CH 18

Chapter 18 - Collecting Night Grasses in the Forest

“Let’s take the open forest path. But when we’re collecting, we may have to cut through some bushes, depending on where the flowers are.”

“In the bushes, huh. A hand axe would have come in handy in this situation …… I’m going to use the dagger I borrowed from the thieves for now.”

The two of them walked down the forest path, relying on the light from Mia’s lantern lamp. After about five minutes, they saw a faint light in the bushes at the edge of the road.

“There it is. That’s the night grass. That’s one over there is probably night grass, too …… You see, the ground is glowing faintly.”

“Oh, two at once, that’s a good start. Well then, I’ll get them for you.”

Souya took the dagger he borrowed from the thieves from the dimension box, and drew the thick blade from its sheath. 

He then used the blade to cut through the bushes and plucked two bunches of night grass that had taken root in the ground.

“This pale light is like a firefly.”

Souya was fascinated for a moment by the pale magical light of the black night grass in his hand.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I can feel the fragility and transience of it.”

“Yes, it’s very emotional. I see, maybe it’s not a bad idea to immerse in the forest once in a while.”

“Yes. If we aren’t in the middle of a request, we could take our time.”

“Oops, this is not the time to be fascinated. Let’s resume our search. Mia-kun, I’ll hold the lamp this time.”

In the same manner, the two of them continued to collect night grasses, relying on the faint lights they saw along the way.

There was no sign of monsters or beasts, only the buzzing of insects, and nothing to interfere with the collection.

“This was the fifteenth bunch. Half of the quota. Everything is going quite well. But we walked a fair amount today. I hope you’re not too tired.”

“…… I might be a little tired. But I’m still fine.”

Souya looked at Mia. She looked fine before entering the forest, but after marching since morning, she could not hide her fatigue.

We had already walked for about three hours from the entrance of the forest. If we assume that the sun will set around 18:00, we can estimate the time to be 21:00. Normally, this is the time when our bodies start to feel tired and we want to prepare for the next day.

“If you’re tired, I can help you with your luggage.”

“No, you don’t have to. I don’t want to be a hindrance to Souya-san in case of emergency, after all.”

“According to the directions left by the adventurer, if we take the fork to the left, we’ll find an open campsite. We’ll rest there today. What do you think?”

“If you’re worried about me, it’s fine. In the morning, the night grass becomes much harder to find.”

This was probably the reason why Mia didn’t want to rest. Night grass only takes root in the shade of trees that don’t get any sunlight, and it doesn’t give off a faint glow during the day. Naturally, the difficulty of collecting it rises during the day.

At night, it is easier to collect, and I want to try as hard as I can. I think she may be feeling a little impatient. 

“Hmm, what should we do? If we can collect them at night, there’s nothing better than that, but …… Oh, the wind is getting stronger.”

The breeze, which had been blowing comfortably until now, gradually strengthened, and suddenly a gust of wind blew from ahead, slipping through the forest road. The hood of Mia’s cloak was flipped up by the wind, and her long blond hair was swept by the breeze.

“Mia-kun, are you okay?”

“Yes …… I wonder what’s with that wind just now. It was so sudden that it took me by surprise …… Hmm, it smells like something.”

After the wind had died down, there was a faint, sweet scent in the air, perhaps carried by it. Then, perhaps attracted by the smell, a sound from Mia’s stomach rumbled.

“……!”

“We haven’t eaten yet, have we? I was so engrossed in collecting that I forgot. I’m hungry, too. Let’s head for the campsite. You have no objection with that, right?”

“…… I guess we haven’t had our evening meal yet. Okay. Let’s do that then.”

Souya smiled, holding down his black glasses, and Mia’s face turned bright red. Perhaps because of her embarrassment, she put on the hood of the cloak, which had been turned up by the wind, and looked down.

“You must not overdo it, Mia-kun. I understand that you want to get this done before the end of the night, but there’s no rush.”

“You know what, Souya-san. It’s not that I was forcing myself …… No, I might have been. I will reflect on that.”

“It’s okay. If it is difficult to find them in the daytime, we can just wait until tomorrow night. It’s not a bad idea to enjoy the forest during the day.”

There are still three days left until the delivery date. Unless something like last night’s thunderstorm happened, there seemed to be no need to rush. If the night grass is hard to find in the daylight, we can look for other wildflowers unrelated to the request during the day.

“But that scent is ……. Oh. I think there might be someone else here.”

To the left of the fork in the road Souya was looking at. From the direction of the supposed campsite, they could see smoke rising and shimmering in the moonlight of the twin full moons.