The third one. Enjoy.

The Preceding Hero and the Knight"s Princess

（They aren"t as similar as Sylvia and her sisters are but……yup. I can really sense the blood in them.）

This was pretty much the impression I held of Mary Fi Crestolia. Though the appearance wasn"t as similar as those three sisters, from the ambiance she put on and the blond hair rolls, I knew they were either sisters or relatives.

「Did you know?」

Falhart, who was standing beside Mary-san, asked that in Mary-san"s place.

「Ah~, I was in Lizwadia just before coming here, and though it was for a short time, I had taken a job teaching there.」

Consenting to everything that I said up to there, Falhart nodded.

「So you"ve met with the little sister. Certainly, the two of them are very similar after all.」

Ah, I knew it. So they are sisters.

「Hmph. I am absolutely not similar to a little sister that would bother with magic despite being royalty of a country of knights!」

Mary-san replied to Falhart"s words with words of denial. Could it be that their sisterly relationship isn"t very good?
……No, I can"t help but compare them to Sylvia"s group but this much is probably normal. Probably. Most likely. ……Surely.

「So, why would that Mary-san be here?」

When speaking of Crestolia, it"s a famous country that while being a small to medium country was called the 『Country of Knights』, and seemed to a country that produced a great number of well-known knights. (That"s what I heard from Leonhart in the past）
Why would the princess of that country be in a place like this?

Mary-san"s face when a bit red for some reason from my question.

「I am on a premarital trip together with Lord Falhart.」
「Hee~, a premarital trip! Well, congratulations on thawhat!?」

When I replied while thinking that royalty and aristocrats probably get really busy after they get married, since there was a word that I heard in her words that I should let escape, I unintentionally let out a weird voice.
What did she say just now? Who was she having a premarital trip with?

「Princess, more importantly……」

Faster than I could pursue that train of thought, Falhart urged Mary-san.
But for me, I"d like to know about the details of that marriage, you know? Eh, a marriage with such an age difference? A princess that only a little bit older than me, with Falhart who looks like he"s pa.s.sed forty. Looking at the princess"s response, it doesn"t look like it"s a political marriage of convenience but……

「Ahh, that"s right. Yuu Yashiro, I too, will lend aid in the matter at hand.」
「Eh? ……Is that alright?」

I"m thankful for the declaration done with a "How"s that" face but, even if it"s only for an instant, is it alright for the princess of a whole country to do something like that?

「Sylvia-sama, who is Leezelion"s Imperial Princess, had resolved a great number of incidents like this during her journey with the Hero. I, the princess of the country of knights, cannot possibly be allowed to fall behind!」

Ah~……Sylvia did joyfully do stuff like that, didn"t she. Though her sense of justice was strong, most of it was for the reason of being able to act violently in a legal manner. She did love to fight in her own way after all. She might have even appeared in something like the Magic Clad Martial Arts Demonstration.

「Ah~……I understand. I will leave the protection of you to Lord……Falhart.」

Since it didn"t look like she"d withdraw even if I refused her here, I nodded. Even if the worse were to happen, if Falhart"s there, it"ll probably be alright.

「Well then, without delay, just how far have you gotten? Have you caught hold of the enemy"s location?」

The moment I consented, I was heavily questioned by the princess whose eyes immediately brightened up.
This person is unmistakably the same type of person as Sylvia.

When I did a simple report of what happened at the Vodan residence since there was nothing else I could do, Mary-san"s body started trembling all over when she finished listening.

「To threaten him with his lovable family as a shield, what absolute sc.u.m! Things cannot stay like this. Lord Falhart, Yuu Yashiro! Accompany me!」
「Wait, oi oi oi! Just where do you plan on going!?」

I reflexively talked in an unreserved way but this wasn"t the time to be worrying about it. I called Mary-san, whose face was red from anger and looked like she was about to start running at any moment, to a halt.

「From one of the town to the other! If we do that, they"ll try to escape, shuffling about like mice, and make an appearance, right!」
「There"s no way that we can do something like that human-wave tactic with only a few people! This town isn"t on a scale like that of a village, you know!? And Falhart, don"t just watch, you stop her too!」

When he said that to Falhart while thinking that it was pointless even if he said that since he didn"t try to stop Mary-san when she stuck her head into this, Falhart was pondering something with a serious expression on his face.

「Yashiro-kun, that Sister……Bernadette, was it? She doesn"t know about the threat letter that was delivered to Vodan-shi, correct?」
「Nn? Yeah. I came to know about the threat letter after parting with Bernadette.」

Come to think of it, I wonder why Bernadette had such a sulky and rotten att.i.tude……Uumu, it"s a mystery.
But, is this where I should just apologize for the time being? There is the possibility that I did something to make her angry……
It"s annoying to apologize even though I don"t remember doing anything bad but, it"s awkward if she stays in a bad mood.

「Yashiro-kun. ……This is just a thought but, she may have found the kidnappers.」

As I was worrying about how I should apologize to Bernadette, Falhart went and said that.

「Oi oi, what the heck is this.」
「……It certainly is awful.」

Port city, Be Io. Coming to the main street that stretched out in a straight line from the harbor to the town, we stopped at a section that had become a heap of rubble.

As for why we came to the main street in the first place, Falhart said in the middle of when Falhart and Mary-san coming to see me, they b.u.mped in to Bernadette on this main street.
However, it would have been fine if they had just b.u.mped into each other. It seems that Bernadette looked desperate as she chased after something.
By some chance, she might have happened to be present at the scene of a kidnapping. That being said, when I had them tell me the direction Bernadette ran off to, we came to the actual place but……

「This isn"t just two or three buildings. It looks like they were blown up all together.」

We were looking a bit away from the curious onlookers that gathered for the incident but, it was a miserable state that made one wonder if it took a bombing or something.
Probably being people of the town, several Demi-humans were doing rubble removal work.

「Hey, excuse me! What in the world happened?」

I called out to a man of the Dog Tribe that was nearby. When I did, the man said 「That"s what I want to know! By the time I noticed, the flames had risen!」 with agitation in his voice.
When the man that looked agitated tried to take a closer look, the crowd of curious onlookers advanced forward. I exchanged looks with Falhart. Saying 「What do you think?」.

「Eight or nine times out of ten, there"s probably no mistake it was a magician. Several high ranking magicians at that……」

To Falhart who exchanged looks with me to say 「Let"s hear your opinion.」, I replied with a nod.

「I"m of the same opinion. It"s just, the question is why did they fight in the middle of town……」
「I believe that it"s likely related to the current case of the kidnapping uproar. ……Wouldn"t that make it the kidnapper that Bernadette-kun was chasing?」
「In that case……does that mean that Bernadette fought them?」

I once again looked at the heap of rubble. If she were dragged into the building, then there"s no mistake that she would have died.

Thinking that, I forcibly pushed aside the crowd of people and ran towards the heap of rubble.

「You"re kidding……This is all a joke, right!?」

Kicking and flinging away rubble that looked like it would take a large amount of people just to lift, I started to dig with an absurd fear while wishing that.

And then, I unexpectedly quickly found that.

「These are……Bernadette"s, Magic Guns……」

What appeared from underneath the rubble was the two handguns that Bernadette habitually used. That showed without a doubt that Bernadette fought here and was "proof of her defeat".