Around the time Kousuke and his group were having a serious talk at the Arena Guild.
Silvia and the others were enjoying the food stalls in the town of Seichun.
By the way, Mitsuki also came along with this group.
“Ah! That looks delicious!”
Wanri, sharp-eyed, found her preferred food stall and ran over to it.
This particular food stall was located a little away from the usual food stall street, which might be why there were no customers at all.
“Haha. Thank you, young lady.”
Seeing Wanri walk straight towards the stall, the stall owner smiled.
However, his smile faltered slightly when he saw Silvia, Floria, and Mitsuki following her.
Wanri, the first to arrive, was already a considerable beauty.
Furthermore, two more beauties, led by Mitsuki, who were no less stunning, had joined her.
At this point, one could imagine the stall owner thinking, “What kind of joke is this?”
Despite his surprise, the stall owner did not stop working.
Watching his hands at work, Mitsuki nodded in admiration.
“It certainly looks delicious. You have good taste, Wanri.”
“Oh? That’s good to hear. Stall owner, I’ll have enough for everyone.”
“Coming right up,” the owner replied, glancing briefly at Floria.
“Since you took the trouble to buy from me, are you all right?”
The stall owner asked with a worried look, glancing in another direction. Floria replied with a small laugh.
“You’re quite observant, stall owner. But you don’t need to worry about us.”
“What? You already noticed? It seems I was worrying unnecessarily.”
Seeing Floria’s face, the stall owner realized his worry was completely uncalled for and looked a bit sheepish.
“Don’t worry. I appreciate the warning.”
Floria waved her right hand as if to say “don’t mind it,” and the stall owner handed over the prepared food.
“Here you go. You’re going to eat it here, right?”
“That’s right. Things like this are best enjoyed right on the spot, aren’t they?”
“You bet,” Floria replied, and the stall owner burst into laughter.
* * *
Leaving the food stall Wanri had found, Silvia and the others wandered through other stalls, gradually moving further away from the main street.
“It should be easier to contain any damage in this area,” Silvia murmured. The others nodded in agreement.
“Since we’ve been led all the way here, I’d appreciate it if they showed up properly,” Floria said.
“What do you think? They might just be here to monitor us,” Mitsuki suggested.
“It’ll be a hassle if they follow us all the way to the inn,” Wanri added.
Following Silvia’s lead, Floria, Mitsuki, and Wanri each voiced their own thoughts.
Perhaps their wishes were heard, because a bit further ahead, some people finally spoke to them.
They were about five men, conspicuously carrying swords at their hips.
One of the men, approaching with a leering smile, stepped forward and spoke to them.
“Hey, ladies. Wanna come with us for a bit?”
“No,” Floria replied so clearly and decisively that the men looked momentarily bewildered, then their expressions became slightly angry.
“Hey, hey, are you serious?” the man asked, ostentatiously placing his hand on his sword. But Floria was completely unfazed. As the reigning queen of a country, the men’s pressure meant nothing to her. Besides, with Mitsuki by her side, she didn’t think they could do anything to them. What was more important was whether they had approached them merely out of attraction.
The man looked at Floria’s impassive face with a hint of suspicion, but quickly returned to his smirking expression. It seemed his past experiences took precedence over the slight unease he felt.
“We’d prefer it if you’d come along peacefully,” he said.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said no. Do you honestly think you can do anything to us with your skills?” Floria deliberately provoked. The men reacted perfectly.
“Boss, that’s enough!”
“This is getting annoying, just take ’em!”
Voices from the other men chimed in. Seeing this, the man clicked his tongue softly.
“I gave you a warning?” By the time he said this, his eyes had already shifted to a combat-ready gaze.
* * *
“I-impossible…”
The man who had first spoken to Silvia and the others looked around at the result in stunned disbelief. Mitsuki addressed him with a displeased expression.
“What? You came rushing in, but you weren’t much. Why don’t you show a little more guts?”
Floria thought there was no point in showing guts to Mitsuki, but didn’t voice it. Incidentally, the men lying around had increased to about six, from an initial four. The men had other companions waiting at a distance, besides the five who had come forward, but that also proved completely meaningless.
The only man who had not yet been knocked unconscious looked around and suddenly realized something. They had the ability to incapacitate his companions in such a short time. It would be easy for them to do the same to him. Then why was he still standing? As this thought struck him, causing his face to contort, Mitsuki turned to him with a brilliant smile.
“Now then, let’s hear the details a little more,” she said.
After Mitsuki interrogated the man further, she learned, as expected (?), that they had been hired to escort her to a certain place. That place was the mansion of a noble who had recently taken up residence there. Seichun was an independent town and had no nobles of its own, but nobles from other countries sometimes visited. Apparently, such a noble had noticed Silvia and her companions walking through town and taken an interest in them.
Having heard this much, Mitsuki quickly knocked the man out.
“There. You sleep for a while too,” she said, and delivered a quick strike. The man collapsed on the spot.
“So, uh… what do we do now?” Mitsuki asked, turning to Silvia and the others after ensuring the man hadn’t fallen at a strange angle. The other members’ replies were equally casual.
“Well, leaving them be should be fine, right?”
“It feels like we’ll get more entangled if we get involved,” Floria said.
“Um, it looks like too much trouble,” Wanri added.
With such complete agreement, the decision was made to leave the matter unresolved. Besides, in a few days, they would be locking themselves away in Gazenran Tower. Therefore, there was no need to stir up unnecessary trouble.
Afterward, Silvia and the others left the men as they were and returned to the main street, enjoying browsing the food stalls just as they had before. Of course, they didn’t just browse; they tried anything that caught their interest. Like the previous stall owner, they were met with surprise at each shop they visited, but by the time they reunited with Kousuke and his group, they had grown accustomed to such reactions. Therefore, this time, they chose to ignore it. This is a story about how these things happen even without Kousuke. lol.
