After everything in the City of Magitech wrapped up, Tiran kept her word and wiped Snow Wolf’s wanted records clean, then handed all the artifacts they’d gotten over to her. After that, they parted ways in Sainz.

For this mercenary captain, their trip to the City of Magitech had been a total jackpot. He’d not only walked away with a huge pile of money, but he’d also pulled Snow Wolf out of its crisis. He could finally face his brothers without guilt.

She’d thought she’d never really have a reason to see this guy again. She hadn’t expected him to show up on his own at a time like this.

“You’re saying you want to join the castle guard?” After listening to Beinrich, Tiran raised a brow. That was rare. These mercs who lived for their freedom actually wanted to sign up as regulars?

“Not join. What I mean is, Snow Wolf’s willing to act as an off-the-books force for Your Highness, as payback for letting us come back.” Beinrich rubbed his nose, speaking in his usual careless tone. “I don’t like owing favors. What Your Highness did for Snow Wolf isn’t something my tiny bit of use in the ruins can make up for.”

“Your Highness, don’t trust this guy! He’s just a wanted criminal. There’s no way he has good intentions!”

Before Tiran could answer, the female knight had already drawn her sword with a sharp shout. She and her covert knights had orders to protect Tiran. At a time like this, they couldn’t back down even an inch.

Letting an untrustworthy person into the castle… If word got out that Tiran had lost her Holy Rank powers, it would be a massive problem for the whole kingdom.

“Hey, hey, little knight. First off, get it right: I’m not a wanted criminal anymore. If you insist on calling me that, at least stick a ‘former’ in front. Second, we did fight side by side. You don’t have to be this on edge, do you? Lastly, I’m asking for Her Highness’s opinion right now, so don’t go overstepping your role.”

“You—!” Shuma clenched her sword hilt, seething. What the hell, she was usually a lot calmer than this. Why did this annoying bastard always manage to rile her up in just a few sentences?

What made it worse was that he actually sounded kind of reasonable. She couldn’t even refute him.

As for Tiran, she glanced at Shuma, cheeks puffed, biting her lip in anger, then at Beinrich grinning as he leaned on his greatsword. A thought suddenly popped into her head.

—I really wanna see what it’s like with these two stuck together.

The female knight saw Tiran’s wavering gaze and felt a jolt of dread. If this went on, Her Highness might seriously agree to let Snow Wolf move in.

“W-wait, Princess Tiran! Please think this through! Guarding the castle is something we covert knights can handle, not to mention your own garrison. And with Your Highness the Dragonslayer’s strength, we absolutely don’t need them!”

Shuma blinked wildly at her. Your Highness, don’t forget your current condition is tied to the kingdom’s safety! There were definitely a lot of scouts from different factions lurking in Beacon City and around the castle. If anything went wrong…

“Oh, right. On the way here, we found two creeps sneaking around and spying on this place, so we grabbed them too. You can decide what to do with them.”

As he spoke, Beinrich made a gesture. His men immediately hauled over two unconscious, tightly trussed-up guys and tossed them on the grass out front.

Both wore simple civilian clothes, looking no different from ordinary townsfolk. But after Shuma searched them, she easily found two pendant-like communication devices that were pulsing with magic. Spies, obviously. She just didn’t know whose side they were on yet.

“So? We’re actually pretty good at recon and counter-recon.” Beinrich rolled his shoulders, his thick arm lifting one unconscious spy with ease as he showed off to Shuma.

“Hmph, what’s so great about skills you trained up by robbing other robbers…” The knight curled her lip and turned away in frustration. “Big deal. If it were my people, we’d dig out every rat hiding nearby in three days.”

“Either way, these two were caught by Snow Wolf. If you’re planning to compete, you’ll have to add two heads to our score first.” The mercenary captain spread his hands, completely unfazed.

“Sure, I’m fine with that.” In the end, the princess made the call.

…

“And that’s how it slowly turned into what you’re seeing now.”

On the top-floor terrace of the central tower where the princess lived, Aya and Tiran stood side by side, leaning on the railing, enjoying the cool night breeze with drinks in hand.

The maid-dragon had completely shaken off her maid duties by now. Honestly, this was probably the most laid-back she’d been since they’d dragged her back here.

The little Angel trailed her every day calling her “senpai,” Chirp called her “Mom,” and thanks to Chirp, even Mimi had stopped being so awful to her. On top of that, Tiran had temporarily lost her powers and couldn’t rely on brute force anymore… Life was good.

After listening to Tiran, Aya went quiet for a bit. She casually set her wineglass on the little side table, then bent over the railing, making circles with her hands in front of her eyes like a scope and carefully scanned the area around the castle.

It was around seven or eight at night, the sky already pretty dark. But with the faint moonlight above and Dragon eyesight, she could still see clearly.

She spotted at least a dozen spots around the castle where figures were searching or setting something up.

On top of that, there was a section of the garrison camp behind the castle that looked totally out of place. A bright bonfire burned at the center of the camp, with more than twenty people around it drinking, laughing, and messing around. Two well-built guys with bare upper bodies were wrestling beside the fire, their bronzed skin reflecting the warm light.

It was the textbook adventurer camp—completely different from the garrison right next door.

Not that the army was always stiff and joyless. On the contrary, scenes like that weren’t rare in the garrison camp on normal days either. Tiran didn’t enforce strict etiquette rules on the few hundred guards in the castle—she wasn’t that good at them herself anyway.

But today was different. The garrison troops were pissed. Really pissed.

As regulars of the kingdom, getting picked to guard the royal residence meant they were the elite of the elite. In pure combat strength, they were no worse than the royal palace guard. So when they saw mercenaries like Snow Wolf, a bunch of wild freelancers, they naturally felt superior.

We’re the true shield of Gilliast Castle. What are these halfway-joined mercs? And they’re taking over our camp on top of that?

So, to show Snow Wolf what a real army looked like, several captains held a secret little meeting in a tent. They quietly ordered their men to straighten up, pick up all the etiquette they usually slacked off on, clean every uniform and piece of armor until it gleamed, and ban every little rule-bending habit like bringing booze into camp. Everything had to run at the strictest standard. For a moment, Tiran felt like her troops had suddenly turned into a royal honor guard from the capital.

—Some guys who’d been loafing around so long they’d forgotten what “conduct evaluation standards” even were had to dig out the little handbook they got when they first enlisted and cram last minute…

Given their usual behavior, these people were honestly toxic. Aya silently came to that conclusion.

“So why did you agree to let Snow Wolf station here anyway? If it’s just about searching for enemies, I could take some time and sweep the area with my psychic feelers. I’d find almost all of them.”

“That’d be boring. If those small fry outside actually manage to find anything, I’ll call it my loss.” Tiran huffed twice, then suddenly stood up, raising her glass high toward the open land beyond the walls before downing it.

“Besides, don’t you think it feels amazing knowing there’s a bunch of idiots out there lying in the dirt, gnawing on dry rations while keeping watch on us day and night, while we’re in here wining and dining?”

Tiran showed a wicked grin and gave a thumbs-up.

…Her personality really is terrible. Whoever marries her in the future is doomed. Aya grumbled silently.

“Hey, don’t think I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours. I’ll smack you.”

“Maah… don’t mind me, I was just thinking.” Aya let out an awkward laugh.

“Forget it, I won’t argue with you. You said you went to the Adventurer’s Guild today and picked up an S-rank quest, right?” When she brought it up, Tiran’s mood dipped a little. The maid-dragon didn’t notice at all.

“Yup. I’m leaving in a couple of days. Destination’s the Dark Swamp on the southwest coast. Should take ten days to half a month. But I might make a ton of money this time.” Aya flashed a confident grin. Well? Well? I can earn my own money now, you know. Hurry up and praise me.

If she could, Aya actually wanted to leave as soon as possible and come back as soon as possible—she’d have flown out already. But Etras and the others said they still had preparations to make, so they had to delay a bit.

Ten days to half a month… huh.

“Uh, why’d you suddenly go quiet?” Aya noticed Tiran had fallen silent. She waved a hand in front of her eyes. “If you’re worried about safety, you really don’t have to be. We’ve got the contract. You can summon me back anytime, and that doesn’t depend on my power level.”

Idiot, that’s not what I’m worried about at all.

Tiran muttered gloomily in her head. She set her cup down and headed off to bathe, leaving Aya alone on the terrace to keep enjoying the night.

…

In the big bath, steam curling up around her, the princess was the only one there. She hugged her knees in a corner, letting the torrent from a lion-head spout pound onto her head, soaking her silver hair so the ends floated gently in the water.

The hot water running down her back felt amazing. But Tiran still had this weird feeling in her chest, an inexplicable discomfort.

She thought and thought, and still couldn’t figure out why. It seemed to have started when she heard Aya was going out on a quest… But over something like that? It didn’t make sense.

It’s just ten days to half a month. It’s not like she’s not coming back.

And even if she really doesn’t come back, she’s just a dumb dragon…

Just…

Tiran stirred the water beside her with a dazed hand, repeating that word over and over in her heart.

Just?

Ughhh! Why am I even bothering with something this stupid?

With a splash, Tiran plunged under the water, trying to wash the mess of thoughts out of her head.

——————