Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, I grew up in a property that both contained rainforest, and a creek. So I played by, and in, the creek a lot during the hot months of summer. I also, when I was young, sometimes collected cool-looking rocks.”

“Liza, please recover the Magic Core--you can leave everything else as it it.” I take out a dagger and give it to Liza, who is holding nothing beside her spear.

“Yes, Master.” She receives it, and walks over to the Spider Bear corpse, beginning to cut into it and ignoring the bile-yellow blood that spills out all over her arms.

I face towards the old people and children who are looking at us from far away, “Sorry about the late-night disturbance.”

“We don’t mind it, but is that Monster a Spider Bear?” The old man asks, pointing at the corpse, which is laying on its back, its legs curled up like a dead spider.

“Yes, it’s a Spider Bear, it decided to follow me--I think it may be a stray that got lost.”

I see Arisa roll her eyes beside me.

“Your luck was bad, huh? They usually only enter Human habitation, once in every few decades--this is the first time in my life I have seen one.”

“Is that how it is? It could have been dangerous if my capable girls didn’t do their best.”

Maybe it came out because their prey had been hunted to exhaustion by humans.

I thought that they appeared this time because of the land reclamation I was carrying out, but apparently they were Monsters that didn’t go where humans were, usually--but that was changing.

If I didn’t reclaim the land, then the Spider Bears would have attacked here without any warning.

 

“Say, is the spear with the red light a Magic Weapon?”

“Those girls were using Magic.”

“What are you saying? That person’s shield is made with Magic!”

“It did manage to block all of the Monster’s attacks.”

“But, even that red spear was ‘BOOM’, like that!”

“I want to be a spear when I grow up!”

“It was amazing, right? Like ‘VROOM’”.

 

The attack from Liza’s spear flashing during the dark night really is eye-catching--only a few of the children notice mine and Mia’s Magic.

Still, little girl, what do you mean by becoming a spear?

“I thought that you were only a merchant, it turns out that you’re also a Mage huh?”

“I’m a traveler, and a beginner Mage; leaving that aside, I don’t really need anything other than the Magic Core--all of you can have the Meat and Fur.”

“That’s all that I could ask for, but are your sure it’s okay? If you take the corpse to the town, you could sell if for a very high price, you know?” The old man asked, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

“It’s troublesome to carry something that big.”

The elders who are having trouble deciding, are convinced by Arisa’s next words, “Old man, you don’t need to hesitate. Your top priority should be to ensure tomorrow’s food!”

“You’re absolutely right. I accept it with gratitude.”

We leave the Spider Bear body, while the blood is slowly draining out, we will dismantle it tomorrow. However, I hope that they can discover the farmland before the the food runs out.

***

“Mister, this is--thank you.” A little girl says quietly, shyly giving me a small bag with a lot of pebbles inside it. They are beautiful stones, which seem to have been hand-picked from the riverside--this must be the little girl’s treasure.

I pick one, and give the rest back to her, “I’ll only pick this one, you should treasure the rest.”

“Mhm” The little girl bashfully hides behind Totona.

Cheers are being raised at the place where the body of the Spider Bear has been hung--oh, seems that Liza has started the dismantling.

Since Totona and the other girl start fidgeting excitedly, I urge them, “Go, take a look at it.”

The rock that I got from the little girl is an opaque red pebble; I didn’t pick the most beautiful pebble, but when I appraised it, it came back with ‘Snake Blood Stone’--why is it called that?

Since this stone is one of the ingredients for ‘Antidote: All-Purpose’, this might be a lucky find. When I check the map, I see that the riverside near the reclaimed land has a lot more of the same stones all over it.

Since there’s still time before breakfast, I guess I’ll go pick up some--today, breakfast is being handled by Lulu, Nana, and Arisa--Lulu is still struggling to teach Arisa how to cook.

“Mia, I want to take a walk along the river, do you want to go together?” I invite Mia, who has just come back from washing her hair and body with some heated water.

“Nn. Date.” Mia grins.

I wonder if Lulu’s scolding worked, because Mia doesn’t ask me to wipe her back while she is still naked, unfortunately.

Mia hands me a towel, asking me to dry her hair--I comply.

“You really are sweet to Mia,” Arisa speaks, coming up behind me, her hair also wet, “Dry my hair too please.”

So, I dry both girl’s hair, as they asked--I see no issue with it; it may seem that I am a pushover, but I enjoy touching them, and with their damp hair, drips usually wet their skin, making their clothes stick closely to them, allowing me a good view; so, equivalent exchange.

I jump across some stones, that are scattered around the shallow water, toward the opposite side of the river.

“Tek, hand.” Since the gap is a bit wide between two of the stones, Mia holds out her small hands--which I take and gently help her across. Maybe I pulled too hard, because Mia fell onto my chest, and I automatically embraced her.

“Warm.” Mia says quietly, nuzzling against me.

I tighten my embrace slightly, holding her soft body against me, I can feel the softness of her chest--which is surprisingly large, hidden under her shirt. For some reason, her smell reminds me of the Dryad from Trazayuya’s maze.

She doesn’t seem to want to let go, but it’s been a few minutes, and we originally came out here to gather stones--and I may not be able to hold back some of my rising urges if I don’t get back.

“Muu--” She makes a disappointed sound as I step back and we both step onto the shore.

While picking up the stones from the riverside, I gaze at the river. Mia seems to have picked up a leaf, so as we walk by the calm river, I listen to her softly playing a tune.

It’s really calming.

“There’s no fish.” Mia, who was looking at the river while playing the leaf flute, suddenly paused and muttered. There isn’t even a shadow of a fish in the river--not even other aquatic organisms such as prawns, crabs, or turtles seem to exist.

They were probably all caught by Totona and the others.

“It seems that there are some birds.”

The smaller birds seem to have cleverly survived.

I continue picking up the stones while we take a break from walking.

We’re enjoying the quiet stroll, until Pochi calls us.

 

It was a bit hard to stop Pochi from trying to jump into the river, because she likes playing in the water. Thanks to that, the quiet and calm atmosphere completely disappears--as expected of Pochi.

***

It has been two days since we left the old people and the children.

We’ve met thieves three times already, and killing them all--since they are just normal thieves. It has only been three times, but I feel like the thieves’ equipment is much too good. Back before we entered this area, the thieves were using things like cheap bows and arrows, woodsman’s hatchets, and daggers, which can be called tools for everyday life--yet, during these three fights, they have equipment like short and long swords made from what looks like iron.

Furthermore, the man who looked like their leader even had a breastplate and shield, both of which were made from iron.

Well, although they had much better equipment, they were still no match for the Beastkin girls, defeated without the girls even breaking a sweat.

“Master, a carriage.” Tama, who is sitting on my lap, while I’m driving the wagon, points at a meadow.

I look where she points, and there is part of a carriage peeking out through the high grass of the meadow--the radar says that there’s no one around.

It’s probably what remains of a victim of thieves.

“I wonder if it was attacked by thieves.” I can’t help but mutter to myself.

“It probably is.” Arisa pokes her head over the backboard, drawn by Tama’s words--Pochi joins her.

 

“Thieves should be beaten back!” Pochi’s ears wiggle as she speaks, looking like she wants to fight.

 

“Beaten back.” Oh, Tama’s getting a little excited too.

 

“Master, I’ll return this book, so can I please borrow a book on Nature Magic next?” Arisa asks as she gives me a book--which I put into storage and take out a Nature Magic book, giving it to Arisa.

As for how the learning reading is going? Well, everyone can read the 100 learning cards now--however, only Nana, Lulu and Arisa can read books; the reason that Lulu and Arisa can is because of being raised among royalty--and Nana was created with the ability to read.

Mia can read simple picture books.

However, Pochi and Tama are stuck with the difference between the written and spoke language--so they can speak much more clearly, but still struggle to read and write.

Everyone really does learn quickly.

“Master, this schedule, what is it?” Arisa shows me a piece of paper that she took from the Nature Magic book.

It’s the paper that I bought from the Flee Market, the one worth 100 gold coins. I took a look at it during one of my previous breaks, but it seems that the paper is mostly composed of dates and schedules. It’s interesting that the schedules look like they are printed, but since there are also scribbles of what look like random lines and numbers drawn like spiderwebs, I can’t see it’s worth.

I thought it might be concealing some secrets, so I tried to decipher it, but I couldn’t--I wanted to get Arisa’s help, but I forgot about it after I put it into the book.

“Biopsy?” Arisa says quietly, looking at the paper.

“There’s nothing like that written there, right?”

“If you read it vertically, that’s what it says, you know?”

Vertical reading?

Why didn’t I think of trying that?

When Arisa passes me the paper, it surely says “Biopsy”.

I put the paper into the storage and sort it by date, then read it in order--I see, that’s certainly possible to be worth 100 gold coins.

“Arisa you’re great!” I leave the reigns to Tama and stand up, hugging Arisa over the backboard--she makes a pleased noise and rubs her face on me.

After a short time, I release her and sit back down, placing Tama back onto my lap, ignoring Arisa’s slight disappointment.

I want to read through the content of the paper in detail and put it into practice, but since we will be encountering thieves again soon, I leave it for later--the thieves this time are a group of 30 people.

Furthermore, there are four people from the knights of Baron Muno’s territory coming this way, from that direction. The thieves should be able to easily defeat the knights, but they don’t look like they’re going to attack the knights; I wonder why they don’t want to fight, even if they have the numerical advantage.

The knights also seem like they don’t notice the thieves, they’re heading straight for us.

Just in case, I have Liza protect the rear of the wagon, and Pochi and Tama guard the front.

“Merchant over there, stop--I am a senior knight of Baron Muno, Eral.”

 

“Well, Eral, nice to meet you. I am Tek, a traveler.” Since I don’t know the exact etiquette, I get down from the wagon and politely greet him with a nod.

 

>>Skill: Etiquette Acquired.

 

It seems that my greeting was adequate, the knight doesn’t look insulted or anything.

“Did you see any luxurious-looking carriage go by? Or did you see a beautiful woman riding a white horse?”

“I came from Earl Kuhano’s territory, but I didn’t see anything like an expensive carriage or beautiful woman--but I did see what looks like a merchant’s carriage in a meadow a way back.”

“Alright, Sir Bezz, Sir Donoza, check the ruined carriage, and then deliver the orders to the guards at the border just in case; we will report back to the Baron.”

The knights part into two groups, and went away without even thanking me for the information.

Oh, it looks like the thieves are attacking the group of knights that rode off ahead of us, maybe they think the decrease in their number a good chance.

They’re not people I’d go out of my way to save, but since the thieves are lured out--I will take this chance and kill them.