The only people who can enter the Zakaria Guards are the two who won from the east and west of the conference, and if they want to achieve their wishes, they can't lose once. There is also a very troublesome situation, and that is when the two are assigned to the same battle zone. I don't know if the young people have considered this situation-

While listening to the sound of weeds rubbing against each other in the direction of progress, I made this inference. Then he poked his head out of Yi Yan's front hair and saw the street made of russet sandstone on the other side of the hill.

That's the largest town of Zakaria in the NNM region. The current number of settlers is 1,958, which is less than a tenth of the size of Santoria, the central capital, but it is still quite lively on the day of the biggest event of the year.

Walking towards the west gate, Eugeo spoke, "Actually, I, before I saw it with my own eyes, I was a little skeptical that the town of Zakaria really existed."

"Why is this" was asked rhetorically by Yi Yan, and the young man with flaxen hair laughed, "It's not because of ...... Even the adults in Lulid Village have not seen Zakaria with their own eyes. The former chief of the guard, Mr. Doiku, had the power to participate in the Zakaria Sword Tournament, but he never used it once until he retired. It's better to say that I, as the 'Kigas Sida Marker', would never have had the opportunity to come to this Zakalia in my life, and no one in the village has ever been there, so I can't see the place in my eyes......"

"It's just like something that doesn't exist," Yi Yan, who said the conclusion in place of Eugeo, raised the corners of his mouth to the sides, and continued, "It's great that Zakaria exists. If this street exists, it means that Santoria is not nothing. ”

"Yes. It's true...... It's an incredible feeling. It's been five months since I came out of Lulid Village, and this is not the only village in the world...... I think it's very powerful. "I can only understand half of what Yugeo said, and I feel that he is really wonderful.

The long years that the master of the demon has read have been read, not only in Santoria, but also in all parts of the human realm with a diameter of 1,500 kilometers. This amount of memory information is much higher than that of all human units except for the integrated knights.

However, there are also areas of this body that have not been set foot in until now. On the opposite side of the Ultimate Mountain Range, which surrounds the human world...... That is, the dark territory. According to rumors, there are also many towns, villages, and a huge dark metropolis...... After all, the opportunity to see and confirm with your own eyes will not come?

Of course, this is just equated with impossibility...... Howe is just imagining it without any grounds. But if the observation of these two men can continue, maybe one day——。

Because I was thinking about it intently. The sudden vibration made him almost thrown out of Yi Yan's head. Panicking, he gripped his black hair back and looked forward with questions about what was going on. Coming into view is a horse with its front feet raised high and kicking in the air.

He let out a mournful cry of 'hoohoo', trying to throw the Zakaria guards off his back. The shaking just now was caused by Yi Yan bending down in order to avoid the horse's hooves. A few dozen meters ago, it was the west gate of the town. In front of the stone bridge over the moat, there were mounted guards in red uniforms lined up, and the moment Yi Yan passed by, the horses seemed to suddenly start a race.

"Oh...... Woo, oh! The guards in the saddle were desperately clutching the reins and trying to calm the horses down, but to no avail. For active objects such as horses, a high level of control is required to control them, and the unit of the Guardian should be able to meet this condition.

That means there aren't many reasons left to keep the horse uncontrolled by the rider. Destiny is beginning to dwindle due to lack of food or water, or sensing the approach of a large beast of high danger - but it doesn't feel like either of these things right now.

As he continued to think about the reason, the furious horse continued to kick the horse's hooves. Yi Yan, who was bent down directly under the horse's hooves, didn't even think to avoid it. The passers-by, who were aware of the danger, screamed loudly.

If the horse is trampled with this momentum, even the adult male unit will be halved...... If it hits the vital part, the total loss of the Mandate of Heaven is also possible.

"Dangerous, dangerous..." At the moment when someone shouted like this, Yi Yan finally moved. Not backwards – but forwards. Dodging the horse's hooves, he approached the horse, and stretched out his wrists towards the middle of the horse's neck and hugged him tightly. At the same time, a shout.

"Eugeo, back!" When the voice came, the partner was already in action. While Yi Yan was holding the horse down, he walked around behind the horse, quickly stretched out his hand to the base of the horse's tail that was swinging wildly because of his madness, and with a flash of his fingers, when he pulled something out of the brown fur, the Hummer quieted down as if the previous fury was an illusion.

However, facing the horse's face that was still panting, Yi Yan gently stroked it a few times.

"Good-good, it's fine. - Mr. Guard, the reins don't have to be pulled so tightly. On the saddle, the young guard's iron-blue face bowed two or three times, and slowly lowered the strength of the reins. At the same time, Yi Yan's hand also left the horse's face and took a step back. After that, the horse turned around and returned to its original position on the right side of the stone bridge to the sound of the horse's hooves. At this time, the surrounding crowd leaked out the voice of reassurance.

couldn't help but sigh along with the passers-by, and then withdrew the wrists that were unconsciously stretched out in Yi Yan's front hair. It's so dangerous, I almost released the technique organized to protect Yi Yan, who was about to be trampled by the horse's hooves. Ah, if he hadn't acted first, he might have been released. As an observer, it's not allowed.

The young man, who was not in the slightest aware of the fact that he had a companion in his front hair to soothe his chest, whispered to his partner who was walking towards him, "...... Bloodsucking worms? ”

"That's right!" Eugeo replied in the same whisper after sneaking back around him. The passer-by, who had stopped earlier, began to move again, and after confirming that the guards' attention had turned to Aima, he opened his right palm towards Yi Yan.

In the palm of the hand is a red and black striped pattern that gives a strong impression, and a winged insect about four centimeters long. Somewhat similar to a bee, but without a poison needle on the tail. On the other hand, there are thin protrusions in the mouth.

This is not a high-risk pest-type mobile object that exists to restrict the activity area of the human unit. In any case, it does not directly cause harm to humans. Suck blood to take away the small amount of destiny, but only animals such as horses, cows, and sheep are the objects of bloodsucking. The reason why the guard's beloved horse suddenly went berserk was also because he was stabbed in the ass by this vampire. But—

"Strange......" Yi Yan said, plucking the pest that had died from the shock of the capture from Yugeo's hand.

"There shouldn't be any swamps around here?"

"Well, from the first day I started working at Urud Farm, I was told that the nearest swamp was in the forest to the west, and the horses must not be brought through."

"The forest to the west is seven kilometres from Zakaria...... Liyuan, the bloodsucking insects that only exist around the swamp can't fly that far to come here......" Listening to Yi Yan's point, Yugeo tilted his head and thought lightly, and soon said in a slightly vague tone, "That's so...... Is it possible that the horses of the mixed merchant team were hit? ”

“…… Well, maybe, right? While the teenagers were having this conversation, the red hue on the pest that had just been picked in Yi Yan's hand was also rapidly fading. The Mandate of Insect Objects is already low, and the Mandate of Dead Worms is even less, and it only takes about a minute to keep the dead in shape.

Eventually, the whole body became the corpse of a light gray bloodsucking worm, which collapsed like sand with a small sound and disappeared after releasing a small amount of spatial resources. Yi Yan blew on his fingers, looked around, and said with a light sigh from the tip of his nose, "Well, you and I, as long as we weren't injured before the important conference, it would be nice to mix with the horses every day on the farm." ”

"Yes, yes, that's really the case, if we join the guards, we will also volunteer to the cavalry, right?"

"Don't use it until today, Yugeo, if there are any obstacles ahead, the two of them must join the team together." At the words of Yi Yan, who was laughing, Yugeo's expression was dumbfounded.

"Barrier...... I had to win the tournament, but there were a lot of competitors. ”

"Ahhh......h Well, yes, too. I would like to say that you can't be deflated before the conference. Just like the one I did earlier, something unexpected might happen. ”

"Hey, I'm unexpectedly worried, Yi Yan."

"That's of course, and there is no one like me who messes around and has no plans so much" said unashamedly, Yi Yan patted Yugeo on the back, "Okay, it's time to go." You have to eat a full meal before the conference! ”

………

Zakaria is a town enclosed by a rectangular wall with an east-west direction.

The size is 900 meters from south to north and 1,300 meters from east to west. Compared to the small village of Lulid in the north where the two lived, it was more than five times larger. It is built in the middle of the grassland, there are no rivers or lakes nearby, and domestic water is drawn from wells. Because of this, it gives the impression of being somewhat dry, but compared to the desert towns of the Southern Empire, there are still many more plant objects.

Most of the roads and buildings are made of russet sandstone, and the clothes of the residents who pass through them are also red. Among them, the blue tunics worn by the two teenagers from the north were somewhat eye-catching. Yougeo lowered his head as if he cared about the eyes of others, but Yi Yan didn't care about it, but stared at the small stalls on both sides of the road, one by one.

"Oh~, the meat buns in this shop look good...... However, the skewered pork just now is cheaper than this...... Which one would Giorgio want to eat? As he said these words, he looked to the side and finally noticed his partner's strange attitude, and his black pupils blinked speechlessly.

“…… Yugeo, that, anyway, this is the third time I've come to Zakaria. There's no need to be so nervous. ”

"This is only the third time...... I've never seen so many people before I left the village......"

"Zakaria makes you nervous like this, what can you do when you get to Yangdu. Moreover, when he officially appeared at the swordsmanship conference, he had to compete in front of hundreds of audiences, and in the afternoon, Uncle Ulud and Aunt said that he would bring Ti Lin and Ti Lulu to come over to cheer on. You can't show them the ugly side. ”

was slapped on the back by Yi Yan, and Yugeo looked resentful, "...... Ming, understood. Only now, I will envy Yi Yan's indiscriminate style......"

"How dare you say that, Giorgia-kun." 'Messy' is an important secret of Ain's swordsmanship. ”

"Eh, really, really?"

"Really, really."

During the exchange between the two, they had already completed the West Avenue with a length of 500 meters. In front of it, a building stands a block taller than the house next to it. It was Zakaria's largest facility, the assembly hall. It is a space made for various purposes, such as speeches by lords and performances by bands and troupes, and of course today's kendo tournament is held at this venue.

Admission is free, so even now, two hours before the official opening, a lot of people are already gathered. This annual meeting is a rare moment of joy for the HUMAN UNIT, which is governed by a variety of rules and regulations, from vocations and taboo catalogs to everyday life.

However, the enthusiasm in the venue made the young Yugeo feel more pressured, and compared to Yi Yan, the blood color on his milky white cheeks was even lighter.

“…… No, do you have to compete in that kind of place......" For the partner who made a hoarse voice, Yi Yan put on an expression of who cares how much you have, grabbed his left hand, and first walked to the registration window for the appearance set up at the front entrance of the assembly hall.

Since most of the contestants live in hotels on the street, besides, there are many citizens of Zakaria, so the registration must have been completed early. So on the makeshift long table, there was only one idle-looking old guard with a poke of mustache on standby.

Yi Yan didn't look timid at all, and walked straight over, and said loudly, "The two of us, please help sign us up!" ”

The guard raised his gray eyebrows, looked at Yi Yan with suspicion, then looked at Yugeo, coughed a few times and said, "If you want to appear in the conference, if you don't serve as a guard in the streets and villages of the Northern Regions, or if you don't have a probationary qualification in the Zakaria Guards, or you ......."

"That's it, 'or', oh, ah......" Yugeo put his hand on his flank, and quickly reached into his tunic and probed into it. What I took out was a slightly old parchment envelope. It was handed to the guard, who opened the envelope with his brow and took out a letter from it.

"What...... Well, it's a handwritten letter from the village chief of Lulid. [The two young men who carried this letter have fulfilled the vocation given in the name of the god Stythea and have come here in search of a new path, and hereby prove], roar~! ”

So for the first time, the old guard smiled and stroked his beard, "In other words, to fight the northernmost village of Lulid, and they are two little ghosts who are not even guards, and for the sake of their new vocation, they hope to become our glorious Zakalia guards." Well? ”

"That's it!" With a smile that did not admit defeat, Yi Yan added another sentence.

"It's just that being a guard isn't the end, and after that, it's the central capital—" Directed at his flank, this time Yugeo stabbed him directly. In place of his partner who entered a state of silence, Yugeo hurriedly said, "That's it, that's it, the registration for the swordsmanship conference, please!" ”

"yes, okay." The guard nodded, opened the registration book placed on the table, and took out a pen made of red copper, "Write here your name and place of origin, the school of swordsmanship." ”

“…… Stream, do you want to write about genres" Yi Yan snatched the pen from the hand of Yugeo, who had stopped, from the side. Instead of writing on high-durability parchment, it was written on a registration book bound with common paper made of white fine grass, and there were already many names of the contestants written in various handwritings.

At the end of these handwritings, the black-haired boy wrote down his name Yi Yan, which was derived from the lingua franca of the world such as Lurid, and the pen only paused for a moment before smoothly writing down the genre - Ayn Grant Flow.

It has been five months since the two teenagers were observed, and during this time there were more or less doubts, the biggest mystery of which was the term. Although there are about thirty schools of swordsmanship in the human world, this is the first time that Aingrun has heard of it.

Originally, Yi Yan, who thought it was just a genre that Yi Yan, who was better than Yugeo in terms of swordsmanship, proudly created himself, but it didn't seem to be the case. Because of the Enigmatic Aingrunt stream, there are no less than ten kinds of ...... for those many schools that have one and only one esoteric type

Thinking about this, after Yi Yan, Yugeo also filled out the registration book—of course, writing about the same genre—and handed the pen back to the guards. The guard inserted the erect pen into the registration book, making the registration book turn around, raising one eyebrow.

"Well, I've been using swords for a long time, but this is the first time I've heard of this genre. Is there a genre in Loulid? "The guards will have doubts, of course. More than fifty participants have registered in the registration book, but half of these schools are the Zacharand stream founded by the original Lord of Zacharia. The other half, the Nolukia stream, which was widely taught in the Northern Empire of Nolan Gals, had none of them in the strange name.