“Ray.”
Naro grabbed Ray’s hand and pulled it toward himself.
“Stay close by my side. Got it?”
Even so, anxiety remained. He wanted to go straight to the inn like this, but people were completely blocking both sides as well as front and back. Because they were pushing from all directions and moving noisily, just maintaining his balance now was already difficult.
“Let’s go to the inn when the crowd clears.”
Seeing Naro’s eyes shaking anxiously somehow, Ray put strength into the hand he was holding.
“I’m always by your side, Naro. Don’t worry.”
Rather, Ray was more worried about Naro. It was already a situation where people kept pushing in from here and there. For Ray, putting in strength and enduring wasn’t very difficult, but it wasn’t the same for Naro. If things went wrong, he could be swept away by the crowd just like that, and if he fell, it would be serious.
Ray kept his nerves on edge and firmly wrapped his arm around Naro’s waist.
The cheers that had started spreading from the back had now come right up to Ray and Naro’s noses.
“The Knights! So cool!”
“Commander Flens! Please look over here just once!”
“Commander! What mission have you returned from solving this time?!”
The trust and favorability of the Empire’s citizens toward the Erwin Knights was considerably high. As days passed, the Knights’ power grew stronger, and as they reliably solved frictions with other countries and large and small incidents occurring within the Empire, they began receiving everyone’s admiration and respect.
And now, the voices of people calling out the commander leading that Magic Knights echoed. Naro gulped and took in with his eyes the group of knights that was beginning to appear more clearly.
A small number of members were walking together, and at the front was a middle-aged man. The wind happened to blow, sweeping past the man’s brown hair. His eyes were strong and solid, and his slightly tanned skin and thick eyebrows made that atmosphere even deeper.
His physique looked solid even though it couldn’t be hidden despite wearing a uniform, and even the veins bulging on the back of his hand felt like a symbol of strength.
The first impression could be defined in just one phrase.
A perfect knight.
He felt an overwhelming aura enough to make the enemy lose their will to fight at once without showing a single weakness. He was a man who gave a reliable impression just by looking at him. The face smiling while waving his hand toward the cheering citizens of the Empire was truly confident. But that never felt like bravado.
Moreover, the really curious thing was that even though he was smiling constantly, he didn’t look light at all. Rather, an intimidating feeling like a beast or a sharply honed blade could be felt.
“Flens!”
“Commander Flens!”
The name shouted from both sides reached Naro’s ears. People had been cheering while calling out the Knights Commander’s name since earlier.
“Flens…?”
Naro muttered that name quietly. Why does this name seem familiar? He’s definitely someone I don’t know. Once it caught his attention, an uncontrollable sense of dissonance spread throughout his body.
Was there a reason why the name of that famous Erwin Knights Commander would be familiar?
Just then, Flens passed in front of Naro. He, who had been greeting the citizens of the Empire, coincidentally made direct eye contact with him.
And at that moment, Naro recalled the phrase written on the first page of the novel he had briefly forgotten.
[In this story appears a man. A man who was born with natural talent and skill yet never neglected effort, and who ultimately became a hero by saving countless people. I will explain his name first before proceeding.]
“Flens Rihill…”
The protagonist of this original work, and the knight who defeated the mastermind and earned the title of hero.
Naro finally recalled the name he’d read in the novel’s introduction. The moment he unknowingly muttered that name quietly, Flens smiled and approached toward where Naro was standing.
At the unexpected situation, Naro gulped tensely. Why? Why is he coming this way? Until just now he was just a person passing by while greeting?
Ray felt the hand clasped with Naro’s tighten strongly.
“Naro?”
Naro was biting his lips tightly and putting strength into his hand.
The distance with Flens narrowed further. The voices of the people around them began to grow uncontrollably louder.
“What a pretty flower.”
But Flens, who had come close, passed by the tensely nervous Naro and bent his waist to speak to someone else. It was a young girl standing in front of Naro.
“C-Commander, I made it because I wanted to give it to you!”
In the child’s hand was a flower made of paper. Even the flowerpot was folded and expressed in paper, and Flens’s name was written on it.
“Haha, to receive a flower from such a young lady right after returning from a mission. My luck is very good today.”
Then people around started throwing playful words at Flens, joking that he was popular, Commander!
Just from that atmosphere, he could tell. That Flens was someone who, while receiving respect, approached the Empire’s citizens without reserve. Having received the flower, he didn’t forget to pat the child’s head at the end.
The Knights procession slowly moved away. Naro couldn’t take his eyes off Flens’s retreating figure.
“Naro.”
“…”
“Naro.”
“Ah, d-did you call me?”
“Let’s go to the inn now. A lot of people have left.”
As Ray said, as the Knights group moved further forward, the people standing in the back began to slowly leave. Some returned to their original places soaked in the emotion of seeing Flens, while others moved further forward, perhaps thinking of going to see them again.
“You’re right. Let’s hurry and go.”
“Were you anxious because there were many people?”
“…Ray, when you saw that person earlier, did you feel anything or remember anything?”
“That person meaning who? The one with brown hair who gave off a beast-like atmosphere?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
He thought anew that what people feel is all the same. Ray had also thought of a beast when seeing Flens, after all.
“Not really.”
Ray shook his head without a moment’s hesitation.
Flens was the very person who had subjugated the black dragon that attacked the Empire in the original work—in other words, Ray.
‘A hero fought and defeated an evil dragon threatening the Empire and brought peace.’
The hero in those words was Flens, and the evil dragon threatening the Empire was Ray. Only Naro knew that here, but actually, that close distance just now was quite hair-raising. After all, their relationship could be summarized as the relationship between protagonist and mastermind.
Still, what was fortunate was that Flens also didn’t know what Ray looked like when he became human. When he heard about the incident that happened 25 years ago from Jerian last time, he had said:
Not a human but a dragon attacked the Empire.
What Flens, the protagonist and hero, fought was a black dragon—in other words, Ray in the form of a dragon. If he really knew what Ray looked like when he became human, he would have noticed Ray’s identity when he approached to receive the flower from the young girl earlier. And if he’d really recognized Ray, this place might not have been a place of cheering but a battlefield.
“At least that’s fortunate…”
“What is?”
“Hm? Ah, nothing. Let’s hurry and go.”
Though he was surprised by the new information that came to mind, it was still fortunate that Flens didn’t recognize Ray. He’d almost had an incident before finding out what happened in the past and finding Ray’s lost memories.
The two ultimately entered the inn only when it was very late in the evening. They’d tried to leave the plaza early, but they were delayed because of the crowd that had unexpectedly gathered to see the Knights.
“Ray.”
Naro and Ray now familiarly sat in the inn cafeteria and ate dinner.
“Mm?”
Ray answered while removing crumbs from Naro’s lips. Seeing those crumbs disappear into Ray’s mouth, Naro, who became slightly embarrassed, coughed and gulped down water.
“Do you remember the Lupel Library from the guidebook you saw before?”
“I remember. It was a really big building.”
“Right. I’ve never been there either, but I heard there are incredibly vast books and materials there. So I’m thinking of investigating things about the Dragon Tribe there.”
Ray chewed on bread while lost in thought for a moment. Then he slowly nodded.
“If I investigate about the Dragon Tribe, I might remember something too.”
“Yeah.”
While nodding, Naro swallowed his nervous feelings. On one hand, he was a bit afraid of Ray learning the fact that he himself had attacked the Empire in the past. He’d confessed most things honestly to Ray, but he still hadn’t talked about the most important story regarding the incident from 25 years ago. That was also precisely why he’d initially tried to come to the capital alone to investigate.
But perhaps because he’d unintentionally encountered Flens earlier and recalled an unexpected fact, it seemed like he’d feel more at ease if he investigated something.
“Then let’s go to the Lupel Library as soon as possible.”
“Okay.”
Ray nodded without hesitation.
