Volume 4 - CH 22

Translator: Silver  Editor: Namorax

「We Meet Again」

A short time after the incident, the People of the Plains and Mountains made their way over to the narrow patch of land that lead to the peninsula.

There were more than fifty people here.

These were the workers sent over from the hidden village.

Once we arrived at the peninsula, I returned to the hidden village and brought the supplies and the first wave of people over with 【Transfer Gate】. Afterwards, the construction of the new village was underway.

Since a bridgehead needed to be established as a base of operation, I was currently surrounded by a group of animal-eared people sweating something fierce as they worked to cut down trees.

Right now, one group of shirtless brawny men with large axes were cutting down a section of trees while another group was digging out the tree stumps and setting up tents for the night.

“I’ll help cut down the trees as well.”

Drawing the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』as I said so I joined the other workers and began cutting into trees.

Thanks to the sharpness of the mythical grade weapon, cutting the trees felt like cutting twigs and I started to show off a bit by cut down trees one after another.

“Hahaha, see! These trees are garbage!”

The lush forest fell as easily as if I were cutting grass and a pleasant feeling of claiming the land consumed me. It was only when a fist sized rock hit the back of my helmet that I returned to my senses.

When I looked back I saw Ariane standing a few feet away, holding Ponta to her chest.

When I looked down I saw a shattered rock, and there was evidence of her making it with spirit magic.

While I looked around I was greeted with the terrible sight of numerous trees that had been haphazardly cut down.

“Stop it, Arc! Are you trying to cut down the entire forest!? You’ve already cut down more than enough lumber! Didn’t you hear Chiome-chan shouting at you!?”

She waved her right hand around as she chastised me.

By the time I sheathed my sword, the frenzy I had felt had while cultivating the land had passed. As I walked towards Ariane, Pitta and Chiome soon joined us.

“I never imagined that the land would be cleared so quickly.”

Pitta had a ridiculing smile on his face when he said that. Ignoring him, I turned towards Chiome and asked her what she had wanted.

“There was something you wanted to say to me?”

Chiome and Pitta shared a brief look before she slowly told me why she had called out to me.

“Since Arc-dono has single-handedly finished clearing the required amount of land, it’ll only take another month for a basic village to be built.”

Chiome paused for a moment as if she were trying to gauge my reaction.

Even if the village only contained the bare necessities, one month was rather quick considering that all the construction would be done by hand.

When I urged her to continue Chiome nodded before making her suggestion.

“While we did bring some food from the village, there was only so much the village could afford to give away, so the workers will eventually have to rely on the land. However, extensive dependence on the natural resources will lead to shortages and extend the construction time since the workers would have to devote more time for food procurement.”

I nodded as I began to see the point she was trying to make.

Since this place lacked a protective wall, monsters thrived in this area and coupled with the hard physical labor dealing with them will build up a lot of fatigue.

Substantial meals would be key to restoring their stamina and securing food for all the workers here would have to be done on a large scale.

Dedicating the manpower to sustain such an operation would prolong the construction work.

Since I was under contract to transfer the rest of the people here once using 【Transfer Gate】 once the village was complete, it wouldn’t take much for me to help with this issue.

It wasn’t like I was in a hurry to go anywhere and I didn’t mind helping to get the village up and running as soon as possible.

“So what do you want to do? Place me in charge of food procurement?”

Pitta was the one that shook his head, answering me instead of Chiome.

“Remember the Ground Dragon from this morning? Arc-dono, would you be willing to accompany Chiome-sama to a human city to sell the materials?”

Ground Dragon materials sold very well in human cities…… so I knew where the one-eared rabbit man was going with this.

“I see. You want me to purchase food in the city after we sell the materials?”

When he heard my answer he gave me one of his usual smiles and nodded his head.

“Having someone so young carrying around Ground Dragon materials would attract unwanted attention, wouldn’t you agree, Arc-dono?”

“I understand. We can leave once the materials have been processed.”

Pitta extended his hand for another handshake when I gave my answer.

Since Ground Dragon materials were luxurious items, it would be better to try selling it in a large city with multiple recipients.

The biggest city I could remember would be the capital of Rhoden Kingdom, but since we went on a bit of a rampage there just a few days ago it would probably be better to avoid the city until things calmed down.

Definitely had to avoid Leibnitz in the Eastern Empire, given the number my actions did on the church and feudal lord’s mansion.

By process of elimination, the only other large city I knew of would be the harbor city Lanbaltic.

While we did have some trouble with slave traders from Nozan Kingdom, that one had been in service of the feudal lord Petros, helping him out of a bind.

If we couldn’t find a buyer ourselves we could just see if Petros could move the materials through his channels.

I was a little grateful for knowing a man in power.

“Any problem with selling the materials in Rhoden Kingdom’s Lanbaltic?”

“I can agree to that.”

When I spoke the name of the possible destination, Chiome stepped forwards and immediately agreed.

It would be convenient if she came along and made sure I bought suitable supplies for the People of the Plains and Mountains.

After I nodded in agreement, Ariane, who’d calmly watched our conversation, spoke up.

“I’m also coming. We don’t want Arc to start acting strange and run wild again, do we? It’s safer if someone watches over him.”

Ariane covered her chest and gave me a look as she spoke.

I’d thought that we’d gained a certain degree of trust during our travels, but that seems to have been a delusion on my part.

“Arc, after this task is finished we need to return to Raratoia and explain everything.”

She continued to talk while staring into the depths of my helmet.

Since we had to report the things we discovered during this adventure to Ariane’s parents, I didn’t have any objections to the plan.

“I guess we should explain what we learned to Glenys-dono.”

As I began mapping out my future plans, several men came closer, pulling a simple sleigh with materials from the Ground Dragon packed on it.

The sleigh was piled high with stones of various sizes, a few fangs and a couple of claws that had a strange luster to them.

“Isn’t this a bit too much? It seems like you’re going to need a couple more people to bring all of that into town.”

Pitta offered his frank advice as he examined the sleigh packed with Ground Dragon materials, even kicking it a few times.

“Let me see that for a bit.”

After taking the ropes from the men that had been pulling the sleigh, I walked a little while pulling the sleigh to get a feel for the weight.

While the weight itself wasn’t much of an issue, I could feel the ropes tearing from the strain of pulling the sleigh.

It would be unwise to try and carry it, but pulling the sleigh should be fine.

“There’s no problem here. I will be fine with just Chiome-dono and Ariane-dono.”

The men that that had been pulling the sleigh let out a cry of admiration as I replied to Pitta.

“Well, if Arc-dono says he’s fine with it, I guess we should be grateful for that……”

“I don’t mind. Besides, walking through a city in a large group would only attract more attention.”

Pitta gave me a silent nod before stepping back.

“We’ll be going then.”

After a brief farewell, I invoked 【Transfer Gate】. A pale magic formation appeared at my feet, expanding to include Ariane and Chiome.

Since Pitta and other workers were nearby, I tried to keep the formation as small as possible so they wouldn’t be brought along.

The formation suddenly flashed an intense light and in the next moment we found ourselves in a new location.

We were greeted with a hilltop view of the sprawling ocean on one side and the chestnut brown rooftops of Lanbaltic’s cityscape on the other.

The city’s large harbor could also be seen in the distance.

It was the same scenery I saw when we first visited Lanbaltic.

“Quite the endearing scenery.”

After I said that, I began pulling the sleigh down the gentle slope of the hill and we began making or way towards the city.

As we approached the city’s northern gate, our group began gathering the attention of the surrounding people.

“We seem to be gathering more attention than usual……”

“Kyun……”

Ariane had covered her face with her gray clock before we came here and she began looking around as more people focused on us. Ponta had even crawled inside her cloak to escape the constant stares that our group was receiving.

“The thing attracting the most attention is Arc-dono single-highhandedly pulling the sleigh.”

Chiome spoke up beside me, with her cat ears hidden by her large hat, after scanning the area.

Now that I thought about it, a single armored man pulling a sleigh that looked heavy enough to require a pack horse was bound to turn a few heads.

Maybe we would have been less conspicuous if I had taken Pitta up on his offer and take along some helpers to pull the sleigh for us, that was the thought that crossed my mind as I walked past the line of horse-drawn carts outside the gate.

Now it was too late to transfer back.

All eyes were focused on us as I pulled the sleigh of goods to the gate and presented the chopper pass I received from Petros to the guards.

After a brief moment of shock, the guards checked the pass and the sleigh of goods I was pulling before they quickly let us through.

As I glanced at the long line, I felt lucky possessing the pass with the family crest on it.

The city seemed more lively than it had been before, since more people turned towards me and the sleigh behind me.

I was pulling a sleigh full of valuable monster materials after all.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a buyer on the open market. We had no choice but to look for a merchant association place like the one I sold the Orc meat to in Rubierute.

However, Lanbaltic was a rather large city and we wound up aimlessly wandering around with the sleigh of goods in tow.

I wanted to stop and ask for directions, but when I looked around I saw that other people were going out of their way to avoid us.

Looking back, I saw that Chiome was completely focused on the sleigh of good, while Ariane was taking great pains to keep her face covered and prevent her sword from lifting up her cloak.

In addition to being conspicuous, we were also suspicious.

Combined with my full body and black cloak it wasn’t hard to see why the general population wouldn’t want anything to do with us.

As I searched for a someone credible that wasn’t trying to completely avoid us, a young man approached us with a surprised look on his face.

“Knight-sama!? I never expected to meet you in such a place.”

I couldn’t but my finger on it but the well dressed, brown-haired young man in his twenties seemed a familiar to me as he wryly smiled at me.

“I’m sorry for such a late introduction. I’m the peddler Raki. Knight-sama, remember when I bought those weapons from you back in Diento? I am truly grateful for that.”

The young man bowed his head as he spoke and that was when I finally remembered where I’d seen him before.

“Oh, you’re that peddler from back then? No need for etiquette, since you were the one who helped me out. Like I said before, I’m merely a traveling adventurer. Formalities aren’t necessary.”

Raki only bowed deeper in appreciation at my behavior.

Since he was a merchant, his polite attitude towards customers probably couldn’t be shut off.

“Ohh, I’ve yet to introduce myself. My name is Arc, the wandering adventurer. These are my companions Chiome and Ariane.”

After my self-introduction, Raki and I shared a handshake.

After Raki gave the two of them a slight bow his eyes glanced over the sleigh before turning back to me.

“Raki-dono, are you peddling in this town?”

“No, I’m originally from the Lanbaltic territory. I’m actually looking for a place to set up my own shop……”

Raki scratched the back of his head and chuckled timidly as he answered my question.

“Oh, that’s rather impressive, opening a store at your age.”

At my praise, he shook his head for some reason..

“No, you can’t open a shop without a business permit and obtaining one still seems like a distant dream……”

There seem to be a few barriers to opening a store, considering Raki’s bemoaning.

First, you needed to obtain a permit from the feudal lord in order to purchase a predetermined plot of land, and without said permit it was impossible to open a store.

In other words, a business permit acted as a type of land deed.

It was common sense that there would be a limited amount of living space in this monster populated world. Naturally, there would be restrictions on the size of a city’s commercial district and the number of shops.

The illegal slave trader I crushed the last time I had been here probably came across an old second-hand permit to claim association with a foreign lord and avoid public scrutiny.

My mind seemed to have wandered off as I heard the story.

At the end of the day, I was still lugging valuable monster materials around and even if we found the association building, I doubted the sale would be as simple as the one for the burba meat had been. Given that expensive items usually garnered their price tag due to their rarity, I imagine that the representative would try to hound me for the origin of the materials.

If we found ourselves in that situation, then Ariane’s identity as an elf, Chiome beast person heritage and my skeletal form would be in danger of being exposed.

So directly walking up to the service desk wouldn’t be the smartest way to deal with the transaction.

Of course, if we had a trustworthy person to act as a middleman…… My gaze instantly traveled to the earnest young peddler in front of me.

If he showed his worth here, then in the future he could become a good representative to sell items through. It would certainly be convenient to have a human acting as our go-between for supplies from now own.

“This should be just fine. Raki, I have a proposition for you……”

Raki’s bewildered expression focused on me as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

His reaction was so amusing that I chuckled a bit as I pointed towards the sleigh.