The day before we left the Doldia village.
The outcome goes without saying — Eris won by a landslide.
Naturally.
Eris was at a level where she could keep up with
Against an untrained younger girl, it was no contest at all.
It was pure bullying.
I probably should say something about it. Just one word.
I know that's just how Eris is, but she was almost fourteen now.
Fourteen meant she was still a kid, true, but it wasn't an age where you could just wail on someone without provocation.
But then again, what could I even say?
Until now, I'd never once stopped Eris from fighting.
Her scuffles at the adventurer's guild — I'd mostly left those to Ruijerd.
What right did I have to say anything now?
Should I point out that adventurers and a village girl were different things?
"N-no, it wasn't like that. It was Minotona's fault."
That was Teresena who spoke up.
According to her, when Eris announced that the rainy season was over and it was time to leave, Minotona had tried to stop her.
Eris had been pleased to be detained, but still explained she had to continue her journey.
Minotona threw a tantrum, and Eris tried to talk her down.
The roles were reversed from usual.
They talked for a while.
The two had started out calm, but before long the discussion heated up.
Minotona began hurling insults.
Some of those insults included mentions of Ghislaine and even me.
Eris apparently made an irritated face but held back.
She supposedly responded in a calm manner.
In the end, Minotona was the one who threw the first punch.
Challenging Eris to a fight.
A brave act. One worthy of respect.
I could never pull that off.
That said, Eris accepted the challenge.
She beat her up mercilessly, as usual.
"Eris."
"What is it?!"
I took a moment to assess the situation.
First, Minotona.
Despite having lost, she was still fired up, huffing and puffing.
Even after being pummeled by Eris, her spirit wasn't broken.
Eris could break the spirit of grown adults with ease.
She wasn't the type to pull her punches.
Which meant— "You actually held back, didn't you?"
"...Of course I did."
Eris turned her face away as she said it.
The old Eris would never have shown mercy to someone younger, no matter who challenged her.
I knew this from experience, so I was certain.
"Usually, you'd have done something way worse, right?"
"...She's a friend."
I leaned in to look at Eris's face. Her lips were pursed in a little pout, and she looked rather guilty.
Hmm.
So she regretted hitting her, at least a little.
That was something the old Eris would never have done.
Maybe these three months had matured her a bit.
She was growing, even when I wasn't around.
In that case, I had only one thing to say.
"You two should make up before we part ways tomorrow."
"...No way."
Still a kid.
--- On the final day, between all the travel preparations, I didn't get to see the Sacred Beast.
I thought the culprit might show up with it again, but for some reason the Sacred Beast didn't appear.
Instead, two intruders showed up in the dead of night.
"Ah!"
A small shriek, followed by a loud clatter.
Those two sounds were enough to jolt even me awake.
I thought to myself that I really had been letting my guard down lately as I sat up and reached for the staff I'd set aside.
Hardly subtle for thieves.
Ruijerd must have noticed ages ago.
Hmm.
"Teresena, be quieter, nya."
I let go of my staff.
Ruijerd was staying quiet on purpose.
"Sorry, Tona, but it's dark..."
"If you look carefully you can see, nya... ah!"
Another thud.
"Tona, are you okay?"
"It hurts, nya..."
Still, even though they thought they were whispering, their voices carried plenty loud enough for me to hear every word.
What were they after? Money? Fame?
Or maybe they were after my body.
Just kidding.
It was obviously Eris's doing.
"Oh, is this the place, nya?"
"Sniff sniff... I think it's a little off."
"Doesn't matter, nya. They're asleep anyway."
They stopped in front of my door, then opened it and came inside.
They peered around the room cautiously, and then — locked eyes with me sitting on the bed.
"Nya...!"
"What's wrong, Tona... oh."
There stood Minotona and Teresena.
Thin leather dresses.
With holes near the rear, through which little tails peeked out.
The typical sleepwear of the beast race.
Utterly adorable.
"What brings you here in the middle of the night?
Eris's room is next door."
I kept my voice as low as possible.
"S-sorry, nya..."
Even as they said that, they moved to close the door, then suddenly stopped.
"Come to think of it, we haven't said thank you, nya."
"Oh, um, Tona?"
As if suddenly remembering, Tona stepped further into the room.
Teresena followed behind her, looking timid.
"Thank you for saving us, nya.
They told me that if you hadn't cast healing magic, I could have died."
Right.
That injury had been quite serious.
It was the kind of wound that would have broken me for good.
I had to admire how she'd kept her composure through it all.
"It was nothing."
"Thanks to you, there's no scar left, nya."
Tona said this while lifting the hem of her dress, proudly showing off her smooth, unblemished leg.
However, the room was dark and I couldn't quite see all the way up.
Could almost see, but not quite.
Lady Kishirika, why didn't you give me darkvision eyes...
"Tona, that's indecent..."
"Well, you've seen it once already, nya, so it's fine."
"But Gyes-uncle said that human men are in heat year-round, so if you get close carelessly, they'll attack you."
Year-round heat.
How rude.
But not entirely wrong.
"Besides, if you get excited looking at my body, nya, that works out perfectly as a thank you... nya!? I feel a chill!"
"Because you've been holding up your skirt hem this whole time."
At that moment, I wasn't looking at Tona's leg at all.
I was drenched in cold sweat, gripping the staff that I was supposed to have set aside.
From the room next door, something sharper than killing intent was seeping through the wall.
"C-cough. I've received your thanks.
Eris is in the room next door, so please, go right ahead."
Even if they were kids, they shouldn't be showing off battle scars to just anyone.
What if some dangerous old man with a doctor roleplay fetish attacked them?
"Got it. But really, thanks, nya."
"Thank you very much."
The two gave a little bob of a bow and left the room.
A short while later, I crept over and pressed my ear to the wall.
From the next room, I could hear Eris's irritated voice saying "What is it?"
I could practically see her standing there with her arms crossed in her usual pose.
Tona and Teresena's voices were harder to make out.
No — Eris's voice was just that loud.
I listened with bated breath, but gradually, Eris's voice grew calmer.
Seemed like everything was okay.
Relieved, I returned to bed.
They apparently talked through the entire night.
I don't know what they discussed.
Neither Tona nor Teresena were particularly fluent in the human language.
Eris had picked up a bit of the beast god tongue, but not nearly enough for real conversation.
Could they have actually communicated?
I worried about that, but the next day, at the moment of parting, Eris clasped Minotona's hand, tears in her eyes, and hugged her.
They'd made up.
Wonderful.
--- The Holy Sword Highway.
It was a road that cut straight through the great forest.
This highway, created long ago by the Holy Mirris, was brimming with mana.
While everything around it was drenched in water, the highway itself was bone dry.
Furthermore, not a single monster appeared on this road.
We traveled along it in a carriage given to us by the Doldia.
They'd prepared everything we could possibly need for our journey.
Carriage plus horse.
Travel funds (five Mirris gold coins plus five Mirris silver coins).
Consumables and sundries.
With this, we could make it all the way to the Mirris capital without returning to Zantport.
All right, time to depart.
That was when, for some reason, a monkey-faced man showed up.
"Well now, I was just thinking it was about time to head back to Mirris. Perfect timing — let me ride along, will ya?"
The newcomer said this as he brazenly climbed into the back of the carriage.
"Oh, it's Gies."
"You're coming along too?"
From the other two besides me, there were no complaints.
When I asked if they knew him, it turned out Gies had done quite a bit of groundwork behind my back.
He'd joined Eris's circle with Tona and Teresena, sharing entertaining anecdotes.
He'd inserted himself into Ruijerd and Gustav's conversations, flattering the both of them.
He'd played the sycophant to perfection and won them over.
All while I wasn't looking.
Hence, they'd accepted him readily.
"All right then — let's set off!"
At Ruijerd's command, the carriage lurched into motion.
I waved goodbye to the beast race members seeing us off.
I was a little moved watching Eris gaze at Tona and the others with tears in her eyes.
But deep down, a small irritant lingered.
It was Gies's fault.
If he wanted to come along, he should have just said so from the start.
There was no need to sneak around and pull strings behind the scenes.
If he'd simply asked, I wouldn't have refused.
"Hey now, senpai. No need to glare at me like that."
I must have been wearing quite the disgruntled expression in the fast-moving carriage.
Gies flashed a grin and leaned in close to my ear.
"Who do you think helped set up your love life, senpai?"
And then he started saying something bizarre.
Love life.
Huh? In the end, I'd spent these three months without making a move on either the cat-eared girl or the dog-eared girl.
Nothing had progressed with Eris either.
I'd grown closer to Gyes compared to before, but that was it.
That was love?
Don't make me laugh.
I had no interest in that sort of thing.
"What do you mean, love life?"
"I introduced you to the Sacred Beast, didn't I?"
"The Sacred Beast..."
I thought about the meaning.
I understood.
"Oh."
It was — it was you!
You were the culprit!
What love life! I'd been wrongfully accused!
But forget that for a moment.
"H-how did you get the Sacred Beast out of there?!"
"That's a trade secret.
Well, those guys are pretty dumb.
Get a little tricky and you can lure one out easy."
He said it casually, proudly.
No, that was insane.
That was seriously dangerous.
The beast race members had been furious.
They'd said they'd tear the culprit apart if they found them.
"W-why would you do something so dangerous?"
"Well, you like dogs, don't you?"
"I told you I was wrongfully accused!"
"Oh yeah? Well, whatever."
Gies laughed it off with a carefree chuckle.
I suddenly felt uneasy.
Was this guy perhaps seriously dangerous?
Was it a bad idea to travel with him?
"Ruijerd-sir. Please turn the carriage around."
"Why?"
"I'm going to hand over the culprit who stole the Sacred Beast."
"Whoa, whoa, wait!"
Gies panicked and tried to cover my mouth.
But this guy had gotten me suspected.
I needed to be heartless here and let him face the consequences.
"Don't worry, newcomer. I'll vouch for you.
You might end up stripped naked in a cell with cold water dumped on you, but just bear with it."
"Hey, wait! Are you serious?!
Listen — I'm the one who got you that carriage in the first place!
Those guys don't have a culture of apologizing with material goods!
So forgive me!"
The monkey-faced man was desperate.
He did have an endearing face.
He wasn't a bad guy. I knew that well from sharing a cell with him.
He hadn't taken the Sacred Beast with any ill intent.
But still, hmm.
"
"What is it, Ruijerd-sir?"
"Let him go."
"Boss! You're the man, Boss! I always knew you were a stand-up guy!"
Honestly, this guy...
Still— "Ruijerd-sir. Are you sure? He's the kind of scoundrel you hate the most."
"I'm doing it for your sake."
Ruijerd's criteria were hard to understand.
This was fine but that wasn't.
Or maybe this was the result of Gies's behind-the-scenes work after all.
Well played, you monkey.
"That's right, Boss! I did it for the senpai! I never thought it'd turn into something this big. I got carried away, sure, but I never meant to hurt anyone!"
Honestly, I owed this guy a small favor.
He'd given me a vest when I was shivering in the nude.
It was a small thing to call a debt, but it left a far better impression than the beast race, who'd still suspected me even after learning the truth.
Oh well.
In the end, nobody was actually hurt.
The beast race guards would probably learn a lesson from this incident too.
And so I forced myself to accept it.
"You can come along, but— Newbie, aren't you afraid of the Spelled?"
I made sure Ruijerd could hear that.
Whether Gies knew Ruijerd was of the Spelled race or not, I wasn't sure.
If he'd attended the drinking party, he might have overheard...
I didn't want him coming out with "Whoa, the Spelled are terrifying!" later on.
"Are you kidding? Of course I'm scared! I'm a demon race too, ya know.
I heard stories about how scary the Spelled are since I was a kid."
"I see. By the way, Ruijerd is a Spelled, despite appearances."
At that, Gies narrowed his eyes.
"Boss is different. He saved my life."
Something had happened between them?
I glanced at Ruijerd, but he shook his head, feigning ignorance.
At the very least, it didn't seem like he'd saved Gies during these three months.
"Bet ya don't remember — it was over thirty years ago."
And with that, Gies launched into his tale.
A story of meetings and partings, climaxes and intimate moments — the whole dramatic saga.
When a hardboiled, impossibly handsome man sets out on a journey, a hundred women beg him not to go...
Long story short: When Gies was a fledgling adventurer, he'd been attacked by monsters and nearly killed.
Ruijerd had saved his life.
"Well, it was thirty years ago, so I'm not exactly still groveling about it or anything.
The Spelled are scary, but Boss is different."
The monkey-faced newcomer said this with a grin.
Ruijerd looked somewhat softened as well.
I felt as though I understood the meaning of the phrase "what goes around comes around."
Good for you, Ruijerd.
"Well, I'll be sticking with you for a while. Señpai☆"
And just like that, the monkey-faced newcomer joined "Dead End"...
Well, not exactly.
He made sure to emphasize he was only along for the next town.
According to his personal jinx, things never went well when four people formed a party.
If he'd honored that jinx by staying locked up alone in a cell, that would've been fine by me.
But if he wasn't joining the party, then so be it.
And so, our party gained one traveling companion.
--- We let the carriage do the work and simply raced through the great forest.
What a perfectly straight road.
The line stretched all the way to the horizon, to the capital of the Mirris Holy Kingdom.
How did such a road exist?
Not a single monster.
Excellent drainage too.
When I voiced my curiosity, Gies explained.
The creator of this highway was the founder of the world's greatest religious order — the Mirris faith.
The Holy Mirris herself.
She had swung a single stroke of her blade.
Cutting through mountains and forests alike, she'd bisected a demon god on the Demon Continent in one clean slash.
From that legend, this road was called "The Holy Sword Highway."
I would've thought "no way," but Mirris's mana still lingered to this day.
The proof was that we hadn't encountered a single monster so far.
The carriage never got bogged down in mud.
Smooth sailing.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
It made sense why the Mirris faith held such power as a religion.
But personally, I was more concerned about the potential ill effects on the body.
Mana was convenient, sure.
But it could transform animals into monsters.
It could teleport two children from the Central Continent to the Demon Continent.
It had caused no end of trouble.
Having that much mana was terrifying in its own right.
Well, not having to worry about monsters was nice, at least.
--- Along the highway, there were designated rest stops at regular intervals.
We'd make camp at one of them.
Ruijerd would hunt in the forest for our meals, so food wasn't an issue.
Sometimes beast race merchants from nearby settlements would come by, but there was nothing we particularly needed to buy.
The great forest was, needless to say, rich in plant life.
The roadside was covered with herbs and flowers that could be used as spices.
I gathered them based on a botany encyclopedia I'd read once.
However, my cooking skills weren't all that impressive.
I'd improved over the past year, sure, but "bad" had merely become "slightly less bad."
The great forest had better ingredients than the Demon Continent.
Not just monsters — ordinary animals too.
Rabbits, boars — regular beasts.
Their meat was plenty delicious just grilled...
But since we had the opportunity, I wanted to eat even better meat.
The pursuit of good food was always a hungry one.
That was where Gies came in.
He was a master of campfire cooking.
From the wild herbs and nuts I gathered, he conjured spices like magic and seasoned the meat beautifully.
"Told ya? There's nothing I can't do."
He said it proudly, and the meat really was amazing.
It was so good I nearly hugged him.
I actually did hug him.
He was pretty freaked out.
I was freaked out myself.
Mutual discomfort.
--- "Bored."
Today, as usual, while we were preparing a meal, Eris mumbled that under her breath.
Ingredients: Ruijerd.
Fire and water: me.
Cooking: Gies.
In front of this perfect division of labor, Eris had nothing to do.
The most she could manage was gathering firewood, but we were in a forest. That took no time at all.
So she was restless.
At first, she'd spent her time silently swinging her sword alone.
After being drilled by me and Ghislaine with endless repetition training, she could swing a sword for hours on end.
Whether that was fun, though — apparently not.
Currently, Ruijerd was out hunting.
Gies was simmering soup.
I was working on a figurine-in-progress.
This one-tenth scale Ruijerd would take a while to finish.
But it would sell.
I'd add value to it.
"With this, the Spelled will never attack you — in fact, you'll become great friends," or something like that.
Anyway.
Eris had nothing to do with her hands.
"Hey! Gies!"
"What is it, young lady? It's not ready yet."
Gies turned around while tasting the soup.
There stood Eris, hands on hips in her usual pose.
"Teach me how to cook!"
"Nope."
Instant answer.
Gies continued cooking as if nothing had happened.
Eris was dumbfounded for a moment.
But she quickly recovered and shouted.
"Why not?!"
"Because I don't wanna teach you."
"Okay, but why?!"
Gies let out a deep sigh.
"Listen, young lady. A swordsman only needs to think about fighting.
Cooking is a waste. All that matters is that you can eat."
For the record, this man wasn't cooking at the "as long as you can eat it" level.
He was at the "could open a restaurant" level.
His food wouldn't make someone's eyes light up like a certain emperor's, but it'd easily pass for a well-regarded local eatery.
"But if I can cook... then... you know, right?"
Eris kept glancing my way as she spoke, trailing off.
What is it, Eris?
What are you trying to say?
Come on, just spit it out.
"Couldn't care less."
Gies was cold to Eris.
I wasn't sure why, but he was pretty harsh with her.
He wasn't like that with me or Ruijerd, but with Eris specifically, he kept her at arm's length.
"You've got talent with the sword, young lady. You don't need cooking."
"But..."
"Being able to fight — isn't that a blessing?
To survive in this world, you don't need anything more.
All you'd do is muddy your natural talent."
Eris looked irritated, but she didn't take a swing at Gies.
There was something strangely persuasive about his words.
"That was just my official stance."
Gies nodded, satisfied, and stopped stirring the soup.
He ladled it into stone bowls.
By the way, I'd made the bowls.
"I've made up my mind — I'm never teaching a woman to cook again."
Gies had apparently once belonged to a party that delved into dungeons.
A six-person party where everyone except him could only do one thing — a bunch of one-trick types.
Gies's catchphrase back then was, "Can you guys not do anything besides that?"
Despite being dysfunctional in their own way, the party had managed.
Then one day, a woman in the party told Gies she wanted to learn to cook.
"Win a man's stomach and you win his heart" — apparently that applied in this world too.
Gies reluctantly agreed and taught her.
Whether it was because of the cooking or not — who could say — but the woman ended up getting together with a man in the party, and they married.
The two of them left the party and went off somewhere.
They'd been important members, and their departure threw the party into chaos.
Infighting and apathy spiraled out of control.
They couldn't even take on proper commissions anymore.
The party dissolved almost immediately.
Still, Gies was a man who could do anything.
He lacked talent in swordsmanship and magic, but everything else — he could handle it all.
So he figured he'd find another party quickly.
The result was a disaster.
At the time, Gies was a somewhat well-known adventurer.
Yet no party would take him in.
Gies could do everything.
Anything an adventurer could do, he could do, pretty much.
And that was the problem.
What Gies could do was stuff someone else could also do.
For a high-ranking party, these were mundane tasks they could divide among themselves.
Gies realized.
His place had only existed in that particular party.
It was because those clumsy people were there that his existence had mattered.
From then on, Gies essentially retired as an adventurer.
He decided to live as a gambler instead.
"That's why. You should never teach a woman to cook."
A jinx, he added.
My take? Gies's jinxes were meaningless.
I thought he should just teach her.
This soup was delicious.
One sip and your mouth went "shabadabadabaaam."
I wanted him to teach me.
So I decided to throw Eris a lifeline.
"I get that you ended up unhappy, but the woman who learned to cook — she became happy, right?"
So why not teach her?
Gies shook his head.
"Don't know if the woman was happy or not.
Haven't seen her since."
But, he added with a self-deprecating smile: "The man... wasn't happy."
That was why it was a jinx, I supposed.
Looking at his downcast expression, I couldn't bring myself to say anything more.
The soup that should have tasted great suddenly seemed flavorless.
Ruijerd, come back soon...
--- One day.
At a rest stop by the roadside, I spotted a strange stone marker.
About knee-height, with peculiar patterns carved on its surface.
Seven patterns surrounded a single central character.
I was fairly certain the central character was the numeral "7" in the Fighting God's script.
The other patterns — I felt like I'd seen them somewhere, but also hadn't.
I decided to ask Gies.
"Hey, newbie. What is this stone marker?"
Gies looked at it and nodded, "Ah, right."
"This is one of the 'Seven Great Powers.'"
Oh, the Seven Great Powers.
"'Seven Great Powers'? What's that?"
"The seven strongest warriors in this world."
Apparently, sometime around the end of the Second Human-Demon War, a figure known as the Technique God had established the ranking.
The Technique God was considered the strongest person alive at the time.
And this person had designated the seven strongest in the world.
This stone marker was meant to confirm that list.
"If you want the details, the Boss should know. Hey, Boss!"
When Gies called out, Ruijerd came over from where he'd been training Eris nearby.
Eris had collapsed spread-eagle on the ground right there, catching her breath.
"The Seven Great Powers, huh. Takes me back."
Ruijerd's eyes narrowed when he saw the marker.
"You know about it, Ruijerd?"
"When I was young, I trained to one day be counted among the Seven Great Powers."
Ruijerd said this with a distant look in his eyes.
Very distant.
Really, really distant.
...How long ago was that?
"What do those patterns represent?"
"They're the crests of each person. They represent the current seven."
Ruijerd pointed to each one and told me who they were.
The current seven were: Rank 1: "Technique God"
Rank 2: "Dragon God"
Rank 3: "Fighting God"
Rank 4: "Demon God"
Rank 5: "Death God"
Rank 6: "Sword God"
Rank 7: "North God"
"Huh. But I've never even heard of the 'Seven Great Powers' before?"
"The name was famous up until the Laplace War."
"Why did it fall out of favor?"
"The Laplace War caused huge upheaval, and half of them ended up missing."
Apparently, all of the "Seven Great Powers" at the time — except the Technique God — had participated in the Laplace War.
Three of them died.
One went missing.
One was sealed.
The only one left standing unscathed was the Dragon God.
Technically, those called "quasi-strongest" had been promoted to fill the ranks, and over the next several hundred years they'd fought over the lower positions — but they were a far cry from the word "strongest."
And now, the whereabouts of the top four were unknown.
Technique God — missing Dragon God — missing Fighting God — missing Demon God — sealed With the confirmed powerhouses gone, the ranking had lost all credibility.
So the "Seven Great Powers" had gradually faded from public memory.
...Something like that.
By the way, the Demon God hadn't disappeared from the ranking because he was sealed rather than dead.
"How many people from back then are still alive?"
"Who knows. Even four hundred years ago, the Technique God's very existence was in doubt."
"Why did the Technique God create this ranking in the first place?"
"Supposedly to find someone who could defeat him, but I don't know the details."
It was basically a leet ranking.
"This stone marker is quite old too. Maybe the rankings have changed since then."
When I murmured that, Gies shook his head.
"Nah, apparently the inscription updates automatically through magic."
"Huh? Really? How?"
"How should I know?"
So the stone marker's text changed on its own.
How did that work?
There was still so much about this world's magic that I didn't understand.
Would they teach that kind of thing at the Magic University?
Anyway, the Seven Great Powers.
I'd always thought this world had a suspicious number of overpowered people, but none of them seemed like someone I could keep up with.
Well, I had no intention of aiming to be the world's strongest.
I'd try not to obsess over power too much.
--- It took us one month to clear the great forest.
But it was only one month.
Just one month to race through the entire great forest.
The road was dead straight the whole way, and no monsters appeared.
Being able to focus entirely on travel was one reason, but the horse's performance was also excellent.
Horses in this world never got tired.
They could run ten hours without rest and still be fresh the next day.
Were they using some kind of mana?
We made it through the forest remarkably smoothly.
The only incident was me getting hemorrhoids halfway through.
Of course, I didn't tell anyone and quietly healed myself with magic.
Eris had been standing on the carriage the whole time, calling it "training."
I told her it was dangerous, but she looked at me like she had no idea what was dangerous about it.
I tried it myself, and the next day my legs and lower back were trembling.
Eris was something else.
The valley cutting through the Azure Dragon Mountain Range.
At its entrance lay a post town.
A street of inns run by the Coal Mining Tribe.
There was no adventurer's guild.
But it was also famous as a blacksmith town, with weapon and armor shops lined up one after another.
Gies told me the swords sold here were cheap but good quality.
Eris looked interested, but we didn't exactly have money to spare.
Eventually, we'd need to cross from Mirris to the Central Continent, and the Spelled would probably cost us.
We shouldn't waste money.
Eris's current sword wasn't bad anyway.
But I was still a man at heart.
Seeing rows of rugged swords and armor got my blood pumping, regardless of age.
Still, maybe it was my age and attire that were the problem — the Coal Mining Tribe shopkeeper laughed and said, "That getup doesn't really suit you, kid, does it?"
When I told him I was mid-level in the Sword God style, he was a little surprised.
Of course, I had no money, so it was all just window shopping.
According to Gies, this town was a fork in the highway.
Going east along the mountains led to a large Coal Mining Tribe city.
Northeast was Long Ear territory, and northwest was Dwarf territory.
Perhaps the lack of an adventurer's guild here was due to that location.
Also, if you went further into the mountains, there were supposedly hot springs.
Hot springs.
That piqued my interest.
"What are hot springs?"
"Hot water flows from the mountains. When you bathe in it, it feels incredible."
"Sounds interesting... but Rudeus, this is your first time here too, right? How do you know about it?"
"I-I read it in a book."
Would the travel guide "Walking the World" have mentioned hot springs?
I didn't think it had.
But still — hot springs.
Nice.
This world probably didn't have yukatas, though.
Damp hair, skin flushed like cherry blossoms, Eris zoning out in the water...
Hot springs had that certain something.
Not that we'd be in a mixed bath.
Right?
But on the off chance it was mixed bathing, what would I do?
I absolutely had to check.
"The rainy season just ended, so the mountains are probably a mess right now," Gies warned.
Apparently, for someone inexperienced with mountain travel, it could take a long time.
And so, I gave up on the hot springs.
A shame.
--- The Holy Sword Highway entered the Azure Dragon Mountain Range.
A road just wide enough for two carriages to pass each other.
It split the mountain clean in two.
A valley road.
But thanks to Mirris's blessing, rockfalls were rare.
Without this road, you'd have to take a massive detour to the north.
True, blue dragons rarely appeared in these mountains, but monsters were plentiful, and traversing it voluntarily would be extremely dangerous.
And yet, someone had created a monster-free shortcut through all of that.
Now I could really see why the Holy Mirris was revered.
We cleared the valley in three days.
--- And so, we emerged from the great forest.
We had entered human territory.
End of Chapter 4 — Boyhood Arc: Voyage Next Chapter Chapter 5 — Boyhood Arc: Reunion