Course Difficulty: Very Hard

“Sure is great weather, huh? Perfect day for traveling.”

Cougar said in his underling-like tone while looking up at the clear sky.

“That it is. Since we’re about to depart for another country, I’m glad it isn’t raining. Bangagonga in particular would have had a hard time.”

“Thank goodness it’s sunny…”

At my words, Bangagonga murmured with deep feeling as he looked up at the sun.

Bangagonga was carrying a large bag on his back, and that bag was swollen to bursting.

On top of that, Bangagonga was wearing a full-face helmet he did not usually equip, and combined with his physique, he had an unbelievable end-of-century vibe. I kind of wanted to make him wear spiked shoulder pads too.

Incidentally, this helmet did serve the purpose of protecting his head, but more than anything, he wore it to secure his breathing.

On the first day we practiced, Bangagonga had nearly suffocated, after all.

“Sorry, Bangagonga. I’ve ended up making you carry all the luggage.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just going to be pulled along anyway. Still, is it really fine that we’ve got this much luggage but no camping gear?”

“Yeah, no problem. Cougar will be in charge of guiding us on the road, but he has planned our travel so that we can properly stay at inns.”

“Leave it to me! I promise you the shortest route and a comfortable journey that won’t push us too hard.”

Cougar said that and thumped his own chest.

Something about Cougar’s movements was a little comical… or rather, clown-like.

“Cougar, I’m counting on you to pull Bangagonga.”

“Huh? Me?”

“You’re the only manpower we have. Or were you planning to make me pull him?”

“No, that’d be way too presumptuous. But even if it’s not me, there are plenty of gorillas—”

The very next moment after Cougar said something outrageous, a huge axe slammed down at Cougar’s feet, and the ground exploded.

I had no idea what kind of technique that was, but the fact that not even dust flew toward Bangagonga or me showed that she was quite calm.

Incidentally, Cougar’s figure was completely hidden beyond the cloud of dust that had risen.

“Fels-sama. I apologize, but may I cut down that insolent man a little?”

Lynferia asked for an outrageous permission in an extremely calm voice.

“Lynferia, I can’t give you that permission. Cougar has to guide us. If you’re going to do it, do it after that.”

“Fels-sama, that’s awful!”

Cougar’s cry came from beyond the dust cloud, but naturally, I had absolutely no intention of making enemies of the women.

“You’re the awful one, Cougar. No, I do not know whom you intended those words for, but I can hardly say they were appropriate. Shouldn’t you reflect a little by being cut?”

“Being cut a little sounds pretty brutal!”

“It isn’t. Cougar should be crushed.”

The girl who had made the ground explode—Renge, the Axe Saint—easily lifted the huge axe with one hand and swung the raised axe in a sweeping motion, still wearing a sleepy expression.

The next moment, the dust cloud hiding Cougar’s figure was blown away, revealing Cougar, who did not seem affected in the slightest.

“You know I’ll die if I get cut or crushed, right? I’d like you to treat me with more care.”

“If you want to be treated with care, you should act accordingly.”

Renge said coldly while pointing her axe at Cougar.

“Hm? What are you all arguing about?”

“Ah, Otonoha, I’ve been waiting for you! We’re about to set out, so you haven’t forgotten anything, right?”

Just as it looked like a fight might start at any moment, Otonoha, who had arrived a little late, came trotting toward us with a slightly awkward expression.

“Yeah, sorry for making you wait. Boss, an interesting medicine was completed at just the right time, so I brought that along too. Is that all right?”

“An interesting medicine? What did you make?”

I temporarily left Cougar and the others alone and began talking with Otonoha.

Over there… well, it should be fine. Probably.

“A special-grade potion made only with materials gathered here.”

“You made a special-grade potion!?”

I was so surprised that I ended up asking Otonoha in a shout.

I did not think shouting in surprise was very Overlord-like, but right now, the fact that a special-grade potion had been made without using Sword and Legions materials was more important.

“Yeah. I’ve been doing research in between everything else, and finally, you know.”

“I see… then that dragon’s blood was usable.”

“Compared to the dragon blood you already had, Boss, it needs a slightly larger amount, but I confirmed that it works well enough. Well, considering the amount of blood we got from that dragon, it’s practically nothing!”

Indeed, from that dragon, we had secured an enormous amount of blood befitting the size of its body.

In the game, even if you defeated one dragon, you only got one small bottle of blood… scales and fangs too… in any case, when it came to materials alone, we secured a huge amount, so I was delighted.

If possible, I wanted to meet more dragons… especially opponents who could not be reasoned with.

“As for the medicinal herbs, we have them as a specialty product… but what did you do about the royal jelly?”

The materials needed for a special-grade potion were dragon blood, medicinal herbs obtained as a specialty product, and royal jelly.

We had already secured the dragon blood and medicinal herbs, but we should not have obtained royal jelly in this world yet…

“There’s a village in the Est Region that does beekeeping. I had them collect royal jelly there. Unlike the dragon blood, we don’t have much of it, so I think we’ll have to come up with some plan for a stable supply of royal jelly.”

“I see… Still, successfully making medicine using only materials obtained here is a wonderful achievement. And you did the research in between all this work, didn’t you? I can’t thank you enough, Otonoha.”

“Ahaha! Boss, that’s enough. You’re making me blush. If anything, even though I knew the recipe, I’m sorry it took me this long.”

Otonoha modestly waved her hands around while her face turned slightly red.

“That isn’t true at all. Rather, you made a special-grade potion at this timing… Otonoha, you may look forward to a reward. If it is something I can do, I will grant you anything.”

“A-anything is fine?”

“Yes, anything.”

When I nodded, Otonoha looked incredibly surprised, while Lynferia and Renge, for some reason, seemed to grow agitated.

This achievement was quite enormous. It would not be an exaggeration to call it an achievement greater than taking down an entire nation.

After all, unlike materials that could be purchased at the general store or items that could be obtained by distributing seeds for specialty products, dragon blood and royal jelly had no method of acquisition through the game system.

However, thanks to Otonoha, we learned that it was possible to recreate recipes from the game era using materials obtainable in this world.

Even if they were rare, the fact that they could be obtained in this world was more helpful than anything!

This… might mean I needed to get more serious about earning money.

I could buy up all sorts of materials and have Otonoha try out all kinds of recipes… no, that was no good. Otonoha was already busy enough installing mana collection devices, and there was no point thinking only about what came later.

First, I had to think about succeeding in the negotiations with the dwarves… With that thought, I braced myself and looked over the faces of those accompanying me on this journey.

“…A-anything… anything, you said… th-that’s… Boss… is that really okay…?”

However, right after I looked around, I noticed that Otonoha’s face had turned bright red as she muttered something.

“Otonoha…? Are you all right?”

“Yesh! I-I’m fine!”

“I see…? Then let’s get going soon. Lynferia, Renge!”

““Yes, sir!””

The two of them withdrew the sword and axe they had been pointing at Cougar and responded to my call.

“I leave protection on the road and in Gigil-Po to you. Guard Otonoha and Bangagonga well.”

“Understood.”

“Got it.”

“Cougar, I leave guidance on the road and information gathering to you. Also, tell me about Gigil-Po while we run.”

“Understood!”

“Otonoha, I’ll be leaving all technical discussions with the dwarves to you. Show them Einheria’s technology to your heart’s content.”

“Sure thing! Leave it to me!”

“Bangagonga, it’s a difficult role, but I’m counting on you.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how much I can do… no, I’ll make sure to move the talks forward in a way the dwarves can accept.”

Bangagonga stopped his weak words midway and thrust out his fist firmly.

Under his helmet, he was probably showing his usual wicked grin.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. All right, then we depart for the dwarf country, Gigil-Po!”

““Yes, sir!””

After giving Bangagonga one last word, I issued the order to everyone.

At my words, Bangagonga floated into the air, Cougar pulled him, and we followed behind as we started running.

As I said earlier, I had left the route guidance to Cougar, but from the village located in the northeasternmost part of the Est Region to Gigil-Po, it would apparently take about three days on our feet. Well, since we would stay at inns along the way and would not keep running through the night, the actual time spent running over those three days would probably be less than thirty hours.

Except for Bangagonga, no one here had any problem with that level of exercise… Even Otonoha, who had no combat ability, could handle it with ease.

“Fels-sama, shall I start by telling you about Gigil-Po and the dwarves?”

“Yes, please. It would be boring to just run.”

“Got it! Then first, I’ll explain Gigil-Po!”

Even while running at a speed that seemed to easily exceed sixty kilometers per hour, Cougar began speaking without showing the slightest sign of hardship.

We were not sprinting along a highway, but along the shortest route to Gigil-Po, and we had just plunged into a forest.

Incidentally, Bangagonga had trained thoroughly so he could handle complex terrain. It would be awful if his cause of death ended up being a collision due to towing.

The reason I had Cougar run at the front as the guide while towing Bangagonga was also so that we, behind them, could immediately provide support if anything happened.

“Gigil-Po is called a country, but its territory is so small that even calling it a small nation would be presumptuous. Specifically, it consists of a rather small mountain range and a few kilometers of land around its foothills. The mountain range was apparently originally volcanic, and there are several large lakes near the summits. The dwarves built towns near those lakes and lived there.”

Without slowing down, Cougar spoke in his usual tone while blowing away trees and bushes that obstructed our movement with dark-attribute magic.

“There are thirteen towns in total, large and small. The total population is about ten thousand. Gigil-Po as a whole is governed through deliberation among the mayors of those towns.”

A country with a council system… what a pain.

When it came to making them accept something new… making them accept us, this was the most troublesome form of government. With a monarchy, I think you could generally manage somehow by targeting the top…

Well, that couldn’t be helped… More importantly, a population of ten thousand felt like it was both large and small… Personally, I had wanted there to be many more… If we installed mana collection devices in all thirteen locations, and if they had the same efficiency as the goblins, the income would be five hundred thousand… As expected, even if humanfolk had only about five times the efficiency, they easily overturned that with the population difference.

“And Gigil-Po’s greatest characteristic is its mines. All thirteen towns have mineshafts, and they devote themselves to mining day and night. What’s amazing about these mines is that even though mining has been going on for centuries, they still show no sign of running dry.”

“What a wonderful vein. I can’t imagine other countries leaving it alone.”

High-quality mines would surely become mouthwatering conquest targets.

“As you say, Fels-sama, Gigil-Po has been invaded by other countries many times since recorded history began, but it has repelled every single one. Easy-to-defend terrain, sturdy dwarves, powerful magic… and above all, the many tools created by the dwarves’ high level of technology have scattered humanfolk armies in truly magnificent fashion.”

“Oh. Are the dwarves that strong?”

“At the very least, it seems armies of tens of thousands were no match for them.”

“Come to think of it, Bangagonga once said that dwarves were the strongest race among the fairy-folk.”

“Y-yeah… that’s just what I heard, though!”

While desperately moving his body left and right so he would not hit the trees, Bangagonga still answered me.

Don’t push yourself too hard, all right?

Although Cougar was removing obstacles to some extent, we could not very well clear the forest, so it was the bare minimum.

I felt bad that the course was Very Hard difficulty right from the start, but I wanted him to endure it until we got out of the forest. Of course, we would support him properly.

In this way, while supporting Bangagonga and listening to information about the dwarves from Cougar, we traversed forests, rivers, and mountains at an impossible speed and continued our explosive advance toward Gigil-Po.