Mia, being uninjured aside from a few cuts, used her prodigious physical reinforcement to carry Noah, running alongside Emma back to the palace for Noah's treatment. Meanwhile, Evan panted and groaned as he forced his body to try to run at what was the jogging pace for the other two girls. One of them basically had a fully grown man over her shoulder! How was she faster than him, who was using mana at full capacity? Maybe it was not too late to pretend to collapse; maybe Mia would throw him over her shoulder so he could enjoy a ride back to the palace?

When the three paused their run to take a short water break, Evan snuck a glance at the collapsed Noah. His face looked like he was closer to dying than before he was forced onto Mia's shoulder. Connecting the dots, Evan shuddered. Now that he thought about it, being carried over the shoulder as a man would be vastly different than for a woman, particularly due to the presence of a certain organ. He glanced down, then looked up, then smiled to himself.

Maybe running wasn't all that bad.

When Noah recovered a day later, he was diagnosed to have fainted from the immense shock of breaking most of his arms, which made sense considering his low pain tolerance that had not yet adapted to the warrior lifestyle.

When Princess Elara discovered their injuries, including the stunt Evan almost had to pull, she was understandably enraged. However, she was not in a position to protest against her father's callous treatment, which endlessly frustrated her.

Nevertheless, she worked tirelessly within her capabilities to provide the support they might have needed to recover, such as calling for the best nurses, healing mages, and clerics to attend to them until they were fully healed. A week later, they were back to full strength, and ready to get back to training. When they tried to tell the Princess this, however...

"You must rest more! You have this opportunity; it will not come around very often!"

"And you? When's the last time you took a break?"

"That's besides the point!"

Evan was met by violent resistance from a very obviously overworked Princess Elara, as evidenced by her eye bags that were reminiscent of pandas. He frowned, having come to some realisation in his head. He put his hand to his chin, and thought about something, before moving.

"Alright, enough of this. I won't let you go until you fall asleep; no objections. We'll figure out something about the training grounds ourselves."

"Mmmgfhmmm!-"

"Ahh, what was that? You're sleepy? I see, I see, I guess you should sleep then."

"Mmgh…"

Evan had shoved Princess Elara's head into his chest nonchalantly. Contrary to what one might believe, however, the Princess didn't seem to be objecting to the body contact. She actually looked to be...enjoying herself? At this sight, Mia fell into deep thought, and she came to an understanding of the situation.

"I was expecting Noah to be the one to capture her. It's surprising that dense Evan did it first. Right, Emma?"

"Hundred percent, Mia. Are you okay with Evan making moves like that, Noah? I'm a girl, but I gotta admit, she's a helluva catch."

"What the fuck are you yapping on about?"

The three who had followed Evan when he proposed that they return to the training grounds so he could pitch it to the Princess had not expected a moment of intimacy.

"What are you guys on about? I'm trying to get her to sleep; get your brains out of the gutter."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I'm sure she sees it that way as well, and resting on your chest is deeeeefinitely going to lead to her peacefully going to sleep."

Evan had a conventionally attractive face. Along with his frequent physical activity, he had a physical build comparable to that of most gym nuts. The black compression shirt he usually wore and his black training pants emphasized his figure, and as a result, he had been victim to no small number of girls fawning over him, though he had been far too dense to ever capitalize on any of it. It seemed that this behavior of his had not changed from his time in this world.

The clothing he wore was similar to the clothing on Earth, except slightly modified to fit the fashion trends of this continent as well. He now wore black loose-fitting draped pants, black boots, and a form-fitting long-sleeved mesh shirt. The outfit was reminiscent of what he usually wore most of the time on Earth, and the black thigh bag completed his look.

The difference between an edgelord and a cool outfit was practicality, and everything Evan wore oozed it. The gentle but sharp aura he gave off would add to the effect of his clothing. It had always only been a matter of time before the sheltered princess, who had no contact with males outside of her family, fell for his charms. His looks undoubtedly helped as well.

"Well, even if you aren't doing it consciously, at least you're making moves. This guy, though, I think his stick don't work."

"Real classy, Emma, impotence joke? Really? For all your fancy talk about romance, I haven't seen you actually get with someone."

"Noo! I'll marry Miaaa!"

Emma's joke that she squealed out earned her two deadpan expressions and a wry grin from the girl whose arm she had grabbed onto. She would have earned another wry grin from another person, but the person happened to be too busy short-circuiting in Evan's arms. Seeing that Evan was going to try to get the Princess to nap instead of accompanying them, Mia raised a question that emerged in her mind.

"If we want the princess to sleep, though, she won't be able to fly us over to the training arena…"

The existence of the four heroes had not yet been revealed to the public, other than to a few nobles. The training arena was fairly distant from the palace, though both were located within the expansive royal grounds, which also consisted of a smithy, a bakery, an exclusive jeweler, and other facilities and services the royal family might need.

If the four heroes were spotted by one of these unauthorized people who then figured out their identity, the public may very well come to quickly know of their existence if that information was sold, which could culminate in consequences the heroes could not foresee due to their lack of knowledge about the Calysta continent.

As a result, Mia figured that they would have to rely on the Princess's flight spell. Emma swiveled her head to Noah, then Evan, then slowly twisted her face into a malefic grin.

"Even if the princess takes flight with us, the people on the ground could just look up to see us. This means that it doesn't matter if they catch glimpses of us, as long as we travel quickly, right?"

"Wait, are you…? No, wait, surely there would be another-"

Shortly later, an observant denizen of the royal grounds could have seen what looked like two grown men with tears streaming out of their eyes, bouncing around on the shoulders of two women as they swiftly jumped from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of the training grounds. One could only speculate if their tears came from the pain of their violently bouncing 'holy swords' or from their quickly shattering dignity.

As the four arrived at the training area through the open roof, they were greeted by a group of armored men performing training drills. The armor they wore was significantly less flashy than that of Claus', carrying none of the shine or the angel wings and instead being marred with nicks and cuts, very obviously having been used extensively on the battlefield. Noah let out a compliment in surprise.

"It's actually practical stuff."

The men had sensed their descent long before their landing smack dab in the center of the training arena and had cleared a landing zone for them, then, in an unexpected move, pointed their rapiers towards the four in an encirclement.

"Name yourselves, intruders!"

Surprised by their words and actions, they put their hands up in a placating manner, and were about to explain themselves, before being suddenly paralyzed.

A chill ran down Noah's spine, as he slowly pivoted his head.

After their encounter with the ogre demon, they thought they had understood what a powerful presence felt like. Even when they encountered the ogre demon, they had improved enough to not freeze up as they had when Claus had directed his bloodthirst towards them for the first time, and had believed themselves to have gotten used to pressuring gazes. They now knew they were mistaken.

The sheer presence of the man who was the source of the booming voice felt like an endless ocean moments away from swallowing them whole, almost proclaiming that the four were bugs that would simply drown without even leaving a ripple on his countenance if he willed it so.