Chapter 15 The Commander of the Knights is visiting?

Suddenly, a loud sound like something falling came from outside the store.

“What’s going on?”

As I was the receptionist and closest to the door, I immediately went outside to check on the situation. Behind me, I heard Luke say, “Ah, Lydia-sama! I’ll go,” but I didn’t pay any attention to it and opened the door.

When I opened the door, there was a man on his knees.

“Wait a minute, are you okay?”

“Sorry… I’m fine. I just stumbled a little and fell.”

A beautiful young man with blond hair and blue eyes looked up and said this. He was wearing a knight’s uniform, and had a sword hanging from his left hip. The loud sound earlier must have been the sound of the sword hitting the ground.

When he saw me, he frowned. Then, as if he had thought of something, he nodded and said, “Ah.”

 “Could it be that you who are that natural salt attack… ahem. Are you Lydia-sama from the royal capital?”

“Yes, I am. You are…?”

He put his hand on his chest and bowed.

“I am Yuri Wiggins, the commander of the Wiggins Knights. I was looking for Lydia-sama. Do you have time today?”

I blinked at the sudden visit of the commander of the Knights and the words “I was looking for you.”

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

Yuri Wiggins. I had imagined him to be a buff macho man because I had heard he was the commander of the Knights, but he was surprisingly slender. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is a handsome man who could be classified as a good-looking man.

I thought I heard someone say, “I’m going to marry a beautiful blonde with blue eyes,” but I quickly brushed it off. I must have imagined it.

There were no customers at the time, so I decided to invite him into the store.

 He sat down in the chair he was guided to and bowed deeply.

“The reason I came to visit Lydia-sama today is…”

“You don’t need to use honorifics. I’m practically a commoner now.”

“But…”

“Most of the customers already talk to me in casual terms. You can just treat me like a commoner.”

“Then I don’t need to use honorifics either. I don’t feel comfortable being spoken to in honorific language by a woman of high status.”

“Okay.”

So we both agreed to stop using honorifics.

“So, what did you come today?”

“I came to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“You’ve defeated a slime before, right? At that time, I was asked to defeat it. You defeated it for me, so I wanted to express my gratitude to you.”

He bowed deeply and said, “Thank you so much.” I hurriedly waved my hand.

 “No, no. I’m sorry I took your job away.”

“Not at all, you attracted the slime’s attacks, so the damage to the town was minimal. You’re a brave woman who acted to protect the people.”

…I can’t tell him that I was fighting the slime out of anger at the salt being ruined.

Even so, he’s a serious person who went out of his way to thank me.

“I also have something I want to give you.”

“What do you want to give me?”

He took out a handkerchief and held out what was inside in front of me.

“I’ve brought you the magic stone. Since you defeated it, it’s yours. If you sell it to the right place, you can make money…”

“M-Magic Stone!!”

It was something I needed to develop the hair dryer. I couldn’t help but cheer.

 “I’m happy! Thank you!!”

“A-Are you really that happy?”

“I was just talking about wanting one the other day!”

It probably won’t be possible to make a hair dryer right away, but it might be a hint.

He was a little taken aback by my reaction, but he smiled with relief.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

“Then, I’ll be off now. I don’t want to get in the way of the store.”

“Oh, wait a minute.”

I hurriedly stopped him as he tried to stand up.

“Hey, since you’ve come all this way, why don’t you take a bath? It’ll definitely help relieve your fatigue.”

“Fatigue?”

“I mean, you’re tired, aren’t you?”

“…How do you know?”

“You look a little pale. You fell in front of the store because you were tired and your feet were wobbly, right?”

It reminded me of the face my coworkers had in my past life during the company’s busy season.

 If I may be rude, I had a feeling that he looked tired from the first time I saw his face.

He frowned and hung his head at my words. Then he spoke bitterly.

“Every day I have to defeat monsters and write a report. As the leader of the Knights, I also have to do paperwork, and the Knights are always short-staffed. In such a situation, I have been working 20 days in a row.”

“T-twenty days.”

“There are few volunteers for a job that is dangerous to their health, and many quit. Today I have to stop the tenth person from leaving.”

“T-ten people.”

What a corporate slave.

That’s what I thought.

“Don’t worry. I make sure to get enough sleep to work efficiently.”

“It’s not that big of a problem.”

“But I can’t have anyone else do the work so I can’t take a break…”

I thought he was a really earnest and honest person. People like that are the ones who need healing.

Yes. The healing of a bath…!

I moved closer to him.

“You definitely need a bath.”

“Um, the pressure’s a bit strong.”

“If you take a bath, you can effectively relieve your fatigue. The effect is 100 times greater.”

“Is this some kind of suspicious solicitation?”

“I want you to try out the Bath Cafe, even if you think you’re being tricked.”

“…Well, if you say so, I understand.”