This respect could be felt the moment the adventurers reached the main camp. It was in the bearing of the knights who ushered them inside, and the reverence with which they approached the adventurers with their legendary dragon slayer. The knights had even prepared tents especially for them.
“Please make use of these tents to rest before you move out,” said one of the knights.
“Thanks,” said Zack. “Appreciated.”
Zack and the other group leaders had a strategy meeting to attend. Everyone else was essentially free, and most adventurers were grateful for the chance to get some extra rest. Nils and Ellen began handing out blankets, and the adventurers who took them lay down still decked out in their armor so they wouldn’t have to waste time putting it on again later.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to get any sleep while I’m so on edge like this, but I think it’d be good for me to at least lie down.
It had been a long trek just to get this far, and while Shiori didn’t like the idea of resting while her lover still worked, she also had to consider their differences in stamina and strength. Resting up was for the best. But just as Shiori was starting to take off her knapsack, Zack called out to her.
“Sorry, Shiori, but you’re with us,” he said.
“Huh?”
Her eyes went wide. She wasn’t sure she’d heard Zack right.
“It’s because your magic has been so helpful in all of this,” Zack explained. “The head of the support troops wants to meet you and thank you in person.”
Both he and Alec looked troubled by this...or more accurately, unimpressed—they seemed to suspect ulterior motives. Only the knight who was set to lead them to the generals remained unfazed as he offered a nod. Shiori realized then that her attendance at the meeting had been a given from the very start, and as she looked at the three men, she got the feeling more than her mere presence might be required.
I don’t know if I’m going to like this...
But all the same, Shiori nodded.
“Okay,” she said.
“Very well, this way please,” said the knight.
Behind the knight was Zack, followed by Clemens, Kai, Nadia, Linus, and a few others. Alec and Shiori trailed behind.
“If they try to force anything on you, I’ll tell them where to shove it,” whispered Alec. “And I’ll pressure them from behind the scenes if it comes to that, so don’t worry about a thing.”
Without making it obvious, Alec was implying he would use his influence. Shiori couldn’t believe it. Was this going to be that big of a problem?
“So it really is going to be a pain to deal with?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” muttered Alec, his brow furrowing, “but they just love you. They may even want to put you in charge of your own troops.”
“Huh? But that’s beyond ridiculous!”
The words spilled from her lips before she could catch them. Alec chuckled.
“It’s great you’re more comfortable speaking your mind now,” he said. “Look, at the end of the day, I’m not going to just hand you over to them. So relax, be yourself, and turn them down if you have to.”
Rurii wobbled confidently at her feet: “I’ll help!”
At the thought of a knight stripped naked by a slime right before deployment, Shiori laughed.
“Thanks, you two,” she said.
“Here we are,” said the knight, stopping before the entrance of the tent. “I’ve brought the adventurers.”
“Let them in.”
The knight opened the flap for the adventurers to head into the tent. The air inside was intimidating, and Shiori felt herself shrinking under it. A table had been set up at the tent’s center, around which sat fully armored knights wearing grave expressions. The space was so ready for battle that Shiori wondered if the atmosphere itself was sharp enough to cut a man.
None of the knights reacted in any way to the sight of the strange slime and alraune familiars, but at the sight of the snow wolf variant, a few let out quiet gasps. Shiori could tell by the way the men held themselves that they were all knight corps leaders. But even then, their armor was splattered with mud and magical beast blood they had yet to clean off; these were men who got their hands dirty.
“Zack Ciel, the S-rank adventurer and dragon slayer himself. Tris’s finest adventurers. Thank you for coming. I know the request was sudden, and you have my gratitude.”
It was the stately Torisval Margrave, Kristoffer Osbring, who greeted them from the head of the table. Gone was the bright, friendly face that Shiori knew, replaced by a deeply furrowed brow, a sharp and focused gaze, and tightly pursed lips. He looked like an entirely different person, and it impressed upon Shiori the fact that, like it or not, she had come to a battlefield.
Behind the seated generals, Shiori noticed the former captain of the Brovito garrison, Leo Nordman, standing at attention; he was the only one among the knights to offer a look that showed some concern. His expression softened a touch when his gaze fell upon Shiori, but a moment later he winced slightly.
Oh, that’s right. Leo was transferred to the combat support division...
She had assumed that Leo was the combat support leader’s source of intelligence, and seeing him here only served as further proof, particularly when his gaze dropped apologetically to the ground at his feet. The man sitting in front of Leo, the leader in question, eyed Shiori with a grin, as though he were appraising her. It was not exactly ill-intentioned, but it was by no means a pleasant smile.
Erm...this really is going to be a pain after all...
Feeling suddenly uncomfortable, Shiori looked up at Alec in the hopes of finding some respite, but his gaze was focused on something else entirely. There was a tension in him as he watched a corner of the tent.
What’s going on...?
Being of small stature, Shiori couldn’t make out what Alec was looking at because of all the taller bodies surrounding her. She shifted slightly for a better view, and realized that it was a pair of people, a man and a woman, that Alec was staring at so intently. They were staring right back at him, though Shiori could not discern why. She did not feel any enmity from them, but their piercing, searching expressions had Alec on guard, and his hand fell casually to the hilt of his sword.
The man and woman were surrounded by knights, and they spotted Shiori as she poked her head out. They opened their mouths in silent shock when they noticed her; both looked as if they had suddenly bumped into an acquaintance they hadn’t seen in years.
Who are they...? Have we met...?
The man had pale brown hair; thick, graceful eyebrows; and blue eyes brimming with a strong, confident light. He stood tall and with an elegant grace, and while he was thin, the arms that poked out from his rolled-up sleeves were powerful; Shiori gathered that the body under the simple clothes he wore was a muscular one.
The woman shared the man’s eye and hair color. While the features of her face differed from his, the general aura of her person matched the man’s, and Shiori wondered if perhaps the two were siblings. Both looked to be refugees, and Shiori didn’t know any refugees. Yet she felt as though they’d met before.
“I feel like I’ve seen those two before,” she said in a low voice. “But who are they?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Alec. “But...I think we’ve met...somewhere.”
Kristoffer noticed their whispers and the fact Alec’s focus was diverted. He shot a glance at the refugee couple.
“What is it, Frol?” he asked.
“My apologies,” responded the man. “I was lost for a moment. I did not expect to meet the people who saved my life under circumstances such as these.”
His words brought all the pieces of the puzzle together. The name. The unique accent. His comment that they had saved his life. As the couple’s identity became clear to Shiori and Alec, the truth also dawned on Clemens and Nadia.
“You’re the Imperials...from Silveria!”
Now refugees, the two Imperials had been on the brink of death when Shiori and her party had encountered them in Silveria Tower. Now so healthy that they were almost unrecognizable, the pair smiled at the adventurers.