Little Tyrant Doesn’t Want to Meet with a Bad End

The mountain roads of the Ascart Fiefdom sure aren’t easy to travel on.

This was the thought in Roel’s mind as he sat in a shaking carriage, looking out at the setting sun.

It had been two hours since they had left the village that produces Pamela wine. There were two roads leading from the village into the Worun Mountain Range, one from the east and one from the west. The eastern road was much rockier, whereas the western road was smoother. Needless to say, they chose the smoother western route.

Traveling after sundown defied the common sense of this world, but Charlotte’s supposed goal was to show Roel the starry night sky at the top of the mountain, so the matter didn’t appear too odd to him. Nevertheless, there was still one thing that roused Roel’s suspicions.

“Is there really a need for us to be in such a hurry? Didn’t you hire the villagers to hunt some animals on the eastern road? It’s a waste to leave right now after spending the money.”

“I was planning to have a bonfire party, but it turns out that there isn’t much firewood in the village during winter. I had to cancel those plans.”

“True, true.”

Roel glanced at Charlotte with a hint of surprise in his eyes. He didn’t expect someone who grew up in luxury like her to understand the difficulties of the commoners and consider this aspect.

“I thought that you’d be pretty spoiled given the environment you’ve lived in, but it looks like I had the wrong impression of you.”

“I was quite spoiled when I was younger, but ever since my father obtained a strange oil lamp, everything changed.”

Charlotte thought about everything that had happened a few years back with a bitter smile. Roel took a sip of tea as he blinked his eyes in a moment of quiet contemplation. For some reason, her words brought him an odd feeling of déjà vu.

“Oil lamp?”

“Yes. I think it happened around three years back. It was quite a mysterious oil lamp called the Soulcalming Lamp.”

“Pu! Cough cough cough!”

The moment Charlotte said the words ‘Soulcalming Lamp’, Roel suddenly began coughing violently. Noticing this, Charlotte quickly patted Roel’s back to soothe his discomfort.

“Darling, are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine. Hahaha. Do continue your story. What happened to the lamp afterward?”

“The Soulcalming Lamp is a consumable treasure my father bought from someone else. I’m not sure who that person is, but it seems like that person sold it quite cheaply, possibly as an expression of goodwill toward us. However, upon obtaining the lamp, my father suddenly became much stricter with me…”

It was as if Charlotte had finally found an outlet to vent all of the bitterness she had suffered in her childhood. She spoke of all of the grievances she had accumulated in her heart throughout the years, be it her difficult journey into the Land of Chaos, Tunsen, or attempting to explore the Twohorn Port. These trials had been incredibly tough on her, but she had no choice but to grit her teeth and persevere.

Listening to all of the difficulties she faced over the years, Roel lowered his head in guilt. He was incredibly familiar with that lamp—in fact, it had likely come right out of his hands. It should be the one he had sold to the Sorofyas back when he was in dire need of money.

He never expected the person purchasing the Soulcalming Lamp would be Charlotte’s father, Bruce Sorofya, and not even in his wildest imagination could he have fathomed that it would profoundly affect how Bruce chose to raise his daughter.

In a sense, it could be said that he had changed the trajectory of Charlotte’s life, and it frightened him to realize how a thoughtless action of his could stir such huge changes.

Looks like I mustn’t purchase the items in the System carelessly. Just a mere Soulcalming Lamp had put Charlotte through several years of difficulties… What if something I brought out ended up ruining someone else’s life?

Charlotte saw the fear in Roel’s eyes and mistook it for worry. She revealed a sweet smile before changing the topic.

“This part of the mountain road is quite rugged, so it can get quite bumpy. How is your body doing?”

“Hm? I’m fine. My condition hasn’t improved at all, but this bit of shakiness is still bearable,” replied Roel.

Typically speaking, the carriages of the Sorofyas had been both technologically and magically engineered to absorb the greatest degree of shock, maximizing the comfort of the passengers to the point that it didn’t feel like one was in a carriage at all. The shakiness they were experiencing at the moment showed just how horrible the path was, though the fact that they had switched to a smaller carriage played a huge part in that too.

The Diamond Rivière was far too big to navigate the narrow mountain roads that would bring them up to the top of the mountain, so they could only switch to a smaller carriage. Based on Roel’s examination, it should have been a one-person carriage. The two of them were still able to sit side by side due to their relatively smaller sizes, but it was so snug that it left hardly any room for them to move around in.

As for why they were sitting side by side instead of opposite one another, that was under Charlotte’s insistence. She was oddly obstinate about this, and Roel was hardly in any condition to do something about it either.

Suddenly, there was a major bump which caused Roel’s limp body to tilt sideward. Charlotte’s eyes lit up in anticipation. She calmly opened up her hands and allowed Roel to fall right into her embrace.

“Hm? Darling?”

“Ah, m-my apologies.”

The sudden tender sensation on his body had Roel’s nerves tingling, and he quickly attempted to rise back up. Unexpectedly, Charlotte suddenly wrapped her arms around him, holding him in place.

“Since you aren’t able to sit stably on your own, it would be better for you to lean on me instead.”

“You… Haa, forget it.”

Looking at the mischievous smile on this young beauty, Roel heaved a helpless sigh. After all of his attempts at resistance had been rendered futile over the last few days, he had pretty much given up on fighting back.

The more he resisted, the stronger Charlotte would come at him. Since that was the case, he might as well just stay put.

Roel lay there in resignation like a dead man while Charlotte happily poked at his cheeks, seemingly finding joy in it. The carriage continued to make its way up the mountainside, and soon, they arrived at the top.

“Young miss, how is this place?”

“Not too bad. Let’s stop here.”

Charlotte took a brief look outside before giving a nod of approval. The attendants immediately began setting up temperature regulation and anti-wind magic tools around the vicinity, preparing it for a romantic nighttime rendezvous under the stars.

While waiting, Charlotte observed the cluster of mountains still ahead of them, she quietly estimated the amount of time they had.

If it’s just tonight, we should have enough time.

She stroked Roel’s black hair subconsciously as she ran through her plans once more. Once the preparations were ready, the attendants rushed over to open the carriage doors and invite them out. The two then slowly made their way toward the table and chairs placed neatly on the mountain peak.

The sun had already set by now, so the mountain roads and forests had all plunged into darkness. There was no light pollution or anything of that sort in this world. What lay before Roel’s eyes was the natural night scenery of the Worun Mountain Range.

This was Roel’s first time being in the middle of the wilderness like this.

Back in his previous life, he did tour around his home country, which was filled with mountains and rivers, but all he really remembered was just the huge, stifling crowd that was constantly with him no matter where he went.

Even after he arrived in this world, he mostly spent his time in the relatively prosperous Ascart City. It was only during his carriage rides to Holy Capital Loren that he occasionally camped outside. The last time he really saw the night scenery was when he was viewing the Nightglow Butterflies in the Leumann Forest with Charlotte. That being said, there was still quite a big crowd around them then, and the star of the show then wasn’t the scenery either.

The usual strong winds at the peak of the mountain had been dampened by the magic tools Charlotte’s attendants had set up, so by the time they reached Roel, they were no more than a cooling breeze. Roel first glanced at the specks of light coming from the village below before looking at the sky above.

“Waaaa! Are there supposed to be that many stars in the sky?”

Roel widened his eyes in amazement when he saw the brilliant clusters of stars that filled up the entire nightscape above. It was not that he couldn’t see the stars back at Ascart City, but viewing the night sky at the top of a remote mountain was a different experience in itself.

At this high altitude, the stars felt much closer, and their faint twinkle seemed slightly brighter than usual too. The vastness of the cosmos spread out before him, along with the light breeze, left Roel feeling liberated from his very core, as if something that had been stifling him all along had finally been released.

It was no wonder why people tended to look for environs with a superior natural beauty to go into retreat while recuperating. It was indeed useful.

With his body and soul falling into a relaxed state, a smile naturally appeared on Roel’s face. Traveling here took a great deal of trouble, but he felt that it was all worth it for this majestic view.

“It really feels good sitting beneath this beautiful starry sky.”

“Doesn’t it? I knew you would like it, darling.”

“The wonders of nature are incredible. Even without the Nightglow Butterflies, the night sky is already magnificent as it is,” remarked Roel.

The knowledge that this wondrous land was under the rule of the Ascart House brought him pride. It was just a pity that this beautiful scenery was unlikely to ever be developed into a tourist location in this era. Natural scenes like this simply weren’t considered a spectacle to the denizens of Sia.

People craved to see the rare and inaccessible. In this world where humans had yet to fully encroach on nature, scenes of the great outdoors were easily available and weren’t something to marvel about. On the contrary, it was man made attractions that tended to draw people in more. It was interesting how it was the direct opposite of how things were in Roel’s previous world.

The thought of this made Roel shake his head in pity. Then, he turned to the auburn-haired girl behind him with a grateful smile.

“Thank you, Charlotte, I’m feeling much better now.”

“That’s good. If you want, we can drop by here often in the future.”

“Drop by here often… I’m afraid that would be difficult. After being out for so many days, I’m sure that I have a great deal of work awaiting me once I return.”

Roel looked at the sky with a bitter smile. It had been five days since he left Ascart City. Since he didn’t bring any of his guards with him, Anna and the rest of the estate were likely to be incredibly worried about him. Most likely, they would send someone over very soon. On top of that, his beloved sister, Alicia, was about to return as well.

To be honest, the half a month without Alicia was quite uncomfortable for Roel. They had been practically glued to one another for the last few years, and this was the first time they were separated for so long.

While Roel was thinking about the upcoming schedules and work he would have to settle once he returned, Charlotte was making her preparations too. She gazed at the distant stars for a moment before suddenly posing a question to her lover.

“Darling, would you forgive me if I were to do something wrong?”

“Do something wrong? What did you do wrong?”

“…”

Faced with Roel’s question, Charlotte fell completely silent, not saying a word at all. Seeing this, Roel pondered for a moment before slowly giving his response.

“Since it’s you, I don’t think it’s likely for you to make any grave errors. However, even if you were to err, as long as you’re willing to earnestly repent, I think that I’d be able to forgive you.”

“… Definitely. I’ll definitely make it up to you, darling.”

Charlotte grabbed onto Roel’s hand tightly as she replied with a grave tone that sounded almost like a vow. Right after that, Roel suddenly felt his head falling as a sudden rush of fatigue devoured his consciousness.

“Ah? Wait a moment, this mana…”

Roel immediately realized that he had fallen under the effects of a spell, but before he could even finish his words, he had already fallen into a deep slumber. Charlotte quickly stepped forward to catch his body before muttering gently under her breath.

“Goodnight, darling.”