Chapter 21.18 - Extra 3.3

Extra 3.3

Sensei, we have three gigantic, unidentified hawks locking on to us.」

Mio said, emerging from the canopy-less section as she looked up at the sky. It should be mentioned that even though they were working as guards, they didn’t generally walk around outside of the carriages. Their slower pace would definitely increase the risk of being attacked, so it made perfect sense to continue as they were. After all, carriages in this world, including wagons, could have their speed increased by 20 km/h on average by using magic. As a result, in order to help the groups not riding in the load-carrying trays to immediately react to anything, the caravan of merchants had borrowed horses for them to ride on. In the case of Hiroshi’s team, Makoto and Haruna would fall into this role.

In the country of Farlane, practically all large-scale thief brigades had been exterminated, so there was normally no need for escorts between Wulls and Kalsus. Even in terms of monsters, the only ferocious, agile ones that might attack carriages along the side of the road were poison wolves. However, as the effects of Barold’s plot had still remained, the risk of encountering large-scale monsters was far higher than it had ever been several years ago.

Digressing a bit, it was normal to borrow horses from the Adventurers’ Association in cases like these and return them to the association of their destination. Generally, they would lend whatever was needed in order to get to the next destination. There were also special magic tools to sense life and track people in order to prevent any absconding. Also, since insurance was also added to the cost in the event of any accidents, the cost of any added fodder for animals was probably cheaper when rented, although not by too much. With that being said, once you returned the horses safely, the money attached to the insurance would be returned to you, so for someone with a bit of money to spare, renting horses wasn’t much of a difficult thing to do at all.

「Think you can shoot them down?」

「No problem.」

She answered Hiroshi’s question by firing three arrows in rapid succession. By the time anyone was able to spot the arrows, they had already pierced through the hearts of all three birds, causing them to plummet down. Before they landed on the ground, Tatsuya activated Apport in order to draw their remains into his bag, preventing them from becoming a hindrance.

「Troll Birds, looks like. What do we do with them?」

「I say we either fry ’em, broil ’em, or make ’em into steaks or cutlets.」

「But couldn’t we also bring them back with us and smoke them? Heck, that’s what I’d prefer.」

「Or we could stew them right here.」

As per usual, the replies to Tatsuya’s question were all made under the assumption that they would be eating all of the troll birds. Particularly as of late, Makoto’s insistence on smoking the meat was as much a desire for food as it was for alcohol. It was little-known at this time, but they had been consistently roped into preparing potatoes or barley to make shochu for her needs.

「I find it crazy that no one has mentioned bringing the meat out for sale. We defeated not just one, but three of those suckers.」

「But when selling troll bird meat, you have to seriously figure out where to sell it.」

Haruna grimaced as she remarked, and the coachman did likewise in agreement.

「Now now, I haven’t forgotten about the time that we first met up with you guys and hunted that troll bird. Wasn’t it you who suggested we cook it, Haruna?」

「Well, at the time, we didn’t exactly have much in terms of food. Besides, do you even realize how difficult it is to eat all three of those ginormous things?」

「Then maybe we should just bring them to the market.」

「If we did that, we’d have to bring at least two more of them.」

「Don’t say that. We’d end up hunting down even more at that rate.」

As the Japanese party continued their nonchalant conversation…

「There are five gigantic, unidentified hawks heading this way. Can I take them down?」

「Don’t let any of them escape, now～」

True to Murphy’s Law, troll birds appeared yet again, only to be shot down upon eye contact and sucked into Tatsuya’s bag with magic.

「Were troll birds always that easy to deal with?」

「Well, it wouldn’t be entirely impossible if you had a really good bow hand……」

The Deep Green Fangs observed all of this with indescribable faces. As for the Bloody Rose members in the front, it was doubtful that they would have a clue as to what was going on. To their eyes, it would probably seem as if troll birds suddenly dropped from the sky with arrows lodged in their hearts, only to suddenly disappear, corpse and all.

「We’ll be making camp soon, so you think we could just cut up approximate pieces and eat?」

「Yeah. It’s not like them troll birds’re worth much fer their meat anyhoo. How d’ya want ’em cooked？」

「What cooking implements do we have？」

「Steel plate ‘n a pot. We can’t do most things.」

「If so, then I don’t see what’s wrong with frying them. We’d have an easy time dividing it all up.」

Indifferent to the bewilderment of the teams in front of and behind them, the Japanese team decided on their menu.

「……It’s not that I’m ungrateful to you for obtaining such tasty food, but……」

「Why do I feel so strange about all of this……」

As they bit into the fried food that had been offered to them, the two leaders of their respective teams stared in disbelief at Hiroshi and Haruna as they prepared unbelievably refined cuisine. Could this even be called camping?

「Time to alternate.」

「Alright. Thanks for the head’s up.」

「Well, that’s our role after all.」

It was early morning of the third day. Tatsuya and the others had been woken up for their part in the rotation for keeping watch, shaking off their fatigue as they went to their posts. At the time of the game, there had not been any need to set up camp in order to migrate to locations that were several days away. They had merely stayed logged in for a longer period of time, and there had never been a need to be on guard. They were not accustomed to doing any of this.

During the move from Kalsus to Wulls, and while taking detours through multiple villages and towns at that, the evenings of the second and third days at camp were by far the most dangerous. The space between Kalsus and this particular area did not have any inn towns or farming villages, so no matter what, they had to set up camp. This would be the most likeliest time to get attacked by bandits and the like. With that being said, the country wasn’t just leaving this area unchecked. In fact, they quite frequently went hunting in the mountains, so it wasn’t that likely that their group would be attacked.

Although this practically goes without saying, the quickest route of 5 days on foot was almost never used by merchants unless there was a need to transport a large amount of cargo that couldn’t be distributed by sea or there was an incredible need to hurry. This was because there was only one town along the way, as well as the fact that wagons would periodically come through from both Wulls and Kalsus, leaving almost no room for profit.

『Man, even campin’ is a lotta work.』

As they jabbered along in the party chat, Hiroshi’s team scattered off to each of their lookout posts. They definitely couldn’t just stay in one place when the carriages they were protecting covered such a large area.

『Lookouts are essential, after all. Or did you have some sort of tool that allows all of us to rest easy without staying vigilant？』

『Not with the supplies I brought. That stuff’s found in Wulls, and it’s not like it’s perfect either.』

Tatsuya found himself agreeing with Hiroshi’s logical statement. In actuality, tools to chase away weak monsters were frequently sold, but they were unfortunately expendables and quite unsuitable for the scale of this mission. On top of that, they would at most chase away weak individual monsters like troll birds, and depending on the size of the flock, there were times when some monsters would break out of the fold and charge in regardless, so it was still unwise to not have anyone posted on watch. Of course, it wouldn’t have much of an effect on bandits either.

There were certainly convenient items that could drive off more powerful monsters or be used an unlimited number of times, but nearly all of them were essentially artifacts and impossible to obtain for the average person. Although there were throwaway items circulating in the market that created a barrier against mid-level monsters, they were at most used by Level 3 adventurers when going to faraway dungeons in order to avoid excessive consumption.

As a result, it was now commonplace for even the most famous of merchants to hire an ample amount of guards when traveling by land.

『Might not look like much, but it would at least make things easier, right?』

『Welp, I can make ones with stronger effects than what they usually sell, so yeah.』

『Then how about making some, even if they’re not perfect?』

『I’ll think ’bout it.』

As they chatted about this and that, they all gathered things like herbs and firewood to pass the time while on guard. Around the time the sun was about to come up…

「Oxide circle！」

Tatsuya suffocated a rock boar that had come early out of hibernation.

「Hiro, Mio, see any others?」

Tatsuya quickly asked Hiroshi and the others as they gathered around him.

「Ain’t nothin’.」

「Nothing active within the area.」

「Then it looks like we don’t have to wake anyone up.」

Makoto said conclusively, making sure to fell the head and extract the blood from the suspended body. She then erected a deodorizing barrier to avoid accidentally calling over anything else with the smell of blood, putting it into a container and handing it over to Hiroshi. At times like these, it was best to leave disposal to an expert. It must be pointed out that a deodorizing barrier was one of the few magic skills that Makoto could use. At the time of the game, she had often used this type of barrier in order to prevent unwanted monsters from coming their way from the stench of blood.

「Looks like we got s’more meat.」

「You think we’d have enough time to make bacon out of it?」

「Heck yeah. We just gotta use a tool to accelerate maturity.」

「Okay, then let me borrow it real quick. It’s morning and I say we have some breakfast.」

Haruna said, smoking the good parts of the rock boar and converting it into bacon.

「Heck, I’ll even throw in some bird meat while we’re at it.」

「I hear ya. Throw in some cheese for smoking as well?」

「Sure, why not.」

Haruna and friends discussed things like that as they worked on making smoked food, all the while taking great care not to wake anyone up. There probably weren’t many adventurers who would smoke food in the middle of a morning vigil at camp.

「……And since no monsters were picked up by our detection magic, we figured we’d dissect the rock bear and make bacon.」

Haan listened to Tatsuya’s report in disbelief as he looked at the bacon, sizzling with a pleasant sound on the iron plate. You couldn’t really blame him for being envious of them for how much work they put into their food each and every day.

「We didn’t think there was a need to wake you up.」

「I do understand that, but even if it was just a stray, monsters are monsters. Could you maybe wake us up next time that happens?」

「Ahh, sorry. It was over in the blink of an eye and we don’t really tend to focus on minor details like that, you know?」

Tatsuya scratched his head apologetically.

「I mean, how do you even get to the point where you start thinking that way? What kind of life have you led?」

「We weren’t really adventurers to begin with, so I can’t really answer that question. I only recently registered as an adventurer, and we only do escort missions when we’re pressed for something.」

「Pressed for something?」

「Yeah, cause now we have to travel around the world, but first we thought it would be beneficial to learn pointers from people like you who are experienced in long-distance travel.」

The two leaders were intrigued as to why Tatsuya’s group was going around the world, but as the problem lay elsewhere, they decided to stay on track.

「Well, it’s true that you all seem to be beginners at escort missions, so we won’t say anything this time. Just be more careful from now on.」

「You got it. Seems like the food’s ready now, so let’s get to eating!」

Invited by Tatsuya, the two of them smiled wryly as they joined in on their meal. At the end of the day, they were after all indebted to the Japanese group.

「So you got your hands on not only a rock boar, but 8 troll birds as well? That is quite the harvest.」

「Would you perhaps be interested in buying some fur and meat off of us?」

「Of course. Why, with this much quality, we could get a 50% increase or more in profit from the Association’s sale assessment.」

「A regular assessment should be fine. It isn’t like we were perfect in how we processed everything.」

They discussed this over breakfast. It was a little hard not to exclaim about how neatly they had processed the parts. How was this, in any way, not perfect? Then again, if the leader of Azuma Workshop was with them, perhaps it was not as weird as you would normally think.

They ended up encountering a monster one more time before arrival at their destination, meaning that it was roast bear curry for dinner.

「We’re finally here～!」

「Yup, Kalsus feels a lot more like a port town than Wulls does.」

「That’s because it’s the southern entrance to the center of Farlane. In actuality, Wulls is unique in that its mountain castle merged with its port town. Most port towns around the world are very much like this in terms of scale and scenery, apart from the style of architecture.」

「Yeah, after all, Wulls is the size of about four large cities. Even I know that most ports over here are close to the ocean.」

It had been two weeks since leaving Wulls. Now that they were finally in front of Kalsus for the first time, everyone let out their opinions. After receiving the reward for their successful expedition, they had decided to take advantage of this opportunity and go sightseeing, first peeking into Kalsus’s version of Alfemina Temple, when…

「I have been waiting for all of you.」

Aearis had come out to meet them at the back entrance with a beaming smile on her face.

「Huh? Elle-chan!?」

「Why are you here in Kalsus?」

「For my trip to every land’s temple, I made sure that my first destination was Kalsus.」

「That’s one way to flaunt your power……」

Makoto let out an exasperated comment at how ridiculous this situation was. As if she had anticipated this reaction, Aearis smiled cheerfully as she responded.

「Everyone from the temple and from my family worried greatly about me, as it was my first time leaving Wulls as the priestess princess. When I told him that all of you were coming here, I managed to get ready agreement.」

After hearing her say all that with a beaming smile on her face, everyone stood speechless in defeat, accepting the situation.