「Hey, Rei. I heard you got into a fair bit of trouble yesterday.」

As Rei and Set walked along the Selemus Plains, a voice called out to them.

Turning to face the familiar voice, Rei saw Elk with his trademark huge battle axe.

「I mean, there was some guy who didn’t like me being in the vanguard, that was why. ……There wouldn’t have been a problem if I had a name to me like you Elk……no, I think there would have been some trouble anyway……」

Rei sighed as he replied to Elk.

In the first place, the reason why Renodis tried to mess with Rei and get him kicked off the vanguard wasn’t because Rei didn’t have the ability or because Rei wasn’t well known among the Mireana Kingdom, even if he was on the frontier. No, maybe that did play a part, but the real reason was because he felt Rei was an eyesore for sticking close to Elena. At the very least, that was what Rei thought when he saw Renodis look at him with hateful eyes, dark with jealousy.

「Having a name to yourself? Hey.」

Elk looked around at Rei’s words.

The people looking back at him were all those who had been assigned to the Neutral faction’s vanguard. It was true that many of them were famous adventurers and knights, but naturally, the majority of them were soldiers and few of them were well known.

Especially for the adventurers who had chosen to serve in the army, there weren’t many who were hired from Gilm in the Neutral’s army, let alone well known adventurers. Still, considering the weakest of them was still rank D, they were still a decent fighting force.

The adventurers dispatched from the Labyrinth City may have strength equal to those from Gilm, but that was because Labyrinth City, as its name implied, had many dungeons all over the city and you never knew when monsters might flood out. Because of that, the number of troops dispatched from that city was small and less than that sent by Gilm.

「Well, it’s the nobles’ job to think about difficult things like that. Don’t worry too much. Rather, do you actually understand the formalities for war?」

Looking around, many eyes were gathered on them, partly due to the influence of Elk, a member of the rank A party Axe of the Thunder God. However, Elk ignored that as he talked to Rei, who was walking alongside him.

Rei wasn’t sure if talking with Elk had anything to do with it, but eyes naturally gathered on Rei because people had heard about his item box, Set or the fact that he had fought one on one against a noble the day before. Perhaps it was because he was more well known now, there were a lot more people looking at him.

「Gururu~?」

None of this meant anything to Set, so he gave a small cry as he rubbed his head against Rei, who was walking beside him.

While stroking Set’s head, Rei spoke up as he recalled the information.

「If I remember correctly, our troops have to face off against each other first. Then, the representatives of each army will step forward advise the other to surrender while refusing to surrender themselves. After that, the battle starts when the representatives return to their army. ……Is that correct?」

「No, you’re not wrong. The representatives have to step forward from the front line and there are other minor matters as well, but only the nobles need to know about that. All we need to know is the general flow of events and who we have to fight.」

「Well, I won’t be in this group once I get to the battlefield, so I’m not too interested in the details of the exchange.」

Rei’s explanation must have reminded Elk of what Daska had told him in person. Unable to contain his curiosity, Elk turned to look at Rei.

「Ah, I heard about that. But is it really possible to use wide range annihilation magic like you talked about? If what I heard from Margrave Rowlocks is true, then we’ll definitely be able to take the lead and change the tide of the battle, but……」

「I’ve already tested it before, so leave that to me. And even if that fails, I still have some long range magic I can use.」

Rei said that with a smile. The magic that had come to his mind was 『Dancing Wild Flame』. In terms of coverage, it wasn’t at the same level as the fire whirlwind Rei was aiming for, but its power was by no means inferior to the fire whirlwind. No, in fact, as far as power was concerned, it might even be more powerful due to its limited coverage.

「Well, if you’re confident, I won’t worry about it then.」

Rei turned to face another familiar voice that had suddenly interrupted Rei and Elk’s conversation. As expected, it was someone he knew.

「Milein?」

「What, can’t I be here? Hey, Set-chan. Where Set-chan is, is where I will be.」

She complained to Rei before going to hug Set the next moment, who was walking along nearby.

It was because of Milein’s love for Set that she had tried to not bother Set too much as they were marching here.

「Sorry for bothering you.」

From behined Milein, a middle aged man with a cane called out. At the same time, a girl holding a bow, who about the same age as Rei, bowed her head apologetically.

「No, don’t worry about it. More importantly, where you also brought into the vanguard? Since you’re a mage, aren’t you supposed to be in the back line?」

In response to Rei’s question, the middle aged mage……Sulunin, who held the other members of the rank C party Scorching Wind in line, shook his head with a smile.

「Even though I’m a mage, my magic is more mid-range oriented. Those who were sent to the back lines all specialise in long range magic.」

「So, since both Milein and Sulunin were stationed here, I can’t be the only one in the party left behind.」

Ecryll, the archer girl, added with a smile.

「Well, we’re usually divided by party. It’s rare to see a party like us split up by vanguard and rearguard.」

Hearing Elk’s words, Rei nodded in understanding.

As for the soldiers, their roles were divided by what they had been training for. Those that trained with bows and those who had trained for the vanguard.

But, adventurers were different. Complete parties were either assigned to either vanguard and rearguard with the division of roles within each party.

Even if an adventurer party was split and divided into the vanguard and rearguard, it was unlikely that the party members would be able to cooperate properly with other people. Because of that, adventurers who had formed parties were sent to either the vanguard or rearguard as a complete party.

However, the situation was different if it was an adventurer that could work well as a solo person, like Elk from Axe of the Thunder God.

(Thinking about that, it’s a lot easier to sort out the ones that work solo. Since I work by myself……no, on the contrary, because I’m used to working alone, there’s a chance that there will be issues when working in cooperation with others. That’s why most adventurers work in a party.)

Thinking that way, he soon saw a small forest in the direction he was walking.

The forest wasn’t densely packed, but it was dense enough that you couldn’t see what was inside.

That was Rei’s destination.

「Set.」

「Guru~」

Set answered Rei’s call with a cry.

Elk and the members of Scorching Wind must have realised that Rei and Set were going to separate from the rest of them here. They nodded at Rei and wished him the best.

「Set-chan, be careful. Don’t get hurt. If something happens, use Rei as a shield and run away. ……Rei, you shouldn’t bother Set-chan either.」

Rei gave a wry smile towards Milein, who’s attitudes towards Rei at her blunt words and just nodded simply as he was already used to it.

「Leave it to me. In the first place, there’s no chance of being attacked by anything here.」

「But, what about after the battle starts? Understand? If Set-chan gets hurt by Rei’s actions, I’ll make sure you make you pay for it.」

(She makes it sound like Set is her partner.)

Though Rei thought that to himself, he knew how much she cared for Set, so he just nodded without saying anything else.

「Hey, Milein. Don’t cause Rei-san that much trouble. To begin with, once the war starts, no one can guarantee absolute safety.」

「Ah, hey, Sulunin. Don’t pull me! I have a noble mission to protect Set-chan!」

「Seriously, do you understand that the fighting is about to start? I know how Milein-san thinks of Set, but please pay attention to the safety of your own party at the very least.」

Sulunin pulled Milein’s arm as Ecryll pushed her from behind, moving her away from Rei.

Elk waved his hand as if to wish him luck. Rei waved back as he continued to move away from the vanguard and towards the forest.

Of course, there were people who looked strangely at Rei’s actions, but when they saw Set with him, they guessed that there must have been some special reason. Rei and Set arrived in the forest without anyone calling them out.

「Now then, all we have to do is wait to face off against each other on the Selemus Plains and begin the war. ……Listen, Set. Our goal is to hit the enemy with the first strike and make it as deadly as possible. For that purpose, I want to use the combination skill we worked together on previously that created a fire whirlwind. You understand what I mean?」

「Gururu~」

Set nodded at Rei, as if saying ‘leave it to me’. Rei stroked his head with a smile on his face.

「Anyway, as you can see from what happened in Gilm, this war is dangerous in many ways. At the very least, this is definitely not a regular invasion as the royalists think. However, it seems there are some people that won’t listen no matter how many times you tell them. Because of that, we should do our best to hurt the Bestir Empire as much as possible and decide the battle at once. Hopefully, it will take less than a day……no, less than a few hours to end this war.」

「Guru~」

While he explained the plan to Set, who nodded back in response, Rei thought about the fact that the battle that took them half a month to arrive at would end in just a few hours. He didn’t like to kill people, but he wasn’t against killing people either. Rei felt that it wouldn’t be a problem if both sides took some damage.

As Rei watched, the Neutrals passed by the forest, followed by the nobles.

Most of them passed by without noticing Rei and Set inside the forest, but one of the mounted cavalry, who was in the Nobles’ army that was proceeding towards the front line, suddenly turned to look into the forest.

A small Dragon rested on her shoulder as luxurious blonde in vertical rolls spilled out of the helmet she was wearing. Her proportions and beauty, which would be seen even through her armour, gave away her identity. There was also the figure of a female knight next to her, also mounted on a horse and with a large battle axe on her back.

「……Elena, don’t die.」

Rei had only mouthed those words, but he clearly saw Elena nod at his direction.

「No way.」

However, there was no way she could have heard him. Judging that, Rei decided that nod must have been a coincidence.

And, as Elena and her group passed by, another group of nobles followed soon after as they passed by the forest.

「……What?」

A voice leaked from Rei unintentionally.

The reason was because of the Noble faction’s troops that had just passed by. Rei’s eyes had met with the person at the center. The name of the man who was astride a horse and holding a massive halberd was Philma de Giel. He was the person leading the nobles in this war and was the Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel’s knights. Their eyes had only met for a moment. Right after, he had moved his gaze away as if he hadn’t seen anything and moved his horse forward firmly. As expected of someone called Duke Kerebel’s right hand man, he held no sense of tension or fear.

「As expected, should I say. To spot me right away. ……No, I was assigned to take the vanguard with the Neutrals. Did Daska tell him about our plan? 」

Rei stroked Set while waiting for the time to come.

After the Neutrals and Nobles, the Royalists passed by the forest Rei was hidden in.

Among the three factions of the Mireana Kingdom’s army, it seemed that the Royalists had the largest and densest formation.

Their movement was slow due to the large number of people, but it gave them a sense of momentum once they started moving. That was the atmosphere Rei felt from them.

And, as they had a large number of people, there were also quite a few skilled ones. Some of them sent suspicious gazes towards the forest that Rei and Set were hiding in.

None of them were able to firmly grasp Rei’s location, but it seemed that quite a few of them could feel something in the forest.

Thus, after spending several hours watching the army head towards the site of battle on the Selemus Plains, leaving the minimum number of people to defend the camp, Rei and Set waited for the order to take their next action.

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