Me and the doctor arrived at Zeke's study. The doctor knocked on the door and from inside.

"Enter.

　And then I hear Zeke's voice.

　The doctor enters, followed by me. When I walked in, Ellis, Aeris, the army chief Gilbert-san and about three people who seemed to be his subordinates were already waiting for me.

''Is it getting late?''

'No, I'm fine, Eileen. You can sit down too, Ray.

I understand.

　Mr. Gilbert spreads out a map on his desk as me and the teacher sit down.

'First of all, thank you for your efforts on this great march. The army was able to minimize the damage thanks to Gil, the army chief, Eileen and Mars for the short-range troops, Mel and Kay for the long-distance troops, and Ellis and May Jane for the wizard troops, who kept the damage to a minimum. Even though we had the smallest numbers we've ever had, there were still close to ten thousand of them.

　After saying that, Zeke looked at me and Aeris.

'And Aeris and Ray. The orcs that invaded the city were eradicated by you guys, so we didn't do too much damage. If it weren't for you, there would have been even more damage. I'm not sure I'd want you guys to be too reckless.

　Then he smiles bitterly. Ellis saw that.

'Like I said before, you really shouldn't be reckless! Aeris couldn't use her healing magic to fully heal if her wounds were deep enough, and she almost couldn't swing a sword again. Even for Ray, if his magic power was too depleted, it would have been a matter of life and death!

　You heard me, but I didn't realize how deep Aeris's wounds were...

But,

　I said, and Ellis suddenly stood up and came towards me and Aeris. When he comes over to me and Aeris, they both hug me as hard as they can.

'I know I've been warning you for a while now, but you guys did a great job! Aeris, Ray. I'm your mother and I'm proud of you too!

　Eris smiled at me with a calm face as she said that. Looking at that face, both Aeris and I felt tears come to our eyes. After all, no matter how much I tried to convince myself, in my heart I was probably worried about killing a living creature, letting someone else die, or that I was injured and nearly dead.
　I was able to realize that by being held by Ellis.
　So naturally, we both hugged Ellis back. I'm not sure if this is the best way to feel alive after all this time, but I'm hugging her tightly.



　I cried for a few minutes or so, and when I finally calmed down, Zeke spoke up. With a grin on his face.

'Seeing Aeris and Ray like this makes me realize that they're kids after all.

'Of course. No matter how much blood Zeke, I, and Ellis have in their veins, they are still children. And we as parents need to continue to teach them.

　Eileen says so. Gilbert-san, who couldn't see that, spoke up.

''It's fine for us to talk to you as a family, but let's get down to business.

'Yeah, I know. Gil can't wait to see his wife and kids, can he? And you're finally home from cleaning up after the big march. I can't wait to see you two nekomimi, can I?

'Of course! I can't wait to get home and love Chloe and Krona!

　Zeke says that and makes a bad face. But Gilbert returns it as normal. That's right! This is the husband of Chloe, who was my maid of honor and is now the head maid of honor, and he will be Krona's father.

　It's a long story, but Mr. Gilbert was Zeke's direct subordinate during the previous great march, and he was acquainted with Chloe, who was escorting Ellis. Gilbert was in love with her from then on, but he was unable to see her at all due to the cleanup of the march, so when Chloe came to the house as the Lanwalker's maid of honor, they met again and started dating.
　After that, things progressed very quickly and they were married.

　Zeke laughs in return. Mr. Gilbert is smug for some reason. Ellis and his men sigh and Eileen bursts out laughing. What is this chaotic space?

　Zeke began to speak as if to change the subject.

'Jeez, well, let's talk about this big march.

''Yes. This year's march was probably the smallest in number compared to the previous ones. It's an approximation, but the number didn't even reach 10,000. It was a horde of orcs, mostly orcs.

　I don't know what the reason for the Great March is, but the monsters that appear in the march often change. The last time the Great March was held, three dragons were said to have appeared among the demons like this one. They said that they were forced to deal with that, and it took quite a while to deal with it, and the damage was significant. Before that, it was a horde of undead-centered hordes, and they had to take measures each time.

The only thing that could have made it worse is that the Orc King led the hordes this time, which is probably why it's an orc-centric swarm. And the last time it was a rich led undead-centered horde the last time it was a rich led undead-centered horde.

　The current expectation is that the demons will change depending on the leader of the horde.

''Perhaps so. But as I'm sure you've all noticed, this grand march is different from the previous ones.

Yeah, we've been using a surprise strategy that wasn't part of the march so far.

　Zeke said, and the atmosphere in the room became tense.

I've heard Aeris say that before the orcs appeared in the city, a large magic circle appeared in the sky. Well, the fact that the orcs appeared means that they must have activated the spatial magic transfer as a magic circle.

'I guess so. I've never heard of a demon that can use spatial magic. So that means.

'Yeah, nine out of ten humans are involved. And they're high-level wizards.

''Master Ellis. How much magic would it take to create such a large magic circle?

''I haven't seen the magic circle in person, so I can't say for sure, but if you send close to a hundred orcs to such a large magic circle, I think you'd need close to 10,000 magic power. But since we're using a magic circle, the amount of magic power we can store might be covered by the number of people we have, though.

'I see. It would take a long time to make a magic circle because it would have to be made with precision, and they were probably careful to make it without us noticing it. I can only think of that country to think of something like this.

　Everyone looks at me bitterly.

'I knew it was that country.'

　The teacher said that and let out a sigh.

''Ah, it's almost certainly a huge country even on this continent, which is on the other side of the Demon Land, that would do something like this. It would be the Regalia Empire.''

　Zeke said with a sigh, too.