Act 3:
The Itinerary
TWO DAYS AFTER I accidentally let Albert figure out that I wanted to go to Zaidera, an official arrived from the palace to tell me that I had been given the okay.
He really didn’t waste any time! Motivated men are like a different species! I was so excited that I couldn’t stop singing his praises even in my own head.
I started packing right away, and before I knew it, I was on board a ship. It was my first ever voyage, and it was way more comfortable than I expected. The ship was the kind used long ago in my old world. I had assumed it would rock a whole bunch, but, to my surprise, it hardly rolled at all.
Perhaps it was because the seas were calm, but it might also have been thanks to some sort of magic, which my old home obviously hadn’t been able to take advantage of. The mages did seem like they were busy all the time.
And of course, Albert was with me, just as we had discussed. He was as good as his word and had come as my guard. It turned out that his company was one of the conditions of my leave to travel, though. I had one other guard as well, as stipulated by that agreement—someone we knew quite well.
“I suppose we won’t be seeing any monsters on this trip,” the grand magus grumbled into the wind, sending an accusatory glance my way.
Yuri wasn’t just my guard, he was my cover. The final condition for my trip to Zaidera was that I would have to keep my identity a secret. For that reason, I had been assigned a position that was neither Saint nor researcher from the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora: I was here as the grand magus’s attendant. Since that lowered my rank, Albert was here under the guise of being Yuri’s guard instead.
I thought it might be suspicious for the grand magus to even have a guard, but this measure ensured that the three of us would stick together, so we were letting it slide.
I had been given this specific position because if I wound up being the one treating the patient, we could say that Yuri had done the healing. As such, all focus would be on the grand magus while we were in Zaidera, and I could remain inconspicuous.
We would of course tell the king and prime minister what really happened, and I would be properly rewarded for whatever part I played. The king told me he just wanted me to be safe.
“Yeah…” I had a feeling I knew why the grand magus was looking at me like that, but it wasn’t like I was doing it on purpose!
I can’t exactly toggle the “keeping all the monsters at bay” skill! It’s a passive that’s always activated, I thought, pretending not to notice how he was eyeing me.
But I wound up having to look away from him, so I had a feeling that it didn’t entirely work.
“And here I was, looking forward to learning what manner of monsters there might be at sea,” Yuri grumbled.
“You never know, something might show up,” Albert said, in the hopes of pacifying him.
Normally, that would have been the job of Lord Smarty Glasses, but unfortunately, he wasn’t here. So, as his attendant, that job should have fallen to me, but Albert usually managed to take the lead first.
Perhaps Lord Smarty Glasses had entrusted the job to him? Between being my guard and Yuri’s babysitter, he had to be getting stretched pretty thin.
My assignment as Yuri’s attendant might have only been a temporary one bestowed upon me when I selfishly asked to go to Zaidera, but I still felt bad that I was falling down on the job while on the clock.
“Typically, yes,” said Yuri. “But getting out to sea is such a rare opportunity for me. I was looking forward to this chance.”
“Like I said, that chance isn’t necessarily gone. Why look, there’s one now.”
Yuri had been pouting miserably, but he stepped away from the rail of the ship at Albert’s words.
Just then, there was a large shadow.
Yuri must have noticed its approach as well, because he instantly cast a spell—though his expression didn’t change, nor did he seem especially enthusiastic. “Ice Lance.”
A massive spear of ice shot out of his raised hand, but the shadow absorbed it into its body. The lance had knocked it off course, though, and it missed its target. There was a loud noise as it fell to the deck of the ship. The monster looked like a four-meter-long fish with an upper jaw shaped like a harpoon.
It looked awfully similar to a swordfish from my old world. You know, like it would be tasty if we sliced it up raw and ate it as a topping on sushi rice. Unfortunately, this was a monster, so with its dying breath, it vanished from the deck of the ship.
“Striking as always.” It was hard to tell if Oscar’s remark was impressed or annoyed.
Oscar was one of my company’s employees. But why, you ask, was an ordinary person—albeit an employee of the Saint’s company—also traveling with an official Salutanian delegation? He had a reason, of course: The palace had specifically requested that someone from the company join us.
We were going to Zaidera to heal a member of the previous delegation who had fallen ill, but it would have been a waste of travel expenses if that was all we did. So, since we were going, they had decided to send an intermediary who could seek out and procure useful things that were not readily available in Salutania. They had selected Oscar because my company did the most business with Zaidera, what with importing rice—the staple of Japan—miso, and other seasonings.
Although it might have also been out of consideration to me.
“He defeated it so easily, but I’m pretty sure that monster is known to be pretty strong, right?” May whispered to Oscar.
Normally, May worked as a chef’s apprentice at the institute annex, but she was also here at the palace’s request. Zaideran food had a pretty different palate from Salutanian fare, so they sent someone versed in Salutanian cuisine to cook for the members of the delegation who would be uncomfortable with the local spread.
May herself was a very curious person, so she was excited to try Zaideran dishes and wanted to learn how to cook them too.
“It would be of middling rank on land, but any monster you run into on the sea will be of hardier stock than its land-locked brethren,” Oscar told her.
“It certainly didn’t seem any harder to defeat.”
“That’s Lord Drewes for you.”
“True.”
This conversation reminded me of what Yuri had told me on the subject—he’d said that monsters at sea were on average 20 percent harder to kill. But seeing it first-hand hadn’t made it easier to believe.
The problem was that the monsters at sea were bigger than on land, and the ship rocking under their assault made it harder to defeat them. The grand magus’s ability to dispatch a mid-ranked monster at sea so handily was just further proof of his particular oddities. As such, he should not be the basis of comparison for how well the average person could handle the same kind of monster.
“Oh? There was a monster?”
“Oh, Sister.”
I turned towards the quiet voice to see the other annex employee who had joined our delegation, Zara, as she walked toward us. She had also overheard May’s conversation.
May called her “Sister,” but they weren’t related by blood. According to May, they had been as close as family since their childhood, which was how she’d started calling Zara that.
The palace had also asked Zara to join our delegation. She was the annex manager’s secretary, but now she was acting as the grand magus’s secretary instead. Of course, that was only her ostensible job. Apparently, she was actually with us to take personal care of me.
I felt I could take care of myself, as evidenced by my life at the institute. They really didn’t need to assign someone to wait on me. I had declined the offer initially, but the official I’d been talking to had persisted, insisting that they had good reason.
What in the world did I need someone to take care of me for? Did they think I might need someone to help me put on a dress? I highly doubted there would be any opportunity for that, considering the purpose of the journey. In any case, since Zara and May were both here, I figured I might as well use this opportunity to become better friends with them.
“Yes, a pretty big one,” I said. “But Lord Drewes took care of it right away.”
“I would have been surprised by any other outcome,” said Zara.
“I know, right? Anyway, did you need something?”
“Yes, I thought the wind must be starting to take a chill, so I came to invite you for a hot cup of tea.”
“That’s a great idea! I would love some tea!”
I was pleased to receive such a wonderful invitation.
As the sun set, the wind on the deck did begin to grow cold. It hadn’t gone down completely, but Zara was right that I was beginning to feel it. An invitation for a hot cup of tea was just about perfect.
Zara smiled at my enthusiastic acceptance. “Shall we ask the others to join us?”
“Yes, of course.”
The invitation had been for me specifically, but she wanted to know if I wished to include the others too. I hardly ever got to see some of the people who were here on a normal basis, so this was the ideal opportunity to get to know them all better. Besides, we were going to be working together once we arrived in Zaidera. Perhaps Zara was thinking the same thing, or perhaps she had sensed what I was thinking; either way, I cheerfully gave my approval.
And so, we invited everyone to enjoy our lovely tea together.