After asking Elena to train her and agreeing to perform a blood ritual, Nia underwent a training regimen that could only be described as Spartan.

Elena showed no mercy and was as ruthless as the fearsome 'Iron Instructor Kaname' who had been nicknamed this way by his soldiers.

Although the training regimen was brutal, Nia did not complain once, the constant results encouraged her to continue and confirmed that her effort was not in vain.

Totally determined not to stop until she turned Nia into a combat force to be reckoned with, Elena had to settle for eating what she hunted, cleaning her clothes and her body with magic, in addition to the loneliness of not sleeping next to Nia. In the latter, Nia had been very adamant that sleeping together would ruin the atmosphere of the teacher and disciple, so Elena was forced to hold back.

One, two, three, the days passed, and very soon these accumulated and transformed in two weeks.

「Elena-sama, was it really okay for us to take so many days?」

As they sorted their belongings, concluding the training, a worried Nia asked that question.

「Well, the journey back from the border to Lendolf would take two and a half weeks, so there is still time」

Lendolf was the city where the cavalry order to which Elena belonged was located.

Wyvern riders were much faster, so at this point, the Master of the Order of Saint Eclestine was probably already aware of the outcome of the battle, as well as Elena's accomplishments. Therefore, Elena had no more than three weeks to return to her order, or she could be considered a deserter and since the orders supposedly served the king directly, Elena would become a criminal under penalty of execution.

「But then we're still too far away...」

Nia did not understand why Elena was so relaxed, was she trusting in her strength to face any problem that her delay in returning could cause?

Elena smiled in response to Nia as she adjusted her armor.

「I know a shortcut that will take us to Lendolf right now」

Despite blindly trusting Elena, Nia was unable to avoid showing disbelief in her eyes. Not even a dragon knight should be able to travel such a distance in a single day.

「Are you ready?」

「Yes, Elena-sama」

Despite her doubts, Nia accepted the hand Elena offered her to mount.

「Well then, it's time to face those nasty guys」

Much to Nia's confusion, Elena raised her right hand to the front.

「Warp」

Nia's eyes widened when she saw a kind of luminous door appear in front of them.

Since the horse was totally under Elena's control, he did not flinch in response to that sudden appearance.

「Elena-sama, what is that door?」

「It is known as warp, it is a powerful dimensional spell that allows traveling instantly to places that the spellcaster has already visited」

Nia could only nod silently, for the past few days she had seen Elena use spells that she had never seen in the sanctuary where she lived with her mother, a place full of elves, the best practitioners of sorcery in the world.

A spell to clean dirt from the body, another to repair clothes, weapons, and armor, after seeing things like that, Nia would no longer doubt anything Elena said to her.

「Let's go」

Under Elena's command, the horse walked towards the light door and after being forced to close her eyes for a couple of seconds, Nia opened them again to find herself in a completely different place.

「This is a meadow near Lendolf that I was sent several times to kill goblins」

While listening to Elena exclaim that, Nia's eyes widened once she saw a great walled city not far away, that city was several times bigger than Dur.

「That is the city of Lendolf」

After saying that, Elena ordered her horse to start the march towards the city.

Warp had consumed a little over half of Elena's magical power, but this was not the reason why she did not plan to use it for her return trip. At first Elena planned to take advantage of her return trip to fully get used to her new skills, however, since she had already done this thanks to the hard training with Nia, the trip no longer made sense, so using the warp spell was most convenient.

Unlike Dur, Elena was able to enter Landolf without having to identify herself, this great city was completely open to facilitate trade, and was too far from the border to fear being besieged.

For someone like Nia who considered the small border town of Dur huge, Landolf was enormous. Nia's eyes went from one place to another, the bustle of this city was much greater than what she had seen in Dur.

By simple instinct, Nia calculated that if the people and wagons that filled the streets of this city entered Dur, that city would have no room for a single more pin.

After several minutes, Elena and Nia left the hustle and bustle of the city's main streets behind and reached a small stone fort sheltered by a small wall barely two meters high. There were no guards posted at the only access to the site, who would be fool enough to seek trouble at the headquarters of a knight order?

「Elena? Did you really back? 」

Once inside the courtyard of the fortress, a man who had barely crossed the line of twenty exclaimed that with certain amazement when he saw Elena.

「Sir Byran, did you really think that I would not make it back?」

「Well, you went to war, anyone can die on the battlefield」

Sir Byran was a young rising knight within the Order of Saint Eclestine, among the knights of the order it was rumored that this had nothing to do with his talent or a good endorsement, but rather that Byran had accepted private sword training that the Order Master offered to those men of good appearance.

As far as Elena was concerned, Byran was one of the main culprits for her being sent to war. Using the influence he had gained by lending himself to satisfy the Order Master's peculiar tastes, Byran had attempted to seduce Elena with empty promises, and being flatly rejected, he convinced the Order Master to send Elena to war as revenge.

Elena dismounted and then offered Nia a hand to help her down.

「You're back and you even bring with you a lovely half-elf maid」

「A gift for my achievements in battle」

Byran felt his blood run cold at the sight of Elena's smile. Although for some reason she now looked even more beautiful, Elena also gave off an intimidating battle aura, had she changed so much simply by participating in a battle?

「Now if Sir Byran excuse me, I must go and announce my return to the Order Master」

「Y-yes」

Byran was speechless, Elena's naive but determined gaze was now imposing and authoritative. However, this change did not detract from her beauty, the fact that she was now a strong woman only caused Byran the desire to subdue her.

Resisting the desire to kill Byran, Elena entered the order building with Nia walking behind her.

On her way to the Order Master's office, Elena could see the commotion on the faces of all her comrades that she encountered. The reaction of each of them was not different from that of the surprised Byran.

「Ahead」

After knocking on the door and hearing that, Elena entered the Order Master's office leaving Nia standing outside waiting for her.

「Sir, Elena Lutrel reports her return」

The middle-aged man who was immersed in the papers on the desk, quickly looked up when he heard a voice that he supposed he would never hear again.

「W-Welcome back, Elena」

Elena could barely avoid showing a satisfied smile when she saw the shock in the Order Master's eyes.

「How was your experience on the battlefield, Elena?」

「Sir, Count Verit should have sent a report with the details」

The Order Master nodded as he remembered seeing such a letter, but considering that it was probably a report of Elena's death in battle, he simply ignored it.

「Here it is」

After searching through the papers on his desk, the Order Master opened the letter and his eyes were filled once again with shock at seeing what Count Verit had personally written.

According to the report, Elena had killed about twenty enemy knights, and these were only confirmed deaths as Count Verit claimed that the number was likely much higher since Elena had caused the total collapse of morale in the enemy knights. Count Verit praised Elena's exploits describing her as a beautiful and glorious Valkyrie who had led the army to victory.

At the end of the letter, the Order Master read that Count Verit had formally requested the royal court to award a medal and a title to Elena for her service to the crown on the battlefield.

The Order Master looked up to see Elena, that young woman without talent who had so often escaped death during simple missions, was she the same person that Count Verit described in his letter? The only thing the Order Master could think about it, was that the young girl in front of him was really the Elena he knew, only now he was different enough to think that it was about someone else, she had changed so much when experiencing the battlefield?

Just as the Order Master opened his lips to speak, a pair of knocks on the door interrupted him.

「I'm busy right now」

「Sir, a messenger from the royal court has arrived, requests your presence as well as that of Lady Elena Lutrel」

This caused even Elena to be surprised, not to mention the Order Master who was still trying to process Count Verit's letter.