Chapter 176

Chapter 176

When we received the news that a shadow that looked like a scouting party of the demon king’s army was confirmed near the border, we immediately returned to Ringle Kingdom.

In the event that the demon king’s army was seen to be on the move, we couldn’t just casually go around greeting people and then go home, so it couldn’t be helped, but it was a bit regrettable that we couldn’t say goodbye to the people we met in Lukvis.

“I’m sorry that I had to send you back in such a hurry.”

We hurriedly drove the carriage back to Ringle Kingdom, taking about half the time it took to get there, and after dropping Amako off on the way, we heard from Lloyd-sama and Sergio-san at the royal castle about what had happened.

“So far, all we have been able to confirm is the movement of the scouts, but it is certain that there has been movement in the Demon King’s army. While we’re at it, let’s include the decisions made at the meeting and strengthen our ties with the other countries so that we can gather our forces at any time.”

Even I could tell that this was an emergency situation when there was movement in the Demon Lord’s army.

It was a good thing that it was after the talks had been concluded.

Because if it had been a few days earlier, it might have been quite late to coordinate with them.

“We don’t know when we will be able to confirm the advance of the Demon Lord’s army. Suzune and Kazuki, be ready to go into battle at any time.”

“”Yes!””

Senpai and Kazuki replied to Lloyd-sama’s words.

Nodding at their reply, Lloyd-sama continues to look at me.

“Usato would be better off returning to the rescue squad with Rose for once. I’m sure she’ll be waiting for you to come back, too.”

“Yes.”

Should I ask Rose to make a decision first?

I didn’t expect to find myself in such a tense situation right after I returned, which makes me feel uneasy.

Like the first time, a battle is a scary …… thing.

Then Lloyd-sama gave instructions to Welshy-san and Sigurds-san, and they were dismissed on the spot.

“……Is this the second battle for me?”

As I walked along the road leading to the rescue squad, I thought back on the previous battle.

I managed to survive the first battle, but even so, if it hadn’t been for Amako’s presence, it would have been a battle I would have lost for sure.

I don’t want to imagine that the knights of the Kingdom of …… Ringle will be confused and demoralized if senpai and Kazuki, who are also the spiritual pillars of the knights of the Kingdom of Ringle, are beaten by Ferrum …… Black Knight.

And with the onslaught of the remaining Black Knights and that vicious giant snake, the Kingdom of Ringle will be defeated.

Even if Rose existed, it would take a long time to conquer the Black Knight if they didn’t know how it worked.

“If there’s one thing that’s different from last time, it’s that it’s not just the Ringle Kingdom that is fighting.”

From the three kingdoms of Samaria, Calm Helio, and Nirvarna, we have friends who will come to fight with us.

I don’t know how much the strength of the Demon King’s army is this time, but it’s still reassuring.

As I was thinking about this, I noticed multiple footsteps approaching from behind me.

As I turned around, I saw a group of strong men running towards me, side by side, looking so scary that a child would have started crying immediately.

One of the strong-faced men, Tong, notices me and calls out to me.

“Hey, Usato. You’re back, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I was actually supposed to be back later, but I came back as soon as I could.”

The black clothes of the rescue squad.

They are responsible for rescuing the wounded on the battlefield instead of kidnapping them…… and transporting them to the place where the healing magicians are.

Their faces are scary, but they’re not bad guys.

“Are you guys running?”

The tough guys nodded at my words.

“Yeah. Now that the Demon King’s army is coming, we’ll have to get serious.”

“It’s our role to save the wounded, you know.”

“I’ll have to take them in the middle of it all.”

“Hee hee, if you’re fast, you won’t get caught.”

“Well, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it hard.”

What he said was right, but did it sound like he meant something else?

Well, I know he didn’t mean anything by it, so whatever.

I trust these guys, too.

…… No, I would never say that to these guys face to face.

“Come to think of it, this little shit is the vice commander.”

“At first, he was crying and whining when he saw us.”

“Hahaha, because you guys look like some monster. It’s normal to feel scared.”

“Ah?”

They let out a fierce voice and we stared at each other.

After a few seconds or so, we relaxed our shoulders and turned towards the dormitory.

“This isn’t the time to be doing this, is it …… Yeah.”

“……Yeah. If Aneue finds me, she’ll beat me up. I’d better get back to training. I’ll see you later.”

“Oh.”

Rose always beat me up, but now was not the time for that.

I’m going to go back to my training.

After watching them run off, I regained my composure and walked on, and saw the rescue squad’s dormitory.

“Well, I wonder if Leader is in the quarters ……?”

As soon as I see the quarters, the figure of a black-haired, red-eyed girl wearing a rescue squad training uniform running towards me comes into view.

“Usato-o!”

“Oh, Nea. …… Huh?”

I felt a sense of discomfort as she waved at me with a huge smile on her face.

Her uncharacteristic behaviour is more worrying than ulterior motives.

I catch her, backing away to avoid falling.

“Whoa!”

“I’ve missed you! So much!”

“……. What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well? Do you want me to cast a healing spell on you?”

“What?”

Nea’s face turned serious, and a blue streak appeared on her forehead, but it only lasted for a moment, and then a natural smile appeared on her face.

She’s acting in a way that’s so unlike her that I’m more worried about her than her ulterior motives.

Could it be that her personality has been reversed due to her training in the rescue squad?

According to those tough guys, it rarely happens.

…… There are some horrible stories out there.

“Fu- Fufufu. I’m fine. It’s just–“

Nea smiles as she pulls away from me.

At the same time, I notice that her upper body is not moving.

If I look, I can see a familiar magic pattern floating on her body.

“Restraining spell? Eh, why?”

Why is it necessary to make me immobile now?

As I tilted my head at the incomprehensible situation, Nea threw a flying kick at me with all her might.

“Because I can get back at you for leaving me in this hellhole! Ho-ho-ho!”

“Mmm!”

“HEBU!”

Before Nea’s flying kick hit my abdomen, I opened my legs half a step and tightened my abdominal muscles.

Nea’s kick slams into my abdomen, but my upper body doesn’t move an inch, and in fact, Nea falls to the ground with a shocked expression on her face.

“Heh- W-What was that? A wall?”

“Huh. You’re too sweet, Nea. Did you really think you could pierce my abdominal muscles with a kick like that?”

I told the stunned Nea with a bit of coolness, and she winced in frustration.

“Ugh! You’re a monster, even if you can’t move!”

How badly did you want to give me a blow?

After breaking the restraints with my upper body, I held out Nea’s hand and helped her to her feet.

“I’m home, Nea.”

“…… Yeah.”

Nea nods unfaithfully and transforms into an owl to sit on my shoulder.

I chuckle at her and walk to the rescue squad.

It seems that she hadn’t gone crazy during her training, but was simply trying to get back at me.

I was only gone for a few days, but she’s become quite mobile.

Maybe it’s because of Rose’s training?

Well, she’s a demon, so I guess she has high potential. I’m sure she just didn’t have the chance to train it until now. By the way, the restriction of not being able to harm me is almost not functioning now. It’s because an attack of Nea’s level can no longer be called harm.

“Did anything happen while I was gone?”

“Nothing much, really. Except that I was made to run to my death.”

“As usual. How’s the training going?”

“They told me to avoid the …… magic bullets, and they kept hitting me with healing magic bullets.”

Avoid magic bullets, huh?

I miss throwing magic bullets at him over and over again to train Nack’s evasion skills in Lukvis.

At that time, it made me happy to see Nack’s steady growth, too.

“I see, training to learn evasion. I’ve done that with Nack, so I understand.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you both had the same thought process ……. I mean, did you do that with a kid like that?”

Nea was distracted, but I could guess why Rose had made Nea do that training.

It was a weakness in the way Nea and I worked together.

If I couldn’t protect Nea during a fight, she would have to take care of it herself.

I guess she was trying to solve this problem by having me train her to avoid ultra-high speed magic bullets.

“How did your training go?”

“…… I barely managed to dodge a few times after they told me where to hit.”

“…… Hmm.”

Rose’s rapid fire …… of magic bullets, or rather her rapid throwing speed, is not unusual.

I’ve fought once and I know what she’s talking about.

The fact that she was able to avoid it a couple of times means that she has developed a good level of evasion.

And also, she’s probably getting stronger after being hit by magic bullets for a long time.

“That means that you’ve trained your dynamic eyesight to a large extent. As expected of our leader. She’s trained you in the exact areas that you lack.”

“That’s not as expected! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve already been blown away by ……!”

“Hahaha. It’s a healing magic magic bullet, so you won’t get hurt, right?”

“Well I might get a heart attack!”

I’m sure you’ll be fine.

I opened the door to the dormitory while exchanging words with Nea, who was desperately pleading for help.

“Where’s leader?”

“She’s inside ……. The Demon King’s army is coming, and she has a lot of things to do.”

“That’s true, it sounds like there’s a lot to do.”

This time, the scale of what we’ll be covering is bigger, so it might be different from last time.

As I was about to proceed towards the stairs, convinced by Nea’s words, a girl with distinctive horns and brown skin, Ferrum, came out of the entrance leading to the cafeteria with a difficult expression.

She met my gaze and gave me a puzzled look.

“Ah, Ferrum, I’m back.”

“Oh, welcome back, not ……! Huh! I see you’re here!”

Like before, you return it well.

It’s honest and a little comforting.

The first thing I did was to take my luggage down to my room, while fending off Ferrum, who tried to hit me as soon as we met.

“Well then, let’s go meet the leader.”

“You’re going to talk about the Demon Lord’s army?”

“Yes. Rather than that, I guess it was already communicated here.”

I was soberly surprised that Nea knew about the Demon King’s Army, since I try not to let too much information get out to avoid confusion.

“Rose informed me about it a few days ago. This place is important to the Ringle Kingdom, right?”

I nodded at Nea’s words.

The rescue squad is the lifeline of knights and soldiers on the battlefield.

“On the battlefield, we have to run to save the knights who are fighting. That’s why we train so hard every day.”

The black suits are the ones who bring injured people to life on the battlefield.

It is the white suit that heals the wounded brought by the black suit.

My role as a white suit is to run on the battlefield and heal the wounded on the spot.

“…… I’ll have to do what I can while I’m here too.”

“What, what are you going to do?”

I reply to Nea, who asks somewhat tentatively.

“Training. Just training.”

“So it’s business as usual.”

I shook my head at Nea, who held up her wings as she cowered in disgust.

It’s true that training as usual is important, but this battle is clearly different from the last one.

I know that Koga, the commander of the Second Corps, is going to try to put up a fight against me, and I know that I’m going to have to fight hard, and at one point I even feared for my life.

“No, we should do the …… special training that can only be done here, and that can only be done with the leader.”

“What kind of training is …… based on the premise that there’s someone more monstrous than this monster?”

“It’s going to be a lot of work, but it’s definitely going to be a plus for me.”

I understood Nea’s “I can’t believe it” look.

But I’m not sure if it’s because it’s before the battle.

In addition to the fact that I was aware of my inadequacies during the mock battle with senpai and Kazuki, I have a feeling that this next battle will not be easy.

That’s why I don’t have time to make any compromises in order to drown out this anxiety and be able to move when the time comes.

“…… Speaking of which, there’s something I wanted to ask the leader.”

I remembered as I finally arrived in front of the Leader’s office.

Before going to the meeting, Rose mentioned the name of a demon race called Nero Argents.

He is the one who caused the scar on Rose’s right eye, and he is the one who controls the wind, which is a title that can only be considered disturbing.

It’s just a guess, but it seemed to me that Rose and Nero Argents had an uncanny connection.

“Now that the meeting is over, I wonder if you’ll tell me …….”

“Tell me what?”

“Hmm, no, it’s nothing. Come on, let’s go in.”

I gave Nea a vague smile and knocked on the door of the Leader’s office, where Rose was supposed to be.