Volume 7 Chapter 20: The Scary Wife is Strong?

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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Since there were still a few days left until the pope elections, they told Cardinal Denter to consolidate his faction. He had seemed reluctant, but eventually gave up, as it was something he had to do to become the new pope.

Bishop Harnam also became supportive of him, unlike before. This was because of the oracle Cain had passed down as an Apostle of the Gods.

And while they were brothers, he still didn’t want to push Denter when he wasn’t willing to do something.

Meanwhile, Cain went out into the city on his own. He had no choice but to ask Claude and the others to help with this.

Cain visited the inn Claude and the others were staying at. He, and Claude’s group of four were sitting around a table in the cafeteria there.

“So, Cain, what’s this favour? We don’t know this place very well. We’re limited in terms of what we can do.”

“I know that. Could you please investigate into who the citizens want to win the pope elections?”

“Yes, we can do that. So we should just go to lots of places in the city and gather information?”

“As expected of Lina-san. Yes, please do that.”

Lina seemed to have understood the conversation more than Claude. Milly and Nina also nodded as if they had understood.

“So then… while we’re at it, we’ll spread rumours to get the person you want popular. And also… we’ll lower the reputation of … what’s his name? oh, that Bangla guy, the one who attacked us.”

Lina grinned, to which Cain nodded with a chuckle.

“But, Cain. We’re A-Rank and B-Rank adventurers. We’ll be heading to many shops. You understand?”

Cain understood what Lina wanted to say. Adventurers usually only went to inns and bars, but since their party had three women, their activity range would widen quite a bit.

Although Cardinal Denter becoming the pope was now basically a given, it would not help at all if there was backlash from the citizens.

Cain lined up eight gold coins from his purse in his pocket, making Lina’s eyes widen at the unexpected amount of money.

“Your budget is one gold coin per person. The rewards will also be one gold coin per person, for a total of eight gold coins; how about it?”

Cain said with a huge grin on his face, at which Lina also smiled a little.

“…That’s a Margrave-sama for you. All right.”

Lina held out two coins to Milly and Nina each, and put the other four in her pocket.

“……Eh? Wait a second. What about me…?”

The one who had unexpectedly spoken was Claude.

Cain understood what he wanted to say very well. Lina had taken all the gold coins without even a single one going to Claude.

Claude sent a greedy look at Lina, who turned away, ignoring him. Leaving the heartbroken Claude out, they started talking about their plans.

“But still, are they all really that awful?”

“Honestly, they all fail as candidates in one way or another.”

Cain explained about the four current cardinals.

Their chief, Bangla, who, taking advantage of his power, had masterminded the attack on them.

Samtam, who spoke idealistically, but whatever he suggested was realistically impossible.

The only younger one among the cardinals, Etwar, who kept trying to seduce the nuns and hitting on Hinata.

And Denter, who had failed in life, but helped raise orphans.

They couldn’t help but all smile bitterly since Denter was the only one left by process of elimination.

“We’ll be staying here for a while longer, so we’re planning on stopping by the adventurers’ guild, we’ll also do ou––”

“Look, there’s a lot of nice women here.”

The voice that came interrupting Lina belonged to a group of three men wearing white robes. They were still in their twenties, and it was plain to see that they were members of the church.

“One man and one kid. Aren’t you lonely? There’s three of us too, so why not leave them and come drink with us?”

There was no-one in the Kingdom of Esfort who would try to hit on Lina in front of Claude. Any adventurer with a modicum of skill knew about the A-Rank the ice and flame adventurer pair.

However, this was the Holy Country of Marineford. It was no wonder the two of them weren’t known.

“Sorry, but I already have a husband, so could you go away already? There’s no better men than these two here anywhere.”

“Hey, Lina. You did just call me a ‘good man’ didn’t you?”

The three men became irritated by Claude, who had completely ignored them in his excitement.

“Hey, you there. Can’t you tell by looking? We’re all ‘Priests’. And we’re from the faction of the next pope, Cardinal Bangla-sama.”

Lina heaved a huge sigh at those words.

“…So if the cardinal at the top is an asshole, then the ones below him are assholes too, after all.”

“Lina. That was funny.”

“That’s a good one.”

Milly and Nina started laughing in sync at Lina’s words. However, having been mocked, the priests grew angry.

“Hey, you bastards. Do you know what happens if you insult us here in the Holy Country, huh, huh?”

Knowing it would not end well at this rate, Cain gave up and stood up.

“Is it really okay for you to be disgracing Cardinal Bangla’s name right before the pope elections? Or should we all go to the main temple together now? By the way, we’re from the Kingdom of Esfort, and we’re here as Bishop Harnam’s bodyguards, so if something happens, we can just tell Cardinal Denter, okay? Should I call him now? The Bishop-sama or the Cardinal-sama?”

“W-W-What… If you’re bodyguards you’re adventurers…”

“That’s right. Look. Our guild cards.”

The four of them apart from Cain all raised their guild cards.

Claude and Lina had golden cards, proof of them being A-Rank.

And Milly and Nina had silver ones, signifying B-Rank.

“If you’re going to use force, you are, of course, prepared to die, right? You’ll be up against A-Ranks, after all.”

Just to show their power, Lina made ice float above their fingertips. Cain chuckled at Lina’s attempt at spicing things up.

“W-W-W-We’ll r-remember you!! Everyone let’s go!”

“Hey wait for me!”

One of them ran away, the other two following him. Lina chuckled evilly while looking at their retreating figures.

“Aah, that was refreshing. Alright, let’s have another toast.”

Lina raised her mug as if nothing had happened. They all made a toast and began drinking.

That day, there was nobody in the tavern who got involved with Cain and the others.

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