“Yo, Rei. I heard you really caused a stir yesterday.”
As they advanced across the Seremuse Plain, a voice called out to Rei, who was walking alongside Seto.
Rei turned toward the familiar voice to find Elk, whose trademark giant battle axe was strapped to his back.
“It wasn't so much that I caused a stir, but rather that someone didn't like the fact that I was assigned to the Lead Unit. ...If I had a reputation like yours, Elk, it might not have been an issue. Actually, no, it probably still would have been.”
Rei let out a sigh as he replied.
The real reason Lunojis had picked a fight with him wasn't truly because he believed Rei—who was virtually unknown across the entire Kingdom of Mireana, even if he was a celebrity in the frontier—lacked the strength for the Lead Unit. While that might have played a small part, his true motivation was that he found Rei's proximity to Elena to be an eyesore. At the very least, that was Rei's judgment after being subjected to the man's dark, hateful gaze, which had been thick with jealousy.
“Having a reputation, huh?”
Elk glanced around at their surroundings.
His gaze fell upon those entrusted with the Neutral Faction's Lead Unit. While there were certainly many famous adventurers and knights among them, the vast majority were common soldiers with no names to speak of.
Among the adventurers serving as a mobile force, few of those hired by the other Neutral Faction nobles were particularly well-known, setting aside the ones from the City of Gilm. Still, considering their minimum rank was D, they were likely sufficient as a fighting force.
The adventurers dispatched from the Labyrinth City likely possessed combat prowess comparable to those from Gilm. However, the reality was that because the Labyrinth City had a labyrinth directly within its borders, its forces could never be sure when monsters might overflow. Consequently, they could spare even fewer men than Gilm, meaning their total numbers in the army were quite small.
“Well, the nobles’ job is basically to think about all sorts of complicated things. Don't let it get to you. More importantly, do you properly understand the procedures for the war?”
Because he was a member of the A-Rank party Axe of the Thunder God, Elk drew many wandering gazes. He ignored them as he spoke to Rei.
Naturally, Rei drew attention as well for being the adventurer talking to Elk. However, between the rumors of his Item Box, his accompaniment by Seto, and the single combat he had fought with a noble the previous day, his name had already spread. The looks directed at him were mostly characterized by a sense that his presence was now a foregone conclusion.
“Guruuu?”
As if such matters were irrelevant, Seto let out a soft cry and rubbed its head against Rei, asking for attention.
Rei stroked Seto’s head and spoke as he recalled his instructions.
“If I remember right, first the two armies face off. Then, representatives from each army meet near the center to demand a surrender. After the demand is rejected, the representatives return to their forces, and the battle begins. ...Is that about it?”
“Yeah, that’s basically it. There are various fine points of etiquette, like how the representative is chosen from the Lead Unit, but only the nobles really need to know that stuff. We, who are just here for the actual fighting, only need to know the general flow.”
“Well, I’m going to temporarily break away from this group before we reach the battlefield anyway, so I’m not really interested in the details of those formalities.”
At Rei's mention of his plan, Elk likely remembered the details he had heard directly from Daskar. He turned to Rei, unable to suppress his curiosity.
“Yeah, I heard about that. But can you really use wide-range annihilation magic as powerful as the rumors say? If what Margrave Larkus told me is true, we’ll definitely be able to take the initiative and pull the flow of the battle in our favor, but...”
“I've already tested it, so leave that part to me. Besides, even if the method I'm planning fails, I still have other magic that’s effective over a fairly wide area.”
Rei spoke with a confident smile. What he had in mind was the magic ‘Wild Dance of the Fire Spirits.’ While its area of effect didn't match the firestorm Rei was aiming for, its power was by no means inferior to a firestorm phenomenon. In fact, precisely because the area of effect was more concentrated, its raw destructive power was likely even higher.
“Heh, if you're that confident, it seems we don't need to worry either.”
A familiar voice suddenly cut into their conversation. Rei turned to find a face he knew well.
“Mirene, huh?”
“What? Is it wrong for me to be here? Right, Seto-chan? Wherever Seto-chan is, that’s where I should be.”
She spoke to Rei with a pout, and in the next instant, she lunged at Seto to give it a hug. Since they were in the middle of a march, she didn't put her full weight on the gryphon or do anything that would truly hinder its movement, likely out of her affection for it.
“I'm sorry, Rei-san. She's being a nuisance again.”
A middle-aged man holding a staff spoke up from behind Mirene. Beside him, an archer girl in her mid-teens, roughly Rei's age, bowed apologetically.
“No, don't worry about it. More importantly, your group was assigned to the Lead Unit as well? You're a mage, Sulnin, so shouldn't you be in the rear, even within the Lead Unit?”
In response to Rei's question, the middle-aged mage—and the stopper for the C-Rank party Scorching Wind—gave a wry smile and shook his head.
“Even though I'm a mage, my magic is primarily suited for mid-range. Those who specialize in long-range magic are the ones sent to the rearguard.”
“And since Mirene-san and Sulnin-san are coming here, I couldn't be the only one from the party assigned to the rearguard,” the archer girl, Ekryl, added with a smile.
“Well, normally units are divided by party,” Elk remarked. “Splitting the vanguard and rearguard within a party like we do is actually quite rare.”
Hearing Elk's words, Rei nodded in understanding.
For regular soldiers, their roles were determined by their units; those who fired bows and those who fought in the vanguard were separated into different companies and trained accordingly.
Adventurers were different. A single party had its own vanguard and rearguard, and their tactical coordination was completed within that party. If such parties were forced to disband and be divided into generic vanguard and rearguard units, they likely wouldn't be able to coordinate well with strangers. For that reason, adventurers were basically assigned to the vanguard or rearguard as complete party units.
Of course, it was a different story for someone like Elk, who was judged capable of performing sufficiently even as a solo fighter.
(Thinking about it that way, solo adventurers are probably easy to assign since they act on their own. ...No, conversely, because they're used to acting alone, there’s a possibility that issues could arise when coordinating with others. That's probably why adventurers are generally used as a mobile force.)
As he turned these thoughts over in his mind, a small grove of trees eventually came into view ahead of them. The trees weren't planted extremely densely, but they were thick enough to obscure the view of what lay within.
It was Rei's intended destination.
“Seto.”
“Guruuu.”
Seto replied with a purr to Rei's call.
Elk and the members of Scorching Wind likely understood that Rei and Seto would be taking separate action from here. They nodded slightly and offered words of encouragement.
“Seto-chan, be careful, okay? Don't get hurt. If anything happens, just use Rei as a shield and run away. ...Rei, don't you go causing trouble for Seto-chan, either.”
Rei gave a wry smile at Mirene, whose attitude toward Seto and Rei was blatantly different, but he simply nodded, as he was already used to it.
“Leave it to me. Besides, there’s no way we’d be attacked by something in a place like this.”
“I’m talking about once the battle starts! Listen. If Seto-chan gets hurt because of your carelessness, I’ll make sure to pay you back in full.”
(She talks as if she’s Seto’s partner.)
Despite thinking that, Rei knew just how obsessed Mirene was with the gryphon, so he didn't say anything further and simply nodded.
“Now, Mirene. Don't trouble Rei-san too much. To begin with, a war is about to start, so absolute safety can't be guaranteed for anyone.”
“Ah, wait, Sulnin! Don't pull me! I have a noble mission to protect Seto-chan!”
“Honestly, do you really understand that we’re about to go into battle? I understand how you feel about Seto, but please pay at least half that much attention to the safety of our party.”
Sulnin pulled Mirene's arm, and with Ekryl pushing from behind, they left Rei's presence. Elk waved as if to say ‘good luck,’ and Rei waved back before leaving the Lead Unit and heading toward the grove.
There were naturally those who watched Rei’s departure with curiosity, but seeing him with a gryphon, they likely judged that there was some special tactical reason. Without anyone calling out to him, Rei and Seto arrived inside the grove.
“Well, now we just have to wait for both sides to face each other on the Seremuse Plain and for the war to begin. ...Listen, Seto. Our goal is to land the opening blow on the enemy, and a lethal one at that. To do that, we’ll use that combination technique to create a firestorm that we developed together. You understand, right?”
“Guruuu.”
Seto nodded as if to say ‘leave it to me,’ and Rei stroked its head with a smile.
“In any case, as you can tell from what happened in the City of Gilm, this war is dangerous in many ways. At the very least, it's definitely not the kind of periodic invasion those guys in the King's Faction think it is. But no matter how much you tell them, it seems there are those who won't listen. That’s why we have to inflict as much damage as possible on the Bestia Imperial Army and settle this all at once. If all goes well, this war will end today... no, maybe in less than a few hours.”
“Guruuu.”
While explaining things to the nodding Seto, Rei couldn't help but think to himself: Is it really okay for a war that took nearly half a month to get to to end in a few hours? However, it wasn't as if he wanted to kill people needlessly, so his judgment was that as long as losses were minimized on both sides, there was no problem.
From their hiding spot in the grove, the rest of the Neutral Faction passed by, and eventually, the Noble's Faction began to pass.
Most of them advanced without noticing Rei and Seto, but one of the cavalrymen, riding near the very front of the Noble's Faction's Lead Unit, suddenly turned their gaze toward the trees.
A small dragon was perched on that cavalryman's shoulder. The luxurious gold hair spilling from the helmet and the distinctive hairstyle of vertical rolls were prominent. Her beauty, which captivated all who saw it, and her proportions, evident even through her armor, clearly revealed her identity. The fact that a female knight was riding beside her with a giant battle axe on her back served as additional proof.
“...Elena, don't die.”
The words were only whispered under his breath, but to Rei's eyes, it certainly looked as if Elena had nodded.
“No way.”
But there was no way his whispered voice could have reached her from here. Deciding that, Rei judged the nod to be some kind of mere coincidence.
Then, once Elena and her group had passed and the contingent of the Noble's Faction following them had gone beyond the grove...
“...What?”
The voice leaked from Rei's mouth once more.
The reason was that he had made eye contact with a person in the center of the Noble's Faction unit that had just passed by. The man sat astride a horse with a massive halberd: Filma Desir. He was the man who led the Noble's Faction in this war and served as the Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel's Knight Order. But the eye contact lasted only for a fleeting second. In the next instant, he looked away as if it were nothing and continued to advance his horse while looking straight ahead. The fact that he showed no hint of tension or fear proved he was indeed the man called Duke Kerebel's Right Hand.
“I should expect as much, I suppose. To see through my presence here in an instant. ...No, he was assigned to the Lead Unit along with the Neutral Faction. Or perhaps he was told about the plan by Daskar?”
Rei stroked Seto, who was waiting patiently, as he muttered to himself.
After that, following the Neutral Faction and the Noble's Faction, the King's Faction also passed in front of the grove. As expected of the largest of the three factions in the Kingdom of Mireana Army, its formation was vast and even felt heavy. Their movements were slow due to their sheer numbers, but in exchange, it would likely be difficult to stop their army once they began to move. They gave off an atmosphere that made even Rei take notice.
And because they were so numerous, there seemed to be a fair number of skilled individuals among them as well; several of them cast suspicious glances toward the grove. While none were able to firmly grasp Rei's presence, some were apparently able to sense that something was lurking in the woods.
Thus, having spent several hours watching the forces head toward the midpoint of the Seremuse Plain—the battlefield—leaving behind only the minimum strength to protect the camps, Rei and Seto made their preparations to move onto their next action and waited for the signal to come.