186

When I woke up, I was in the same place where I had fallen asleep.

That was only natural, of course, but there was a part of me that felt oddly relieved.

Now then, I had only just woken up, but I set about preparing breakfast.

Then I felt the gaze of the wild.

When I turned my eyes in that direction, I caught sight, just for an instant, of what looked like a dog.

(Ah, so there are wild dogs around here. I tossed out the entrails from yesterday’s butchered prey and such. They were probably hanging around nearby for that.)

When I searched for their presence, I could tell there were a fair number of them.

It seemed I had ended up being followed by a pack of wild dogs.

I did not dislike dogs, but if anything, I would rather keep birds.

Since they were not doing anything in particular, I left the pack of wild dogs alone.

This morning I planned to make use of the riverside location and grill fish, so unfortunately, I had nothing to feed them.

And so, while I leisurely grilled fish over the campfire, one of the wild dogs kept watch on me from a fixed distance.

That was when I realized.

This sharp, nose-stinging stench—yes, it was goblin smell.

“…So you lot were eating those things.”

Nature was cruel.

I had assumed insects or other creatures around here were taking care of the remains, but it seemed omnivorous animals were contributing to corpse disposal too.

That did not mean I intended to give them any fish, though.

So, after finishing my meal and cleaning up, I resumed exploring with the pack of wild dogs maintaining a neither-near-nor-far distance from me, but what was on my mind was something else entirely.

“I really do need a base, even if I am going to explore the eastern side.”

I came to that conclusion while walking through the forest and stopped in my tracks.

Thinking about it calmly, rather than wandering about blindly, it would be easier to grasp the unexplored areas if I searched with a base as the center.

In addition, it could be used to store supplies gathered during exploration and also serve as a safe resting point.

Or rather, I wanted to sleep under a roof.

It would have been nice if I had some kind of tent that even this body could fit into, but there was no point wishing for what I did not have.

But was there really a place that could conveniently serve as a base?

There was.

I had already found a place that could be a base candidate.

The cellar where I stored the wine—there was no way that well-preserved underground space, one large enough for this giant body of mine to enter and leave, could not serve as a base.

There was a research facility near it, the one I had emerged from, but I did not feel like using that one mentally.

The slightly low ceiling was a drawback, but with that much space, it was still well within acceptable limits.

Going back and forth made it feel inefficient, but exploration of the eastern side had only just begun.

There was also the matter of the trade, so I decided to switch to a policy of focusing primarily on searching the surrounding area first.

Now that it was decided, I began heading north.

The pack of wild dogs had disappeared partway along the way, but perhaps they had only been on guard because I had stepped into their territory.

After making a few detours because of some mildly interesting discoveries, I safely arrived in front of the hidden entrance to the cellar.

I immediately moved away the rubble and opened the entrance.

When I went inside and checked, it really was spacious enough to live in, and it was suitable for storing supplies as well.

“The problem is this broken door…”

The entrance itself was a large one, just barely big enough for me to get through as it was, but naturally the mechanism for opening and closing it was broken, and the door itself was warped and would not move.

As a result, I had destroyed it and reached the underground area.

So now I wanted something to replace the door.

Of course, something other than rubble.

I searched the area and borrowed a shutter that had been used for a garage.

I would use that as a replacement door.

As I looked at that shutter, I considered again what kind of place this was.

(A noble’s or wealthy person’s resort area or villa… but if so, it would be unnatural for there to be only one. In that case, would there not be more of the same sort nearby?)

Last time, I had simply searched the surrounding area blindly.

Then this time, I narrowed down the search locations while taking geographical factors into consideration.

Judging from the roads, railway, and town locations, there should be similar resort ruins to the east-southeast of here.

Thinking that, while I was moving south because of the trees, I found rubble among the grass and brush.

It no longer retained its original shape, but when I removed the fallen shutter that suggested a garage and the rubble that seemed to be its ceiling, I found a door leading underground.

Luck counted as skill too.

When I went down into the underground area, it seemed wealthy people really did like alcohol, because I found yet another wine cellar.

Keeping my posture low, I checked the spoils.

There were ten bottles of wine that seemed to be in good condition and two cups that looked to be pure gold, each kept in a sturdy case.

“So gaudy,” I muttered, giving my impression in a single remark, then crawled around the rather spacious cellar in search of further spoils.

There I found a hidden door.

A hidden door underground—what excellent taste, I thought, taking back my earlier words as I immediately looked inside.

What I found was a large amount of paper money and a suggestive-looking ledger.

In other words, trash.

“Ahh, yeah, even in the Furon Council-State, Imperial banknotes probably would not be usable.”

I kept searching, thinking it would be nice if there were gold bars or something instead, and what I found were three glass spheres in a case.

If I had to point out the one thing that made them different from ordinary glass spheres… it would be that I could sense magic power from them.

In a sense, it might be a major discovery, but unfortunately, I had no idea what they were used for.

I would have no choice but to hope for a reunion with Boobs Lady.

So, I took them with the case and all.

There had to be still more, I thought, but no matter how much I searched, all that turned up was paper money.

It seemed that the only things still valuable in the present were the wine, the cups, and the glass spheres of unknown use.

I looked around the aboveground portion as well, but unfortunately, I found almost nothing that still retained its original form, and it ended with me only obtaining a few silver tableware items.

Even so, it was a stroke of luck that in the process I found traces of a road, and by following it I was able to discover a second house.

Without delay, I found the cellar while clearing away the aboveground section buried in rubble and brush, and after somehow twisting my body in, what I found was a wine cellar.

Every last one of them does the same thing, huh, I thought with slumped shoulders, but incredibly, this wine cellar was empty.

Apparently the owner here had properly taken everything with them.

Just when I thought there would be no spoils here… it ended up producing the biggest find so far.

That was this—a map.

And it was even limited to the surrounding area, with the facility I had come out of clearly marked as “research facility.”

There was a study underground, so when I looked around thinking, “Maybe there are secret documents or something,” I ended up obtaining this map in such good condition.

Thanks to it, I was able to learn the details of my current location, but… apparently that research facility was the only one in this area.

That said, this too was useful information.

“In other words, if I can find similarly enlarged maps, they will become a major clue for finding research facilities.”

At the very least, I could know for certain where buildings had once stood.

It was a bit late to realize this, but searching for maps from the time would let me push the exploration forward far faster than searching on foot.

Rather than being a blind spot, I had unconsciously assumed they would be excluded because they were military facilities.

If someone held a certain level of position, it would not be strange for them to possess something showing the details, and even if it were just a general-purpose map, it would still reveal where structures were located.

At this point, I was beginning to think it would be more efficient to drag maps out of bookstores rather than keep searching blindly.

“Right, of course. What I am looking for are research facilities that existed back then, so if I have maps from that time, I can at least make a rough guess. After that, it is a matter of how to link that with current location data… and if I can do that, I will get much closer to discovering the facility I am after.”

“Why did I not notice something this simple?”

I tilted my head and sighed at my own blunder.

Anyway, from the map information I had obtained, I knew there had been other resort houses like this one as well.

For now, I would raid those too and make sure I could continue doing good business going forward.

No matter how many of those powerful potions I had, it would not be a problem.

(And Boobs Lady also seems like she could become a good trading partner… could it be that a slightly favorable wind has started blowing for me?)

For the first time in a while, I cheerfully went around raiding the building ruins using the map as my guide.

If there was a problem, it was that there were fewer well-preserved underground spaces than I had expected, and there were also cases where there was no cellar to begin with, so the haul was smaller than I had hoped.

Even so, after obtaining twenty bottles of wine that seemed to be in good condition, along with precious metals as well, I judged that I had gathered more than enough goods that could be used for trading in Seizeria.

In the end, gathering everything around here took about four days, and right at noon on that day, I confirmed smoke rising from the direction of the river.

The timing was excellent indeed.

I slung my backpack over my shoulders and ran east.

Now then, let us make it time for trade.