"Mellice-sama!"

When I arrived at the inn, I forgot to knock on the door and opened it roughly.

"……how was it?"

Mellice-sama asked calmly, contrasting with my fl.u.s.tered appearance, as she wore a completely different outfit from earlier.

Tailored with some good quality cloth, what she wore was not a dress, but a simple and easy-to-move in clothing for men.

Her hair was tied up in one bundle on her head, and she wore a sword at her waist.

"Mellice-sama……that appearance……"

"More importantly, what's the situation?"

I winced momentarily at Mellice-sama's sharp gaze as she looked my way while questioning me.

On top of that, her way of speaking was different from usual.

Her elegant and gentle voice was indifferent, making it feel as though she were interrogating me.

"Y-Yes……it seems that bandits have appeared."

"……I see. Let's go, Anna."

She spoke as if saying we were going to the Armelia Ducal House. Her carefree way of speaking made it seem as if what we were about to do was an ordinary act, pus.h.i.+ng me further into confusion.

"J-Just where are we……!?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're going outside."

"Ahh! So we're running, right! Then I shall prepare the carriage."

"The carriage is unnecessary. Can you ride a horse?"

"Y-Yes……"

I hastily chased after Mellice-sama who was striding forward.

And then, the Guard Corps followed behind me.

"That being the case, follow after me. We'll be going to where Enaline is."

"Wh……you can't! Please run! ……while this may be presumptuous of me, if Mellice-sama who cannot fight goes, then you will just be a hinderance."

"Right now at this time, there are citizens trembling in fear over there. And amongst them, my personal attendant, Enaline, is also there…….there's no way I couldn't go."

"However……!"

"……and, I wonder who said I couldn't fight?"

"Eh……?"

"If you want to save Enaline, then don't gibber jabber and follow after me!"

It was a sharp roar.

I was unable to say anything else, and could only follow after Mellice-sama.

When we arrived at the stables, Mellice-sama tacked up a horse with practiced movements.

As I watched that scene in mute amazement, I also prepared a horse myself, as I could not allow myself to fall behind.

And then, Mellice-sama got onto the horse and broke off into a run.

Wait wait, she's way too fast.

My face involuntarily grimaced at the speed at which Mellice-sama went running off, which I could just barely keep up with. It was as if, if I were to relax even a bit, I would be left behind.

When I incidentally looked to the side, the two members of the Guard Corps similarly displayed warped expressions, so I probably wasn't particularly slow…….probably.

As we galloped in such a distressed manner, the shadows of three figures in front of the leading horse came into my line of sight.

Amongst them, one of them appeared to be about to thrust a sword towards a person tumbling on the ground.

At that moment, Mellice-sama in front of me quickened her horse's speed even further.

……so she can still go even faster than that!?

Holding back my desire to scream that out, I earnestly followed after her.

Rather, allowing one's Master to go ahead of both the guards and personal attendants in such a dangerous situation, does this not make us failures as guards and personal attendants?

In the brief instant that I had such belated doubts in this situation in which we could not do anything about at this point in time, Mellice-sama in the lead drew her sword and sliced at the man on the horse.

"……wh, that……."

She cut down the three men, one after the other.

I reflexively became entranced by her extremely vivid swordsmans.h.i.+p.

While being beautiful as if she were dancing, the way in which she swung her sword without a hint of hesitation as she stole lives without fail made her like a G.o.ddess of Death.

As I stared at that in a dumbfounded manner, by the time the guards and I had caught up to her, she had already cut down all of them.

"Are you alright?"

Mellice-sama called out to the person on the ground, who appeared to be a villager, from on top of the horse.

"…….y-y…….yes."

She trembled as she looked up at Mellice-sama and nodded.

"I see…….you'll stand out if you stay here. Hurry up and go inside of the house."

"Y-Yes……"

When she gave an affirmative answer, Mellice-sama once again had her horse start running.

"Thank you……! Thank you so much……!"

Finally recognizing the fact that she had been saved, she cried as she expressed her grat.i.tude towards Mellice-sama's back countless times.

Perhaps that grat.i.tude reached Mellice-sama's ears, as she looked over her shoulder once and gave a smile.

However, in the next instant, she once again continued to run forward.

"P-Please wait……!"

Without paying heed to my shout, Mellice-sama simply continued to dash forward.

One by one, she cut down the bandits attacking the villagers whenever she encountered them.

Both the Guard Corps and I could only follow after her.