Rei’s group continued their way along the road.

It had been several more days since their encounter with the merchant caravan.

With basically empty carriages, they were moving at a much faster speed than what normal carriages would usually travel at.

Since then, they had met several other merchant caravans and adventurer parties, but unlike Galen, they simply passed each other by without any incident.

As Rei continued along the road, he started to notice that the area felt somewhat familiar. He realised the time to part ways was soon approaching as he spoke.

「Vihera.」

That along was enough to reveal what Rei wanted to say. Vihera gave a slight nod as she rode up beside Rei.

「Yes, this is the fork in the road to Exil. ……It’s unfortunate, but I’ll head to Gilm after I’ve finished my business in Exil. I might not be alone then.」

Rei realised what Vihera was talking about.

Vihera was saying that she might be bringing Byune, whom she treated like a sister, back with her from Exil.

Her plan had been to head to Exil to check on Byune, so it was a perfectly reasonable decision to make.

「That’s fine, but don’t force her. Byune has her own things to do in Exil after all.」

「Oh, did you think I would do something that Byune wouldn’t like?」

「I know, I’m just saying it just in case. ……But still, it feels a bit strange to be going our separate ways after you’ve been with us for so long.」

Rei murmured as he stroked Set’s head.

「Really? After leaving Exil, there was the fighting tournament, you went back to escort Frizione out of the Imperial Capital……I think we’ve been doing our own things for quite some time.」

「……Now that you mention it, that is true.」

Vihera was someone who left a strong impression, for better or worse.

Despite being a former princess, her wild personality, beauty, and choice of clothing gave her an overwhelming presence.

She even had the strength to defeat A rank adventurers, so it was honestly hard to not be impressed.

「But still, it feels a little lonely to split up with you.」

「Fufu, thanks. But, like I said before, I’ll head to Gilm as soon as I can after checking on Byune. I haven’t even settled my fight with Elena yet.」

Rei gave a sigh, not realising that Vihera’s battle wasn’t referring just to combat, but also their love battle over him.

「You’ve run away from the Bestir Empire, but Elena hasn’t run from her Duke family or anything of the like. I don’t think it will be that easy to find an opportunity to fight her.」

「That may be true. It would be disappointing though. ……Anyway, even if I head to Gilm as soon as I finish up my business in Exil, it will probably be winter already. That means will will be tough to get there through the snow, so it will probably be spring before I see you again, Rei.」

Vihera’s tone and expression were also filled with loneliness as she got off her horse.

Rei nodded back as he also got off Set’s back and took Vihera’s luggage out of the Misty Ring to put on her horse.

Unlike the others, Vihera wasn’t moving from the Imperial Capital or anything, so all her luggage could fit on her horse.

……Of course, carrying all that would still slow her down.

「……Thank you.」

「Don’t worry about it.」

Rei and Vihera exchanged brief words with each others, but soon after, the former members of the guerrilla unit and others they knew spoke up as well.

「Stay safe, Vihera-sama!」

「See you again in Gilm.」

「I don’t believe you have anything you need to worry about, Vihera-sama, but please watch out for bad men!」

「You’re an idiot. There’s no way that Vihera-sama would fall for a bad man. Even if she did, they would be the ones regretting it.」

「What are you talking about? Vihera-sama is a girl in love, so she needs to be careful about things like that, right? Even I, a woman, gets chills from her beauty.」

「It’s probably best to keep the fighting to a minimum. Vihera-sama is incredibly strong after all.」

Voices of praise……or rather encouragement came from the surroundings.

Vihera smiled slightly, understanding that her tone carried some regret about their parting.

Her smile alone was enough to captivate both men and women.

Vihera had often gone over the guerrilla unit’s camp in order to talk to Rei.

Sometimes she would participate in the combat training, looking for a good fight. To the members of the guerrilla unit, Vihera was both noble and approachable.

It wasn’t just the guerrilla unit either. Among the people who had come from the Bestir Empire, many still considered her to be their princess and a symbol they looked up to.

Contrary to her high standing origin, many felt a sense of familiarity around with her due to her casual way of speaking to them.

She had been approachable to begin with and the feeling had only gotten stronger over the course of their journey.

「Fufu~, thanks. But it will be fine. I’m sure there will be plenty of guys who will try to court me. But……」

Vihera cast a meaningful glance in Rei’s direction, causing the people she had been talking with……especially the women, who loved these kinds of stories, to cheer loudly.

For the next 10 minutes or so, Vihera exchanged farewells with various people, including the former guerrilla unit members.

Everyone was naturally disappointed, but since Vihera would be coming to Gilm by next spring at the latest, it wasn’t all that sad of a farewell.

After saying her goodbyes to the others, Vihera went over to Rei.

「Well, I’m heading off now. You might miss me when I’m gone, but don’t cry at night, okay?」

「……Just how old do you think I am?」

「Well, I wonder. ……But, it is true that you are irreplaceable to me. So, stay healthy until next we meet.」

With those words, Vihera gently leaned over and sealed Rei’s lips with her own.

It wasn’t a deep kiss like their last kiss, with their tongues entangled, but a simple kiss.

After a few seconds, Vihera released her lips and lightly jumped onto her horse.

「Well, I’ll see you later. If you cheat on me with anyone other than Elena, I’ll never forgive you.」

With that statement, and slightly flushed cheeks, Vihera steered her horse down the road towards Exil.

Rei watched her leave with a small smile, waiting until she was out of sight……before turning around with a gasp.

That was because most of the people in the carriages were looking at him with smiles and mixed gazes.

That was only natural. Everyone here knew how Vihera felt about Rei.

Considering her usual attitude, it was impossible to misunderstand.

If it weren’t for her attitude, some of them might have even tried to court her, risking their lives.

The reason they didn’t was because Vihera had made her feelings for Rei obvious to those around her.

Vihera’s courtship was somewhat awkward, sultry but also seeking strength.

This contrast made many people root for Vihera and Rei’s relationship.

That was why Vihera’s kiss just now was viewed by them as something of a major victory.

Vihera and Rei had shared a much deeper kiss in Exil, but for those unaware of that, this was enough cause for celebration.

The women, especially those who had been cheering for Vihera and Rei’s romance, celebrated as they talked about the spectacle they had just witnessed.

「……Then, let’s get going.」

「Huh? Rei-san, do you have any thoughts about your kiss with Vihera-sama?」

Sergio’s words were met with agreement from Dietz and the others.

Rei sighed as he looked at them before speaking again,

「If you want to talk your time heading to Gilm, I don’t mind flying ahead with Set. It won’t take long for us to get there ourselves.」

「I-I’m kidding, just kidding! Hey, everyone!」

Perhaps sensing the seriousness in Rei’s words, Sergio shouted out in a panic. Those who knew Rei’s personality all agreed.

From the perspective of the former guerrilla unit members, they couldn’t mess with Rei now.

Their hierarchical relatioship from the civil war had already been ingrained in them from all the training they had done, including Rei’s Overlord’s Armour training.

Of course……for those who didn’t know Rei as well, they didn’t want to give up on such a fun story here.

But even they knew what kind of person Rei was.

Some of them had seen the fighting tournament’s finals with their own eyes. Those that didn’t had heard from the former guerrilla unit members about how strong Rei was and had also seen Rei fight many times during their journey.

Still, the reason they didn’t feel as scared by Rei’s threat was because they hadn’t undergone the same training that had put the guerrilla unit members at death’s door.

「L-Look. You said you didn’t want to be pressed on this, Rei-san. So let’s put it aside for now, okay?」

「T-That’s right, that’s right. Yeah. That’s for the best. Just make sure you don’t push ahead on your own.」

「I agree, I agree. I totally agree.」

The former guerrilla unit members all nodded and everyone else agreed.

No, rather, they were all forced to agree by Rei.

「So, no more questions then? Let’s get moving.」

Everyone nodded at Rei’s words.

「Alright, let’s go. Gilm isn’t that far from here. ……Of course, we won’t arrive today, but we should still make quite a bit of progress today. ……That said, there are a lot of bandits close to Sabrusta, which is on the border of the frontier region.」

「But, isn’t that what you want, Rei-san?」

Rei shrugged at Dietz’s words.

With that exchange, the atmosphere returned to normal.

「It’s true that there are a lot of bandits around Sabrusta, but if we delay there, it will take us longer to reach Gilm.」

「Well, that’s true. After all, it takes more time to go to the bandit hideout to check what they’ve stored up than to actually defeat the bandits.」

「Ah, yeah. That is true.」

A female former guerrilla unit member murmured as she recalled the times they had repelled bandit attacks.

Indeed, bandits were no match for Rei and the former guerrilla unit members.

Instead, it was the interrogations to find their hideout, the travel to the hideout, and then the time to identify anything of worth after killing the bandits that took up more time.

Fortunately, they hadn’t run into any people who were being held captive by bandits at their hideouts, but if there had been, they would also have to escort them to a nearby town of village, taking up even more time.

If any captives had been women, the task would have been even more depressing.

「In that sense, it would be better to eliminate all the bandits at once……but word has spread that there are a lot of bandits around Sabrusta, causing more bandits to come to the region.」

「……So, no matter how many bandits are defeated, there are always more?」

Dietz muttered with a genuine look of disgust on his face as Rei nodded in response.

「Of course, there are also bandits hiding in Sabrusta, bribing the soldiers for information.」

「There are various difficulties in that sense. But still, why are there so many bandits here?」

「The main reason is that it’s town close to the frontier. Merchants coming out of the frontier have monster materials, magic stones, and magic items from there, so they’re aiming for that.」

「Ah……that I can understand.」

Everyone seemed to understand at Rei’s words.

In the Bestir Empire, the equivalent frontier was at the Demon Mountains.

Various materials could be obtained from there, rare items even for the Bestir Empire.

IF they could attack the merchants coming out from there and steal their goods, the profits would be at a whole different level from working as an ordinary bandit.

Of course, since the merchants were transporting such rare items, their guards would also be skilled.

「Well, we’ll deal with bandits as we have done so far. However, many more are likely to mistake us for a merchant caravan.」

Everyone other than Rei was in a carriage and the carriages weren’t uncovered or covered carriages, but box carriages.

Any bandits who saw them would naturally recognise them as good prey……which went without say as people who had come here all the way from the Bestir Empire.

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