Although I hadn’t slept for long, my steps felt lighter than before.

Should I say it felt like I had overcome one of the obstacles in front of me?

Oscar and Maxilian must have taken Caroline through the rift by now, so she’ll soon be under investigation.

The fact that Ernant had been given monsters would all come to light during the investigation process.

It was only a matter of time before the things he was hiding in the imperial palace basement would be revealed.

I had been at a loss for how to stop his madness, but fortunately things seemed to be working out more smoothly than expected.

With a light heart and light footsteps, I continued moving along with my companions.

It was about half a day later when we encountered another obstacle.

“A rocky mountain. And quite a tall one at that.”

The captain muttered with a voice tinged with complicated feelings.

I replied with equally mixed emotions.

“The Queen is at the top of that rocky mountain.”

Unfortunately, what I said was true.

The Queen was positioned not halfway up the mountain, but at its very peak.

I remembered the difficult climb we had made to catch that monster before my regression.

I turned to look at Elma, hoping against hope.

“Elma, can you use your ability to transport all of us to the top?”

“No… I don’t think I can manage everyone. I might be able to do one person at most.”

It seemed that the more people she tried to move, the more magical power it consumed, so reducing the number would allow for teleportation to the summit.

Now the question was how to select the lucky individual who would comfortably reach the mountaintop via spatial movement.

The captain offered his opinion on the matter.

“Elma, take Karl and teleport to the top first. Karl has the weakest stamina among us.”

The captain’s choice was indeed rational.

Unlike us, Karl with his healing ability was not a combat personnel.

His role was to use his ability from a safe place while we engaged in battle.

Therefore, Karl didn’t need to build up stamina and was the least physically fit among us.

“Wouldn’t it be better for the captain or vice-captain to teleport instead? I feel too guilty to receive such a benefit while leaving you behind, Captain.”

The captain immediately shook his head at Karl’s words.

“We’re tougher than you. It would be troublesome if you, with your healing ability, were to collapse from exhaustion during the climb. Follow the order.”

“…Yes, understood.”

His voice was lower than usual.

Unlike his usual obedient compliance with the captain’s words, there was a hint of discontent in Karl’s response now.

But in the end, he seemed to intend to follow orders and grasped Elma’s hand.

Elma, preparing to activate her ability, said to the captain:

“Then we’ll go ahead to near the summit.”

After that, Elma and Karl’s bodies simultaneously disappeared from view.

They had moved using the ability.

Left at the base of the mountain, the captain and I looked at each other.

The captain was the first to speak.

“Climbing a mountain with your superior, isn’t that enjoyable?”

“…Yes, it should be… enjoyable.”

The captain unexpectedly smiled broadly at me as I forced out a response.

Was it my imagination that he seemed to be in a better mood than usual?

I wanted to ask what was so enjoyable, but decided against it.

A mountain so high and steep that it couldn’t be fully climbed even after half a day of effort awaited us, so we needed to conserve even the energy to speak.

Afterwards, we diligently climbed the rocky mountain.

Climbing the mountain was indeed no ordinary task.

It was so steep that I couldn’t tell if I was climbing a mountain or scaling a cliff.

Still, my stamina was better than most, so I had enough spare energy to engage in conversation while climbing that cliff-like mountain.

“Captain.”

“What is it?”

The captain, climbing ahead of me, responded without stopping.

I carefully placed my feet between the steep rocks as I continued speaking.

“To be honest, I never thought I’d end up doing such things when I became a knight. I thought I’d just be slaying monsters.”

“What do you mean by ‘such things’?”

“I’m talking about having to arrest someone with my own hands who was a comrade until just yesterday.”

The captain momentarily halted his steps upon hearing my reply.

However, it was only for an instant before his legs started moving again.

“There’s no need to feel guilty about Caroline. Once she broke the knightly order’s iron rule and engaged in monster trafficking, she became nothing more than a criminal.”

“I knew you’d answer like that. You don’t tolerate such mistakes, after all.”

“As the one who must lead the knightly order, I can’t easily forgive a member’s crimes or be lenient. To safely manage a combat unit composed of awakened individuals, one needs to be that strict.”

The captain’s answer matched my expectation without the slightest deviation.

It was a cold, razor-sharp response, just as I had anticipated.

After giving that reply, the captain suddenly glanced back at me and asked:

“Do I seem like an excessively strict superior to you?”

“Not at all. On the contrary, I think it’s fortunate that you’re such a level-headed person.”

“Fortunate?”

“Yes, because I believe that even if I were to stray onto the wrong path, you wouldn’t hesitate to punish me severely.”

The captain’s steps suddenly came to a halt.

For the first time, he turned his body to look back at me.

“Why do you say such things? You have no intention of committing crimes anyway, right?”

“Who knows? There might come a moment when I betray my principles for the sake of family or friends. Seeing Caroline made me think about that suddenly.”

“…”

“But it should be fine. Because if it’s you, Captain, you’d stop me even if you had to put a sword to my neck.”

I could feel at ease knowing there was someone who would stop me if I went astray.

And the captain was the perfect person for that role.

He had a warm enough heart to grieve for me when I was dying from poison, yet he wasn’t soft enough to cover up my crimes.

“You would stop me, right?”

The captain didn’t immediately answer my question, which I had thrown out for confirmation.

I thought he would promptly agree, but I couldn’t understand why he was hesitating.

In the end, he avoided my question without agreeing to do so.

“Such a thing won’t happen. You’re not the type of person who would stray onto the wrong path.”

“I appreciate your trust, but…”

“If you have the energy to say useless things, use it to walk faster.”

He refused to give me the answer I wanted until the end.

He just kept walking silently forward.

After that, no conversation passed between us for a while.

The dialogue resumed when a heavy raindrop fell on the bridge of my nose from the increasingly darkening sky.

“I think I just felt a raindrop.”

“Tch, we can’t climb any further. Let’s find a place to shelter from the rain for now.”

As it seemed like quite a heavy rainfall was about to pour down, we hurriedly looked for a place to take shelter from the rain.

Sadly, finding such a place on the mountain was not easy, and in the meantime, the sky finally unleashed its heavy downpour.

Swoosh—

With our heads to toes drenched like drowned rats, we climbed a bit more and finally managed to find a small cave.

We hurriedly entered that cave carved into the middle of the mountain.

“…Completely soaked.”

He threw off his upper garment, seemingly uncomfortable with the wet clothes clinging to his skin.

Then, as he was about to take off his remaining shirt, he suddenly looked at me.

Understanding what he wanted to say, I waved my hand to indicate it was fine.

“Don’t mind me, you can take it off if you want. You’ll catch a cold if you keep wearing wet clothes.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to take mine off too.”

“…?”

Seeing him hesitate, I quickly added:

“I don’t mean everything, I’ll keep my shirt on. It should dry if I keep wearing it.”

“…Alright.”

Only then did the captain seem relieved, turning around to finish undressing.

As he took off his wet shirt, his well-toned upper body was fully revealed.

It was natural that my gaze would be drawn in that direction.

My first proper impression of the captain’s body was this:

It’s the epitome of a knight’s physique.

The muscles of his upper body were woven together so perfectly that one could dare call it flawless.

He had just the right amount of volume, neither too little nor too bulky.

With a broad back and a sleekly curved waist, it was the perfect inverted triangle shape.

While I was side-eyeing the captain’s muscles, he neatly folded his removed clothes and turned towards me.

For some reason, his cheeks were flushed.

“…Aren’t you staring a bit too intently?”

“It’s because your muscles are impressive. I wonder if I should train more to build up to that level…”

“Build up to my level? No, you’re just right as you are now.”

“But I want to increase my strength a bit…”

Hearing those words, the captain eventually glanced at my upper body muscles as if measuring them.

The material wasn’t as thin as my previous undergarments, so my underwear wasn’t visible through it, but the fabric was still clinging to my skin due to being wet.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, I hunched my body, and he turned his head away, blurting out:

“Your body is perfect as it is now. There’s no need for further training, it’s already flawless.”