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Half a month after the wedding. Primera and I... along with the Ootori family, were heading to Duke Sanga's domain.
In theory, this was supposed to be our honeymoon, so we decided that the driver and cooking along the way would be handled by someone other than us, but—
"Out of the way, out of the way! The happy couple is coming through! Step on it, Amour!"
"Raiden, goooo!"
"Shiromaru's doing his best too! He's not falling behind Solomon!"
Thanks to this fish, tiger, and old man getting carried away, we had to stop for carriage maintenance pretty regularly, which made things quite the hassle. As a side note, it seemed they remembered the time they'd played around on a slope and winding road and gotten scolded, because this time they only went berserk on flat, deserted roads.
I wished they'd tone it down a little, but thanks to the modifications we'd made to the carriage, there was no real damage even when we were inside. As long as we weren't causing trouble for anyone else, I let them do their thing. And then—
"A-Ah..."
During one of their many rampages, a cracking sound rang out, the metal fitting connecting Raiden to the carriage broke, and the carriage was about to tip over while Raiden ran off on his own. Fortunately, the only ones affected were Grandpa and the others who were outside, plus Aura—who got slammed by Jeanne after the near-rollover sent her tumbling. Aura, the completely innocent victim in all this, instinctively used Slarin as a cushion, so she got off with only minor injuries. Grandpa and the others outside were thrown into a patch of grass, but they weren't seriously hurt, and since they brought it on themselves, I had the two of them kneel on the bare ground while the carriage was being repaired, and strung Namitarou up in a sunny spot. Namitarou could probably escape easily enough, but I threatened to hit him with Takemikazuchi if he did, so he behaved himself. As for Raiden, he came back to me after about ten minutes. When he returned, he was pretty filthy all over, so Jeanne and Aura are currently giving him a bath.
"Primera, keep a close eye on them so Grandpa and the others don't slack off."
"Yes, got it."
Even Primera, who usually deferred to Grandpa, seemed fed up with the whole incident and was watching the two of them with a harsher gaze than usual.
"Hmm... so it really does seem like a failure caused by metal fatigue."
I'd noticed at a quick glance that the broken part wasn't the wooden section, so metal fatigue had seemed like the most likely culprit all along.
When I muttered that, Grandpa and Amour looked up as if they wanted to say something, but when I added, "Well, going berserk is probably what caused the metal fatigue in the first place," they looked back down again.
"If it's only this bad, I might be able to rig up an emergency fix to get it running again..."
The problem was, even an emergency fix would take time. It was still early in the day, but we should probably start setting up camp around here for the night.
"Primera, there weren't any villages or rivers around here, right?"
"That's right. This area is pretty much equidistant from both the nearest river and the nearest village, so either way, it'd take several hours on foot to get there."
That being the case, I briefly considered having everyone hop into the Dimension Bag and having Grandpa fly us to the river or village, but if we were going to go that route, we might as well have never taken the carriage in the first place, so I decided to give up on traveling any further today. Besides, these kinds of troubles—man-made as they were—were part of what made traveling an adventure, and we'd been going so smoothly up to now that our schedule had room to spare.
"Primera, I'm thinking of setting up camp on that hill over there. Is there anything we should watch out for around here?"
"No, I don't think there's anything in particular to worry about. There are venomous insects and snakes, I'm sure, but I don't believe there have been any reports of dangerous Monsters appearing in this area. At most, you might run into some wolves or similar beasts."
That was simple enough, so we decided to make camp on the gently elevated hill.
"I'm going to go get things ready, so Primera, keep an eye on Grandpa and Amour while I'm at it. Jeanne, Aura—I'll handle clearing the ground, so take care of the rest of the setup."
Maybe they thought they'd get let go once we started setting up camp, but Grandpa and Amour wore pained expressions, knowing their ordeal wasn't over yet. At this point, Primera looked at me with an expression practically begging me to show them mercy out of sympathy... but there was an extremely high probability the two of them were putting on an act to get Primera to ask me to let them go. I walked up to them and said that if they didn't drop the act, they'd be skipping dinner—and sure enough, they stopped looking miserable. I hadn't been sure, so I'd been bluffing, but it turned out I'd hit the mark.
The hilltop was covered in nothing but grass that came up to about knee-height, so I cut it down to the roots with Air Cutter and burned the remaining stubble with fire magic. After that, I leveled the ground with earth magic and the clearing was done. Normally I'd just level the ground and call it a day, but Primera had mentioned there were poisonous plants around, so I went the extra mile.
Once the ground was cleared, I called Jeanne over and told Primera to release Grandpa and Amour. They couldn't seem to move because their legs had gone numb, though, so I told her to leave them right where they were. I also told her to retrieve Namiitarou—who was practically turning into jerky—and give him some water.
"I'm going to do some repairs a little ways off, so feel free to do whatever you want once you're free. Just stay ready to move at a moment's notice, just in case."
I gave Jeanne and Aura their instructions, then removed the hardware from the broken section of the carriage and set to work on emergency repairs.
If I heated up iron reinforcement plates and hammered them into place over the damaged section, I should at least be able to get the carriage running well enough to reach a proper repair shop. If there was no repair shop to be found, the worst-case scenario was to keep repeating the emergency fixes all the way to Duke Sanga's estate. Of course, that meant I'd have to keep it from going haywire again and also reduce speed for safety reasons, so we might arrive a bit later than planned. But even so, it'd still be faster than a regular carriage. Think of it as a honeymoon trip—just enjoy the leisurely pace.
"Tenma, it's a bit early, but dinner is supposedly ready."
I was just about to finish up when Primera came to call me. I told her I'd be there shortly and glanced up at the sky—the sun hadn't set yet. Given the season, sunset had been coming earlier, so it was admittedly a bit early for dinner. Then again, when camping there's usually a night watch to deal with, so having an early meal wasn't all that unusual... But since neither Primera nor I would be standing watch on this trip, we might end up hungry in the middle of the night.
While thinking about that, I checked the emergency repair for any major warping, cooled it with water magic, and stowed it in the Magic Bag. All that was left was to mount it and see if it actually worked.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Everyone had held off on eating until I arrived, so I apologized lightly and took the spot that had been left open for me—right next to Primera.
"Let's eat... Oh, before that—Grandpa, Amour, Namiitarou, you can drop the act now."
Before eating, I called out to Grandpa and the others, who were sitting in seiza—Namiitarou was still tied up, though. They heard me and reverted to their usual demeanor... but that was probably an act too. After all, they'd only started sitting in seiza a little before I arrived—and more importantly, Namiitarou's ropes had been loosened.
I hadn't pointed that out because it would've extended the time before we could start eating, but I'm pretty sure they'd already reflected on their behavior. Besides, Primera — the one I'd asked to keep watch — had given them permission, so there was no need to say anything.
After the meal, Grandpa and Aura, who were on watch from the middle of the night until early morning, had until their bedtime to spend however they liked, and at night Primera and I stayed up as late as we could to help with the watch. Amour and Jeanne did fall asleep before Grandpa and the others turned in, but since they'd helped out to some degree during Grandpa's shift too, it wasn't as if Amour and Jeanne were getting any special treatment. Also, I went to sleep at roughly the same time as Primera, but since the beds were separated by gender, we weren't sharing the same futon.
"Grandpa, Aura — I'm taking over, so go get some sleep."
The next day, I woke up well before sunrise and called out to Grandpa and Aura, who were standing watch outside.
I'd woken up earlier than usual, but it wasn't because I was worried about them. This trip hadn't been as physically taxing as usual, and I'd been getting plenty of sleep, so I naturally woke up early.
"My, my — then I'll take you up on that and rest easy."
"Thank you... ever so much~"
Grandpa still seemed to have plenty of energy, but Aura looked exhausted, so she went straight into the carriage. If Grandpa had been too polite to rest, Aura would've felt obligated to stay up too — I could tell he'd been considerate of that.
"As for Namiitarou… same as always, no way to tell if he's asleep or awake. He might even be dead, so let me go check on him."
Namiitarou's resting spot during the encampment was a massive live well I'd built right before the trip — three meters long, four meters wide, and one meter deep. But given Namiitarou's size, he couldn't swim around in it. So whenever he rested in the live well, he just stayed completely still — and I mean absolutely motionless, making it impossible to tell whether he was awake or asleep. By the way, if you tried to wash your hands in the water from the live well, Namiitarou would fly into a furious rage: "Could you sleep in a smoke-filled room, huh?!" The ones who'd been on the receiving end of that anger were Aura, Shiromaru, and Solomon.
"I could drop some food right in front of him, I suppose… but that'd be a pain to find. Maybe I'll give him a little jolt with some lightning magic — no, that's cruel. Yeah, better not."
As I muttered that and stepped away from the live well to take a quick look around,—
"You're not gonna do anything?!"
Namiitarou burst out of the live well. Well, Namiitarou was technically a fish-type creature, but he was far too tough to be the delicate sort that dies because the water doesn't agree with him. Plus, he'd shuddered when I muttered "lightning magic," so I'd figured out he was only pretending to sleep. That's why I'd deliberately ignored him and walked away.
But Namiitarou wasn't happy about that and started complaining, so I silently approached and stuck my hand into the water—
"No lightning! That's way too sadistic! Candy is fine! Give me candy!"
He panicked. I asked if dropping candy into the live well would dirty the water, and he shouted back something like, "Smoke is no good, but a sweet smell is a reward, right?!" Because of that, hearing the word "candy" woke Shiromaru and Solomon up too, but rather than letting them eat candy, I put them to work helping with the watch — which killed time nicely until Primera and the others woke up.
"So far, the emergency treatment site seems to be holding up fine. Primera — how much longer until we reach Lindou?"
"Let's see… from around here, I'd say it would take about six days by normal carriage. With Raiden, I think we could arrive in about three days."
Lindou was the name of the largest town in Duke Sanga's domain, where the ducal residence was located. The plan for this trip was to stay at the Sairan ducal residence for about ten days, then head south through the domain toward Gunjou City, and return to the Royal Capital via the Seigen route. It was supposed to be a roughly one-month trip, so we shouldn't have been held up by snow.
"So long as nothing happens before we reach Lindou, that is! Now then, Tenma — having planted our flag and all, it looks like there's a fight breaking out a few kilometers ahead. And from the looks of it, some of them are heading our way, so we might get dragged into it. What's the call?"
Namiitarou, who'd been scouting the scenery from atop the roof, nimbly slipped in through the door to deliver his report. "What's the call" probably meant whether we should run or stand and fight. To verify, I used both Search and Appraisal to get a clearer picture.
"Let's stand and fight. Depending on how we handle it, slipping away might be possible — but from the looks of things, there'll be major casualties after we leave. They're fighting... no, more like being attacked. I feel bad for the other side, but no matter how fast we push it, I don't think we'd arrive in time."
I didn't know what had started the fight, but the group heading this direction was clearly fleeing. Whether the ones behind them were trying to hold them back or had been abandoned, I couldn't tell — but the defenders had been wiped out entirely during my observations. And now the attackers had begun chasing after the fleeing group.
"Grandpa! About two kilometers ahead — three Unicorns are coming our way! They look seriously agitated, so contact means a fight is unavoidable! I'll go on ahead and catch them off guard, so get into combat formation and stay sharp!"
"Hm? Oh, understood! With Namiitarou here too, we've got more fighting strength than usual. Even if they bypass Tenma and come straight for us, we should be able to handle it."
Grandpa knew I could use Search and Appraisal, so even in a situation where the enemy was still completely invisible, he immediately accepted the assessment and began preparing for battle.
"The fleeing group is wiped out... no — it looks like one person barely survived."
Dozens of seconds after I leapt from the carriage, I could see the three Unicorns catching up to and tearing apart the fleeing group. They turned out to be merchants, trying to escape the Unicorns in a cargo-laden carriage — but they'd been caught almost immediately.
It looked like they'd ditched their cargo shortly after starting to flee, but honestly, ordinary horses could never outrun a Unicorn to begin with. Still, if they'd abandoned the load from the start, maybe I could've reached them before they were caught. But there's no point in hypotheticals. It was a pitiful end, but all they could do was curse their bad luck at encountering something as powerful and rare as a Unicorn.
"It'd be great if I could tame those Unicorns... but from the looks of them, there's no way that's happening."
The raging Unicorns had already destroyed the carriage and trampled the merchants riding in it, but that wasn't enough for them — they were now charging toward me, snarling. They were still nearly five hundred meters away, but with that much hostility on display, taming was out of the question. A shame, but I'd have to settle for getting materials from them.
Generally speaking, Unicorns were said to be roughly on par with Bicornes, but even all three together didn't seem much tougher than the single Bicorne that had served as the basis for Raiden — so either that Bicorne had been exceptionally strong, or these three were on the weaker side. Either way, fighting them alone shouldn't be a problem. Even if my read was off and things went south, I'd have more than enough staying power to hold out until Grandpa and the others arrived.
"If you're going to charge straight at me... then take this!"
The three Unicorns were coming as a single pack, still over two hundred meters out, but I launched a preemptive strike with Air Cutter. At this distance, the attack probably wouldn't deal a fatal blow, but I was hoping it might at least slow their momentum — except...
"You've got to be kidding... it barely did anything."
I'd expected the attack to lose power at range, and I'd been hoping that if things went well, I might be able to knock the lead Unicorn off its feet. Even if that didn't work, maybe I could at least draw some blood? But the Unicorns shattered all such hopes, charging forward without a scratch.
"Looks like it slowed them down a little, but nobody in their right mind would try to break through magic with their horn, right?"
By the time I'd finished grumbling, the Unicorns had closed the distance to where they'd be within striking range in just a few more seconds. But —
"Stone Wall!"
Just before the Unicorns got into attacking position, I conjured a wall of earth magic about one meter high.
The Unicorns, faced with a wall of middling height that had suddenly appeared, chose to leap over it rather than charge through. Well, they probably intended to trample me in the process, but the moment their hooves cleared the earth wall, they lost their balance in midair and went tumbling to the ground. Of course, I only managed to cut the legs off two of them, so the third one landed safely. That said, it had stopped moving after watching its two companions crash, so I used that opening to drive my halberd into its neck and finish it off.
Actually, this earth wall wasn't meant to block the Unicorns' attack. If that were the purpose, I'd have made something at least tall enough to hide my body. But given the Unicorns' charging power, even a reasonably sturdy earth wall would be shattered easily. And besides, I didn't have the distance to build a thick wall, and if I did have enough distance, they'd just dodge before crashing into it.
In other words, this earth wall wasn't for defense—it was a tactical setup to make the Unicorns jump.
No matter how high the Unicorns' physical abilities were, as four-legged beasts running on the ground without wings, they'd be completely defenseless in midair without any flying magic.
"The weakness of a horse is its legs, after all. Even if their legs are thicker and sturdier than a war horse's, the Unicorns are no exception."
I'd barely settled on a plan and already managed to neutralize two of them, but if I let the last one escape here, there was no guarantee that a Unicorn with a grudge against me wouldn't attack someone else—I had to put it down for sure. That said, the three of them together felt roughly on par with a Bicorn, so as long as I wasn't overly careless, I shouldn't lose or let one get away.
"Looks like you took them down safely. So, what about the victims?"
A few minutes after I finished off the last Unicorn, Grandpa and the others arrived. Grandpa was driving, with Amour and Namitaro waiting on the roof, so even if the last Unicorn had broken free and headed for the carriage, it wouldn't have been a problem. For reference, the last Unicorn had completely lost its will to fight after watching its companions get taken out, so I seized the opening while it was defenseless and cut off its head.
"I managed to save one person. She's still unconscious, but I've closed the major wounds and her pulse is stable, so I think she'll be fine... I just don't know why the Unicorns attacked them in the first place. So I want to check the destroyed carriage, the abandoned cargo, and the people who were killed."
I hated the idea of examining corpses, but the first person killed seemed to be an adventurer, and I couldn't just leave the bodies where they were. Better to collect them and transport them to an adventurer's guild somewhere.
"Grandpa, you're with me for identifying and collecting the bodies. Amour and Aura, gather the abandoned cargo. Primera and Jeanne, keep an eye on this person—but keep your distance since we don't know what kind of person she is. Slarin, you're on bodyguard duty for Primera and Jeanne. Shiromaru and Solomon, perimeter watch—and engage if necessary. Namitaro... just take a nap or something."
Namitaro could have been with Shiromaru and the others, but on land, Shiromaru and company were faster, so I decided to have him stand by.
"My, this is gruesome. Every single one of them has been crushed flat. They must have done something to really set off those Unicorns."
The five bodies—there appeared to be five—had been trampled repeatedly, and more than half of them were smashed beyond recognition. So I gave up on identifying anyone on the spot and collected only the relatively intact bodies along with portions of their equipment, burying the rest in the earth.
"There might be something in the Magic Bag, but I think it's better to submit it to the guild as-is."
Once the adventurer-related processing was done, I was about to go examine the bodies near the destroyed carriage when Amour called out to Grandpa and me in a loud voice.
"Tenma, look at this."
I hurried over to Amour, and he pulled out what looked like a white cloth that he said he'd found among the abandoned cargo.
"This is... Unicorn leather. And judging by the size, it came from a foal."
"So those three unicorns... they were the parents of this foal?"
"Must've been. The child was killed, so those unicorns probably unleashed all that fury for that reason."
There was no rule saying unicorns couldn't be killed, so you couldn't exactly call hunting a foal wrong... but having provoked them into attacking like that, those adventurers and merchants had only themselves to blame.
"For now, let's recover all the abandoned cargo. Since it was abandoned, we technically have ownership rights as the ones who found it."
The merchants who'd owned these goods were still alive, and they might argue they hadn't abandoned them but dropped them during the attack. However, in that situation, they would've been dead for certain without me, so you could say the ownership was ours until things were properly sorted out.
"Maybe we should let the Adventurers' Guild mediate that sort of judgment. Well, given the circumstances, they'll probably say it belongs to us anyway."
"Indeed! If Tenma hadn't made it in time, they would've lost not just the cargo but their very lives!"
Whether the merchants would see it that way or not, from an adventurer's perspective, it was perfectly normal to believe that items found abandoned belonged to whoever picked them up.
"Anyway, we managed to recover part of the bodies, so we need to head to the Adventurers' Guild to report all of this."
After finishing the disposal of the bodies and the wrecked carriage, we regrouped with Primera and the others, who had been watching over the unconscious merchant, and told them why the unicorns had attacked. Then:
"Tenma, could I ask you to confine this merchant inside the Dimension Bag?"
I had figured that, since we'd saved him, we'd need to keep him under our protection and at least escort him to the nearest village or town. But honestly, I was a little reluctant about letting a complete stranger into our carriage. So I was fine with putting him in the Dimension Bag, but the word "confine" caught my attention. Then:
"Actually, in the direction this merchant came from, there are several small villages... I'm worried they may have gotten caught up in the unicorns' rampage..."
Indeed, given how furious those unicorns had been, if they'd spotted anyone while chasing them down, they almost certainly would have attacked without hesitation.
"Understood. We'll confine him in the Dimension Bag under the guise of protective custody. We should put in some water, food, and a letter explaining the reason."
Simply writing "We confined him because he was suspicious" would make us the criminals, so I wrote a letter to the effect of "We are isolating him because his identity is unknown." I figured just that would draw complaints, so I also included a line saying the unicorn attack had been caused by his group's actions.
"Also, let's change our destination to a town in the direction the unicorns came from. If they really did attack other people on the way, a town closer to their route would make it easier to gather information."
And so, at Primera's suggestion, we changed our destination. The travel time to arrival wouldn't change much from before, though the distance to "Rindou," where the duke's estate was located, would increase slightly... From Leyden, it would only mean arriving about two to three hours later.
After traveling for several hours, we dashed into the Adventurers' Guild in the town we reached just before sunset... and Primera's bad premonition proved correct—the merchant we'd been holding was immediately handed over to the guards.