By Zephyria 
Side Story 6
“Gerold!” I’ve been waiting!”
Then he even puckered up his lips as if he was going to kiss the man named Gerold.
Of course, the man named Gerold immediately recoiled and pushed the Owner of the inn away.
“What are you doing? Get lost?”
“Oh, come on. It’s not like it’s the first time.”
Lorenz and Julian, who had been watching the Owner of the inn clinging only to Gerold with a dumbfounded look, as if greeting Prince Pakirius first was only a matter of showing minimal courtesy, soon had to tear their gaze away from him due to an undeniable presence.
Someone was opening the door of the inn and coming out. It was a man they had never seen before, even though they had been staying at this inn for several days.
The reason they were so sure they had never seen him before was that there was no way they could forget a man as conspicuous as he was.
Big. That was the first thought that came to mind.
Even though the people around him were all tall, he was a man whose exceptionally tall height and broad shoulders caught the eye. Compared to his size, he gave the impression of being agile rather than dull, and Lorenz was confident that he would be subdued in less than a second if that man was his opponent.
“Eddie.”
He naturally called out a name and approached, then, without paying any attention to the people around him, wrapped his arms around Prince Pakirius’ waist and kissed him on the cheek. It was such an affectionate and natural act.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
Prince Pakirius also returned the kiss without panicking.
Ah.
Lorenz and Julian watched the affectionate and natural skinship and soon realized who this man in front of them was, and what the identity of the large sword he was carrying on his back was.
The Hero of the Empire, the Hero who had defeated the Demon King twice, the man who had become a Duke of the Empire as a reward, and the protagonist of the rampant rumors that he would soon marry Prince Pakirius.
Ketron. He received the surname Valhalla, but his name was more often mentioned as the Hero of the Empire or Hero than as Duke Valhalla.
* * *
That dawn, Lorenz couldn’t calm his troubled heart and tossed and turned in bed.
There were several reasons for his troubled heart. Things like how reckless he had realized his asceticism was, and the anger at the humiliation he had suffered at the mansion of Viscount de Laurent today.
And most of all, it was about the man he had fallen in love with at first sight.
He never thought that he could be someone who liked men. He realized it when he unintentionally fell in love with someone he couldn’t dare to approach in the capital.
Besides, that person had a lover.
The protagonist of a very famous love affair that bards constantly sang about. A couple of the century that he had heard about even in Montar, which was far away.
But to fall in love with one of them.
“Haa.”
Lorenz sighed as if the ground was sinking. He couldn’t fall asleep at all. Julian, who was sleeping on the opposite bed, was snoring softly, probably because he was too tired from the day, so it seemed difficult to wake him up and spend this dawn together.
Lorenz staggered out of bed.
Then he saw the travel bag in a mess, with the clothes inside thrown out haphazardly because he had said he was going to the banquet this morning.
I should organize this.
Lorenz turned on the magic lantern and sat down to organize his bag.
Thud, roll.
In the process, something fell out of the pocket of the pants he was wearing on the first day and rolled across the floor of the inn.
Lorenz reflexively grabbed it and narrowed his eyes, wondering what it was, before belatedly realizing that it was the family treasure he had brought without his parents’ knowledge.
It was an Artifact, but its function was not passed down to anyone other than the family’s successor, so Lorenz didn’t even know exactly what it was.
The Artifact was in the form of a ring, but he hadn’t put it on because he was afraid it would look like a hick’s item because of its crude design, so he had put it in his pocket on the first day.
“……Hmm.”
Lorenz looked at it and put the ring on his hand. Well, it’s a family treasure, so I won’t suddenly be cursed if I wear it… He had a big, naive heart.
However, as soon as he put on the ring, his vision blurred, and Lorenz thought for a moment that something was wrong.
What is it? The moment he thought that, Lorenz’s vision was not in the room, but outside the room, in the hallway outside the room they were staying in.
“……!”
He wanted to scream, but he suddenly remembered that Julian was asleep, so he hurriedly covered his mouth.
Lorenz, who was sitting still and rolling his eyes, soon realized what the function of this ring was.
This ring provides eyes that allow me to freely see where I want!
His body was in the room, but his vision was an Artifact that could go anywhere beyond the room.
It even shared not only the vision but also the sound of the place!
Lorenz felt a sudden surge of energy in his body, which had been a little sluggish from lying down for so long. Oh my god, what is going on?
Lorenz got excited and started wandering around with the ring’s vision.
Of course, even though it was a precious Artifact, there was a limit, so he could only wander around the vicinity of the inn, and it was impossible to go further than that, but that alone was an amazing item.
If I had this, it would be very useful when dealing with political enemies in the political arena, and it would be very useful when going on reconnaissance missions on the battlefield!
But in a rural territory like Montar, it was a useless object even if it existed.
I thought that a family of meritorious subjects had too little even if they had nothing, but my family had such a great thing.
Lorenz was excited and wandered around diligently all that dawn before returning to the inn. After all, it was late, so there were few people walking around and there was little to see.
Today, it seemed like he could be satisfied with just seeing the potential of this ring.
However, as Lorenz was about to turn the ring’s vision back to his room, he suddenly had an idea in his head when he moved his vision inside the inn.
No, to be exact, it was the face of one person.
“…….”
Lorenz swallowed hard, unknowingly tense. A faint conscience pricked at him.
Is it okay? Should I? …They won’t know anyway, I just want to see his sleeping face, so wouldn’t it be okay?
With a tense face, he thought that, but in the end, he couldn’t resist the impulse and moved the ring’s vision to another room inside the second floor.
Then, in the other room he moved to, he was able to find a familiar face. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the person he wanted, but they were faces he had seen even during the day today.
“Mr. Gerold, are you asleep?”
It was the Owner of the inn.
The man, who came out shaking his wet hair as if he had just taken a shower at this early hour, carefully called out to the man on the bed, but when he realized that he was unable to hear his voice and was hopelessly asleep, he smiled bitterly.
“I made you overdo it.”
The man muttered that and approached the bedside, then sat down in front of the sleeping man with his eyes closed.
As far as Lorenz knew, the man named Gerold was a member of the Hero’s party and one of the Prince’s shadows. In addition, he was the younger brother of Marquis Rivalt, who was a close aide to the Emperor.
“I want to see you with your eyes open… Is that too greedy of me?”
The Owner of the inn threw away the pessimistic expression that Lorenz had seen throughout his stay at the inn and looked at the man with a sweet and affectionate face, talking to himself. He even gently stroked the man’s black hair with his outstretched hand.
“See you tomorrow.”
Lorenz gasped.
Even though Lorenz was a virgin, he couldn’t help but know what the two of them had done last night. The Owner of the inn and the Prince’s aide were in that kind of relationship!
Lorenz, who had only just realized that he had a tendency to like men, felt an unknown sense of kinship filling his heart, but he couldn’t bear to watch any longer because it pricked his conscience to secretly watch other people’s personal lives like this.
He watched the Owner of the inn gently kiss the other person before hurriedly moving to another room.
Fortunately, Lorenz found the person he wanted in a room not far away. The man he had fallen in love with at first sight.
But on top of another man.
“……!”
Lorenz inhaled.
The air in the room, which was visibly moist, was hot. They weren’t in the middle of the act, but from the afterglow they were enjoying, it was impossible not to know what the two of them had done, as if it hadn’t been long since they had finished. Especially since he had just seen something like that.