Chapter 31: Shoplifting Girl
The next day.
I had spent the morning completing a C-rank request from the adventurer's guild that Anna had asked me to do, and had taken a half-day off in the afternoon.
Unusually, I didn't have any particular plans.
So, I wandered aimlessly through the market.
As usual, the market was crowded with people. Then, someone came running from across the street, cutting through the crowd.
It was a little girl. She was dressed in a dress.
She was probably around ten years old.
She has a pointy, cat-like face. Her eyes are as big as crystals. Her appearance is like that of a doll, with an unworldly cuteness.
The girl, for some reason had a desperate look on her face.
「Oi! Somebody! Please catch that child!」
A voice came over the girl's shoulder.
What? Is it possible that someone is trying to kidnap the girl?
That's what I thought, but when I saw that it was a shopkeeper I knew who requested the girl's capture, I decided which side to join.
When the girl tried to walk by me, I caught her foot. Her center of gravity collapsed forward, and I supported it with my right arm.
I hold her slender frame in my arms.
「Let go of me! Let go of me! You idiot!」
The girl in my arms tries to resist, flapping her legs. But there was no way she could escape.
Eventually, the owner of the store caught up with me.
He put his hands on his knees and breathing heavily.
「Haa haa......」
「What's going on?」
「This girl ate our products and ran away. She grabbed an apple from the store and ate it without permission.」
「I didn't do anything sneaky like eat away! I didn't know you needed money to eat an apple!」
「What do you mean?」 I asked the girl.
According to her...
As she walked through the market, she saw delicious looking apples lined up in front of the store.
She was just a little hungry, so she grabbed one and ate it. she didn't know that you had to pay to eat an apple from the store. Then the owner yelled at me, 「Hey!」 she was so startled that she ran away as quickly as she could.
「You can't use that excuse! You little thief!」
「What! You said I am a thief!? No way! Shopkeeper take back what you just said! 」
「If you want me to take it back, you'll have to pay me first!」
「Ugh ....... I don't have...... any money.......」
「If that's the case, I'll have a knight on patrol come over. I'll call your parents and have them pay for the crime of eating away.」
「Please don't call a knight! I'm asking for my life! If they call my parents, it won't be good for you either.」
「Why is that? What do you mean?」
「Well, that is...」
「It's no use trying to scare me. If you want me not to report you so badly, you'll have to pay for the apples first.」
「I'm telling you, there's no money!」
The conversation was going in circles.
At this rate, the shopkeeper would surely call the knight. Then the girl would be squeezed stiffly.
I'm sorry to hear that...... It can't be helped.
「Then I will pay for it.」
「「Eh!?」」
Both the girl and the shopkeeper looked at me at the same time.
「Kaizer-san are you serious?」
The owner asks incredulously.
「Yeah. She doesn't seem to have any money. She seems to be feeling sorry for herself.」
I said, and give the shopkeeper the money.
Nearly ten times the price of an apple
「This... this much......?」
「Well, just think of it as a kind of nuisance fee.」
「If my regular customer say so....... Hey, little girl. You should thank Kaizer-san for that.」
The owner apparently forgave her.
When I made a 「Shu shu」 gesture to the girl, as if I were swatting away a fly, she peeled her eyes back and peeked out her tongue, 「Nbeh」
「This gawker!」
「Shut up! Baka baka!」
The girl only agitated the shopkeeper and then ran away from the front of the store. After a while, she called out to me.
「Thank you. You saved my life.」
「That's good to know.」
「But why did you pay him for me? You and I are strangers. you shouldn't have to bother paying for me.」
The girl looks flabbergasted.
「Are you by any chance...... a lolicon? Are you trying to ingratiate yourself with me and do something disreputable in return?」
「No, of course not.」
I chuckled.
「I'm not sure I could have handled it any other way. And you didn't know that you couldn't eat the apple without paying for it, did you? If that's the case, you won't be doing that again, and I thought it would be too much to call the knights and your parents.」
「You know, I could have been spouting off some makeshift lie.」
「If you were, you wouldn't have asked me that. Besides, I can tell by looking in your eyes that you're not a liar.」
It's an adventurer's intuition.
「Ku...... Hahaha!」
The girl suddenly burst into a high-pitched laugh.
「You're a funny guy, you know that? I like you!」
She liked me.
「What's your name?」
「It's Kaizer」
「Is that so. Kaizer... hmmm? Kaizer? Do you perhaps have a daughter name Elsa?」
「Elsa is indeed my daughter....... Do you know her?」
「Did I know her? She...」
It was at that moment that the girl was about to say something.
「Prim-sama!」
(T/N: Raw: プリム)
A familiar, dignified voice sounded.
I looked and saw Elsa running towards me, wearing the armor of the Knight.
Prim... is that her name?
「Prim-sama. I've been looking for you. You slipped out of the castle again without permission. The people in the castle and the knights were in a panic.」
「Fuu fuu fuu. I did everything I could to make sure no one would find out.」
「Don't be proud about it」
Elsa noticed me there, next to Prim.
「Father. Why are you here?」
「Nothing special. Anyway, do you know this child?」
「Do I know her...?」
I wonder what's going on. She's acting strangely choppy.
「Elsa is my Kingsguard.」
(T/N: Raw: 近衛兵だ)
Prim responded on Elsa's behalf.
「Kingsguard? That means.......」
Elsa nodded.
「This person is Prim-sama, the princess of this country.」
「Eh?!」
You mean... the princess!?
Daughter of His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen.
「Yes. My name is Prim Wagenstein. I am the only daughter of the great king, Sodom Wagenstein.」
(T/N: Raw: ヴァーゲンシュタイン and ソドム?ヴァーゲンシュタイン)
「Prim-sama, we should go back to the castle. Everyone's worried about you.」
「Fumu...... I still had a lot of things I wanted to do. I don't have any choice. I guess I'll just go along with it for now.」
Prim said so.
「Kaizer. Thank you for your help today. I'll see you later.」
And then she left.
「Princess! Please wait!」
Elsa hurriedly followed after her. From the look of her, she is probably being pushed around by the princess every day as a Kingsguard.
I didn't think that girl was a princess......
If the owner of the store had called the knight to summon her parents, he would have been in a lot of trouble by now. The highest authority in this country was coming. If he was not careful, the shopkeeper's head might be on the chopping block.
Perhaps the Princess' reluctance to be reported was more about that than self-defense.
I thought I was saving Prim's life, but as it turns out, I may have been saving the owner's life as well.
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