CH 11.2

The knights came running toward me and stood in front of the demons as if to protect me. I had been told that this mountain was reserved for me today, but why on earth?

“Are you hurt? It’s all right, everything is going to be fine now.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you very much.”

Apparently, they thought I was just a village girl who had wandered deep into the mountains and was being attacked by a herd of flaming wild boars. They then beat the flame boars and, just like that, my prey was taken away from me.

Eventually one of the knights came to me. He must have been about five years older than me.

“Miss, how did you end up in this place?”

“…. Um, well…”

If I told you I was hunting boars here, I bet you would say, what are you?

When I hesitated and wondered what the correct response should be, the knight smiled as if he had guessed something.

“It’s okay, there’s no shame in being lost.”

“….”

I wasn’t. But I couldn’t find any other reason for a young woman to be alone so deep in the mountains like this, so I swallowed my tears and nodded.

“It’s getting dark, and it’s very dangerous here. We have a base nearby, so let’s go there first.”

“No, I can go back by myself.”

“There are a lot of flaming boars in these mountains.”

I held back the urge to say, “If that’s the case, I’ve already killed most of them.” The knight took it as an affirmation and started walking away with me.

Anyway, they were worried about me, so in order not to worry them, I decided to ask them to take me to their base for the time being.

It was a job I rarely got to do, so after that, I decided to come back here again and hunt down the rest of the boars in the middle of the night.

“Miss, what’s your name?”

“My name is Catherine.”

In the first place, I was working in secret here, so I randomly gave out a name.

Although I became restless every time a knight called out the name, “Catherine-san…,” I endured it for now.

“We will be traveling with the silver wolves from here.”

“T-They’re so cute….! Good boy, who’s a good boy?”

After that, I was in a good mood as I rode a silver wolf for the first time.

It was said that the knights ride both horses and silver wolves, depending on the time and occasion. Silver wolves were big, fluffy, beautiful, and apparently clever.

I would love to have one someday, and so, my dream slowly evolved from a slow life to a fluffy slow life.

◇◇◇

We eventually arrived at a fairly authentic campsite halfway up the mountain.

Apparently, they were subjugating A-rank demons in the nearby mountains, so it was like a joint camp. I hadn’t seen this many knights since I went to visit the knights’ headquarters when I was in the royal capital.

Then, I suddenly notice a familiar face here and there. I instantly had a bad feeling about this, so I turned my head down even though I was under a transformation spell.

“Commander, we found a lost woman deep in the mountains.”

Praying in my heart that they would let me go home soon, I followed the knight who was going to report to his boss. At least tell him that I wasn’t lost but in distress.

“Lost in a place like this?”

But that soon became unimportant. Because I suddenly heard a voice that I knew well.

“….”

I gasped as I looked up.

There he was, to my surprise, Dirk.