The Prince Doesn’t Cry From Mere Onions

ing more work for Miss Lara with my clumsiness than helping her.”

With a bashful smile, Erich scratched the back of his head.
Seeing Erich do so, Anna’s feelings also loosened a little.

T/N: PROTECC ERICH ahem anyways

She’d thought that all the city folks were arrogant pricks, but apparently there were completely fine guys like this one, too.

Soon, after Anna returned with water bottles, her arms were re-filled with snacks and alcohol.

“This is on the house, since you bought a lot earlier this afternoon! If you can’t seem to sleep, feel free to eat these.”

“Oh gracious, thank you so much for this.”

The soldiers’ tense faces also loosen softly, one by one they also brought out beef jerky or other finger foods from their person.

They also had candy, sweets, and snack-worthy breads that they’d brought to give to the city children for questioning.
Anna was unable to hide her sparkling eyes.

“Hehe, I came here to serve you well, but it’s like I’m getting treated instead.”

“It’s nothing.
Are you the owner of this restaurant, miss?”

“My mom and I run it together.
So have you found that Ber-what’s-his-face you were looking for yet?”

“No.
We had no clues.”

Delighted in the inside, Anna continued.

“That’s too bad, the village is pretty widespread, so it must have been hard enough going about the entire length of it.
Why have you come to this village if you had no clues?”

“We’re using the process of elimination after tracking down his traces.
We’ve already gone to all the other places nearby here, and this village is the last.”

“…What if, just what if, have you considered that your person may have already died while wandering around?”

All the soldiers, and even Franz, shook their heads.

“He is not someone to die so easily.”

Thanks to that, Anna once again confirmed it with herself.

That the person they were seeking was, indeed, the Bertram that she knew.

Put another way, it also meant that they knew ‘the Bertram Anna didn’t know,’ too.

In curiosity, Anna cautiously opened her mouth.

“Is ‘that person’ a high-up man? If he’s a noble, then people like us shouldn’t be messing with him even by mistake.”

As they had not decided on a stance about this yet, the soldiers all turned their heads to look at Franz.
Franz considered the question for a moment.

If he revealed that Bertram was an invaluable figure, you could never be sure that all sorts of flies wouldn’t flock to him to get something out of him somehow.

“He is not a noble.”

That was about 50% the truth.
He was royalty instead.

“However, he does have a contractual relationship with nobles, and because he had left the capital without fulfilling the contract, we are currently tracking him down.”

This too was not a lie.

After all, Bertram and Franz had the contractual relationship of a prince and his knight.

“Though it would be great if you could observe proper decorum, if need be it doesn’t matter if you must use force.
He’s very durable, so you won’t find a scratch on him.
If the man is caught, we plan to reward the village amply.”

He said the word ‘reward’ with strong emphasis, but Anna only looked uninspired.

There had never been a time before when some higher-up had promised they’d ‘do something-or-other’ to the village and kept it.
She had no expectations on that end.