15-2 Departure

It was already mid-October.

It had been almost a year since I came to this world.

Because of that, quite a large variety of prepared side dishes had been developed at this Beast-Ear Garden too.

By developed, I only meant that I translated things from Japanese recipe sites on the internet, and the cooking staff made them for me.

We made all sorts of things at the food court too.

For rice-based dishes, there was seasoned rice, chicken rice, fried rice, grilled rice balls, risotto, various rice bowls, and the most popular of all, curry rice.

The curry was, of course, mild to suit the children’s tastes.

As for noodles, needless to say, there was ramen and udon, as well as fried noodles, crispy fried noodles, chilled Chinese-style noodles, dipping noodles, soba, and more.

There were also things like Indian flatbread.

This director loved that, so I had even cobbled together a dedicated pot-like oven for baking it properly.

Italian-style dishes like stone-oven pizza and spaghetti, and also the meat buns that absolutely could not be forgotten.

We also had them make fried chicken, grilled chicken skewers, croquettes, cutlets, fried foods, tempura, dumplings, steamed dumplings, wontons, spring rolls, various teriyaki dishes, skewered cutlets, simmered dishes, hotpot stew, tofu dishes, fried tofu dishes, and more.

I had not forgotten Nagoya foods either, like miso-glazed skewers, chicken wings, miso cutlets, and chopped eel over rice.

In winter, we planned to challenge hotpot dishes.

I had already developed a magical pot enchanted so that it would absolutely never tip over, even if the kindergarteners ran wild.

Among the magic I developed, there were overwhelmingly more of these kindergarten-use things than revolutionary things like combat magic or God-type magic.

I was seriously careful so the children would not get burned, but I had properly increased the number of staff, so we should somehow manage.

The rice porridge at the end absolutely could not be forgotten either.

I planned to try sukiyaki eventually too.

I had already made the uniquely shaped sukiyaki pot as well.

Though I had not used one of those since I became alone in Japan either.

I had seen plenty of single-person pots, but I had never seen a single-person sukiyaki pot.

Rice seasoning and tea-over-rice toppings were prepared too, and there were also seasoned rice mixes for rice balls.

A lot of children liked those kinds of things, so they would be perfect for packed lunches.

And then came the crucial lunch boxes.

I had prototyped many cute ones of those too.

Forks also had to be easy for small children to hold and as easy to use as possible, and this production-type director was devoting himself every day for the children’s sake.

The battle with the Empire was nothing more than a side task.

Or rather, lately it was rare for me to even remember the two words “the Empire.”

It was about on the level of, “Oh right, there was a country like that too, wasn’t there?”

Cute outing clothes had also been prepared in field trip style.

The sewing group had made all sorts of things, and this old man had also gathered references from things he found online and placed orders with professionals.

I had given a sewing machine to the shop in the Royal Capital that served Beast-Ear Garden, so they delivered extremely well-sewn clothing.

I had already specially provided them with sewing machine needles copied through material replacement into mithril so they could handle tough work.

Sewing machine needles bent easily if you did something strange with them, after all.

In my old house too, there had always been sewing machine needles in distinctive packaging, wrapped in aluminum or something under a paper covering.

With these, they could probably even sew a dragon’s back.

I also kept fine-tuning the bus and finished it to make it as comfortable as possible.

We spent a week on various preparations and were now fully ready.

And finally, we would be departing on the first field trip in another world.

All the staff properly worked together to make something called a field trip guidebook too.

Recently, the number of children had rapidly multiplied, so there were many more who could not read, which was why it had somewhat more pictures.

At last, departure.

Everyone was already so excited that their ears and tails were terribly restless.

After all, these were the first children in this world to go out by bus.

We had everyone sit in their predetermined seats.

It had been arranged so we would immediately know if someone was missing.

Since we were going far this time, it would be terrible if we left a child behind somewhere.

The staff in charge properly took roll every time too, though.

Mari also seemed to be checking with magic.

The windows were made wide.

Since this world was full of danger, that would normally not be desirable, but in the end, this was a field trip bus.

Its defining feature was that the windows were made especially wide downward.

It was made so that, from a child’s eye level, they could see the outside scenery perfectly.

Well, the glass itself had been reinforced with an absurd amount of mana, so it would not budge even if it were showered with 203-millimeter howitzer shells from the Self-Defense Forces or special tank shells with high penetrating power.

Even the tremendous heat from high-temperature jet-type shells would be blocked at the material level.

It could even naturally block that ultra-high-temperature dragon breath.

Dragon breath was a skill I had myself, so I had tested it in practice, and there was no mistake.

Security had been secured for the time being.

Outside, the golems I had made before were running alongside us while invisible.

They were floating with levitation and following along with wind magic.

They could also be operated on the radar map.

It felt somehow like a simulation war game.

For the golems, I was using ones adjusted to three meters in size for the time being.

If their bodies were too large, they might get stuck somewhere and be left behind by the bus.

The bus was set to automatic operation for the time being.

Since it moved through granted magic, I was basically the only one who could operate it.

Once I gave the command to go, they formed a convoy and steadily moved forward on their own.

Maybe it was something like magical auto-cruise.

If there was anything ahead, the sensors would stop them automatically.

It would not do for the buses to crash into each other either.

I was watching too, of course.

If anything happened behind us, Mari or Ars would contact me.

I was also constantly watching the convoy’s movement on the map, so there should be no real problem.

Monsters might appear on the way, but there was nothing to worry about.

If that happened, the only unlucky ones would be them.

If necessary, I could just go out, and Ars and Mari were on the other buses too.

The buses rumbled as they set off.

Everyone was already making a huge fuss, shrieking excitedly.

When I looked through the camera eye, the guide Ars-kun was making the most noise in the third bus.

He said he was bad at dealing with large numbers of small children, but he was the most childish one of all.

Thanks to that, the children were getting more and more carried away.

On the way back, the third bus would surely be the quietest.

After we had traveled north along the highway for a while, I saw a monster standing in the middle of the road.

It was a giant mantis four meters tall.

A standard highway monster.

But this one was a bit small.

It had the nerve to raise its scythes and go “shaa”?

Without hesitation, I boldly sent it flying with the bus.

The golems did not even get a turn.

Just as the giant mantis staggered and tried to stand back up, the following buses ran into it from behind one after another until it fell apart.

Mari and Ars were equally merciless.

I might as well have the golems collect the materials, at least.

Too bad, it was a dud.

There were no horsehair worms.

The children would probably have been happy if there were.

I also loved those things when I was a child.

Whenever the boys saw a mantis, we always stepped on it.

It might be a little cruel, but that was how everyone grew up.

I always hesitated to step on living things, so someone else always stepped on them first.

After becoming an adult, I hated even touching that kind of insect, but after coming here, I could not afford to say that.

The body of this bus had been lavishly made with Besmagil.

I had painted it to disguise that for the time being, though.

Of course, the mark of the Explosive-Flame Hawk was drawn enormous on the side of the body, so no one should do anything too strange to us that easily.

Well, if someone appraised it, they would find out, but ignore that, ignore that.

If Amon heard about it, his eyes would probably shoot fire again.

However, prioritizing the safety of the kindergarteners over confidentiality was what this Demon King Director did.

On top of that, I had also reinforced it further and put a barrier over the surface of the body, so it could not have been more reassuring.

We had been enjoying a trip with our feet on the ground, but there was a wagon merchant convoy ahead, and we got stuck behind it.

Since there was no helping it, I decided to take off.

A flying bus had far too little atmosphere for a field trip, but it could not be helped.

Since we were doing it anyway, I tilted the body a little like a sightseeing helicopter so I could let them see the scenery better.

Everyone piled over one another and pressed their faces flat against the windows.

Oh, something was flying this way.

Apparently, they were wyverns.

Since they showed up on the radar as a cluster of bright-red dots, I fired missile magic with flare warheads into them, and almost all of them turned to ash.

Was the magic too powerful?

Not a single material was left.

Well, whatever.

We were not here to hunt monsters anyway.

But the children who had been watching erupted in loud cheers.

Come to think of it, I had never properly shown the children a scene where I used attack magic like that.

The most I had shown them was making the foundation of the kindergarten with earth magic, maybe.

When you flew through the sky, monsters like this appeared, which was troublesome.

The sky was their territory.

I had only hopped up as if entering a highway, though.

I checked the map, confirmed that there were no merchant convoys nearby, and then landed about thirty kilometers before the forest.

We had left at seven in the morning, but it looked like we would arrive by nine.

We might as well enjoy the scenery before reaching the forest.

We were traveling along a large highway, but not all of it was paved.

In this world, most sections were unpaved unless they were areas where convenience was especially pursued.

After all, it was not as if I could just slap down asphalt.

In places like Canada on Earth, where roads were quickly sealed off by snow due to the season, they paved incredible stretches all at once in an extremely short time.

That place might be special because of its ultra-frigid seasonal conditions and the special feature of its main road running straight along the border with the United States.

The highway continued endlessly, so if we were going to pave it, we would have to do it in that kind of way, but cobblestone paving took effort.

Internationally, Japan’s overly slow roadwork was abnormal, but that was the way it was for all sorts of reasons.

Everything the children saw and heard was unusual.

Whenever something happened, cheers went up.

On the way, plenty of wild animals appeared instead of monsters.

In Japan, someone in my neighborhood had once been hit by a deer, and their car door would not open afterward.

In the countryside like Aichi Prefecture, when a coworker’s car driving ahead of me braked at a different timing than usual while entering a curve, a raccoon dog or deer crossed at the blind corner.

We had been driving along a country road like that, but when we entered a rough-land course away from the highway, I switched from tire travel to levitation.

Apparently, in places like North Korea, the roads were so bad that people said things like, “The axle of a Japanese-made bus, which should almost never break, broke.”

Our buses would not break their axles, but the ride would become terrible, so I floated them.

This was a fun field trip, after all.

After we went for a while, we completely ran into the forest.

When I thought we would fly over it, our guide Jolly stopped me.

“Please continue forward with the buses floating like this.”

When one of the accompanying spirits stepped forward, the forest actually split cleanly in two.

How should I describe it? It felt like the trees stretched left and right with a boing, just like a CG image from a fantasy movie.

In the blink of an eye, an air highway had formed through the forest.

The buses continued majestically through that mysterious space while still floating by magic.