Sara said nothing, simply waiting for him to continue.
Liam unclasped his hands and pulled one leg back, kneeling. “Mr. Allen, you accepted our request and fought valiantly and yet we almost arrested you due to a misunderstanding. Please accept my sincere apologies.”
Sara had nothing to say in response. She was too surprised to say anything. She’d thought this wouldn’t be resolved without a scolding from the king or the prime minister, so she’d never expected the knights—let alone Liam—to come and apologize like this on their own.
Allen stood quietly and knelt in the same way before Liam. “I was a little worried when you came to take me away, but Sara got angry on my behalf, so it’s fine now. I’m used to putting up with crap like this.” He laughed dryly. “You’re making me uncomfortable. Could you stand?”
Liam hesitated a moment but eventually stood. “You were the only one able to face the continental tortoise calmly at the time. No one else was able to lay so much as a scratch on it, yet you hit its eye with your sword just as the plan called for. And you clung to the sword without panicking, never letting go of the continental tortoise. All of this is worthy of the highest praise.”
Liam spoke from the heart, yet Allen shook his head, his expression dark.
“No, it’s not worth any praise. I don’t think I should have done anything when the people with more experience than me had already failed, with or without orders.”
Liam’s eyes widened slightly at Allen’s unexpected words.
“I was excited to have my first request, and I just wanted to accomplish something. I should have been more mindful of the fact that the plan was intended to protect the capital and Rosa.” This was what Allen himself had been reflecting on. “No one knew it would go berserk, and I don’t think I should have to take responsibility for that, but I’ve learned how inexperienced I still am as a Hunter. I did cause trouble for people, and if Nelly and Kuntz, and Sara and Haruto, hadn’t saved me, I might be dead now.”
He must have wanted to get his feelings across to the person in charge of the operation.
“I still have a long way to go. I’ll keep working at it.” Allen bowed his head, probably to himself as much as anyone else.
Sara crossed her arms and puffed her chest out. She might have even raised her chin up for good measure. Never led astray by social standing or greed and always working to better himself as a Hunter. That was Allen. He shined brighter than anyone here—no, even people who weren’t here couldn’t compare to him.
Liam opened his mouth to say something to Allen before noticing Sara behind him and bursting into laughter. “Why do you look so proud, Sara?”
Allen turned around in surprise, then smiled happily and with a little embarrassment. “Well, should we get going?” he asked hastily as if to disguise the bashfulness he was feeling.
“Yeah!”
They’d been ready to go for some time now.
“Go...?” Liam asked curiously, but it wasn’t Allen or Sara who answered him.
Instead, a boy’s voice said, “To Rosa, of course.”
“Noel? What are you doing here?”
Beyond the door was Noel in his apothecary’s robes. He was all ready to travel, the bedhead he’d had earlier perfectly groomed now as if it had never been there in the first place.
Chris stood behind Noel, also in his apothecary’s robes, and for some reason Haruto was there making the same proud face as Sara. Like Allen, he was dressed for dungeon delving.
“We’ll be heading to Rosa as well. Of course, we’ll be traveling by carriage, though.”
If it were just Chris, he could come with them using physical strengthening, but he must have decided to go by carriage for Noel’s sake.
“It seems you were rather insistent with the knight commander, brother, but I did my part as well. Just by putting pressure on father, though.”
“And I went to His Majesty.”
Noel and Haruto might have been more alike than they seemed. He didn’t add anything, but Chris had most likely been working behind the scenes as well.
“Well, we should hurry. I think the continental tortoise and Nelly are both pretty far ahead of us by now.”
With Sara’s declaration, she took a step forward together with Allen. And before leaving the room, she looked straight up at Liam.
“I have a better opinion of you now. You were pretty cool, just then.”
“Ugh...”
He must not have been expecting to hear something like that from Sara. For a moment, he didn’t seem to understand what she’d said, then he turned red.
Finally, he told them, “I wish you luck,” and left, just like that.
Sara, Allen, and Haruto joined Chris and Noel in the carriage and left for the capital’s northern exit. They couldn’t run through the crowded city with physical strengthening unless it was a real emergency, after all.
“We’ll catch up with you later!”
“Tell Nef I’m on my way.”
Noel and Chris saw them off from the edge of the city, Noel waving and Chris with nothing but Nelly on his mind as always, and the trio set off at a quick trot.
When she’d left Rosa, they’d been heading west to Camellia, so this was Sara’s first time taking this road from the capital to Rosa. There were hardly any other people or carriages on the road, probably because people were being cautious of the continental tortoise.
Haruto had been in a party with Allen back in Rosa, so was perhaps more comfortable with the other boy than he was with Sara. They traveled at a steady pace, having fun conversations and enjoying Sara’s food on the way, and by the next day, they could see the continental tortoise in the distance.