After chatting with Felt for a while longer, Reinhard returned Emilia's insignia to her and hurriedly took his leave.
Felt appeared to be the last of the five Dragon Maidens.
Now that all five had finally been gathered, Reinhard would likely become extremely busy from this point onward.
And considering Felt's restless personality, they probably would not be seeing much of him for quite some time.
After bidding Reinhard farewell, Shiro also prepared to leave.
Before investigating the Witch Cult, he still needed to find somewhere to stay tonight.
He certainly did not want his first day in another world to end with him sleeping on the streets.
"Um!"
At that moment, Emilia suddenly called out to him.
Her voice sounded hesitant.
"Thank you... for what happened earlier."
In the end, she suppressed the complicated emotions in her heart and met Shiro's gaze with her blue-violet eyes, sincerely expressing her gratitude.
Shiro shook his head.
"It's fine."
"As long as you don't end up blaming me for it."
"Blaming you?"
"Mm. You're one of the Dragon Maidens too, aren't you?"
"You should understand better than I do what Reinhard swearing allegiance to Felt means."
The insignia embedded with a Dragon Jewel had been stolen from Emilia by Felt.
That meant Emilia was almost certainly one of the five Dragon Maidens as well.
As one of the candidates for the throne, the power supporting her was naturally extremely important.
Whether Reinhard himself or the Astrea family standing behind him, either was a force that could not be ignored.
If Shiro had not dragged Reinhard into another fight after dealing with the Bowel Hunter, Reinhard might never have discovered that Felt was also a Dragon Maiden.
And he certainly would not have immediately sworn allegiance to a girl who might be descended from the former royal family.
So even though Shiro had never intended it—His actions had undeniably created an extremely powerful rival for Emilia in the Royal Selection.
After understanding the implications, Emilia still showed no resentment toward him.
Instead, she shook her head.
"Who Reinhard chooses to serve is his own decision."
"I have no reason to blame you for that."
"And besides... with the way I look, even if Felt had never appeared, Reinhard probably would have remained neutral anyway..."
Her voice became slightly subdued.
Emilia herself knew that she had nothing to do with the Witch of Envy who destroyed half the world centuries ago.
But she could not deny that her appearance inspired irrational fear among the people of this kingdom.
If Reinhard, who was practically regarded as Lugunica's guardian deity, openly declared his allegiance to her, it would undoubtedly cause enormous controversy among the population.
Emilia's kindness would never allow her to casually destroy another person's reputation purely for her own ambitions.
So even if Reinhard had sworn allegiance to her instead of Felt earlier—Unless Emilia knew that serving her would genuinely benefit him, she probably would have refused.
Forcing herself to brighten up, Emilia continued.
"Besides, you saved my life earlier."
"That makes it even more impossible for me to blame you."
"The reason I stopped you now is because I remembered you mentioning to Reinhard that you had only just arrived in Lugunica."
"So you probably haven't found anywhere to stay yet, right?"
"To thank you, if you don't mind... would you like to stay where I'm living until you find a suitable place?"
"Are you sure?"
"I really was planning to find somewhere temporary, but aren't you worried about inviting a complete stranger into your home?"
"What if I'm a spy sent by another Royal Selection candidate to gather information?"
"If you really were a spy sent by another candidate, you could have simply let the Bowel Hunter kill me earlier."
"But you still chose to save me, didn't you?"
Emilia smiled as she answered him seriously.
Shiro could not detect even the slightest desire to exploit him in her eyes.
That meant she had not suddenly made this offer simply because she saw him fight evenly with Reinhard.
Most likely—From the moment Shiro saved her, Emilia had already been thinking about how she could repay him.
Then, apparently remembering something, she hurriedly added—
"Although... for various reasons, I'm currently staying in someone else's home too."
"But if Roswaal has any objections, I'll convince him."
A trace of embarrassment entered her voice.
After all, she was supposedly inviting Shiro to stay with her—Only for him to discover she herself was merely a guest in someone else's home.
Even Emilia found that somewhat awkward to say aloud.
Fortunately, although Roswaal looked slightly perverted, he was not an unreasonable person.
Given their cooperative relationship, Emilia believed he would probably agree to this request.
Since she had already gone this far—And Shiro genuinely did need somewhere to stay—He nodded and accepted.
The moment he agreed to visit her residence, a lily-like smile visibly blossomed across Emilia's face.
However—Both of them had forgotten that there was still another person standing nearby.
"Eh? Wait!"
"You're going to stay at a beautiful girl's house, so what am I supposed to do?!"
Subaru pointed at himself.
Unlike Shiro, Subaru had apparently been picked up from the roadside by Emilia as someone needing help.
To repay her kindness, he had tried to help Emilia recover her stolen insignia.
But now the insignia had already been found.
Didn't that mean—He was completely useless now?!
Subaru immediately turned toward Shiro with a pleading look.
That expression made Shiro instinctively rub his forehead.
Technically, he could simply ignore whether Subaru lived or died.
But if Subaru randomly died in some forgotten corner again like before, the entire world would probably reset.
Then whatever Shiro happened to be doing at the time would also be affected.
So at the very least, Subaru needed to be placed somewhere relatively safe.
That way, Shiro would not have to worry about suddenly being thrown back to the beginning while halfway through something important.
'Where in this country would actually be safe?'
'Reinhard?'
If Shiro asked him, Reinhard probably would not refuse.
But right now, Reinhard was likely going to be extremely busy with the Royal Selection.
'Forget it.'
'Next time I see Reinhard, I'll dump this guy on him.'
Thinking that, Shiro pointed at Subaru with an openly disgusted expression and asked Emilia—
"Can this guy come too?"
"He can repay the extra food and lodging expenses by working while he stays there."
"Eh? There's no need."
"If Natsuki Subaru is your friend, he can simply come with us."
"But before that, I still need to find someone."
"Find someone?"
"Um... she's an attendant assigned to me by the person supporting my participation in the Royal Selection."
"We got separated while walking around earlier."
"She's probably extremely worried by now..."
The moment Emilia mentioned it, her cheeks began heating up.
She had become so fascinated by the sights of the royal capital that she completely forgot the instruction to stay where she was and wait.
And in the end—She got herself lost.
Even someone as honest as Emilia found that incident far too embarrassing to admit openly.
At that moment, a pleasant voice like the ringing of wind chimes came from behind them.
"Ram is relieved that Lady Emilia possesses at least that much self-awareness."
"However, Lady Emilia, please inform Ram before wandering off next time."
"Disappearing without a word causes Ram a great deal of trouble."
…