Reincarnation into the Barrier Master

His enthusiasm for learning is astonishing. Her cooking skills are already far beyond mine. I am thinking of taking her to the capital one day soon to further develop her skills.

I have put a ward on her to make her look like a person, but her body is too short for her race, so when people see her, they think she looks like a very fat person. She is a princess, after all...but my warding skills still have room for improvement.

By the way, Jeneha is warded to look like a horse. It\'s inevitable since she lives in a stable.

"Have a nice trip!

Peris sees me off to work. Business is going well as usual. Lately, Peris has been asking me to run errands for her, and there are so many kinds of errands. Shopping soon turns into night. Thanks to this, I have not been able to go to the hotel restaurant where the beef stew is so delicious.

I arrive at the restaurant and sit down at the counter. As if they have been waiting for my arrival, a few merchants and adventurers come in. As I am quickly processing my order, an envoy of the Prime Minister arrives. He asks me to come to Miyagi right away.

We close up store for the time being and head for Miyagi. As if he had been waiting for my arrival, the Prime Minister comes in. He has dark circles under his eyes.

He says, "I\'m sorry to call you here. I have a favor to ask you.

"Are you guarding the royal family again?"

Well, something like that. I need you to escort a certain member of the royal family to the border area of the capital.

"When you say near the border, do you mean Arsilia? Or is it Berganda?"

It doesn\'t matter where, just take us to the border of the imperial city and watch us leave."

It was a rather rough request.

"Well, about half a month ago, I rescued a prince and princess from a tribe of cat people in the village of Chiru. They called themselves heroes, and declared that they were on a mission to defeat the Great Demon King. Since they were equipped with a certain amount of equipment, I kept them at Miyagi for the time being, but when I checked with the Piao Kingdom, where they were from, they told me that the prince had made it all up himself. Moreover, the equipment had been stolen from the treasury of the royal palace. King Piao was furious and decided to deport him on the spot.

...Those stupid cats. I didn\'t know they were being protected in Miyagi Prefecture. I don\'t want anything to do with this.

"A messenger from the country of Piao has come to deport the prince and his party and to collect their equipment, but they\'ve gone on quite a rampage. They were so violent that they wounded the messenger from Piao and several of the palace maidservants.

It\'s the worst thing that could happen. We\'re lucky no one died.

"The prince and his party were subdued and their equipment confiscated, but unfortunately it was the First Princess Licorette who saved the day. I should have stayed quiet, but of all people, I was the one who spoke out of turn against you."

The worst of the worst are calling the worst of the worst. What the hell did he say to you?

"She said to Master Ricolet that he is a stupid woman who can\'t do anything without his father\'s authority."

Yes, it\'s a death sentence.

"He\'s in jail now. It can\'t be helped. The princess of the empire has been desecrated. Master Lycorette is furious. Until a few minutes ago she was saying "Off with his head!" I had to work very hard to calm him down. In the meantime, my empire has decided to expel them from the country, but we cannot allow them to cause a commotion in the capital. Still, I am afraid to take them to the border with an escort of soldiers."

Why don\'t they just put him on a wagon or something and take him to the border area?

Naturally, he has a lot to say to the other chiefs and ladies-in-waiting as well. Do you think the soldiers will protect such a man? Worst case scenario, our soldiers will cut you down."

Why don\'t they just cut you down?

"Then the reputation of the empire will be damaged. If imperial soldiers cut down the royalty of Piao, we don\'t know what the neighboring countries will do with that as an excuse."

"If they are so troublesome, why don\'t we just bury them in the dark?"

"Darkness from darkness is what we do when it has not come to light. The fact that the prince of Piao Kingdom is already out there claiming to be a hero to defeat the Great Demon King is already exposed to the light of day. Anyway, there is no choice but to have him leave the country peacefully. That\'s why I\'m asking you, with your experience in protecting the royal family. I don\'t care where, just dump those men on the borders of the empire.

...You really mean it at the end. I see. Basically, I\'m making my skills look low. I\'ll let the warders protect me while I carry them to the border. They won\'t have to worry about me cutting them down, and there\'s little chance of me killing them. I understand your predicament.

I have no intention of doing it. But the Prime Minister asked me to. I can\'t say no. He says he\'ll lend us a carriage for the time being. I\'ll lock the stupid cats in a thick ward with the carriage and dump them near the border. The Prime Minister also said that it would be unwise to leave them at the border in their clothes, so we can pack the wagons with food and other things, and dump them near the border with the wagons.

"Even so, they\'re a foolish royal family, aren\'t they?

"No, it happens all the time."

How often does that happen? Are all the royalty in this world idiots? The king of the Juka Kingdom was certainly quite an idiot, but...

"Royalty is trained strictly in manners and etiquette, but they are rarely taught common sense. In fact, their excessive ignorance in this area is even a source of pride."

Ha ha. That\'s why they make such stupid cats.

Anyway, I\'m heading for the stupid cats. As I leave the room, I see a young lady coming toward me. I thought I would just pass by her, but she stopped in front of me and stared at me.

"What is it?"

"This is Her Royal Highness, Her Royal Highness the First Princess of Lycorette."

The Prime Minister rushes over to me. So this is the Princess we\'ve heard so much about. From the looks of her, she seems to be quite wise. I kneel down in a panic.

I apologize for my ignorance.

"Are you the warding master I\'ve heard so much about? My name is Licorette. You don\'t have to behave like that.

When I was puzzled, he said, "What do you mean by \'useless\'?

You are not a vassal of the Emperor, much less mine. You are not a vassal of Prime Minister Gremont there either, are you? I have done you no favors, so there is no need for such an attitude. I don\'t need that kind of attitude toward me, let alone other royalty.

He quickly left.

"Well, he is like that. He has a fundamentally different way of thinking than we do.

I leave the Prime Minister, and a soldier leads me to the cellar where the prison is located.

In a sense, Princess Licorette\'s way of thinking is not wrong. But it is a fundamental rejection of the imperial system. In a time of domestic upheaval, her way of thinking would be considered heretical, but today, when the empire is fully established, it is not. I admit that she is a very intelligent woman, but she seems to have been born a little too early.

As I was thinking about this, I soon arrived at the basement where the prison is located.

The prince and the princess of the stupid cat are carefully assigned to a private room. Moreover, their attendants are also in the room with them. Their personal caretakers are also in the room with them. For a prison, they are treated quite well. The squires must be very uncomfortable.

"Hello, long time no see. How have you been?

"Oh, you rude man! So you\'re from this castle! Get me out of here as soon as possible! The Demon Lord won\'t wait for me! They\'re all idiots!"

"... You introduce yourself very well. Anyway, they\'re deporting all of you. I\'ll go to the border to dump them. Let\'s go!

"Exiled? Why is this happening to me and my brother?

"The situation you are in now is entirely of your own making. It is your thoughts and actions that have created this situation.

The four idiot cats are let out of jail. They used to be equipped with swords, but now they are unarmed and wear dirty clothes. At first glance, you wouldn\'t think they were royalty.

A hooded man passes behind us. As I casually pay attention to the man, he stops in front of a jail near me and asks the guard to unlock the door and enters. I recognized the man who was being held there.

He was Heedata Shua Thearius, the third prince of the Heedata Empire.