Chapter 158: The Summon From Her Majesty The Queen

The evening of the same day―

「Ha! So beautiful!」

Aria let out those words of admiration as she looked at the city landscape from the terrace of the inn.

The street was dyed in orange color due to twilight or the paper lanterns hanging on the stores and shining beautifully.

（Uhm, keeping the scenery aside, Master is no less beautiful.）

Tama, who was stuffed in between Aria’s melons, thought so as he looked up at her face. The city’s lights being reflected in her icy-blue eyes made a fantastical spectacle. On top of that, she had worn a yukata, a dress she had never worn before. Seeing that, Tama realized again for the nth time just how beautiful his master was.

「Ny, everyone is sleeping peacefully, nyan?」

Vulcan let out a nonchalant remark from inside her room. She looked at Stella, Lily, and Faeri, who were peacefully sleeping in their beds… It seemed the recoil from the long trip and the fact that everyone had made merry since the afternoon had finally caught up to them.

Since this is an unexpected situation, let’s delay our dinner for later after they have rested for a while… The moment Aria thought that—

KONKONKONKON!

She heard a knock on their door.

「Is that you, Ana-san?」

Aria headed toward the door while trying to confirm the identity of the one beyond the door. However, when she opened the door, she found that the one who stood behind the door was a female ogre donned in warrior armor.

「My apologies for visiting at such a time. Is this the room where the A-rank adventurer, Aria, is staying at?」

「Uhm, I’m Aria…」

Aria replied to the female ogre with a bewildered expression.

The female ogre then introduced herself.

「My name is 〝Kaede?. I’m the close aide of 〝Shiri?, the queen of this country.」

So―

「Eh? Her Majesty… the Queen’s close aide?」

「Is something the matter, nyan?」

Both Vulcan and Aria were extremely confused, unable to catch up with the situation that had been caused by the mention of a super bigshot.

Even Tama ended up tilting his head with a quizzical look on his face as he said 「Nya~n?」.

「I can’t tell you the details in this place, but it seems Her Majesty The Queen has some business with you. Although we want to apologize since this request came out of nowhere, I wish that you’re willing to come to the castle.」

「H-Her Majesty The Queen has some business with us?」

「That makes us even more curious, nyan!」

Vulcan and Aria became even more startled upon hearing the armored woman, Kaede.

However, since she had told them that she couldn’t tell the details and having been told that the queen of this country wanted to meet them in person, Stella and the others started to make preparations to immediately depart.

Since they told Kaede that everyone would come with her, they also invited Cedric and Arnold.

「The summon from Her Majesty The Queen, huh… I can’t help but have a really bad feeling about this.」

Cedric ended up muttering so upon hearing Aria and co’s story.

（Uhm, Cedric-dono feels the same way as me, huh. Nevertheless… how in the world did the queen of this country find out about the inn we rented?）

Tama had another question upon hearing Cedric’s muttering.

Tama or any of Aria and the others shouldn’t have any acquaintances in this country.

In the first place, they were on vacation right now. Therefore, it became even more mysterious how the information about Aria and co. arrived at the queen’s hands.

Tama and the others left the inn, leading Stella and co., who were still rubbing their sleepy eyes.

The moment they stepped outside, they saw a carriage already prepared for them.

The party boarded the carriage following Kaede’s instruction.

The carriage moved away from the inn and finally entered the main street that connected with the huge castle.

A while after jolting in the carriage―

Tama and co finally arrived in front of the gate of the castle’s garden.

A machine resembling a soldier wielding a spear with a mechanical body around two meters tall stood on both sides of the castle gate.

After they descended from the carriage, Tama and co. were guided into the garden by Kaede as they looked at those statues with puzzled looks on their faces.

The scenery inside the garden was enough to scare Tama and co to death.

Because they saw that the garden was filled with the stone soldiers from before, lining up neatly.

Tama and co passed by those mechanical soldiers and entered the castle.