Garnet's chest, peeking out from a gap in the broken armor, is rising and falling in a small way.

　Her breathing seems to have calmed down after [repairing] her physical body.

''Thank goodness you ...... made it in time. ......

　But still, I didn't think that such a secret was hidden under Garnet's full body armor.

　I was trapped in a preconceived notion that he was a knight.
　Come to think of it, the name "Garnet" could be either male or female, right?

　At that moment, a dragon's roar rang out behind the crumbling earthen wall, and a fierce earth shake shook the meadow.

　Part of the earthen wall collapsed under the impact, and the dry soil came down in pieces.

''Whoa!　d*mn, he's on a rampage with his last bit of strength. I think we're almost ready to take them down, but it looks like we'd better get out of here before we get involved in .......

　I had to leave the dragon slaying to Sakura and the other three.

　I tried to pick up Garnett, who was still unconscious, and the weight almost made me faint.

''Heavy ......!''

　Naturally. Even for a girl, the weight of one human, plus the mass of the sheet metal armor that covers her entire body is added.

　Even if I estimate it to be as light as possible, it should be as heavy as a man larger than me.

　Full body armor is not heavier than people say it is - that's just the subjective opinion of the person who wears it.

　The weight of the armor is distributed all over his body, and if someone else is holding it, the weight of the armor will attack him.

　Moreover, a person who has fainted and become weak is difficult to lift and feels very heavy.

　All of these factors combined to make the act of lifting Garnett a jump in difficulty.

As I recall, in a situation like this ...... if you hold it up like this ......

　Somehow, I manage to raise Garnett's body and carry him up onto my shoulders in a slumped position.

　In this state, if you use your right arm to hold one of Garnet's legs and one arm at the same time, you can carry an unconscious person relatively better.

　I've seen a guy I once shared an adventure with carry his unconscious comrades like this a few times.

''d*mn ...... this is still heavy ....... If you could just [disassemble] the armor, you'd be able to ...... but this kind of armor is said to be incredibly expensive. ......

　He fled into the woods, worrying about petty citizenship, and continued to run in the opposite direction of the route he had taken when he came here.

　Along the way, Garnett regained consciousness and began to flap out of control.

'Whoa!　What is this?　What's going on with me?
Don't be an idiot!　...... giggle!

　He falls as hard as he can while carrying the garnet.

'...... That's right, Dragon!　Annya, how dare you!

　Garnett instantly got up and tried to run out, but before he could take a few steps and run, he lost his balance and fell over.

''Guhaha ......!''
Don't push it. I mean, you've already bled so much blood. Isn't it hard for you to stand up?

　The wound has been [repaired], but the large amount of blood that erupted at the moment of being slashed by the dragon's claws is still lost.

　There was no way he could fight properly in such an anemic state.

　As expected, Garnett seemed to understand that, and sat down on the ground with a bitterly contorted face.

　And then he dropped his gaze as if to check the state of his body--

～～～～!

　--a muffled voice.

'Oh, sorry. I forgot to fix my armor.
'Hey ......!　Oma......!　See ......!

　I don't know if it's anger or shame, but Garnett turns red and glares at me.

'You can't blame me. It was so bad that I had to put my armor on later to make it in time. First of all, if I had known it was a woman (yes) from the beginning, I would have given it some consideration, but if I didn't know, there's nothing I could do about it.

　Touching the armor from the back side, I activate 【Restoration】.

''Here we go.''

　I also sit down on the ground and take a breath.

　I don't have any combat power and I and Garnett, who is in a state of blood loss ...... currently, are both out of power.

　We can either wait for the defeat to be completed and join up, or we can quickly return to the ground and rush to report to the guild.

　Either way, it looks like we need to take a short break.

.......
......

　Some time passed without speaking to each other.

　It was Garnett who broke the silence.

"...... Hey, white wolf. Why don't you ask me why I've been hiding it or something?
Hmm?　Well, you're hiding it because you have certain circumstances you don't want people to know about.　Then I won't be forced to ask. In the first place, I'm too scared to get into the situation involving the high ranking officers of the Order to begin with.

　When I replied with a laugh, Garnett rolled her green eyes in surprise.

''How did you know?
Is this about the higher-ups in the Order?

　Then the reason is simple.

"Felix was called 'XO' by Bradford. I know the title of the Order. The XO is the assistant to the Lord Commander, and that's pretty high up, isn't it?
............
You're not going to be able to get your hands on any of them. In other words, it's natural to think that your 'brother' 'Carmine' is a Knight Commander or someone of higher rank. Am I wrong?

　I'm not proud of it, but I'm confident in my memory.

　I couldn't continue to be an adventurer with an E rank for all these years if I didn't remember all the useful information I overheard.

...... You know that much?
I didn't expect it to be 'sister' instead of 'brother', though.

　My misjudgment of the gender was completely an assumption that came from a preconceived notion.

　It seems I'm still inexperienced in some ways, after all.

"I also thought that when it comes to the Commander's sister, it might be hard to pay attention to kicking a civilian to the curb ......, but when I thought about it, Felix didn't look at me that time.

　I show him a deliberate rubbing of the area where I had just received a low kick from Garnett.

　Felix and Bradford weren't looking at me and Garnett because they were receiving an explanation from Sakura at that moment.

　If I had witnessed the moment, I would definitely have scolded Garnett as tightly as I always do.

'Goooo ...... that's right, ......'

　Garnett clammed up, gazing industriously from side to side, ruffled her blonde hair, and then looked straight at me as if she had made up her mind.

There's a reason I did that. But you're just not the same.
What does this have to do with your story about hating mithril traffickers ...... or something like that?
......!　That's what ...... from who, and Felix is the only one who can do that. Bradford is a seriously too quiet bastard and ......
You don't have to tell me what's going on. If you need to, I'll let you know.

　With that, he tried to stand up, but Garnett pulled his arms tightly around him and made him sit on the ground again.

　Garnett looked up as he breathed in deeply, and this time he let out a breath as he fell face down, and then opened his mouth again, this time to catch his breath.

'I ain't making excuses. I'm not going to make excuses. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I also want to thank you for healing my wounds. You really helped me.

　Garnet then sat down on the ground and bowed her head deeply.

　Considering that she couldn't stand up well because of the blood loss, this was probably the best she could do.

　I said 'I'll make you apologize later' during the treatment, but I didn't expect her to be so straightforward, so I was confused and couldn't find the words to reply.

'...... You're surprisingly honest, dude. I get it. Let's let bygones be bygones, shall we? I'm going to be able to say that I've seen things that I shouldn't have, and that's a good thing.
'Not good to look at ......?　......!　Hey, you!　You don't need me to tell you that, okay?　Forget it.　I'm serious!
What?　No, I'm not talking about that one, I'm talking about ...... geez!

　Garnett blushed and shook my shoulder angrily.

　I was referring to my true face and my gender, but apparently Garnett has associated me with something different.

　I felt as if the memory was going to physically roll away from me as I was being shaken with a rather strong force.