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At any rate, Elliot and Priscilla were already a thing of the past for me. That had nothing to do with me anymore. I had already left Lyell’s patronage and grown independent as an Adventurer… with comrades, however. In other words, I had no connections to anyone influential—I was a commoner by birth, after all.

And Gadius was carefully turning down any commissions of that kind.

Elliot also seemed to have given up on chasing the (fake) Haumea’s illusion, so you could say he had chosen a realistic partner. If this gets him a successor, his confidants would also have peace of mind.

Either way, as expected, the king of a neighboring country, or rather, our home country, getting married became a hot topic. During the three days they were being lectured, Michelle and Finia were constantly discussing it.

“Still, to think it would be Priscilla, huh?”
“What about her?”

Finia was at the coachman’s seat so Michelle was currently at my side. She had no direct involvement with Priscilla so she did not know about that earnest girl.

“Well, she was really dedicated to her duties, so I found that a little unexpected.”
“Oh, huh.”

They seemed to have had feelings for each other, but I thought it would have taken longer for it to bear fruit. And such a sudden marriage. Wait, could it be…

“Did they marry because it did bear the fruit?”
“Huh, they haven’t married just yet.”
“I don’t mean that.”

Michelle still hadn’t realized how pregnancies worked. Cloud has been polluting her lately, but I was relieved to find out that her pure parts were still left untainted.

“More importantly, isn’t that mountain your destination? That means this is as far as we go together I suppose. It was fun.”
“Likewise. Thank you for your guidance.”

I gave a deep bow to her.

She only lectured her for three days, but Michelle’s movements had become dramatically better. That peculiar rotation on the pivot leg, in particular, was extremely useful. For a growing girl like her, these three days should have been irreplaceable.

Cloud had also learned how to handle the opponent who came to attack with the bow, learning to be more cautious. Being able to take the enemy down without getting careless was a matter of weight. I ended up suffering at the hands of the enemy in Berith due to that.

But this was hard to accomplish just saying you would. Even if you admonished yourself, a part of that carelessness would still be left somewhere in your heart. You can’t really reform yourself without tasting some pain.

Cloud had tasted plenty of pain at the hands of Haumea and Cole during these three days.

“Thank you very much!”
“Thanks!”
“Sorry for all the trouble. I will keep all that you have taught me in my heart.”

Finia learned chant shortening from them too.

By shortening, I don’t mean that the process itself would be cut down. The aim, magic circle, magic power output, pronunciation. All of them were indispensable.

She was taught how to do all that in parallel with attacking or defending, or how to cast spells with minimum movements. Or making flexible practical uses out of them. Finia so far could use many kinds of spells, but she could not cast them while moving, and could only construct the magic circles in front of her.

But now, she could construct them behind or even to the side like Cortina. And not large but small ones too. There were many uses on the battlefield to spells you could miniaturize and construct in any direction you wanted.

The spells she could not use without using Cloud and me as shields before were already things she could use even during melee fights.

Michelle thanked them cheerfully while Finia turned around and gave a respectful bow from the coachman’s seat, while Cloud just casually raised his hand.

As the three offered thanks in their respective ways, Haumea smiled back and the two jumped down from the carriage. Finia hurriedly stopped the carriage when she saw them jump off from the moving one. The two did not turn back and continued walking north while waving one hand at us.

That road led to the United Three Nations capital, Tryad.

“She was such a cool lady, huh.”

Michelle muttered while looking at their back. It sounded a little lonely, but considering how friendly she was, it was only natural.

“Isn’t she more like aimless, or rather happy-go-lucky?”
“As elves age, such people tend to appear more and more. Lord Maxwell is one of them too.”
“No, that one’s an exception. Elves’ reputation would suffer if more people like him appeared.”

That old man’s pranks have given me a headache more than enough. So he had quite a rude side to him too. Being my comrade, I was close enough to criticize him, but Cloud who did not know that shuddered at my words.

“Nicole, I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, but aren’t you a little too harsh towards Lord Maxwell and Lord Lyell?”
“Huh, you think so?”

Finia, who knew I was Reid, was quite calm about it. Michelle who was relatively indifferent regarding people’s statutes was the same.

But Cloud was different. He was always desperate when training with them and this aspect was dormant, but he got to know the difference between the Six Heroes and the discriminating races during our stay at Berith.

“Well, the people concerned don’t care so isn’t it fine?”
“I mean, I guess… but they have their reputation too.”
“It’s rare for you to care about such things, Cloud.”
“Uh, Finia, am I really the irrational one here?”
“Huh, well, no…”
“Don’t go crying to Finia, you coward.”

Cloud turned the topic towards Finia with a lamenting expression, which I objected to. As we chatted, Haumea and Cole kept disappearing into the distance.

This place was close to a mountain, so there were a lot of trees around, making me remember Raum.

Before our eyes was a volcano with smoke rising from it. This was where Fire Phosphorite could be found. It was a risky job, so we had to start paying attention from this point on.