“And that’s it. Truthfully, I would prefer to perform the ceremony on a much grander scale, but . . .”

“Too much trouble.”

“I expected that would be your response, so I kept it simple. Regardless, I do plan to make this known to the people.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I had a feeling that my days of openly roaming the castle town streets were now over.

That reminded me, where was Trash? It felt like I hadn’t seen him in forever. Was he still around?

Trash was the queen’s husband and had been serving as the Crown by proxy in her absence. He’d had another name, but it had been changed to Trash as punishment for his actions. He had been one of the culprits responsible for framing me for religious reasons.

There he was. He was glaring at me with disgust in his eyes.

He couldn’t say anything since the queen was keeping a close eye on him. Or so I thought . . . Looking more closely, I noticed he was wearing a collar.

“—!”

Oh? He was touching the collar like he wanted to say something. It seemed to be tightening. Now this was funny. I laughed at him.

“——!!”

He seemed super mad now, but every time he tried to scream out, the collar tightened and silenced him before he could make a noise. Talk about quality entertainment!

“Mr. Naofumi . . . ?”

Raphtalia called out as if to reprimand me. Apparently she hadn’t noticed Trash’s collar.

“What can I say? It’s funny! Look at that.”

“Sigh . . . That’s just like you, Mr. Naofumi.”

Raphtalia’s voice was tinged with disapproval.

“Ah, yes. Mr. Iwatani, you mentioned that you would like to speak with the seven star heroes.”

“Huh? Yeah, that’s right.”

The queen looked over at Trash, as if to imply something. The knights surrounding Trash dragged him over in front of me and forced him to his knees.

“Allow me to tell you about a certain seven star hero.”

Why was she saying this after dragging Trash over here?

“This hero was an extraordinary character formerly known as Lüge. When Siltvelt made an attempt at world domination twenty-something years ago, it was this hero that attacked them head-on, saving Melromarc and many other countries in the process.”

“Sounds like quite the reputation.”

Twenty-something years ago meant that the hero had to be pretty old now. Thinking about the people I knew, that would probably limit it to the old lady, the slave trader, or the accessory dealer. The last two were out of the question, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be the old lady. She’d made a dramatic turnaround and gone on a rampage after I gave her that medicine, after all. Still, something about her didn’t quite fit.

“Despite being the Staff Hero, this hero came to be known instead for his formidable intelligence, and the people referred to him as ‘His Excellency, the Wise’ when telling stories of his deeds.”