Asta's Adventure

Nozel was just returning to the Silva household. In the past few days, he had been busy on the border with the Diamond Kingdom, where sudden skirmishes had broken out. However, the situation had since stabilized, and now he was heading home.

When Nozel entered the house, he was greeted by chaos. Servants of the Silva family were scurrying about, their faces filled with concern.

"What happened here?" he asked coldly, addressing one of the servants nearby.

"M-Master Nozel... um, the situation is that... Lady Noelle attacked Master Solid, and he was knocked out…" stammered the servant.

Hearing this, Nozel's eye twitched slightly.

"Where is she now? Call her to me," he ordered in the same icy tone.

"W-We can't, Master," the servant said, beginning to tremble.

"And why is that?"

"S-She disappeared after the incident… We can't find her anywhere. We're searching the capital and questioning people, but so far, no results…"

Nozel's face showed a flicker of fear.

"What do you mean 'disappeared'? Disappeared-disappeared?!"

"Master Solid was the last one to speak with her…"

"Bring him to me immediately!" Nozel barked.

"H-He's still unconscious…"

"Wake him up as soon as possible and bring him to me!" Nozel commanded sharply and walked off toward his office.

---

Meanwhile, Asta's group was outside the city.

"What do you mean you can't fly on a broom?!" David exclaimed, clearly frustrated.

"I can't control magic, are you stupid or something?" Noelle replied, almost proudly.

"Don't say that like it's something to be proud of!" David snapped angrily.

"Phew… Fine, looks like this is going to take much longer," he sighed.

"What are you talking about, David?" asked Noelle.

"We'll have to walk. There's no other choice. I don't have enough magic to carry all three of you on a broom."

Hearing this, Noelle let out a displeased sound, while Asta seemed almost happy.

"Basically, we'll have to make a lot of stops. We might even have to sleep outside. Luckily, we have tents. The problem is, we only have two," David said. He paused, looking at Noelle with a sly grin.

"And I'm not sleeping with Asta. So, either you share a tent with him, or someone's sleeping outside."

Noelle's face turned bright red at this statement. Secre, perched on Asta's head, chirped in protest, while Asta calmly said:

"I'll sleep outside. I'm not afraid of the cold."

Hearing this, Noelle began to think quickly.

"N-Not that I want you to sleep in the same tent as me or anything like that! But... I'm noble, so... I'm allowing you to sleep next to me!"

"'Allowing you to sleep next to me,' huh?" David said mockingly, smirking at Noelle.

Her face turned even redder, and she quickly turned away.

Secre looked at her suspiciously, while Asta looked at her in confusion.

"Alright, enough of that. If we're fast, we might be able to cover the distance in five days—if we're lucky. Let's get moving!" David concluded.