Legend
chapter-197

Chapter 197

Ara was stunned for several seconds after seeing Rei, but soon spoke up after calming down .

「It has been a while, Rei-dono . Thank you for taking care of me last time . 」

Ara gave a knight-like bow while smiling with embarrassment .

Her manners were different from the last time they met, but that was probably because Soleil and his bodyguards were around . Rei didn’t care about that as much .

「Ah, it’s been a long time . But why are you here Ara? If I remembered correctly, weren’t you Elena’s bodyguard?」

「Yes . Following Elena-sama’s orders, I am taking Baron Soleil to Anessis, in the Kerebel Dukedom . 」

「……Anessis?」

「It’s a city that could be called the base of Elena’s father, Liberty Kerebel . In order to oppose the Bestir Empire, I came to pick up Baron Soleil to do research for us……that is, then he heard about the epidemic in Baar that shouldn’t have been possible . ……So, why is Rei-dono here?」

「In the beginning, I came here in order to deliver the ingredients for the medicine required to fight the spread of Magic Fever . ……As for why I’m in the city right now . Now that I’ve come to this city, I guess I can’t leave until I can confirm that I’ve not been infected?」

「……Eh?」

At Rei’s words, Ara stopped moving .

Like that, she turned her eyes towards Soleil with dull movements similar to that of a broken toy doll .

「Ah, that seems to be so . Unfortunately, it will take some time for me to go back to Anessis . 」

「……Baron Soleil . You knew already, right? Rather, can he really not leave here?」

Ara turned to Rei again, but Rei nodded it agreement .

「That’s right . Although if you use your title as a noble, you might be able to force your way out, there’s a danger that you might end up spreading Magic Fever to even the city of Anessis . ……Or rather . Once Magic Fever became an issue, the guards should have closed off all the entrances to the city . You’ve managed to get in quite easily though . 」

「Ahh, that, I’m sorry . Soleil-sama forced his way in with his authority at the city lord . 」

Comish replied along with an troubled sigh . Ara nodded as well with a sigh .

「Although Baron Soleil has entered the city, since Elena-sama asked me to bring him back, I can’t just leave things as they are .

(Ah, so she’s still devoted to Elena I see . )

While thinking like, Rei nodded in understanding .

「Fortunately or not, I can leave in about 5 days . So please do your best . 」

「……」

Ara looked at Rei with an expression complaining that he was playing dirty, but either way, they had entered a city where an epidemic has spread . An inconvenience to that extent was unavoidable .

Even for Ara, she didn’t intend to spread Magic Fever to the city where Elena was and nodded reluctantly .

「Anyhow, I didn’t know you two knew each other . As Rei said, I’ll be staying in this city for a while, so don’t worry . In that case, there must be a lot stories to tell if you haven’t seen each other for so long . Why don’t you take some time to talk?」

「But……」

Ara looked at Soleil somewhat worriedly . As soon as she took her eyes off him he might disappear into the city of Baar somewhere, so it was no wonder she was worried .

「Don’t worry . There are various things I want to investigate in the city, so I won’t disappear selfishly . Well, that’s how things are . I will head over to the eastern storage facility again . Perhaps there will be a fragment of the dungeon core left over . 」

「Ah, Soleil-sama, are you serious? Since you force marched yourself all the way here, aren’t you going to take a break first? To be exact, you’ll be leaving here in a week . 」

Comish asked unenthusiastically, but naturally, Soleil refused to hear such words .

「Don’t say such stupid things, idiot . There’s a possibility that I can get my hands on a fragment of a dungeon core . I don’t have time to rest while I’m in the city . Come on, let’s go . Come quickly . You will be my bodyguard . 」

「Haaa . 」

Answering with a strange sigh, he immediately left the room with Soleil and his other bodyguards .

Seeing them off, by the time they realised it, Rei and Ara were the only two people left in the room .

「……A dungeon core, was it?」

Ara muttered unintentionally .

Considering the incident that had happened in the dungeon, it was no wonder that her expression stiffened .

「There was a dungeon core here?」

「Ah . To be exact, it was something not quite a dungeon core . 」

While replying to Ara’s question, Rei sat down on the sofa in the empty room .

「Then, the cause of Magic Fever was……」

「That’s right . 」

「……Is that so . 」

While sighing deeply, Ara took off the Power Axe from her back and sat down on the sofa opposite Rei .

「Even so, I guess I didn’t expect to see you in such a place . ……It’s a good thing that you’ve seemed to familiarised yourself with the Power Axe . 」

「Yes . Since it was a gift from Elena-sama, I’m using it with great care . 」

「Is Elena doing well?」

「Yes . Her skill with the power of the Ancient Dragon isn’t perfect, but she’s beggining to master it . Training is essential . Ah, pardon me . 」

Ara apologised as she poured tea into two cups on the table and passed one to Rei .

Receiving it gently with a thank you, Rei brought the cup to his mouth .

When he had headed for the dungeon, he had had the opportunity to drink some tea that Ara had brewed . Rei continued talking while thinking that her skill hadn’t declined .

「By the way, may I ask you what happened to Vel?」

「……His entire family fled to the Bestir Empire . Liberty-sama, Elena-sama’s father, pursued after them but about 40% of them managed to escape to the Bestir Empire’s territory . As expected, we couldn’t just attack them inside the Bestir Empire’s territory . ……」

「What about Vel?」

「I have no information about that at all . I think they are also being cautious about it . 」

(Is that the case? Seeing his true nature then, I had thought he would gladly reveal himself to provoke us……the only thing I can think of is that the injuries he suffered were severe and he is still being treated . )

「That reminds me . 」

Unexpectedly, Ara changed the topic .

「I heard that the knight captain of Duke Kerebel’s knights complimenting you……have you met before?」

「No, definitely not . I’ve never met with such an important person . 」

Actually, they had met in Bolton’s mansion, but of course, Rei hadn’t known the identity of his opponent .

While hearing Rei’s words, Ara gave a sigh with an expression of agreement .

「That’s true . But, such a rumor has been spreading around the knights . So because of that, I thought that it was probably because the knight captain went to Gilm to deal with matters back then . ……Then did he hear about it from Elena-sama?」

「No, I wouldn’t know about that . 」

After this unexpected meeting, Rei continued the conversation with Ara without any trouble .

If possible, he had wanted to convey information about the Bestir Empire agents he had encountered at Bolton’s residence . But as Daska had told him it was an important matter, he didn’t mention it for now .

Talking with each other about their current situations, Ara was surprised on hearing that Rei had defeated a Gamelion rare species . Ara also talked about the time she challenged a knight, who had tried to criticise Kuust, the duel finishing with Ara’s Power Axe against the knight’s neck . Suddenly, there was a knock at the door .

When Ara gave permission to enter the room, a girl in her teens, clad in a maid uniform, entered the room . She had impressive blue hair, trimmed into a bobcut .

「Pardon me . Diarog-sama has called you Rei . 」

「Diarog-san?」

「Yes . That is, he wants to talk about Soleil-sama . 」

「……I understand . I’m sorry but it looks like I’ll have to get going . I’ll be staying in this city for about a week . Let’s talk again if we have the opportunity . I would like to hear what Elena has been up to . 」

「Yes . Certainly . Since I was able to meet with Rei-dono here, I would also like to tell Elena-sama about this . 」

「If anything comes up, come to the inn I’m staying at . ……I think Diarog will know where it is if you ask him . 」

After saying that, Rei left the room for Diarog’s office, guided by a maid .

「Oh, you’ve come . I was surprised to hear that you were brought from the inn to Baron Soleil . ……However, it seems that nothing has happened in particular . 」

「Yes . He just wanted to hear about the dungeon core . 」

「……Really, that person is still the same as before . But because of that, it was possible for me to control the position of city lord over other nobles . 」

Although he sighed, his complexion was good . People who had contracted Magic Fever were gradually returning to their daily lives as more medicine was made . In addition, though it turned out that the dungeon core was the reason why Magic Fever had spread so virulently, it had already been destroyed . Since there was little chance that more troublesome events would occur, it was natural that he was in a good mood as the representative lord .

「So, I’ve called you here for several reasons . First of all, the purple fog that appeared yesterday . Those who touched it got paralyzed, but as for its effect duration, everyone seems to be able to move again after a night . Well, with regards to that, doctors say there shouldn’t be any lingering effects, but they’re not sure of the cause of paralysis . For now, we’re going to keep watching them . 」

「Is that so . I hope there aren’t any aftereffects . Though that said, it hasn’t had any effect on me or Set even though we breathed it in directly . 」

To be exact, Rei and Set had come into the most contact with the purple fog inside the city . They had basically been at the location the fog had appeared from .

「It’s basically harmless for those above a certain level of magic power, so onto the second thing . That Seis woke up early this morning . It seems he fainted because he used magic power beyond his limits using the Necklace of Resonance . 」

「Is that so . It’s good that he’s awake now……is there anything else?」

Anything more? Rei asked Diarog, who was still looking at him .

At Rei’s question, Diarog nodded with a sigh .

「Ah . A side effect from using the Necklace of Resonance is that it seems he can’t control his magic power at all right now . That is what Seis said, as a top class mage . 」

「……I see . 」

(An item that can direct magic power to others . It isn’t surprising for it to have side effects of that level . )

Rei remembered that Seis himself had said there would be some side effects on the receiver’s side of the necklace .

「Do you think the guild master knew the necklace would have this effect?」

「I guess so . Fortunately, this incident has come to a close . When I asked him about it, he said he should be able to use magic again in about 3 months . ……That is the sole relief . The city of Baar will need his magic after this . 」

「That’s the silver lining . But since the people in this city are excellent, you should be able to deal with things until the guild master recovers . 」

「Oh well . We never did leave everything to Seis . We’ll manage somehow until he recovers . 」

Muttering that with a smile, he eventually looked back at Rei after gathering his thoughts .

「Changing the subject, you’ll have to remain in the city for nearly a week . You do understand right?」

「Yes . I’ll have to wait until any Magic Fever dies off . 」

「Ah . I’m sorry for all the constraints, but please endure it . ……Of course, the dungeon core incident was an exception, you are forbidden to fly directly out of the city with Set . 」

「I expected that so I understand . It was the same in Gilm . In the end, yesterday was an emergency . 」

「I see . I hope you understand . That’s all . You can go back . ……Please let me know if Baron Soleil bothers you again . I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything, but I’ll do what I can . 」

「Yes, please . 」

Finally, Rei left the office .

Though he asked the maid about Ara, he heard that she had gone after Soleil, so he left the lord’s residence and returned to his inn .

Thus, for approximately the next week, Rei walked the streets with Set, helping with reconstruction or sparring with Ara, spending his time busily .