As Rei held the blade of the Death Scythe to the man, ready to extract information from him, a voice called out.

Turning towards the direction of the voice, Rei saw a man wearing silver armour.

He was a good looking man in his late twenties and the women in the surroundings couldn’t help but let out sighs of admiration.

However, Rei just looked back silently.

Considering that the man had chosen the best possible timing to interrupt him, Rei couldn’t ignore the possibility that he was part of the same group as the man currently crouching in front of him.

「You are?」

「I’m the one in charge of security of this area. Claudius Noble, vice commander of the Unicorn Knights.」

「……Heh.」

Rei gave an involuntary murmur when he heard that the man was the vice commander of a knight order, but more importantly, the fact he had a last name meant that he was part of the nobility.

But, Rei didn’t seem to care as he responded.

「So, why is the vice commander of the Unicorn Knights showing up now?」

「It is to catch those doing illegal things here of course.」

Hearing Claudius’ words, the man, who still had Rei’s Death Scythe held up to him, could help but shout out.

「Hey, Claudius! Don’t you know who’s backing me!?」

「Yes, naturally. It’s true that I can’t touch you, Dune-san. But, you’ve still made a move on the wrong person. I don’t know who’s behind you, but it’s going too far to do this to someone invited by the Empire.」

Hearing his words, Rei started to understand the relationship between the two.

As Claudius had said……it seemed he had also guessed that the force backing the man was not the Second Prince, as he had claimed.

「……So, that’s why. Crimson-dono. I’m sorry, but could you leave this to me?」

「You want me to leave?」

「Yes. Even if it’s you, it’s not a good idea to spend too much time here, right? From the looks of it, you seem to be in a hurry.」

Hearing Claudius’ words, which seemed to see right through him, Rei’s eyes twitched.

「That’s true, but since that’s the case, wouldn’t it be quicker to get rid of this man here?」

「If possible, I would like it if you didn’t do that……because there are various things I need to ask him.」

「……Hmm.」

Murmuring to himself, Rei looked over at Dune, who was glaring at him and Claudius hatefully.

It wasn’t a problem to hand him over to Claudius, but Rei also had a desire to know who was behind this incident.

Usually, Rei would have cared about handing him over, but this time, it could potentially be related to the right of succession to the throne.

And, since Rei was currently under the employ of Vihera and Theorem, who were part of the Third Prince’s faction……it would be a bad thing to find out more information.

With that in mind, Rei opened his mouth to refuse Claudius’ offer.

「Understood, we’ll leave the men to you.」

A voice came out from behind Rei.

Turning around, Rei saw Min with her cane.

With her usual clear expression, Min turned to Rei as she spoke.

「I understand what you’re thinking Rei, but it’s not a good time to argue with the Bestir Empire right now.」

「But……」

「It’s orders from Daska-sama.」

Rei wanted to continue arguing, but had no choice but to give up when Daska’s name was brought up.

He sighed without hiding his reluctant expression.

「Understood.」

「I see, thank you.」

Min’s desire to obtain information was just as great as Rei’s. But, she would also rather not antagonise the vice commander before them.

Nodding slightly at Rei, Min turned to Claudius.

「Then, we’ll hand over this man to you. However, if something like this happens again on the way to the Imperial Capital……I don’t think things will end peacefully.」

「…..Yes, I fully understand.」

Although quite a number of people had been injured, considering that there had been no deaths, Min considered it a peaceful resolution.

However, considering Rei’s personality, which showed no mercy to those who opposed him, that wasn’t too surprising.

Claudius might not have fully understood Min’s thoughts, but his expression tightened as he nodded and spoke up.

「Capture them. Try not to be too rough. But, if they attempt to escape, I’ll leave it up to your individual judgement.」

A knight who came over to Claudius gave a small nod before signally to the 30 knights behind him.

As soon as they saw the signal, the knights spread out to overwhelm and capture Dune and his men.

It was clear from their actions that they were used to capturing people

「Thank you for your cooperation.」

Claudius bowed his head towards Rei and Min, who were watching the scene.

Despite bowing his head, his gestures remained sophisticated, causing the young women in the surroundings to cheer.

There were also some middle aged women cheering, it seemed that feelings towards beauty were the same regardless of age.

Just a few minutes ago, they were basically just walking bags of money, unable to speak up against Dune’s behaviour……that was what Rei thought, but now it seemed like the women treated Claudius like some sort of prince riding a white horse to save them from the villains.

「Ah well. Something like this was bound to happen.」

「Yeah, the Bestir Empire isn’t full of people like Dune. There are also many good people.」

「……That’s true I guess.」

As Min said that, Rei thought of Vihera and Theorem.

Although the latter didn’t have that good of a personality, he didn’t have a bad one either.

「Then, pardon us. It’s still a bit further to the Imperial Capital and you’ll want to have enough time to make it to the tournament.」

Claudius said that with a small smile before leaving.

Seeing him leave, Rei stroked Set’s necking, thinking about how troublesome a person Claudius was to deal with.

「Guru~」

Set seemed to sense Rei’s intentions. As they had no more business here, they went back to where Daska and the others were waiting.

The line of carriages finally started to move and Daska’s group resumed their smooth journey along the highway.

 

 

「Regarding the matter just now, I’ll talk to Daska-sama about it, so don’t worry about it Rei. Well, if he decides he wants to here more about it, I’m sure he’ll call for you.」

As they returned to Daska’s carriage, Rei gave a small word of thanks to Min before going back to the knights.

Seeing Rei return, one of the knight’s eyes widened slightly.

It was because he had felt Rei’s moody atmosphere.

However, he only noticed it because his senses were sharper, the other knights weren’t as sharp.

Because of that, he called out to Rei as if he hadn’t noticed anything.

「Hey, Rei. What was the issue after all? It took you a long time.」

「……No, it wasn’t much. It seems that knights from the Bestir Empire had blocked their own highway to extort money from travelers.」

「Hah? If they do something like that, their head will fly. Not metaphorically, literally.」

Rei shrugged his shoulders and replied to the knight’s shocked words.

「Well, they must have had a plan to do something like that.」

「Pretending to be bandits so openly?」

「Knights pretending to be bandits, huh. It’s a story that makes me laugh in various ways, but unfortunately, it seems they had some odds of it actually succeeding.」

It wasn’t just Daska’s party. Aside from them, there were many others who had been invited to the tournament from neighbouring countries and this was the highway that led to the Imperial Capital.

Rei didn’t know himself, but among those who had been stuck in the traffic jam, there had been envoys from other countries. In addition, guests from other countries had been among those who had been extorted of money in order to pass.

If they had been from a small country next to the Empire, that wasn’t too big of an issue. They were practically subordinate countries, so it wouldn’t be too difficult for the Bestir Empire to get rid of them if they wanted.

However, among the invited countries, there were also those that couldn’t be underestimated, even if they weren’t as large as the Bestir Empire.

Above all, the knights had tried to steal money, magic items, and even Set, from Daska, a noble of the Mireana Kingdom, which had defeated them in the spring war, and Rei.

No matter how you looked at it, it was a devastating mistake.

「Hmm. Well, I don’t know what it’s like here, but the bigger the country, the bigger the corruption at the top.」

The knight muttered as it if was someone elses problem, seemingly forgetting that the Mireana Kingdom was also one of the bigger countries.

Although it might not feel like one from Gilm, over on the frontier.

「That aside, it looks like things are moving. Let’s get going.」

Hearing the knight’s words, Rei turned to look ahead as he saw the carriages in front starting to move.

As for the carriages around Daska’s, they seemed to hurry ahead in order to get away from Set rather than really rushing. It seemed a lot of people felt the same way.

Some even whipped the horses pulling the carriages in an attempt to get away as quickly as possible.

A few people even glared at Rei and Set.

They seemed to be people who had found out Rei was Crimson from earlier and had people close to them who were killed during the war.

However, Rei had already gotten used to things like this as he shrugged off the hatred and bloodlust.

He didn’t care much for their individual glares, but considering some of them might be minions from Requiem’s Toll, it was quite troublesome to be be unable to see through them all.

(There’s no doubt they plan to take some sort of action. There’s no way they only planned one incident and nothing after…… Since that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of their minions are also watching me.)

Although those were Rei’s thoughts, he had no choice but to leave them at that as there wasn’t anything he could really do.

「Hey, Rei. Come on.」

As Rei was thinking, a voice called out to him.

It seems that Daska’s carriage was already moving, so the knight with Rei had called out to him to move on as well.

「-Sorry. Set, please.」

「Guru~!」

Set gave a cry at Rei’s words and began to walk, following after the carriages.

There was no way he couldn’t catch up, even with Rei riding him, so Set quickly got back to the knight’s side.

「What’s wrong, something on your mind?」

「Well, just a bit. Although things seem okay for now, there’s a lot to consider.」

「……I guess. You’re the main character in this event after all.」

「That’s part of it, but……it’s more about Requiem’s Toll.」

「Ah, those guys.」

「It’s calm now, but I have no doubt they’ll make a move again once we arrive in the Imperial Capital.」

In their previous attack, only a few people had their sense of pain dulled and physical strength boosted.

Considering that, there had still been quite a bit of trouble. If more people like that attacked, it would be impossible to avoid various damage to the surroundings.

Defeating them wasn’t the biggest issue, but rather the collateral damage that would be caused.

「That’s true, this kind of enemy is tricky. Especially when you consider the possibility of a sudden attack in a civilian area.」

Even knights couldn’t keep watch over everyone around the clock.

Thinking about it, you could say that Requiem’s Toll was currently attacking them in a mental sense.

「The bright side to all this is that Elk is guarding Daska-sama. It’s precisely because of the presence of the Axe of the Thunder God that we can feel this safe.」

The knight murmured as he looked at the scenery along the highway.

Seasons were changing and the number of flowers, whose names the knight didn’t all recognise, had started to decrease compared to summer.

However, Rei, who was watching from the side, was surprised that the knight had such a sentimental side.

Like so, their journey continued as they kept an eye out for enemy attacks……and after several days, the huge Imperial Capital appeared before their eyes.

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