Several days passed after Zich dropped by the mercenaries’ camping grounds. He and his companions continued to survey the area and exterminate monsters. Thanks to Zich’s wide surveying abilities, they were able to get rid of far more monsters than any other team. An administrator from Pialu came and made a fuss the day before, praising their performance and how much they should have expected from a Karuwiman Honorary Holy Knight. However, the number of monsters coming down from the mountain range didn’t decrease. They still didn’t know the reason for the strange monster appearances.
Yet, even with the danger of monsters hovering over them, the people at Pialu continued to live their days to the fullest. Zich and his companions called it a day after annihilating a couple of monster groups. They cleaned their bodies that were dirty from battle—mostly from the dust coating them—and took a break. Their designated time for surveying the area was from sunset to noon, so the day was still bright. Although they battled, the monsters they had fought could’ve been tiny fish and it wouldn’t have made a difference to them. They didn’t really feel fatigued either. Elena felt the same way as she had already finished getting used to this monstrous party.
The sun hovered over them in the center of the sky. Nobody was tired enough to take a midday nap and spent the time doing whatever they wanted to do. Zich and Lyla came out from behind their lodging and went to a quite large garden that was decorated by the place they were staying at. As expected of a luxurious lodging place, the garden was decorated quite nicely. Grass blanketed the floor and thick autumn trees covered the outside view. Flowers were planted all over the place, and there were plentiful tables and chairs for guests to rest on.
‘As expected of a trading city’ Zich thought as he sat on a chair and looked around his surroundings. Even if the place they stayed was expensive and luxurious, if the city’s economy wasn’t great, there was no way they could have a place like this. Considering this, even if Pialu lagged behind other trading cities, it really was a city for trading.
Still, perhaps, because of the monster havoc, there was no one else in the garden besides them. There weren’t many guests at the lodging in the first place.
“Ah, this is really nice,” Lyla said as she slumped down on her table. She sipped the tea that an employee from the lodging gave her and soaked up the sunlight’s warmth. She thought things couldn’t have been any better. “I feel like all my stress is going away.”
“As if you got any stress from the menial tasks we have been doing.”
“Be quiet. It’s mental stress. All we have been doing these days is killing monsters,” Lyla said and placed her cheek on the table.
“I suppose so. A person ought to feel stressed and tired if they are old.”
“Who are you calling old!”
“You, I am talking about you. Isn’t your age at least four digits long?”
Lyla narrowed her eyes. However, she simply heaved and couldn’t find the words to refute him. After finding out that she was Clowon’s princess—furthermore, the first emperor’s daughter—her age was older than any human currently living in this world.
“That’s the same for you too! If we add the years from before, you are much older than how you look too!” By ‘before’, Lyla was talking about Zich’s pre-regression days. “Besides, I was asleep most of the time! You can’t count that time period!”
“Yes, yes, miss. I should heed to the words of the elder.”
“Urghhhh!” Lyla gritted her teeth and glared at Zich. Yet, Zich smiled so brightly that it was irritating.
“I should just throw a fireball at you.”
“I guess it would have an effect, of course, if I actually get hit.”
Lyla licked her lips at Zich’s brazen expression and looked down at the table again. Seeing her response, Zich sipped his tea and thought, ‘She’s much better at expressing herself now.’
To be more specific, Lyla had become much more open and emotional in front of him. The reason why was probably her confession from before, and now, this was Lyla’s way of expressing her feelings of companionship. Like that, Zich and Lyla continued to converse. Lyla enjoyed their calm chats while facing one another very much. They brought up each and every menial topic and continued their conversation naturally. Yet, there was always that one person who intervened and broke the peace at a time like this.
“Excuse me…”
Somebody approached the table and initiated a conversation with them. Lyla turned around. A man awkwardly stood there. Lyla let out a sigh—she could tell what he wanted just by the look on his face since it had happened countless times before.
Still, since she couldn’t be completely certain that the man had another important matter to discuss with them, she asked politely, “Do you need something?”
However, her guess was right. Perhaps the man gained confidence from Lyla’s politeness, but his face brightened up a bit.
“Could I perhaps know your name, miss?”
“For what reason, sir?”
“Ah, you see..” the man coughed, “I couldn’t help but try talking to a lady as beautiful as you. If it’s fine with you, would you like to have some tea…” As if they all copied the same phrase from one another, Lyla had heard the exact words tens and hundreds of times before. Like she thought, he hadn’t approached her for any important reason.
Lyla shook her head and said, “No, I’m sorry but I don’t have time.” She smiled as she refused him. Yet, she and Zich watching this scene in front of her knew that there was almost no one who turned around and left with just those words.
“No, it’s just that I know a really nice tea house nearby. If you don’t want tea, what about a meal together? There’s a place that is renowned for their Pialu specialty dish—”
“I’m fine.” One polite rejection was enough. Lyla threw away the little snacks she had left and coldly cut him off. The man was stunned by Lyla’s quick change of attitude, and Lyla’s cold eyes looked at the man like he was an eyesore. Still, it seemed like the man didn’t plan to give up. He was incredibly persistent, but this was also expected.
Zich stared at Lyla. She got rid of her fake expression and she now had an annoyed expression with her hand on her face. Normally, no matter how beautiful a person was, they would still look a bit worse with an expression like that, but her appearance barely changed.
‘That’s why he asked her out even though a person like me is sitting in front of her.’
“Would you reconsider once mo…”
“I said I’m not interested.” Then, Lyla moved her gaze away from the man. She mercilessly ended her extremely thin relationship with him. Of course, this action shocked the man as he had approached her with deep interest.
“P-please don’t be like tha…” The man unconsciously reached out with his hand to grab Lyla’s arm. His actions were so similar to all the people who approached Lyla in the past that it wouldn’t be surprising if they all planned this together.
“Hey.” Zich had been silently watching this event, but he finally spoke up.
The man’s gaze shifted towards Zich. His gaze was not kind, since Zich was the companion of a goddess-like woman he had fallen in love with at first sight. He had also witnessed how even though she looked at him with annoyance, she brightly smiled and conversed with the man next to her. Thus, his jealousy obviously exploded. Like a beast expanding its body to the maximum to threaten its opponent, the man straightened his shoulders and looked down at Zich. As if to pressure Zich, the man glared at Zich—no, he was about to do that.
‘Huh?’
The man felt his back become suddenly wet. His teeth chattered and his whole body shivered. He wanted to withdraw. He wanted to run away. Most of all, he wanted to move his gaze away from Zich. However, he couldn’t do that because he felt his life would immediately end the very moment he moved his eyes away. The amount of time that the man experienced this strange phenomenon was short, but this was long enough.
“Fuck off.” At Zich’s emotionless words, the man ran away without being able to reply. It seemed as if he lost strength in his legs as he fell a couple of times while running away, but he desperately ran out of the garden without being able to let out a single scream. Zich and Lyla’s surroundings became peaceful again.
“Couldn’t you just help from the very beginning?” Lyla complained.
“For punks like him, the person involved has to be the one to completely end things. Then it’s my turn to come forward. If I come forward from the very beginning, there are a lot of punks who’ll say stuff like I’m shackling you or how they look better with you or other nonsense like that.”
“You can chase them away like you did just now.”
“Wow, you’re saying some scary things. Are you telling me to put such intense pressure on innocent folks? How could you think such thoughts? Do you have a heart or not?”
Lyla slightly opened up her palm. The mana circulating in her hand made it seem as if she wanted to immediately throw a fireball directly at his face. However, after checking that Zich’s face was shameless to the max, she gave up. Regardless of how many fireballs she threw toward his face, his metal-plated shamelessness would not disappear.
“Anyway, it feels like these things keep happening more often than before.” Lyla put her head down on the table and complained again.
Zich thought he knew the reason why.
‘Don’t people say that when a person falls in love, they get prettier?’
Zich didn’t know if it was merely a myth or if there was any meaning behind it, but it was certain that Lyla looked a lot more vibrant than before. Did Lyla sense Zich’s intense gaze?
Lyla turned her head and looked up at him. “Hmm? What happened? Did you fall for me or something?”
“No wonder, it’s about time you got dementia at that age. Don’t worry, I can understand.”
“I’m really going to shoot a fireball.”
However, Zich and Lyla continued their small talk as if nothing happened. They didn’t know how much time passed by. Zich’s gaze headed towards the side—Lyla’s gaze also followed Zich’s and naturally headed towards the side. They saw a figure at a small distance away from them. Was a similar event like last time going to happen again? Lyla frowned unconsciously, but she soon found out that it was different this time. The figures next to them were extremely small.
‘Children?’ The two kids she was seeing for the first time were in front of her. There was one boy and one girl. Lyla quickly fixed her expression and asked, “Who are you?”
Zich replied instead, “They’re the Wolf’s Canine’s captain and vice-captain’s kids.”
“Ah, the kids you spoke about before?” Their bright eyes were lovely, and they didn’t look like mercenaries at all.
‘It seems like they’re at least doing a good job raising their kids.’
Zich was flabbergasted when he heard that Til and Nick were working as mercenaries while bringing their kids around. Of course, he immediately wondered if children could grow normally in an environment like that. However, the children they saw looked much healthier and well taken care of than they expected. They at least looked like children from the upper-middle class. Their clothes were neat, and their skin was clean. Most of all, the children were extremely energetic and lively.
Lyla asked kindly, “Do you have business with us?”
The children’s eyes sparkled as they looked at Lyla.
“A super pretty sister!”
“Yep, yep! She’s the prettiest sister I’ve ever seen!”
“Oh my! Thank you.” Lyla smiled brightly. “Do you have any business with this sister?”
At Lyla’s question, Til’s son, Walter, pointed at Zich. “I saw this old guy in my dad’s mercenary group a few days ago!”
It seems as if the children had decided to approach Zich out of curiosity since they saw him a few days ago.
“Old man, are you also my dad’s comrade?” Nick’s daughter, Ellie asked this time.
Zich laughed and replied, “First of all, I’m not an old man. I’m an older brother. I’m not one of your father’s comrades either. You got it?”
“Okay, old guy!”
It seemed as if the kids didn’t understand Zich’s words. A laugh slipped out of Lyla’s lips. “As expected of kids. They’re really good at judging people.”
Then, Lyla offered an extremely pure and bright smile to the kids. “Like this old guy said, he’s not your dad’s comrade. He’s this sister’s comrade.”
Considering that Lyla emphasized old guy and sister, Lyla was definitely getting revenge against Zich’s mention of her age. Zich clicked his tongue as if he was in a bad mood. He gulped down the lukewarm tea in front of him in one shot. Like this, a peaceful time that didn’t suit the danger Pialu was in passed by. However, this was only for a moment.
Several days later, a much greater number of monsters began rushing towards them from the Denest Mountain Range.