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Departure

Satou here. There are plenty of scenes in fiction where a character says, “If I win, you have to go out with me!” and such, but I’ve never once seen that happen in real life. For one thing, as soon as you make that challenge, you’re already confessing your feelings.

“Not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle in my clothes—I guess that should do it?”

Once I returned from the labyrinth’s Lower Stratum to my study in the mansion, I changed into my noble’s ceremonial suit for the airship flight to the royal capital.

As I stepped into the hallway, I heard some commotion from the direction of the entrance hall. I headed over, and one of the young maids noticed me and came pitter-pattering over at top speed.

“Young master! It’s an airy-ship! An airy-ship! It flies!”

“An airship, you mean?”

“Yeah, that, right! It’s amazing, right?!”

Well, if it didn’t fly, it wouldn’t be an airship.

The little maid took me by the hand and dragged me over to the window to see the “airy-ship.”

A very large airship was hovering above the labyrinth army’s base. It was the Airship Number 1 that I had given to the government as Nanashi.

We would be going to the royal capital aboard that airship, along with many others, including Baronet Jelil and his Red Dragon’s Roar party, who had defeated the Middle Stratum floormaster.

“Wowie, it’s so big, right?! You’re going to be riding that airship, right?! That’s amazing! Right!”

An airship came to Labyrinth City from the royal capital once a month, so I wasn’t sure why she was so excited, but evidently it was because someone she knew would be boarding this one.

“That’s right.”

I patted the little maid’s head and looked up at the airship with her.

The side of the airship’s armor bore the Shiga Kingdom’s royal crest, and above the bridge jutting out near the prow was a display of small crests indicating the passengers. Thanks to the heraldry lessons Baron Muno’s secretary, Yuyurina, pummeled into me when I gained a title, I knew the flag belonged to Vistall Duchy.

If I remembered correctly, the duke there was the nephew to General Erthal of Labyrinth City army.

I’d heard that the Vistall Duchy didn’t get along well with the Ougoch Duchy. As a representative of Muno Barony, neighbor to the Ougoch Duchy, I hoped they wouldn’t try to get involved with me out of boredom on the trip…

But surely someone as important as a duke wouldn’t bother getting involved with a mere hereditary knight like me.

“Girls, you haven’t finished your duties for the morning yet. Hurry up and get back to work!”

As soon as the head maid, Miss Miteruna, appeared in the entrance hall and scolded them, the little maids scattered like baby spiders to get back to work.

“Good morning, young master.”

“Good morning.”

I wonder if everyone else is done changing yet?

“Are the others ready?”

“Yes, we’ve finished helping them all get dressed.”

As if on cue, the door at the top of the atrium stairs burst open, and everyone peeked out, with Arisa in the lead. They were all dressed in their finest clothes.

“Ta-daaa! Well? Pretty great, right?”

Arisa twirled around in place.

The sleeves of her cocktail dress spread out beautifully, then settled as she struck a pose. Her soul shell garland brooch glittered on her chest.

“Yes, it’s a wonderful outfit.”

“Honestly! Compliment your adorable Arisa, not the clothes!” Arisa huffed and puffed.

“You’re cute, too, of course,” I assured her.

“Pochi’s next, sir!”

“Tama too?”

Tama and Pochi trotted down the steps, then struck their signature poses to wait for my approval.

“Very adorable, you two.”

“Yaaay!”

“Sir!”

Tama and Pochi were wearing pink and lemon yellow dresses, respectively.

They were supercute, although their military-esque poses didn’t quite seem to match their outfits.

“Satou.”

Mia was wearing a dress lavishly decorated with chartreuse green lace.

She was debating the night before about whether to wear a miko-esque outfit like the kind Miss Aaze wore in the tradition of the elves, but she seemed to have chosen a western-style dress to match the other girls.

“You look like a princess, too, Mia.”

“Mm.”

Mia’s response was short, but her rosy cheeks indicated that she was pleased.

“Master, top of the morning to you, I declare.”

“Good morning.”

Nana was wearing a modest blue dress that covered her chest.

The outfit I originally designed for her was formidable enough to appear on a magazine cover, but between Mia’s complaints and Arisa’s careful supervision, this was how the final product looked.

“I am prepared to hear your praise, master, I invite.”

“You look even more beautiful than usual today.”

It was hard to tell, since Nana’s expression rarely changed, but this was definitely her way of expressing pride and excitement.

She must be really looking forward to the trip to the royal capital.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, master.”

Lulu was wearing a modest, mostly white dress.

She had tried to pick a maid outfit the day before, but I suggested that she choose something more stylish for our airship journey.

“Good morning, master.”

Finally, Liza emerged in her battle gear, decked out in armor like a knight.

I tried several times to convince her to wear a dress, but she insisted that she wanted to wear her armor, as befitted a mithril-badge explorer.

Since it was rare for Liza to express such a strong preference of her own, I decided to let her do as she pleased.

“Arisa, is this all your luggage?”

“Yessirree!”

Arisa gave an antiquated response.

Our dummy luggage consisted of three suitcase-style travel bags and two armor cases. The real luggage was in everyone’s Fairy Packs, Arisa’s Item Box, and the storage space created by Arisa’s Space Magic spell, Garage.

“Let’s get going, then.”

The young maids opened the doors for us, and we stepped outside.

Two horse-drawn carriages were already waiting out front, and the maids, kids from the orphanage, and explorers’ school students lined up on either side of the path to see us off. Mr. Kajiro and Miss Ayaume were there, too.

One of the carriages was being borrowed from Baronet Dyukeli.

The baronet had taken a liking to our carriage, so when we got to be reasonably friendly, I gave him this carriage modeled after ours.

Two carriages still wouldn’t be enough for everyone, so Karina and her entourage had already gone ahead to where the airship waited.

“““Have a safe trip, Sir Knight!”””

The children called out in unison.

I smiled and waved back at them as we walked toward the carriage.

About halfway down the path, some boys from the orphanage stepped forward with short staffs—a few of the kids who I did “Chant” practice with in the mornings and evenings.

The three of them raised their voices and chanted in time.

“  Breeze Soyokaze!”

To my amazement, one of them succeeded in chanting a spell.

The wind his spell created fluttered the skirts and dresses of all the girls in the vicinity.

Reflexively, I grabbed Lulu and Nana to hold their skirts in place. Hopefully, it didn’t look like sudden sexual harassment to any onlookers.

Unfortunately, the skirts of all the girls who I didn’t manage to guard flew up in the air. It probably didn’t help that most of them were short and made of light, breathable material to deal with the hot Labyrinth City weather.

There was a chorus of shrieks, followed by exclamations of protest from Mia and Arisa.

“Swishy…”

“Sir!”

Pochi and Tama seemed amused by all the flying skirts.

“Hee-hee, I did it!”

“It was worth practicing our chants in secret to surprise Mr. Knight.”

The mischievous young boys were delighted by their success.

As they were dragged back to the orphanage, I noticed that none of them had gained the “Chant” or “Magic” skills.

How did one of them manage to master chanting in such a short time?

Regardless of how he might’ve used it, I had to applaud his hard work and talent.

Honestly, I was kind of jealous…

No, an adult shouldn’t be envious of children.

As for the prankster’s punishment…

“You little puuuunk!”

Arisa bopped him on the head with her fist, producing another shriek.

Once this cute little incident was over, we boarded our carriages and headed for the docked airship.

“Biiig?”

“Amazingly amazing, sir!”

Tama and Pochi leaned from the carriage windows on each side, gazing excitedly up at the giant shape floating in the sky.

Pochi’s wagging tail kept on smacking me in the face.

“Mrr.”

Since both windows were occupied, Mia grumpily opened the small window, meant for conversing with the coachman, to look outside.

Arisa, Lulu, and Nana had lost the game of rock-paper-scissors that determined seating, and were in the other carriage in front of us.

For some reason, Liza was sitting on the coachman’s bench with her Magic Cricket Spear in hand. Her apparent liking for high places was surprising, considering how scared she was on the black dragon’s back.

Outside, I could see throngs of well-wishers and spectators lining the streets.

As soon as they saw our carriage, they started shouting and cheering like it was a parade.

Many of the cheers seemed to be directed at Liza, perhaps because she was especially visible in the coachman’s seat.

“Stop the carriage, please.”

In front of the airship, I saw Zena and friends waiting to see us off; I had the maid who was driving the carriage park for a moment, and I got down.

“Here, Satou. You can eat these on the airship, if you like.”

“Thank you very much, Zena.”

I accepted the package Zena gave me, feeling its warmth in my hand.

“Did you make this yourself, by any chance?”

“…Well, um…”

Apparently not.

I didn’t mean to put Zena in an awkward position. I had to change the subject before—

“Unfortunately, it was me and the old lady who cooks at the barracks who made ’em.”

“L-Lilio! You said you’d keep it a secret! Besides, I did help by plating everything!”

Before I could come to her rescue, Lilio revealed the truth.

I would have to see the results of Zena’s hard work later.

“Presentation is a big part of a meal, too, so arranging things nicely is an important job.”

“Y-yes, of course… Very important…”

Zena looked away and mumbled.

Shoot, should I have let it slide instead of trying to reassure her?

That was a definite failure. If this were a dating sim, I would probably have heard the sound indicating my affection rating had sunk.

“Oh right, boyo. Thanks for the map. Next, we’ll go in with the troops to hunt mantises… Or rather, we’ll avoid those because they’re dangerous, but we’ll hunt maze snails and red carapaces, at least.”

Lilio flapped her hand as she thanked me.

“Of course. Be careful, and good luck. The stronger you all become, the safer Zena will be.”

As long as they were careful of the large cavern where the areamaster and the knight killer monsters lurked, they should be fine.

If Zena’s squad was going to develop that area, it would make it safer for the explorers’ school students and graduates to hunt there, too, so it was a definite win-win.

“Aww, he cares about you, Zenacchi.”

“Sir Knight!”

Just as Lilio was teasing Zena, Miss Iona arrived with some familiar knights and civil officials behind her.

“Sir Knight, our captain Sir Hence and Mr. Toril would like to thank you for—”

“Sir Pendragon! Thank you for mediating with the viceroy for us!”

Iona was interrupted by her superior, Sir Hence.

They’d asked me to talk to the viceroy for them when they’d observed the explorers’ school before, so I wrote a letter of introduction for them.

The following day, they would be joining the guards for training in how to maintain public order during times when explorers thronged the city.

Although I hadn’t asked, Sir Hence told me they would prioritize training knights and soldiers with experience in equipment repair. I wished them success; if they learned how to maintain public order, then eventually Seiryuu City would be even safer for the folks at the Gatefront Inn, for Miss Nadi, for the boss of the general store, and for my other acquaintances.

“Sir Pendragon, we are incredibly grateful to you for allowing us to observe the explorers’ school the other day as well. And you trained our magic knight Zena and her squad to new heights of capability in such a short time! We have nothing but gratitude and admiration for you.”

The civil official exaggeratedly sang my praises.

Usually, this sort of thing meant a request was sure to follow, so I braced myself.

“On that note, could you perhaps make use of a few members of the Seiryuu Elite Squad as teachers’ aides at the explorers’ school? There would be no need to pay them, of course.”

They were offering some instructors from their army, so I was happy to accept.

I felt bad letting them work for free, though, so I intended to pay them as teachers’ aides.

“Sir Pendragon, you are also friendly with the explorers’ guild, are you not?”

I nodded, and the official asked if I could put in a good word for a few of them to apply to work there. I didn’t have any authority to do that, however, so I just agreed to write a letter of introduction, especially since we were about to leave for the royal capital.

Finally, they asked if I’d be willing to train the other soldiers besides Zena’s squad, but I flatly turned that down. Even their promises of decoration and rewards from Seiryuu County didn’t move my heart one bit.

“I gave my assistance for the sake of Zena, my good friend who once saved my companions’ lives. If you plan to make any excessive requests, I may need to reconsider our relationship.”

It’s better to stick a pin in things like this before they run you ragged.

Sensing that he had displeased me, the official immediately switched to apology mode, so I let them off the hook. Especially since Zena joined in on apologizing for their rudeness.

“…Do you have feelings for Zena, Satou?”

“That’s a sudden question, Lady Karina.”

I turned around when I heard Karina’s voice and barely managed to hide my disappointment.

Why in the world is she wearing armor instead of a dress?

She was definitely wearing a dress at breakfast this morning…

“What happened with your outfit? I requested that you wear the dress I gave you in case we meet His Majesty the Duke today, didn’t I?”

I smiled politely as I grilled Karina.

Since we were traveling with some influential nobles, I made sure to give her a fittingly eye-catching dress so that she might attract some marriage proposals.

“…But I’m oh-so-scared of how the gentlemen might look at me in a dress.”

“Being cute about it will get you nowhere.”

“You’re horrible, Satou! Even though you’re so nice to Zena…”

Well, Zena’s a good friend, and I owe her a lot.

Putting aside Karina’s sulking for a moment, I wondered why Zena and Arisa were staring so intently in our direction.

Once I saw Lilio and the rest of Zena’s squad grinning wickedly, I finally figured it out.

Ah, it’s about what Karina said, is it?

“That’s because Zena is my—”

“I…! I challenge you!”

I was about to say “my dear friend who I deeply respect,” but Karina suddenly looked panicked and loudly interrupted me.

All I was doing was trying to answer her question…

“I challenge you to a duel! If you win, I shall wear that embarrassing getup, as you insist.”

H-hey, don’t make me sound so sketchy in front of all these people.

The dress I gave her was based on the latest fashions in the royal capital.

She called it an “embarrassing getup,” but it was just slightly loose near the chest, nothing excessively revealing.

The dresses Karina wore back home were mostly made in Ougoch Duchy and tended to be slightly old-fashioned, conservative designs. That was probably why the newest fashions felt “embarrassing” to her.

But if all I had to do to get her to wear it was defeat her in a battle, I might as well take her up on that right away.

“Oh, very well. Will the same rules apply as when you duel Pochi and Tama?”

“Of course, I would ask for nothing less!”

When Pochi and Tama battled Karina, it was usually a one-round match; whoever fell out of the ring or landed with their back on the ground was the loser.

“And if I win…”

Oh, right, she didn’t give her demands yet.

Miss Karina stared at me with a fiery red face.

I felt like I was being glared at.

Flustered, Karina revealed her shocking demand.

“…y-you, you’ll have to, m-m-marry mwee!”

Huh? Marry?

Nearby, I heard Arisa chanting “Guilty! Guilty!” over and over.

Thank goodness I’d sent Mia to buy some snacks with Pochi and Tama.

Incidentally, Lulu was with Liza and Nana, carrying our luggage over to be transported onto the airship.

Still, the rest of the crowd pelted Karina and me with both cheers and jeers.

“W-wait, I meant…”

Karina flailed around in a panic, but no one was listening to her excuses.

She was probably asking me to pretend to be her fiancé so she wouldn’t have to deal with courtship in the royal capital, but she had gotten so flustered she’d instead blurted out “marry me.”

I thought it was fairly obvious that she was fond of me, but whether she was actually attracted to me as a member of the opposite sex wasn’t nearly as clear.

If anything, I suspected she thought of me as a bonus beside Pochi and Tama.

More importantly, I was a little worried about Zena, who was repeating the word “marriage” like a broken record. I needed to clear up the misunderstanding with her.

“Hey, young master! The stage is set!”

Before I could reassure Zena, though, someone from the meddlesome crowd prepared a spot for our duel.

After a moment, I realized the familiar face was none other than Skopi, the leader of the Mud Scorpions of the downtown area.

With that, we were hustled toward a temporary space that had been set up for entertainment before the airship’s arrival.

A lot of nobles and mithril explorers were gathered today, so the space was primarily for explorers and other warriors to show off their strength.

When we reached the area, we were greeted by a large crowd that Skopi’s underlings had already gathered up.

“The young master is doing battle? Against who? Liza of the Black Spear?”

“It’s that gorgeous babe, I heard.”

“Damn, those are huge! Bigger than a cowfolk lady’s!”

“Hey, don’t talk like that about my goddess!”

“Ooh, I know that lady. The bean warrior pair are always dragging her around.”

“So she’s a new addition to the Pendragon treasury?”

“This’ll be worth watching, then.”

The peanut gallery was having a field day, but Miss Karina seemed to be so nervous about our duel that she showed no sign of responding.

I stood face-to-face with Karina.

Today she was wearing her labyrinth equipment and Raka.

She didn’t have the giant broadsword she swung around in the labyrinth, though; her hands were empty.

I responded accordingly by handing the fairy sword at my waist to Arisa.

Originally, I built Karina’s armor to have high defense power without preventing her signature jiggle, but when we got back from the labyrinth expedition, Arisa had modified it to keep things in place. As a result, it looked a little tight in the chest area now.

“W-wait a minute, master. You’re not going to lose on purpose, are you?”

“Of course not.”

Arisa whispered a stupid question, which I rejected immediately.

“Don’t get lured in by her boobs, okay? You can touch mine as much as you want later.”

“Yeah, no thanks.”

Why would I want to touch a little girl’s chest?

“Then how about… I know! I’ll ask Lulu if you can touch her boobs later, too, okay?”

That was fractionally more tempting, but not something that anyone but Lulu herself could give permission for.

“Arisa, calm down. I’m not going to lose.”

“R-really? Right, of course. I mean, you’ve got us.”

I patted Arisa’s head reassuringly and stepped into the center of the performance area where Karina was waiting.

It was tempting to wrap up the fight right away, but that would be unkind.

If I defeated Karina in an instant without any difficulty, it would embarrass her, but if I held back for too long in spite of my visible level, people might think I did want to marry her.

The best option would be to make it look like we were evenly matched for a while, then narrowly beat her.

It’d be a pain to pull off, but I would just have to do my best.

“If you let your guard down thinking I’m the same fighter I was before, you’ll lose for certain!”

“That’s intimidating. Go easy on me, please.”

“Hmph, I say! How long will you be able to keep that calm exterior when you see how I’ve grown in the labyrinth, I wonder?”

At times, Karina tended to act childishly due to all the time she spent with Pochi and Tama, but now she was behaving like a proper adult again.

While she was taunting me, Raka silently enhanced Karina with Bestow Strength Enhancement.

I could tell by the brief flash of the scale-shaped magic barrier around her.

Raka’s Bestow Strength Enhancement provided the same benefits as Body Strengthening, as well as other buffs, like Morale Boost, Acceleration, and Barrier Magic.

I waited for Raka to finish these enhancements, then took a battle-ready stance.

As soon as the referee gave the signal, Karina sped across the ground, then tripped right in front of me—no, it only looked like she had tripped.

She spun around in midair and dropped an ax kick toward me.

If this were a big-budget movie, the most entertaining response would probably have been to cross my arms and block her kick, but that seemed unnecessary.

Instead, I leaned the upper half of my body to one side to dodge her kick.

Ooh, nice.

Just as it swished past me, her kick suddenly changed direction and came back at me from the side.

Raka must have used Barrier Magic to create a foothold in midair, allowing her to quickly change her stance.

Even if that was the case, though, it was impressive that Karina was able to react that quickly.

Tama was good at this kind of maneuver, so maybe that was where she picked it up.

I shot out a palm strike toward Karina’s foot at short range.

My hand broke through the small shields Raka created, parrying Karina’s attack.

Whoops and cheers rose from the crowd.

“Oooh! He dodged that in a second!”

“Is that beauty’s armor some kinda magic thing?”

“It’s the same equipment the Pendragon kids use, right?”

“Talk about untouchable equipment!”

I had no time to clarify their misunderstanding.

Karina landed on the ground with one foot, using that leg as an axis to send a spinning kick toward me with the other.

I dodged with a backstep, taking care not to leave the boundaries of the arena.

Gauging that she wouldn’t be able to hit me with such big, dramatic attacks, Karina switched to a barrage of combo moves.

Her attacks were a far cry from the Karina I’d known back in Muno City: She was using far more complicated strategies, like a barrage of jabs to keep my attention on her hands while she tried to sweep my legs.

I guess training with the beastfolk girls since we arrived in Labyrinth City was really paying off.

…In fact, she seemed far stronger than when she was fighting with a sword in the labyrinth.

Maybe Miss Karina was better suited to martial arts than swordsmanship.

While these thoughts passed through my mind, Karina and I kept up an even exchange of blows. The continual flow of our movements as we shifted around the arena was almost like a dance.

I blocked her midair kick combo with my hands, then countered with a spinning kick of my own.

Of course, I held back my strength significantly, but no one would suspect that, since my speed was still on par with Karina’s.

Miss Karina used a Raka-made foothold to shift her trajectory midair and avoid my attack.

She was moving like a master fighter.

“Damn, how’d she dodge that kick?!”

“Shut up, let me focus on my goddess’s battle!”

“Aah, so close! Lady Karina, you can do it!”

“Aah, enough already! Quit fighting so close to the edge and end it already!”

“Mrrr.”

As the crowd’s cheers and commentary filled the air, Karina finally brought out her ace in the hole.

“Whoa! Look at that!”

“Spellblade?”

“But why is it white?!”

As Karina swung the white blade of light down from midair, my “Sense Danger” skill warned me to dodge to one side.

The blade, which seemed almost to have sprung from her wrist, was made of Raka’s protection—the same material as the small, scale-shaped shields, shaped into a foot-long light sword.

It was an unexpected attack, but it would’ve been even scarier if the blade had been a bit longer.

But she was never going to hit me at this distance.

“Now I’ve got yooou!”

Ah, Karina, you should never say that line.

The second stage of her attack might have caught me off guard, but her overconfident declaration ruined the effect.

As the blade of light detached from Karina’s wrist and flew toward me, I dodged it with a twist of my waist.

Since it was a diagonal attack from above, nobody else was in the line of fire.

I was worried that it might explode as it passed by me, but no—it just hit the ground and vanished.

“I’m not done yet!”

Refusing to buckle, Karina tried to continue her onslaught, but panic and exhaustion were beginning to show on her face.

The blue light from her Raka pendant was visibly dimmer than before; that must have been an all-or-nothing attack. Karina was nearly out of magic, too.

It wasn’t all that fun fighting Karina when her chest wouldn’t budge, so I decided to wrap things up.

The crowd had probably gotten enough of a close fight by now, and Karina had fought with everything she had, so hopefully she wouldn’t feel too frustrated about losing now.

In order to make it look to everyone else like she was narrowly defeated by my aggressive attacks, I used my “Foresight: One-on-One Battle” skill to come up with an attack pattern that would let me win in ten moves or so.

Arisa would probably scold me to be more careful.

As that silly thought crossed my mind, I sent a palm strike toward her left shoulder to throw her off-balance.

The strike broke through Raka’s weakened defenses and went straight for her shoulder—only to narrowly miss when Karina’s legs buckled from exhaustion, coincidentally moving her out of the way of my attack.

My nail grazed her armor, but I’d made it too strong to take damage from such a light scratch.

Readjusting my planned sequence of attacks, I bore down on Karina, maneuvering us right up against the borderline of the arena.

As the tide of battle gradually turned against Miss Karina, the crowd watched her with bated breath.

A barrage of light punches knocked her blocking arm aside, and Karina began to topple backward.

Three more moves. Once Karina blocked my next attack and moved to counter me, I planned to defeat her with a parry and counterattack.

A moment later, the crowd erupted with a roar.

Magic danced through the air.

“OOOOOH!”

“O gods!”

“Wh-what was that?!”

“So miracles are real…”

The binding Arisa had added to the armor around Karina’s chest snapped, and her magically massive bust regained its freedom, flying around acrobatically in time with Karina’s movements.

Of course, her armor was completely intact, but it did nothing to protect against the allure of those magic boobs.

My eyes were glued to the rhythmic dance before me.

“GOOOOO!”

“Lady Karinaaaaa!”

Karina’s maids were cheering her on.

The whistling of the wind alerted me that a kick was on its way.

But my primal instincts prevented me from reacting to Karina’s kick from my blind spot in time.

“NOOOOOO!”

“Satoooou!”

Amid the cheers of the crowd, I heard Arisa and Mia cry out despairingly.

The fateful blow was delivered, and the referee declared a victor.

“How many times have I told you to be more careful?!”

“Mrrr. Don’t let your guard down. Not ever, okay? It’s fine to be confident, but you have to be careful. You promise?”

After the battle, Arisa and Mia chewed me out thoroughly.

Wait, when did Mia even get back?

I apologized to the pair for worrying them, and turned to Miss Karina, who was slumped, unmoving, on the ground.

“Are you all right, Lady Karina?”

“Please leave her be until she gets her feelings in order.”

“Are you sure, Raka? I’ll leave you and the maids to cheer her up, then.”

It should go without saying that I won the battle, of course.

Right before her kick struck my head, I lowered my head without averting my gaze and just barely avoided her gorgeous legs.

Then, once her magic boobs were blocked from my sight, I pushed her waist slightly while she was still in midair to send her flying from the arena.

The fateful blow might’ve just been one light shove, but from Karina’s reaction, it clearly was “fateful” for her.

To everyone in the crowd, it probably just looked like her momentum propelled her out of bounds.

“Karinaaa?”

“Are you hurt, sir?”

Tama and Pochi came to comfort her, too, so I stood up to let them take care of things.

Then I felt a tug on my robe, and looked down to find pale fingers hanging onto my sleeve and Karina’s tearfully disappointed face looking up at me.

“Next time… I swear I’ll defeat you next time.”

I had to admire her persistence.

If it wasn’t me she was after, I’d be cheering her on for sure.

“All right. Please go easy on me.”

I agreed to an eventual rematch and left Pochi and Tama in charge.

“You did great, sir.”

“We’ll train even more and mooore?”

“But of course!”

Leaving the three of them to get fired up anew, I checked with Liza on the status of our departure. Lulu and Nana were already on the ship.

My battle with Karina had taken a while, so the wait shouldn’t be much longer now.

I could have Karina change into that dress in her room on the airship; in the meantime, I had to go say farewell to everyone who came to see us off.

“Sir Pendragon!”

First, I greeted the noble kids, led by Baronet Dyukeli.

It hadn’t even been ten days since they started at the explorers’ school, but their muscles were already starting to firm up.

“Sir Knight, that was an incredible battle.”

“Indeed! A man of thy skill might even be recommended to the Shiga Eight in the royal capital, Sir Satou!”

After I thanked Baronet Dyukeli for lending us the carriage, I chatted with Mary-Ann and Princess Meetia.

I had no intention of ever accepting an invitation from the Shiga Eight, so I wished she wouldn’t make such predictions. After talking to the pair, I also greeted Princess Meetia’s guardian knight, Ravna, and her meek squire, Ryula.

Next, the other noble kids stepped forward.

“I… I mean, we will be fighting by your side soon enough, Sir Pendragon.”

“Then I shall have to work even harder so that you and your friends do not surpass me, Sir Luram.”

Luram, the son of Baron Tokey, was the only one who was somehow still chubby, but I paid him some lip service anyway.

“Yeah right, Luram.”

The viceroy’s third son, Gerits, bopped Luram lightly on the head, then approached me.

“I heard about everything you did for Bowman.”

…Who’s that again?

The name only vaguely rang a bell, but I was able to jog my memory, thanks to the memo pad in my menu’s social networking tab.

Bowman was a friend of Gerits; when the rest of his group was wiped out in the labyrinth, I lent a hand in arranging for a search party.

“I despise him, but I do owe his mother a lot. Thank you for your help, Sir Pendragon.”

I guess they were more like lifelong rivals than friends?

After Luram and Gerits, I greeted the other kids, too, and exchanged light nods with the viceroy’s guardian knights who were accompanying them.

““Sir Knight!””

Iruna and Jena from the Lovely Wings had come to see us off, too, on behalf of the explorers’ school.

“Don’t worry about a thing—between us, Sir Kajiro, and the others, we’ll take care of the students.”

“Just watch, we’ll train those Pendra kids to be useful to you yet!”

Putting it that way made it sound like I was training kids at the school in order to make them my vassals.

“Just make sure you always put safety first.”

“Right!”

“Of course!”

Iruna and Jena smiled back brightly.

These two didn’t have a ton of luck as explorers, but they were pretty excellent teachers.

“Heeey, Mister Satou! Here, for the road.”

“Is this takoyaki? Thank you very much. I’ll share these with Tama and the others later.”

Neru had come to see us off from the Echigoya Company’s Celivera branch.

Some important explorers like Mr. Dozon, Mr. Koshin, and Zarigon, and some of the Hellfire Fangs came to see us, too, as well as a few members of the all-female explorers’ party Silverlight.

We didn’t talk very often, but I appreciated their well-wishes.

Finally, I went to say farewell to Zena and company one last time.

“We’ll be back within a month at the latest, so please don’t do anything too reckless in the meantime.”

“Yes, of course. We’ll put everything we learned in the labyrinth to use, and put safety first!”

Despite this statement, it was hard to feel reassured when Zena looked so overzealous.

“Weren’t you going around this morning saying, ‘I swear I’ll find a way to get closer to Satou and his party’s strength!’ and all that, Zena?”

“Lou, don’t mention that right now.”

Iona hastily shushed Lou.

…Zena?

I looked at Zena questioningly, but she just glanced away awkwardly.

“We’ll take care of Zenacchi, don’t worry. Even if we can’t stop her from being reckless, we’ll make sure she doesn’t get totally crazy.”

Lilio’s words weren’t exactly comforting. I smiled back wanly and reminded Zena once more to be careful.

“We should get going.”

“All right, Satou.”

At the end of this strange conversation, I exchanged a stiff handshake with Zena, and we headed up the ramp onto the airship.

We must have been the last passengers to board; the ramp was raised as soon as we got inside, and I heard the main engine of the airship starting up.

With thoughts of our royal capital plans, I headed to the observation deck to meet with everyone else.

“…Oh, right, master. I just remembered what I meant to say when we were talking about reincarnations.”

Turning from the window, Arisa touched her soul shell garland as she whispered to me.

“When I was first reincarnated, a god said something to me: ‘Authority, hope, growth.’ So I think it might be bad to never use my Unique Skills at all.”

“Maybe so, but your safety comes first.”

“I know ‘Over Boost’ is dangerous, but ‘Never Give Up’ has a limit on how often it can be used, so shouldn’t that be fine?”

Hmm, I guess that’s probably okay.

“All right. I give you permission to use ‘Never Give Up,’ but only when absolutely necessary. And make sure you never use it past the limited amount of times.”

“Okaaay, I got it,” Arisa responded in a cutesy voice. “Oh, and one more thing.”

“About reincarnations?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t when I got reincarnated exactly, but when I was a baby, a god appeared to me in a dream and told me to be careful if I met any other gods or ‘gods’ apostles’…”

Arisa lowered her voice even further.

“…That if they find someone who’s inherited their powers, they’ll definitely attack, so I should resist or run away with all my might if I meet a different god or a god’s apostle.”

As soon as I heard Arisa’s words, I remembered something from when we were baptized at Tenion Temple.

Arisa wasn’t able to receive the Tenion baptism.

We aren’t going to have to fight a god next or something, are we?

I’d much rather have a heartwarming sightseeing trip than a dramatic final showdown with an evil god.

Looking out the window at the sun, I sent this silly prayer to the gods.





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