The day after Rei and his group returned, the party set out once more.
Their demeanor was a stark contrast from the day before, drawing wry smiles from many who understood the situation.
"Isn't it just a bit too blatant?"
The one who said this with a troubled expression was Sura, who led the Resistance.
Of course, Sura was also glad to have Rei and the others as combat power on their side.
But even so, having it displayed this openly in everyone's attitudes wasn't exactly pleasant for someone leading the Resistance.
"It can't be helped. It's a fact that we're weaker than Rei and the others," Sharia, who was riding in the same carriage as Sura, stated flatly.
As a Beastman — or rather, as part of her personality — Sharia had a tendency to show respect to those stronger than her, and in that sense, it could be stated with certainty that Rei and the others were beings above her.
"I understand that part, too. But understanding something and accepting it are always going to be different things."
"For Rei and the others, it was certain that Sharia strongly aspired to become as strong as they were.
Not just admiring them, but naturally feeling a desire to attain that same kind of strength herself.
Sura, whose relationship with Sharia wasn't that long, must have understood Sharia's feelings as well.
Above all, considering what had happened yesterday... and considering what would happen when Rei and the others were gone in the future, she reached the conclusion that they themselves needed to become stronger. It was essential.
(I knew we weren't strong. I knew that, but... still, maybe winning that battle in Mejougo had naturally turned into overconfidence, huh?)
As Sura thought about yesterday and felt that anew, Sharia spoke up as if to encourage her.
"Come on, don't get down. It's true we're weak right now, but then we just need to get stronger. Or are you fine staying weak?"
"That's..."
Originally, the Resistance currently led by Sura didn't have particularly high combat power to begin with.
After all, they had lost the majority of their forces when Giants rampaged into where their main body was stationed.
Many of the survivors had their spirits broken in that battle, which was exactly why someone like Sura, a young woman, had ended up leading the Resistance.
But just because they were currently weak didn't mean the present situation was kind enough to let them simply accept and lean on that.
"That wouldn't be good."
"Right? Then we should do everything we can to get even a little stronger. For that matter, we're heading to Gilm... the only frontier in the Kingdom of Mireana, you know? Rei and the others won't stay with us forever until we arrive there. You understand that, don't you?"
"I do."
They had been told about those circumstances many times by Rei and the others already.
Rei and his group were a major force in Gilm, which was currently undergoing expansion work, and by all rights they should have already returned there.
The fact that Rei and the others were still traveling with Sura's group was surely because, in terms of defensive combat power, they couldn't fully leave things to the others.
That was precisely why they were planning to hire adventurer escorts arranged by the Zorgeh Merchant Guild at each destination along the way.
Being the one entrusted with escorting this party, there was no way it wouldn't be frustrating.
"Then you know what you need to do, right? Luckily, we have carriages when we travel, so being a little tired from training shouldn't interfere with escort duties. Besides... as long as Rei and the others are here, we don't need to worry that much about the escorting."
Sura nodded in response to Sharia's words.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Sura was sent flying with a scream, rolling across the ground to slow her momentum.
"What's wrong? You're leading the Resistance with just that? At this rate, the entire Resistance will become monster fodder before we even arrive at Gilm. And it won't just be you escorts becoming fodder — it'll include everyone you're supposed to be protecting, too."
"Guh!"
At Rei's words, Sura groaned in pain but used her spear as a walking stick to stand back up.
Originally, Sura was in a position to lead the Resistance and had no need to be on the front lines.
But that was only how things were supposed to be, and the current Resistance had no leisure to leave those who could serve as combat power sitting idle.
As if to say "use anyone who can be used, even your own parents," Sura had also joined the combat training.
For Sura, there was no doubt that she had intended to boost the other Resistance members' morale even slightly by being the first to participate in combat training as their leader.
"I'm... I'm not done yet!"
Saying that, Sura once again took her spear in hand and charged at Rei.
Around them, Rei's companions — Elena and the others — were also participating in the training. The Resistance, the adventurer escorts hired for having acceptable personalities, and even volunteers among the former prostitutes who were originally only being protected had all joined in.
Normally, the time between finishing lunch and departing would be a break period — a time for things like post-lunch naps or chatting with friends in other squads.
But today, most people weren't chatting. Their eyes were glued to the mock battles that had suddenly begun.
"How naive. What are you going to do, getting your weapon stolen this easily?"
Using Mirage in longsword form, Elena wrapped it around the shaft of a thrust spear and sent the weapon flying into the air.
"Your attack speed itself is slow. Things like sharpness — that's something to worry about after you can increase the speed of a single strike... and after you can attack consecutively."
Vihera casually deflected a swung club with her Hand Gauntlets.
"See, a water strike is coming from behind you. Oh, you don't need to watch the ground at your feet? A wind strike is coming from above, but how are you dealing with that?"
Facing multiple opponents, Marina unleashed Spirit Magic attacks in succession, forcing them into a constant dance where letting their guard down guaranteed pain.
"Mm."
Byune effortlessly dodged a spear thrust, stepped inside the opponent's range, and in an instant pressed Hakumo's blade to their throat.
Like these, everyone present was engaging in whatever mock battles they could, striving to somehow extend their strength.
This was likely influenced, as expected, by yesterday's incident — the fact that the entire party's atmosphere had darkened just because Rei and the others were absent.
The feeling that even with them here, they weren't relied upon as escorts as much as Rei and his group — that feeling had made the Resistance and the adventurer escorts aware of their own inadequacy, and it was more than enough to spur them on.
(She's trying quite hard.)
While dodging a spear strike from Sura, Rei lightly swept her feet out from under her with the Twilight Spear.
If Rei had delivered that strike seriously, Sura's leg would have undoubtedly been fractured, but he obviously wasn't going to go that far in training, so Sura merely tumbled to the ground without sustaining any particular injury.
"Kuh... haa, haa, haa..."
"That's enough for Sura for now. There's no point in exhausting your stamina to the limit here. Even if you can rest in a carriage, not being able to move immediately if something happens is a problem."
Whether she had objections but felt there was some sense to it, Sura stepped away from Rei.
Rei watched Sura's retreating back, but then turned his gaze to Sharia, who stepped forward as if taking her place.
"So? It's your turn next, then?"
"That's right. You'll spar with me, won't you?"
Sharia directed a gaze at Rei that wasn't one of a mock battle or combat training, but of someone genuinely looking to challenge him.
To Sharia, Rei was the same as a wall standing before her.
Of course, she didn't harbor any hostility toward him.
For some unknown reason, her Slave Collar had come off, and when she was hiding in Mejougo, not knowing what to do in that situation, he had given her food.
She owed him a debt, not a grudge.
But even so, Rei was undoubtedly a wall for Sharia.
And Sharia was not the kind of woman who would simply stand and watch the wall before her.
From her Beastman instincts, she wanted to fight Rei. And from the bottom of her heart, she wanted to win.
He probably hadn't sensed Sharia's feelings, but Rei stored the Twilight Spear in his Misty Ring and nodded.
"Understood. Then Sharia, you're up next."
"Please do."
Normally, she would have been angry that he went out of his way to fight barehanded against her, but Sharia, who knew Rei's strength, didn't think anything of the sort.
To begin with, Rei had been holding the Twilight Spear because Sura used a spear as her weapon, and he had judged it would be more instructive to fight with the same weapon.
Given that, it was only natural for Rei to also go barehanded when facing a barehanded Sharia.
Sharia had used weapons during the battle in Mejougo, but she was originally skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
Given that, challenging Rei barehanded was indeed the best option right now.
"Come at me."
Rei muttered, remaining barehanded.
Sharia nodded and kicked off the ground, closing the distance with Rei.
As expected of a Beastman, her speed was clearly faster than a normal human's.
It was a speed that the adventurers hired as escorts by Gimekara would absolutely not have been able to react to.
Sharia's fist was launched straight toward Rei's face, but he avoided the strike simply by pulling his right side slightly back.
Sharia's fist passed mere centimeters beside his face, but even seeing that, Rei showed no particular sign of alarm.
Rather, he unleashed a hook-like strike that grazed Sharia's chin... but Sharia, who knew Rei's power, hadn't expected her strike to end the match so easily, and somehow managed to block Rei's blow with her left arm.
Had it connected with her chin, it would have effortlessly knocked her out.
Having blocked it, Sharia tried to exploit the opening in an instant to deliver a counter to his counter, but...
"Eh?"
Before she could unleash that strike, the blow she was supposed to have blocked gained even more momentum from there, forcefully sending her body flying.
Even so, thanks to the high physical ability characteristic of the Beastman race, she recovered her posture in midair and managed to land without tumbling across the ground... but she still couldn't kill all the momentum, sliding several meters across the earth.
"Just because you blocked a strike, don't let your guard down. There are times when that strike is more powerful than you expected. My recommendation is, as always, to evade enemy attacks rather than block them. I put force into that last strike, but I sent you flying with a pushing motion, so it didn't hurt that much, right?"
There was no lie in Rei's words. Sharia's arm had some pain, but it wasn't the kind of pain she would expect from being genuinely struck and sent flying.
Normally, receiving the kind of impact she had just been thrown with would have undoubtedly caused significant damage.
But because Rei had delivered a pushing strike rather than a punching one, she had gotten off with only that much.
"Y-yes. I'm fine."
Saying that, Sharia checked the condition of her arm.
There was a light, dull ache, but it was a minor pain she could confidently say would fade within hours — perhaps even tens of minutes.
Besides, Sharia was currently exhilarated from combat, and a little pain didn't bother her at all.
"Here I come!"
With a short shout, she broke into a run toward Rei once again.
She was faster than before, but the type of attack hadn't changed.
Rather than employing any unnecessary tricks, the attack was launched simply to land her strike even a fraction of a second faster — and as one might expect, it was evaded by Rei, who once again delivered the same kind of strike as a counter.
Sura and the onlookers thought the result would be exactly the same as before, but the strike Rei aimed at the tip of Sharia's chin, she forcefully moved her body to evade.
"No way!"
Who was it that let out that short cry? But there was no doubt that everyone watching was surprised by what they had just seen.
However, that gasp of astonishment was immediately overwritten by an even stronger one the next moment.
Sharia had tried to pull back the fist she had first launched at Rei, but before it fully returned to her side, Rei's left hand seized it and he forcefully threw her.
Someone knowledgeable in judo would have lamented it as a rough ippon-seoi-nage — a forceful throw.
Incidentally, the reason he grabbed Sharia's arm with his left hand rather than his right was because his right had been used for the strike aimed at her chin.
Then, at the moment Sharia's back was about to slam into the ground, Rei lifted her body slightly upward, minimizing the impact she would receive.
"Geho!"
Even so, he couldn't completely kill the impact, and Sharia's training ended with Rei's ippon-seoi-nage.