CH 105

“I can’t take it anymore…”

“What are you talking about? Don’t give up.”

“My legs can’t handle all this walking.”

“I guess… But it can’t be helped. Not a lot of wagons pass through here.”

“Hn… This country is weird! Weird in a lot of ways! Telling us they refrain from using wagons to get stronger.”

“I agree, but those are the rules in this country.”

“And there’s so many towns we have to stop by. I’m happy to get money because there’s so much work from the guild, but…”

“We’ll just have to keep going and believe it will be easier in the next country.”

“Yes. What if we just buy a wagon?”

“Can you drive one? Don’t look away!”

“Hn… If only Sera was here…”

“Yes. Sera could probably do it.”

“I could never figure out if she was good with her hands or not.”

“She was good with some things and bad with others.”

“Eris was good at everything.”

“Yes, our big sister was great.”

“Are you bragging about your big sister now?”

“She was great even from an objective point of view.”

“Yes. I hope they’re both all right…”

“The charms are still responding so…”

“Yes, you’re right. Sorry, that was a silly thing to say.”

“No, I’m a little worried too.”

“We’ve been going around for three years already, and this is our fourth country. It’s natural to feel discouraged when we haven’t found a single clue after all this time.”

“…”

“Stop stop. Let’s put these bad thoughts out of our heads and go to sleep for today. We’ll reach the next town tomorrow, and we’ll go look around and eat tasty things too.”

“Yes. You can go to sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”

“Thank you then. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“Ahh…. I’m full.”

“You ate too much.”

“It’s fine. I couldn’t just not eat it.”

“I guess…”

“Are you done? You didn’t really eat a lot.”

“It’s too much meat.”

“But it’s good so it’s fine.”

“It is good, but it needs to be balanced with vegetables.”

“You’re so spoiled…”

“And you’re going to get fat eating like that.”

“That’s not a problem, I work as much as I eat. But I guess we’re not going to find anything here either.”

“Let’s hope for better results in the capital of the beast kingdom. That’s where we’re heading next.”

“Yes. And I want to see if we can get lucky and rent a wagon. Why the long face?”

“Well, I saw an omnibus of the beast kingdom for the first time… Are we really going to travel on that?”

“Ah… Yes, I didn’t know they used those riding beasts instead of horses.”

“Do you think it will be at all comfortable?”

“We won’t know until we try it, but I hear they’re pretty fast, so it should at least save us a good chunk of time.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“…Remember what you said yesterday?”

“Yes, I’m sorry. This is awful.”

“My body hurts all over and I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“Bear with it! If you don’t, you’ll lose something precious as a lady.”

“Uu… Thank you. Keep rubbing my back.”

“We should’ve eaten lighter.”

“Everyone else seems fine…”

“Ah… I asked about it before and they told me it’s only hard at first. Then they laughed and said they got used to it.”

“I see…”

“I don’t think I want to travel like this long enough to get used to it, but it is fast.”

“Yes, it does have that going for it.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“We’ve been working hard, haven’t we?”

“Yes, we sure have.”

“…I guess there’s no point in ignoring reality.”

“Yes. Maybe they never even became slaves.”

“But I don’t think the empire would just release demi-humans for free.”

“Yes. And they could have been bought by someone else already.”

“I know that. That’s why I check with the slavers to try to identify who bought them if they were sold there, isn’t it? Sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out at you, Chris.”

“It’s fine. But what are we going to do now? Look for an inn? Check out the guild?”

“Let’s go to the guild first. I want to check the quests.”

“All right.”

“There’s not a whole lot here. I figured the capital would have more.”

“There aren’t a lot of people around either. Maybe they all took the quests and left.”

“That could very well be it. Let’s just show our card in the reception and ask for information. Excuse me.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“This is our first time in this city. If you could give us some information about this area, we would appreciate it.”

“Very well. Do you have guild cards?”

“Yes.”

“Rank C adventurers… Miss Rurika?”

“Hn? What?”

“…And you are Miss Chris?”

“Y-yes.”

“Can I check your cards?”

“Yes.”

“I am done checking them. I have a message addressed to the two of you. Sign here please. Yes, thank you.”

“Who is it from?”

“Ah, maybe it’s from Sora. Maybe he’s worried about you, Chris.”

“Geez, stop that already. So the letter… Let’s look for an inn first.”

“Yes. But what are we going to do now? There aren’t any good quests, and having a look around the city isn’t really…”

“Ah, there’s the inn they told us about.”

“It looks pretty nice. We will be staying for three nights.”

“Ah… The bed feels nice…”

“I agree. So, who is the letter from?”

“Hold on a second… Eh…”

“What is it?”

“It says… Morrigan.”

“Morrigan? Grandma Morrigan!? But she is dead already.”

“Yes, she is.”

“What does it say?”

“Hn… It can’t be…”

“What?”

“The Magic State of Efa. We will meet in Majolica…”

“What does that mean?”

“…Sera…”

“Eh? What?”

“I don’t know. But it’s written here.”

“…It is.”

“Do you think it’s really her?”

“I don’t know. But both grandma Morrigan and Sera’s names are here, so it could be.”

“What do we do?”

“We should just go. We were planning to go to the Magic State of Efa next anyway.”

“That’s true.”

“…We should check if there are any wagons available tomorrow…”

“…Yes…”