“My, my. This certainly brings up a lot of memories. It’s been a while since we’ve gone on some adventure, the two of us. Or, well, three of us…hmm, actually, I’ve been wondering. Say, is he truly that strong?” Alice purred as she leaned close to Stella. Stella, on the other hand, stammered a bit as she averted the vampire lady’s gaze. The woman, after all, was too uncomfortably close, and as usual, Stella was quite evasive when it came to the subject of Marcus.
“Of course he is,” Stella replied. “Quite frankly, you truly have no need to participate in this quest.”
“But dear Stella, if I do not participate, how would I be able to see the world with you again? Oh, the church has already stolen you from me for too long; at least let me have this, will you?”
“...I said it’s fine, but, you know your job—”
“But I don’t want to keep rotting in that office, Stella. Please, just once? Just once?”
“Ahem,” Marcus cleared his throat as he walked behind the two ladies, interrupting their conversation. Quite frankly, he didn’t want to have Alice from the Order of Wellness come with the two of them. He was hoping that he’d be able to hitch a ride on Stella’s wyvern, get to their target dungeon, and then clear it out together quickly. He would be able to test out all of his new spells quickly, farm some XP to reach silver rank, and in the end, due to the value of clearing out their target dungeon based on the reward money posted by the Adventurer’s Guild, well, he and Stella would finish all of their headaches in one go.
It would have been so smooth, because even that prissy—err, graceful maid Phoebe had elected not to come with them. Mostly because, in her own words, ‘the dungeons stink.’ But, well, fate wasn’t so kind, as they had someone coming with them, and Marcus didn’t have the balls to go to Stella and say, ‘Hey, can we cut off your old friend so you can spend more private time with me?’ He simply wasn’t that kind of guy.
Not that he wouldn’t mess with Alice anyway to dissuade her from coming with them in the future, of course.
“You know,” Marcus walked near the vampire before leaning close to her, attempting to conduct himself in the most intimidating manner. “I’ve heard some folks prefer a lack of close contact.”
“Hmm…dearie me, what’s that supposed to mean, Sir Marcus?”
He stared at the mischievous face of the vampire, her canines visible through her grin. At first, Marcus thought upon meeting her that she was an uptight and responsible member of nobility. In fact, she was even so active at helping out people in the streets, going as far as utilizing her healing magic—which was garbage compared to Stella’s much more impeccable healing magic—just to support the volunteers.
Unfortunately, his first impression was shattered since he visited the lady’s personal office with Stella recently. As such, he was getting used to her little nonsense.
“You’re too close,” Marcus said bluntly, his tone cold and icy. “And too nosey.”
“Oooh, so protective. My, I didn’t expect this! Apologies, please don’t cut me in half, Sir Future Knight. She’s all yours.”
The vampire scurried away gracefully from Stella, who turned even more flustered. The saint shook her head with a pout, looking at both Marcus and Alice with an annoyed glare.
“Please no fighting,” Stella demanded. “I wish for peaceful travel with the two of you. Can I have that, please?”
“Of course,” Marcus bowed politely. “I’ll never think of causing trouble.”
“S-Stella, you totally are scary when you look at me like that. Please forgive me!”
Marcus just groaned internally in reaction to Alice’s overly theatrical reaction, while Stella simply relented. The saint still shook her head before proceeding forward, with Marcus and Alice following closely from behind. They soon left the Royal Palace, going straight to the stables owned by Stella’s family, where the finest land dragons, wyverns, and horses—and there were even unicorns—were situated.
Normally, Marcus and Stella would set out on a horse, but, well, their target dungeon, the ‘Lost Fortress of Mendol,’ which was said to be an ancient structure predating even the Holy Empire itself, was far away in the east of the country. Secondarily, with horses, Marcus and Stella normally used [Blink Step] to hurry forward. That was quite dreary when they would have to constantly conduct it over long stretches of time, and besides, he didn’t want to show the vampire lady here how truly strong he was.
This was also why, in addition to learning magecraft, Marcus spent some time attempting to learn how to fly a wyvern. While his efforts were largely underwhelming, as he was in a bit of a tight timeframe, he was now a novice of an acceptable level that he could fly with one. Stella opted for a white wyvern that seemingly knew her well, which she calls Daisy.
Alice went for a light brown one, which had no name but looked almost equally majestic, just in a different manner to Daisy, while Marcus went for a black one. The wyvern stared at Marcus briefly before baring its fangs with a glare. He could only sigh.
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“It would appear that Sir Night isn’t too fond of you.” Alice placed her gloved hand on her lips as she giggled. She was already on top of her wyvern. “You poor thing.”
Sir Night? So this wyvern does have a name. He was pretty sure that the guy in charge of the stables told him that this wyvern wasn’t named, and no one in the royal family actually rode this one. Not even the palace nobles being invited in a routine manner ever rode this wyvern. He was more of an…extra. An emergency mount.
That was why he was offered to Marcus for training.
Though, I guess I should have asked Stella about this guy. Marcus looked at Night with a small grimace. It seems like her friend really knows more about this place than I do.
“What’s the matter with you?” Marcus boredly asked.
The wyvern just lowered its head before sneering at him. Then, it adamantly shook its head side to side.
“What? But you and I have flown together for a while now?” Marcus tried to approach the beast with an awkward smile—which couldn’t be seen because of his mask, unfortunately—but the beast recoiled back. Internally, Marcus was slightly hurt by it. He never had troubles with horses, but it seemed that wyverns were a bit more wary of him.
He supposed it was because they were apparently quite capable of sensing magic. Perhaps the ‘death’s essence’ that those cultists say covered him was troubling the creature? He wasn’t sure. Or maybe the wyvern just didn’t want to fly that far? Or maybe Marcus was truly a shite rider.
In any case, this was a problem. A problem that quickly ended when a soft voice spoke behind him.
“Night,” Stella spoke up atop Daisy. “Will you please let Marcus get on top of you? We’ll just go take a short trip. That’ll be fine, no?”
The creature looked up at Stella with a softened look before reluctantly lowering its head submissively to Marcus. Alice giggled further, seemingly amused by Marcus’s misfortune, while he himself just rode on top of the wyvern carefully. Later, when they were finally airborne, Night seemed like he was flying much more steadily than he ever did beforehand.
Marcus easily formed up in formation with Stella and Alice. It was an arrowhead-like formation, with Stella at the center, Marcus on the right, and Alice on the left. Marcus held Night’s reins as steadily as he could, but it didn’t seem to matter much, as the wyvern he was on was flying fine on its own.
It was like Night knew exactly by instinct how to be in formation with Daisy. It was surprising. He wondered if there was more connection between these wyverns and Stella than he knew, or if it was just standard familiarity born out of time.
“So,” Stella finally smiled, seemingly free as she sat straight. “How are you two holding up?”
“Quite fine,” Alice said, one-handedly flying her wyvern while holding a map in her right hand.
“Normal,” Marcus said, both of his hands holding tightly and steadily, perhaps with a bit more tension than he wanted. “I’ve never flown this high before. And so far.”
“You’ll get used to it, Marcus,” Stella said. “I promise.”
“I shall keep that in mind.”
It had already been thirty minutes since they departed Kalthafen. The terrain on the ground was passing by them so quickly that he could see towns and cities in intervals measured in just minutes. It was a breathtaking sight, something he’d only seen once back then, though that was while he was behind Stella’s back, holding on to her, so he was a bit more distracted.
Now though, he could have a better look. Being in the skies like this, with the gentle flapping of the wings by his wyvern, who mostly really only glided through the air more than anything else, was quite liberating. Up here, it felt as if all the troubles below were a faraway thing. He understood why Stella seemed to be smiling much more brightly over there than usual.
Don’t look at her too much, idiot. Marcus chastised himself as he looked ahead. Alice will notice.
He did like Stella very much. That he already knew. It was why he always sought private time with her, even if it was something as simple as helping her do paperwork or a little chat over tea and coffee. Just being with her made Marcus feel better about life, and he chased wanting to amuse her or help her. Unfortunately, he knew that while Stella did probably have affections for him, because, well, anyone with half a brain could tell that, she still hadn’t declared anything official, and neither had he.
In fact, deep down, he doubted this was even feasible for both of them. It was a sobering thought. It was enough for Marcus to beat himself down and try to act normal, lest he embarrass her or himself. He was still a soldier, and professionalism was something he conducted himself with.
If he were to be Stella’s knight, as she had planned and requested, which was already being processed by the king and his bureaucrats for approval, Marcus swore that he would serve her faithfully and professionally, unless she told him otherwise. It was only going to be her word of approval that would change this policy of his.
More than two hours passed as they tirelessly flew above Sordale when they finally got close to their destination. Marcus was already half asleep at that point when Stella’s bright voice brought him back to life, and the trio began hovering in the air with their wyverns. She was excitedly pointing at a massive structure seemingly built on the face of a mountain, a structure so old and ancient that its pillars were filled with overgrown vines.
“I can already see it!” Stella said. “That thing’s going to end all the debt we racked up!”
“Heh, if there’s some leftover money, can I have some?” Marcus thought he should actually ask about that.
“Of course. After all, you should have a cut of the money in the first place.”
“I see, I see.”
“I was told that the monsters within that dungeon are vicious,” Alice said on the side, a slight murmur in her voice. “Of course, I’m ready for anything, and I did come here enthusiastically, but are we sure that it’ll be fine if we have to deal with creatures beyond gold rank?”
“It’ll be fine,” Marcus said, shrugging. “Stella can deal with most threats. And if it’s something beyond her capabilities…I will deal with it.”
