François's guard unit was completely wiped out, but I still couldn't let my guard down. The strongest person in the group was Uncle François himself. Don't let his appearance of someone about to throw out his back fool you–if you truly thought Uncle François was just an ordinary old man, you'd be in for a world of hurt.
Not only that, but possibly due to being too close to Baron Hurst's territory, I could already see reinforcements from Baron Hurst's domain approaching.
Uncle François drew his spear, and I returned my umbrella to storage space. What I was about to face would be a hard-fought battle.
However, a figure stepped in front of me.
"Baron Trafalgar?"
"You retreat first and go meet up with them. Carol Cat is an ordinary adventurer with combat power of only five, she'll get beaten up if she encounters any slightly troublesome enemies."
"But what about you..."
"The reinforcements are my people. They can't do anything to me."
Trafalgar was the actual lord of Baron Hurst's territory, so in a sense there really was no need to worry. Besides, now wasn't the time for indecision.
"Baron Trafalgar, may fortune favor you in battle."
"Why does it feel like you just set up a death flag for me before leaving? Whatever, I'll catch up with you all before long. Go quickly."
[Anastasia's affection toward "Trafalgar" +1]
Baron Trafalgar voluntarily stayed behind to block Uncle François, though Uncle François just stood in place massaging his lower back and didn't do much else.
"Tempus fugit (Time, accelerate your flow)!"
I didn't really want to use this skill. Not so much because running too fast made it hard to see the scenery on both sides and easy to crash into things, but because when running... well, things bounced around a lot... I mean, I'm clearly wearing underwear properly, so why do they still bounce...
Sigrdrífa and the others hadn't run far, so I caught up with them immediately, even startling Sigrdrífa quite a bit.
"Who?!"
"It's me."
"You should have said so earlier... you scared me to death..."
"A-Anna... why aren't you... breathing hard at all, meow..."
"I have a skill called [Ripple Breathing]. No matter how fast I run, I can speak fluently."
Even if someone called me at night while I was jogging, with this skill, I wouldn't sound out of breath from running... though there are no phones on the Lemoria continent anyway.
After confirming there were no pursuers behind us, Sigrdrífa temporarily slowed her pace.
"Anna, where are we going?"
"In any case, we need to get away from Hurst first... we..."
This was bad.
"Rifa, a large number of adventurers are approaching... this might be a fierce battle."
I protected Lily and the others behind me. There were many adventurers coming from all directions. If we ran back, we'd collide with the pursuers from Hurst.
Perhaps Uncle François was certain that adventurers would quickly come to support him, which is why he didn't press the attack. With generous rewards as fuel, the adventurers must all be running at full throttle.
"I see them!"
"That must be Amaryllis!"
"Amaryllis's bounty is mine..."
"Hey, isn't that Anna?"
From far away, I could hear the adventurers' noisy voices, each one pushing ahead of the others like it was mealtime in a cafeteria.
But after seeing me, they all slammed on the brakes.
The number of adventurers... over a hundred... and probably more would keep arriving.
"Why is Anna here?"
"I don't know..."
"No wonder we couldn't see Anna around Rothschild."
The adventurers didn't rashly attack, but they all unanimously focused on Lily, who was wearing a cloak.
Lily hid behind Sigrdrífa, not daring to make a sound. Even if we wanted to use spatial transfer to escape, the casting time and distance weren't ideal.
"Anna."
One of the adventurers near the front spoke tentatively.
"Who is that child behind you?"
In The Eternal Pacificus, NPCs don't have their names floating above their heads - otherwise the Duke wouldn't have needed to specifically commission a portrait of Lily.
"Good evening. She is my friend. She's a bit shy, so I hope you adventurers will understand."
"Could you have her remove her hood so we can see? Anna, we're looking for someone."
The adventurer ignored my explanation and insisted on having Lily remove her hood to get a look.
I answered by blocking that adventurer's line of sight - his intrusive gaze made Lily very uncomfortable.
The adventurers looked at each other. They didn't seem to belong to the same organization, but were purely scattered soldiers who had gathered together, or rather, it would be more appropriate to say they were going the same way.
"Anna is here? What's going on?"
"Is the kid behind Anna actually Amaryllis or not?"
"Who knows... I'm inclined to think she is."
"Could it be that the Duke's quest conflicts with Anna?"
"Honestly, the reward for this quest really doesn't match the difficulty of completion, don't you think?"
"If you mess this up, tonight the game planners' mothers will definitely have to pay higher prices when grocery shopping."
A significant dispute arose among the adventurers. My appearance here seemed to leave them deeply confused.
That adventurer spoke up again.
"Anna, you just need to have her remove her hood. If she's not Amaryllis, there's no problem, we won't mistake the wrong person."
"I'm sorry, but she's a shy child. I'm afraid I cannot comply."
We were simply too close to the source of the emergency signal. Trying to play cute and get through this wouldn't work.
As long as Lily didn't remove her hood, no matter how I answered or refused to answer, it would only intensify their suspicions.
I had no way of knowing what complex inner struggle the lead adventurer had experienced, but after gritting his teeth, he didn't put away the weapon in his hand.
"Either way, you never increase affection anyway, and the Duke's reward is real! If you want to harbor Amaryllis, don't blame us..."
A gleaming dagger suddenly pierced through the adventurer's chest from behind.
The one who struck was another adventurer, who also had his eyes wide with surprise, as if he hadn't expected to succeed so easily.
"You! What the hell...?!"
"...Shut up."
And that backstabbing adventurer wiped the sweat from his forehead, practically squeezing out a few words from between his teeth.
"Cannot... harm... Anna...!"