After Rei, Set and Ara arrived at the Nobles faction’s camp, many eyes turned to look at them.

Of course, the Nobles faction was also preparing to withdraw. But even in such a situation, Set, a Griffon over 2m is size, was naturally conspicuous. When it became known that it was Rei who had brought the Griffon along, it immediately drew even more attention.

「……Well, since I’ve stood out so much, it can’t be helped.」

「Gururu~」

「Sorry about this.」

Set gave a cry to comfort Rei as Ara apologised.

She knew that there would be a commotion in the camp when they saw Rei, but her master, Elena, had wanted to meet with Rei, so there was no other option than to bring him over.

Of course, Rei was also in the spotlight in the Neutral faction’s camp, but he was still in the same place the whole time, storing supplies into the Misty Ring. As a result, the gazes weren’t as strong, relatively speaking. In comparison, all eyes were on him as he walked through the Nobles camp with Ara, eventually arriving at Elena’s tent.

「Please.」

「Are weapons fine?」

A knight, probably Ara’s subordinate, was guarding the entrance to the tent. However, even though it was normal to request weapons to be handed over before heading into the tent, the guard made no moves as Ara prompted Rei to enter.

Ara smiled at Rei’s question as she spoke.

「As long as Rei-dono has an item box, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference for you to hand over your weapons. And if we asked you to hand over your item box, you would probably refuse, right?」

Rei nodded silently at Ara’s question rather than replying.

He trusted Elena and Ara, but not all of their subordinates. Especially because there had been someone like Vel previously in the escort knights.

「So, that’s why. I can’t tell you that I won’t let you in if you don’t hand over your item box. Please come in.」

「I see, thank you.」

He gave a brief thank you to Ara for her consideration before entering the tent with Set.

During all this, the knight who had been guarding the tent had frozen up from when he had seen Set. It was only after Set entered the room like tent, he finally breathed out in relief.

「Rei, you’ve arrived. Come over here. ……Hm? What’s wrong?」

「No, it’s nothing.」

Rei shook his head lightly as Elena stood up from a sofa to greet him and Set.

Elena mind was probably still focused on the battlefield. She was wearing an almost pure white set of half-plate.

「Kyu!」

Yellow gave a cry as he flew up from the sofa that Elena was sitting on and flew over to Set. Set let Yellow land safely on his back.

「Gururu~」

「Kyukyu!」

「Guru~?」

「Kyu!」

As usual, Rei was prompted by Elena to take a seat, leaving the two creatures to converse with each other, despite their different species.

「Ara, tea please.」

「Yes, right away.」

Ara nodded at Elena’s words and headed towards a simple kitchen to prepare some tea. Seeing her leave, Elena immediately started talking to Rei.

「Rei, I heard from Philma that will be going straight back to Gilm instead of heading for the Royal Capital, is that true?」

「Ahh. As you know, I stand out a bit too much right now. If I went to the Royal Capital right now, I’m absolutely certain that trouble will happen with solicitations or other things. If I go to the Royal Capital, I won’t be allowed to deal with things the same way as on the battlefield. With that in mind, Daska-sama told me to do the smart thing.」

Rei understood that Daska had his own goals for not exposing Rei to the public, but he decided to quietly accept it as Daska’s plan was directly linked to Rei’s own interests. Explaining why, Elena nodded in agreement, though she looked a little disappointed.

「That’s true. If Rei, who was so active in this war, went to the Royal Capital, various nobles……or even the Royal Family would start to move. But……it’s a shame to have to split with you here. Since I was able to meet with you again, I wanted to spend a bit more time together.」

Elena cheeks were red, possibly because she was shy of talking about her feelings. With her originally beautiful face, Elena now had a glow around her that changed her from a girl to a young woman.

For a moment, Rei almost reached out to Elena, who was sitting opposite him, but immediately shook his head and stayed his hand.

If he and Elena had been the only ones here, he might have reached out. However, he remembered that Ara was still inside the tent.

Taking a small breath to calm himself down, Rei spoke up.

「Before this war started, you mentioned about going to the Labyrinth City together right? What about that? As for me, I don’t plan to force you if you don’t want to.」

Perking up at Rei’s words, Elena turned to Rei confidently.

「Really? That’s great, but don’t you have a lot of things to do?」

Saying that, Elena glanced towards Set, who was playing with Yellow.

The Magic Beast Art. For Elena, who knew how Set was created, she didn’t think Rei would take what she had casually mentioned seriously. Because of that, her glance towards Set was filled with a mix of joy and confusion.

「Let’s see. The war has just ended, so we’ll be busy for a while……I don’t know when, but it will probably be a few months.」

Ara placed cups of tea before the two of them as she spoke.

「Really!?」

Elena asked with a glowing expression.

「Yes. Fortunately, this war with the Bestir Empire ended in our victory. Since we’ve dealt the enemy quite a serious blow this time, I am certain it will take some time for them to rebuild. Probably a year……no, two years. Especially with regards to the Dragon Knights, Rei-dono killed almost all the ones who participated in this war, so it will take close to 10 years for the Dragon Knight corps to reach the same level of strength they had before this war. However, they are still rearing Wyverns, so it won’t be too difficult for them to build up a certain level of military power.」

「Wyverns……huh.」

Rei gave an involuntarily sigh at Ara’s words.

In fact, as Ara said, Rei had killed almost all the Bestir Empire’s Dragon Knights that had participated in the war. However, he didn’t managed to get any materials or magic stones from them. While reporting the success of the ambush to Count Arius, the disarmament of all the prisoners of war around the enemy headquarters as well as the dismantling of dead Wyverns had all taken place. Of course, since Rei had been the one to kill the Wyverns, he wanted to receive the materials for at least two of them, not all. However, by the time he got back to Siminar, he was told that everything had already been divided up, so he could only give up tearfully.

(Apart from Wyvern materials, I would also like their magic stones. Wyverns are considered low ranking monsters even among lesser Dragons with no wisdom. Still, a Dragon is a Dragon.

As Rei sighed at the opportunity he missed, two objects were placed on the table.

It was Elena who had placed down the objects, which were familiar to to Rei.

「Magic stones?」

Elena smiled as she nodded at Rei.

「Mm. You weren’t there when the fight for the Wyverns started. As expected, I couldn’t afford to secure the materials, but I asked Siminar-dono to keep two magic stones. Rei needs……rather, collects magic stones, right?」

That’s why I got them for you. Inferring that, Elena gently pushed the two magic stones towards Rei.

The magic stones were about 5cm in diameter. Even if they were both Dragons, these magic stones were significantly tinier than the one from the Ancient Dragon that Elena had used at the Altar of Inheritance. That said, they was still without a doubt the magic stones of a Dragon monster.

「Is that fine?」

「Gururu~?」

He probably heard the words magic stone. Set, who had been conversing with Yellow, turned his head to look towards the table.

Elena nodded as she glanced towards Set with a smile.

「Ah. I’ve kept them for you. I can’t be helped that you couldn’t get any yourself.」

「That’s a great help.」

Thanking Elena for the magic stones, Rei stored them into the Misty Ring.

He couldn’t give them to Set or use them on the Death Scythe because Ara was here. To Rei, he thought it would have been nice to show Elena how Set could absorb magic stones.

「……So, what were we talking about?」

Rei tried to bring the topic back on track after being distracted by the unexpected appearance of Wyvern magic stones.

「I was saying that the Bestir Empire consumed a considerable amount of resources in this war and will probably need several years to recover. So, after finishing the victory parade at the Royal Capital and returning to Anessis in the Kerebel Duchy and finishing various post war tasks……well, about two months from now……no, about three months to have some buffer, Elena-sama will be able to travel freely again. When that happens, I think we should be free for a good period of time.」

「Really!?」

Elena smiled as she asked Ara for confirmation.

Happy to see that Elena was happoy, Ara nodded back with a smile.

「Yes. Machen said that when checked with him a little earlier.」

「……Machen?」

Seeing Rei hear a name that he wasn’t familiar with, Ara explained.

「He is the Deputy Commander of Elena-sama’s escort knights. Well, to be honest, I’m not to familiar with clerical work, so he’s in charge of that.」

「Is that so.」

Rei knew that Ara wasn’t good at paperwork, so he nodded in understanding.

「I see, I see. Then Rei. In three months time……so, about early summer. It will be a good season to travel, so would you be fine with travelling to the Labyrinth City together?」

「Ah. As I said, there’s no problems for me. If Elena is happy with it, I’ll always be free to join.」

「……I see. Then, come to Anessis in three months.」

「Elena-sama, I think it would be better to stop there. Anessis is the centre of the Kerebel Duchy. If people see Rei-dono together with Elena-sama there, there will be a big commotion.」

Elena was a symbol of the Nobles faction and was loved by everyone. Of course, there were many people who longed for her, regardless of gender. Likewise, there were countless nobles who wanted to woo her.

After all, she was an unparalleled beauty and next in line to a Duke family. Furthermore, she held the name of General Princess and was unmatched by even knights when it came to combat. For single nobles, she was the most attractive partner. Because of that, when they knew of any man approaching her, they would all cause a fuss for various reasons.

Ara, who didn’t want Elena to have to deal with all that trouble, spoke her mind.

「That’s true. In that case, there’s a small village outside of Anessis. There’s a bar owner there that used to be an escort knight before he retired. So if you can get in touch with me there……」

「I understand. I’ll remember that.」

Nodding, Rei noticed that it had been a while since he had entered the tent.

Of course, he’d like to talk to Elena for longer, but right now he was hired by Daska and it was time for him to get back to storing supplies.

「I’ll have to resume work soon. This will probably be the last time we meet during in this war, but it’s good to see you again.」

「It was good for me as well.」

Elena murmured in reply as she turned to look at Ara.

Ara probably guessed what Elena meant. She picked up the cups on the table before leaving.

Of course, she was still inside the tent, but there was some distance between them now, so Ara’s attempt to leave Elena and Rei by themselves was successful.

Elena watched Ara leave gratefully before standing up from her sofa and sitting down beside Rei.

「Rei……it might have been a battlefield, but I was glad to be able to meet with you again.」

「A-Ahh. Me too.」

Rei replied as he was sucked in by Elena’s eyes as she looked at him from a short distance.

Elena was older than him about about 5 years in terms of Rei’s current age and about 2 years older in terms of mental age. Seeing such a glowing expression from a girl older than him, Rei unintentionally reached out to touch Elena’s smooth cheeks.

「Ah……」

As he heard Elena’s feverish voice leak out, Rei gently approached her……and kissed her on the lips.

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