In the days since I fell beyond the wall, I had spent a considerable amount of time with Stella, working together on various things and becoming more in sync.

But from Mirna’s perspective, she might wonder, ‘When did these two become so close?’

The thought of having to explain this myself made me quite nervous. I could pretty much guess how Mirna would react. She would definitely get very angry.

“Let’s go inside first. You must have been tired from coming all this way.”

Hwik-. 

With that, Mirna turned and briskly walked through Sandora’s gates. 

Should I not go inside and just go back over the wall? It was a joke, of course, but I felt a lot of psychological pressure.

However, the moment I passed through the gates, all other thoughts vanished.

The ruined cityscape disoriented my eyes. As I stood there dazed, Marmar, who had Yingying on her head, explained.

“After comrade fell, the wyvern went on a rampage here! It was terrible!”

How much of a rampage had to happen to tear off the roofs of stone buildings?

“Eek…! Wyvern…! Scary…!”

Imp Tartar looked up at the sky with her tail trembling, perhaps remembering what had happened at that time. It was like a meerkat afraid of eagles.

“It was a very imp-phobic winged lizard…!”

Eventually, the heavily injured wyvern was said to have flown far north. Since it had been hit by my high rank magic ‘Star Slayer’, it wouldn’t be strange if it had died somewhere.

━Hey, put up a sign over there.

━Hand me that hammer under there. 

Bump, tick, bang, bang.

Hammering noise echoed everywhere. The city, already busy preparing for the tournament, had now suffered an untimely attack by the wyvern. It was understandable.

Could we still proceed with the tournament at this rate? We’d have to wait for the carrier pigeon’s reply from the palace before deciding on our next steps.

While waiting for that reply, we decided to take some time to rest and recover from the journey in Sandora.

* * *

Time on a day off often seemed to slip by without notice—just like that, it’d already been two days since we returned to Sandora.

I was a bit shocked. All I’d done was eat, rest, and wash up, yet somehow two full days had passed.

Perhaps it was because life within the walls was so leisurely compared to the battles I had fought beyond the wall? Time seemed to pass much faster.

That must be it.

Currently, Sandora’s park was in front of me.

On the sunny, wide lawn, I watched the imps play with Professor Balan as she stumbled around blindfolded with a cloth over her eyes. She was reaching out aimlessly, trying to catch them.

Clap, clap, clap.

The imps clapped, leading Professor Balan around in circles.

“I’ll… catch you all… you little imps, haha.”

“I, Tartar, am over here…!”

At last, Balan grabbed the arm of an imp with orange hair. The surrounding imps burst into laughter.

“Oh no—! Our great comrade Marmar has been caught again—!”

“Why is it always me?”

As Marmar tilted her head in confusion, Balan pulled off the blindfold with a sly grin on her face.

“G-Great imp. They’re quite rare to see these days. Fufu, great imps have tails that shimmer in the dark and possess quite a few unique talents…”

“Comrade! This professor is strange!”

“But a great i-imp without horns? Even I, Balan de Sabrnak, have never seen such a thing. How about letting me borrow a tail…?”

“… I’m not giving you my tail! My diamond-shaped tail is rare!”

It was all very noisy.

And peaceful.

I wish these days could go on forever.

However, with the tournament less than a week away, soldiers stationed in the south and warriors from the church were steadily gathering here in Sandora.

This tranquility likely wouldn’t last much longer.

“Theo-kun, your face is red. Are you sure you don’t still have a fever?” 

Seuk.

Just then, someone placed a hand on my forehead as I rested under the parasol.

I snapped to attention at the cool touch and turned to see Stella looking at me with a rather worried expression.

“It doesn’t seem like you have a fever, but just in case, would you like to take some fever-reducing potion? This one is actually sweet and easy to drink. It’s nothing like the tree bark you tasted beyond the wall.” 

Pop.

Stella uncorked the potion bottle, and held it to my mouth, making me swallow the red liquid inside.

Gulp, gulp.

I was a little nervous because it was medicine, but it was surprisingly sweet—like strawberry. When I finally finished every last drop, Stella said brightly.

“Good job drinking it all!” 

Pat pat-. She even reached up and patted my head.

I felt pretty embarrassed by the whole process. She was treating me like a child, coaxing and comforting me. It was hardly a dignified situation.

And the problem was that we weren’t alone here. Mirna, who had been watching the scene unfold with growing restraint, finally couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Professor Stella, Sir Theo isn’t five years old. He can drink a potion on his own.” 

“Oh, you’ve got some dust on you too. You’re really good at your work, but you’re as clumsy as a child when it comes to taking care of yourself.” 

“… Are you even listening to me?” 

Clearly, Mirna didn’t appreciate Stella doting on me like a big sister or mother. I was caught in the middle of it all, feeling terribly uneasy.

It was only natural that things hadn’t been resolved between Mirna and Stella yet.

It’d been about two days since we arrived in Sandora. I wanted to talk about many things, but I couldn’t find a good opportunity. I should have made time for it somehow.

While everyone else was running around in the park, the three of us were seated under the parasol.

Since the thought occurred to me, I decided to speak up now.

“Lady Mirna, you mentioned wanting to hear about what we saw and experienced beyond the wall. I’ll tell you everything now, slowly.”