Chapter 131 (1/2)

Volume 2

Chapter 110

A pitch-black night without a moon.

We were all in the forest, eating in front of a crackling campfire.

「…Shuria, stop trying to hide that you’re not eating your vegetables!」

「Gulp, what? 」「『Whaaaa?』」

She had taken a vegetable that looked like an eggplant from Minnalis’ vegetable fry and was caught trying to give it to the cat 『Neko-san』to eat.

She had done a good job hiding it from Minnalis, but from my viewpoint I could see exactly what she was doing.

「Shuria? Again?!」

「Eek, well, I…I don’t like how slimy it feels! It’s not even like a vegetable! It’s like a devil fruit!」

Minnalis was visibly angry, but at the same time suppressing a laugh, while Shuria looked troubled and was pouting obstinately with her fists to her chin.

It seemed that since we banded together, we had never seen Shuria eat that eggplant-like vegetable before. It’s unique texture must be too much for her.

I mean, it’s not that I don’t know how she feels, but this is this and that is that.

「Geez, I told you before 『You can’t just shove food aside』too. Shuria, what you like and dislike eating…」

「Well then why doesn’t Kaito EAT BUGS THEN!?!」

「Minnalis, well, all people have a hard time eating bugs. Well, I guess people won’t die if they avoid one or two things.」

「Master…don’t say stupid things and let her off the hook.」

My wonderful reaction to the situation was met with Minnalis’ freezing glare and words.

Yeah, enough to make your food cold.

「I told you that I won’t let you just get rid of food! Look, you can eat the vegetable with the meat, right?」

「ugh…chomp munch」

「See, now that’s a good girl.」

「I can’t, I can’t eat this, though!」

Minnalis wrapped the eggplant-looking thing with meat and stuck into Shuria’s face.

She patted Shuria’s head, and even while she resisted, Shuria chewed it without too much disgust.

(That reminds me, I used to feed the kids like that too.)

Looking at them, I thought about it.

My own sister had a lot of likes and dislikes, and that’s why I treated those kids that way.

(This time, I hope they grow up strong.)

We had been away from Dartlas for two weeks now.

From all the businesses I had stolen money from, I gave it back with a little extra, and then gave the rest of the gold and the sword back to the orphanage.

I also made sure with some extra money that no one in the slum would touch the orphanage.

To that degree all I could do is pray it would remain that way.

In order to fulfill my desire, I couldn’t just stay in town and watch over them, but had to just make my way with an irresponsible satisfaction.

(No real good done, but a false good. Just enough to comfort me.)

I would never forget.

But, I had to continue onwards. Well, there was no other road than that.

Crush, kill, conquer, there were still guys out there that had to be bulldozed.

「Ugh! It’s like worms crawling around in my mouth! I really is the devil’s fruit!」

While I was thinking and eating, I noticed the plates in front of Minnalis, Shuria, and I were empty.

A cold wind blew through with the sound of rustling leaves.

「Eek! It’s cold!」

Shuria took the cape with 『body warmth protection』that she kept for the cold and wrapped it around her.

Minnalis, who had come from a colder climate, and I, who was used to having my body subjected to bad environments, looked at the pained face of Shuria, who had only known warmer climates.

Minnalis and Shuria had other clothes with 『body warmth protection』ability, but nothing strong enough to compete with temperatures cold enough for it to snow.

「It’s gotten so cold these past few days. Well, we are far west, and tomorrow we’ll arrive at the magic capital Carbonheim. There’s a huge barrier that surrounds the city, so it has always nice weather there. But until we get there, it’s going to be tough.」

Yes, we went through the north to reach Giligal Empire, and after entering the imperial country over the boundary, we headed west from the imperial city, and towards the 『Magical School Congress / Carbonheim.』

As the name states, the country name and capital have the same name as the magical congress, Carbonheim, and was created by magicians of the beast and emperor’s country that had been enmeshed in a war.

Compared to other countries it was a small one with only 20% of the others, but it was known for having the greatest magic firepower in the whole continent.

The country was created right around the same time as the imperial country, and compared to the imperial country that ravenously tried to expand its borders, Carbonheim put its energies into maintaining the borders it had obtained.

As a result, each city had its own barrier, and the country had its own huge one.

They were barriers that were excellent at resisting physical and magical damage, so the humans that were unsuited to attack with magic were protected against by this barrier, and Carbonheim was easy to defend, and quite difficult to attack.

The imperial, emperor’s, and the beast’s countries were all close by, and none could defeat it because of that reason.

And so Carbonheim, which had declared itself neutral, after creating a school to 『create new magic』created a place for the superior magicians of the continent to sharpen their magical skill.

Therefore, there was a massive dungeon located below the school, and the reason we changed our direction to there was due to that dungeon.

「Because this dessert was made with a little ricol fruit, let’s cook and eat it. Cooked ricol keeps you from getting sick.」

「! Shuria’s eating two of them!」

「Okay, okay, just…if you eat too much, your stomach will hurt!」

Even with a little sigh, Minnalis taking out four of these small ricol fruits, each the size of a small orange, was kind enough for Shuria.

We stuck them on a stick used for cooking, and cooked the ricol over the fire as we watched the fire crackle and snap.

「Okay, let me check our plan after we arrive at Carbonheim one more time.」

At first we were going to go to the imperial city and check out the soldiers and dancers, but we would have to put that off for later.

The chief of the magic school too had a lot of loans he hadn’t paid and was starting to become a nuisance.

To be honest, there wasn’t anything we were upset about or hated him for. Maybe because we didn’t know him well enough for him to betray us. No, compared to the others I really didn’t feel much for him.

Either way, he wasn’t someone that I wanted revenge against.

…even so, he’s still going to make up for the things he owed me in the first world.

In order for us to get a stepping stone to progress, we have to use this country.

If he wasn’t going to pay for it one way, then we’d have to take it.

(Well, if that makes us hated then I guess they’re just going to have to hate us.)

Is what I thought about as the conversation continued.

「Anyway, we’ll get in acting like students. We won’t be there that long, so it will take a little money, but it should be hard for a basic class. There are a lot of adventurers and magicians coming to learn there, after all」

And I continued…

「However, it would cause problems if you stayed there. I want you to go to the 『Advanced Class』that teaches the basic magic classes.」

The advanced class hadn’t only cleared the basic class, but since it was a class where they did more than the standard magical learning, it was learning for pure magicians.

If the basic class was how to use magic, the advanced class was how the workings of magic occured.

Above the advanced class there was the special advanced, super advanced, and divine advanced class, all of which made you sign a contract as it was the magic that protected the country, but up until that it wasn’t necessary.

「Well, while that’s going on, I’m going to attack the dungeon myself. First, I’ll get the experience, and I can try out all this equipment. So then maybe I can suppress this curse of the holy woman. There are other things I want to do, so it will probably take three weeks. During that time, just learn all you can, okay?」

「What?! You’re just going to leave us here? Ouch!」

「I don’t want to, don’t just get rid of us!」

「…no, I told you this before. Why are you crying about this?」

The two looked sad and attempted to look sad together, and then when they were called out on it, straightened their faces out.

「We felt like secretly protesting.」

「It’s our secret protest.」

「Nonono, where’s the secret in all this?」

I sighed while they opened their mouths again.

「…well, you made fun of us when we asked where we were going.」