「……I am bored.」

Marka murmured to herself inside the carriage.

Looking in front of her, Rei was gazing out the window towards the surroundings.

Of course, as long as Set was on watch around the carriages, most monsters wouldn’t attack them even if they left the road.

Sometimes, some monsters and animals would attack, not realising the difference in strength. However, they would simply be killed by a single strike of Set’s claws, eventually settling inside his stomach.

「Even if you say you’re bored. I need to ask, as a duke’s daughter, why are you even participating in a rank up test? And this is even the city of Gilm, where most nobles of the Royalist faction have been kept in check by Daksa.」

「Hm? Well, the reason why I and Coan came to this city was to find out what kind of person you were. My father wanted to pull you into the Quent forces if I could, but even if that was not possible, he wanted me to find out what kind of person you are. That is part of the reason.」

Marka explained with a smile, seemingly happy that she could play with Rei.

Sitting next to them, Coan listened into the conversation between the two with a smile on his face, looking happy that his master was happy.

「With regards to that, didn’t you finish what you wanted to do after I visited your residence?」

「Certainly, but it is not possible understand everything about you from just one meeting, right?」

「……However, in the case of ojou-sama, she was feeling sad after seeing Rei-san and Set leave since you had just become her friends.」

Marka’s cheeks flushed at Coan’s casual words.

「C-C-C-C-Coan! What are you saying all of a sudden!」

「Was that unnecessary to say?」

「H-Hmm. Well, it is true that I wanted to play with Rei and Set some more. I am not afraid to admit that. But, you understand right? Even though I forced my way into this rank up test I will not go easy on you……no, that is why I should have even stricter standards than the others. You cannot expect me to make things easier for you just because we are friends.」

Marka, who had been sitting down in the carriage, stood up as she stuck her finger out.

From an outsider’s perspective, it was a pose that could only be called adorable. However, no one in the carriage would tell her that.

「Besides, it’s true that those monsters known as Bicorns are troublesome in various ways. Even if Gilm belongs to the Neutral faction, it’s still the only frontier city in the Mireana Kingdom. There will definitely be many problems if materials that can only be obtained at the frontier stop flowing, regardless of faction.」

「That’s right. Gilm can be considered one of the most important bases in the Mireana Kingdom. It was because Gilm is such a place that my father built a mansion in case it was ever needed.」

「……I see.」

Rei nodded in understanding at Coan and Marka’s explanations.

「I was wondering why Duke Quent would have a residence in Gilm as he is part of the Royalist faction, so that was why. ……Hm? Wait? In that case, why doesn’t Duke Kerebel have a residence in Gilm?」

Rei asked as he recalled when Elena had previously come to Gilm.

Elena had been staying at the lord’s residence at the time. If Duke Kerebel had a residence in the nobles district……or if one of the people with her, like Ara, had a residence in Gilm, they should have stayed there instead.

However, Marka replied as she shook her head.

「Among the nobles, some of the more influential people would have residences, but not all of them would have one. If they just want to collect information, then they probably considered it enough to have another Aristocratic noble have a residence here without needing Duke Kerebel to have his own. ……Oh. As expected of Set. It looks like he’s killed something that came too close.」

As she explained to Rei, Marka expressed her happiness as she saw Set from the window.

As a seven year old, she had incredible insight as a noble. But at the same time, she showed delightful innocence when she saw something she liked, such as Set.

From the side, Rei was surprised at her duality.

「Umu, Set is cute. I would like to have one myself……Rei, you wouldn’t know where there might be other Griffons aside from Set, would you?」

「No, I don’t.」

Rei shook his head as he recalled the back story he had built for himself.

「It’s only because I grew up with Set since he was young that he’s so friendly. I’ve never seen any other Griffons aside from Set. Aside from that, if you tamed any other Griffon, whether they would be as friendly as Set……to be honest, I think it would be hard.」

At the end of Rei’s line of sight, Set was taking on a pack of five wolves, striking them with his claws, poking them with his beak and kicking them with his back legs. The pack of five wolves was instantly annihilated as the softest parts of their flesh ended up in Set’s stomach.

If anyone else had seen that sight, they might have struggled to agree with Rei’s description of Set as friendly or gentle.

It was such a one sided beat down that it couldn’t even be called a fight. The wolves literally couldn’t touch Set at all.

「Oh, is that so. I really wanted a tamed monster like Set……I am envious of Rei.」

Marka murmured to herself as she watched the spectacle outside.

 

 

On the other hand, inside Alnicht and Orkide’s carriage. Although the outside of the carriage could only be described as garish, to the relief of those riding it, the inside was luxurious but not as glaring. However, the inside of the carriage was filled with silence.

Alnicht ignored Roble, who showed no respect for nobles, as he looked out the window. Orkide seemed to want to avoid any trouble and seemed to be sleeping with his eyes closed. Roble didn’t hide his dislike for Alnicht, who he thought of as a proud noble, and never spoke to him at all.

In the meantime, Stee would sometimes call out to Roble and Alnicht in an attempt to make some conversation. However, after just saying a word or two, they would go silent again.

(Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do I do in a situation like this!?)

Although Stee cried out in her mind, since everything could be part of the criteria for the test, she had no choice but to deal with nobles that made Roble unhappy.

(Seriously, I didn’t think there would be a noble who would have the worst compatibility with Roble. ……But it would be even worse to ride in Duke Quent’s carriage with the bigshot kid. However, if I chose the carriage prepared by the guild, we might have gotten a negative evaluation, so there was no other way. But, I really want to do something about this heavy silence.)

Stee gave a small sigh as she looked out the window. At that moment, she just happened to see Set breaking a wolf’s head as he swung his claws against it.

「Wow, I know it’s not a monster, but I can’t believe how overwhelming it was against those wolves.」

「That’s right. As expected of a Griffon. Since it’s an A rank monster, wolves are no match for it.」

Maybe he had gotten tired of the silence, Alnicht spoke up.

Although surprised by his sudden remark, Stee felt that it was better than staying silent and replied with a small smile on her mouth.

「That’s true. When I think about it, Rei is really amazing.」

「That’s not all. Although the Griffon is why people have become so familiar with his name, above all, he has great skills himself. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t……」

「Alnicht.」

Alnicht tried to say something, but Orkide, who had seemed to be sleeping, suddenly stopped his words.

「Alnicht-sama?」

「No, it’s nothing. Never mind.」

「Hmph, Rei might be strong, but that doesn’t make us weak. Rest assured, Stee.」

Roble didn’t like his lover praising another man even though they were adventurers of the same rank and unexpectedly interjected here even though he had decided to ignore Alnicht.

However the only responses he got back was a nod of agreement from Stee and a sigh from Alnicht.

「Hey, what is it? You got a problem?」

「……No, no matter what you say, it’s all just hot air. I won’t say anything more since you’ll understand it later.」

「-!?」

Being told he was just full of hot air, Roble would have attacked Alnicht but was stopped by Stee before he could do so as she held his arm down.

「……」

Without saying a word, Roble listened to his lover’s request and took a deep breath before sitting down again.

Stee decided that even if she tried to get a coversation going again, it would only end up further hurting the relationship between Roble and Alnicht. Because of that, she stayed silent after that without saying anything further.

Unlike the carriage Rei was riding in, a heavy silence enveloped the carriage as it continued forward.

 

 

『……』

Inside the guild carriage. Only Ons and Residence were on board.

However, this carriage had been silent ever since it had first started to move.

Ons wouldn’t start a conversation on his own and, likewise, Residence had no plans to ask Ons any questions.

But, the silence wasn’t the heavy silence that was inside the carriage Roble and the others were riding. Instead, this silence was closer to that of a natural silence. If Stee had been in this carriage, she would have cried, wondering how the same silence could be so different.

As the silence continued, Residence eventually looked out the window and murmured.

「It seems like we’ve arrived.」

The carriages arrived at the locations where the herd of Bicorns has been last seen.

Those were the first words that were said inside the carriage Residence and Ons were in.

After reaching their destination, of course, they couldn’t just immediately get out the carriages and fight the Bicorns. The first thing they had to do was to find the herd of Bicorns while protecting the carriages, the people that drove the carriages and nobles that had come with them.

Nobles wouldn’t typically come to such a place, but this was part of the rank up test. Because of that, they also had to deal with protecting the nobles.

「So, how do we plan to divide the roles? Should Stee and I scout ahead?」

Roble said that they could find the Bicorns as beastkin had sharper senses than most others.

「You say that, but Set and I can also search for the Bicorns from the sky, right? Ons is also a thief, so he should also be able to scout well.」

In this particular case, what was unfortunate was that everyone taking up the rank up test had the skills to scout out.

They had the sharper sense peculiar to beastkin, the experience and skills of a thief and the eyes and wings of Set, an A rank monster.

「With so many people who can scout, it will be hard to decide who goes.」

「It will be fastest if we go, right?」

Roble said that as he didn’t want to stay around the nobles. However, Stee shook her head at his thoughts.

「It’s true that our sense of smell, hearing and vision are sharper than the average person. But in this case, I think that Set being able to see things from the sky would be better. Fortunately, there are very few patches of trees on the grasslands where the Bicorns could hide.」

「That is……but……ah, then why can’t Stee and I ride on Set to scout?」

「Rejected.」

Rei simply dismissed Roble’s plan, who had thought he had come up with a good idea.

「Why not!」

「First of all, Set can’t fly freely with two people on him. Secondly……or rather, the biggest reason, Set doesn’t like people other than me riding on his back.」

「Ugh-, t-that’s……」

「You don’t want to forcefully ride him and get thrown off mid air do you?」

「……」

Looking up to the cloudless blue sky, Roble eventually nodded.

Even though beastkin were physically stronger than ordinary humans, it was still highly unlikely they would survive if they fell from a height of 30-40m.

「So, no one has any problems with me and Set scouting?」

At Rei’s request for confirmation, Roble nodded reluctantly, Stee nodded easily and Ons nodded without any change in expression.

「That’s that. Set, we’re going scouting.」

「Gurururu~」

Set rubbed his feet, which had some wolf blood on it, against the nearby grass before giving a small cry as he went over to Rei.

「Well, I’ll let you all know as soon as I find the herd of Bicorns. Prepare yourselves to move out at any time.」

Saying that, after Rei got on his back, Set ran several steps and flapped his wings, running into the sky.

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