In the evening, they threw a party at the mansion.

　Shaw and Lina, formally appointed viscount by two members of the royal family, then threw a party according to the practices of the nobility.

　The attendees included Shaw and Lina, of course, and from this side of the house, my sister and Mimis from the vassals.
　And then there's Thaddeus, Pindos merchants and other influential people.

　All of them were invited to the party, and it was a party full of blessings and sarcasm, nothing special to write home about.

　Then Lina spoke to me.
　She was dressed in a dress, and although she was quiet, she had a noble air about her, and as expected of royalty, I was impressed.

　As expected of one of the guests of honor, when Lina spoke to them, the other attendees smartly moved away from them in a distant direction.

'We'll do it.'
What?
Slime lord. You beat that one well.
You know...
So that's it.
"Huh?

　What do you mean, "that's it?

It's a fool's errand.
You too, Brutus!
It's well founded.

　Lina quietly raised her hand and pointed behind me.
　I turned and followed the pointing point with my eyes and saw Sakos glaring at me in the corner of the hall.

　He was the guy who was in charge of the practicalities of this ceremony, of course he was involved, and he'd invited me over to act like nothing had happened.
　This guy is staring at me like I'm an enemy of my parents.

"He's what?
'That one is famous for its greed. He would have demanded a bribe.
Yeah.
'So I can imagine that face you splashed off. And by its very nature, it will try to embarrass you somewhere during the ceremony. Then there's nothing to plant but a slime lord.
I see.

　You're not entirely sure.

What's so wrong with him?
It's just a trinket. It's just...
"Just?
It's a snake.
You're a vindictive man.
Yes, to the extent that everyone here knows about it.

　I look at Sakos again.
　It's still staring at me.

　As Lina says, it's a very stubborn look, reminiscent of a reptilian.
　It's not going to be able to do much, but I thought it was going to be troublesome.

　The situation was even more troublesome.

　I'm not sure if it's because I saw that guy twice, but he came up to me with a smile on his face.

"Take care of yourself.

　Lina said in a teasing tone and moved away from my side.
　You're going to decide to take the high ground... well, I know you know my personality, so I know you don't want to get involved willingly.

　I wanted to avoid it too, but I'm the host today, I can't run away.

　As I was doing so, Sakos came right in front of me.

''Once again, I wish to congratulate you on your appointment as Viscount. Viscount.
Yeah.

　I was alarmed.
　Sakos made a special effort to pronounce the word "viscount".

　What are you going to do there?　I replied, wary.
　It's unlikely that there's nothing there.

　Because this guy's eyes are still dark and sticky and disgusting.

　When I was on alert to deal with whatever he was going to do - he came.

　The words had nothing to do with it at all, or maybe it was a decoy over there.
　While I was distracted by it - I felt like my body was getting heavy.

　The feeling that something was going to crush me.
　Is this........gravity!

　I felt my whole body gagging and crushed against the ground.
　It's like a gravity spell has been cast.

　A grin twitches at the corner of his mouth, "Sakos.
　It's a good idea to use gravity magic to make me kneel in front of everyone's eyes.
　

　Sakos looked at his feet - his shoes - with a proud face.
　He's even more of a jerk than before.

　Don't just make me kneel, crawl over and lick my shoes.

　I could hear such empty ears, I could feel Sakos' stingy malice.

　The gravitational pull is increasing.
　Ten times more than usual ... fifteen ... twenty ... twenty ... and still increasing.

　The gravity that has stopped at a certain point is such that a normal person would have been crushed or even fainted before that.
　Of course I'm not going to kneel, licking my shoes is out of the question.

　I stood and thought about it.
　I observed my surroundings.

　There was no change in space.
　I didn't see any warping or creaking or anything like that.

　I mean, it's not on the space at all, it's just the magic that's pinpointed on my body.

　Then it's best to do nothing.
　Nothing is done, nothing is done.
　It's best to act like it.

　Fortunately, my body doesn't look any different.
　It's best to just walk away unscathed.

"Thank you for everything you've done.

　Aristocrats and officials, I nudged him with the commonplace language appropriate to public life.
　Then Sakos was astonished.

'Foolishness!　You're just going through the motions?　You're supposed to have thirty times the normal gravity on your body.
I don't know what you're talking about.

　I said and held out my hand.

'Once again, I thank you.'

　He asked Sakos to shake his hand.
　The host of the place, and the Viscount, asked me to shake his hand.
　Sakos reached out his hand and grabbed it in a half-indulgent manner, despite being angry and surprised.

''--!''

　I could see that his complexion had changed.
　Even if it didn't look like anything to me, I could tell by touch.
　I could feel that I was resisting the gravity that was being applied by the force.

'Bah, silly, fifty times that.
'I don't know what you're talking about now,'

　I scoffed.

　Then Sakos turned pale, shook off his hand and ran away.
　If he did this much, he wouldn't have to do anything else.
　And I'm confident this time.

　After all, it was in public, in front of the public.

　I acted as if nothing happened on the outside, and I'm sure it did for all intents and purposes.

　But - for some reason, the eyes around me were strange.
　Astonishment and respect.

　....Why?

Nothing happened.
Your Highness, the Prince.

　The one who spoke to me was another royal.
　It was the third prince, Shaw the Aegina.

'What do you mean it didn't happen?
Hey, he tried to do something.

　Shaw asked, glancing in the direction of Sakos' escape.

'What?　Um.....
'Don't hide it, or rather, hide it and no one will believe you.
"Huh?
'There's no way that thing is going to be humiliated and back down to nothing, and everyone here knows it.
...Speaking of which...

　Didn't Lina say something like that earlier?
　That she was famous for being persistent like a snake.

　.........that is.
　You can't mean...

"They know?
'You've flipped a very good one off without a hitch. I took it as such.

　Shaw says simply.
　I look around fearfully.

What did they do to you...?
A quick death curse?
No, that's naive, if he was going to use a curse, he could have attacked Lady Lina.
The curse of extinction once fell upon you, boy.

　The whispering around me is a testament to the persistence of Sakos.

　At the same time, indirectly.
　He was admiring my ability to get through it all without a hitch.

'What was I supposed to do...'

　I nodded.