It had been a day since the palace was reclaimed. Though traces of the invasion remained, Arman had taken everything back, so it was a satisfying outcome.
Every Furgal soldier was arrested and thrown into the dungeon, restrained with magic-sealing shackles.
Arman had a scary look in his eyes as he planned to torture the generals just as they’d done to him, but Ruri stopped him. Dissatisfied though he was, she adamantly refused torture, as the mere thought of it was painful to her. Seeing as Ruri was the linchpin of the entire operation and was so opposed to the idea, Arman reluctantly agreed to drop it.
He clicked his tongue loudly in disappointment, but Ruri was relieved that the matter had been resolved peacefully. She had no intention of butting in on how Arman dealt with things as king. Not only was Ruri from another nation, but she was also a Beloved. She wasn’t about to involve herself in political matters between nations.
The people of the palace were breathing easier now that it had been reclaimed from Furgal and their fortunes had completely turned around. Slowly but surely, they would resume their duties.
Walking through the palace, Ruri was praised with tears in the eyes of every person she passed, which made her feel a little uncomfortable, but they wouldn’t stop even if she asked. To the people of the Nation of the Beast King, she was literally their savior.
Ruri was talking with Arman in the throne room, which was in pristine condition.
“Ruri, you really saved us this time. On behalf of the nation, I thank you,” Arman formally announced.
“Oh, you don’t have to do all that,” Ruri replied bashfully.
“However,” Arman started, causing her to look at him with a startled stare, “a Beloved plunging into a dangerous area right in the middle of a war is beyond asinine. You need to learn to have more concern for yourself. If a Beloved were to ever get wrapped up in a situation where they wound up dead, the Nation of the Beast King itself would be wiped off the map. Especially since you have so many supreme-level spirits attending you,” Arman elaborated, going into sermon mode for some reason and leaving Ruri unable to catch up.
“But... But...you couldn’t have stopped them without me, right? Did you forget the shape you were in when I arrived?”
Arman was in clean, good-quality clothes now, but when Ruri first got to the palace, his body and clothes had been in shreds. Anything could have happened to him at any time back then. In fact, in the middle of freeing all the soldiers from their cells, the general had come to the dungeon with the two Beloveds in tow. They had undoubtedly visited to inflict harm on Arman. If Ruri had arrived any later, something terrible might have been in store for him. She felt sort of slighted, being on the receiving end of a sermon after all she’d contributed.
“Be that as it may, don’t be too overconfident in yourself. For Jade’s sake as well,” Arman continued.
For Jade’s sake... That hit Ruri’s weak spot. She thought it was unfair bringing him into it, but she obediently nodded. “Okay...”
She didn’t think that her actions were wrong in regard to the incident, but it was a fact that she’d made Jade worry. Not only Jade, but Kotaro and Rin too. Considering all of that, it became harder for her to loudly proclaim that she was right with any confidence.
Arman awkwardly smiled at Ruri, who was visibly down on herself. “I’m not attacking you for coming to save us. Against a Beloved, I’m nothing more than an ordinary person. Only one Beloved can take on another. No one is arguing that, but just keep the people who really care for you more in mind.”
Ruri understood his argument but was miffed. “Is that something you should say, Beast King? You were the one who stayed behind so that Celestine-san and Padparadscha-san could run away. I feel like what you did was no different from what I did,” said Ruri, realizing that they were no better than each other in terms of making people worry.
Arman’s eyes started darting around the room. “Uh, okay, Ruri; it’s about time for you to head back home, isn’t it? Jade is probably worried sick.”
Ruri squinted at Arman in response to his blatant attempt to switch topics.
“Things will be hectic here for a while, so may I ask you to take care of Celestine and Padparadscha?” he continued.
Ruri was reminded of Padparadscha’s stomach. “Yes, Padparadscha-san’s belly was quite big when I saw her. It would probably be hard for a pregnant woman to travel a long distance in that condition, so how about you let her stay in the Nation of the Dragon King until she delivers the child?”
“Right, that might be a good idea. I’ll send Jade a letter later.”
“Yes, please do so,” Ruri said before something suddenly sprang to mind. “What about the Beloveds in the dungeon right now? Strictly speaking, they’re transmigrators, so they aren’t citizens of the Nation of Furgal.”
“Yeah, I’ve got the Furgal royal in custody, tied head to toe, so I’d like to talk that issue over with Jade, if I could. Personally, I can’t send those two back to Furgal, but I can’t keep them here either. The girl is one thing, but the boy is a higher rank of Beloved than Celestine, so we’d be flat out of luck if something were to happen.”
“Indeed.”
“I feel like it would be safest to have either the Nation of the Dragon or Spirit King take them since there are supreme-level spirits in both of those kingdoms.”
Even Ruri thought that being arrogant enough to consider yourself invulnerable was dangerous. It was only natural that Arman was wary.
“But we’ll have to keep them here until I’m finished talking things over with Jade, so could you hold back the spirits for us again?” he asked.
“Yes, it would be a disaster if those Beloved got out of their cell by making the spirits obey them as soon as I left,” Ruri said, giggling and turning to those by her side. “Don’t listen to any orders the Beloveds in the dungeon give you. For any reason. And if anything happens, make sure to contact Kotaro and Rin before doing anything, okay?”
“Got it!”
“We were told to only listen to you, Ruri, so don’t worry!”
“We’ll do it because you asked, Ruri!”
The spirits obediently followed her orders. Kotaro and Rin had a lot of authority. While that was what you should expect of supreme-level spirits, those same two supreme spirits had both been named and subjugated by Ruri, so that would likely grind the gears of the nobles of the Imperial Nation.
“Okay, I’ll be going back now. I know everyone is worried.”
“Right. Give Jade my regards.”
“I will. See you again.”
Ruri entered her pocket space in the same way as when she’d come to the Nation of the Beast King and found Lydia waiting there. She used her power to move her in front of Jade’s pocket space instead this time around. She’d always wondered what kind of space Jade had, and once she opened the door, she found it far tidier than she’d imagined.
It might have been a given that it was so vast since he had so much mana, but it was totally different from Ruri’s room, awash with treasure. Jade likely sorted his things regularly. The room reflected Jade’s diligent personality well.
Since staring too long would be an invasion of privacy, Ruri had Lydia exit and go outside. Before her body was all the way out, Ruri could feel herself being pulled into an embrace. From the familiar warmth and scent, she could instantly recognize that she was in Jade’s arms.
“I’m home, Jade-sama,” she said in greeting.
“Yes. Welcome back, Ruri,” he replied, hugging her tight as if to confirm she was in one piece. Ruri didn’t even stop him. “You’re not hurt?”
“There was not a single iota of danger this time around,” she replied.
“Lies are easy to catch, you know.”
“How would I be lying?”
“Think back about everything until now.”
Ruri thought back as she was told and smiled, leading to a very dry chuckle. Since she generally encountered some kind of problem every time she went somewhere dangerous, it was an accomplishment to have gone off on her own and not found herself in any peril. For once, she felt like she didn’t have to complain to Ewan.
Then again, there was a dangerous moment when the Spirit Slayer dagger had come out, but Ruri had responded immediately, so there was no need for her to intentionally bring up a subject that would upset Jade. She had already asked Lydia to dispose of that dagger, so it had long since been deleted along with a space on the chopping block.
“What happened to the Nation of the Beast King? And Arman?”
“He’s safe...” Ruri said, averting her eyes.
“What happened in between?” asked Jade.
“Erm, well...by the time I got there, I was shocked to see that he was pretty hurt. I gave him a bottle of the medicine you and the others gave me...”
“The whole bottle?” Jade asked, his brows lifting. From the look of it, that had been way too much.
Ruri nodded awkwardly in response.
“What is Arman’s condition?”
“He’s doing fine—too fine, in fact. That means he’ll be okay, right?” Ruri asked, having no choice but to ask Jade, since she had no idea what the medicine was capable of.
“If he was all right when you left, then he’ll be fine,” Jade replied somewhat half-heartedly.
Ruri instantly worried. “Whuuh?! Please give me a more definite yes.”
“I don’t know for sure.”
“Oh no. What do we do, then?”
Ruri racked her brain for a while before asking Kotaro to observe Arman’s condition. She was relieved when he did not report any change in Arman’s condition after a few days’ time.