Volume 12 - CH 4

“Mr Yuuji. It’s in sight. That’s the fourth inn town”

“Ooh! It’s larger than the other inn towns, isn’t it!”

The fourth afternoon of their trip from Premie city to the royal capital.

Yuuji responded to the raised voice from Kevin who was sitting on the coachman’s seat.

At the end of the road where the carriage was moving on, the inn town was in sight.

Even being seen in the far distant, it was clearly larger than the three inn towns so far.

Yuuji prepared the camera at once.

Next to Yuuji, Alice and Riese’s eyes were sparkling.

“We’ve arrived earlier than planned, haven’t we?”

“Yes we did. Leaving in the early morning paid off!”

“Yes, let’s take a long rest today”

When they pass the fourth inn town, the carriage would be in a perilous pass of crossing the mountain.

There was still some distance, but one could see the mountains on the other side of the inn town. Tomorrow they will be crossing that mountain.

“I see! This is the town that has a sauna, isn’t it!”

“Yes, that’s right. How about we go there after leaving the carriage and preparing the horses at the inn?”

“Eh? Prepare horses?”

“We are going to replace the horses here, before the road over the mountain pass. There is a stable I am familiar with, so I will have them look after them. We will come here again on our return from the royal capital and replace the horses. Well, it would work out with these horses, but strong horses are better for crossing mountain passes after all”

“I see…”

Yuuji completely left everything to Kevin, including the preparations and schedule. What is an escort leader? Well, he did manage to escort the elven girl Riese safely without her experiencing any danger until now though.

“The carriage will remain as is, so it’s fine not to unload the luggage”

“Ah, is that so?”

Kevin called out to Yuuji, who heard he was going to replace the horses and began rustling and packing. It appears that he was hasty.

*woof* Kotarou leaked a breath. You’re already an adult, so calm down a little, was what she seemed to be saying.

The fourth day of the trip.

Yuuji arrived at the fourth inn town.

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“Ooh, there are a lot of houses!”

“Yes there are, inn town Yagiri-Nyon is the relay point of the royal capital and Premie city and also a transportation hub after all” (TL ヤギリニヨン; yagiriniyon)

Finishing the inspection by the inntown gatekeeper, the carriage entered the town.

Restlessly looking around, Yuuji reflexively raised his voice.

“Yagiri-nyon…? Mr Kevin, this inn town is on the riverside, right?”

“Rather than on the river side, it extends to both banks, holding the river in the middle. We cross the river here and then cross the mountain starting tomorrow”

“Ah, okay. Mr Kevin, uhm… the river, you don’t cross it by bridge but by boat, right?”

“Ooh, you understand that very well! They mainly use sailing boats when going upstream, so they hadn’t put up a bridge so that it won’t become a hindrance”

“Just as I thought… ferryboats, Yagiri-Nyon… Mr Kevin, Could it be that the one who named this inn town was the father of the first generation king?”

“Mr Yuuji, you’re sharp today! Yes, that is correct!”

“Seriously… Yagari-nyons crossing… Yagiri crossing. So that person is really…”

So Yuuji began to murmur.

Next to Yuuji, Kotarou too had a pensive look on her face. Despite being a dog.

The name of the town that had a “ferry landing” which crosses the river was called Yagiri-Nyon.

The remodelling of the carriage, his appearance that was said to be unusual face with black hair and black eyes, and then this name.

Even Yuuji began to think it seems.

“Wasn’t that guy a visitor from afar? Or rather wasn’t that guy a Japanese?”

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“Wow, amazing, it’s amazing Yuuji-nii! The horses are crossing the river!”

The voice of an excited Alice resounded from inside the horse carriage.

Next to her, Riese’s eyes were sparkling, and had both her hands covering her mouth. She was told to make sure not to talk in the elven language in places where there are people. She was sincerely doing what they said.

The fourth inn town from the Premie city, Yagiri-Nyon. Yuuji and company crossed the river flowing through its center.

What awaited them at the Yagiri-Nyon crossing was a boat with a shallow draft. 

As per the ferryman’s instructions, the carriage boarded as is.

Seeing that state, Alice and Riese became excited. It was the same reaction as children at the time they went on the ferry with a car. A thirty four year old man was also frolicking around with the camera though.

“We’ll be departing tomorrow early morning. It would be better to cross to the other side while we have the time today”

Kevin said and told him the schedule from this point.

The time was still before 15:00.

There was still time to prepare the horses and take a good rest.

Leaving everything to Kevin who was accustomed to travels must have been correct. Well, Yuuji did not seem to have any intentions to interrupt from the beginning however.

“Huh? Mr Kevin, what is that stone building over there?”

“Aah, that. That is the soldier’s station. I have told you before that aquatic monsters come out of the river, didn’t I Mr Yuuji? There are rarely those beings coming upstream, so they detect and kill them. There seems to be a metal net deep in the river so that they can’t hide and go upstream”

“I, I see…”

“The royal capital’s side has them too, but… the wetlands are in the northeast. Even if we can fight on the boat, we wouldn’t be really effective underwater, plus we have bad footing when fighting after disembarking. So in order to make sure that the town won’t be attacked by monsters, they kill them as soon as they are discovered by building a station like that”

Kevin worded it dangerously on some parts.

Speaking of which, this man was the ‘Fighting peddler’ clad in a bloodstained mantle. Well, it would not be unusual as a resident of this world however.

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“*sigh*. Really, this revives you, doesn’t it!”

“Yes, it seems like the fatigue of the travel is coming loose”

“Mr Yuuji, your body has gotten very firm, hasn’t it?”

The group set up the carriage, arranged the horses and entered the inn.

Where they headed directly was the specialty of this inn town.

It was the sauna.

The inn Kevin selected seemed to be reasonably expensive and had a sauna for guests’ exclusive use.

It was after the women group consisting of Alice, Riese and Yurshelle had already made use of the sauna.

As for how to hide Riese’s pointed ears, it was easily solved by the seamster Yurshelle’s idea.

“Eh? Couldn’t you just coil a cloth on her head? There are people who hate getting their hair wet, so it works” she stated.

Before going out of the room, the women’s group wrapped their head in a towel, and headed to the sauna.

When they returned to their room safely, they alternated with the men’s group.

Incidentally, Premie city adventurers guild master Salomon guarded directly outside the building while the women’s group were using the sauna. He was not a pervert. He was not a lolicon either. It was for the sake of escorting them.

Kotarou, who could not use the sauna, was washed by Yuuji at the watering place behind the inn. *wan wan* Kotarou stayed obedient even while barking. It appears she was a woman capable of patience.

The women’s group had used the sauna first.

In other words, who entered the sauna with Yuuji were only men.

Yuuji, Kevin and Kevin’s two exclusive escorts.

In a sauna overflowing in hot air, with the four men nude.

Salomon and the former third rank adventurer Enzo were guarding the room in order to guard the elven girl Riese. In order to protect the women’s group, the men’s group made use of the sauna by splitting into two groups.

Is it the result of training or is it the result of physical labor? Kevin’s exclusive escort Aias saw Yuuji’s bare body and praised the change in his physique. Compared to the time they entered the Premie city sauna, Yuuji seemed to have become tougher. His body that is.

Yuuji did well in accumulating naked conversations in the other world. With middle-aged men.

“Tomorrow we will be departing early in the morning again. Let us go to bed early today”

“So finally we will be crossing the mountains, huh~”

“Yes. We will be camping on the mountain pass tomorrow. The next day we descend the mountains towards the last inn town. Then the day after we will arrive at the royal capital”

“So it’s pretty quick as long as we cross the mountain, right~”

“Yes. The royal capital is a place protected by mountains and rivers. It seems they’ve selected a place that is difficult to be attacked in a great war”

“I see~”

Yuuji was in a relaxed state in his first sauna since a long time.

It seems that Kevin’s kind explanation did not really enter his head.

In any case.

Thus the fourth day in his trip finished, and finally they approach the perilous pass that is mountain pass

By the way, Yuuji did not take the camera in the sauna.

Humidity is an archenemy of the camera, but the naked bodies of four middle-aged men were also meaningless.