Since I was able to write several chapters' worth, I've resumed posting.
The year-end is getting busy, but this month I'll be posting at a pace of one to two times a week.
Anyway, today I'll post two chapters. The second one is scheduled for 6 PM.
"Tenma, the river should be coming into view soon. If we follow it for a while, there's a spot suitable for camping. It's a bit early, but let's rest there for today."
Branca opened the window and made the suggestion to me, who was operating Raiden.
Looking up, the sky was still quite bright, but Branca said there were no better places further ahead, so I accepted his proposal.
"Tenma, there it is. That elevated area that looks like a hill."
"Got it."
Just as Branca said, there was a high ground near the river that resembled a hill, and I guided Raiden over to it.
Once we reached the hill and I looked around, the area was surrounded by a grassland with low-growing grass. If anything approached, we'd notice immediately. Moreover, with tonight being a full moon, it would be even easier to see.
"With a water source nearby, this is a perfect spot for a break."
"Yeah, if there's one drawback, it's that while it's easy for us to spot enemies, they can spot us just as easily."
"You two, finish your preparations before you start chatting."
While Branca and I were talking, Grandpa, who had gotten down from the carriage, was looking for a place to start a fire. In spots like this, there should be traces of previous users, so he was searching for that.
"Lord Merlin, I believe it should be somewhere behind the carriage."
"Oh, found it, found it."
Just as Branca said, behind the carriage, there was one spot where the earth had been dug up, with damp charcoal and ashes lying around.
"Ahh... are we here already?"
Having finished checking and searching the surroundings, Amour yawned as she stepped out of the carriage. Behind her, Shiromaru and Solomon, who had also been sleeping, followed.
"Young lady, you've slept too long. Go wash your face already."
"Mmm..."
Amour stumbled back into the carriage with her eyes still half-closed. By the time she returned, however, her eyes were fully open—the sleepiness had vanished.
"There's still time before sunset, so let's look for something to burn nearby. And food while we're at it."
Everyone nodded at my suggestion, and we agreed to search within sight of the carriage. Raiden was nearby, and I'd also had Slarin and the others on standby just in case, so I instructed Shiromaru and Solomon to go report if anyone wandered too far from the carriage.
"I'll head toward the river."
"I'm coming too."
The old man and Branca had gone toward the grassland, so I decided to make for the river—where provisions would be easiest to find. Amour tagged along, and we set off together.
"We've reached the river. I can still see the carriage clearly."
I confirmed the carriage's position more out of habit than necessity; the river was barely a hundred meters away, so there was nothing to worry about. Even a quick glance at the riverbank revealed quite a bit of driftwood—finding something useful looked easy enough.
"Amour, I'll search this side, so you take the far bank."
"Got it."
Amour and I split up, and as I looked around for driftwood and suitable stones, my eyes drifted toward the river. I had no rod or net, so I wasn't planning on fishing, but maybe I could try some proper wading fishing—I decided to take a closer look at the river's condition.
"Kind of reminds me of the time I ran into Nanitaro."
Just as that thought crossed my mind, something massive approached from beneath the water's surface.
"Don't tell me this is a flag retrieval!"
I winced at my own words, but in the same instant I prepared for what might be Nanitaro—or some creature like it—something in the water lunged straight at me.
"That's not Nanitaro!"
What came leaping out of the water was, at a glance, a colossal salmon easily exceeding three meters long. Or maybe it was a trout.
The salmon had burst from the surface with its mouth wide open, intent on devouring me, but I stayed calm and caught it with the 'Guardian Gigant' I'd prepared as a countermeasure against Nanitaro.
"Food, acquired! Let me dispatch it for now."
Ideally I would've removed the nerves and drained the blood, but that sounded like a hassle, so I used Gigant to snap its neck and process it instead. I tossed the processed salmon straight into my Magic Bag, planning to butcher it later, then cast Exploration into the water.
"One big reading buried among the small ones."
The Appraisal result showed it was a fish called a Tyrant Salmon — probably the same species as the one I'd just caught. Since the opportunity was there, I decided to catch this one too.
"Wanna try some electrofishing?"
I knew there was such a thing as sport fishing and electrofishing in my previous life, but I'd never actually tried it. After all, I'd been told that most rivers in Japan prohibited those methods. But there were no such laws in this world, so I decided to go for it.
"Guess I should just send a current through… there!"
I cast lightning magic in a line through where the salmon were. It spread out a bit, but sure enough, salmon started floating to the surface just as I'd hoped. A few dozen small fish floated up too, but collecting them all would be a pain, so I left everything except the big carp-like fish alone. With any luck they'd revive, and if not, they'd end up as food for other fish and birds.
"Still, this is my first time catching salmon. I'd love to eat sashimi, but that's probably asking too much, isn't it?"
I'd seen trout in this world before, but never salmon, so I was looking forward to finding out what it tasted like.
I gave the salmon, carp, and other fish a quick processing and headed back to the carriage. With this much on hand, we wouldn't have to worry about side dishes for a few days.
"Appraisal says there's no poison, but I wonder what it'll taste like?"
While mulling that over, I went looking for Amur and spotted her downstream — soaking wet for some reason, carrying a bulging burlap sack on her back, heading toward me.
"Tenma, huge catch! Fish just came flowing in for some reason!"
Inside the sack Amur opened with a shout of joy were all the small fish I hadn't bothered to collect earlier.
"…Is that so? Good for you."
I felt a bit conflicted, but it didn't seem worth mentioning to Amur, who was clearly thrilled, so I made small talk as we headed back to the carriage together.
When we got back to the carriage, Slarin — who'd been keeping watch from the roof — was looking at me as if wanting to say something. It seemed Slarin knew that Amur had been able to catch fish so easily. But Slarin was a slime who could read the room, so they had no intention of teaching Amur about it.
"Whoa, that's a ton! Pathetically, I've got almost nothing to show for it."
"I'm in the same boat. Looks like the small animals and Monsters know this area is dangerous territory too."
The two of them kept talking, but they were diligently gathering edible wild herbs. Moreover, these were all easy-to-prepare ingredients — things like bullfuses, lily bulbs, dandelions, and honey clover. Just to be safe, I used Appraisal to check for any poisons, but everything seemed fine.
"I bagged a big one too, but today let's cook up Amur's fish along with the wild herbs these two gathered."
Most of the fish Amur had caught were dace and crucian carp. So I filleted the crucian carp into three pieces and soaked them in water to cut the muddy flavor as much as possible, while for the dace I removed the innards, lightly salted them, and skewered several on a single stick.
"Gramps, wash the lily bulbs and bullfuses really well. Branca and Amur, I need you to build two stoves and get the fires going. Once the stoves are ready, put a pot with oil and a pot with water on the flames for me."
I gave each of them their tasks and pushed ahead with the cooking prep. Since today's menu didn't use any meat, Shiromaru and the others might find it a bit lacking, but I'd set aside some carp along with the salmon, so they'd just have to bear with it.
"And that wraps it up."
Less than an hour after I'd started cooking, I'd managed to whip up several dishes. The menu centered on boiled wild herbs, fried fish, and grilled fish, but I'd prepared several different seasonings, so it was nothing like typical campfire fare.
"Oh, and I've got a little bit of alcohol too. Just in case, I only made enough for one cup per person, though."
When I said alcohol, I meant distilled spirits diluted with plenty of water, so unless someone was extremely lightweight, they wouldn't get drunk. At the very least, I could guarantee it wasn't nearly strong enough to get Gramps or Branca tipsy.
I took the drinks out of the Magic Bag, and sure enough, Gramps and Branca both dove in, practically racing each other to pour cups for themselves. Well, with all the food in front of them practically begging to be washed down with alcohol, I couldn't really blame them.
In the end, they ended up drinking my and Amur's portions too, and they only went for the most strongly flavored dishes.
"For tonight's watch shifts, how about Branca takes the first shift, I take the second, and Gramps and Amur handle the third?"
I figured the standard approach would be to put the most experienced person on the second shift since that one was the most demanding, but since Branca had spent the longest time driving during the day, I figured he'd sleep deepest and could take the first shift, while Gramps would pair with Amur — the least experienced of the group — on the third.
I explained my reasoning and got the other three to agree, so they each began getting ready for the night. Incidentally, I'd made a few folding screens specifically for this trip, which let us set up separate spaces for the men and women. They were nothing fancy, so you still had to be careful about a few things, but even so, the mental burden — mainly on me — was drastically reduced. After all, Amur had a habit of deliberately trying to change clothes in front of me or peeking at me while I was changing. When that happened, I'd usually retreat to the washroom, but without fail, one of them — Gramps or Branca — would be using the toilet at exactly those moments, leaving me no escape. She was a promising newcomer who, despite only making her debut that very day, had already racked up close to double digits' worth of "achievements."
"Well, I suppose it's time to turn in. What about you two?"
"I've got something I want to ask Branca, so I'll stay up a bit longer."
"Then I'll stay up too."
"No, you — get to sleep. You're already unfamiliar enough with camping; why go creating more reasons to worry?"
As Amur moved to sit back down, Branca barked at her and practically shooed her toward the carriage. Amur reluctantly obeyed, but on the way to the carriage she kept glancing back several times, clearly wishing someone would call her back, and each time Branca glared at her to keep her moving.
"So, Tenma — what is it you wanted to ask? I've more or less guessed it already."
It seemed that Branca had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to ask, which was why she deliberately chased Amur off with such harsh words.
"Well, Branca's guess is probably right on the mark. What I want to ask about is Amur's family. She keeps saying she's going to marry me, but things aren't that simple when you're the daughter of a viscount, right? For all I know, I could end up offending her father, Viscount Robo."
Honestly, as far as I'm personally concerned, I wouldn't care one bit if Viscount Robo — a man I've never even met — took a dislike to me. But since I'm going there as an envoy from the royal family, upsetting Viscount Robo could worsen relations between the crown and the viscount. If he were just an ordinary viscount, that wouldn't be a problem, but I've heard that Viscount Robo is something of a leader among the Southern Autonomous Region. In other words, he holds far too much power for a viscount.
"Well, to put it bluntly,"
"my brother-in-law"
"will probably be hostile toward Tenma. He dotes on Amur. In simple terms, he hasn't accepted that she's all grown up. So he's likely to come down hard on the Tenma that Amur has taken a fancy to. You'll just have to accept that. But I can say one thing for certain — the Southern Autonomous Region will never oppose the royal family."
I was surprised by how decisively Branca made that claim, but hearing her say outright that they would never be enemies put my mind at ease somewhat.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Simple — I won't let it happen. If it came to that, I'd stop him even if it meant crossing swords with my brother-in-law. Between my brother-in-law's selfishness and the lives of the people in the Southern Autonomous Region, it's not even a question of which carries more weight. Although, before that,"
"my sister-in-law"
"would probably step in and stop him herself. He's terrified of her, and besides, she's stronger than he is. On top of that, even though my brother-in-law inherited the viscount title, my sister-in-law is the one with the direct bloodline. He's basically just a son-in-law."
So even if Viscount Robo were to genuinely raise the banner of rebellion"
"against"
"the royal family, the people would side with his wife. In the first place, the chances of Viscount Robo going through with it knowing it would make Amur hate him are practically zero."
"As for my sister-in-law... you'd be better off thinking of her less as Amur's mother and more as her older sister. That's how alike they look."
That last piece of information was nothing but a source of anxiety for me, but apparently she does have a normal sense of common decency, so I didn't need to worry too much about that.
"Well, I'm glad Amur's mother at least has her head on straight. There's one more thing I wanted to ask, though — what kind of person is Amur's great-grandfather, Grandpa Kei?"
In my mind, the name "Keiji Tra the Giant" can only bring to mind that famous Sengoku-era eccentric from Japan. There's a chance he might just be a fan of that eccentric, but either way, the odds are pretty high that he's a fellow reincarnator like me.
I couldn't help but wonder how that predecessor of mine had lived his life. I doubt he went around openly declaring himself a reincarnator, but if there's anything he and I have in common, anything I could learn from, I wanted to know. By the way, Namiatarou — another predecessor who's also a reincarnator — is absolutely, positively not someone worth taking notes from, so I haven't counted him and have no intention of ever doing so.
"Well, to put it simply, he's the strongest man in the history of the Southern Autonomous Region. And this is just my personal opinion, but I believe he's also the strongest man in the history of beastmen. Even if there were two of me — no, three — I probably still couldn't beat him in his prime. That's the kind of man he is."
From Branca's expression, it was clear he wasn't exaggerating.
There are no absolutes in battle, and compatibility matters, so maybe it wasn't accurate to say he was three times stronger than me. Still, I could tell he was a man beyond any normal scale.
"By the way, let me ask…if I fought Keiji, who do you think would win?"
At my ridiculous question, Branca furrowed his brow and thought seriously,
"It depends on the situation, but in a one-on-one fight, if it's close combat, I'd say nine times out of ten Keiji wins. If it's at range, I'd give it seven to three in your favor, Tenma. But that's just based on my own imagination."
In other words, Branca's conclusion was that overall, Keiji was the stronger one of the two of us.
I didn't consider myself the strongest in history, but I found it a little hard to believe. Of course, I didn't think Branca was being biased—after all,
Branca
had thought it through carefully before giving his answer, so he couldn't be too far off. But still, the fact remained that I truly believed, in terms of talent alone, I was the strongest this world had ever seen. After all, this was talent I'd received directly from the gods of this world themselves—and they'd each stuffed multiple abilities into me on top of that.
So I shifted my perspective a bit. If my physical abilities in this world were slightly inferior to Keiji's, but my talent surpassed his, then in overall capability we should have been roughly even. Meaning the gap didn't come from this world at all—it came from my previous life.
So if Keiji really was who I suspected him to be, it made sense that a gap would exist. After all, even though I'd learned from various masters in my past life, that was during a peaceful era. Keiji, on the other hand—if he'd lived through the Sengoku period, that was an age where human life was cheap, just like this world, and if he'd thrown himself into battle of his own free will within that environment, it wouldn't be strange at all for something as intangible as experience to make the difference.
"Did that upset you?"
Seeing me lost in thought, Branca called out to me, but once I'd organized my thoughts, everything fell into place.
"No, if you say so, Branca, then it must be true. But here's the thing—if Keiji was at his peak when you compared us, while I'm still on my way up…that means there's still room for a reversal, right?"
Comparing yourself to someone from the past might be foolish, but even if it was just Branca's imagined scenario, I hated the idea of just accepting defeat.
"Guha-ha-ha! That's certainly true. I know what Keiji was like in his prime, but I have no idea what you'll be like in yours!"
Branca let out a hearty laugh at my words. His voice was so loud that Amur, bleary-eyed, leaned out the window of the carriage and hurled her spear right at him.
"Whew—that was close. She was half asleep, yet she aimed straight for the center of my brow. Maybe she actually has better accuracy when she's drowsy."
Despite his words, Branca caught Amur's spear with ease, looking perfectly relaxed as he planted it into the ground nearby.
"Looks like it's almost time to switch? Alright then, Tenma—I'll leave the rest to you."
After the spear incident with Amur, I'd stayed up talking with Branca, and before I knew it, my watch shift had arrived. Well, my shift was only about three hours at most, so staying awake the whole time wasn't really a problem. If anything, it was better than trying to keep watch after dozing off partway through.
"But sitting around this whole time has made my body a little stiff. Maybe I should do some light exercise."
I didn't want to make too much noise or get too into it, so I killed time by doing radio calisthenics and walking in circles around the carriage.
Then, as I was going through my who-knows-how-many-th round of calisthenics, it seemed like the time for the watch rotation was approaching, because the old man and Amur woke up.
"What are you doing there, Tenma?"
The old man didn't know what radio calisthenics were, so he probably thought I was up to something strange again. But he quickly figured out it was just some loosening-up movements, and after asking me how to do them, he started along with me.
"Huh? Why is my spear over here?"
Right as the old man finished his calisthenics, Amur—who had still been half-asleep—seemed to fully regain consciousness, noticed the spear Branca had planted in the ground, and looked at it with a puzzled expression.