Knock, knock, knock!!
I woke up to the sound of rough knocking.
What the ……? The sun has only just begun to rise. What do you want at this hour?
I thought, and looked next to me and saw a girl with silver hair, her maid’s uniform in disarray, asleep.
She looks so happy. I didn’t want to wake her up if I could help it.
“Theo? You are here, aren’t you? It’s me. Open up!”
“…… Roka?”
Why is that fox girl in the boys’ dormitory?
I cleared my throat and then returned to my normal human tone and spoke to Roka.
“What’s the matter, Roka?”
“The carriage is already ready. Let’s get it soon.”
“At this hour? What a rush. …… ”
I looked back at Rena and she was already awake.
.. Or not? She looked very sleepy.
Her neck gradually drops and bounces, but then drops back down again. …… Yeah, this is cute.
It’s unusual for serious Rena, but we actually went to bed just a few minutes ago. You can’t blame her for being sleepy.
“Rena. I’m sorry, but I need you to disappear.”
“…Yes.”
She suppressed a yawn with her hand and disappeared from the scene.
Okay, I guess we’re good to go.
“Theo! Hurry up!”
“All right, all right. I mean, why are you rushing me so much?”
When I opened the door, a fox girl with golden ears was looking up at me.
“What is it? Are you sleep deprived? What’s wrong with your face?”
“Oh, well, I just couldn’t sleep due to a mixture of …… anticipation and anxiety.”
Of course, it was a big lie.
At that moment, Roka slipped past me and entered the room.
She was sniffing and sniffing at his surroundings.
“What’s the matter, Roka?”
“…… Theo. There’s something that’s been bothering me for a while, but I haven’t had a chance to tell you.”
She turned to me and said, “Are you bringing any women into the dorm?”
“What ……?”
I felt a little awkward.
I quickly averted my gaze with a casual motion and scratched my head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m always alone.”
“Oh? Are you sure about that? Let me tell you the truth. I won’t tell anyone.”
“Why did you think that in the first place?”
Roka quickly approaches me, snorts and then says.
“You always smell so good to me. It’s something unique to young women, something that … men never have in first place.”
“I think you’re imagining things.”
“I can still smell it now, though. And it’s always the same smell. Isn’t it true that you have the same woman in his room every night?”
Damn, you’re sharp.
I knew there might be a day when I would be asked this, but I expected Liz to ask first.
That’s why I hadn’t prepared an answer in case Roka asked me first, so I stammered.
Roclka’s ears twitched as he stared at me with a suspicious look.
“And you know what? Sometimes I can smell not only the scent of a woman, but also the scent of …… a man and a woman intercoursing.”
I feel like my heart is pierced by an arrow.
“And now, too! Shaula said you must be a lusting pervert, and she may not be wrong.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“Where is this woman? Let me see. She’s the one you’re attracted to. I’m sure she’s very nice.”
“…… As you can see, there’s no one here but us, right?”
Roka used his detecting and sense of smell to the fullest to search her surroundings, but she just couldn’t seem to find Rena.
No wonder. She is a stealth practicer who can erase not only her appearance, but also her presence, smell, and everything else. The only thing she can’t do anything about is the lingering scent of my body when she touches me, but that’s about it.
So there is no way that even a beaskin or elf with sensitive senses can find her.
“Mmm. I thought that if I visited early in the morning, I would be able to find the woman. …… So you let her go before I came to this room!”
“I didn’t. I didn’t.”
I think she’s probably right in front of you now.
When she disappear completely, even I can’t find her, no matter how human she look.
“Moooo ……! That’s boring. Hey, Shaula. Can’t you find it?”
“What?”
When I turned around, I saw a wolf girl staring at me from outside the door of my room.
I thought it was strange for Roka to come alone, but it seems she was secretly following me.
“It’s weird, I’m sure there’s a woman there. I hope you didn’t use some kind of forced transference to let her go.”
“No, of course not. I can’t use such an advanced technique with my power.”
“Moo! I can’t find it! It’s no use, I’ll just give up.”
Roka said boringly and yawned.
“I’m not sure if you guys came all this way so early in the morning just to do this.”
“That’s part of it, but it’s true that the carriage is ready. We’re heading to the western territory. We have to move as quickly as possible or we’ll be wasting our time.”
“I’m going to wake up Liz. You should wake up the red and little dragon.”
“What a rush. I just want to finish my breakfast.”
“There is a small village not far from Mildiana. We’ll take the wagon now, and when the horses are resting, we can eat.”
These two must be in the mood to start their journey as soon as possible rather than having breakfast.
Well, I’m not hungry, so it’s okay, but I’m sure Julian will complain.
With this in mind, I quickly finished getting ready and went to pick up Keith and Julian.
It took about an hour for the carriage to leave the city of Mildiana.
The sun had already risen, and we were now moving along the road, looking out over the forest area.
According to the plan, we would travel to the vicinity of the imperial capital and then head for the western territory.
That was the shortest route we could take.
It would take extra time to go north after heading to the west side of Mildiana, since we would have to pass through many mountains and streams.
There were two carriages, each with two horses hitched to it, and they were divided into men and women.
The carriages were running right next to each other, so occasionally Roka and Liz would peek out at me and have a chat with each other.
“I want to go to the Imperial City anyway. It’s so gorgeous and nice there.”
Liz said as she peeked out from under the hood of the carriage.
“Have you been there before, Liz?”
“Yes, yes. I’ve been to a lot of places after I came out of Tsefte Aria. Among them, the Imperial City is exceptional. You can enjoy a lot of delicious food, and at the theater, you can see a lot of happy and sad plays. Recently, Mildiana has become like that, but it’s still not as good as the Imperial City.”
The Imperial City of Agurea.
It’s probably the most populated city in the world.
It’s not as big as Mildiana’s military academy, but it has a similarly large school, and I’d like to visit it at least once.
After that, we continued our journey by carriage for about three days.
When it was time for lunch, Liz and the coachman couple cooked for us using ingredients they had bought in the village they had stopped in the day before.
As I helped them with the details, I looked at the other students.
Julian was leaning on his bag, reading a grimoire with a blank expression on his face. He’s been like that since the day we left.
I don’t think there’s anyone in this group who can match him in his quest for magic.
Keith, on the other hand, sometimes swings during breaks, and sometimes spends his time reading grimoires like Julian.
For him, as a magic swordsman, both are things he needs to be trained.
Right now, he is working on various books with a stern expression on his face. They ranged from grimoires and sword fighting manuals to history books.
Roka and Shaula had nothing in particular to say. They were both lying face down in the carriage, half dead-eyed, their tails wagging.
I guess they were too bored and lethargic.
I thought that they should just relax and enjoy the scenery from the carriage, but they were originally from the lush Lugal Kingdom, so the small forests and grasslands of the Empire might not be enough to pass the time.
“Alrights, it’s ready.”
Julian and Keith stopped reading and walked out of the room as coachman’s lady said.
The beastkin girls did not move a muscle.
“Roka, Shaula. Come out, hurry!”
“I’m not hungry….”
“Same to Roka…”
Seeing the tail swaying without force, Liz said.
“Well, you guys can’t help it. Why don’t you guys just enjoy the carriage ride for a while?”
“…. Not interested.”
“… Same to Roka.”
Keith, who was watching the scene, also made a annoyed voice.
“Are you guys going to keep doing that until we get to Granden? If you don’t have anything to do, you can work on your studies. If you haven’t brought anything with you, I wouldn’t mind lending you one of my books.”
“Not interested.”
“…. Same to Roka.”
“Leave them alone. The only thing those beasties can do is fight, so don’t bother with them. In fact, it’s better that they don’t make any noise. You can do that all the time.”
“… Shaula. Do you want to have that dragon for dinner tonight?”
“… That sound good. I heard that dragon meat is a great tonic. It might make you stronger.”
“Okay, okay, stop making a fuss! Hurry, get out of the carriage!”
“Stop it, Liz… I’m lethargic.”
“I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to make a delicious meal for you, so you have to taste it! Here, Shaula you also come out!”
“Ah~, don’t drag me down~ …… ”
Roka and Shaula were thrown out of the carriage by Liz.
Seeing this, the coachman couple laughed.
“You guys are so close.”
“Yeah, I envy you..l”
“Oh, that’s it! We’re the special students, here, Roka, Shaula.” (Liz)
Liz handed the bowl and spoon to Roka and Shaula.
“Are we really that close?” (Roka)
“Come on… I rarely talk to a guy, I just don’t care.” (Shaula)
“I don’t even want talk to these guys. I don’t get along with them.” (Julian)
“Okay, okay, stop, let’s eat! Eating together like this is a way to deepen our friendship!”
As far as I can tell, they’re certainly not close.
But they don’t seem to be particularly bad.
Julian, the one who seems to cause the most trouble, despite saying he doesn’t get along with two, never uses the derogatory term for the beastkin, and the merciless words that Roka and Shaula sometimes use against him are probably just for fun.
It’s not a bad relationship for some reason. That was my current impression.
As we were eating, with Liz occasionally talking to each of us, her long ears twitched, and Roka and Shaula reacted in the same way, before looking up at the sky.
I followed suit and looked up to see a huge castle floating in the sky not far away, a few hundred meters above us.
