After the knights left.
“We’re just slacking off.”
Saying that, Deline sat on a nearby pile of ruins and removed his helmet.
“Phew—feels like I can finally breathe.”
“Is that really okay?”
“Yeah. If there were more enemies left, they’d just be stragglers, right? If there was anything serious, we would’ve been ambushed earlier.”
…That made sense.
Besides, with Deline’s level of skill, he’d notice an ambush.
With that in mind…
“Then I’ll sit too.”
I also sat down comfortably and removed my helmet.
It had been uncomfortable anyway.
“In that case, me too….”
As I sat down, Sienna also took a seat beside me and removed her helmet.
After that, an awkward silence settled over us as we sat side by side on the pile of rubble.
“By the way, rookie.”
“Yes?”
“You fight well. Want to officially join our order?”
“…I appreciate the offer.”
“That was a quick answer. Most people would kill for a chance to get in.”
…Of course they would.
It’s the Boyd family’s knight order.
For most knights, it would be a dream job, offering both wealth and honor.
But… well, it doesn’t seem all that special to me.
Maybe it’s because I’ve seen them working without servants, covered in dirt?
“You just seem like a good fit here.”
“What do you mean…?”
“You’re bold. Our knight order tends to attract reckless people.”
“…”
Was that a compliment?
Or an insult?
Well… since he was talking about his own order, it was probably meant as a compliment, but from my perspective, it didn’t sound like one at all.
“In that sense, unfortunately, the young lady here is out.”
“Huh? Oh… um, what a shame?”
“Wow, not much enthusiasm there either.”
Deline’s teasing remark was met with Sienna’s completely indifferent response.
But she was never a knight to begin with.
She was a trainer, but thanks to being an Aura user, she’d ended up here.
“By the way, where are you actually affiliated? I know you’re a parachute recruit.”
“Oh, that’s…”
Deline turned to me again with a curious look.
Affiliation? I don’t really have one.
If I had to say, I guess I was part of the capital mansion’s security.
“I was originally at the capital mansion.”
“Oh, right, you made a name for yourself in the Kaine Mountain Range.”
“Yes, somehow that happened.”
“Who’s at the mansion now? Was it Sir Harwin? And for the young lady’s escort, there’s Darren and Kaiden, right?”
Surprisingly, Deline seemed quite familiar with the mansion, listing off familiar names with ease.
“You know Darren and Kaiden?”
“Of course. They were supposed to join our order, but Sir Lowell snatched them up… Oh, wait a minute….”
Deline furrowed his brows for a moment, then suddenly his mouth fell open.
“Sir Lowell is at the mansion, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he’s the chief butler.”
“Well, well—so that’s how it is?”
…Just what was Lowell, exactly?
Why was he suddenly understanding something all on his own?
“What do you mean, ‘so that’s how it is’?”
“Our rookie here—isn’t he Sir Lowell’s disciple or something?”
“…No, I’m not.”
What kind of misunderstanding was this?
I didn’t need such a burdensome title.
But at least now I had a rough idea of Lowell’s standing.
I’d better clear up this misunderstanding quickly.
“Then what do you do at the mansion? Are you the young lady’s guard?”
“I guard her when necessary.”
“And when it’s not necessary?”
“I rest.”
“…Huh?”
Deline gave me a look like he didn’t quite understand.
“You don’t train the soldiers or anything? You just rest?”
“I train on my own.”
“And besides that?”
“I sunbathe. I don’t have an assigned position.”
“…Huh? Oh.”
At my response, Deline opened his mouth for a moment before exclaiming.
“This is such an easy gig!”
He sounded genuinely envious.
*
As we continued resting on the pile of ruins.
“Um, by the way….”
Sienna, who had been cautiously scanning the surroundings for a while, finally spoke up.
“What is it?”
“Do you think the kids are okay? They didn’t look too well earlier.”
“Well, they’re probably not.”
Of course, they wouldn’t be.
They looked malnourished, and their hygiene was terrible.
“I-I see….”
Sienna seemed taken aback by my nonchalant response, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
We couldn’t exactly take care of them.
We had only brought enough food for lunch, and now we had none left.
Besides, we didn’t know what kind of experiments had been conducted on them.
Given their condition when we found them, they were probably not in a state where we could control them easily. Letting them out carelessly wasn’t an option.
That’s why I specifically asked for the margrave’s soldiers to be summoned.
They needed a numerical advantage to keep things under control and safely transport the kids to the city.
“Well, I actually agree with our rookie here.”
But then.
Deline said that and pushed himself up from the rubble.
“Still, since the young lady brought it up, we should at least check on them briefly.”
“Would that be alright?”
“Yeah. It’s not like they pose a threat to me.”
…Well, that was true.
Just from what I’d seen, Deline was among the strongest Aura users.
How would he fare against Alden in a fight?
I’d never seen either of them go all out, so I was curious.
Anyway—
Clank.
Fully armored once again, we entered the building where the children had been.
“Let’s head down.”
Deline even lit a lantern himself and led the way.
“Hm?”
“What the….”
Beyond the dark, damp corridor—
The door we had left open was now firmly shut.
…When did that happen?
We had been resting in the ruins, but I had still kept the building in my line of sight the entire time.
No one had entered.
“This doesn’t feel right….”
Deline handed me the lantern, then unsheathed his sword and took the lead.
Boom!
Just like Vern had done earlier, he smashed the door handle.
Bang!
Then, with his armored boots, he kicked the door open.
“Lantern.”
At his command, I raised the lantern he had given me and illuminated the inside.
The iron bars were still there, just as we had seen them before.
However—
“Damn it.”
Beyond the bars—
The room was completely empty, and a deep pit had been dug inside.
“They took everything and ran.”
Creak—
Deline grabbed the bars with one hand and bent them aside before stepping in.
Following him, I moved closer and shone the lantern into the pit on the filthy floor.
Even with the light, the inside of the pit remained shrouded in darkness.
“It’s pretty deep.”
“That it is.”
Deline and I exchanged words as we observed the pit.
“The kids must’ve been important. If they went through all this trouble to retrieve them….”
“It was strange from the start, keeping them locked up in a place like this.”
“Yeah. And given that there was no valuable information stored here, yet they had a strong defense set up, it means those kids were the real priority.”
We had been too focused on easily eliminating the devil worshippers to notice this sooner.
Come to think of it, if it had been the viscount leading the attack, he would have needed almost his entire force to handle this.
But against the Boyd Margrave’s knight order, they were crushed far too easily.
“Hmm, they probably took the kids while we were fighting.”
“Yes, or perhaps right after.”
“Going down there would be suicide.”
With that, Deline turned away from the pit.
“We’ll have to leave the rest to the commander.”
“The commander, sir?”
“Yeah. Where else would they have gone?”
Ah.
Now that I thought about it, the commander and the first squad had gone to attack what was believed to be the main base of the devil worshippers.
If the children were taken, that’s likely where they went.
And if that’s the case, the commander and first squad would be the ones to rescue them.
“Then when the soldiers arrive….”
“We’ll need to move quickly and search the next location.”
“Understood.”
With that, I stepped out of the iron-barred room.
Just as Deline suggested, entering that pit was impossible.
Searching the other marked locations would be a better use of time.
As we stepped outside the building—
“Um… you two seem to work well together.”
Sienna, who had been observing silently, suddenly made that remark.
…Me? Working well with that squad leader?
“Miss has a point. This guy fits right in with our squad.”
“…I don’t think so.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. Stop lounging around in the mansion and come join me out here. I’ll take good care of you!”
Hearing that just made me even more determined not to join the knight order.
Even if I got an official position someday, I’d make sure it was an easy one.
Something indoors, where I could train in peace.
“I’ll have to decline.”
“Tsk, well. Still, I have a feeling you’re meant for this kind of work.”
“What do you mean…?”
“I just think we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”
…That left an unsettling feeling.
Sure, I didn’t mind fieldwork occasionally.
But only occasionally.
For the most part, sunbathing at the mansion was the best lifestyle.
Once I returned, I’d make sure to avoid deployments like this.
Well, this time was different since the margrave himself had summoned me, so I had no choice but to come to his territory.
Anyway—
After some time, the knights arrived with the viscount’s soldiers.
“What? The children are gone?”
“Yeah. They were taken through an underground tunnel.”
“Sigh… we should’ve kept watch.”
Hearing the news, the knights looked frustrated.
“Um… so what do we do now?”
“Your soldiers are coming with us. The kids might be at one of the other locations.”
There were still many places marked for investigation.
So we took the soldiers and continued searching the other sites.
But—
“Nothing here.”
“Indeed.”
Even after numerous battles and uncovering several bases until nightfall, we found no trace of the children.
“Let’s return.”
“Yes, sir!”
And so.
After a bitterly fruitless search, we finally returned to the city late at night.
Only to be met with news—
“They haven’t returned yet?”
“No….”
The viscount informed us that the commander and the first squad had yet to come back.
