by Hiro Ainana
Eventually, the ship set sail, and we waved to everyone at the port until they vanished over the horizon.
As the ship started to head down the main river, Arisa approached me.
“So are we taking the land route over the mountains to Mia’s hometown? Or the sea route?”
“Viscount Emerin told us not to take the sea route.”
“Oh, right. His fleet got destroyed near the Seadragon Islands, didn’t it?”
“Yes, and that’s the only way to get to the Bolenan Forest by ship.”
I could probably handle it, but I didn’t have anyone to give me a ship.
“So we’ll be going through the mountains, then?”
“Yeah. Lady Cyriltoa said she went that way, too.”
When I’d brought everyone to the music hall for her performance, the songstress, who was an elf like Mia, had told me about the journey.
“But is there a highway through there?”
“It’s probably better to assume that there’s not.”
I’d actually asked the traders who sold me coffee in the city, but they said it had been over a hundred years since anyone had traveled across the Black Dragon Mountains to the Bolenan village.
“Mountains, huh…? I wasn’t much of a hiker in my past life, just so you know.”
“I wasn’t planning on walking, of course. Don’t worry—I’ve got a plan.”
With that in mind, I’d been testing out the possibility of aviation in the old-capital labyrinth ruins for a while now.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make an aircraft with a skypower engine because the output was too difficult to adjust, but I did manage to use the Electronic Control and Lightning spells to make hydrogen, so I made a small blimp-style airship instead.
It might look soft, but the balloon was covered with giant-monster-fish hide, so it would be next to impossible to damage even with mithril-alloy weapons.
To ensure a safe and comfortable journey, I sealed it very carefully.
Of course, I updated my party’s equipment with new materials and technology, too.
Their new armor was made mainly with the aforementioned monster-fish hide.
It boasted better blade resistance than even mithril, was as fireproof as hydra leather, and was even shock resistant, so they’d be safe going into battle even with somewhat stronger opponents.
It would be a pain if someone analyzed them, so I camouflaged the armor using the thin white shell of hard newts.
Everyone had different weapons, too. For starters, Pochi, Tama, and Nana were now equipped with Magic Swords that looked like simple bronze swords.
These Magic Swords could be switched between two effects: Soft Stun for dealing with people and Sharpness for exterminating monsters.
For Arisa and Mia, I provided new staffs made with the wood of the Mountain-Tree. Instead of making them myself, I had them crafted at the best staff workshop in the old capital.
I gave Lulu a muzzle-loading musket with the Shooter Version II function built in.
Like Japanese swords, the gun itself was considered an “ancient weapon,” so it might be rare but shouldn’t be thought of as too unnatural.
They probably just fell out of use because of the convenience of magic weapons like Fire Rods and Thunder Rods.
I didn’t notice it when we went to the museum, but apparently there were some on display there.
“What is that?”
It was our third day on the ship, the morning after we’d been stuck inside all day due to heavy rain, when I spotted something in the southeast.
“What do you mean? There’s not a cloud in the sky.”
“Spider threeead?”
“It’s thin and stretchy, sir.”
Arisa couldn’t see it, but Tama, Pochi, and I all saw what looked like a thin white thread.
“World Tree,” Mia mumbled.
“Is that what that is?”
“Mm.”
Mia nodded at me.
I knew she wouldn’t lie, but I didn’t see anything treelike about that thin line.
If anything, it was like a sci-fi space elevator in the distance.
…Is this actually a sci-fi world, not fantasy?
Doubts arose in my mind, but I figured they would become clear when we reached Bolenan Forest, so I put those thoughts aside for the time being.
By the next afternoon, we arrived in Couka, the southernmost town aside from the port city Sutoandell, to switch to a ship that would take us upstream on a branch of the river.
The only place with ships big enough to hold a carriage was in Kuuche, upstream of Couka, so we started our land travel from there.
This road was overgrown with grass, with very little traffic. As far as I could tell, the local residents preferred to get around with small canoe-like boats.
Both Couka and Kuuche were enjoyable towns—lively despite the small population.
“Master, do you think the black dragon they mentioned in that town is around here?”
Arisa looked out the window at the scenery with a worried expression.
We heard stories while we were passing through Kuuche that a black dragon had attacked the town, so she was probably somewhat nervous about that.
Since the outer wall was a little charred, not burned down, I thought it must have just been a demi-dragon.
I searched my map for demi-dragons above level 30 in the area. Aside from the large amount of wyverns in the Black Dragon Mountains, there was a lamia in the northeast of the duchy, a few hydras at the western edge, and a sea dragon in the southern ocean.
Of course, there were no real dragons in the territory.
The marker I’d put on the black dragon was on another map far to the south.
“There aren’t any demi-dragons nearby, so perhaps they mistook a wyvern or a large snake monster for a dragon?”
“Wyverns are scary, too… Will Lulu be okay in the coachman’s seat? And the horses?”
“Don’t worry. I’m always on the lookout for enemies.”
I patted Arisa’s head, and she finally gave me a relieved smile.
“Master, the village up ahead seems to be in a rather strange state.”
“Master, I recommend battle preparations.”
Liza and Nana were fully armed on their runosaurs as they came over to report.
We’d sold our surplus horses in the old capital, so we had only the four that were pulling the carriage and the two runosaurs.
So the four younger kids and I were riding in the carriage Lulu was steering.
“Liza, come with me.”
“Understood.”
I called Nana over, borrowed her runosaur, and headed toward the village with Liza.
This village was positioned between a branch of the river and the highway, so they specialized in fishing and agriculture.
“Do you have some business in our village? You’re riding runosaurs, but you sure aren’t dressed like thieves or eastern savages.”
An elderly man who was likely the village head stood waiting at the crossroads leading to the village, along with ten or so armed villagers.
The weapons they held were unbelievably crude even for a last-minute situation, from sticks with pointed ends to spears made with shards of obsidian. Their eyes were full of hatred and fear.
“No, we weren’t really planning on stopping by.”
My flippant answer did nothing to relax their vigilance.
When I saw the state of the village behind them, I understood why they were being so cautious.
“It looks like some buildings have burned down back there. Were you attacked by bandits?”
At least half the villagers had burns on their hands and feet, and the rest sported various other injuries. I didn’t notice at first because of the ragged cloth bandages wrapped around them.
“No, much worse than that. It was a nobleman and his friends,” one of the young men next to the village chief spat angrily.
I felt eyes pee
ring at me from inside the distant houses.
We didn’t seem to be welcome here, so I thought I’d better leave once I got the information I needed.
“Was this noble from around here?”
“No, we’d never seen him before.”
“Yeah, I didn’t recognize the crest.”
“They asked if we were sheltering any beastfolk, and when we said we didn’t know what they were talking about, they used magic to burn down our houses.”
“One guy held a fireball in front of my face and demanded a confession.”
The youngsters answered my question one by one.
A nobleman using fire, tracking down beastfolk…
This sounded a little too familiar.
My suspicions went right to the pyromaniac nobleman who’d tried to use Fire Magic at the dark auction in Muraas.
With a quick map search, I discovered that he was in Puta, the town we were heading toward next.
And the tigerfolk he was after were hiding in a corner of the same town.
This smells like trouble.
We could technically just avoid staying in that town to keep out of danger, but it was the closest town to the Black Dragon Mountains, and I was hoping to gather information about the mountain range for our trip.
For now, I just added markers to the lot of them to help avoid trouble.
“I’m sorry to hear that. We’ll be careful not to get mixed up with them, then. Here, please take this as thanks for the information.”
I reached into a compartment of the carriage, pulled out some salves and five potions that worked well on burns, and handed them to one of the young men.
“These are very effective for burns. Perhaps you can use them for the young ladies in town and such.”
He looked dumbfounded at first, but when he heard the words effective for burns, he practically threw himself down to thank me. The reason I gave him five was because there were five girls in the village with the condition Burns: Mild.
At that point, the carriage caught up to us, so I traded off with Nana and got back in.
“Well, aren’t you generous.”
“I made those with a special recipe, so they’re actually quite inexpensive. The cost might even be less than a single copper per vial.”
“Dang, that’s cheap!”
They were watered-down magic potions I’d made while consulting the shady alchemist’s handbook I’d bought at the dark auction. They were stored in cheap store-bought potion vials, too, so their shelf life wasn’t very long.
They were made by diluting my handmade lesser magic potions to a twentieth of the original strength, but they were still on par with a store-bought lesser potion.
The diluted liquid didn’t require any magic cores for production, but that was the only difference, so considering time and effort, it would probably be faster to just mass-produce normal potions.
However, the watered-down potions were low-cost and low-effect, so they were useful for selling or giving away to people.
These potions also contained freezing-flower powder from the black dragon incident, so they should heal burns without a trace.
After this, we passed more villages that had been attacked by the pyro nobleman.
In some towns, they said that a black dragon appeared right after the noble left, making them fear for their survival.
Suddenly, I remembered how Princess Menea had described the pyro noble’s Crimson Cane: a cursed staff that attracts fire monsters.
Maybe this black dragon was chasing after the pyromaniac noble.
“Slashy slashyyy?”
“Master’s Magic Swords are amazing, sir!”
“This sword is three times sharper than ordinary blades, I report.”
I’d let the vanguard group fight a level-20 naga that was hiding in the mountains to test out their new weapons, and they ended up winning even more easily than I had expected.
A naga turned out to be a large snakelike monster with bat wings and four legs.
Since we were testing out close-combat weapons this time, I cut off its wings before I had the girls challenge it.
“It seems you had no need of me for this battle.”
“Easy peasyyy?”
“We’re invincible, sir.”
Liza’s words struck a chord with Tama and Pochi, who promptly assumed a victory pose.
“Have a seat, you two. Listen…”
Before I could say anything, Liza gave the pair a good scolding for their pride, so there was no need for me to step in.
In the middle of the night, I had snuck out to dispose of any dangerous monsters that were above level 30 or had poison, petrification, or anything else that might pose a threat to my comrades. Maybe I should have left some stronger opponents for them, though.
“Say, do you think that naga was the black dragon we’ve been hearing about?”
“Dark brown.”
Mia shook her head at Arisa’s theory.
I also thought that misunderstanding was a possibility, but just as Mia said, the naga’s scales were dark brown. More importantly, it didn’t breathe fire.
The villages we passed were one thing, but the town of Kuuche definitely had burn marks.
And soon…
“Found iiit.”
“It’s flying over the top of that mountain, sir.”
Tama and Pochi pointed south from their perch on the coachman’s seat.
Beyond the lower mountains nearby, I could see the outline of the Black Dragon Mountains.
Near the white-peaked summit was something like a black string coiling around.
I couldn’t say for certain, since it was on a different map, but it was in the same direction as the marker I’d put on the black dragon, so they were probably one and the same.
“Great job, you two.”
I gave Tama and Pochi a pat on the head, praising them for spotting it at such a long distance.
We’d spotted a real black dragon, but it was probably unrelated to these incidents. If something that big had been flying around here, I would think it would have done much greater damage to the terrain.
I explained this reasoning to a worried-looking Arisa, then went back to evaluating the new equipment.
“The musket bullets didn’t seem to be working.”
“Mm. Nope.”
“I’m sorry; I’m not a good shot…”
“It’s not your fault, Lulu. The weapon just wasn’t strong enough.”
I’d used normal bronze bullets, but it seemed like the shooting magic circuit simply wasn’t strong enough.
Besides, unlike with a bow and arrow, the power of a gun had little to do with the strength of the user.
I reassured Lulu, then called our tank, Nana, over.
“Nana, let me see your shield.”
“Yes, master.”
“Huh. Not a scratch.”
This large shield was made by stretching giant-monster-fish hide over a Mountain-Tree wooden frame.
It was considerably sturdier than the shield I’d made with an ironshell fruit casing before.
I was glad that it seemed safe.
Incidentally, the naga meat was delicious when I broiled it in soy sauce. I decided to hunt them whenever I saw them.
Later, we were conveniently attacked by robbers near the town of Puta, so we got to test out the Soft Stun effect of my handmade Magic Swords.
It would be a pain to take them with us, so we just tied them to the nearest tree.
We weren’t far from town, so I figured we could just have the guards there collect them.
The town of Puta came into sight beyond the trees.
It was sandwiched between two mountains, with the constable’s castle built on the slope of the western mountain.
There was a mithril mine site on the mountain to the east, where they were now mining small amounts of tin and lead.
The population was a little less than the average around here, with slightly more beastfolk, l
ike lizardfolk and ratfolk, than humanfolk.
The only nobles in the town right now were the constable Baronet Poton’s family and Marquis Dazaress, aka the pyromaniac noble from the Makiwa Kingdom, and his crew.
According to the information I got from nearby villages, the town of Puta was famous as a gathering point for mon hunters. If any demi-goblins or other monsters were seen wandering near the local villages, the town would hire the mon hunters to exterminate them.
This was very important, since the town’s constable refused to take any real action until serious harm was already done.
As I thought about this, I searched the map and found dozens of demi-goblin nests in the nearby forests every mile or so. Most were small nests with less than ten demi-goblins.
Whenever their numbers got too large, they would get preyed on by other monsters or exterminated by the mon hunters, so there were no huge colonies like in the Muno Barony.
Even now, there were ten-odd parties of mon hunters prowling the forests in search of demi-goblins.
One of those parties was just on its way back into Puta and was having some kind of dispute within view of our carriage.
Honestly, this world had way too many issues.
Four women and one young man were arguing in front of the gate.
“Like I said, I can’t pay the entrance tax unless you pay me in advance!”
“Why should we have to do something like that?”
“Exactly! You said you’d come in handy if we brought you along, but you haven’t done a damn thing for us so far.”
“You can’t even carry our baggage, and you drink all our water.”
“Worst of all, you sliced up the fire fox we worked so hard to take down and ruined its coat!”
The women scornfully dismissed the boy, who had only one arm.
They clearly saw him as a burden, but he refused to back down.
I had to admire the boy’s guts.
“Hey, Kena, wait a sec.”
“What?”
The guard, who’d been standing around like it was none of his business, spoke to the leader of the women.
“A fire fox, you said? Did you go all the way to the Blighted Valley?”
“Pfft, ’course not. If we went to a place like that, we’d be the ones getting hunted.”
“Then where…?”
