As Daska’s group made their way along the highway, Rei suddenly looked around.

「What’s wrong?」

One of the knights asked Rei, but he eventually shook his head to indicate it was nothing.

「No, it seems like it was just my imagination. I though I felt something just then.」

「Is that so? Well, we’re already inside the Bestir Empire. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be cautious of the surroundings, so if anything happens, please let us know.」

「Yeah.」

The knight seemed to be satisfied with Rei’s response as he went back to the carriages.

「Gururu~?」

As Rei saw the knight leave, Set gave a cry.

Both Set and Rei had noticed. They had noticed the man who had seen Rei……or rather Rei and Set, before running away.

They hadn’t seen the man directly, but they had sense it.

Of course, it didn’t feel good, but since the man hadn’t attacked them, there was no reason to do anything.

He also judged that the man wouldn’t be a problem, having run deep into the woods next to the highway.

「Don’t worry about it. Besides, if we travel through the Bestir Empire, similar things will happen. There’s no point in worrying about it any further.」

I have no regrets for what I did in the war. Rei told himself that as Daska’s group continued along the highway, all while trying to recall what had bothered him as the man ran away earlier.

 

 

Among the people who saw Daska’s group pass by, a voice muttered out loud after they were completely out of sight.

「……Have they gone?」

「Yeah. Seriously, abominable. How could someone from the Mireana Kingdom roam around the Bestir Empire showing his face like this?」

Hearing that voice, which spoke with disgust, another voice spoke up soothingly.

「There’s no point saying this now. We send invitations to the Mireana Kingdom each year for the tournament.」

「That’s true, but up until now, didn’t he only ever send a proxy? However, this year, Margrave Rowlocks came himself……」

「It must have something to do with the Spring War.」

「I know that. I know that. But, I can’t……ignore this feeling of disgust!」

「Well, we got a discardable pawn out of this, so why not make the most of it?」

A woman’s voice echoed out as if interrupting hte two men, who were muttering to each other.

The two men froze for a moment before realising it was a familiar voice and letting out a small sigh of relief.

「Don’t scare us like that. ……More importantly, a pawn?」

「Yes. A survivor of the Spring War. Well, it seems like he was only a soldier, so we can only use him as a discardable pawn.」

「Hmm, how long will it take before he can be used?」

「Whether we use him as a fighter or as a discardable pawn, it will take a few days. After all, his fear of Crimson has seeped into the depths of his heart.」

The two men who were listening into the woman’s words both raised their eyebrows.

「Doesn’t that make him useless as a pawn?」

「Certainly, as it is now. But, it will work if we replace the fear in his heart with hatred.」

Because his fears run deep, if he can turn it into hatred, it will become a driving force for him and, as a result, he will become a useful pawn.

It was precisely because of the man’s background that the woman had decided to make him a pawn.

「In that case, why don’t we try attacking them once? Ah, of course, I know that Crimson is there. However, not knowing the strength of the other guards is troublesome.」

「I don’t mind, but……as I said earlier, it will take a few days before he can be used, right? Currently, we don’t have that much leeway with my pawns.」

「Oh, no problem. It’s fine to send just enough strength without overdoing it. The forces of Margrave Rowlocks guard the frontier city of Gilm. I can tell that their strength won’t be low, but how strong are they actually? I want to find out.」

At the man’s words, the woman gave a small sigh.

「If that’s the case, there’s no need to use my pawns. There are so many other adventurers and soldiers around……」

「If we are using discardable pawns to test their strength, it’s pointless to use pawns without a certain level of strength.」

The second man agreed with the first without letting the woman finish her words.

「That’s right. It’s not interesting to watch a battle when there is too big a discrepancy in ability. Besides, when you consider orders from higher up……right?」

You understand what I mean without me needing to say it, right? The woman eventually nodded, as if giving up fighting the man who silently asked her that.

「I understand. The next city……is probably impossible, but the next one, or the one after that, something there might work?」

The two men nodded at her words and, coming to an agreement, the three of them split up in different directions.

The woman went back into the woods she had come from, the soft spoken man went back along the path Daska had taken to get here, and the last man followed after Daska’s group.

 

 

Daska’s group had no idea such things had been discussed after they passed by and, as afternoon approached, a town came into view.

「Looks like we’ll be spending the night in that town.」

「Guru~?」

Is that so? Set seemed to ask as Rei nodded and stroked his head.

As the leader of one of the Mireana Kingdom’s three major factions, Daska’s group was given various preferential treatment wherever they went.

For example, normally, no living person in the Bestir Empire would want a Griffon inside a city, especially Set, who had killed so much of the Bestir Empire’s army during the Spring War.

On the contrary, in many cases, even within the Mireana Kingdom, Set would be denied entry into cities as a Griffon.

However, since he was accompanying Daska as an escort, the city guard could do nothing to stop him.

In addition, as a matter of course, Daska had sent one of his knights ahead to let the city know he had permission to pass through the territory because he had been invited to the tournament.

The city and its residents hadn’t wanted to give permission to Daska, but they couldn’t refuse, so they had to reluctantly let him pass through.

As a result……

「……Understood, please pass through.」

The guard gave them permission to enter the city, all while suppressing his emotions.

It was only natural that his gaze was directed towards Rei.

(This country is quite hostile towards me, in various ways.)

What meaning did the guard’s gaze have? Rei naturally understood.

Perhaps someone the guard knew……or someone from the city, had participated in the war and died.

However, Rei didn’t ponder on those thoughts more than necessary. In the first place, if one didn’t want to die, they shouldn’t have become a soldier in the first place.

If they hadn’t been a professional soldier, but a volunteer soldier, it only made it more so.

As Rei thought about that, Daska’s group continued on their way through the city.

They headed straight to the inn the guard had told them about and, after some brief discussion regarding Set, they managed to get into the inn.

「Then, Set. As usual.」

「Guru~!」

Set seemed to know what Rei wanted to say. Set gave a cry in confirmation as Rei left the stables and went back inside the inn.

The residents were unable to do anything to people like Rei and Daska, that was true.

However, as for everything other than the people staying in the inn……for example, the carriages they were riding in, the horses that pulled them, war horses the knights rode……and any tamed monsters, it was a different matter.

Since Set couldn’t speak, even if they did something, it was unlikely that they would be discovered.

That was what some people thought. But……aside from Set being an A rank monster, no one knew he was highly intelligent due to his creation from the Magic Beast Art, which proved to be a fatal mistake.

In fact, in the previous towns they had visited, there had been several people who tried to mess with the warhorses in the stables as well as Set. However, all of them had been thwarted by Set. Some ran away while others tried to attack Set. Those who attacked with weapons had all ended up losing their lives.

Naturally, incidents like that caused commotions, which results in people being caught by the guards and expelled as slaves with some even being executed.

After all, from the perspective of the lords and governors who rulled the city, Daska and his group had an official invitation from the Bestir Empire to enter.

Since they had done something that caused them to lose face in front of their guests, they must have wanted to make it clear that they would properly punish the people responsible.

However, from Daska’s perspective as well as Rei’s, with their active role in the war, it was only natural that things like this would happen where people would act maliciously against him and Set. As he had already half expected it, he wasn’t feelling too unhappy with how things had turned out.

「Gururu~……」

Seeing Rei off, Set lay down on his assigned location.

After about an hour, he noticed the sound of footsteps approaching.

「Guru~?」

Set quietly closed his eyes as he monitored his surroundings with a cautious cry.

Before long, the footsteps entered the stables, as Set expected.

Set made ready to counterattack immeidately if the person showed any signs of attacking him……Set waiting while thinking of that, but the person who entered the stables walked over without hiding his footsteps.

「Gurururu~?」

Set looked at a man in his 40’s, who was standing there with a lot of meat in his hands for a servant like him.

「Oh? Have you woken up? Look, it’s your food. Your owner has paid plenty of money for this. It’s good deer meat.」

As the man said, there was plenty of deer meat.

The skin had been properly removed and the internal organs had been removed while leaving the whole deer intact.

「Guru~……Gurururu~!」

Confirming by smelling that there was no poison or strange medicine planted in the meat, he pecked a little piece of meat just to make sure.

Maybe feeling relieved after doing that, Set began to eat the deer meat, hungry after all the exercise he had been doing under the summer weather.

The man squited his eyes as he looked at Set happily for a while before feeding the other horses.

Luckily, the man who had been entrusted to take care of the animals and tamed monsters in the stables didn’t have any acquaintances or relatives who died in the war, so he didn’t seem to have any particular thoughts regarding Daska’s group, which was why he had been given the job.

Set also seemed to have understood that as he calmly focused on his meal while watching on.

The man probably didn’t notice Set’s attitude as he continued to take care of the horses with a satisfied smile on his face.

 

 

「……This inn is the jackpot.」

Elk, who had someone ended up in Rei’s room, muttered out loud.

Since they were at an inn, Elk was taking a break, leaving Daska’s escort to Min and Rhodes.

That said, he wasn’t completely ignoring his duties and limited his movement to within the inn.

「It really is. The food was good and the staff didn’t show any dissatisfaction, even if they felt that way. So, considering that, this inn is definitely a winner.」

Since this was the inn Margrave Rowlocks was staying in, it could be said that it was one of the best inns in the town.

It wasn’t a big town, so the inn wasn’t comparable to the Golden Wind inn, where Rei stayed at Exil, but even though the staff probably had their own feelings regarding Rei and Daska, they were professional enough not to show it.

「I hope the other inns are like this.」

Elk muttered while drinking the fruit juice Rei passed to him.

He really wanted to go to a bar, but even with some freedom of movement, an escort was still an escort. He couldn’t leave the inn to go to a bar, or even drink any alcohol in the inn’s dining area.

With his role as an escort, if he was caught doing something like that……

(I wonder what Min will say, even if the others don’t say anything.)

While remembering the pain of the cane that had been smacked against his head countless times, Elk ended up spending his break time talking nonsense with Rei.

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