Aldis left the capital on the same day as Liana and the others after sharing information with them.
　He was thinking of staying in the capital for a few days, but decided to return to the village as there was no sign of an immediate battle.

　With the sun beginning to dip in the background, I walked northward along the road until there were no more people around, and then I became a man in the sky again, holding Liana and her friends.
　They will probably arrive at the village by the time the pale sky expands.

...... something is there.

　They were flying towards the Canobis Mountains with no one to block their path when, halfway through their journey, Charu spotted something small running across the grasslands.

'Isn't it a herd of beasts?'

　Immediately, Liana presented a common sense view, but as expected of Aldis, he is not able to search for all the magic power within the range he can see from the sky.
　The only thing that is barely visible from a distance is something that looks like a grain of sesame seed moving in the same direction as a group.
　But for a group of beasts, there are a lot of them.

　Oddly enough, the direction Ardis was moving in and the direction the group was moving in were almost identical.
　They would chase the group from behind, but the distance between them would gradually decrease as Aldis' relative speed was faster.

　Eventually Aldis realized that it was a human-ridden horse.
　At the same time, he would find several familiar faces into the group being chased.

'Ted and Norris?　So is that Orphelia in a robe over there?

　The people who were fleeing are the members of the Byakuya's Myoujo, which recently acted as Michelle's personal bodyguard.
　Including them, a total of about eight horses are running away.
　Chasing them are, of course, human-controlled horses.
　But there are more than twice as many horses as those being chased.

　It is a very good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you're looking for.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most of your time with us.

''The army of Thoria?

　I don't know what the situation was, but both the horses being chased and the ones being chased looked listless.
　They must have run a very long distance.
　Even though Ardis is able to move at high speed in the sky, it's still slow compared to the full speed of the horse.
　But the fact that the distance is decreasing like this means that the horse is already nearing its limit of wear and tear.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this in the next few weeks.
　The speed of the chase hadn't changed, as if the soldiers of the pursuing Trier army knew that.

''I don't understand the situation, but ......

　On the one hand, a group of acquaintances who deliver daily supplies for the village, and on the other hand, a Tholian lord's army that has no history with Ardis.
　There is no need to think about which side of the equation you will be assisting.

　It's a good thing that you're not going to have to worry about the fact that you're not going to have to worry about the fact that you're not going to have to worry about the fact that you're not going to have to worry about the fact that you're not going to have to worry about it.
　I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that I'm going to be able to help you with this.
　When the soldiers stopped their horses to prevent their horses from crashing into the wall, the soldiers sent up a cloud of sand to take away their vision and chased after Ted and his men, leaving their confused pursuers behind.





　The horses were nearing their limits, and they were running much slower, so Aldis soon caught up with them.
　After checking that no one was following them, he dismounted and walked down to the ground and approached Ted and his friends, who were resting their horses in the shade of a tree.

'Ain't that Aldis!

　Ted, who had been wary of his surroundings, immediately noticed and ran up to him.

'Sounds like you were being chased, what happened?　That was the Tria's territory, wasn't it?

'Ah, so you were the one who held your pursuers back.

　Aldis's words finally made him understand why the chase was gone, and Ted said a word of thanks.

'Well, you'll have to ask Michelle for the details. I don't know the details either.

You don't know what you're doing and you've been running away.

People don't usually feel safe when they're being chased by a guy with a serious problem.

　I guess that's how dire the situation was.

"We're meeting in a strange place. And you're taking your daughter with you.

　I followed Ted to the shade of the trees and was greeted by Michelle, along with Orphelia.

'Ah, Aldis. I'll keep an eye out for any pursuers.

　When Liana saw Orphelia's figure, she climbed up the tree as if to escape.

''Char too, please.''

Okay.

　After accepting Aldis's request, Charu lowered his backpack to the ground and followed Liana up the tree.

I've never seen you before. Are you from the village?

'Yeah, he's a guy who doesn't usually get out in the open much. He's got a good eye, so he'll be good to keep an eye on.

　Apparently, he and Michelle were never acquainted.
　It's not that he doesn't want to go out of the house, but it seems that he can't get rid of his habit of moving around stealthily, and his face is not very well known in the village, Char.

''Well, there's Norris upstairs, and if his pursuers come, they'll notice him immediately.

　At Orphelia's words, Ted discloses the information he just learned just now.

'It looks like your pursuers have been held back by Aldis.

'Look who it is, that ...... was Aldis.

　Orphelia is convinced by that explanation.
　They understood that they had been able to escape through the intervention of a third party.

''So, why were you being chased by Tria's soldiers?

　Michelle sighed heavily at Aldis' question.

'That's not--'

　It's a good idea to have a good time with them.

I've heard that noblemen from all over the world are leading their territorial armies to the borders and the royal capital, which are the battlefields. So there's nothing strange about encountering a territorial army. I'm sure they will buy supplies from the local merchants and vendors in order to increase their supply. Although we don't welcome the reduction in the supplies we carry to the village, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to go against the wishes of the territorial army. It's not like they're going to take all of our cargo, and they'll pay us more than the market rate for it. Well, this time we thought we were unlucky and offered half our cargo.

　From what I've heard so far, I don't think there was anything wrong with it.
　But of course there is more to Michelle's story.

By the way, the problem came afterwards. It was just about time for the sky to turn to night, so we and the Trier army decided to make camp there. I don't know what time it was, but in the middle of the night a young soldier came running in to us. What do you think he said as soon as he came running in?

...... to inform you of a demon attack, or something like that?

It would have been better, though. That soldier had a tragic look on his face and asked me to send a message to his family in the capital.

The message?　Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se, but ......

　It is not uncommon for peddlers to be paid to leave letters and messages for you.
　Soldiers at war have limited means of communicating with their distant families.

　But since Michelle and his men were heading north from King's Landing, they would be going in the opposite direction if they wanted to send a message to their families in King's Landing.
　I'm not so sure about this, because it's possible that the soldier didn't know the direction that Michelle and the others were going, so it's not so much incomprehensible.
　But it was a bit odd that he would go to the trouble of barging into a peddler's tent in the middle of the night to make a request.

Even if it says, "Get away from King's Landing now"?

Run?　...... That's certainly odd.

　Aldis raised his eyebrows at the content of the soldier's message informed by Michelle's mouth.

　The current situation in the royal capital is unusual.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find a great deal more to say about it.
　However, the kingdom would not allow itself to be attacked to the capital without a fight.
　In fact, the Tholian army is moving its troops to defend the royal capital.

　According to Cesare, the total number of troops gathered in King's Landing was about two thousand five hundred, including the Tholian army.
　It is not enough, but it is not a small number for a defensive force.
　Even if they feared that they would be caught in the fires of war sooner or later, the situation was not so urgent as to warrant a moment's delay.

''Well, I ended up asking that soldier to leave, but a little while later, all of the guards noticed a disturbing atmosphere.

'It was Norris who first noticed it. You're right, the atmosphere of the Tria army is kind of tense, what do you call it?　It's changed to a sign that it's not a military that's just moving around the country very much.

　Michelle's words are followed by Ted.
　As survivors of the war four years ago, Ted and the rest of the Byakuya no Moshi know the atmosphere of the battlefield.
　It's natural for them to be sensitive to the hostility of a group of people.

As soon as the soldiers surrounded the carriage and tent from afar, we all agreed that this was not a situation in which they would listen to us. We had no choice but to jump on our horses and break through.

　Michelle assured him that if he had stayed quiet like that, he would definitely have been captured or killed if he was not good enough.
　After hearing the story up to that point, Aldis finally grasped the situation that had happened to Michelle and the others in a daze.

'So you didn't have a carriage ....... But how did it come out of nowhere?　You didn't have that vibe before the sun went down, did you?

I'm sure of it. If I had that kind of vibe from the start, I wouldn't be camping so close to it.

　When Aldis poses a question, Ted clarifies.

"I'm not sure what the situation is, but until things cool down, I think it's best to stay in the village and keep quiet for now.

That's true. It's probably best to keep a low profile until we know why we're being pursued. I'm sorry, but it's going to be a problem for a while.

　The transportation of goods by Michelle and her team was disrupted.

　However, the village has always been a self-sufficient village.
　They had to rely on supplies from the outside for a limited number of items such as salt and medicine.
　The supplies brought in so far alone should have lasted for perhaps six months.
　There's also a backdoor method that only Aldis and Rona know about, where if it comes to a crisis, they can pack them into the 'gate' and bring them in.

　After that, waiting for the horses to catch their breath, the group takes a path north while being wary of their pursuers.
　As if their earlier stalling had worked, their pursuers didn't show up either, and Aldis and the others safely stepped into the forest that was the entrance to the Canobis Mountains.