I'll be posting continuously today.
Today's wake-up felt refreshingly good. Maybe it was because I'd gone to sleep a little early, but my body felt like it was in great shape. I got ready right away and packed the small amount of luggage I had into my bag.
I headed down the stairs to the garden and let Shiromaru and the others outside. I gave them their usual meal and washed my face with well water. After that, I headed to the dining hall, where it was bustling with other guests.
"Good morning, Landlady. What's for breakfast today?"
"Good morning, Tenma! Today you can choose between bread or rice porridge. Which one would you like?"
she asked. Around this area, rice (well, long-grain rice) was grown locally, so it was readily available, which I was happy about.
"Porridge, please."
"You got it! The side dish is dried fish. Just give me a moment."
The landlady headed off to the kitchen. In the meantime, I pulled out a batch of homemade umeboshi substitutes from my Magic Bag. I had found a plant that strongly resembled plum trees before coming to this town, and I'd made these from its fruit. The plant was called "Komai," and just like plums, its fruit was poisonous while still green.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Oh, you're eating this again, aren't you — 'salted Komai.' You always have it with porridge~"
she said, setting the porridge down in front of me.
"Yes, I like it, and it's good for you too."
I replied, though she'd always told me she couldn't stand the stuff. These umeboshi substitutes weren't popular around here at all.
"Oh, that reminds me — Tenma, you're heading out of town for a job starting today, right? For a few days?"
"That's right. I'm going to handle the Dashboar extermination request."
"Do your best! But don't push yourself too hard and get hurt!"
She gave me those words of encouragement. I'd been on hunts many times before, but this would be my first one as a professional. I just had to make sure I didn't suffer any stupid injuries.
I left Manpukutei and headed for the gate. Along the way, there were stalls set up, so I bought a few light meals and snacks and stashed them in my Magic Bag. When I glanced over, I noticed Shiromaru drooling beside me. It seemed the smell of skewered meat drifting from up ahead had caught his attention.
Shiromaru stared at me with those big, round eyes of his. He'd be perfect if only he weren't drooling…
With no other choice, we each bought three skewers and ate them right there. I handed one to Slarin and held a skewer in each hand. I bit straight into one and chewed away, while I held the other one up and gave it a few shakes to let it cool down. Slarin extended a tentacle from its body, grabbed a skewer, and slowly pushed bits of meat into its body to digest them — always a fascinating way to eat.
Meanwhile, Shiromaru was tracking the swaying meat with his eyes, his head bobbing up and down.
"Mm, it's a little tough, but it's got a good chew to it. Pretty tasty."
Shiromaru bobbed his head up and down as he waited for the meat to cool.
"Chomp, chomp."
Shiromaru's eyes glistened as he bobbed his head and waited.
"Chomp, chomp, gulp. Ahhh."
"Mewww~"
When I opened my mouth to take another bite, Shiromaru let out a sad little cry. Sorry, forgive me, Shiromaru — I did that on purpose.
Shiromaru's reactions were just too amusing, and I couldn't help messing with him. I silently apologized to Shiromaru and held out the skewer.
Shiromaru took the skewer with a look of pure joy, and
straight
down,
all
of it.
I gently pulled the skewer out, and all the meat remained inside his mouth. Shiromaru chewed a few times and swallowed it whole. Then, he started begging for "another one."
As an apology, I bought several more skewers and split them between Shiromaru and Slarin. As usual, Shiromaru chewed a few times and swallowed.
Almost at the same moment Tenma reached the gate, Lily and the others appeared. When I waved and called out to them, the three of them came running over like puppies — even though they were cats.
"Good morning, Tenma. Did we make you wait?"
"Sorry, Tenma~"
"Sorry I overslept a little."
"Good morning, Lily, Nelly, Milly. I just got here myself, so the timing's perfect."
I greeted the three of them.
"Thank goodness~! Actually, last night the other two got way too excited and we ended up going to bed late!"
All three of them chirped the same excuse in perfect unison.
"It was Nelly and Milly who were excited!"
"No way, it was Lily and Milly!"
"Huh? It was Lily and Nelly!"
Each of them insisted the other two were the ones who'd been causing trouble. I let out a sigh and said,
"All three of you were excited, and that's why all three of you overslept, right?"
"S-sorry..."
Once I pointed it out, all three of them apologized right away.
"Anyway, now that we're all here, let's get going."
"Right. If we leave now, we should reach the village before evening."
"That works. We need to get there as soon as possible and gather information too!"
"Let's go~! Hurry up, hurry up!"
We headed over to the gate guard and exchanged greetings. After a brief chat with the guard, the cat girls started down the road toward the village—
"Ah, hold on a second. I'm about to bring out something good."
With that, I reached into my Magic Bag and pulled out a large box-shaped object, setting it down at the side of the road.
"A carriage?"
"What about the horse, Tenma?"
"Is Shiromaru going to pull it?"
All three of them had question marks floating above their heads. A surprised aura emanated from the Dimension Bag.
"No, I'm having this thing pull it."
With that, I pulled out a large, black metallic mass from the bag in one smooth motion. I placed my hand on the mass, channeled my Magic Power, and spoke a single command...
"Wake up."
At my words, lines of deep red light raced across the surface of the mass. Then, the object that had been a shapeless block rose up on four legs.
It stood about two meters tall and three meters long — shaped like a horse.
"Whoa! That scared me!"
"You're going to have that pull the carriage?"
"It's huge!"
"Hold on, the finishing touch isn't done yet. Slarin, go!"
At my command, Slarin scrambled up onto the horse's back. It opened a hatch near the neck and slipped inside. Once Slarin closed the hatch, two vivid red lights blazed to life in the horse's eyes.
The moment its eyes lit up, the horse began walking just like a real one. I hitched the horse to the carriage.
The three girls were amazed by the horse, and even more astonished that Slarin had disappeared inside it. But after that—
"Whoa, it moved!"
"That's amazing, it looks just like a real horse!"
"Hey, Tenma, what happened to Slarin?"
They got incredibly excited. As the saying goes, three women together make quite the commotion.
"This is a pseudo-life horse-type Golem named Tanikaze! Slarin provides magical control support from inside, which allows it to activate!"
And that's how I explained it. Tanikaze uses a magic core, so you could call it an artificial Monster. My goal is to eventually have it operate independently, without Slarin.
The magic core used was from the Dragon Zombie we'd defeated before — the one Slarin had cleverly salvaged.
Being originally from an ancient dragon, the core was roughly one meter in diameter, but unfortunately it was riddled with countless cracks. It had split into two pieces about one-third the original size, one slightly smaller piece, and several dozen smaller fragments.
Tanikaze's core was completed using the third-largest piece and about one-third of the smaller fragments. The outer shell makes extensive use of "Magic Iron," a high-purity steel infused with Magic Power.
Incidentally, the outer shell is replaceable, and I'm thinking about eventually making one out of fantasy materials like Mithril or Orichalcum.
"If Slarin's inside it, what should we call it?"
"Tanilin? Or Slakaze?"
"Which one?"
"Tanikaze. The pseudo-life form's core is called Tanikaze, and the body is also Tanikaze's. Slarin is just helping with the Magic Power circulation inside Tanikaze's body."
At Tenma's explanation, the three tilted their heads in confusion, but before long they seemed to stop overthinking it and just accepted that Tanikaze was simply the way it was.
"So we're heading to the village with this carriage?"
"Looks like it'll be way ahead of schedule."
"Lucky us!"
With that, the three climbed into the carriage. I got into the driver's seat, gave Tanikaze its instructions, and set the carriage in motion.
The journey to the village passed without incident. The three had initially been amazed by the smooth ride thanks to the suspension system installed on the carriage and the front wheels that moved in sync with the horse's movements, but after eating lunch they seemed worn out from all the excitement and dozed off.
"Hey, you three! The village is coming into view! Time to wake up!"
I called out toward the back, and perhaps in response to my voice, I could hear rustling sounds. Then, just before reaching the village—
"Ophaiyō~!"
All three yawned as they called out in unison.
It was probably close to three o'clock by now. It had taken a little over three hours since we departed, so despite taking it fairly easy, the timing worked out nicely. I brought Tanikaze to a stop at the entrance to the village, and the three of us climbed down together.
"Let's go see the village chief who posted the request."
With that, I tossed a dampened towel toward the three of them.
"Wipe your faces with that first."
Saying that, I stored Tanikaze and the carriage in the Magic Bag. Slarin had climbed out the moment I dismounted and slipped back into the Dimension Bag. As for Shiromaru, I'd told him not to leave the bag so the Dashboar wouldn't be alerted, and he appeared to be sleeping inside.
Upon entering the village, I asked the first villager we came across for the village chief's house, then headed that way. Apparently it was about a five-minute walk from there.
After thanking the villager, I walked on and spotted a house grander than the surrounding ones.
"This looks like the place. This house is built differently from the rest. Must be because he's the chief?"
"Could be. But this is kind of a weird village, isn't it? The atmosphere is gloomy... or eerie, maybe."
"Yeah~ I totally get that!"
"That person earlier was sizing us up too, wasn't he?"
Nelly and Millie both agreed with what Lily had said in response to me.
"Anyway, let's go talk to the chief."
With that, I knocked on the door of the house.
"Yes, yes, who might it be?"
Opening the door as he spoke, a stout man appeared.
"We're from the Adventurers' Guild in Gunjou City. We've come in response to the request. Are you the village chief?"
I answered on behalf of all four of us. The man looked at me and the three behind me,
"Is that so? Thank you for your hard work. Please, come inside. I'll explain everything in detail."
He ushered us in. We were led to the living room and offered chairs. Once we sat down, a woman with a scarf around her neck brought tea and set it in front of us. After watching the woman leave the room, the man spoke.
"Thank you for accepting the request. My name is Banza, and I serve as this village's chief. Although, to be fair, there are only about a hundred people in this village."
The village chief who introduced himself as Banza began explaining the details of the request. In summary,
for the past week, groups of five to six Dash Boars had been appearing at night to eat the crops before harvest. They had tried to drive them off with the village men but couldn't manage it, so they put out the request.
That was the story. The damaged fields were apparently a short walk from the village. We decided to have the chief guide us there.
The moment we stepped outside, I could feel eyes on us from behind buildings and from inside houses. At first I thought it was just because adventurers were a rarity here, but I quickly realized the gazes were full of malice. Especially the three behind me — they drew most of the stares.
Just to be safe, I used Search and discovered that nearly half the village was hidden nearby.
The three of them could feel the stares and were clearly uneasy, though it seemed they couldn't pick up on the malice behind them.
Within ten minutes of leaving the village, we arrived at the fields.
"This is the field that was damaged. There are still unharvested vegetables remaining, so I'm thinking they might show up again around today."
"We'll take a look around."
"I'd appreciate that. I still have things to do, so I'd like to head back home — if that's all right?"
"Yes, that's fine. We'll go ahead and keep watch here, spend the night, and come report to your place once morning comes."
"Understood. I'm counting on you."
As Banza walked back toward the village, I appraised him and nodded inwardly at the results.
"Hey Tenma, wouldn't it have been better to go back to the village and prepare first?"
In response to Lily's question, I glanced across the fields and said,
"Something about this request feels really off. It's better for us to stay here than to go back to the village."
The three of them were startled and started to raise their voices, but I gestured for them to keep quiet.
"What do you mean, Tenma?"
"You say it's suspicious, but do you have any proof?"
"It is a strange village, but it's wrong to suspect people without any real reason, Tenma."
The three of them lowered their voices as they listened. In response, I told them what had been bothering me since earlier.
That even though we had only seen three people in the village, the moment we left Banza's house, I felt multiple gazes fixed on us — and those gazes carried malice.
That despite the Dash Boars having been appearing for over a week, the damage to the fields was minimal.
Then I pointed to the boar footprints nearby,
"If you look closely at these footprints, they're all the same size, and
they're the same depth too.
"
"Oh, you're right."
"But couldn't it just be that the footprints around here were all made by the same boar?"
"Yeah, you're overthinking it, Tenma."
The three of them said this, but I pointed to two footprints nearby,
"Even so, these two footprints being the same depth is way too strange."
I said, pointing to
the ridges
and the footprints on top of them. The three stared at the footprints in puzzlement, when suddenly Lily gasped.
"This really is strange. It shouldn't turn out like this normally."
However, Nelly and Milly still didn't seem to understand, so I explained.
"Ridges are mounds of raised soil made for planting crops. Compared to normal ground,
they're softer.
That's why footprints should sink deeper here than on flat ground — so deep they'd be completely buried."
Yet these footprints were no deeper than those elsewhere. When I looked around, I found plenty more just like them scattered about.
Nelly and Millie couldn't deny that either, scratching their heads in puzzlement.
When I searched the surroundings, I found five people lurking in spots we couldn't see from here — they must have been lookouts, apparently switching places from time to time.
And then there was the clincher: the Status from when I had Appraised Banzai earlier.
Name... Banzai
Age... 46
Race... Human
Title... Bandit Chief
HP... 8000
MP... 1100
Strength... B-
Defense... C+
Speed... C-
Magic Power... D-
Spirit... D
Growth Rate... D-
Luck... C
Skills... Axe Arts 6, Hand-to-Hand 6, Night Vision 6, Sword Arts 5, Traps 5, Throwing Arts 4, Abnormal Status Resistance 4, Concealment 3, Sense Boost 2
That was it. His Title was Bandit Chief. Completely guilty. But I couldn't very well tell the other three about the Appraisal itself, so I decided to convince them using a few things I had noticed along with what I'd found in this field.
Incidentally, the reason I had noticed the footprints in this field right away was that I'd been on guard against this village's atmosphere and its hostile gazes, so I'd been scrutinizing everything with suspicion.
"Then should we just run away now?"
"That might be a good idea."
"We should go back to the Guild and tell them the reason, right, Tenma?"
They were saying all this, but—
"I'm against it."
I flatly refused.
"Why, Tenma!"
"Why, Tenma!"
"It's dangerous here, Tenma!"
To the three of them who kept pressing me, I spoke quietly, as if trying to reason with them.
"Listen. Even if we go back to the Guild and file a complaint, we don't have any proof. Take these footprints, for example—they could get erased, and that would be the end of it. Even if they weren't erased, footprints alone would probably be dismissed as a prank. At worst, we'd end up branded as cowards who tried to cover up a failed request."
"Then what should we do?"
My words turned the three of them pale.
"So what should we do?"
Speaking on behalf of the group, Lily asked.
"It's simple. We just turn the tables on them."
I said it with absolute conviction. The three of them stared at me with wide eyes, but I continued and laid out the plan.
"First, we'll make it look like we're standing watch as usual, as if we suspect nothing... To split them up, we should probably set up two lookout points. But the ones actually standing guard will be Golems disguised as us. Meanwhile, we'll be waiting inside a carriage with a barrier set up. I'll order the Golems to fall over if they receive anything that looks like an attack. Once they go down, someone will probably go to check on them—and we'll use that as our signal to move in and neutralize the enemy."
"Move in? What exactly does that mean?"
"There's like a hundred of them, you know?"
"There's way more of them, you know?"
"That's fine. I'll have the mimicry Golems neutralize any enemies that approach without killing them, so the three of you, split into groups of three, go secure them one location at a time. At the same time, I'll deploy medium-sized Golems as guards — five per person. I'll also send Shiromaru to take down anyone trying to flee or hide, and I'll personally go capture Banza. The small fry can be left to escape — just prioritize protecting yourselves. Now let's get started."
He issued his instructions to the three of them.