'Right now, I'm walking through the air!'
Well.
Technically, she was being carried.
'But so this was what it felt like to look down on the earth from the sky. It felt so free.'
'The sky was so close.'
'It felt as though i could touch it simply by reaching out.'
The girl raised her hand and closed her palm around the stars overhead.
"Eleonora..."
"What?"
"M-my name is Eleonora! What about you, Sir Knight?"
"..."
After hesitating for roughly half a second, Rayleigh said, "Ulquiorra Cifer."
"Mmph—"
"That's a fake name, isn't it?"
The blond girl, Eleonora, saw straight through the truth behind Rayleigh's silence.
Her face immediately filled with dissatisfaction.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Hmph."
The girl gave a spoiled little huff, but she did not continue pursuing the matter.
The two soon returned to the Great Cathedral.
Rayleigh placed the girl back where she had been praying earlier.
Under the lights of the Great Cathedral, the injuries on her body became even more obvious.
Eleonora noticed his gaze immediately and smiled bitterly.
"Ah, this is going to be rather troublesome. I suppose I'll have to choose a special outfit to hide them."
Rayleigh shook his head.
Using Kidō, he condensed a mirror and placed it in front of the girl.
Eleonora looked at herself in the mirror, only then realizing that the corners of her mouth had also been left with two red marks from the rough treatment she had suffered.
"Ah!"
The girl cried out in alarm.
Her attitude was completely different from when she had been looking at the injuries on her body.
This time, she was clearly anxious.
"Oh no, what should I do? Will these disappear before tomorrow...? Mm."
Rayleigh let out a long breath.
He raised his hand and lightly touched his finger in front of the girl's face, releasing a faint glow.
The power of Kaidō began to take effect.
The wounds at the corners of Eleonora's mouth and on her cheeks quickly faded. In just a few seconds, they vanished completely.
After that, the injuries on her body also began healing rapidly.
Even her body, which had been chilled by the night wind, grew warm again.
"It's so warm. Amazing! You can even use healing magic!"
The blond young lady looked at her radiant reflection in the mirror with delight, offering Rayleigh no small amount of admiration.
She touched the places where she had been injured.
There was no strange sensation at all. It was as though the wounds had never existed in the first place.
"Then I'll be going now."
Rayleigh turned, intending to leave.
But the girl immediately called out to stop him.
"Eh? Where are you going?"
"Huh?"
"It has already started, you know. Your escort mission."
Eleonora tilted her adorable little head.
"Now?"
"That's right. We already made a promise, didn't we? Until you finish your business, you have to protect me."
When she smiled, her eyes curved like crescent moons.
She was cute, certainly.
But she truly gave Rayleigh a headache!
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to ease the pressure there.
This was a little troublesome.
He still had something else he needed to do next.
"Then I'm going out for a bit. I'll be back in less than an hour. During that time, as long as you stay here, you'll be safe."
As Rayleigh spoke, he snapped his fingers.
Around the girl, three Reiryoku anchor points were constructed, then connected to one another, forming a pale-green triangular barrier.
"Oooooh!"
The girl's face filled with surprise and curiosity as she began touching and examining the barrier that now protected her.
By the time she turned back around, Rayleigh had already disappeared.
And just then...
The girl's formerly excited expression suddenly froze.
Then it changed into the look of someone facing the greatest crisis of her life.
'Oh no.'
'Oh no, oh no!'
'This feeling.'
'No way!'
She had not felt anything at all a moment ago, so why had it suddenly burst out now?
At this rate, she was going to leak!
The girl clamped her legs together, her cheeks flushing red.
But this barrier worked both ways.
The outside world might not be able to harm her, but she could not get out either!
"Hey, hey, you have to be joking! Come back here, Ulqui-something!"
The despairing girl forced herself to endure, tears nearly squeezing out of her eyes.
She did not dare call for help!
Putting aside whether the knights outside could even break this barrier, if they came in and witnessed her "social death" scene, how was she supposed to keep living?
She would rather die than let that happen!
And so, the girl began to pray.
....
Meanwhile, Rayleigh had returned to the inn.
Using Kyokkō to conceal himself, he slipped back into the room.
The moment he entered, he saw a beastman girl sniffing and searching around every corner of the place.
"What are you doing?"
The boy's voice suddenly rang out of thin air.
Lulune, who had been carefully investigating the details of the room, was so frightened that she jumped on the spot.
If she had not reacted quickly and covered her own mouth, she probably would have drawn the attention of others.
"Y-y-y-you!"
She pointed at Rayleigh, who had suddenly "popped out" of nowhere, her voice trembling nonstop.
Both of her legs were shaking as well.
Rayleigh was honestly a little impressed to see her here.
"You really did sneak in. Not bad."
"Uh, well, I'm technically a professional."
Lulune seemed like she wanted to protest Rayleigh's wording, but she was also somewhat timid, so she could only mutter softly.
"Then did you bring my sword in as well?"
"Of course. I'm not carrying it on me, but I guarantee I can get it into your hands whenever you need it."
"Good. Thanks for your trouble."
Rayleigh exchanged information with Lulune.
He also asked her whether she knew of a noble young lady in Rakia Kingdom named Eleonora.
In his memory, that name was not on the list of people he needed to pay special attention to.
"Eleonora?"
Lulune thought for a while, then shook her head.
Afterward, she asked Rayleigh to explain the whole process of how he had met that girl.
After listening, the beastman girl's face took on a look that clearly said, "Are you messing with me?"
"What is that supposed to be, a fairy tale? A hero saving a beauty? An adventurer and a princess? Two people bound together by fate?"
"Don't ask me."
Rayleigh also felt a little awkward under her teasing.
After all, that kind of experience really did sound like the opening to one of those romantic love stories.
The beastman girl shuddered all over.
"Eugh, I'm getting goosebumps!"
"Is it really that bad?"
"Forget it. I'll investigate the identity of the Eleonora girl, but I advise you not to get your hopes up. That's probably a fake name too."
'A fake name.'
Rayleigh thought about it briefly.
He did not actually think so.
After all, the other party had asked him to serve as her bodyguard. After this, he would definitely come into contact with people who knew her.
Servants, nobles, whoever they might be.
When that time came, her real name would naturally be exposed.
In that case, using a fake name would be meaningless.
"Is that advice from experience?"
"No. That's how it always goes in romance adventure novels."
"You can shut up now."
Rayleigh was speechless.
"By the way, do you like reading that sort of thing?"
"N-no, I don't."
"But you seem very familiar with them."
"In our line of work, even if you don't want to know about them, you hear so much that you get sick of it."
The chienthrope's eyes turned weary.
It was as though she had remembered some terrible past.
"Come here for a moment."
Before they split up, Rayleigh called the beastman girl to a stop.
Lulune approached him nervously.
Rayleigh used a sealing technique to seal a simplified version of Tenteikūra onto the back of the girl's hand.
"This is my magic. I'm lending it to you temporarily. With your Mind, you should be able to use it two or three times, around thirty seconds each time. Contact me if anything urgent happens."
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