17 I’m a knight, there's no need to worry

Mordred nodded his head and turned to Puck. "And this must be Puck-sama, a Great Spirit. It's nice to meet you."

Puck crossed his arms and looked at Mordred sternly, nodding, and then he smiled. "Hufu, not bad. Mortals must show respect to this great one! But I like you a little, so you can just call me Puck!"

"Okay! Then Puck." Mordred smiled and presented his hand to the cat spirit as well.

"Haha! Nice to meet you!" Puck flew over straight toward Mordred's hand.

Mordred imitated the Episode 0 of the anime and caught Puck in his palm, before beginning to pet and tickle him with his finger.

"Hahaha! Haha!" Puck giggled uncontrollably as Mordred tickled him, rolling on his back.

"Huh, it's strange for people to act so closely with spirits…" Emilia commented softly at the side, looking a little surprised.

Mordred continued playing with Puck and tickled his soft fur with a smile, and Puck seemed to genuinely enjoy it as if he was just a very carefree and happy cat. After a while, Mordred couldn't help but think, 'Emilia's Royal Insignia was just stolen and without it her entire dream of unfreezing her people would be over. Time is of the essence. Just how can this guy be so carefree in this situation?'

"Mordred, are you a noble tourist?" Emilia suddenly asked curiously with an innocent expression. During the martial law basically only nobles are allowed to visit Lugnica, so it was a natural guess. It was also possible that Mordred interacted with spirits before due to his background.

Mordred stopped giggling Puck and switched to only stroking his back. Looking at Emilia, he said, "Yeah, I'm a noble tourist."

Mordred didn't find much pride in bragging about his 'noble background', but it was simply the truth; Emilia would find out all about him in the future anyway, so he didn't want to lie to her.

Puck right now seemed to look quite happy and carefree as he flew up from the top of Mordred's palm. He asked Mordred curiously, "Speaking of which, your clothes are rather unique… Mordred, where are you from?"

"Where? Well, it isn't really a secret for me. I'm not from this continent, or like you people say it - I'm from beyond the Great Waterfall," Mordred said. He found out that saying he's from another world only confused people.

Both Puck and Emilia looked at Mordred wide-eyed in surprise.

After a moment, Puck said, "I can feel that you believe in what you're saying, but that's still very surprising."

"Em. Mordred, are you really not from our continent?" Emilia asked, staring straight into Mordred's eyes.

Mordred had to admit that Emmilia looked incredibly innocently charming right now and it caused his heart to heat up. He replied, "Yes. I got to Lugnica with teleportation magic just recently."

"Ah. So you're away from home by yourself?" Emilia muttered with visible concern on her face, seeming to have already accepted Mordred's explanation.

"Yes, but I'm not sad about it. It's complicated, but there is no-one waiting for me back home. I'm glad that I'm here now," Mordred said with a smile and nodded in reassurance.

After a moment, Mordred sighed as his expression darkened. It isn't entirely true that he left nothing behind - back on Earth he might not care much about his parents or distant relatives, but he did have a girlfriend that he loved and their relationship was also really good; and they even planned to marry one day. At this moment, he disappeared suddenly, leaving her alone without a word, and he felt burdened by it.

"Mordred?" Emilia asked, tilting her head with an innocently concerned expression as she saw that Mordred appeared absentminded.

Puck seemed to have felt Mordred's emotions, because he started rubbing his fur against Mordred's cheek.

Mordred stood still for a moment. In the beginning, due to the constant stream of events and the shift in his identity, and his ambitions, he put that matter aside and forcefully ignored it, but when he had free time to think about everything during Day 1 loops, he then felt very guilty for leaving his girlfriend and even more for moving on like this. However, over the year that he spent looping he had already fully accepted in his heart that he would never come back to Earth, and let alone manage to come back to the same time period; and in the first place he didn't even want to come back anymore.

It is true that the relationship with his girlfriend was good, but that was just this - good; he did love her, but it was not really to the point that he would lock himself up in solitude for four centuries and suffer by himself just to wait for her. It was not true love, but love out of convenience to ease each other's loneliness in the modern world.

"Well, let's find your insignia, Emilia," Mordred suddenly said as he looked at the half-elf girl with a gentle smile, his expression brightened up.

"Em." Emilia nodded at Mordred after a while when she noticed Mordred's now relaxed attitude. "Mordred, do you know where this Felt girl lives?"

"I don't know where she lives, but I know where she works. Felt works for a place called Old Man Rom's Loot House. If she stole your insignia, then it's very likely that she would sell it there," Mordred said.

Emilia's eyes flashed. "Then we must hurry and get it back before it's sold. Mordred, do you know where it is?"

Mordred faintly smiled. If they went there directly it would just be too boring. He said, "It's somewhere in the slums. We can find it if we ask around."

"Em. Then let's go!" Emilia seemed to be full of spirit as she began walking out.

Mordred hummed as he followed Emilia out of the alley. He asked, "Emilia, do you really not have any money? Not even a penny?"

"I'm not sure what a penny is, but my purse was stolen by a thief like I said, so I have no money," Emilia said, pursing her lips with an innocent look.

"Ah, so you kept your insignia in a purse?" Mordred voiced out his thoughts. He somewhat remembered that in the anime Felt held the insignia in her hand as she jumped over the roofs, and when she ran over through the alley just a while ago she also clutched the insignia in her hand but she didn't have a purse, so he felt slightly confused.

"No, it was another thief who stole it," Emilia said.

"What?! So you were robbed twice in a single day?!" Mordred called out, looking at Emilia dumbfoundedly.

Emilia pouted innocently. "It's not my fault I was robbed! The thieves were really quick. I didn't even notice when they took my things!"

Mordred sighed. "Ah well, I have a few coins, so it should be enough to buy some pastries."

"Pastries?" Emilia raised her eyebrows, appearing confused.

"We need to get some food first. Let's go!" Mordred said with a smile and started leading the way to the marketplace.

"Em, Mordred, why do we need to get food?" Emilia asked, appearing irritated and not moving a step. "I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry. My insignia is very important to me. Thank you for your help, but if you're hungry we should go our separate ways."

Mordred looked at Emilia with a flat expression. "We need to find Felt and Old Man Rom in the slums, but no one would normally sell out their own, right? Our appearances are quite unusual, so it's best to use some kind of bribe to get the information. Or do you plan to threaten and beat up random people?"

Emilia shook her head immediately. "No, I wouldn't, but…"

"Anyway, let's just make it quick. Seeing how you have no money, it's best to get some food to ensure we find the place," Mordred said, turning to leave; they were already in the commercial district, so finding a place selling some food wouldn't take long.

Naturally, getting the pastries was mostly just Mordred's excuse to spend more time with Emilia. Mordred wasn't only doing it for himself though, as he also wanted to give Emilia some nice memories; and it isn't likey they would be late to retrieve the Insignia either way.

Emilia continued standing in place and hesitating as she simply didn't understand how some pastries could possibly allow them to get the information they needed; she was never in the slums of the capital, so she had no idea just how hungry and poor people there are.

"Humu, Mordred is right, Lia. You should just go with him and hurry up," Puck said, shrugging his shoulders and sighing.

"Ummm, alright!" Seeing how determined Mordred appeared and along with Puck's support, Emilia decided to put her trust in Mordred and caught up to him.

The two of them, plus Puck who had already hidden himself away, then went to the shopping district to find a bakery.

Unlike in the anime, Emilia was hiding her pointy ears behind her hair, so despite the fact that she had eye-catching long silver hair and a fair expression, people didn't instantly think that she was a half-elf, as half-elves are thought to be extinct. Nonetheless Emilia and Mordred pair still attracted quite a bit of attention.

"Eh, Mordred, don't you get the feeling that this child is lost?" Emilia suddenly said, pulling back Mordred by his shirt at his shoulder.

Mordred glanced over to where Emilia was pointing only to notice a little girl with short green hair. 'An involuntary event, huh?'

"Yeah, it seems like it," answered Mordred.

"We should help her," Emilia said without hesitation, with concern on her face.

Mordred faintly looked at Emilia. "You know that your situation is a bit urgent? You should think about yourself first."

Emilia pursed her lips, saying stubbornly, "But still, now that we saw her to be lost, we have to do something."

"The correct choice would be to ignore her, it isn't like she would die. And what do you even plan to do to find her parents, Emilia? Wander around aimlessly? You should think about yourself first, especially in your situation. But alright, let's help her." Mordred's expression turned from serious to a faint smile, while at the same time Emilia's stubborn face suddenly transformed into a dumbfounded one.

"Huh. I thought you were against it?" Emilia asked puzzledly as she hurried up behind Mordred who already began walking toward the girl.

"I am." Mordred glanced at Emilia with a faint smile. "But, you would have helped her anyway, right?"

Mordred looked at Emilia for a while.

"How are you so sure that I would help her?" Emilia asked.

"But you definitely would," Mordred said shortly.

"You don't know that," Emilia stubbornly said.

"Oh, I do." Mordred looked at her with doubt, smiling.

Emilia gently wrinkled her eyebrows as she stared at Mordred and seemingly analyzed him.

"Anyway, I have a feeling that this will help us in our quest, so let's help her. Or do you plan to waste even more time arguing?" Mordred asked with a faint smile, raising his eyebrows.

After a moment, Emilia's face flashed with realization. She nodded. "You're right, let's help this girl quickly."

She then approached the little girl and squatted down. The girl seemed to be joyfully surprised for a moment, before realizing that Emilia wasn't her mom, her expression turning apprehensive.

With a gentle smile, Emilia said to the girl, "I'm sorry I'm not who you were looking for. So what's the matter? Aren't your mom and dad with you?"

After a moment of confusion, the girl's eyes flashed with tears and she began crying uncontrollably.

'That's what a trauma is for a young child, I guess. Trauma doesn't have to be something terrible like being devoured by rabbits or witnessing a murder. For a young child that knows nothing just being lost from her parents in a supermarket is a traumatic event that can haunt them for years…' Mordred thought in his heart, as he stood at the side.

"Um, uh… Don't cry… I won't do anything to you, okay?" Emilia struggled to appease the child, fruitlessly.

Mordred pursed his lips. 'Yeah, all of the magic tricks I know are rather aimed to intimidate and kill, I can't really flash crimson lightning here. Anyway, I just hope this won't simply frighten the girl further…'

Cough, cough, cough!

Morded got in front of the child and started violently coughing while he held the Clarent's hilt in front of his mouth, the blade pointed toward him.

"AAH?!" The little girl's eyes opened wide and she stopped crying when she saw that Mordred started to slowly pull out a giant sword from within his mouth.

Mordred continued coughing and holding his chest with his other hand while taking out a broadsword from what it seemed like his throat.

"Ha?!" The girl stared in wonder as Mordred finally coughed up a sword of almost 1,5 total meter in length.

Emilia and some passerby also stared at Mordred's performance in shock, none of them aware that in truth Mordred was simply materializing Clarent bit by bit.

Mordred put the sword down, patted his chest one more time and nodded. "Much better now."

He leaned the sword against the wall and then clasped his hands in front of the girl. With a flash of crimson light, shining full plate armor appeared on Mordred's body, excluding his head.

The sudden transformation amazed everyone in the vicinity once again.

With a gentle smile, Mordred kneeled down and offered the girl a hand. "I'm a knight, there's nothing for you to worry about. Tell me, did you get lost from your mom or dad?

"Umm." The girl slowly took Mordred's hand and nodded. At this moment, Mordred looked very reliable.

A while later, Emilia and Mordred walked together through the street while holding the hands of the little girl.

Mordred felt a little strange for sort-of copying Subaru, but he did not mind at all being in his current situation.

"So you got separated from your mom? Well, no worries, we'll find her soon," Mordred said as he walked back in the direction where came from and where the fruit merchant's stall was.

Looking over, he saw that Emilia walked with a very joyful and satisfied smile on her face; she looked extremely charming at this moment.

Mordred laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, this is a bit embarrassing. People keep looking at us, they probably think that we're a couple."

If one looked at them at this moment, they would really see a beautiful couple as if from a painting, a beauty and a handsome knight, along with a cute little girl. The three of them attracted a lot of attention on the streets.

Emilia's expression didn't change much as she looked at Mordred. "Hm, it's your armor that's very eye-catching. Mordred, so you're a knight?"

Mordred smiled lightly. "I think it's your dazzling appearance and silver hair that's more eye-catching."

Their conversation was interrupted, however, by the little girl who suddenly broke out from their grasp and ran out ahead. "Oh! Mama!"

The two of them looked ahead and watched the little girl ran into the arms of a woman who appeared to be her mom.

'Hmmm. It had to be at this moment, right? What a cliche.' Mordred silently thought.

"I'm glad that she found her mom so quickly, that's good," Emilia said and smiled brightly, looking incredibly charming.

Mordred only hummed. He faintly smiled and looked at Emilia. "Yeah, now we can continue our mission with our minds at ease, right?"

"Yes, exactly." Emilia nodded seriously. Her expression then turned complicated. "But weren't you against the idea in the beginning? Why did you help?"

"Intuition," Mordred said with a mysterious tone.

"Intuition?" Emilia parroted with a confused expression.

At that moment, the girl's mother approached the two of them to thank them and the topic was dropped. After chatting for a while, Mordred and Emilia resumed walking to find a bakery.

Emilia was still puzzled why Mordred wanted to buy some pastries, but she still followed him with what seemed like a small joyful smile, seeming to enjoy herself.