It had been almost a week since I left Gunjou City, but—
"Something's wrong. The village at the midway point should be coming into view by now…"
I had gotten lost.
After leaving the city, I'd certainly been taking things too slowly. But if I'd been following the map correctly, I should have passed the halfway mark by now! And I should be arriving at the village located roughly midway between Gunjou City and the Dungeon City!
This past week had been eventful — stopping by forests along the way, securing food at rivers, Shiromaru going missing, and all sorts of other things.
With Shiromaru, there had been an unfortunate incident (he'd been swept away by a river and apparently lost his scent, so I had to use Search to find him and go pick him up), but even taking it easy, I'd been averaging over twenty kilometers a day, so the plan was to reach the village today.
However, it was nearly sunset. I needed to pull the carriage over somewhere I could settle in and start preparing camp.
When I say "camp," all it really meant was setting up a simple barrier around the carriage and preparing a meal.
The carriage I was riding in now was the same one I'd used before when Lily and the others went boar hunting (thief extermination), but with major modifications.
First, I converted the body into a box carriage and fitted it with iron plates that had been reinforced with strengthening magic throughout.
On top of that, I fixed space-time magic inside using the same principle as a Dimension Bag. On the outside, it looks like it's about three tatami mats in size (two meters wide by three meters long) and around 1.8 meters tall (actually about 2.5 meters when you count the wheels and such), but the interior expands to roughly four times that (about three meters tall).
These modifications cost around 300,000 G. Mostly for the iron.
Well, thanks to that, it now requires several horses to pull — normal horses wouldn't cut it alone — and on top of that, I have to replenish the Magic Power in the strengthening and weight-reduction magic circles scattered throughout the carriage to some degree each day. So it had essentially become a mage-exclusive carriage. Of course, I'd registered myself as the contracted user.
Well, it certainly made my life a lot more comfortable — way better than staying at some sketchy inn.
I was currently considering building a small bath in one corner of the interior.
As I was thinking about such things while searching for a place to stop—
"Thieves! Thieves!"
I heard a voice shouting.
I used Search in the direction of the voice, and there was a reaction on the other side of a hill about a hundred meters ahead. It looked like a group of sixteen was being ambushed by twenty thieves.
"This might be dangerous."
It looked like the sixteen people had been caught by surprise and were completely surrounded by thieves.
I stored the carriage away, removed Shiromaru's collar, and ordered him to circle around to the opposite side and attack.
Then, I myself directed Tanikaze and headed toward the top of the hill.
Looking down from the hilltop using night vision, just as I'd suspected, the group of sixteen was at a disadvantage.
It seemed that among those being attacked, only six were combat-capable adventurers. The rest appeared to be three merchants who looked like their employers and seven slaves.
As I continued observing, I heard Shiromaru howl from the opposite side. In answer, I fired a Fireball up into the sky.
"What's going on?!"
One of the thieves shouted and glanced around warily, but—
"Gyaaaaaah!"
"It's a wolf monster—blegh!"
"It's huge, blegh—"
Before he could finish, Shiromaru lunged in from the other side.
To finish off the panicking thieves, I charged in with Tanikaze.
"I'm going to help! You lot, hold your defenses!"
It wasn't just the thieves who were thrown into confusion, but the others still listened to my words and obediently took up defensive positions.
"Oh, and the wolf is on our side! Don't lay a hand on him if you don't want to die!"
I made sure to add that. Otherwise, Shiromaru wouldn't be able to tell friend from foe. If any of the adventurers attacked Shiromaru, they would almost certainly be killed by him.
The thieves, caught in the ambush, had their lives snatched away in the blink of an eye by Shiromaru and me (plus Tanikaze).
"Whoa! Who the hell is that guy?!"
"We can figure that out later! Right now, believe we're on the same side and hold your defenses!"
"But there are still three thieves left... Wait, looks like they're all dead already."
The thieves had seemed reasonably coordinated, but it didn't look like they'd anticipated being ambushed, so they were easy enough to take out.
"Good, come back, Shiromaru!"
At my words, Shiromaru wagged his tail and came bounding over. As I was patting his head,
"I appreciate the rescue, but are you on our side?"
One of the adventurers called out from a short distance away.
"That depends on you. If you want to make enemies of me, I won't show any mercy."
My killing intent-laden words made the adventurers flinch, but they dropped their weapons and raised both hands.
"We have no hostility toward you whatsoever. If anything, we're grateful."
"Understood. I'll take you at your word."
With that, I had Shiromaru lie down and approached the men.
"These are definitely thieves, right? I'll take the ones we killed... Actually, all of them. They're mine."
"That's only natural. You and that wolf took them all down."
After hearing those words, I gave Shiromaru the order to gather the thieves' corpses. I'd already told Shiromaru not to tear the thieves apart unless absolutely necessary, so most of the bodies were still connected in one piece.
As I was putting the corpses into my bag,
"Thank you for saving us from a dangerous situation."
A man dressed like a merchant approached me.
"I run a slave-trading business. The name's Jayman."
The name... Jayman.
Age... 43
Race... Human
Title... Slave Trader
When I slightly furrowed my brow at the "slave trader" part,
"There's no need to be on guard. I'm a properly registered—though I suppose saying that verbally won't do any good. I'm not sure if this counts as proof, but please, have a look."
So saying, the man produced a sheet of paper.
The paper was a Slave Trading License. After several stipulations and terms of agreement, there was the man's name, and at the bottom it read that Duke Alsass von Sanga hereby certified this.
"I can't tell whether it's genuine or not, but since you've brought up the Duke's name, I'll trust you to some degree."
"Thank you, I appreciate that. You can call me Jayman. Also... if you'd be willing,
Mask
could you take it off and show me your real face?"
Being asked that, I remembered I'd been covering the lower half of my face as a makeshift disguise. When I removed the mask, Jayman and the adventurers all reacted with uniform shock,
"You were this young! I knew you were young, but... not this young... Could your name possibly be Tenma?"
Those words only made me more wary,
"I'm sorry for startling you. The truth is, I once handled Geese as a slave, and it was then that the Duke told me about you—about what kind of person Tenma is."
With that, Jayman began recounting what he'd discussed with Duke Sanga.
The details included my dealings with Duke Sanga as well, so I decided to lower my guard, at least for the time being.
"So, Tenma, why are you in a place like this... I'm grateful you are, mind you, but I heard your destination was the Dungeon City. This is the wrong direction for that, you know?"
In response, I showed him the handwritten map I'd been given,
"I followed this map to the letter, but I think I may have taken a wrong turn somewhere..."
The moment Jeyman laid eyes on the map, I was hit with a shocking revelation.
"This... the position of the intermediate village looks similar, but this is a map of a different territory. It seems whoever drew this accidentally made a map of somewhere other than your destination, Tenma."
"Whaaat?!"
That explained why no amount of traveling had brought the village into sight.
"Ah, but the direction is more or less the same, so if you get onto the proper road from here, you'll reach your destination... Actually, that waypoint village is our destination too."
That much was enough for me to understand what he was getting at.
"My request is that you accompany us to your destination, and provide information on the route to the Dungeon City. In return, I'll add the rescue from earlier and an escort to the village to the bargain. What do you say?"
"Deal! I'll be counting on you."
I shook hands with Jeyman and sealed the agreement.
"From here, it's just a few more hours. We'd like to arrive before nightfall, if that's all right with you."
"That's fine. Though, don't you have an injured adventurer among your group?"
When I asked the man standing behind Jeyman,
"There's one injury, fortunately just one person and the wounds are shallow. A light healing spell and a potion will do the trick."
he replied. Having confirmed that the carriage was inspected and no issues were found, we decided to set off right away.
I didn't take the carriage out, instead mounting Tanikaze, and had Shiromaru ride ahead within earshot, giving him the roles of scout and weak Monster deterrent.
The adventurers were surprised by Tanikaze, but Jeyman barely reacted. Apparently, he'd already heard about Shiromaru and Tanikaze from Duke Sanga. As for Shiromaru, though, he hadn't noticed at first because the wolf had been covered in blood when they first met, and I'd been keeping him stationed a short distance away.
Just as Jeyman had said, we arrived at the village in about three to four hours. A few Monsters appeared along the way, but since Shiromaru hunted every last one of them, we reached our destination without a single problem.
"We've arrived. Thanks to you, we made it safely."
The hired adventurers wore complicated expressions at Jeyman's words, but they seemed to have accepted that there was nothing they could say about how things had turned out.
"Jeyman, I'm sorry. To have put you through that kind of danger..."
The leader of the adventurers apologized, but...
"No, I bear some responsibility in this matter as well. You all had warned of the dangers before we set out, but I was the one who didn't listen. I'll add a bit extra to your compensation as a token of apology."
He said that and apologized in turn.
"I should thank you again as well. You truly saved us. I'm grateful."
There was a hint of lingering tension in his voice, but he seemed to be speaking from the heart, so...
"No, it's fine. You would have managed even without my help. Besides, I ended up with plenty of rewards myself."
When I said that with a light laugh,
"Haha, well, we might have managed, but some of us would definitely have died. The fact that everyone made it back safely is thanks to you."
He laughed along with my words.
"Tenma-san, please stay at the inn with us tonight. It would be dangerous to set out at this hour, and I'll have the rest of your compensation ready by tomorrow noon."
"Understood. Thank you for everything."
Saying that, I put Tanikaze into the bag and followed after Jeyman.
The inn was, to put it mildly, nothing to write home about compared to the Manpokutei, but the inside was fairly clean and well-maintained.
Jeyman had been considerate enough to arrange a single room for me.
The next day, unfortunately, was rainy. As I watched the light rain falling outside from my room, I heard a knock at the door.
"Come in."
Jeyman entered after saying "Pardon the intrusion."
"Tenma-san, I've prepared a map showing the route from this village to the Dungeon City."
He said that and unrolled the paper he was holding to show me.
After he finished explaining while I looked at the map,
"Please take this map."
Saying that, he handed me a map drawn much smaller than the one from before.
"May I keep it?"
"Yes, of course. I wrote this just now, so while it can't be called a perfect copy, I did my best to make it as close to the original as possible, so I don't think there will be any issues."
"Thank you very much."
I said that and stowed it away in my bag.
"Even so, if you do get lost, there are two particularly bright stars that line up right after sunset. Head in that direction and you'll find the Dungeon City."
"I see... Understood."
"The weather is rather unfortunate today, but what will you do about departing? If you'd like, while we're in this village we're under contract, so we can cover your lodging expenses—"
After thinking for a moment,
"That's very kind of you, but I should be fine in this rain. I'll set out around noon."
According to the map I'd been given, most of the route from here looked like open grassland. In that case, as long as I stayed inside the carriage, there shouldn't be any particular problem.
"Is that so? The room is available until this evening, so if you change your mind, just let me know."
Jayman said that and left the room.
After having a light meal, I asked the inn staff where the guild was, borrowed an umbrella, and headed outside.
The guild was about a fifteen-minute walk from the inn, and as expected, it was a smaller building than the one in Gunjou City.
"I defeated some bandits, and I'd like you to check whether any of them had bounties on their heads."
After I stated my business concisely to the receptionist at the counter, a man in charge appeared and led me to the back of the building.
"There are twenty of them, and the bodies are in the bag. Could you bring them out here?"
I produced the bodies at the spot indicated. The man showed no particular reaction upon seeing them, and
"So, let me see... these ones had bounties on them recently. This one is 50,000 G, and these two are 20,000 G each. The rest don't have bounties. However, since all of the reported targets have been eliminated, and it just so happens we have subjugation requests for these ones as well, I'll count those as completed too."
With that said, they transferred the bodies into the Guild's Magic Bag, then went back to the counter and handed over the reward.
"The total for the bandit subjugation is 260,000 G, and the quest rewards come to 150,000 G, for a grand total of 410,000 G. Please verify."
I confirmed the amount and tucked it into my bag. At the same counter, I asked about the location of a general goods store, then headed over to see if they had what I was looking for.
Once I arrived at the general goods store, I immediately began searching for the item I wanted, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
So I asked a shop assistant about what I was looking for.
"A large barrel, you say? One moment, please."
The first thing they brought out was a barrel about 50 centimeters tall.
"If you're using it for storage, I think something around this size should be more than sufficient."
"No, this one is too small. I'm looking for something about twice this size."
When I said that, the shop assistant thought it over for a moment, then—
"Now that you mention it, we do have one!"
With that, they led me outside to a warehouse.
"This is it. This sake barrel. I think the size is exactly what you're looking for!"
They pointed to an empty sake barrel standing about 1.2 meters tall with a maximum diameter of roughly one meter.
"Ah, that's the perfect size. How much is this one?"
"Well, it was originally slated for disposal, so just the cost of the wood would be fine."
They told me 500 G would do.
I paid up, loaded the barrel into my bag, and left the store in high spirits.
Essential item for any Japanese person in another world: bath bucket (substitute) — acquired!
By the time I reached the inn, the rain had mostly stopped.
"Alright, time to head out!"
I paid a visit to Jayman's room and told him I was departing.
"Is that so? I often travel to the Dungeon City on business myself, so perhaps I'll run into you again, Tenma. I look forward to it."
I exchanged a handshake with Jayman and we promised to meet again. At first I'd been on edge when I heard he was a slave merchant, but once I got used to him, there was really nothing that bothered me.
Well, more accurately, I just felt it would be weird to start being uneasy about it now, given that I'd already sent guys like Geese off to be enslaved.
Anyway, I steeled myself to not get lost this time around, and set off from the village with renewed determination.
Bonus... The First Barrel Bath and the Art of Aesthetics
The barrel bath — quite possibly the biggest haul from this entire journey. The moment of its first use had finally arrived.
"Alright, let's try it out right away!"
To prepare the bath, I pulled the barrel out from the back of the carriage and opened the lid.
"Ugh, that stinks... What the hell is that smell?!"
The moment I popped the lid, a horrible stench spread everywhere. I quickly shut the lid, stowed the barrel back in my bag, and ventilated the carriage.
"Stupid me... If I'd just thought about it for a second, I would've realized the inside was rotting..."
For a brief moment, the thought flashed through my mind: just give up on the barrel and tough it out until we reach the city.
But my instincts as a former Japanese person, brimming with enthusiasm to take a bath, would not allow it.
First, I set the barrel down at a distance from the carriage, opened the lid, and quickly retreated. Then I deployed a single Golem and had it wash the barrel from a safe distance. However, the Golem wasn't great at fine-tuning its strength, so I ended up streaming Magic Power directly to it for remote control.
First, I dumped out the leftover wine still inside.
Next, I used water magic to rinse out the interior of the barrel. After several rinses, the water finally started running clear.
Then I grabbed a rag from my bag, lathered it up with soap, and began scrubbing the inside of the barrel.
Lastly, I filled the barrel with boiling water to disinfect it. Just to be safe, I changed out the boiling water and continued disinfecting for about an hour.
So, how did it turn out?
"All right! I can barely notice it anymore!"
Success! With this, the long-awaited bath was finally installed in the carriage.
I wasted no time getting it inside the carriage and filling it with hot water.
"Ahh~ bliss, pure bliss."
I sank into the slightly-too-hot water up to my shoulders, savoring a bath for the first time in ages.
After soaking a little longer than planned, I got out and stood around with nothing but a towel wrapped around my waist, as if to cool off my flushed body.
I could have gone completely naked, really, but I had something special planned for after the bath, so I decided to dress the part.
"After a bath, this is the real deal, right?"
Saying that, I pulled chilled milk out of my bag.
"Here we go!"
With a spirited shout, I placed my hands on my hips, puffed out my chest, and started drinking the milk.
"Glug, glug, glug — ahh! That's the best!"
More people might prefer beer, but when it came to drinking after a bath, I always liked milk better than beer. I'd drink beer if I had it, but with this body I couldn't really get drunk anyway — thanks to my abnormal resistance — and above all, the biggest problem was that having tasted beer in my previous life, the beer in this world always tasted awful.
Or rather, it just didn't suit my palate. On the other hand, I actually thought the milk here tasted better than in my previous life. The reason was that they didn't do any weird heat pasteurization.
In my previous life, most of the milk sold in stores was pasteurized by rapidly raising the temperature to 130°C, and on top of that, the paper carton smell damaged the milk's natural flavor. But in this world, they purified it with magic — eliminating only the harmful bacteria — so it tasted great and carried far less risk. (It reminded me of a certain farming manga where it was also stated that unpasteurized milk tasted better.)
I got a bit off track, but the point is, for all those reasons, milk was my go-to drink after a bath!
However, my milk supply had been running low lately.
I needed to hurry — to the Dungeon City! I had to protect my post-bath ritual at all costs!
And so the night passed, with me thinking such trivial things.