Chapter 82 – Track Finders (1/2)

It didn't take long for the investigation team members to gather what they needed for this part of the mission.

A few people filled some bags with assorted foodstuff and other supplies from the wagons, but aside from that, all they did was move the wagons to the side in a narrow alley then released the horses from their hitches and tied them to a nearby post. Some food and water was placed within reach but otherwise they were left alone out of sight.

I hoped that this wasn't considered animal cruelty or anything, but such a concept probably didn't even exist in this world.

When everyone was ready, we headed off, lead by the pathfinders that discovered the tracks in the first place.

We left by the same gates we originally entered. The two adventurers that we were following moved with sure steps while watching the packed earth road, but I couldn't tell what it was they were looking at. There were indentations and traces of much that looked like heavy footprints and grooves for wagon wheels, but none of them stood out to me in the slightest. In the first place, there wasn't really any reason I could think of that would make the ones we were following looked different from any other tracks on this road.

But I didn't openly question those two, nor did anyone else. They were the experts in this, not us. We could only trust their experience.

Once we made quite a distance from the village and the walls started to dip below the horizon, the two pathfinders suddenly turned to the south. One of them pointed at a patch of tall grass that lined the side of the road.

”They went through here.”

I looked where they were pointing, but that bit of the grass didn't really look different from any other.

(No wait...)

Looking a bit closer, some of the grass at the bottom was a broken like it was trampled on. Some strands were forcibly lifted upright while other unbroken bits were leaning as if to cover the damaged strands.

The more I looked and thought about it, the more it looked unnatural. And when I followed the spots of broken grass back to the road, I could see a bit of flat earth that didn't quite match the rest of the crudely made earth road. It was simply more flat than the rest.

”It looks like they had a mage who covered their tracks, but the way it was done was amateurish.”

Amateurish or not, I doubted any of us noticed it on the way to the village, and those two experts would've been the only ones to notice them even if we know that the bandits would have taken this road partway before returning to their base.

One of the pathfinders traced a finger along a section of the road. While the height was almost perfectly in line with the dirt surrounding it, it was completely flat rather than the slightly undulating mostly flat nature of the surrounding earth. Once it was pointed out to me, I could see, albeit only barely, what looked like a series of lines that curved from the road.

If I had to guess, those were the mostly covered tracks of the wagons we were chasing. This was the point where they had turned off of the road and went into the tall grass to wherever their real destination was.

”Alright, let's go.”

With the command of the leader of the investigation, the two pathfinders pushed aside the waist high grass and carefully stepped out into the untamed prairies while the rest of us followed suit while spreading out a bit with their hands on their weapons, most likely in case of an ambush.

[Claret, could you fly up and tell me what you see?]

”Yes Master.”

With those parting words, the shadow spirit lifted off from my shoulders and took off.

Though I say that, she simply returned after a few more moments.

”There's a line of crumpled grass from here curving to the west. I think they go into that forest.”

The greater spirit pointed towards a line of trees far off into the distance. Far enough that anything below the canopy was buried beneath the horizon in between some faraway hills.

That place seemed quite far to travel with a wagon off road, but I couldn't discount the possibility that they had some sort of way to get there more easily. Like having some decent levels so that having some of them push the wagon through rough terrain while the rest guard their captives isn't actually a difficult task for them.

That possibility sounded particularly real since I could probably just carry a filled wagon while flying around through the sky.

(The system is quite scary when I think of those sorts of possibilities as being so real. Makes me wonder just what the limits are.)

Our little group continued on. The trampled grass became much more obvious after a short while as the bandits didn't continue to cover their tracks after the first little bit.

It really wasn't the sort of thing that they needed to do after all when one thought about it. They covered their tracks well enough at the beginning that it wasn't likely for anyone to notice that they even moved off the road at some point, and if someone did notice that, their level of tracks hiding wasn't sufficient to confuse their pursuers even if they continued to cover their tracks.

Just like how Claret said, after a while we turned to the west and went around and passed the village that was attacked. Our path winded around the rolling hills that covered the area.

While I called them hills, they weren't very tall at all. Even I could see over many of them.

Though even with that said, I did keep a corner of my mind on [Sense Presence]. There was no telling if the bandits or some monsters would try to ambush us. The low hills combined with the waist high grass meant that while following the bandits' and captives' tracks was easy, it also made it easy for ambushers to hide from us.

That said, we spent hours following the trail without any signs of anything trying to approach us.

”Hey, is it normal around here for there to be so few monsters?”

I couldn't help but quietly ask the closest member of the team.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, that happened to be the elf girl. At least she didn't continue to glance at my direction here and there ever since we reached the vacant village, but when she turned to answer my question, her eyes stopped beside me for a moment before continuing.

I really hoped that she couldn't see Claret clearly and could only kinda feel a hazy thing hovering over my shoulder or something. I'd be in trouble if she tried to ask about her.

”Aside from goblins, which wouldn't normally attack a group as big as ours, for some reason there hasn't been many monsters in this region for some time. At least according to anyone I've heard from that lives in this area.”

”I see...”

Since it sounded like she wasn't a local, I kinda wanted to ask around a bit more to confirm it. Instead, I kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to seem like I didn't believe her. Sowing discord like that was nothing but counterproductive.

With only the occasional whispering, we continued through the tall grass and the rolling hills.

By the time the sky had turned a brilliant crimson, our group suddenly stopped at the hand signal of one of the leading pathfinders. The forest Claret thought that the bandits had gone into was only a few minutes walk away now. It was clear that we were going to continue into it.

One of the men dipped behind a taller than average hill while the other looked around. Most of the adventurers opened up the formation and checked out our surroundings in case of any unseen dangers. Even this far there hadn't even been a single monster attack of any sort.

After a few moments, the pathfinder popped his head out and waved to the team leader who quickly joined him, but quickly came back.

”It looks like they abandoned their wagons here before heading into the forest.”

With his words, the rest of us shuffled forward and had a look.

There really was a bunch of wagons hidden behind the hill. But beyond that, they were all destroyed and packed together to make them easier to hide. There wasn't any cut marks, so while I wasn't entirely sure, but it looked like at least a part of it was done by hand. Whoever did this was considerably strong.

”We're probably close to their base. If they abandoned their wagons, it probably means that they were close enough that they can carry the load by hand, even if it took them multiple trips.”

That reasoning stood up to my amateurish scrutiny. This forest we were close to was a good place to hide inside of, as it would block any casual observations. Conversely, they didn't really have much choice but to abandon the wagons as well if they were based there. The wagons would quickly get stuck on the tree roots and even if they were strong enough to brute force their way through, it would slow them down enough that it wouldn't be worth the effort.

While it wasn't necessarily true that the bandits were based inside the forest, passing through would probably be faster than going around it, presuming we didn't lose their tracks along the way.

”We're making camp on the near side of the next hill! Rest up tonight, and we'll go enter the forest in the morning! No fires and stay quiet! I don't want to alert any guards that might be watching from the inside of the forest!”

I didn't like the decision, but frankly it was a good one. I was the only one in the group that wasn't hindered by the lack of light at night, and there was no saying if the bandits had ways to deal with the darkness.

Leaving the broken wagons behind, we cleared out a space behind a larger hill hiding us from the forest and built a simple camp mostly consisting of nothing but thin sheets of unfurled leather to be used as bedding.

Even then, there was only enough for half the group. After all, the bedding wasn't going to be used by those who were on watch, and even then not everyone bothered to carry any bedding. It was extra weight and it seemed like only the investigation leader had a magic bag so those people probably decided that it was better to save on weight by not carrying any bedding.

I didn't have any either for obvious reasons, but they didn't know that.

The leader's bedding was much thicker and heavier than anyone else’s thanks to his magic bag, but even then it was thin and uncomfortable looking compared to a real mattress.

A little curious, I peeked around the hill to have a look at the forest.

The trees weren't particularly big nor dense as far as I could see. It was simply an ordinary forest. But even saying that, I could only get a single hit with [Sense Presence], and it was faint. Most likely a rush rabbit or something.

The lack of monsters in this area seemed to even extend to this forest. It made me wonder a little why the monster presence here was so much thinner than anywhere else, but as I didn't have the leeway to look into it, not the ability to even if I could, I pushed aside the thought.

”Umm, miss?”

Turning around to the voice, that elf woman was crouching behind me.

”Is there any chance you have any more of those sauces you used on our meals?”

”I doubt I can cook anything decent without using a fire you know.”

I was presuming that everyone was just going to eat whatever they had brought from the wagons we left at the village in the first place.

”No of course we weren't expecting that. But we thought that if we could use some of those sauces you had brought, it could make our meals a bit better.”

”...We?”

Raising my head, I saw that quite a few of the other adventurers were looking our way with expectations in their eyes. Not a single person had taken a bite out of the food that they had laid out in front of them. Not even the team leader despite looking off to the sight like he was watching the perimeter...while sitting in front of a plate with some bread and dried meat on it.

”...”

The woman sheepishly retracted her neck into her collar while looking away for a moment.

Just like the others, she had a stale looking loaf of black bread and some dried meat in her hands. Her bread was cut in half with the meat sandwiched in between, copying some of the meals I had made for the group, but there wasn't a single bite made into the sandwich.

”Hmmm...gimme a sec.”

Seeing the simply made sandwich gave me an idea. I didn't know how well it would work out, especially since toasting the bread would be a bad idea in this situation, but it wasn't like I couldn't do anything.

Returning to the group, I pulled out a bowl, a cutting board, my knife, a jar of ketchup, a jar of mayonnaise, and a pickle.

I finely chopped the pickle up and threw it into the bowl. Then I poured some ketchup and mayo into the bowl and stirred the concoction the best I could.

”Give me your sandwich.”

With a nod, the elf handed it to me. I took the top half of the bun and spread an ample serving of the sauce with my knife before replacing it on the sandwich and handing it back.

She looked at it nervously, but with a gulp, she opened her mouth and took a bite. Then another and she started to chew with her cheeks puffed out like a hamster's.

”...I'll leave this here.”

Putting down the bowl of the thousand island dressing I had just made, I walked away to a far corner of our little clearing and fed the band of spirits following me.