Just as we finished our meal and were about to return to the White Wolf Store for a moment, Nagi's figure standing at the entrance of the Springtime Wakaba Tei came into view.

　Melissa, with whom he always works, was nowhere to be seen.

　Judging by the dampness of her hair and the exuberance of her skin, she looks like she just got out of the bath a while ago.

　When Nagi noticed our presence, he gave a small bail and offered a silent greeting.

You're not here. That's unusual.
He's still in the big bath. It's a long bath.

　Even after the White Wolf Knights began to be established and Garnett was announced as a silver-winged knight, Nagi has not changed her attitude towards Garnett.

　There is no difference in the behavior of his counterparts of the same age, and Garnett is rather comfortable with them as if to say that he is more comfortable with them.

　It's not that they are close enough to call each other friends like Sakura is, but when they see each other, they naturally exchange words, and when they are in a tight spot, they naturally lend their support - a relationship that is common among adventurers of the same s*x.

I'm sorry about the other day. I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble.
No, it's a job that includes responding to emergencies. And there was a lot for us to gain from it.

　When he heard of what he was getting, he vaguely remembered that he'd never heard of Nagi's reason for coming to the West (here) and becoming an adventurer.

　Sakura had asked the alchemists of the Western Continent for a method of processing baboon kane and to complete her warrior training at the same time, but Nagi's purpose had never been heard of.

　Judging from his surprise when he first encountered Sakura, it seems that he has not had a pattern of following her, at least not in the same way.

　I thought about asking her about it, but I thought that would be too familiar, so I decided to expand the topic in a different direction.

'Come to think of it, we had different values about God than Sakura's place. Does this case mean that Nagi's place was right in their thinking?

　The idea that God is a being who gives believers skills is a common perception across all continents, but there is no unanimity of opinion on what exactly he is.

　The two main hypotheses are that they are transcendent beings with an ego, and that they are a mass of power with no human selves.

　And Nagi's clan supported the former, and Sakura's clan supported the latter, although Nagi and his family condemned the gods' descent into an energy resource-like view of God: .......

'I'm not so sure that's true,'

　Nagi's reply was uncharacteristically crisp.

It's just like a human being. The only thing that makes it seem like a god is its strength, and it has no pretense of protecting humans. If that was really a god, the elders back home would be outraged.
...... You're right.

　If you ask me, you're certainly right.

　I didn't understand it at first because I've lost my faith in the gods, but for those who believe that the gods have a sense of self and are protecting people, that Hannya's behavior might be difficult to accept.

　Of course, there may be some people who think that such selfishness is more god-like.

　As we were having this conversation in a dumbfounded manner, Melissa waved her hand and called out to Nagi from the back of the corridor leading to the large bathhouse.

''I don't mind requesting you directly, so if you have any underground exploration work to do in the future, please give me a shout. It's an interesting case for me, and I'm sure you'll gain some valuable experience.
I appreciate you saying that. Keep up the good work.

　Nagi finally spoke lightly about his work as an adventurer before walking away towards Melissa.

　Although Nagi tends to clash with Sakura for some reason or other, Nagi shelves these personal feelings while carrying out the contents of the request and works well with Sakura.

　Since the person himself has said this, Melissa and I will be relying on him.










I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like it's all settled somehow. I'm sure there are no hard feelings about the fact that Nagi was almost cut in half.

　Garnett muttered sincerely as they passed through the streets of Green Hollow Town and climbed the slope that led to the White Wolf Store.

　During the day, the street was crowded with adventurers heading to the dungeon, but as expected when the sun was going down like it was now, the number of people on the street would decrease.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a good deal more information about the miasma.

The miasma seems to have helped the miasma stricken adventurers recover with Erica's medicine. I'm glad the Knights' first job didn't turn out to be disastrous.
Yeah, yeah. It's like all the adventurers in the basement are obsessed with Erika. He's not so bad yourself.
I don't think it had anything to do with the romance.

　Of course, Garnett's tone was a complete joke.

　It was true that Erica's reputation had skyrocketed among the adventurers who had participated in the exploration of the Deep Realm.

　It is said that in order to increase the resilience of the miasma-infected body, Erica continued to make the potion with painstaking devotion, and even gave the adventurers who helped her recover from the miasma a recovery potion when she was done.

　...... Well, the fine print is verbatim from Roy's statement, so there is no denying the possibility that he is exaggerating a bit.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work for you.

　If I said such a thing right after returning to earth, Erica's face turned red and she denied it with a giggle, but it would probably be just as I imagined.

　I've been an adventurer for fifteen years, so I have an approximate understanding of the behavioral patterns of adventurers in general.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a good deal more information on this topic.

　He seemed to notice our approach, too, and slowly turned back to us and waited for us in the doorway without saying a word.

"...... Sir Mark, is that you? What's up with you at this hour?
'Sir Knight Commander ...... No, brother. I have a personal matter to discuss with you.

　I can't help but roll my eyes at the way they call me.

　It's a nostalgic name that I had been called that for a long time before I left my hometown, but after we met again, I was never called that properly, not even once.

　It's not that he simply grew up and changed what he called them, but that he even seemed to deliberately and blatantly avoid that name, and Mark even dared to rephrase it and use it.

'Okay ...... let's go inside anyway. Garnett, can you ask me to prepare some tea?
Oh. You've got a lot of stories to tell.　Just blurt it out as much as you want.

　Garnett let me and Mark into the house and then closed the front door one last time.

　-- I don't even dare to put into words the exchange from there on.

　We just talked about the events of the past fifteen years of vacancy and the frank emotions we'd accumulated over the past fifteen years, and repeated endlessly the dumbfounded and shouted at each other.

　It was nothing out of the ordinary; it was just a normal sibling rivalry.

　To be honest, the specific exchange is embarrassing and shameful anyway, and I don't want anyone other than Garnett to hear or confide in me.

　It's not the leader of the knights or the knights under their command, but just a selfish brother and his flailing younger brother throwing things they had stored in their stomachs at each other until late at night--that's all the time they spent.