Cleon compared me to Philia and said, as usual, without turning off his smile.

"Your Highness will surely be anxious about his expedition to Necropolis. But don't worry. Our Knights are the finest group of adventurers in the history of the Empire."

"So you're not worried?

To Philia's inquiry, Cleon nodded forcefully.

"Exactly. As long as we are attached, nothing will ever happen that will hurt His Highness."

That would be so.

Philia is an important sacrifice for Cleon.

I don't think I will let the demon clan of the ruins kill the existence that is absolutely necessary to revive the demon king.

But at the end of the day, the Creons are going to sacrifice Philia.

But, Arte, anyway, is Creon really going to do that?

Cleon was a sweet one.

At least I used to be the type to put up with my pain if I didn't have to watch others get hurt.

I don't think Flora is lying.

But the truth is, what does Cleon think?

I was driven by a desire to ask Cleon to be sincere, and words went out to my throat.

But then I'll show you what's in this hand. Besides, if Flora finds out I've leaked information, Flora will be annoyed too.

In the end, I swallowed the words.

Philia asks Cleon sharply instead.

"You can't turn me down to Necropolis, can you?

"I am sorry, Your Majesty the Emperor's orders, so you must participate in the Necropolis offensive. Even with us, we can only maintain morale if we have the poor figure of His Highness."

"Then can I take my squire?

"Of course it is. But if you don't have the strength to do that, I'm in trouble."

"I want you to follow Solon."

"Well, that's no problem."

Cleon nodded lightly.

Surprised.

I thought Cleon would disagree.

I could get in the way of that more than I'd sacrifice Philia.

"Are you sure you want me to join you?

"Oh. It would be safer for His Highness to have a master on it, wouldn't it?

Cleon was smiling, feeling like goodness itself.

How strange.

Is there something behind it, or is it making me high that I'm not in any way an obstacle?

"Except," Cleon continued.

"Dr. Lucy and Sophia are not allowed to participate."

Lucy and Sophia reacted perfectly.

Maybe they were both going to volunteer to go to Necropolis.

"Duh, why!? If I go, it will definitely help."

Sofia protests with a beautiful voice.

Indeed, with a non-standard Virgin and a genius professor of witchcraft, he would surely be able to contribute to the Necropolis offense.

It's just that even for me, I was negative about Sophia's participation.

I don't feel comfortable letting Sophia, who wants a peaceful life, go on another adventure.

"Sophia was gonna stop being an adventurer already, wasn't she? But I don't think we need to go to the ruins again."

"But you can't just put Solon in danger's eye!

Our argument was cut off in the words of Cleon.

"Sophia and Dr. Lucy have been named Empire Five Mages by the Imperial Government"

"The five magicians of the Empire? Did the government come up with another weird medal?

"As always, that's a lot of light mouth, you are"

Cleon looked at me looking a little confused.

Even if they say so, I'm not going to stop tapping lightly.

Sophia is strangely necked.

Lucy, on the other hand, was nodding with a dark face, so I guess it's something she already knows.

"In short, it means the representative of the great mage of the Empire. Well, Dr. Lucy and Sophia wouldn't be surprised to be chosen. You can't turn those sorcerers over to the Necropolis offense. I need something more important."

"What's more important?

"You'll see."

Creon added that this is also an imperial government order, so you can't disobey it.

If Sophia and Lucy join the offensive, the two will try to stop Philia from sacrificing.

In that sense, maybe the two are in the way for Cleon.

And Cleon turned his eyes to Sophia.

Cleon stared at Sophia, but nothing special was floating there.

They're fiancées, but maybe Cleon didn't think anything of Sophia either.

It's just that Cleon told Sophia.

"Sophia is my fiancée. That's why I want you to come back to me. It's what it should be."

"Will you bring me back Cleon?

"If I say yes, what do you do?

"Then I will have to fight Cleon. I don't like that."

"Sophia. Is Solon more important than me, than the Knights?

"... yeah. It's bad for you, Cleon, but it's much more important to me, Solon."

Oh, and Cleon sighed and shook his neck to the side.

And after a glimpse of the neighbor Carreria, I told Sophia.

"I get it. Well, as a matter of fact, there are other women I care about."

Who are you talking about?

You mean Carreria?

I was curious, but I wasn't going to ask any more.

If this was when I was in magic school, I think I heard about root digging.

But me and Cleon don't have that kind of intimacy right now.

Speaking of girls that Cleon was aware of, someone comes to mind.

It's Shea, who was one of us.

Shea stayed with Cleon a lot, and she was much better with Cleon than I was.

I think it was also Cleon who taught a lot of advanced magic against Shea.

Cleon, who at the time still had a weak spot, was a little grown up and smiling at Shea.

But Shea's dead.

So, the person who cares about Cleon must mean someone else.

"Hey, Solon. Sophia will give it to you."

"Will you give it to me? I want you to stop treating Sophia like a thing."

"Sophia's been yours for a long time, hasn't she?

Cleon pointed to Sophia beside him, so I followed him and saw Sophia too.

Sophia was blushing a little.

"So don't try to interfere with my purpose. Solon has more than enough room."

"Is Creon's purpose about the Necropolis offense?

"The Necropolis offense is just a passing point. But for the time being, you can think of that."

"I'm against the Necropolis offense."

"You don't think you're going to succeed, do you? But I'm not what I used to be. Now I'm a much better adventurer than Solon, the Holy Knight Creon."

"But there's something in that Necropolis that even the legendary brave Pericles couldn't defeat"

"I know. He also says it will be successful based on that. Besides. We can't stop the Necropolis offense anymore."

"Huh?"

"Because the Necropolis offense was brought forward three days later"

Cleon said that with a sinister face.