“On top of that, I think she is a maid?”
“A maid?”
They made bristling noise as they made their way through the bushes. The four people walked toward where Nainiae was.
Based on their voices, based on their appearances… The four appeared to be very young, unbecoming of the place they were in. Even if their ages were overestimated, they appeared to be around the age similar to Riley and Nainiae.
“Why is a maid here?”
“…?”
The boys and girls each had either swords on their waists, bows or staffs. Having discovered the four, Nainiae glanced around at Riley, checked his mood, and asked on his behalf,
“Who might you all be?”
Having heard the question, a brown haired young man, who appeared to be the representative of the group, stepped forward and asked back,
“That’s our line. What business do you have in this place? This place is the territory of Andal, the infamous red dragon. By any chance… you are not going to say you got lost in your way, are you?”
The young man was narrowing his eyes and bringing his hand toward the sword on his back. Nainiae had dumbfounded look on her face. She turned to look at Riley on the back and checked how he felt about this.
“…”
Riley was also finding this to be ridiculous. With the gaze, he glanced at Nainiae and the four people. The four people were glaring at Riley and Nainiae as if they found the two to be suspicious. Riley, finding it to be such a bother, sighed.
‘Just handle it.’
Riley waved his right hand to deliver his thought to Nainiae. She nodded as if she understood and walked toward the four people.
‘Wait. Four…’
The number of people that Riley felt through his senses was four. Also, the number of people who were staring at Riley and Nainiae suspiciously was also four.
‘Are these the humans that the Mister mentioned earlier?’
The four humans who are very good at running away, the people who the red bear guardian lost in middle of pursuit seemed to be these four.
Nainiae only kept silence. There was no response from her. The brown-haired young man drew the sword from his back and shouted,
“Hurry and spill it out! Who are you?”
“As you asked earlier, I’m just a maid, but… Isn’t it only polite to reveal your own identity first before asking the other person?”
“What?”
“This will be the last time I’ll be speaking in respectful words. The four of you, where did you all come from?”
Nainiae thought about how could such young people could have followed her and Riley. She thought about all guardians she just met so far and furrowed her brows.
It was because she realized this happened because of her doing.
Using magic, one after another, Nainiae neutralized guardians who showed fangs against them. Because she was climbing like this, the four people were also able to get this far and meet Nainiae and Riley. This was her guess.
“We are Brave Heroes.”
“…?”
Finding them to be such a bother, Riley was just going to ignore them and continue climbing. However, having heard what was just said, he perked up his ears and turned his head.
“Brave Heroes?”
Nainiae also perked up her ears and tuned into what the brown-haired young man had to say.
“That’s right. We are here to eradicate Andal the red dragon, the one who is threatening our village’s peace!”
Peace and whatnot, eradicate and whatever… The young man didn’t look all that skilled, yet he was saying stuff like that. Riley steadily gazed upon their eyes. Dumbfounded, he shook his head and turned away.
“Ah! You there! Wait!”
Riley was about to resume climbing, and the brown-haired young man thought Riley was trying to run away. He started to point his finger at Riley.
“Enough.”
To block the finger aimed toward Riley, Nainiae walked to the front of the young man. She glared at the four and said in low voice,
“Did you say you came here to eradicate Andal the red dragon?”
Because Nainiae was blocking his front… To be precise, because Nainiae came closer and he could clearly see her beauty, the brown-haired young man just had his jaw dropped vacantly. He responded half a tempo late,
“T… That’s right!”
“Just now, you said your village’s peace was threatened… Do you have any proof? I don’t believe such would have happened?”
Having heard the question, the brown-haired young man flinched his shoulders. However, refusing to lose, he talked back.
“It didn’t happen yet, but it will soon!”
“It hasn’t happened?”
Nainiae was trying to say that he should give straight answers. She questioned in cold tone of voice, and the young man’s face crumpled.
“Kuk…”
Looking at his crumpled face, Nainiae lightly sighed and said,
“Well, it’s fine. This is not the first time people talked about eradicating the dragon. Scales, claws, teeth, heart… Sticking all sorts of reasons up there as the reasons, there were a few instances where humans came by.”
Nainiae mumbled about the story as she twirled her long hair to the front right of her face with her finger.