The request I accepted this time was a designated quest that came through the Adventurer's Guild. The client was the military, and the task was reconnaissance cooperation.

PRRR.

On a separate note, if I had known we'd be taking horses, I would have brought Fredrick from the start. I ended up wasting time going back and forth for nothing.

"That's a fine horse."

Still, I'm glad they gave me time to bring my horse.

I saw the eyebrows of the captain—who had been annoyed when I first mentioned Fredrick—shoot up.

It seemed even to her, Fredrick looked extraordinary. As expected of the noble steed, Fredrick.

"We depart."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Anyway, the soldiers gave a disciplined response to the reconnaissance captain's shout. Dozens of scouts acting with such precision on horseback was quite a spectacle. It was enough to make even my heart pound, despite only tagging along this one time.

Not that it made me want to enlist, though.

CLIP-CLOP!

I spurred Fredrick on, following the others as they began to move in unison.

The guy had expressed disappointment at not being able to run freely on his own, but he still kept pace with the group quite well.

The rhythmic thump, thump, thump of his posting trot was quite brisk.

"Clear the people away!"

"Step back to the sides!"

And when we crossed the streets at that speed and reached the city wall, I saw the city gates cleanly cleared front and back.

They had cleared the path so the horses could pass through.

"Increase speed!"

Thanks to that, we were able to increase our speed as soon as we exited the gates. RUMBLE, RUMBLE. The horses of thirty soldiers and one adventurer galloped over the packed dirt road.

"To the right!"

However, our gallop along the paved road was brief; we began to veer off to one side in accordance with our reconnaissance objective.

Recalling the briefing I heard earlier, our current destination was likely the beach.

CRASH!

I glanced at the coastline, lined with pebbles and rocks, and marveled.

The coasts I saw in the west were mostly sand, but the area around Bemurhen was entirely a pebble beach. The area further out even looked like a mudflat.

"Spread out! We are entering the mudflat!"

Ah, it didn't just look like one; it really was a mudflat. But can horses even go into a mudflat? Won't their hooves sink?

I swallowed my doubt and surprise and followed the soldiers. 'They're going because it's possible.' That was my mindset.

SPLASH, SPLASH.

Sure enough, the horses galloped across the mud without sinking, splashing water as they went. It seemed possible because the soil forming the ground wasn't the squishy mud I knew of, but closer to waterlogged sand.

FLAP, FLAP, FLAP.

The birds resting on the wetland took flight all at once to avoid the herd of horses.

More importantly, was I just supposed to look around while riding like this?

The vice-captain had explained that I just needed to signal if I spotted anything strange, but I had to know what 'strange' even meant to do that.

The more I thought about it, the more I questioned why they had hired me. I scanned the surroundings out of the corner of my eye while keeping pace.

Suddenly, I spotted a faint movement out by the horizon.

Was it a wave? It was a bit too unnatural for that... The water was splashing as if something was kicking around in it...

"Three o'clock, right side, splashing!"

Just as I was trying to get a clearer look, someone shouted. Three o'clock on the right side was almost the exact same location as the spot I had found.

"Everyone, gallop!"

Oh... So you really are just supposed to call it out even if you only see a splash.

I decided I'd just call it out the next time I found something and turned my horse's head.

"One Legless-type Merman! Presumed to be a straggler!"

"Are you sure there's only one?!"

"Positive!"

Soon, something resembling a mermaid appeared among the shallow surface. Having seemingly spotted us as well, the creature was just crawling out of a tidal channel and moving toward the seawater.

It seemed it had missed the timing to escape during the low tide... And since it happened to be a Legless-type—I just learned this upon arriving here, but Mermen are divided into those with legs and those without—it couldn't get out and was trapped in a pit.

The term 'straggler' was a perfect fit.

"Adventurer, let's see your skills! Kill it! The rest of you, reduce speed!"

But the Merman was lying so flat on the ground that I couldn't even see what it looked like...?

"Vice-captain, help him!"

"Yessir."

Ah, that startled me. I hadn't expected to be called out.

"Don't slow down, keep advancing to where the Merman is! Just throw the harpoon we issued you from a suitable distance to pin it down!"

Unlike the strict captain, the vice-captain—who was as easygoing as DeB—casually called out to me. From what I experienced during the briefing earlier, he was a rather friendly guy.

"Like I said before, confirming the kill with your pike is mandatory. If you don't want to see your horse's ankles get sliced off, be careful when approaching!"

He wasn't exactly favorable toward me either, just like the captain, but his natural outgoing personality made him lean on the friendlier side. Thanks to that, I was getting a lot of help.

"Well, are you confident? Or should I do the confirmation kill?"

"I just have to kill it, right?"

"Yeah. It's not like catching it alive means we can interrogate it."

So they didn't really need to capture it for anything. Then was there a need to go all the way over there? I might as well just kill it from here.

SHING!

Instead of the issued harpoon, I drew my longsword and launched a sword aura.

I had debated whether to kill it with a magic spear or sword aura before choosing the latter... And I only chose it for one reason.

The captain wasn't favorable toward me, and since a magic spear was hard to see, I figured she might not notice it and end up suspecting me if I used it for the kill.

"Oh..."

"... What the?"

On the other hand, a sword aura was large and easy to see, even if its color was black.

"Halt, halt."

NEIGH!

My calculation seemed to have worked on the vice-captain, at least. He urgently brought his horse to a halt with a surprised look on his face.

SPLASH, SPLASH. I gave Fredrick the same signal.

"A s-sword aura can actually fly..."

The vice-captain blinked with a bewildered expression, then scratched his head and turned to look. "Should we confirm?" His gaze landed on the captain.

"... For now, confirm it."

"Hah, if it's still alive with its body split in half, it wouldn't be a Merman. Understood."

The vice-captain tilted his head side to side, then slowly spurred his horse forward.

"Come along if you want to see a Merman. You don't have to if you've seen one before."

Ah. Then I wanted to see.

I followed the vice-captain, thump, thump, thump. Although I had checked illustrations of Mermen before departing—and seen them in the game—I had never seen a real one in person.

"... Crazy. I can't believe it died this easily."

And the Merman I confirmed this way was literally in the shape of a mermaid.

Though, unlike the mermaids typically depicted in media, it was incredibly close to a marine creature—the exact appearance that made people go, 'Wow! A Cthulhu relative!' in the original Legend of Heroes.

POKE, POKE.

I watched the vice-captain poke the Merman with his pike before shifting my attention to gauge the distance he was keeping from it.

No wonder they issued 3-meter pikes—which could be detached in the middle, so they were split into two 1.5-meter sections while on horseback—it seemed you had to keep at least that much distance.

"We've confirmed it's dead... Let's head back. You're pretty good, Mr. Adventurer."

"Is it okay to just leave it?"

"We don't have the spare capacity to retrieve it."

I see...

I nodded at his words and returned to the group. Seeing the captain's face again, her expression was softer than before.

"I suppose the recommendation wasn't for nothing."

She seemed to have quite liked my sword aura.

"We depart again! And adventurer, we will not wait for you from now on, so make sure to catch up on your own after taking care of business!"

However, her treatment of me didn't immediately improve. She seemed to just have that kind of personality, so I didn't feel wronged.

The reconnaissance-slash-Merman-clearing resumed.

* * *

"We will set up camp here!"

The reconnaissance would continue until tomorrow. In other words, we had to sleep rough to get through the night.

"Squad 3, come with me for perimeter reconnaissance. Squads 4 and 5 will tend to the horses. Squad 6 will handle guard duty."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Vice-captain, do what needs to be done while I am away."

"Yep."

The same went for meals. We had made do with bread for lunch, but we couldn't do that for dinner.

"Alright, you heard her, right? Squads 4 and 5, hurry up and tend to the horses, and Squad 6, space yourselves out and begin perimeter watch. Squads 1 and 2, prepare the meal and set up camp!"

And so, the squads—divided into six people each, except for one squad with seven because of me—began their respective tasks.

Among them, Squad 1, which I was part of, somehow ended up in charge of meal prep and cooking. Squad 2 was setting up camp.

"Um, Mr. Adventurer."

But the vice-captain, who volunteered to start the fire—both the captain and vice-captain were in Squad 1—dragged me into the task. It seemed he wanted to talk to me.

"Are you by any chance... a former knight?"

But I had my own hands too full to humor him...

I hadn't had many occasions to start a fire myself, so I was still clumsy at it.

I envied Squad 2, who were picking out rocks from the ground and digging a trench to draw water from a nearby stream, as I vigorously struck the flint.

Luckily, the fire caught on the third try.

"Is that information necessary for the reconnaissance?"

"Not exactly..."

"Then I won't answer."

Did I respond too coldly because of my troubled state of mind? The vice-captain looked a bit awkward.

"Alright. Let's hang the pot now."

To cook, we needed to hang the pot. I glanced at the rest of the soldiers preparing the ingredients, then helped the vice-captain.

Of course, since it was something I'd only done a few times, the vice-captain couldn't bear to watch and just took over, doing it all himself. My fumbling must have been too frustrating to watch.

"Hey buddy, are you sure you're an adventurer?"

"..."

I'm sorry I can't do stuff like this despite being an adventurer...

I was at a loss for words.

"... Are you any good at cooking?"

"... I know how to."

It was a similar story on that front.

It wasn't that I was extremely terrible at cooking... Right, I wasn't an alchemist-level disaster like some comic book character...

It's just... I tend to undercook things or burn them a little. Or sometimes both.

"..."

"..."

"... Well, that happens. There are just some things in the world that don't work out no matter how hard you try."

T-Thanks for putting it that way...

I accepted the vice-captain's consideration with an odd expression. Honestly, it was the right move, even for the sake of the others.

Yeah, even if it breaks my character a bit, it's not too extreme, and it's better than eating terrible food... Plus, I wasn't even with my party...

"Instead, go help them set up the tents over there. I can handle the cooking on my own anyway. Once you're done with that, go help out Squad 2."

That much I could do.

I helped the soldier who had been excluded from meal prep and left to pitch a tent alone simply because the captain was in our squad. It didn't take much effort since it was the captain's personal—in other words, single-person—tent.

The same went for Squad 2's trench-digging. Although it was a bit far from the stream, there were parts that had been maintained before, and with seven sturdy men on it, the job was done in a flash.

"Is the meal ready?"

"It's all done."

Before long, the captain returned with the few soldiers who had gone to check the perimeter for threats.

"Squads 1 through 3 will eat first. The rest will stand guard."

To prepare for any emergencies, meals were taken in shifts.

Those in Squads 1, 2, and 3 hurried to gather in front of the food.

"Where are you from?"

But right in the middle of distributing the food, the captain asked me a question. It felt a bit out of the blue.

"I'm asking which Knight Academy you graduated from."

Ah, so that's what she meant. I didn't expect the captain to ask this too.

"Munmunt? Chechebator? Harson? Hadeneru? Osla? Or Zaidad in the south?"

I blinked slowly. Names I had seen in 'Knight Academies of the World' were popping out one by one.

"Is there a reason I have to tell you?"

"If you don't want to say, then fine. It was just personal curiosity."

Fortunately, the captain didn't persistently try to drag an answer out of me. Her clear-cut personality helped in this situation.

"Those who have finished eating, go wash your bowls so the later squads can eat. However, you must move in pairs or more."

The reconnaissance captain, Dietrich, casually mentioned this upon spotting the adventurer's empty bowl.

Although she had explained how reconnaissance worked back in the city, there was no way he would have been informed of such trivial details.

"If you're done eating, come along."

Sure enough, only after she said that and an observant soldier stepped up did the adventurer begin to move. He understood immediately and acted accordingly, which she found quite to her liking, unlike when he first joined.

It seemed the Lord hadn't personally recommended him for nothing.

"Captain."

In fact, right now he might even be better than the vice-captain. She glared at the vice-captain, who talked unnecessarily too much.

"Aw, don't be so stiff."

However, the vice-captain had joined the reconnaissance unit before her and was a grateful presence who had helped her greatly since she lacked conversational skills.

"What that adventurer did earlier, can you do it too, Captain?"

"... No."

Instead of giving him any more warning glares, she answered obediently.

"Then what about... wherever it is, could the people from your academy do it?"

"Right. None that I know of, at least."

She didn't care that the answer might chip away at her prestige.

Just like the vice-captain, the soldiers present were all people who had been with her for twenty years. Her authority wouldn't be undermined by an answer like this.

"It wouldn't be much different elsewhere, either."

Besides, what the adventurer accomplished earlier wasn't something she would feel humiliated about not being able to do.

Rather, anyone who could pull that off was the odd one.

"If someone had enough magic to not only manifest it but launch it, they would have become a Mage; they wouldn't be a knight."

"Is that how it works?"

"Hmm... Couldn't he just be an eccentric who wants to be a knight?"

"That's unlikely too. From what I've learned, the more magic you possess, the less your body moves the way you want it to."

Normal daily activities might be fine, but that was exactly where it ended. Magic users capable of becoming Mages were mostly completely uncoordinated—by an active knight's standards. By a normal person's standards, they were average.

It wasn't a matter of reflexes or talent, but being uncoordinated in the sense that the body wouldn't obey its owner's will.

"I've heard there are some who manage to catch up roughly through bone-grinding effort, but... even they never reached that level. That adventurer is probably a special case."

Saying so, she thought of her mentor who had passed away a few years ago.

He and his child were exactly that type of people—those who overcame the hindrance of magic through pure effort. The thought of those from whom she could no longer hear any news made her gloomy for a moment.

"... Then why is he working as an adventurer?"

However, that only lasted a moment. She snapped out of it upon hearing the vice-captain's words.

"That is his personal choice. Respect it."

"True, but... it just feels like a waste, you know. Our city only has ten knights."

Normally, ten would be considered a lot. Or rather, given the nature of the battles that occurred in their city—where taking down Mermen required more harpooning than precise swordsmanship—having ten knights meant they had invested quite heavily.

She swallowed the urge to reply like that. Even though she was someone who acknowledged what needed acknowledging, she didn't want to go out of her way to diminish her own usefulness.

"Right, right. Even at the checkpoint, the way he just ignored the curse and marched right through made me think he'd be better off doing something other than being an adventurer."

"...? Ah, the one who saved Margarita...?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure it's the same guy. He also helped catch those demon worshipers a few days ago."

"Then that really is a waste. Adventurers don't usually hunt demons. He's letting that talent rot."

"That depends on the adventurer too. And when I checked, that guy actually has a huge reputation for hunting demons...?"

"Huh, really?"

"You're surprisingly slow with this kind of news, Vice-captain... That adventurer's alias is the Demon Knight. A killer of demons and criminals."

Instead, she temporarily ignored the soldiers who had begun chattering noisily now that the vice-captain had opened the floodgates.

It wasn't in her nature to do so, but she had learned that letting them be would naturally help brush past heavy topics.

"But why Demon Knight? Because he hunts a lot of demons? What if someone misinterprets it as a knight who is a demon?"

"I think it kind of implies that too...? I heard he got the name because he's merciless and cold-blooded, and he fights like an absolute fiend... Plus, I think it means he's inhumanly strong."

"Even so, comparing a person to a demon? And he didn't really look that merciless to me?"

"You never know, he might actually be a demon..."

However, if this went beyond light chatter and reached the level of insulting someone, she could no longer let it slide.

"Refrain from disrespectful assumptions. You know exactly how hideous and filthy demons are, yet you dare use them as a comparison?"

"... We apologize."

"Look at the essence instead of being swayed by rumors. Rumors are clues, not the completed puzzle with all the pieces."

"Yes, ma'am."

Living completely deaf to rumors and being ignorant of the world wasn't good, either. But keeping one's ears so open that they were swayed by rumors was equally bad.

"Furthermore, he is a companion of the Hero."

After telling the soldiers that, she threw out the final clue that would put an end to their suspicions.

That was also the reason why she had suppressed her objections and agreed to let that adventurer join the reconnaissance.

"Pardon?"

The Lord had deemed the Mermen's movements to be unusual, and in fact, one soldier had died and another had a leg severed in the previous reconnaissance unit.

In this situation, adding a more capable fighter to the reconnaissance unit was by no means a foolish decision. It had slightly hurt her pride because it felt like they were saying she wasn't enough on her own, but after witnessing the adventurer's prowess, she didn't really feel that way anymore.

"So refrain from useless talk."

"Wow..."

"The Hero was in our city?"

"I said refrain."

Did she speak out of turn? The Lord had mentioned they would slowly reveal the Hero's visit since there was a high chance they would fight together, so she had just given them a heads-up.

"But wasn't the Hero the one who killed Lord Biryuho under the instigation of demons...?"

"..."

"Yep. There's no way that's true."

She stifled a sigh as she left the murmuring soldiers.

FWOOSH, CRACK!

It was right at that moment that the flare, issued to everyone in case of emergencies, lit up the night.

"Captain!"

At the same time, the personnel who had gone to wash dishes came rushing back.

"The Mermen are coming!"

Something had happened.