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Three days had passed since Finia had changed her main weapon to a spear. Journey with Temuru continued smoothly, and we only had one more day to go before we reached the Stolla domain’s capital, Stollar.

At this pace, we should reach it by noon tomorrow.

Though I said things went smoothly, it wasn’t like we had no battles at all during these three days.

As we separated from Raum, the monster attacks also increased in number. That said, there were no hard foe encounters, so it was perfect to review our battle positioning.

Cloud met the enemy’s attack, while I attracted their attention at the front line, and Finia used the opportunity to attack with her spear. And when the enemy’s attention was directed to the front, Michelle would unleash a sure-death shot from the very back.

We were gradually settling on such a battle style. The skill we displayed made even Leon, who was a fourth-rank, open his eyes wide in amazement.

“Color me surprised… I mean, I could already tell your skills were beyond what your rank suggested but…”
“Yeah. They clearly have the ability of third-ranks. Nicole and Michelle in particular may very well be our equals.”
“Heheh.”
“Michelle tends to get carried away easily, so you shouldn’t flatter her too much, okay?”
“I don’t okay!?”

Today as well, Forest Wolves attacked us, lured by the scent of lunch, but we easily drove them back.

Forest Wolves looked like large wolves, but they had ivy-like tentacles all around its body, and they acted as camouflage and made them hard to discover inside the forest.

However, that wasn’t enough for them to escape the vigilance net of me and Michelle whose growth was apparent. Our performance was so good that Leon’s party had no turn.

Michelle puffed her chest after they praised her skill, but she really tended to get carried away, so I gave her a warning just in case.

She started to sulk and protest at my statement. I ignored it and shifted my attention to Finia.

“Finia, perhaps you’ve gotten used to things too?”
“Have I?”

Leon and Ellen were shocked when they found out about the spear that could contract and expand, but it was common to keep the information about such items a secret.

After all, the items and skills an Adventurer had on them were their lifelines.

For that reason, it was an unwritten rule for Adventurers to not reveal it or keep quiet until asked about them.

I also told them to keep quiet about it, so there was a low chance of it getting spread around. I had that much trust for them.

“Yeah, you made good use of the opening where the enemy’s attention was on me. But I think you were a bit too close? I tend to move extensively, so we might have collided if I had taken a backstep there.”
“I see. Then I suppose it would be better to stay at Cloud’s back.”
“Yeah, Cloud hardly falls back, so that might just be perfect.”
“As expected, with more people, the tactics we can adopt also grow in number.”

I heard Leon mutter that and realized something.

“Now that you mention it, didn’t you have one more person in your party?”
“Hmm? Oh…”

When I was heading to Raum, Leon’s party consisted of three. There used to be one more man. I couldn’t even know his name, but he was not here at least.

“Well, something happened after that… I mean, his life isn’t in any danger.”
“He just got injured a bit. He hurt his leg and retired. We are actually recruiting people now, but we couldn’t find anyone good in Raum.”
“So we were thinking of going around towns to look for capable people. Then we heard sir Timuru was going to Stolla, so we jumped in to get a lift.”

Needless to say, Adventurer work was accompanied by danger. It was extremely rare for people to remain with no physical defects until they decided they were weakening and it was time to retire.

Leon’s comrade seemed to have been a victim of that cruel fate.

“Ah, well… My condolences.”
“Thank you. But you don’t have to worry about that, Nicole.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Uugh, I hate scary things.”
“You have Nicole with you, so you should be fine, Michelle.”

Michelle became afraid after she heard about how Adventurers retired. But Ellen quickly comforted her.

It appeared that my standing had grown exponentially in Ellen’s mind. But there were situations where even I wouldn’t be able to deal with.

That is why I ended up meeting such a fate—the fate of getting reincarnated.

Still, I was extremely grateful for her words. We had no hard fights as of late, so there was a chance that I was growing a little careless.

If I didn’t get my act together, we could end up retiring like Leon’s comrade.

“I have almost died many times already, so I need to be careful too.”
“That’s true. You have to be way more careful, Nicole. You’re like a wild boar.”
“Say what!?”

Michelle answered teasingly at my comment. I stuck my fingers into her mouth and pulled them apart.

“Which mouth uttered that unneeded comment I wonder?”
“Ouhhh! Ouhhhh!”
“But Lady Nicole, you really need to be more prudent. If you get a lasting injury, Lord Lyell will kill me.”
“Dad won’t do something like that, okay?”
“I know that. But he would certainly feel devastated.”

If something happened to me, normally the anger would be directed to Finia who was at my side. But Lyell had known her for a long time. He would understand that what happened was beyond her control.

If so, where could he direct his anger? His anger that would have no target would just torment him to no end. That’s what Finia was pointing out.

“Okay, I’ll be careful.”
“Good.”

As I answered obediently, Finia smiled and pulled my head into an embrace.