CH 45

“Recently, there have been rumours of miasma pools disappearing in many countries before anyone notices… It’s your doing, right, Itou-sama?”

“Yes, I’ve been going around secretly.”

“I knew it… The amount of your magic has increased, hasn’t it? Originally, you should’ve been honoured as a hero with each purification… Are you not in danger of being targeted by Argyle anymore?”

“I think I’ll be fine. I purified all the miasma in Argyle under the condition that they mustn’t interfere with my life.”

“Ah, and I threatened them a little.” Jill said.

“Even though all those things happened to you,1 you still purified all the miasma in Argyle… Eh? But what about Kaname-sama?”

“Ah—… Kagaya-kun had already returned long ago. Argyle has been keeping silent about it though.”

“He returned — it can’t be, did he really return to his world?… Just… how?… But I’m glad, as it also means that you can return soon.”

“No, I can’t go back.” I said.

“What do you mean?”

I told him about what was already proven at Argyle. While I was telling him, his expression became more and more grim, and by the end, his eyes looked exhausted.

2

“I can’t believe it… How terrible… Including the way they treated you… I’m sure divine punishment will fall upon Argyle’s royal family… Even Kaname-sama, maybe he also didn’t have a choice, except to quickly return by himself…”

Kiel trembled in anger. Surprisingly, he had a rich variety of expressions when he was not in ‘chamberlain mode.’ 

“That’s why I’ll be staying in this world, so if you don’t mind, will you be my friend? I’m planning to live in Dynas, but I’d like to hang out with you from time to time.” 

“I will gladly be your friend. When I have to visit Dynas for company business, I’ll definitely let you know first.”

After that, we chatted about the goods that the company had been recently paying attention to and about the countries that I enjoyed visiting; basically, we chatted a lot about random stuff. 

It looked like Oliver-san knew of Jill, the Adventurer, so he was in high spirits as he crowed that he was going to brag this to his nephew. 

We talked so much that, by the time we left the office, it was already dark outside. Oliver-san and Kiel sent us off after a few parting words. 

“Itou-sama, I’m really happy to be able to meet you again. You seem much happier now than before, so I’m a little relieved. Jill-sama, thank you very much for letting me meet Itou-sama.”

“After we’ve settled down, I’ll come meet you again.”

“Yes, by all means. I look forward to meeting you two in the future.”

I waved to them, and while we were heading to the inn, I was thinking if I should first make him stop calling me ‘Itou-sama’ as we were already friends. 

◇◇◇◇◇

“Oh, don’t you think it’s ready now? It smells really good~”

The smell of nicely grilled meat on the grill mesh was whetting our appetites. 

“Haha,” Jill laughed. 

“You look quite happy. If you’re that pleased, I should have done this sooner.”

Since before, there was one thing I had always wanted to do at least once. That thing was, of course, camping. When it came to adventuring, it was all about camping, right?! I thought those scenes came out often in movies where adventurers spoke with their comrades while looking at the bonfire outside at night. That kind of thing, I had always longed to experience it for a bit. 

When we set off on our journey to purify miasma, I thought the chance to camp would come sooner. That’s why I had been secretly getting tools that could be used in camping and putting them in my dimensional storage bag; I had also been thinking of some magic that could be used for camping. 

But the chance never came. When I was officially travelling as Miko, they always arranged the accommodations and made an itinerary so that we didn’t need to camp. 

Since I began travelling with Jill, we always made full use of teleport magic, so there was no need for us to camp at all. 

That’s why, today would definitely be the day we finally do camping, or should I say, the day I fully enjoyed camping in the other world!

“I’ve always wanted to do this. We’ve already bought plenty of food in the town we stopped by during the day, and I already have all kinds of tools for camping, so look forward to it!”

“I see. I will eagerly await.”

“I’m done grilling the meat, so let’s eat it. But eat it after dipping it with this.” 

I passed the dipping sauce cup to him. This is the sauce-like thing I made for grilled meat. To be honest, I really wanted grated ginger and garlic, but I couldn’t get my hands on any of it, so this was just some thick, sweet and salty sauce. 

I had gotten used to my life living in another world, but there were some times I couldn’t help but miss the flavours I used to have in Japan.

That’s why, in all the counties that I had visited and depending on the market, I had been collecting all kinds of seasonings and whatnot that were close to the taste of the Japanese seasoning as much as possible whenever I found them. 

“This colour, wasn’t this seasoning the one we bought at Ignac?

3

It’s delicious.”

“I used the seasoning I bought at Ignac as a base and mixed several ingredients into it. I’m trying to get the taste I used to have in my world.” 

“Well, you bought a lot of unusual seasonings. I think this taste is going to be popular.”

“There were a lot of delicious foods in my world. I’m not dissatisfied with the food here, but sometimes I very much yearn for the taste I was once familiar with.”

“I see…” Jill said.

Maybe it was because he was in the shadows, Jill’s expression seemed to have darkened a little bit. 

I wondered why, though. Even though he complimented the sauce-like thing I made for grilled meat. 

It was time to prepare the tent after the meal. 

“Fufu… Prepare to be surprised… Voila!”

I took out the extra large-sized tent from my bag and assembled it. But even though I said I “assembled” it, it was a magic tool, so if I simply pushed a button, it would automatically assemble itself. 

“It’s huge… It looks more like a normal room than a tent…”

“I was quite looking forward to it, so I decided to splurge and bought this—.”

Surprisingly, the tent wasn’t that expensive. The shop owner came up with the idea and made this, but it was too large, so he wasn’t able to sell this at all and no one wanted to buy it. 

I happened to find this by chance, and while I was hesitating whether to buy this or not, he gave me a huge discount if I bought it at once. 

Of course, all the furniture was perfectly arranged inside. It also had a soft and fluffy bed-like carpet, cushions, and a small table.

Yep, I didn’t have any trouble with money right now, so while we were at it, I might as well enjoy it to the fullest. Well, kind of like glamping, which was trending in Japan back when I was still there. 

“But… doesn’t this stand out too much? Monsters don’t appear much around this area, but to spend the night like this, isn’t it still a bit…”

“Glad that you asked! I’ve properly thought of strategies against such risks. So, just keep watching.”

The time to show off the fruits of my research had finally come!

I created a barrier that covered the entire tent with my magic. The most crucial point started from here. But would it work…?

“What the?! The tent disappeared!”

“A success! It’s a magic that hinders one’s perception. The tent is properly there, but I made it so that no one outside the barrier can perceive the tent. Looking from here, it looks like there’s nothing there, right?”

“Hmm… how convenient. Can this also be used on humans? It will be quite useful in undercover work and many other things…”