Chapter 47 - Linking Up

Several days later, Keyhart and the others who arrived at Fuyune were giving orders to the Knights lying in wait there.

“But, we received an order from the King.”

“The King has sent us with further orders. We will take over from here, and you will go to Rakayan to prepare for engaging in battle with Rulan Kingdom. Do I make myself clear?”

“Ha!!”

After confirming that the Knights who had made a clean bow had left, Keyhart takes out the magic circle he received from Clarina and contacts Syltina.

Several days after that, they joined up with Syltina who had arrived in Fuyune.

“You must be the Saintess’ party, correct?”

“Eh? Who are you?”

Syltina, who had left to scout Fuyune, returned with 3 men in tow.

Out of the 3 of them, it was the bespectacled man with black hair and black eyes who talked to Akari.

“It seems they are from the Knights’ Order.”

“Knights Order?”

“Nice to meet you, Saintess. I am Keyhart of the Royal Knights. And, these two are,-”

“Lunard. Nice meeting you.”

A muscular man with short, dark gray hair and ultramarine eyes gave a small wave of his hand as he introduced himself.

“I’m Sesshura. Let’s get along, okay?”

Smiling as he introduced himself was a man with light, quirky blond hair and deep green eyes, who could easily be mistaken as a woman due to his features and small build.

“It seems they were sent here on orders from the King to accompany us.”

“If we had known sooner, we could have joined up with you earlier, but……I apologize for joining you this late in the journey.”

“Ah, no, it’s……”

“So, on that note, they will be accompanying us on the trip from now on. We will be talking to the three of you later, so we can tell you about the details of the purification of Fuyune tomorrow.”

“Yes. Understood.”

ーーー

ー

And, so, that night, Syltina gathered everybody except Akari, Frackt, Mars, and Yuto.

“Uh… umm….Where is Yuto-san……?”

“Yuto is watching over the Saintess. Well, the Saintess, the Prince, and the Child are sound asleep, so they should be fine, but I had him stay over just in case. The Saintess is docile as long as Yuto is around after all.”

“Ah, so it’s like that………But, um…”

Smiling, Syltina explained. Milliane nodded her agreement, but warily glanced at the person behind her at the next moment.

“Is it alright for Tedla-sama to be here, too……?”

“Eh?”

Tedla unintentionally raises his voice at the sudden mention of his name.

“I, I’m sorry!! Umm… Tedla-san didn’t do anything wrong, it’s…… just, um….”

“Ahh, it’s alright. I get what you’re trying to say, so, please calm down.”

Tedla chuckles and calms Millianne down as she rushes to excuse herself.

“S-sorry……”

“It’s okay. If I were in your situation, I would also have the same doubts.”

“Eh? Then,…… “

“The both of you are wondering why the other is here, aren’t you?”

The two of them nod at Syltina’s guess.

“The two of you haven’t talked to each other yet, have you? Milliane-sama, despite knowing what we are trying to do, Tedla-sama switched over to our side. Tedla-sama, I have already talked to Milliane-sama about our circumstances since the start of the journey and she has been cooperating with us ever since.”

“Eh?”

The two were astonished at Syltina’s brief explanation.

“By the way, you might have noticed it, but, the 3 people who have joined us today, Keyhart-san, Lunard-san, and Sesshura-san are also on our side.”

“I’ve somehow noticed it as well, but…… what do the Knights have to do with us?”

“Good question.”

The one who answered Tedla’s question was Lunard.

“We are from the Special Command Forces, but we do not belong to The Dipterous Sword Guild.”

“But, when this case ends without any incident, it has been decided that we will also be registering with The Dipterous Sword.

“Eh, p-please wait!!”

“Oh, what’s up, Second Son?

“Um, if the members of the Special Command Forces…… register with the guild once this ends…… does this mean that everyone from the Special Command Force is……?”

“Yes, they belong to our side. In the first place, their Captain, Famiras, and their Vice-Captain, Heine, originally belong to the Guild after all.”

“Captain Famiras and Vice-Captain Heine, too……but, the two of them became Captain and Vice-Captain about 5 years ago. Which one came first?”

“Well, their membership with us came first, of course. Those two entered the Order for the sake of the plan, you see.”

“Then, this plan has already been created a long time ago? But, wait. I mean, if you don’t know what happens in the future……”

“Do you know the Witch of Foresight?”

“Yes, I know of her, but……but doesn’t she make her predictions based on foresight?”

“That’s what the general public knows. It’s not exactly wrong, but it’s not exactly right either.”

“Which means…?”

“She can see the future.”

“The future……? So, that’s what this is all about?”

“No. What she saw 2 years ago was until the events that transpired around me. The events that followed thereafter, especially the things that are happening now, is a result of the created plan that was based on her foresight that utilized prediction, speculation, guesswork, and anticipation.”

“Two years ago……? Then, you knew about everything that happened 2 years ago? If you knew beforehand, then, why……”

“It’s not as simple as changing your fate just because you know it. At that time I knew what would happen to me in the future and understood that it was inescapable at the same time. But, I believed. I believed in the bonds that I fostered with the people around me for years. But, the people I believed in…… it wasn’t the case for the people around me. The people I believed in didn’t believe me. That’s why that incident happened 2 years ago.”

“……”

“Aaand, that’s enough of the meaningless chatter. I didn’t ask you all to come here to talk about this. Let’s talk about our next move from here.”

Only Tedla looked at Syltina with a complicated expression when she changed the topic as if nothing happened.