Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure

I waved at the citizens with a smile on my face, but I also said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The duke wasn't offended when he heard this and just calmly said, "I'm sure that there's something that we can talk about when we have a chance to talk alone. I hope that you will not reject me."

I didn't look at the duke, but I could tell from the tone of his voice what he wanted.

Still, this was also what I had wanted to see since this would give me the chance to get more information about the duke.

So I just gave a simple nod in the end.

The duke didn't say anything, but the pat that he gave on my shoulder was more than enough for me.

After waving at the citizens for a bit longer, we went back inside the carriage and sat back down.

I couldn't help looking at the duke for a bit before turning to look out the window.

The duke had matched my gaze with a smile on his face the entire time, as if he wasn't afraid to look at me head on. It seemed that this man really did have nerves of steel, or rather a face that was as thick as a city wall with how shameless he was.

Either way, it didn't seem like he would make a mistake unless I guided him into it and even then, it would take a while.

But there was something outside the window that made me a bit annoyed.

It was the amount of guards that were standing in the crowd.

These were guards that were wearing ordinary clothes and had their weapons hidden that were standing in the crowd. It was clear that they were doing all that they could to blend into the background.

But there was a reason why they were there in the first place.

They were there because…they were forcing the crowd to act this way.

It seemed that this was all set up by the duke as a show of goodwill, but the people of the city naturally weren't happy about this. Even if the enemies were defeated, that didn't mean that all of their problems were solved.

There were still many things that had to be done and a parade was the last thing they cared about.

This was more than enough to show me what kind of noble the duke was, even though I already knew.

Still, I was angry because of it.

When we arrived at the manor, the duke invited us all in for the meal that he had prepared for us. But this meal wasn't just one with the duke, it was an entire banquet that included all of the nobles in the city.

The dishes that were being served…were very luxurious.

It was clear that this wasn't something that should have been available in a city like Vayne City that had been surrounded by the enemies. Or at least that would have been the case if the nobles even cared about the citizens.

But it was clear that the nobles of this city didn't care about their people.

The only thing that they cared about was their own wellbeing and their own comfort, so the people below suffered.

While they were stuffing their faces with these delicacies, I could just imagine the people who I saw outside in the streets starving. They had been forced to hold that parade instead of doing what little work they could to scrounge up some food.

As for the hope that the duke would actually pay them something for participating in the parade, that was not a hope that I had.

I would have liked to remove this duke and these nobles as soon as possible, but it just simply wasn't the time.

So I had no choice but to apologize in secret to the people of Vayne City for not being able to help them. I just hoped that they would be able to hold on a bit longer until this war was over and we came back to take care of Duke Yuletide.

As soon as we arrived, there were many nobles that came to surround me.

It wasn't that they had any ill intentions, but rather they had the same idea as the duke.

All of them seemed to have heard about what had happened in the battle against the Vikal Kingdom army, so the first thing that they asked me was…

"So I heard that there were ants that attacked the Vikal Kingdom army…"

"I heard that the ants surrounded the Vikal Kingdom troops…"

"I heard that the general was even ripped apart by these ants…"

Everything that they said to me was related in some way to the Chimera Ants.

Though I had no idea where they had heard these things, it was clear that they had information about the battle that normal people shouldn't have.

If I had to guess where their information came from, my guess would be that it came from the spies that they had placed among the ten thousand troops that had been given to us.

Not all of them were refugees, there were also spies from the duke and the nobles that were among these ten thousand troops. That was why I had never had them fight on the frontlines, I just had to do support tasks.

But it was impossible to hide the matter of the ants with how big the matter became.

In the end, it was the duke who saved me from them by asking me to talk in secret.

There were some that wanted to follow me to keep me safe, but I stopped them since I knew that it was impossible for the duke to do anything to me here. If he tried, then he would be the one that would suffer in the end.

When we sat down in that private room, the duke looked at me and said, "So, it seems like you have quite a few secrets. Do you want to work with me?"