“—My mentor isn’t here.”

About 30 minutes after entering the city.

Near the entrance of the Tower of Annihilation, these were Gale’s words after briefly scanning the tower.

Her action was so simple that Dorothea asked back with a face full of disbelief, “Are you sure you checked properly? If you’re deliberately being careless to mess with me, I might really fight you to the death later.”

“A life-and-death struggle while being chased by a Dorothea who has to wear rags for the rest of her life—that sounds like a delightful life in its own way.”

“Hey!”

Gale shrugged her shoulders.

“Helping to find my mentor was the result of our duel, right? No matter what, I wouldn’t play tricks with something like that. That would be belittling to my and Sig’s fight.”

Faced with this rather serious attitude, Dorothea also calmed her anger.

However, she couldn’t help but sigh regretfully.

“Well then, I guess we just need to finish this guy’s modification and then have Adel pass her test, then quickly move on to the next place.”

“Since it’s my first time trying this, I’m not sure if I can do it so hastily and quickly.”

“Just try it first, and if it doesn’t work, we can continue in the carriage interior or the next city. What’s there to worry about?”

So the party split into two.

Dorothea, Gale, and the two knights went to a high-class lodging with a spacious area for the modification work.

Adelaide and Sophia headed to the Lennart dojo to take the test.

“Oh, is Sophia coming with me, too?”

Towards Adelaide, who tilted her head, Dorothea spoke nonchalantly, “There might be another troublesome incident like in the City of Scales. It’s better to avoid solo actions as much as possible. Besides, with Sophia by your side, you won’t fall for someone’s persuasion and get involved in a strange plan like last time, right?”

“Ah, hahaha.”

At Dorothea’s pointed words, Adelaide let out a dry laugh.

In Adelaide’s opinion, what happened in Justitia was more like being suddenly caught in a storm rather than Maris’ fault, but Dorothea seemed to think differently.

“And, take this too.”

– Tap!

A mouse made of bones jumped out from near Dorothea’s feet and stood in front of Adelaide.

“Ah, Mr. Mouse.”

When Adelaide held out her hand, the mouse lightly climbed onto it.

There was a red jewel embedded in its forehead, this meant it wasn’t an ordinary bone mouse, but a special one with a sight-sharing function like the one used during the Rescue Rapunzel Operation.

With this, even if something happened to Adelaide or Sophia, Dorothea and the Tin Knight could immediately notice and respond.

Gale, watching from the side, said, “How should I put it, quite overprotective? I don’t think even a mother sending her child on their first errand would go this far.”

“Mother? Me? As if! You think I want to do this?” Dorothea said irritably. “I’d prefer to not touch the details and just leave things be if possible. But every time I do that, things always go to hell. And we can’t all bunch together every time we visit somewhere, so I have to prepare at least this much.”

“Hmm.”

Adelaide let out a small sound.

Considering their journey so far where incidents occurred every time they stayed in a somewhat large city, regardless of minor stopovers, she couldn’t say Dorothea’s worry was excessive.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says man proposes, but God disposes!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says no matter how thoroughly you prepare, when things are determined to go wrong, they will, so it’s better for your mental health if you just take it easy!]

“Umm, Sir Tin. I don’t think that phrase is meant to be used that way.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says originally, if you’re unlucky, you’ll break your nose even falling backwards!]

“That one seems a bit more accurate?”

“Ah, um! We’ll be going now!”

With the intuition that if left alone, they would waste half a day just with wordplay, Adelaide grabbed Sophia and left the place, half-dragging her.

The sight of the Tin Knight waving cheerfully contrasted sharply with the heavy White Knight beside him.

***

Finding the location of the Lennart dojo wasn’t difficult.

No, not just this time, but finding buildings related to the Lion Duke’s bloodline was always like this.

Lennart buildings were always grand and exerted significant influence in their cities.

But.

“How should I put it, it’s a desolate place.”

To Sophia’s assessment, Adelaide nodded.

The building itself didn’t feel shabby or old.

The surrounding walls were smoothly painted without a single small scratch or graffiti, and the size of the building itself was among the largest in the city, except for the Tower of Annihilation they had just checked.

However, that was all.

While outwardly grand, there was an overwhelming lack of human presence that should fill the inside.

In fact, passersby not only didn’t visit the dojo, they didn’t even come near it.

If it were a situation like in the City of Scales where it was temporarily closed, it might be understandable, but for an open dojo to be so ignored was quite shocking to Adelaide.

“Well, whatever it’s like in the Empire, from the Magic State’s perspective, Lennart is like the vanguard of enemy territory. During the Iron Blood Emperor’s reign, they showed some semblance of reconciliation, but after his death, subtle currents are flowing again, so this atmosphere isn’t unreasonable.”

“Um, Sophia. Do books really contain all that information?”

In Adelaide’s opinion, while simple specialized knowledge or very ancient history might be in books, it didn’t seem likely that modern history with related people still alive would be written about in such detail.

“Some things are written, some aren’t. But books reflect their times. Both what’s written and what’s not.”

With these cryptic words, Sophia gestured to Adelaide as if to say, “Well, please.”

Adelaide, responding to that call, stepped forward and pulled the rope hanging near the main gate.

Dong—! Dong—! Dong—!

A metallic sound, neither as heavy as a giant bell tower nor as frivolous as a small bell, rang out several times.

The response was quite slow.

After counting to thirty with no reaction, just as Adelaide was about to ring the bell again, there was a clank and the thick iron door opened, revealing a man from inside.

The gaze of a young man who looked to be in his early to mid-twenties quickly scanned Adelaide and Sophia.

“What brings you here?”

“I’ve come to take the test.”

“Hmm, are you from another dojo? Do you happen to have a token?”

“Yes, here it is.”

Adelaide held out a locket containing three fan-shaped tokens gathered together.

Seeing the golden lion pattern more than half completed, the young man’s eyes widened.

He bowed his head again with a face full of respect.

“We sincerely welcome you to our dojo. Please come inside.”

Step, step.

Unlike the exterior that felt almost desolate, there were some people inside.

However, Adelaide felt a subtle sense of discomfort.

…There don’t seem to be many people who have trained their bodies?

It wasn’t a matter of being lazy or neglecting training.

Inside the dojo, there were many people who either didn’t hold swords at all or seemed to have learned only the minimum level of self-defense techniques.

As if voicing Adelaide’s question, Sophia said, “There seem to be quite a lot of civil officials?”

The man guiding them nodded, “Yes, that’s right. Our dojo also serves as a channel between the Empire and the Magic State. Apart from the martial artists from the dojo, there are not a few civil officials dispatched from the imperial court.”

Adelaide tilted her head, “Then, um, isn’t it dangerous?”

She had seen numerous external enemies targeting dojo members in the City of Scales.

Even they, with plenty of martial artists, couldn’t avoid difficulties in such situations. It seemed very unstable in many ways to station so few martial artists in a former enemy country, even if they had temporarily made peace.

At Adelaide’s question, the young man closed his mouth.

It wasn’t that the question was unpleasant, but he seemed to be pondering how to explain this.

Fortunately for the young man, the answer came from elsewhere.

“—It’s the opposite. Rather, because we haven’t stationed much military force, we’re safe from external threats.”

“Representative Instructor.”

The one called Representative Instructor by the young man was a middle-aged man with a gentle impression.

No, looking at his face with faint wrinkles despite the Lion Duke’s bloodline’s characteristic late aging, his actual age might not be strange to call elderly.

Adelaide reflexively bowed her head in greeting.

“Hello. I am—“

“Ah, it’s alright. Please come inside first,” the man said while opening the door behind him and entering.

It seemed he had deliberately waited outside the room knowing Adelaide was coming.

The young man, who had guided them this far, stepped back without entering the room, as if his role was finished, and only the man, Adelaide, and Sophia were left in the reception room.

The man, who greeted the group without a single guard or servant, offered a casual greeting, “I am Norman, the Representative Instructor of the Lennart dojo, Trudvangar branch.”

“I’m Adelaide… “

The reason Adelaide trailed off was that she momentarily hesitated whether to reveal her family name or not.

While she had no intention of hiding her family name even inside the dojo, unlike other places in the Magic State, she had to guess why the man opposite her had only revealed his first name despite clearing being a bloodline member..

After Sophia also finished her brief self-introduction, Norman continued the conversation, “You probably felt some strangeness seeing our dojo. However, we cannot employ people on a large scale like other dojos, or protect ourselves with a large force. No, we could if we tried, but that would be foolish.”

“Foolish?”

“This is the front yard of the Tower of Annihilation. They are extremely belligerent and don’t fear our bloodline either. If we tried to protect ourselves from them with force, the bloodline would have to pour resources into this place as if preparing to move their base here. Naturally, pouring so many resources into just one dojo is clearly a waste,” Norman added. “Therefore, we need to see it their way. Just as the Lion Duke’s bloodline represents the martial arts of the Empire, the Tower of Annihilation represents the martial arts of the Magic State. Just as our bloodline’s pride is high, so is theirs.”

Gradually, Adelaide could understand what Norman was trying to say.

“Stationing few martial artists and many civil officials is to show that we have no intention of fighting with force, right? That way, the other side would be reluctant to touch us?”

“If there were a host who stabbed an unarmed guest at a banquet they themselves hosted, no one would respect that host anymore. Given their pride, it’s impossible for them to attack a defenseless opponent who has laid down their weapons, if only for the sake of face. Well, mere ruffians might rush in gleefully, but we can handle that much with just a small number of people.”

“Ah, I see.”

Norman gently looked at Adelaide, who was nodding her head with sparkling eyes, with gentle eyes, and placed a small metal fragment from his waist on the table.

A fan-shaped fragment with a lion pattern split into five parts. It was the token of Trudvangar.

“Miss Adelaide. I understand you have already obtained three tokens. Then there’s no need to test you separately in terms of force. However, the Lion Duke’s bloodline is not just strong warriors. If they were such people, they would have been consumed early on the battlefield and met with extinction. Therefore, I want to test you in a different way.”

“A different way?”

Adelaide felt uneasy.

Judging by the flow of the conversation, it seemed like he was going to test her knowledge or culture, areas in which she didn’t have much confidence.

Whether ignorant or fully aware of such worries, Norman said, “—I’d like to entrust you with the role of a peace lion, connecting us and the tower.”

“Can’t we just fight?”

The little lion didn’t even feign consideration before asking for an alternative.

***

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