19-3 The Climbers’ Feast

Snack time ended, and the princesses set out to explore the Spirit Forest.

The one accompanying them was the younger prince, His Highness Prince Emilio.

Eri seemed to be going with Paul and Mary, and Mari and Ars were going along with them just in case.

Fal apparently preferred being on her mother’s head.

And I, likewise, was standing by nearby as a wireless magical-power charger.

Old man Ruba was in tea-drinking-friend mode, and the elves seemed determined not to leave Rain’s side, since they worshiped her.

The little cat went off holding hands with His Highness Prince Emilio.

Since Mari was there as a substitute stroller, she would probably be fine even if her battery ran out.

The knights went along just in case, and Aoi-chan also went with them.

Yamamoto-san, who was wrapped in an aura of sweets, was very popular with the spirits.

Japanese sweets used an absurd amount of sugar, after all.

He also looked quite happy to be mobbed by the spirits.

Unlike before, he was probably happy to have customers like when he had sold from a shop in Japan.

And there were customers who were devouring his sweets eagerly, too.

First, the children headed for the mountain.

Though I called it a mountain, it was more like a psychedelic-colored rocky hill, or an object, in the Spirit Forest; in other words, it was simply that kind of thing.

The little cat started warming up.

One-two-three-four!

She was full of motivation.

To make sure it was not dangerous, her guardian monitored her with the camera eye of an aerial chassis.

Then the little one broke into a dash.

It was the kind of thing little kids did, turning anything and everything into an athletic course.

The support system for safety was thorough, just in case.

She climbed. She climbed. She climbed.

Then she turned around and froze without thinking.

Her thin tail puffed up.

Yes, she had finally overcome it.

That impregnable slide.

Clinging to the rocky hill, she shouted with all her might.

“Nyaaaaaah!”

There was no helping it, so this old man decided to go pick her up.

She was just like a kitten that had climbed a tree in a frenzy, only to become too scared to climb back down afterward.

I headed over with teleportation magic and flight, then rescued her.

After that, while holding Remi in my arms like a little child, I looked down together with her.

At first, Remi clung tightly to this old man, but she gradually changed into a proud expression as a climber who had reached the summit.

Then she sharply pointed at the summit with the index finger of her cute maple-leaf-like little hand.

All right!

Let’s go, little one.

I would show her the power of this revived old man.

Carrying the little one, I hopped along like a mountain goat.

And the two of us landed on the summit.

Though it was only twenty meters above the ground.

The little one waved with all her might at the people waiting below.

Everyone, and the spirits too, waved back at us.

I felt like everyone at the Beast-Ear Garden had been quietly watching my condition out of the corner of their eyes all this time.

With all sorts of magic and weapons in my hands, I had always been blatantly overpowered, and losing to someone had been unthinkable.

Even Balan, that absolute powerhouse, had been buried by my ambush using forceful methods that exceeded this world’s common sense.

But I let my guard down and lost to Nielsen all too easily.

I had underestimated him, thinking he was just a retired old man.

Even though I myself was already quite old, even though I was, frankly speaking, nothing more than a total amateur relying on cheats, I had looked down on that fierce-looking man who had once been a ferocious general of the imperial army.

In this world, losing once would normally mean the harsh rule of your life ending completely.

Just like the end of plankton, small fish, small animals, or herbivores.

Frankly speaking, I had been on the very edge of the cliff, stopped just short of the Slope to the Underworld.

It was a precarious state, with the tip of the fur on my collar catching on the edge before I fell into the abyss of the underworld.

Unlike those bandits I first encountered, the former imperial general was not a sweet opponent who would overlook my carelessness.

I had barely survived through nothing like a cheat or magic, but through one old-fashioned ability and the rescue of my companions, and I had nearly ended up dead in this other world.

I must have looked terribly gloomy.

It seemed everyone had been quite worried about me.

Thank you.

Right now, I found myself waving with a somewhat refreshed expression.

Director, I’m all right now.

When I flew with a clear feeling, many spirits followed me.

Because I was scattering magical power as a congratulatory gift for my revival.

Up into the sky.

Then, this time, I gave them the service of flying low, just barely above the ground.

After that, I lightly snatched up His Highness Prince Emilio and flew.

Since it happened so suddenly, the attending kingdom knights panicked.

Though old man Ruba was watching with a laugh.

Come to think of it, when I first met the old man in the labyrinth, I had carried him and run in a similar way, hadn’t I?

His Highness Prince Emilio was delighted.

A prince did not often receive this kind of treatment, after all.

After that, we went exploring in the forest.

Then the spirits told us where the mysterious mushrooms were.

They were growing thickly all over the area.

But were these really safe to eat?

The poisonous-looking red mushrooms with dotted patterns reminded me of fly agarics, the classic poisonous mushroom.

But the spirits were laughing.

It seemed they were safe.

When I appraised them, it said, “Mushrooms of the Spirit Forest.”

On top of that, it said they were the main ingredient of an elixir.

An elixir!?

Well, I did not really know what that meant, but I would gratefully take them.

Would these taste good if eaten?

I was more curious about the taste than the effects.

I loved mushrooms.

And copying them… worked.

Hmm, the main ingredient, huh.

Then what on earth were the secondary ingredients?

No matter what they were, they were surely absurd things like the items Princess Kaguya would demand.

Even these mushrooms were something you normally could never obtain.

To begin with, I did not know what an elixir meant in this world.

In games on Earth, it was usually a special, top-grade recovery item.

When I got back, I would ask someone.

After leaving the forest, I glanced around and saw a landscape that scorched the eyes, with psychedelic-colored crystal trees and rainbow-shining crystal plates spreading out before us.

Then, when we climbed a hill, the Spirit Valley, with scenery breathtaking enough to steal one’s breath, was projected onto the screen of my retinas.

My eyes were drawn to the majestic view and the vividly colored glitter like a wind of aura, and I could not look away.

And so, we decided to eat lunch here.

When I spread out the picnic sheet, Remi immediately pulled a cupcake out of the basket I had set out.

Today’s cupcake had raisins, huh.

When I stared at her, she was biting into it with single-minded focus.

Yeah, she seemed fine.

I had wondered how raisins would be for such a tiny child.

Well, I guess it depends on taste.

When I was a small child, I felt like they were a food with a rather subtle appeal.

They were a yeast-related sort of food, and a semi-dried food too.

I had also disliked that half-hearted texture.

Children’s taste buds were sensitive, or rather, fussy.

Once I grew up, that stopped bothering me, and they became one of my favorites.

I had loved the raisin bread in sliced-bread style that sometimes came out in school lunch.

I used to put it on top of the old potbelly stove in the classroom, the one fired with coke, and toast it.

My lunch was, of course, rice balls.

Perhaps curious because I was eating them so deliciously, the little one took a bite with a chomp.

“Hwee!”

Apparently, it was delicious.

I had never heard the little one make that kind of sound before.

She looked back and forth between the rice ball and the cupcake, wondering which one to eat.

As a test, I took out one of Aoi-chan’s handmade bale-shaped rice balls and handed it to her.

But she scrutinized it with all her might.

It seemed hard for her to relinquish the cupcake’s throne.

There was no helping it, so I split it in half for her, and there was proper filling inside.

It was sweet salmon.

After taking one bite with a chomp, she smiled brightly, so I let her hold the rest too.

While securing the cupcake between her legs, she held the bale-shaped rice ball in both hands.

That kind of gesture was probably a habit left over from when she still had not had enough food.

Ars was clinging to the elves as usual.

I wondered if something had happened between him and them long ago.

The princesses’ corner was gorgeous.

There was one prince, two princesses, and three attendants who were noble young ladies.

On top of that, there was one duke’s daughter.

One commoner who was only going “ah, wah, wah” was mixed in among them, though.

The knights around them all seemed to be nobles or the children of nobles too.

Among them, Eri and her two siblings were completely on the commoner side.

No, they were simply commoners.

But everyone was happily getting along in a lively way.

While Eri prepared various things, Princess Sylvester and Velvet Anion, the duke’s daughter, diligently looked after Paul and Mary.

The spirits also wandered around them, hoping they might be given a share of the dessert leftovers.

From the side, it was an incredible sight full of impressive spirits, but Eri knew that the insides of those guys were very disappointing.

Eri was also used to incredible people with disappointing insides, so she smoothly ignored them.

Though those spirit guys were not people.

During dessert time, Eri appropriately made sweets for the spirits too.

It was not sushi or teppanyaki, but food made right in front of you was still tastier.

I handed out copied items for the portions that were not enough.

And after that, Eri ended up being followed around by the spirits the whole time until we returned.