Sevens (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter Pr

Prologue
I decided to fight my atrocious little sister──Celes.

The result of that was this.

「What’s with this wanted poster?」

I came to the eastern part of the Bahnseim Kingdom on my way towards the free city of Beim.

It was a territory that was bordered with another country.

I would cross the border from here and then head to my destination Beim through other countries.

Because of that, I was in a city that I had to stop by at no matter what, but──

At the street where many people were passing by, there was a wanted poster for me, Lyle Walt.

The words ‘Wanted Man’ were written above my portrait. The charge was national treason.

I tore off one of the many posters that were disorderly pasted on the walls and stared at it.

The one who was staring at the wanted posters besides me was the automaton created by the ancient people, Monica.

Her fluffy blonde hair was tied into twintails and she was wearing a red maid uniform.

She looked conspicuous and gathered people’s attention but, the person herself didn’t look bothered at all.

She called me, her master, as “chicken dickwad”. She was a maid robot with a screw loose somewhere.

「Oh, the picture captured most of chicken dickwad’s characteristics. Because it’s not color printing, the hair and eye color is explained in the description though.」

「Do you think this portrait looks similar to me?」

The portrait was really horrible.

It wasn’t that the drawing was poor, but the evilness that was oozing from the picture was terrible. Lionel──Lionel Walt who was harboring resentment towards me must be the one who ordered this picture.

The picture’s gaze was bad, and the hairstyle was also somewhat thorny.

The description also claimed that I was a swindler who was tricking women.

It didn’t resemble me at all.

「The picture captures your characteristics. Even so, that person’s resentment is really large.」

Lionel had the same ancestors as me and he was the heir of capital noble Walt House.

In contrast, I was the heir of the feudal lord noble Walt House──in the past.

Because of some kind of fate, Lionel was chasing after me right now.

「It’s really exaggerated to call me a traitor of the country like this. Even though I still haven’t done anything.」

Yes, I “still” hadn’t done anything.

I who decided to defeat Celes would one day enter a battle with this country──The Bahnseim Kingdom.

This wanted poster wasn’t really that mistaken.

「We can’t be captured here. I wish we can depart immediately.」

Monica checked the details of the wanted poster.

「That will be desirable but, right now Professor Damian is also with us. There is also that pseudo dump car created by that junk Lily, so we can’t easily leave.」

「If it’s just us it will be easy to breakthrough though.」

Damian’s Dump Car had a similar structure to Porter. But, it was bigger than Porter so it wasn’t maneuverable, in addition it couldn’t be overworked.

Thanks to that we allowed Lionel and his men to get ahead of us.

Monica read the written details while,

「It seems Porter is also mentioned here. But, the matter of Professor Damian isn’t mentioned at all. There are only the details of chicken dickwad and Aria that are written at length.」

That was just because he hated me and wanted to get Aria.

「It’s doubtful whether he really intends to catch us or not.」

The portrait with a bad gaze and didn’t resemble me.

Other than that it only wrote about Porter’s appearance at most.

There should be other things that had to be mentioned in detail. This wanted poster was oozing with Lionel’s personal grudge.

Monica was falling into thought.

「──Fumu, I think we can use this.」

「What is?」

「It’s a secret.」

Monica said 「Do you want to know? If chicken dickwad wants to know it no matter what then perhaps~」 so I stopped asking her about it in irritation.

Then Monica hurriedly said 「Ah, I’m lying. I’m lying so please ask me. It’s lonely if you don’t!」 and clung onto me.

More importantly, I was glad I was wearing a hooded robe just in case.

I didn’t think that there would be wanted posters of me like this but, I was being extremely careful beforehand.

I ran my gaze to the surroundings.

The city that was near the border was bustling because of the foreign trade.

The merchants who came from the other country were opening their stalls.

There were dolls made from carving wood that I had never seen before, or even many merchandises that I didn’t understand what they would be used for.

The buildings too. Since we reached the eastern part, somehow the building’s style was different from Bahnseim’s style.

It was similar but──there were also a lot of differences.

「It’s as though this place is also a foreign country.」

When I muttered that, the Fifth’s voice came from the Jewel hanging on my neck.

The Fifth──Fredericks Walt was a quiet person. His attitude that was always looking indifferent really left an impression. He was a person with a small build. He always looked disinterested no matter what happened.

And yet, in the history of the Walt House he was said to be a playboy who kept four mistresses in addition to his legal wife.

He didn’t look like that kind of person at all.

His green hair was tied into a pony tail. He had narrow eyes and looked somewhat gloomy──he was that kind of person.

His cold attitude stood out, but he definitely possessed kindness too.

He was clumsy──and also possessed a strange side of loving cute animals.

『That’s because this place was a foreign country until just a while ago. There will be the remains from that time.』

Foreign country? When I grasped the Jewel in curiosity, the Fifth spoke to me with some nostalgia.

『This place was occupied or taken away during the war, that kind of thing. Well, Bahnseim is a big country. It wouldn’t be strange if each region has their own characteristics. What else───right, martial arts is also popular here.』

The eastern region of Bahnseim was continuously in a period of upheaval until some time ago where feudal lords were scrambling for territory between each other.

Perhaps because of that, or perhaps because of other causes, even now this was a region where martial arts was popular.

The Fifth was strangely knowledgeable about the east.

Why was it even though this place was really far away from the Walt House’s territory?

When I started walking, Monica followed me while bringing the wanted poster.

「Chicken dickwad, please wait for me.」

I walked carefully so that I wouldn’t collide with the people walking around me.

The voice from the Jewel could only be heard by me.

『It was especially horrible in the era of me and the Fourth. Because of that, there was also a lot of nobles escaping from the east. They were evacuating.』

The feudal lords like the Walt House at that time accepted the families of the nobles that were evacuating.

The territory of the Walt House was at the southern region of the Bahnseim Kingdom.

Why didn’t the evacuees go to the center but relied on a countryside feudal lord instead?

When I touched the Jewel in puzzlement, the Fifth’s reply was──

『There was no way everyone who evacuated could be received. A part of them relied on the Walt House that was located in the south. That was all. One of the reasons was also because the Walt House had money at that time.

They made someone they wanted to ask for support to look after their family?

While I was thinking such thing, the Fifth talked in exasperation.

『Don’t you get it? They also served as hostages.』

──What an unpleasant story.

.

When I returned to the inn, the one who welcomed us was Aria who was puffing up her cheeks.

She was approaching me with long big steps. Her red hair was trailing behind her. Then she thrust the wanted poster that she obtained in the city towards me.

「Lyle, just where were you going huh!? Something like this was spread around, so we were worried!」

I apologized to the angry Aria.

「Sorry. There were various things that we had to buy. Besides, there wasn’t really any problem.」

I was wearing a hooded robe but, people dressed like that wasn’t unusual.

Thanks to that I was able to shop normally.

Or perhaps it was because Lionel making my portrait to be horrible due to his personal resentment?

We were in a large room that we rented. It was big but, it had bunk beds lined up.

There were also toilet and shower, but they were old. They weren’t facilities that you could feel satisfied with.

We were renting this kind of inn──was also to save money. Because there were a lot of us, we hesitated to borrow multiple rooms in an inn with good facilities.

「We were really worried here.」

The one placing her elbows on the round table inside the room while cackling was the elf Eva.

Today her pink blonde hair was tied up with a string.

It seemed she had gotten back from outside. She was also holding a wanted poster but──it seemed she had one other paper that was different.

「More importantly, there is something amusing. This one is also really funny.」

Aria’s face went red and she tried to take it away from Eva.

「Hand it over!」

「No way.」

Eva lightly dodged her and handed the wanted poster to me.

Monica was peering at it from behind me.

「Oh, this one is a missing person poster? This beautiful woman is──Aria Lockwarde?」

The poster was drawn with the portrait of a beautiful woman.

In the description, it was written that the woman had red hair and really clear purple eyes──that kind of eulogy was continuing on.

In contrast with my wanted poster, the portrait of this one was a beautified Aria.

Aria was hiding her face with both her hands in shame.

「That idiot! What is his intention shaming me like this!?」

Lionel was in love with Aria.

But, Aria disliked him, and it seemed this portrait was also rubbing her the wrong way.

「It’s amazing. There were a lot of these posters put up at the place where we went shopping. But, no one noticed Aria there.」

Eva laughed. Aria was glaring at her from the gap of her fingers.

「Eva, what do you want to say?」

「Nothing really? But, I just want to say that a missing person poster is meaningless if it’s too much beautified that no one noticed the missing person. That Lionel guy, does he really want to capture us?」

Certainly it was really doubtful.

「I’m uglier than this portrait anyway!」

Aria spat out those words. Eva responded with a snort.

「I’m not saying that far. Stop venting your anger on me.」

「You’re the one making fun of me!」

The two of them glared at each other.

I covered my face with one hand and sighed.

「──There are a lot of quarrels recently.」

Even though I wanted to renew my determination in Centralle, the girls were in friction with each other all the time.

In the first place the only men here were only Damian and I, so the relationship between the girls was bad meant that most of my comrades didn’t get along with each other.

Monica was explaining with a smile to me who was making a tired face.

「It’s only the problem coming up to the surface, their relationship was already strained since the start. This is why flesh and blood women are no good. Chicken dickwad is lucky to have me.」

「You too are always picking a fight with the people around you. Can you stop that?」

This one too was also pouring oil on fire in her own way so it was troublesome.

Aria and Eva were starting to grapple with each other.

「This useless elf!」

「Now you said it, this useless woman!」

They were starting to throw low level insults at each other, so I came between them to mediate.

There Miranda appeared with Shannon in tow.

Miranda who returned from outside was in a really good mood.

「Everyone listen. There is a wanted poster for Lyle. Also, look! There is a cute missing person poster for Aria too with it. It said that she is the lovely maiden who was captured by the heinous Lyle.」

Miranda showed the wanted poster with a really bright smile.

She was a woman with light green hair that reached until her shoulder and the atmosphere of an older big sister, but at the same time she also had the atmosphere of a mischievous child.

She was a reliable big sister who was able to do anything skillfully, but──

「Miranda, you’re also laughing at me?」

Miranda turned a meaningful smile at Aria whose hair was messed up from the scuffle and answered.

「Oh, I’m just saying the truth. But, even though there are these many wanted posters circulated, we are still at large like this. What a shabby effort. I was laughing at Lionel but, it looks like Aria is feeling like you’re being laughed at.」

Aria couldn’t say anything back.

In order to vent out her feeling of irritation, she took the spear that was leaning on the wall and went outside.

「Ah, wait!」

I tried to stop her but,

「I’m just going to swing my spear for a bit. Right now I just want to move my body.」

Eva turned towards the back figure of Aria who was leaving the room and stretched the corner of her mouth with her finger while saying 「ble~h」.

Miranda shrugged slightly.

「I made her angry.」

I looked at Miranda.

「You did it deliberately right?」

「Yes, that’s right.」

Miranda declared without looking guilty at all. It made me want to hold my head.

「Please don’t make her angry like that.」

「It’s troubling too that she gets irritated just from this. More importantly, it looks like that Lionel is serious.」

There was a problem with this useless wanted poster and his method but──Lionel himself was serious.

Because of that I didn’t know whether we would be able to cross the border safely or not.

「Surely the border is being watched. Because they know we are heading to Beim.」

The problem was the route.

The route towards Beim was fixed to a certain degree.

Taking another route than that would be a long detour.

If we took a different route, then we would have to pass through several small countries.

While I was worrying about what to do from here on, Shannon was looking up at my face while holding the wanted poster.

Shannon was Miranda’s little sister. She was the youngest among us.

She had a small body and long, light purple hair.

Her characteristic golden eyes were mystic eyes.

Even though she possessed amazing mystic eyes, she was a sad girl who was unable to use them well.

──By the way, I hated her.

I was unable to like the existence of a little sister no matter what.

「What?」

「This wanted poster, it looks exactly like you.」

She showed my wanted poster while smirking widely with a horrible face and wicked gaze.

p019

「You’re really an unpleasant fellow.」

「Only to you. How about you just get caught instead?」

「What did you say?」

I pinched her cheeks. She moaned 「It hurts, it hurts」 with tearful eyes.

It felt pleasant to pinch at the soft cheeks.

Miranda was watching us with a warm gaze, but this wasn’t a fun situation at all for me.

Eva cut in.

「Don’t play around and think seriously. At this rate we’ll have to take the long way to head to Beim.」

I got slightly embarrassed and let go of Shannon’s cheeks.

「You, you’re right. Err, in that case──what to do?」

Although, I couldn’t think of a solution right away.

If we took the long way, then there would be many problems.

There would be no problem with language, but if we passed through many countries, we would also get bossed around by the rules or laws of those countries.

It would also be really uneasy to not know about the local terrain.

It would be easier to advance through the standard route towards Beim.

The path was well maintained, and there would be inns along the way.

Advancing through a nonstandard route would be hard with Damian accompanying us.

Even with the Seventh’s Art, Box, Damian’s Dump Car couldn’t be stored in it.

Also, it would take a lot of time.

While I was worrying, the Fifth talked to me.

『It will be a bit far, but if you’re alright with it then I’ll show you the way.』

──The Fifth offered to be our guide.

.

──On the other hand around that time, there was someone irritated in the fortress located at the border of Bahnseim Kingdom’s eastern region.

The border’s checkpoint was located in a spot that was surrounded by mountains and blocked the only path there.

Inside the fortress near it, Lionel who was wearing an extravagant knight uniform swung down his fist on the table.

「Why haven’t they been found yet!?」

「Please calm down, captain-dono.」

A knight with streaks of white hair was troubled at how to treat Lionel who was the captain of the Special Elite Guards of Celes who became the crown princess.

Lionel held a powerful authority that could give orders to them. He was like their superior.

Because they also couldn’t treat him rudely, the knight with high rank who was entrusted with the fortress was dealing with him.

「The wanted poster has been distributed to the surroundings. Besides, if they’re heading to Beim, they should pass through this checkpoint.」

「Is that true?」

「Yes. There is also other paths but, everyone will choose this path when they’re heading to Beim. It’s really unthinkable that they’ll use another path than this.」

「Is that so? If it’s me I’ll go through another path. You don’t even understand something this simple?」

What is this guy talking about?

The knight hid his exasperated emotion from his face and explained subserviently.

「This path is often used because this is a well maintained path and easy to use. If they carelessly take a detour, they will need a local guide. There is a reason why the merchants and adventurers choose this route.」

「Do, don’t talk back! You just need to follow my order!」

The surroundings got sick with Lionel’s arrogant attitude.

The knight dealing with him talked to his subordinate with a small voice.

「Who is this guy? I know about the elite guards of her highness the crown princess but, why is he coming to this kind of place and throwing his weight around?」

「I don’t know. It seems he is chasing after a rebel but──」

The knight and his subordinate looked at the wanted poster that was created by Lionel’s order.

The portrait looked exactly like Lionel with his irritated look, frowning eyebrows, and messed up hair.

The two of them couldn’t hide their bewilderment.

The other poster was the beautiful female adventurer who was tricked and taken away by that rebel.

「Is there an adventurer this beautiful? I have adventurer acquaintances but, they’re all lamenting that there are only strong-willed women around them.」

The knight massaged his forehead with his fingers.

「The central is completely strange recently. Good grief, just what’s going on? Besides, he talked about rebel but, there isn’t any notification at all from the central.」

Central──Centralle that was the capital of this country didn’t send them any order at all.

But, Lionel barged in here and threw his weight around while giving orders.

They had to obey even then was because Lionel proved that he had the rank that allowed him to do so.

The knights and soldiers in the eastern region that was far away from the capital didn’t know at all just what was going on at the central.

Because of that, they were producing wanted posters that declared Lyle as a rebel.

There was no order from Celes to do so. It was an act of Lionel that was simply caused by his personal enmity.

Lionel was biting his thumb’s nail in irritation.

「Shit-! There isn’t anyone useful here at all. Even though I have to save Aria quickly.」

The knight and his subordinate were watching Lionel in exasperation outside of his sight──

.

We who chose a different route other than the shortest route from Bahnseim to Beim was now at a different checkpoint.

The checkpoint’s soldiers were looking at Damian’s Dump Car in fear.

「A metal box that can move even without horses. The era has changed.」

The knight who was in charge of the checkpoint muttered.

Dump Car gathered the surrounding’s attention no matter what.

「Can we pass?」

When I asked the knight, he nodded even while looking troubled.

「No problem.」

I faced Damian who was sitting on Dump Car’s passenger seat and waved my hand.

The one who was sitting on the driver’s seat was Lily-san who was an automaton like Monica. She skillfully controlled the driving wheel and the large vehicle advanced through the narrow path.

The knight was watching in worry that the checkpoint might get damaged.

「How is that thing moving?」

「It’s a magic tool developed in Arumsaas. Perhaps its use will be spread before long.」

「A vehicle that doesn’t need horses. It seems convenient but, I prefer using a horse. It’s more reassuring.」

I was talking while looking at the checkpoint’s bulletin board.

The wanted posters of me and Aria were also placed here.

But the knight didn’t show any signs of noticing.

The wanted poster that Lionel modified strangely couldn’t be used to find us out.

It was really helpful because of that but, it was troubling that the wanted posters were sent out even until this checkpoint.

When I looked inside the building, I could see a bundle of paper that seemed to be the wanted posters piled up high.

It seemed that it would be distributed in this area after this.

At this rate, my name would be propagated as a rebel even until other countries.

Monica said 「Please leave it to me!」 about this but──it made me worry.

The knight scratched his head with his pen.

「Even so, recently the number of adventurers are increasing huh.」

「You mean, the number of adventurers going through this checkpoint?」

「Yeah, that’s right. You don’t know?」

The knight talked as though it was common knowledge but, I honestly told him that I didn’t know.

「Did something happen?」

Hearing that the knight put his pen into his pocket and rubbed his fingers together with a thin smile.

The Seventh was irritated by that gesture.

『Even the knights of the eastern region aren’t a big deal it seems.』

The Third was laughing in objection.

『I think it’s the same everywhere though. Earning extra money like this is common. But, it’s cheap if you can listen to the story. How much is the price usually in this situation?』

The ancestors started to talk with a lively air. In the end they decided to pay one silver coin.

When I took out a silver coin from my pocket and handed it to the knight, he made a surprised face.

「Oi, it’s not a talk thats worth this much.」

「I just want to listen to it in detail. Well, perhaps we might use this place again in the future, so this is also for a greeting.」

「I, is that so? Then I’ll tell you about it in detail.」

The knight led me to the checkpoint’s building and talked to me there.

Monica also came along as though it was only natural. The knight seemed to want to say something but he gave up.

If the story was summarized──

At the other side of Bahnseim’s east border, there were small countries jumbled together.

Among them there was a country that recently became influential.

Perhaps it discovered a dungeon and managed it well, because suddenly the amount of magic stones that country sold increased.

Merchants and adventurers gathered, and right now its national power was apparently outdoing its surrounding countries by quite a bit.

The knight who explained that to me said this at the end──

「If there is anything suspicious, tell me when you get back. I don’t want to get dragged if there is a dungeon rampaging out there after all.」

If the management of the dungeon was mistaken, it would rampage and unleash monsters to the outside. Because a lot of monsters would go outside and rampaged around, careless management wouldn’t end up becoming the problem of a single country.

After all, most of the cases like that didn’t stop with just the destruction of a single country.

The knight was concerned about that.

「That country is──」

「It’s Laukaan Kingdom, one of the countries in the alliance. I heard that recently its influence is on the rise.」

.

『The eastern region was an area where the feudal lords endlessly occupied and reoccupied each other’s territory. But, there were also some of them that declared independence from the kingdom.』

We were slowly walking around Dump Car on the narrow path.

We brushed away the stones and branches that got in the way of the travel while going forward.

The one who was giving me the details regarding the eastern region was the Fifth as expected.

「Independence?」

I replied with a small voice that the others around couldn’t hear.

『It was because the central’s eye didn’t reach until the eastern region. A feudal lord declaring independence and swallowing the surrounding territory happened relatively often.』

「Something like that, how should I say it──」

Why did they betray the country? The Fifth seemed to guess my feeling and laughed slightly.

『Do you think it’s horrible? But, even those feudal lords have their reason. It wasn’t amusing for them that the central who didn’t even give any satisfactory aid to the eastern region was ordering them to do this and that.』

The knights who swallowed territory and became feudal lords.

But, there were also a lot of skirmishes. Even though other countries were invading, Bahnseim Kingdom didn’t do anything.

Although, the kingdom also had its own circumstances. The territory around this area was protruding out greatly to the east. It would take too much time, money, and effort to dispatch an army here.

『Even for the kingdom, it was more convenient for them that those feudal lords declared independence. When the feudal lords declared independence, the kingdom immediately recognized it even while complaining. But, because of that it became material for conspiracy theories though. People were saying that it’s strange the kingdom easily recognized the independence, that there is something behind the scenes.』

The country let them go because there were many troubles with keeping them.

Was it fine like that?

「Conspiracy? Was there really something like that?」

The Sixth answered that.

『It’s unknown now. Perhaps there was a conspiracy, or perhaps there wasn’t. In the first place, I too also did a lot of things but, there were a lot of absurd stories that got embellished by rumors. After all there is also a lot of lies in conspiracy theories.』

The Seventh sounded nostalgic.

『There were things like that wasn’t it. There was this one rumor. What was it, that the Walt House was aiming for the throne?』

『There was also others but, at that time that was the biggest one was it? In the first place the throne is a troublesome thing. I was busy with my enlarged territory, and I also wasn’t interested and yet the people around made a ruckus. It was really annoying.』

When the Sixth and the Seventh started talking about their hardships at that time, the Fifth spoke to me.

『Anyway, there are a lot of small countries at the opposite side of Bahnseim’s eastern region. Those small countries gathered and created an alliance.』

「So it’s something like small countries within a country?」

『It’s the same like the Bahnseim Kingdom. It’s just that the feudal lords introduced themselves as kings. If there is a difference then it’s the leader of the alliance perhaps? In my era I heard that the decision there was made by the kings having discussion with each other. There shouldn’t be an alliance leader.』

The Fourth was exasperated.

『Can they be united with that kind of method?』

The Third replied bluntly.

『Rather than unity, isn’t that a place to decide the rule of that region? After all everyone doesn’t want to do something like a war without rule.』

「Rules for war?」

『That’s important. After all nothing will remain if they clash seriously. Putting poison inside the river and massacring all the people in that area~, you can’t laugh at something like that. That absolutely cannot be done. It’s important to not be picky with your method in order to win but, this is different from that. Lyle too, it’s no good if you mistake that.』

Even I understood that something like that was no good.

『What’s important is to not lose sight of your objective──and of how you yourself should be. If you think that anything is fine, then you’re just the same as Celes.』

「I understand.」

The Fifth returned to the topic.

『──I’m concerned with the country called Laukaan. Perhaps it’ll be fine to check there for a bit before heading to Beim. If it’s really keeping a dungeon, then it’ll be extremely troublesome.』

The ancestors suddenly fell silent.

After that, the Fourth was the one to open his mouth.

『Lyle, can we leave it to you?』

「I myself have no problem with that but, won’t it be better to hurry?」

『This is something thats worth that much.』

I obeyed the Fourth’s word and decided to head to Laukaan.

「Laukaan is it? I wonder what is there.」

The Fifth said to me.

『We’re going there to investigate because we don’t know. More importantly, Lyle──about your Art, can you use it properly?』

My new Art──”that” was incredibly hard to handle.

No, how to use it was actually simple.

It was my own Art, so I understood how to use it more than anyone.

It was exactly because I understood that it was hard to handle it.

「Honestly, I think it’s unusable.」

『──I also can understand your feelings but, it’ll be no good if you don’t manage it somehow.』

I understood even without the Fifth telling me but──the use of that was a bit particular.

If possible I didn’t want to use it.

.

──Damian’s Dump Car.

Many items were piled up in its cargo carrier.

The one who was going through inside that place where it was difficult to even find the place to step on was Sophia. Her long black hair and her robe that was hiding her body line often got caught by the items.

She advanced through a cramped corridor that caused her large breasts that couldn’t be hidden by her robe to be squashed. Then Damian’s work bench came into view.

「E, excuse me. I have a message from Lyle-dono. We’re going to head to Laukaan.」

Damian who was facing his work table was a man with small build and brown hair that looked like it was exploded.

He took off his goggles and turned towards Sophia and──

「Aah, I see. More importantly who are you?」

──Damian who didn’t remember her name even though she had told him multiple times was a genius who worked as a professor in the academy city Arumsaas.

However, his personality was terribly problematic.

Sophia answered the question that had been asked to her many times.

「It’s Sophia. Rather than that, what are you creating this time?」

Damian held no interest towards Sophia. His gaze returned to the item he was creating.

「Don’t you understand from looking? It’s a prosthetic arm.」

Over there was a prosthetic arm that seemed to be a human’s left arm.

Sophia understood.

「So that’s Clara-san’s new prosthetic arm!」

But Damian tilted his head.

And then, after some time passed,

「Now that you mention it, that girl’s name is that isn’t it? Yep, I’m making the prosthetic arm of that girl. After all, Lyle asked me to.」

Sophia was exasperated.

「Even though you remember Lyle-dono’s name, you won’t remember our names.」

She said──

.

──Clara who was sitting on Porter’s driver seat was slightly bewildered after hearing their plan after this from Novem.

「Laukaan? We’ll stop by there but, is there any reason for us to stay there?」

Because her prosthetic arm was destroyed by Celes, she only had one arm right now.

She had blue hair and red eyes.

Clara who was wearing glasses looked at Novem.

Novem had a face that held no doubt at all towards Lyle’s decision.

「It seemed Lyle-sama heard a curious story at the checkpoint. He must wish to check it out.」

Novem had glossy light brown hair that was tied into a side ponytail.

Her violet eyes looked shining.

Clara’s role in the party was as a supporter, but she also could use magic somewhat. But, from Clara’s perspective, Novem was on a different level.

She was an expert magician.

And above all else, she was someone who that Celes was wary of.

Because of that, Miranda thought that Novem was hiding something. A large gap was created between them.

「──Understood.」

And then, Clara was also the same.

Clara could see that Novem was devoted to Lyle but──she was also thinking that Novem had some kind of secret that couldn’t be said even to her comrades.

That was why, she couldn’t honestly consider her as a 「reliable magician」 like before.

After Novem finished her business and left the driver seat area, Clara sighed and took off her glasses with her right hand.

「This is troubling.」

Clara noticed that the atmosphere of the party was different from before──