The differences between Hector and Charlie existed in more places than expected.

Although they wouldn’t know that it was because they had lived in different worlds.

Anyway, Hector accepted Charlie’s opinion more easily than expected.

He had never asserted his position as a Grand Duke.

It was even questionable why such a person had acted the way he did in the original work.

‘Was it because they didn’t communicate?’

Just as Charlie was about to look back at the riverside, her vision suddenly went black.

“……?!”

Before she could grasp the situation, hot lips gave her the answer as they descended upon her.

Among the busy knights, the spread black cloak fluttered in the wind.

“Who on earth taught you like this?”

“The vicious Lord Tanner.”

“……”

As if he was a figure worthy of more, the knights all nodded in agreement. Charlie was no exception.

Wasn’t it Tanner, whom she had nicknamed ‘demon bastard’?

Just looking at the maid contract, his scammer tendencies were quite apparent.

“But Lord Tanner isn’t here, is he?”

Luke voiced his grievance. However, no one even flinched.

‘Poor Sir Luke.’

Charlie took a big bite of the carrot sandwich prepared by Mateo and gave Luke a sympathetic look.

She had felt it before, but Luke and Leon were very similar.

With their ever-present, good-natured smiles and natural demeanor, not to mention their similar appearances, they could be mistaken for brothers.

Luke, who’s younger than Leon, was innocent and always fell for it.

So, like now, they bickered whenever their eyes met.

“Well then, shall we decide today’s patrol duty?”

Leon shamelessly put down the cards he had picked up.

As if he had guessed it, five cards of the same color were laid out on the ground.

Of course, hadn’t he been collecting cards until he got the ones he wanted?

It was so bad that there was even someone who couldn’t gather five cards.

“Brother, say something.”

Luke poked Percy, the oldest among the knights, in the side.

But Percy avoided Luke’s gaze.

“You’re asking me, a mere knight, to do what even the vice-commander can’t?”

Percy casually put down his cards. It wasn’t as good as Leon’s, but it was quite a decent combination.

Seeing this, Luke’s face scrunched up.

“Wow…”

Following this, the knights participating in the game began to put down their cards one by one.

“Oh my. Me too.”

“Me too.”

Without even needing to look at the hands, it was clear that Luke was chosen again today.

A gaze full of betrayal swept over the knights.

“If you’re going to do this, why play the game? Just tell me to patrol throughout the expedition.”

“It’s not our fault you have bad luck.”

“L-Luck?”

“How do you always come last? That’s harder than winning.”

“Aren’t you all conspiring together?!”

The knights snickered as they watched Luke turn red and blue.

“You think we’d go through all that trouble just to make you last?”

“Lord Tanner said it’s called having a victim complex. That’s it.”

Luke, who would get red-faced and huff angrily with just a little teasing, was truly fun to tease.

Hector’s lips, who was reviewing documents sitting next to Charlie, stretched slightly.

‘But where have I seen this before?’

No matter how much she tried to remember, Charlie couldn’t recall seeing Luke in the original work.

The Hunt family’s knights had very little presence in the original work.

With four male protagonists, Leon, as the commander of the knights, had a certain level of presence, but other members were supporting characters among supporting characters.

‘Still, as the vice-commander, he should have appeared at least once…’

Charlie liked the Hunt family’s knights. That’s why she had read about them over and over again.

But as time passed in this world, was she forgetting the previous world? Not only was she unable to recall the original work, even the content she knew was becoming increasingly vague.

Luke.

Luke…

On the distant edge of her memory.

An image that seemed like it might come to mind, but also might not, flickered like a rising heat haze.

“Let’s play one more round. I just can’t accept this.”

Luke shuffled the deck of cards, messing them up.

“This is already the third time, man.”

“At this rate, we’ll be up all night. All night.”

Finally, the knights burst into laughter. Charlie couldn’t help but shake her shoulders too.

At that moment, a dark shadow fell over Luke’s face.

“……?”

Soon after, darkness settled here and there as if storm clouds had rolled in.

Charlie raised her head to look at the sky.

“……!”

Finally, the identity of the shadows, monsters covering the sky, bore into Charlie’s pupils.

* * *

The expedition camp, which was suddenly attacked by demonic beasts, was in utter chaos.

The remaining troops tried to set up a defensive line, but it wasn’t enough to block the monsters pouring in from all directions as soon as they were driven back.

Moreover, with Cedric, the commander-in-chief, absent, the confusion was amplified.

“Not yet?”

Noel, who was shielding the entire expedition force, spoke.

Kieran Scott, the commander of the Wilkins family knights who had just returned from the imperial army camp and Noel’s subordinate, answered.

“It seems the reconnaissance team is also under attack from monsters, causing a delay.”

“Damn it.”

Noel gritted his teeth.

Each ability had its own unique characteristics.

Hector’s ability, the power of fire, was for attack; Kaisis’s ability, the power of water, was for nullification; Cedric’s ability, the power of earth, was for defense; and Noel’s ability, the power of wind, was for fusion and evasion.

The monsters currently attacking the expedition were flying monsters called wyverns.

In other words, they were monsters with the same nature as Noel’s wind ability.

Two-legged dragons with wings called wyverns, were smaller and less intelligent than dragons, but they were quick and agile.

Moreover, since the sky was their main activity area, they were adept at reading the wind and often avoided wind magic.

Not only that, but the wyverns’ tails were poisonous.

If attacked carelessly, there was a risk of the camp being devastated by the poison spread in the air.

It wasn’t that there was no solution at all. They could simply evacuate people using warp and then attack.

However, Noel didn’t have the authority to move the imperial army.

“The Hunt family…”

Kieran hesitated, watching the direction of the river. Soon, Noel’s gaze followed Kieran’s.

There, a hemisphere-shaped shield was burning, protecting their camp.

“Ha… Hahaha.”

Noel burst into laughter at the sight of wyverns turning to ash and disappearing as soon as they touched Hector’s shield.

“Well, well, he really did well to come.”

Soon, a huge teleportation magic circle spread over the Wilkins family camp.

“Where are you trying to go? If we leave the camp, the emperor’s…”

“Don’t worry.”

Noel smiled innocently at Kieran’s attempt to dissuade him.

“Let’s go into the eye of the storm.”

Then, a blue light enveloped the Wilkins family.

TEN.

“Ah, I said let’s play one more round.”

Luke blocked Leon, who was trying to pack up the game. Leon ignored him and gathered the cards.

“The game’s over, man.”

“Can’t you see those things right now?”

Luke’s fingertip pointed at the sky swarming with wyverns.

“Shouldn’t today’s patrol be truly fair?”

That’s right…

Can’t they see those things?

Charlie looked at the nonchalant knights once, then at the wyverns burning in the air as if there were fireworks, and finally at Hector, who was sitting motionless, turning pages of documents.

“……”

She couldn’t describe how terrified she was when she first saw the monsters covering the sky.

The wyverns descending at a frightening speed seemed like they would fall right in front of her eyes and bare their sharp teeth at any moment.

So Charlie instinctively covered her head with her hands.

However, making her raised hands look foolish, the wyverns turned to ash and disappeared as soon as they touched Hector’s shield.

“It’s not even a dragon. You’re making such a fuss over mere wyverns.”

“It’s just annoying, that’s why.”

I see…

What she perceived as a life-threatening monster was just, merely, an annoyance to them.

Charlie’s pupils trembled slightly as she pretended to touch her hair, feeling embarrassed about her raised hands.

Hector’s lips curved into a smile as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

“Look at how many of them are flying in, and those incompetents can’t even handle one of them.”

Luke pointed towards the direction of the imperial army camp where commotion was rising.

Just then, with a ‘boom’ sound, smoke rose into the air.

Leon snorted as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Is this the first day they’ve been like this?”

“……”

What do you mean ‘how many’? At a glance, there seemed to be easily dozens of them.

No, in this situation where monsters are pouring down like rain,

To be sitting here leisurely playing card games… Isn’t this even stranger?

Charlie blinked her wide-open eyes.