"What do you mean the empire is preparing for war?" Taurus asked seriously. 

Scorpio answered lightly as if it were nothing, "Literally. Can’t you figure it out from just looking at the current situation of the empire?"

Taurus shook his head as if he didn't know still, and Scorpio took out the map from her pocket space, helplessly, and spread it out.

"It's been decades since the empire has been expanding its military power under the pretext of the threat of the Demon Territory. The neighboring countries are wary of the expanding empire’s power,” said Scorpio.

Capricorn snorted as if it was an obvious thing. "It was only 28 years ago that the Blood Emperor’s war of conquest was going on. The Imperial State has been completely destroyed, and our kingdom, which was confronting the southeastern border of the empire, was deprived of the Holy Land of Zaharam," said he. He ground his teeth so angrily to the point of it being audible.

Taurus kept a heavy silence. 

Scorpio followed with a shrug and explained, "Since the kingdom that Capricorn originally belonged to was a place of contention with the empire over the Holy Land, fine, but the Magic Kingdom and the Trade Union, which had originally been in contact with the imperial state due to the imperial conquest war, also began to feel threatened."

Capricorn clenched his teeth and raged, "In this situation, they are making peace with the Fairy Tribe Kingdom far away in the Southern part of the continent? In the end, it’s not a good situation for our kingdom and the trade union, caught in the middle of the empire and the Fairy Tribe Kingdom." 

As if his anger had nothing to do with her, Scorpio calmly pointed to the location of the Fairy Tribe Kingdom on the map. "It is a typical tactic to form friendships with distant countries to attack nearby countries and expand their territories. It’s evidence that the empire is revealing its sharpened claws and teeth and showing its true colors."

The distance between the Fairy Tribe Kingdom and the empire was considerable. Taurus looked at the map seriously.

"The present emperor is known to be moderate, but it's all a matter of time before the conquered lands are absorbed. In the end, he’s not by any means moderate. Taurus, you know that the best, don’t you?" she asked in a playful tone.

Taurus clenched his fist. "…I'm well aware of that." He closed his eyes for a moment before looking at her with calm yet hot eyes. "So what are we going to do?" 

Scorpio smiled playfully and said, “We have to interfere, of course, don’t we?” 

“How?”

"Huhut, I have an interesting way."

Scorpio glanced at Taurus with eyes like a snake and smiled cruelly.

-o-

As I went downstairs, not only the Fairy knights but also the envoys in charge of the mission gathered and chatted.

Then a Fairy knight who saw me asked with a pleasant smile, "Oh, isn't this Mr. Interpreter that Marsen-nim brought? Are you fine not resting in your room?"

I answered with a smile, "I live in the capital, and I am not tired enough to take a rest. And right now, it's a little...”

They all smiled bitterly.

"Marsen-nim must have made a slip of the tongue again."

"Aide-de-camp, Lady Ophelia, must be prone to hysteria?”

They responded as if it was expected and natural.

"It must be a pretty common occurrence?”

"Yes, Marsen-nim is a man who loves to wander from place to place. And because she has been following him around, she hasn’t had the opportunity to date a boyfriend. She's usually competent, but she's a little hysterical when the topic of age is brought up."

The Fairy knight who was speaking so casually shut up and turned blue. Looking back at the direction he was looking, Marsen's aide-de-camp was coming down the stairs.

"Sir Natalie."

When Marsen's aide-de-camp, Ophelia, calmly called his name, the Fairy knight, who was exaggerating to me, saluted with a rigid gesture and stated his rank and name.

"Major Natalie Patalehine!”

Ophelia slowly walked down the stairs and spoke coldly, "I understand now what you usually think of me."

"Ah, no!"

"What's no?" she remarked.

The Fairy knight named Natalie stuttered in a cold sweat. "Well, that's...”

"Isn't it that you normally regard me as a hysterical superior?"

"No!"

What do you mean, no, she seems to be hysterical right now.

It seemed fun to see her scolding her subordinates, but I decided to appropriately change the subject since I was an outsider.

"But is Marsen-nim in his room?" I asked.

Ophelia put on a tearful face but quickly wore a fake smile. “Who knows? I don't really know.”

"Why are you speaking formally all of a sudden...”

"I said I don't know."

The aura of ‘don’t talk to me’ that she was letting out was quite scary. She must be really angry that I called her a grandma.

Ophelia went out to the backyard, saying she was tired.

As she disappeared completely, the Fairy knight, rigid with a salutation posture, drooped on the sofa with a sigh of relief.

"Aiya, thank you. Thanks to you, I survived."

I smiled and shook my head. "No, it’s nothing."

"Mr. Interpreter may misunderstand Colonel Ophelia-nim, but she's usually kind and doesn't get angry."

Given that everyone nodded their heads at those words, her usual impression must be good.

"Maybe it's because we are in an unfamiliar foreign country, but I think she is very on the edge today. Please don't view her through tinted glasses."[1]

I nodded at the request. "Of course."

I thought it was probably because of me and not because she was in a foreign country. All right, let's pretend I don't know.

Then Marsen stuck his head out from the stairs upstairs.

"Did Ophelia leave?"

While scoping out the surroundings, Marsen came down with a sigh of relief when he didn’t see his aide-de-camp.

"Natalie, tell the chef I'm asking for a sweet dessert today.”

"Yes, sir!" The Fairy knight headed for the kitchen.

"Ophelia is strangely delicate, so please be careful." Marsen requested.

"I will be careful." I smiled and nodded playfully.

He put his arm around my shoulder, smiled, and said, "Now, shall we go for a little spar?

The Fairy knights were surprised and looked at the two of us.

"Wasn't it a joke that Mr. Interpreter’s is quite skillful at martial arts?"

"I wasn’t joking? Right?" Marsen looked at me and asked. 

I sighed while frowning. "It is not much compared to Marsen-nim."

He didn’t even listen to me and pointed to the building floor plan that was hung against the wall. 

"It turns out they've got a training hall in the basement. It's made sturdy by magic, and most attacks won’t even leave a scratch, so let's have a match there."

The basement training hall was likely a consideration provided by the empire so their training would not be seen.

Without anything else to do, I followed Marsen to the basement training hall. All the Fairy knights found it interesting and came down to the basement together.

The hall was underground but was bright with magic, void of the humid smell as if it was well ventilated.

"No matter how strong the magic here is, if Marsen-nim runs wild here, it’ll be destroyed," I said, lifting up a practice iron sword arranged in the corner of the training hall.

"I know," Marsen answered lightly and swung with the practice iron sword. 

I don't know if he actually knows.

"Let's not use mana."

Marsen puckered his lips as if he was dissatisfied with my suggestion, which I made in case the building might really be destroyed.

"Ayy, then it won’t feel like a fight," he complained. 

The Fairy knights tried to stop him.

"Do you intend to destroy the embassy?"

"Please hold it in. You can just fight General Bloody to your heart's content later?"

At the dissuasion of his subordinates, Marsen grumbled, "I get it," and walked to the center of the training hall.

I reckoned that when I later meet Uncle Bloody, I’ll need to at least wear the glasses that interfere with recognition, and stand in front of Marsen.

"I'll give you the first move."

"Then gratefully, I will go first."

I quickly narrowed the distance and stabbed Marsen in the neck.

Kang!

Marsen grabbed his sword and pulled it up to block my stab precisely. I turned the blocked sword sideways and brushed against his sword and aimed at his neck again, but he put strength into both hands and struck away my sword.

I took advantage of the momentum of being pushed, spun once, and cut hard at Marsen's shoulder, but Marsen quickly swung the sword to block it. 

Kang!

During the match of strength with our clashed swords, I tried to kick Marsen's inner leg. He lifted his right leg and blocked it with his shin and at the same time, both of us stepped back two steps and opened the distance.

“Let's end the probing here.” 

“All right.”

"Then I'm coming this time."

Marsen quickly narrowed the distance again. His sword came stabbing towards my chest, and I retreated to avoid it, and while doing so lowered my body and slashed at his leg.

He came at me but grabbed my shoulders and jumped over while spinning in the air, and tried to cut my back. 

Kang!

I quickly turned to block his sword and rushed forward to push hard. He was competing in strength in the air, had no land to support his body, and instead turned his body and dispersed the force.

"Hut!"

He stabbed my temple as he landed the somersault. I tilted my head to avoid his sword and cut upwards aiming for his chin.

He pulled back and did a roundhouse kick. The gap with him was too narrow to avoid, so I lifted my knee to defend my side.

"Keuk!”

I was pushed far away by his kick and regained my stance immediately again. The blow was heavy even though he was not using mana at all. It was to the extent that the leg that I blocked with was numb.

He was a monster with no equal.

Marsen smiled and said, "As expected, you’re strong. Should I say that it’s only obvious?"

"The Lord Guardian is not at all decrepit for his age."

My muscular strength had grown dramatically as I grew physically for three years away since I left my hometown, which was how I was able to block his kick. Three years ago, without mana, I would have been sent flying into a wall.

Likewise, Marsen, who was straightening his posture, suddenly asked, "By the way, how old are you?"

"I am nineteen this year."

He seemed interested in my response. Then, he replied in the empire’s language so that people around us could not understand it, "If it’s nineteen years old, is that the same age when your father left his hometown? Like father, like son.”

I asked back in the empire’s language, "Have you ever met my father?”

Marsen smiled pleasantly and nodded. "Yes, the young one was very strong. At the age of nineteen, he managed a draw against me, so I can't wait to see how strong he must be now.”

My father indeed. A nineteen-year-old managed a draw with a monster who was always mentioned in the discussion of the world's strongest.

"My father will be pleased if you visit him later. He always complained that there was no one to fight with."

"Ahahaha! I understand that feeling. It's very boring if there's no one to compete with."

Marsen smiled and raised the sword again, and I also pointed my sword.

“Let's slowly finish up.” 

“All right.”

At the same time we finished speaking, we rushed towards each other.