“Aaah, I was hoping I could get a better look at the vegetation on the top of the mountain.”
They’d finally finished crossing the mountains, but Sara’s heart was still up on the peaks.
“The cotton sheep ate everything you could have seen anyway. Eyes forward.”
“Yeah... I guess I just want to take it slow since we already sent a messenger to the capital.”
Her apothecary’s curiosity had gotten the better of her as soon as they didn’t need to worry about the cotton sheep anymore.
In part as physical strengthening practice, they’d sped along the mountain roads, and when they’d arrived at the foot of the mountains on the west side, they’d run into another passenger carriage service that didn’t seem to know how to proceed. This group was safe, so they must have avoided a run-in with the cotton sheep.
Incidentally, the herd’s tracks extended north to a less populated area, so that was at least a weight off of everyone’s minds.
“You can make the trip on foot, but carriages are a no-go. If you could go back to the capital and let them know, that’d be great.”
The carriage drivers reluctantly agreed with Elm’s request.
“The lord on the other side of the mountain should be arranging repairs. But if you absolutely need to get to Gardenia before then, you’ll have to go on foot.”
Even with a carriage, it would take over a week to get to the capital from the base of the mountain. Those stuck en route could either return and wait for the mountain path to be repaired or push on to Gardenia on foot.
After a short discussion, the drivers decided to return the carriages to the capital. They said they would explain things to the other drivers they encountered along the way as well.
“We’ll probably get there first, so we can wait until we arrive to contact the townhouse.”
It was definitely better to move faster rather than slower, but there was no reason for them to go out of their way to interfere in other people’s business.
“Should we stop here for the day, then? We’ll make camp, then head to the closest town tomorrow to report about the roads.”
Unlike the road to Hydrangea, the route between Gardenia and the capital saw a lot of traffic, so there were plenty of places to stay overnight. There was of course a small town not far from here either, so there was nowhere where they would have to camp out. But this was all the more reason for them to make camp out here in the meadows, where monsters sometimes appeared. Ann needed to get some experience with them, after all.
“When we came from Hydrangea, there were flame bats in the meadows, but we’re too far north for them now.”
“They’re around,” Elm asserted immediately. He knew best as a wandering Hunter, Sara supposed. “You can usually find them near the mountains to the east of the capital.”
Still, it was far more efficient to hunt monsters in dungeons. There probably weren’t too many people who came all the way out here just for hunting.
“We’ll be traveling along the road, so we shouldn’t be attacked by any monsters, but if you go out into the grass, you’ll find horned rabbits, and we might even run into some cotton sheep. Ann, it’s not like Gardenia over here. You’re not always safe outside of towns.”
“Right!”
It was good that she was so enthusiastic, but Sara was already bursting just thinking about that night.
“If there’s flame bats around here, we can finally show them to Ann!”
Ann had only seen a dead flame bat from a storage pouch before, so Sara really wanted to show her how they looked flying around in the sky.
“I want Ann to try camping out somewhere where monsters will actually show up. We’ll be putting our tents up outside of the clearing. Sara, remind her how to use protection cases.”
“Okay!”
Elm’s role was to support Ann as she tried to become a knight, and Sara’s role was to be someone she could talk to if she needed it. But at some point, their traveling had started to double as physical strengthening training, rest time had become sword practice, and tonight, they were practicing camping. It was a rigorous journey that would be harsh for any other girl.
“Ann, just let me know if you need a break.”
“From what? It’s so nice having all this free time, don’t you think?”
From Sara’s perspective, this trip had ended up packed full of nothing but training, so what was free about it?
“Everyone’s helping me achieve the future I chose for myself, and I can move around as much as I want physically. Every day’s been so fun since we set out on this trip!”
Ann clenched both fists, her eyes positively sparkling. Sara smiled a little awkwardly, remembering how reluctant she had been to get down to the town of Rosa.
Regardless, as they were supposed to be training, Sara had Ann help with setting the tents up and cooking as much as she could.
“When you’re camping, it’s easier to bring prepared food with you than make something from scratch. That’s what you’ve got a storage pouch for. I often bring a whole pot of food that’s already cooked with me. You should keep a few days of food in your storage pouch at all times just in case. Water, you can just conjure with magic.”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.”
“But we’re learning today, so we’ll start by cutting vegetables.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Cooking had to be done by hand, but Sara told Ann she could wash dishes with water magic, though this was apparently pretty difficult. Nelly had never figured it out, and Allen said he preferred to wash things by hand. Kuntz and Haruto could do it, though, so maybe it had something to do with magic affinity.
“Aaah!”
They were using wooden dishes precisely so that it wouldn’t matter if they were dropped; since Ann had just dropped one, she must not have been very good at magic yet. Sara found this a bit mysterious, since Ann had no trouble with physical strengthening. Still, it wouldn’t do for her to decide off the bat that she wouldn’t be able to do it, so Sara figured she’d show Ann all of the magic she typically used. That way, once Ann was better at it, she had things to go back to for reference.
“We’ll be sleeping under the stars again tonight. It’s so romantic, don’t you think?”
Once they had finished cleaning up and setting out the protection cases, Ann came up to Sara looking excited. But her training wasn’t over for the day yet.
“Okay, everyone, gather round!” called Elm.
“Huh? Huh?” Ann looked back at Sara curiously, but ran over to everyone else.
“Okay, it’s flame bat time. I know everyone’s been looking forward to it.”
“Huh? Looking forward to it? Flame bat? That thing that was in Sara’s pouch?”
She was confused for some reason, even though they’d been talking about the flame bats earlier. Maybe there had just been so much training that she couldn’t keep it all in her head at once.
“Look up.”
Inside the protection field, Sara looked up when Ann did. Shadows flitted across the starry sky. Their irregular movements weren’t those of birds.
“Those are flame bats.”
“Huh. So they’re real. And they’re alive and flying.”
It was Sara’s fault Ann’s only reference for flame bats was a dead one, so she felt a little bad about that.
“You might think they’re just flying around, but now that we’ve put out our lights, they’ll attack if they think they see a chance. If Sara shows herself, they’ll probably attack right away. Even wyverns go for her.”
Sara supposed Elm was saying she stood around spacing out a lot, so she made a good target. It was a bit rude. She was enjoying the view from the safety of the protection field, so she wished the others wouldn’t look at her so expectantly. They must have wanted her to act as bait. Sara couldn’t rest yet either, she supposed.
“Very well...”
In the end, she was just a people-pleasing Invited. She stood up and went off on her own, a short distance from the protection field and the others. Of course, even inside a protection field, she always had her barrier up anyway.
“Look, their movements have already changed. They’ve got their eyes on Sara now.”
Why did he have to say such ominous things?
“Okay, for safety’s sake, I’ll make my barrier a little bigger. About twice my height.”
Even if she had her barrier up, she didn’t have any particular desire to see monsters up close.
“Ah!”