Al And The Guards

After finishing their questioning of the Town Head, Kent and the others headed to the guard station where the guards were.

Caro had conducted her inspection, identified points for improvement, and implemented the matters that could be handled immediately, but it seemed the town’s administrative departments, including the Town Head, were currently unable to coordinate with the guards who had jurisdiction over public order and security. To look for some compromise point that could improve that, Kent, Caro, and Al, who had come along as an extra, took action.

Then Caro was the first to enter the guard station.

“Everyone, thank you for your hard work.”

The guards who reacted to Caro’s voice all looked this way at once. Then, realizing that Caro was the one who had spoken, the guards lined up and saluted.

“Lady Caroline. We will call the captain at once, so please wait a moment.”

The guard closest to them hurried into the captain’s room in the back.

“Captain, this is serious.”

“You are being noisy. Did something happen?”

“Lady Caroline has just arrived.”

“What! We must not keep her waiting. I will go immediately.”

Kent and Caro smiled wryly at the fact that they could hear the conversation in the back room clearly.

“Thank you for waiting. I heard that the Acting Lord would be coming to this town yesterday, but to think that it was Lady Caroline…”

Chuck, the Head Guard of this town, saluted in front of Caro and said that.

“No, this time I am accompanying the Acting Lord as his assistant. The Acting Lord is Kent-san here.”

After saying that, Caro showed him Baron Frederick’s letter of authorization, the same one she had shown the Town Head.

“I have examined it. Then this Kent-dono is the Acting Lord, is that correct?”

“That is correct.”

“Did you all hear that?”

After confirming it, Chuck said that to the guards.

“All hands, salute the Acting Lord!!”

Chuck and the guards saluted Kent. Kent had never experienced something like that before, and he felt a little embarrassed.

“I’m sure there are many ways I fall short, but I look forward to working with all of you.”

“We look forward to working with you as well. By the way, I heard you will be staying for roughly one month, but how will your guard detail be handled during that time?”

Chuck found it strange that Kent and the others had no guards with them despite their position as the Acting Lord and his party, so he asked.

“That will be fine. This child is here, after all.”

“This little one is your guard?”

Caro placed her hand on Al’s head and said that. Chuck could not understand what she meant by having a child act as their guard, so he asked back.

“Actually, this child is a secret, but she is a mage who can use extremely powerful magic. Even if all the guards here attacked her together, you probably could not defeat her.”

“I have heard of the profession called mage, but they really do exist, then.”

Caro avoided the word fairy and rephrased it as mage. Certainly, if she put it that way, even if something involving Al happened, they could insist it was magic. However, it seemed that mages themselves were so rare a profession that they only appeared in stories. If asked whether he believed it or not, he might have said he did not, but since the Lord’s daughter was saying it, Chuck thought it would not be strange for her to have at least one mage among her subordinates, and he did not argue.

“Incidentally, this child’s cover is that she is Kent-san’s and my child, so that no one realizes she is our guard. Please do not forget that.”

“““Whaaaat!!!!”””

The guards raised voices of surprise at Caro’s statement.

“But just to be sure, may we confirm how capable she is? If anything happened to Lady Caroline and the Acting Lord because we did not provide security, even my head alone would not be enough to make amends.”

Chuck made that request to Kent. There was no doubt that Al possessed extraordinary strength, but Kent judged that it was necessary in order to reassure the guards as well.

“Al, that’s how it is, so I’m counting on you.”

“Okaaay. Can I kill them?”

“No.”

“Tch.”

Kent put a check on Al, who was completely raring to go. With this, there should not be any deaths.

Behind the guards’ station was a training square. Since it was surrounded by walls, no one outside could see what happened there. Everyone moved there and began preparing.

“Then, in order to determine how skilled she is, I have selected five of our guards who are confident in their abilities. It pains me to make them face a child, but I would like her to take on these five at the same time.”

“Sure. I’m ready, so you can come at me anytime.”

The five guards Chuck had selected faced Al.

“Then, begin!”

At Chuck’s command, the five men charged at Al all at once.

“Gah!”

“Guhah!”

“Gugeh!”

““Wha!””

The instant they charged, three of the guards were blown away. The guards were holding wooden swords for training, but the remaining two realized their opponent was strong, gripped their wooden swords tightly, and carefully closed the distance.

“I have plenty of magical power today, so the force is amazing too. Hah!”

“Guhah!”

One guard was blown away, leaving only one. After confirming that he had closed the distance sufficiently, he raised his wooden sword and swung it down toward Al.

“What!”

Al easily caught the wooden sword and threw the guard away along with it.

“I thought she was a mage!!!”

Kent and the others watched the guard go flying while delivering that retort.

“That guard has quite good instincts.”

“To be able to deliver a retort in that state, he is quite an advanced practitioner.”

Kent and Caro praised that guard for his good fight.

“As Lady Caroline said, she appears to possess abilities beyond what we can handle. Lastly, may I be her opponent?”

“The Head Guard is coming too? Sure, I’ll take you on.”

After watching Al’s fight, it seemed Chuck’s own fighting spirit had also been lit. Holding a wooden sword for training in one hand, he faced Al.

“Then here I come!”

Chuck readied his wooden sword and charged at Al.

“How about this?”

“That is nothing.”

Al used the same attack on Chuck that had sent three guards flying, but he evaded it.

“Hoho, so this was how it worked. Hah!”

“Nngh.”

When Chuck swung his wooden sword once, countless severed vines were lying on the ground.

“Head Guard, you’re pretty good. Then how about this?”

“Something like this!”

Chuck knocked something away with his wooden sword.

“That is a seed.”

“It is a seed.”

Kent and Caro checked the thing Chuck had knocked away.

“It was moving too fast to see, but wouldn’t it be bad if that hit him?”

“He might die.”

Caro casually retorted to Kent’s concern.

“Is that the end? Then I will go from here!”

Chuck approached Al, swung his wooden sword down, and struck Al.

“What, the wooden sword!”

The instant it struck Al, the wooden sword crumbled to pieces.

“This thing is rotten.”

Chuck said that as he looked at what had once been a wooden sword, now reduced to only the hilt. The wooden sword had become soft like rotten wood, and even the remaining part crumbled away just from a light touch of his hand.

“You lost your weapon, so I won. Ahem.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t feel satisfying.”

Al was good at altering plant-based objects. Since wooden swords were made of wood, she could easily rot them instantly. If she used this ability, she could instantly collapse wooden buildings, making it a highly dangerous technique.

“Hey, didn’t you think about winning in a slightly cleaner way?”

“Huh? A win is a win, right?”

When Kent said that, Al answered as if it were obvious. The guards also thought that if she had such high abilities, she could have fought the Head Guard fair and square without winning in such a way.

“The ending was a little disappointing, but I believe you now understand Al-chan’s abilities.”

Caro closed things out at the end, and it seemed the Head Guard and the other guards had accepted the matter of the guard detail.