'By the way, when do you plan to return home next? I don't mind if you plan to bring them over to Green Hollow.
What's that got to do with it?
'If you have plans, I thought we'd get the timing right. It would only be a nuisance if we rode in at the wrong time.

　That's certainly true, too.

　Even if all the problems are solved and we are able to visit our hometown without any worries, if Mark and I don't go home, it will cause more hardship for the people who accept us.

　I'm sure your mother will try to welcome you here and there, and Mark wants to avoid doubling that burden.

''Even if you call it a plan, ...... my right hand man isn't going to return until he has a chance to settle his battle with Agart Ram, and I can't go back home in this state.

　He sits on the couch and extends his right arm, holding it out to the light of the room.

　He has removed the gloves to hide his elaborate appearance, revealing a jointed structure not much different from a doll's, and you can hear the small sound of parts moving with each movement of his fingers.

　Out of the corner of my eye, I feel Mark, sitting back down on the couch, leaning back on his elbow rest and glaring at me.

'You're not going to leave until the fight with Agart Ram is over, are you? I wonder how many decades that will be in the future.
It's not gonna take me decades to get this done. I have my own reasons for wanting to get this over with.

　Naturally, the reason for this was his relationship with Garnett.

　That guy was after Agart Ram for his mother's revenge, and initially he was allowed to continue to belong to the Silver Wing Knights under a false gender identity until he got his revenge or turned eighteen years old.

　With me and Garnett promising each other a future, this bondage became famous and innocent, but even so, the part of 'I'll continue to fight as a knight until I get my revenge' hasn't wavered at all.

　Garnett's revenge will be encouraged with all his might.
　However, I don't want to slack off and prolong it forever.

　The two sides never contradict each other, and it was taking shape as a policy of aiming for an early settlement with Agart Ram.

　Of course, as the saying goes, "Haste makes waste," and if you are in a hurry to settle the matter, you will lose, which is why they are making careful preparations like this one.

''That's fine, but since you can cut and paste it in [repair] anyway, why don't you just reconnect your right arm when you go back home, and when you're done, why don't you cut it off again and connect that prosthetic arm (Ude)?''
"...... Don't be so quick and awesome, dude. Are you confusing other people's bodies with a puzzle or something?
'You don't?　I heard that he's fighting a discarded battle every time with the assumption that he can put it back together with [restoration], so I thought it wasn't something he was too concerned about. Besides, I also heard that you plan to crush the things you've been entrusted with by His Majesty because you can fix them later.
............

　To the many points that are difficult to refute, I could only push back and misrepresent them.

　It is true that I may have a section of my thinking based on the existence of 【Restoration】.

　However, even so, the idea of replacing a live right arm that had been chopped off and preserved, treating it like a prosthetic arm, didn't come to mind.

'But well, that's not realistic. You sent it to the royal capital to study the Demon King's army's preservation techniques, and I don't know when the research will be finished, and it's hard to ask for it back since I have some personal business to attend to. ......''
'Could you not seriously consider it, it's weird.
...... You said it yourself, man.

　I looked at Mark with a bitter twist of my mouth and saw that he had unfolded his book with a bare face and started reading.

'Anyway, if the Commander says he doesn't plan to return for a while, I'll do the same. I'm not going to be able to get away with it. And it's no good looking as if I was the only one running away from a fight.
...... Right.

　It was far-fetched and vague, but Mark seemed to declare that he, too, had no intention of running away from the battle of Agart Ram.

　The twisted and twisted manner in which he spoke did not resemble the Mark of fifteen years ago, when he had left his hometown, but it had been years since he had been able to change that much.

'Then I'll have to rely on you,'
I don't want you to get your hopes up, though.

　It's probably time for Garnett to come back this way soon.

　I get up from the couch, turn my back to Mark, and turn to leave the common room.

　--Just then, you bump into a skinny older knight in the doorway of the common room.

'Oops!　...... What's that, Ulysses?
'Has the Commander left already?　That's a shame. I thought it would be a good idea to have a drink and get to know each other better, since we have such unusual faces.

　I looked at Ulysses, who grinned, and saw that he was holding a clear, reddish-brown bottle of spirits and several glasses.

'Just as well, if Sir Mark is here too. How about it, join us?
No, I'll go to ......

　I look at Ulysses, and Mark suddenly closes his mouth and turns his gaze away.

　I immediately look in the same direction as Mark and then react the same way Mark does.

　Ulysses wonders why we both reacted so strangely together.

　In the background, Sir Sophia, who had arrived before I knew it, was smiling at me with a big smile on her face.

''Please refrain from drinking in the common room, sir.
'Huh!　I know, I know!　I don't like it, I'm not drinking here!

　Seeing Ulysses hurriedly piling on the excuses, I could only chuckle as I exchanged a glance with Mark.