An Old Country Bumpkin Receives Reinforcements

“...Who was that?!”

Something had just come between me and the knights.

After we each put some distance between us, I turned my gaze toward where the object had come from.

A girl stood there with her black robe fluttering, a sword at the ready.

“...Fissel?!”

There was no mistaking her. It was Fissel Haverla, the Mage Corps’ young ace. She was my former student. I hadn’t recognized her when we first met, but after our reunion, there was no way I could mistake her for anyone else.

“Wh-why...?”

Even though I was in the middle of crossing swords with the knights, my question slipped out before anything else.

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t think of any reason Fissel would be here.

The Mage Corps wasn’t supposed to be able to get involved in this whole affair concerning the Sphen Church. That included Lucy, the Corps commander. It made no sense for the Mage Corps as an organization to stick its nose into this incident. If they did, there’d be no point in having me accept Ibroi’s request and act alone...