LEGEND

Chapter 299

Two days after the withdrawal of the Bestir Empire. The Mireana Kingdom’s army was still on the Selemous Plains.

The prisoners of war that had been captured, including those captured by the ambush unit, had been gathered back the Mireana Kingdom’s camp and squeezed into areas created by an earth mage.

Of course, there were some who were given a tent after taking appropriate measures, but those were all people who had a certain level of status. That is to say, it was limited to nobles who could be released in exchange for a ransom and those from wealthy families. After being interrogated, the rest who had been squeezed into the temporary areas would be sold to slave dealers.

Maybe because they understood their situation, there were many people who’s eyes had given up hope.

Some might have thought of escaping, but it would be difficult to escape considering the lookouts that were on guard in the surroundings.

On the other hand, preparations for withdrawal were already underway in the Mireana Kingdom’s camp. But since it was a place where more than 100,000 people had gathered, the process of withdrawing caused quite a commotion.

「Rei, next one please!」

The knights of the Rowlocks army said that as they placed a large number of weapons such as swords and spears in front of Rei.

Rei silently reached out and stored them into the Misty Ring as he stood under the spring sunshine that fell from the cloudless sky.

Rei might have been unrivalled in terms of physical strength, but there was a lot of fatigue on his face.

Of course, what was on his face wasn’t physical fatiuge, but mental fatigue. Even though he had become somewhat accustomed to working with people he didn’t know well, it still wasn’t an easy experience for Rei to interact with so many strangers.

Some of the nobles who participated in the war had already withdrawn from the Selemous Plains.

「Come to think of it Rei. What do you plan to do?」

As Rei stored a large amount of armour that had been placed in front of him into the Misty Ring, he suddenly heard a voice.

Turning to see who it was, Rei saw Runo. When they had been fighting, Runo had almost no contact with Rei. But right after the war, he had popped up in front of Rei and acted as his escort just like before the war.

That said, he had the ability to earn the name of Crimson in this war and he always had a Griffon by his side. In such a situation, no matter how weak of an apprentice mage he may look like, no one would cause any trouble.

(Unless they’re an idiot who can’t see reality.)

Runo muttered as he looked back at the people looking at them. There were a group of knights that were wearing half-plate that were watching them.

The knights frowned unpleasantly when they saw Runo looking at them, but they didn’t do anything in response.

However, Runo knew that they were only a drop in the bucket. He didn’t know which faction they belonged to, but there were many more eyes watching them.

「……It’s been hard on you too.」

「Is that so?」

Rei gave a short reply to Runo’s words.

Rei was naturally aware of the eyes watching him, but he was more mentally exhausted from having to deal with strangers. Furthermore……

「Rei-dono! Would you like to come visit my master? My master said that he would like to hear about Rei-dono’s story at least once. ……Of course, we will give you the appropriate compensation.」

A knight showed up in front of Rei without anything in his hands.

「I’m sorry, but I don’t plan to go anywhere for now. If you really want to, you can hear about what happened from Daska-sama.」

「No, but, isn’t Margrave Rowlocks busy? Because of that, I didn’t want to bother him and thought to contact you directly.」

「I’m sorry, I don’t have the time to do that right now. I’ll have to decline.」

「……Are you sure? My master has a certain level of nobility, if you refuse here……」

At that moment, the knight who had just been refused said some threatening words.

「Gurururu~」

Set, who Rei had been leaning against, turned his head towards the knight as he gave a cry.

「Hi-hii-!」

The knight gave a short scream at the power of the Griffon’s stare. Mumbling something from his mouth, the knight left as if running from Rei.

「Those looks are still better than having to deal with such people.」

Without even glancing at the back of the knight, Rei replied to Runo.

「……It’s definitely difficult, isn’t it? Well, you’ve stood out too much in this war, so it’s no wonder you’ll encounter such things. You do understand that you did something crazy right?」

Runo had a magic eye that allowed him to see magic power. Because of that, when Rei had created the fire whirl that would be better called a natural disaster rather than magic, his first thoughts had been 『Ah, as expected』 instead of the shock that other people had experienced. Of course, he had still been amazed by its scale.

「There were a lot of things that happened in this war.」

The Bestir Empire’s underground forces had been sent to trouble Gilm and Rei several times. He had also done things with the purpose of showing how much damage they would suffer if they tried something similar in future. Of course, he had also really wanted the heirloom magic item that Daska Rowlocks had promised him.

In fact, because of his success, he was going to be rewarded with a magic item of equal worth, even if it wasn’t the heirloom, so it wasn’t a complete waste for Rei, who liked to collect magic items.

(Although it’s a fact that I attracted a lot of unnecessary attention because of that.)

Even though he was an adventurer from the Mireana Kingdom, borders weren’t anything troublesome as long as he remained an adventurer. Because of that, many of the Mireana Kingdom’s nobles considered Rei to be on their side this war, but didn’t wholeheartedly believe that Rei would necessarily still be on their side the next time war broke out. The result was that many guards had their eyes on him as Rei stored wooden boxes filled with swords into the Misty Ring.

「I don’t know what it’s all about, but it’s true that you’ve stood out the most in this war, so it will probably be noisy for a while. And……those people are coming out as well.」

With a wry smile, Runo looked at a young soldier around Rei’s age.

Catching those words, Rei turned to see what Runo was looking at. When the young soldier saw Rei turning to look towards him, his face flushed with excitement as his eyes shone.

Yes, almost as if he had met a hero.

Considering the fire whirl he had created and the Griffon he had with him, it wasn’t surprising that some people saw Rei as a hero. However, Rei’s honest feelings were that he wanted them to give him a break.

He was glad they held him in high regard, but he felt that their gazes were currently causing him more trouble than happiness.

Elk, who he had met a short while ago, had laughed loudly saying that he knew what it was like. However, Min had immediately swung her cane and smacked the back of his head.

「I have a feeling that all this attention is only going to cause more trouble. I’m not a such a great person, but I seem to always get dragged into strange troubles……even if it’s just on the streets of Gilm, I’ve been caught up in many commotions. 」

Giving a sigh, Rei calmly diverted his gaze away from the surrounding eyes.

Many people had already withdrawn from the Neutral faction’s camp. Most of those who remained were preparing to withdraw and maybe the entirety Mireana Kingdom’s army would disappear in a few days.

Although there was a lot of work to prepare for withdrawal, many people were smiling knowing that they had won the war. And among those people, there were two groups.

One group consisted of those frantically packing up items, loading them into carriages and bundling things up with string so that they wouldn’t fall apart. The other group were those who brought all their packed items to Rei.

Naturally, the latter group belonged to the Rowlocks army led by Daska, who used Rei’s Misty Ring to transport their items. The former group was everyone else.

If items had to be put onto a carriage, you had to consider weight distribution and free space. But with the Misty Ring, none of that had to be considered at all. If they simply brought the items to Rei, it would be stored int the Misty Ring, so it was natural that there would be a difference in franticness.

「Back on topic, what do you plan to do after all this?」

Runo asked Rei, as Rei stored a series of boxes filled with arrows, that had been brought over by soldiers, into the Misty Ring.

「After this?」

Rei felt that he had just heard those words recently, but guessing that Runo wasn’t asking him to become a vassal, Rei asked back.

「Ah, after this. Of course, our Margrave will head straight to the Royal Capital when we withdraw. I was wondering if you plan to follow him.」

「……What?」

Those words must have been unexpected for Rei. He took his hand off one of the boxes of arrows he had been storing as he turned to look at Runo with a surprised expression.

Seeing that, Runo judged that Rei might still be unaware as he spoke with a sigh.

「As I said earlier, you’ve made your presence known in this war. No, rather, your presence has overwhelmed everyone else. Didn’t you hear? Theorem Enerji is called the Flash, Elena Kerebel is called the General Princess. Like them you’ve now been named Crimson.」

「Crimson, huh. Well, I wonder why they chose that.」

There were a large number of soldiers that had been captured by the ambush unit in the enemy’s headquarters alongside other soldiers that had been captured during the war. Of course, all kinds of rumours would leak out from them. The name Crimson had become so widespread that even Rei, who didn’t socialise that much, had learnt of it.

「Because I mainly use fire magic, I feel that Crimson gives it a easily understandable feel.」

「I heard it was because of the blood of the enemies you killed?」

「If it’s neither of those, is it my hair then?」

His hair might not have been as bright as crimson, but Rei spoke as he looked at the red hair in the corner of his eye.

In Japan, his hair colour would have definitely been conspicuous, but in Elgin, hair colours like red and blue were common. Gold, silver, brown, black, green and many other hair colours also existed, so his red hair wasn’t really that noticeable. That was Rei thought.

「So, you were wondering if I would go to the Royal Capital……I have no plans to go. Daska-sama also said that if I went to the Royal Capital, it would definitely be a hassle, so I shouldn’t follow him.」

「But in that case, won’t the Margrave be blamed for that? The merit you’ve earned might not be as great as the noble who defeated the enemy’s chief commander, but you would probably be next in line.」

Hearing Runo’s justifiable reasoning, Rei shook his head.

「It seems that an adventurer’s merit is basically the employer’s merit. Of course, if the adventurers themselves wanted to stand out in order to get a position in the army, it would be a different story, but I have no intention of doing that.」

「Ahh, I’ve never earned that much merit to care, so it’s like that. However, is it really okay if the person with the second most merits doesn’t show up? I’m sure that many nobles in the Royal Capital would want to see you. There would also be quite a few people who would want to see Set.」

Runo turned to look at Set, who seemed to be taking a nap as he became a sofa for Rei.

Feeling Runo’s gaze, Set yawned like a cat as he looked at Runo with thinly opened eyes.

If he didn’t know anything about Set, Runo would probably have been on guard at this moment. But having served as an escort for Rei as they marched here, it was hard for him to make such a mistake now. He reached out and stroked Set’s neck, who responded with a cry as he enjoyed the sunlight.

「Hmm, I guess Set’s fur is really fine. Wouldn’t it be expensive to make clothes with this fur?」

「Well, clothes made from Set’s fur would definitely be a luxury item. If you actually made one though, I would like to give it to Elena-sama.」

「Uwa-!?」

Runo was startled when he suddenly heard a from behind him.

Turning around in a hurry, he saw a female knight holding a large battle axe.

「A-Ah, you were……?」

Recalling that the young woman standing in front of Rei was an acquaintance, Runo gave a sigh of relief.

As an escort guarding Rei, he couldn’t allow suspicious people to get too close.

Understanding Runo’s feelings to some extent, Ara gave a small bow.

「Pardon me, you seem to have been surprised. My name is Ara, I am the leader of Elena-sama’s escort knights. Actually, Elena-sama wanted to meet with Rei-dono. Would you mind coming with me?」

Thinking over Ara’s words for a few seconds, he nodded right after.

Fortunately, he had finished storing everything into the Misty Ring, so he decided that a short break would be okay.

「Okay, I’ll be over there shortly. Runo, it’s been tiring for you to have to stick with me all the time, you can take a break.」

「You sure? Well, if you say so, I don’t mind.」

Saying that, Rei took Set over towards the Noble faction’s camp with Ara after sending Runo off.