After being pranked by Lloyd the frontier earl and his subordinate Mais, I drew my sword and held it at the ready, I quickly sheathed it and held out two small swords, prodding my knee as an apology.
I apologize for my apologies. Please forgive me for not meaning any harm.
Good. As I said before, we played a prank on you. There's no need to apologize. It's not a bad idea to have a young swordsman with such skill as Flick and Al. The kingdom is not to be abandoned.
As he said this, Lloyd appealed to me with his gaze to 'put away the stiletto I offered you'.
I'm not going to be able to put away the stiletto, but I will be able to put it back in my belt.
I'm not ready for my arms yet.
"Humility is a virtue in King's Landing, but it's useless here. Merit is what is required in the countryside. Age does not matter, as long as you are good enough.
I'll take that to heart.
I bowed to Lloyd the frontier lord again.
I'll always have a place for you in my Order. Think about it when you're done.
'Ha ...... ha! Bo, I'm a knight?!
The words of Lloyd, the count of the frontier, have confused me.
Why would you hire an adventurer of dubious identity to join your knightly order so easily?
I heard from the rumors of the nobles that Lloyd, Count of the Frontier, is a former adventurer and actively recruits adventurers as knights: .......
I'm a knight in arms of the nobility, if you will.
It's a good thing that you're able to get a good idea of what you're looking for.
''A, Alfie---it wasn't. Al! A knight of the Lord of the Frontier! Hugu--
Meira, who was listening mysteriously to the conversation next to me, yelled out in surprise and I quickly covered my mouth.
Her real name was almost exposed.
Meira is happy, but when you're a knight, you should be able to do a lot of background checks.
If they find out that I'm the Swordsman Alfine, there's a good chance that Gilead in the capital will find out where I am.
If that happens, their pursuers will flock to this area in droves, and they may not be able to follow Fynn's footsteps.
I've decided to refuse Meira's invitation to join the knight recruitment program suggested by Lloyd the frontier earl, while keeping her mouth shut.
I'm very grateful, but I'm looking for someone along with my sister ...... and right now I have no intention of serving anywhere until I find that person.
'Well, ....... Well then, keep it in the back of your mind until you're done looking for that person.
Yes, sir.
That's all I could say.
I didn't have time to think about the rest of my life; I was too busy trying to find Finn and apologize to him right now.
As for the rest of my life, after I apologize to Fihn, I'll know what to do with it.
Including whether I'm going back to Alfine or whether I'm going to stay Al.
The thought of what happens after I find Fynn makes me feel like I'm going to fall to the bottom of a deep, dark swamp, but I'm going to be lenient about it because it's what I brought on myself.
'It's painful that I wasn't able to recruit Al-dono, though. Let's say that I will be able to recruit him again after the search for someone is over. Lloyd-sama, on a different note, the search for the facility that Al-dono and the others found seems to be progressing well.
Myce, who saw that I was determined, had changed the subject.
I'm sure you're right. I'm sure you'll be happy to know that the facility is not an ancient magical civilization: ......
Meira's eyes instantly begin to glow as the subject turns to the facility.
''That's right. That's the first time I've seen a civilization's facility, and according to what the beast child at the facility said, it was built by a civilization with 'electricity and science' technology.
What's that 'electrical science' thing? Isn't that different from magic?
Even Lloyd, the frontier count, had a puzzled look on his face at Meira's explanation.
Even though I'm actually looking at that facility, I feel like I can only say it's something magical if I'm asked to explain it, because I'm seeing the facilities of a facility that has a magical effect.
'From glancing at the facility, I can only assume that it is powered by a different energy source than magic. And I don't see any magic furnaces, the technology of ancient magical civilizations, either.
So this is another civilization's technology.
Yes, it's a facility of a new, undiscovered civilization. But it seems so new, and it hasn't been built for more than 50 years.
Meira is an adventurer who specializes in researching ruins, so she has a lot of knowledge.
She mobilized that knowledge and thought about it.
She said that it wasn't that long ago that that facility was built.
'Abyss Falls itself has been around for quite some time, but the ...... facility was only built about fifty years ago! What the hell is going on?
'We don't know the role of that facility for that, and we don't know who built it and for what purpose. And it seems to have been restored. That's what the beastly boy who protected it testified.
'I have heard the report. 'I heard the beastling was from the village of Devon, south of Inverness. I don't know what he was bringing from such a remote area, but ....... And I'm also concerned about the missing beastmen, and the Abyss Walkers and their strange language, who were leading them.
All the information known so far to Lloyd, the frontier count, had been raised by Arnold.
According to Meira, there was a whiff of something fishy in that facility.
She paused to look for Fynn and came to Abyss Falls to spread the chase, but she also had a feeling that she had been caught up in an unexpectedly large incident.
'I hear the child you sheltered is doing well. I heard that Lord Al and the others bought the guardians.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes, we helped her, so I feel responsible for that. He's a pretty solid kid himself, so he's kind of a guardian, like he's being fed a meal.
Hahaha, that's a reliable boy.
Maribel, who protected us, said, 'I'm not allowed to eat food if I don't work,' and now she was helping out as a waiter and cook at a temporary snack shop set up by the Adventurer's Guild at the encampment.
In other words, we were being fed there.
We were being fed.
Yes, well, he's too dependable.
If I could, I'd like to know where my father is.
'Yes, I do. I'd like to find you and reunite you with him.
The whereabouts of Maribel's fathers who had been taken by the people of the facility were still unknown, so the Adventurer's Guild side was also continuing to search all around Abyss Falls as well as the facility.
As they were talking about this, a knight who looked flustered rushed into the tent.
''Ta, it's bad! We were clearing debris from a crumbling section of the compound and found human remains--
At the words uttered by the knight who rushed in, the complexion of everyone present had changed.