“That poor captain. He was frozen stiff, wasn’t he? It was because of Abel’s stress interview.”

“What’s a stress interview?”

Watching the patrol boat sailing ahead of Skidbladnir from the deck, Ryo looked at it with pity, while Abel shrugged.

“I mean, while he was talking to you, he was sweating like crazy. That was not normal.”

“Don’t tell me that. I didn’t say anything special, did I?”

“Didn’t you put some kind of frightening pressure on him?”

“Something like your pressure, Ryo? I wasn’t giving off anything like that at all.”

“Pinpoint pressure that only works on the target you choose...”

“What is that supposed to be?”

As Ryo and Abel were talking, Paulina happened to pass by.

“Those men also knew the Song of the Knightley Kingdom Liberation War, so they seemed surprised when the man sung of in it appeared before them.”

“Song?”

“The royal capital has fallen. It has fallen to the king’s brother and the Empire. The people’s lament covers the Kingdom’s skies...”

“Huh? Why do you know that song?”

Paulina hummed it, and Ryo was startled.

He was fairly certain that song was supposed to have spread through the Eastern Countries...

“We heard it when it spread through the Western Countries, but recently it has been spreading across the Dark Continent as well.”

“When I was in the Western Countries a year ago, it hadn’t spread at all.”

“Yes... I first heard it half a year ago in the Principality of Gosron. Now many minstrels are traveling around singing it, including here on the Dark Continent.”

“Here, too, the shadow of minstrels...”

Ryo was astonished by Paulina’s report.

Abel silently shook his head a little.

His expression said he had given up on many things.

It had spread through the Eastern Countries.

Now it was spreading through the Western Countries and the Dark Continent as well.

Apparently being famous was hard.

Paulina returned to her work, leaving the two of them behind again.

“So Abel is one who is sung of.”

“It’s not just me. Back in the Eastern Countries, there was a ‘Song of Duke Rondo’ too, wasn’t there?”

“That was that. It ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) should only exist in the Eastern Countries.”

“...I don’t think so.”

Ryo voiced his wishful thinking, and Abel denied it.

“In any case, it’s good that we should be able to enter the country peacefully.”

“That much is true.”

“Now we can only hope it remains peaceful while we stay...”

“I don’t know why, but when you say it, Ryo, it suddenly makes me uneasy.”

“How rude! I am a duke who loves peace!”

“I see. So Ryo loves peace, but peace simply refuses to come near him.”

“What a thing to say...”

Ryo let out a small sigh and shook his head.

Skidbladnir entered the port of Borne.

The sight immediately spread as a rumor throughout the town of Borne.

“An absurdly huge ship just came in!”

“A patrol boat was leading it, so there must be someone important aboard.”

“I’ve never seen that shape before. It isn’t a ship from this continent.”

“The Western Countries? Even if it is, you’ve never seen a ship like that, have you?”

“Let’s go see who gets off!”

Conversations like that took place all over, and by the time Skidbladnir stopped inside the harbor, a crowd had formed at the port.

Amid that crowd, a gangway was lowered from the ship.

Twenty knights descended and lined up at the end of the gangway.

At that point, anticipation rose within the crowd.

There was no doubt someone important was about to disembark.

And the one who descended was...

A single man.

His clothing, based on red and white, was neither gaudy nor extravagant.

But even from a distance, one could tell its tailoring and sense were excellent.

And the man himself...

“Ooh...”

“He looks gallant... but who is he?”

“He has to be royalty from somewhere.”

“A prince from the Western Countries?”

Without anyone explaining it, his bearing made it clear at a glance that he was royalty.

The murmur spread.

“Abel, you were the center of attention.”

“A crowd had formed before I knew it.”

Ryo and Abel were walking to the lord’s manor.

Yes. Not by carriage, and not on horseback, but on foot.

Naturally, the guarding Kingdom’s knight orders were walking as well.

“Perhaps you should at least have loaded a horse for yourself onto Skidbladnir...”

“And make that horse experience that storm?”

“...That would be pitiful.”

“Whether I ride a horse or walk does not change my worth. If we had the leeway we do at home, then perhaps I would need to put on a display, but this is a foreign country. As long as I’m not looked down on, there’s no problem.”

Abel had accepted the situation cleanly.

A king was always someone who was watched.

That was true both at home and abroad.

So he could not show an unseemly figure.

Even so, Abel thought it was wrong to load a horse onto the ship merely for appearances.

A horse would require space, food, care... many things.

“Well, if you’re surrounded by this many knights, no one will take you lightly.”

“I agree with that.”

Ryo and Abel said it as they looked at the Kingdom’s knight orders walking around them.

The knights were impressive indeed.

They were carrying out their work with perfect professionalism.

The two men’s gazes reached even beyond the Kingdom knights.

“The buildings are... brick?”

“It looks that way. They’re completely different from buildings in the Central Countries or the Western Countries. Of course, from the Eastern Countries too.”

There were many single-story buildings made of stacked bricks.

The town itself was quite lively, and many stalls were set up along the roadside.

“There are good smells from time to time...”

“There are many stalls selling grilled fish.”

“As expected of a port town.”

Both Abel and Ryo loved delicious food.

So they also loved buying snacks from stalls, but even so...

“In this situation, it is impossible to buy food at a stall and eat while walking.”

“True.”

Even Ryo understood that it was impossible, and Abel naturally agreed.

However, appetite was one of humanity’s three great desires.

To satisfy it, one must overcome every difficulty...

“What if we buy enough for all the knights and everyone eats while heading to the lord’s manor...”

“Rejected.”

“We could show the whole world that this is the Knightley Kingdom’s style...”

“Rejected.”

“If such a group came marching in, the local lord would tremble in fear and obey our demands...”

“Absolutely rejected.”

Every proposal from the Premier Duke was rejected by the king.

Once a person rose to a high position, even buying food from stalls became impossible.

A pitiful thing.

Captain Nau had likely sent word ahead.

When the party arrived at the lord’s manor, the master of the house came out in front of the building to receive them.

“Your Majesty Abel, welcome. I am Chukudy, lord of Borne.”

“Lord Chukudy, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Abel, king of the Knightley Kingdom.”

Abel was shown into a conference room.

It was a large conference room, and not only Ryo, but ten members of the Kingdom’s knight orders entered as well.

Since this was their first visit to the country and Abel was speaking with a lord for the first time, Chukudy had been considerate, thinking that the guarding knights would be reluctant to leave the king they served.

“Lord Chukudy appears to be capable.”

Ryo murmured.

The murmur reached Abel, who sat beside him, but Abel merely shook his head in silence.

“When you say the Knightley Kingdom, your country sent a delegation to the Fandeby Holy State in the Western Countries, did it not?”

“Yes. I’m impressed you know that.”

“At that inauguration ceremony a year ago... our country also sent a delegation, including our chief.”

“I see.”

A year ago, at the inauguration of the hundredth pope.

Ryo had been there too.

Abel had not been there... He had been on the battlefield against Demon Man Garwin.

Both had involved all sorts of trouble.

“I heard that when the Dark Continent’s Eastern Nations delegation fell into danger in the arena, people from the Knightley Kingdom saved them. On their behalf, allow me to offer my thanks.”

“Please don’t concern yourself with it.”

Chukudy lowered his head, and Abel nodded magnanimously. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Ryo, sitting politely beside Abel, nodded only in his heart.

After all, Ryo was one of the people who had saved them.

I transferred back to the Central Countries using the coffin’s mana and Merlin’s power... but after that, the three from Room Ten must still be in the Holy State.

During the year when Ryo and Abel had been blown to the Eastern Countries, Chancellor Alexis, Marquis Heinlein, and the genius alchemist Viscount Kenneth Hayward had apparently created a system that allowed the Western Countries and Central Countries to exchange communications.

It used a special alchemy tool... of course, it could not communicate in real time like Ryo and Abel’s Soul Echo, and a gigantic tool so large it was difficult even to move had apparently been installed in the Kingdom delegation’s lodgings...

At any rate, though it took time, a framework for exchanging information had been established.

According to that, the three from Room Ten were working hard too.

We’ll be going to the Western Countries after the Dark Continent, so I’ll have them show me that communication alchemy tool there.

Ryo made up his mind.

Just then—

The corridor suddenly grew noisy.

Ryo and Abel tilted their heads, as did Chukudy, the master of the room.

A short while later, someone burst in after only the bare minimum of a knock and shouted a report.

“Terrible news! A stampede has occurred!”

“At this timing...”

Chukudy’s face twisted.

“We’ve sent out observation birds and are confirming the details, but...”

“What color was the signal smoke from the watchtower?”

“...Red.”

“A scale that may require abandoning the city...”