Proofreader: Xemul
At dawn, Loren and his party departed from the north gate of Kapha in a wagon prepared by Ivy, and headed north.
If it were the first time for them to visit such a place, the surrounding scenery might have been new to them and they might have been able to enjoy it to some extent, but for Loren and his group, it was a road they had taken not so long ago. As a result, they were just passing through the familiar scenery, with nothing to do during the whole ride.
The same seemed to be true for Ivy, who was temporarily joining Loren’s party. Sitting in the back of the wagon, she tried to stifle her yawns as she spent the day rocking around.
“This is my first time accompanying adventurers on a quest, and it seems you have quite a bit of free time.”
“If nothing happens, we’ll just keep driving on.”
The occasional passing of travelers or merchants heading for Kapha on the opposite side of the road were the only different events happening during their trip, but those were brief, and then it would be time to continue onward through the slowly changing landscape again.
Loren couldn’t deny that he had time on his hands, but he still had to stay vigilant for any attacks by monsters or bandits.
“An attack from monsters would relieve some of the boredom, wouldn’t it?”
“Stop drawing bad luck. As if crossing the mountain, without incidents, isn’t good enough.”
Loren, who was sitting on the driver bench, answered without looking back.
Whether it was demons or bandits, if you defeated the ones that attacked you, it would bring some money. However, Loren was not very willing to welcome danger just for the sake of a few coins, and even less so for the sake of relieving boredom. He just couldn’t agree with Ivy.
“Aside from some sort of bandits, I doubt that monsters would attack us.”
Lapis, who was sitting next to Loren and holding the reins of the horse, joined the conversation.
“Two so-called Evil Gods are riding in the wagon, you know? The monsters that hunt on highways will flee at the mere hint of their presence.”
Lapis said, trying not to think about the fact that she was also one of the beings who were exerting what could be called an intimidating pressure on their surroundings.
Lapis looked like a human, but she actually belonged to the demon race, a powerful race that was hated throughout the continent. When she first met Loren, her parents had taken away her limbs and eyes and hidden them across the continent in order to hide her power and presence. If she had still been in that state, she would not have had to worry about being noticed, but now, Lapis had already regained both of her arms and eyes. In other words, she had regained over half of her original power, so she had to be very careful in her daily life not give away her demonic presence.
Lapis had also gained a certain amount of control in managing her presence, preventing it from vividly leaking out. But if she lets her guard down, she would still exude a presence strong enough to cause a weak monster to flee instantly.
“It is good that I’ve regained my power, but on the other hand, it is troublesome having to be careful all the time.”
“You’ll be able to hide your power without having to pay attention to it someday.”
“It just takes some time to get used to, I guess?”
And so, without being attacked by monsters or surrounded by bandits, the three-day journey northward came to an end, and Loren’s group arrived at a desert with blue sand.
Loren was once again surprised by the strange sight of the blue desert, but the other members were not sharing his sentiment.
“I have a base here, so I come here quite often.”
“During the time of the Ancient Kingdom, we were exposed to so many sights that this one is nothing in comparison.”
“Sand doesn’t taste good in the first place.”
[‘Onii-san, I am surprised. I totally am.’]
Even though his travel-mates were all very discouraging, Loren was soothed by Shayna’s response, which he could hear in his head. Patting Nig, who for some reason was raising its body and lifting its legs as if it was excited, Loren instructed Lapis, who was holding the rein, to turn west from there.
As they turned west, they found themselves on grasslands again, but the trees gradually became more noticeable.
According to Ivy, Suest was built in a forest. And although the city itself was protected by a wall, there was still a wild forest surrounding it. So as they approached their destination, the greenery became thicker.
“Location-wise, it’s about the western edge of the continent, right?”
“Except for villages and small towns, it would not be an exaggeration to say so.”
“How could anyone build a city in such a place?”
“It serves as a transit station for the surrounding villages. And with the forest surrounding the town, there is a high rate of encounters with monsters, so the Adventurers’ Guild is quite prosperous here.”
The source of the information was Ivy, who gave them this commission. Lapis herself also had some information, but it seemed that she was a step behind Ivy, an employee of the Adventurers’ Guild, which has a wide influence on the continent, so she was on the receiving end this time.
“In addition, forestry and other industries are thriving, and the amount of lumber produced is considerable. In addition, resources are gathered from villages, so there is a wide variety of delicious food.”
“Seems like a nice town.”
“Unfortunately, there are no rivers nearby, so there is no fish readily available, and the most you can find is dried and salted for preserving.”
“I don’t want anything more if I can eat meat.”
Loren was a dedicated meat lover. Fish was not bad either, but if asked which one he prefers more, he would have to say meat.
“I also like meat.”
“Both are good to me.”
“As long as she can put it into her mouth, Gula won’t even care if it was a goblin.”
Although there was a moment when Gula silently grabbed Ivy, who said a few mean things and giggled, the trip from Blue Desert to Suest concluded without any major problems.
“That’s the city of Suest.”
It was early afternoon on the fourth day after leaving Kapha when Ivy pointed to a tall, thick stone wall surrounded by trees that served to protect those inside from enemies.
“Stop. Show us your ID.”
With a voice that sounded somewhat flat and business-like rather than high-pressured, Loren’s group was greeted by soldiers at the gate, who were checking the identity of travelers from the outside.
Dressed in plate armor and carrying a long spear, the checking soldier did not hold up his weapons, but instead looked up and spoke to Loren while inspecting the others sitting in the wagon.
For adventurers, the ID card was the registration card with the Adventurers’ Guild. Loren was about to get out of the wagon to show it to the soldiers when the iron registration card appeared around his neck. As soon as the soldiers saw it, they had lost all interest in their group.
“Checked. Go through.”
“Are you sure?”
“Checked. Move along.”
With repeated permission, Loren felt no further need to show the registration card to the soldier. He urged Lapis, who was sitting next to him, to proceed with the wagon as he put the registration card back inside his collar.
Loren thought they might be stopped, and he would have to show it again, but the wagon passed peacefully through the other side of the gate and entered Suest.
“The security is quite lax, isn’t it?”
Stunned, Lapis said, and Loren agreed with her. Even though he showed his registration card, it was only a glimpse, and moreover, he did not even get off the wagon. The distance between him and the soldiers was so great that it was hard to believe that they could see the contents of the registration card properly.
“Is the Guild’s registration card that trustworthy?”
Even a glimpse of the card would have shown that it was an adventurer’s registration card. If the Adventurers’ Guild was that credible, it could be assumed that knowing him to be an adventurer was enough for the soldiers.
However, Ivy, an employee of the Adventurers’ Guild, was doubtful of that.
“I’m a member of the Guild myself, but it’s not that credible of an organization. There are plenty of badly-behaved adventurers on the continent.”
“So you’re saying the soldiers are negligent?”
It was possible that the soldiers were not diligent enough in their work to check the identity of every person who tried to enter the city by checking their registration cards. Although the city of Suest itself seemed to be quite large, it was located on the western edge of the continent, a place where the word ‘remote’ was appropriate.
“It’s not uncommon for soldiers to lose their motivation when they’re sent to the middle of nowhere.”
“Isn’t that a problem of the country, and none of our business?”
Gula quipped, and the others exchanged glances and nodded. At least, none of them were in a position to be concerned about the work of soldiers stationed in some city.
“Well then, first of all, let’s look for an inn where we can leave the wagon.”
Still riding the wagon, Loren looked around the area.
The town was big enough to have a variety of stores lining both sides of the street, there were also a lot of street stalls. Streets were full of people – the residents of the city, as well as travelers and merchants who had just arrived in town, could be seen everywhere.
“Things seem pretty normal.”
According to the information they had received beforehand, contact with the Adventurers’ Guild in Suest had been lost. Loren’s group had even considered the possibility that the town itself might have been destroyed for some reason, but there was no sign of this being the case.
“So does that mean the cause is the Adventurers Guild?!”
“Basically, the Adventurers’ Guilds communicate with each other by fast horses except in emergencies. But considering what we’ve seen so far, it’s hard to imagine that there are any problems on the road, so that is very unlikely.”
If, by the time they reached Suest, they had encountered large monsters or been attacked by a large number of bandits, they could have assumed that the fast horses had been attacked by them, making it impossible for them to make contact. However, Ivy could not find any such traces along the way.
It was true that there were no attacks because their group consisted of beings such as Gula and Ivy herself, but if the fast horses that they had sent many times had been killed along the road, they should have encountered at least some trace of it left behind.
“It’s still unknown what it is at the moment. I guess we’ll find out when we go to the guild.”
“I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a case of negligence on the part of the staff or the messengers.”
Loren laughed, thinking that it would not be worth the effort to travel so far for the story to end that way. However, he also thought that it would have been better if the story could have ended without a punchline like that. It was always better this way, rather than some mysterious cause.
Regardless, Loren’s group started to look for a place to stay, hoping to find one where they can keep the wagon they were riding in.