A short time later, a numerous mountain people milled about the narrow stretch of land leading to the peninsula, taking in the splendor of the scene.
There were about fifty or so villagers—the first group of settlers.
After the advance party reached the peninsula, I’d left them there, and used Transport Gate to return to the village. There, I gathered a small group of settlers and supplies, and teleported back. I repeated that process several times.
This first village would serve as a beachhead of sorts, so the group was comprised of the village’s biggest, strongest warriors. What might otherwise have been a furry’s paradise was filled with the overwhelming scent of animals and sweat.
I watched as men and women swung massive axes, felling trees to clear the land. Others busied themselves removing stumps, or preparing the simple accommodations where everyone would sleep that night. I felt like I was standing in the middle of a military camp.
“Is there anything I can do? I could at least help cut down trees.”
I drew the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg, walked past the workers, and started slashing at trees.
The mythical-class weapon was so sharp that cutting through even the thickest tree trunks felt like snapping twigs. I got into the swing of things, chopping down tree after tree.
“Whoa, look at that! He’s cutting ’em like butter!”
I made my way through the dense forest as if I were mowing a lawn. Knowing that this would provide the mountain people with more land to live on made me feel better. I completely lost myself in what I was doing until a fist-sized rock smacked the back of my helmet.
I turned to see Ariane clutching Ponta tightly to her chest with one arm, her free hand pointing straight toward me. Shattered rock fragments littered the ground at my feet. I guessed that she’d used spirit magic to throw the rock at me.
I looked around and saw what I could only describe as the horrors of deforestation: felled trees covered an area the size of a soccer field.
“Just how much of the forest do you plan on chopping down, Arc?! They’ve got more than enough wood now! Besides, Chiyome’s looking for you.”
I slid my sword back into its sheath, stepping over the fallen trees carefully as I made my way to where Chiyome and Pittah stood talking.
Pittah offered me a warm smile. “Well, I didn’t figure we’d be done clearing the land that quickly.”
I mumbled something in response before addressing Chiyome. “You wanted to speak with me?”
Chiyome glanced at Pittah before turning to me. “Thanks to you, we cleared the area much faster than we expected. But it will still take us about a month to build the village.”
She paused for a moment and looked up at me, trying to gauge my reaction. They would probably only construct the absolute minimum number of buildings necessary to get the village running. Even so, a month would be an incredibly fast turnaround, considering that all the work was manual labor.
“We’ve brought food over from the village, but they don’t exactly have a lot of surplus, so we’ll need to gather food here as well. If we assign people to the task, it will only delay construction on the village.”
What Chiyome said made sense. The anxiety of living on unprotected land without any barriers to keep monsters at bay—all while building a town by hand—would certainly take its toll on the body. The settlers would need a lot of food to get their energy levels back up, but securing provisions for this many people would be an undertaking in its own right. If they split their labor force, it would take even longer to build the village.
I’d agreed to use Transport Gate to bring over the remaining settlers as soon as the village was finished. I had nothing to do in the meantime, however, and I certainly didn’t want the construction schedule to get pushed back.
“Should I go look for food?”
Chiyome shook her head.
Pittah chimed in. “I think this would be a good time to collect the grand dragon we killed. I hoped you and Chiyome might take it to a human town and sell it for me.”
“Aaah,” I said. “You’d like me to buy food in town with the money?”
Pittah smiled broadly and gave a firm nod, happy that his unspoken request made it through to me. “I’ve already had some of the young folks prepare the dragon for transport.”
“Understood,” I said. “Happy to help.”
Heading to a large town with a wide variety of shops would probably be best. The biggest town I could think of was the Rhoden Kingdom’s capital, but considering the mass havoc Chiyome, Goemon, and I caused there during our rescue attempt, it seemed best to stay away for now.
We also probably needed to avoid the empire’s Karyu area, where we’d laid waste to numerous churches and nobles.
That left the port town of Lamburt.
We had gotten involved in trouble surrounding a slave-trading ring with the neighboring kingdom, Nohzan. However, I’d built a relationship with Petros, the lord of Lamburt, so I wasn’t worried. Worst-case scenario, I figured Petros could step in and convince someone to buy the dragon parts from us.
“How about we head to Lamburt, in the Rhoden Kingdom? It’s probably our best bet.”
Chiyome’s long tail swished back and forth. “I agree.”
It’d be good to have her along, since she’d know exactly what the mountain people needed.
Ariane, who was listening in silence, spoke up. “I’ll be going, too. You need someone to watch Arc like a hawk. You never know what will happen if you leave him to his own devices.” She arched an eyebrow at me.
Ariane and I had traveled everywhere together. I always figured I was the person she trusted the most. Apparently, that was wishful thinking.
“Also, I want to talk to you about something once we go back to Lalatoya.”
Her gaze had some unspoken meaning, but I couldn’t catch what it was.
“Well,” I said. “We can stop there afterward. We need to tell Glenys about the spring.”
Several mountain people lumbered up to us, pulling a simple sled laden with grand dragon parts—rocks and stones, talons and fangs, and other assorted items.
Pittah slowly circled the sled, inspecting its contents and berating the workers.
“Tsk! Think ya packed enough on here? We’ll need more discerning workers to pick through this. There’s no way they could take all this into town. They’d break their backs!”
“Can I give it a try?”
I took the ropes from the men, wrapped them over my shoulders, and stepped forward to get a sense of the sled’s weight. I felt the ropes pull taut, but I already knew it would be no problem. The sled creaked a bit under the heavy load as I pulled it forward a few paces.
The men and women who’d dragged the sled over murmured excitedly.
I turned back to Pittah. “This should be fine. Will anyone else be accompanying Chiyome, Ariane, and I into town?”
Since the humans thought of mountain people as beasts, and frequently enslaved them, I preferred to avoid bringing any villagers with us.
“If you’re okay going alone, that’s probably best,” Pittah said.
“I don’t mind at all. A larger group would draw too much attention anyway.”
Pittah nodded and took a step back.
“Well then, we’ll be off,” I said.
With that, I summoned Transport Gate. A magical rune appeared at my feet, spreading to include Ariane and Chiyome.
Pittah and the other mountain people, having teleported back and forth several times at this point, were now familiar with the process. They stepped back from the circle of light.
The world around us went dark, and a moment later, our surroundings changed entirely.