchant family, the Liniers, was granted the ‘Purple Star’.”
“……Ah~ It’s about the talk that said the baron’s daughter was granted the honor so she could be made into a royal concubine, huh?”
His voice was mixed with contempt for the first prince.
“I don’t remember the details very well, but I think it was about improving drinking water, was it?
“Yep~ that one. Apparently, that so-called tea party was started by that young lady, so the topic’s significance could be spread to the commoners as well.”
The man’s eyes widened in shock when he heard the young lady personally take the initiative to do something like that.
Even though a baron’s daughter was a low-ranking noble, the man didn’t understand the point for such a person to go out of her way for the commoners, especially since said person was currently a candidate to become a concubine to the first prince and had even been bestowed the rare rank of the Purple Star.
“What’s with that? Is it to curry favor with the commoners? And besides, water isn’t really a problem right now.”
“I think so too, but my wife seems to be quite infatuated with that young lady.”
“Heh~ I wondered why you seemed unusually knowledgeable, so that’s why. But why did your wife come to her?”
“It’s a parent’s desire to give their child the safest things possible. I told my wife that I wouldn’t have any problem the way it is just like you. But then, my wife looked at me like I was trash.”
The population of the royal capital was increasing year by year, and as industry developed, the city was becoming more and more polluted.
However, for the men, their daily lives were so busy trying to provide for their families that they had little awareness of anything else.
“Come to think of it, there’s been a lot of talk recently about how the rai wheat has become less sour and has a stronger sweetness. I heard that it was also improved based on the idea of that young lady.”
“No, no, that must be a lie. How could an aristocratic young lady be capable of that? She is probably just lying to make a name for herself as a potential concubine. Just being bestowed the Purple Star as a woman is already an outrageous favor, so I wonder what the first prince is thinking. I guess he takes after his father. Snubbing his official fiancée to indulge in another woman… Royalty really is a free and wonderful position to be in.”
“Well, that’s certainly true. But my wife says that the young lady is really smart. She says she is grateful that she can ask her for advice on things like first aid when our child has a fever.”
The young lady gave advice on hygiene management that could be done at home on how to make the body less susceptible to illness. Moreover, she presented methods that were feasible for commoners.
Her precise and easy-to-understand explanations attracted other housewives to attend the tea parties.
“At first, only kids attracted by the snacks came to the tea parties, but then their mothers started to join in too. Now even unmarried young women flock to them.”
It was a rather chaotic situation, and a man listening asked, “Why did all those young women bother to come?”
“There’s a paladin among the young lady’s escorts.”
“A paladin?! ……Aah, well, she is still a Purple Star, after all. I guess that makes sense.”
“Paladins are rare, maybe seen from afar in royal parades at the most. But this time, one can be seen up close, and apparently, he’s quite good-looking. There are other King’s Sword’s students participating as well, but most of them are nobles. There are a lot of women who want to jump at the chance of finding a wealthy husband, no matter how low the chance might be.”
“Uheeh~ what’s with that? I’ll never go near that.”
After hearing the explanation, the man frowned in disgust and turned his face away from the stone pavement leading to the square, from which lively voices could still be heard.
“I heard they even have soup kitchens these days.”
Upon hearing the additional statement, the man’s expression quickly turned to normal.
“Isn’t that free food?! Then let’s go too!”
“Idiot. There won’t be anything left if you go at this time. Apparently, the food there is so good that no other restaurant in the area can compete with it, so there’s a fierce struggle to get it.”
“Hey…… in the end, it has nothing to do with us.”
That’s when the man clicked his tongue.
The lively voices coming from the square suddenly turned into tense shouts.
“……Oi, wasn’t there a scream mixed in there?”
“Maybe something happened. Want to go and have a look?”
“Aah!”
The men looked at each other and immediately ran off.
A gasp-inducing scream echoed through the square.
All of the voices were from the commoners who were enjoying the atmosphere.
Their eyes were all fixed on the event unfolding in the center of the square.
The event was drawing to a close. Today was supposed to end with a simpler tea party than usual. Even though it was simple, the snacks prepared were ones that commoners didn’t usually get to eat. Today, there were popular snacks from Talis, a famous summer resort.
However, the majority of commoners there weren’t interested in the snacks but in the young girl with beautiful black hair.
Although it wasn’t gaudy, the girl wore a high-quality dress and had the graceful manner of an aristocrat, but she had a straightforward personality and treated everyone equally, regardless of their social status.
She answered any question without hesitation and never lost her smile.
Everyone felt a sense of familiarity with her personality, which was different from the noblesse oblige typical of typical aristocrats.
Even those who initially looked at her with strange eyes and made disrespectful remarks were soon won over and began to praise her.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everyone had gathered to see her.
The moment the girl stepped slightly away from the crowd, she was captured by a dirty-looking man.
The girl, who was wearing a lovely white dress with green stripes, was now being held captive, her left arm twisted behind her back by the man, who had a rusty knife pressed against her neck, immobilizing her.
The citizens were shocked by the mayhem that took place in broad daylight.
On the other hand, the thug looked at the shocked gazes directed at him with a twisted smile on his face.
The girl was a candidate to become a concubine for the first prince, who had bestowed her Purple Star, and moreover, she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant and famous baron, making her the perfect hostage.
As long as the knife in his right hand was held to her neck, no one could lay hands on him in order to protect her.
The man was pleased at that superior position.
He felt so lucky that things had gone so well.
Perhaps because there wasn’t a large soup kitchen that was held once every two months today, the paladins who were usually around the girl weren’t there, and there were only a few King’s Sword students. Moreover, the security was lax.
There had been so many tea parties that it was impossible to count them on one hand. Perhaps it was because they had gotten used to it.
The man had been waiting for such an opportunity for a long time. Since he was unemployed, he had plenty of time on his hands.
But as he looked around with a triumphant look on his face, he suddenly felt something was off.
――What? Why are those people……?
The escorts were supposed to protect the Purple Star. Even though the Purple Star had been taken hostage due to their own mistake, for some reason, they didn’t seem to be in a panic at all— they were rather calm.
What caught the man’s attention the most was their gaze.
The look in their eyes was neither frustration nor anger at having the Purple Star held hostage.
It was instead――sympathy?
“……?”
Why were such gazes directed not toward the girl but toward the man?
The strangeness of the situation made the man’s hand holding the knife loosen slightly.
“You idiot. You should have at least chosen your hostage carefully.”
The gentleman with a frivolous atmosphere among them, who stood out among the escorts, let out an exasperated sigh.
He felt his body leaving the ground.
The man didn’t even have time to wonder as he muttered “Eh?” and before he knew it, he had been slammed onto the cobblestones.
“Gh?!”
A sharp pain ran through his body.
As the man was dumbfounded, completely unable to comprehend what had happened, he saw the girl with whom he had a knife pointed at her neck a moment ago looking down at him.
What had just happened?
The girl brushed her long, beautiful black hair back and spoke to the man.
“Seriously, touching a maiden’s soft skin without their permission is unbecoming of a gentleman. I wonder why there are so many men like that around me.”
She narrowed her fresh green eyes and let out a sigh.
At the same time, the sound of high heels grinding on the ground echoed close to the man’s ear, and for some reason, an indescribable fear welled up inside the man.
――I-I should run away.
In order to escape from the fear, the man raised his upper body, which had been stuck to the ground. His whole body still hurt, but he couldn’t afford to keep lying there.
Because he tried to take the Purple Star hostage, he had antagonized the dozen or so escorts.
Looking around, he noticed his knife lying at the girl’s feet.
Without hesitation, he reached out toward the knife, but before he could touch the handle, the girl’s feet moved.
Don!
The tip of the heel narrowly avoided hitting the man’s palm and dug into the cobblestones.
The man couldn’t help but let out a scared cry.
He timidly looked up and saw the girl with pure features looking down at him with a fearless smile.
“But don’t worry. I will explain to you how to be a gentleman, starting from the very beginning.”
“Hah? Eeh?”
The girl dragged the man by the scruff of the neck and tried to take him somewhere.
The sound of the man’s body scraping against the cobblestones echoed loudly in the silent square.
Several escorts suddenly returned to their senses and ran over toward the girl.
“Sophie-sama, we will take that man away! He is dangerous, so please let go of your hand!”
“No. I have to preach to him first.”
Without allowing any refusal, the girl dragged the man again.
The man was in a complete daze.
Where did the girl’s seemingly thin arms get all that strength?
If he recalled correctly, that girl was the daughter of a baron and was supposed to be a candidate to become a concubine for the first prince.
What kind of person had he tried to take hostage earlier?
Wasn’t this like he was picking a fight with an unknown monster?
The man was filled with fear as he realized the values he had didn’t apply to the girl at all.
“Ah~ how unlucky……. Why did this have to happen when Gerald wasn’t around? You have my condolences there.”
The gentleman from earlier now looked at the man with an extremely pitiful look in his eyes.
He was supposed to be the girl’s escort, so why did he see the man, who was supposed to be a thug, as if he was a pitiful victim?
“H-Help me……”
The man finally pleaded with the escorts for help, but his request wasn’t granted.
The two men who had heard the commotion came running and couldn’t help but blink at the situation where it was unclear who was the victim and who was the assailant.
“……What, was that?”
“I-I wonder?”
“Is that girl really an aristocratic lady?”
“That should be the case…… but I’m not sure.”
The men muttered as if they had just seen something incredible, but their doubts only grew.
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