“Now, we should greet Fay’s Cavalry colleagues as well. I’m Matten. I work with a small trading company.”

Matten laughed amiably as if he had never worn a cold expression. Glowe clasped the hand he held out first and gave a brief introduction.

“…My name is Glowe.”

“Oh. Ms. Glowe, is it. Then the person next to you is……?”

“I’m Elpokin.”

“So both of you are newly enlisted in the Cavalry this time. I heard the competition rate was tremendous, and you broke through it—impressive! That must mean you each have a special ability, right?”

A friendly-looking smile and questions asked with the bright curiosity of an ordinary person.

Nothing about it was strange, and that made it feel all the more oddly unpleasant.

‘I don’t want to answer…….’

While Glowe hesitated, surprisingly, Fay stepped up and raised his voice.

“You mustn’t just ask a stranger about their ability o-on first meeting! That’s rude!”

“Ah. Is it……? I didn’t know. Is that a Cavalry rule? I’m still curious, though… It’s not like I’d go blabbing anywhere—could you tell me just a little? I heard the Cavalry has three divisions.”

Thankfully, this was something easy to answer.

“We’re still rookies. We haven’t been assigned to a division yet.”

“Ah……. What a shame. But you do have divisions you want, right? I heard the famous Cavalry hero Yuder Aile belongs to the Divine Division. There are plenty who say that by ability he should have gone to the Technique Division, too.”

“…Mm. Ordinary people usually don’t know that far. You know quite a bit about Senior Yuder, Mr. Matten.”

Before joining the Cavalry, Glowe hadn’t known which division Yuder Aile belonged to. All she’d heard were rampant rumors about his great achievements. That level was normal for most.

“Haha. My job is merchant, isn’t it. If I didn’t even know this much, how could I sell anything anywhere? These days, who is there that doesn’t praise the Commander and the Cavalry’s hero. Right, Fay? Even before you enlisted, you sang on and on about how you wished you could see the Cavalry’s hero just once.”

“Y-Yeah.”

Skilfully, Matten pulled Fay in. With Fay, a fan of the Commander and Yuder, blushing and nodding, Glowe missed her chance to press further on that point.

‘I want to probe a bit more…….’

“Ms. Glowe, could it be that you and our friend Fay are in a bit… of a special relationship?”

“Pardon?”

Before Glowe could poke at Matten, Matten struck first with a question that slipped past her guard. The moment Glowe’s voice jumped high, Fay flailed his hands in a panic.

“No! What are you talking about?”

“Hahaha. Sorry if it’s nothing at all. But isn’t it just so curious that on such a nice holiday a beautiful lady would come together with a fellow like Fay. Fay couldn’t take his eyes off you, Ms. Glowe, so I wondered if you’d already become close.”

“It’s absolutely not like that! G-Gl-Glowe is such a good and kind person—how could you say that……!”

“No. It’s not a question one can’t ask, is it. What’s wrong? Haha.”

Fay looked about to burst into tears. But Glowe was looking only at the peculiarly tenacious glint in Matten’s eyes.

‘…He’s started to suspect me too. He wants to dig properly into why I came.’

It was nothing more than a vague sense.

But Glowe trusted that sense that had protected her until now. She was just opening her mouth, thinking what to say, when—

“Hm? Do you have to be lovers to be allowed to follow Fay?”

Elpokin cut in with a guileless face.

“I didn’t just come with the two of them—I came too… If you put it like that, it sounds a bit strange, you know? And I was watching Fay the whole time as well!”

“Ah. Of course.”

Matten was a little taken aback. But Elpokin wasn’t finished.

“Fay, Glowe, and I are very close peers. And among peers in the Cavalry, that’s practically family. Which is to say, following along to something like this isn’t strange at all!”

His way of speaking was that of a clumsy country fellow to the life. But the pressure of his huge wings, stag antlers, and beast-mixed features was truly terrifying. The moment Matten’s brow furrowed with a face unconsciously cowed, a bootblack youth with soot all over his face grabbed and tugged his sleeve.

“Sir, there’s a lot of mud on your shoes. You’ll feel better if they’re cleaned. Shall I polish them spotless for you?”

“What? No need—be off.”

“Aw, c’mon. Try it once, even if you think you’ll be fooled. I’ve got twenty years’ experience, believe it or not. I can tell how far you’ve come just by the dirt on your shoes. The stuff on these is reddish so… what, you came from the south? The dirt’s a bit red down that way, innit. Heh heh. I got it right, didn’t I?”

“……I said go!”

Matten shouted. The bootblack youth hopped back to avoid getting hit, then, grumbling as if taking his leave, moved off.

“South? Matten, wasn’t your trading company up in the North the whole time before coming to the capital?”

Fay asked in curiosity. Matten clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“I’ve never once gone south. What would that bootblack know. He just spouts whatever comes out of his mouth.”

“Ah…….”

Fay accepted it. But Glowe and Elpokin, who had just been to the South, did not. Their gazes crossed for an instant.

“…Mm. Anyway, I was a bit… mischievous just now. I apologize.”

“Not at all.”

“Haha. Then shall we move to the restaurant now? Everyone must be waiting.”

“Matten. Will the others be okay with my colleagues coming along together…?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Fay. If you tell them two more Cavalry members are joining us, rather… we should be the ones grateful.”

Matten smiled.

‘I want to chalk it up to my imagination……. But the farther we go, the more Fay’s card-divination result keeps coming to mind.’

Fay seemed not to have felt at all how coldly the person he called a friend had just looked at him. Walking a little behind the group, Glowe carefully swept her gaze around.

Under the clear, warm sky, many people were coming and going between the fountain and the nearby market. The bootblack youth who’d spoken to Matten earlier was bent over, zealously polishing shoes, and the lovers sitting side by side on a bench reading looked sweet. Behind the children holding their father’s hand and heading to the market was an Imperial Guardsman checking his pocket watch as if waiting for someone……. She sensed nothing suspicious.

“Glowe. What are you looking at so hard?”

Elpokin, who had come up without her noticing, called to her. Startled, Glowe shook her head.

“It’s nothing.”

“Is it because of the smell?”

“Hm?”

“That person who’s supposed to be Fay’s friend. He smells no good at all.”

After confirming once more that the two walking ahead weren’t paying them any mind, Glowe asked in a low voice.

“What kind of smell?”

“The smell I often caught in the fight ring where I was. The ones who measured me this way and that, treating me like livestock, often gave off that smell.”

He muttered, twitching his deer-like nose.

“From the moment you urged me to come along with someone as conspicuous as me, I figured there must be something……. Seeing that man, I think I get it. You called me because you were worried, didn’t you?”

“You knew everything even though I didn’t explain in detail.”

“When you asked me, you smelled anxious. Honestly, that’s why I said I’d come.”

Up until now, Glowe had only thought of him as a strong and kind peer. But the Elpokin before her now looked like a seasoned mercenary with animal-like instincts. While thinking she’d done very well to bring him, Glowe felt a slight pang of guilt and pity on the other hand.

“It’s true I asked you along just in case. But even aside from this, if something came up to go out and have fun, I… no, we would have invited you anytime.”

At that, Elpokin made a flustered face.

“Huh? No, I didn’t mean it like that…….”

“What’s so… so bad about conspicuous looks. Look around. There aren’t that many people staring at you.”

Of course, not none. But there was ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) no one who screamed and ran away on seeing Elpokin, nor any child bursting into tears. With the Cavalry headquarters nearby, the locals were used to seeing Awakeners of all sorts of appearances. Elpokin wore an embarrassed expression.

“R-Right.”

“If we call you next time, you’ll come, won’t you?”

“I will. If you call me.”

“Good. It’s a promise.”

In truth, Glowe didn’t much like going out. There were even a few times she refused when other peers asked her to hang out. But seeing Elpokin, who seemed even more so than her, gave her a sense of mission to invite him out often.

“We’ve arrived. It’s here.”

Just then, Matten halted and looked back.

‘Ah. I meant to talk a bit more about what was suspicious about Elpokin and that man…….’

The topic had changed mid-way, and she’d missed her chance. On top of that, she’d failed to keep even the resolve to look more closely around while coming.

Glowe slumped her shoulders and stepped into the restaurant. It was the common sort of place that ran both an eatery and an inn. The inside was fairly packed, and the moment Elpokin came in, eyes gathered for a beat.

“……”

Elpokin’s face was as if nothing were wrong. Rather, those who met his eyes flinched and turned their heads back.