CH 155

Chapter 155 – Historical Sites

“How do you feel? Does it feel good?”

“Yeah… much better…”

It was the evening of the second day after I arrived at the rear base to explore the ancient scriptures. I was lying on the bed getting a massage from Bella, a red oni adventurer. In order to make the area around the rear base more green, I had run around the base a lot and swung my hoe around.

As a natural consequence, I was exhausted and was limping back home when Shumel and the others came back from gathering information and found me.

“I don’t want to do nothing with all this stuff I got.”

“Bella, why don’t you give him a massage?”

“Me? Well, I don’t mind.”

The next thing I knew, I was being carried to the bed in my bedroom, lying face down and receiving a massage from Bella. The massage felt so good as she rubbed my whole body with just the right amount of force. I felt like the contents of my head were going to leak out.

Where did Isla and Grande go? What are they doing now? I can’t think of anything else, but it feels so good. Bella’s big hands grabbed my not-so-thin calves and thighs and squeezed them just right. My blood circulation is getting better, and I feel warm and fuzzy all over. I feel like falling asleep.

“You can sleep if you want. I may roll you onto your back if necessary, but don’t worry about it.”

“Uyeyy…”

I surrendered to the feeling and let go of my consciousness.

“Good morning.”

When I woke up to someone shaking me, I saw a large eye peering into my face in the dim darkness. It was Isla.

“Huh? Um…”

I remembered why I was asleep. Bella had given me a massage, and it had felt so good that I had fallen asleep. The light leaking from the living room helped me to see, but it was already dark outside.

“Sorry, I thought you had a meeting. I was asleep during your meeting.”

“Hmm, it’s okay. It’s over now.”

“Over?”

“Yeah, the meeting’s over. We’re going to explore the point in the northeast that we were talking about yesterday.”

“Really…?”

“You look tired, Kosuke. Should I not have decided on my own?”

As Isla showed an uneasy expression, I shook my head.

“No, no problem. I’ll have to apologize to everyone tomorrow for oversleeping.”

I know she was trying to be considerate, but it would be too bad if the person who suggested that we get together to discuss it fell asleep and skipped the meeting. I’ll have to apologize to Ms. Zamir, Shumel and the others tomorrow.

“I’m sorry, Isla. And thank you for taking care of me.”

“…Yeah.”

In the end, Isla’s expression clouded over, as if it was painful for her to think that I had to apologize to everyone. After patting her on the head, I got out of bed and stretched out.

“I’m feeling a lot better now. I’m hungry, so I think I’ll eat, take a bath, and go to sleep again.”

“Hmm. I’ll make dinner for Kosuke.”

When I moved to the living room with Isla, who clenched her fists in both hands and got fired up, I found the Harpies and Grande chatting happily about something. They noticed me and greeted me, and waved their hands (wings?) at me.

“Good morning. It’s already late at night, though. I’m sorry I skipped our meeting.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. You work very hard during the day.”

“That’s right. It was obvious from the sky that you had plowed a lot of lands. You’ve plowed a tremendous amount of land.”

Grande and the Harpies seem to forgive me. I’m really sorry.

After that, I took a bath with Grande and the Harpies, and after the bath, I ate the dinner that Isla had made for me and went to bed right away. The dinner was light, with slightly sweet barley porridge, fruit, and lukewarm milk. Isla thought it would be best not to put too much weight on our stomachs if we were going to sleep soon.

Then we all huddled together to sleep on the big bed. The Harpy’s feather quilt was very warm.

The next day.

“I’m sorry about yesterday.”

“No, it’s okay. The only new information was that there was an unnatural rocky area to the southwest.”

“That’s right. It’s a long way away, so it’s better to excavate from the ruins of the building in the northeast.”

“Ah, I’m sorry about that. You were really fast asleep, and I told myself not to wake you.”

“But it was good. You look like you’re full of energy and vitality.”

In the morning, I bowed to Shumel and Ms. Zamir, who had gathered, and they graciously allowed me to join them. The reason why I’m so full of energy and strength is because last night, we really just slept together. I think it’s good to have a peaceful night like that. I hope we can do it again in Erichburg.

“So, uh, the destination is about a day and a half on foot, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. If we leave now and camp overnight, we should be able to get there around noon tomorrow, right?”

“Let’s go, then. Shumel and the others will be in the front, Isla and I will be in the middle, and Ms. Zamir will be in charge of rearguard?”

“I think that’s fine. What about you, Zamir?”

“I think that’s fine too. Still, it is surprising that Kosuke-dono knows the rules of moving in small groups like this.”

“There are also various things in my world.”

It’s a standard technique in classic TRPGs to place strong characters in front of and behind you when moving in a party in an adventure. I took a bit of a gamble with that, too.

I’ve also heard that wolf packs move in a line with the strongest and youngest at the front, the weakest in the middle, the second youngest and strongest at the back, and the leader of the strongest pack at the end. If you want to be more specific, the front row is made up of experienced but old individuals who walk around to make decisions about where to go and to control the overall momentum, but I’ll skip that part.

We proceeded with the Harpies leading the way, pausing every hour and a half to two hours to replenish our fluids and calories. Isla’s stride is small due to her small size, and she has little physical strength, so I carry her on my back. She insisted that she didn’t have a problem with it, but if I were to say that, then carrying Isla on my back would not be a burden at all, so I forced myself to carry her.

“Watching Kosuke-dono move makes me feel uneasy.”

“It’s very good that you don’t shake at all, so I don’t get sick from the motion.”

Yes. I was moving forward without moving my legs most of the time, imagining the W of command action. It’s basically the same as standing still for a long time, so I don’t get tired at all when moving at normal walking speed. I could even do a sort of moonwalk if I wanted to.

So I kept walking, subtly undermining the sanity of Ms. Zamir, who was watching me from behind, and by noon the next day, we had reached our destination.

In the wilderness where not a single blade of grass grew, rocks and gravel lay strewn about. In the midst of it all, there were scattered pieces of what appeared to be stone that had clearly been used by people and the remains of a decaying stone building.

“This is… I wonder what it was?”

“The foundations have collapsed, and it’s hard to imagine from what’s left on the ground. The only thing I can tell you is that it was a large building.”

After getting off my back, Isla touched a rock that looked like it was a piece of stone nearby. Ms. Zamir is standing by our side, and it seems that Shumel and the others have immediately begun to explore the above-ground portion of the ruins to see if there is anything dangerous or suspicious.

“First, let’s build a base of operations.”

Fortunately, there are many things lying around that could be used as materials. I’ll make the most of it.