Chapter 151: From Departure to Camping (1/2)
The party left Kapha city, and their journey so far was a little better than expected, though they didn’t manage to get far on the first day. All they did during the day was following the main road and exchanging greetings with the occasionally passing travelers.
Since they couldn’t go farther than planned, they decided to set up a camp on the plain along the main road and called it a day.
“Is it just me, or we’re going a little slow?”
“No, everyone feels the same, except for one person.”
“The reason is… surely that.”
Lapis said, as she was looking at two exhausted donkeys. Everyone could see that they were a bit overloaded and, Gula, the reason of this increased baggage load, showed a weak, apologetic smile:
“Sorry. I eat a lot.”
“It’s alright for us, but the donkeys are pitiful. Apologize to them.”
“Sorry guys. I just eat a lot.”
Gula said and repeatedly bowed to the donkeys. Tizona just smiled wryly but Lapis, who knew Gula’s true identity, watched the unbelievable scene with a perplexed expression. Lapis didn’t know who called them Evil Gods for the first time, but she wondered how that person would feel seeing such a being bowing to a pair of donkeys.
Lapis’ expression became even more perplexed when Loren stacked up the huge amount of branches he had cut and picked from their surroundings into a pile.
“Tizona, light these up.”
Loren thought that as someone nicknamed ‘Hellfire Sword’, Tizona would be a master in using fire. But she protested with a merciless expression:
“Wait a minute, I’m not a tinderbox. Besides, there’s green wood mixed in this, isn’t there?”
“Can’t you dry them?”
“It’s not that I can’t, but… Well, you know my nickname, don’t you? Should my ability be used for things like this?”
Tizona asked with a rather pitiful expression. Surely this was a too lowly work to ask of a twice-named mercenary, wasn’t it?
Loren calmly replied:
“I don’t care. If you don’t want to do it, then buy firewood in the next town. Of course, this will be added to our expenses, and given that we will be camping a lot due to the round trip, you need to buy enough for future use. Alright?”
“…Just let me do it.”
Buying firewood would further increase the expenses, and so Tizona reluctantly changed her mind. She then lifted her hand over the tottering pile of wood gathered by Loren.
“Can you dry the green wood?”
“It’s alright if I just heat them up and do not burn them, right? In the worst case, I can force them to burn.”
“Isn’t that magic?”
Asked a priest of the God of Knowledge, who suddenly became curious about the process.
It didn’t look like Tizona intended to hide anything, so she answered while scowling at the pile of wood:
“It’s my blessing. Another one aside from >.”
“That’s really convenient, isn’t it? To be able to use magic to dry things…”
“I’m not sure, but it’s not supposed to be used like this. Rather, you should be more surprised about me having two blessings.”
“Now that you mention it…”
Aside from Tizona, Lapis hadn’t met any other person with a blessing… except for a certain adventurer named Klaus. He had a blessing called >, which allowed him to increase his own power and the power of those he touched. Klaus had never mentioned having another blessing, so Lapis wasn’t sure if he was hiding it or if Boost was the only one he had. However, judging by the way Tizona spoke, it seemed that for one person to receive two blessings was extremely rare.
“I have not only one, but two rare blessings. And now I’m using one of them to dry your firewood…”
“You’re using it for a peaceful purpose though?”
“Why does it sound like you are trying to give a noble purpose to my blessing here? Isn’t it strange?!”
“What blessing is it, by the way?”
“It’s called >. I’m using it to dry firewood now, but this is what I used to burn our employer’s troops. And it’s where my nickname comes from.”
Said Tizona and her left hand twitched by a small spark that immediately turned into the fire. As she clenched her hand into a fist, the fire started to grow and took a shape similar to a sword.
“This is how > is originally used.”
Tizona opened her left fist, and the sword disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. There was no actual need to draw a sword, she simply wanted to show it to them.
Lapis exclaimed, truly impressed:
“You really don’t need a burner at all.”
“You’re the first one ever to have that kind of reaction after seeing >.”
Tizona continued silently drying the firewood, but her shoulders now had slumped in disappointment.
After solving the issue with fire, Loren and Lapis managed to somehow prepare Gula’s dinner. But when Tizona checked the amount of wood left, she became utterly surprised:
“Wait, how could you use up almost all the firewood?”
Tizona dried up quite a lot of firewood, but the amount left was barely enough for a bonfire. She was even unsure if it could keep fire going throughout the night.
To answer her astonishment, Loren wearily pointed at Gula: