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Chapter 273

As word spread that the war would begin the next day and the people participating in the war started moving busily, Rei was walking through the main camp of the Mireana Kingdom army accompanied by a knight under Daska’s command.

A huge tent was in front of his eyes. From Rei’s point of view, it was big enough to be called a house rather than a tent.

However, there wasn’t a look of surprise on Rei’s face.

After all, it was a huge tent, but it was merely a tent. It wasn’t a magic item like the tents used by Elena and Daska. In Rei’s eyes, that alone placed the owner of this tent in lower standing compared to the other two in terms of their ability as a noble and their financial power, regardless of status or faction.

However, one’s ability as a noble was largely based on the amount of influence they could exert on those around them. In that sense, it wasn’t strange to say that the people he was about to meet, the ones appointed as general and his staff, were only there because they had the ability to be there.

In fact, in the first place, it was wrong to compare Elena, the daughter of a duke, the highest noble rank, and someone with the prestige of the General Princess or Daska Rowlocks, the ruler of the frontier, to common nobility.

「So, here we are. ……Daska-sama doesn’t care that much about etiquette, but typical nobles like the Royalists and Renodis are particularly annoying about it. Try not to be rude to them.」

「In the first place, I’m an adventurer. I can’t be expected to know anything about etiquette. ……But, I’ll do my best.」

Giving a sigh a bitter smile at Rei’s words, the knight called out to the soldiers on guard outside the tent.

「I am Sanju, knight serving Margrave Daska. I have brought Rei, who was summoned here. I request an audience.」

「Acknowledged! Please wait a moment.」

One of the guards quickly saluted with his right hand clenched into a fist at his heart before entering the tent.

Seeing that, Rei judged that the quality of the guards wasn’t that bad.

(From what I heard, the Royalists seem to have taken for granted that they would win this war……but seeing the level of their soldiers, that’s not unreasonable. I always thought that were lazy people. No, rather, it is only the nobles who are lazy, it can’t be the case for the soldiers who actually stand on the battlefield. If they were lazy on the battlefield, they would be the first to die.)

Although it was the first time he had been in a war, Rei was quick to understand due to his significant experience fighting monsters and other people.

「You ready? Don’t be rude, okay? If you do that, you’ll embarrass Daska-sama as well.」

After nodding at the knight, Sanju, who was reminding him, the soldier from before came back out of the tent.

「Come in. They are all waiting.」

(……Everyone? Who would they be?)

Seeing Sanju hand over the sheathed sword at his waist, Rei also handed over the Mithril Knife he had hidden inside his robe.

Sanju entered the tent first, followed by Rei.

Inside the ten, Rei saw that the nobles had split into three groups, forming something of a U shape.

「Oh, is that the person you were talking about?」

「What, isn’t he just a kid? This is definitely strange, as Renodis-dono had said.」

「No, no. What is important as an adventurer is ability. If he really has the ability to lead the first line of defence, as far as I’m concerned, that is perfectly fine.」

「In that case, we will need him to demonstrate his ability to us.」

「Renodis’s actions are really shameful in this situation. Maybe it’s because he’s confident in his own strength this time, but even I can tell that this kid……no, this adventurer has unusual abilities.」

「What? I’m surprised that you would praise someone like that. You think he’s that good?」

「After all, adventurers are different from us nobles with noble blood. We should just use them as meat shields.」

「Yes, yes. I’m worried about the fate of the Imarhen Marquis house if their heir can’t handle something of this level.」

「Hi-……Hiiii—!」

And the moment the people inside saw Rei, there was a large number of voices from the nobles inside the house sized tent. Most of them, as Rei expected, were insulting his appearance, but there were others who seemed to have sensed Rei’s abilities at a glance and were not as hostile towards him as Rei thought they would be.

However, the actions of one of the nobles changed the scene in the noisy tent.

The moment one of the nobles waiting in the room saw Rei, he leapt up from his chair and started screaming as he crouched on the ground and covered his head. Yes, it was as if he were a small child afraid of thunder rumbling in the night and had wrapped himself under the covers endure his fear.

For most of the nobles in the tent, this action was completely unexpected. The noble was just in shock, crouching on the ground and looking away from them as if he didn’t want to see, hear or say anything.

Meanwhile, some of the more capable nobles, or those who already knew of Rei’s strength, understood why this had happened.

(……I see.)

It was the same for Rei as well. Because he had seen the same thing happen many times before, Rei guessed that the noble who was currently crouching in fear probably had the ability to sense magic power.

「……Hey, what did he do?」

A noble’s murmurs echoed through the silent tent.

Most of the nobles in the tent turned to look at Rei. They knew that Rei was the cause. But, as Rei hadn’t actually taken any actions, they couldn’t assume he had done anything. Silence ruled the tent.

Eventually, one of the nobles, a man in his fifties who was sitting at the centre in a fancy suit of armour, yelled at the crouching and crying noble.

「You, you’re shaming the Royalists! Hey, you guys, take him away!」

He commanded his knight escorts to take the noble out of the tent. After the man had been taken out, he turned to look at Rei again.

Feeling that gaze, Rei had the luxury of turning to look at the nobles in the tent for the first time.

There were several familiar faces in the room. The most familiar of them was Daska, Rei’s direct employer. He could also see the faces of the nobles who had been in the tent when Daska asked him to lead the vanguard. On the edge of where the Royalists were sitting, he saw the face of Siminar, who turned to look at him with an amused expression. Across from them, in the Nobles side, Elena was looking at Rei with a trusting gaze with no change in her expression. he could also see Renodis, who was the cause of all this commotion. When his gaze met Rei’s, just for a moment, Renodis had an expression as if he had just seen the corpse of a Goblin on the side of the road. And……

(……Who is that?)

At the centre of the Nobles group, he saw a man in the same position as Daska. The moment he saw the man, Rei felt a sense of deja vu.

It was as if they had met before.

Maybe he noticed that Rei was looking at him. The man also turned to look at Rei.

(Oh, did he notice? I was sure I hid my face when we met in Gilm.)

The man who thought that to himself was Philma de Giel, the Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel’s knights and someone who was participating in this war as representative of Duke Kerebel. He had fought Rei once in Gilm on the order of Liberty Kerebel, who had been told of Rei’s ability. However, even though he had hid his face, Rei instinctively felt a sense of discomfort when looking at Philma.

That said, as far as fighting power was concerned, Rei wasn’t a match for Philma, as Duke Kerebel’s Knight Commander. When they looked at each other, there was hardly any change in Philma’s expression and Rei started to think that maybe this was the first time they had ever met and it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

But at that moment, a noble a short distance from Philma suddenly came forward.

「Hey, you! How dare an adventurer like you stare at the Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel’s knights! Know your own place!」

His voice held a sense of superiority as if it were natural to trample on others. Some of the other nobles frowned at him involuntarily as he looked at Rei in contempt.

Renodis Imarhen. It was the person who had brought Rei here to begin with.

As for Renodis, maybe he wanted to remind Rei of the difference in status between an adventurer and a noble. It was clear why he did that as he continued to glance occasionally at Elena, who was next to Philma.

However, Elena simply looked back at Renodis with a frigid gaze that couldn’t be called happy in any way.

「……」

Recalling advice of the knight, Sanju, who had guided him here - that any trouble caused would be a nuisance for Daska - Rei simply kept quiet as he turned to look at Daska.

Noticing that Rei was keeping silent to save him face, Daska turned to the Royalists and spoke to the man in his fifties at the centre.

「Anyhow, Arius-dono, the main point of discussion, Rei, has arrived. But, what do we do now?」

「Hmmm, the original question was whether or not an adventurer was good enough to be entrusted with the front lines?」

「That seems to be so. Of course, as he is an adventurer working actively in Gilm, I have a good understanding of his skills. I have no worries about letting him take the lead. After all, he has the skills to hold the record for shortest time to reach rank C after registering at the guild. In addition to that, he even has a Griffon.」

Daska’s words caused a stir.

A Griffon had such an impact.

But of course, some people found Daska’s words unamusing.

「Haha, Margrave Rowlocks really likes to joke around.」

Yes. This came from Renodis of course.

「Oh, you think this is a joke? Would you tell me which part of that was a joke?」

「It is about his skill of course. Indeed, he may have been the fastest person to reach rank C in Gilm after registering with the guild. As there is actual evidence for that, I will accept that. But isn’t that because of his Griffon and not his own skills?」

Hearing Renodis’s words, the nobles around him started to buzz again.

There were many voices who basically said that with a Griffon, it naturally wouldn’t be difficult for a kid to rank up, especially those that were close to Renodis and those in the Royalists who welcomed this conflict.

In particular, the Royalists that were trying to fuel the conflict believed that if the relations between the Nobles and Neutrals deteriorated, then the war with the Bestir Empire would result in the further exhaustion of their forces.

(Hey, is he stupid? Right now, the Bestir Empire is already in an advantageous position, but he’s just adding fuel to the fire in our own camp?)

Daska clicked his tongue in his mind, but there was already no way to calm the situation around him.

Or, maybe some of the Royalist nobles were friends of of the noble that had been disgraced when Rei came in.

If Daska’s memory was correct, the noble that had been cowering had been a Royalist noble. In addition, he was also someone famous as a competent mage. The fact that he had lost all face was more than enough for the nobles to look on Rei harshly.

Daska was wondering how to control the situation when his gaze met another person.

The person was at the centre of the Nobles faction and was someone that even Daska had to be aware of. The Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel’s knights, Philma de Giel. He was a fearless person with highly masculine person features.

(Hm? It seems he has the same thoughts as me.)

The moment their gazes met, Daska and Philma both nodded at the same time as they exchanged their opinions eye to eye. Philma raised his voice

「Silence!」

As expected of one of the most powerful warriors in the current age, his voice was charged with an equal power. Seeing that he had stopped all the nobles from talking with a single word, Philma’s power was clear to everyone.

「If you want to determine Rei’s power, then all you need to do is to actually see him fight. ……Renodis, all this trouble started because of you, right?」

「……Yes.」

As expected, the arrogant Renodis nodded obediently at the question from the general of the Nobles faction, Philma.

「Then the answer is simple. Renodis, you fight the adventurer, Rei. See his abilities for yourself.」

「You want me to fight an adventurer?」

「That is right. Do you have any objections?」

「……No, I’ll follow your suggestion.」

Renodis came from a Marquis family, the same as Philma. However, in comparison, Renodis was the heir of his family, while Philma was only the second son, meaning that he wasn’t going to be next family head, but a substitute heir. That was what Renodis though, but he couldn’t withstand the pressure from Philma and nodded obediently.

「Arius-dono, do you mind?」

Seeing Renodis nod, Philma asked Arius, a Royalist noble and the general of the Mireana Kingdom army, who could be considered the commander in chief.

「Mm. I would like to see the power of that kid down there.」

Arius nodded calmly, thus agreeing to the fight between Renodis and Rei.

Incidentally, Siminar, who was on edge of the Royalist faction, watched the series of events unfold with an amused smile on his face.