Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

It couldn"t be helped so we copied her as well.

"I"m sorry. Since I"m a squire..In the knight group the visitors who stop by receive the same treatment."

Obviously~ I already knew that they wouldn"t become something like a true knight in just four years. It can"t be helped.

"Now then, shall we at least do introduction before Kuro returns? Yeah. Everyone, she is Mary, Marissa.Binsil. She"s supposedly still a squire so a Free Person I guess?"

"Yeah, that"s right. It"s nice to meet you. I"m Marissa.Binsil a squire of the Marquis Webdos Knight Group."

Mary stood up with a firm posture and introduced herself like a soldier.

"I said it before but she might look like this but formerly she was an old lady just a bit younger than I was. Don"t forget your respect for the elderly."

I said it like a joke but Mary glared at me with terrifying expression.

"Something like our previous ages don"t matter at all! Since I"m 18 years old now. Rather than that quickly introduce us."

"Yeah, looking from your left is Miduchi. Midu~ritto.Chizumagurol."

"It"s nice to meet you, Mary-san. I"m Midu~ritto.Chizumagurol. Just as you can see I"m a dark elf. I"ve dyed my hair but if I remove the dyes it"s completely black. Since it seems this person has been in your care, thank you very much."

Miduchi said that while taking a step forward and stretching her right hand out to Mary. Mary grabbed that hand and shook it but it seems she was a bit overawed by Miduchi"s skin color.

"..It..It"s nice to meet you...I"m sorry. It"s my first time meeting a dark elf and..That is...Also, this person?.."

"Yeah, there was a bit of a relation in the pa"I"m his wife."we still aren"t married."

Hearing our words Mary made a slightly cheerful face saying, "You too.." and smiled while looking at Miduchi"s face.

"After that the dwarf in the middle is Gwine. Gullinel.Akdam."

"It"s nice to meet you, Mary-san. I"ve heard stories about you from Al-san. I"m Gullinel.Akdam. I"m the same as Al-san and Mary-san as well."

"I thought that might be the case. That"s a lovely beard."

Mary brought Gwine"s beard into the topic. Since she"s popular right now you shouldn"t touch on that topic.

I sat down on the sofa and opened my mouth.

"Mary. Sorry about suddenly coming to ask for you. It"s been four years since then. I wanted to hear your response. Since I also had some business returning to my parent"s house, I stopped by on the occasion."

".."

Mary was just looking intently at me with her mouth shut.

"I said it before but no matter what the conclusion you"ve come to, I won"t resent you."

I wonder if it"s a reply that"s difficult to say? and thinking that I made it easier for her to say. In the worst case, if she doesn"t want to join us then it"s unfortunate but can"t be helped. I"ll just have to think that our connection was weak and there"s no choice but to give up "for now". Of course it"s nothing to get angry over either.

"It seems you"re said to be the number one adventurer in Baldukk right now. In just a mere four years, it"s quite something."

After all is she going to turn it down? First off I guess I"ll quietly listen huh?

"Until the other day we went to subjugate a {Horned Bear} in Buraizu. It happens about once a year right. These sorts of things. We went once last year as well but that time no one died. But, this time even two people died.."

It might just be my imagination but I felt like the tone of Mary"s voice dropped a bit.

"I didn"t see one of them but the other one died right in front of my eyes. Their head was sent flying from a single hit of the {Horned Bear}. It was a child that was still 17 years old."

Everyone was quietly listening to Mary"s voice.

"People die so easily right. I"m sure you already know but last year we went to the war as well. Kuro and I were both sent around to guard the provisions so it"s not like we directly crossed blades with the army of Devas, but even from our knight group there were a number of casualties. There were people who were saved even with serious injuries but three people died. I thought it was scary."

But, you didn"t quit right? I remembered Mary"s face when she said, "I"ll show you I can make use of this chance."

"In our knight group you know, it"s turned into a legend."

Ah?

"Your older brother. Lord Farnestan.Greed. He entered at 14 years old and received invest.i.ture as a true knight at 16 years old then went to his first battle. There he made some great achievements. He"s a hero who after that he threw away advancement and everything else to marry the commander"s daughter as if he was kidnapping her and returned to his home town. The Black Eagle of Webdos. The commander brags about him all the time as  well."

Hmm.

"Your older sister Milhaia.Greed joined the first knight group just before 15 years old. She became a true knight in a mere three years. Obviously even in our knight group she"s an amazingly famous person. It seems her skill with the sword is quite something as well but what"s frightening is her high skill level as a magician. The Black Witch. Even in the war just a while back it"s to the point where she partic.i.p.ated in the war deliberation as the young age of 21 years old. The commander was bragging about her as well."

What is it?

"And then you. Alan.Greed. In just four years you"ve become the number one adventurer of Baldukk. It seems there"s no one who doesn"t know you in that area. Simultaneously you"re the founder and company president of Greed Company. It seems you"re doing well getting along with Webdos Company without fighting them right."

Hearing Mary start listing out us siblings personal history in a quiet tone of voice, it was a way of speaking as if she was only pointing out the facts, but it was somewhat unamusing.

"You know. We gave it our best as well. When we entered the knight group, putting aside you, since everyone already knew about your brother and sister after all. Ah, I see. I thought that Al was the little brother of some amazing people. Even though I had actually seen your magic and sword right. I realized it once again."

Before I noticed it Mary was facing down sniffling.

"Putting aside Kuro, I didn"t know a single thing about how to hold the spear. I was always getting hurt somewhere. But, Kuro and I encouraged eahc other. At first we were saying we"d become true knights in two years like that..Before we realized that became three years, and four years, and stretched out.."

It was then that we heard the sound of a knock on the door. Mary asked, "Kuro?" while asking the ident.i.ty of the person at the door at the same time as it opened, and a man with shortly cut hair and darkened skin burnt from the sun entered the room. It"s Kuro.

"Sorry about that. I was out for a bit. It"s been a while."

"Yeah, it"s been a while."

After finishing up introductions again Kuro sat down next to Mary.

"How far had you talked?"

Kuro asked. I changed the answer by just shrugging my shoulders.

"Mary you know. Is just a bit {nervous} right now. Have you heard about the incident last week?"

"Yeah, it seems that a squire pa.s.sed away right in front of her eyes?"

"Nn..Just that huh? That squire who pa.s.sed away right in front of her eyes, was a junior that she was taking good care of. And because of that she was a bit shocked.."

Hmn, so that"s how it was?

"Please excuse me. I"ll take over the discussion. Saying it simply. It"s saying something selfish, but another two, no, please wait one more year. We had intended to have given our best quite a bit but after all for the daughter of a restaurant and a failed adventurer that is..during the first year we were basically not able to do anything. It took two and a half years just to be able to have a proper practice match against the other squires. After all the types of people who entered the knight group were those who had trained since they were little..we were no match for them."

I"m not in a hurry so that"s particularly fine but...

"Is it fine to take that as meaning you"re going to join me as adventurers one year later?"

"Yeah that"s right. I said I"d definitely return the favor right?"

Kuro smiled while saying that.

Kuro and Mary just turned a bit red.

How amazing my reading~

"No, as expected a ring is..I just went out to buy something we needed."

"But it"s suspicious how the two of you turned red~ look, look~"

Gwine was looking at his hand as well.

"No, that is, isn"t it fine. It"s something I received from Al in the past. There"s quite a few stores that sell them in Keel after all."

So it was condoms. Gyafun.

One year later, at the very least it seems that Kuro will be able to have his eyes set on becoming a true knight. According to Kuro and Mary"s conversation and recently Mary has felt some growth as well, it might be difficult one year later but it seems if she can make some decent achievements subjugating monsters then it"s not completely impossible. I heard from brother and the others but it seems they"re giving it their best. It seems they intend to join us, so since I was able to confirm their current status there"s no problem.

Rather than that, there"s one more, thing that I need to take care of in Keel. I want to hear the recent state of affairs from the owner of Ritton, Haritaido-san. That toad-like man has an unbearable appearance but his intellect has promise. Since he was talking about making a second chain store, if he"s still lacking in capital then I thought I might offer an investment.

I dragged along the three of them while walking to Ritton but as we approached my resolve gradually grew weaker. Putting aside Angela, entering a brothel together with Miduchi and Gwine is just a bit~ Let"s stop. Rather than it"s a matter that can be resolved if I just call him out to Dakkuruton. Along the way I went down a different road and started towards Dakkuruton.

My outfit is imposing but just in case I"m still at the end of the n.o.bility as well. I was able to make reservations without problem. Additionally I asked the {boy} to send a messenger to the owner of Ritton that I"d like for him to come by at 6 pm.

..................

.....................

In no time at all we pa.s.sed through Marquis Webdos"s territory and entered Viscount Penlaido"s territory. Gwine has pefectly remembered the terrain.

"I think it would be more efficient to remember a new route on the trip back. What should we do?"

Normally we"d take a detour on the route around the base of the Pitosu mountain range to the Southwest through Viscount Penlaido"s territory. After that we"d go to the capital of the Viscount"s territory Karumu, then it"s fine if we just follow along the coast. We have no carriage and we"re light, if we don"t play along the way we could arrive in Baldukk without even taking three weeks. In the past, when sister returned home once she did a round trip from the capital to Bakuddo in a month and a half. It"s not like we have enough horses for the number of people we have so I"m sure we can"t go that fast but we should be able to move at a speed where one-way takes one month with plenty of time remaining.

Hm~mm. It"s not particularly like we"re competing for every days worth of time. I felt like it would be fine if we could just return sometime this month but if I think about things form here on out and even if it consumes a bit of time it"s only obvious it would be better to make the map for it. The precise route from Karumu to Baldukk along the coast is already in Gwine"s head after all and even the road is in her memory. There"s no need to take the same route.

"Certainly that"s true. Then shall we go this way?"

Not just the Pitosu mountain range but I guess we"ll take a detour around Board mountain East of that and pa.s.s through Viscount Yoraizu"s territory going North?

While having lunch we spread out the badly made map on the level of the warring states era of j.a.pan while deciding the outline of the course. We should be able to arrive at the village in the East Bia.s.so by today. We"ll stay one night there. Then about 20 km ahead of that there should be the decently large town of Ramudokku with a population of a few thousand people. If we go that far then Viscount Yoarizu"s territory is right in front of us.

After eating lunch we mounted the horses and started moving.