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「Come to think of it, Ailneige, you already knew that Bell was a noble beforehand, right?」
「I’ve known about it, yes.」
「Were you surprised when you first knew?」
「She practically revealed it during our first meeting, so not particularly.」

We didn’t know her family name, but it was certain that she came from a prestigious family, and Belltina didn’t appear to be hiding it as well. Still, what drove her to ask such a question? And why isn’t she delving deeper?
For the latter, it’s likely because she feels like it would cross the line. As for the former, perhaps she’s curious why Ailneige doesn’t behave differently around nobles and why even Princess Leshimiiya showed some concern for us. While it might not be obvious to most, Palra may have picked up on the attitude difference from our time together so far.

「Incidentally, Palra, if you would like to know what I am, I can tell you. It wouldn’t be a problem for me even if I did, you see.」
「Umm, uhhh…」

Palra seems to be wavering… I think. Ciel and I have already agreed that it’s fine to eventually tell Palra about our identity as Mother Fii’s daughter. However, since Palra might not be able to understand it if we reveal too much at once, we’ve decided that it’s better to reveal the truth gradually and only when Palra herself expresses the desire to know. In other words, we’re not opposed to telling her, but we’re not particularly eager to do so either. It’s not necessarily a matter of trust. Rather, it’s that Palra likely doesn’t have the means to spread such information easily. After all, I’ve never seen her interact with any classmates aside from Ail or Belltina unless absolutely necessary.

「Ailneige, if you were in my position, would you rather ask or not?」
「I might.」
『No matter what it is, Ain will protect me, after all.』
『I’d protect you as much as I can, but if we were just a regular commoner and Palra turned out to be Mother Fii’s daughter, I’d run away as far as possible, you know?』
『Dealing with Fii sounds difficult, right?』

While Ciel and I were talking, it seems like Palra has found her answer: 「This sounds scary, so I won’t ask.」 I think that’s the correct choice. I’m sure she’ll be more troubled than she already was with Belltina.

「Now, shall we depart then? What should we do about our formation?」
「I don’t really know much about this, so I honestly want to leave the decision-making to you…」
「Bell feels the same.」

A forfeit of responsibility—that’s what I’d like to call it. But they’re not wrong in candidly for deferring to the most experienced member present. It’s a common tale: someone insists that their judgment is the correct one, only to end up causing what should be an easily avoidable accident. However, while we normally stay safe by using detection magic to monitor our surroundings or ambush monsters while keeping track of our direction, I don’t think that level of vigilance is necessary here. Besides, if these two get too used to our way of doing things, it might cause issues later on. So, I’ll continue using detection on my own, without offering much instruction.

「Palra and Belltina shall walk in front, and I will be following from behind.」
「Umm, you’re going to be the front liner, right? So why…」
「It’s so the two of you can watch out for monsters as we proceed. Additionally, since Belltina has the least stamina among us, you will lead in front and dictate our overall pace.」
「Uhh… That’s a heavy responsibility, isn’t it?」

Hearing Ciel’s response, Belltina let out a frightened shriek. She will be in charge of controlling the party’s overall movement speed, so it certainly sounds like a heavy responsibility, but this should be normal protocol for mountain climbing even in my old world. Not only is it great for pace management, but it also allows the people behind to immediately notice if those with lesser stamina are forcing themselves. Once, there was an experienced mountain climber who led the trail and got carried away, resulting in the beginners barely being able to keep up and too tired to complain. That was certainly a field trip experience of all time.
While having a beginner lead might cause us to take a wrong turn, we can just step in and correct her before that happens. In fact, even if we get lost, I can still detect the general direction of the academy, so there’s no chance of us not being able to return.

「Don’t mind us and simply walk at your own pace, is what I meant. Becoming unable to move due to exhaustion would be the most dangerous outcome, so if you start to feel even slightly exhausted, please slow down to a more comfortable pace. I’ll be completely frank, but you speeding up in consideration of us would only lead to trouble.」
「O-okay, understood.」

Perhaps overwhelmed by Ciel’s uncharacteristically lengthy explanation, Belltina nervously nodded. Being stern here would be the best not only for Ailneige but also for Belltina’s sake, so I have nothing to comment.

「Umm, we’ll have to keep vigilant against monsters, right?」
「I’ll keep a lookout as well, and if a monster actually draws near, I’ll step forward before we bump into it.」

This is still just practice, after all. If they can’t manage it on their own, we’ll simply pick up the slack. Both Ciel and I are keeping an eye out for enemies as well. It might sound arrogant to say, but there’s probably no safer training environment than this. Honestly, if we really wanted to, we could probably escort these two all the way to the middle strata of the den. But that would be complete overkill in this context. Well, in the end, I just have to do for them what I already do for Ciel on a daily basis.

Belltina, who had some understanding of Ciel’s—or rather, our—true capabilities, immediately looked visibly relieved upon hearing this. As for Palra, she wore a pensive expression, but perhaps recalling that Ail was an active hunter, she eventually nodded and replied, 「Understood.」

「Now then, please walk in front. I’ll be right behind you.」

Ciel’s words seemingly caused them to jump out of nervousness, their bodies stiff to the point I can even imagine their joints creaking as they turned their heads to face each other.
It didn’t take a minute to predict that we’ll likely turn back midway through this excursion.