Chapter 12: Wagon and Elderly Man

Chapter 12:
Wagon and Elderly Man

 

THE DAY AFTER I bought my briefs, the four of us headed to the city of Zibil so Mr. Chotos could repay his debt at a branch office of the Paisley Company.

This Paisley Company was a fairly large organization, and its main branch was located in another territory.

Zibil was north of Tibar and far larger, structurally speaking. As a person from another world with plenty of spare time to shop and go sightseeing, I decided to accompany Mr. Chotos. This spare time was my only reason for doing so. My goal was merely sightseeing. I was just extremely in the mood to go sightseeing!

It wasn’t that I was racked with worry about an old man going by himself to meet a suspicious, evil company while carrying a large sum of money. It definitely wasn’t that. I didn’t care about him or anything. It’s really important to me that you understand that.

In any case, Zibil was reasonably far away. Our round trip would take about two days, and we would spend a night in Zibil. As such, we obviously needed to bring Teru. Only a demon would leave a five-year-old child alone for two whole days.

“Ah, there’s our ride!” Holding Teru’s hand, Mr. Chotos pointed to a covered wagon in an alley.

“Huh. That wagon’s rather nice for a guy like you, mister,” I said.

This would be our mode of transportation. Mr. Chotos had been getting it together the day before. It was vital, as we would be traveling with Teru. Only a demon from the depths of hell would force a tiny, sickly, five-year-old child to walk a distance that would take a wagon a whole day to travel.

However, although we were going by wagon, it didn’t really take a toll on Mr. Chotos’s budget. It seemed we would be hitching a ride. From what I could tell, there was no one else around, either. We were the only hitchhikers.

In any case, as this would be my first ride in a vehicle in another world, I was thrilled. The wagon was drawn by two horses. Even though this was another world, horses were still horses. They weren’t like that deer with its bizarre, twisted horns and odd half-moon eyes; they were extremely normal, simple horses with gentle eyes.

Structurally speaking, the wagon wasn’t that different from the ones I knew of. Wait a minute… On closer inspection, it was slightly large for a two-horse-drawn wagon. Additionally, an unfamiliar, green, box-like apparatus was fixed underneath the carriage.

What exactly was that weird box? I was super interested. My curiosity began to tingle. This was a bad sign.

If I surrendered to my thirst for knowledge and started examining the wagon for scientific purposes, I might end up spending hours fiddling with it, thereby greatly delaying our departure. I didn’t care much about causing Mr. Chotos trouble. That didn’t matter. Rather, I didn’t want to inconvenience the wagon driver’s delivery schedule with a substantial delay.

I desperately suppressed my urge to pry, averting my gaze from the strange box. I turned my attention to the front of the wagon where the driver would sit and found an elderly man already positioned there. This grandpa was most likely the owner of the wagon.

Before boarding, I greeted him out of gratitude. Showing courtesy is the bare minimum requirement for a cultured man. “Thank you very much for taking us along with you. We’ll be in your care today.”

“Ah, no, no. It’s me who’s in your care.” Because I had suddenly spoken to him, the elderly man looked a little taken aback. However, he soon laughed, showing the white teeth of his valiant, sunbaked face. “I’m also relieved to have the generous golem wielder of rumor as a bodyguard. After all, they’re saying a mana beast has been leaving a disturbing trail of victims on this road.”

What a tender gentleman. The rumors circulating the town were due to the illegal acts of violence Gol and I had committed against the debt collectors the other day. In order to protect ignorant little me from shame, this grandpa praised me and treated me with great kindness. He had earned a great number of my affection points.

After that, I moved to the back of the wagon. I’d thought about asking the grandpa if I could touch the horses before I boarded. Like with monkeys and deer, I appreciated them as noble and delicate creatures that had walked together with humanity throughout history. As such, I held great respect for the species. But in the end, I said and touched nothing. Immediately after I threw a passionate gaze at the horses, I sensed Gol beginning to emit an icy bloodlust toward them.

It had completely slipped my mind, but Gol’s experience with animals consisted entirely of being bullied by wild monkeys and a dinosaur, so she was generally bad with them. These delicate, clever creatures sensed her homicidal intent and grew restless. The old driver had a hard time trying to calm the poor frightened things.

I’m truly sorry for all the inconvenience my partner’s awkwardness has caused you.

“Oof.” My shoulders drooped in disappointment as I climbed aboard.

The interior of the canopied wagon was fairly wide and there wasn’t much cargo. Even if the four of us made ourselves at home, there would be plenty of room. A clean, thick, comfortable blanket was spread in the area where we would sit.

Yup, just as I suspected. The old driver was a most considerate gentleman.

“Hey, you’re dawdling, Nemaki. What were you doing?” Mr. Chotos was already sitting on the blanket with Teru next to him. She seemed eager to ride and bounced up and down in excitement like a small animal.

I plopped down and sat cross-legged in front of Mr. Chotos. “Nah, it’s just that I went to the front to greet the driver.”

“At times you’re strangely polite. Is that something you eastern aristocrats do?”

While we spoke, Gol quietly joined us, crossing her legs and sitting as if to snuggle me. As she did so, I suddenly worried whether Gol would exceed the wagon’s weight restrictions. How much did she weigh?

Honestly, I figured she weighed a considerable amount. At the very least, she went out of her way to seem light, and she evaded my attempts to determine her true weight with the most unorthodox maneuvers. I suspected she was in truth quite heavy, especially due to that moment when I had lifted a limp Gol in my arms after she was damaged by the ancient Earth Dragon’s miasma. She had been fairly hefty.

At the time, I’d thought she weighed the same as a thin girl of average height. Back in the day, I used to sidestep around my younger sister, who had roughly the same frame as Gol, and pick her up. However, I think my sister was a little lighter than Gol. Well, then again, my younger sister was also shorter than Gol, so—

Hm? Younger sister? I had a younger sister? Was this a fragment of my memories I had lost when I was summoned?

Ah, damn it! When I tried to remember, I got nothing but void. What the hell? Explain yourself, Luvel Zairein!

“Tsk,” I clicked my tongue.

Well, whatever. Returning to the issue of Gol’s weight, I estimated that she was weighty enough, but nothing outrageous. During our time in the shabby hideout in the basin, Goltarou hadn’t broken through the floor or anything. Even now, when Gol boarded the wagon, it didn’t seem to creak. That meant that Gol wasn’t as heavy as either a stone statue or her original material, the stone pillar, likely because I’d poured a ton of mana into my Reduce Weight spell when I created her.

Hmm. In the end, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t get a good sense of her weight. Maybe I needed to try lifting her up?

While I pondered this, the wagon began to slowly make its way through the western gate and out of the city. I watched the town of Tibar recede from the back of the wagon. By the gate stood a bored gatekeeper who didn’t look that strong. Both he and the town gradually grew more distant, the image of unremarkable pastoral beauty.

Come to think of it, there was a tall watchtower on the eastern side of the town, but…

“There’s no watchtower on the west side, huh?” I murmured.

“Watchtower?” said Mr. Chotos. “Ah, you’re talking about the observation tower. It’s there to monitor the state of the miasma to the east. It’s covered the neighboring wasteland, but hasn’t yet reached us. The tower’s really mostly there to reassure the folks.”

“Ahh. I see. So that’s how it is.”

It wasn’t for looking out for enemies, then. No wonder Gol and I weren’t questioned when we came from the east. Tibar was a peaceful place, after all. When I’d heard the small nations to the east were constantly at war, I developed the impression that this world was ruled by strife, but that had since proven false.

The wagon continued in this tranquil manner until we arrived at a four-way intersection on the road. Here, the wagon turned right and headed north. At last, we had left the one-way road heading west.

The new road wasn’t on the old map I had pulled out from Zairein’s study. Perhaps it hadn’t yet been constructed when the map was drawn. It was probably the reason Tibar bustled with so many travelers, despite being at the end of the east-west road due to the miasma. Tibar functioned as a rest stop for people traveling on the north-south road.

Geographically speaking, the capital was due west of Tibar, so I thought it likely that plenty of people who came to and from there passed through Tibar. Possibly, the people of Tibar now made their living by maintaining the north-south road due to the unfortunate eastern barricade. Their work was so admirable.

The sun shone sweet and calm, and surprisingly, the wagon didn’t rock. We were going at quite the pace, but there were even fewer vibrations than I expected from a car. Where were the rustic rattles and shakes? Ah, was this the purpose of that strange apparatus underneath the wagon? I had seen the grandpa climb down from the driver’s seat and do something to the green apparatus before we set off. Was that box a mana tool?

Augh, I’m getting interested again…

I thought about asking the renowned expert Mr. Chotos, but he was sleeping. I could just kick him awake, but Teru was borrowing her papa’s lap as a pillow. If I woke him, I might also wake her in a tragic chain reaction.

Teru had been so excited to go with everyone that she hadn’t slept much the night before. After staying up late, she got even more excited when we actually boarded the wagon. She was by now quite exhausted. I wasn’t some demon from the very lowest depths of hell who would disturb a young child’s rest.

In that case, I had to ask the old driver. But we were in the back of the wagon, so he was some distance away. I could have moved the cargo to create a gap through which to talk to him, but Gol would have definitely followed me. She handled things that weren’t my possessions a bit haphazardly, and she might upend the carefully stacked cargo.

And before we even got that far, she would terrify the horses.

“That’s no good, either. I guess I can’t ask anyone…”

I gave up on solving the mystery of the wagon and resumed looking out at the scenery. Blue skies and green fields filled the back gap in the wagon’s canopy. How beautiful. This was completely different from the auburn miasma-covered wasteland I had been traveling through up until this point.

The fertile plain was blanketed in greenery. How did I know it was fertile? Because vast fields of wheat and other grains popped up along the road as we traveled. On occasion, I also caught sight of golems walking through the fields. They were farming golems, right? I couldn’t clearly make out their details because of the distance, but they had the same mannequin shape Goltarou had initially assumed.

Another characteristic of this land was the plethora of sheep. I often saw herds of them from a distance. I didn’t know their breed, but they looked normal enough as they ate grass. They certainly didn’t have rock armor like those awful monkeys. When enough of them gathered together, they looked like a fluffy, white carpet laid upon the green field.

It was truly a peaceful scene.

Yet, somehow, the fertile fields felt unnatural, too. Maybe it was the other thing that had been bothering me for some time now.

“More ruins,” I sighed. Every so often when we passed a cluster of houses, I also caught sight of some abandoned ones.

“Ah, it’s because of the mana beasts,” said Mr. Chotos. “Recently, a dangerous mana beast has been patrolling the area. A lot of people moved to the big cities because they’re scared.”

“Whoa! Mister, you were awake?” But this bothered me. A dangerous mana beast? “Could it be the monkeys?!”

Those damn monkeys! Had they come so far out here—without my permission—to harass the neighboring farmers? Unforgivable! Time for a spanking! As the monkeys’ diligent trainer, I burned with a sense of failed responsibility, but Mr. Chotos was confused.

“M-monkeys?! What are you talking about? I haven’t heard of any monkey-type mana beasts around here.” He blinked for some time in surprise, but after a while, he cleared his throat with a slightly awkward face. “W-well, anyway. The mana beast that’s been causing trouble is called a Flame Bicorn.”

“Flame Bicorn?”

So not a monkey. Since it was a bicorn, that meant it was a relative of the one-horned unicorn, right? A horse-type mana beast, then. A fire-shooting, unicorn-looking, mystery animal from another world, huh?

“A Flame Bicorn is, you see, a large quadrupedal mana beast with big, fiendish, twisted horns and ominous, half-moon eyes. It’s highly aggressive, so it’ll encroach on human territory with no fear whatsoever.”

Uhhhh, excuse the hell out of me, but isn’t that an outrageously dangerous horse? Wait. I tilted my head. “Hm? Two twisted horns and half-moon eyes?”

Why do I feel like I’ve seen those features on something before…?

In any case, I definitely hadn’t seen that horse-type mana beast before. My imagination was acting up.

“What’s wrong, Nemaki?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing. Just thinking. Please continue.”

Mr. Chotos nodded with a serious look. “Flame Bicorns are extremely dangerous. They can produce an incredibly hot flame between their two horns and shoot it at will, turning their surroundings into a sea of flames. We’ve only seen one on this road, but it’s already taken a disastrous toll.”

Wh-what’s up with that horse? It’s way too dangerous… I could no longer think of it as a mere “dangerous animal.” If we encountered that monster, I was sure we’d be burned to death in a contained ecological disaster.

“On top of that, the Flame Bicorn moves quickly. Even when a party was formed to go confront it, they weren’t able to capture it. By the time the party arrived, all that remained of the site where it had been spotted was scorched earth. They had to give up.”

Excuse me, what? It’s fast, too? That meant you couldn’t run away if it tried to attack you. That was too scary. I hoped we didn’t ever encounter it. “H-hey. I’m sure we won’t, but what if we accidentally stumble upon it? Is it all right for us to be moving at such a relaxed speed? Shouldn’t we pick up the pace…?”

I was terrified, my feet cold at the thought of a flamethrower-turned-horse. On the other end of the equation, Mr. Chotos, despite being himself, didn’t seem the least bit scared. I didn’t know whether to be infuriated or impressed!

“Well, it isn’t the type of mana beast that appears near the road, so there’s no need to worry on that count. Furthermore, for some reason I certainly can’t explain, there haven’t been any reported sightings of it the past few days. Almost as if it had died…” Mr. Chotos said with a smile. “In any case, it doesn’t matter anymore. Even if we were to run into it, we’ve got your Goretaru to handle it for us. We’re never safer than when we’re with her.”

“Hey, are you confusing my Gol for some kind of attack dog? I’m not letting her fight some crazy pyromaniac horse, you hear me?!”

“Huh? That’s quite the cautious declaration for someone who instantly pummeled Dazu the Swordbreaker, Nemaki. With your abilities and a golem of that caliber, you could end a fight with any passing mana beast in a single blow.”

“That’s not the problem! What if Gol gets a burn or something from fighting that strange, flame-throwing, pervert horse?!”

“Huh?!”

While Mr. Chotos and I made a racket, Gol pushed her supple arm against mine. She rested her chin on my arm and rubbed her cheek on my shoulder.

Partner, sorry for interrupting you in the middle of enjoying your cheek-rubbing fest, but do you think you could throw one of your own complaints at this rude old man?

After that, we continued our journey with idle, noisy banter about trivial things. From this chat, I realized the people of this world had a loose interpretation of land ownership. They settled in empty lands, moved around, and lived freely. This was probably why their land looked so fertile.

I worried that if Luvel Zairein had summoned an economically hungry capitalist instead of me, who lacked interest in all things related to profit, they would’ve devoured this world. It would have been just like when the kindhearted Native Americans were overtaken by white settlers.

Yeah, if that stupid Zairein had really wanted to destroy the world, he made a huge mistake in his candidate-selection process. I lacked both the educational foundation in economics and the backbone to create a hellish world of discrimination and concentrated wealth.