Gula said. Last night, the innkeeper told the party that he hadnât stocked up much food because he didnât have many customers these days. Moreover, their party had arrived late, and most of the food had already been used for earlier customers. He exhausted his remaining stock to make them supper, but of course it was nowhere near enough for Gula. She made a fuss about it, but calmed down after the innkeeper said he would go to the market first thing in the morning and buy something especially for her. So, she was quite determined to have breakfast, and until she did, she wouldnât budge no matter what.
âBreakfast aside, we still havenât restocked at all. Itâll be another two days until we reach our destination, right?â
Lapis added. They had used up almost all the supplies they prepared at Kapha before reaching this town. Therefore, Lapis told Tizona that if they didnât restock now, their travel condition would become very difficult.
âCanât we just hunt for food on the way?â
âIâm fine with that too.â
Loren was also worried about Tizonaâs pocket, but if they let Lapis and Gula go hunting, he had no idea what they might bring back. Hunting would be their best option if they could get normal human food. Tizona probably wasnât aware of that other prospect though.
But Tizona reluctantly nodded:
âIt canât be helped. Just stop saying youâre hungry.â
Tizona made her decision quickly. Even though it would add to her financial burden, she didnât say they should save money at all. Loren thought she didnât seem to care at all, and he respected her a little for that.
âGula, your tendency of overeating is really too much.â
âIâm sorry. Iâll work hard instead.â
She didnât sound to be very sorry. Tizona sighed heavily, but Loren couldnât do anything but pray for her to not get bankrupt.
The innkeeper really kept his promise. He came back from the morning market with a large amount of food and immediately started preparing breakfast. The scene was so unsettling that the other guests began feeling suspicious, but Gula just waited for her meal with a smile on her face. Lapis turned away as if she didnât care about breakfast at all, while Tizona held her head in her hands as if bearing a headache.
Loren believed that Gula really needed to think about how to manage her eating habit if she wanted to continue travelling with them.
Gula made short work of her breakfast, which was so huge that it even attracted attention from other customers, whereas Loren and the other two had normal helpings. Then, they left the donkeys at the inn and went to the town center.
The post-town, despite being small, did have a proper town center. Several stores were opened for travelers, so they went to the grocery store and set about tossing goods into their shopping baskets.
âUhm, donât you want to choose what to buy?â
Tizona asked, seeing that Loren and Lapis were just picking up a multitude of goods casually, and rather irresponsibly. Lapis nonchalantly answered:
âItâs all good as long as we get enough food. We can choose what we like from the pile later, and shove the rest to Gula.â
âIs that alright?â
âIt is. Anything is fine for her as long as itâs edible.â
Lapisâ remark was harsh but true, so Loren couldnât object to that. He just continued to help her in silence.
âStill, the food selection here is not very good.â
Lapis grumbled while inspecting the vegetable she had picked from one side then the other. Loren had no idea if that vegetable was of good quality or bad, but seemed like Lapis had deemed it to be bad. He reached for another one, and the store owner apologized:
âWe donât have that much choice, since our supply is limited.â
âDoes it have anything to do with the bandits weâve heard about at the inn?â
Typically, farm produce like vegetables would be transported to large towns via multiple relay points. Loren didnât know how many towns there were near Kapha or how big they might be, but products from nearby villages must go through a few connecting points before reaching places about the size of this town. If the product selection here was not of good quality, then something must be going on at the villages.
âYeah, theyâve been quite brazen. Even worse, they seem to be expanding their range. If the Kingdom doesnât act soon, theyâll reach this place sooner or later.â
âWhat about the soldiers stationed here?â
âThere are some, but not that many. If the stories are true then, when the bandits come, theyâll all be killed before they can do anything.â
Soldiers dispatched to remote areas of course didnât have much of combat abilities. And seeing that there werenât many here, Loren couldnât think of any defense measure that would be effective against a bandit attack that relied on numbers.
âI really want to close the store and run away, but I donât have the luxury to do so. I can only pray that they wonât come.â
âThatâs terrible.â
Lapis gave up on choosing better quality vegetables â all of them were about the same anyway. She
tossed the one she was holding into the basket and bargained with the store owner:
âIf I buy all this, will you give me some discount?â
âSorry, but I canât afford to.â
The owner replied with a wry smile. But Lapis didnât give up, of course, and continued to haggle. Tizona watched them in surprise while Gula, who was leaning against the wall, looked on with no interest, as long as she got the food, she didnât care about price or quality at all.
The restocking issue seemed to have been solved for now, so Loren left the haggling to Lapis and went out. He looked up at the sky, the weather was good, and it seemed like todayâs journey would also go well.
A girlâs voice rang up in his mind just then:
[âOnii-san, do you know the saying, âSpeaking of the devilâ?â]
It came from a girl who was temporarily residing within Lorenâs body. After a certain incident, she had become the King of Death, the highest-ranked undead, and lost her own body.
Shaynaâs words gave Loren a bad hunch.
[âI donât. Sorry, but Iâm uneducated.â]
[âOnii-san, look behind you to the right. Itâs probably from the south of here.â]
Loren looked over his shoulders in the direction Shayna had told him. There was a grocery store that had just opened, next to it was another store, the type of which Loren couldnât determine. There was nothing particularly unusual though.
[What has Shayna sensed?]
Loren titled his head in puzzle, wondering if he had overlooked something. He observed the ground, then the stores again, but he only understood Shaynaâs warning when he looked up at the sky.
In the clear blue sky there was a thin column of gray smoke. It couldnât be mistaken for clouds at all.
âSomething is burning, but not in this town.â
Gula looked at the sky and said. She had followed him out of the store, and seemed to have noticed the smoke immediately.
If something happened in this post-town, there would surely be an uproar by now. But if it happened somewhere else, it wouldnât be strange if no one noticed.
However, some townsfolk did take notice of the smoke. They came out to the street and started pointing at the sky, which began to attract the attention of others.
âIt seems to be close by.â
The smoke would be thicker if it came from within the town, but considering the clarity of the thin smoke column, it couldnât be from too far away.
âRight. From my feeling, itâs the neighboring village.â
Gulaâs guess was not good news.
From the current states of affairs, if something happened at the neighboring village, which resulted in something burning, then it was very likely that there had been a bandit attack. It depended on how big the raid was, but if the earnings at the village wasnât good enough, it wouldnât be strange if bandits continued on to this town. Realizing that, a group of armed personnel, probably the townâs guards, rushed towards the direction of the smoke.
âHow does it look?â
Lapis looked at the sky and asked. She had immediately stopped the haggling after noticing something unusual was going on, paid a reasonable amount for the food and took some out. Behind her was Tizona, who seemed to carry most of the food they had bought in a large sack on her back. The sack got caught at the door, and she couldnât get out no matter how much she struggled.
âCanât say anything from here.â
It hadnât been confirmed to be a bandit attack yet, but from Lapisâ way of speaking, it seemed like she had already decided it to be one. If she was acting while expecting the worst-case scenario, Loren thought he probably should do the same. He worked the gears in his brain:
âIf we go back to the inn, take the donkeys and leave now, weâll probably make it, donât you think?â
âDepending on how those bandits operate.â
Loren believed it was better to run if they could. If the bandits came, they should protect themselves from any possible dangers, if not, they should leave things in the hands of people who had been prepared to deal with such situations. Their party should just leave as soon as possible.
Whether the bandits would let them leave was another question though. It was extremely unlikely that the bandits would distinguish townsfolk from travelers.
âLetâs just hurry back to the inn and pack for now.â
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When the situation was still unclear, it wouldnât help to panic. The only preparation they could do now was putting their things in order as soon as possible.
The other three members of their party nodded at Lapisâ suggestion.