The Red Dragon Knights rode on dragons and flew in unison over the southern sky of the capital. The court magicians used magic to create a path of light in the dark night sky that acted as a guide to help the air troops land at night.

"Everyone, fly in line!"

The Red Dragon Knights flew in a row along the path created by the magicians.

Red Dragon Knights flying in a line was a rare sight that most didn’t have an opportunity to see. But no citizen came out to watch.

"Is information control going smoothly?" Orphina asked.

The deputy next to her answered, "Yes, not only civilians but also the nobles only know of it as a simple military exercise. But—"

Orphina smiled lightly as the deputy trailed off.

"I know. Nobles who have intelligence organizations or have connections with information agencies will soon notice. But it doesn't matter." However, she didn’t say the last part that it would be too late by the time they realized it.

When a huge dragon figure began to appear at the end of the light path created by the magicians, the Red Dragon Knights waved flags instead of spears.

The dragon, which appeared along the path of light, was a real top dragon that boasted a different size from the dragons that the Red Dragon Knights rode. Its body had chains attached to it as if it were a horse leading a carriage, but instead it had a huge airship connected to it.

Kaaoooo!

As the dragon's cry echoed through the skies of the capital, the Red Dragon Knights tried their best to soothe their beasts and prevent them from breaking away.

Then suddenly there was laughter as loud as the cry of the dragon.

"Ahahahaha!!”

The dragons of the Red Dragon Knights strangely returned to being stable as their masters looked towards the sound of laughter.

Atop the giant dragon's head, where the sound of laughter came from, a 2.5m giant stood proudly with his arms crossed.

Orphina, who was leading the Red Dragon Knights on the ground, flew up on her dragon, Hargan.

Hargan flew fast along the path of light and was able to reach the dragon and airship quickly. Standing in front of the dragon, Orphina saluted modestly.

"Loyalty! Major General Orphina. I greet Your Majesty the Dragon King."

Standing majestically above the dragon's head was Dragon King, the head of the Dragon Tribe.

He laughed loudly seeing her salute. "Uahahaha! Long time no see, Orphina. Really? Did you succeed in seducing Glont?"

Orphina blushed and became flustered. "Your Majesty, Dragon King!"

"Ayy, you don't have to scream like that, my ears are still fine." The Dragon King poked his little finger at his ears and clicked his tongue. "Tsk, by the looks of it, you’re still far from being able to eat the noodles. You can’t even seduce a single father. I see my future is going to be bright."

"Your Majesty!" 

Orphina looked at him like he should stop talking, but the other only received a snort.

"When you insisted so much on going to the empire like that, I thought at least there’d be a wedding invitation—” The Dragon King, who continued to talk, stopped when Orphina began to show tears and let out a killing aura. "Okay, I’ll stop. I don't want to be assassinated by my cousin. Ahahahaha!”

"How could I dare to do harm to Dragon King?” Uduk! Orphina spoke coldly, but she gave a fiery glare and gnashed her teeth.

However, the Dragon King did not care and moved the dragon along the path of light. "Come on, Harion, let's go down.” 

Krrrrr!

The dragon went down to the landing with a low growl as if responding to his master.

-o-

Judging from the mana I felt from the young butler who came to meet us at the front door, he was not an ordinary man. In terms of level, he was just below Rosellis and could place any ordinary knight under his foot.

Come to think of it, it was unusual that I could feel the presence of skilled persons here and there. It seems since he was a duke, he had only gathered the best of the best.

The young butler stood in front of the fancy door and knocked lightly.

"Come on in."

The voice from inside was that of the Duke of Asteria, who I heard at the Adventurers’ Guild. The butler slowly opened the door at the duke's reply.

"Oh, you're here? You arrived earlier than I thought.”

Sitting at a desk in a space decorated like an office, the duke rose from his seat. Then he sat on the sofa and motioned for me to come.

"Hmm, it suits you much better than I thought." Seeing me wearing a luxury suit, he nodded as if he were satisfied. "I wanted to call a tailor to custom fit your suit, but regrettably there wasn’t enough time."

"No, it is all right. The suit I'm wearing is enough."

The clothes I was wearing were a month's budget for a small estate. Including all the things in the bag, the money that was spent was in the level of platinum coins.

"And most of all, I can't wear it for long because I am in my growing phase."

There was a high probability that I wouldn’t be able to wear the suit I was wearing now in half a year. 

He laughed as if he had heard a joke. "Ahaha, what does growing have to do with it? You can buy clothes again next year."

Simply put, he was saying he would designate me at the next year's state affairs conference. Anyway, what the Duke of Asteria needed was to show that he was bringing along a civil servant, not an actual personal assistant.

"Hahaha, if you buy me another one, I would not mind."

I sat in front of the duke and chatted naturally. Having a conversation with the Duke of Asteria, it somehow felt familiar. If I had to express it, should I say it's a feeling of being close and familiar? It felt like I was talking to my big sister, but at the same time like I was talking to my paternal grandfather.

Come to think of it, I don't know where my grandfather was these days. When I thought of Aunt Talaria who followed my grandfather out of the village, I reckoned perhaps my grandfather could also be in the capital.

Deng-! Deng-!

In the middle of our conversation, a clock rang, indicating that it was midnight.

"Jeez, it's already this time. It’s a problem that you get less sleepy as you get old. You guys must be tired, so go to your room and sleep. You'll have to get up early tomorrow."

The Duke of Asteria rang a small bell next to the sofa, the butler opened the door and came in.

"Did you call for me?"

"Please show these friends to their separate rooms."

"Yes, Sir."

The butler opened the door wide while looking at me and Rosellis. "You can follow me."

"If you need anything, tell the butler. He'll take care of most things."

"Thank you for your consideration. Have a comfortable night.”

I got up from my seat and said goodbye. Rosellis and I followed the butler out of the room.

"Rosellis, aren’t you tired? You didn’t even sit on the sofa, and just stood back there without moving."  I asked

Rosellis smiled a little. "I'm not tired, and the escort is not supposed to sit down. It makes it slower to respond."

"Regarding that, when we were in the Adventurers’ Guild, the Debt-ridden Knight, the Duke's escort, was sitting,” I remarked.

As a civil servant of the Adventurers’ Guild, I knew the name and face of a platinum plate adventurer. 

Rosellis snorted. "He's doing a shoddy job. And most of all, you’re the strange one, being able to be so comfortable in front of His Highness, the Duke."

"I just did it because I was told to be comfortable." I shrugged.

Rosellis eyed me with a slightly tired look. "People don't usually act comfortable like you even when they are told. It's just a saying. Is your nerve made of adamantium?" She shook her head.

I somehow felt wronged but decided to let it slide. The young butler handed me my bag back in front of the room and then told us which rooms we would stay in.

"The room on the right is Den von Mark-nim’s and the one on the left is Rosellis von Asilante-nim's."

"Why don't you just call us by our names instead of full names? And also get rid of the nauseating ‘nim’ title.”

Rosellis was unused to being called by her full name and looked at the butler with a dissatisfied look, but the butler smiled softly and weakly shook his head.

"I apologize, but it would be a disgrace as a butler of His Highness the Duke if I am unable to keep etiquette with his guests. I would appreciate it if you would allow me to perform all of the courtesies."

What a really stiff guy!

At the request of the butler, Rosellis couldn’t do much and nodded. However, she had a bitter look as if she were still uncomfortable.

"The wake-up time is 6:30 a.m. and it would be appreciated if you could finish all the preparations by 7:00 a.m. Or should you need something, please ring the bell next to the bed and I will be right there." The butler bowed politely, turned, and left.

Watching the departing figure, Rosellis sighed. "He sure lives a hard life."

I agree.

"But besides that, normally, I would have to stay in the same room and continue to guard, but what do you want to do?"

A close escort normally lacked freedom.

"Let's sleep separately. There’s no one with big enough guts to sneak in here anyways." I answered Rosellis with a smile.

"Hmm, that's right, isn't it?"

Since I was here, there was no one even capable of sneaking in. There were powerful skilled people everywhere on the 15th floor. In addition, with hundreds of people downstairs who seemed to be knights, adventurers, and other combatants, I would say that there was no other place comparable in terms of safety than the palace.

"Good night, then." 

"Okay, good night to you, too."

Rosellis and I went into our respective rooms. The room assigned to me was ten times wider and a hundred times more impressive than the room I used in the boarding house.

As soon as I entered the room, I threw my bag on the floor and jumped onto the bed.

Ah! So soft!

The bed in my room was also luxurious, but this bed showed a different level of fluffiness and comfort. I rolled around on it and tried to take off my clothes and undo the button, but then, I felt a strange and familiar presence outside the window.

Phew!

I sighed, got out of bed, approached the window where I could feel the presence, and opened it.

"What are you doing there?"

Outside the window, a masked Milpia was hanging.

"Hello. It's a little difficult. Can you grab me up?”

Her forehead had some sweat on it. She must have climbed up the wall to the 15th floor.

I sighed with my arms crossed.

"What are you even doing when you can fly in the sky with magic?" How foolish when she could have come up easily.

She was furious as I cast her a pathetic gaze.

"This hotel's security level is crazy, so you would get caught immediately if you used magic.”

"That much you have to be able to break through with your eyes closed. Isn’t that a basic level of infiltration?"

"That’s only basic to you!"

Milpia shouted in a fit of rage then held her breath while looking around.

It was funny to see her nervous in case she got caught.

“I cast soundproof magic as soon as I discovered you, so don't worry about it and chatter all you want."

Milpia clicked her tongue. "Tch, jerk!”

"Goodbye if you have nothing to say."

When I tried to close the window, Milpia shouted in panic.

"Wait! Isn't this too much? I went through a lot of effort to come all the way here to see you!"

"That's your situation. I'm going to bed, so goodbye."

For some reason, Milpia deeply smelled of a bothersome event. Like when my father called me just before I was tossed before a dragon on my 12th birthday.

"Wait! It's from Big Mama!"

Because Milpia shouted in a hurry, she didn’t use honorifics but shouted informally.

"My aunt?"

"Yes!"

"Tch!"

"Did you just click your tongue?"

I smiled, pulling Milpia's hand. "No way. Welcome in."

As expected, the scent of annoyance did not deceive me.