Arslan Senki - Volume 1 by Tanaka Yoshiki

Author:Tanaka Yoshiki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trollo WN/LN EPUB
Published: 2019-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

Giv was walking along a long, spacious underground aqueduct that led outside the city. Torches blazed all along the brick and stone-enforced waterway, and the flowing water reached halfway to Giv’s knees. Giv and the black-veiled woman he was guiding had already been traipsing down the dark passage for about an hour.

This underground aqueduct existed for the royal family to escape in times of emergency, or so Giv had been informed by the prime minister. It was like that in all times and places. Royalty and powerful officials always had an escape route set aside for their use alone, forbidden to the commonfolk. Even the knowledge of their existence was not permitted. While the commoners were slaughtered by enemy soldiers, their corpses piling into a wall, the king and his clan fled alone to safety. Was this not rather contrary? Without any nation to speak of, it was the king who’d be in trouble, not the people.

“No matter how you look at it, they’re selling me short.”

Giv mocked both himself and the minister. As if the queen consort, unaccompanied by a single retainer or lady-in-waiting, would really entrust her fate to some wandering minstrel. That kind of thing happened only in the fanciful imaginings of a troubadour.

“You must be tired. Shall we rest a bit?”

The woman veiled in black shook her head wordlessly. She probably hadn’t any confidence that her voice would tally, so to speak.

“Don’t push yourself, now. It’s gotta be tough just pretending to be Her Majesty.”

After a long pause, a resigned voice broke the silence. It was, as it turned out, someone else’s.

“How did you realize?”

“The smell.”

Giv pointed a finger at his shapely nose and displayed a knowing grin.

“Yer body odor’s not a thing like Her Majesty’s. Even if you use the same perfume.”

To that, the lady had no response.

“Using you as a double while that fibbing queen consort makes her getaway. It’s that sort of arrangement, isn’t it.”

The lady’s lips remained sealed.

“That’s what highborn people are like. Assuming that it’s perfectly natural for others to serve them. Taking it for granted that others will sacrifice themselves for their sake. Not knowing a damn thing about gratitude. Conceited creatures they are, see.”

“I shan’t allow you to slander Her Majesty.”

“Good grief…”

“No matter what Her Majesty and the Lord Minister think, I hear and obey loyally. All I have to do is fulfill my own duty.”

“Now that’s what they call a slave mentality.”

Giv spoke boldly and utterly without mercy.

“It’s because of servile types like you that the highborn can go on acting as they please. While they wallow in their own complacency, you folks are the ones who end up suffering. That kind of duty sure as hell ain’t my thing.”

“In that case, do you mean to say that you cannot take me any further?”

“Well, the agreement was for me to serve as the queen consort’s escort, not the escort of some court lady playing pretend. Seeing as I’ve brought you this far anyway, you’ve got no cause for

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