It had been some time since the meeting with Ail of the Northern Tree Sea Union.

　Today, we spent our business hours as usual and turned our afternoon meal breaks in order without any trouble.

　In the middle of it, just as me and Leila were filling the counter with the two of us, a customer with an atmosphere that was clearly different from the adventurers arrived.

　His behavior is clearly that of a knight, but he has a face that I've never seen before in either Silverwing or Golden Fang.

　He's probably a little older than me in age.
　It's roughly the impression of Leila's parent's generation.

　I'm not familiar with all of them, though, so they may be new additions who came from other lands.

　As I was thinking this, the knight-like visitor moved straight up to Leila's front.

''Welcome--''
Good to see you, Leila.
"-- Uncle Bartholomew: ......!

　Leila's expression was strained and she called her visitor her uncle.
　That alone was enough to give an approximate picture of the situation.

　In other words, this knight is from the same Hyndman family as Layla, one of the families that make up the Dragon King's Knights of the Kingsguard.

''This is what you wanted to do, even refusing to return? It's not a form of order of return as long as you're not a knight, but I'd like you to be a little more aware of that.
'Wow! For me!　I have some non-negotiable thoughts!　Even my uncle, who is not a knight, would not have the authority to order me around!

　Something about the atmosphere suddenly becomes disturbing.

　I quickly got up from my seat and intervened between the two of them, glaring at each other over the counter - only Leila was aggressive - but I interrupted them.

'What do you want with our employee? From what I've heard, it sounds like they are your relatives, but if it's too much, I'll have to ask them to leave the restaurant.
...... Manager Luke: ......
Oh, excuse me. So you're Luke of the White Wolf Forest. I do beg your pardon for my rudeness.

　When the knight named Bartholomew realized that the manager (me) was present here, he changed his attitude so easily that it was anticlimactic.

　Is it because the attitude towards Leila is that she is a family member?

　I was about to replace Leila, who looked relieved, when Bartholomew, assuming that she was planning to do the same, turned to me and got down to business.

He turned to me and said, "The unworthy Bartholomew, Robert Hyndman, I have been asked to bring this letter to you. I don't know the contents of this letter, but I believe it to be of great importance. I do not know the contents of this letter, but it is an important matter and I would appreciate you taking it out of the hands of outsiders.

　Bartholomew handed me the letter and easily turned on his heel and walked out of the store.

'...... I'm sorry, manager. I'm sorry that my people have been inconvenienced. Uncle Bartholomew is, well, somewhat ......
That's okay. It's not uncommon for someone to have a disagreement with a horse.

　For some reason, he and Bartholomew didn't seem to be on the same wavelength, but it's natural to have one or two such partners if you have to deal with a large number of people.

　Even when I was an adventurer by trade, I couldn't just go out with the people I was comfortable with, and we often kept a moderate distance from each other and cooperated in a clerical manner.

　Call it an unpleasant mastery, but that kind of detachment was important from time to time.

'Well, you said it was an important letter, but--'

　I look down at the letter I received from Bartholomew.

　The next moment, I gulp and am speechless.

　The emblem with the motif of a two-headed dragon.
　There is only one being on earth that is allowed to use this.

''--From the royal palace?










　In conclusion, the letter was a summons from His Majesty King Alfred.

　No specific reason was given for the summons, perhaps out of fear of information being leaked, only the location, date and time, and restrictions on who could accompany him.

'Tri-Brook City Imperial Residence ...... is the closest city to Green Hollow. Will His Majesty be coming there?
I guess it's part of the pilgrimage. The country has only been around for a short while now, so I'm going on pilgrimages frequently to reinforce stability.

　The letter was opened after the close of business, and Garnett was the only one present.

　Now we were both holed up in my bedroom, exchanging opinions on the contents of the letter.

The first time I had an audience with you, it was at an encampment just down the mountain. You weren't staying at the official residence at that time, even though it was supposed to be close to Tri-Brook.
''It's the scale. That time, we had a large group of people with Golden Fang in tow, so I'm sure it was more than Tri-Brook could handle.
You mean this one's smaller than that one ...... and I'm still nervous either way.

　I've had two audiences in my life, and I still show no signs of getting used to it.

　The king who nearly unified the continent and the best adventurer of twenty years ago - and the source of my admiration for the reason I wanted to be an adventurer.

　There is no one in this world who is not nervous about all of this together.

You'll be able to see that the reason for the call is because of the knighthood and the new knights.

　Even though it's still some time away, I could feel my heart cowering like it was aching.

　A series of great commotion originated from the fact that the Silverwing Knights and the Golden Fang Knights, who embrace rivalry with each other, tried to take me in as part of their power struggle.

　His Majesty received word from both sides that they were going to recommend me for knighthood at almost the same time, and in order to avoid intensifying the conflict between the knights, he replied that he would postpone the decision on whether or not to knight me until the end of the Demon King's War.

　However, not long after that, the War of the Demon King ended.
　As a result of my desperate struggle, I was able to achieve something that even the Royal Court thought was worthy of a knighthood.

　It's a pleasure to be recognized, of course.
　It's not that I don't like being knighted, per se, but my main intention was to refrain from it because it's too much for me to handle.

　However, encouraged by the deep-rooted problem of the knightly order's power struggle, the conversation got bigger and bigger.

　The first thing that was brought up was a plan to have the Dragon King Knights, who stood at the top of all the Knights, pick me up and make me give up the Silver Wings and the Golden Fang by convincing them.

　However, the Dragon King Knights had a policy of only allowing those who were related by blood or marriage to join the Knights of the Dragon King.

　Layla, an unmarried person around her age, was sent as a potential fiancée on the condition that 'as long as we have mutual consent', but neither I nor Layla had any desire to do so, and when Layla fell in love with my friend Travis, our plan fell apart.

　And the other plan was an outrageous one to establish the thirteenth new knight order and install me as its leader.

　I'm not going to be able to get the knighthood alone, but being a knight commander is an outrageous idea.

　Naturally, I was going to express my refusal, but--

It's ....... Do I have something on my face?
No, no. I'm just watching.

　He seemed to have unconsciously turned his gaze to Garnett, and he gave me a dubious look.

　-- in order to join the Silver Wing Knights, hiding her gender to avenge her mother's death, Garnett was burdened with the condition that her father would be engaged to a man of satisfactory status.

　Looking back on it now, I suppose me and Garnett were both attracted to each other at that time.

　When I learned that Garnett would be attending a nobleman's evening party to choose his fiancée, I couldn't stand still and rushed to the royal capital and persuaded my father by declaring that I would accept to become the head of the new knightly order.

　With this, the royal palace also proceeded with various preparations for the establishment of the new knight's order in secret--perhaps it was finally on the verge of completion.

　There was no such thing as regret.
　Rather, it's now time to prove that I'm a man worthy of Garnett.

　But that didn't stop the anxiety from coming up.

The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a copy of the book. Garnet, will you come with me?
'What?　Of course I'm going. You didn't even think about inviting anyone else to the party, did you?

　Garnett put his arms around my neck from behind me and put his weight on my neck.

　I could feel the softness and warmth through the bare skin we touched, and I felt the anxiety in my chest melt away.

　--Yeah, we'll be fine. We'll make it with this guy.
　With that kind of confidence, I carefully folded the summons back into the letter and then reached over my shoulder to Garnett.