Adventures Along The Road

After leaving the royal palace of the Albanell Kingdom, we chose a neighboring country as our temporary destination and rode in a shared carriage. There were ten passengers in the large carriage in total.

Besides the four of us, there were two people who looked like merchants, a mother and daughter pair, and an elderly couple.

On the driver’s seat there was also a large-built man beside the driver, but he was not a passenger—he appeared to be the carriage’s guard.

“I wonder how much longer it will take to reach the neighboring country.”

“Yeah… it will probably take a few more days.”

Ann gazed outside the carriage with sparkling eyes, while Hubert watched her with a gentle expression.

“That means we get to enjoy this magnificent scenery for that much longer.”

Rebecca spoke after Ann murmured that.

“Ann, from now on you can look at any scenery you want for as long as you want. Even after the journey ends, you’ll be able to move around freely.”

Hearing that, Ann blinked several times before her face softened with a warm smile.

“That’s true. Then I’m looking forward to arriving as well.”

While we were having that conversation and letting the rattling carriage carry us along—

“Stop the carriage!!”

Suddenly, the guard’s shout rang out. All the passengers stiffened at his voice and anxiously looked outside.

“A monster?”

When I asked Hubert, who was watching outside the carriage with a vigilant gaze, he nodded.

“It’s a Poison Snake. And a pretty big one. Even though we’re far from town, it’s rare for one to appear directly on the highway.”

A poisonous monster… If it’s that big, defeating it alone might be difficult. Maybe we should help.

“Um… will everything be alright…?”

A woman asked while tightly holding her daughter, so I nodded with a reassuring smile.

“There’s nothing to worry about. We’re adventurers.”

“I see… that’s a relief.”

As the other passengers also showed relief at my words, I turned to the other three.

“Ann and Rebecca, can I leave things here to you two? Another monster might attack. Hubert and I should be able to handle the Poison Snake without a problem.”

“Got it. Leave things here to us.”

“I’m fine with that too.”

Seeing their reliable expressions, Hubert and I got off the carriage.

“Damn it…!”

As soon as we stepped down, we heard the guard’s tense voice and ran toward a spot a little farther along the road.

There, a gigantic Poison Snake over ten meters long was fighting the guard one-on-one.

“We’ve come to help! Do you need it!?”

When I shouted while we were still some distance away, the guard glanced back at us briefly before shouting.

“Help me!”

“Understood! Hubert, you take the front line. I’ll attack with magic from behind. Tell the guard to retreat behind me.”

To protect the guard as well, I proposed dividing into front and rear positions, and Hubert immediately nodded.

Seeing Hubert dash forward lightly with his greatsword drawn, I instantly gathered my magical power.

“Ice Spear.”

I fired an ice spear to test the monster’s defense, but it simply slid across the Poison Snake’s body and flew past it.

Those scales must be very slippery… And if I remember correctly, its bite is extremely poisonous. It can also spit venom.

While I was thinking about that, the Poison Snake seemed to shift its attention toward me after being attacked.

“Fireball!”

Since the carriage was nearby, I deliberately chose spells that would not cause too much collateral damage. If I used Inferno and the carriage burned down, it would be a disaster.

“Haaah!”

Hubert’s greatsword swung down and barely grazed the Poison Snake’s body. It was fast for such a huge creature…

“Water Ball, Ice!”

This time I drenched the Poison Snake’s body with water to stop its movement, then froze it instantly. The effect was immediate, and the Poison Snake froze in place on the ground.

“Hubert!”

“I know!”

Hubert did not miss that opening and brought down his greatsword with all his strength, slicing the Poison Snake’s body clean in half.

Splitting that massive body in two is impressive… even I couldn’t do that.

“Hubert, is it still alive?”

“…No. It’s completely dead.”

After confirming the subjugation was complete, we relaxed our combat stances.

“Let’s bury the venom in the soil. As for this giant body… burying it would be a pain, so maybe we should just move it a little off the road.”

The easiest option would be moving it to the Divine Domain, but I obviously couldn’t do that in front of so many witnesses.

“Yeah. We should have the guard help as—”

When Hubert turned around while saying that, I also looked toward where the guard should be—and there he was, standing frozen with his mouth hanging open, looking like he had just witnessed something unbelievable.

“…Are you alright?”

When I called out to him, the man jolted and looked toward us.

“Y-you guys… you’re way too strong!!”

“Are we?”

I didn’t feel like we did anything that impressive… though maybe from a normal perspective that fight really was shocking.

Lately we had been fighting strong enemies all the time, so my sense of scale might have gotten a little warped.

“I’m supposed to be the guard and that’s just pathetic!”

The guard shouted while pressing a hand to his forehead in frustration, and Hubert spoke to him.

“Your movements were not bad either.”

“…Thanks. But I don’t know if I should be happy hearing that. No, I guess not, since I almost failed to do my job as a guard. I definitely need more training…”

While the guard muttered to himself in regret, Hubert seemed to have started dealing with the poison. I called out to the man once more and headed toward Hubert.

“Help us handle the Poison Snake.”

Perhaps wanting to at least be useful during the cleanup, the guard worked harder than anyone else, and the Poison Snake was quickly dealt with.

When the three of us returned to the carriage, everyone had apparently watched the battle and greeted us with words of gratitude.

“Thanks to you, we were saved.”

“Thank you, big brothers!”

“I’m so glad strong people like you were here.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed by the praise, Hubert and I returned to our seats, where Rebecca and Ann welcomed us with smiles.

“There were no problems here.”

“That’s good to hear. Then let’s relax and continue enjoying the ride.”

When I said that, Ann nodded happily, but Rebecca made a slightly tired face.

“I’m starting to get a little bored…”

At Rebecca’s quiet complaint, the only child among the passengers—the little girl—held out a tightly clenched hand.

“Then big sister, you can have this!”

Inside the girl’s open palm was a large acorn.

“You can draw pictures on it with your fingernail like this!”

I had wondered what she had been concentrating on earlier, but it seemed she had been drawing on the acorn. When she demonstrated by scratching another acorn with her fingernail, it really did leave marks with relatively little force.

“Big sister, you should draw something too!”

Rebecca accepted the acorn with a warm smile as the girl handed it to her.

“Thank you. I’m really happy.”

The girl blushed happily when Rebecca said that while matching her eye level.

“Show me when you’re done!”

“Of course.”

After watching the girl return to her seat, I whispered quietly to Rebecca.

“Rebecca… weren’t you bad at drawing…?”

“…N-no, that’s not true.”

Rebecca answered while flustered and stared seriously at the acorn. And after several hours of work, what she completed was—

Rebecca said it was supposed to be a cat, but to me it looked like a vicious monster.

Still, the girl was happy, so I guess it was fine. Assuming she wasn’t just being polite.

And so the journey we had just begun was turning into a very enjoyable one.