The support funds sent by the kingdom had finally arrived.
It certainly couldn’t be called a large amount.
But for us, who had almost nothing, it could truly be called a long-awaited rain in a drought.
However, we couldn’t spend it recklessly.
We never knew what would happen and where.
Thanks to selling off all the junk in Lionheart Fortress, we had some leeway in funds for now.
But that was only for a very short while.
Once we started using the funds in earnest, it was clear that it would quickly run out.
It had been about two months since I took the position of commander, and I had postponed it as much as possible.
But now, I couldn’t delay it any longer.
“We need to resume the work of the Royal Knights.”
Originally, the Royal Knights worked by dispatching a small number of knights to where they were needed.
In the first place, only knights who could face demons were eligible to join the Royal Knights.
In the past, before their annihilation, the Royal Knights enjoyed their peak as the Golden Generation, with each member being equivalent to a regular knight order.
They could truly be called the Golden Generation.
Naturally, because they were such Royal Knights, they were supported and received assistance from various races and countries without discrimination.
But now that the Golden Generation had been wiped out, how would it be?
“Only flies are gathering. Both requests and support.”
“It can’t be helped. The trust in the Royal Knights has been shattered.”
“…We have no choice but to endure and accept it for now.”
Even though I was handling work in the office, there were no requests coming in from other places.
I let out a sigh at Cluna’s words, who was working with me as an adjutant.
The current situation was not very good.
With the annihilation of the Royal Knights, there was a heightened sense of crisis that they could no longer rely on external personnel.
As a result, each country strictly prohibited the outflow of talent and instead focused on building up their military power.
That in itself was certainly a good thing.
But the problem was that the timing was bad.
The reason they were brutally pushed back before the establishment of the Royal Knights was that they didn’t form alliances with each other.
In the past, they had somehow resolved that issue under the pretext of the Royal Knights.
But now, even that pretext had disappeared, and they were returning to the past, to square one.
“In order to inform the world of the Royal Knights’ well-being, we have no choice but to start rebuilding our reputation from scratch through requests.”
“But the situation isn’t completely hopeless. If each country gains a sense of urgency from this incident and builds up their military power…”
“Unfortunately… that outcome won’t be very good.”
“Pardon?”
Actually, I understood.
The Royal Knights they had trusted and relied on had all burned down, and now all that was left were ashes.
How could they trust and rely on the Royal Knights again?
Moreover, in the past, the Royal Knights were called the strongest Royal Knights in history, the Golden Generation.
Rather than rebuilding, it would be a better choice to focus on their own country’s defense.
The problem was that I already knew the outcome.
More than 80% of the continent was occupied.
And even some countries and races, like the Dwarf Republic, were completely destroyed in the end.
I turned my head.
Cluna was staring at me intently.
If I say one wrong word, this is what happens.
She had a lot of experience.
I showed my palm and said,
“No, it was a slip of the tongue. Don’t worry about it, more importantly, how is Bayard’s condition now?”
“Fortunately, she has stabilized a lot. She still shows signs of instability, but…”
“But?”
“Uh, um, Commander…”
“Yes?”
Oh my god, you startled me.
With only her head sticking out from the door, for a moment I thought it was a decapitated head.
The bear ears on top of her reddish-brown hair trembled anxiously.
I sighed and said,
“Bayard, what’s the matter?”
“Well, that’s… I mean…”
“Bayard still has severe anxiety symptoms. She’s fine one moment, but sudden anxiety rushes in, and if not careful, she can even have seizures.”
“I understand. After experiencing that hell… What’s the solution?”
“That’s you, Commander.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Bayard charged at me like a wild boar.
Kwaaaak!!
Fortunately, she slowed down before impact, so I wasn’t hurt.
But the problem was her next action.
Her arms wrapped around my body.
You might ask what’s wrong with that.
But imagine being bear-hugged by a bear.
Your guts might spill out of your mouth.
I heard that this painful act could at least alleviate Bayard’s anxiety symptoms to some extent.
This was already an improvement.
Before, she would show up without regard for time or place.
“Still, it’s definitely better than two months ago.”
“Back then, she would show up more than 40 times a day, right?”
“She still comes about 7 times now, though.”
“It has decreased a lot.”
Is that even something to say?
My heart drops every time she comes.
Moreover, because Bayard hugged me with full force every time, there were more than a few times when I thought I was going to die like this.
[Um… Will I be a burden to him?]
[If that were the case, the commander would have avoided it himself.]
[Th-that’s right! Then, until then, I can do it as much as I want…!!]
[…]
It’s not that I don’t avoid it, but that I can’t avoid it.
I had thought about using time stop to try to avoid it, but it all failed.
My time stop had two functions.
One was the active time stop that I directly triggered with my consciousness.
And the other was the passive time stop that was used when my life was in danger.
The problem was the active one.
Since I had to directly activate it, it was useless if my reaction was slow.
And whenever I tried to react to Bayard, she was always already hugging me.
Indeed… This was the strength of a mid-level Royal Knights member.
Certainly, it was on a different level compared to lower-ranking members like Clara and Ruby.
The problem was that this wasn’t an attack, so the passive ability didn’t activate.
Moreover, thanks to what Cluna had told Bayard, even the option of avoiding it with time stop had disappeared.
If I avoided Bayard, then how was I supposed to solve those anxiety symptoms?
“You’re always here when I see you, Miss Bayard.”
“H-Helia, you’re here.”
“Let’s go back quickly. Don’t we have training to do?”
“…Helia?”
“It’s okay, Teacher. I’m not angry.”
Despite saying that, a vein popped on her forehead.
Moreover, her red hair was sticking up like a ghost.
Helia was forcibly smiling with her lips bitten.
It was so scary that even I, who was watching, was terrified.
But Bayard sniffled and approached her as if nothing had happened.
Then, blood flowed from Helia’s tightly bitten lips.
“I-I’m sorry. Helia, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s okay, Miss Bayard. I can pay it all back with training.”
“Yeah! That’s right! I’ll work hard too!”
“Eek…!!”
Helia seemed to be even more outraged at Bayard’s words.
It had been like this since two months ago.
When Helia saw Bayard hugging me, she vented her anger through sparring.
It was to the point where even Clara and Ruby, who were watching, were shocked.
But Bayard was unfazed.
Rather, she was receiving it all with a refreshed expression.
Watching that, it suddenly came to mind.
I had seen a video on the internet before of a martial artist and a bear sparring.
Calling it sparring was an overstatement.
In fact, the bear was just playing along.
“What a funny combination.”
“Still, thanks to that, Bayard has become much brighter.”
“That’s the ironic part.”
Helia was sincerely engaged in the sparring.
But Bayard just received it appropriately, as if playing along.
That showed that there was still an overwhelming difference in strength between the two.
But thanks to that, Helia’s skills were rapidly improving.
Stimulated by that, Clara and Ruby were also working hard in training.
In the end, it could be called a virtuous cycle.
It would be nice if things continued to go well like this.
While thinking that and handling work, I noticed a letter on my desk.
I looked at Cluna and said,
“What is this letter?”
“It’s a letter that just arrived this morning. Judging by the seal’s pattern, it seems to be a letter sent from the Dwarf Republic.”
“The Dwarf Republic… Do they still have something to say?”
After being rejected like that before, I thought they still hadn’t come to their senses.
I released the seal and read the letter.
The contents of the letter were completely unexpected.
“…Cluna, our first request has arrived.”
“Our first request? Don’t tell me it’s from the Dwarf Republic?!”
“Yeah. Half of it is a request, and half of it is a quibble.”
To summarize the contents of the letter, they said they couldn’t trust the skills of the new commander, me.
So they wanted me to prove my skills by solving this request alone.
They were not wrong.
It wasn’t just some incompetent knight order.
It was about the commander of the Royal Knights.
In a way, it was only natural for them to tackle me like this.
The problem was that it was the Dwarf Republic.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like they were just trying to find fault because of what happened before.
But still, a request was a request.
We weren’t in a position to be picky right now.
“Commander, let’s formally refuse this request.”
“Is there really a need for that?”
“Facing a demon alone is very dangerous. Even the previous Royal Knights faced demons in groups of at least two.”
“Then it’s rather a good thing.”
If I go alone, I can somehow resolve it.
Because I have time stop.
Even if I can’t do anything about it, I can survive using time stop.
The current Royal Knights were too unstable to send out.
So, it would be better for me to go alone and do something about it.
The support funds sent by the kingdom had finally arrived.
It certainly couldn’t be called a large amount.
But for us, who had almost nothing, it could truly be called a long-awaited rain in a drought.
However, we couldn’t spend it recklessly.
We never knew what would happen and where.
Thanks to selling off all the junk in Lionheart Fortress, we had some leeway in funds for now.
But that was only for a very short while.
Once we started using the funds in earnest, it was clear that it would quickly run out.
It had been about two months since I took the position of commander, and I had postponed it as much as possible.
But now, I couldn’t delay it any longer.
“We need to resume the work of the Royal Knights.”
Originally, the Royal Knights worked by dispatching a small number of knights to where they were needed.
In the first place, only knights who could face demons were eligible to join the Royal Knights.
In the past, before their annihilation, the Royal Knights enjoyed their peak as the Golden Generation, with each member being equivalent to a regular knight order.
They could truly be called the Golden Generation.
Naturally, because they were such Royal Knights, they were supported and received assistance from various races and countries without discrimination.
But now that the Golden Generation had been wiped out, how would it be?
“Only flies are gathering. Both requests and support.”
“It can’t be helped. The trust in the Royal Knights has been shattered.”
“…We have no choice but to endure and accept it for now.”
Even though I was handling work in the office, there were no requests coming in from other places.
I let out a sigh at Cluna’s words, who was working with me as an adjutant.
The current situation was not very good.
With the annihilation of the Royal Knights, there was a heightened sense of crisis that they could no longer rely on external personnel.
As a result, each country strictly prohibited the outflow of talent and instead focused on building up their military power.
That in itself was certainly a good thing.
But the problem was that the timing was bad.
The reason they were brutally pushed back before the establishment of the Royal Knights was that they didn’t form alliances with each other.
In the past, they had somehow resolved that issue under the pretext of the Royal Knights.
But now, even that pretext had disappeared, and they were returning to the past, to square one.
“In order to inform the world of the Royal Knights’ well-being, we have no choice but to start rebuilding our reputation from scratch through requests.”
“But the situation isn’t completely hopeless. If each country gains a sense of urgency from this incident and builds up their military power…”
“Unfortunately… that outcome won’t be very good.”
“Pardon?”
Actually, I understood.
The Royal Knights they had trusted and relied on had all burned down, and now all that was left were ashes.
How could they trust and rely on the Royal Knights again?
Moreover, in the past, the Royal Knights were called the strongest Royal Knights in history, the Golden Generation.
Rather than rebuilding, it would be a better choice to focus on their own country’s defense.
The problem was that I already knew the outcome.
More than 80% of the continent was occupied.
And even some countries and races, like the Dwarf Republic, were completely destroyed in the end.
I turned my head.
Cluna was staring at me intently.
If I say one wrong word, this is what happens.
She had a lot of experience.
I showed my palm and said,
“No, it was a slip of the tongue. Don’t worry about it, more importantly, how is Bayard’s condition now?”
“Fortunately, she has stabilized a lot. She still shows signs of instability, but…”
“But?”
“Uh, um, Commander…”
“Yes?”
Oh my god, you startled me.
With only her head sticking out from the door, for a moment I thought it was a decapitated head.
The bear ears on top of her reddish-brown hair trembled anxiously.
I sighed and said,
“Bayard, what’s the matter?”
“Well, that’s… I mean…”
“Bayard still has severe anxiety symptoms. She’s fine one moment, but sudden anxiety rushes in, and if not careful, she can even have seizures.”
“I understand. After experiencing that hell… What’s the solution?”
“That’s you, Commander.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Bayard charged at me like a wild boar.
Kwaaaak!!
Fortunately, she slowed down before impact, so I wasn’t hurt.
But the problem was her next action.
Her arms wrapped around my body.
You might ask what’s wrong with that.
But imagine being bear-hugged by a bear.
Your guts might spill out of your mouth.
I heard that this painful act could at least alleviate Bayard’s anxiety symptoms to some extent.
This was already an improvement.
Before, she would show up without regard for time or place.
“Still, it’s definitely better than two months ago.”
“Back then, she would show up more than 40 times a day, right?”
“She still comes about 7 times now, though.”
“It has decreased a lot.”
Is that even something to say?
My heart drops every time she comes.
Moreover, because Bayard hugged me with full force every time, there were more than a few times when I thought I was going to die like this.
[Um… Will I be a burden to him?]
[If that were the case, the commander would have avoided it himself.]
[Th-that’s right! Then, until then, I can do it as much as I want…!!]
[…]
It’s not that I don’t avoid it, but that I can’t avoid it.
I had thought about using time stop to try to avoid it, but it all failed.
My time stop had two functions.
One was the active time stop that I directly triggered with my consciousness.
And the other was the passive time stop that was used when my life was in danger.
The problem was the active one.
Since I had to directly activate it, it was useless if my reaction was slow.
And whenever I tried to react to Bayard, she was always already hugging me.
Indeed… This was the strength of a mid-level Royal Knights member.
Certainly, it was on a different level compared to lower-ranking members like Clara and Ruby.
The problem was that this wasn’t an attack, so the passive ability didn’t activate.
Moreover, thanks to what Cluna had told Bayard, even the option of avoiding it with time stop had disappeared.
If I avoided Bayard, then how was I supposed to solve those anxiety symptoms?
“You’re always here when I see you, Miss Bayard.”
“H-Helia, you’re here.”
“Let’s go back quickly. Don’t we have training to do?”
“…Helia?”
“It’s okay, Teacher. I’m not angry.”
Despite saying that, a vein popped on her forehead.
Moreover, her red hair was sticking up like a ghost.
Helia was forcibly smiling with her lips bitten.
It was so scary that even I, who was watching, was terrified.
But Bayard sniffled and approached her as if nothing had happened.
Then, blood flowed from Helia’s tightly bitten lips.
“I-I’m sorry. Helia, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s okay, Miss Bayard. I can pay it all back with training.”
“Yeah! That’s right! I’ll work hard too!”
“Eek…!!”
Helia seemed to be even more outraged at Bayard’s words.
It had been like this since two months ago.
When Helia saw Bayard hugging me, she vented her anger through sparring.
It was to the point where even Clara and Ruby, who were watching, were shocked.
But Bayard was unfazed.
Rather, she was receiving it all with a refreshed expression.
Watching that, it suddenly came to mind.
I had seen a video on the internet before of a martial artist and a bear sparring.
Calling it sparring was an overstatement.
In fact, the bear was just playing along.
“What a funny combination.”
“Still, thanks to that, Bayard has become much brighter.”
“That’s the ironic part.”
Helia was sincerely engaged in the sparring.
But Bayard just received it appropriately, as if playing along.
That showed that there was still an overwhelming difference in strength between the two.
But thanks to that, Helia’s skills were rapidly improving.
Stimulated by that, Clara and Ruby were also working hard in training.
In the end, it could be called a virtuous cycle.
It would be nice if things continued to go well like this.
While thinking that and handling work, I noticed a letter on my desk.
I looked at Cluna and said,
“What is this letter?”
“It’s a letter that just arrived this morning. Judging by the seal’s pattern, it seems to be a letter sent from the Dwarf Republic.”
“The Dwarf Republic… Do they still have something to say?”
After being rejected like that before, I thought they still hadn’t come to their senses.
I released the seal and read the letter.
The contents of the letter were completely unexpected.
“…Cluna, our first request has arrived.”
“Our first request? Don’t tell me it’s from the Dwarf Republic?!”
“Yeah. Half of it is a request, and half of it is a quibble.”
To summarize the contents of the letter, they said they couldn’t trust the skills of the new commander, me.
So they wanted me to prove my skills by solving this request alone.
They were not wrong.
It wasn’t just some incompetent knight order.
It was about the commander of the Royal Knights.
In a way, it was only natural for them to tackle me like this.
The problem was that it was the Dwarf Republic.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like they were just trying to find fault because of what happened before.
But still, a request was a request.
We weren’t in a position to be picky right now.
“Commander, let’s formally refuse this request.”
“Is there really a need for that?”
“Facing a demon alone is very dangerous. Even the previous Royal Knights faced demons in groups of at least two.”
“Then it’s rather a good thing.”
If I go alone, I can somehow resolve it.
Because I have time stop.
Even if I can’t do anything about it, I can survive using time stop.
The current Royal Knights were too unstable to send out.
So, it would be better for me to go alone and do something about it.
