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Chapter 264

「Daska-sama, I’m back.」

Late at night, Rei returned to the place where the Rowlocks army had camped for the night and met with Daska.

Inside the tent, which was a magic item, was Daska, the commander of the army, three knights serving as bodyguards, Rei, the one who had made the suggestion, and Egg, the leader of the Prairie Wolves that Rei had brought along.

「You’re back. ……So, he’s one of the Prairie Wolves?」

「Yes. He’s the leader of the Prairie Wolves, his name is Egg. ……Egg.」

Rei turned to face Egg and raised his head slightly.

「As introduced, I’m Egg, the leader of the Prairie Wolves. I’ll say this first, but we don’t like nobles. Especially Sabrusta’s deputy lord, he’s doing a lot of dirty work behind the scenes. But, just because we don’t like the nobles doesn’t mean we hate the country itself. It’s also because I owe Rei a favour. For now, we’ve decided to cooperate with you……but don’t think we Prairie Wolves will become tame dogs.」

I’m warning you. Such thoughts came to mind from Egg’s expression.

Those were words that were spoken based on feelings he had for nobility for a long time. And if Daska got angry with him, he might not even have to take part in the war. Even if they killed and discarded him here for his rudeness, if he didn’t return, the Prairie Wolves would hide themselves in the mountains.

And above all, he had heard from Rei that Margrave Rowlocks was a bold and open minded person, so he felt it was worth a try.

And as a result……

「Ahahahahaha. Hey, did you hear that? He wasn’t afraid of me at all and just said all that at once.」

Instead of finding it impolite or impertinent and drawing his sword, Daska found it amusing as he gave a hearty laugh.

He showed no sign of reaching for the sword sheathed at his waist. If Daska had really drawn his sword, Egg would have been helpless as he had left his weapon, his axe, outside in order to meet Daska. But that was completely beside the point.

「Hey, what do you think of this man?」

In addition, after his bout of laughter had subsided, Daska asked the knights who were serving as his bodyguards.

「I agree. I think it’s amazing to have the courage to say this to Daska-sama.」

「If I were him, I wouldn’t be able to talk to Daska-sama like that……you look a lot more fierce than a common bandit.」

「Hey, even if it’s the truth, it still hurts. Chose your words a bit better.」

「Daska-sama feels hurt……isn’t Daska-sama rumoured to have a heart of Orichalum?」

「Who’s been telling such lies.」

Egg, who was confused at the sudden conversation before him, turned to Rei.

From Egg’s perspective, this wasn’t the attitude that the commander of the Rowlocks army would have towards him.

「……Rei?」

「What is it?」

「No. ……He’s a strange person as well.」

「I know right? That’s why he’s willing to cooperate. If he was one of the arrogant nobles you had been thinking about, I probably wouldn’t have brought you here.」

「Hey, you two. It’s not nice to talk secrets in front of others.」

「Oh, sorry Daska-sama.」

Rei bowed his head at Daska’s voice before turning to Egg again.

「As you can see, even towards Daska-sama, he has boldness in his voice. I think he will be usefully acting as the eyes of the Rowlocks army because they are good at covert actions as bandits.」

「……That’s true. I can trust Rei’s words and I know of the rumours around the bandit group the Prairie Wolves. Because of our nature of being on the frontier, the number of people we have for covert operations such as reconnaissance and sabotage is still limited. I’d welcome you if you are happy to assist……but at the very least, you’ll have to show me your strength, right? I don’t care that you are bandits, but if some of the others find out, there will be people who want to cause trouble. And if something happens, there may be cases where you won’t be able to protect the people involved. Will you still cooperate with us?」

「No problem. The Prairie Wolves are simply returning a favour to Rei. However, as I said earlier, we’re wolves and we’re not going to become some noble’s dogs. ……Margrave Rowlocks, you are, as Rei said, a capable and honourable man, more of a noble that the other nobles. However, some of the other nobles are not as capable as you and are nothing but scum. Remember that the Prairie Wolves and some of the bandit gangs around here were forced to become bandits because of those nobles.」

He spoke simply and stated only the facts. Not only Daska, but even his bodyguards were silent. The previously peaceful atmosphere a few seconds ago was gone as they listened quietly.

Even Daska understood what Egg was talking about. No, it was only understandable to Daska because he served as a buffer between the power struggles of the Royalists and Nobles factions.

「……Ah. I’ll keep those words in my heart. Moving on, would you be fine to arrange a briefing session right after this?」

「I don’t care. Since we’ve decided to cooperate, use us as you’d like during the war. You don’t seem to be like one of those nobles.」

With a grin on his face, Egg gave Daska a meaningful glance. Daska responded with a fearless smile as he looked back.

Were they on the same mental wavelenght or were they just similar to each other? Anyhow, the two of them hit off with each other in this short period of time as they reached out to shake hands.

While shaking hands, Daska turned to look at Rei.

「Rei, I’m sorry to have to make you do extra work aside from supplies. This is a good achievement so please look forward to the reward.」

「No, it was my own suggestion to begin with. ……But, if possible, I would like a magic item rather than money. Also, something that could actually be used in battle.」

「……Hou~」

Daska gave a small nod a Rei’s words when he recalled the contents of a report that had been raised previously.

「Spekaing of which, you did have a hobby of collecting magic items.」

「……Yes.」

Rei nodded, slightly surprised that Daska knew about his hobby of collecting magic items. But because he understood himself to be an anomaly, it must have been report to Daska somewhere.

「All right. It depends on your achievements in this war but……that’s right, if you can perform a great merit that everyone agrees is number 1 merit, then I will give you a treasured magic item that has been handed down the Rowlocks family.」

Twitch.

Rei perked up at the words ‘treasured magic item’.

The Margrave Rowlocks family had always kept the frontier under control. Although they were a small to medium sized force that was very small in terms of strength, it was still a treasured magic item passed down a family that had wide influence within the Mireana Kingdom. It was hard to imagine what it could be, even for Rei, who had inherited Zepairu’s knowledge.

「I understand. Then, I’ll used all my power to achieve a merit that no one can match in this war.」

「Please do so. The more active you are, the more likely this country will survive.」

Daska nodded with a smile.

Of course, Daska also benefited a lot from providing such a magic item as a reward. With such an attractive reward, he was telling Rei not to leave Gilm……and out of his sphere of influence. Or, even if he went to another city, it would show himself as someone from the Neutral faction. Rei’s presence was even more important to Daska now, especially when it came to his transport capacity with his item box. This was Rei’s first time in the army, so he was only carry a large amount of food and half of the other supplies, but if Daska decided Rei could be completely relied on, he was planning on letting him take care of all the supplies.

Without voicing his dreams and hopes in his heart, he told Rei to leave the tent.

Seeing Rei’s Dragon Robe covered back leave, Daska began to discuss the details of scouting with Egg.

「Guru~?」

Waiting for Rei, who had just left the tent, was Set, who was lying on the ground as usual. Because it was night time, Set turned to look at Rei with a softer cry than usual.

「Did you wait long? There were a few things that needed to be done. Rather, should we sleep in a tent now? It’s going to be busy again tomorrow.」

「Gurururu~」

Set stood up with light movements that didn’t match his weight as he rubbed his face against Rei.

During the day, Set stood at the front of the Rowlocks army as a scout. At meal times, Rei was busy taking food out of the Misty Ring. Set had wanted to be spoiled by Rei during the night, but at night, Rei was busy with taking out food, tents and searching the mountains to win over the Prairie Wolves without any clues.

Fortunately, Rei was able to get some information from the lone bandit, so it hadn’t taken as long as Set had expected, but he still felt that he had a lot less time to play with Rei.

Of course, other adventurers, soldiers and even the knights were familiar with Set. However, Set still wanted to play with Rei, who was his favourite person.

For that reason, he gave a cry and shook his tail as he rubbed his head.

Rei also sensed Set’s general feelings so he reached out to rub his head while smiling and thinking it couldn’t be helped.

Rei relieved his own fatigue as he stroked the smooth silky fur that grew on Set.

Although he wasn’t good at socialising, after joining this war as part of the supplies team and as a mercenary, it was inevitable that he would have to interact with others. That was one of the main causes of Rei’s fatigue when he was providing supplies.

「……Here, when you’re marching, you can’t eat that much food, right?」

Rei took a sandwich from the Misty Ring that was made with sweet and spicy stewed chicken.

The sandwich was one of the leftovers from dinner which Rei had kept for his own meal. There were quite a few dishes he had previously stored for himself, but the sandwich was the first thing he noticed on the Misty Rings list.

「Guru~?」

Can I eat it? Rei gave a small nod at Set, who had tilted his head to ask before eating the sandwich as it was……

「Gururururu~」

While giving a cry, Set bit into it with his beak and broke it half before using his head to push Rei’s hand which still held the other half.

Rei, who felt Set telling him to eat the other half with his round eyes, brought the sandwich to his mouth with a smile.

「Thanks.」

「Guru~」

Like that, the two of the walked through the camp to their own tent, not far from Daska’s tent.

Normally, this position near the centre was where the commanders’ tents would be gathered, but Rei was given this spot as he was in charge of supplies. Incidentally, Keo, who was also in charge of supplies, was assigned a place near Rei’s tent.

「……It will be busy again tomorrow.」

Muttering to himself, Rei looked up into the night sky.

There were no clouds and the light from the stars and moon illuminated the surroundings. There was no need for him to use a torch.

That said, this might have been because Rei had good night vision. Bright as it was, it was still dark enough to have difficulty walk around if not for the campfires scattered all around the camp.

「Gurururu~?」

As Set lay on the ground beside the tent and shook his tail, asking to be spoiled, he turned to look at Rei.

Leaning against Set, Rei reached for his throat.

If a cat’s throat was stroked, they would make a purring sound. But as Set had the head of an eagle, he gave a happy cry instead.

Of course, Set was happy that his throat was being stroked, but the biggest reason for his happiness was being able to stay with Rei. He knew that Rei was close by while they travelled. But since he was inside a carriage, Set couldn’t help but feel lonely not seeing him.

Maybe it was because Set knew that Rei needed to do what he had to do that he felt lonely.

Like that, Rei slowly played with Set until he started to doze off.