Chapter 201: Encounter
Chapter 201: Encounter
I decided to dismount and walk.A noble who does not ride a horse — and a member of the royal family at that! Are you not ashamed as a noble!! — it would not be strange if someone said that. As general aristocratic theory it was unthinkable, but right now my own body was more important. Riding a horse would only make me a perfect target, I thought.
The knight was apologetic, but that did not matter. If necessary I would even have the knight mount and act like an attendant myself. Only, doing that would merely make the knight a substitute target. Still, I wanted to advance quickly. Because the knight stubbornly refused to ride while making me walk, saying he could not mount himself, we ultimately ended up walking five people surrounding the horse.
"People are coming from ahead!"
Stevie cried. I still could not tell. Lily also frowned. Yet the knight’s face blossomed into a smile as he said,
"Could it be that the welcoming party has already arrived?"
Even after I had said all that, his mind only went in the good direction. I began to think that when the critical moment came this fellow might be useless. Looking back later I understood that because he had never placed himself in such a desperate situation, hopeful observation had taken precedence.
From ahead, three mounted people and several on foot came into view. However, none of them were wearing knight-order uniforms. Even among the mounted ones the clothing was mismatched and not unified. This was strange. They had not come from the checkpoint. If they were from the checkpoint there would be uniforms. Looking at the knight’s face, he wore an "eh?" expression. Were there no familiar faces?
"Halt!!"
When the other side approached and the distance closed to about two hundred feet, I called out. Obeying that, the other group stopped walking. I did not feel anything like killing intent from them.
"I want you to go over to those people and determine whether they are truly a welcoming party."
When I said that,
"Understood. I shall go!"