Chapter 58: Result Early in the morning, I headed to subjugation with the Knight Order and mercenaries.
I will be going on subjugations with them from now on, so I gave my greetings to Feudal Lord-sama before we left.
Feudal Lord-sama said a very n.o.ble-like greeting, but in short, he was telling me to be careful and return safely.
Captain-san had explained things to me beforehand and I wouldn"t go flying off on the first day, so I should probably be fine.
After that, I headed towards where the knights were gathered with Captain-san and boarded the carriage they"d prepared.
The mercenaries were here too, but they weren"t paying attention to the 【Saint】.
The court mages wore similar robes to me and they were wearing hoods.
The court mages were also here, so the mercenaries didn"t know who I was since there were too many of us.
Captain-san gave his greetings as soon as I boarded the carriage and we departed.
It"s the same as always.
The fact that Captain-san is escorting me while I ride the carriage and the fact that his smiling is as dazzling as always. It"s the same as always.
My cheeks felt a bit hot, but it also cooled down quickly.
I have to concentrate on the subjugation.
I thought such things as I looked at the scenery that we"d pa.s.sed.
"Sei, we"ll be there in a bit."
"Th-thank you very much."
Captain-san, who rode a horse, came to the carriage just before we arrived at our destination to tell me that we were nearly there.
Our destination was pretty close and it only took an hour to get here.
I stretched while sitting and opened the bag at my side.
We arrived as I was confirming that the knife and potions I had put in the bag were there in case something happened.
Just like when I got on the carriage, Captain-san lent me his hand so that I could get off the carriage.
"Uhnnn ~~~~~."
"Haha, are you tired?"
"No, my body"s a little stiff because I"ve been sitting this whole time."
I stretched as much as I could when I went outside and was finally free from sitting.
It wasn"t enough to stretch once in the carriage.
I was a little embarra.s.sed because Captain-san laughed at me.
"W-we"re finally here! It"s my first time entering a Klaussner forest, so I"m looking forward to it."
"Because you"re curious about what kind of medicinal herbs are grown here?"
"Yes! I mean, no……"
"You"re the same as always. It might be difficult while we"re subjugating, but you can look around a little during break time. I"ll come with you."
"No, I don"t want to bother you, Hawk-sama."
I tried to forcibly change the subject, but that didn"t work and my true intentions leaked out.
I was exposed magnificently and it was useless for me to try and quickly smooth it over.
Who on earth was the one who decided to focus on subjugation inside of the carriage?
Even though I"ve had more chances to talk to Captain-san since we"ve come to Klaussner, I"m being too slack.
We"re going into the forest now, will I be okay like this?
I"m a little worried about myself.
Captain-san"s att.i.tude changed when he noticed that someone had gotten close to us while I was at my wits end with my thoughts.
I looked at where Captain-san was looking and saw Leo-san.
"Leo-san?"
"Hey!"
I heard that some of the mercenaries were coming with us today, but it seemed that the leader, Leo-san also came.
Captain"s eyes looked dead as he looked at Leo-san who was raising his hand and waving in a friendly way.
Ermm, is it because of that?
He doesn"t think that Leo-san"s att.i.tude is appropriate towards the 【Saint】?
Manners are important, but I didn"t want him to be too strict since being friendly was better than the stiff formalities.
It might be better for me to tell Captain-san this.
My eyes roamed between them and Leo-san turned towards Captain-san and slightly bowed his head.
"I look forward to working together today.
"Yes, you too. We did investigate the forest, but I know you probably know more about it than us."
"Sorry to bother you. I look forward to working with you too, 【Saint-sama】."
"Huh?"
My eyes widened at suddenly being called 【Saint】and Leo-san glanced at Captain-san.
Ah, don"t tell me……
"Me too, I look forward to working with you. I"m not very good with formalities, so I"d appreciate it if you treated me the same as before."
"……. She said it herself, so I don"t mind."
"Thank you very much. I"ll do as you wish."
Leo-san gave off a sketchy feeling, but surprisingly, he could act like a proper person.
Good job!
I gave him a thumbs up in my mind and he dashed off where he"d come from after saying, "Then, I"ll see you later."
He switches over pretty fast.
I couldn"t help but laugh and look up at Captain-san. He was also looking at me and his eyes had softened.
"Let"s leave after we rest a bit."
"Okay. I"ll boil some water over there. Shall I prepare some tea?"
"No, the servants prepared ours for us. Let"s drink it together."
"Okay."
Even though the forest was close, we"d travelled a considerable amount of distance, so we were talking a break before entering the forest.
Like Captain-san said, the servants had prepared their tea.
They even prepared a stool.
We sat on the stools and I talked with Captain-san while we were resting a little and the other people seemed to have finished their preparations.
I pa.s.sed the cup to the servants and we began tidying up the surrounding area.
Then, we continued on and moved into the forest one by one.
At a glance, the vegetation that grew in Klaussner forest didn"t seem much different from the ones at the Royal Capital.
However, I could also see herbs that didn"t grow in the Royal Capital here as well.
"What are you looking at?"
"I was just wondering if there are any herbs I"ve never seen before.
"Herbs? You"re not a pharmacist are you?"
"I"m a researcher at the Medicinal Herbs Research Insitute."
"So you"re not a 【Saint】?"
"Well, I am. But I want to keep that as a side job if possible."
Leo-san cracked up laughing when I said my own wishes.
The knights were split into groups like the time at the West Forest.
The mercenaries were split into two groups and there were mercenaries in my group too.
All the mercenaries except for Leo-san were in the vanguard, and Leo-san was with me.
Incidentally, Captain-san was on my left.
"Hey, oi. Can you say something like that?" Leo-san referred to Captain-san with his eyes and said in a quiet voice.
"It"s fine."
I wanted to think it was fine.
I swallowed down the words that I nearly wanted to say.
"It"s fine. It"s not a problem," Captain-san said the words that I"d swallowed down.
I wanted someone to compliment me for not spouting those words out.
"How strange," Leo-san muttered when we"d walked for a while.
"What is?"
"There"s a lot less demons than I thought there would be."
"Oh."
I tilted my head in confusion and asked him what it was and he said the same thing that the knights had said about the forests around the Royal Capital.
I didn"t feel this, but I heard that the demons around the Royal Capital had decreased ever since they used the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】, and it seemed that the same thing was happening in Klaussner.
In fact, Captain-san, who had heard Leo-san"s mutter, had a face that said he"d expected this.
"So, they have decreased after all?"
"Yes. I heard from the knights that they"ve decreased, but still, there"s not a lot of demons here."
"It"s like the Royal Capital."
"Heh."
Leo-san has been treating Captain-san like a n.o.ble.
At least he was treating me friendlier because 【I】had asked him to.
If not, he might say various things to other people.
Come to think of it, Saul Forest, the first forest I went to located to the south of the Royal Capital, was also like this.
The demons don"t come out even though we"ve entered the forest.
This forest had stronger demons and it wasn"t like they didn"t appear at all; we did encounter a few.
Of course, I know the reason.
Therefore, I want you two to stop staring at me.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam