15: Villain Looking Heki

Unexpectedly, Lewis was decided to be Kuuga’s escort.

However, he couldn’t start today. So, Lewis, who seemed interested in Kuuga, reluctantly left the office to handle the transfer.

And Edallion, who seemed disgruntled that his best recommendation wasn’t accepted, couldn’t extract a large number of resources from the Red Knights he previously belonged to, so he rushed out, proclaiming that he should have overlooked someone from the other Knight corps.

Soon after seeing the large number of knights he brought, Kuuga immediately noticed Edallion’s intentions and struck his shin with his tail to blame Edallion.

Edallion, who seemed to be aware of it, immediately realized what Kuuga wanted to say and laughed at him.

“This is good. It proves that Divine Beast-sama’s eyes are strong!”

“Oi, what are you talking about?”

Of course, Gadillas, who didn’t know what Kuuga blamed Edallion for, pursed his mouth with a suspicious look. He only brought one person at first, so Uros, who suddenly felt it was strange that Edallion brought in 10 knights, stared at Edallion with inquisitive eyes.

For these two people, Edallion showed a thumbs up along with a dry smile.

“I randomly brought anyone with the best grades!”

“…you…”

Even if Edallion made a good recommendation, they might be rejected by Kuuga, so there’s no need to decide from the beginning. He also dared to leave it all to Kuuga.

Gadillas touched his forehead because he had a headache, but Edallion just smiled.

“…Divine Beast-sama, I’m sorry to trouble you, but could you please choose?”

It seemed like Uros was quick to understand and immediately switched to requesting Kuuga.

Kuuga sighed and nodded, then looked at the knights in a row. The knights seemed nervous under Kuuga’s eyes while Gadillas decided to quietly watch, so the office quickly descended to silence.

For the time being, Kuuga could tell what kind of person they were just by looking at their faces, but he couldn’t understand their feelings toward Gadillas unless they spoke to Gadillas.

So he’d like them to speak something like introducing themselves, but how should he convey it?

Kuuga pondered and approached Uros, hitting him twice with his foreleg.

“…? What might be the problem?”

Kuuga looked at the knights then at Gadillas. Kuuga wanted to do something if he repeated the action twice, so Uros thought with a hand on his chin.

“Is it impossible to judge as it is?”

[That’s it.]

“Lewis didn’t seem to have done anything special when he was here… is there any difference?”

Uros began to think about whether there’s any difference between the knights here and Lewis, while Kuuga observed various things without saying anything.

“…Lewis introduced himself.”

“Ah, I see, should they introduce themselves?”

[Yes, you understand very well.]

When Kuuga was pleased with the two people who understood him relatively well, he shook his tail, and Edallion, who saw it, fell into discomfort.

“If so, can you introduce yourself from the end?”

It seemed like Gadillas had somehow figured out how Kuuga judged people.

Kuuga stared at the knight whom Gadillas pointed out to start introducing himself. As they’re called knights, they all seemed to be strong.

It would be a great success to become a Royal Guard Knight. It could be seen that everyone was eager to take this opportunity.

However, Kuuga was still interested in their feelings towards Gadillas. Most of them, like Lewis, didn’t have good a good impression of Gadillas.

Just why was Gadillas treated like that? As far as Kuuga could see, Gadillas didn’t seem like the kind of person to be treated like that.

After everyone’s introduction, Uros once again called out to Kuuga.

“Divine Beast-sama, can you show me the knights who could be recruited?”

“Before that, could anyone even pass your strict criteria?”

Gadillas asked Kuuga after Uros. A person who could pass the criteria of Kuuga, who said that Lewis was not right. Kuuga nodded and put his foreleg on the foot of one knight.

[!]

The knight certainly had a villainous face. Any child would cry when seeing that, but even though he had the scariest face of all of them and his sword skills also seemed quite considerable, as a matter of fact, he had a kind heart that’s a little vulnerable. When he spoke, he had some sympathy for Gadillas.

Gadillas looked at the villainous-looking guy with a surprised expression.

“Is that man really okay?”

With that face? He had a look that made you hallucinate the sound of scary things… it’s undoubtedly the most villainous face among them, but it would be a pity to judge him just based on that easy to misunderstand face.

[Yes. You can trust this man sincerely.]

Seeing Kuuga nod many times, Edallion exhaled and looked at the villainous-looking guy, impressed.

“Amazing, even when Lewis wasn’t good enough… he’s approved of Divine Beast-sama.”

The villain looking Heki was confused since he didn’t know what happened. From the perspective of other people other than Kuuga, his quality didn’t show much because of his face, and he didn’t look excited since he had low expectations from the start.

After looking at Gadillas and Edallion, the villain looking Heki looked down at Kuuga, who still had his foreleg by his feet.

Upon sensing his line of sight, Kuuga looked up at the villain looking Heki’s face. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then tears gradually began to gather in the other man’s eyes.

“…t-thank y-you very much… I-I… with such a f-face… a-always… everyone is s-scared.”

[...you’re a kind guy. It’s all right, I know.]

The villain looking Heki cried his eyes out, which surprised everyone. Kuuga was rubbing his face on his body for comfort.

“People say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover…”

“…it really seems like that…”

While both Uros and Gadillas were surprised, they exchanged some words in amazement.

“F-for His Majesty, and D-Divine Beast-sama’s sake… I-I will do my best…!”

“…a-ah. I’m counting on you.”

The villain looking Heki bowed earnestly while trembling, but when Gadillas replied, he bowed even further.

“So Divine Beast-sama, can you show us the knights who can be hired regularly?”

Uros slightly raised his voice to get Kuuga’s attention. Kuuga nodded and put his foreleg on the foot of another knight who would never betray Gadillas.

6 out of the 10 were hired. The four people who were disqualified had no intention of doing anything to Gadillas for now, but Kuuga removed them because they could be easily be bought with money.

The unemployed knights had faces that said they weren’t convinced, but Gadillas, who believed in Kuuga’s eyes, never changed his opinion.