Chapter 483 – Sudden Surge in Popularity

In truth, the shortcut to the highway involved many forested and mountainous paths, which inevitably meant a high chance of encountering monsters.

Each time this happened, it was up to the Royal Guards and Tauro’s party, the Black-Golden Wings, to deal with the threat. But as this went on for several days, everyone began to clearly realize that these young nobles were not just typical sons and daughters of noble families.

The same was true for the Crown Prince and his entourage of nobles. At first, many of them had whispered behind their backs, calling them uncultured or wild for nobles—but as the monster attacks continued day after day and they repeatedly found themselves in life-threatening situations, being saved time and time again by Tauro and his team left a strong impression. The group began to see them as reliable saviors.

The Crown Prince, however, was not pleased. He was well aware that Tauro and the others were recommended by the Fifth Prince, Fleue, and he hated having to acknowledge them.

The last thing he wanted was for Fleue’s reputation to grow any further and threaten his own position.

In fact, the very reason he volunteered to lead the Saint’s tour through the Kingdom of Sart was because he felt alarmed by Fleue’s rapidly growing prestige.

His supporter, Marquis Haragura, had also arranged for his grandson, Suguro, to accompany them in case of any unforeseen circumstances —but now, following Suguro’s advice to take a shortcut, things had turned into this mess.

Frustrated and out of options, the Crown Prince had spent the past few days grinding his teeth in silence.

One day during the bumpy carriage ride…

”Hey Aeris, is there any kind of monster-repelling magic you could use while we’re traveling? I feel like if we had something like that, we wouldn’t be getting attacked so often… Though I guess that’s asking too much, huh? Sorry, forget I said anything.”

Tauro asked Aeris half-jokingly, not really expecting much.

”It’s not that there isn’t one. I just don’t plan on using it,” she replied something completely unbelievable casually.

““““What!?””””

”…You mean, there is such a spell…?”

Tauro and the others were surprised by Aeris’s response and raised their voices in surprise, before quickly lowering them. Tauro leaned in and asked Aeris again.

”Yeah, there is. But there’s no reason I should use a spell like that to help His Highness the Crown Prince, especially when he was the one who chose this idiotic shortcut. Besides, it’s not like barrier magic—it doesn’t last long and has to be constantly recast, so it’s just not worth it.”

Aeris answered quietly in their little circle.

”That makes sense… Even adventurers wouldn’t take such a dumb route, so why would you want to help him?”

Ankh chuckled under his breath, mocking the Crown Prince.

”I feel bad for the Royal Guards, but I sure don’t want to do anything that would make the crown prince look like he’s in the spotlight,” Ragune added, apparently having grown to deeply dislike the Crown Prince’s party very much during the journey.

”I can use the kind of spell Aeris mentioned too, but… as she said, the magic consumes a lot of mana, is inefficient, and its effects don’t last long. Unless it’s a real emergency, I wouldn’t want to use it either,” 

Zion, who has the skill “Light Mage”, also seems to be able to use magic at Aeris’s level.

”…I see. Well, let’s keep this to ourselves. I feel a little guilty that this is giving us more opportunities to stand out, but…”

Tauro couldn’t help feeling heavy-hearted, especially since he’d grown close with many of the Royal Guard Knights during the journey and knew how hard they’d been working every day.

”The Royal Guards are the protectors of the royal family. Protecting His Highness the Crown Prince is part of their job, so it can’t be helped. …Though, maybe some of them will quit after this mission,” Aeris added, thinking some might change jobs after seeing what kind of disappointing person the prince really was.

As they were talking, Tauro’s “Presence Detection” picked up the presence of a monster nearby—

This is the second one today.

”Monster incoming. I’ll go take care of it real quick,”

 Tauro said as he opened the carriage door and climbed up onto the roof.

And as they moved, he fired several arrows of light towards the forest where he sensed the monster’s presence.

Naturally, Tauro and his companions had gain a good reputation among the Royal Guards knights who traveled with them.

Though the guards were elite soldiers chosen for their skills, they weren’t specialized in fighting monsters like adventurers were.

This had become painfully obvious during the recent ogre attack.

That’s why they asked Tauro and his companions, who are also adventurers, to teach them when they were camping out or staying at their lodgings, and so they started holding impromptu study sessions on fighting monsters.

At first, only a few guards approached them—partly because of their own pride, and partly because some were still loyal to the Crown Prince.

But as monster attacks continued day after day, more and more guards began to admire how quickly and effectively Tauro’s party responded. Before long, more and more of the Royal Guards could often be seen surrounding Tauro and Aeris, asking questions and listening intently.

Even common-born members of the Saint’s entourage, who had looked up to Tauro and Aeris for a while, were now listening in.

And soon, even the knights from the Kingdom of Luwan assigned to guard the Saint joined in.

Tauro and his party had become wildly popular.

What impressed the listeners even more was the fact that Tauro’s group was still only  D+ ranked adventurers.

”They’re D+ with that kind of strength? The adventurer world must have crazy standards…”

”I’d only heard rumors, but the Adventurer’s Guild is way more competent than I thought.”

”I was once offered fast-tracking to become C-rank, but now I wonder if that was just them flattering me…”

The Royal Guards, comparing themselves to Tauro’s group, were surprised at how strong adventurers could be. What they didn’t know, however, was that Tauro and his friends had intentionally stopped their rank-up to C-. it remained unclear just how high their true potential could reach.

In this way, as Tauro and his companion’s reputation rose, and the Royal Guards became more efficient in dealing with monsters in actual combat, the party finally made it to the main highway.

”Huh…? This road feels familiar…”

It had been about a week since they last walked on paved roads, and Tauro looked around with a tilted head, as if recognizing something.

”What’s wrong?” Aeris asked, noticing Tauro’s reaction.

”This road looks really familiar. …Excuse me, Sir Guard—where does this road lead?”

”This road? The closest place from here is the former Viscount Saishi territory, and then two days north from there is the Marquis of Haragura territory.”

“The former Viscount Saishi territory?! Ah, that’s why! No wonder everything looks so familiar…”

It had been years since Tauro last traveled this road.

He’d been on so many adventures and visited so many places since then—it was only natural that he’d forgotten.

So unknowingly, Tauro had found himself once again near the former Viscount Saishi territory

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