No one had a moment to rest their hands as they repaired the tents. Only two tents had collapsed, and one of them had been because of Rem and Lynox.
“Starting a fight there of all places? Did you waste all those years getting old?”
Grida tore into Lynox. Lynox met that scolding with passion.
“I challenged him because I didn’t waste those years getting old. How much longer do you think I have to live? You think I’d let a chance like this slip by? Anything that moves your heart should be dealt with while it moves you. Grida, you should consider that too. Miss your marriageable years, and the number of men willing to take you will only keep shrinking. When a chance comes, snatch it.”
Grida did not endure it. Her greatsword cut through the air. Lynox had just had a round with Rem, but not a single part of him was broken. One of his eyes was swollen, so his sense of distance was a little ruined, but that much could be replaced with other senses. He dodged the greatsword and spoke again.
“Is your goal to become the sword witch who lives alone forever?”
It was childish, but to the one listening, it did not feel that way.
“Fine. Let’s die today, you old bastard.”
Their quarrel was daily life to Riley. It was the kind of current that came out because the two were close.
More importantly.
‘A king.’
Riley looked at Crang again with fresh eyes. He had been born and raised in Zaun. As a member of Zaun, people in his world were divided into two kinds.
‘People who are good with swords and people who aren’t.’
Naturally, he had rarely ever admired someone who was not good with a sword. To Riley, Crang’s attitude had been one shock after another.
‘He refused a hostage.’
The vessel was different.
Was the king gambling with his own life? Like his father had? Was he doing something with a low chance of success, but no choice except to do it?
‘It doesn’t look that way either.’
Leisure clung to the king. He did not look as though he was doing anything particularly great. And yet, if Riley had to pick someone here who stood in a position to speak privately with the Empire’s emperor, it felt certain that man would be included.
Riley was not as skilled as Seriana or Crang at reading and grasping the state of affairs. He merely did his best to use his head while trying to protect the fence called Zaun.
That was why he vaguely felt that Crang had shown something like the dignity of a king, but he could not know everything hidden within it.
Only.
‘This is a little hot.’
His blood boiled as much as it did when he watched Enkrid spar. It was a night bright with starlight. It had seemed as if rain might fall, but the clouds had cleared. Perhaps because one bout of commotion had risen, it did not seem like sleep would come easily.
Riley found everything regretful. He had set out from duty or responsibility, but simply parting like this felt terribly regrettable.
“Did your skill improve a bit? Let’s at least measure it.”
As if reading that feeling, Enkrid approached and spoke.
“It would be an honor.”
Riley answered without even breathing.
“See? They’re fighting over there too.”
“That isn’t a fight. It must be instruction. I’m next!”
Grida said it in the middle of arguing with Lynox.
“Do that.”
Enkrid answered and aimed Today at Riley. The tip of the sword pointed diagonally at the ground. It was the steel door stance again. Since this was an instructional spar, he intended to begin by receiving an attack. Of course, Enkrid-style instructional sparring came with pain.
“Ngh.”
Even Riley, whose patience was remarkable, let out groans several times. Grida, who came next, was no different.
“Gah.”
She took a harsh blow to the shoulder and rolled sideways. As soon as Enkrid struck her with the flat of the sword, he stepped forward and thrust the tip of his foot toward Grida’s head as she fell.
Would her head burst if she were kicked? It would. Grida revised the deceptive tactic of deliberately screaming and aiming for an opening. She twisted her body as she was and shifted into swinging her greatsword upward.
“Don’t use deception. Make use of your weapon and your advantages. For irregular moves, focus on speed over trickery.”
Enkrid said that with his sword. It was only a brief spar, but Grida found a milestone on the path she needed to walk. His skill was one thing, but he was at a level where he knew exactly what his opponent lacked and what needed to be filled in, then pointed it out.
It happened because the difference in their skill was clear, and also because of the ability Enkrid had gained from crawling up from the bottom.
Naturally, Riley Zaun also gained a great deal.
‘I was bothered by my bad leg, so I tried to overcome it. I never tried to use it.’
It was good that he had faithfully trained the basics, and good that he had devoted unusual effort to strength and stamina, but he could not decide his own limits for himself.
Riley engraved the lesson carefully and sat by the campfire. He deliberately took a seat across from Crang, close to him, and the king of a nation spoke to him without reserve.
“Want one?”
It was a roasted sweet potato. It was food they had prepared. The king had soot on the corner of his mouth.
“I’d been wanting one since earlier. Then they attacked all of a sudden, so I only got the skin peeled and had to throw one away. Hoo, hoo.”
Was that something a king should say? Riley did not know. But it was not unpleasant to hear. He was a king eating a hot sweet potato while blowing on it.
Riley asked without much thought.
“How can you be so carefree when you don’t know what will happen in the Empire?”
Would it sound like an aggressive question? He had never practiced a friendly tone in his life. He could speak politely, but kindness was difficult.
So even though the words had come out of his own mouth, they felt rough. The one called a king, however, remained calm.
“Carefree? Do I look that way? Ah, I suppose I do. But well, I have something I want and something I hope for, so that’s why I’m going. Does it look like I’m scampering along just because one side called me? Still, I think I’m the one in need.”
What was he talking about?
In need? What about earlier, when he had said that if he died here, that would be his fate? Back then, it had not been a shout, but it had sounded as though he were shouting.
Behind him, Riley had seen a wall filling his sight, packed with soldiers along the top.
And who was in need?
Now that earlier image was not visible, and it felt unfamiliar. The fact that this looked unfamiliar instead felt awkward.
“That doesn’t mean I plan to be quietly taken, though. Kraiss sent you, yes? This greeting is a little late, but thank you for coming. Riley of Zaun.”
Riley emptied his mind and spoke with Crang. They talked of trivial things and stories from childhood.
Then, before he knew it, the story of his adoptive father came out, and Crang listened silently.
And the king said nothing. There was no common consolation, and he did not judge right or wrong. Only respect remained in his attitude.
Somehow, Riley stayed up the entire night. Most of them, including Seriana, spent the night that way, and there was no especially grand reason.
Rem, who had complained that the little alcohol they had was already gone, was busy chattering with Enkrid.
Shinar and Temares, moved by some wind of their own, gauged each other’s skill by sparring with the edges of their hands instead of swords.
“Unusual.”
What Shinar answered to what Temares said midway left an impression.
“This much must be natural if one is to remain inside the madness, dragonkin. And naturally, you should not say anything about becoming a woman or whatever.”
“Agreed.”
Should he say Esther cutting in from over there now looked natural?
Enkrid took turns sparring and even crossed hands with Lynox. The night was short. Riley truly felt so. The god of death that ended that short night revealed its existence by pouring out light.
The darkness, the starlight, and the blue of dawn were murdered. An army called the sun had surged in and driven them all away, so they would not be able to return until night came again.
Instead, they remained as shadows watching over the sunlight, faintly leaving behind their presence.
Yellow light wrapped around the surroundings. They could move even if they left the tents behind. Others would take care of the cleanup.
“People from the hunter village will come out and handle it.”
Zaun treated them as honored guests. Repaying a favor was not something natural, so Enkrid felt grateful.
“You must have gone through trouble.”
He spoke with that feeling, and Riley shook his head.
“What I received before was greater.”
Whatever had happened last night, his face was brighter despite having stayed up all night.
Zaun only went out with them as far as a certain area, then stopped. It was a point where, on the narrow mountain path, a road with traces of human hands roughly began to continue.
There were no signposts, but for someone with a good eye for roads, the terrain had many features that could identify it.
On one side stood a large rock resembling a human face, and beside it, an old pine bent sideways as if wrapping around the rock caught the eye. Seriana looked at it and spoke.
“They say the son and daughter of two families on bad terms fell in love at first sight, but in the end, the families’ opposition kept them from being together. A mage pitied them and turned the man into a rock and the woman into a tree, allowing them to become a pair.”
It was a story full of lessons.
“The lesson is not to expect common sense from mages. Why turn a person into a rock?”
Nephir Teshir added. Yes, there was that lesson too.
“If their eyes met, they should have run away together in the middle of the night.”
It also contained a lesson like the words of Grida, the progressive swordswoman. Acting before it was too late was always right.
“The point of the story is that the two are happy even after becoming a rock and a tree.”
Seriana ignored both opinions and spoke of the original meaning. It was material bards would love. Enkrid nodded.
With the rock and old pine lovers as the boundary, Riley lowered his head, then looked at Crang one last time.
He had listened to the entire story of Riley’s father and said nothing, then left only one sentence.
“It was the path he chose, so he worked to make that choice become right.”
So there was no need for consolation, or to judge whether it was right or wrong.
It had been said about his adoptive father, Heskal. It had also been said again for Riley himself.
Enkrid, who had been listening beside them, had added something too.
“Yesterday is past. Live today. Prepare for tomorrow.”
How should he put it? The words touched the way Enkrid usually lived. That was why they reached him even more.
“Zaun remains in the same place.”
Riley conveyed the warning he had left when they first met in a different form, then stepped back. Crang and the others walked along the relatively well-maintained road.
“The Margrave is a man with ugly hobbies.”
Seriana spoke while watching her footing. Last night must have given her considerable fatigue, but there was no disorder in her attitude.
Mol, Valmung’s squire, had tried to carry her on his back again, and she had just refused even that.
“However, he may get along remarkably well with you.”
Her gaze turned to Enkrid. In that instant, Shinar and Esther’s gazes also turned toward her.
The dragonkin, Temares, exercised his mind-reading talent and read the two’s hearts before Shinar and Esther could, then asked,
“The count is not a woman, is he?”
“...No.”
Seriana thought she herself could accept most things without trouble, but these people’s way of thinking was not easy to grow used to.
“An assassin fell for him, after all. There’s no law saying a count can’t fall for the demonic charm. Even if he isn’t a woman.”
Rem spoke in a serious tone, then immediately leaned his head back. Jaxon’s hand passed through the space where his head had been.
The two quarreled again as they walked, but it was nothing serious. Enkrid walked forward that way and reached Imperial territory. They had already received their welcome last night, so there was no one who did not know they were coming.
They walked for half the day, and Seriana was carried on Mol’s back partway through.
That was how they arrived at the first city of Imperial territory. Walls and spires came into view.
‘Six spires.’
Enkrid had no small amount of experience waging war, and he had learned quite a bit from Lua Gharne.
At a glance, he judged that the city before him existed solely for war, combat, and fighting.
The positions of the spires said so, and so did the spirit of the soldiers standing in rows atop the low walls.
“Lady Seriana, and strangers from the continent! Welcome!”
At the center of the wall, a man whose beard covered half his face shouted. That was his greeting.
That, and scattering fighting spirit to the fullest along with the shout.
“Is that a provocation?”
Rem muttered. It was certainly an act that could look that way. The attack at night was one thing, and so was the sight of armed soldiers lined up on the wall to greet them.

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