The nearby knights from the king’s guard burst into laughter. Jean and Dean were laughing so hard they didn’t even try to hold it back, and Edgar and Sigurd just watched with amused, smug smiles on their faces.
To top it all off, a few knights who’d already headed back inside the castle came running out when they heard Kriss’s scream, just in time to see her get flattened by Mary. This meant every last member of the king’s guard got to watch as Kriss got totally wrecked.
“Mary, it’s time to come back,” I said.
“Baaa!”
While Kriss had tried to scramble away from Mary, the lamb had been pouncing on her over and over, headbutting her, and stomping on her. Kriss was getting the works. And when she finally stopped moving and lay there like she was dead, Mary looked downright pleased and plopped down triumphantly on top of her body.
I honestly felt bad calling Mary back when she looked so satisfied, but it really was time to head home. So I called for her, and surprisingly, she came right back without any protests. Mary climbed into the dimension bag on her own.
“Tenma, I never said she should go that far,” Dean muttered.
“Me either. Why’d you even bring her?” Jean asked.
The two of them looked a little dismayed by Mary’s rampage, but I told them it couldn’t be helped, considering that Kriss had kind of brought it upon herself. That seemed to make sense to them, and Jean turned to one of the nearby female knights and told her to drag Kriss’s limp body off to the side.
“I brought Mary because she trashed the laundry at home. Jeanne and the others got fed up with her and kicked her out.”
Well, to say that she’d been kicked out might’ve been an exaggeration—it was more like they had stuffed her in the bag and shoved her at me since I’d been heading to the castle anyway. They had probably just wanted her out of the way while they redid the laundry and cleaned up.
When I explained all that to the others, Dean sighed. “You should’ve told us you had her with you, but since no one got hurt aside from Kriss, we’ll let it slide,” he said.
Yeah, keeping it a secret probably hadn’t been the best call. But since Mary wasn’t a monster and hadn’t caused any damage, they let it go.
One of the knights who’d moved Kriss came over to Jean and whispered something in his ear.
“But we do have a condition,” Jean added.
“It’s a petting session with Shiromaru, right? As long as he gets treats, that can be arranged.”
Cheers broke out from a few of the female knights, and even some of the guys were excited. Only a select group of royal guards ever got assigned to Queen Maria’s security detail when she came to Gramps’s and my house, and they were mostly the same ones who’d been to Kukuri Village in the past, like Dean, Jean, and Kriss. Even when someone outside that group got the job, they usually ended up just waiting outside or having to head back to the castle early.
So, naturally, the knights who were just as obsessed with animals as Kriss was were jealous of how often she got to be around Shiromaru and Mary. Kriss was fully aware of this and had made a habit of bragging about Shiromaru’s silky fur and how great it felt to hug Aries.
The knight whispered something else to Dean.
“Hm? Oh, yeah. I’ll let him know,” Dean said. “Tenma, they want Kriss to be officially banned from the petting session. That okay with you?”
I nodded without hesitation. Of course, I added my own conditions that they’d be responsible for keeping Kriss restrained, managing the event, and handling security. They agreed without any issue.
The petting event with Shiromaru, Mary, and Aries was held a few days after the training session. The knights working security reported that an unidentified masked figure attempted to sneak into the venue. They spotted the intruder and chased them around, but they managed to get away. Their whereabouts were still unknown.
Later, Edgar told me that Kriss was supposed to have been doing paperwork in the knights’ office alone during the event, but when they had returned to the office, there’d been a mountain of documents still sitting on her desk.
“Guess this’ll have to do for a prototype.”
I was doing a test-drive of the modified wheelchair I’d made a bit ago, shifting around to see how it felt. “Still not as good as the kind from my previous life, but it’s a world of difference compared to the one I used before.”
I had modeled it after the ones I could remember in my previous world, using springboards for the seat and frog skin on the wheels for shock absorption. Those modifications worked surprisingly well. But there were no brakes, so hills were a hazard. I’d added hand rims so it could be self-propelled, which was great in theory, but it made the thing pretty heavy. Someone who wasn’t very strong would have a hard time moving.
“Well, it’s just a prototype. The next step is to make it lighter.”
Eventually, I wanted to embed a golem in the wheelchair so it would be fully automated, but for now, I was focusing on building something closer to what I remembered from my past life.
“You’re plotting something weird again, aren’t you?”
“Can’t you at least knock first, Gramps?”
The door swung open out of nowhere, and Gramps strolled in with an exasperated look on his face. He told me he had knocked, but I just hadn’t noticed.
“So this is a wheelchair, huh? Doesn’t look too different from the ones on the market, but I see you’ve made a few modifications.” He plopped himself down into the seat and pushed himself around like it was nothing.
“Well, you might need one in a few years, Gramps, so it won’t hurt to get used to it now,” I said.
“I’ll walk on my own two feet till the day I die, thank you very much!” he countered. “Still, I have to admit it’s pretty comfortable. It’s a bit on the heavy side, though. Not ideal for someone sick or injured.”
Hmm. He’d noticed the weight issue too. Nevertheless, he was zipping around the room like it was weightless.
“Yeah, making it lighter is my first order of business. After that, I’ll make it more durable.” I told him.
“That sounds like a solid plan. Why are you working on a wheelchair all of a sudden, though?”
“Well, things have been pretty hectic lately, and I haven’t had much time to myself. I figured I’d take a day or two to relax, but then I started spacing out. Before I knew it, I was thinking about Russell City again.”
“You remembered something you meant to improve and wanted to work on it again, huh?” Gramps said.
“I had the time, so yeah.”
Technically, I was supposed to be resting now. But when I had a thought stuck in my head, ignoring it just stressed me out more. It was actually kind of therapeutic to throw myself into a project like this.
“Well, I guess it served its purpose if it helped you recharge. So, who’s the prototype for?” Gramps asked.
“I was thinking about showing it to Prince Zane. He’s talked about starting a medical school, but I thought this could really help Princess Mizaria. I think he’ll be enthusiastic about it and handle the details for me,” I said.
“Some might say using royalty for your own purposes is rude, but Prince Zane seems like the type who’d jump at the opportunity. And it’s not like the royal family wouldn’t benefit from what you make in the long run, even if it’s just a hobby for you.”
I knew he was teasing me a little, but he had a point. It’d be a waste to just make something like this for fun and then let it rot. If someone else could put it to good use, then I might as well let them have it.
“Tenma, you have guests... What the heck?!”
Jeanne had come to get me but stopped in the doorway. Gramps was zooming around the room in the wheelchair like a kid with a new toy. Apparently, the sight of an old man doing doughnuts in a wheelchair was enough to get her to lose her train of thought.
“Who’s here, Jeanne?” I asked.
“Oh, right! Sorry. Lord Albert, Lord Cain, Lord Leon, and Lady Primera are here for a visit. They’re in the dining room waiting for you.”
“Got it.”
I started heading in that direction, but Gramps seemed to be so fond of the wheelchair that he tried to follow me in it. I wasn’t going to let that happen, so I yanked it away from him. The look he gave me after that said, You better make me one of these when you’re done!
“Sorry to keep you wa— Hm? You guys seem weirdly quiet today.”
I walked into the dining room to find the usual trio there. However, they weren’t lounging around or stealing food like they normally would. Instead, they were sitting stiffly in their chairs like they were in the middle of a lecture.
“Yo. We, uh, came to hang out.”
“Listen carefully, Albert,” Primera began. “No matter how close you are, wandering into someone’s estate without being properly invited first isn’t behavior fitting of a future duke! It’s exactly because you’re close that you should be mindful of appearances. You need to avoid giving others an excuse to gossip. There are plenty of nobles who’d love to cozy up to Tenma in place of the Sanga family. If you consider him a friend, then you should stop doing things that cause trouble for him. And Cain, Leon? That goes for you two as well. Understood?”
From Primera’s perspective, the way the three of them had acted must’ve been totally unacceptable. Even though Albert and the others were used to Gramps and me letting them off the hook, they couldn’t really argue with what she was saying.
She was too focused on scolding them to notice, but during her lecture, the door to the dining room flung open, and a tall man stepped inside the room.
“Prince Lyle, don’t just stand in the doorway. Please go inside. Today’s the day I promised myself I’d dedicate solely to petting Shiromaru, so if you could please... Huh?”
Kriss had been behind Prince Lyle, but stopped speaking when she saw the lecture going on.