I was accidentally injured by God and I just want to be an ordinary person

"Lotte?"

The orange-red eyes that had lost focus regained focus, and when Loti looked at Ella, her eyes regained color. She swallowed a mouthful of non-existent saliva and took small deep breaths. Finally, Loti coughed lightly twice, lowered her head slightly, and her voice revealed a very sorry feeling.

"...I'm sorry, Miss Ella. I'm being rude."

"It's okay. I just noticed something was wrong with Lotte, so I disturbed you. Is that Lotte sister on the stage?"

When she said the second half of the sentence, Ella deliberately lowered her voice. If this kind of news were to be spread in the venue, whether it was true or not, she and Lotte would definitely become the focus of attention. And if Lotte was actually mistaken, she might eventually be charged with slandering the royal family. Although it would definitely be settled in the end with the intervention of the Holy Academy represented by Iris, it would naturally be better to avoid trouble if possible, not to mention that she still had the identity of a demon.

Glancing at the stage below again, Luti nodded.

"Well, that's my sister, Archus, who was expelled from home by our father for becoming an adventurer. Although her temperament and appearance are very different from before, her every move and habit, and that sword, are definitely hers. I never expected to meet her again in this way..."

Looking at her sister who was being named by King Tovasan of the Kingdom of Barris on the stage, Lotte changed her previous feeling of being moved and clenched her fists into deep thought.

"Sister, you chose to be an adventurer because you hated the life of a noble. Now you've suddenly changed your name and volunteered to be a princess... Why?"

"Do we need to go see her later? It might be difficult, but if Lotte reveals her identity as a relative, it should be possible. If that doesn't work, we can use our identity as an envoy from the Holy Academy to meet her when we enter the palace."

What Ella didn't mention was that if neither method worked, she could still use the "Stealth" skill of other professions to sneak into the palace quietly. Even high-level defensive barriers would be unable to stop her. She had already tried this in the western demon capital "Misttin" and the library of the Holy Academy - although if she was caught in the latter, she would definitely be wanted by the entire continent.

After hesitating for a moment, Lotte shook her head with a determined look, and her lavender twintails swung left and right as if expressing her determination.

"As long as my sister and I are destined to be together, we will naturally meet. I am now Miss Ella's property - Miss Ella's attack magic."

"Eh... I think Lotte doesn't need to be like this..."

Although saying it out loud might make Ruthie feel that he was insulting her determination, what Ruthie said just now seemed like self-suggestion to him. Of course, maybe this was just his personal feeling, and Ruthie's inner thoughts might be exactly the same as what he just said.

The most important thing was that saying "I am Miss Ella's property" in front of so many people was so embarrassing that I wanted to find a box to hide in.

Shaking her head again, Lotte looked serious as she stared at Ella. In her eyes, besides loyalty, there was also a mixture of other indescribable emotions.

"This is something I cannot forget. Just like how Miss Camisia has been waiting for Miss Ella to appear, Miss Ella is the reason for Lotte's existence."

"what……"

In an instant, Ella felt that all the pores in her body opened to the maximum, and the blood produced by the beating of her heart flowed directly from her chest to her brain. The vermilion color spread from her snow-white neck covered by the scarf to the base of her ears.

Is this…is this a confession? Um…no, no no no no, this isn't a confession no matter how you look at it, is it?! Lotte and I are of the same sex? Same sex? At most, it's just a friendship between girls that can't be severed, right? But actually saying that the value of your existence is me…isn't this too weird!? I knew long ago that Lotte had completely immersed herself in the maid role she casually mentioned back then, but for it to develop into this…I totally don't understand!

“Cough… cough…”

Feeling a little hot, Ella loosened the blue and white scarf around her neck a little, turned her head away embarrassedly, and the hot breath she exhaled quickly disappeared in the winter air.

"Anyway...anyway, I should go see Tifarian when I get a chance."

"If Miss Ella wishes..."

Perhaps Ella's blushing face made Lotte very happy. Lotte tilted her head slightly and looked at Ella, who had deliberately tilted her head to the side, with a smile on her face.

As for Lotte herself, although she lost her composure for a moment when she saw her sister at first, that was because she thought her sister had died in the adventure, and now she was very surprised to see her again, so she was so excited.

In fact, the rest of his life had been decided the moment Ella pulled him out of the box. Whether it was the warm bed and food that a slave would never have, or the hug he received when he was in despair, these were all things his sister had failed to give him.

Of course, it might be a bit far-fetched to say this. Maybe her sister was also looking for her during that time, but humans are not rational creatures after all. Even if she knew this, the most she could do was not blame her sister Alkyus - now Tifarian - you know, when humans are rescued from despair, the first thing they will do is thank the rescuer, and the second thing they will do is blame the rescuer for not coming to rescue them earlier. It is difficult for ordinary people to not blame Lotte for not resentment against her sister for not helping her when she was in trouble.

The person who truly freed herself from the eternal night of slavery and gave her feelings that she had never experienced before was the girl in front of her who would hesitate when faced with big things, blush when praised, and like to show off her strength to help others even if her position was inconvenient.

Once she confirmed this, Lotte felt a kind of excitement in her heart, which kept beating like a drum, as if she wanted to convey some kind of feeling.

What is that inexplicable feeling that suddenly rushes into my heart, like an electric shock that I have never experienced before?

Even with Lotte's wisdom, she couldn't know the answer. If it were Iris, she would probably answer it, but Lotte always felt that Iris would dodge the question, or tell her in a playful manner, asking her to find the answer through action.

When my mind started to think about things that I usually only think about late at night, a voice that could not be ignored came to my ears.

"Hey, Lotte, look, Miss Tifarian seems to be looking at you."

Chapter 22 Magical Weapons and the System of the Kingdom of Barris

Following the direction Ella pointed, Lotte came back to her senses and looked towards the stage. Although it was not particularly obvious, her sister Tifarian did occasionally look at her, as if to confirm something.

Let's meet each other if we have the chance. I hope my sister won't get too excited after discovering her slave status. After all, she was a pretty reckless person before.

While thinking this, Lotte smiled wryly and met Tifarian's gaze.

It was very obvious that the gentle smile that Tifarian had always shown froze for a moment. Noticing the abnormality of the king - whose hair was already gray and whose steps were unsteady - Tovarsaen looked at Tifarian and asked in a low voice that was extremely old but extremely kind.

"What's wrong?"

"No, Father, it's nothing."

Tifarian's affectionate address brought a smile to Tovartharn's wrinkled face.

"If you feel unwell, then end it. You are the protagonist today."

"……yes."

Lifting the hems of her skirt, Tifarian saluted King Tovarsaen and walked off the stage under the escort of the guards. Since the old King Tovarsaen was among them, everyone walked particularly slowly.

If he were in an aristocratic family, an old man of Tovasan's age would definitely have an exquisitely decorated cane to help him walk. If his title was higher, he could even hire a maid to accompany him and support him. But from Tovasan's point of view, he couldn't do that. If the king needed a cane or a maid to help him walk, the people and other nobles would regard it as a sign that the king was dying, and the calls for the king to abdicate and give his position to the prince would become louder and louder. Now that the future of the aristocracy and the pro-king faction was unclear, Tovasan couldn't just give up his throne to the prince. Because once he gave up his throne to a puppet prince who was actually controlled by the nobles, the already backward Kingdom of Paris would be even worse off.

In this way, the naming ceremony of Tifarian, the only princess of the Kingdom of Barris, ended under the hosting of the master of ceremonies. Countless people who came to see her stood up and shouted Tifarian's name. Some of them were so excited that they jumped directly from the audience. However, the moment these people jumped off the stage, they were taken away by the guards responsible for the security of the venue with long swords.

Like some of the others who had left, Ella stood up.

"Shall we go check it out now? We might run into them at the exit."

"...They'll probably be using the exclusive passage for the nobility. Without Barris Kingdom nobility, you won't be able to get in. But it'll get crowded if you leave too late, so Miss Ella, let's leave now."

"Eh? Do we really not need to meet again?"

"Well, I just need to know that my sister is alive."

Ella sighed helplessly at Lotte's stubbornness and opened the terrain search.

"Angeline and Fuka are nearby, so let's go meet up with them. It's almost lunchtime now, so let's go back to the hotel and discuss our plans with Iris and the others."

"Okay, Miss Ella."

Following the scattered stream of people leaving the venue, Ella and Lotte passed through the dim corridor and came to the outskirts of the arena. There were many vendors setting up stalls at the entrance, most of whom were selling snacks that could be held directly in the hands and easily eaten.

"Give me two servings."

"Please keep these. This will cost you seven silver coins."

"Eh? Is it that expensive?"

"Because a lot of sugar is added, that's why the price is this high."

The elderly woman gave Ella an embarrassed smile and handed her a special snack wrapped in a paper bag.

It seems difficult to get sugar in this world, so Ella had anticipated that she might need to measure it with silver coins before buying it, but the two together would cost seven silver coins. Even the Wadong Pastry Shop in the Holy Academy did not have pastries of this size. With a helpless mentality, Ella took out seven silver coins from the warehouse and put them in the old woman's hand.

The reason why it is so expensive is not only the value of the pastries themselves, but also the stall factor, just like the food near the station is always sold at a high price.

Of course, with the vast amount of F.Wing game coins piled up in his warehouse, he didn't need to worry about the seven silver coins, a sum that couldn't even be counted. In this world, F.Wing game coins were considered ancient gold coins from the Demon God era. One could buy an entire aristocratic mansion, reaching the level of a collectible. Therefore, this brought various problems.

Just like now, he couldn't just take out the ancient gold coins and trade them with the old woman. He had to use special means to exchange them for ordinary gold coins. In the past, when he was at the Holy Academy, he would directly take them to the pawnshop to pawn them, but in the Kingdom of Baris, he hadn't seen such a place, not even in the terrain search.

After counting the remaining ordinary gold coins in the warehouse, Ella frowned unconsciously.

After paying the hotel accommodation fee just now, there are only less than three digits of gold coins left.

[We need to find a place to exchange gold coins later.]

While thinking about this, Ella took a bite of the white pastry wrapped in the paper bag. If she was not mistaken, this should be something made by grinding wheat into powder, with a rare filling similar to red beans in the middle. Although it looked like food that was very suitable for the image of a girl, it was too sweet overall. Probably only Fukagan would like it among the group. She turned her head to look at Ruthie and found that Ruthie seemed to have the same idea as her.

Bring some deep oranges to eat again later.

Because this place is quite far from the inn, it would be a bit awkward to remain silent. Thinking of the nobles who asked passers-by for magic weapons when they entered the city before, Ella raised the question.

"Do you know why those nobles asked passersby for magical weapons? For nobles, begging for items from commoners is shameful, right?"

Luty sipped the white pastry, wiped the crumbs stuck to the corners of her mouth with her fingers, and answered after tidying her words.

"It's probably a tournament held every three years. Those who pass the second stage of the tournament will be hired by the kingdom as knights. If you possess a magic weapon, you can pass the second stage without taking the test, which means you can choose to be hired by the kingdom directly. Although you will be sent to various places in the kingdom in the future, you will also have the lowest level of knighthood."

"But those people are nobles themselves, right? They're deliberately seeking noble titles..."

"It's different, isn't it? If you're not a noble of high status and a wealthy family, it's difficult for the second son and subsequent children to inherit the family business. If you don't choose to join the army and start as a soldier at the lowest level, you can only choose to go into business to get a chance to rise in the world. But both of these options are very difficult, so most people can only choose to be given some gold coins by the family and become ordinary civilians."

After a pause, Lotte tilted her head slightly and looked at Ella, who was lowering her head to digest the information.

"And if someone doesn't want to be an ordinary commoner, but also doesn't want to start from the bottom, they can only choose the last path - obtain a magic weapon, participate in the triennial tournament, pass the first two stages directly, and accept the kingdom's invitation to become a knight. The treatment of a knight is much better than that of an ordinary soldier."

"Hmm, will the Kingdom just sit back and watch this kind of opportunistic behavior?"

Ella raised her head, took a step sideways, and avoided the pedestrians she was about to collide with - there were so many people on the street, only slightly fewer than the commercial street in the inner circle of the Holy Academy.

In order to avoid this kind of misaligned vision from happening again, Lotte deliberately squeezed to the inside of the street.

"Well—it's not that we don't care. It's just that those who can obtain magic weapons, even if their own level is lower than that of knights who are recruited through formal conscription, can make up for the difference through the bonus of magic weapons. For example, if the weapon has a paralysis effect, even a regular knight will be at a disadvantage if he can't kill with one strike, and a protracted battle will be quite disadvantageous. Of course, most noble heirs who use magic weapons through election will work hard to improve their level after becoming knights. Even if there are some who slack off, they will be eliminated after a long mission selection because they will be discovered by the Sergeant-General."

"Hmm...it seems like a pretty complete plan. Are you really a politician?"

This method, which she had never heard of before, made Ella feel enlightened. Although she did not know how the demons selected their soldiers, there must not be much difference. Otherwise, there would not be a demon king's guard with an average level of more than 20 - level 20 can completely become a mid-level or above non-commissioned officer in the army.

"Well, magic weapons are hard to come by. Even a weapon with the lowest-level 'Fireball' spell, which isn't even a first-level spell, costs one hundred to two hundred gold coins. Those nobles I met earlier might only have one or two gold coins for their monthly allowance. Nobles are just people who sound glamorous."

Ruthie folded up the paper bag containing the pastries—they had been eaten at some point—and blew on her fingers, which had turned white from the cold winter wind.

Chapter 23: The commotion outside the stadium

Because the pastries were too sweet and difficult to swallow, Ella chose to put them back into the paper bag and eat them slowly after returning to the hotel. However, because using the storage directly on the street would be too conspicuous, she could only hold it in her hand - even magic that can store items will not disappear without any warning like the storage. This can be seen from the look of the black dragon Vera when he took out the treasure. A ceremony similar to reaching one's hand into another space must be performed to take out or store items. As for the storage bracelets and ribbons used by Iris and Camisia, they are props of another structure, which can be counted as scarlet gold-level props.

"Let's go over there and take a look later."

When they were about to pass through an alley, Ella pointed to the direction on her left. In the "Terrain Search", Angelica and Shen Gan were parked there, and there were quite a lot of light spots surrounding them.

"Hmm, that seems to be the registration office for the tournament. If Miss Ella is interested—"

"Hey, commoner, do you hear me? Hurry and hand over the magic weapon to Lord Huojie. When Lord Huojie becomes a great noble, he will naturally return it to you, and you will be rewarded handsomely."

A completely unrestrained and rude voice sounded at the street corner. Thinking that Angelique and Shengan were also there, Ella immediately took Lotte through the alley and came to a narrow passage that could only accommodate one-way traffic of carriages. Inside, Angelique and Shengan were stopped by five noble youths, and countless ordinary civilians who came to watch the fun also gathered nearby to form a human wall.

You can see Angelini holding a giant sickle in her hand, blocking Shen Gan behind her.

"This is a gift from my mentor. I won't give it to you!"

"Tsk, a mere elf dares to talk back to a noble? Do you want to become a slave?!"

"Senior Angelica, there's no need to bother with these people."

"You're from the Kingdom of Barris, right? And you're actually harboring a foreigner—huh? Both of them seem very beautiful, if…"

Feeling that these five nobles would face a miserable end if they continued, Ella quietly took out the Pestle of Heavenly Punishment from the storage, surrounded herself with wind magic, and squeezed into the crowd, coming to Angelica, who was staring at the nobles with a vigilant look on her face.

"Ah, little Ella, you're here! These nobles are trying to steal my weapons."

"Yeah, I understand."

Nodding slightly to Angelini, Ella looked at the five noble heirs. All of them were ordinary people of extremely low level, not even level 4.

Due to Ella's sudden appearance, the noble youths collectively took a small step back, but when they discovered that Ella was wearing civilian clothes and had an unintimidating appearance, they shouted angrily.

"Who are you to stop a noble?"

"Well, let me introduce myself. I'm Ella Enstanit, a high-ranking priest of the Enstanit Church. These are my friends. What do you want to do?"

There was a deliberate hint of threat in his voice. Camisia had taught him that when facing lower nobles, the more you show weakness, the more likely they will take advantage of you. On the contrary, if you use a cold and unceremonious attitude, the other party will be intimidated.

As for the high-ranking priest position he mentioned, it was the result of Lucia's promotion from the bishop position before he left, and Ella Enstanit was a complete lie he made up on the spur of the moment. The Christian name "Enstanit" was lower in rank than the demon name "Nott", so it was impossible to name it successfully.

"We...we ordered that demihuman to surrender her scythe, and she dared to resist."

"Even if you're a high-ranking priest of the Enstanit Church, you have no right to discipline us. The Church and the Kingdom have long agreed not to interfere with each other!"

The nobleman's blushing face and waving hands looked just like a child. If Ella had to describe it, the only word that came to her mind was "ugly".

"You're a priest, yet you're wearing this kind of clothing. I think you're an imposter."

His silence seemed to have made these nobles complacent, and he could sense the emotions of Lotte and Fukagan behind him approaching an outburst.

"senior--"

"That's all."

Just as Ella tapped the Pestle of Heavenly Punishment on the ground and prepared to use magic to blow these nobles away, an unusually polite male voice came from outside the crowd.