Chapter 375

A lone carriage travelled along the road.

Pulling the carried were two warhorses that were twice as large as ordinary horses. The speed at which they were pulling the carriages was also incomparably faster than ordinary horses.

Next to the carriage, Set walked alongside while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

Tufal, the old carriage driver, wasn’t too tired as he controlled the warhorses well to maintain their speed.

At the same time, because of Set, there was no need to be worried of being attacked by anything outside of the dumbest monsters or bandits.

As for the warhorses, since they had come across Set before, they were a little nervous but didn’t do anything out of fear.

This might also have had to do with them being warhorses and the environment they had been trained in.

「Hmm, it’s getting dark.」

Tufal muttered to himself as he looked at the setting sun.

Although it ahd only been about an hour since they left the village, it had already been sunset when they left, so it was about time to set up camp.

That said, even though it had only been about an hour, the carriage was a magic item and it was being pulled by warhorses that could could be counted among the best in the Kerebel duchy. Although there were various factors affecting the physical condition of the warhorses, such as the road conditions and weather, the speed at which they could travel was 3 to 5 times faster than the carriages used by ordinary merchants. It was because she knew this that Elena had decided to leave the village even though it had almost been night time.

Even so, it would be hard for them to continue travelling along the road with no light of any sort.

Of course, it wasn’t unusual for messengers on fast horses to go down the roads relying on moonlight or starlight. However, for this trip to the Labyrinth City, there was no need to push themselves so hard as there was no need to travel through the night.

The carriage, as a magic item, might have had the effect of reducing the physical fatigue of the horses pulling it by a significant amount, but it was impossible to completely ignore their fatigue.

Thinking about this, Tufal called into the carriage.

「Ojou-sama, I think it’s time we set up camp.」

「You’re right, it’s getting quite dark now. With this carriage and Rei’s magic tent, we won’t have any problems when it gets dark, but we should certainly start preparing to set up camp. Tufal, please stop the carriage if you find a good spot to stay for the night.」

Elena’s reply from inside seemed okay……but inside the carriage, it was a different situation.

In the first place, Elena was the daughter of a duke. At the same time, she was a warrior with the title of General Princess. Of course, she rarely had the opportunity to cook or brew tea. In short……

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「Here, let me do it.」

「But……no, I’m sorry.」

Elena let out a regretful sigh as she handed over the tea utensils to Rei.

The only benefit of the current situation was that her regretful expression gave of a different sense of beauty than usual.

As Rei thought of that, he brewed a pot of tea with the utensils he had been given.

It was basically the first time Rei had brewed tea with special utensils, let alone just brewing tea in a pot. However, he had seen tea prepared several times before in cafes and he had also brewed green tea himself back in Japan. In that regard, he was still more used to it than Elena.

……That said, he was only better than Elena and the tea wasn’t really that good either.

「Mm, it’s good.」

However, Elena still brought the tea to her mouth with a small smile on her face.

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Normally, Elena gave off a dignified aura, but with the way she was smiling right now, she looked more like a girl her age than the General Princess.

Rei’s cheeks reddened slightly when he looked at her and averted his gaze as she spoke up to hide his embarrassment.

「I’ve always drank the tea brewed by Ara, so I don’t think this is that good. You don’t have to flatter me.」

「It’s true that the tea Ara brews is very good, but this is tea that you went to the trouble of making for me. How can it not be good?」

「……Is that so?」

At Elena’s response, Rei only gave a brief reply.

Elena also seemed to have realised what she had just said and averted her eyes from Rei as she blushed in embarrassment.

If there had been a third person in carriage, they would probably have felt uncomfortable from the awkward atmosphere……eventually, the two of them noticed the carriage slow down.

Despite the inside of the carriage having been expanded significantly with spatial magic, they could still feel a good sense of movement from within.

「Ojou-sama, Rei-sama, there is a forest by the road. Why don’t we spend the night there?」

「Yes, that will be find. I will leave it to you.」

「Yes, I understand.」

The awkward atmosphere within the carriage was finally cleared away when Elena replied to Tufal.

They stopped near the forest and set up dinner.

That said, they were basically served food from Rei’s Misty Ring as well as some of the sausages that the bar owner had given them, which they roasted.

「This is very delicious. It’s definitely something he could boast of.」

Elena took a bite of a lightly charred sausage as she murmured in admiration.

Rei and Tufal both looked impressed as well as they took a bite of the sausages.

Rei’s expression in particular was quite different. He had eaten the same sausages that morning, which the owner had served him for breakfast. However, even though these looked like the same sausages, their taste was completely different.

(This is……I see. He really did put his heart into making this.)

He had probably given them the best sausages he had ever made, wanting his former boss to have as comfortable a trip as possible.

Rei smiled as he savoured the sausages he ate and thought of the bar owner’s clumsy kindness.

After that, he made a simple hot dog by cutting apart some freshly baked bread while simmering a soup with salted fish he had bought in Emoshion. It was such a splendid meal that you couldn’t have guessed that they were camping outside.

「Well, I was surprised that Rei-sama had an item box, but I’m also surprised that we can have such a sumptuous meal while camping out.」

Tufal was impressed, but Rei wasn’t going to let his surprise stop there.

Using the Dager of Flowing Water, Rei filled three cups and pot with water before hand the cups to the others and the pot to Set. Set ate a chunk of Bicorn meat beside them, which had been cooked with Rei’s fire magic so that the outside was cooked but the inside was only half cooked.

And……

「Water, huh……I never knew that water could taste this good.」

Elena was no less astonished than when she had tasted the sausages. Tufal was speechless.

Watching the two of them, Rei brought his own cup to his mouth.

As you could imagine, after drinking so much of it, Rei had gotten used to it, no matter how good it was. Because of that, he didn’t show as much surprise as the others. That said, what tasted good, tasted good. Rei also had a satisfied expression on his face.

Set, after devouring the Bicorn meat, plunged his beak into the pot as he drank the water, which he seemed to treat as some sort of heavenly nectar, with relish.

When Elena and Tufal recollected themselves after tasting the water, they asked about it. Rei explained that it had been created with a magic item before their discussion eventually moved onto their lives after the war with the Bestir Empire with satisfied expressions.

「Was it you who killed the Lemrace that was blockading Emoshion? ……No, it’s not surprising considering your skill. I had once fought a Kraken in Emoshion alongside Axe of the Thunder God.」

「Yeah, I have heard about that before.」

「Mm. At that time, the Kraken had come to the port, so we were able to do something about it. I heard that the Lemrace lurked at the seafloor and never left the water. How did you manage to kill it?」

At Elena’s words, Rei glanced around.

Tufal had been listening in to Rei a bit earlier, but he wasn’t around anymore as he gone to prepare Elena’s bed in the carriage.

The only people here were Rei, Elena, Set, who served as Rei’s couch, and Yellow, who was sleeping soundly on Set’s back. Elena was also one of the few people who knew the truth about him and Set, so she deserved to be trusted. Because of that, Rei spoke about how he had dragged the Lemrace to land.

「Do you remember Grimm? The one we met in the dungeon.」

「Grimm? I believe that was the Lich’s name.」

「Yes, that’s right. And, as you saw when we parted, I have a convenient way of contacting him. He could also use spatial magic, as we experienced when leaving the dungeon. So……」

Elena seemed to realise what he meant after he said that. She nodded in understanding.

「I see. It’s definitely true that with a Lich like him, it would be possible to forcibly move a monster the size of the Lemrace.」

「I know right. Because of that, we were able to attack it on land. In the end I killed it with some other people I had temporarily partied up with. I hadn’t thought that it would be over 30m in length though.」

「Mm, I’ve heard stories of that. It’s definitely higher than B rank, but not quite A rank. ……I heard that the guild is still discussing what to do with its ranking.」

So the guild still hadn’t decided that……with that thought in his mind, Rei took out his guild card from the Misty Ring.

「So, in recognition of my achievements in the spring war and killing the Lemrace, I was able to take the B rank test and be successfully promoted to B rank.」

「……Fighting strength aside, how did you manage to pass with your etiquette.」

「I’m not sure about that one, to be honest. If I get a request from a noble and they have any concerns about that, the guild will send an assistant.」

Elena couldn’t help but smile at Rei’s explanation.

Elena herself didn’t mind Rei’s casual language, but there were nobles everywhere that were very proud of their nobility. Thinking about it, the guild’s decision was probably the right one. In any case, if you only considered Rei’s strength, he could be considered at the A rank.

That was why Elena was surprised by Rei’s next words.

「Now that you mention it, I became friends with an interesting noble before the rank up test.」

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「A friend? They must be an unusual noble, if I may say so myself.」

Up until this point, even though Elena was surprised, she had thought that they would be a man. However, when she heard the name of the noble that had become Rei’s friend, her face was filled with surprise once more.

「Her name was Marka Quent, she wasn’t even 10. She’s the heir to Duke Quent, do you know her?」

「Marka Quent? Of course I know her. I heard that she had a very high level of skill in magic despite her age. That is, you know right? I’m known for my military prowess, but Miss Marka is known for her talent in magic and her cleverness. She has mastered several attributes of magic and has great prospects of becoming an excellent mage in future. In addition……Duke Quent is an important person within the Royalist faction, the largest faction in the Mireana Kingdom. If we are speaking objectively, Duke Quent holds a higher position than my father and Daska-dono.」

「Well, it turns out she was a lot more important than I had expected. She had an innocent personality and seemed to really like Set.」

Saying that, Rei remembered how attached Marka had been as he stroked Set, who gently turned his head so as to not wake up Yellow, who as sleeping on his back.

From the side, she had looked like an ordinary child. She hadn’t been much different than the children in Gilm who always crowded around Set.

「Fufu, those who know Miss Marka know her well, but I think few people would think of her in the same way you do.」

Rei didn’t view nobles as nobles. If she had heard that out of context, even Elena wouldn’t have been able to ignore it due to her position as the symbol of the Aristocratic faction. However, maybe because she was a young woman in love, Elena wouldn’t have Rei’s attitude be any other way.

The night passed slowly until Tufal came out of the carriage to inform Elena that her bed was ready.