Seeing Shumei bow with her head down, I stood straight and bowed as well .
“It has been some time, I am honored to meet you once again . Shumei-sama . ”
“I recall asking you to cease with the polite tone . ”
Shumei said .
That said, am I allowed to speak unreservedly to a princess? So I took a glance at Marquis .
He nodded with a smile .
That probably meant that I could speak casually .
“Sorry . But is this all right? I only found out after coming to this town that you are a princess . ”
“As expected, my identity was revealed . However, I will probably only remain as a princess for a little longer . After all, I have betrayed this country . ”
“Betrayed? Are you planning to defect to the Kingdom of Shiraraki?”
“No, that is not the case . This country — — His Highness wishes to form peace with the Kingdom of Shiraraki . ”
“Isn’t that good?”
If there was peace, I wouldn’t have to go out of my way to become a mercenary .
I would be able to return to the Kingdom of Shiraraki as a merchant and set off for Mallegory to the east .
Eh? But peace? In the first place, the war began one-sidedly when the Kingdom of Shiraraki, or rather the Church, classified the Dark-Elves as a demon race?
The country had no choice but to fight to protect the Dark-Elves .
Peace, in that case, would mean —
“No way —”
“Yes, this country will hand over the corpses of all Dark-Elves to the Church . ”
” — !?”
In other words, this country plans to betray the Dark-Elves?
No matter how much they wish to avoid the war, there shouldn’t be a need to sacrifice the Dark-Elves who had not done anything wrong .
“Of course, that is not my father’s intention . After all, this country has prospered from the co-existence with the Dark-Elves . However, the king does not hold absolute power . The army holds great power, especially during war . All the nobles of the Central Army Faction unanimously decided to abandon the Dark-Elves . ”
“So His Highness asked Shumei to consult me . To ask if I would lead the mercenaries to help the Dark-Elves flee the country . After all, this country’s Mercenary Guild is not part of the army and personally managed by me . ”
However, Shumei’s guards were apparently people from the military faction as well as they betrayed her and led the sand bandits to attack her .
“However, although a mercenary will be able to move about freely, they do not have the authority to command a unit . And there is a need to organize all the mercenaries into a unit . ”
“In other words, by failing me, I retain my right to act freely and you hope that I will aid the Dark-Elves — right?”
“I’m grateful that you catch on so quick . Of course, we will give generous compensation . ”
Haa, so I failed the test because of such a contrivance .
I was still shocked for failing my employment exam ― or rather the mercenary exam but I could accept it with such a reason behind it .
“I am sorry, Ichinojo-sama . For getting you involved in something like this . ”
“I have a Dark-Elf friend as well . I won’t be able to bear with it if she died . ”
I said to comfort Shumei who was apologetic to me .
So the question on Dark-Elves during the interview was to discern if I had the will to help the Dark-Elves .
Even though I had only met Rarael once, she was my friend .
Although I didn’t want to be caught up in troublesome issues and I had to hurry to Mallegory to help Miri, I couldn’t abandon a friend in need .
Well, even though I said to help them, our task was probably only to inform the Dark-Elves of the current situation and ask them to evacuate . If they evacuated to the depths of the forest, the army shouldn’t be able to capture the Dark-Elves so easily .
“It should be best if we depart as soon as possible . When can we depart?”
“Thank you very much! Ichinojo-sama! I will quickly change my clothes!”
Shumei replied and headed to the room at the back and in just seven seconds, returned dressed in the same fashion as when I met her in the desert . Did she have the Quick Change skill?
“Well then, let’s go . ”
Just when Shumei said that .
“Marquis-sama, terrible news . ”
The Mercenary Guild guildmaster entered the room on his own .
“What happened!?”
“We have received an order from Marshal-sama to advance the mercenary unit into the Great Forest . The Royal Army will begin its attack on the Great Forest in three days as well . ”
“What!?”
“No way …”
Shumei fell to the ground on the spot .
It would take a week to cross the desert .
We would definitely not make it in time to reach the Great Forest by crossing the desert .
“Are there message transmission tools to the Adventurer’s Guild? If we have those, we may be able to let the other co-operators inform the Dark-Elves of the current situation ―”
“All magic tool transmissions in this country are inspected by the army . We will not be able to act without informing the army . ”
“Shit, are there no other ways?”
I tried investigating my Home Return destinations .
If Rarael’s name was recorded, I could teleport all the way to the Dark-Elf forest in an instant .
Rarael’s name was not there but Shumei’s name had been added in .
It seemed that I could transfer to the Capital City of Koron .
Eh? Miri’s transfer point had changed from Deijima Adventurers Guild to Transfer Impossible .
But now, I guess the choice would be to transfer to Shumei’s room in the Capital City of Koron?
If I was on my own, I could escape using Invisibility and Remain Unknown but it might be impossible with Shumei .
Well, we have nothing to lose so let’s give it a shot .
“Shumei, it is not definite that we won’t make it in time . Rather than spend the time crying, let’s set off now . ”
“Yes — Ichinojo-sama . ”
I didn’t want others to know about Home Return so I lied to Marquis-sama and led Shumei away .
Then, I moved to a place where others would not notice and I confided to Shumei about the method I thought up .
“Shumei, I am able to use the Lifestyle Magic Home Return . I seem to be able to transfer to your room instantaneously if I use it . In order for you to transfer with me, we have to stop by the Adventurers Guild to form a party . ”
“Home Return!? So Ichinojo-sama was the Magician-sama who saved me that time after all!?”
“Eh? Why did you reach that conclusion? Swordsmen are able to use Lifestyle Magic as well . I received it as the Labyrinth Conquer bonus after all . ”
“No, that’s not the reason — but my room huh? I think escaping from my room would be quite difficult . ”
“I figured but there is no other location to transfer to — No, wait . ”
I do have one other location after all .
“There is a more reliable way!”
I head to the stables and retrieved the Desert Runner before we jumped on and left the town .
After running with the carriage for some distance,
“Shumei, please paste this anywhere on your body . ”
I passed Shumei the approval seal to enter My World .
Shumei pasted the seal on her hand without asking anything . During that time, I pasted the seal on the desert runner as well .
Then, I created the door to enter My World .
“Please enter here . ”
“Ye-yes . ”
She was surprised but she followed my instructions .
I felt that she should be a little warier but now it helped speed up the process so I was extremely thankful .
“Where is this place —”
She was understandably surprised .
Even though we were crossing the desert, we were in a town in the middle of the desert .
And now, we suddenly appeared just before a beach .
“Please don’t ask questions regarding this place . And please don’t tell anyone about it . ”
“Un-understood . ”
Shumei nodded .
I wasn’t worried, a girl who acted desperately for the sake of the Dark-Elves was trustworthy .
There was a large wooden water tank placed beside the sea and there were tons of turtles in it .
They seemed to be using crushed shrimp as feed .
“Oh, Master, did you make a new woman?”
Neete who was in the midst of feeding the turtle noticed me and called out .
“Shut up . Neete, I leave Shumei to you for a while . I will reopen the door soon so let Shumei and the desert runner through the door when it opens! Desert runner, don’t eat the turtle feed . ”
I warned the desert runner who had thrust its mouth into the turtle feed before I started chanting my spell without waiting for Neete and Shumei’s replies .
“Fake Magic — Home Return Angela!”
Suddenly, the landscape changed .
I had transferred to the Pirate’s Hideout .
“Wha! He’s back!”
The frightened pirates said in symphony —
“W-we have not done anything bad since then! We have been obediently imitating fishermen in the shores! So please do not destroy our hideout . ”
The pirates cried as they prostrated on the ground .
I felt bad but I didn’t have time to explain the situation to them as I left the hideout and went to a place where the pirates couldn’t see me .
“My World!”
After opening the door, Shumei and the desert runner exited .
“Ichinojo-sama, where is this place?”
That question was expected .
“Near a pirate hideout to the immediate west of the town of Hanmuno . ”
“No way — in an instant!? Did you use Home Return?”
“Something similar . Let me clarify, I do not have friends among the pirates . ”
The Nelson was a pirate as well but he was only an acquaintance at best .
As Earl Paul’s subordinates, he would be the senior but my noble rank was higher so it was difficult to explain our relationship .
“The Great Forest is further from here than from the Capital City but we should reach the Great Forest by tomorrow . Lead the way . ”
Since the desert runner was strong, its speed wouldn’t change even if we both rode it .
I gave the desert runner another squid leg to eat .
The desert runner become more lively after that and we headed east .