2.Escort Mission
It was only a few years ago where the memories of my past life had returned to me, Arta Schweitz I had no family or title of my own, I only had the name Arta which was given to me by the orphanage I was in. It was when I became 5 years old that I first came into contact with magic.
It was then that I remembered that I was formerly the swordmaster Raoul Izarufu. While this is the memory of my past life, I can’t exactly say for certain whether I was reincarnated.

After all, there’s no way to prove that I was Raoul, and I don’t really have the intention to spread that as a rumor either.

But for me, to have gained knowledge in regards to swords and magic, that’s good enough.

I was recognized for those talents, and I was accepted as the adopted son of the noble Schweitz family and I began to my duty as a knight for the kingdom. And so, I became the youngest knight in the kingdom.
Of course, I don’t have the intention of making that public.
Knights have their own class, and being a first rank officer, I was in a position where I had relatively more freedom than the others.

If you were to ask me what would I want to be if I were reincarnated, I wouldn’t be able to answer you what I would want to be. It’s just that I would like try out things that I wasn’t able to do before, I don’t really want to put in too much effort. In my previous life, I only became stronger to fight. With that in mind, since I hold Raoul’s memories, I think I might be able to actually do it. All I want to do is just quickly earn money from my job, quickly retire and live a comfortable leisurely life.

＊＊＊

“Taken out more than half of the monsters and you took out the pack leader, casualties from our side was 0. There were a few wounded, but almost no damage overall. Excellent work first-class officer Arta Schweitz.”

“Thank you very much, Captain Lemille Ein.”
I said while bowing my head.

Laying her elbows on the desk while reading over the report is a woman called Lemille Ein. She is the leader of my squad, the Knights of the Black Wolf. Her hair is long and red, tied neatly behind her head, and she wears her knight’s uniform in a slightly more casual style. The area around her chest being slightly exposed is something I occasionally whether it’s ok as a knight but it seems like that kind of varies depending on the group. So, I guess those kinds of things are allowed here.

“So, I will get compensation for the number of monsters I have defeated, right? “

“You shouldn’t always be talking about money. Why worry about such a thing when you’re still so young? Is the Schweitz household in such a tight spot?”

“Regarding the Schweitz household, even if I weren’t earning money there wouldn’t be any issues. My stepfather, who’s the current head of the household is an amazing person after all. I’m just a greedy person is all.”
“So, it’s not really to be concerned about” I answered.

It’s only natural to feel happy when you earn money after all, and being able to save money just feels good. Depending on whether you’re going to buy a house in the country side or in the city, the amount of money you need to save changes.

(I guess I’ll eventually have to decide on that huh… Personally, I think I would prefer the country.)

“By the way, captain, are you someone who prefers cities? Or do you prefer the country side?”

“Are you really ok with this being your pick up line? You’re absolutely sure right?”

“You’re getting the wrong idea. I’m talking about where to live in the future.”
“I mean, if you’re going to propose, you really should be a little bit romantic than this. Besides, our age difference would cause quite the ruckus you know.”

“Sorry, it was my mistake to ask you in the first place”

As I said that, Lemille just laughed and said that she was just joking.
That’s just the kind of person she is. For me it just makes it easier to talk to her. Although sometimes she can just be a pain.

“Well, you’re free to choose whether to live in the countryside or in the city for the future, but while you’re still young, let’s talk about the ‘now.'”

I’m getting a bad feeling about this. Lemille took out one sheet of paper.
On it was a portrayal of a young girl along with several lines of information.

“Hm? I think I’ve seen this person before…”

“Well, yeah. After all, this is miss Iris Reinfell, the daughter of the Reinfell household’s head and in this capital, she is known as the strongest knight. The Reinfell family is one of the four great noble households as well.”

I took the sheet of paper that she handed over.
“Maiden of the sword” ― is what she’s being called it seems.
Combining both swordsmanship and magic, she is unparalleled as a magic swordswoman. While she is a woman, she stands among the highest swordmasters, and indeed, at the tender age of 15 she deserves to be called a genius wonderwoman I haven’t exactly spoken to her, but I have seen her once. I remember her behaving in a very dignified way.

“The four noble families… So exactly what happened with this lady?”

“I would like you to protect her.”

“Whaaat?”

I instinctively let out.
Looks like my premonition was right.

“It’s an escort mission, haven’t you done one before?”

“I mean, I have but… Escorting the maiden of the sword..”

I mean, is it even necessary? Or so I thought to myself, I probably shouldn’t say it out loud though.

Lemille let a small sigh.

Look, I know what you’re trying to say. Even she’s saying that an escort isn’t necessary. But we’ve been seeing some suspicious activity lately.”

“Suspicious activity…?”
“Yeah. We’re still currently investigating it, but even in this country, miss Iris is a noble with widespread public support – she is a candidate to become the next emperor. Whatever the case, there’s no way we can allow this person to go unguarded.”

“Even if that’s the case, why me?”

“According to the mistress: ‘I have no intention of being protected by someone weaker than me.’ She certainly has guts, I’ll give her that, but because of that there really weren’t too many people we could dispatch immediately for this mission. The only one we could dispatch immediately was just you.”

Rather than being chosen, it’s more like I’m the only one available for this mission it seems. Indeed, looking for someone who’s stronger than the maiden of the sword would be pretty tough on such short notice. And it seems like any candidates outside of myself are already out of the picture.

“But it seems like miss Iris attends school… Is it really OK for me to just stay close to her?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. We’ve already taken care of that after all.”

Lemille laughed cunningly.
I’m having a bad feeling about this all over again.