A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

“So he escaped?!”

“No, Lady Hestia, as I said, he was escorted out of the arena and into the inn he was staying in. I had received orders to monitor the elder ‘Acid Killers’ while I was to arrest the younger one.”

I was not arrested. Thank goodness, I was not arrested by another knight! As I said, I was a good girl and I wouldn’t do tooooo many problems. Well, I did turn somebody’s head into mush, but he deserved it. He used his venom to turn people into his minions and then tried to kill off a whole medic ward just to escape, with the only antidote available in his palm, well, his catalyst. If you treated people like trash, then I couldn’t even muster my ability to feel an inch of sympathy.

I felt a bit like a psychopath thinking like this, but… Well, not like I had a real excuse. I just didn’t like people like those poison brothers. They reminded me too much of my time in Shaturein and that bastard Eithalr.

So, what did this knight want to talk to me about? Alone and around the corner while his soldiers took care of the people hurt? Well, Sir Alistar Coshbart, a noble of Yeos and the knight-commander of Yeos’s knight order, was here to thank me for what I just did. A man around his late thirties who had more of a baby face, he was probably one of the few polite nobles in this country.

The first thing he did was reveal his face, which was quite handsome but less so than Alrond admittedly, and bowed deeply. He addressed me in a whisper as “Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor,” telling me he had learned it from Jethro. Which also meant he knew I was a champion, but didn’t say anything about it for now.

He thanked me profusely for what he just did with the poison dude and how I rescued so many contestants, and also the alchemists and priests working in the wards. I asked him if he found I was being too excessive with my attack, thinking he might have wanted to arrest the poison dude. However, surprisingly, he fully supported my decision.

“The order came through the tournament officials from an anonymous client. We couldn’t ignore it… so I was to arrest the younger one and deport him back to the empire. This might sound paranoid, but I don’t think it was for judgement.” He smiled wryly. “As such, with you killing him, you did me a major favor. May the Goddess bless your decisiveness and also your response.”

“… But I’m about to get into trouble with the elder brother, right? Is this anonymous client also the reason why the elder brother is only monitored and not ‘arrested?’” I asked, feeling relieved after hearing all of that.

“Yes, and I also apologize that you will receive his ire. I will send knights—”

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I have enough bodyguards.” I thought of Tasianna, Shay, Beth, and Rajah. “So, let me get this straight, when you escorted the elder brother out, you were also to arrest the younger one? What happened then? That scene I saw was not what I would expect from a ‘peaceful arrest.’”

“… I was furious. I might have misspoke and caused him to be agitated. I believe our appearance when he was resting in the medic ward also didn’t help.”

So it was all a misunderstanding in the end. Jeez, so many people would have died if I wasn’t around. Yeostar was right to inform me about it, and I had to thank him for it later on. Still, whoever hired those two black mercs to come here is super suspicious, also, why would the tournament officials even listen to them?

Noticing my silence, Alistar bowed again. “I am… as a Yeosian, I must apologize to you deeply for what you had to experience, Lady Hestia!”

It came out of nowhere, flustering me as he kept his head down.

“I have read the reports and also what Sir Jethro told me when he met you. I cannot tell you how embarrassed I am to have you see all of that. Not only as a noble of the Principality of Yeos, but also as a knight and follower of God Yeostar. It is just pathetic…” He looked remorseful, twisting his face into a deep frown. “But, please, understand Yeos had our history with beastmen. Not to mention, how misogynistic we are unlike so many other countries blessed by the Goddess.”

It did feel weird. Artorias and Estralia had their social disparity between men and women, as the two genders had different expectations, but in the end, both men and women could achieve whatever they wanted with enough effort. In Yeos, however, women couldn’t enter knighthood, and Princess Anastasia wouldn't have become the country’s treasurer weren’t it for her godfather, despite her credentials, apparently.

“Although we are the land dedicated to God Yeos, we aren’t showing the worth of knighthood and chivalry within our country. During war, being a knight means to destroy your lord’s enemies, but in peacetime, we are the beacon of hope and justice. At least, that is what God Yeostar has written down in his manuscript.”

Yeostar spoke positively of him, making me more willing to listen to him.

I perked my ears up, listening more intently to Alistar. “But, as you know, Yeos is a vassal of the Empire. If we are called to war, we are to go to war with them. If they want levies, we are to give them levies. And the Folschreck Empire is at war with both Carmaniate and Bole’Taria right now. They are fighting on two fronts.”

Those were the beastmen alliance and demonkin kingdom respectively. I had heard about it.

“If your son dies in another country, and they aren’t humans? But beastmen and demonkins? People are more likely to gain prejudices when we soldiers are to deliver the bad news home. Barely any beastmen live inside Elyonda or the Yeos’s towns, only outside or in slums.” I nodded to his information, giving me context on everything. “You should have already heard from Sir Jethro about our mistrust with women in power, so I won’t keep it up. In essence, what I wanted to say… we probably weren’t the country of knighthood as you expected.”

I shrugged and smiled wryly. “Yeah. This still doesn’t change my opinion on Yeos, or at least, Elyonda. If I wasn’t here for duty, I would rather leave it right now. I apologize, Sir Alistar.”

“Understandable. Thank you for your honest opinion, my lady.” He bowed regretfully. “One more thing before you leave, have you seen a female knight by the name of Rhea?”

“Rhea?” I tilted my head.

“Yes, she is somebody I believe should be in the city right now. She’s an important acquaintance of mine.”

“Oooh, I didn’t think you would know about female knights. Sorry, I had some suspicion since I thought a noble like you would be apprehensive of female fighters. I guess Jethro left a bad impression, sorry.” I spoke my mind, finding it interesting how he would ask me such a random question.

But reacting to it, he simply smiled. “I have been humbled multiple times in my life by Dames and other women. The last time I shared this opinion with my fellow nobles was when I almost lost my sword arm. Hahaha, it is a fond memory.”

How is that in any way good?!

“Ahem!” He cleared his voice. “If you have any information on her, please come over to the knight’s headquarters situated next to the castle. I believe you should have seen it when you attended court. Also, please come over tomorrow as we will have your bounty reward ready.”

“Wait, what reward?”

“There is a death or alive bounty of the ‘Acid Killers.’ You took down one of them, so as empire vassals, we are required to notify his death to the imperials.” He pulled out the bounty parchment in question, which showed an extremely accurate drawing of the two poison dudes. Whoever drew this was talented. “We will receive the reward, but you were the executioner. We would like to pay you what you are due.”

“I don’t need it.” Simply answer.

“It’s three small goldites per brother, my lady.”

“W-What? 300000 Davi?!” I wasn’t sure of the conversion rate to dollars, but a person could live on that for their entire life without working while also spending some on luxury. On the other hand, that was the sort of money needed to hire extremely talented artisans, specifically for equipment.

“The brothers killed a noble, my lady. You don’t anger noble houses, especially not from the empire, without gaining an enemy or two. Folschreckian nobles can be very despotic.” Alistar smirked, looking like he knew it personally.

Regardless, with that, I said my goodbyes to him. If Saori were here, she probably would tell me to just take the money, even if we had far enough and our funds would continue growing like crazy with Amelia selling our recipes. However, I would be seeing Alistar not just tomorrow but also today, as he was participating in the battle royale today.

As Jethro said, the kingdom itself sended in their knights and nobles to participate in the tournament to make sure the Champion of Yeostar would be a Yeosian. In this case, Alistar was their prime candidate, being their knight-commander and a talented swordsman. A few other nobles would enter too, but I hadn’t really learned their names, to be honest.

I would see them in action anyways.

“Rajah!” I called out after leaving the general infirmary area, only to see Rajah running over to me with Tasianna behind him. After hugging the former, I looked over to the latter. “Oh, Tasianna, you came, too?”

“Well, you didn’t come back in time, my lady! You missed out on the whole award ceremony, so Her Majesty told me to fetch you. Yorshka, Farron, and Priscilla have already arrived, so you should come over to greet them.” She looked a bit worried.

“Haha…” I laughed, guilty for taking so long. “I’ll tell you everything on the way. Let’s go. I promised Priscilla we would have some beach time together!”

Suffice to say, Tasianna wasn’t really surprised, even stating it was normal for me to find trouble randomly. I really couldn’t argue back, just seeing how low Aurora’s luck was when it came to avoiding big threats.

Once we made it back to the main area of the arena, we noticed a lot of people exiting the audience area. Tasianna explained there would be a one bell break until the next match, which was one hour in this world. Passing through the area, I was bombarded with people trying to approach me as if I was a celebrity.

“Hey, I just saw your match, Miss! That was a really good match!”

“I watched you back during the test match. I fully bet a month’s worth of wages on you, and I just won big! Thanks for the money, lass! Win your next, alright? I’ll put the money I earned today on you again!”

“Dammit! You cost me all my money! Damn you, damn lizard!”

It seemed I was out of the crossfire of the gambling scene of the tournament. Not only did they sling slur words at Larent, but now I was one of their victims. Those who saw me win were so happy they bet all their money on me, while those who did on Larent or another contestant were cursing me as they walked by.

Tasianna glared at those who said those words at me, still able to show her icy persona. Her hatred for humans has dissipated almost completely at this point, but she still was protective of me. Now it just didn’t matter what race you were, she would probably shoot some ice spikes if she could.

Thankfully, there were those who still celebrated my victory, and those were the people I really enjoyed. From humans to even beastmen, quite a lot of people came to flatter me, making me feel really good about my victory. Adhi and his band of levianewts also came to watch, seemingly still unable to return to Caedhul.

“All the Caedhulen ships either are still on a voyage or are still in port for the festival. Sea’s curses, we are stuck on land until it's over,” he told me, looking crestfallen.

Well, at least he had tons of kinsmen around him to not feel isolated. That was good enough.

Anyways, after a while, Tasianna came in between the crowd and me and led me away, saying there was enough time for this at another time. With how filled with people the lobby was, it was pretty hard, but still managed to get ourselves through everything. When we did, Yorshka jumped right in front of me and gave me a hug.

“Ahhh, Hestia!” She pulled me up from the ground and swung me around, placing me right back on the ground.

“Wha-?! What was— Wahh!” But before I could, somebody else gave me a hug from behind.

“Hestia! We’re here!” It was Priscilla. “We went through so many stalls and we also saw some entertainers doing tricks on the street! And, and you should have seen it, but when some big guy tried looking weirdly at mom, dad came in between them and swung him right over on the ground! He was sooooo cool!”

Priscilla’s thrill was unexpected, and the moment she released me from her embrace, I looked at Farron standing behind her, smirking slightly. When he saw my gaze, he thumped his chest, looking proud at the fact.

He then took a deep breath, enlarging his chest like a balloon. “Still not 100%, but I’ve been able to spar far longer than before. All thanks to you, kid.”

“Yup.” Yorshka agreed as she went over to him, stroking his stout shoulders before giving him a big slap on his back. “Haha, he can get rough now without spitting out blood after everything. He’s healthy and sturdy like a equerochs, again!”

Was that an innuendo? Nah, forget about it.

Disregarding Yorshka’s comments, the Nordor family had arrived as tourists to Elyonda’s Festival of Yeostar, making this their first family outing and holidays in years. The reason was ‘cause Yorshka had to work all the time, trying to make enough money to help cure Farron’s crystalized lungs. Seeing as I managed to cure him of that, they were now using his new found freedom to finally bondas a family again.

When I heard they wanted to do this holiday, I teleported them from Firwood to Elyonda through the nexus this morning. While I went to the arena, the three of them went around the city to have fun. Seeing people fight and so wasn’t on their priority, even if they wanted to support me.

Yorshka and Priscilla were currently walking around as humans, mostly since they heard my impression on Elyonda and how the commonfolk didn’t appreciate beastmen. Despite the Nordor parents being adventurers, both of them had never visited Elyonda, so they didn’t know what to expect. From hearing Priscilla’s story, it seemed Farron was right to come here today in his armor and weapon.

Leaving those two to flirt around, Mother came over, holding three sticks of honey-roasted apples and offered two of them to Priscilla and me. “I just got them before you came back, my whelpling. You really took your time, I would have been seriously worried if Rajah hadn’t told me everything.”

““Thank you!”” Priscilla and I said, before we took a bite.

Mother really loves them, huh? Yeah, it’s confirmed.

After I chewed and swallowed the chunk, I looked at Priscilla enjoying her treat, finding it endearing how much she liked it. I then turned back to Mother, giving her a short explanation of what happened, shocking her and the three Nordors. Shay and Beth overheard this, telling me the younger poison dude’s brother would probably find a grudge against me.

[“If he comes even close, we will kill him.”]

[“Mistress, please, don’t wander around too much.”]

Their worry was clear to see when I told them their poison could penetrate my resistance. At least, that was what Larent and Arlond told me on how they were extremely dangerous. I couldn’t even get ahold of the younger brother’s catalyst, as Alistar immediately confiscated it due to the threat of it. He had to have the royal mage analyze it, he said.

“Hey, sis.” I turned around as somebody tapped my shoulder, finding Fargryneill was standing behind me with her thumbs up. “Good job there. Showed the crowd really what to expect, huh? Good girl!”

She then wrapped her arm around me, drawing me closer to her as she began whispering, using the noisiness of the lobby as a veil. “Hey, so, what is this? Why is your extended dragonewt family over here, too? The girl and the women are white or silver dragonewts, right? Smell like ones, at least. Related to Nordor, right? Is this some family outing to you? Makes me really believe that whole Divine Quest thing was a lie or so.”

“Come on, everything is funnier with everybody around, right? Besides, I can’t help it. They want to come. What, jealous?” I smirked, causing my sister to burst up in laughter.

“Got me there. Feeling a bit homesick, honestly, after I met you and Melloxtressa. But, what can I do? I have to be here until I’m ready to return to my mother.” She shrugged, letting her yukata slip down a bit.

“Don’t be, dear. You’ll have us around you for a bit longer, so why not enjoy it?” Mother spoke to Fargryneill for me. “We are your family, suffice to say.”

“Yeah, big sis Neilly!” Priscilla called out, flustering sis as she saw the young dragonewt smile brightly.

“N-Neilly? Wait, Priscilla, that ain—” she stuttered and tried to speak up about the nickname, but I couldn’t let this pass.

“Oooooh, Neilly, huh? Shorter pet name for our big sis, huh? Now, that is a brilliant idea, Priscilla!” I agreed fully with it, causing Fargryneill to look at me in horror with a face so red it was like a tomato. “Or, maybe Neill? Neilly might be too cute, no? Yeah, Neill sounds sooo much better, don’t you think?”

I looked over at sis, who’s face was twitching around. “S-Shut up! No way! Fargryneill is a proud name Mother has given—”

“Big sis Neilly, please?”

“Big sis Neill, come on. Do it for us?”

Priscilla and I grinned at how Neill couldn’t take our combined cuteness, acting like little sisters to the older kirin. With Mother giggling from behind and Yorshka saying how precious we were, Neill couldn’t do anything but cower before the power of cuteness!

“Lady Fargryneill, if I could give you some advice, you should give up.” Tasianna was the executioner, bringing down the axe to sis’s unwillingness to accept her new nickname.

Scratching her cheeks, sis gave a deep sigh. “G-Guess I can’t help it. As the eldest, I should prioritize my younger relatives! Wait, hold on, I’m not related to you Pris— Argh, whatever, I don’t care anymore. Sure, you two can call me that, but all of you others!”

She pointed at everybody else in an overly dramatic fashion and exclaimed. “My name is Fargryneill, named by Yuilengreill! Remember that!”

“Sure, Neill.” Mother smiled peacefully, causing my sis to fall onto her knees, looking down at what happened. It was good to know Neill could be persuaded by cuteness, even if she was ultra competitive to a fault.

In any case, after all of us went to get some snacks, we returned to the audience room where Master and the saurians congratulated me on a job well done, even saying the meals were on them afterwards. I hoped they knew how much dragons could eat.

In any case, I took my seat, where I finally got a look at the dungeon’s screen projection. It was as the others described, it was an overlay over a blue dome-like barrier, displaying the bird eye’s view of the contestants. Even now when they were in the waiting room, we could all watch them.

“Blood enjoyers, although not a perfect reward ceremony, where we missed out star of the show, after all!” The announcer sent a cheeky comment about my absence. “However, although she didn’t give us a grand speech of how she won the ‘kills’ race, she and our other seven survivors still gave us an amazing show! But, will our afternoon match do the same? Can we find our next heroes to watch? Well, let me present our favorites to win!”

On our dungeon armlets, it was possible for me to read the available contestants in this royal match now that all 232 contestants were inside the waiting room. Obviously, since Alistar was in the match, he was the one the announcer did his best to hype up, prompting a portion of the seats to turn into a gambling ring.

People were betting on the different people the announcer named out, putting their bets on who would be the kill leader. Some were even betting on people not in the limelight, believing a dark horse would appear. The others told me I was considered one of the unknowns. It seemed the vast majority didn’t know what my last name Kargryxmor meant.

Good. Imagine them calling me princess, yeesh.

The battlefield for the second match was placed in the Citadel of Heavens, the original headquarters of the Hands of Heaven. From the trivia the announcer explained, the Hands of Heaven were actually founded by the Goddess of Nobility and Wealth, Erithea.

She was the knight order’s first lord commander and knight, with her sister Andira being the order’s head scribe. The announcer only used their divine names, not the ones they went with as mortals. Outside of the monster gods, all mortal subordinate gods chose a divine name to separate themselves from their mortality. Yeostar just confirmed to me his current name was the epitaph he took on while he was still a warrior.

Nevertheless, back to the battlegrounds itself. The historical value of this scene was where Yeostar and Erithea first met and dueled each other for the right to acquire a powerful sword. In the end, Yeostar defeated her but through this battle which devastated the area they fought in, they became fast friends. Yeostar became the order’s second Hand of Heaven.

What was funny about it was that the order wasn't a real knight order before Aurena’s advent. It was just an adventurer party to the three, and they only called themselves knights ‘cause Erithea wanted to show up some arrogant noble for rejecting her knighthood. Petty, but understandable.

And, as you would expect from how chunni “Citadel of the Heavens” sounded, it gave me a clear understanding why Erithea was such an Aurena devotee. More like fangirl, honestly. The worst was that it wasn’t a citadel, it was just the mansion upon the land Erithea owned. So, it wasn’t anywhere as spectacular as you might expect.

However, the land was vast and filled with nature and villages, perfect for a more grounded battle royale compared to the first one. And the moment everybody landed on the ground, Knight-Commander Alistar began his work.

“Hmm. That person is good.” Farron noted. As a former knight, he could evaluate others better when it came to swordsmanship. “Kid, how was Sir Larent? I had heard of him, but I wasn’t able to watch his skills today.”

“Pretty good, honestly, even before he began shooting out blades of mana.” I answered before turning my attention back to the screen, watching Alistar cleave down his 17th contestant. Unlike Larent, who could shoot out waves of mana, Alistar relied more on his shield and sword skills to beat everything, only using his water magic when needed.

It was easy to see why he was accumulating more and more kills as time went by, shooting up the rankings, and with it his screen time. In the middle of this, I also found the old eyepatch guy participating in the tournament, the one who tried to warn me not to enter. I wondered if he watched my match.

It also looked like he was doing well by taking down four people, but sadly, his streak ended when a group of contestants ganged up on him. Seeing he was losing, he chose to give up before he accumulated any wounds. This tournament really could be brutal, huh?

In the end, Alistar was the clear winner with the remaining contestants being other knights or nobles from Yeos. None of them could contend with him, but it was still a pretty impressive match. With no huge castle shooting hooks and cannons at you, it might seem less exciting to the audience, but I found it more a matter of skill.

After the battle royale was over, our entire group went out for a meal in the port, deciding it was time for some fine seafood, despite the fact that had been all we’ve eaten for the past week or so. And, to my surprise, Master seemed quite confident he could pay for our entire feast despite knowing how hungry I could be.

And it was true. Akast was carrying a bag full of small goldites, the money the group acquired after they sold all the loot they got from their dungeon trip to help Master gain his sainthood. He told me he had to make 20 trips back and forth to sell off all the monster materials they acquired. Talk about a real efficient gamer.

In the evening, Gael returned to us. Similar to the Nordors, I brought him over to Elyonda this morning, but unlike them, he had watched my match. However, for some reason, he was gone for the rest of the day.

“You know that assassin who nearly shanked you? Well, thought I should try to find out who they were. Followed them when they got kicked, but lost the lead after a bit. Went around, asking info brokers and such. Whoever that guy was, he sure was a ghost if you ask me,” Gael explained.

Considering I was curious about that guy, I had to thank Gael for trying it at least. He was good, so whoever this masked person was, he probably was trouble. And trouble meant worry. After all, the poison brothers were sent here to acquire the blood of Yeostar, why not that masked guy?

“If you want my person— Actually, nevermind. My gut feeling did lead me astray once anyways. I’ll get as much information as I can. Make sure they aren’t partying with the demonkins.” He was becoming more and more reliable.

“Sorry for always giving you these hard tasks.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re all gonna leave on the weekends, so I better get you some information. Haaaa, I really want to continue, but the King asked me and the love birds to meet him.” It seemed Farron, Yorshka, and Gael would have a meeting with King Drangleic. I wondered what they would talk about.

Before it was bedtime, I also went to schedule a meeting with Princess Anasthasia and Amelia, getting the okay from both of them for tomorrow. Once the morning came, Amelia arrived with her house’s knights, and surprisingly, her father! Duke Greenveil was being a protective father, believing he needed to make sure his daughter didn’t get hurt like a chaperon.

In any case, I left those two to plan the concert for me, while I went to the arena to watch Neill’s match. The battlefield wasn’t anything special, simple a battlefield to celebrate one of Yeostar’s endless victories, but today, the only victor was really my big sister.

Out of the 232 contestants, Neill miraculously defeated 195 of them, using her dragon paths to release electrical currents everywhere, blasting people with mana shocks even on the other side of the battle field.

In her match, quite a ton of well-known adventurers were attending it. Most were B ranks and several of them were expected to be one of the eight survivors, but none of them managed to reach the end. When I said Neill was ruthless with competitions, then I meant it. Like a bloodhound, she sniffed out worthy opponents and took them all out.

This meant the remaining survivors were Sis and a bunch of rats with zero kills each. Sis just made seven slots in the bracket stage complete duds. When she came to the award ceremony, all I could say was that it was a call to fight.

“See that? Learn what you can, cuz all of you will become dust before my feet! Learn this name, because it will be the one you see at the very top! Fargryneill!”

One to one, in our sisterly competition. She got more “kills” than I did in the rumble round. Fair enough.

“Ahhh, in two days, two dragonewts completely sturmed through the matches! ‘Crimson Scaled’ and ‘Stampeding Lightning’ are showing us what some dragon beastmen can do! We might have a show on our hands, blood enjoyers!”

Neill had a similar ID card model like mine, allowing her to hide her true profile. With it, she took on her mother’s last name, Gueillxar, to hide her relationship with the imperial family. Unless you were knowledgeable on dragon culture and history, a normal person wouldn’t be able to make the connection that Gueillxar was an SSS rank kirin and a supporter of Kramps.

However, even without it being clear, one person has taken a bit of an interest in Sis. That person was Larent, who reciprocated Neill’s challenge with a knowing wink. Since he knew I was a dragon, he probably made an educated guess that Sis was more to the eyes than a dragonewt.

In the fourth match of the battle royale, Neill’s companion Renee finally made their appearance. And, to the audience’s hype, the battlefield was actually a depiction of a battlefield within Bole’Taria, the demonkins’s land. This was where Yeostar had one of his first battles against the demon forces, and it was also one of the few battles he had ever lost.

Even if they idolized Yeostar, they weren’t scared to show off his losses. They understood losses were all part of the development of a warrior and knight. And in this area, it became quite interesting since this place had the most arena specific hazards.

Storm winds and fissure explosions caused by the unstable mana in the area, created by the contamination of demon blood and energy. It made the whole area almost inhospitable, sulling the land. It was honestly so barren, I couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to live there, making me wonder if this was what the demonkins had to deal with.

Hmm, Bole’Taria doesn’t look too good, really.

In any case, despite he supernatural battlefield, nobody went wild like the first and third match. It was similar to the second with Alistar, and strangely enough, I had a deja vu moment when I watched Renee sweep through the competition, becoming the number one ranker. The remaining survivors were B rank adventurers, even one of them being an A ranker.

It would seem the matches would become very interesting.

With the end of the battle royale meant also a break from all the matches until next week. The weekend was reserved to the festival only. However, for me, it was the start of my training with Sis.

After an incredible festival day, I had to say goodbye to the Nordors and Gael, who sadly couldn’t find anything else but some tips a band of mercs from the empire entered the country. Hopefully, it wasn’t Yanderu Eluesseus, but also a part of me hoped Eithalr was here. I wanted to smack him into the ground sooooo much.

After visiting the knight’s order and getting my reward money, I returned to the inn and had a nice long rest until tomorrow came.

When I woke up, I went to the meeting place with my party, only to find Neill around with her companion, Renee. I guessed the latter would join us.

However, what I didn’t expect was the reason why she really was here. After taking off their helmet, I was surprised to see their face.

“May our greeting be blessed by the Goddess, priestess. I am Renee, and I would like to personally request of you to aid me in a Quest to retrieve my family heirloom,” they spoke with a slightly deep voice, sounding similar to a man’s.

Short caramel brown hair cut short except for his messy bangs, slicked to the side and held back by his right ear. His face was more “handsome” than beautiful, looking extremely dashing with his strong jawline and long scar going down his left cheek. It gave him a bit of androgynous look, especially with how tall and bulky he looked in their armor.

However, “he” wasn’t a he.

“She doesn’t like showing her face, so take it as her way to show you she trusts you. Don’t worry, I vouched for you, little sis!” Neill patted her friend’s shoulder.

Renee was a woman.