It was traveling to the east of the road, while the only people on the road itself were a few knights keeping pace with it and a carriage accompanying them.
“I think I can see Nelly there with the knights.”
She was shorter than the knights, but her beautiful red hair tied up behind her head swayed like a tail, making it easy to pick her out from the crowd. They couldn’t see Bradley, but maybe he was inside the carriage.
“I think Bradley’s gone ahead to get to Rosa first,” Haruto said in response to Sara’s speculation. “The knights probably sent a messenger, but who knows whether they’d actually explain what was going on or not. And...” Haruto pointed a thumb at Sara, then himself. “He probably wants to tell them how we made those walls so fast. Rosa should be working on some walls of their own, but there aren’t a ton of people who live there in the first place, so I doubt they have enough manpower.”
Rosa had tall walls around it, so there was a limit to the number of people who could live inside the town. That was why they imported a lot of things from outside of town and why the cost of living was so high there.
“Bradley didn’t head up to the Dark Mountain right away? Does he have a lot of attachment to Rosa?” Sara asked even though she knew it was a rude question.
“Well, he can’t stay up on the Dark Mountain without Rosa.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“Plus the vibes of Rosa’s Hunter’s Guild just can’t be beat.”
“I know what you mean.”
They might have seemed cold at first, but Sara and Allen owed a lot to the Hunter’s Guild in Rosa.
As they chatted, they caught up with the knights in no time at all.
“Nelly!” Sara called out.
Nelly’s ponytail bounced up in surprise. Sara could see the knights running with her reflexively go for their swords.
“Sara?” She looked back without stopping and spotted the three of them in an instant. “Allen! You’re all right now?”
She looked relieved to see Allen running like nothing at all had happened. The knights removed their hands from their swords when they saw the look on her face. Sara was comforted to see that they had some amount of trust in her.
“I’m totally fine. Nelly, thanks for saving me. Seriously.”
It made her wonder what the heck they had been doing, but they all updated each other on the last day as they ran. They left the details about what the knights had tried to pull for later, of course.
“Well, Bradley went on ahead, but what do you three want to do? I plan to stick with the tortoise until we get to Rosa.”
“Sara and I will go on ahead. We can make walls real fast, after all.” Haruto answered for the both of them. Sara had been planning on the same thing, of course, but it kind of annoyed her all the same.
“I think I’d be of more use keeping an eye on this thing. Also, Chris and Noel are on their way in a carriage.”
Haruto and Allen had assigned the work. The knights were giving them a bit of a confused look, but Sara figured Allen could explain anything else they needed himself, since he was staying behind.
She didn’t want to leave Nelly, but she had to do her part. Sara waved to her and hurried on ahead with Haruto.
Though they were pressing on ahead, they stopped to rest at night, of course. They both put tents up. The first night was a bit awkward, since they weren’t used to traveling together, but they had to prioritize getting enough rest so they could make progress. As they shared nostalgic stories of Japan and Haruto told Sara about when he’d first come to this world, they’d made it halfway to Rosa in what felt like the blink of an eye.
“We can make it there in another two days. No, three, I think. There’s no need to hurry that much,” Haruto mused.
Now that Sara thought about it, the two of them had changed the continental tortoise’s course in front of the capital in only a few hours. They’d completed the first three walls they’d made in only a day as well. As long as they had a day to prepare for the tortoise’s arrival, they should have more than enough time.
“Bradley knows what’s going on and he’s ahead of us, so let’s take our time so we don’t get too wiped out.”
“Taking their time” would still get them there more than twice as fast as a carriage. Physical strengthening was a powerful thing.
“Huh? Doesn’t that person look like a Hunter?” Sara asked, spotting someone alongside the road.
There was barely anyone on the road at the moment because of the continental tortoise, and no one else who was around was standing in one place and looking out toward the capital like the person in front of them.
The two of them lowered their speed and stopped, intending to talk to the person, but he called out to them first.
“Hey, you’re the girl who used to warm up lunches at the Guild kiosk.”
And he was talking to Sara. He looked young, and when he recognized her, she thought back and seemed to recall seeing him as well.
“Are you a Hunter from Rosa?”
“Yeah. You remember me?” He seemed happy about that.
“Yeah, a little,” Sara said somewhat awkwardly. “What are you doing here?” That was the main question.