38 Episode 37 Travel and Stores

"Hello, I'm Gurtia, a D-rank adventurer and the leader of this escort. I'm good at spotting enemies, but I'm pretty weak in combat, even for a D-rank adventurer, so I'll be relying on you, Kaede, if we run into any monsters.

"I'm Kaede, leave it to me. I can spot a monster within a radius of about 20 meters, but beyond that it's tough. I also have an item box. And this is Catherine, a slave ......, I think.　She's a future mage, but she's basically useless as a guard. I'll provide more than two guards for you. I'm also capable of aerial reconnaissance.

By the way, Catherine has already completed one warding grimoire by today. You can already call yourself a wizard craftsman.

"I'm Catherine, please.

"Oh, you can fly, that's reassuring. There's not much danger along the way, so you probably won't need it, but I'll be there if you need me.

This is Wompe, your escort. I've heard that the item box is large. If you could pack as much as you can spare, it would shorten our journey.

Yes, we have plenty of room.

I wonder where he got that from.

Mr. Wompe had brought a covered wagon pulled by three horses at the front and a heavy wagon with a kind of cart at the back. Both the cart and the wagon were filled with weapons. I wondered if they were going to use this many weapons. It's a fortified city.

"All right, take all you can carry.

So I quickly put the swords and spears into the item box from the back of the wagon.

When I killed a spider the other day, I noticed that if you imagine that items are stored in succession while moving your hand, you can put all the items you touch into the item box at once.

This way, you can store a full load of swords in about 10 seconds. If you really try, you can do it faster, but I'm afraid you might cut your hand. You are dealing with a blade. It will heal, but it still hurts.

I'm up to level 26 after the last kill, but I don't feel like trying to see if the sword will stick.

Wait, how much can you put in there? I've heard it's big, but I've never heard it's so bottomless.

Maybe we can take the whole wagon, I have a few whole giant spider crabs in my item box right now.

"Oh, yeah. Give it a try.

In. In.

It's in.

What the hell? ......

So, instead of a carriage, I was to escort the horses.

There were only three horses, so the three of us were on horseback, and I was the only one flying in the air.

Is it safe to keep flying so high?　You don't want to run out of magic and lose your escort, do you?

"No problem, no problem.

Through this kind of exchange, the party of one flying man and three unaccompanied horse riders, which was not exactly a merchant's escort, descended the mountain to the opposite side of Tubai without encountering any enemies.

Incidentally, we moved by night. The guards are me and Mr. Gurtia, taking turns. We decided that there was no need for us to be on opposite sides of the day and night, since I would basically crush the enemy anyway. The only time we move at night is when our allies can be of help.

The food was flour kneaded in hot water. And dried meat. They would get off their horses and knead it in a pot of boiling water. Fire was made by burning wood from the ground with a small magic stone. Water was brought from the river. What are they going to do in the meadow?

It tastes like something I've eaten somewhere before, but there's something missing. I wonder what it is.

I'll eat it. It's a kind of preserved food. Maybe it's a kind of soba-gaki.

The second day was similar, a peaceful scene of three horses and a man flying in the sky, but the problem arose before the preparation of the third day's dinner.

I'm bored, soba-gaki. At least give me soy sauce. If you don't have anything else, that's fine, but why go to the trouble of eating something that's not that good when you have something that is?

So I have a suggestion.

"Hey, there's a giant spider club, would you like to try it?

The dried meat is okay, but I get tired of it, and it's rather expensive to buy here.

Apparently, this is the only thing he eats on every escort. That would be boring.

Incidentally, dried meat is not seasoned with a lot of spices like in Japan, but is seasoned with salt mainly for preservation.

Salt is not a super luxury item, but it is not cheap.

There are oceans, but the technology to produce salt from them may be underdeveloped. I wonder if it would be profitable to make sun-dried salt on a large scale, though I don't know if it would be good for us.

To do that, we need to secure land along the sea. No way.

"Well, I don't know how to cook it, does anyone know?

Just cut the legs and boil them. It's good. Simple is best.

Simple is best.

So I cut the crab (it's not a spider, it's a crab. So I sliced a part of the leg of the crab (it's not a spider, it's a crab, because I'm going to eat it) with my magic sword and threw the whole shell into the pot. After boiling, the color turned red. It's a crab after all!

The problem was the taste. The problem was the taste. I was a little nervous, but I took a mouthful of crab that I had distributed to everyone.

Oh, my God!　This is my favorite crab meat!

We've got a lot of fine food here that you can't even eat on Earth. Wonderful. Of course, it was a big hit with the others.

And so the peaceful escort ended after only seven days, while we ate the other meat that was in the box.

It was a heartfelt and peaceful journey for the demons as well, as we proceeded to annihilate the small fry that we came across that were less than rank D.

Incidentally, Red Wolf was not good.

As a frontline city, Desibatore is so feared that children who don't listen to them are told that they will be thrown into Desibatore to make them listen to them, and I heard many horrible rumors about Desibatore along the way.

Due to the nature of the city, there are always demons wandering around the city, and it is said that demons enter the city every day.

In fact, the level of danger is extremely high, and there used to be a city called Brokens in front of Desibatore, but it fell about 50 years ago.

However, it was not destroyed by a single demon attack, but rather a strategic retreat to limit the damage due to the gradually increasing pressure of demons.

After that, Decibatore, which used to serve the same purpose as present-day Photoren, was unable to keep up with the increasing number of demon attacks, so it abandoned its outer walls and turned into a frontline base using its inner walls and wards, and its original role was taken over by Photoren.

Because of this environment, almost all of the residents, including the innkeepers and shopkeepers, are of C rank or higher, with B rank being the most common among them.

For this reason, 50 years have passed since the city became a frontline city, and various anecdotes remain, which I was told along the way.

For example, an old friend of mine was invited to a house built by an adventurer who was injured in Decibatore and had to live in a safe city, and found that the house had no stairs despite being two stories high (according to him, if there were no stairs, why not just jump?). The adventurers who came back from Desibatore were sleeping in their houses and keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings", "A band of bandits attacked an old man who was on his way back to his hometown, feeling the limits of Desibatore life as he declined with age, and he was destroyed by them alone", and so on.

Of course, not everyone who couldn't keep up with them retreated, and I heard that there were many dead.

I don't know what to say, but are they really human?　

Well, if it's just physical ability, I'm probably not that different from a B-rank adventurer.

But I guess that's to be expected in an environment where there are people who can run around at speeds of over 40 kilometers per hour and people who can jump 10 meters in a vertical leap.

When we stress, some of them change into something different, and the rest die out. This sounds like cells I've heard somewhere. I wonder if the soil is acidic or not.

On the first day of arrival at Photoren, I decided to take care of Catherine.

I don't mean to sell her, but to build a workshop.

I'll be the owner, and Catherine will be the workshop manager, stockist, vendor, and other duties.

I asked Catherine if she would like to try it, and she said she would if she could.

Fortunately, Fotoren, a major consumer of magic tools and a major producer of magic stones, is said to be the best location for a magic tool workshop, so we decided to buy it quickly, and with the guild we headed for the real estate agency.

The money was obtained by selling Metal Lizard Metal. It came to about 280 million ter.

But are you sure you want to do this?　There's a good chance we'll be in the red.

It's okay, it's okay, I've got about 300 million, and even if there's a deficit, if I get better at making magic tools with it, that will also increase my wealth, and even if there's a deficit, I won't ask you to pay for it, so just give it a try.

Is that how it is? Rich people think differently.

That's the way it is.

I've only recently become rich, and it's more of a Japanese thought process.

No, if it was a stereotypical Japanese thought process, they wouldn't invest it, they'd put it in savings.

While we were talking, we came to a real estate agency. Or rather, I thought it was a real estate agency, but it was actually a commercial guild.

Excuse me, I'd like to start a mage shop, do you have any recommendations?　If possible, I'd like a place that can be used for living.

If you're looking for a magic shop, this is the place for you.

What I was introduced to was a small store divided into two rooms.

It looks like one side is for living and the other side is a store. The selling price was 7 million yen. I don't think two rooms in a store is too expensive.

I'll take that one then.

I take out 70 large gold coins and put them on the table. I received all the money in large gold coins.

I don't want to be given platinum coins, which are not for everyday use.

So you're going to make a quick decision?

Yeah, why not?

No, I'd love to, but it would save me a lot of trouble.

So the decision was made.

Catherine had studied accounting as well, so she would be in charge of the store.

The salary will be three thousand ter a month, and if the monthly profit after taxes exceeds three hundred thousand, I'll give you ten percent of it.

I can't believe I'm getting that much!

However, if the performance is so bad that we cannot expect improvement, we will take appropriate measures, and the remaining amount should be deposited in the commercial guild.

It's not as if the Suzumiya Group has that much money either.

I understand, I'll do my best!

And the name of the store is Caederine's Mage Shop.

I just thought of that name.

What? ......

What do you think? Isn't that a great name?

What?

Huh.

You got a problem with that?

Honestly, I don't know.

My perfect naming sense was denied. ......

--After that, after many twists and turns, the name of the store was decided to be "Kaede Catrine". Not much has changed.

We left 300,000 Tel as the initial capital, told them to contact us through the Commercial Guild if they needed anything, and disbanded.

The wisp core is no longer needed and is in the item box.