When checking the burnt patch on the ground, we felt the intimidating sensation at a much higher degree than before.
However, as we both looked around for the source, we couldn’t find anyone suspicious, and the feeling slowly faded.
"Wh-what was that?" lina asked as she kept looking around.
Simultaneously, we both launched into the air to see if we could see anything from a higher viewpoint. Nonetheless, we couldn’t see or feel anything.
"Was that so sort of warning?" I pondered aloud.
We kept looking around the hill for a few hours but ended up empty-handed. When we returned to town, the other knight groups had also arrived.
The knights of the 7th said that the monster attacks on the outskirts had been subsiding little by little, but they couldn’t find anything that could be linked to the devil.
Harvey and his knights said their side of the hill was completely peaceful and uneventful, saying they barely even saw any wild animals out there.
"Hmm, that’s already a little suspicious, don’t you think?" I asked the knight.
"I suppose. It could be that it’s not their season, or the Kraken scared them away..." he responded, trying to co up with an alternative explanation.
To be fair, what he said made sense. The Kraken’s presence was definitely sothing that other animals would avoid, thanks to their primal instincts. However, it was still a good idea to be wary whenever scouting that area, just in case.
As we explained what we felt to the knights, Vespera arrived and joined us.
"Did you sleep well?" I asked my companion.
"It was okay. I managed to recover all of my MP," she answered—her attitude now back to being her usual unbothered self.
The group kept discussing for a few more minutes, trying to co up with another plan, when we got interrupted by a worker from the adventurers guild, saying he had co to the inn to look for the princess and .
Confused, we made our way to the guild’s building and were t by the sa clerk we saw on our first day next to a tall, bald man with a rugged appearance.
He introduced himself as Igor, the guild master of Port Town Blue.
"I wanted to be here to give you the rewards for killing the Kraken." said the man with his deep but soothing voice.
’The rewards?’ I thought.
We had all completely forgotten that we had taken a request from the guild to hunt the Kraken, leaving us perplexed as we didn’t know how to react.
"The other adventurers ca over after the fight, telling us about your achievents in battle," explained Igor, directing his gaze toward lina.
"I didn’t even know that the princess was here until they notified . My apologies..." he said as he bowed his head.
lina prompted the man to raise his head, as she had been undercover anyways, so it was not his fault that he didn’t know of her visit. However, after the battle with the Kraken, everyone was talking about the princess and her group of powerful companions, so her cover was compromised.
Hiding her identity was mostly so people wouldn’t bother lina by telling her not to fight the Kraken since she was a princess, but now that the people knew how powerful she was, there wouldn’t be anyone opposing her from fighting.
As a reward for killing the Kraken, Igor offered us a bag of gold, which we declined and asked him to distribute to the other adventurers.
I didn’t need money since I had all my business with the potions and costics, and lina was a princess, so she was definitely not in need of gold.
"Well, apart from the gold, the other reward is a promotion..." Igor said as he gave the gold bags to an assistant to distribute.
lina and I shared a look as we both realized that we had forgotten we could rank up as adventurers. We were so used to hunting monsters and then moving on with our day that we never even considered returning to the guild to report anything.
We gave our gold cards to the clerk, who left to a back room for a mont, then ca out a few minutes later with new cards. Except this ti, they were tallic light blue instead of gold.
"From now on, you are officially Mithril-Ranked adventurers!" exclaid the guild master.
The adventurers that were hanging out in the lobby approached us to congratulate us both as we just nervously said thanks before slowly making our way out of the building.
It’s not like we weren’t happy with being promoted. We just had sothing on our minds that was bothering us and didn’t let us enjoy the atmosphere.
"Ichiro, we really need to find that devil soon..." lina muttered, her voice solemn and determined.
’Huh, when she gets serious like that, she really looks like... ’her.’ Wait, what the hell am I thinking?’
I shook my head back to reality. "We’ll find it. I’m just a little worried..." I said.
"You? Worried?" lina asked.
"I know, I know. We’ve just never fought a devil before. Even Vespera looks worried, so of course, it makes a little nervous..." I replied, stopping our walk montarily.
"That spell’s pain was no joke. I wouldn’t want anyone here to get hit with an attack like that..." I continued.
I did want to find and defeat the devil. However, even if it sounded selfish, I didn’t want the princess or my companions to get involved since I didn’t want any of them to get hurt. Or worse, dead.
Nonetheless, I knew the princess would get angry at if I told her to sit this one out. Vespera and Yoru wouldn’t stay put either, so there was no point in even trying to persuade them otherwise.
’I’ll just do my best to protect them all...’ I thought.
That night, Commander Valentina asked us to go by the barracks for a mont, and our group took a quick detour before going to the inn.
Half of the 7th order was at the barracks, with their commander at the front to receive us.
However, as soon as we stepped inside, the knights kneeled in unison with their commander.
"I, Valentina Embervane, Commander of the 7th Knight’s Order, want to apologize on behalf of my entire team and myself," she stated loudly, making lina and I stand there confused.
"We not only treated the knights of the 4th like they were weaker than us, but we also participated in the continued mistreatnt of their mbers. For everything, I truly and deeply apologize..." she said, finishing her speech.
Nonetheless, lina and I just stood there, perplexed at the scene, as we both thought the sa thing.
"Umm, so... Why are you apologizing to us?" I asked, making lina nod in agreent.
"Sorry?" Valentina asked, not knowing what we ant.
"You should be apologizing to the knights of the 4th. Not us. We are not knights, you know?" said the princess with a captivating smile.
Valentina’s eyes widened in surprise, thinking the princess would reprimand their order or report them to the king. But all she wanted was for everyone to get along.
"I understand, Princess. I swear by my title of Knight that we will nd our mistakes!"
The knights smiled with resolution and broke their formation at Valentina’s command.
"Where’s Garret, by the way?" I asked, noticing that he wasn’t around.
"He... Didn’t want to take part in this..." answered Valentina looking reserved.
"I see. And where is he now?"
"I’m not sure. He said he was going to patrol around the city..." the commander responded.
We spent a little more ti with the knights, giving them a few potions to keep in case of ergencies. They already had so of our healing potions but didn’t have the new "hi-sense" that Reinar had created, which I thought would help them in battle.
I also gave them so stamina potions in case they wanted an extra boost of energy or if they ran out of stamina.
We handed them pretty much a little bit of every potion except for the "MP ( )."
Those were for and my friends only. Even though I had a few hundred of them, it’s not like these knights had that much MP to burn anyways.
That sa night, after we left the barracks, I asked the group to walk with around the city before going to the inn.
"You wanna see what Garret is doing?" lina asked, always knowing exactly what I was thinking.
"Pretty much. He seed angry with the last ti I saw him, so I just wanna see how he is holding up." I said.
"Liar." lina refuted with a playful tone.
"You think he is looking for the devil too, right?" she continued, and once again, she was right on the spot.
I explained to lina that if the commander of the 2nd actually managed to find the devil, he would most likely get killed horribly. In a way, I was trying to save him before that happened.
lina agreed with , and we walked around the city for a while, but in the end, we never saw or heard Commander Garret anywhere. The people on the streets hadn’t seen him recently either, which started to worry us.
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