Chapter 110
I ca straight outside after finishing the eting.
On my way back to the security unit, I encountered an unexpected person.
It was Carius of the Order of the Sun.
He was walking together with his subordinates.
“This area is a bust now. Should we not head out a little further?”
His subordinate spoke.
The Order of the Sun was a scouting unit.
Even if they lived in the city, they had to continuously gather surrounding information.
“Damn it!”
Carius clicked his tongue.
His violent temper was the sa as ever.
He was relieving his accumulated stress by nagging his subordinates.
I parted ways with him at the fork in the road.
He did not even spare a glance this way.
“…….”
I watched his back before hurrying on my way.
It was not who had to deal with him.
When I returned to the unit's building, Lucille remained in the room.
“You are on day duty, is it alright for you to be away?”
When I asked nonchalantly, she showed a disappointed expression.
“I specifically swapped with soone on night patrol because I was worried about you.”
“That sounds like you’re specifically asking to acknowledge it.”
“……I want to give you a smack.”
“Please endure it.”
She let out a sigh and shook her head.
“What is the box you are holding?”
“The Countess handed it out, saying I worked hard.”
“So it’s a reward.”
“Are you interested?”
“I have no interest in items obtained by selling out comrades.”
“Then I will look at it by myself.”
Lucille looked at with a dubious gaze.
She jerked her head away, claiming she would keep her word.
If she had held out patiently like that, I would have applauded her endurance.
Unfortunately, she could not.
She glanced this way through narrowly opened eyes.
“Are you a child?”
“You are the one being stingy.”
“It is because Lady Lucille acts needlessly noble.”
She jumped up from her seat and looked around as if searching for her sword.
Tap! She found the sword and placed it on the desk where it could be drawn at any ti.
It was a kind of warning.
It ant that if I provoked her further, blood would be seen.
I opened the box.
I shifted slightly to the side so she could see well.
Inside were fruit, at, and gold.
“It’s an amount one person could eat for fifteen days even if they ate generously.”
“I suppose so.”
“I can see why spying is prevalent.”
She appeared to understand the background of why spies were inevitably born, even while feeling disgusted.
“Is the gold ant to be used for trade?”
“Yes, gold still possesses value, after all.”
I closed the box and put it into the sub-space backpack.
“Did you et the Countess?”
Lucille changed the subject.
“Yes.”
“How did she seem in your evaluation?”
“I thought she was a very brazen person. She packaged things done for personal greed very well.”
“Were you also persuaded?”
“No. On the contrary, my mouth was itching to say a word, but I endured it because Sir Owain was there.”
Lucille showed a faint smile.
“You also can't help it in front of Sir Owain huh.”
It was a provocation spat out to return the teasing from earlier.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“The opponent is a General (Grade 4). There were other Knights of Red at that spot as well. I am not sure if Lady Lucille could have handled it better than I did.”
“You really give an inch and take a mile.”
She gave a shudder of disgust as if she were fed up.
“Anyway, the report ends here.”
“What, you sound like soone about to leave right now.”
“I'm worried about the kids I left at the hideout, and there is one more place I need to stop by before returning.”
“Who are you going to et?”
“It is soone you know as well.”
Lucille fell into thought, tilting her head.
She only fiddled with her lips as if there was no na that ca to mind imdiately.
“Think about it slowly after I leave.”
“When will you return?”
“It is difficult to promise.”
“Then deliver this to Tania on my behalf.”
The item she handed over was a magic book.
The title was written as [Advanced Fire Elent Course - Feast of Flas].
My eyes flashed.
Among magic books, it was a training-type magic book where one's ability improved just by reading and deciphering it.
“You obtained sothing good.”
“I got it from a laboratory I discovered on the way to the castle. Unfortunately, I couldn't get one for you. Your attribute is too rare.”
“I will accept only the sentint gratefully.”
Lucille gave a snort.
“Joshua.”
“Please speak.”
“How does Tania look to you?”
“She is working hard.”
“That sounds insufficient. Don't you like people who are good more than those who just work hard?”
“It would be best if both applied, if possible.”
“……You know, can't you walk a little slower?”
Fear was visible in Lucille's eyes.
It was a gaze she had never shown once since eting her.
“Because it seems that child won't be able to catch up.”
“Tania has talent, so she will catch up to in no ti.”
“Will she?”
She spoke in a voice lacking confidence.
It was a reaction that did not suit Lucille, who showed infinite affection for her sister.
“It will be sothing we'll know if we wait and see.”
I spoke thus and headed to the room where Luna was.
She was sleeping soundly on the bed.
“Doesn't she look too cute sleeping to wake her up?”
Lucille, who followed, said.
She leaned over and poked Luna's cheek with her hand.
She was drawn into the soft and squishy flesh.
Soon, when she took her hand away, the elastic skin returned to its original state.
Lucille hopped around as if she were about to scream right then.
“She’s like a doll. Can't I keep her?”
“No.”
“……Ugh.”
I wore the backpack in front and carried Luna on my back.
I moved my steps slowly so that Luna wouldn't wake up.
* * *
Luna opened her eyes.
The fluffy sensation had vanished, and she was placing her weight on sothing hard.
She did not feel bad.
Rather, she thought it was good.
A good scent was felt, and she felt as if she might fall back asleep from the transmitted warmth.
“……Ah.”
She let out a short breath and strove to regain her senses.
The mont she realized who she was clinging to.
Her face grew hot.
“I-I am sorry.”
“It is fine.”
“I will get down imdiately.”
“You can rest if you are tired. There won't be a situation where your strength is needed imdiately.”
Luna moved her head here and there to check where this was.
The ceiling was blocked by a wall.
On both sides, there was a narrow passage where one person could barely pass, and a stream of water flowed between them.
It was an underground waterway.
Fireflies flew around the dark passage, lighting it up.
“How long has it been since I fell asleep?”
“It must have been about thirty minutes.”
“Were you carrying all that ti?”
“Yes.”
“Is your back alright?”
“It is fine.”
“H-How about your legs?”
“No problem.”
Blunt answers returned.
In this way, she could not tell if her master was truly tired or not.
She tried to read his heart, but that was also useless.
When she groaned with a troubled expression.
“Speaking of which, it seems it has been quite a while since Luna and I talked just the two of us.”
He spoke first.
“Because Master is always busy.”
“That is an excuse. I did not make the effort to spend ti with you.”
“It is fine because you are doing it now. Hehe.”
Luna gave a broad smile.
Once, as a reward for helping with a village quest, he had hugged and lifted her up.
Since then, she had secretly thought of rewards she wanted to receive from her master.
Being carried on his back was one of them.
“B-By any chance, you aren't reading my thoughts right now, are you?”
“I am not.”
“I would like you to not read them in the future as well, if possible. Unless it is a truly important mont.”
“Got it.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
If her inner thoughts were read, she would have wanted to hide in a mouse hole out of embarrassnt.
“Did nothing happen at the place you went to et the spies?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s good.”
They were shrouded in silence for a while.
She did not feel it was awkward.
There were relationships where one beca comfortable simply by being together.
Luna looked at the waterway.
The water used in the castle and city beca sewage and joined there through the drain.
She felt her nose was paralyzed by the sour and foul sll.
However, the sll was not rembered long in her head.
Human limbs surfaced on the water of the waterway.
So things were excessively decayed.
“There might be zombies.”
The master could not be unaware.
However, she thought it was necessary to speak so he would have a sense of alertness.
“You are right.”
“I think it’s best if I get down after all.”
He bent his knees so it would be easy for her to get down.
She felt as if she didn't know what to do with herself.
When her master's back grew distant, she swallowed an unknown lingering regret.
“Where are we going?”
“It is the way to Rodwell.”
“You an the Captain of the Order of the Star, right?”
“Yes.”
Luna tilted her head.
She did not think it was a passage where people would travel.
It wasn't just zombies; there was sothing here that constricted the chest.
It was eerie.
She did not feel there would be anything good even if they searched.
“Is the Captain here?”
“No, the hideout must have been made outside. Since they have to plant radishes and hunt.”
Luna thought that the Captain nad Rodwell was an eccentric human just like her master.
Perhaps that was why the two of them hit it off well.
As a familiar, he was an object of jealousy.
“Look over there.”
She pointed sowhere with her hand.
There were collapsed zombies.
It wasn't just one, but several.
It was evidence that soone was using the passage.
“Did the people in the city pass through?”
“Probably not. Because they will think that blocking the entrance is enough.”
“Then who?”
Tap!
A footstep was heard.
In the waterway, it echoed and resonated like a roar.
The master stopped her from reflexively trying to deactivate the polymorph.
“Stay close to the wall.”
The master took a staff out of the bag.
The sound was growing closer and approached near the corner.
The opponent also stopped.
As the tension grew taut, she felt dizzy.
Soon, it was the other side that revealed itself first.
It was two sturdy n.
They wore chainmail and held swords and shields in their hands.
“……I rember seeing them sowhere.”
One man squinted his eyes and stared intently at the master.
His serious expression gradually turned relaxed.
“Is it Joshua?”
The man shouted the master's na in a cheerful voice.
“I'm glad to see both of you safe.”
“Am I dreaming? How did you get here……”
“It is a long story to explain.”
“Haha, it really is you, right?”
Both n put away their swords and welcod the master gladly.
“Just how long has it been?”
“It must have been a few months since I saw you after I left for the mine.”
“Hahaha, has it been that long already. Ti really is fast.”
“Were you exploring the waterway?”
“Yes, Sir Rodwell said we had to make a map of the waterway. We were following that command.”
The man held out a map that was still unfinished.
“How could there be such a miracle? To think we would all see each other again alive.”
The other man was pinching his own cheek as if he couldn't believe it.
“Where is Rodwell?”
“He’ll be at the hideout. He’ll be extrely happy to see you.”
“Could you guide ?”
“Sure. Follow .”
She and her master moved following the n.
They seed familiar with the waterway, as they turned directions without hesitation even at the forks that appeared in sequence.
“Are you coming from seeing what happened to the tower?”
“Yes, it was already collapsed when I returned from the mine.”
“There were an incredible number of zombies. Sir Rodwell said that he wouldn't have been able to cope if you hadn't warned him.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, thanks to you, lives were saved.”
The man pointed sowhere.
The ceiling was open.
A ladder was lowered below the broken wall.
Using that to climb to the ground, it led to the forest behind the castle.
“……It is close.”
The castle and forest were close enough that it was fine to see them as almost attached.
From here, the shore where the boat was hidden was not that far either.
“Co this way.”
At the place arrived following the knight, there was a campsite.
Barracks were spread out here and there, and a bonfire burned in the center.
The people who remained showed interest this way.
They proceeded through the crowd before any words could pop out of their mouths.
“Go on inside.”
The knights stepped back.
The barracks in front was the largest among those erected here.
A soft light emanated from between the slightly opened entrance.
“Really now. Both you and I are a truly persistent bunch. Don't you think so?”
A man's voice was heard even before entering.
Luna did not guess who the owner of that voice was.
She could only feel one thing.
The man inside the tent was strong.
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