by CHIROLU
A forest is an environment that offers a quite a lot of cover, so of course not all the arrows hit their mark. However, Dale was able to use his bow with his left arm alone, yet another advantage of it being a magical device. He held his longsword with his open, dominant hand, meaning he could also easily handle close-range combat at the same time.
That wasn’t all. Today, Dale had the support of Latina’s magic as well. She may not have been accustomed to using it in combat, but her control was good enough to impress even him.
Before they’d left on the trip, Dale had Latina learn defensive-wall magic to protect herself. Thanks to her quick thinking, she was able to use it to actively support Dale.
When they ended up in a skirmish with frog-like magical beasts, she was able to put that to great use. These were the same creatures Dale had once accepted a request to exterminate, which had led to him meeting Latina. When he saw the beasts clustered together and blocking their path, a look of disgust crossed his face. He remembered the horrible smell from their bodily fluids and the mucus they spat out. It hadn’t been all that difficult to wipe them out before, but even so, Dale was left wondering how to deal with them.
“What’s wrong, Dale?”
“Hmm... Well, I don’t really want to fight them up close...” Yet there were too many of them; it would be inefficient to try to take them out with his bow. Furthermore, their slimy skin made the mana arrows even less effective.
“Latina wishes she could use attack magic.”
“No, you should be thinking of protecting yourself, first and foremost.”
Latina was still just a child, so it’d be for the best if she didn’t have to learn how to take a life. Dale also didn’t want her to have to carry the weight such an action brought with it. That remained true even if they were just talking about animals and magical beasts. As her father, that’s what Dale thought. That was why he’d only taught her the one attack spell from that incident. In essence, it was a Dark magic meant for applying pressure to an enemy at close range.
Seeing the menacing magical beasts spread out in their path, Latina looked up at Dale and tilted her head.
“Why is up close bad?”
“Their bodily fluids and stuff stink terribly.”
“Is that so?” Latina tilted her head again at Dale’s response. “If that’s all, then Latina thinks she can manage.”
“Huh?”
As Dale stood confused, Latina pointed her rod at him.
“Oh light that rains down from the heavens, grant this request by my name, become a shield to ward away all misfortune and protect this body. 〈〈Magical wall〉〉”
The gentle light emanating from Latina’s rod enveloped the whole of Dale’s body.
“Now the shield is surrounding all of Dale’s body. It won’t last for too long, but it should be enough for now.”
She made it sound easy, but this spell was meant to create a simple magic shield. It most definitely wasn’t meant to make an “armor” like this. But thanks to Latina’s excellent control, she was able to spread the magic’s range of effect over Dale’s entire body.
She did it like it was nothing special, but magic users the world over would probably weep if you called this “normal”...
As Dale brought his sword down over and over, the number of frogs steadily decreased. The beasts opened their mouths wide and spat out their mucus as a group, but it was stopped by an invisible wall and simply fell to the ground. This only obstructed Dale’s vision for a moment, and it didn’t hinder his assault in the least. The wall of mana seemed to help reduce the smell as well. Looking back, however, Dale found that Latina was standing a fair distance farther back than she had been at the start of the battle. The stench had apparently reached her, and it must have been worse than Dale thought.
If I end up stinking, will Latina not want to be near me...?
That thought proved to be a powerful mental blow.
He had to avoid that at all costs.
Dale skillfully finished off the magical beasts like he was taking care of a simple chore. It wasn’t long at all until he trampled down the final creature, slicing his blade through it.
When Latina’s surrounded by that light when she’s casting magic, her cuteness is practically divine.
His doting, slack-jawed expression as he brought down his sword was ridiculous enough that he was glad Latina was so far away right now. Even Dale’s calmness and composure had a limit.
When they reached their destination, it was silent and tranquil. The white megalith had been exposed to the wind and rain, and now it seemed to stand out even more than it had before.
Latina approached it and slid her tiny hand along the stone. The mature expression she occasionally showed appeared on her face. It was almost as if she was holding back her tears and swallowing down her sadness. It was an expression that told of her past, which was filled with more than what a young child should have to bear.
Latina brought her forehead to the stone.
“**, ***, ****, *****, *****”
The words slipping out of her mouth were too complex for Dale to follow.
“***, ************. **, ********, ******”
Latina continued on, not stopping even for a second. She remained in that position and continued to talk to the man who was now in the grasp of his eternal slumber.
“Latina is sorry she took so long, Dale,” Latina said after a while, looking up at him as she apologized.
Dale had been keeping watch over the area while Latina visited the grave. He smiled in response and gently pat her on the head.
“You had a ton you wanted to tell him, right? A lot has happened, after all.”
“Yeah, a whole lot...”
Latina looked like she was about to tear up, but Dale smiled at her and pat her on the head once more.
“Latina told him a lot. That she’s happy, and that she’s alright now.”
Dale thought that someday, he’d like to hear her talk about her birth father. If the day came when she was able to speak about such things calmly, would she tell him? He wondered about that.
Latina slid her hand along the stone again, seeming reluctant to leave. But then, she waved her hand as if to say goodbye. With that as a signal, the two turned around and started walking out of the forest.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t heard Latina mention her mother even once...
When they exited the forest, Dale had Latina ride on the horse.
As part of the tenacious devil race, she still had stamina left to spare in spite of what her delicate appearance may have suggested. But even so, Dale didn’t want to push her on the first day.
“It’s so high!” said Latina. Her voice didn’t have a hint of fear in it, only abundantly apparent glee.
“I guess we’ll be camping tonight... Tomorrow we’ll arrive at a post town, so we’ll stay there then.”
If Dale were alone, then he may have pushed himself to keep moving forward, but this time around, he’d made the itinerary with some leeway to it. He had no intention of moving with Latina at night, when it was more dangerous, but he also didn’t plan to stick to camping day in and day out.
“Latina is fine with sleeping outside. And since Dale is with her, she feels safe,” Latina said with a smile, once more causing a goofy expression to appear on Dale’s face.
In a way, these two were strongly attached to one another.
Latina seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.
“♪Hmm, hmm, hmm♪” Latina hummed from atop the horse. As she swayed a bit along with the rhythm, it made for a truly cute sight. As always, though, she remained somewhat out of tune. It wasn’t bad enough to be called full-on dissonance, but Dale couldn’t help but admire the way that it made him feel strangely relaxed. As the sound of the horse’s hooves clip-clopping over and over again echoed through the tranquil scenery, Latina’s humming continued on for a while longer.
I feel like I’ve heard that song somewh
ere before, but it’s so off that I just can’t place it...
The answer to the musical quiz in Dale’s mind remained a mystery.
They’d taken quite a detour, but as they returned to the highway, they started seeing more and more travelers. As the highway connected the port to the capital, most of them were merchants. Only a few of them carried their hefty luggage on their backs; the majority loaded up their wares into carriages instead.
“Woooooow!” Latina said in admiration as they passed by a caravan of merchants. She’d seen merchants and their caravans in Kreuz before, but it was far more impressive seeing them in motion like this. There were armed people both on foot and horseback accompanying the countless large carriages, stationed all around them. With her mouth hanging wide open, Latina’s gaze was filled with the caravan as far as her eyes could see, stretching out to the ends of the highway.
“There are a lot of adventurers, too.”
“Guarding caravans like that is a pretty usual sort of job.”
Whenever Latina noticed anything at all about the carriages, she’d point at it and report it to Dale. She seemed to be completely enraptured by the group. As Dale slowed down his steps, he answered her questions. Apparently, all of this was novel to the young girl. From atop the horse her gaze darted about, sometimes to such a degree that she turned around completely.
Looking at her now, it may be good to let her ride on the horse even before she gets tired...
Latina may have been a sharp young girl, but there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t grow dizzy. That was especially true now, when her attention was being drawn all over the place.
“Dale, it’s a big river!” Latina reported loudly as she pointed. Although the horse she rode was small, Latina’s vantage point was still higher than normal when she was atop it, and she seemed to enjoy being able to see farther because of it. As she saw the sparkling surface of the water, the joy in her voice was palpable.
“Right. The river north of Kreuz continues all the way up here.”
“How are we going to cross it?”
“There’s a big bridge, so we’re going to have to pay a toll to go across. It’s not small enough to walk across, and it’s quicker to use the bridge than to look for a boat to take us to the other side.”
“What’s a ‘bridge’?”
Every now and again, Latina wouldn’t know something that Dale found perfectly obvious.
“It’ll be quicker to see it than for me to explain. It’ll come into view soon.”
There were also rivers near Kreuz, and they were always filled with ships carrying cargo.
Here, there were many boats moored at the riverbank, and numerous people were working there. As this place was near both the highway and Kreuz, they were loading and unloading cargo.
It’s to be expected that wherever people gather, merchants will gather as well, aiming to sell them things, and there were numerous stalls set up here, which made it almost look like a small town. There was even lodging set up for laborers, but there were no full-fledged inns. Rather than stopping here, travelers who had come this far would likely continue farther on and all the way to Kreuz, so there simply wasn’t a demand for actual inns.
The bridge spanning this large river filled with coming and going boats was made of stone and had tall arches so as not to obstruct ship traffic. It was excellently designed, combining beautiful curves with firm construction and making for a splendid piece of architecture.
“It’s big...”
“This is a bridge. It’s made so you can cross over the river.”
“It’s amazing!”
Latina was clearly excited. Apparently, this really was her first time seeing a bridge.
Then Latina really did come from the other side of that forest... She crossed the mountain range to get here, huh? If she’d come towards Kreuz from the ocean, then she would have seen the bridge plenty.
Even while he was being charmed by Latina’s cute reaction, Dale was able to calmly think through this much.
Farther past the forest, there was a rugged mountain range. On paper, the land past that point was part of Laband, but there weren’t any towns out there. After all, such a mountainous region made for harsh and inconvenient land, and there were even more magical beasts living there than there were in Kruez’s forest. Adventurers would head up into those lands to search for rare materials or to build up experience, but Dale had never heard of anyone building a settlement there. However, if you kept going past the mountains, you’d come up against the border for the greatest stronghold for the devil race, the country ruled by the First Demon Lord. It wasn’t like it would have been impossible for Latina to have come that way.
“Dale, Latina wants to walk on her own. Is that alright?” Latina asked as they were lined up to pay their toll to the bridge-keeper. Dale lifted her down off the horse, and she started practically prancing along. No matter how you looked at it, she was clearly in high spirits.
“Here you go!” said Latina, handing over the coin that Dale had given her. The girl may have been mature for her age, but she looked rather childish just then. As they passed by after being inspected, they stepped onto the bridge, which felt even more massive than it did when seen from far away.
“Woooow!” shouted Latina cheerfully as she spun about, looking over her surroundings from on top of the bridge.
“Hey, Latina, if you stop suddenly like that, then it’ll be a problem for the people behind us.”
“Ah, Latina’s sorry,” the young girl earnestly apologized, faced forward, and started walking. But even so, her cheerful prancing didn’t lessen at all. Dale took Latina’s hand with a smile, led her to the edge of the bridge, and looked down.
“Wow! It’s really, really amazing!” Latina shouted joyfully once again as she looked down at the flowing river far below. Her voice only grew more excited as a ship passed right beneath her. As Latina happily observed the people onboard the cargo-laden ship, Dale looked quite satisfied as well.
Continuing on like that, they crossed over the bridge and headed north along the highway. Around when the sun started setting, Dale stepped off the road a bit and into the shadows of the dense forest, where he surveyed the surrounding area.
“Dale?”
“We’ll camp around here tonight.”
“Already? But it’s still light out,” Latina asked. She looked confused, but Dale answered back with a smile.
“If we waited until it was dark, then we couldn’t get everything prepared, right? But in exchange, we’ll get up early tomorrow.”
From what Dale could tell, there weren’t large magical beasts or anything of the sort about. When he’d checked the ground and the area around them, though, he had found animal tracks and droppings. The forest was only so dense, so he figured that at the most there were just little animals and the small carnivores that preyed on them.
Dale tied the horse’s reins to a nearby tree, took the luggage off of it, and let it rest. It started grazing on the nearby grass. Dale would need to remember to prepare plenty of drinking water with his magic.
“I’m going to gather up some firewood. You wait here, Latina. And definitely don’t go wandering off on your own, alright?”
“Right!” responded Latina seriously with a nod.
“If anything happens, call for me right away. I’m not going to go that far.”
“Got it. Latina will be fine.”
After seeing off a concerned-looking Dale, Latina started rummaging about the luggage. She brought out a small, sturdy pot she’d gotten from Kenneth.
“Latina should use the things that’ll spoil easily. The dried meats and vegetables will be fine, so those can be saved for later.”
While mumbling the notes she’d been given, she found the bag containing what she was looking for. When Kenneth was preparing the food, she’d been by his side, listening to everything. She knew exactly where everything was. With a serious look on her face, she checked things over and pu
lled out what she needed.
“Latina shouldn’t waste anything. She must only use what she needs,” said Latina, repeating what Kenneth had taught her.
During this journey, Latina was trying to make one of her dreams come true. To that end, she’d done a great deal of preparing and practicing.
“Latina hopes she can make Dale say it’s tasty,” Latina said, enthusiastically pulling out her knife.
When Dale returned with firewood, Latina had created a stone oven, set up the pot above it, and was now chopping up potatoes and placing them in the pot. Seeing Dale in shock, as he didn’t remember teaching her any of this, Latina called out, “Dale, is this alright? Kenneth taught Latina how. He said to place the pot on top of stones like this when they’re around. Does it look okay?”
“Yeah. You even made sure to make a vent. Kenneth taught you, huh...?”
“Yeah! Latina practiced. Um, Latina will make dinner, okay?!” Latina declared.
One of her dreams was to make a meal for Dale. One of her modest (yet still important) goals for this trip was to show off the results of her practice and make that dream come true.
Latina resumed her cooking. She was a little nervous, but as she’d repeated these actions countless times, meaning they remained in her muscle memory, there was no danger in her handling of the knife. She’d explicitly practiced chopping up potatoes and dumping them directly into a pot precisely for the purpose of cooking outdoors. Normally when she cooked at the Dancing Ocelot, she used a cutting board. But when preparing food on a journey, it was important to use the minimum of tools necessary and to limit the amount of washing needed. Her master, Kenneth, had taught her that as well. During the breaks in his work, he’d taught Latina recipes and cooking tips for her journey, along with things like how to prepare an oven with stones. While Dale was away at the capital, the back yard of the Ocelot had become filled with stone ovens of all sizes. Thanks to that practice, Latina was able to carry out her work swiftly.
Once she finished cutting the potatoes, Latina pulled a magical device out of her rucksack and filled the pot with water. Taking the firewood from Dale, she placed it inside her stone oven. She’d already prepared a heaping pile of dead grass inside. Using the other magical device, she ignited this kindling. She’d constructed it well, so the fire spread to the firewood without an issue.