74 Travel Arrangements

With about thirty minutes left until they were scheduled to meet, Eliza arrived in the plaza to find Emilia, once again, clinging to Linnaeus. This caused her mood to diminish but, after the previous incident; she ultimately just released a small sigh before dodging through foot traffic to approach the duo.

Sensing Eliza's approach, Emilia's ears perked up and, as a compromise of her own, she stopped leaning against Linnaeus' shoulder; rising to her feet to happily exclaim, "Liz, you're late~"

Hearing Emilia's remark, Eliza gave her a pointed look before dodging the former's attempt to hug her, replying, "Our meeting time isn't for another half an hour. You and Lin are just a little early, that's all."

After stating her piece to Emilia, Eliza chose to momentarily ignore her; closing the remaining distance to Linnaeus and giving him a spontaneous hug. This caused the latter to tense up but, compared to the past, he calmed down quickly before reciprocating.

Before things could get out of hand, Linnaeus lightly pat Eliza's back, his eyes taking in their surroundings as he said, "We're drawing a lot of attention..."

Though she wanted to remark that it didn't matter if others were watching them, Eliza knew that Linnaeus was still an inherently cautious person. She also didn't want to put too much pressure on him so, after squeezing him a little tighter; she released his body and said, "I haven't eaten yet. I imagine you already bought food for that glutton, right?"

With Eliza releasing his body, Linnaeus continued to observe their surroundings for a few seconds longer while; in response to her question, he pulled out a small bag of cookies. He had expected something like this to happen so, knowing Eliza's preference for sweets; he made sure to obtain some in advance.

Seeing Linnaeus profer a bag of cookies in an instant, a smile blossomed on Eliza's face as she reached out to secure them for herself. This was, hopefully, enough to keep her occupied until Krone finally arrived; though Linnaeus would never voice this thought out loud...

---

Though it was starting to seem as if Krone was going to arrive late, he ultimately beat the clock by a few minutes.

To prevent an incident where Eliza lambasted an ally in public, Linnaeus preempted her actions by rising to meet the grey-skinned man, making it clear he hadn't done anything wrong by saying, "You have arrived just in time. Did you finish everything you needed to do? If we're late, the next convoy won't be until tomorrow morning."

For a brief moment, Krone had been considering whether or not he should apologize so, hearing Linnaeus' words; he felt slightly conflicted. In the end, however, he nodded his head, answering, "I have finished my preparations..." before, in a much lower tone, adding, "I had intended to be earlier...I got sidetracked along the way...sorry."

Now, it was Linnaeus' turn to be surprised but, as per usual, it didn't really show on his face. He just nodded in response to Krone's words, saying, "I understand, thanks for explaining things. I never doubted you had a reason. Besides, you are still on time so there's no need to apologize. Come, If everyone is ready, we'll be on our way."

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With the brief exchange between Linnaeus and Krone, Eliza felt it would be too awkward for her to say anything so; without further incident, the Party moved on to their destination: a Company-owned building that specialized in the transport of personnel and goods between Central City and the Monster Ant Colony.

Though it was possible to reach the colony on foot, everyone had agreed that a five-day journey wasn't really something to look forward to. The risk of being attacked by bandits increased when traveling in small groups so; after the recent attack, they opted to travel with a convoy.

By paying a variable transfer fee, they could either act as simple passengers or; in order to save on Kindling; serve as escorts for the convoy. The latter was, by and large, the more popular option so it wasn't uncommon for a convoy to be escorted by well over a hundred people.

It was common sense that, if you wanted to traverse the common routes; traveling in a larger group was a lot safer. The only reason Linnaeus and co hadn't done so previously was largely due to the former's paranoia; combined with the fact that Eliza and Emilia had basically been broke at the time.

Now that they had a bit of flexibility in their finances, securing passage with a convoy not only decreased the chances of a bandit encounter but it also reduced the total travel time by a fair amount.

Rather than walk or run, they would be traveling in large reinforced wagons that were pulled along by a type of domesticated monster known, 'affectionately', as a Dumbswallow. They were large bipedal birds that stood well over three meters in height; their muscular frames covered in a thick plumage of vibrant feathers.

The two most notable traits of a Dumbswallow were their almost comically oversized heads and their muscular three-toed feet. The former gave them a somewhat cute appearance, as they also had somewhat big eyes and curved beaks but; as the name suggested, they were notoriously dull creatures.

Due to generations of selective breeding from a very small genetic pool, they had now reached the point that; if you didn't stop them from eating, a Dumbswallow would literally eat until their stomach ruptured. This made them somewhat dangerous as, with their powerful legs, they could even dent 20cm thick plate-iron with relative ease.

Fortunately, while they were somewhat notorious for their intellect, Dumbswallows imprinted on their owners immediately after birth. This made them surprisingly easy to handle, so long as you knew how to properly care for them...

When Linnaeus and co first laid eyes on the rather colorful creatures, Eliza's eyes lit up as she couldn't help but remark, "They are so adorable..." in a subdued tone. As for Emilia, she had to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand; her opinion of the birds clearly different from Eliza's.

Linnaeus saw their contrasting reactions and before he realized it, a small smile had spread across his face. This immediately made him feel as though something was wrong, however, so it lasted for less than a second before he stated, "Don't gawk, Emilia. The last thing we need is you getting sent careening across the market after spooking the birds..."

Hearing Linnaeus comment, Emilia's ears drooped slightly as she looked toward him with a slight pout on her face. Still, she followed his order and, though she didn't realize it; this was the correct decision as the closest Dumbswallow had been eyeing her; it's feathers beginning to puff up in response to the 'danger' it felt...

Fortunately, without any incidents occurring, Linnaeus managed to find one of the Merchants affiliated with the Company and, without too much hassle, they were able to secure escort roles in the convoy. Though this required them to sign a contract, they ultimately only ended up paying a total of four-hundred Kindling between them. In exchange, they would have to proactively defend the convoy; turning over most of the materials obtained in exchange for a monetary reward.

Since most people prepared their supplies before heading out to locations like the Monster Ant Colony, most Merchant convoys saw it as an opportunity to secure cheap materials. After all, they had massive wagons that could hold a ton of additional materials and drop items; items that the escorts would have had to leave behind unless they wanted to strain their SP reserves.

Though this arrangement annoyed Linnaeus quite a bit, as the stipulations of the contract made it so that the convoy could essentially take detours; Eliza explained to him that only fools would do such a thing. For a Merchant Company, reputation and trust were more important than the actual items they traded as; without these two things, nobody would purchase from them.

Unless a business had a monopoly, there were no benefits in exploiting mercenaries and small Parties as the negative reputation they acquire would quickly bring them to ruin. Thus, while the contract did have a few troublesome clauses, these were actually written in to give the Company a bit of wiggle room when it came to choosing a route.

Depending on various factors, such as natural weather phenomena, environmental hazards, and monster hordes, it was sometimes necessary to change routes in order to ensure the safety of the convoy. If the contract forced them to follow an exact route, there was a good chance they could walk into an irreversible situation, the most common of which was having bandits intermixed into the escort; feeding route information to their companions.

Being a cautious person himself, Linnaeus could understand the concerns of the Company so, after Eliza's explanation; he ultimately signed the contract. At the same time, however, he made a mental note to always investigate the Companies they worked with in the future. It made him feel uncomfortable to simply trust people on principle alone; especially when binding contracts were involved...

---

In total, the convoy consisted of twenty-three carriages; each pulled by a duo of Dumbswallows. They were capable of setting an average pace of around 100km per hour and, if properly fed, it was a simple feat for them to travel upwards of fifteen hours per day. To guarantee this, the total number of Dumbswallows was twice the necessary amount; half of which would be 'resting' by trotting along without pulling a wagon.

Linnaeus' Party had been assigned to the fourteenth carriage, a six-wheeled wagon formed from Ironwood and reinforced with Blacksteel plating. It was transporting non-essential goods, such as bolts, screws, and additional plating. These would only be necessary if a carriage was disabled during a monster attack so there were only two Parties assigned to protect it, Linnaeus' and one led by a stout man with dark-red hair and a beard that extended to his chest.

Since they would be traveling together for more than two days, Linnaeus restrained his urge to simply ignore the man. Instead, he approached the stout figure who, despite appearing to be middle-aged, was only slightly taller than Linnaeus himself. This was due to the fact the man was clearly a Dwarf; evident by his short stature, intricately groomed beard, trunk-like limbs, flat nose, and small, pointed, ears.

Seeing the youthful and rather frail figure approach him, the Dwarf raised one of his thick brows, asking, "Aye, what can ah do ye for, lass?"

Hearing the man address him as 'lass', Linneaus had to forcibly restrain a facial twitch in order to form a wry smile as he replied, "My name is Linnaeus Finnian. Our Parties will be working together over the next couple of days so I thought I would introduce myself. Also...I am not a girl..."

Without making any effort to hide his surprise at all, the Dwarven man gave Linnaeus another take before remarking, "Sorry, lad. Ye might've guessed it but ah'm a Dwarven folk. Names Yorgen Kilncrusher. Ain't easy tellin tha gender of other tribes apart. Hope yer an understandin' lad."

Toward the end of his words, Yorgen extended his hand in a gesture of goodwill, a somewhat crooked but good-natured smile on his face. Linnaeus hesitated for a brief moment when he saw this but, realizing the other party had no malicious intentions; he ultimately extended his own, much smaller hand...

Despite their comparable heights, Yorgen's hands were more than twice the size and thickness of Linnaeus'. They were also incomparably rough and calloused, a stark contrast to the delicate and nimble fingers of the young Manalyte hybrid. This made their handshake somewhat awkward but, known to be a social bunch, Yorgen just laughed it off after a cheeky remark; easing the tensions between the two Parties with humor.