The bodies of the Wyverns and their knights fell to the ground.
Of course, as most of the Wyverns had died first, the Dragon Knights had been still alive when they fell from the sky.
But, if a human could survive a fall from over 100m, it would be a miracle.
And one such miracle was before Rei and Set’s eyes.
「Ga……ah……」
That said, even with the Wyvern acting as a cushion to keep them alive, it still only changed an instant death into a state of near death.
「I’ll make this easier for you.」
Muttering those words, Rei swung the Death Scythe and the Dragon Knight’s head flew into the air.
「So, we’ve defeated all the Dragon Knights now. ……Hey, Set. What do you think they were thinking when they did this?」
Rei picked up the spears and long swords that the Dragon Knights had carried, which hadn’t broken or bent after falling from the sky, and asked as he stored them into the Misty Ring.
However, Set just tilted his head, as if to say he didn’t know.
「Yeah. I don’t know either. Why are they throwing away Dragon Knights? If used effectively, they are a very powerful fighting force and it would have costed a lot to train them in the first place. Normally, you would never throw them away like this……」
「Gurururu~」
Rei thought about it for a moment before nodding in response, judging that instead of worrying about it now, it would be better to collect the Wyverns’ bodies and the Dragon Knights’ weapons.
「That’s right. I don’t know what they’re thinking, but we’ve reduced their fighting force. In that case, I guess we might as well go along with it. ……Well, it’s been a while since we’ve fought an aerial battle, collecting the corpses gets a lot harder.」
Since the battle involved a flying around the air, the battlefield was naturally quite large.
The corpses of the Wyverns, which were scattered over the area of several kilometers, were all stored into the Misty Ring, with only the bodies of the Dragon Knights gathered into a single location.
As he was doing that, some White Rose Knights, led by Widele, probably sent out by the army, appeared.
「Rei-dono, are you okay?」
「Yeah, there’s no injuries on our side. We were just attacked by the Dragon Knights over there. I’ve already put away the Wyverns into my item box. Did you suffer any losses on your side?」
Rei replied nonchalantly as he watched Widele’s horse slow down with surprise at the words ‘Dragon Knight’.
「Dragon Knights……ah, no. Princess Frizione is unhurt. Did you see the red smoke signal earlier?」
「Yes. The smoke signal went up shortly after I passed by.」
After Rei told Widele, Widele gave a soft sigh.
「No, the smoke signal went up right after you passed by……it probably just felt like a while after because you were riding Set.」
「That’s natural considering Set’s speed. So, who used the smoke signal?」
「Unfortunately, it seems they left the area as soon as they sent it. It was definitely a signal for the Dragon Knights to start their attack. If that’s the case, they must be from either the First or Second Princes’ factions.」
Considering the situation, it was safe to rule out the possibility of a third faction. Rei nodded after hearing Widele’s words.
「Indeed, considering everything, it’s natural to be suspicious of them……but what do you think they did this for?」
As Rei replied, he turned his gaze to the corpses of the Dragon Knights lined up a short distance away.
After falling about 100m to the ground, it was only natural that their armour was distorted and unusable.
Leather armour made from monster hides might still be usable, but if you asked Rei whether he wanted to use something that had fallen from the sky alongside a Wyvern and now had blood, flesh, organs, and brain matter stuck to it, his answer would probably be no.
If it was the swords, spears, and bows that Rei had recovered though, that would be a different matter.
Those who had died from broken necks were the lucky ones, even by appearance standards.
Looking at the bodies of the five Dragon Knights, Widele nodded in agreement.
「Dragon Knights are a very strong combat unit. Just the ability to shoot fireballs from the sky, where attacks can’t reach them, is a considerable threat. What’s the point of having five of them attack Rei-dono and Set?」
「Captain Widele, they probably thought that if they gathered five Dragon Knights, they could defeat Rei-dono and Set. In fact, as both of you said, five Dragon Knights is a strong fighting force.」
A White Rose Knight voice her thoughts, but Widele immediately shook her head and rejected the opinion.
「Haven’t you heard from the Spring War? Rei-dono and Set faced twenty Dragon Knights alone……twenty Wyverns and twenty Dragon Knights to be exact, and wiped them out. I can’t imagine that Prince Kabajid and Prince Shurus would think that five Dragon Knights would be able to defeat them.」
「But, that’s what actually happened here, right?」
Widele couldn’t refute her subordinate’s words.
The fact that there were now five dead Dragon Knights here meant that they had to have had some kind of plan behind their attack.
The smoke signals indicated it wasn’t a haphazard move either, but a planned one.
「When you think about it, it’s pretty unsettling. I have no idea what they’re thinking.」
While Rei, Widele, and Widele’s subordinates were racking their brains, several of Widele’s subordinates were feeding Set some dried meat and having a good time, creating a surreal sight in many ways.
However, Widele eventually could take the sight any longer as she turned a sharp gaze towards her subordinates that were playing with Set.
「Eek-!」
The knights felt a chilled down their spines as one of them let out an involuntarily scream.
Seeing that, Rei spoke up.
「Anyway, I don’t know what they’re planning, but it’s true that we’ve reduced their fighting power. ……Oh, and by the way, I can keep the Wyvern corpses I put into my item box, right?」
「Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem. They were all defeated by Rei-dono and Set after all.」
「That’s good. So, what about these Dragon Knights? Since they’re dead, we’ll need to burn them. I’m good with fire.」
「Sorry, but we’ll have to leave it to you. I need to inform Princess Frizione about this incident, so I’ll go back first.」
「Eh?! Captain Widele, are we going back already?」
A knight, who had still continued playing with Set, despite the chill she had felt earlier, responded at Widele’s words.
「That’s what I plan to do, is there a problem?」
Although Widele voice it as a question, her gaze was closer to an order.
The knight seemed to understand that.
She somehow managed to hold herself back from saying that she would stay behind to help Rei as she quickly nodded.
「No, there’s no problem. I think we need to report this matter to Princess Frizione and Commander Angela right away.」
「I’m glad you understand. Let’s get going immediately. ……I’ll leave the clean up to you, Rei-dono.」
「Yeah. Once I’ve finished up here, I’ll head back right away.」
「……Considering Set’s speed, I think you might end up getting back first.」
Speaking with a wry smile, Widele quickly departed with her subordinates.
After seeing them leave, Rei immediately took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring as he turned to the corpses of the Dragon Knights.
『Flame, feed on my magic power and burn away the dead. Purify all regrets with my flames. Resentment, bitterness, jealousy, hatred. All of these are meaningless before my magic power. Flames that can even burn away resentment. Therefore, take my magic power and return to the heavens.』
As the incantation was spoken, blue flames formed at the tip of the Death Scythe.
The colour of the flames felt somehow soothing to look at.
『Funeral Flames.』
As the magic was activated, the blue flames engulfed the corpses and burned them.
Funeral Flames had the ability to prevent corpses from turning into undead.
However, this magic also contained some elements of holy magic, so Rei couldn’t use it normally.
……The only reason it was possible was because Rei brute forced it using his enormous magic power.
The massive amount of magic power forced the magic to work.
It was as inefficient as attacking an enemy with water droplets instead of piercing their flesh with ice.
It was an extremely inefficient magic only usable by Rei.
「Hah……phew.」
It was easy to see how much magic power was being wasted when even was exhausted from using such a magic.
「Guru~?」
Are you okay? Set seemed to ask as he looked at Rei worriedly. Rei patted his head to tell him he was okay.
The dry autumn air felt cool to Rei, who was sweating slightly.
Taking off his hood, Rei enjoyed the autumn breeze.
The Dragon Robe had a function to regulate his temperature, but it still felt good to be exposed to the wind directly like this.
「……Well then. This matter is settled. It honestly might have been faster for me to burn them directly with fire, but these guys who had become Dragon Knights were just thrown away. So this is fine, right?」
Rei muttered to himself as he looked around.
There must have been some meaning behind their actions, since they had done something so incomprehensible as sending Dragon Knights to their deaths.
Rei looked around as he thought, but he couldn’t see anything in particular.
「So, is this not a trick aimed at me, but at Frizione and the others? ……Or maybe the rebel army?」
I see, Rei seemed to think as he came to a realisation of sorts.
It was probably the latter.
He had no particular reasoning. It was mostly just a hunch.
If he had to give a reason, it would be that……he was currently with Frizione’s army.
Even if they tried to do anything against Frizione’s army, Rei was confident that he would be able to handle things as long as he was there.
(That being the case, if they do try to do anything, it will definitely be against the rebel army. ……But they don’t have infinite military resources either. They must have lost a considerable number of soldiers in the previous battles. Considering that, this is definitely not something as simple as launching a full scale attack on the rebel army before we can join up with them. So……)
Even thinking about it further, Rei couldn’t come up with anything.
「What do you think?」
「Guru~?」
What? Set seemed to say as he tilted his head.
「Well, even if I ask Set, I don’t think he’ll know what they’re thinking. Anyway, since we’ve disposed of the bodies, let’s join back up.」
「Gurururu~」
Set immediately turned his back to Rei.
Set himself seemed to have strong desire for food after returning to Frizione’s army.
Knowing that, Rei climbed onto Set’s back without a word before taking out some dried meat from the Misty Ring and giving it to Set.
Eating the dried meat, Set took a run up of several steps before flapping his wings and soaring into the sky.
「Well, whatever they were thinking, the fact is that they lost a valuable fighting force. This has definitely helped us greatly.」
Rei repeated those thoughts to himself for the umpteenth time.
It was either Kabjid or Shurus. It was one of the two, but Rei felt uneasy that their intentions were completely unreadable.
「If they come at us head on, we have a way to deal with them.」
Rei believed that if they faced each other head on, he could defeat most opponents.
But in this case, it was extremely troubling that the enemy didn’t face him head on but kept running away instead.
Shaking his head repeatedly, he told himself that his role was to deal with any enemies that appeared directly in front of him. Mercurio, Theorem, Tillyele, and Vihera would deal with any tricks and traps, not him.
「My role is to be an escort after all. That being the case, all we need to do is to defeat the enemies standing in our way without worrying about anything else. Isn’t that right?」
「Gururu~」
As Set gave a cry, Rei finally felt relieved as he saw Frizione’s army come into view on the ground.
「……Ah, now that I think about it, I don’t think we passed Widele’s group, did we?」
「Guru~」
Set’s cry this time was one of agreement.
Set’s flying speed was much faster than a horse’s running speed.
That was why he should have been able to overtake them a long time ago. However, even after getting close to Frizione’s army, he hadn’t caught any sight of them.
「Did they get back before us? No, that’s impossible considering the speed of their horses. If so, something unexpected must have happened. ……Either way, we won’t know until we ask Frizione and Angela. Set, shall we go down to the ground?」
「Gururu~!」
Giving a cry, Set spread his wings as he glided towards the ground.