「Rei-sama, Rei-sama, can you hear me, Rei-sama!」

After finishing his breakfast, Set had laid down to take an after meal nap. Rei had been leaning against Set to nap as well when he opened his eyes to a sudden voice.

「Guru~?」

Set gave a cry as he turned to look at Rei, who was using his belly as a pillow.

His eyes seemed to ask ‘what do you want to do?’. Rei stood up and called out, realising that he couldn’t exactly do as he pleased since he had joined the Third Prince’s faction.

「Over here!」

They seemed to have heard his voice as, before long, a soldier appeared from the rustling bushes.

After emerging from the bushes, the sight of a Griffon looking at him from the ground made him step back instinctively, but he quickly regained his balance before speaking.

「Rei-sama, Vihera-sama is calling for you. She wants to introduce you to the military commanders and would like you to be there.」

Although they were a little nervous, the soldier didn’t look at Rei and Set with any negativity.

Rei spoke with gratitude in his heart, thinking that Vihera had probably carefully selected the soldiers who could serve as messengers.

「I understand. Let’s go then.」

Nodding as he replied, Rei turned to Set.

「So, what do you want to do Set? Do you want to rest here a little longer? Or……?」

「Gururu~!」

Set gave a cry and got up without waiting for him to finish.

To Set, it was nice to sleep here. In fact, with the clear autumn sunlight filtering through the trees, this was the perfect place to take a nap.

Because he understood that, Rei patted Set on the head.

「It’s fine for me to go alone you know? You don’t have to force yourself to come.」

「Gururururu~」

Set gave a cry, insisting he would come along, as he looked at Rei with round eyes.

Unable to resist Set’s gaze, Rei smiled happily as he nodded.

「Okay then. We’ll go together. Sorry, but could you show us the way?」

Rei called out to the soldier, who watched the exchange between Rei and the Griffon in shock, as he put his hood back on, which he had taken off while eating breakfast.

「Ah, yes. Right away.」

The soldier came back to his senses after hearing’s Rei’s voice and he quickly nodded, leading Rei and Set back towards the camp.

 

 

「Looking at everything in the light like this, there’s quite a lot of people here.」

Rei muttered as he walked through the camp, guided by a soldier, and looked around.

Many soldiers looked away when Rei looked at them, some looked at him with hatred, while others looked at him with admiration for some reason.

Some didn’t realise who Rei was and gasped when they saw Set walking next to him.

Amidst all this, when someone who could see magic power looked at Rei, they would freeze up, but Rei was already used to such reaction.

「That’s right. The Third Prince’s original faction, nobles who sent troops at Vihera-sama’s request, people in the Imperial Army who admired Theorem-sama, and even adventurers like you have gathered.」

「……Adventurers too?」

Rei tilted his head at the words of the soldier guiding him.

It was important for adventurers to earn money, but their biggest goal, above all else, was to survive. Because of that, Rei thought that most adventurers would side with the Empire, considering the difference in strength.

Naturally, there would also be some oddballs who would side with the weaker force, Rei himself being one of those oddballs.

「People like Prince Mercurio, Vihera-sama, and Theorem-sama are popular not only with the Imperial Army but also with adventurers.」

「……Ah, I see.」

Rei couldn’t comment much on Mercurio, having only talked with him briefly. But, he was quite close to people like Vihera and Theorem, so it made sense to him to some extent.

While thinking that, he eventually arrived at a tent at the center of the camp.

The size of the tent itself wasn’t much bigger than an ordinary tent and Rei guess that it was similar to the magic tent he had himself.

「Halt.」

Two people, who appeared to knights, called out to them from near the entrance ot the tent.

They thrust out their halberds, blocking the entrance to the tent as they spoke.

The soldier guiding Rei bowed his head slightly towards the knights before speaking.

「By order of Vihera-sama, I have brought the B rank adventurer, Crimson Rei-sama.」

『……』

The knights stared at Rei after hearing the soldiers words.

It was fortunate that Rei was wearing his hood, completely hiding his face. If the knights had seen Rei’s face, which could be described as feminine, they might have looked down on him.

……Although, looking at Set, who was next to Rei, very few people would have had the courage to do such a thing.

「Wait a moment.」

One of the knights spoke before disappearing into the tent.

After one of the knights left, the three of them waited in silence.

They waited for a few minutes while hearing the voices of soldiers talking from a short distance away. Eventually, the knight reappeared from the tent.

「You may enter.」

With that, the knights pulled their halberds back as they stood on either side of the entrance to the tent.

「Well then, shall we go?」

With that, the soldier and Rei entered the tent.

Set lay down a short distance away and closed his eyes.

The knights’ expressions looked a little strained at the sight, but Rei and the soldier went into the tent without thinking about it.

The tent didn’t seem much bigger from the outside, but after Rei entered, he saw a space almost 50 square meters in size.

Although it wasn’t extravagant, there was a comfortable area set up with sofas and tables where 15 people were currently conversing.

Among them was Mercurio, the leader of the army, his sister, Vihera, Theorem, Mercurio’s confidant, as well as Tillyele and Gurgast. There were also some people he was seeing for the first time.

(I thought so.)

Rei felt good for correctly guessing it was a magic tent while the soldier who had guided him here spoke up.

「Pardon me. I have brought Crimson Rei-sama.」

At the soldier’s voice, everyone turned their attention to him……no, to Rei, who was standing next to him.

However, Rei was surprised by the looks he received.

He had expected to receive looked of fear, awe, or hatred, but with the exception of a few people, most of them looked at him welcomingly.

Those few people, three to be exact, looked at Rei with what could be interpreted as hate, resentment, or even jealousy, but Rei felt that they were the more normal ones.

Considering the damage he had caused to the Bestir Empire, it was only natural for people to look at him in that way.

However, those three people did not include Mercurio or Tillyele.

For better or worse, they were people who could understand the situation, so they wouldn’t do something as foolish as to cause Rei to give up on them in public.

「Rei, you’ve finally come. You’re a bit late, what’s wrong?」

Meanwhile, Vihera stood up with a smile and walked over to Rei.

Seeing that, the three men who had been looking at Rei hatefully looked away with disgust.

They would have wanted to click their tongues or snort, but with Vihera present, they could only watch quietly.

Glancing at those people, Rei took off his hood as he spoke.

「I had a slow breakfast with Set. We were resting in the forest until the soldier came looking for us.」

「Hmph. ……I knew I should have brought you with me back then.」

Muttering to herself, she pulled Rei to the center of the tent.

As for the soldier who had brought Rei here, he moved to the edge of the tent to wait.

As Vihera pulled Rei along, she was still wearing her thin, dancer like clothes, causing her ample chest to squish against Rei’s arm.

「……Vihera-sama, no matter how well acquainted you are and how well-known he is, he is still an adventurer. I think it would be best to refrain from making such careless contact with someone you don’t know.」

One of the men, who had been casting hateful glances towards Rei, spoke up after seeing Vihera’s actions.

「T-That’s right. It’s true that it’s indecent for an Imperial Princess to behave like that towards a complete stranger.」

「Anyway, you’ve talked about him having a title and all that……but what can a kid like him really do? It’s certainly impressive that he has a Griffon as a familiar, but isn’t he just relying on it?」

The two men next to the one who had spoken up first all voice their agreement.

However, as for Vihera, which those words were directed to, her initial joyful expression at meeting Rei gradually faded and her eyes grew cold as she looked at the men.

That was only natural. It was true that Rei was an unknown stranger in many ways, it was only natural since he had actually come from Earth.

However, that didn’t mean that Vihera wouldn’t be upset when the person she had fallen in love with was spoken badly of.

Moreover, the people who were now speaking nasty words about Rei while pretending to give advice to Vihera were all people who had previously courted her.

In the end, they had all lost to Vihera after hearing that she wouldn’t give herself over to anyone weaker than her.

But, they had come here because they couldn’t give up on her.

Of course, even if it was to get close to Vihera, considering they had joined the Third Prince’s faction, which was in an overwhelmingly unfavourable position, they probably genuinely cared about Vihera.

For that reason alone, the fact that there was someone in the army that Vihera had fallen in love with and the fact that Rei was a mere adventurer, even if one with a title, was something the men couldn’t accept.

It might have been different if Rei had an appearance close to Theorem’s, powerful, dignified, and with an awe inspiring presence that could be seen at a glance. But, since they didn’t have the ability to sense magic power, Rei just looked like a child with a feminine face.

To them, Rei seemed like a fledgling adventurer.

That was why, in a way, it was only natural for them to look down on Rei. But……

「Oh? Rei came in second in the recent tournament, didn’t he? And, he only lost to the S rank adventurer, the Immovable Noiz.」

「What!?」

「Second place in the fighting tournament……」

「A-A kid like this?」

The men muttered in disbelief at Vihera’s words……no, they didn’t want to believe it.

As if to add insult to injury, Vihera spoke to the men again.

「It’s true that it’s hard to believe when you look at his appearance. So, what do you say? Let’s fight a bit. Then you’ll be able to understand Rei’s strength properly.」

Vihera’s said those words with a smile.

From the men’s perspective, there was no way to retreat now, especially since Vihera, the woman they wanted to court, had provoked them.

Another reason they couldn’t retreat was because Rei didn’t look that strong either.

Perhaps, if they could defeat the person in front of them, Vihera would turn her affection to them.

The men exchanged glances, silently confirming their intentions. If they had knew how Rei really was like, they probably wouldn’t have thought the same way.

(……Is this army really okay?)

Even in Rei’s eyes, the men’s skill wasn’t that high. At best, they were a little better than the average knight.

The fact that there were several such men in this tent meant that they were being treated quite highly.

「Don’t worry, it’s fine. It’s true that those men may have various problems, but the ones sent as their assistants are quite capable. Otherwise we wouldn’t have brought them in no matter what.」

Vihera whispered into Rei’s ear.

The men must have thought that they looked close to each other. They spoke as if they had made up their minds.

「We understand. Let us see for ourselves whether this Rei is a suitable partner for Her Highness Vihera.」

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