As night fell on the Selemus Plains, 10 tents were set up in a ring.

Three carriages were at the center of the tents and as knights patrolled around the tents. Set could also be seen among the knights.

As usual, Set was lying on the ground near the magic tent where Rei was resting, keeping watch.

At his feet were already the remains of several Skeletons and Zombies.

As expected, not long after the sun set, undead, mainly Skeletons and Zombies, had started wandering over to their camp.

「Gururu~」

As Set lay down, he glanced over at a piece of Zombie flesh lying a short distance away before giving a cry in disgust.

It would have been better if the only enemies were Skeletons.

It wasn’t that Skeletons were any stronger or weaker than Zombies. But, he would rather deal with 30 Skeletons than 1 Zombie.

The reason for that was their odour.

He had already been tormeented by the strong stench of undead in the dungeon back in the Labyrinth City Exil, but he hadn’t expected that he would end up suffering that stench here as well.

Even so, it was a lot better to fight them on a plain instead of inside a rotten dungeon.

As the putrid smell fade as the wind blew over, Set sensed the presence of someone approaching him.

He opened his eyes for a moment before relaxing when he heard the footsteps were coming from within the camp.

It was a proper person and not an undead.

As expected, a knight emerged from the darkness.

「Set, anything happen……looks like there was something.」

「Guru~」

Set responded to the knight with a cry.

Rei’s tent was located on the outer ring of the camp.

This wasn’t because Rei was disliked or anything similar, but becase Rei had told Daska it would be better for Set to be in charge of the night watch.

Daska knew how useful Set was in a situation like this and could only accept.

Among the knights, one who had only been hired recently after coming to Gilm had asked why they couldn’t put Rei’s tent right next to Daska’s and let Set keep watch outside the camp. However, their suggestion was dismissed with close to unanimous agreement.

In the first place, Set mostly just wanted to protect Rei, who he really loved.

Of course, there were other people he also liked, but they were all second to Rei.

Because of that, the rookie knight’s suggestion was rejected and it was agreed that Rei’s magic tent would be set up outside the camp with Set as Rei’s guard.

In addition, while Rei was being hired as a guard, it was really only for show. The knights knew that, so no one complained even though Rei wasn’t really guarding Daska.

Rather, those who knew of the comfort of the magic tent were quite jealous of him.

「Sorry for leaving everything to you. Here, have this.」

The knight threw a piece of dried meat he had been holding over to Set, who turned to look at him with round eyes.

「Guru~!」

Set happily caught it in his beak as he ate it.

His cries as he savoured the dried meat made it seem like he wasn’t that aware of his surroundings.

Set……it had been a while since the knight had met Set, or rather Rei, who Set followed around. But, he still couldn’t helping look at Set with concern, wondering if he would be okay.

However, his concern wasn’t 『Is it safe to leave him keeping watch?』but rather『I hope Set doesn’t let his guard down and get hurt』. It seemed that he had already been captured by Set’s cuteness.

But……Set, who the knight had come to see because he was worried, or because he wanted to relax by seeing Set, suddenly stopped eating his dried meat.

His usually round eyes were sharpened as they were directed away from the camp, illuminated by the moonlight.

「Gururururu~!」

Crouching down momentarily, he used the stored energy to leap forward. With a sharp cry, he spread his wings to adjust his landing point while flapping them to increase his speed as he fell.

With a cry, Set swung his front claws.

That attack, combining Set’s weight, strength, and diving speed, crushed the head of an approaching Skeleton.

After destroying the Skeleton heading towards the camp in a single attack, Set gave a satisfied cry before returning and lying down with a magic stone in his beak.

……The reason Set collected the magic stone even though he had already absorbed one was because he had seen Rei collect them.

Placing down the magic stone in his beak as he lay down, he turned to look back at the knight with round eyes.

「Guru~?」

「Ha, hahaha. It seems I didn’t need to check on you.」

There was a pile of nearly 10 magic stones next to Set.

There was no doubt that they were the magic stones of the undead that Set had killed so far.

「As expected of Set. I guess there’s no need to worry about this side of the camp.」

「Gururu~!」

Leave it to me! Set seemed to say with a cry as the knight gently reached out to stroke his head.

This continued for a few more minutes.

If a certain leader of a party called Scorching Wind had seen this, she would probabaly……no, definitely have been jealous.

After several minutes, the knight gently let go.

「Then, I’ll be back again soon. Be careful, Set.」

「Guru~!」

Set gave a cry in response to the knight as he watched him leave.

After the knight disappeared back into the camp, Set closed his eyes as he used his senses……particularly his hearing, to detect and intercept any approaching undead.

 

 

The next day, as Rei, who had fallen asleep soundly in his soft bed inside the magic tent, came out of his tent, the first thing he saw was naturally Set, lying on the grass.

But, that was only to be expected. What was unexpected was the small mountain of magic stones at Set’s side.

There had to be 20……no, maybe 30 of them.

The magic stones were all piled up next to Set.

Along with that, a faint rotten odour, unsuited for the morning, drifted around.

「Gururu~!」

Set greeted Rei with a ‘good morning’ as Rei returned the greeting with a smile.

「Oh, good morning. I’m glad you were able to keep watch for me. ……But, are these all undead magic stones?」

「Guru~」

Set nodded at Rei’s question as he turned to look at the remains inside and outside the camp.

There were bone fragments, likely from Skeletons, as well as half melting pieces of Zombie flesh, which were causing the putrid smell.

「Sorry Set. You’ve been a great help……no, wait.」

Rei spoke up to that point before suddenly turning to look at the magic tent he had just left.

That was right, his magic tent should have been able to keep away low level monsters.

(What’s going on? Back when dealing with the Bloody Blades, the area had been too large. But, this time, there aren’t that many people and the camp isn’t that spread out either. ……No, I think it would better to ask Daska-sama about it than think about it myself.)

「Gurururu~?」

Set gave a cry, wondering why Rei had suddenly gone silent.

Reply to Set, telling him it was nothing, Rei stored the magic tent back into the Misty Ring before heading over to where Daska was with Set.

 

 

「Good morning, Daska-sama.」

「Hm? Oh, Rei. Set was a great help last time. Those without magic tents like yours didn’t have to be as vigilant thanks to Set and the knights were also able to take turns keeping watch without being stretched too thin.」

As Daska spoke, he didn’t seem tired at all even though it was still early in the morning. No, rather, you could say that he was full of energy.

Next to Daska were Elk, Min, and Rhodes, the three members of Axe of the Thunder God. Vihera and Theorem were also with them, discussing matters after they reached the Bestir Empire.

「No, it’s good that they weren’t too tired out. ……So, I have a question about the magic tent. I heard that one of the magic tent’s abilities is to keep weak monsters away, but it didn’t seem to work last night. Would you happen to know why?」

At Rei’s question, Daska had a strange expression on his face, as if asking ‘what are you talking about?’.

「That’s probably a unique issue of this place, the Selemus Plains. Ordinarily, undead like Skeletons and Zombies wouldn’t get close to the tent.」

「Only on the Selemus Plains?」

「That’s right. As I’m sure has been mentioned many times already, the Selemus Plains has been the site of numerous wars. As a result it has been imbued with a strong resentment. Perhaps that is the reason why.」

「……I see.」

Daska’s words made Rei wonder if this was another problem stopping people from settling the area. Adventurers and mages who could use holy magic would be needed to purify the undead.

Taking that into consideration……Rei honestly felt it was difficult to try and settle in such a location.

「In the first place, if your magic tent really could repel those low level monsters, wouldn’t we have put you in the center of the camp?」

Daska’s words made sense.

Rei had assumed that Daska knew that the magic tent could keep monsters away from the rest of the tents even if he was on the outer edge of the camp.

「I see, the Selemus Plains……it seems to be a much more troublesome place than I expected.」

「I won’t deny that. ……But that aside, Rei. I’d like you to bring out breakfast. I want to finish eating and get moving as soon as we can.」

Hearing that Rei was providing the food, everyone who had been listening in had a happy smile on their faces.

Being able to eat freshly cooked food even in a place like this because of an item box was undoubtedly a factor in raising morale.

「Well then……it’s breakfast, so let’s have something a bit lighter.」

Saying that, Rei took out a large basket filled with sandwiches.

The ingredients were ordinary, vegetables and ham.

However, the bread was freshly baked and the vegetables were fresh.

It wasn’t something you would normally be able to eat in a place like this.

He also took out a bacon, nut, and mushroom soup, which was also freshly made and hot as he divided it into soup plates.

As for Set, he was given a large serving of lightly seasoned grilled meat.

……Several knights, as well as Elk, turned to look over at Set with envy, but they quietly ate their own breakfast without trying to steal any of Set’s food.

「Speaking of which, how long will it take to pass through the Selemus Plains?」

Vihera swallowed her soup before reply to Rei, who was eating a sandwich

「Considering yesterday’s speed, I think it will be about noon the day after tomorrow.」

「That’s about right. If we don’t waste our time dealing with monster attacks, that will be around the time. If we were just travelling by horse it might have been faster, but we have carriages with us.」

With a sandwich in one hand, Theorem nodded as the others around him listened in.

Rei was also satisfied with his explanation before suddenly thinking of the immediate future and asking.

「Then, will we be parting before then?」

Rei’s goal was to attract the attention of the upper echelons of the Bestir Empire and to assist in the rescue of the imprisoned Third Prince. No matter how he looked at it, it was a bad idea to be seen moving together. In response to Rei’s question, which was asked with such thoughts in mind, Vihera nodded with a faint colour of sadness in her eyes.

「That’s right. However, Rei and Margrave Rowlocks’ group will stand out for various reasons, so it won’t be difficult for me to contact you if anything happens. As for contacting us……」

Vihera turned to Daska, who nodded back that there was no problem as he ate a sandwich and listened in.

「Like we discussed last night. No problem.」

That was what he said.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]