"Young Miss! You've returned!"
"Welcome back, Young Miss! And… You're also here, Arthur."
Surprisingly, the guard also recognized me. They greeted Eliza cheerfully and looked at me pitifully. Eliza replied back with a fake smile, I recognized, and called some of the guards with uncles before their names.
I looked back at them with a confused gaze, but then I realized they might've heard about Eliza's engagement and thought I was sad and returned with her. One of them even patted my shoulder and told me 'Hang in there.'
The other guards also looked at me with a similar gaze before they turned to Emilia.
"And lady, might I know who you are? We recognized both of them, so they don't need to show their ID, but we might need yours."
Emilia nodded and was about to take out her ID, but Eliza chirped in first.
"Uncle Hans!" She raised her voice toward the guard with full plate armor and unkempt brown hair. "She's my and Arthur's teacher from the Virtue Royal Academy. Please don't be rude to her!"
"Oh!" The man called Uncle Hans raised his eyebrows, looking at Emilia. "So you're the brat and Young Miss' teacher? If Young Miss said so, feel free to enter the city!" He exclaimed.
"…" Emilia was left speechless, and so did I.
Was that okay?
I meant Eliza was the lord's daughter and was trustworthy. But letting a person they didn't recognize enter without showing their ID was a whole different matter.
We talked with the guards for a while, and I assessed the situation and answered accordingly. As expected, they were still oblivious about me being a Paladin; the news hadn't reached this area yet.
After they were satisfied, the one called Uncle Hans allowed us to pass with a warning.
"Young Miss, your father might've changed a bit, but please understand it, okay? He has experienced a lot of things at once lately."
"Yes, Uncle Hans. I understand that." Eliza responded with a fake smile she put on her face.
Uncle Hans looked at her for a second before sighing. He understood that it wasn't his place to meddle in this and decided to say nothing more as Eliza walked away first.
Emilia followed suit closely behind her, leaving me a few steps behind.
And when I was about to follow them, Uncle Hans stopped me by grabbing my shoulder. I looked at him and noticed his gaze was full of pity.
"You need to get strong too, boy. I hope you will still support Young Miss. You're a good man, so you understand what I am saying, right? Seeing you are here, I know you are already aware of the news spreading since this morning."
"You don't need to worry," I replied with a smile.
Of course, I knew what he was talking about. The news about Eliza getting an engagement letter must've spread around the Barony, seeing that it was a small city.
Rumors spread faster in a place with no entertainment. And the rumor about the lord's daughter getting an engagement letter from a Duke was something really hot among the population.
Naturally, if the news about me being a Paladin didn't reach this city yet, the news about Duke Bluerose's fall yesterday wouldn't reach this place either.
About the long-distance communication magic item, such a thing would probably only be used to call Baron Rose in an emergency from Capital City. It wasn't such a common item that the government could give to their nobles to contact each other like a normal phone.
It was just impossible, considering how many nobles were in the kingdom. And even if it was possible, the government wouldn't give them the magic item to contact each other to minimize the chance it would be used for a coup d'etat.
If they wanted it, they could just get it themselves. For that reason, I knew Baron Rose only had one magic item to contact the Capital City. I also knew Capital City wouldn't bother spreading some bad rumors about the Duke before they confirmed themselves that the Duke had become a Fallen.
"I will make sure to support Eliza."
'In one way and more.' I added inside my mind as I saw Uncle Hans smile widely.
"That's good. If it's you, then it will be okay." He patted my back a few times while laughing loudly. The other guards also laughed, following his lead.
At that time, a beautiful voice called out to me loudly from a distance.
"Arthur! Let's go!"
I turned around and saw it was Eliza waving her hand at me. Uncle Hans also noticed her and put his hands on his hips, smiling.
"Well, I've stopped you long enough. My bad, boy."
"No, it's not a problem." I shook my head and smiled. "I will go then."
Saying so, I walked away from the gate and joined Eliza and Emilia. We walked through the wide street between residential areas. The Baron mansion could be seen from the gate, at the end of the street, after passing the wide and large wheat field in the distance.
Because it was located on the hill and was alone, it looked bigger than any other building. However, it actually wasn't that much bigger than the others. The Baron's mansion was even smaller than mine, and that was talking much considering Baron Rose was a lord of a territory.
"Arthur, do you remember this field?"
Eliza suddenly asked as we passed the residential area and entered the field area where some people were working on it, spreading some compost and pulling some weeds. They looked satisfied and happy with their lives.
If she suddenly asked something like that, of course, I would have no answer to it. I had no memories of the original Arthur and only lied all this time.
But, looking at the situation and Eliza's nostalgic smile, it seemed like I was supposed to remember this field. So I nodded.
"Of course."
"Hehehe, of course, you did, right? We often played around here when we were children. You helped me to sneak out of the mansion, and we often bother the farmer here." She giggled cutely and looked around.
Some farmers who tended their fields noticed us and waved their hands happily. Eliza waved back, clearly familiar with them, with a smile.
We continued to walk as Eliza kept reminiscing about the past, pointing at some place with a nostalgic face. I kept answering her as best as I could without letting her know I didn't remember a thing.
Emilia felt a little bit lost and confused, clearly drawn in her face. However, she smiled at the sight of us going together like a child. She somehow enjoyed it and let out a giggle.
It kept going like that until we finally reached the Baron's mansion atop the hill. I was pleasantly surprised that the child Arthur would visit this mansion to play with Eliza all day; that guy had the drive, huh? Now I felt bad for him because he lost Eliza to Adam in the game.
He didn't need to worry, though, as I would protect Eliza and make her loyal. This had become my body too, and that was the only responsibility I wanted to take for the original Arthur.
When the mansion's fence was visible, I noticed two people standing in the middle of the open gate.
We stopped right in front of them. Or rather, Eliza stopped, and we followed suit. She had a surprised face as she looked at both of them.
One of them was a maid with long braided black hair. She was a beautiful girl with modest breasts wearing a sexy French maid outfit.
The other one was also a beautiful lady.
She was older than Emilia, probably in her mid-thirties, and had a similar face to Eliza's. However, there was no sign of a wrinkle, and she looked gorgeous in an open sleeveless white dress, which exposed her cleavage and soft thighs.
A soft smile was plastered on her face as she looked at us like a mother would. She was truly a perfect milf, just as explained in the game.
Her shining blue eyes looked warm under the sunset light basking her face. When she took a step forward, her breasts jiggled, and then a soft voice followed suit.
"Welcome back, my cute daughter." She extended her hands toward Eliza, pulling the dazed girl into a hug.
"M-Mama! C-Can't breathe!" Eliza struggled as her face was buried between two large mounds, but she sounded happy and hugged the older woman back.
"Fufufu, what a spoiled child you are." She giggled happily.
Then, she looked at me and tilted her head slightly in a cute gesture. "Also, welcome back for you too, Arthur."
I smiled wryly at her. How did she know we had arrived? We didn't announce our arrival, and neither did we arrive with Jane.
The maid had no long-distance communication magic item either, so the only logical thinking was this older woman had the skill to detect presence like me or <Mana Sense> to distinguish her daughter's Mana from the others.
Or it could also possibly be that she felt my huge reserve of MP and decided to check on it. Either way, Eliza's mother was a more skilled mage than I had thought.
Scratching my cheek, I pretended to be the Arthur that everyone remembered. I did my best to imitate her from the early stages of Sins Paradise.
"Hahaha, I am back, Madam Vivian." I replied with a cracked voice. "It's nice to return to my hometown."
"Fufufu, you've changed a lot." She said, releasing Eliza from the hug. "Well then, the journey must've been tiring you. How about we enter and have some tea?" She continued, looking at Emilia.
"And we can introduce ourselves to each other then. We have a lot of things to catch up on. Isn't that so, teacher Emilia? I never thought we would meet like this. I've heard a lot of you from Beatrice."
In an instant, she recognized Emilia. How? Was this the power of connection between housewives? Scary.
"That's a wonderful idea," Emilia replied, putting on her act as a strict teacher. However, her face was clearly a bit cracking due to hearing the unexpected name come from Vivian's mouth. "I would like to know what my mother said about me too." She smiled.
Looking at Vivian's smile, I shuddered. Somehow… I felt like this milf knew a lot of things that even I didn't. Why did all older women in this world seem to be so knowledgeable and playful? Take Alesia, for example. The headmistress also knew a lot of things while remaining mysterious.
Anyway… my plan hadn't changed yet. Instead, I liked her more now that I had met her.
'I just need to wait for the right time.'
