I’ve come to realize that the term “impossible” doesn’t exist in this world.
“Hey! What’s going on? Just what could you have done to screw up this badly?!” Datil said with an exasperated look.
“You guys sure are talented at messing up!” Fresa said happily.
What are you so happy about? Oh, right. Because now we can save Gruszka’s subordinates. I guess all’s well that ends well.
The two Rank C adventurers were convulsing on the ground, foaming at the mouth. The carriage’s harnesses and driver’s seat were destroyed, leaving only the luggage space. The passengers were looking at us from the hole in the ripped roof—it seemed like the ones that had taken the horses toward the campsite earlier were with us.
Datil jumped off our horse and counted the passengers. “One...two...three...phew, you guys are all safe.” Everyone from the carriage and Gruszka’s men were all safe, but not a single horse was in sight.
“There’s no bodies, so they must’ve run away,” Datil said.
“Yep. I wonder if those two over there are, like, okay?” Fresa asked.
They’re alive, but they really don’t look okay.
After a moment of silence, Datil said, “I can sorta piece together what happened here, but let’s ask, just in case.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ummm, okaaay, so you guys were hounded by a group of monsters...”
“And you fought all night.”
Judging from what the passengers and Gruszka’s subordinates said, it sounded like the Rank C pair did their best.
“Exactly! Those two slashed at the oncoming demons! They beat up the monsters that were coming toward them again and again...” a passenger explained.
I can tell that they really tried their best, but oddly enough, those descriptions just sound comical.
“We were riding on the horses alone, but they ordered us to stay here because it was dangerous. They swore to protect us...”
I think keeping the horseback riders here was a wise decision. It’s too irresponsible to leave them to fend for themselves in the middle of the night without a guard. But, uh, I can actually see the campsite from here.
“They were so close too!” Grida said.
Yeah, around three kilometers or so. I can see the gates and scaffolding very clearly. But no normal human can see that far, much less in the middle of the night.
“How inconvenient...”
Nah, plants are just too convenient.
“As dawn broke and we thought the monsters had started to leave, those two just fell to the ground as though a puppeteer cut their strings,” the passenger continued. “They lost consciousness then.”
And that’s where we came in, I guess. On closer inspection, there’s an apple core on the ground. This must be the doping apple that Fresa gave them earlier. The effects were “nourishing tonic” and “enhancing physical capabilities,” right?
“So they fought through the night while slowly eating the apple,” Datil said. He carried one of them over and set them onto the luggage area of the carriage.
“That’s pretty impressive. I’m proud of them,” Fresa said, carrying over the other. She proceeded to pull on the reins of the horse that carried us here with one hand, and grabbed the edge of the destroyed driver’s seat with the other. “Datil, shall we pull? This horse is pretty tired too.”
Pull?
“Absolutely. I could do it myself though.”
Yourself?! Wait, are you guys planning to...?
“I bet you could. We’re really close,” she said, shaking her head with a smile.
“Are you sure? Then let’s go.” Datil grabbed a bit of wood that was sticking out from the driver’s seat, where the harness used to be.
Creak!
The horseless carriage creaked with a low groan before starting to smoothly move. The passengers could only gasp with awe.
“What?!”
“H-Huh?! This can’t be real!”
Well, yeah. I’d freak out too. There’s over twenty people on this carriage, but Fresa and Datil are pulling it with ease.
“Huh? It’s lighter than I thought. Should we speed it up a little?” Datil asked.
“Yeah. I can totally run with this,” Fresa said.
Huh?! Did you guys get even stronger?!