Back to our shota, he just happens to bump into someone...?
Enjoy!
The Iron Princess, Finding a Husband Amidst Chaos
“Wow...”
Michel admired the scenery spreading beyond the cave: the entrance to the Iron Mountain.
He wasn’t expecting such high ceilings... and that wasn’t all; they had actually been able to secure enough luminosity so that no humans would notice a difference. Unless someone went through the entrance, they wouldn’t think this was underground.
“Don’t walk looking only upwards, it’s dangerous.”
Airi warned the boy as they moved on.
As soon as Elina entered the Iron Mountain, she seemed to have found something of her interest, and so had gone ahead on her own, leaving the inn arrangements to the two of them.
Thus, the two were left alone.
“There was also last time as well. I must stay cautious, or else...”
The maid looked all around, searching for anything suspicious. She hadn’t forgotten how Echidna had come down on them like a ton of bricks the minute she left the others out of her sight.
[If I had been there, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we wouldn’t have surrendered Michel away that easily.]
As for the boy, as suspicious as he found her actions, he dared not speak out, and just followed the wraith.
Suddenly, a side street appeared before them, and the moment he got a bit away from the maid, the accident happened: an abrupt impact shook him so much, he felt his vision going black.
“Urkh...”
[What happened?]
When his eyes were able to see again, what appeared before him was a pure-white fabric held up to a pink light.
“Eh?”
“W-What are you doing?”
He heard a female voice from overhead.
“Not only you go and crash against me, you’re bold enough to poke your head into my skirt?”
Hearing the situation described with that tinge of anger to it, Michel hurried to stand up, placing his hands on the floor and raising his face.
And it so happened that at that moment, a white string holding both sides of a pure white underwear was between his hands and the ground, neither of the two noticing the fact...
So, when the other stood up, tragedy struck.
“Whoah!”
Upon looking up, a white cloth covered his face again.
“...D-Damn youu!”
A voice, now clearly fraught with fury, echoed through the street.
“T-This is... err... I didn’t mean...”
“Eeeih, don’t open your eyes!”
He was still kneeling. Raising his face at that position would clearly put him at eye view of her skirt. And, the underwear that was precisely meant to hide an important part in her skirt had somehow come undone and was hanging over his face.
“No point in arguing! You disgraceful pest!”
“Gyaaah!”
*Kick!*, went a blow against his head, and acute pain suddenly came over him. The impact, stunning like a dazzling light, made him lose his consciousness.
When Airi turned around to see what was going on, she saw the boy, his face covered by a dwarf girl’s pure white underwear, apparently stunned and with a huge bump growing on his head.
“Sir Michel!”
She ran to him, flustered.
[And I just took my eyes off him for a moment.]
“Hm? And who are you?”
The dwarven girl who had knocked him out, in the middle of cheerfully putting on her underwear again, asked the barging maid.
“My name is Airi. I am the maid who serves Lady Elina.”
“Oh? So is the name of that kid ‘Lady Elina’?”
“No, this young master is Sir Michel. He is someone Lady Elina placed under her protection.”
“I see, so he’s called Michel.”
The dwarf girl stared into his face intently.
“Hm, if I take a good look at him, he’s not that bad looking.”
She grinned.
“My name is Ymir, the princess of this Iron Mountain.”
Hearing that introduction, the maid couldn’t help giving a step back.
[If we are rude towards the very princess of the Iron Mountain, the situation could take a turn for the worse, could it not? To say nothing of how Lady Elina happens to be absent too.
We must handle this situation as smoothly as possible, or she will lose face.]
“In other words, Airi, you’re this kid’s guardian?”
“I am just taking care of his daily necessities, I am not his guardian.”
Elina was, though.
“Works for me. You can come with me and the kid.”
“Sorry, but, if we were to separate from Lady Elina...”
“Huuh? I don’t know who that is, but she can’t be that dumb not to know the name of Ymir from the Iron Mountain. When she finds I brought you with me, she’ll come to my place.”
“Still...”
The wraith found herself reluctant before the offer. Royalty were often known to be this selfish. As soon as they got the foot through the door so to speak, one wouldn’t know what they would do next.
“Going home with your fiancé is but a matter of course, isn’t it.”
“F-Fiancé?”
The word gave Airi pause.
[She and Michel are not even acquainted, are they? They should have met for the first time just moments ago.]
“This guy did propose to me.”
“H-How did that happen?”
“Hm, just look at this.”
Ymir picked up a pure white string that extended from her skirt.
“This is a string that holds your underwear in place, you see.”
“It clearly is, yes.”
“It’s a tradition for unmarried women of my clan to leave this string hanging long.”
Actually, there was no such tradition. It was just a lie Ymir had made up on the spot, seeing as she fancied the boy, and one the maid wouldn’t be able to see through unless she was well versed in dwarven customs—which she didn’t appear to be.
“So if you’re able to pull this string and take the underwear, that’s as good as a marriage proposal.”
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