Once Lucia heard the woman"s introduction, she couldn"t help but grow excited and immediately ask, "Fatima? Does that mean you"re the War Saintess?!""Huh? Oh...uhh, well that"s what the people have been calling me lately..." Fatima answered a little bashfully.
She found the nickname and the t.i.tle a little too overwhelming and embarra.s.sing for her taste. Just because she had planned out a good strategy and guided the battle in the Regulus Kingdom"s favor she was now being dubbed as the War Saintess and the Saintess of the Battlefield for some reason.
Behind her, the knight company that was tasked to protect her had walked over with Fatima"s companion being protected in the middle.
The young lady walked over to Fatima and asked in a frightened tone, "Big sis, are we okay now?"
"We"re fine now Karen, this lovely young lady helped us out earlier and cleared away all the monsters," Fatima gestured towards Lucia who smiled back at the newcomer.
Karen"s face immediately brightened when she saw Lucia"s beautiful face and figure. She quickly approached the girl and grabbed onto her two hands and said, "Thank you very much for saving us!"
"Haha, no problem~"
"I"d like to ask, but would you like to be my lover?!"
"Eh?"
"W-wait, no—" Fatima sighed in exasperation when she forgot to restrain her dear friend from making any weird remarks.
It had to be known that the First Princess of Regulus was a little quirky and eccentric. She loved and coveted both s.e.xes and didn"t find it weird to fall in love at first sight at a beautiful person.
On the side, Quinn immediately dashed forward and separated Lucia and Karen before taking a step back behind Lucia. The knights around immediately moved forward with their hands on their weapons when they saw the rude actions of the man who was now standing subserviently beside Lucia.
"You! Do you know who you"ve just offended?!" The Knight Commander said as he moved to unsheathe his sword, but he immediately froze in place when he saw the sharp glare Quinn had sent him.
The pressure he felt just then was like a predator that was staring down at his prey. If he had unsheathed his weapon earlier, he felt that his throat or wrist might have been immediately cut in the next instant.
"Ah! M-my apologies! Quinn, what the h.e.l.l are you doing?!"
"My mistake Madam," Quinn said as he bowed in apology to Lucia.
"You shouldn"t be apologizing to me!"
Quinn only turned to look at Karen, who flinched when he cast a cold look at her before he bowed slightly without saying anything.
Lucia nodded her head in approval and turned to look at Fatima and Karen. "Sorry about that! Our family"s butler is a little protective, so I hope you"ll forgive us for our offense!"
"Don"t worry. It was our mistake in the first place. Karen, show a little restraint will you!"
"Eheheh~ sorry Sis, I was just so smitten by her beauty~"
"..." Lucia looked back at the blushing girl in confusion, but suddenly something popped into her head. "Oh! So you like women?!"
"!"
The Knights around her couldn"t help but grimace and frown in displeasure when they saw Lucia address their Princess" quirk so openly.
Karen only laughed it off and affirmed her statement. "Yes~ I like all things beautiful! So, how about it? Would you like to become my lover? I promise I"ll treat you well~"
"Ahahaha~ sorry, but I"m married you see~" Lucia happily responded as she showed off her wedding ring.
"Ah, what a pity," Karen regretfully replied.
Fatima was relieved that Lucia wasn"t disgusted with her friend"s behavior, but she had to immediately address the reason why her friend had come out of the carriage when she specifically told her not to get out.
"Karen, didn"t I tell you not to get out of the carriage?"
"Sorry, Ima, I didn"t mean to, but the knights said it was no longer safe to stay inside the carriage since it had broken down!"
"Huh?"
"The back wheel of the carriage was struck by debris and broke!"
Lucia immediately leaned to look at the broken carriage behind the group and saw the large chunk of earth that had flattened the rear while of the carriage and grimaced.
"Oooh...sorry, my bad..." Lucia said apologetically. Her reckless use of Meteor Fall had accidentally broken down their carriage.
Fatima only responded that it wasn"t her fault. It was something unavoidable since the magic spell she had used was a little too powerful and had erased all the undead attacking them from the rear so they should be grateful for that instead.
Better the carriage than their lives.
"Commander, it looks like we"ll have to travel to the front line on horseback. Release the horses that were pulling the carriage, me and Karen will ride them!"
"But...Milady,"
"We"re only a couple of days away from Ahnor, we"ll get a new carriage there!"
"Yes, Ma"am..."
Lucia heard about their predicament and their objective so she couldn"t help but ask, "You guys are going to the frontlines, right?"
Fatima turned her attention to the girl and replied, "Yes, that"s where we"re heading."
"Ah! Then that"s great! You see, we"re a mercenary group that"s decided to join the Regulus Kingdom"s side for the war!"
"Oh? Is that why you are going to the capital, to register your mercenary company?"
"Yup~"
"I see..." Fatima took a look behind the wagon but frowned when she saw no other wagon or transport following behind this large and strange...steel wagon.
Seeing this, Lucia immediately spoke up.
"We don"t have anyone else, our mercenary company is a small group of only elite individuals~"
Fatima raised an eyebrow at the confident words of this young lady while the knight commander and the other knights only let out looks of disdain or scoffed at Lucia"s words.
Lucia immediately reached out behind her and pretended to pull out something from her pocket and showed it to Fatima. It was their party"s mercenary ID card.
When Fatima saw the mercenary group ID, she couldn"t help but be surprised that Lucia"s confident words had some merit to it. Their mercenary company, the Wanderers, was a platinum ranked mercenary company that only had 7 members.
Before she could read the names of the 7 individuals, Karen immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed it from her and couldn"t help but exclaim aloud when she saw the info on the card.
"Woah! You guys are a platinum ranked mercenary company!"
The knights around them couldn"t help but do a double-take when they heard their Princess" words.
Lucia smiled smugly at their surprise and asked for her card back. Karen immediately handed it over carefully and the knights couldn"t help but be more respectful when they faced this delicate-looking girl who seemed pretty harmless.
"...Now there"s another woman who"s just as unreasonable as our War Saintess..."
Fatima wanted to take a look at the ID card again because she thought she caught sight of a familiar name on it, but she decided against it. It was a little disrespectful, but now that she understood why Lucia wanted to head to the capital, she found the perfect way to repay her kindness of saving them.
"Well, as you now know, I"m the War Saintess, I can immediately enlist you in our army under my name. You won"t have to travel to the capital to complete the registration procedure."
"Really? That"s great then! Well, I guess since that"s the case, we can also give you a ride on our wagon to the frontlines!"
"I was just about to ask that, we agree then?"
"Yeah, I was going to offer a ride anyway, but with this, we can save time~"
Fatima nodded and Karen was delighted at being able to travel with the beautiful lady. She was a little saddened when she found that she was married, but traveling with a beautiful lady still uplifted her mood a bit.
When Fatima had finished the arrangements and had the knights gather the personal items inside the carriage that she couldn"t hold inside her spatial ring, Quinn insisted on bringing the belongings onto their wagon.
He didn"t want the knights to see the interior or even dirty their home with their presence. He didn"t like the incompetent knights who put her family"s First Lady in danger so he didn"t want them to step into their house.
When Lucia and the 2 others stepped into the wagon, Fatima and Karen couldn"t help but exclaim at the large decorated and homely s.p.a.ce inside.
"What"s this?! H-how come, how come..." Karen was rendered speechless at the sight of the interior which was completely different to how it should appear when they looked at it from outside.
During their travels across Midgard, Cecil and Ren had been constantly upgrading the Wanderer and continued expanding the s.p.a.ce inside. It was literally like a small home inside the wagon now after the multiple upgrades.
The central part.i.tion was now totally like a living room, the kitchen and dining area was separated but still located on the west side of the carriage while the rooms were still located on the east with there being a total of 5 rooms now instead of 2.
2 of the 3 new rooms were Ren and Quinn"s bedrooms while the last room was Cecil and Ren"s small little workshop. The bathroom which was originally located in the central part.i.tion had been moved to the east side and the s.p.a.ce inside was further expanded to accommodate a larger bathtub and showering area.
The girls requested this from Cecil because after they were married, they always wanted to enter the bath together with him, but since the previous bathroom was a little too small for all of them, so Cecil and Ren expanded it together using the new spatial runic array that they had developed from tweaking and upgrading Anna"s spatial array.
Lucia looked proudly at them and said, "This is our wagon, but at the same time it"s our home!"
"H-home?" Karen asked while looking around in excitement.
"Yup, it"s all thanks to my husband that we can live so comfortably while traveling around!"
"You guys like to travel?" Fatima asked.
"Yup~"
"I see, that seems nice," Fatima replied with a smile. There was a little tinge of envy in her voice, but she had masked that pretty well.
Upon hearing the unfamiliar voices coming from the entrance, Serilla stepped out of her room while drying her hair. She had taken a bath earlier while Lucia was out eliminating all the monsters.
It wasn"t that she was heartless and left Lucia to deal with the horde of monsters, but she thought it was overkill to go out with her sister to deal with that measly bunch of D-B ranked monsters.
"Lulu?"
The 3 girls turned their attention towards the newcomer and once again, Karen"s eyes brightened as she lovingly stared at the beautiful woman who had just walked out of the east wing of the wagon home.
Seeing this, Fatima immediately placed a hand on her shoulder and held her in place. Karen could only look back at her friend in dismay, but Fatima only whispered to her, "Be respectful! They offered us a ride, we shouldn"t be rude!"
"Okay..." Karen was a Princess, so she was used to behaving imperiously.
Serilla walked over next to Lucia and eyed the two unfamiliar women.
"Seri, these are the two people that I just rescued earlier from the monsters! Guess what, she"s the War Saintess, Fatima!" Lucia said as she introduced Fatima to her sister.
Serilla made a surprised expression and greeted Fatima amiably, "Nice to meet you, Lady Fatima, my name is Serilla. It is a pleasure to meet you, War Saintess."
Her n.o.ble-like introduction had Fatima responding similarly to her introduction. She couldn"t help but be surprised at the way this new girl carried herself. Fatima deduced that this wasn"t your ordinary mercenary party.
Besides being a platinum ranked company that had an individual as strong as Lucia, it also had a butler who was strong in his own right and another woman who had obvious n.o.ble upbringing and an air of confidence around her.
This air of confidence didn"t lose out to her friend Karen"s, so Fatima couldn"t help but a.s.sess the woman in front of her who seemed to be close to her age and think that maybe this girl too was a princess?
Karen immediately similarly introduced herself and since it was her first introduction, Lucia and Serilla couldn"t help but raise an eyebrow when they learned of her name.
"Karen Regulus...so you"re part of the Regulus Kingdom"s royalty?" Serilla asked.
"That"s right, now with the introductions out of the way—"
"Karen, no—"
Too late, Karen had dashed in front of Serilla and grabbed onto her hands and immediately asked, "Beautiful Miss, would you like to become my lover?!"