Chapter 164: Missing Hero

The girl chosen by the First Prince was a Saintess, yet she had no ties whatsoever to either the Church or the nobility. She was a person from another world. The King began to suspect that the Church’s opposition to her was simply because it wanted to manipulate the royal family for its own benefit. With those doubts in mind, His Majesty the King quickly moved forward with the engagement between the First Prince and Shangguan Wan’er.

"However, the person who took an entirely unexpected course of action was the Saintess in question, Shangguan Wan’er."

When it came to the engagement and marriage proposal, Shangguan Wan’er apparently decided, "Honestly, I like the prince’s face, but marriage is impossible. Besides, I’m only fourteen. Isn’t it way too early to get married? Getting married without even getting to enjoy this world at all? That’s seriously impossible. Like, absolutely not."

She then apparently ran out of the castle on her own.

Incidentally, Sherria had delivered those words with a completely straight face, exactly as Shangguan Wan’er had said them. Qiu Nuoya was left speechless by Shangguan Wan’er’s bewildering actions.

"Uh... What was that...?"

"Those were Shangguan Wan’er’s exact words. Some of Shangguan Wan’er’s expressions are rather difficult for me to understand. I believe I have grasped their general meaning, but I did not want to risk getting them wrong, so I repeated her words exactly as she said them."

"Ahaha... Ahahah..."

Somehow, that one statement had made several things fall into place for Qiu Nuoya all at once.

Sherria had earlier described Shangguan Wan’er as lacking the modesty expected of a woman, and now Qiu Nuoya began to understand.

Qiu Nuoya feel like judging from her words and behavior, Shangguan Wan’er certainly seemed like someone with a strong personality. The thought of someone like that becoming queen also made it somewhat understandable why the current Queen had been so troubled by the situation.

"Shangguan Wan’er is somewhat unconventional, but we do understand that she is not a bad person. However, how should I put it? Her unconventional behavior has only made the situation even more complicated..."

Sherria let out a deep sigh.

Beside her, the Cardinal still wore his usual displeased expression and made no attempt to hide his anger.

"To begin with, having a Saintess chosen as queen over Saintess Sherria who behaves like that would damage the reputation of the Church. There is no way we could accept it."

Still, Qiu Nuoya could not help thinking that taking that anger out on him was completely misplaced.

"And what happened to her?"

"She is currently traveling around the country with her guards. And the First Prince has also run away from home and is currently following her."

Traveling around the country, huh? Sounds like she’s having fun, at least. And the prince is with her too... Is this country going to be all right?

"I understand the situation now. I can see that things are extremely difficult for this country, and I certainly sympathize with you. But none of this has anything to do with me, does it? The conflict between the royal family and the Church is something the King and Queen should resolve themselves. And the matter between Shangguan Wan’er and the prince has absolutely nothing to do with me. Or is there some connection that I am missing?"

"Qiu Nuoya, are you familiar with an ancient summoning technique known as the ’Hero Summoning’?" Saintess Sherria responded to Qiu Nuoya’s question with another question. But Hero Summoning? Judging by the name, it was probably some kind of summoning technique used to summon a hero, but Qiu Nuoya had never heard of such a technique before.

Qiu Nuoya honestly shook his head and said, "I don’t know."

Sherria looked slightly suspicious as she asked, "Were you not summoned using the Hero Summoning technique?"

"Huh? I don’t know anything about that. What are you talking about? It’s true that I was suddenly transported to this other world one day, but I have never heard anything about a Hero Summoning."

"What? What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve never heard this before." For some reason, Warren who had been standing behind Qiu Nuoya was the first to react in surprise. Come to think of it, Qiu Nuoya had never told Warren or Igor that he was from another world.

There had never really been any reason to bring it up. Viktor had figured it out fairly early on, but since it had never caused any problems in their lives, Qiu Nuoya had simply left the matter alone. And while he was at it, he had also kept quiet about the fact that the person inside this body was actually a man in his forties.

"So it really is true that you were summoned here from another world, Nuoya."

"Ah, well, that’s..."

In the sense that a God had brought him to this world, Qiu Nuoya supposed he could technically be considered someone who had been summoned. However, he was fairly certain that he had not been brought here through the Hero Summoning technique.

For one thing, he had already refused when God had offered him that arrangement.

"I believe I mentioned earlier that Shangguan Wan’er suddenly came to this country one day. We have now discovered that she arrived here as a result of a Hero Summoning ritual performed by the royal family."

Oh, really? Then does that mean Shangguan Wan’er is the hero?

"However, two people were summoned through that ritual. One was the aforementioned Shangguan Wan’er, while the other is currently missing."

"Missing?"

"Yes. The two of them were summoned at the same time and came to this world together. However, apparently, the moment they heard what His Majesty the King, who had performed the summoning ritual, had to say, the other person immediately ran away. From what I have heard, the timing of that incident also coincides with when I received my divine revelation. Qiu Nuoya, are you not the other person who was summoned as a hero?"