Chapter 26: Kuku: I'm a fan of Crusch! (Convinced) (Patreon)

More than sorrow or hurt, what Crusch felt in that instant was pure bewilderment.

She could say with confidence that she had never, in her whole life, done anything to wrong another person. She had never oppressed her subjects; her judgments had always been fair, impartial, free of favoritism — though admittedly, that was partly because the people close to her simply weren't the type to break the law in the first place.

But Crusch could say it proudly, plainly, without shame: she had lived her life in a way she could be proud of.

She didn't even rely solely on the letter of the law — she weighed human circumstance too.

Once, a murder had occurred under her rule: a woman had committed adultery and conspired with her lover to kill her husband. The victim's younger brother had come to her in tears, begging for justice.

The woman had covered her tracks so thoroughly beforehand that no one could find a shred of evidence. Everyone knew what had happened, yet there wasn't a single witness who had seen it firsthand.

Crusch's Divine Protection let her tell easily enough that the woman was lying, feigning innocence, denying the murder, denying the affair — but her Divine Protection could only serve as her own private judgment. Since it produced no tangible physical proof, it couldn't be used as legal evidence.

Even so, Crusch hadn't hesitated. She'd delivered what she believed was the most just verdict, publicly: the woman sewn into a sack and thrown into a lake full of crocodiles, the lover hanged, and all their properties awarded to the victim's brother.

Because there had been no hard evidence, that verdict had cost her some measure of reputation — people whispered that she'd been arbitrary, even corrupt.

But she never regretted it.

Crusch Karsten was meant to be exactly this kind of person — and she had, in fact, become someone she could be proud of.

Even those who knew what she'd done, even the merchants who despised her most, could never hate her that much.

So right now, Crusch genuinely wanted to know what fault she'd committed, that Subaru Natsuki and Felt — the very people she'd come here to recruit — would say such a thing about her.

"You—" she started.

Crusch was merely confused, but Ferris beside her couldn't hold back for even a second. Tears of fury were already welling up — he would never allow anyone to slander Lady Crusch, the woman he'd give everything for. Veins bulging, face twisted with rage, he was about to charge forward and start a fight right then and there.

Crusch calmly stopped him. "Fe— Ferris. I understand how you feel, but please, calm down. I believe that anyone capable of turning a slum into something like this couldn't have meant real hostility. Sir Natsuki and Lady Felt likely just misspoke, or misunderstood something."

Now who was this?!

Startled by the sudden interruption, Subaru Natsuki and Felt spun around — and froze.

Wait, what was going on today?

This tier of beauty — the kind you might not see once in a whole year — first Anna, and now another one popped up out of nowhere?

And of all the rotten luck, this one had appeared just as suddenly as Anna had, right in the middle of their conversation. It was enough to scare a person half to death.

At least, thankfully, they hadn't been talking about anything as treasonous as becoming king this time — otherwise they'd have needed to clap a hand over someone's mouth again, and that would've made yet another person with leverage over them.

Not that this was much better, really, because no matter how you looked at it, these two new girls speaking up were either connected to Crusch somehow, or they were her fans.

Subaru Natsuki looked the woman over carefully, from head to toe.

The one clearly in charge here — how to put it... Her long green hair was a little unusual, admittedly; it was hard not to associate that color with a certain something. But it definitely wasn't unattractive — quite the opposite, actually. On anyone else, that hair color would've been hard to pull off.

Her face was handsome, sharp, dignified, full of spirited vigor. Even though she was a girl, no one would call her cute or pretty in the ordinary sense — her beauty leaned toward something more androgynous.

She carried herself with a soldier's bearing. Even without knowing anything about her, you'd instinctively feel you could trust her, that she was the kind of person you could share hardship with, rely on — someone whose shoulder you could cry on if you needed to.

...Except, well, given how her chest strained against her plain clothes — clearly more than a handful even under all that fabric — leaning on that shoulder might come off as taking advantage. Things could get weird fast.

Realizing he'd been staring a beat too long, Subaru quickly yanked his gaze back up to her face. She didn't seem bothered by it at all, and showed no embarrassment whatsoever — as if she had no self-awareness about being female at all.

If Anna was the embodiment of playful, coquettish fragility, then this sharp-featured beauty standing before them was her exact opposite — right down to her height.

But though she was a completely different type from Anna, she matched her in sheer level of beauty and presence — the kind you couldn't honestly rate as anything less than stunning.

As for the cat-eared girl standing beside her — presumably Crusch's number one fan — she was pretty too, but next to Anna and this striking beauty, she simply wasn't in the same league.

Felt's face crumpled into a scrunched-up cat-scowl yet again, her voice edging toward panic and full meltdown. "Who are you people now?!"

Again?

Felt genuinely begged, from the bottom of her heart — could these flawless beauties please just stay away from their slum? This wasn't the kind of place they belonged. What were they even doing here?!

She knew, logically, that it wasn't like every girl who showed up would fall for her idiot melon-head — the guy wasn't exactly a catch that everyone swooned over, and he wasn't the type to fall for every pretty face either. But risk was risk. With beauties on this level, the risk of something happening was never, ever going to be zero.

If she'd once had a genie's lamp, Lady Felt would've wished, without hesitation, to erase every noble and rich person from the world in an instant. But if she had a genie's lamp now, she'd wish for every beautiful girl in the entire world to vanish immediately — wiped out, every single one, no exceptions!

"Kr— Kru."

Crusch answered on reflex — her real name wasn't anything shameful to reveal. But she caught herself immediately. She wanted to hear their honest reasons. If she revealed her identity now, would Sir Natsuki and Lady Felt still be willing to tell her the real reason behind their hostility?

She hesitated a moment. Dressed in commoner's clothes, in disguise as she was, the words hovered on her tongue — and then she simply invented a fake name on the spot.

Felt eyed her suspiciously. "Cru-Cru?"

Was that even a real name? It sounded like she was making it up to dodge the question.

Crusch waved a hand, decisive, burying every trace of her own nervousness, and declared with absolute finality, cutting off any further questions before they could take root: "Yes, Cru-Cru. That's my name. I think it has a nice ring to it. Please, feel free to call me that as well!"