by Hiro Ainana
“Seconds, please, sir!”
The young bandits jolted with nearly audible tension at the word.
As the one eating closest to the pot, Nana nodded expressionlessly and doled out more food to her.
Having already finished their food, a few of the young boys gnawed on their spoons a little as they enviously watched Pochi receive seconds.
“No need to be modest, you lot. If you want more, then go and get some,” Arisa said to them, noticing the situation.
As soon as they heard her, the children who’d already finished their food rushed up to Nana.
The other young boys and girls who hadn’t finished yet started wolfing down their food. A few of them started choking in their haste, and the older folks chided them to “chew yer food up right.”
“No need to rush if you want seconds. There’s plenty more,” I said, excusing myself.
We might run out of what we’d made at this rate, so I headed to the kitchen area by the carriage to make more food.
Lulu and Liza rushed over to help, and I used the Garage Bag to take some hydra meat out of Storage, cutting it into bite-size pieces and putting them on skewers.
At this point, it would probably be best to make two per person.
“D’ya need any help, then?”
“U-um, excuse me, but if we can help at all…”
“We’ll help!”
An elderly lady, the girl Totona, and a younger girl who seemed to be her sister came over to help out.
Thanks to the three extra pairs of hands, preparing the meat skewers for cooking took less time than I’d expected.
Figuring we might as well serve them freshly cooked, I returned to the bonfire with a tray of meat skewers on wire mesh.
“Yaaay!”
“Meat skewers, sir!”
Smelling the meat skewers as they started to cook, Tama and Pochi waved their arms overhead with joy.
The children who were eating their second helpings nearly dropped their spoons as they stared at the meat skewers Lulu was cooking.
Mia, always a light eater, moved to an area where the smoke from the meat wouldn’t bother her and started playing the lute.
Her joyful songs matched the atmosphere.
The shouts of delight from the children as they feasted on the skewers mingled with the music of the lute underneath the starry sky.
The children grew drowsy after they’d eaten their fill, so they began filing into a large ditch next to the bonfire.
I wondered how deep it was and peered into the hole. It was only about six feet, enough for the nine children to be concealed as they huddled together inside.
To ward off the wind, they put a mat woven from grass or something similar over the hole. The old folks had a sleeping pit of their own.
This looked terribly cold, so I offered them some brown wolf and bear furs that I’d been stockpiling in Storage.
We shared a meal together as friends. It should be all right for me to meddle just a little.
“Hey, Mister Merchant.”
“What is it?”
One of the boys approached me, the one who’d tried to protect Totona with a club. According to the AR display, he was her younger brother.
“This is for the food. And to make up for attacking you earlier today.”
The boy held out a smooth, wood-carved object. It looked like three two-inch wooden cubes, each connected to the other two.
When I accepted it from the boy’s hands, it was heavier than I’d expected.
According to my AR display, it wasn’t wood at all but a metal called Damascus steel. Upon closer inspection, there were several reddish streaks that might’ve been joining points.
With the help of my now neglected “Analyze” skill, I learned that it was an all-purpose Magic Key Apparatus, but I had no idea what kind of lock it might be for.
“Did you make this yourself?”
I didn’t think he had, but I figured it was a good prompt to find out where it came from.
“No, I found it on the mountain.”
“What’s that, sonny? I toldja never to go up there!”
One of the old men jabbed a finger at the mountain and scolded the boy in a spray of spittle.
Wondering if there was a dangerous creature up there, I checked the map.
There hadn’t been anything there during the day, but now the ruined fortress was full of thirty or more monsters like skeleton soldiers and a wraith.
The skeleton soldiers were around level 10, but the wraith was level 25.
In particular, the latter had the hereditary skills “Paralysis,” “Fear,” “Kin Control,” and “Life Drain.” It was even able to use Ice Magic.
Even if these things appeared only at night, it was alarming to think such dangerous monsters were so near these elderly folks and small children. There were also wild boars roaming the mountain, one of which was level 15.
“Is there something living on that mountain?”
This time I spoke to the old man who’d scolded the boy.
“The vengeful ghosts of nobles appear there at night. And during the day, a huge boar we call One-Eye wanders around there.”
“A large boar might be a good source of food, though.”
“Sure, if we could kill it. Three former soldiers once went into the woods to hunt ol’ One-Eye, and only one came back alive.”
The old man heaved a sigh.
So they regarded this boar as the master of the mountain, then.
We were getting low on boar meat anyway, so I decided we could pay a visit to the ruined fortress to help level up my kids.
The next day, we rode the four horses up the path leading to the fort ruins. We left the carriage down at the foot of the mountain.
Today’s missions were wild-boar hunting and exterminating the monsters at the fort.
My plan was that I would defeat the dangerous-looking wraiths with my magic or a Holy Sword, and the other small-fry monsters would serve as EXP for my kids.
Incidentally, the pairs on each horse were Nana and Pochi, Liza and Arisa, Mia and Lulu, and Pochi and me.
“Rest in peeeace?”
Sitting in front of me, Tama pointed toward a cliffside near the mountain road.
“What is it?”
“There’s booones.”
I followed Tama’s finger to something like an old rag caught in the rocks partway up the cliff, and sure enough, I could see flashes of white.
Nearby, I also caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a knife handle. As I squinted at it, an AR display popped up that read mithril dagger.
Ooh! I wasn’t expecting to find that classic fantasy metal in a place like this.
“Tama, take the reins for a minute.”
“Aye!”
I left Tama in charge of the horse, told the others I was going to recover the deceased person’s belongings, and headed down the steep slope.
Once I reached the outcropping, I stored the bleached skeletal remains and items trapped in the rocks. Thank goodness I didn’t have to touch things to put them in Storage.
Inside the satchel I’d found, there was a sturdy case with a number of books inside and a lever-like object made of the same material as the device the young boy had given me yesterday.
The books had some disturbing titles. There were two larger volumes, Magic Cannon: Noble Blood Maintenance Guide and Magic Cannon: Noble Blood Operation Guide, and three smaller ones that seemed to be ciphers of some kind.
These had to be connected to the Magic Cannon that the old folks’ leader had been talking about last night.
The lever I’d found was apparently a Magic Cannon Control Stick, so the Magic Key Apparatus the boy had given me yesterday must have belonged to this person, too—perhaps a member of the aristocracy connected to Marquis Muno.
These seemed like important, top-secret materials, but since the Undead King Zen had destroyed the Magic Cannon some twenty years ago, they were probably nothing more than
collector’s items now.
It was still morning when we arrived at the ruins on the summit. The trip up had taken about two hours.
This former stronghold was larger than the fort at the border had been; it had probably fit two or three hundred people while it was still standing.
The steel portcullis had fallen, blocking the entrance.
Even with the combined strength of all four members of our advanced guard, it wouldn’t open.
Well, it was the main gate of a fortress, after all.
While everyone was focused on the portcullis, I hopped over the outer wall and turned the crank to open the gate.
As I crossed the wall, I felt myself breaking through some kind of barrier.
I stared at the spot where I’d felt the barrier, but I didn’t see anything. Unlike the barrier of the Forest of Illusions in Kuhanou County, this one seemed to have disappeared completely when it was broken.
We took a light lunch of warm soup and bread in the courtyard, then explored around the perimeter of the fort.
Most of it was overrun with weeds, but Pochi and Tama eagerly took up their tools and quickly cleared a path. We arrived in the rear garden area.
There, a few defenseless orange birds were pecking at some feed.
“Preeey!”
“There are eggs here, sir!”
The reason I’d steered us straight toward the backyard was that I’d noticed these birds on the map.
Just like the chickens in modern Japan, these birds couldn’t fly very well.
They were slow-moving, too, so Tama and Pochi could catch them easily.
The orange chickens were all large and plump, enough to hide Pochi’s face after she caught one. The eggs were a normal size, though, no bigger than your typical large chicken egg.
“Geh!”
“What is it?”
Heading toward Arisa’s fed-up voice, I found an area full of fresh parsley.
“Oh, parsley?”
“Who’re you calling parsley?! I won’t let anyone call me a parsley at this age! The least you could do is marry me until I become an adult, even if it’s just a common-law marriage, master!”
Arisa growled like an angry dog, frowning and jumping at me.
Lulu, who was nearby, widened her eyes in surprise at her sister’s behavior.
What, does “parsley” mean an unmarried single woman or something? I’ve never heard anyone say that before, but it sounds like something from a girls’ manga.
“I’m serious! And Lulu’s my sister, so you should marry both of—”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll consider it if you’re still single in ten years, all right?”
Arisa seemed to be heading toward an inappropriate comment, so I hurriedly cut her off.
“Really? It’s a promise, then!”
Arisa pumped her fists in a pose more befitting a triumphant athlete than a little girl, then dashed away.
“…How nice…”
My “Keen Hearing” skill alerted me to a tiny murmur from Lulu. I looked down and saw an earnest expression on her lovely face.
If she kept staring at me with those beautiful features, I worried I’d be tempted to set foot on the dark path of the lolicon.
Maybe that’s why I said such a stupid thing…
“Master, could I also…?”
“Sure, Lulu. If you’re single in ten years, too, I’ll marry you along with Arisa.”
“Yes!”
I got carried away and gave her an irresponsible reply. A hint of guilt needled my heart at the sight of such a huge smile on Lulu’s face.
Bigamy did seem to be allowed in this country, but I didn’t know if I’d still be in this world in five years, never mind ten.
I had arrived here suddenly, as if this were a dream; it wouldn’t be too surprising if I returned just as abruptly as waking up from one.
Besides, it wasn’t as though I didn’t have any attachments to my home world. Even if I was fated to stay here for good, I’d want to send letters to my friends and family first at least, so I was planning to go to the Saga Empire once everyone’s future plans were settled.
Well, I probably don’t need to worry about this too seriously right now.
If magic existed for summoning and sending people back, surely I could develop magic to allow me to move freely between the worlds within ten years.
Besides, there was no way Arisa and Lulu would stay single for ten years.
Oblivious to my innermost thoughts, Lulu pressed her hands to her cheeks and mumbled to herself.
“Hee-hee… A bride, huh?”
Miss Lulu, stop it with the heart-melting smile while it’s just the two of us, please.
I nearly gave in to desire for a moment, but I managed to hold out by calling on my sense of reason.
“Master, if you’d like, please come over here and look at this.”
Luckily, a call from Liza saved me from drowning in Lulu’s pinkish aura. I headed toward her with Lulu in tow.
After passing through an arch of withered roses, we found a water fountain among the sea of weeds.
“We suspected that there may be a trap, so nobody has approached it yet.”
“Good thinking.”
After praising Liza’s cautiousness, I investigated the fountain.
My “Trap Detection” skill wasn’t reacting at all, and I didn’t see anything on the map that looked like a trick, either.
“…I think it’s safe.”
After I gave my verdict, Liza proceeded toward the fountain as an advance scout, her spear still at the ready.
“Weeding brigaaade!”
“We’ll do our best, sir!”
Tama and Pochi popped up immediately and hacked away at the flora in the hall leading to the fountain. They were very efficient.
“Satou.”
Mia tottered over to us through the arch, her arms full of vegetables.
“Is that broccoli and celery?”
“Mm.”
They were a little different from the varieties I’d seen in Japan, but they were definitely some species of the familiar vegetables.
Apparently, they’d been growing in the same corner as the parsley.
“Maybe we should make a broccoli stew for dinner, then,” I suggested.
“Great.”
Mia gave an excited little nod.
The beastfolk girls caught three goats that were on the other side of the fountain, and Nana held a little orange chick in the palm of her hand with delight.
There were persimmon and plum trees growing in the backyard. The persimmons were sour, but I collected some of the fallen ones, figuring I could dry them out.
For a place that was supposed to be a den of undead monsters, this area was quite peaceful.
Clonk…clonk…
With a fully armed Liza leading the way, we strode into the entrance hall of the fort.
Tama and Pochi walked behind Liza, followed by Nana, Arisa, and Mia, and I brought up the rear.
The entrance hall contained a stairwell leading up to the second floor, where light leaked in through a window. It was the sort of place where balls might have been hosted.
Since the undead appear only at night, we’d decided to explore the fort during the day before the real battle at sunset.
The skeletal remains of a number of soldiers were strewn about the entrance hall.
Once night had fallen, these would probably begin to move.
I should probably put them in Storage in the daytime, then cremate and bury them later.
Glancing over, I saw that Lulu looked very anxious. Arisa and Mia seemed a bit nervous, too.
“Don’t be scared. It’s perfectly safe during the da—”
As I attempted to reassure them, the loud bang of a door slamming shut interrupted me.
At the same moment, specks of black appeared on the window and soon blotted out all the light from outside.
Shrieking, Mia and Lulu latched onto me.
; With the aid of my “Night Vision” skill, I could see our advance guard team warily keeping watch in the darkness.
I took my Magic Lamp out of Storage and supplied it with some MP to illuminate the room.
“Kweh-heh-heh… Foolish vandals. You know not your place, daring to enter the secret base of the revival of the house of Marquis Muno.”
I couldn’t see the source of the voice. There was nobody on my radar but us.
Checking the map, I determined the enemy was one of the wraiths I’d noted last night. It was on the underground third floor of the fort. It hadn’t shown up on my map when we first arrived here, so I had no idea where it came from.
It was probably using a speaking tube or some occult-type means to make its voice reach this room.
“Prepare to become the cornerstones of the revival of the marquis’s house, at the hands of our faithful soldiers!”
Sure enough, as the wraith spoke, the skeleton soldiers that had been lying on the floor arose.
There were only three in this room, but more were approaching from other rooms, too.
“These enemies are strong, so take each of them on in pairs. I’ll handle the last one.”
“Understood!”
“Aye!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Orders registered. Switching to combat-doll mode.”
The four members of the advance guard promptly took action.
I’ve never heard of this so-called “combat-doll mode” before, though.
Arisa was snickering at my side, so she must have taught Nana some weird phrase. Of course, there wasn’t actually any change in Nana’s status information.
Once I’d taken out my target with a rock to the head from Storage, I watched over the advance guard’s battle.
The skeleton soldiers’ movements were jerky, but they attacked with fast overhead strikes. Those kinds of blows might kill you instantly if you let your guard down.
While Pochi parried the heavy sword attacks with her small buckler, Tama aimed at the leg joints with her short sword.
Since Tama’s attacks were so light, a single direct hit wouldn’t destroy anything. Still, she persisted, and the fourth attack finally broke the joint.
The skeleton lost its balance and toppled over, and the two girls finished it off in a flurry of strikes.