"Ugh... mm... mna..."
Rolling over in bed, Rei woke from the movement.
Sensing something different from usual, he scanned the room—but all he found was his familiar room at the Twilight Wheat Pavilion, almost entirely devoid of personal belongings.
With a half-asleep mind, he searched for what was off, but in his current state, he couldn't figure it out.
He looked around, stayed still for a few minutes... and eventually, as his mind shook off the last remnants of drowsiness, he finally realized what was different.
That was it. Normally, when he woke in the morning, sunlight would be streaming through the window. Today, there was no sign of it whatsoever.
A glance outside confirmed it wasn't raining.
And the conclusion Rei ultimately reached was...
"I overslept, huh."
With a mind not yet fully awake, he muttered just that.
Going by the look of the sun through the window, it was probably already nearing noon.
Still in a daze, he recalled the events of the previous night.
After the battle in the slum district ended and Ara and the guards had rushed over, things had been hectic.
He pulled the Thorn Spear from Paul's right arm, freeing him from his immobilized state. Then he led Dias—who had lost his right arm—and Adria—bound by Byune—out of the slums.
Incidentally, the man who had attacked Byune as one of Dias's subordinates had vanished at some point.
Rei and the others concluded that he had likely regained consciousness and fled, or that his companions had dragged him off. But since they needed to reach the guard station quickly, they decided there was no point searching too earnestly and left him be.
Fortunately, word of what kind of battle Rei and his group had been involved in had already been spread by those who had watched from a distance. As a result, unlike when they had first entered the slums, there were almost no attempts to assault them.
...Yes. "Almost" rather than "none at all"—that was precisely what made the slums the slums.
They fought off the occasional attacker as they advanced, and by the time they emerged from the slum district, everyone including the guards breathed sighs of relief. Rei felt the same sense of security.
Their next destination was the Guard Force's guard station.
While Rei was explaining what had happened to the guards, including Ranga, people from the knight order arrived as well—forcing him to recount everything from the beginning.
After further detailed explanations, Rei and the others were finally released at midnight.
Naturally, there were no food stalls, and even the taverns had already closed at that hour.
Even so, the Twilight Wheat Pavilion, being a high-class inn, welcomed Rei and the others warmly.
Rei had asked the guards at the station to bring Set from the magic item shop to the Twilight Wheat Pavilion, and he went to see it there. Set was sulking about being left behind, and Rei had to spend time soothing it.
Once that was done and he returned to the inn, Elena, Ara, Vihera, and Byune each complained of hunger. But the kitchen fire had already been extinguished, so they lightly filled their stomachs with food from Rei's Misty Ring... and by the time everyone retired to their rooms, the sky was already growing light.
Having gone to sleep at that hour in the early morning, oversleeping was only natural.
"...I'm hungry."
Remembering the events of last night, the recollection of the vegetable and ham soup he had eaten as a late-night snack must have been the trigger. Rei's stomach growled loudly, making its demands known.
He pulled a clock from his Misty Ring and checked the time. As expected, it was more accurate to say it was just before noon rather than still morning.
"Guess I'll head to the dining hall."
Perhaps still thrown off by waking at an unusual time, Rei sluggishly got ready and made his way to the dining hall on the first floor.
"My, you're taking it quite easy today. ...Are you really okay?"
Vihera, who had been eating sandwiches in the dining hall, called out to Rei.
Her tone had initially carried a teasing edge, but she apparently realized right away that Rei wasn't his usual self. She asked again, this time with a hint of concern.
At the same table as Vihera, Elena watched Rei with worry, though she didn't voice it aloud.
Naturally, Ara was at Elena's side as well, directing a concerned expression at Rei—though not as intensely as Elena or Vihera.
Toward those four—or rather three, since Byune was simply eating sandwiches with her usual blank expression—Rei waved his hand dismissively.
"I just woke up at a different time than usual, that's all. Don't worry about it. Give it a little while and I'll be back to normal."
With that, he took a seat at the table where Elena and Vihera were sitting.
The dining hall of the Twilight Wheat Pavilion, befitting its status as a high-class inn, was by no means cramped. Spacious would be the more accurate word.
But at the moment, the gazes of nearly every guest in that broad dining hall—those attempting to eat a slightly early lunch—were directed toward Rei's table.
It was hardly surprising. Elena and Vihera were, though in entirely different ways, absolute beauties.
Ara, while not quite matching her mistress Elena, had features that were undeniably well-defined.
She usually went unnoticed standing beside Elena, but she was attractive enough that if she set her mind to it, she would have no trouble catching a man's eye.
Even Byune, expressionlessly working through a sandwich, was a girl whose future beauty held considerable promise.
For a lone man to sit down at a table with those four, drawing attention was inevitable.
And when that man was none other than the renowned Rei of Gilm, asking him not to turn heads would have been unreasonable.
Rei, long accustomed to such scrutiny, paid no mind to the surrounding stares and placed a casual order with Lana, the inn's landlady.
...Casual though it may have been, since it was meant to satisfy Rei's hunger, it amounted to several servings.
"So, you're heading to the lord's manor today, right?"
"Yeah. I need to go report on this incident."
Judging from the sheer volume of food Rei had ordered from Lana, Vihera apparently concluded there was no immediate cause for concern and put the question to him.
"Hmm, then I should go as well," Elena said.
"Lady Elena, what should I do?"
"Ara... you arrived after the battle was already over. Is there really any need for you to come along?"
"But I can't let Lady Elena go alone..."
Ara had asked what she should do, but in her heart she clearly wanted to accompany Elena.
Whether she picked up on that, or simply judged it wiser to have Ara at her side, Elena thought for a moment and nodded.
"If you wish to accompany me, Ara, I won't refuse. But are you sure? It's the day after yesterday. Wouldn't you like to rest a little?"
"No, it's no trouble at all. I feel more at ease when I'm with Lady Elena."
"My, my. She's quite devoted to you, isn't she."
At Vihera's remark, Ara cast a complicated glance her way.
She had already heard from Elena what kind of person Vihera was.
Truthfully, Ara was at a loss over what attitude to adopt toward the woman sitting before her.
Should she show deference, since Vihera was a former princess of the Bestia Empire? Or should she take a hostile stance, as befitted the princess of a long-standing enemy nation? The one thing she knew for certain was...
This woman might be a bad influence on Lady Elena...
The basis for that concern was the flimsy garments Vihera wore—the kind one would expect on prostitutes or dancers.
The near-transparent fabric, clothing that could more accurately be called undergarments than proper attire, was—in Ara's eyes—the single greatest cause of the stares pouring in from everyone in the dining hall, particularly the men.
In reality, Elena's own beauty was also a major reason for drawing attention, but whenever Ara faced Vihera, she completely lost sight of that fact.
The force of habit was apparently that strong.
In any case, through the eyes of Ara—a noble and a knight—Vihera's attire could only be described as indecent.
And according to what Elena had told her, Vihera harbored romantic feelings for Rei.
For Ara, raised as a noble, one man taking multiple wives didn't carry that much resistance.
She still had some reservations, but she also recognized that it wasn't her place to meddle.
But if spending time with Vihera led to Elena being influenced into wearing similar clothing... the very thought made her want to scream, grab the Power Axe from her room, and go on a rampage.
Aah, geez. What am I supposed to do!?
Faced with a situation she had never encountered before, Ara was screaming internally.
Whether that inner turmoil had shown on her face, Elena swallowed a bite of freshly baked bread studded with nuts and spoke up.
"...Are you sleep-deprived?"
"Ah, no. I just had something on my mind. It's nothing, really..."
Elena found Ara's flustered reply a little odd, but as she lifted the tea to her lips, she ever so faintly—barely perceptibly—furrowed her neatly shaped brows.
The first to catch Elena's reaction was, naturally, Ara, who had been at her side since childhood.
"Is something the matter? Is it the tea...?"
Could it be poison? The thought crossed Ara's mind for an instant.
Elena bore the alias of the Princess General and stood as the symbol of the Noble's Faction. There were surely those, both within and beyond the kingdom's borders, who saw her as an obstacle—and even within the Noble's Faction itself, there were those who wished to see her removed.
She had faced assassination attempts more times than she could count, but Elena had thwarted every single one through her innate knowledge and ability.
And now that Elena had even inherited the Magic Stone of an Ancient Dragon, it should have been impossible to harm her by ordinary means.
Even so, as the captain of the knight order serving Elena... and above all, as a friend since childhood—there was no way Ara would let anyone who sought to harm Elena slip past her.
Still, she wasn't truly that alarmed at the moment.
If the tea really contained poison, Elena would have reacted far more visibly—or so Ara reasoned.
And indeed, Elena spoke as though it were nothing, yet with a faint note of disappointment.
"No, it's just that this tea falls short of what you brew for me, Ara. Once you've grown accustomed to your fine tea, one tends to find fault with almost anything else."
"That's..."
At Elena's words, feelings of happiness and guilt warred within her.
"Oh? The tea she makes is that good? In that case, I'd love to try some myself."
"Mm!"
Perhaps because it was a matter involving food and drink, Byune voiced her immediate agreement with Vihera's words.
Elena floated a happy smile toward the two of them.
That Ara's skills were being recognized brought Elena genuine joy as well.
"So she says?"
"If you're satisfied with the tea I make..."
"Rei, it's been a while since you've had Ara's tea too, hasn't it?"
"Yeah. The tea she made for me last time was delicious."
A note of genuine appreciation lingered in Rei's words.
Ara had used magic items, but only to the extent of heating water.
Everything else was purely her own technique, elevating the tea's flavor.
If Ara brewed tea using water from the Dagger of Flowing Water, that would truly be the finest tea imaginable.
Rei's thoughts drifted to the magic item stored within his Misty Ring.
It was originally a magic item designed for water-based attacks, but due to Rei's fire-specialized aptitude, he couldn't use it as a weapon.
The only thing he could do was consume mana to produce water... but the water generated using Rei's vast magical reserves was, despite being nothing more than ordinary water, of such exquisite taste that it could fairly be called heavenly.
"If Lady Elena and Lord Rei are agreeable, I'll brew some tea."
Ara briefly glanced toward the kitchen, but it was Elena who called a halt.
"It's a shame to miss out on your tea, Ara, but it's about time, isn't it? We're meeting Lord Daskar, so we can't afford to be late."
"...I'm sorry, Lady Elena. You're right—there isn't that much time to spare."
Elena nodded at those words, and Vihera gazed at Ara with evident interest.
She seems reasonably strong... I'm a little curious.
Unaware that she had been caught in Vihera's appraising gaze, Ara nonetheless felt an inexplicable chill run down her spine.