52

The next morning, my condition was somewhat better, but I still woke up with a gloomy mood.

Perhaps I had overslept a little, as my body felt sluggish, but I decided to dismiss it as nothing serious.

Fortunately, my appetite had returned, and I genuinely felt like eating the fish I had caught and saved.

But if I was going to eat, the amount wouldn’t be enough.

If there wasn’t enough food to eat, then I had no choice but to go out and catch more.

(Even though my appetite had returned, meat still felt too heavy. That meant fish, but heading to the river so early in the morning…)

Just as I thought that, I muttered, “Well, no one’s around anyway,” and sluggishly crawled out of the cliff base toward the river.

As expected, when I arrived at the river, there was no sign of elves at all.

Neither sight, sound, nor smell gave any indication of them.

That meant I could catch fish to my heart’s content, though it left me feeling a bit lonely.

After securing enough, I returned to the cliff base and grilled the fish.

Fish seasoned with only salt was delicious enough.

But it still wasn’t sufficient to satisfy my sense of fulfillment with food.

So, to gain the knowledge and means for that, I decided to head once again to the shopping mall.

I quickly finished cleaning up after my meal, stopped by my main base once to reduce my baggage as much as possible, and then set off.

The journey passed without incident, and traveling along the cleared former railway path was easy and comfortable.

That was how I arrived at the shopping mall in Eilqueel.

Since it was already late today, I decided to postpone exploration until tomorrow. I left my baggage at my usual sleeping spot, took only what I needed, and went outside the city to secure dinner.

By now, hunting had become second nature; I found prey and secured it quickly.

Dinner went smoothly, and cleanup was perfect as well.

“Looks like I’ve adapted.”

I murmured as I lay on my makeshift bed.

Since supplies could be easily replenished nearby, the bed’s quality was on par with that at my main base.

I wasn’t very sleepy, but working in the dark was troublesome, so I decided to wake up early and be active tomorrow.

And so the next morning came.

It was still dim as it was early dawn, but not enough to hinder activity.

Chewing on leftover meat from last night, I searched for a bookstore and charged in as soon as I found one.

However, the bookstore turned out to be narrower than expected.

Unfortunately, it seemed too difficult for my massive body to enter a normal bookstore.

Not that I couldn’t enter at all—by turning sideways and squeezing in my upper body, I managed somehow.

After pulling myself back out, I felt convinced: “This should work.”

I decided to gather as many likely-looking books as I could within reach.

An hour later—before I knew it, piles of porn magazines were scattered around me.

That wasn’t what I wanted.

I was only trying to search for my still-missing partner.

No, rather, it was just that the ratio of porn magazines in this bookstore was unusually high, which led to this.

Two more hours passed, and after finishing sorting, I chose seven books as my “first string” and carried them back to my sleeping place, carefully stashing them away in my backpack.

Now then, time to resume exploration with a fresh mindset.

(Bookstores are fine, but libraries could work too.)

What I truly sought was knowledge, so the latter might actually be more convenient.

It wouldn’t be as vast as the Imperial Capital’s library, but if it was spacious enough, I could move around freely and searching for the books I wanted would be easier.

Thus, I explored the city in search of either a large bookstore or a library.

I didn’t even bother stopping at the bookstore inside the shopping mall, as it was far too small.

Soon I found another bookstore along what used to be a main street and peered inside, but it seemed to have been ransacked by other creatures. Books lay scattered, their condition terribly poor.

(This one’s a bust.)

Just as I was about to leave, something caught my eye.

I turned back to check, and sure enough, I hadn’t mistaken it.

(…Footprints. Clearly human shoes. And judging by the dust, they weren’t that old.)

It was pointless to wonder “whose they were,” but the fact that someone had come here was a problem.

That meant there was someone taking away things from this place.

Until now, I could take whatever I wanted whenever I wanted since no one was around, but that might no longer be possible.

‘Tch, this is troublesome,’ I cursed inwardly.

Unless they were Imperial, few could truly appreciate the value of the treasures here.

And it wasn’t hard to imagine what sort of people would travel this far out.

(This place is relatively close to the neighboring countries. I hadn’t ruled this out, but seeing it firsthand, it’s hard to decide how to respond.)

This made the books all the more important.

Knowledge was wealth—letting those who couldn’t understand its worth despoil it was something I couldn’t allow as an Imperial.

That meant I should prioritize securing the most obviously useful items.

In other words, books that even non-Imperials who couldn’t read our language would carry away—porn magazines immediately came to mind.

“I’m not bringing back porn because I want it. I’m protecting it.”

With that logic, I now had an excuse to take home any book I liked.

Well, what’s done was done.

From now on, I’d take home as many porn magazines as I wanted.

(Don’t lose focus. That’s not what’s needed right now.)

Besides, porn magazines could be found in other towns too.

Right now, securing my true objective was the priority, and only after that would I gather necessary tools.

Anything else could come later.

Taking a deep breath to regain composure, I carefully checked the bookstore again.

It seemed whoever had entered before had rummaged through the shelves.

(Looking for ancient ruins, are they?)

Indeed, for other nations, an Imperial bookstore packed with knowledge would seem like a treasure trove of wisdom.

Whether they could read it or not, with 200 years having passed since the Empire’s fall, it was no surprise it was treated as an ancient civilization now.

In other words, those who came here were treasure hunters-cum-archaeologists.

“I mean, that sounds pretty fun.”

I admitted, though honestly, I was envious of such a lifestyle.

It was probably one of the top jobs I admired as a child.

But lamenting about absent people wouldn’t achieve anything.

I had no way of knowing what books they had taken from the shelves, so it all ended with “nothing I can do.”

At best, I could only grab the things I didn’t want others to take first—in short, “first come, first served.”

It was infuriating that unrelated foreigners might carry off the Empire’s legacy, but I had no way to stop it completely.

If I encountered them, I could chase them off, but that would only buy time and wouldn’t solve the root issue.

And if I chose the option of “killing on sight,” then future intruders would certainly come fully armed, and it wasn’t hard to imagine the outcome of that.

“Damn, dealing with barbarians isn’t easy.”

The naked monster without even clothes to wear muttered while laughing.

At any rate, I resumed my search.

Since my ears and nose hadn’t picked up anything, looking for humans here was pointless; I’d be better off focusing on my objective.

As I kept searching while thinking about all this, I spotted a large collapsed building full of books.

It was most likely a library, and approaching confirmed my suspicion, though its condition was worse than expected.

“I’ll have to search carefully.”

I said, slipping inside through the crumbled walls without bumping my body.

(The inside wasn’t in very good shape either.)

The only saving grace was that the shelves still indicated which genres of books were where.

That meant less time wasted searching, so I began a careful and thorough investigation.

On the cooking-related shelf, I found a book on homemade seasonings and quickly secured it.

The book wasn’t in bad condition, so it was readable—my first acquisition.

Then I found a second, a third, though inevitably some were too damaged to read.

Naturally, the titles I most wanted to read were among those—such was life.

One of them was titled “Making Miso for Beginners.”

I really wanted miso, but I’d have to count on the other books.

I continued searching until the sun was overhead and ended up bringing back a total of 25 books on seasonings and cooking.

Later, after skimming through them, I set out to the shopping mall to gather the necessary equipment.

When I finished collecting everything, I looked at the pile I was supposed to carry back and thought, “I’ve done it again.”

Scolding myself to learn properly this time, I divided the books into “necessary” and “probably unnecessary.”

(This one’s necessary. This one too. This one… looks impossible since I can’t get the ingredients. Wait, sauce-making uses this much fruit?)

The sheer amount of required ingredients made my head spin.

And I wept at my own lack of knowledge.

I also realized that making seasonings took far more effort and time than expected. Even if I narrowed it down to things that didn’t take much time, I still often lacked the ingredients, forcing me to abandon most attempts.

(If only the Imperial orchards were still alive… Should I gamble on that and head south? But those two countries would never leave former Imperial land alone. The chances they’ve survived intact are slim…)

After long deliberation, I concluded: “I’ll go if I can’t get them elsewhere.”

Reberen and Haile had openly waged war against the Empire to seize territory.

When the elves joined the war and our forces concentrated in the west, the two nations invaded across the border without even declaring war, ravaging several towns.

Of course, they paid the price, but that didn’t heal the wounds, and to Imperials, the Reberen Republic and Haile Federation were known as untrustworthy barbarian states.

They earned the label “barbarians” after kidnapping citizens, using them as hostages, discarding them as playthings once they were no longer useful, breaking treaties, and ignoring even ceasefire agreements.

Though they surrendered after just three months under Imperial counterattack, they ignored the truce and invaded again as soon as our situation worsened.

Killing residents of towns still in recovery and taking survivors hostage left no other word but “barbarians.”

With countries like that, it was obvious what they’d do if the Empire collapsed.

That was why I thought of heading south only when it was time to wreak havoc, and I already knew the southern Imperial lands couldn’t have remained unscathed.

I didn’t even want to confirm it—doing so might push me past the point of no return.

Since I wasn’t yet hunted as humanity’s enemy, postponing it was fine for now.

By the time I finished these thoughts, I had completed sorting what I would bring back.

Since it wouldn’t all fit, I decided to add another backpack.

While at it, I added spares and increased my stock of daily goods as well.

Before I realized it, my load had grown enormous.

I slung one backpack over my shoulder, carried another in each arm, and even hung one around my neck.

I might have gotten a little greedy, but it wasn’t as if I couldn’t move.

‘This much should be fine,’ I told myself as I returned to the main base—but as expected, running was nearly impossible, and it took far longer than anticipated.

I decided I’d be more careful next time.