CH 77

It’s Ko-Fi’s Supporters’ chapter (25/63), enjoy~

“Well, then Erichburg is already within your reach, huh?”

“Yes, that’s right. There were a good number of wounded in this battle, but the death toll was low. The potions that Kosuke and Isla made for us have healed most of our injuries, so we’ll take a few days to rest and get control of Mayswood before we attack Erichburg.”

Sylphy’s voice echoes back from the golem communicator.

The Liberation Army, which started from the Gamma Fort about a week ago, went northward through the former Merinard Kingdom territory while suppressing villages and towns along the way, and completed its invasion today to the city before Erichburg, which is the key transportation point.

“So… are you okay? Are you sure you don’t want me to go? I’ve already built a supply base, so there’s nothing I really need to do here.”

In fact, there’s almost nothing left for me to do in the backline, and for the past few days, I’ve been busy mass-producing things that I can only mass-produce, such as Goatsfoot-style reinforced crossbows, aerial bombs for Harpies, ammunition, and parts for bolt-action rifles, and gathering materials for them.

I don’t know if I feel like collecting latrine dirt for a while!

“Yes… I’d like you to strengthen the defenses of Erichburg once we conquer it. Can I have you head this way?”

“All right! I will leave tomorrow if possible, the day after tomorrow at the latest!”

“Fufu… I’ll attack Erichburg before the excited Kosuke arrives here. There’s still a good amount of the Holy Kingdom’s army that exists south of Erichburg. Be careful on your way.”

“Sylphy, be careful too. Don’t get hurt.”

“Okay. See you later.”

“Yeah, good night.”

I finished the communication and put the Golem communicator on standby.

“Are we moving tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan. Isla should just…”

“I’m going too.”

“No, I mean, what if someone gets hurt or sick?”

“The potions will work, and we have the former alchemists and apothecaries. So it won’t be a problem.”

“Hmm… I see. Are you sure about that?”

“Kosuke traveling alone is a bigger problem. You need an escort.”

Isla did not change her decision to come with me. It’s not that I don’t want her to go with me. On the contrary, it’s very reassuring. It’s just that it’s lonely to be alone. No, I don’t think I’ll be going alone. I’m sure the three Harpies will follow me.

“What about transportation…? Should I run with Isla in my arms?”

“You want to bounce around like that? It will make me throw up.”

Isla made a small cross mark in front of her mouth with a look of disgust on her face. Oh, so she’s going to throw up. Well, it’s not surprising that she got sick. I’ll be moving at a great speed while jumping around, after all.

“Well, we’ll take a carriage then. Do we have an extra one?”

“There’s no problem with one carriage. The purpose is to deliver supplies to the front lines.”

“Indeed.”

The amount of supplies a single carriage can carry is negligible, but it’s a different story with me on board. My inventory can carry a tremendous amount of goods. In fact, I still can’t see the bottom of the amount of supplies that can be stored in my inventory. I wonder if I can store as much as I want?

“What happens tomorrow will happen tomorrow. Today is just you and me.”

“That’s true. The sun has already set.”

Basically, people in this world don’t work after dark. It’s inefficient and dangerous to work at night. In addition, it costs money because you have to turn on the lights. Therefore, when the sun goes down, they go home and spend time with their families and loved ones to nurture their bond.

By the way, today we are going to spend time alone together, as Isla said. Rey, Pessar, and Capri are sleeping in separate rooms today. It seems that the decision was made after a discussion without my knowledge.

“I’ll be your Onee-san today.”

“Onee-san?”

I parroted back to Isla, who looked up at me. She looked like a little girl. The difference in height between Isla and me is a head and a half… no, maybe two.

“I’m actually a big sister, you know. I’m older than you.”

“That’s true too.”

Apparently, Isla is thirty-two years old. The One-Eyed race as Isla is also a long-lived species, although not as long as the elves. I’m twenty-four… No, I’m twenty-five if you include the time I spent here. Since I’m 25 years old, that means Isla is seven years older than me.

By the way, I checked and found that the calendar in this world is much the same as on earth. I didn’t ask about the details such as the number of hours in a day or whether there is a leap year, but a month is about thirty days, and a year is divided into twelve months. There is no problem in saying that they are almost the same.

“So, what is Isla-Oneesan like, and what is she planning to do?”

“Isla-Oneechan.”

“What?”

“Kosuke is much younger than me. You should call me Isla-Oneechan.”

“No, that’s a little…”

Calling her Onee-chan at this age is just… too much. I don’t want her staring at me like that. I’m not going to give up! Aaaa, don’t cry. Aaaahh. I can’t! You can’t cry, young lady! That’s not fair!

“Ah…”

“Ah?”

“Isla-Oneechan…”

“…Fufu.”

Aah! She laughed at me! She made me say it, and now she’s laughing!

“You’re so cute. Come here, Onee-chan will spoil you.”

Isla smiles at me with an excited face and looks at me gently as she opens her arms and prepares to accept me.

“No, that’s just too much.”

“You don’t want to be spoiled by Onee-chan?”

Isla gives me a sad look. Isn’t that cheating?

“That’s not how it was supposed to be.”

“Come here.”

“…Yes.”

I had no room to resist.

“Aaaaahhhh!”

I woke up in the morning and rolled around on the bed, screaming. Last night, I was carried along by Isla’s pace from beginning to end. I can’t help but feel like I’ve made a tremendous mistake.

“Good morning, Kosuke. Breakfast is ready.”

“Good morning, Isla.”

“Isla-Oneechan.”

“Spare me.”

“Fufu…”

Isla doesn’t say anything; she just smiles, approaches me on the bed, and uses magic to clean the bed and me. I think magic is really useful when you see it like this. I would love to use it if I could.

“After breakfast, we will move quickly. It will take three, maybe four days to get to Erichburg from here by carriage.”

“…Okay.”

The breakfast Isla made for us was a kind of barley porridge. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to eat barley porridge since I came here. I don’t mind it. It’s not as bad as I thought.

After finishing the meal, I dismantled the temporary accommodation and prepared to leave.

“Good morning! Eh, huh? You’re cleaning up the house. Are you going somewhere?”

Just as I finished dismantling the temporary accommodations, a brown-feathered harpy Pessar swooped down from the sky.

“Kosuke is going with me to the front line. Sylphy has approved it.”

“I see! Then I’ll go tell everyone!”

Pessar flew off in a hurry. I haven’t even said good morning to her yet.

“Let’s go to the warehouse.”

“Right.”

I haven’t heard of any food shortage on the front lines, but I’m sure there’s plenty of grain and potatoes that can be stored. If so, we can sell them to fund the military.

I explained the situation to the former internal affairs officer who was in charge of the warehouse and threw more and more of the preservable harvest into my inventory, except for the immediate necessities. We had already completed two harvests at this food production base, and the empty warehouse was now filled to overflowing with grain.

“I’m going to the front, so it’ll be a week after the next harvest.”

“Yes, I understand. But still, it’s an extraordinary harvest rate.”

“Right?”

If I plow a farmland block and plant a seed, the crop will be ready to harvest in three days. If I did not plant the seeds, the crops would be ready to harvest in a week.

And the experimental field that I just plowed up from the forest soil takes a week after I plant it. If someone other than me planted it, it is expected to take twice as long. It’s still growing, though, so I can’t be sure.

I walked around the warehouse with Isla, who was silently watching me work, and when we got out of the warehouse after collecting the supplies as instructed by the manager, we saw two carriages parked in front of the warehouse. The one sitting on the driver’s seat was Qubi.

“Hey, I heard you’re going to the front.”

“Are you going too, Qubi?”

“I’ll be escorting you, escort. There are still a lot of Holy Kingdom troops on this side of Erichburg.”

Qubi says this while waving his hands in the air. And the other carriage seems to be operated by a human man, not a subhuman, and inside the carriage are about eight soldiers of the Liberation Army armed with crossbows and swords. They were mostly human men, with only two subhumans.

“There are a lot of humans here, aren’t there?”

“Didn’t I tell you before? I used to be involved with humans in the royal capital of the Merinard Kingdom. That’s what I learned back then.”

“Hmm.”

I’ve heard that he wasn’t originally a soldier, but what kind of background does Qubi have? It’s a bit of a mystery after all this time. I have a feeling that he’s a former member of the underworld, but I don’t think I need to go to the trouble of digging up his past.

As soon as Pessar and the others who were not present flew in, the hastily organized supply transport unit departed the supply production base and began to head towards the front lines.

“This new type of carriage is great; my ass doesn’t hurt even though I’m the coachman.”

“The ride is good, too. The old carriage was terrible. I thought I was going to break my ass.”

“Your ass is already broken from the beginning.”

I wonder what a subhuman ass like Qubi’s would look like? I don’t know. I’ve never really looked at a man’s ass. I’ve seen Sylphy, Isla, and the Harpies naked, and their hips are the same as humans.

As for our route this time, we’ll spend the day running between the production base and the Gamma fort and then head north along the same route that the Liberation Army took.

We could have started from the production base and gone north, but that would have been risky because we would have passed through some villages and towns that the Liberation Army had not yet conquered. So we decided that it would be safer to take the same route that the Liberation Army had taken, even if it meant taking a slightly longer detour.

“Hopefully, nothing will happen to us.”

“Don’t worry, if we take the same route that the Liberation Army took, there won’t be any trouble.”

Isla, do you know that? That’s called a flag.

While thinking about Isla’s words, I checked the contents of my inventory and made preparations to deal with any problems that might arise.