Chapter 154.

I was shocked to see Lisbon. I couldn’t understand why the guy who should have been preparing for the start of school was in Asterium, on the front lines.

"Didn’t you say you were going on a business trip to Lotten?” Lisbon asked, surprised.

I got a headache thinking about why this pushover was here, and shouted with a frown, "I should be saying that! Why are you here? Does Alice know you’re here?” Lisbon flinched.

There was no way this pushover had come all the way here without telling Alice, right? I really wanted to believe he wouldn’t be that stupid.

"Well, that’s..."

I saw that he couldn’t say no. It seemed he had really come here without telling Alice.

"Are you kidding!?” I exclaimed. I was already annoyed that I’d been brought to the front lines, but now I had to take care of this pushover. Aigoo, my life...

"Come on, calm down. I think you’re a little too worked up. I’m sure Lisbon has his own reasons for being here," Flam said in defense of Lisbon. I sighed as he continued, "Give me the luggage and the keys for now. I’ll take everything to our room. I think you’d better have a calm conversation with your friend."

I nodded and handed over the key and my luggage to Flam, saying, "Thank you."

"No problem. I’ll be right back, so at least have some tea in the meantime. And don’t fight."

"I’ll try not to."

Flam went up with my luggage, and I looked down at Lisbon. Lisbon couldn’t look at my face, like a child caught doing something wrong.

I sighed as I went down the stairs and glared at Lisbon, saying, “Let’s sit down first.”

“Uh... Yeah."

When we settled down at a dining table on the first floor of the inn, Lisbon sat across from me, looking restless.

"I’ll ask again, but does Alice know?" I asked.

"...No."

Aigoo, have you ever seen such a hopeless man? I continued, "So you left Alice in the capital and came alone?”

"Yes."

Well, I wasn’t worried because Yuria and Alice’s distant relative, Mrs. Arscilla, was in the capital. The problem was the pushover in front of me.

"What excuse did you give Alice in order to get all the way here?"

Lisbon replied in a sullen voice, "I told her that I was worried about my family, and that I would go visit."

Come to think of it, Lisbon’s family, the Carter family, lived in the northern part of the empire. It would make sense for him to be worried, because if something happened in the demon territory, they might have to lead the soldiers to the front lines.

"Have you applied to join the army?”

Please, I hope you just came here without thinking. If he had come here to just help out, I could just shower him with scoldings and send him back. But, if he had come here after enlisting in the military, I wouldn’t be able to send him back. Returning to the capital would make him a deserter.

"Uh, that’s...." Lisbon hesitated and showed me the military dog tag hanging around his neck.

Oh, my head. I replied, "If you’re here, that means you’ve been made part of the reserve force. How did you enlist? Knight school?”

During wartime, even the knight school allowed military enlistments. However, that only happened if the war was going poorly. Right now, though, it hadn’t even been very long since the start of the war, and they hadn’t even started recruiting yet.

Even if they had begun recruiting, the recruits couldn’t even be here normally because they had to receive the minimum amount of military training first.

"No, I came here after registering as an adventurer with the adventurer’s guild."

"You even registered as an adventurer to join the army?” I stared at Lisbon, dumbfounded.

Lisbon waved his hands, flustered. "No, there’s a class related to the adventurer’s guild next semester, so I just registered in advance!"

The fact that I didn’t know Lisbon had registered as an adventurer meant that he’d registered while I was on my business trip... Well, he wouldn’t have been able to register if I hadn’t been on that trip.

"Yes, yes, I understand," I remarked.

Still, it was fortunate that he’d come here through the adventurer’s guild. There was some room for me to pull strings.

Although I was at the bottom, I was still directly under the Guild Director. It wouldn’t be impossible to take one or two soldiers out and designate them as supply officers, since I also had connections with Dane Walker and Rosellis.

Just as I thought I’d have him work under me and nag at him, Rosellis and Dane Walker came through the inn entrance.

Rosellis made eye contact with me, waved her hand, and approached me. "Iyyaa! Long time no see?”

I shrugged with a smile at Rosellis’s greeting. "Eh, you’re exaggerating, it’s only been five days since we last saw each other." It was good timing. I’d ask for a favor while we were together.

"What, are you saying you’re not happy to see me?" Rosellis put me in a headlock.

I made a fuss, saying, "That’s not what I’m saying. Owww, it hurts..."

Rosellis laughed loudly at my fussing, loosened her headlock, sat next to me, and put her arms around my shoulders. "So do you two know each other?” she asked, looking back and forth between Lisbon and me.

"He’s a friend. He also lives in the same boarding house,” Lisbon responded.

Rosellis looked at me with surprise. "Really? The empire sure is small."

I looked at her curiously. "How do you know Lisbon?”

"Me? After I fought him once at the New Year Festival Martial Arts Competition, he seemed to have potential, so I used to give him pointers from time to time."

Oh right, they’d met once in the sixteenth round at the New Year Festival Martial Arts Competition.

I’d forgotten about it because on the same day, a masked man wearing a half-and-half chicken-like mask had launched a surprise attack, and the incident had made quite a strong impression. If Hillis’s domain proclamation hadn’t blurred my senses, my chirps could have gotten revenge. What a pity.

"Wait, you two know each other?"

"Yes, that’s what we said.”

For a moment, an ominous thought passed through my mind. "Then the reason that Lisbon’s here...!” I looked at Rosellis suspiciously.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Rosellis nodded as if there were no problem. "I suggested it."

My god. I hadn’t expected the reason for this pushover’s presence to be so close.

If he had simply felt compelled to enlist due to his pushoverness, I would have been able to make him a supply officer somehow. But if Rosellis, leader of the adventurers’ reserve forces, was the one who had dragged Lisbon into this, it would be impossible.

I’d thought it was strange that a middle-ranked student from the knight school had come to the front lines when the war hadn’t even reached a critical state.

Usually, students at the knight school were prevented from coming to the front lines out of consideration for their future growth.

I was getting a headache. What was I supposed to do with this pushover? I frowned.

Dane Walker, who had entered the inn with Rosellis, sat next to Lisbon and asked, "What’s wrong? Is there something bothering you?"

"No, I’m just trying to figure out how to punish this pushover," I cut in. I stared at Lisbon, and he shrunk inward as if he knew his wrongdoings.

Dane Walker looked at Lisbon and tilted his head. "Why? I heard from Rosellis that he’s patriotic and has high potential. Oh, his name is Lisbon, right?” He patted Lisbon on the back to cheer him up, and Lisbon smiled awkwardly.

"Yes, the name of this pushover is Lisbon, and he’s so patriotic that he’s stupid enough to come to the front lines without telling his family,” I lamented with a sigh.

Rosellis and Dane Walker looked at Lisbon.

"Coming here without telling your family is a little....”

"Hey, you came here without telling them?"

At Rosellis’s interrogation, Lisbon’s eyes darted around frantically as he tried to find excuses. But, he soon bowed his head as if he had given up. "That’s, uh... I’m sorry."

Rosellis sighed and scolded Lisbon. "You should still tell your family at least. Make sure to tell them about things like this in the future.” Then, as if she had nothing more to say, she called the staff and ordered food.

"That’s it?” I asked in surprise.

Rosellis looked at me as if to ask ‘What else is there?’ and replied, "Why? He’s an adult. If you’re an adult, you should take responsibility for your decisions. Oh, of course, he deserves to be scolded for coming without saying a word to his family. But it’s not my job to do that, right?”

Her response couldn’t have been more reasonable. He deserved to be smacked for coming up north after tricking Alice, but coming to the front line on his own to protect the country was something to be applauded.

"And he’s even going to the knight school because he wants to be a knight. Knights need to prove themselves on the battlefield,” Rosellis added. As a former member of the Black Water Buffalo Knights, she was certainly persuasive. "And I’ve been heading to the battlefield against my father’s wishes since I was 17. Look at me. Aren’t I being recognized by my father now? Twenty years old is an appropriate time."

Rosellis’ response left me briefly speechless. "Ehew, nothing I can do,” I said with a sigh, giving up on trying to persuade her.

Rosellis tousled my hair and told me not to worry. "Do you think I would just coax him over here and leave him out to die? Don’t worry, I at least have the ability to take care of one Lisbon."

"I’ll also watch over him, so don’t worry too much." Dane Walker added, encouraging Lisbon to cheer up. Pushover regained his vitality with the support of the other two and nodded.

"I’m going to tell Alice when I get back, so be prepared,” I said suddenly. At that one sentence, Pushover lost all the vitality he had regained and became sullen again.

No matter how much the two watched over Lisbon, they wouldn’t be able to pay attention to him all the time, so I had to at least put some chirps on him... Or I could wear a mask and wipe out the demons myself.

Come to think of it, Flam had gone to drop off the luggage, but when was he coming back?

* * *

In the heart of the demon territory, Doomstone looked at the demons flocking towards him. He smiled deeply as he looked beyond the frightened demons.

Mirpa broke into cold sweat while looking in the direction of Doomstone’s gaze. "I’ve always felt that your intuition is extraordinary."

The vast flow of mana from that direction was so powerful that even the great madosa, Mirpa, was getting sick from it. Tens of thousands of demons weren’t running away in fear for no reason.

Doomstone clenched his fist and laughed cheerfully. "Ahahahaha! It has to reach at least this level for the fight to be enjoyable!"

As Doomstone’s martial aura-filled laughter spread out, the fleeing demons were surprised and fell into chaos. The demons had never thought there would be another monster in the way as they ran away from the first one, so they scattered everywhere trying to survive in the chaos.

"You monstrous bastard," Mirpa murmured with an expression of exasperation and boredom, and pointed at a group of demons. "Take care of those demons before you fight. It’ll be a pain in the neck if they head towards the empire."

Doomstone gathered his martial aura reluctantly, as if he had no choice. "Well, it’ll be a good warm up before fighting..." He threw a light punch as he jumped into the chaotic mass of demons and yelled, “Enlightenment! Overturning the Earth!"

When Doomstone’s fist struck the ground, the surrounding area shook violently as if there had been an earthquake. The ground cracked and shook, causing the demons to lose their balance and fall. Some demons immediately fell into the cracks and died.

"Enlightenment! Crushing Stones!" Doomstone punched toward the largest crowd of demons. Thousands of demons were torn apart by the gale from his fist alone.

Mirpa clicked her tongue after she saw the scene. "Tch, he’s mutilating the precious catalysts!"

The demons shrieked and began to flee in all directions, but Doomstone quickly chased and massacred them.

None of the demons fleeing toward the empire survived.