by Hiro Ainana
“Night sweat.”
Oh, so she wants me to wipe it off for her?
Mia had been emotionally attached to me from the beginning, but after I saved her from Zen, she’d started playing the excessively vulnerable spoiled child like this.
I didn’t mind giving out hugs or whatever, but it was probably best to take care with things like this, so I gave her some advice.
“Mia, you shouldn’t randomly undress in front of a member of the opposite sex like this.”
“Mm.”
She replied with a short response and a nod, but I wasn’t sure she understood.
Guess I’d better ask Liza or Lulu to talk to her about it again later.
“Okay, all clean.”
“Thanks.”
I finished wiping down her back and held the towel out to her. Instead, Mia spun around and stood there with her arms open, waiting expectantly for me to wipe her front as well.
Obviously, she wore underwear on her lower half, but only her long hair covered her upper body.
“Here, too.”
“Mia, you can wipe the front by yourself.”
“…Satou.”
“No, you’re not changing my mind on this.”
Mia entreated me with her best pleading puppy-dog eyes, but I wasn’t falling for it. I had zero interest in her innocent little body, but something still felt increasingly immoral about the situation.
I had no desire to walk the precipitous path of a lolicon, so I firmly denied her request.
Finally relenting, Mia reluctantly accepted the towel and dried herself off.
Judging by the movement of the points on my radar, Lulu and Nana seemed to have finished getting dressed. I left Mia behind the carriage and returned to the rest of the group.
Breakfast on our second day out of Seiryuu City consisted of deer meat and a soup with cooked beans, onions, and a wild plant that resembled garlic. Honestly, I could’ve done without the meat first thing in the morning.
Nana ate her usual wheat porridge, but this time it was topped with some shredded cheese. Liza was so considerate.
“Arisa, if you’re going back to sleep, at least eat breakfast first.”
“Mm’kay.”
Arisa, who’d been on the dawn shift with Liza, was dangerously close to dozing off.
I made sure she didn’t face-plant into her soup before finishing breakfast.
As soon as she was done, Arisa passed out on the spot.
I decided that, since she didn’t appear to be a morning person, Arisa should stick to the first shift of the night watch from now on.
As I reflected, I spent the rest of the time before our departure practicing spell chants.
Mia occasionally offered advice, but it was hard to understand what she was getting at with her short words and gestures, so her consideration went mostly to waste.
I’d have to figure out a way to improve communication so we could understand each other without so much effort.
After we’d left camp and traveled for a while, I caught glimpses of a black shadow in the sea of grass covering the hills.
My AR display labeled it a Large Fanged Ant Corpse.
That was the type of monster Lilio and the others had encountered before.
“Satou.”
“Hmm? What is it, Mia?”
Mia, who’d been playing in the younger group’s reed pipe orchestra, approached the coachman seat.
“Stop.”
She probably had to go to the bathroom or something. There was a well-trodden meadow on the side of the highway, so I asked Nana, who was practicing driving the carriage, to pull over and stop.
“Piggyback.”
“Right here?”
“Mm.”
I didn’t really understand, but Mia’s odd request seemed more solemn than normal, so I let her climb onto my back.
Pochi and Tama gazed at Mia somewhat enviously. I didn’t mind giving them rides later, but they’d have to wait their turn.
“There.”
I looked where Mia was pointing.
There was a path beaten into the hill. From the size of it, it looked like an army had passed through, not just animals.
There were several more large fanged ant corpses peppering the path. Clearly, a battle had taken place here.
“Take me.”
“All right.”
With Mia still on my back, I stepped onto the trail.
I asked Nana and Liza to watch the carriage.
“Like Mize said.” Mia muttered a little as we followed the path.
Mize was the ratman warrior who’d protected Mia from Zen’s monsters and brought her to Seiryuu City. Since he wore distinctive red headgear, I tended to think of him as “Red Helmet.”
“To protect me…”
I see. There must have been a fight between the monsters and the ratman warriors here.
“Zeze, Poro, Jene, Mitoro, Hoze, Rada, Kyuze…”
Mia murmured the names of the warriors. After twelve, her voice broke off.
Clear droplets fell from her eyes and scattered on the wind.
“Mia, let’s go back.”
“Wait…a little longer…”
I took her down from my shoulders to carry her in my arms, wiping away her tears with a handkerchief.
I checked the map, guessing we could bury them if any bodies were left in the field. I couldn’t find any in this area, so I broadened the scope of my search.
Huh? Of the twelve warriors Mia had named, five of them were alive in the town nearest here, Kainona. They seemed to be in captivity at a slave market.
The remaining seven were nowhere to be seen. After a few tweaks to the search settings, I found six of them buried at the base of a grove near the town. The last one hadn’t even left a body behind…
“Mia, there might be survivors in the town nearby. Let’s look for them when we get there, okay?”
“Mm, okay.”
I knew for a fact that the survivors were there, but I couldn’t explain that without revealing the secret of my Unique Skill, so it was the best I could do.
“That will be ten gold coins each.”
“Wow, that’s a hefty price.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, good sir. We are simple, honest folk, and we would never dream of overcharging.”
The way the balding slave merchant was eyeing my wallet was uncomfortable.
Once we arrived in the town of Kainona in the early afternoon, I visited the slave market by myself. Since it was a pretty small town, the shop had only about ten slaves.
“A truly honest person would be shocked to hear that. Isn’t the market price less than three gold coins?”
Ratman slaves were normally inexpensive, since they were small and not good at heavy lifting. Since they weren’t kept as pets, either, the market price could be as low as three silvers. In this case, the price would be a bit higher, since they had combat skills, but even then, three gold coins was the most I could expect. In fact, my “Estimation” skill put the price at twelve silvers—less than two and a half gold coins.
“Since slave traders from a mining city will be coming to buy them in a few days, the price has unfortunately increased fractionally.”
He probably figured I’d be easy to get rid of, since I looked so young. I used my “Negotiation” skill to the fullest, but I could drive the price down only from ten to six.
Normally, I would have just paid and left it at that, but I was irritated that he’d thought I was a sucker, so I took a more underhanded route.
I put some skill points into “Coercion,” which I hadn’t used since I’d gotten it in Seiryuu City, and activated it. That should make this a little easier.
“I’ll give you fifteen gold coins for the five of them.”
Smiling pleasantly, I gave the slave merchant my final offer. Naturally, my eyes were deathly cold.
Perhaps thanks to the “Coercion” skill, the slave merchant’s status changed to Panic. Hi
s stamina seemed to be gradually waning, too.
I took a single step toward the pale merchant, whose mouth flapped open and closed soundlessly.
“Y-yes, I believe we can make a deal at that price, indeed.”
With this level of effectiveness, this was turning into intimidation or blackmail rather than negotiation. I even received the title of Intimidator. I’d have to avoid using this skill again unless an emergency arose.
Well, the price was still much higher than the market value, so it wasn’t as though he was incurring a loss.
Finishing the slave contract, I had a bored-looking clerk buy some used hooded overcoats while I was waiting for the paperwork to be done, then had the ratmen put them on.
Since the coats were intended for humanfolk, they dragged on the ground on the much shorter ratmen. They might have looked suspicious, but it was probably still safer than revealing them as demi-humans.
I took the ratmen with me back to the inn where the others were waiting.
Arisa had said that she would take care of negotiations, but I was still surprised to see that she’d actually gotten permission for the beastfolk girls to stay in the room. I’d have to ask her about her tricks later.
“Ah, Master! Did you really find them?”
“I told you I was good at looking for people, didn’t I? Now, could you please call Mia?”
Arisa was surprised, but I brushed her off and sent her to get Mia.
At Mia’s name, there was a stir among the ratmen. They must have been speaking in their language, because I acquired the skill “Gray-Ratman Language.”
“Okeydokey. I can’t imagine they’ll be allowed inside looking like that, so please wait in the stable or the carriage.”
“All right. I’ll have them wait in the carriage.”
I took the ratmen to our horse-drawn carriage in the courtyard of the inn.
Just after they were all inside, Mia arrived.
“Zeze, Jene, Mitoro, Hoze, Rada!”
Mia called their names, hugging all of them. The ratmen, too, celebrated the reunion with cries of “Brinsiss!” in hard-to-understand Shigan language. They were likely trying to say princess.
However…
“Master, the inn’s landlord says that dinner will be…”
The peaceful atmosphere immediately crackled with hostility when Nana arrived.
“““Devil doll!!”””
“““Protect the princess!”””
Three of the ratmen seized the straw cushions, and the other two evacuated Mia into the back of the carriage.
Nana drew her short sword for self-defense and started buffing herself with magic. I guess Nana was always ready for battle.
“Enemies detected. Master, permission to eliminate them?”
The ratmen’s moniker “devil doll” probably referred to Nana and her homunculus sisters.
During the incident in the Cradle of Trazayuya, they had served the Undead King Zen, who’d captured Mia, so it was possible they’d battled with the ratmen in the past.
At any rate, if I did nothing, a brawl would break out on the spot. I had to quickly intervene.
“Nana, I forbid you from taking combative actions. You guys, too—put down the cushions. That’s an order. And the two of you who are trying to protect Mia, please let go. She’s clearly upset.”
Nana immediately lowered her sword but didn’t deactivate her magic buff.
The ratmen didn’t hear my order and started wheezing heavily as their status changed to Breach of Contract. So this is what happens when a slave breaches an agreement? They weren’t wearing enslavement collars, so nothing was physically compressing their necks, but they were clearly in pain.
The two in the back released Mia, and the status effect deactivated. Mia quickly pattered over to the other three ratmen, standing in front of them and holding her arms out wide.
“Drop the cushions,” she pleaded.
Despite their visible suffering, the ratmen were still holding the straw cushions at the ready.
“Satou is an ally.”
“B-but the devil doll’s a servant of the evil lord, isn’t she?”
“Nana is an ally, too.”
So they called Zen the “evil lord,” huh? Now that I could understand their native language, their words sounded much more fluent.
I was concerned that the ratmen wouldn’t know who Nana and I were from only our names, but hearing the word ally and Mia’s tone, they lowered the cushions and were no longer in breach of contract.
“Ah’m Satou, ’n’ dat’s, uh, Nana.”
I tried to give introductions in the ratmen’s language, but it was harder to pronounce than I’d expected. I guess since the language was made to match the structure of their mouths, it was hard to speak it as a human. I gave up and switched to Shigan language.
“I’m on my way to bring Mia to her hometown. Nana was under the control of the evil lord before, but now she’s our friend. She isn’t going to harm Mia. Don’t worry.”
“Did you buy us to serve as escorts for Princess Mia?”
I shook my head. Instead, I explained that Zen, who’d captured Mia, was dead; that Red Helmet was safe; and that I’d heard a rumor that the ratmen were being held as slaves, so I bought them in order to return them to their home. The lie about the rumor came courtesy of my “Fabrication” skill.
After our discussion, I told the ratmen to eat their fill and rest for the night, and that I’d take them to the foothills on the border of their country the next morning.
I’d actually planned to let them rest for a few days, but they seemed to be in better health than I’d expected, so I sped things along.
They had probably been able to endure slavery because they were hardened warriors.
Leaving the beastfolk girls and Mia to watch over the ratmen, the rest of us went to gather supplies.
With Nana as an escort, I sent Arisa and Lulu to buy the food and goods we’d forgotten to procure in Seiryuu City. Enough for the ratmen, too, of course.
I went to pick up hiking equipment for the ratmen, musical instruments and a bow and arrows for Mia to hunt, a thin board for the cards, and miscellaneous crafting and woodworking tools.
Unfortunately, since it was such a small town, I could find only about half the things I wanted.
Transport for merchandise wasn’t very well developed here, and demand was probably low for some of these items, so I guess that was inevitable.
Still, I successfully snagged at least a few things, like what Mia had asked for and the wooden board. For the instrument, I found a secondhand lute with a broken string. While I happened to discover two short bows, they came with only twenty bronze-tipped arrows total.
I found common items, like a stepladder, table, work surface, and chairs, without any problems. Most of them were used, but that was probably just because this world was so different from contemporary Japan or any consumer-driven society.
Because most of the tools I wanted were made-to-order, I decided to hold off until the next time we stayed in a big city. Still, since I’d bought a few secondhand tools, like a file, a chisel, and a wooden mallet, I figured I’d be able to do some crafting.
For the board to hold the study cards, I had the carpenter cut it down to a proper size and round the corners. At first I was told it would take three days, but he let slip that he’d do it overnight for three times the pay, so it would be ready in the morning.
For the ratmen’s transportation, I purchased a cart and two donkeys to pull it. There weren’t any horses for sale, but I figured they would be fine if the donkeys carried their things once they got to the foothills.
The next day—the third morning since our departure from Seiryuu City—we ate a mediocre, overpriced breakfast and left the town of Kainona.
Before heading to the border of the Gray Rat Emirate, we stopped by the place where the ratmen’s comrades were buried.
“I, Misanaria of Bolenan Forest, implore all the
trees of the Shiga Kingdom. Grant a restful sleep to the brave ratman heroes who gave their lives in battle to protect me.”
Mia whispered in Elvish to the trees that marked the ratmen’s graves. As if in response, the branches fluttered gently, though there was no wind. As if the spirits dwelling within were answering her plea.
Accompanied by the lute, Mia sang an Elvish funeral song.
The rest of us placed offerings of the cheese and dried meat the ratmen had loved beneath the trees and poured out alcohol as a burial rite.
One of the ratmen dug up a saddlebag buried near the grave site, took out a piece of paper, and handed it to me.
“This’s our treasure. For you, Satou. As thanks.”
“Hoze, don’t trouble Sir Satou with such a worthless scrap of paper.”
The small sheet was covered in tiny, cramped writing.
It contained strangely detailed information related to pottery. But it was the written characters themselves that caught my eye most, not the contents.
I called Arisa over and questioned Hoze while I waited for her to arrive.
“No, I really do appreciate it. By the way, where did you get this?”
“One of the humanfolk lost in the mountains gave it to me. He was strange.”
I thanked Hoze and dropped my gaze back to the paper.
“You called for me?”
“Yeah, look at this.”
“Huh? What is it? A note about pottery and how to make ceramic glaze? …Wait, it’s in Japanese! Did you write this, Master?”
Yes, the memo was written in Japanese characters. The paper itself looked like it had been torn from a high-quality lined notepad from a stationery or convenience store.
The scant information I gleaned from questioning Hoze suggested the notepad’s owner was most likely Lilio’s former boyfriend, whom I’d suspected was Japanese. He had met Hoze before visiting Seiryuu City. I could almost feel the wheels of fate in motion. I was willing to bet I’d meet him in person sooner or later.
I slipped the note through my pocket and into Storage in a folder labeled Japanese.
After spending a little more time there, we journeyed toward the foothills near the border.
