By Zephyria 
Side Story 2
I’m screwed.
Arthur listlessly thought as he looked around the unnecessarily fancy and large garden.
He felt sorry for Lorentz, who had been chanting for success, success all the way here, but frankly, Arthur didn’t expect Lorentz to succeed and return home in glory.
It was just that he had been asked by the noble families he had known for a long time, and he was worried that Lorentz, who was his childhood friend, might suffer alone in the capital and die a lonely death, so he followed him out of concern.
Lorentz, who was furious that the Montar family’s people were blocking him and said he would go alone, was fortunate that he didn’t refuse Arthur’s company, thinking that he needed at least one attendant, since Arthur was familiar and comfortable with him.
Lorentz, Lorentz… I can read you like a book, but how are you going to succeed in the capital, where people are so stingy?
Besides, Lorentz may have great ambition for success, but he was far from being stingy or cold-hearted. Arthur didn’t disagree that he was quite smart, but even if the noble faction nobles were largely purged, this noble society wouldn’t be easy enough to survive just by that.
Arthur clicked his tongue, but he knew that Lorentz was the type to not give up until he was thoroughly burned, so he didn’t know about success, but he followed him with the thought that he should at least prevent him from sitting on the street and crying.
But he didn’t know it would be ruined before it even started. And that he would get lost in the Imperial Palace.
As expected of Lorentz, who didn’t have a great plan compared to his grand dream of succeeding in the capital, they dropped their luggage at a cheap inn as soon as they arrived in the capital and went straight to the Imperial Palace without any plans.
As expected of the Imperial Palace in the capital, where anyone with the status of a noble could freely go anywhere open to the public, no one stopped them, and the two of them came deep into the Imperial Palace as their feet led them.
And they got lost. This is a story that would be criticized as cliché even if it were used in a theater. In Arthur’s view, this was just a show that Lorentz was doing to make people laugh.
The place where they got lost in the Imperial Palace was quite unusual. At this point, the goal should be to return safely, let alone succeed in the capital.
“Aren’t we committing some kind of crime of insulting the Imperial Family?”
Arthur, who was less nervous than Lorentz, looked around and said this.
Lorentz was thinking the same thing, but he denied it loudly on purpose.
“Don’t talk nonsense, what Imperial Family insult! And I told you to use honorifics, didn’t I?”
“Honorifics or not, I think we’re screwed. I haven’t seen a single person since a while ago. Besides, this place doesn’t look like a place where ordinary nobles can enter.”
That was true.
It was a particularly well-decorated garden. It was a large garden that seemed to require at least ten professional managers, and the flowers, which seemed to have been heavily nourished this morning and were moist even in the clear weather without a single rain cloud, seemed to be very well maintained.
If it was just an ordinary flower garden inside the Imperial Palace, it would have been enough to be proud as an imperial citizen, thinking that the empire’s Imperial Palace was being managed so well! But unfortunately, if it was a place open to everyone, there wouldn’t be so few people.
Of course, Lorentz immediately denied that.
“But if it was such a place, wouldn’t there be someone guarding it? Like a guard. There was no one, so there’s no problem.”
“Hmm.”
Of course, Lorentz’s words weren’t entirely unreasonable. But Arthur frowned at the uneasiness.
Who in this Imperial Palace has the power to have such a garden? The answer is too obvious.
While Arthur was seriously worried, Lorentz, who had discovered something, excitedly hit Arthur’s arm.
“Arthur, look over there! There’s someone!”
Arthur quickly raised his head. There were people.
However, they were people who seemed to have an aura that wasn’t ordinary even from a distance, so Arthur had to make a sullen face.
This doesn’t seem like a time to be happy, Lorentz…
The first thing that caught his eye was the brilliant silver hair that seemed to be made by melting silver. A silver-haired man wearing clothes that looked luxurious even from a distance, and a black-haired man standing next to him.
They also seemed to have discovered Lorentz and Arthur and were getting closer.
And Arthur witnessed it. The silver-haired man’s brilliant appearance.
Wow.
Arthur momentarily thought that Lorentz was partly right when he said he had to go to the capital.
Of course, if you can see such a face, you have to come to the capital no matter what.
The two stopped as if they had no intention of getting closer than a certain distance. In a daze, Lorentz and Arthur also stopped. But the confrontation didn’t last long.
Because it was so clear who was at fault in this situation.
The black-haired man stood in front of the silver-haired man and guarded the two.
“Who are you?”
“Ah.”
At that moment, something flashed through Arthur’s mind.
Who has the status to naturally ask who you guys are in the Imperial Palace, who takes a person who seems to be a bodyguard, and who is the Imperial Family member with silver hair.
No, there are only two Imperial Family members in this Imperial Palace right now. If you say silver hair there, there’s only one more.
Arthur, a commoner who only had a little power in the Montar territory, couldn’t open his mouth first, unlike Lorentz, who was a noble. Because then it would really be an insult to the Imperial Family.
Arthur poked Lorentz in the side. It meant don’t just stand there like an idiot and say something quickly.
Fortunately, Lorentz, who had been blankly frozen, soon came to his senses when Arthur painfully poked him in the side.
“I, I, I am Lorentz Montar, the second son of the Count Montar family.”
Hey, you idiot!
Arthur barely managed to hold back his scream. It wasn’t the time to introduce the Count Montar family, a rural noble family in the north, but he had to explain first that it was purely a mistake how he got here…!
While Arthur was screaming inwardly, unexpectedly, the black-haired man next to the silver-haired man tilted his head and pretended to know him.
“Count Montar family? That’s a local noble from the north. Why is the second son here?”
The black-haired man seemed to know the Count Montar family accurately. Of course, it wasn’t because Montar was famous.
The current Montar was just a rural noble family, even though it may have been a meritorious family that once made a lot of noise. The reason why the man knew Montar seemed to be because he knew all the information about the empire’s nobles, even the not-so-famous families in the provinces. As if that was his natural job.
While Lorentz, who still hadn’t fully come to his senses, was stammering, the man sighed and opened his mouth.
“For your information, when I say ‘here,’ I’m not talking about the Imperial Palace, but this garden. Why did you enter a place where only the Imperial Family can enter?”
Lorentz shut his mouth. He was too embarrassed to say he was lost, and his face turned red. He didn’t want to commit the crime of insulting the Imperial Family, so he finally spat out the truth.
“…I got lost.”
That was the only truth. The black-haired man, who had been narrowing his eyes and looking at Lorentz as if he were suspicious for a moment, soon realized that it was a plausible statement and sighed as if he was dumbfounded.
“What kind of guys are these? Really, you guys…”
That’s when he was about to point his finger at Lorentz and Arthur and growl.
“Ebon, it’s okay.”
The silver-haired man, who had been silent, stopped Ebon, the black-haired man. There was a gentle smile on his face, which made the man seem to have a good personality. It seemed like he would actually be good.
Ebon, the black-haired man called, frowned as he looked at the silver-haired man who seemed to be easily forgiving the two.
“What do you mean it’s okay, Paki.”
“It seems like they really came in by mistake, so don’t be too hard on them. They said they got lost. They don’t seem to be lying.”
“Paki, this is a flower garden where only the Imperial Family can enter. These idiots have committed the crime of insulting the Imperial Family.”
“It doesn’t seem intentional.”
Lorentz and Arthur swallowed hard, realizing that their fate depended on the silver-haired man.
Fortunately, whether it was because status was everything, or because he couldn’t beat the silver-haired man even if it wasn’t, the black-haired man frowned annoyedly, but asked in a slightly softened tone.
“You look like bumpkins who came up from the countryside, but how do you have to get lost to crawl in here? And how did you avoid the Sorcery alarm?”
“Excuse me?”