Grasslands spread out in every direction.
The sky stretched high overhead, and with the sun hidden behind clouds, a faint chill hung in the air.
(If only the sun would come out—it'd be warm enough.)
Winter was drawing to a close, and I stood on guard with my spear at the ready.
I had asked May to take on her Kirin form, saddled her up, and was practicing wielding a spear from horseback. The spear was one I'd borrowed from Aria.
"Hey—try not to smack me in the head while you're swinging that thing around. If you hit my horn, I'll bite you."
May was worried that while I rode on her back slaying Monsters, I might accidentally jab her in the head.
On a well-maintained road, Porter had come to a stop. Aria was leaning back against Porter and watching us, while Eva kept watch on our surroundings.
Clara sat perched on top of Porter's roof, looking down at us.
"I'll try my best not to hit you... Actually, fighting from horseback is tougher than I thought."
I was practicing because the Sixth Generation had told me to, but I didn't own a horse. With no other option, I'd asked May to take on her Kirin form as a stand-in.
Aria looked at us and said—
"Hey, isn't this ridiculously luxurious? You don't have a horse, so you ride a Kirin instead?"
Eva nodded in agreement while scanning the perimeter.
"Laiel-level luxury, right. But seriously—why spear work from horseback? It looks cool, like some hero out of a story, but still."
Aria stared at Eva with a hint of exasperation.
"That's your takeaway? Are you just going to ignore the part where he's actually trying to prepare for war in earnest?"
On the way back from completing a commission, I kept running into Monsters and fighting them with spearwork from horseback. The balance was tricky, and I kept thinking it'd be easier if I just dismounted—but I persisted.
I spotted three Goblins and insisted on fighting them alone.
May crushed the Goblin that appeared in front of her with her foreleg.
"Hey!"
When I lost my balance from the sudden movement, May laughed at me.
"Well, it was aiming for my legs. Besides, how long are you going to take?"
Fighting from horseback was genuinely difficult.
I could even hear the laughter of the successive Heads from inside the Jewel. The Sixth Generation in particular.
'Try locking your body's center of gravity more firmly. On the battlefield, there are plenty of warriors who move as one with their mounts.'
Easy for them to say — the fact that there are plenty of them doesn't help me at all.
I'd been practicing because they told me I'd be in trouble if I couldn't at least look the part.
Once I defeated the Goblin, Clara climbed down from Porter's ceiling to collect the Magic Stone and whatnot.
Aria had come along too.
"Hey, let me take a turn next!"
I dismounted from May and got her approval.
"May, is that okay?"
May looked completely indifferent.
"Sure, whatever."
When Aria took the spear from me, she happily climbed onto May's back. Aria had once been a young lady, so it seemed she'd ridden horses before.
Aria on horseback with a spear in hand looked quite impressive.
"It's been a while, but this feels great, as expected."
Then May spoke up.
"Oh, this feels more stable than Lyle."
I averted my gaze from the two of them.
"...It's been a while since I've ridden one," I said.
I made that defiant remark. Finding it amusing, Aria spurred May forward, holding the spear in her right hand while gripping the reins with her left.
Clara, who had finished collecting the Magic Stones, pulled off her gloves and said:
"You're quite good. Rather, you really look the part. I heard you were born into a martial family, Aria... If you'd been born a man, it wouldn't be surprising to see you become a knight-commander or a general."
I looked at Aria.
"That's right. But there are plenty of women making a name for themselves these days. I don't know about queens, but there are the Two Great War Maidens and the Saint. See, just in this area alone, that's three."
Clara let out a sigh and turned to face me. Then she looked at me with a more deadpan expression than usual.
"That Saint is the problem, you know."
I had shared the information I'd obtained with Clara. She'd read through the documents. So Clara knew about the Saint as well.
Of course, that Saint was terrible.
Zayin, the theocratic nation, was a country that worshipped the Last Goddess.
That wasn't a problem in itself — most religions worshipped some goddess or another. The issue was with the succession of Saints.
(Almost all the priests inherited their positions, so they were practically nobility. And yet, they chose the nation's top leader — the Saint — based on appearance and talent?)
They selected the Saint from among the shrine maidens serving the temple, choosing someone with exceptional appearance and talent regardless of bloodline.
As a result, there was inevitably a bias toward the exceptionally gifted.
At times, due to the political circumstances of neighboring countries, a nobleman's daughter would become a shrine maiden and then go on to become the Saint. The High Priests, who served roles similar to ministers, seemed to carry out the actual governance, but the Saint held real power as well.
And the High Priests were not of one mind, either.
(A theocratic nation picking fights with all its neighbors... that can't end well.)
Zayin's history was also a history of war.
However, the previous head had been a moderate, so for the past twenty years things had apparently settled down into minor skirmishes. Before that it had been brutal — the head before that one had some kind of grudge against Rolfis, it seemed, having launched large-scale wars on multiple occasions.
(When the leadership changes, they just start a war?)
Hearing about Zayin's situation, every single one of the Successive Heads had the same reaction. The Fifth and Sixth Generations in particular were furious.
Starting from the Third Generation.
'The reason for starting a war is just awful. Honestly, it makes you want to support Rolfis unconditionally.'
'What could they possibly be thinking? Shall we make sure they're so traumatized by a crushing defeat that they never dare wage war again?'
'...The reason for this war is far too unjust. On Zayin's side, there's no justification. Absolutely none.'
'It would be much more satisfying to simply crush them.'
'I reject this because it would mean letting Riel handle governance. A country like that would consume all of Riel's time just to manage it.'
—There was no longer any reason to fight on Zayin's side.
The Fifth Generation, for instance, had endured being unreasonably attacked by neighboring lords repeatedly during their lifetime.
Emotionally, they simply couldn't forgive it.
Just as I was about to sigh, the Skill [Search] picked up a reaction. A yellow response was being pursued.
I immediately called out to everyone.
"Someone's being chased. Clara, fall back to Porter! Aria, keep following me! Eva!"
When I called out to Eva, I asked her to look in the direction of the pursued response.
Since Eva had the sharpest eyesight among us, I had her confirm what she saw.
"A carriage is being chased. It's a large carriage, so they can't seem to outrun them. But..."
A perplexed Eva turned to me and spoke.
"That's strange. Because the ones chasing them don't look like thieves. There's definitely something off about this."
Hearing it was something off, I pondered.
(A group with something to hide is being pursued? Should we avoid getting involved?)
Just then, the carriage started coming toward us.
"Lyle, what are we going to do!"
When Eva asked, I decided to help. When I touched the Jewel, the Third Generation let out a slightly exasperated voice. Though, they sounded a bit happy.
"Helping people, huh. Well, sometimes the ones being chased are in the wrong. But anyway, the ones chasing seem to have hostility toward us too."
That was the Sixth Generation.
"Be careful. Their movements are nothing like ordinary thieves."
I gave orders to everyone.
"Clara, take control of Porter and get between the carriage and the pursuers. May, transform into a human. Everyone, board Porter and deal with the ones chasing."
Once I boarded Porter, Clara began operating it. I moved to the ceiling of the moving Porter, then summoned a bow in my left hand while holding the Jewel.
Eva also came out onto the ceiling and readied her bow.
The ones chasing several carriages were men in robes on horseback.
When they saw us approaching, they immediately sent three of their number our way.
"The pursuers number ten... no, there are more in the back."
It wasn't just their movements; their judgment in sending three after us was swift. The Fifth Generation offered me advice.
"Lyle, don't hold back. They're coming in to kill. It's possible the ones being chased are in the wrong, but it would be foolish to die for that reason."
The Seventh Generation said:
"If the pursuers are also considering silencing witnesses, this gets troublesome. Really, at a time like this..."
I took a deep breath and settled into a bow stance.
Using the Select Skill, I locked onto the enemy and loosed a bolt of light. The arrow flew toward the three riders charging at us, and all three immediately swerved to dodge.
But the arrow homed in on its targets, closing in on the cloaked men on horseback.
One took an arrow through the chest, another through the shoulder.
However, the cloaked man riding at the center of the three used his mount as a shield to deflect the arrow. He then touched down on the ground and charged straight toward us.
When I fired the next arrow, he hurled a knife at the bolt of light to intercept it.
"Did they see through it?"
The Seventh Generation's voice spoke.
"Indeed — there's a reason he'd dare challenge us alone."
Eva.
"Tch!"
She loosed an arrow, but hesitation crept in and it went wide. Our party had precious little experience fighting other people.
They closed the distance in an instant, so I returned my bow to my Jewel and drew my Saber.
(This guy's fast!)
The man leaped at us atop the speeding Porter, Jewel still wound around his arm.
From beneath his robe, his arm gripped a weapon.
I drew a spare Saber and deflected the short sword in the cloaked man's grasp. We ended up in a standoff on the roof of the Porter.
As we faced each other in the cramped space, Eva fired an arrow from behind me.
In that instant, I stepped in and slashed at the cloaked man.
He had blocked my attack before the arrow, but with the arrow now lodged in his thigh, his movements slowed. I knocked aside the short sword in his left hand with one Saber, then cut into him with the other.
(Shallow)
It wasn't a matter of my lunge being insufficient.
The opponent had sacrificed their arm to avoid a fatal wound.
As the opponent's left arm flew off somewhere, a voice came from the Jewel.
"Layel, kick him away!"
Even with Second Generation's Skill, I sensed the opponent's magic power surging oddly, and I felt a sense of crisis myself.
As I acted quickly, the opponent's eyes went wide. Then, the cloaked man who'd fallen from the Porter's ceiling rolled along the ground a few times and exploded.
Eva, who was behind me, watched the man explode and burn.
"...He self-destructed."
She had a look of disbelief. I immediately looked in the direction of the pursued carriage, and the pursuers were turning back.
Then, I heard the sound of an explosion.
When I looked, the place where the two who had been incapacitated earlier was burning up.
The pursued carriage was slowing down and heading towards us.
I realized the surviving one had self-destructed.
"What the hell?"
As I murmured, the Fourth Generation's voice came.
"Well, we might have picked up something seriously troublesome."
We rendezvoused with the carriage, and after getting off the Porter, we surveyed the area.
The horses the pursuers had been riding had fled, and it seemed the pursuers themselves had escaped into the distance. Even when I checked with my Skill, the opponents' reactions were growing faint.
Aria looked at the burning place.
"Blowing yourself up — that's completely insane."
May hopped down as well, back in human form.
"As far as I'm concerned, humans are the ones who aren't sane to begin with."
A group of similarly robed figures had also climbed down from the carriage. I tensed up, but one of them — a small, elderly man — pulled back his hood.
The old man had thin, sparse white hair and a long beard. He was gaunt with drooping eyes, and the dark circles under them gave him a villainous look.
But—
"Thank you so much for saving us earlier. My name is Gastone. You look like adventurers, am I right?"
I nodded, and Gastone bowed deeply.
"I know it's much to ask after you've already helped us, but would you be willing to take on our commission? Of course, we'll provide payment."
From within the Jewel, the Sixth Generation spoke.
*"Something about this reeks. Just decline politely. Saving them once should be enough."*
I heard the advice, but even if I were to refuse, I was curious about the details.
"We've only just finished our own commission. There are limits to what we can do."
To that, Gastone replied.
"It's nothing too difficult. We simply need an escort. If you can get us to Baim, that's all we ask. You said your commission is finished, so wouldn't you be heading back that way?"
It was becoming hard to refuse. From within the Jewel, I heard a voice laced with exasperation.
*Just an escort, that's all,* I was thinking — when someone wearing a robe climbed down from the carriage. Based on their build, they appeared to be a woman.
"Gastone, what about the others who were attacked?"
Gastone immediately began to panic.
"I—! I told you to stay in the carriage!"
It turned out there were other women riding in the carriage as well, all dressed in robes. When I hurried to guide one of them back inside, she pulled off her hood.
"Thank you for rescuing us. Also, there is another carriage that was attacked and couldn't escape in time. I'd like to ask if you could help rescue those people as well. We will pay a reward."
Gastone was pressing his hand against his face.
I looked at the woman in front of me. She resembled a portrait I'd seen in the documents.
"...No way. Are you—"
Clara, who had come closer to me, took one look at the woman's face and began to panic.
"Riel, this is bad. This is really, really bad!"
Aria said.
"Huh? What's the matter with this old lady?"
May said.
"Oh~ there was a drawing on paper, wasn't there? This woman looks just like it."
The woman seemed displeased by Aria's remark but appeared to let it slide. She had golden hair and light blue eyes.
I'd heard she was in her mid-thirties, but she could easily pass for someone in her late twenties.
"I am Selma Zayin, and I served as the saint of the previous Zayin. And I have a formal request. Would you accept the commission to serve as our bodyguards?"
The woman claiming to be the previous saint stared straight at me.
Cold sweat trickled down my back, but from inside the Jewel, voices erupted in excitement.
The Third Generation was banging on his desk.
*'Riel, well done! Let's accept the previous saint's request!'*
*'This way Riel can get in on this too! And he's got a diplomatic card in the form of the previous saint! Let's figure out how to make use of her!'*
*'Don't let them get away! Absolutely do not let them go! Secure them right now!'*
"So they ran away. Does that mean it was necessary to flee from Zayin, or was it because of Rolfis's pursuers... This is getting fun!"
"Good deeds do pay off. Our usual conduct must have been pleasing, for the goddess granted us fortune. It's useful every now and then. Now, let's hear what happened and consider how we might make use of this."
I thought.
(These guys are overjoyed even when some troublesome existence shows up...)