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Chapter 11
Three days later we continued on our journey.
The road doesn’t even look like a road anymore. We were just following some sort of path, I wonder when it started to get like this?
It was around the second day, “Is it fine if I magick the motion sickness away?” was something I thought of when the journey was almost at it’s end.
“According to the map, there should be a village just around here…..”
Peeking at his map, Kawazu-san had a genuinely confident expression on his face.
The reason is probably because we’re nearby.
“Seriously ☆!……….it can’t be there, right?!”
“…….”
I expressed my surprise through an unnecessary action.
Both of my hands were forming Rappa’s, or the Fleming’s Law, symbol.*
Oh and I can’t dance.
It’s from this person who continuously suffered from motion sickness, one can’t blame me for saying goodbye to that.
It was also to counter the tension from all the travelling.
My….. I was just thinking what would happen to me.
If we had one more travelling companion, he’d also absolutely give up rather than having to pull his own weight.
But the one with me is Kawazu-san.
I’m already tired of this semicircular space inside the carriage. He didn’t say ‘If you have magic, use it’ or any similarly well-intended comments. There was a frog who was secretly laughing.
Is it bad that I didn’t think of it?
I know it already, okay.
That’s why I don’t have anymore complaints.
I have been wrung out by the stress from the journey, instead let’s fill it up with energy and enthusiasm.
It’s annoying.
The carriage will limit one’s movements, taking things like it’s ceiling into consideration. Of course, the coachman Kawazu-san won’t be able to relate to this.
It’s annoying.
Let’s call it ‘High-Tension Mind Attack’.
Will probably be annoying.
“What’s up YO! Kawazu-san YA! Why aren’t you playing along ZE!”
I sway from side to side to some rhythm, completing it with a wink.
About the wink, I’ve practiced it since elementary but I never had the chance to use it.
I was finally able to finalize this hideous look.
“Hey”
Without warning, Kawazu-san’s yakuza-kick assaulted me.
I should note here, Kawazu-san’s froggy body is very high-performance.
The frog’s originally impressive leg strength was greatly enhanced when it became human-sized.
Moreover, the soul belongs to the old man, but the glistening body is unrivalled in its youthfulness.
To put it simply, it had enough leg strength to send me flying.
I fell down from the carriage.
I rolled around ten times on the ground before finally stopping in a contorted position
“……..”
I steadily stood back up, dusted myself, and boarded the waiting horse-drawn carriage.
“Has your head cooled down?”
“……I’m sorry”
“As long as you’ve learned your lesson”
It’s just, we were having fun, in a sense.
“By the way, Kawazu-san, is there really a village in a place like this?”
Let’s pretend that didn’t happen and continue talking normally.
The path doesn’t look like it’s somewhere people would normally walk.
I tried asking again but Kawazu-san only nodded his head.
“It’s something like a frontier village. Strictly speaking, there’s no clear borders which are in contact with Alheim. Since it’s a barbaric land. The barrier that we passed was only made for safety and convenience, now that can be called a border. It’s so that people won’t enter Alheim by accident.”
In other words, this is a danger zone where people aren’t protected by soldiers.
If that’s the case, the rough, unmaintained path that we are using now makes sense.
“What kind of village would it be? Is it dangerous?”
“Kind of. But development-wise they were able to lay claim to that area. Alheim has valuable resources after all. Depending on luck, they could either get rich quick, or lose their life in the process. But for people who lost their homes from the war, they are starting anew and they can see some hope from this land. Anyone would want a place of their own.”
“He~e. That’s kinda amazing”
That kind of thing is incredibly admirable.
No wonder it’s called a frontier.
A frontier for hope, no matter how I think about it, going through all those hardships is something that I can’t possibly do.
“We~ll, they turned things around against crime, merely by having a portion in the laws about tax exemptions.”
“…..wow”
“From what I heard, this town is quite big. They supposedly discovered a new vein and they have a famous metal workshop. It must be crowded.”
“He~e, it would be the first time I’d see something like it”
I was intrigued, and I look forward to seeing that town.
The rhythmic sound of hammering reached us when we were nearing the place.
There was smoke rising from a chimney, it was quite surprising when I was just feeling as if the place was deserted.
This is the village of Lint, it’s a pioneer village adjacent to the unexplored regions of Alheim.
At the entrance to the village, I looked around as if I was on a school field trip. It didn’t have a fantasy-ish setting like I expected, but it had an elegance of being a village of artisans. Even walking around is quite enjoyable.
Looking around, I can see shops that sells herbs and weapons. My satisfaction meter was filled up and I gave it a seal of approval.
“Ah! Are you guys travellers?”
As we were wandering around, we were suddenly stopped by a loud voice.
I turned to see what was up and saw a girl, around ten years of age running towards us. She had chestnut hair which was tied with a ribbon.
“I’m right, aren’t I! You guys are dressed strangely after all!”
I thought that she would see Kawazu-san but the little girl’s eyes landed on me.
But come to think of it, I’m dressed in my original world’s jeans, black shirt, and sneakers.
They are simple but should obviously stand out.
They were barely covered by the cloak. What a blunder.
“Kind of. You are?”
She seemed to swallow down what she was about to say, and instead she went for a smile. The girl happily introduced herself.
“I’m ***! We have an inn in this village! Though the adventurers that sometimes stayed there somehow stopped coming……. you guys don’t seem like adventures, are you?”
Aside from Kawazu-san, this is my first contact with the locals.
But I wasn’t able to get her name after all.
It’s Ribbon-chan then.
Nickname decided, I still had trouble with what I should say. Letting out a cough, Kawazu-san answered in my stead.
“Ehem! We are scholars. We came to study Alheim for a bit!”
“So that’s the case! It’s rare to see a frog beastman! This is my first time seeing one!”
“…….leave it be”
Just a casual and savage line from the girl and Kawazu-san seemed to suffer some small injuries.
“Ah, I’m sorry! It’s okay! This town’s motto is to ‘accept the rejected’. These are troubled times, and it simply won’t do unless we all cooperate! Now~ please follow me!”
Oh, not even a step away from that frog, she had a smile plastered on her face.
At first, even I was a little repulsed of my handiwork.
I was really touched by what this child can do.
“Hey now, you were thinking of something disappointing, weren’t you?”
“………can’t be. I was just impressed by your quick thinking”
“Really.”
Fuu, he should be fooled.
Kawazu-san’s intuition is really something to be reckoned with.
For the time being, we were lucky as we followed Ribbon-chan and were invited into the inn.