I'm sorry, Prilus.

  Well, her parents did ask me to keep helping her. Who am I to deny her wishes?

  Half of me knew this was a bad decision, but I wasn't keen on denying Emori’s wishes.

  “Are you sure this is alright?” Maya asked, sitting across from me. We were in her room, waiting for Emori. “I mean, I know Mister Vorak didn’t directly oppose it, but you’re going to get into trouble with that prince, you know.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “Mister Vorak? What are you two talking about? You two are brewing something, aren't you.” Solicea gred at me.

  “I'll expin after Emori arrived.”

  “Want to py cards?” Maya deployed her trusty deck. That deck of cards went through quite a lot in these few days.

  “Sure.”

  Before we could divide the cards, though, a knock came on the door. I stood up and opened, finding Emori behind it.

  “Excuse me.” Emori looked toward the cards. “Am I being a disturbance?”

  “Ah, no. We can py cards ter. Come in.”

  Emori sat down with us, all surrounding Maya’s table. I took a deep breath.

  Sorry Prilus!

  “The truth is, Prilus originally pnned for me and Maya to return and help.”

  Both Solicea and Emori gasped.

  “No way… His Highness?”

  “So that's why he said to not worry…”

  “He didn't want to involve you or Solicea because of politics,” I expined.

  “Wouldn't you get in trouble for saying this?” Solicea asked.

  “Oh, I absolutely would.” I nodded. “But whatever, I'm used to running headfirst into trouble at this point.”

  Besides, this isn't the time to be concerning ourselves with coups and that stuff. If this happened after we killed the demon king once and for all, then I wouldn't care as much.

  The longer this went on for, the longer before we could return to our true goal in Nanawak, destroying the demons.

  Okay, fine, yeah… no, it’s not because of the demon king. If anything, he hadn’t entered my mind since we got ourselves into this mess. It was because of Emori. Seeing Emori worried didn’t sit right with me. I want to make her happy. I wasn’t sure what her past retionships with Naya were like, but she was clearly close enough to be worried sick. If my princess wanted to fight, who am I to deny her wishes? All I needed to do was keep her safe, and everything would be alright.

  “So, what’s the pn?” Solicea asked, leaning forward.

  “Won’t you get into trouble as well?” While Mister Vorak didn’t mention her, she’s also a noble. Her going there had some serious risks.

  Maya flicked her fingers. “Leave it to me.” She then stood up and walked to her wardrobe. She brought out a headband with two horns on top of it. She returned to Solicea and plopped the headband right onto her head.

  “Now you’re one of us,” Maya said with a little smile.

  “I’m a dragon now…” Solicea repeated. If only it was that simple.

  “Prilus already made uniforms for us.” It was listed in the contract. Since the Eastern Wolves wouldn’t be taking responsibility, we couldn’t use their uniforms, so Prilus paid for some Nanawak clothes to help us hide our identities. I’m surprised at how certain he was to me and Maya helping, especially considering that we hadn’t spoken with him.

  “Maya already has the clothes you bought in Kokunachen, and since you two are simir in size, you can wear Maya’s.”

  Maya went back to her wardrobe. “I’m gd I haven’t thrown this out,” she said as she pulled out the clothes.

  “Why would you even throw it?” Solieca pouted.

  “The Eastern Wolves are taking quite a lot of risk for this,” Emori murmured.

  “Ah, not really. I’ll be taking all the responsibility.”

  Emori’s eyes widened. “Are you sure? Isn’t this… isn’t this too much?”

  “Not if it’s for you. Besides, if the coup succeeded, then there would be no point for the Eastern Wolves,” I expined. We asked that question to Mister Vorak earlier as well. The Eastern Wolves could be said as the current Imperial Family personal mercenary unit. There could be a new mercenary unit formed if the coup succeeded, but it wouldn’t be the Eastern Wolves.

  “The Eastern Wolves swore loyalty to the Nanawak Imperial Family. If a different family were to rule Nanawak, the Wolves would cease to exist.”

  Maya stared bnkly at me. “Did you just hear what you said?”

  “About the Wolves?”

  She shook her head, then pointed to Emori. Emori averted her eyes, her cheeks red.

  “Emori? You’re not suffering from a cold, are you?”

  “Ah, no. Please carry on.”

  Solicea stared at me, shook her head, then continued, “So it’s in their best interest that the current Emperor continued his rule.”

  “That and the coup in itself is strange.”

  I then expined what Mister Vorak told me. For one, there weren’t any big movements or rebellions before the coup. There were no signs of dissatisfaction against the current Emperor, either. The st time such a resistance happened was over a hundred fifty years ago, long before even the demon war.

  “Considering the circumstances, there is more to this than meets the eye.” Maya sat back down. “We should act carefully.”

  “I agree. That applies to you too, though. No punching random people,” I reminded Maya. She did attack the soldiers from before.

  “I don’t attack people unprovoked.”

  “You shouldn’t attack people just because they provoke you a little.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Maya replied zily.

  “So, what are our pns?” Solicea asked.

  “I had discussed this with Mister Vorak before…”

  I expined to them the original pn that they thought of.

  “So we’re targeting the castle first?” Emori asked. “What about Miss Naya?”

  “Ideally, we take the head out of the game, the rest of the group will colpse.”

  That was the Wolves’ original pn. However, after some discussion, everyone agreed that it would be more ideal to find Naya first, hence why they changed their target to Akarakura. Having Naya around would greatly improve the situation.

  From our perspective, there was a high likelihood that the enemy would be even more skilled in fighting than us. Facing him, and potentially, his entire army, with just me and Maya was risky. Bringing Solicea and Emori into the fight may even out the odds a bit, but it still posed great risks.

  Despite all their training, Solicea and Emori were seriously underleveled. This wasn’t a game, so the risk of dying was real. If they were targeted and harm fell on them, I wouldn’t even know how I could live the rest of my life.

  I probably wouldn’t even continue living, considering I agreed to take responsibility.

  My head would be the one rolling if I messed up.

  That said, having the two of them around had some serious advantages.

  “I think we should divide the roles.” When Prilus made our pns, it was just me as the mage and Maya as the physical damage dealer. Having the other two with us allowed me to diversify my tactics. “This is what we should do.”

  ??First, Emori. Her spells are all powerful, way too powerful in fact. If she used White Spring on the enemy, it would kill them. Thus, I gave her some elementless magic spells to learn. I taught her every elementless spell I knew. Zoom, Mirror, even Teleport. Anything that might be useful.

  She would ter wear an eyepatch to conceal her right eye. That way, the enemy wouldn’t be able to tell if she used a spell.

  Second, Maya. Maya kept a simir role to the one Prilus assigned her. Physically, she was the strongest out of us all. I taught her which parts to aim at to efficiently knock out her targets. I also warned her not to put all her strength. We didn't want corpses littering the area.

  Third, Solicea. Solicea had a water spear and could use water magic. Her water magic could be used to create chaos and confusion. Spells like Puddle and Wave could cause the guards to slip. We could use the chaos to slip in.

  Finally, me. Being the highest level there, I would be the one fighting the Bearer. Me and Maya, to be exact. Half of me was sure both of us could win against him somehow, but it was risky. Thus this was why I decided to change Prilus’ pns a bit.

  If it was just me and Maya, who would take care of the reinforcements? Who would watch our backs?

  I doubt the soldiers had the full picture of what was going on. In the chaos, our expnations wouldn’t be heard. They would attack us. Thus, we needed to prevent them by having someone of authority with us.

  Who better candidate for that position than the Princess of Sy herself?

  Emori and Solicea yelling their positions may make the enemy hesitate a bit, and the slightest bit of hesitation can turn the tides of a battle, hence why we need them.

  ??“So those are my pns.”

  “Are you sure you want to defy His Highness’ pns?”

  “Well, how about you? You have any thoughts?”

  Solicea thought about it for a second. “Not at this moment. But, are you… oh who am I kidding. You'll fight him just for the sake of it.” She giggled. “But, it sounds good to me.”

  “Leave all the fighting to me.” Maya puffed her chest.

  “I should be able to learn it…” Emori looked at the list of spells I provided for her. I chose the ones that I think might be useful for this infiltration mission, as it would be better for her to learn one or two but be able to use them, rather than learn a lot but fail when we need it.

  “Alright. When are we departing?” Solicea asked.

  I turned to Emori. “How long will it take you to memorize all this?”

  “I’ll call in sick for the next two days. I’ll make sure I memorized it all by then.”

  You don’t have to go that far, was what I wanted to say. But after seeing the determination in Emori's eyes, I decided to trust her. “Alright. I’ll write down the notes for you.”

  “Thank you!” Emori grinned.

  Maya turned to Solicea. “I’ll write down your notes as well.”

  “I can take csses. Besides, are you sure it’s not the other way around.”

  “Let me look smart every once in a while.”

  “Just study normally.” Solicea patted Maya’s shoulders. We had some more discussions about the pns, before heading back to our respective rooms.

  ??“Fortis?”

  I stopped, turning back to find Emori running after me. We had left Maya’s room after finishing the discussion. It was already seven thirty in the evening, half an hour before curfew.

  “We should get back to our rooms. It’s te.”

  “Oh, you’re right.”

  “How about talking through Connect? We’ll have more time that way.”

  “Okay then.” Emori turned around and stepped back into the dorms. I made my way to the boys’ section.

  ??“So, what did you want to talk about?”

  After arriving in my room, I took a quick bath then got changed into my pajamas. Lying on the bed, I got myself comfortable before contacting her.

  “I just… I want to say thank you for what you did.”

  “... What I did? I didn’t do anything.”

  “You… You know I wanted to help, right? That’s why you decided to involve me, against my Brother’s wishes.”

  “I can’t deny the wishes of my princess, can I?”

  “St- Stop… you’re making me blush.”

  “Haha. Besides, we’re a party. If it’s possible, I’ll take fighting with you over fighting alone any day.”

  “Thank you. I’ll do my best. I won’t slow you down.”

  “Looking forward to it. So, what do you want to talk about?”

  I assumed she didn’t come to me just to say that.

  “There is something, actually.”

  “What is it?”

  “Have you ever felt… scared?”

  That depends on the definition of scare. Scared of missing an anime? Scared over not getting the character or merch I want? Scared of fumbling in front of other pyers and dying in game?

  Yes, I felt scared before. Often, even. But… I doubt that was what she meant.

  “Scared… I guess… yeah? Not because anything serious like this, though. You’re worried over fighting the Bearer?”

  “Yeah… But not just that. What if… What if we’re already too te?”

  Oh, yeah. I hadn’t thought about that. Several days have passed since we st saw Naya, and there would be several more days as we prepare for our trip. There’s a not too small chance that Naya is dead by now.

  “You’re close to her, aren’t you?”

  “Yes… Miss Naya took care of me when we were visiting Nanawak a long time ago. Me and Brother, we’ve both grown close to her since.”

  “And your brother, despite what he lets out, is fond of his future wife.”

  “Correct. That’s why I’m surprised to know how quick he was to give up.”

  “He’s such a tsundere.” I ughed.

  “...”

  “Ah, right. Sorry, that’s a word from another nguage. It basically means-”

  “Someone that hides what they’re truly feeling, often acting harsh on the outside, but soft on the inside… basically like that?”

  “... You know?”

  “Fortis, are you from Earth?”