Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de Chapter 132

“Yo, Margrave-dono. What a fine morning it is. Such a great morning is wonderful for moving one's body, so how about it? Having a light match against me in the courtyard is…geha!?” (Lepard)

A full power blow of Shion's right fist was driven into Lepard's solar plexus who had opened the door to Renya's office with a very bright smile while raising a loud voice early in the morning.
Lepard didn't wear any armor, but his abdominal muscles had been trained and tempered. Renya, who viciously beat him up in the previous battle, got a good look at those steel-like muscles.
Unlike the last time where Lepard had been naked from above the waist, he's now at least wearing some clothes, but him not wearing any body armor is probably owed to his high confidence in his defensive capabilities, Renya assessed.
Shion's fist easily bored through Lepard's prided muscle defense and delivered damage to his internal organs, causing Lepard's body to crumble down. Lepard begins to suffer in silent agony as he crouches down in the corridor in front of Renya's office.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, several dog beastmen priestesses with their ears drooping dejectedly and carrying apologetic expressions appeared in front of Shion, who looked down on Lepard with a face full of bloodthirst, violently grabbed Lepard's feet and dragged him away through the corridor.
For some reason it's slightly terrifying that there's even a priestess who's pulling the rope around Lepard's neck.

“You…have certainly become strong, haven't you…?” (Renya)

Renya calls out in admiration to Shion, who's making sure of the blow's sensation just now by opening and tightly clenching her fist several times.
If she had possessed that much strength at the time when Renya crossed over to this world, there would have been no chance for him to play any role against the mercenaries, who picked a fight with Shion and Rona back then, as they would have likely been buried into the ground to serve as nutrients of the Miasma Forest after thoroughly having been processed into the same minced meat as used in hamburgers.
However, Renya tilts his head to the side.
In my former world a shrine maiden that is part of the Shinto priesthood should definitely be an occupation that doesn't have the reputation of being proficient in hand-to-hand combat.
And yet in this world the beastmen priestesses mainly silence the hero with fists and weapons, and even Shion, who's always wearing an attire resembling that of the priestesses', has become skillful at physical offense with her sorcery skills still being those of an ordinary person.
It's not that Renya believes this to be one of the different world corrections, but he can't help feeling that something is wrong.
Wasn't the existence referred to as priestess a lot more graceful and feminine?
Having absolutely no idea of the thoughts that Renya was harboring, Shion temporarily continues to tightly clench her fist and,

“Haven't I become more skillful because of your training, Renya?” (Shion)

Once she does several jabs as if shadow boxing, the sound of air being torn reaches even Renya's ears.
No matter how you think about it, that's not an attack usually unleashed by a person who has princess attached to their name.

“I don't remember giving you any special instructions though?” (Renya)

Within himself Renya apparently doesn't refer to Keith's group's training, which Shion had joined, as combat instructions.

“You taught me the basics…besides, as I have sufficiently watched your fighting style, I believe it to be natural for me to have picked up some of it?” (Shion)

Closing the door that had been opened by Lepard, Shion approaches the desk where Renya is sitting and sits down on top of it just like Croire had done before.
Of course that doesn't mean that Shion knows about the previous conversation between Renya and Croire.
But, as there's nowhere else to sit down since Renya hasn't prepared any chairs in the room, which he usually doesn't use to entertain visitors, except for his own party members, sitting on top of the desk becomes the natural conclusion once one plans to sit down somewhere.
Though Frau and Kurz try to sit down on Renya's knees as if it's a matter of course.
In Croire's case it was impolite to do so without Renya's permission, since they respectively have the social standings of being a margrave and a foreign princess, but since those social standings change into the archduchess' daughter and her subordinate margrave in Shion' case, she wouldn't be accused of disrespect, even if her real authority is a different one.
While casting a sidelong glance at Shion, who places her butt, which has a considerable volume when compared to Croire's, on top of the desk's surface, Renya spreads out one sheet of paper.
That, which had sentences in an elegant calligraphic style written on a paper of considerably high quality, was a letter that had been delivered to Renya early in the morning.
Seeing the name of the sender, Renya exhaled very deeply while being filled with the desire to toss the letter into the trash just like that, but as there's no way that he can do so, he has kept it at hand.
Shion, obviously interested, took a peek on what Renya had unfolded on top of the desk.

“A letter?” (Shion)

“Yes. Handwritten letter no. 2 from His Majesty the Elven Emperor.” (Renya)

Number 1 is the paper roll he had previously shown to Croire, but that's something Shion isn't aware of.
According to Croire Renya's revenge for the mischief included in the emperor's first letter apparently couldn't be deciphered by the elven state authorities.
Of course, since it hadn't been written so that one could actually decipher it, it wasn't a question of being able or unable to do so though. Croire used the words couldn't be deciphered towards Renya with the implication that the elves hadn't been able to grasp the intention behind Renya's letter.
As a last resort the elven emperor forwarded the letter to Croire and earnestly requested her to teach him Renya's intention if it's something she's aware of.
In exchange for a not small remuneration, Croire sent a short reply stating, “It tells you to send normal letters”, to the emperor.
Renya praised that as being something really skillful for a rebut.
On top of it being far easier to understand than an explanation that it's merely an act of revenge, it also doesn't worsen the relationship.

“What's written in there?” (Shion)

Shion's voice pulls Renya, who was deep in thought, back to reality.
The contents of the emperor's letter were normal, but all of it was written in elvish.
Naturally Shion couldn't read it at all.
I wonder what he's thinking to use elvish in a letter that's sent to a human country? Renya ponders.
Since the Trident Principality is a country of a reasonable scale boasting power ranked second only to the Holy Kingdom, the probability that there's no one capable of reading elvish in the principality is probably next to zero, but if it was a small country with a corresponding scale, it wouldn't be odd for there to be no people that could read said language either, Renya feels.
Since elves are a race that isn't often seen on the human continent to begin with, there's no way that their language is widely known.
By the way, this situation doesn't apply to Klinge where Renya resides.
After all one can commonly see elves when walking through the city.
Moreover, if there are so many elves, there will naturally also be humans who try to learn their language.
As it seems that the majority of those people are found amongst the merchants, several elvish language classes have already been set up and the number of humans capable of using elvish has been steadily growing.
But then again, this is a matter limited to the citizens. The military authorities, which are Renya's subordinates, are mostly composed of humans that can't use elvish at all.
The reason for that seems to be that there's no use for it, but Renya secretly harbored the sinful idea that they will probably change their attitude if he lined up a full set of beautiful elven women in front of their eyes.

“It's about the selection of the elven hero having finished and them wanting the elven hero to meet with the human hero. In line with this the letter mentions that they wish to dispatch a diplomat to us for the sake of a preparatory meeting, but…hasn't this merely turned into a double effort…? Wouldn't it have been better if he had sent a proper letter from the start…?” (Renya)

The second half of Renya's remark was something Shion didn't understand as to what it was about, but seemingly perceiving that Renya is irritated, she smiles wryly.

“Besides…I wonder, why is that elven emperor sending such a letter to me? It only increases the workload as I have to ask Her Majesty the Archduchess whether it's actually alright to do so anyway.” (Renya)

“That is…it's just a guess, but that emperor likely puts more importance on you than on my mother.” (Shion)

Upon saying that with a bitter smile, Renya looks at Shion with a face full of question marks.

“How should I say it…the archduchess of a human principality is probably an existence of very little interest to the elven emperor.” (Shion)

Shion says while thinking, Although that's probably something not limited to the archduchess.
Basically the elves are a race that don't have much interest in other races.
It's said that in recent years the number of elves for whom that statement doesn't apply has increased, but despite this the majority of elves doesn't show any interest in the other races and continents and there are many elves who completely stay amongst each other.
Speaking of humans who are paid attention to among the elves, and moreover that elven emperor, I wonder whether there's any apart from Renya, Shion ponders.

“Even if you say something like that, someone like me is no more than one of her subordinates though?” (Renya)

Yet it seems that the person himself isn't aware of that.

“I'm certain that…Her Majesty the Archduchess would burst into loud laughter, if she heard those words.” (Shion)

As for making Renya a noble; that was pretty much a result of the archduchess publicly being expected to put a collar around his neck, but Shion and Mayria were well aware that there's no way for the archduchess herself to believe in something like that.
Given that the surroundings would nag at her if she hadn't done so, she tried arranging something like a restraint for form's sake; these are very likely the archduchess' real thoughts.
In Renya's eyes something like social status bears almost no significance at all.
He simply settled into becoming a margrave since he thought that it seemed less troublesome to just go along with it. It's obvious that he will readily throw the title away and abscond to somewhere else if it become too inconvenient for him.
For that reason alone the current fact that Renya is properly getting involved in capital investment and domestic affairs was something beyond the archduchess' expectations.

“If it's too much trouble for you, Renya, wouldn't it be alright for you to wholly delegate the matter by sending the letter to Her Majesty the Archduchess and ask her to deal with the negotiations from her side?” (Shion)

How typical for someone as bad at thinking as Shion. She seems to simplistically believe that all the troublesome matters should be passed away to the capital.

“That's probably a faultless approach.” (Renya)

In Renya's eyes the issue is the emperor.
I feel like it's not something that will turn into a particular problem even if I handle it somewhat irresponsibly, but where matters concern the heroes, it's expected to be handled between countries, so I can't say so either.
Even going by the chain of command, entrusting the matter to the archduchess' side is a justified measure. It's also not a mistake to have the civil officials of the capital, who have abundant experience and a large number of people, do their best rather than holding the meeting in Renya's territory which still lacks civil officials.
No matter how little interest the elves might have in other races, that's something at a level that even they should understand, but I wonder whether there are no civil officials who express their opinion to the elven emperor, Renya ends up puzzled.
But because he doesn't know the current state of the elven country, no answers will present themselves to him, no matter how much he broods over it, as such, Renya completely shelved those thoughts for the time being and started to take out writing utensils to compose a letter to the archduchess for the sake of requesting her to deal with the elven country.

Chapter end