Act 17 - The Saint's Gospel

Seirei Gensouki 17 - Seijo no fukuin (精霊幻想記17聖女の福音 ).

## Synopsis

哀れな民に救済を。愚か者に聖女の福音を。

その日、シュトラール地方の辺境でひとつの国が滅んだ。

民衆を革命へと導いたのは、聖女エリカを名乗る黒髪の女性。

新生国家の初代元首となった彼女は、休む間もなく列強諸国へと自ら足を運ぶ――すべては、己の悲願を達成するために。

「貴様、ただの道化ではないな。もっと質が悪い魔女の類いか」

「私はただ弱者が存在しない世界を作り上げたいだけです」

一方、リオは復讐を終えた報告をすべく、ヤグモ地方への帰郷を決めるが、その途中で思いもよらぬ人々と再会することに……!?

Relieve to the poor people. The saint's gospel for the stupid ones.

That day a country of the Stralh region's outer edge was destroyed. The one who guided the populace to the revolt was a black haired woman naming herself the saint Erika. The her who became the head of new nation, without rest goes herself to the other powerful countries... Everything for the sake of fulfilling her wish.

[ You aren't just a fool right? Are you the worst quality's witch?]

[ I just want to create a world where the weak ones don't exist]

On the other side, Rio decides to go back to the Yagumo region for reporting that he fulfilled his revenge but on the middle of that he will meet again with unexpected people...¡?

## Content

### Prologue: Oath.

This world, everything in this world… I hate it. That day when I realized the kindness is just an ideal; at the instant when I lost everything unreasonably; when I was betrayed and had everything stolen, I decided - I swore it - to end this world full of stupid people to fulfill my revenge. If it’s me I can do it; I have the right for that, because I have this terrible power for doing it. I will destroy it, this worthless world. My place to go back was thrown away, no, I threw it with this hand, this me who can’t let it to anyone else. So, I won’t go back anymore; I don’t have the intention of going back. This world, the humanity, I won’t forgive them and above all, I won’t forgive myself. That’s why, I will keep pushing everything until the destruction. That’s my punishment, for not being able to save that person that day, my …

### Chapter 1: Daily life on the Galarc kingdom.

It has been ten days since Rio moved in with the people from the rock house to the mansion that François gave to him. Charlotte came to visit him today too accompanied by Satsuki, Christina, Flora and Liselotte. Charlotte tells Rio and Celia she has a job for them, a job from the kingdom that it will be properly paid, and they don’t mind if they just do it during their stay at the castle. Rio asks what the job is about. Charlotte explains that the kingdom wants the two to work as temporary teachers: Celia as special magic teacher in the royal academy and Rio as a special martial arts instructor. Rio tells her that Celia aside, he hasn’t had any experience teaching. Charlotte retorts that she’s confident in Rio being able to be a good instructor. Rio thanks her but says that he isn’t familiar with sword style of the Galarc kingdom. Charlotte explains to him that the kingdom doesn’t want him to teach from the basics, they want him to focus teaching real battle-oriented fighting to a group of volunteers for the sake of making them gaining experience.

Rio says he understands and thinks about it. He already has experience coaching Masato and the warriors from the spirit folk’s village who didn’t have experience on the interpersonal battle on it, but the knights will surely already have it and there would be surely aristocrats there too, he isn’t sure about how much he can really teach them or how much he would be listened to, Charlotte says she understands that him with a strong sense of responsibility doesn’t want to make any promises and asks him if he can’t think about it as just having a slight spar with the participants, that there was a lot of solicitudes by people who wanted to measure themselves against him, Rio says that if it’s just sparring he can do it and asks how many people will assist, Charlotte says that twenty people per lesson, that the kingdom will select the participants so no one with strange ideas goes.

Rio is impressed at her mindfulness, Charlotte says too that it’s fine to think about the first lesson as an experiment and to decide if he will do it again after it, Rio decides to accept to give it a try, Charlotte is happy and says she was sure he would accept that she wants to see again, Satsuki says to Charlotte that she looks fully on it, Charlotte says that Satsuki said too that it looked like it would be interesting, Rio asks who will be the participants for the first lesson, Charlotte says that Satsuki, some of her escort, some of Liselotte’s maids and some women knights that usually protect Christina and Flora, Christina explains that she heard this from Charlotte and she offered Vanessa and some of her subordinates and thanks Rio for having them on his care, Liselotte says too that several of the maids that accompanied her this time will be on his care too, Rio says that then there will some acquaintances too while thinking on his head about how somehow the lesson is full of women, Charlotte says that they would like to hold the lecture anytime between the breakfast and the lunch and asks Rio when it would be fine to hold the lecture, Rio says that tomorrow is fine.

Charlotte says she will have everything ready to hold the lesson the next morning at nine o’clock, she asks if the girls living in the mansion with him if they want to participate too. Latifa, Sara, Alma and Aisia say they’re in too. Now Charlotte asks Celia if she’s fine with holding some special lessons too, Celia asks what kind of lecture she has to prepare to which Charlotte says she doesn’t mind if she lectured kids from primary school of middle school and that it’s fine to do it when Rio thinks it's fine, Rio says he still will stay in Galarc’s capital for one month, and to do what she wants during that time, Celia decides to accept Charlotte’s offer.

The next morning, in Rio’s backyard, Charlotte, Christina and Flora are standing with several of their escorts in tow to attend the lesson. Liselotte is behind them accompanied by Aria, Cosette and Natalie. Rio’s group and Satsuki are waiting for them sitting under a gazebo. Rio welcomes everyone and he tells those who came to watch to sit and relax in the gazebo and tells the participants to pick a wooden weapon from the pile he left next to the gazebo and to follow him, Rio walks with a wooden sword towards the backyard center, Aisia and Satsuki follow him with wooden spears, Sara with a pair of daggers, Alma with a mace, Aria, Natalie, Cosette, Vanessa and her subordinates go after them and Celia offers a seat under the gazebo to Charlotte, Christina, Flora and Liselotte for everyone to watch the lesson from there.

Rio stands in the center of the backyard with Aisia, Sara and Alma by his side, in front of him are five female knights from the Galarc kingdom, Vanessa and four of her subordinates, Aria, Natalie and Cosette. Rio feels a little awkward being the only man between so many women and even more so because several of them are acquaintances. Ironically it was Charlotte who limited the participants to women for Rio’s sake, because Miharu and Latifa’s group would more comfortable if there aren’t male nobles entering the mansion, the majority of the people who escort Charlotte, Christina and Flora daily are women too.

Rio introduces himself to everyone and Sara, Alma and Aisia next to him as his helpers for the lesson, he explains to everyone else that Satsuki the hero will participate with them today, Satsuki tells everyone she would appreciate it if they could drop the formalities with her even though she’s a hero. Satsuki smiles wryly when she realizes nobody is going to do it. Rio tells everyone to fight with him one by one first so he can gauge how strong they are, he tells everyone that strengthening magic is allowed and asks Sara to be the referee.

A twenty-year-old woman called Louise Sharon, the leader of Charlotte’s escorts, volunteers as the first combatant, while the two separate themselves from the group, Louise looks at Rio’s back and remembers how Charlotte ordered her the previous night to fight first so her subordinates will recognize Rio too. she keeps thinking about Charlotte, she adores Charlotte after seeing her growing up for years as her escort, she never told her that because it would be disrespectful, but lately that Charlotte is “Ne, Louise. when will Haruto-sama come back?” ”Ne, Louise. Haruto-sama is incredible” ”Ne, Louise. Today Haruto-sama said this but…” everyday like that with the face of a maiden in love, not just her, the rest of the escorts too have complicated feelings for Rio who is the cause of this, “Can he really make Charlotte-sama happy?" If he puts his hands on another woman there will be no mercy” If he puts his hands on Charlotte-sama there will be no mercy”.

Louise’s subordinates looking on from afar are thinking this will be very interesting, Rio thinks that Louise’s gaze is strangely strong, Rio strengthens himself with just magic and not with his spirit arts this time and tells Louise to use magic too, she does it, Rio tells her that everything is allowed, being the weapon or martial arts, Sara counts five and signals the beginning, Louise rushes at Rio with signal and slashes vertically and him, Rio steps on her maai and parries her slash before she can put all of her weight and strength on it breaking her posture, Louise sweats cold thinking that she will be defeated just like that, but Rio stops his attack, instead he asks Louise why didn’t she do a follow up attack after his parrying move, Rio tells her that this sparring session is for the sake of ascertaining her ability not victory, Louise tries to excuse herself on her realizing the difference in ability on the first attack, Rio doesn’t buy it and tells her that it isn’t like that, Louise loses her words at the Rio who didn’t miss the instant she pulled back despite its shortness and wonders about what kind of battle sense does he have, Rio tells her to come at him again without holding back, Louise says she understands nodding rigidly and sighting.

A while later, Rio has already practiced against the women knights from the Galarc kingdom, Vanessa and her subordinates and Cosette, now is Natalie’s turn, until now no one was able of hitting Rio, so everyone is looking at this fight seriously and intently, Cosette and Aria are commenting on the fight from the side. Cosette says that Rio is dealing with Natalie splendidly, that she isn’t a rival either, Aria tells her he did the same with her, Cosette says that it’s wonderful that Rio is so strong even without using the magic sword, that she knew that he was strong but that he’s stronger than expected, Aria says that it isn’t a matter of course that if not he couldn’t have defeated Alfred despite having a magic sword himself too, that it’s needed the talent and being someone who puts in the effort too, Cosette asks her if the she who is genius too could connect at least one hit, Aria says she isn’t a genius or anything, but that she won’t know without exchanging blows. Cosette says Aria is next and that she is expecting to see who is stronger, if it’s Rio or their oni-like strong chief maid, that it looks like Rio is almost done with Natalie.

Natalie keeps attacking Rio with two wooden daggers while Rio just dodges with the minimum movement, Natalie breaths disorderly while Rio is still calm, Cosette says that not connecting an attack is irritating Natalie and because she hates to lose, Rio stops the match a little later, Rio tells her that they will have more chances for sparring on the future and that they will continue then, Natalie leaves the combat zone and Rio tells Aria to come forth,

Aria and Rio exchange greetings before the match and wait for Sara’s signal, Sara makes the countdown and signals the start.

Aria begins to slash at Rio at timings that are difficult to react to but Rio parries all of her attacks, Sara looks at her impressed, while receiving Aria’s attacks he concludes that as expected she’s the strongest between the participants, that Natalie and Cosette are as strong as Vanessa and Louise the chief knights but Aria’s level is close to Alfred’s, Rio thinks the only one who can be Aria’s opponent him aside is Aisia, that Sara and Alma can put a good fight together but if the spirit arts are limited then they will lose, Rio then qualifies Aria as the next in strength after Aisia and him, then under Aria would be Sara and Alma, Cosette and Natalie, Vanessa and Louise and finally their subordinates, Rio decided to keep Satsuki outside of the ranking because it won’t be a fair comparison between the her that has her hero powers and the rest, that despite her having grown stronger from training with him on the mansion if they restrict the fight to just close quarters combat Satsuki can’t beat Aria yet.

Rio keeps dealing with Aria’s attacks while thinking that predicting her attacks looking at her muscle’s moves is difficult due to her skirt, that fighting with maid cloths looks silly but in combat it’s unexpectedly useful, that he himself wears a long coat too for making difficult to read his movements looking at his legs but that at the time of hiding the legs it still loses against the skirt, Rio thinks fighting Cosette and Natalie that wear the same skirt can’t be compared to Aria at all because her way of using her skirt for hiding her movements is perfect different from theirs, that Aria isn’t really that physically stronger than anyone but the difference in technique makes her way faster than the rest, Rio barely moved for dealing with the rest’s attacks but with Aria is different he’s being forced to do conspicuous movements, the rest of the participants looks at the two impressed now that it finally looks like they’re letting out their strength, specially the knights.

Vanessa is surprised at how strong Aria is while Louise says that the Rio that perfectly receives her attacks is ridiculous too, Vanessa asks Cosette who is Aria and about her experience, about why it looks like she mastered the swordstyle of the Bertram kingdom, Cosette explains to her Aria is the daughter of a viscount from the Bertram kingdom, Vanessa asks about why is she serving Liselotte that is a noble from another kingdom, Vanessa thinks  with her skill she could have achieved a rank high enough as knight, that she’s strong enough for being in charge of protecting royalty, rather she gladly would ask her to do it, Cosette says that even if Aria doesn’t care about it that it’s related to her privacy so to asks her herself, Vanessa guessed that something happened and laments about the Bertram kingdom’s way of being, Rio receives Aria’s attacks for a little more until after parrying an attack he counters Aria and makes her backstep, Rio attacks Aria again and after she blocks his attack, Rio then decides to stop the match there and go back with the rest that are waiting.

Aria obeys and while looking at Rio’s back she thinks he’s someone ridiculous, his sword skill too, that it looks like a master’s way of fighting despite him being just 16 years old, Aria feels refreshed with the strange chance of fighting an opponent of this level and decides to enjoy it for the time being, when Rio arrives in front of the rest of the participants he tells everyone that by doing the sparring he already made himself an idea of their abilities and fighting styles, that he noticed several problems and that he will point them out now for incorporating them to the training, Rio asks if someone has any question, Satsuki asks Rio if he won’t spar with her too, Rio tells her that he already understood her ability and fighting style when she visited the mansion for training before, Satsuki says that she was expecting while sulking and Rio tells her that they can train together later when the lesson is over, Satsuki says it’s a promise, Rio agrees and Satsuki says she will wait for it happily while the rest think they must be quite intimate, Rio now tells everyone their new training menu and for two more hours keeps everyone company teaching them things.

An hour before the end of the lesson, Miharu, Celia, Latifa and Ouphia guided Christina, Flora, Liselotte and Charlotte inside the mansion, while Miharu, Latifa and Ouphia were preparing lunch Celia guided the rest to the new bathroom that Rio built, because Christina, Flora and Liselotte haven’t seen it yet and were curious about it. Everyone praises the Japanese style bathroom with wooden walls and floor, Liselotte is especially impressed with the bathtub that looks like can have ten people inside, Charlotte explains everyone that Rio and Alma rebuilt this bathroom into one like the ones in the world of the heroes, Liselotte wonders how in the world they built such a bathroom in less than ten days with just two people, even more the whole bathroom looks like the work of a master carpenter.

Liselotte begins to count on her head Rio’s attributes, first class swordsman, splendid cook, the liquor he makes as a hobby is top class too, he seems to possess a lot of advanced knowledge about magic, now carpentry too and wonders about how versatile is Rio able of being, that everyplace she looks at there’s something ridiculous but she decides to repress the urge of negotiating with Rio ways of using his knowledge for his products because she doesn’t want him to think of her as someone who just thinks about businesses, she still can’t tell herself well why she doesn’t want that though, Celia asks Liselotte what’s the matter when she sees her standing on the entrance of the bath lost in thought, Liselotte says that she was just surprised at the bathroom’s appearance and that it looks troublesome to prepare all of that hot water with magic every time, Celia praises her for realizing it, says she will explain it at another time and guides everyone to the washing zone, when Liselotte is given the shampoo and the body soap she asks Celia where did she got them because the fragrance and the quality are way better than the Rikka firms, Celia tells her Rio did them.

Liselotte says Rio is too versatile, Celia says she thinks the same, that Rio lived without relying on someone else for long so he kept always learning how to do this and that himself, but that it looks like he likes to learn how to do things that he didn’t know how to do and that he’s quite exigent with himself, Liselotte says that he’s a hard worker, Charlotte asks the two if they are talking about Rio, Celia says she was explaining that Rio was the one who made the soaps, Charlotte says that he certainly is a wonderful person, Charlotte says now that she was interested too on the soap that Rio does because is better than the Rikka firms, Liselotte says she’s curious about that too and asks Charlotte to be more detailed about the differences, Charlotte says that the biggest difference is the beauty effect, that the condition of her hair and skin after using it was way better than before and that it can be stored longer than Rikka firm’s soap too, Liselotte says that it’s better in every possible thing.

Charlotte asks Liselotte what about having Rio teaching her the way of doing the soap so she can sell it at her firm too, to decide after giving a try to use it herself, Liselotte asks her is she’s sure about it, Charlotte says she will talk to Rio about it but with the condition of securing a stable supply for Satsuki, her, Christina and Flora, Christina that didn’t know about that until then thanks Charlotte, Flora who has missed the soap that she used when she stayed on the rock house is happy too, Charlotte asks Liselotte if she can let her firm in charge too of creating a bathroom like this on the castle, Liselotte says she doesn’t mind but that the bathroom seems to be using some kind of special technology for working and asks Celia about it, Celia explains that the bathroom creates, warms and purifies the water with magic tools that she developed with Rio and co’s help and that they intended to register as the developers on the Galarc kingdom and Restoration’s territory.

Charlotte says that if they teach together the way of making the bathroom alongside the new soap, they could get whatever developer’s tax they wish, Celia doesn’t understand the meaning, but Christina and Liselotte agree with Charlotte, while thinking about how every noblewoman would want to get the two things by any means. Charlotte also thinks about how it would be bad if she doesn’t make Rio prepare beforehand things to be used against the ones who dislikes his rise while they aren’t moving yet. Rio needs to prepare ways of counterattacking, by increasing Rio’s allies and strike his enemies quickly. Moreover, she thinks about how the matter of the combat lesson was for the sake of showing that the officially factionless Rio is under the royalty’s patronage, and about how having Celia, the famous genius magician, giving magic lectures because she’s Rio’s friend, is for the sake of showing the size of Rio’s friendships too, Charlotte is excited and on a good mood because it looks like the things will get interesting.

After the combat lesson is over, Rio let the participants to have a bath on another big bath intended for servants that he and Alma built too, Rio took a bath on his bedrooms’ bathroom and helped Miharu to prepare lunch, after that everyone has lunch together at some semi stand in party where some groups can sit together if they wish for talking, Rio leaves the room temporarily for taking a proper bath because before he just cleaned his sweat for helping Miharu with the lunch, meanwhile there are small talks here and there, Charlotte complains to Satsuki about how she can’t make any progress with Rio at all, Celia talks a little with Aria, Cosette and Natalie, Cosette and Natalie ask Celia if Aria was already that strong when they were kids, Celia explains about how there wasn’t an opponent for her even between the male students, that she was even a good match for Rio, Aria says she isn’t sure about that, that she attacked Rio seriously but he dealt with her perfectly, that even after their match she can’t see his maximum at all, Cosette asks Celia if Rio ever suffered on a fight, Celia says she doesn’t know either exactly how strong Rio is, that she knows that Aisia is similar to him strength but that she can’t imagine Rio losing, the four talk a  little about the beauty of the girls living with Rio until Vanessa and Louise approaches the two.

Vanessa asks Celia if she was acquainted with Aria, Celia says they were classmates on the past, Vanessa complaints a little more about how the Bertram kingdom treat the people with talent, Louise praises the strength of Liselotte’s maids and asks Aria if she wants to join the knights but Aria says she will just serve Liselotte, the four talk a little about the training with Rio and the bathroom after it, finally they talk a little about how difficult the women knight have it for finding a husband and about how they wanted to try to talk a little more to Rio but he was gone.

### Chapter 2: Towards the departure.

A little before Rio began to live on his new mansion, on the outer edge of the Stralh region, a small country called the Saint Erika’s Democratic Republic, a small kingdom that it’s called an heresy by the rest of the countries due to its lack of a privileged class and discrimination by status, where the elected people on the parliament rules for the sake of the of whole population, the first elected head of the state the saint Erika has been distributing the richness accumulated by the nobles for the sake of rebuilding the capital, Erikaburg, that was destroyed during the revolution against the nobility, this paired with her beauty gave Erika a lot of popularity, the people respects her a lot and is putting its effort into rebuilding the city, right now Erika is in her office talking with man called Andrei.

Andrei asks Erika is she won’t change her mind, Erika says she already made a decision, Andrei insist, he says that having the head of the state going on a trip just after the foundation of the country would be too troublesome, Erika says that her duty is to save those oppressed by the tyranny of the nobility, that they’re everywhere but she has just one body, so she needs to move around and see things herself for selecting more people that can be chosen for salvation, Andrei isn’t convinced yet and Erika talks to him about how him and the people of the parliament are her important comrades that helped her when she began to move, so they will manage without her, Andrei still says that they can’t be her substitute, that they can’t guide the people like her but gives up on persuading Erika and decides to prepare griffins and escorts for her travel, Erika apologizes for the bother and says she will bring him some souvenir, that something from the Rikka firm he talked about may be fine, Andrei thanks her but says that he already stopped being a merchant so he doesn’t need them anymore, Erika asks if he doesn’t want anymore to do deals with a company whose name goes beyond the kingdoms as he dreamt and says that he doesn’t need to be a merchant for dealing with a firm, that she wants the support of a firm like that for their country, Andrei is skeptical because Liselotte is the daughter of a high ranking noble, Erika says they’re pacifist and that they can’t just think of every noble as enemy from the start without trying to persuade them first, Andrei says he hopes Liselotte understand her teachings, Erika says they must pray her words would reach Liselotte. Some days later Erika went on a trip.

A little after Rio began to live on his mansion, lately Hiroaki has been hanging on a lot with Rei and Kota, with their help he began to write a novel for the people of the other world, with Rei as the editor,  Kota translating the novel to the Stralh’s language and Roana advising them about how to make the novel more attractive for nobles instead of for otakus, Rei is excited about the novel’s plot and says that it’s the best, Hiroaki agrees and says he feels good about it too, Rei says that it seems that the double heroine was the right choice in the end, they’re talking in high spirits about the heroines, a lolibaba called Cecily and a normal loli called Mizari, about how they’re moe and about how the plot brings out their charm, about how they want to see the completed book soon, Hiroaki says that it still needs Kota’s and Roana’s revision before that.

Kota says the script looks crazy and asks Roana if a drug for the eternal youth exist in this world Roana, Roana says it doesn’t but that there are people who tried to make it, Kota says he understands and asks if there’s any reason for the mc to be called Koumei like some general from The Three Kingdoms, Hiroaki says that because he likes it, Rei asks Kota if there’s any problem, Kota asks if it’s fine to use a name that doesn’t exist in the world they’re in, that when translating the novel to Stralh’s language he can’t use kanji so if there’s any meaning on the name it won’t be understood, Hiroaki says that it’s fine because the mc is someone summoned from another world so him having a name that doesn’t exist in the parallel world isn’t problem, Kota says he understands, Rei says that then they’re done with the plot planning, Hiroaki says it would be better for bringing out the heroines charm if there was a good moe illustration, Rei tells him to not worry about that because Kota can draw them, Hiroaki asks if he’s serious, Roana is surprised too, Rei explains that Kota’s mother was an art teacher so he has been learning a lot of things since he was a child.

Hiroaki tells Kota to tell it faster if he has that talent with a happy smile, Kota says he isn’t that great of a thing, Rei tells Kota to draw again a moe illustration he asked him to do before the summoning, Kota complains a little about the lack of tools while he draws, Hiroaki says he draws fast, Kota says that because it isn’t his original he doesn’t need to think about what to draw, Hiroaki begins to wonder if Kota has the talent for this, Kota is done with the drawing and Hiroaki loves it because it was a character form an anime he liked, Rei liked it too and the two begin to talk about special merchandises they have and about events they went to, Roana doesn’t understand then and asks Kota what the two are talking about but Kota says he doesn’t know either and that he thinks it’s fine to not understand them too, Hiroaki now says that it’s decided, that Kota will be the illustrator, Kota ask how long it will take him to write the novel, Hiroaki says that like two months, Kota asks what kind of illustration he needs, Hiroaki says he wants the mc’s and the heroine’s character design and the illustration of some specific scenes.

Kota begins to plan how to fit making the illustrations on his own schedule, Hiroaki asks what are Kota’s plans for the future, Kota explains about his intention of travelling through the world once he’s done learning about several things on Rodania, Hiroaki asks why is it that Kouta wants to go on trip and asks why he didn’t receive the title of baronet like Rei, Kota explains that Christina offered it to him but that he rejected it because he wants to become an adventurer and travelling until he becomes a proper man, Hiroaki says he understands, that Kota is virgin and that he wants to make a travel for throwing his virginity away, Kota screams angrily and red faced what is he saying, Roana is red faced too and Rei laughing, Hiroaki says that when a man their age says that he wants to grow up throwing away their virginity is always somehow related too and asks Kota if being rejected by a girl he likes isn’t related to the trip too, Rei says sasuga Hiroaki-san after confirming he was right laughing, Kota ask if it’s something bad red faced, Hiroaki says it isn’t and praises his motivation teasingly, Kota says that maybe he and Roana already did that kind of thing.

Hiroaki says that a noble girl like Roana can’t do that before the marriage, Kota asks if it’s like that looking alternatively between the two, Roana keeps silent and her face gets redder, Hiroaki says that that is sexual harassment and to not say strange things in front of Roana, Kota says it was Hiroaki who began the talk about virginity and stuff, that that it’s sexual harassment too, Hiroaki says that it’s Kota’s fault for wanting to throw away his virginity, Rei agrees laughing, Hiroaki tells Kota to do it with some woman before becoming an adventurer and graduate from being a virgin, Kota asks why, Hiroaki says that because he’s virgin, Kota tells him to tell the reason and stop just calling him virgin Hiroaki tells Kota that he still loves the girl who rejected him, Kota stays silent red faced, Hiroaki says that his face seem to asks why does he knows it, Hiroaki says too that Kota wants to grow up because he isn’t fine yet with being rejected and that he wants to show his growth to that girl, Kota tries to ask why is he talking with that know it all tone when he’s virgin like him but he doesn’t dare to say the virgin part and just call him idiot with his gaze, Hiroaki says he fine with the idiot part and that for the time being Kota and Rei will become his assistants, Kota tries to say that it’s too sudden but Hiroaki ignores him and asks Rei if he’s fine with it, Rei says he doesn’t mind, Hiroaki says that it’s decided then, Kota tries to tell him to wait but Hiroaki tells him that it’s find because anyway he won’t be able of going anywhere while they’re busy with the novel, that it doesn’t matter if he’s his assistant until then, Hiroaki tells Roana to make arrangements for giving some official post to the two and a title for Kota.

Roana says she understand while sending a worrying gaze to Kota, Hiroaki asks Rei if there’s any girl that seems like she has a good feeling with Kota, Rei says that there’s a girl called Michaela Belmond that is a good friend of his fiançee, that the four use to hang around together on the school at Rodania, Hiroaki asks Roana if she knows her, Roana says they aren’t acquainted and asks if it’s the daughter of the Belmond baron house, Hiroaki asks Rei if the two came to Galarc’s castle too, Rei says they’re at Rodania, Hiroaki tells Rei to bring that girl to the Galarc kingdom with his fiançee, Roana says it isn’t that easy to bring them here, Hiroaki says that with a magic ship it’s just a matter of hours and that both Rei and Kota that became his assistants will be like his subordinates, so he wants to see with what kind of people they got engaged with as their boss, Roana obeys worriedly, Hiroaki tells Kota to tell him detailedly the story about how he was rejected.

Two weeks after Rio began to hold the combat lessons at the night, Rio is in the mansion’s dining with Miharu, Celia, Latifa, Aisia, Sara, Ouphia, Alma and Satsuki. After serving the after-meal tea, Rio tells everyone that today he wants to talk about something a little serious. Satsuki asks what it’s about. Rio says that it’s about his future plans, that what he wants to do and what everyone else wants to do might be different, so he wanted to talk to everyone first and to make a small information exchange. Rio says that as he had said before that he will leave the mansion in three or four weeks and that he won’t be back until two months later. Satsuki asks where he will go to. Rio says he will make a little stop first at Sara’s natal village and after that he will visit his parents’ birthplace, Satsuki tries to remember where is that and Rio tells again that on the Yagumo region, Satsuki says that it’s a really far away and dangerous place and asks how will he go there, Rio says that it takes a year walking and a month flying, that because there isn’t compass or maps you can just travel by day by observing the direction using the sun and that the way is full of dangerous things that will attack him too, Satsuki says that then the two months will be just coming and going, Rio agree with a small voice because he didn’t explain about the teleportation magic tool, Satsuki asks why does he want to Yagumo them, Rio says that because he wants to meet with his relatives.

Satsuki asks if Rio has relatives in Yagumo, Rio confirms it, Satsuki asks how they’re and says that she’s curious about them, the rest are curious too, Rio says that he will meet his grandmother and a cousin from his father’s side and his maternal grandparents, Satsuki asks if his cousin is a boy of a girl, Rio says that girl a year older than him, Satsuki says she wants to meet her, Rio says the problem comes from here, that Sara, Ouphia and Alma have to go to their village and report several things but that visiting his family is just his individual wish, that once they go they won’t be back on two months and ask everyone what they want to do, Latifa, say she’s going to Yagumo too, that Rio’s family is her family too, Aisia says she will follow Rio too, Sara says they want to go too if they can get the elders’ permission, Satsuki sulks because she can’t leave the castle just saying that she will go a little to the Yagumo region and she will be back on a while, Rio asks Celia and Miharu what about them.

Miharu is doubting between going or not because she feels bad about leaving Satsuki all alone, Satsuki says that it’s fine to not mind her, Miharu says that there’s the matter of Aki and Masato too, Satsuki says she understands, that it has been several months already since they got separated, Miharu still doubts and Satsuki tells her to let her in charge of checking on the Sendo siblings, Satsuki says she will send a letter to Masato, that the answer will be already here when she’s back and she will know if there is any progress, Rio and Miharu asks Satsuki lowering their heads to keep an eye on them, now Rio asks Celia what will she do, Celia says she will go too because she is her assistant now, that even if something changes between Restoration and the Arbor faction she can’t do anything anyway except letting it to Christina, Sara, Ouphia, Alma decide to go back to the spirit folk’s village in advance for asking for permission for letting Celia in, Sara says that she thinks it wouldn’t be problem to bring someone recommended by Rio to the village but that it’s better to get permission first, Rio asks if the three would cross the wilderness alone after going back to the village, Sara confirms it, Rio decides to be the one who goes because it looks dangerous, Sara thanks him for the worry and tells Rio to trust on their skill a little, that even if they can’t compare to Rio and Aisia they can do something like the travel from the village.

Rio agrees reluctantly and gives them his teleportation crystal for shortening their travel, Satsuki asks if by teleportation crystal she means the magic tool using for kidnapping Christina and Flora, Rio explains Satsuki about the teleportation magic, Satsuki thinks it’s something incredible and asks if with that crystal they can warp, Rio explains that he can’t warp anywhere, just towards their village and after that he can’t come back to the Stralh region, he tells Satsuki too to keep this a secret because the technique for creating teleportation crystals is lost in the Stralh region and the village may even get invaded for sake of it if it’s discovered, Rio says that if possible he wants to teach her the truth about Sara, Ouphia and Alma too, the three explain Satsuki about their real races and two days later leave Rio’s mansion.

### Chapter 3: To the village, reunion.

Three weeks later, Sara’s contracted spirit entered Rio’s mansion alone for letting him know that Sara, Ouphia and Alma are back, that night Rio flew alone until their rock house set on the Galtuc’s outskirts and met them, the four exchange greetings and Rio asks how it went on their side, Sara says they got permission for Celia to go to the village and that the teleportation crystal recovered its magic power already, that they’re ready to go whenever, Rio says that then they will depart after several days, Sara tells Rio that after Rio goes back to the village there are people who want to meet him, Rio asks who and says he doesn’t mind, Sara tells Rio that it’s better if he hears it from the people in question when he goes to the village, Rio decided to not ask more for the time being.

Several days later, Rio’s group is standing in front of his mansion saying their farewells to Satsuki and Charlotte, Charlotte says sulkily that it will be lonely on the months they will be away, Rio says awkwardly while looking away that he intends to stay at the mansion for some time after his return, Latifa next to Rio is sulking because Charlotte is too close to Rio, Charlotte says that she is getting closer because since now they will be away for a while, she steps closer to Rio and tilts the upper half on her body on Rio’s Latifa screams at Rio for letting Charlotte do that, but because Charlotte is a princess Rio can do nothing about it, Rio tells Charlotte to end the joke with his hands on her shoulders for separating her from him, Charlotte grabs Rio’s right hand saying that she isn’t joking, she puts his hand on her cheek and kisses one of Rio’s fingers, she asks if with that she’s the first that kissed him, Latifa retorts immediately that such a joke on a finger it doesn’t count, Charlotte says that she wants the next on the lips then, Latifa pulls Rio away from the Charlotte that is looking warmly at his lips, Satsuki tells Charlotte to stop there, Rio thinks that he’s tired even before the trip, Satsuki tells them to leave the castle on the carriage waiting for them before Charlotte does something strange again and they leave.

Rio’s group goes by carriage until the limit of the noble district and from there they walk until leaving the city, after that they flew until the rock house, after meeting with Sara, Ouphia and Alma they decide to teleport immediately to the spirit folk’s village, Celia is excited because she will finally go to the paradise of mofumofu where there are a lot of fluffy ears and tails to pet aside Sara’s and Latifa’s, Rio tells everyone to stay close to him during the teleportation, Latifa and Aisia hug Rio’s arms while Rio thinks that they don’t need to be that close either, Celia stands in front of Rio’s chest close to it but without hugging him and asks if there is fine, Rio says that yes nodding awkwardly, the rest of the girls begin to look at Rio’s back but Miharu was closer, she arrives faster and hugs Rio from behind, Rio that realized that it was Miharu by looking at Sara, Ouphia and Alma standing in front of him tries to turn for looking at her because he’s surprised at her unusual boldness, Miharu says red faced that she prefers him to not look back if possible, Latifa tells her that her face is red and Miharu denies it flustered, Rio told them that it’s fine even if they aren’t  that close, Sara tells everyone that they’re bothering Rio, Ouphia says to her that it’s unfair if just them are sly, Sara agrees then denies it in a hurry, Alma says that it’s fine and tells everyone to get closer because there isn’t space for them, then Rio teleports with all the girls holding him tightly from every side.

Everyone has just arrived to the forest in the outskirts of the spirit folk’s village, Rio’s group is standing next to a small pond, Rio says sighting to the girls that they already teleported, Rio looks around him and sees people wearing kimonos sitting on the pond’s edge and looking at them surprised, Rio tilts his head wondering why here when he recognizes them, a man hurriedly stands Rio asks Gouki why he’s there, Gouki says looking awkwardly at the girls surrounding Rio that he’s there because he heard that he could meet Rio if he waited next to the pond and then says that as expected of Zen and Ayame’s son, Rio tries to say that it isn’t like that but just laughs rigidly without saying nothing in the end, Kayoko tells Gouki with a cold voice from behind him to not trouble Rio and says that it isn’t time for messing around, Gouki nods rigidly.

Gouki kneels in front of Rio and asks him if they can talk again about the matter of letting them be his retainers that he refused once already, next to her escort Aoi and from behind Gouki Komomo asks Rio to accept, Rio realizes Shin and Sayo’s presences and is surprised, he makes a complicated face when he thinks about their reason for being there, Sayo was trying to hide behind Gouki’s group but Shin drags her until in front of Rio while she gets the more flustered the closer she gets to Rio, once she’s close to Rio her eyes get sad when looking at the girls around him, then all the girls decide that that reaction is absolutely related to something that happened with Rio, Shin tells to Sayo clicking his tongue to be more confident and begins to glare at Rio after looking between Sayo and the rest of the girls, Rio says that he’s happy to see then and that he was planning to go back to Yagumo but that first he needs to talk to the elders, Gouki agrees and everyone moves.

Everyone is in front of the elders now, Celia introduces herself to Shildora, Dominique and Ursula, the elders and Gouki’s group looks curiously at her manners that indicates a good upbringing, Ursula says she heard about her from Rio and thanks Celia for having Latifa, Sara, Ouphia and Alma on her care, Dryas then materializes in front of everyone and welcomes Celia too, then she begins to looks seriously at Celia, Celia asks what’s the matter, Dryas says that her affinity with the mana is quite high for a human and that her ability for controlling odo is quite high too, Celia asks if it’s like that, Dryas says that Rio was out of the standard but that she isn’t bad either, that her odo resembles that of the high elves, she asks Celia if she has some elve ancestor, she wonders if it’s some kind of atavism, Celia asks how does she know it, Dryas said that she has been a humanoid spirit for hundreds of years so she knows it.

Rio says that now that he introduced Celia to Dryas and the elders he wants to talk about Gouki’s group, Ursula wonders from where to begin, Rio asks the elders if they already heard about Gouki’s group relationship with his parents, Ursula apologizes for talking about his past without him present or his consent, Rio says he doesn’t mind it because it was needed for they to know they were talking about the same person, Rio then introduces Gouki’s group to the girls who hadn’t met them yet and introduces the girls to Gouki’s group, Gouki’s group was specially curious about Miharu who resembles the people from Yagumo, Rio asks Gouki if the people Sara said that wanted to meet him were them, Gouki confirms it and asks Rioto forgive them for the rudeness of following him without permission, Rio says that he isn’t angry but surprised, that he thought that he wouldn’t be followed after giving up on accompanying him , Gouki says smiling fiercely that he gave up on accompanying Rio but that he didn’t say that he wouldn’t follow him.

Rio sights deeply and says Gouki that the way until the village is dangerous, Gouki says that there were things that were harder than expected but that they were determined and that it was a good training, Rio says that the most important is that there wasn’t casualties, Gouki says that he just brought people who can use spirit arts, that his retainers are well trained and that even the inexperienced Shin and Sayo did it well, Rio said he didn’t expect him to bring those two too, Rio asks the two for their reasons with his gaze, but the two stay silent, Gouki explains on their instead that Sayo couldn’t forget about Rio so she asked him to bring her along and that Shin despite her attitude treasures her so he couldn’t let her alone, Rio asks about Ruri’s and Yuba’s opinion about their departure, Gouki says he got their consent too, Rio asks Gouki how did he arrived to the village, Gouki says that he arrived by chance, that they left the Karasuki kingdom several days after he did and they arrived at the village a month ago, Ursula explained that Gouki’s group got lost on the village’ forest, that when asking their goal Rio’s name came out so they told them to wait for him on the village.

Rio says that now is his turn of explaining things but he doesn’t know from where to begin, Gouki says he already heard from Sara that he already fulfilled his purpose, Rio says he doesn’t know what to say to the them that put so much effort in following him now, Gouki asks what he means, Rio says that after Lucius’ death they lost their purpose for going to Stralh, Gouki says Rio is misunderstanding, that killing Lucius was included on their goal but it wasn’t everything, Rio asks his meaning, Gouki says their purpose is serving Rio, that the only reason for being sad would be to not be able offering their loyalty, Rio asks why when he already rejected them once, they didn’t know if they could meet him even after going to Stralh and without knowing if he would accept, Gouki says that those aren’t reasons for not following him, that if there’s chance of being useful to their lord that’s enough, Rio asks if it’s enough for letting behind everything they possess on their birth kingdom, Gouki laughs troubled saying he doesn’t know well how to explain it, Aoi asks for permission for explaining Rio the retainers’ mind instead of Gouki, Rio tells her to explain it.

Aoi tells to Rio that she and the rest of the retainers were just orphans who didn’t have anything gathered by the Saga family, they owe Gouki and Kayoko their lives, everything they’re and everything they have, so wherever the two go they will go to, if the two say that Rio is their master then Rio is their master too and that will be the most joyful thing for them too, Rio says he understands, Gouki explains that he gave all of his retainers the option of staying with Hayate but that they still chose to follow him, and that him and Kayoko are as loyal to Rio as their retainers to them, Rio asks why to go that far for his sake, Rio is confused, he understand the loyalty they talk about but he doesn’t understand the reason, he wonders if being his mother’s son is really something that important, Gouki says that they want to give the loyalty they couldn’t give to the deceased Ayame to her son, that he just can say that.

Gouki says that he thought that he could never see again the Zen and Ayame who were vanished from the kingdom and left everything behind, but then their son who was the two’s shadow appeared, Rio says it’s nostalgic because it has been two years already, Gouki continues to talk about Rio, about how with Zen and Ayame death, being just a small child and relying just on the story he heard from Ayame reached the Karasuki kingdom without knowing anything, just for the sake of making a grave for his deceased parents he risked his life coming from Stralh to Yagumo, he kept looking for people who knew of his parents through several kingdoms on an unimaginable travel whose end was never on sigh, that when he discovered all of that Rio became someone too brilliant for him, how splendid he was and how splendidly he grew up carrying hi terrible past, Gouki says that Zen and Ayame are part of the reason too, but that it’s that Rio the one who he wants to serve, because he knew that he would regret for the rest of his life if he doesn’t, that he knows it for sure and asks if despite that he had to stay back quietly just because he was rejected.

Gouki says that that is his reason for leaving the country and follow him and asks Rio if he’s convinced about it, Rio says he understands, then Gouki’s group kneels before Rio and asks him again to make them his retainers, Rio tells them troubled that he isn’t used to have people loyal to him, that he thinks he won’t get used to it on the future and that he doesn’t think he can be a good master because he’s bad at ordering people, Gouki smiles wryly when Rio says something he expected him to say, Rio says that he understood everyone’s feelings too so he can’t just tell them to go back to the Karasuki kingdom like that, that it’s troublesome, Gouki asks Rio if he will accept them as retainers or not, Rio says that he can’t give a good answer now and asks for a little of time for thinking about it, Gouki says that of course excitedly before the Rio that seems to be different from before and looks like maybe he can accept them, Gouki wonders if fulfilling his revenge is related to the change on his feelings or if it’s the influence of the girls around Rio, the elders looks curiously at Rio too because they felt that something was different too, Rio tells Gouki’s group to stand up for the time being, Dominique says that now they have celebrate their reencounter, Ursula says that he just wants to drink liquor with an exasperated face, Shildora says that there are still accumulated topics to discuss and people who have just met so a deeper exchange is necessary anyway, then that night everyone is to meet again for the party.

After leaving the elders’ building Rio goes back with the girls to the guest house he used the other times, after putting their luggage down Rio suggest to the girls to take a walk through the village with everyone, but the girls are worried about his talk with Gouki, Rio realizes they’re worried about something and asks what’s the matter, Latifa asks if Rio won’t consult it with them, Rio asks of she’s talking about Gouki’s group, the girls nod, Rio says he understood their feelings, but that he doesn’t know if he can make a decision that will satisfy everyone and asks the girls if they will listen to him, they go to house’s living and prepare tea for everyone before talking.

Rio begins saying that as he said before he doesn’t think of himself as someone fit for being anyone’s master so he’s reluctant to accept Gouki’s group as his retainers, Celia asks Rio if he’s doubting because he wants to answer their feelings somehow, Rio confirms it, Sara asks Rio if he will accept Gouki’s group as retainers then, Rio says it would be different if Gouki’s group wanted to follow him as normal companions, that they’re important for him, that he’s reluctant to have them as retainers because he isn’t confident about being a good master but if despite that they still want follow him he wants to answer those feelings, Miharu and Celia ask Rio if isn’t fine to just tell that to them, the rest of the girls agree with them, Rio says he isn’t sure if that will be able of convincing Gouki, Celia asks why, Rio says he wonders if Gouki’s group won’t be disappointed with that answer if they’re too set on being his retainers, if they will still follow him like that, if it’s really what Gouki’s group really wishes for.

Sara says Rio he’s overthinking it, Celia says that it is his bad habit to do that, Latifa tells Rio that it would be fine and to be more confident, Rio says to the girls that if Gouki’s group accepts their time together with them will rise too and asks them if they’re fine with that, Latifa says they looked like good people so she wants to asks them a lot of things later, that she’s expecting it , the rest agrees, Celia then explains to Rio that a relationship master-retainer has a lot of ways of being, that he may not like to be above others, but that she thinks that for Gouki’s group being his retainers isn’t about that, that they just want to be of use for Rio and to be more confident as Latifa said before, Rio agrees and relaxes, the rest of the girls except Aisia look enviously at Celia for how well she understood Rio, Celia says she didn’t said anything that special.

Latifa says that it’s enough about that for the time being and tells Rio there’s something she wants to asks him before the party, Rio asks what it is, Latifa says that if they’re going to live together it’s necessary to know more about them, Rio agrees while having a bad feeling, Latifa asks Rio what happened between him and Sayo, and between him and Komomo, Rio is surprised by the question, Latifa says that by Sayo’s reaction something happened when they were living on the Karasuki kingdom, Rio says he wonders if something happened, Latifa says he’s absolutely lying, the rest of the girls agree, Rio tries to dodge the questions saying it’s something private, the girls take it as the confirmation that something happened and keep questioning Rio until the party’s time.

Dominique gives the initial toast, everyone rises their glasses and shock them together, after the toast Vera, Arslan and Uzuma approaches Rio’s group and greet them, Latifa and Vera hug each other, Arslan is lonely because Masato didn’t come back too and Rio tells him Masato wanted to see him again too, that he will try to bring Masato again to the village if he has a chance even if it takes some time, Rio lets Arslan and approaches Gouki’s group, Gouki and Rio talk about the party’s liquor being delicious and about the dwarves being the greatest  liquor lovers between the spirit folk, about how Gouki was surprised with their strength with the alcohol at the beginning and how the things were tense until Rio’s name came out, Rio asked Gouki why did he gave his name, Gouki explains that he thought maybe he has stopped in the village too on his way if they were able of reaching it so he gave it a try, that there are a lot of strong people in the village like Uzuma so if they had done it badly they could have not made it, Gouki tells Rio that Komomo and the other wants to asks things to Rio and the rest too and asks for permission for calling them out.

Rio agrees and tells him to drop the formalities if possible, Gouki says that is complicated and calls Komomo and Sayo, Rio says the girls with him wanted to ask them things too, Gouki introduces himself formally to Latifa, Latifa says nervously that it’s fine to not respect her that much because she isn’t related by blood to Zen or Ayame, Gouki says that the blood relationship doesn’t matter because she’s Rio’s little sister, Latifa tries to at least make Komomo to not call her with sama but she doubts because of her samurai daughter upbringing, Rio asks her to go along with it, Gouki who sees the troubled kids gives his permission for dropping the formalities with Latifa, then Latifa takes Komomo to Vera’s, Arslan’s and place while Rio and the rest of girls talks with Gouki’s group.

Gouki asks Rio if Miharu is someone from the Yagumo region, Rio denies it and asks Gouki if he knows about the people summoned from otherworld called heroes that appeared on the Stralh region, Gouki’s group nods rigidly because they doesn’t understand well about that, Rio and Miharu exchange wry smiles and Miharu tells that she’s someone from another world, Gouki asks if Miharu is a hero, Miharu says she isn’t a hero, Rio explains from the side that she got dragged from the other world due to her hero friends, Miharu tells them that Rio was the one who helped her when she got lost in the other world after the summoning, Gouki’s group is confused when they hear Miharu calling Rio with the name Haruto, Miharu apologizes for complicating the things mistaking the name, Rio explains that Haruto is the alias that he uses when he’s on the Stralh region, Miharu apologizes again and Rio tells her that it’s fine because he intended to explain about that to Gouki’s group, Gouki asks Rio why he uses an alias and if something happened.

Rio tells Gouki that in the past he was accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Gouki is surprised, Rio tells him to not mind it for the time being, that he plans to talk to them about his past later and tells Gouki to not break the party’s mood with serious talks, Gouki does as told reluctantly and lets it be for the time being, Rio tells Gouki that in the Stralh region he calls himself Haruto so Miharu is more used to call him Haruto instead of Rio because of that and that aside her just a few more ones know that his real name is Rio, after Gouki understands they go back to the topic about the other world, Gouki says that it’s difficult to believe but that if Rio is the one telling it he can just believe it, Gouki is impressed at what the magic can do, Rio explains him that doing something like that is impossible with the current magic, that what bring Miharu to this world was a relic left behind by the Gods.

Gouki then praises Miharu’s appearance saying that she’s as beautiful as the young Ayame and tells he thought she was a young lady from somewhere in Yagumo, he says Miharu resembles the young Ayame and asks Kayoko if she doesn’t think the same, Kayoko agrees and says her gestures and manners resemble hers, Miharu asks red faced if it’s like that, Gouki explains to her Ayame’s hairstyle was similar to hers too, Gouki now asks about Celia being Rio’s master, Celia says she isn’t about being Rio’s master or not but that she taught him until he was 12, Gouki says Celia looks like she’s Rio’s age, Rio says they’re five years apart, Kayoko laughs at the two being close enough for not using honorifics, Sayo looking at the girls from the side thinks they’re all as beautiful as princesses, she thinks that it isn’t surprising that Rio rejected a plain village girl like her when he’s already surrounded of so many beautiful girls, Shin looks between Sayo and Rio just like he’s upset about something.

Now Gouki talks about Aisia giving the feeling that she isn’t someone ordinary, Celia praises his eye and tells that Aisia is really strong, Gouki asks about Aisia being a human spirit like Dryas contracted to Rio, then they explain about how Aisia was already sleeping inside Rio when he was in Yagumo and about how she woke up when he went back to Stralh, Gouki asks the girls if they think the Rio that fulfilled his revenge feels different from before, Rio says that if he changed it must be thanks to them, that if he had been alone he surely wouldn’t have changed even if he fulfilled the revenge, Gouki says he was blessed with good encounters then, Rio agrees and the girls get embarrassed listening to him, Gouki thinks Rio really changed, that the shadow of the wounds he has carried with him since his childhood is still there but that it’s thinner than before.

Rio asks if it’s fine to talk about their vassalage matter now, Gouki tells him to continue, Rio tells him that after all he doesn’t think he can become anyone’s lord, even more with people he feels close like him and Kayoko and asks if they aren’t fine with just follow him as normal companions if they don’t mind that he isn’t able of treating them as retainers, Gouki asks what he means, Rio tells him that if they want to follow him he wants the do it as people that resemble friends or family, as people equal to him not as people at his orders, that if he doesn’t mind either if at anytime they want to go back to Karasuki or acting separately from him is fine too, Gouki is surprised at Rio’s words, Rio says that maybe his answer it isn’t what he really wished for and asks if he’s fine with it, Gouki says excitedly that there isn’t a way he would refuse, Rio offers then to go back with him to the Karasuki kingdom for reporting to the people there so they won’t worry about them, Gouki accepts lowering his head exaggeratingly and happily, Dominique tells everyone to make a toast for it if they were able settle things, and everyone toast for their future together.

The party continued for some hours and the people number of drunken people began to rise too, some weren’t drunken due to their resistance to it, someone who chose to drink moderately and some like Sayo who didn’t drink because they were bad with the alcohol, maybe because she’s bad with strangers or just shy she kept just talking to the rest of Gouki’s retainers except when they went close to Rio that she kept avoiding, naturally she ended alone with Shin that it isn’t good at socializing either and just keeps drinking with an unhappy face at how Sayo is dealing with her reencounter with Rio, Sayo looks enviously at the rest of the girls who splendidly took the position by Rio’s side and are greeting with him all the villagers that came to greet Rio at his return.

Komomo pulls Rio’s sleeve and asks him if he won’t talk a little with Sayo because she was expecting to see him again too, the girls too seems to want to talk to Sayo but somehow the people who wants to talk to Rio doesn’t stop and it got hard to approach Sayo, Rio says he tried several times to call out to her but that she’s avoiding him, Rio then makes up his mind and approaches Shin and Sayo, Rio says good night to the two and Shin says “yo” to Rio and makes a small gesture with the glass on his left hand, when Rio is telling the two that he wants to talk for a little Sayo begins to scold Shin for greeting the Rio who is a royalty with such rudeness, Shin asks her teasingly if interrupting the words of that same Rio isn’t rude too, Sayo apologizes to Rio in a fluster, Rio tells her that it’s fine like that, that he wants them to talk to him just like when lived in the Karasuki kingdom, Shin says to Sayo that she’s too polite, that Rio is saying the same, Sayo scolds Shin again about his wording.

Rio says he’s happy of seeing them getting along as usual, the girls looks curiously at how Rio talks to the two, Shin says to Rio that he’s surrounded of women as usual too, that in the village he made to cry a lot of girls too, all of the girls says “eh?” at the same time wondering about the meaning of making a lot of women cry and glaring at Rio’s back, Rio tells Shin to not use misunderstable words sweating cold, Sayo says that it’s like that, Rio didn’t make anyone cry ,the opposite, that he made joyful a lot of people, Rio says that that sentence seems troublesome too, Shin and asks if he didn’t at least make her cry when he rejected her after leaving the village, the girls deduced from that exchange that Sayo confessed to Rio and her stares at his back got stronger, Sayo’s face is so red that it looks like it will get on fire anytime, Rio is paralyzed as if he’s standing on thin ice, Shin makes a satisfied face seeing Rio in troubles with the girls.

Sayo asks Shin on fluster what is he saying, Shin says that it’s the true, Sayo tells her to not talk about it, that she made something rude confessing so she wants to apologize, Rio tells her she doesn’t have nothing to apologize for, the rest of the girls are shocked when the confession matter is confirmed, Shin says that Rio is the one who has to apologize with a red face and swinging his glass, Sayo says he’s drunken and asks how many glasses he drank, Shin says he didn’t count them, that the talk about Rio is more important, that he still has thing he want to say, Sayo apologizes to Rio and tells him that Shin is really drunken and she will take him somewhere away now, Shin says that she’s noisy, that it was Rio who despite making her sad telling her that he couldn’t take her with him when leaving the village is surrounded by all of that women now, what about not wanting to carry with her, that left Sayo behind because he wasn’t attractive.

Miharu wonders if what Shin says it’s true, Gouki tries to tell to Shin that it wasn’t like that but Rio stops him, Rio says that refused to take Sayo with him at that time because he couldn’t requite her feelings, that at that time he went on trip thinking about his revenge, that he could, that as Shin said he hated to have loads, that he kept hating it after his travel too, but that a lot happened and asks Shin if he wants to talk about it with him, that he wants to asks to what happened on their side, Shin is silent, Rio says he has little sister too, so he understand if he’s angry because someone her cute little sister cry, Shin says he isn’t angry or anything, that honestly if he had tried to send Sayo back this late he intended to hit him.

Shin heard about Rio’s past and goal from Gouki and didn’t feel like blaming him anymore he understood, what he was doing and why, he never liked how Rio seemed to always stand somewhere away from the rest and keeping everyone at a distance, but after learning about his past he thought it was natural for him to do so, he was happy of finally understanding him even if he didn’t like him, he was understanding that he was putting on a cool face while shouldering a lot of troublesome things and going through a lot for being accepted by the rest of the villagers, that letting Sayo behind was a matter of course too, rather it would be indignant if he just have told her that he didn’t mind to bring her alone of that he planned to take responsibility, but when he saw the Rio that rejected Sayo for not liking to get involved deeply with people being close to every girl but her as older brother he wanted to have some words with Rio, he couldn’t help it but cursing him, but Rio came himself to him and told him that he wanted to talk to him, he was happy of hearing him say that he wanted him to treat him like when they were in the village, but Shin couldn’t be honest and just makes a cold face.

Rio asks again if they can talk again, Shin accepts reluctantly, then Latifa says she has an idea, Miharu asks what it is, Latifa tells to bring Sayo and Komomo to their house that night and have a women party, then Rio and Shin have to have their men party too so they can ask and tell everything they have on their minds, Gouki and Dominique say it sounds interesting and decides to join the men party, Rio and Shin agree too.

An hour later the Gouki’s group and Rio’s group are still drinking together and talking about a lot of things, Sayo stands up and gets out of the group saying that she needs some fresh air after drinking, Miharu sees Sayo go tells Aisia she needs some air too and goes after Sayo, Miharu calls out to her, Sayo asks Miharu what is it, Miharu asks her to stop using the sama, Sayo says she can’t do it, Miharu asks her to at least change it to san, Sayo says she will try, Miharu then apologizes for surprising her and tells her that she wants to talk a little with just the two, Sayo is surprised, Miharu says she wants to talk a little about Rio, for some reason Sayo begins to apologize for not staying at proper distance from Rio even without knowing that he was royalty, Miharu says there isn’t nothing to apologize for confused about how feared she is, Sayo apologizes again and Miharu laughs, Sayo asks what’s the matter, Miharu says she thinks they’re similar, Sayo wonders about Miharu’s mean.

Miharu tells her that she told her feelings to Rio too, Miharu tells her that just like her there was a time when Rio tried to keep her at a distance too, Sayo asks if she was able of staying with Rio, Miharu says that in her case she didn’t gave up and that Aisia did several things on her own too, that if not for Aisia Rio could have let her behind too because at that time Rio will was that strong, because he was shouldering so many things, so she wants to be Sayo’s friend too, Sayo says that if she’s fine with someone like her, they tell each other they will in the other’s care, Latifa arrives complaining about the unfairness of just the two getting along, Miharu says to her she will tell her what they talked about later.

### Intermission: Talk between the ruler and the saint.

Proxya’s castle, Renji is standing in the center of the arena where Rio and Nidor fought, Reis is audience sits throwing light balls remote controlled at Renji, Renji dodges them, runs in the middle of them and at times hits them with his halberd, Reis looks satisfied at Renji’s progress when a knight calls out to him and tells him that Nidor wants Reis to go to audience room, Reis concludes that it must be a sudden guest and strange or important one for him to be called too, he stops Renji’s training and goes.

The audience chamber, Reiss looks at Nidor’s guest from an place where he can’t be seen, Reis looks with a distorted a smile to what he calls a new unusual guest, a black haired woman wearing a pretty white priestess dress that has her face raised even without Nidor’s permission, the woman says that the Proxia empire must be a country quite unfriendly for not preparing a chair for a guest, Nidor laughs says it’s strange for a rude guest who asks for an audience without an appointment about manners, Reis says Nidor is enjoying it, the woman says that since the emperor agree to receive an unknown person she expected him to be a greathearted person but that surprisingly it isn’t like that, Nidor says she isn’t any strangely small, Nidor tells her she isn’t an unknown person or something but the shitty Saint.

Erika finds it unexpected that Nidor knows about her, Nidor says he heard his country’s borders were broke and that a new country was born, Erika says he heard it quite fast, Nidor says that there was at last a change in the boring international situation so it stayed on his memory and asks Erika her businesses, Erika says she came to inspect the country and to talk with its ruler, Nidor asks what is she inspecting, Erika says that the way of living of the people of the country and if they’re oppressed by its ruler, Nifor laughs, Erika asks if there is something strange.

Nidor says that the saint that appeared suddenly currently is just a suspicious woman that came to tell the emperor himself that he’s oppressing his people, that the strange one would be who doesn’t laugh, Erika asks if he’s saying she’s crazy with a curious face, Nidor asks her how did the country look in her eyes, Erika says that what she looked at wasn’t the country but it’s people’s way of leaving, so to says their ruler’s, then Erika orders Nidor to give the country to the populace because it will give relief to the people, Nidor says he doesn’t believe that putting down a ruler will give the people relief and asks Erika what will she do if he refuses, she says she will do it herself, Nidor asks her grabbing the handle of his sword if she wants to give it try.

Erika says it isn’t time for that yet because the people is still unaware that the revolution will bring them salvation, that it won’t do until they learn it, Nidor asks her if she believes he will let it go that easily after he came from her small country to declare war to his face, Erika materializes her mace and says that if he’s like that she will go along with him while looking emotionlessly at him, Nidor says he thought he was just a woman who went crazy after getting a great power but that it seems she isn’t just an idiot, he asks her if he’s just the worst quality’s witch instead.

Erika says laughing that it’s quite the saying to call the saint witch to her face and shows distorted smile, Nidor says she has a good expression and asks her if she wasn’t a pure saint, Erika apologizes for that covering her mouth with her hand and putting on again a good natured smile, Nidor says that as expected she’s a witch even if she tries pretend she isn’t, Erika says it’s normal for him to think that way, to call arrogant the one who aims for his neck, that it’s impossible for him the arrogant emperor to understand the ways of the saint that gives salvation to the populace, Nidor says he understands that thinking about the populace, guiding it and saving it it’s the kind of saint she’s acting like, Erika thanks his understanding, but that currently she’s a saint just in the surface, Erika says she doesn’t understand what she’s saying.

Nidor asks her if she plans to keep her act no matter what and tells her that even if her plan works she will just steal hundreds of thousands of lives, Erika continues to play innocent and says that she really doesn’t understand what he’s saying, Nidor says that if she comes hears and provokes him that directly he will be his opponent, that if it becomes a fight it’s impossible for a lot of people to not die, that there isn’t a way she doesn’t understand that because he knows that in the revolt she caused a lot people died, Erika says that even if it’s unavoidable for sake of saving more people that can’t do, so if it becomes a fight she will be the vanguard, Nifor says she has quite the confidence and that then there isn’t a way of talking this out anymore so it’s fine for her to get lost, Erika asks if it’s fine to let her go like that, Nidor asks if she wants to stay like that, she denies it, Nidor tells her to get lost then, to leave the room and quietly get out of the castle gates, that if they meet again it will be on the battlefield, Erika leaves.

When Nidor is alone Reis approaches him and tells that there’s no mistaking that she’s a hero, that her mace was a divine weapon, Nidor says that her behaviour not minding if it becomes a scandal and provoking her openly was wonderful, that she looks like she’s quite confident in her power, that based on that she’s a destructive woman, but currently she’s quite calm, that a troublesome woman became a hero, Reis says that depending on how much she can use the power of her weapon, if she intends to keep her activity and changing the power balance of the Stralh region she may be more troublesome than the black knight because a hero can’t be killed that easily, Reiss sights annoyed, He says that since he killed Lucius he lost his way of keeping him in check so he will use this chance for keeping an eye on the saint, then Reis goes after Erika, Nidor is left alone wondering about the reason of Erika’s word about saving the people and her attitude towards him when she doesn’t care about anything.

Erika walks alone until she’s outside of the imperial capital and look at it with cold eyes, she thinks alone that as expected of the emperor, that the next time he may need to change her way of doing things, that the problem is where to go now, Galarc Bertram or Centostella, then she remembers that the Rikka guild that became big enough for influencing several kingdoms is in Galarc, she thinks that if it’s a company so powerful it may be useful, she decides to give a try a meeting with Liselotte before than with François, after making her decision Erika goes back to her subordinates.

### Chapter 4: A new reencounter and a new encounter.

Two weeks after Rio left the Stralh region and went to the spirit folk’s village, Rio arrived to Yagumo accompanied by the girls, Gouki, Kayoko, Komomo, Aoi, Sayo and Shin, the rest of Gouki’s subordinates needed to stay behind because it was impossible to carry them all, Aerial carried always seven people on its back and Rio, Aisia and Ouphia who can fly carried one person each too, there were some arguments about who carried who but after setting a rotation the arrived without problem to Zen’s natal village.

Rio tells everyone to land outside the village because it would be an scandal if they land in the center on the village, Aisia and Ouphia put Miharu and Celia down, the ones riding Aerial get down too, Rio puts Komomo down and tells Latifa to get down of his back, Celia is curious about the village, Ouphia praises the cleanliness and the calmness of the rural air, Shin and Sayo look at the village nostalgically and comment about the difference in the travelling time between their departure and their return.

Gouki and Rio lead the way until Yuba’s house, Latifa is getting shy worrying about how Yuba and Ruri will treat her, Rio says her that it’s fine that the two say that they wanted to meet her when he talked to them about her, Miharu and Celia says they understand Latifa’s feelings, the two, Sara, Ouphia, and Alma are putting their hands in their chest for calming themselves, Rio says they don’t need to that shy because they’re a normal grandmother and cousin, that if they stay like that they will make the him making the introductions nervous too, Komomo says the girls that it will be fine because Yuba and Ruri are kind and will treat them like family, Aisia isn’t nervous either and tells everyone to hurry.

While walking towards the village Rio sees the farming tools left alone on the fields and thinks everyone must be gathered on the village’s square having lunch together, Rio feels nostalgic seeing that looks happily at the fields and buildings, everyone arrives at the village square and as Rio thought the villagers where there having lunch together, Ruri is there too, some villagers were wary of Rio’s group but after seeing him, Shin, Sayo and more known faces calmed down, Ruri stands up calling their names surprised and walks towards them, Rio tells Ruri that it’s been a while a little shyly seeing her like that, she asks how several times looking between Rio and Sayo, Ruri then it’s relieved when she concludes that Sayo was able to catch up to Rio somehow, the villagers makes a clamor then, some tells that it’s been a while, some welcomes them, some tells them to not scare them that way, then villagers begin to surround Rio, Shin and Sayo, Ruri begins to calm down everyone somehow with.

Ruri calms down the villagers and asks Rio and Sayo if they’re fine, Shin says he was there too, Ruri says that Shin seems fine no matter how you look it because he’s man, Shin says Rio is a man too and stronger than him, the villagers begin to laugh at their usual banter, Ruri ignores Shin and says to Rio and Sayo that seem to be fine while putting in order their clothes then tells “okaeri” to the three, both Rio and Sayo say “tadaima”, the villagers around them say “okaeri” too, Ruri greets the Gouki, Kayoko, Komomo and Aoi, Gouki greets her back, says that it’s good that she’s still healthy and asks about Yuba, Ruri tells them that Yuba is doing well as always and that short ago Hayate visited the village and was doing well too, that he will be happy for their return, Gouki is happy knowing Hayate is doing well too.Ruri asks the girls who they are, the villagers begin to look them too, they get nervous and don’t know what to say, Ruri says them that they don’t look like Gouki acquaintances and asks Rio if they’re his, he confirms it a little shyly, Ruri makes a “heeee” sound and takes Rio a little away from everyone pulling his arm, Ruri entwines her arm with Rio’s tilts her body toward Rio for talking in secret with him.

Rio ask her what, Ruri tells her that not what and asks who the girls are, Rio says that as said before his acquaintances, Ruri says she doesn’t mean that and asks who of them is Rio’s lover, Rio is troubled he doesn’t know what to say because they aren’t lovers but aren’t simple friends either and he can’t do something as companions, after doubting Rio says that they’re the closest to family a little doubtful while between the girls and Ruri, Ruri asks flustered is he has that kind of relationship with all of them, Ruri stays surprised for a moment and says to Rio that onee-san can’t praise something like that, Rio asks her if she’s misunderstanding something, Ruri says that all the girls are cute like princesses and asks what is this and asks if Sayo is convinced with that, Rio grabs Ruri’s shoulders and tells her wait because he has feeling that she’s misunderstanding something for sure, to calm down because he will properly introduce everyone, Ruri asks him what is she misunderstanding.

Latifa says from the side that Rio and Ruri looks like they really get along, Celia says that it’s funny that there’s someone aside her and Aisia that can talk that lightly with Rio, the girls look enviously at Ruri and curiously at the side of Rio that they didn’t see until now, the villagers guess something when seeing the girls like that, the young men look at Rio and the girls clenching their teeth and ask Shin for confirmation with their gazes, Shin return the gaze and shakes his head, then he remembers how things were when the rest of the girls of the village fell for Rio too before.

Rio says to Ruri that he already told her about his little sister, his teacher and that there was more people living with him, that he wanted to introduce everyone to Ruri at the villagers after his return, Ruri asks if it is like that, Rio was going to call Latifa and Celia but he realized the men’s glare and doubted, Ruri was looking at happily at the girls too but the young men begin to claim in front of Rio because it was always him who the girls pay attention too, Rio tries to calm them down, Shin cheers on them, Sayo scolds him, Shin says with a mischievous face that is their way of welcoming Rio, Rio asks Ruri for help, she says she doesn’t think she can calm them down now and that she will take everyone to Yuba’s place for the time being, she tells Rio come too after dealing with them, Ruri tells the girl to follow her to until her house, the girl doubt looking at the rest of the men surrounding Rio but Ruri hurries them pushing Miharu’s back and telling that they were always like that, Shin pushes Sayo’s back in a good mood too, Gouki decides that stopping the men’s welcome back would be boring and goes to Yuba’s house too, when everyone was out of sigh the men finally let go of Rio.

Ruri and the girls entered, Rio entered too a little after them, Yuba was surprised for the sudden visit but calmed down when she saw Rio, Shin and Gouki and was told what happened when they entered the village, she laughs a little at Rio, Yuba says he brought quite the big group again, she looks at the girls and the girls receive that look sitting in seiza nervously, she says that they’re a gathering of beauties so of course the men make a clamor, Ruri says she was surprised too, he introduces Latifa and Celia as the little sister and the teacher he already talked about, Sara, Ouphia and Alma as girls from the same village that Latifa and as people who helped him a lot, Miharu and Aisia as people  who he went through a lot and are living with him, he ends saying that the seven are like family like him, Yuba asks if it’s a relationship with the marriage on mind,  Rio denies it looking down uncomfortably.

Yuba says it was a joke, that it seems that he was able of meeting with good people, that it reminds her when Zen brought Ayame in secret to the village, Gouki says that then it was troublesome and he and Kayoko laugh nostalgically, Yuba thanks the girls for always taking care of Rio, they say they’re the ones being always helped, Ruri says that she’s curious about them all but that if Latifa is Rio’s little sister is her sister too, Yuba says she’s granddaughter too, Latifa says shyly she would be happy if they see her like that, Ruri says she’s cute and that she always wanted a little sister, she asks Latifa if she can call her just Latifa without honorifics, Latifa agrees and asks if she can call them Ruri onee-chan and Yuba obaa-chan, the two agree and Ruri hugs Latifa happily, Yuba asks Rio how long will stay at the village, Rio says that he will go soon to the capital with Gouki’s group and asks Yuba if the girls can stay there in the meanwhile, Yuba agrees,  Rio says he thinks it will take him like a week to come back, Yuba tells him that it’s his house too and to not be so reserved, Yuba tells Shin and Sayo to tell the rest of the villagers that there will be a party that night when they greet them, Rio decides to begin to prepare the food with Ouphia’s and Miharu’s help, Ruri is happy because she will have Rio’s food again.

A little before the party’s beginning Rio began to walk towards his parent’s graves, the girls and Gouki’s group followed him, Rio arrived at the grave and is standing alone before it, the rest are giving him some space while he does that, looking at the landscape from there he thinks it didn’t change at all, he tells to Zen and Ayame on his head that he fulfilled his revenge and killed Lucius, he thinks that the two might be happy or sad but he won’t know because the death don’t talk, but he’s fine with that, because he didn’t take revenge for their acknowledgment there isn’t a way he will take revenge for the sake of acknowledgment, it wasn’t for anyone’s sake, it was for his own sake that two years ago he swore to take revenge there, so if something changed it would be that the hands of the stopped clock on his heart began to move again, he doesn’t understand if they move well but they’re slowly and certainly moving.

Rio thinks probably it isn’t just because he fulfilled his revenge, because it was he himself couldn’t acknowledge it, the him who took revenge, because he put in action despite understanding that taking revenge wasn’t right, he would have continued to hate himself, but he doesn’t hate himself that much anymore, because he found people who said that wanted to be with that him he was able of liking himself a little, he doesn’t has confidence yet but… the him who tried to let go of what was important for him due to the fear to lose it, it’s his turn of giving something to the ones who reached their hands to the selfish him, he swears that to himself there and joins his hand in pray for his parents, after some minutes he turned back and gives his thanks to the ones with him, the girls and Gouki’s group prayed too and followed after Rio, after the party lasted until midnight and everyone made merry with the villagers.

Two days later, with Ouphia’s help Rio went with Gouki’s group to the capital, they agree to meet again on a hill outside the capital three days later and Ouphia went back to the village, first they went to Gouki’s house for showing their faces to Hayate and for asking him to set a meeting with the royal couple, because of the tired Gouki who already gave his farewell went there it would be troublesome, their return surprised Hayate but he immediately did as told after hearing their story, and that evening took them to the castle as secretly as possible.

Rio thanks his grandparents for receiving him that fast despite the suddenness, Homura says that it’s a matter of course to make time him if he’s back, even more if he brings Gouki and Kayoko too, that he hasn’t guests more important than them, Shizuku say to Homura that it isn’t him but the two of them sulking cutely, Homura apologizes laughing, Shizuku says Rio she’s happy of seeing him again and that it relieved her to see him healthy, Rio says that lot happened but that he’s doing well, Homura says that Hayate already gave them a brief explanation and asks Rio for the rest of the story, Rio says he came with that intention, Rio then tells the two the minimum necessary about everything he did on his travel.

Homura says he was blessed with a lot of encounters, he says too that he thought he was making a good expression since he entered room, Shizuku says she was thinking the same, Gouki says that everyone who spent some time away from Rio told the same and that he thought it too, Rio asks if it’s something that shows so much on the face, Homura says that it didn’t disappeared completely, he isn’t sure about describing it as the dark feeling coming from him being much thinner now or as his force fill being more apparent than before, Rio asks if it’s because he fulfilled his revenge, Homura says that there are people who make a shining face after taking revenge, but that those one make expressions more aggressive, that they show they rightfulness not their culpability like him, Homura thinks that they show brilliant faces precisely because they don’t doubt they’re right so they don’t feel any guilt.

Rio says that it must as Homura said and that it’s because he was blessed with good encounters and smiles softly, Shizuku says that they must be good people, Rio agrees and says that those people stayed close to him, they told they wanted to be near the him that lived just for revenge, so he realized it, that he got things that were as important for him as the ones he lost, Homura says to Rio that he wondered if the him who fulfilled his revenge would close himself completely from other, that the him of the past talking about revenge looked like that, despite that he wasn’t able of telling him to stop but that it looks like it was a needless worry, Rio says that it may be something selfish this late, but now that he fulfilled his revenge he thinks to live in a way in which he won’t lose the important things he has now.

Homura says he understood, that he accepted Gouki for that reason and asks Rio what will he do in the future and if he will stay in the Karasuki kingdom, Homura waits for Rio’s answer nervously thinking if Rio plans to stay in the Karasuki kingdom he will try to prepare a safe place for him somehow, but Rio says he will go back to the Stralh region, Homura says it will get lonely again, Rio apologizes for that and says that for the sake of his important ones it’s necessary, Rio chooses the Stralh region thinking about Miharu, Satsuki, Aki, Masato and Celia, Homura says he doesn’t have to apologize, Rio says that even if he will stay longer in the Stralh region he will try to come more frequently to the Karasuki kingdom too if it isn’t a problem, Homura and Shizuku tell him to do it.

Shizuku says sadly that she wanted to meet the people that came with him too, Rio says he can’t bring them to the castle because they’re a lot and it would stand out too much, Rio thinks that Miharu that resembles the people from Yagumo maybe, but the rest looks too foreigner like, Homura begins to think about leaving the castle himself is there is too complicated, Homura asks Rio how long he will stay at Yuba’s village, Rio says that like a week, Gouki says that if it’s just a while it may be possible with Ouphia’s cooperation and grins widely, Homura and Shizuku asks if it’s possible, Gouki says that it’s possible to stay for several hours and asks Rio if he set the encounter during that time, Rio asks if it’s really fine for the king and the queen to leave the castle, Homura says that it’s talk for that time, that just for several hours is fine, that if during that time something happens with him the king taking responsibility is enough and asks how will they sneak out, Shizuku says it reminds her of the scandal from when Ayame sneaked until Zen’s village, to think she would do it too, then three days later at set meeting day Ouphia carried the two to the village for Yuba’s and the girls’ surprise.

### **Intermission: Letter to the Centostella kingdom.**

Several days after Rio arrived to the Yagumo region, in the Centostella kingdom, at the same time that Takahisa continues to lock himself on his room everyday Masato keeps training his swordcraft with Hilda’s help, Aki watches silently how Masato spar with Hilda like everyday, after several matches Hilda tells Masato that the rest is important too and to leave it at that for that day, Masato obeys, puts down his wooden sword and cleans his sweat, Liliana enter the arena and says to Masato that he’s working hard too today, her maid frill gives Masato a towel and a water bottle, Masato thanks her and drinks while gets close to him too, Liliana gives Masato Satsuki’s letter, he receives it happily and opens it, Aki looks curiously at the letter too.

In the letter Satsuki talks about the last things that happened to Rio, about they having fun on his new mansion, about Rio going on a trip again, something about a sleepover, a message from Rio, Miharu and the girls, and asks Masato how the three siblings are doing lately, Masato says that Celia went to Sara’s village too and wonders about how Arslan is doing, when he’s done reading Masato tells Aki to read it too because he noticed her gaze from the beginning, Aki asks if it’s fine, Masato says that it’s fine that everyone is worried too about how she’s doing, Aki reach her hand to the letter hesitatingly but in the end pulls it back, Masato asks her if she isn’t interested about Miharu and Satsuki and says the letter talks about Rio too, Aki thinks she doesn’t deserve to read the letter because of what she did, Masato says that’s expected she’s properly reflecting about it.

Masato says he won’t show the letter but that it’s fine to show it to her, that it’s fine for her to read it, Aki asks why, Masato says that because unlike him she’s reflecting and regrets what she did, Aki can’t say that she’s reflecting, sorry or regretful, because those are words of someone who wants forgiveness, but she doesn’t thinks she the right to want that forgiveness after all, she understand she did something to Miharu, she still feels complicated about Rio but want to see him again, but when she thinks about Takahisa feelings that she can’t put into words come out.

Liliana thinks looking at Aki that she suffers because she reflected and regrets what she did but she can’t think that Takahisa that is suffering too has the same kind of suffering that Aki has, she wonders if her belief that he needed time for thinking and looking well at himself was right because she doesn’t understand if he reflected or regrets what he did, Masato  gives Aki the letter for her to read it when she feels like it  and later he will give her the rest of the letters he received until now too, he tells her to not think about complicated stuff and just read it if she wants and to write her current feelings to Miharu on a letter, because she can’t give back the letter or read it Aki keeps it for the time being.

### **Chapter 5: The saint’s reason of being.**

At the time when Rio’s group left the Karasuki kingdom for returning to Stralh, in Amande, a group of five people in travelling clothes walks the streets, Erika says that it’s a lively city looking at the streets and at the people, one her subordinates says that not of the level of their citizens but that Amande’s people are making brilliant expressions, that the rumors about Liselotte being someone a good person despite being a noble may be true, Erika says their people certainly is more vibrant but says too that until then they didn’t see any single city that was  as well built as Amande, that they should take it as a reference, her subordinates agree, the difference in livelihood level between Amande and the rest of the cities she saw so far rises Erika’s interest in Liselotte.

While Erika walks she’s called by a street vendor, she was going to ignore him but what the man offered her was Amande’s special pasta, the vendor asks her if she’s surprised because she didn’t know about it, Erika tells the man to repeat the dish’s name showing her the moves of his mouth, the man obeys with a confused face, while Erika stares at his mouth, the man says she’s beautiful but weird, Erika apologizes for the weird petition, asks the man for serving for her and her subordinates and asks about the pasta’s inventor, the man say that Liselotte invented it several years ago, the man says that Erika look strangely happy, Erika says she’s happy of having come to Amande because it seems she will be blessed with a good encounter.

A hour later, Liselotte is working in her office with Aria by her side, she asks Aria if the quantity of paperwork's that day wasn’t unusually big, Aria says those documents are about the setting of the system for mass-producing the new type of soap that Rio gave them and that because they will stop completely the production of the soap they were making until now the work related to that rose, Liselotte says with a reluctant smile she’s so happy she can scream, Aria tells her to please take care of it quickly, Liselotte says she understands sulkily, Chloe knocks the door and enters the room, she tells Liselotte that there’s a visitor asking for a meeting with her without appointment, that they’re at the entrance of the noble district right now, that she doesn’t know about her but that it’s a person calling herself the saint Erika.

Liselotte remembers something hearing that name, Aria tells her that the person who caused a revolt and destroyed a small kingdom under the protection of the Proxia empire was called like that, Liselotte wonders if she came looking for help from the Galarc kingdom now that she angered the Proxya empire in the case she isn’t the same person that that saint, Aria asks why to come to Amande then, she wonders if it’s a completely different person that mistook the Rikka firm as a charity organization, she says she’s curious about it, Aria says that even if she escapes from reality her work won’t disappear, Liselotte says that this is information gathering so it’s work too as if convincing herself and tells Chloe to guide Erika to the room where she talks with the people she meets for the first time, Chloe aboded and left, Aria nodded too with a can’t be helped face.

Some minutes later Liselotte enters the drawing room Erika was guided to with Aria, when Liselotte sees Erika she thinks she’s japanese no matter how you look at it, she wonders if she’s the one who destroyed the small kingdom, the she begins to consider the possibility of her being the sixth hero, Liselotte thinks it seems it was right to meet her, Erika asks if something happened and says she looks surprised of seeing her face, Liselotte says it’s nothing and the two introduce themselves to each other, Erika says she was worried about Liselotte not wanting to meet her because a lot of people finds suspicious that she calls herself a saint, Liselotte explains that she decided to meet her because she has already heard about the saint Erika, Erika asks if she knew about her, Liselotte says she heard the rumours about a saint Erika who destroyed a small kingdom and built a new country.

Erika says that even in a world like this the information travels quickly and she’s that same saint Erika, Liselotte thinks it’s strange how happily she says she’s the one who destroyed a kingdom when it’s something that would make the people wary of her, Erika asks Liselotte if she raised her caution because she’s someone who destroyed a kingdom, Liselotte says that would be the case looking just at the results but that without knowing the cause and the process she can’t make a proper evaluation, Erika praises her perception.

Liselotte asks Erika why she came to meet her, Erika says she’s happy about Liselotte being curious about her, she says she came because she was interested in the Rikka firm who is famous beyond the countries’ borders and in her personally, so she wanted to meet her, Liselotte asks her is she came just because of her curiosity, Erika says she was thinking about scouting her, that she wants her to move to their capital and to develop it like she did with Amande. Liselotte says that there isn’t a way she can accept because she’s a noble from the Galarc kingdom and refuses with a serious expression, Erika asks what does he needs to do for her to accept, Liselotte realizes that Erika’s smile is just the mask she wears and raises her weariness towards her, Liselotte asks her if she thinks there’s a way a noble would accept such a talk about country they know nothing about, that it’s the same that abandoning their country and the worst case they would be thought to be selling their kingdom.

Erika asks if the country is the problem, she asks if can’t move to another country because she’s a noble from the Galarc kingdom, Liselotte says that even without being a noble she can’t think of a reason for wanting to move to her country, that she likes the Galarc kingdom and as noble she’s proud of being Amande’s governor, Erika says she understands but asks Liselotte if she doesn’t think that the existence itself of the privileged nobility ruling the people is giving birth to a chain of misfortune, Liselotte asks what is she saying so suddenly, Erika says that the nobility can just hurt the world’s progress, Liselotte says that she’s an aristocrat too but, Erika says that because of that when moves to her country she will have to give up her nobility, because there isn’t aristocracy in her country, Liselotte says that she doesn’t have any plan to move again with an irritated tone, at that time a sound echoed the inside the room, Aria apologizes for the noise of writing instruments when they fell from her hands to the grounds, Liselotte thanks Aria on her head for making that charade for sake of calming her down, Liselotte asks if she was talking about the nobility hurting the world’s progress.

Erika says that in the country she comes from the people kept being exploited by the nobility and asks Liselotte if she knows the reason, Liselotte says that because they weren’t blessed with good rulers, Erika says she understands, that in another words a monarchy based on social status is a really incomplete system, She begins to talk about how the nobility just abuses the people, about how their lives’ stability depends entirely on the rulers good will and  because of that the commoners are the only ones who keep being exploited, and asks Liselotte if it can’t be said to be a common problem of all the kingdoms of the world, Liselotte says that removing the aristocracy won’t solve all the problem, Erika asks if she isn’t saying this because she doesn’t want to stop being a privileged noble herself, she asks Liselotte if she wants to continue sucking from the people the sweet juice, Liselotte says she can’t deny to have a blessed upbringing, but she doesn’t use the people as a mean for having a good life because of that, that she intends to rule Amande as fairly and equally as possible, Erika says that Amande is certainly a wonderful city where the people is full of energy, but that it’s to her being the governor and asks Liselotte if she would say that the people’s livelihood won’t get worse if someone different from her becomes the governor in the future and if they shouldn’t establish a system that won’t allow that it becomes that way.

Liselotte says that even if she wants to do it it’s complicated, so she doesn’t she can do it,  Erika asks why it’s complicated, she says that it’s simple, that it’s just a matter of giving the right to decide to the people and asks if it can’t be done, Liselotte says that it isn’t that simple, that first the all the population needs to be educated to an extent or someone who makes use of them will appear and create a new privileged class, that educated the populace from up to down is already complicated in itself and even if it’s done it won’t solve completely the problem, Erika says she’s certainly smart, that she understands well that real nature of people are beasts, that no matter how much the society that won’t change, that it’s wonderful that she properly understands it because of that her …, Erika lets go of her mask-like smile and makes resentful face clenching her teeth.

Liselotte asks her what is she saying, Erika puts on again her mask apologizes for that, she says she got a little carried away because there isn’t anyone a smart as her in her country, Liselotte says that she understands now why she lead the people and founded a country, Erika says that that it’s incredible and asks her if she can give a try to telling her, Liselotte asks if it isn’t because she was thinking about the populace, Erika laughs strongly Liselotte asks if something is strange, Erika says that nothing, she says she just wants to create a world where the weak ones don’t exist, to create a democracy of the people, for the people’s sake and made by the populace itself, that would be the greatest revenge, Erika says that creating a world where the weak ones don’t exist maybe is just the mean, that her purpose is the revenge, Liselotte says she doesn’t understand what she means.

Erika says that her talk with Liselotte was really meaningful and asks her again to give up her position, come to her country and to make a country where everyone is treated equally, Liselotte refuses, she says it would be wonderful if a country where everyone is treated equally, but that making that country it’s surely impossible, that she criticized the nobility and its politics but she can think of a mountain of problems with entrusting the country to the people as she says, that staying just like until now for sometime and changing the people little by little may be fine, but that she doesn’t think it’s right to instigate people and to impose radical reforms, Erika asks if she will refuse no matter what, Liselotte says she will and that she doesn’t understand why she’s so fixated on her.

Erika says that honestly at the beginning he wanted the Rikka firm’s influences but when hearing the names of its products she got interested in its members too, that at first she thought that an adviser was developing products of the earth for them but after talking with her she understood that the developer it’s her, Liselotte asks what she means tilting her head, Erika changes her way of talking from saint-like to normal woman-like and says she doesn’t care about her about her playing the fool, Erika says that her name is Sakuraba Erika and asks if hers is maybe Rikka, that she looks like a teenager but how old is she mentally, Erika asks if she understands asking it that way, Liselotte says that it’s sudden talk, she asks if her new wording is her real one.

Erika say she wants to Liselotte to answer her previous question, that right now she’s talking with Sakuraba Erika not with the saint Erika and that she doesn’t mind if Aria stay and listens to them, Liselotte admits to be the developer of the firm’s products and says she’s fine with Aria listening, Erika asks Liselotte for her name and age and she must  say Rikka san or chan, Liselotte says that she answered her question so next she has to answer hers, Erika asks what is her question, Erika asks if she means the question about her wording, she says that it’s the wording of the former her, Erika says it’s her turn now and asks her name from her previous life, Liselotte says that Minamoto Rikka, Liselotte asks what she means by former, Erika says that Sakuraba Erika is already practically dead, that her current self is the saint Erika, Liselotte asks what she means, Erika says it’s her turn and asks how old was she in her previous life, Liselotte says that 16, Erika says she was pretty young and that she thought she was an university student, that she looks like a kid but combining her lifetimes she may be older than her.

Liselotte says that enough about her age and asks about the meaning of practically death, Erika says that she can’t mean her lover anymore, that that person was everything for her and doesn’t have the intention of being tied to anyone else, because she didn’t feel the need of being Sakuraba Erika anymore she became the saint Erika but she got a little nostalgic talking with her, Liselotte asks Erika for her next question, Erika asks her where did she lived in her previous life, Liselotte says that Tokio’s Bunkyo district, Erika says that she lived in a good place and tells she was a teacher of Shinsuku’s district university, Liselotte asks her why did she thought she was reincarnator, she says that she read some novels when she was in Japan, that because there was people summoned to another world maybe there were reincarnator too and asks Liselotte about her death, Liselotte says she died on a bus accident, Liselotte asks Erika why is she just asking for meaningless things, Erika says that she doesn’t want to talk to her as the saint Erika, she agrees about them being meaningless things and says to make each other just one last question, Liselotte agrees.

Erika says it’s her turn first, she asks Liselotte if she has someone she loves, Liselotte asks if there’s any need of asking that, Erika says that there’s, that it’s the classic of the girls talk, Liselotte says there isn’t , Erika says she can’t lie or she won’t answer the truth to her last question either, Liselotte says a little embarrassedly that she doesn’t know because she’s busy with work, Erika says that by that reaction there’s surely someone, Liselotte says that someone comes to her mind but that she can’t imagine his appearance falling in love, Erika tells her to go for it if there’s one, an advice from the someone who went through that, Erika tells Liselotte it’s her turn, Liselotte asks her if she’s the last hero, Erika asks if she will ask that, Liselotte asks if there’s any problem, she says that she answered honestly and tells her to do it too, Erika says she doesn’t recommend that, that it may get troublesome, Liselotte says she thinks she won’t know that if she doesn’t try to say it, Erika says that she will answer then and admits to be a hero, Liselotte says that as expected, in the end it was like that and asks about the meaning of something troublesome.

Erika goes back to the wording of the saint Erika, and says that she still needs to keep hidden that she’s a hero, when Liselotte realized it Erika was already in front of her trying to catch her, Aria grabs Erika’s arm and throws her through the window, Aria says she will arrest Erika and tells Liselotte to stay in the room until the more maids come, Aria unsheathes her magic sword and jumps through the window too, Erika stand in front of Aria unhurt shaking the dust from her dress, Aria thinks killing the hero will be bothersome and troublesome, Erika says to Aria that she isn’t just maid while materializing her mace, Aria says that that it’s obvious, that there isn’t any single ordinary maid serving Liselotte, Erika says that is splendid.

Both run towards the other, Erika is surprised with Aria’s speed that can keep up with her and tries to dodge to the right, Aria pursues and slashes at her, Erika stops it with the mace’s handle, she praises Aria’s strength with their weapons locked together and then pushes her back rising her body strengthening, Erika says that it looks like reinforcements will come if she takes long so she needs to be done soon, Erika swings her mace at Aria from outside her sword range for keeping her at a distance, Aria parries and dodges her attacks for some time, everytime Aria tries to enter her distance Erika creates and earth wall in front of her, Aria doesn’t pursue deeply and keeps her distance, Erika undoes her earth walls and says that it’s the first time she fight someone that strong, that the world is a big place, Aria praises her blows’ strength but says that she looks like she didn’t receive combat training, Erika confirms it, Aria says that now that she grasped her skill she will end things soon, Erika says she wonders about that.

Erika runs towards Aria, swings her mace at the ground and moves from left to right sending shockwaves at Aria, Aria jumps over the shockwaves and runs to Erika, Erika tries to swing down her mace again, Aria swings her sword upside from above, hits the mace before it hits the ground again, enters Erika’s bossom and strikes her chest with her palm, Erika is blown away and rolls on the ground, Aria thinks that the feedback of the hit felt enough, that even her must be quite hurt, Erika trembles in all fours without being able of standing, Aria thinks it’s over, that they should think how to deal with her now and decides to let Erika unconscious for the time being, Aria gets close to her and kicks her stomach upside, Erika’s body rises and falls unconscious to the ground, Natalie and Cosette approaches Aria from the mansion bringing magic sealing shackles with them.

Aria thinks the most important is that she was able of defeating her quickly and that she shackles her hands behind her back she should be able of going wild, Aria presses Erika’s back against the ground and tells Natalie and Cosette to shackle her while she holds her down, Erika got up like a push up and Aria was thrown a lot of tens of meters in the air, Aria is surprised because she thinks it’s impossible for her to be unhurt, Erika sends a disgusting smile at Aria before beginning to run towards the mansion, Aria screams at Cosette and Naltalie to stop her, Erika swings her mace at the ground and creates a shockwave incomparably stronger than before and rises a great quantity of smoke and dust.

Aria looks at Liselotte watching the fight from the mansion’s second floor and at Erika running towards her and thinks it’s bad, when Aria finally lands, she runs through the smoke towards the mansion, Liselotte screams at Aria to go back, then Aria sees Erika’s smiling figure at some meters away from her and the maids swinging her mace at the ground, when Erika finished her swing Aria’s vision went dark.

### **Chapter 6: The saint’s invasion.**

Two weeks after the talk between Erika and Liselotte, Rio is finally back at the Stralh region, the ones accompanying Rio are just the girls, Gouki’s group wasn’t there, it’s impossible for Aerial to transport them all even if Ouphia is generous with her odo for making Aerial to materialize at its maximum size of 10 meters, so there was a talk about setting a new teleportation point in the Stralh region in the future, Rio preferred to divide the group in two and make two trips for moving everyone but the elders insisted, so first Rio’s group will set the teleportation point and will bring Gouki’s group to the Galarc kingdom after explaining about them to François, after making that decision Rio’s group went back to Rio’s mansion.

Rio then went to the castle for explaining about Gouki’s group to François taking Miharu and Celia with him, Satsuki was in the castle gates telling Rio to hurry with a strange condition, Rio asks her what happens, Satsuki tells them to hurry because a hero woman calling herself a saint came to the castle, that it became something troublesome and that she’s having an audience with François now, Rio asks what’s the problem with that person, she tells them that Erika kidnapped Liselotte.

At the same time Erika is talking with François, Aria is there too as a witness, François tells her that if she gives back Liselotte he doesn’t intend to make of this a bigger matter, Erika asks why the victim has to do something like that when it was Aria who attacked her first, Aria, Julianne and Cedric are furious looking at her shifting the blame, François says that that doesn’t match the explanation given by Aria, Erika asks if she will doubt the words of the hero, he says if it matches the explanation given by Liselotte, that he will believe in Liselotte so to he wants her to bring Liselotte here, Erika asks if that isn’t same that suspecting of her and that he could as he pleases once she gives her back, François repeats that he doesn’t intend to bigger matter of this if she gives Liselotte back, and to take them to Liselotte’s place so they can hear her version, Erika asks if he won’t ask her to give her back if she does that, François says that for the time he wants to make sure that Liselotte is safe, Erika says that he will hide this and that when if she brings Liselotte and asks if she looks stupid enough for doing something like that.

Satsuki enters the room with Rio, Miharu and Celia, Erika introduces herself to them, Satsuki tells Miharu to ignore her, Erika asks for the kanji’s of her name and says that her name has the kanji for Sakura so she feels like them can be friends, Satsuki tells that that it’s a lie, that even if she acts friendly she’s the one who kidnapped Liselotte and refuses to give her back no matter what, Erika says that kidnapping is an act of aggression, to call it taking care of her in the form of a hostage because they’re a small kingdom and they a great one, Satsuki asks Charlotte if the talk advanced, Charlotte shakes her head, François tells Erika to tell her conditions already, Erika says there are five conditions, the abolishment of the monarchy, the abolishment of the aristocracy, the transference of the power to the populace, to give Liselotte to the Saint Erika’s democratic republic and to give the property of the Rikka firm and move its main base to the republic.

François asks if she really means it her because there isn’t a way anyone would accept that conditions, Erika says she doesn’t think he will accept but she will make it happen, so it’s more a decision than a demand, that she came for sake of communicating her decisions, that if they refuse she will do it herself, François ask if he must take that as her war declaration, Erika asks if it would be like that now that it came to this and if she must show her hostility more directly, Erika says that as said before, they’re a small kingdom but they’re a big one so she it may be fine to rise the number of hostages by one, she runs towards charlotte materializing her mace but Rio stands between the two and grabs the mace, Erika tries to push Rio aside with her mace but he doesn’t budge, Charlotte gets out of behind him for not being a hindrance.

Erika says Rio he seems to be quite strong and asks if he’s knight, Rio ignores her and asks François what to do, François says that with Liselotte as hostage they can just let her for the time being, Rio agrees and nods, Erika’s stance breaks and she falls forth a little, Rio is still holding the mace with both hands and now press it against the ground for not letting her move it freely, Rio realized that she intended to do something the moment he lets go so he remade his hold of her, Erika says that as expected of a great kingdom, there are a lot of strong people, Erika looks around and sees Aria making a stance with her sword in front of François for protecting him, Rio says that he intend to give back the mace if she doesn’t want to run wilder but, Erika says that it looks troublesome to fight him so she doesn’t intend to make more ruckus but, Erika puts a great quantity of magic power in her mace and the magic power flowed to the floor, Celia and Miharu get scared of that magic power, Rio too gathers his magic power inside himself when he sees her.

Erika releases her magic power and her mace is shining, the floor shines too, everyone finally realizes that she was trying to do something but nothing happens, everyone makes surprised faces Erika included, Erika says that it’s strange, that she was trying to destroy the room but, Erika asks Rio what did he did, if he’s interfering with her weapon somehow and how did he did it, as Erika says Rio rewrote with his spirit arts the even she tried to create, everyone is relieved, they don’t know what’s happening but they understand that Rio and Erika are having some kind of invisible advanced battle, Rio asks with a penetrating glare if it’s fine to think she doesn’t have the intention of going back quietly on top of ignoring François’ words, Erika says that if she isn’t back at the scheduled time her subordinates will kill Liselotte.

Rio tells her to go back quietly then, that if she intends to continue running wild he will have to arrest her, Erika makes her mace disappear and agrees, she says that the roll of the current her is to give her gospel to the people of the country, that she fulfilled her purpose, she leaves the room saying Rio that if he follows her she could run wild inside the royal capital and doesn’t know what could happen to Liselotte, Rio stays in place glaring at Erika’s back, when the door is closed Rio asks François if he can have his permission for following Erika, he says that if they lose track of Erika there they may lose their chance of recovering Liselotte and of  finding her whereabouts François says that he can’t afford to be found by Erika woman until he finds Liselotte and asks Rio if he can do it, Rio says he will follow her at a distance above one kilometer, that he has a way of keeping her in sight at that distance and tells him to decide quickly.

At the same time Rio orders Aisia telepathically to follow Erika in her spirit form, François says she has a question for Satsuki, Satsuki ask what it is, François asks her if she would declare in the name of the hero that the Galarc kingdom has no fault if they have to fight the saint, Satsuki says he doesn’t need to asks for it, that from the beginning she didn’t have the intention of forgiving someone that does things like her, François asks Cedric if he has any problem with Rio taking care of rescuing Liselotte, Cedric says he lets it on Rio’s hands, Rio says he will do his best, François he lets it to him, Rio asks Miharu, Celia, Satsuki and Charlotte to explain the rest of the girls what happened on his place, Miharu tells him to be careful, Celia says he absolutely has to come back, Satsuki says she lets Liselotte om his hands, Charlotte says she will waiting for his return while she grabs her dress and curtsies with resolved face, Rio says he will bring Liselotte back without fault, smiles at the four and walks out of the room, François tells him to wait, Rio asks what is it, François says that with what happened today they already at war, that he doesn’t mind if the opponent is a hero or a saint, that Satsuki gave her approval, if the saint tries to pursue him after the rescue he has complete freedom for doing as he judges and if pushes come to shove it’s fine to show his full power, Rio says it’s fine ,after Rio leaves the room a woman asks to have the rudeness of the her who doesn’t know her place comprehended and says she has a favor to asks.

### **Epilogue: Companion.**

Rio leaves the room and confirms with the soldiers on his way what way Erika took, Aisia tells him telepathically that Erika is walking out of the castle gates and that’s near her, Rio tells her he will stay at the distance where telepathy is possible and tells Aisia to tell him if something happens, Rio leaves the castle and when he’s near the gates Aria calls out to him, Rio’s surprised at seeing Aria wearing adventurer-like clothes instead of her maid uniform, Aria says she has a favor to ask, Rio asks what it is, having already guessed what it’s about, Aria asks Rio prostrating to let her join him on Liselotte’s rescue.

### **Next volume’s preview**

The sixth hero that calls herself the saint, kidnapped the duke’s daughter from the Galarc kingdom, Liselotte Cretia. Rio and Aria embark on a trip to rescue Liselotte following the saint’s trace. At the same time the captured Liselotte sees the state of the country lead by the saint, the Saint Erika’s Democratic Republic.

” The saint Erika. Is the relief if the weak ones really her wish?”

Seirei Gensouki 18, Daichi no kemono, the earth’s beast, scheduled for the 1st of December of 2020.

## Gallery

CoverVol 17 English LN coverVolume 17 drama CD coverVolume 17 clean coverVolume 17 clean special cover with Drama CDBonus tapestry without sample, my thanks to the one who removed it.Melonbooks SS special coverHow much bathscene do you want in this series? yesNICE NICE NICE NICE NICEthe "OH SHIT IT'S MY EX" momentShy Miharu is cute MiharuIt Should Have Been Me, Not Him!Sparring with Aria-sanBack to your corner, thirsty maidChar use PUPPY EYES! IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE!!Hi Rio-sama sister 1, i'm Rio-sama sister 2when dandere meet dandereErika provoking smilethe infamous DA ME! poseErika and Liselotte meetingRio stopping erika attackAria asking Rio to let her come too